L'espirit Bleu

Okay SORRY that this one took so long… I kind of got discouraged because I kept thinking I wasn't doing the story right from some reviews I read. But I've swallowed my worries and continued on, hoping I don't get bashed for making the story so terrible. Oh well, right? D

And by the way, I'll never abandon this story or just stop writing in it. I like it too much. So, just so you know, I'm in it for good… even if some chapters may take longer than others.

Oh, and I think I'm going to start using French quite a bit in chapter names and other stuff, because it's my favorite language, and the title of the story is in French.

If you ever want to know what something means, use freetranslation dot com, because that's what I'll be taking it from. (Even though it's not correct 100 of the time.)

By the way, this story takes place AFTER The Siege of the North: Part 2.

So after everything's finished, that's when this is. Assuming that Prince Zuko regained his search for the avatar by getting back a ship of his own somehow after being on the makeshift raft with his Uncle awhile.

Also assuming Katara is now going to teach Aang waterbending.

And if you have any questions as to how some stuff is happening, if this is indeed after Siege of the North pt. 2, just personal message me and I will be happy to explain whatever's confusing!

Mmkay?

And - I also brainstormed with myself, and have a thousand good ideas bursting from my head, and I actually had to write them all down in a word document because there were so many. Twists, scenes, etc. I'm so excited!

-

-

"That's all we have." Katara said, putting the lid back on the basket while her brother gave a heavy sigh.

"Well if you hadn't made me sell back the fish…"

"Sokka I think you're just going to have to deal with it." She told him. "Look, you know I had to do it or else we would've been caught."

"We almost were anyways," Sokka grunted. "So we might as well have ditched the outfits, let Zuko and his men see us, and made a dash for Appa with the fish."

"It's no use crying over spilled rice, we'll have to ignore our stomachs and stop at the nearest town."

"Um, about that Katara,"

"Yes, Aang?"

The avatar had been peering over the seat, scanning the ground for any signs of cities, and had no luck. "I don't see anything for awhile."

It was Katara's turn to sigh. "We can pick wild mushrooms, and berries. That's never failed before!"

"Yeah, unless you want to get sick from the poisonous mushrooms." Sokka noted.

Katara crunched her hands into fists and stared at the empty baskets.

"Well I guess if it goes really bad, we can always eat Momo." Sokka said with a shrug. Behind him, the tiny animal gave an offended chirrup and zoomed onto Aang's shoulder.

"We could never eat him!" Said the monk, giving his pet a pet.

The wind breezed by listlessly, just cold enough, just warm enough. All three of them were quiet for a good five minutes.

Then, as if he were completing the cycle, Aang finally sighed.
"I can't believe they almost caught us."

"Yeah we're really slipping up, aren't we," Sokka mumbled in agreement.

"No it's not that, it's just… what would've happened if they did?" Aang said.

"They wouldn't have," Interrupted Katara. "You know we'd never let them take us without a fight. Besides, I could beat Prince Zuko any day. I've done it before, I can do it again." She smiled at the two boys.

"Anyways, I volunteer that we go down to land again," Katara began, but Sokka had interrupted her immediately.

"Are you crazy? We just came from down there, that's where Zuko and his troops are!"

"If I'm going to teach Aang waterbending, we'll need to be by some water."

When Sokka held up a canteen, she looked at him disdainfully. "More than just that. By a river or something!"

"It still doesn't feel safe. How about we stay up here as long as we possibly can, then when we can't take it any longer we'll tell Appa to go down to a river so you and Aang can waterbend and I can find some food."

Katara nodded. "That sounds good. Okay, time to hold it out. Aang, want to play another game of menko to pass the time?"

"What am I supposed to do?" Sokka complained.

"Try giving Momo a foot massage." His sister replied.

-

-

Prince Zuko shoved another long branch out of the way - he was making his way through a thicker part of the forest that was now his living space for the next who knew how long.

He had assumed there was a town north of him somewhere, they were just scattered that way throughout the countryside. And so his journey had begun.

No food, no provisions, he truly was on his own.

He had traveled for an entire day. By nightfall his entire body was aching, and his sprained arm was in more pain than ever.

The temporary sling he'd put together from weak branches was gaining enough wear-and-tear to officially retire, so Zuko found a rock shelter, built a firepit, and prepared to rest for the night.

In one breath he ignited the sticks in the center of the ring of stones, and sat down, cross-legged in front of it.

Not a moment went by where he wasn't thinking about the avatar, or him being on his own in the wilderness, or more thoughts along those lines. Himself.

That's what it was all about nowadays. Him.

It wasn't him being arrogant, or prideful, that was simply all he had.

Well, and his Uncle Iroh.

Then at that second Prince Zuko felt something that he loathed in a person of military; especially himself.

He felt that small, occasional, and persistent feeling of loss. Or need, if he really wanted to cringe in distaste.

However ridiculous his uncle was at times, there was a show of love there that Zuko had never received from his father.

And for that, Iroh was a man for whom Zuko held respect.

He respected his father, but not in the same way he respected Uncle Iroh.

And come to think of it, he missed his crazy uncle.

At that second, half of Prince Zuko was thinking that it would be better to have his Uncle with his 'wise noodles and soy sauce' there with him, and half of Prince Zuko was telling himself to ignore those weak thoughts and focus on what he was going to do next…

Find a town.

-

-

"Sokka – can you – pass me – my canteen – " Katara took a breath and opened her eyes to a squint. She extended her hand towards her brother's face.

"That's it, we're going down now. This is getting ridiculous."

Strange. Katara had heard Sokka's voice, but the lips on the face in front of her didn't move at all.

"Why go down?" She coughed. "We're still fine."

"No, you're getting delirious." His voice responded. "I'm way over here, and you're asking Momo to hand you your canteen."

Katara opened her eyes to their full extent and sat up – but this was a bad choice.
Her whole head spun with dizziness and she had to throw herself back down to avoid her brain exploding.

Her head hurt so badly… and so did her stomach. How long had it been since they had eaten?

"Look, I was all for staying up here as long as we could, but it's been a day and a half and we're all going to go insane if we don't go down and get to food water and shelter."

"And poor Appa!" Aang cut in. "His stomach's been grumbling for the past ten minutes!"

Katara jumped when the entire earth around her rumbled, and she heard (and felt) a deep groan. She rubbed her dry eyes. "You're right, Sokka. Time to go down."

"Yip yip, Appa! To a river!" Her twelve year-old appearance friend called to the flying bison.

Aang had taken the least amount of damage from the long journey. Either that, or he had gone into override – he had so much false energy that he would've carried all of them, on his back, to the town himself… including Appa.

"Ugh, I feel gross." Katara mumbled. She tried to focus in on Sokka, who was a blur of blue and brown. "Now that I actually see you Sokka, can you hand me my canteen?"

She drank some water after he had done so, and felt better. Better enough to sit up.

The cold wind felt good against her warm head. When she looked around a bit, she remembered she had fallen asleep on a canvas sack, and woken up with her face plastered to it, all hot and sticky.

It was very early in the morning, so she assumed she'd slept through the night and not at a bizarre hour in the day.

After a few minutes, Appa began his descent.

"Ah, he's spotted something." Sokka sighed happily. Katara noticed that his hair was looking rather frazzled and messy. He'd be glad to get to the water.

Once they'd touched down on ground, Katara could see the spot Appa had chosen, and was very happy about it.

There was a large river flowing from a small waterfall that made a soothing rush noise in the background, perfect for some serious waterbending practice, thought Katara.

There were lots of various sorts of trees, some of them shedding off a cottony-substance that floated around in the air and danced with the sunlight around the miniature lake.

And of course, the occasional frog leaping around the muddier parts of the bank in the grass.

It was the perfect spot for them to rest for a few days, Katara decided. It was even quiet enough to hear the crickets chirping once it fell dark…

And probably the most brilliant view of the stars from on top of that rock by the top of the waterfall, she thought.

Immediately, all three of them clambered off of Appa and sped towards the water, each for a different purpose.

"Now we can practice bending for you, Aang!" Katara said excitedly.

"And Appa can have a drink, come on boy!" Said Aang.

"WATER!" Cried Sokka.

And the afternoon proceeded gracefully, everyone enjoying themselves thoroughly doing what they wanted… including taking much needed baths.

-

-

"Take these crates onto the ship and put them on the third deck below in the storage room." A harsh voice of one of the bossier guards on the ship commanded two guards who would listen to him. They nodded their cooperation and did as they were told.

The port was a busy place at night, for pirates or for honest ship-owners.

Most of the regulars were pretty upset at the space hogging fire nation ships, though.

After all, ever since the beginning of the town they'd gone on with their business and used the port for their own, and suddenly these angry people invaded their harbor and docked their ships there, using up all the space, so that the regulars were forced to keep their ships out at sea.

It slowed down delivery processes, schedules, and most of all angered the people of Port Leon.

Why was the fire nation searching their town?

It was a decent town, hardly any criminals, and they rarely had pirates come in, except on certain occasions, so what was the reason?

But – they complied. They did their best to accommodate the firebenders, even though some mutters and hidden glances of irritation were spotted by various soldiers.

Prince Zuko's ship had indeed forced its way into Port Leon, and was now anchored at the dock while the guards did a search of the town.

The guards had felt that moving forward in any way was useless without Prince Zuko, since they had no one to give them commands and were now a lone boat with no purpose.

One of the more dominant guards had sent a letter to the fire nation higher command two days prior, asking for help, and then only thing for the guards to do after that was wait it out in the port-based town.

They bided time by gambling amongst themselves, roaming the town and "searching" for the avatar, (included flirting with women, buying food for themselves, and watching different forms of entertainment such as melon jugglers, magicians, and fortune tellers,) and sleeping as often as they wanted in their barracks on the boat.

None of them knew that the very person who they'd lost and were in need of most at the moment, would be in that very port at the same they were. Even though his intentions wouldn't help them at all.

Prince Zuko crouched in the bushes a good fifty feet away from the wood plank that led to onboard his ship. His eyes followed men as they sauntered on and off.

The loner had made his way through the forest painfully, but determinedly, and before he knew it, he'd run into a town. He had no money, and was probably not known in 'Leon', (as he heard several people address it,) so he went to the dock to see if his ship was there - it was.

He had to get on that ship without being seen. He'd decided that his next step in capturing the avatar was to do it his own way.

If seen, his whereabouts would be known and he would have no choice but to continue the search on his boat, which he was no longer going to do.

There was something on that boat he needed… and he was going to get it, and get out before anyone spotted him.

"Let's put them here and have Chan and Dovan bring them onto the ship. They're awkward to carry."
"But he gave us orders…"
"We aren't even under his command. We're getting Chan and Dovan to do it, come on."

Without a word, Zuko hastened forward, burned open the lock on one of the two crates the guards had set down, and threw aside the large sacks of rice noodles that were supposed to board the ship.

Luckily all the guards were too busy not being busy to notice him climb inside the hay-packed crate and slide the lid shut.

After about eight minutes or so, two men, (supposedly Chan and Dovan,) yawned their way to the crates.

Prince Zuko had held his breath as often as he could – the entire crate smelled of rotted hay and uncooked noodles.

Finally the crate levered its way up to what felt like a floating position and the prince heard them groan. "What's in this thing? You were supposed to tell the merchant we didn't want those rock cakes he was trying to sell us…"

The crate tilted back as the men scooted up the wood plank, Zuko had the uneasy suspended sensation in his body, like the crate were about to drop any second.

But the guards pulled through and the crate bumped down to ground inside the storage room on the boat.

Right when the door closed and the voices were gone Prince Zuko lifted the lid off and climbed out.

After brushing stray pieces of hay off his firebending armor he opened the door and peered down the dimly reddish lit hallway. Not a soul.

He knew this ship like the back of his hand; he'd been on it long enough searching for the avatar.

Zuko made his way right, down the hall and up the stairs to second floor. Then a quick left and on the wall left after that was the room he was looking for.

The very room that Admiral Zhao had come close to thinking, or rather discovering, his secret alias of the Blue Spirit. The room that Admiral Zhao had once told Prince Zuko he would be taking over his ship.

A table sat in the center, crimson and black woven tapestries with the flame representing their nation hung on the walls, and an atmosphere of heat lingered, along with the distant smell of smoke.

Zuko went straight to the swords that were mounted on the wall at the end of the room and took them off. He set them on the table, then went to the closet in the corner.

Inside the closet on the floor was a chest with a lock on it. The lock had three small symbols engraved on the front, which Zuko turned to each show a different one. It clicked open and he removed a blue mask and black clothing, which he placed beside the swords.

What else did he need… he would need provisions; food, canvas to turn into a shelter tent of some kind, and that would all be found…

Minutes later Prince Zuko, disguised as a guard by wearing one of their helmets, walked off the ship with his sack of supplies, and disappeared into the forest again, without anyone ever knowing he was there.

-

-

The fire crackled, their bellies groaned with happiness from a full meal, and Sokka Aang and Katara were all lying on their backs in the grass staring up at the stars before they went to sleep that night.

"This is great." Sokka said contentedly, arms behind his head.

"Yeah, I don't think Prince Zuko and his men will find us here, that's for sure!" Chirped Aang.

Katara said nothing. She had, for the past half an hour, been talking happily with the both of them, but almost instantly her mood seemed to darken and she felt this strange connection inside her, though she did not know what with.

Something had happened to make her full of thought, and distracted, but she couldn't identify it.

It was as if something out there, whether in the stars, or down on earth, that was trying to connect with her, but for what reason, she had no idea.

She wished she knew what was making her mood swing like so, but it was hopeless. She just sighed and continued staring at the brilliantly speckled sky.

Then, she did something so completely random that she wondered where on earth it came from.

"Aang, what do you know about that Blue Spirit that you mentioned at one time? You said you had a dream about him, or something."

There was a moment's pause as Aang twiddled with his thumbs and began to get nervous.

She frowned right after she'd said it. What did that have to do with anything, and why do you care?

It had been completely uncalled for. Something in Aang's dream… that happened awhile ago… and here she was bringing it up for no reason.

"Sorry, I don't know why I said that," She said quickly.

Aang, thinking Katara was suspicious of him, immediately said, "Oh no I can tell you about him… I-I dreamt that I was saved by a guy in a blue mask. Heh, guess that sickness you and Sokka had must've rubbed off on me a little bit." He scratched the side of his head.

"Hmm." Katara murmured. Aang had never described the mask in detail, but a clear picture stood in her mind, her idea of what this Blue Spirit would have looked like.

But why?

After another pause, Aang let out a sigh mixed with airbending breath and the fireflies floating above him swirled around. "How long are we going to stay here?"

Katara shook her head to get a little sense back into it, and addressed his question. "As long as it takes me to teach you waterbending, this seems like the perfect spot…"