Zuko woke up the next morning, sorer than he had ever been in his sixteen, almost seventeen, years. Painfully, he remembered the events of the previous night and why he was in this hovel, on the floor, next to the girl.
The girl. Zuko looked over at Katara, who was still sound asleep. Her face was twisted in a frown, and the prince guessed she was having a bad dream. Zuko shook his head and left the closed off section of the hovel.
Kyru was there, though where Kiena had gone Zuko didn't know. "I wouldn't go outside right now, your highness," Kyru said. "The guards will be here soon to take the morning shift workers and they'll notice you."
Zuko nodded, sitting down on the pallet Kiena had vacated. "What shift do you work?"
Kyru laughed. "Whenever they need me." Noticing Zuko's confused look, he added, "Whenever they need someone to go to a surface market, they chose me. Ji Li can't really send any of his men and he doesn't trust Su to keep her overactive mouth shut, so he chose me. I was born in the town nearby, so the marketplace is familiar and the people of the town recognize me. They don't question my comings and goings, and they're a curious lot, let me tell you." Kyru seemed to go back to a time, a time when he wasn't some pathetic psychopath's prisoner. When he could walk along the roads of his hometown freely, and not on someone else's orders. Zuko felt sorry for this man, and his sister, who had risked a lot to help him and Katara.
Kyru soon snapped out of it. Turning to Zuko, he exclaimed, "No matter how many Firebenders I know, it still amazes me that they can stay up all night and still get up at the crack of dawn! Madam Su woke you up at midnight, you scaled the arena walls, saved your girlfriend, and ran from the guards, yet you are awake at this hour!"
"Katara is not my girlfriend. She's not even a friend," Zuko said.
"Yet you still end up saving and helping me a lot, Prince Zuko," Katara said, yawning. "I owe you my life three times over. And that's counting in the fact you tried to kidnap me." Her hair was in a tangle, her braid long having fallen out. "You wouldn't happen to have a hairbrush, would you?" she asked Kyru.
The Earthbender shook his head. "Out of all the Benders in this compound, only my sister and two others have access to beauty products, and that's because they're Madam Su's personal servants," he said. "And you'd have to use oil to get those knots out of your hair, which no one ever has. Your best bet would be a knife, Katara."
A look of sadness crossed Katara's face. Zuko had heard that Water Tribe girls never cut their hair unless someone close to them died. Katara must be remembering the last time she had cut her hair. "Is my hair really that bad?"
"Well, the hair in the bun isn't so tangled, but the rest is…" Kyru trailed off. Katara took the ends of her hair and looked at them. Indecision flickered in her sapphire blue eyes, debating whether or not to cut her hair. Finally, she looked at Kyru.
"Do you have a knife?" The Earthbender pulled one from underneath his pallet and handed it hilt first to Katara. Suddenly, he perked up.
"That's the horn, calling for the morning shift. I need to go see if they'll need me today." Kyru left the hovel, leaving Katara with Zuko. Soon after, Katara took out her bun and prepared to cut off the ends of her hair.
"Wait," Zuko said. "Let me do it. You might cut yourself." Katara gave Zuko a look that clearly said she'd rather be coated with honey and stuck in a hive of Scorpion Bees than trust him with a knife. "I won't hurt you," Zuko smirked. "Trust me."
Katara was still wary, though she gave Zuko the knife. Zuko took Katara's hair in his hands and with one quick slice, the tangled mats of hair fell to the floor.
Katara had tears in her eyes as she picked up her severed tresses. Her hand went to her mother's necklace. Zuko watched as the girl muttered something under her breath, picked up the hair, and went back behind the curtain separating her and Zuko's mats.
Kyru returned not long afterwards. Sighing, he sat down on his pallet. Zuko handed him his knife back, which he took and hid.
"Ji Li is the son of a motherless goat," Kyru said. "He knows that you and Katara didn't escape out into the woods surrounding the exit. He's checking everywhere for you two."
"What will happen when he checks the compound," Zuko asked.
Kyru shivered. "Nothing good. We're talking burnings, drownings, and mass poisonings. Maybe even starvation."
Zuko nodded. "We can't stay here. It would be horrible if you or your sister died hiding Katara and me."
Kyru shook his head. "I don't think Ji Li will suspect that you're in this compound. He'll be focusing on the other one."
"There's more than one compound?"
"Yes. This one is primarily Waterbenders and Firebenders," Kyru said. "Most of the Earthbenders are in another compound, with, rumors have it, a very few Airbenders. But who believes those rumors?"
Zuko brought Kyru back to the matter at hand. "You say that this is mostly Firebenders?"
Kyru nodded. "Firebenders and Waterbenders. Ji Li is no dummy. He'll assume you two knew he would find you in this compound and hid in the other. By the time he realizes he's wrong, it will have been plenty of time for you two to escape. And the closer you are to danger-"
"The safer we'll be, which is why Katara and I will be in the compound after that time," Zuko finished, remembering a tactic taught to him by his uncle. The logic made sense, so Zuko agreed to stay in the compound until a suitable escape plan could be thought of.
"Kiena should be back soon. Su always has dinner with Ji Li and sends her personal servants home for dinner," Kyru was saying hours later. "That's when Kiena's shift ends. She spends her morning in the flower gardens, tending Su's flowers, then from lunch until dinner she's plays the part of the personal servant, gathering gossip and news."
Zuko nodded, meditating. Katara was still behind the curtain, sleeping more than likely. She was behind the curtain when Kiena arrived, bruise marks on her face. Kyru was instantly worried.
"What happened?"
Kiena winced as she touched the bruises. "Ji Li was furious today, which is only to be expected. I mean, Prince Zuko and Katara got away from him last night. Well, while I was in the garden he came up and slapped me. Told me that it was my fault the roses, Su's favorites, aren't blooming yet, even though he knows full well that the breed of roses won't bloom until the Summer Solstice, being Fire Nation flowers and all."
Zuko looked at Kiena. "Our flowers bloom at the same time yours do."
"Oh, in the Land of Fire maybe," Kiena said. "But here they don't. Anyway, when Su heard what Ji Li did, she waltzed right up to him and made a comment how anyone in her service was entitled to hit him if he ever hit one of us again." Kiena smiled. "That gave me no end of pleasure. And I think Madam Su knows something."
"What?" Kyru exclaimed. "How?"
Kiena shrugged. "No clue. She made a comment about how she'd hoped to tell the prince and Katara something before they left and if anyone knew where they'd gone they could tell them for her. I said nothing, of course, in case it was a trick." Kiena winced as she accidentally hit her bruised chin.
"Let me heal those bruises, Kiena." Katara came out from behind the curtain, her eyes red. Zuko had to gasp as he took in the way the Waterbender looked with shortened hair. He wouldn't have been able to recognize her if she hadn't been wearing the necklace. No one else seemed to notice, except Kyru, who made a comment.
"You look like a totally different person. I don't think even Ji Li could recognize you now, unless he got a good look at that necklace." He handed Katara a canteen of water. "Will this be enough?"
Katara opened the canteen and nodded. "They're just bruises, so it won't take much to heal." She bended the water into a glove and placed her hand on Kiena's face, the bruises vanishing instantaneously.
"Thanks. That feels much better," Kiena said, touching her face. "Oh, I think it'll be safe for you and the prince to come outside. The guards are all in the guardhouse, drinking and gambling. It's Ju Lin on the walls tonight, and he's as blind as a bat."
"How long have you been here?" Katara asked. Zuko was wondering the same thing, but didn't want to ask. He knew they had to have been there for several years to know what they knew.
Kiena shrugged. "About thirteen years, since we were seven. Our parents were killed by Ji Li." Katara had look of shock on her face.
"Thirteen years?" Kyru nodded.
"At least our childhood was free. It's more than I can say for the poor Bending children born here. Ji Li waits until they're about five, then he sticks them into a huge cell with the other children until they turn thirteen, at which time he returns them to the compound. Most are lucky to turn thirteen. The cell is filthy and crawling with vermin. And the less said about the stench, the better. Now, do you want dinner or not?" Kyru said, heading out the door. Katara and Zuko followed him out.
There was a big fire going just outside of the hovel. About ten others were sitting around it, including Chon, the man that had explained why Ji Li wanted Katara and Zuko so bad. In the light, Zuko could see that he was from the Earth Kingdom, with grizzled hair. He looked like he had once been a great fighter, but was reduced to skin and bones through years of enslavement. The prince had to restrain the fire that wanted escape from his fingertips. How could a man do this to innocent people? he thought.
The same way your father does it. With cruelty, fury, and malice, his conscience said. Zuko ignored it, as he had the past two years, and followed Kyru and Kiena, the latter talking avidly to Katara about the advantages and disadvantages of the different Bending styles.
When they approached the fire, everyone stopped talking to look. Zuko heard the Firebenders muttering and saw them pointing at his scar.
"That's Prince Zuko!"
"No duh! How'd he get here?"
"And with a Waterbender, no less!"
"…general must be worried…"
"…wonder if he knows?"
Katara whispered, "Think they recognize you?"
"I'm hard to forget," Zuko muttered. "You seem to be getting a lot of attention yourself."
He was right. Almost every young Waterbender male was looking at Katara, even the ones with sweethearts. (You could tell who they were by the slaps.) Katara blushed when she noticed this. "Ignore them," the prince advised. "They want you to look at them. And unless you want flatters who can't keep their mouth shut, I'd ignore them."
"How do you know this?"
"I did the same thing at their age," the prince admitted. "And my sister had, and probably has, many." Katara looked about to ask what sister but Kyru interrupted them, addressing the crowd. Or, more accurately, reprimanding them.
"Stop staring. You look like a bunch of Owl Toads with your eyes bugging out." That remark brought about a bunch of others, most of them about how Kyru looked. Kiena shook her head as she handed the two teens a bowl of something hot apiece as motioned them to sit down.
"Forgive them. The story of last night and why Ji Li took Katara got around, thanks to Li Se and Si Le."
"Who?" Katara asked.
"I'm Li Se," a voice next to them said. "Si Le is my sister." Katara and Zuko turned to face a young Firebender with hair like Meng's. Li Se pointed to a girl, who looked the exact opposite of her, with the exception of the hair color. This girl nodded when Li Se said her name. It was then that Zuko noticed that everyone, no matter what they bended, was wearing a tunic of coarse linen with matching pants. The only way you could tell what Bender type they were was by the colored belts around their waist. Zuko looked down at the clothes he and Katara were wearing. Despite the bedraggled appearance, both outfits would clearly stand out. He tapped Kyru on the shoulder.
"I think Katara and I will need some different clothing," he said, gesturing to the silk outfit he was wearing. Kyru nodded.
"Good point. Si Le!" he called. "Do you know where some extra clothes are?" Si Le nodded and got up to get them. Kyru smiled. "You can always trust Si Le to know where everything and everyone is," he said proudly. "Just like you know Li Se will know something she shouldn't, and is willing to tell almost anyone. Never the guards, but watch out otherwise. Once she gets into her stride, nothing short of a natural disaster will stop her."
Katara, who had overheard that, laughed. "Reminds me of one of my Gran-Gran's friends back in the village. And her granddaughter. They could yak the ear of a Horned Yak, as my father said, once they got going."
Si Le soon returned with two outfits identical to the others and two belts, one red, one blue. "Lucky for you the laundry owed me a favor," she said, handing them to Kyru. "I think they're even the right size. It wasn't easy finding the prince's. He's, what, six feet and well-built?"
Zuko blushed slightly as he took the outfits and handed one to Katara. She took it, along handkerchief Si Le handed her. "You'll blend in slightly better with your hair covered," Si Le explained, pointing out that all the girls and women had their head covered. "There's not much, short of a constant hood, that would help hide you better, Prince Zuko. That scar is a dead giveaway." The prince nodded silently. That was just another price he had to pay for speaking out of turn.
Suddenly, a horn blew out. Everyone set their bowls down, said good-bye to their friends, and went into their hovel. "That would be the signal to go back," Kiena muttered. "There's not one to tell us when to sleep, but if you fall asleep while you're working, it's a nightmare. C'mon." She led Zuko and Katara back to the hovel, Kyru following behind.
Katara collapsed on her pallet instantly, the events of the day taking their toll on her. She was asleep before she hit the pillows, Zuko not far behind her. The whole compound was soon an oasis of peace, in a war-torn world.
