Lol, no, my beloved readers, that was not the end. Yes, Aang and Sokka are coming soon. One more chapter and you shall have your desire! Good things come to those who patiently wait, as you certainly have done. Thank you for reading, and for your incredible encouragement.
Chapter 24
The sun warmed my face with a gentle caress, while the waves boomed in morning's greeting. I stretched, my hands arching over the blankets and into the sun-soaked sand as I loosed the cricks and kinks that had accumulated in my muscles overnight. Slowly, I blinked open my eyes, squinting in the morning light.
"You slept past sunrise." Zuko said, but his voice was gentle and low, without the reproof that the statement suggested.
"Why didn't you wake me?" I yawned.
"I didn't want to." I felt a blush settle on my face. Did that mean he'd been watching me as I slept? I hoped I hadn't said anything embarrassing in my sleep. I turned to face him.
He was lying on his side, propped up on his elbows. Fiery golden eyes observed me with something like amusement and appreciation, with that arrogant little smirk of his on his face, taunting me. Oh, I'd like to just slap it off...
...or kiss it away.
Visions of last night's passionate kiss filled my mind and I turned my head away quickly to hide the blush that had swept into my cheeks. I stood and busied myself with packing up camp. After almost a year of campaigns and battles and marches, I'd gotten fast at packing, and had my stuff put away before Zuko had finished dividing up our breakfast rations.
"Where are we headed now?" I asked through a mouthful of bread.
"We should arrive in Kata by noon, as long as there are no delays." Zuko said.
"Delays? What kind of delays? We're far from Fire Nation trouble spots."
"I'm not worried about the Fire Nation. I'm worried about you wanting to stop and pick flowers or play in puddles."
"Oh really?" I raised one eyebrow. Quickly, before he could realize what I was doing, I flicked my wrist and brought a whirling ball of water up from the sea and dropped it on Zuko's shoulders. "You mean like that?"
He scowled as the water disappeared from his clothes in a puff of steam. "Yes, like that."
"Hmph. Listen, Prince Zuko, you may be able to order around whomever you please in the Fire Lands, but while we're out here I'll do whatever I please whether you like it or not." I pulled the pack onto my back and raised my chin defiantly.
"You would dare defy the Prince of the Fire Nation?" Zuko moved closer to me, staring at me with a sultry golden stare.
"Yes." I straightened as he came closer, refusing to back down. A thrill pulsed through me as my fingertips began to tingle. Despite our threatening words, our verbal battle was just for fun. There was a kind of tension, yes, but not strife.
"You're very bold." He was less than an inch away, and I could feel his body heat warm the air around us.
"Yes, I don't suppose I'm anything like those refined, aristocratic palace women you must have consorted with back at the palace, hm?" I batted my eyelashes at him and pulled a demure, silly smile.
"No, you're nothing like them." Zuko replied, leaning in. I closed my eyes.
"I said no delays." He whispered in my ear. I blinked my eyes open and turned quickly, a blush forming over my cheeks. I was so going to get him back for that one.
"Well, here's Kata." Zuko sounded disappointed. To tell the truth, I was a bit let down, myself. We'd traveled all day to find Kata, and now that we stood on a hill overlooking the tiny village, I began to wish that we hadn't found it yet. It was a struggling little sea wharf full of dilapidated, tumbling-down buildings and the stink of fish. From where I stood, I could hear the shouts of fishmongers and the could almost taste the dust and spoiled fish in my mouth.
Zuko pulled the hood of his cloak over his head and kept his face bent to the ground as we began to walk into town. It was a risky disguise at best, one brisk wind and the hood could be off, revealing his unmistakable scar, and therefore his identity. But it was the best we could do.
We searched the tiny fish village all day, questioning fisherman's wives and the haggard old seafarers that tended to their boats at the docks. We scoured the markets for information, but everywhere we went people just gave us blank stares or raised eyebrows when we asked if anyone had seen a giant, flying shaggy monster.
Zuko and I were reaching the end of our patience, and I was beginning to fear for our disguise when Zuko's palms began smoking after an old woman had been babbling for an eternity about her broccoli garden instead of answering our question. But, finally, we stumbled upon a bit of good fortune.
"Eh, Jimm thar say he saws ah kina flyin thin' th'other day." A fisherman's wife said, pointing to a ramshackle old fishing boat docked at the port. "Doncha listun to a thin' tha ol' coot says, though. Pur man's crazy as tha come, darlin'." She waddled back into her hut and closed the door.
"It's better than nothing." I shrugged as I followed Zuko to the port. I couldn't hid the sinking feeling that maybe we'd come all this way only to find that our hopes were based on nothing more than the wild imaginings of a crazy old man.
"Sir?" I asked when we got to the boat. A hunched figure in a threadbare, waterlogged fishing coat looked up at me through one bulging eye, while the other squinted suspiciously at Zuko. The effect was quite unsettling.
"Wadda ya want?" He wheezed through a mustache that hung to his belly.
"Sir, is it true that you saw a flying monster?" I took a step back as the smell of fish on the man's breath threatened to overpower me.
"An' what's uh liddle girlie like you lookin' fer a monster fer?" He dropped his net and squinted at me. I faltered under his gaze. Come on Katara! Think of something!
"Well, sir, I uh... I'm Katara the Great Monster Slayer, and um... this is my faithful servant... Kazoo." I saw Zuko stiffen out of the corner of my eye. I suppressed a grin. We were now even for this morning.
"Never heard 'uh ya." He went back to repairing his net.
"Well, that's because I haven't slain a monster yet." I puffed out my chest and tried to look brave and heroic.
"No'buddy believes me. But I saws it! I saws it with mah own EYE!" He jumped to his feet and looked wildly around him, as if the shaggy monster was going to jump out of the sea at any moment and eat him alive.
"Well, I believe you, sir. Now, if you could just tell me where he was headed..."
"Hey, hows yer gonna slays 'im if yous aint got any weapons?" He looked me up and down. I opened my mouth, but no words came out. I was drawing a blank. Good job, Katara. Now he won't believe us and we'll never find Aang and Sokka!
"We left them back at our camp." Zuko said, filling in my words for me.
"A servant don't speak 'less his mistress tells 'im to!" The old man rebuked, shaking his finger in Zuko's face. I froze. This was it. We were done for. Zuko would blow up now and wreak our disguise and we'd never know where Aang was. I closed my eyes and waited.
To my surprise, I heard Zuko take a deep breath and growl "Yes, sir."
Zuko's apology seemed to mollify the old man, who turned to me and continued. "Well, I wuz ketchin' fish up yonder north a ways. Seen it 'fore, jest din' realize what it wuz a' firs. Thought it wuz a bird, I did. A big 'un! But the las' time, that was diff'runt." He dropped his voice and squinted at me, leaning in closer, as if merely mentioning his sight of the creature could conjure the beast into appearance.
"It was flyin' close to the groun' this time. 'S got six legs like tree trunks, an' teeth that could crush a man to pieces." His eyes widened and glazed over.
"North, you said? How far north?"
"By foot? A day's walk. Near the village of the strange ol' woman."
"Well, thank you sir. You've been a great help." I backed away from the man, who began to carry on about the creature's fearful appearance to no one in particular.
Once outside the town, I spoke. "Do you think we should believe him?"
"It's the best lead we have right now." Zuko said, lost in thought.
"It did sound like Appa." I smiled, remembering the warm fur of the bison, and how I'd snuggle into it when the wind blew cold. I felt a lurch in my heart. It would be good to see them again. Somehow, the thought made my pack lighter and my step higher as started on the day's journey North.
Any energy I'd gotten from remembering my former traveling companions left me within a short while. The day's travel was over rocky, mountainous terrain, and by the time the sun was slipping from the sky I was more than ready to set up camp and lose myself in sleep. I rolled out my mat and began taking out food to cook for supper.
I turned around to place a pot of water over the fire Zuko built, but found that there was no fire. Instead, Zuko was leaning against a tree and staring down at me with an indifferent expression.
"Zuko, come on, we need a fire." I complained as I sat on the ground, already beginning to feel the prickle of the night's chill.
"Oh, thank you, Mistress Katara, I was waiting for your permission." He said in a high-pitched, subservient voice. I rolled my eyes and laughed.
"Are you still upset about that? I couldn't think of anything better at the time, okay?"
"You couldn't think of a better name than Kazoo?" He scowled, but I could see the hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
"Oh, I suppose you could have done better?" I crossed my arms and looked down my nose at him, hiding a smile of my own.
"Yes."
"Hm! You dare speak to your mistress with such disrespect?" I folded my arms and adopted the heroic stance of 'Katara the Monster Slayer'.
"Yes."
"What a bold, rebellious servant you are! You'll have to pay for your back-talk." I said. Zuko dropped to his hands and knees and crawled slowly up to where I was sitting. His golden eyes stared into mine.
"What does she have in mind." He whispered, his voice low and sultry. I felt my breath catch in my throat. There was something I wanted from him more than anything else in the world right now, but of course, I wouldn't say it.
But he read my eyes. Leaning forward on his knees, he placed his mouth on mine and gave me a long, passionate kiss. I moaned against his mouth as I felt my body overcome with warmth again. I never wanted the kiss to end.
I remembered listening to the girls in my village describe what kissing felt like. They had told me how some cute boy had caught their eye and how they'd found some secret place to share that first kiss. They had told it in a flurry of giggles and had made the other girls sigh in wonder and hope.
But this, what I was sharing with Zuko, was far different from what I'd heard in the giggling whispers of the other girls. This foreign heat that covered my mouth was worlds away, quite literally, from my home in the Ice Lands. It wasn't lust or superficial teenage excitement that held us together as we shared that intimate kiss beneath the stars. It was something different, something deeper.
I loved him.
I'd known it for a long time but, like a shy bird that hid beneath the leaves of bushes, I'd been to afraid to acknowledge the truth. But now, with Zuko's strong arms wrapped around me, and his mouth pressed gently against mine, there was no denying what I felt, what I knew.
I loved him.
But what would Gran-Gran say? Strangely, no voice accused me, as I'd gotten so used to. Well, even if Gran-Gran didn't rebuke me, Sokka surely would. My eyes widened when I thought of what my younger brother would say... or do... if he caught the two of us locked together like this.
"What's wrong?" Zuko asked. He must have noticed my discomfort. His voice was questioning and slightly hurt. I'd forgotten how easily the male ego was bruised. He probably thought I wasn't enjoying the kiss.
"Nothing. It's just that... when we find Sokka and Aang..." How could I say it? I looked up at him, bright eyes burning in the starlight. I paused.
"We keep this secret." He whispered in my ear, finishing my sentence. I nodded.
"You're not angry?"
"The nations have been warring for a hundred years, Katara. The side effects of that war will not disappear simply because we've declared love for each other." Zuko said softly, wrapping his arms around me in the darkness. I could tell he was drawing strength from me as much as I was drawing it from him.
"They'll understand... in time." I whispered. "They must."
We walked the next day, all day. I was tired of walking. I was tired of bugs. I was tired to briars that stuck to my skirt and mud that stuck to my shoes. I was tired of the pack digging into my shoulders. I was tired of trees. I was tired of putting one foot in front of the other in front of the other in front of the other...
"Look! A town." Zuko pointed to a little white spattering of houses beneath a tall, tall mountain.
"Finally." I grumbled, not bothering to give the town much of a glance. "We need water. We're almost out. I'll find a well while you question the townspeople."
At the edge of the city we split up. Although I'd been too tired and sore to study the town before, I now looked at it with renewed interest as I searched for a well. There was something about it that seemed strangely, distantly familiar.
"Excuse me, can you tell me where the well is?" I tapped an old woman on the shoulder. She had a large number of children circling her legs, tugging on her skirt and calling her 'granma.'
"Yes, dearie, at the center of the town, right near the house of Aunt- Hey! Kalie, put that down!" The woman reprimanded a little girl that was poking the fruit of a nearby fruit merchant. "And you, Dan sing, get back here!"
I bowed and thanked her, not waiting for the rest of the directions. I could find my way to the center of the town. I probably wouldn't know who she was talking about anyway.
Sure enough, a small well lay in the middle of the town. I uncorked my water skin and let down a bucket to bring water up. I would have water-bended, but I didn't want to bring attention to myself.
My efforts were completely useless.
"What are you doing here?" A high-pitched voice shrieked. I heard a crashing sound and whirled to see a young lady standing in the midst of shattered pottery.
"E-e-excuse me?" I said, still gathering myself after her scream of doom. Her face was distraught and angry, her fists clenched at her sides. I wondered what in the world I'd done. "I think you must have me confused with someone else... you see, I'm just a visitor..."
"I know who you are!" The girl said. "You're Katara of the water tribe."
It was now my turn to look surprised.
"Do I know you?"