Shattered
A/N: Inspiration for Appa's "treatment" was provided by the Discovery Channel. Also this story operates under the premise that Aang never told Katara and Sokka about his little misadventure with Zuko after being captured by Zhao in "The Blue Spirit". Just so you know.
Chapter Thirteen
Anko joined the girl at the bison's head. The beast's large brown eyes were glazed and fever bright. The farmer rested her hand on the bison's nose. "Is his nose usually hot and dry like this?"
"No," Katara responded. "That's new. Usually his nose is cold and wet."
"Hm." Making a scooping motion with her hand, the earthbender made a hollow in the earth directly in front of Appa's nose. "Place the kettle over that and don't forget the water." She moved to the bison's side, taking a closer look at the large wound. It was in a bad location, between his front and middle legs. Amputation would not be an option. "I'm going to the house to get some stuff," she informed Katara. She passed the wood-laden Sokka on the way.
Sokka piled his load by Appa's head. "I really don't like this, Katara. What's Zuko doing here? What if she's some sort of Fire Nation spy?"
"What choice do we have?" Katara asked quietly, stroking the suffering bison's head. "At least he seems to be alone, and we didn't see any Fire Nation ships in the harbor."
Sokka shrugged, "I still don't like it, but I guess you're right. It looks like we're stuck here. Still, let's keep a sharp eye on her. My instincts tell me something is not right." Katara smiled at her brother and went to get the water. She was too worried about Appa and their situation to tease him about his "instincts".
When Anko returned from the house, arms overflowing with supplies, Katara had just finished placing a large water ball into the copper kettle. Anko left most of her load by the wound. Shaking her head once again at the magnitude of the thing, she approached the waterbender. The older woman nodded approvingly at the amount of water in the kettle. "Good. That should be just about right." Opening up the vial she was carrying, Anko poured some of the contents onto the kettle with the water. Then, gauging the massive size of the bison, she snorted at herself. "Oh, who am I kidding?" She dumped the rest of the amber liquid in.
"What's that for?" Katara asked.
"Well, hopefully it will knock him out. If nothing else, it should relieve some of his pain." Anko started layering the firewood on the pit under the large tub. "What caused that wound, a spear or a pike?"
Katara shook her head. "It was arrows."
"Arrows?"
"Yes, but they all hit the exact same spot, one after another. I know it sounds crazy; I've never seen anything like it."
"Yu yan archers," a quiet male voice said from behind the earthbender. "Their accuracy is legendary and Zhao has command of them." Katara stiffened instinctively, Sokka's warning racing through her head, the ghost of a smile on Anko's face not helping any. "What is it you need me to do?" Zuko asked sullenly, his attention focused solely on the earthbender. His sense of honor had not allowed him to ignore her request for help.
"Well, you could get this fire going for one. Then, heat up the water until it starts steaming. Katara, once the steam starts, bend it towards the bison's nose so he breathes it in."
"Um, bend… the steam?"
Anko took one looks at the girl's confused expression and frowned. The way Katara had been bending against Zuko, Anko had believed she was trained. Clearly not the case. "Do you have a tent amongst your gear?" At the girls nod, she continued. "I'll tell your brother to set it up over the bison's head and then you can fan the steam at him. Don't breathe any of it in yourself; you'll be out for a week. Zuko, once you get done here, come join me at the wound. Katara, you'll have to manage the fire to keep the water steaming, Okay?" Katara nodded while Zuko scowled. Smiling her half-smile, Anko left them alone.
Starting the fire was child's play for the Prince. Under Katara's suspicious glare, he simply directed a small blast of flame into the well seasoned wood. Heating up the water on the other hand… Zuko had never been too interested in learning the non-combative uses of his bending. Still, he wasn't about to admit this in front of the Water Tribe girl. He had seen his Uncle warm up a cup of tea in his hands enough times to at least know in principle how it was done. Placing his hands on opposite sides of the copper kettle, he closed his eyes and concentrated on heat. The warmth of the sun, the heat from the fire he had just started, his own internal flame, all of this he concentrated into his hands.
"Hey, you did it," Katara's voice broke his focus; opening his eyes he saw wisps of steam rising from the pot. Then, remembering Anko's warning, they both backed away as the mild breeze started pushing the vapor this way and that. "Hurry up Sokka," Katara ordered.
"Yeah, yeah… Fetch the wood Sokka, set up the tent Sokka; how come I'm the only one running around like a ducken with its head cut off?"
Zuko quietly left the siblings while they were setting up the tent. He was relieved to be away from them. He scowled as he stood by the farmer, resenting her for putting him in this situation. Anko glanced up as he approached, then went back to her work. She was shaving the bison's long, matted fur away from the wound. It fell in solid, hard clumps, stained yellow and red from the pus oozing from the open sore. The newly revealed bare skin was an off color; dark grey-brown instead of a healthy pink, the boundaries extending far beyond the open sore. And the smell! Zuko crinkled his nose.
"Could you …?" Anko gestured with her free hand towards the smaller copper pot, which was set up like the larger one. Zuko repeated his actions; lighting the fire and heating the water. Sokka joined them just as Anko finished removing the last of the hair. Putting down the razor, she picked up a long, sharp knife and held it over the fire. "The bison out?" she asked.
"No, but his eyes are half closed." Sokka glared at her with distrust. "What are you going to do with that?"
Anko looked at the boy with amusement. "If you have a weak constitution, boy, I suggest you go stand elsewhere."
"No way. I'm a warrior of my tribe. I'm staying right here."
"Suit yourself." Anko shrugged. "You were warned." With that the woman turned back to the bison. Without further preamble she swiftly lanced the wound from top to bottom and from left to right. Putrid liquid spurted from the lesion, covering Anko's arm. Both teenaged boys gagged. The smell of rotting flesh was overwhelming. The lancing caused no reaction from Appa, much to Anko's relief. Bet he can't even feel this area anymore. She worked swiftly, cutting away the putrid tissue, gritting her teeth together to prevent herself from gagging. Anko had seen a lot of nasty wounds in her day, but this was one of the worst. The decaying area around the open lesion was so saturated with pus that every movement of her knife smattered her with the foul smelling fluid. Anko tried not to think about it. Instead she focused on carefully removing the gangrenous material.
"Katara, is Appa alright?" Sokka asked, his voice cracking a little.
"This stuff really works! He's asleep."
"Good," he said, grimacing as more of the rotten matter fell to the ground.
Anko turned away from her work; in her hand she displayed two arrowheads. "Here's part of the problem."
Sokka's eyes widened in surprise. "I thought we got them all!"
The farmer dipped a rag into the steaming water, using it to wash some of the ick off her face. She looked back at the wound. Most of the brown-grey area had been removed, but the trauma itself was deep. She couldn't tell how far in it went and removing all of the gangrene was critical to the bison's recovery. With a thoughtful frown, she turned back to the boys. "Sokka, I need some burlap sacks from the barn and a long rope. Also, more rags would be nice." "Rags," she repeated, fearing a repeat of the towel incident.
Once the Water Tribe teen had left, she turned to Zuko. "Do you know where Misha takes her kills? It's by the big oak tree, to the left of the path to the river. She has a burrow there."
Zuko nodded a little unsurely. "I think I know where that is."
"Good. I need you to go there and bring me back some maggots."
The Prince just stared at her. "Maggots?"
"That's right, the little white worms in the corpses; they're called maggots. If you can't handle the worms themselves, just bring back a body that looks like its moving. It'll be full of them." At Zuko's continued horrified stare, Anko continued. "Look, I'd send the other one, but it would take forever to explain where to go, and frankly, he already looks a little green around the gills. You can handle it, right?" Zuko nodded, looking more than a little pale himself. Sokka returned and Anko gave the Fire Nation teen one of the burlap sacks.
"Where's he going?" Sokka asked distrustfully, glaring at the retreating teen's back.
"He's getting something medicinal for me. Do you want to help clean this up?" Sokka made a face as he moved to comply. Anko summoned Katara, directing the waterbender to wash out the wound with hot water. The girl's eyes widened as she took in the area of damage on Appa's side. "Poor Appa," she murmured sympathetically.
She returned to her duties at his head as Zuko came trotting back, burlap sack held away from his body, his face reflecting his disgust. He gave the bag to Anko, turning to wash his hands in the remains of the water. The earthbender shook out the contents of the bag; a dead groundhog rolled out, its skin still squirming even though the rodent itself had long ago ceased to move. "Perfect." Taking up a different knife, Anko pealed back the corpse's skin, revealing a mass of wiggling white worms.
"Wait a minute, what the heck are those? You said medicinal, those are worms, they can't be medicinal! You're not going to crush them up and make him eat them, are you?"
"Tch, don't be ridiculous boy. Nobody is eating any worms. It's the worms that'll do the eating."
"Oh… WHAT!"
Anko had taken a handful of the writhing mass, swishing it back and forth in the now tepid water to rinse off the bits of dead flesh. She inspected the handful of now cleanish maggots and moved to put them into Appa's open wound.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What are you doing!" His voice a high pitched squeak, Sokka inserted himself between her and the bison, grabbing hold of her arm. "Are you mad?"
"Not yet, but I will be if you don't let go off my arm." She met the blue-eyed boy's stare until he complied. "Look, maggots eat dead flesh and only dead flesh. I've cleaned up this wound the best that I can but I can't get all of it out. These little guys will eat up the parts that I've missed. Only when all the rot is gone will the healthy tissue have a chance to start healing. This," she shook her handful of maggots at him, "wouldn't be necessary if you had taken proper care of his injury to begin with. Understand?"
Sokka just stared at her, then, with a shudder, he moved out of her way.
"Sokka? Is everything okay? What's going on back there?"
"Trust me Katara, you don't want to know."
Anko placed a couple more handfuls of maggots into the wound, holding them in place with a folded burlap sack. She had the boys run the rope around the bison's large body, tying it tight to hold the makeshift bandage in place. Satisfied, she looked around, noticing for the first time how elongated the shadows had gotten. Where did the afternoon get to? In a couple more hours it would be dark. She squinted thoughtfully at the sun, then at the large monster on her front lawn. She sighed. "You two can stay in the barn, I guess. It's the only place big enough for your friend here. Can't leave him outside, it'll be raining tomorrow."
The Water Tribe siblings both looked up at the cloudless sky and then exchanged glances with each other. "Um, when will Appa be better?" Katara asked.
Anko gave her a sympathetic look. "Sorry girl, I'm afraid it's not a matter of "when", it's still a matter of "if". We'll see how he's doing tomorrow morning. Hopefully, he'll stay asleep until then."
"So how exactly do you expect to move him into the barn?" Sokka asked. "In case you haven't noticed, he's not exactly light… Oh."
The earthbender, not waiting on Sokka to finish his sentence, had raised the earth underneath the large bison. As she pushed her arms outwards and forwards, the ground began to slowly crawl towards the barn, the sleeping Appa riding undisturbed on the top like a surfer on a very small, flat wave. "Go open the barn doors," she ordered, a touch of strain in her voice as she gently moved the ten ton beast on a slow moving bed of earth. After giving the siblings instructions to not let Appa have anything save water that night, and to not under any circumstances have a fire in her barn, the farmer departed for her house, Zuko following close behind. Katara looked around. They had stayed in worse places.
"Is it me, or are all earthbenders crazy?" Sokka asked. "I mean, King Boomie wasn't exactly playing with a full deck, and then there was that nutty canyon guide…"
"Haru wasn't crazy," Katara pointed out while arranging their sleeping bags.
"Haru was young; give him a couple more years. Besides, you have to admit, this one is insane. Maggots in a wound to make it better? Rain, when there isn't a cloud in the sky? And let's not forget her so called "guest" Prince Pyro; what's up with that?"
Katara stopped unpacking their gear. She stared at the slumbering Appa thoughtfully. "Sokka, do you remember that time I was captured by Zuko and those pirates?"
"If you are referring to the time you almost got us all killed because you just had to steal a waterbending scroll, then yeah, I do."
Katara gave her brother a dirty look. "Anyways, Zuko said something back then about needing Aang to restore his honor, or something like that. And he was so angry before, about Zhao capturing Aang… And we didn't see his ship in the harbor. Maybe, maybe he's stuck here too." She looked at her brother, fully expecting the older boy to argue with her, but instead Sokka tilted his head to one side, thinking.
"You know, I always did think it was weird, the way he chased after us. I mean, you'd think a Prince would have better things to do. Maybe you're right Katara, maybe he needed to capture Aang himself… What was it he said? "We had no idea what he'd lost", or something? And did you see his head? He has fresh injuries; he probably came here to be treated for them."
"Sokka, this is perfect! You were saying we needed a better way to find Aang, right? Well, if anyone would know where they'd keep him locked up, it would be Prince Zuko!"
"Wait a minute Katara, IF, and that's a big "If", everything we've guessed is true, it still doesn't mean Zuko would tell us anything. Think about it, to the Fire Nation, Aang is public enemy number one. Zuko's not just going to help us free him."
"Well who said anything about asking him nicely?"
Sokka didn't like the evil look on his sister's face. It was out of place on the normally kind hearted girl. He sighed. "Listen Katara, you can't keep blaming yourself for Aang's capture. It wasn't your fault."
Katara glared at her brother before wrapping her arms around herself and hanging her head. "I'm a waterbender. I was in water; I should have been able to do something. Instead, I just watched him get taken from us. Well, not again. If Zuko knows where Aang is, he will tell us."
Sokka knew there was no point in arguing with Katara when she got that stubborn look in her eyes. "You know, Aang is lucky to have you as a friend." He gave her a quick hug. "But until Appa is able to fly, promise me you'll stay away from Zuko, okay?" His voice turned a little teasing. "After all, Anko said no fighting and let's face it; she kicked both your butts."
Katara giggled a little. "Fine Sokka, no fighting until Appa is better. I promise."