wow chapter 5 already? I need to start writing again. hopefully I'll have time to write more over break. Updades will probably get less and less frequent. I have finals this week and then I'll go home back to a stupid dial-up internet connection. (CUSRE YOU REDNECKVILLE!) I'm ok now, really.

Chapter 5

ZUKO'S SHIP

dream

Zuko saw the girl, in a state worse than the one she was actually in. She was lying on the same cot in the infirmary, but she was bleeding, badly. He moved forward to go to her and the doctor caught his arm and whispered to him something like he didn't have much time to talk to her because she was fading fast. He moved quickly to her bed side and stroked her bruised cheek.

"Zuko, I thought you didn't care." Her voice was so weak but it was laced through with resentment. "You didn't care before, why bother to care now?"

"No, I…" He realized that she had stopped breathing.

He heard her voice come to him in the air. "You let this happen; it's all your fault."

"NOOOO!"

end dream

He woke up suddenly and realized that he had screamed out loud. He was covered in cold sweat and was breathing heavily. He heard someone knocking on his door.

His uncle's voice came from the other side. "Zuko are you alright? I heard you yell."

"I'm fine it was just a nightmare Uncle."

"Let me in Zuko."

He rose from his bed and unlocked the door for his uncle. He moved back to his bed and sat down heavily. He held his face in his hands and realized that he was shaking. Surely one dream hadn't shaken him that much.

"Was it the Agni Kai again?"

He looked up at Iroh, "No. It was the girl, she died," he said surprised at his own words. Confusion fitted his thoughts. How could he feel this way about a girl that he knew nothing about? "Why do I feel this way Uncle? I don't even know her."

"Perhaps not Prince Zuko but she is not unattractive and she's strong considering the condition she's in. I can see why you might feel something," Iroh told him. "She would probably produce strong children for you," he then added slyly.

"UNCLE! STOP!" Zuko's face had turned a brilliant shade on red.

"What?" He asked trying to sound innocent but only succeeded in making himself sound guilty.

"I've told you before that I don't want to hear that from you."

"Anyway you should probably go down there because you'll be watching her tonight."

"Why can't the doctor do it?"

"Because he's been with her almost all day and he needs to rest too. Look on the bright side, it give you at excuse to get out of music night. Just sit with her Zuko it won't kill you."

"If it gets me out of music night." Zuko rose from his bed and slipped his shirt back on. He left the room and proceeded below deck to the infirmary. When he stepped inside he was greeted by the doctor, who now had a black eye.

"What happened to you?"

"Turns out she's a restless sleeper and she lashed out in her sleep."

"She did that to you while she was sleeping?" Zuko was trying not to laugh at the situation.

"Yes, as much as I hate to admit it. I wouldn't recommend that you get to close while she's asleep or you'll end up down here with a broken nose, sir. Other than that she seems to be well on the way to recovery," he told Zuko as he left the room.

-If she gave him a black eye while she's asleep then she's stronger than I thought. Maybe what Uncle said-

-When have you ever listened to Uncle when it came to women?

-There's a first time for everything I guess.

He looked down at the sleeping girl (he did keep his distance though). She was attractive but not exactly what could be called beautiful. She would be quite strong for a girl once she recovered. Zuko considered what his uncle had said.

She was beginning to move about in her sleep, but not too much when Zuko leaned closer. It was then that she lashed out. Zuko jumped back but not quickly enough to keep himself from getting hit. She hit him square in his left eye and he could already feel it starting to swell.

Great now I have a black eye too. It'll probably swell shut. How am I going to explain this one?

She was beginning to wake up after feeling her fist contact something. She opened her eyes slowly to find Zuko standing nearby with a hand over his left eye. She sat up and asked him "What happened to you?"

Her voice startled him slightly but he said angrily, "YOU happened to me!

"What did I do?"

"YOU HIT ME!" He raised his voice again.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. I didn't even realize that I did it," Trina apologized. She scooted as far back on the cot as she dared without falling off it trying to get as far away form him as she could. Unshed tears began to shine in her eyed in fear of his temper.

He saw the tears in her eyes and got a brief image of himself with the same look in his eyes. He immediately calmed down and tried to calm her as well. "Please don't. I didn't really mean to frighten you. I'm not going to hurt you."

"Not even in retaliation?"

"Not even in retaliation," he said with a short laugh.

"Oh, well good I'm glad to hear that."

"I need to as you some questions," he said gently.

"Alright I'll answer what I can. What do you want to know?"

"Well you can start by telling me where you're from."

"Ummm……" Oh great, I knew this moment would come I just hoped it wouldn't come so soon. How am I going to tell him I'm not from this world? "Well I'm not from around here that's for sure."

"That's rather vague don't you think?"

"Yeah I guess it is but that's because I don't know exactly what to say. It's very hard to explain Please don't ask me that. I'll tell you sometime later I promise but not now please. It hurts to think about it."

"Alright, but you have to tell me later." He of all people knew how much it hurt to be away from home.

Dodged that bullet, for now at least. "What else do you want to know?"

"How did you get on my ship? You fell with the lightning I assume, but why were you in it?"

"Yes, I did fall with the lightning, so that's how I got here. As to why I was inside the lightning, all I know is that there was a storm that Lomi Ka and I were in and she was going to go home and when I gave her a hug good bye we were struck. We were still holding onto each other when it felt like we were flying. We lost our grip on each other and the next thing I knew I was waking up here in a world of pain. I was in the lightning until I hit the deck I guess." She hung her head at the thought of her friend because she had no idea what had happened to her.

"The red lightning had two forks," Zuko thought out loud. "Maybe your friend was in the other one."

She looked up at him and asked eagerly, "do you really think so? Where did it strike?"

"On shore not too far from here."

"Can we go see if she's there? I need to find my friend."

"I was planning to stop at the next port anyway so we can restock and we can easily take the rhinos back to the spot while we're stopped."

A huge smile broke across her face, "when will we stop?"

"We should reach port at morning's first light." When he said that she was overcome with happiness and she threw her arms around him in a tight embrace. He felt his cheeks warm with a growing blush as he awkwardly returned the embrace.

When she finally let him go she realized what she had done and stared to apologize. "I'm sorry, I was just so-"

"Stop apologizing. You were happy about going to find your friend."

There was a moment when neither of them said anything and it was in that moment when Trina noticed the sounds of music. "What's that?"

"Music night."

"What's music night?"

"Uncle Iroh thought the men needed something to raise their spirits, so now we have music night. I'll have an entire crew worth of hangovers on board tomorrow. I hate it when I have to go because when I do I usually end up with one too," he said as he shook his head.

Trina giggled a little at the comment. "Surely they won't all get drunk."

"Oh there might be one or two that stay sober. Alright now you better try to get some sleep or I won't be able to convince the doctor to let you leave to look for your friend tomorrow."

"Alright." She settled herself down into the cot and got comfortable and was asleep very quickly. Zuko pulled over a chair and put it next to the cot and sat down. He felt drowsiness overcome him and he was soon asleep as well.

When morning came Iroh was the first one to enter the infirmary to see how the two teens had faired the night. He was glad to see both of them sleeping peacefully. He almost regretted having to wake Zuko to tell him that thy had docked, that is until he saw the unnatural purple color that Zuko's scar had become. Iroh shook Zuko's shoulder until he woke up.

"What is it?" Zuko only opened his right eye because the left one was still swelled shut.

"What happened to your eye?"

"She hit me in her sleep when I came in last night."

"She what?"

"She seems to be a restless sleeper, at times at least. She got the doctor too, only it was his right eye."

"Oh. We've docked so we can restock."

"Good. I need to talk to the doctor because I need to see if Tarrina is well enough to accompany us on shore. I told her we would look for her friend."

"What makes you think you'll be able to find her?"

"She was it the red lightning too and another fork of it struck on shore."

"You know if this Lomi Ka was in as bad shape as Tarrina, it might not be a very happy reunion. Without help she may have died by now Zuko if she was anywhere near as bad as Tarrina was."

"I know that but please don't remind me."

The doctor entered the room then allowing Zuko to escape from the subject of Lomi Ka. "Ah, just the man I wanted to see. Do you think Tarrina is well enough to come on shore with us? I told her we would look for her friend today."

"I don't see why not considering that force behind that fist of hers. Oh, Prince Zuko I see that you seem to have found that out for yourself. I warned you not to get too close while she was sleeping. I'll get you something to make the swelling go down."

He took a jar of salve out of the cabinet and handed it to Zuko. "Put some of that on it and the swelling should start to go down right away. It helped mine a lot." Zuko looked at the man's eye and saw that the swelling had indeed gone down and that it was already starting to heal.

Trina was starting to wake up when the doctor moved to her bedside. When she opened her eyes she saw all three of the men looking at her. "Well if it isn't my three favorite guys in the whole world," she said jokingly when she saw them. Iroh and the doctor both laughed but Zuko only smiled slightly.

"Prince Zuko tells us that he's planning on taking you out today. Before he can though I need to make sure you're healing properly. If you'll hold still this won't take long."

"I need to get things ready to go ashore," Zuko said as he and Iroh left the room. "Uncle, how many of the men are sober? I need a few men to come with Tarrina and me when we look for her friend."

"There might be two or three."

"Find them and tell them to ready rhinos for themselves and one for Tarrina and I."

"She'll be riding with you?"

"I very much doubt that she knows how to ride anyway I wouldn't let her ride on her own unless she was fully healed."

"I guess that makes sense, but it will take a little time for us to get them ready."

"Come find us when things are ready to go."

After discussing things with Iroh and changing his clothes, Zuko returned to Tarrina in the infirmary and found that she had been healing faster than anyone would have expected. The bandages had been taken off of her forearms and only minor scarring remained. The scars were very thin and branched like lightning bolts as they stretched between her elbows and fingertips. She was also able to move about without much pain.

"Looks like you're ready to go."

"Yup."

"It'll take a little time to get the rhinos ready so I thought we go to the market and look around until then. Would you like to?"

"Oh yes!"

"Prince Zuko don't let her overdo it. She still isn't completely well."

"I won't. Come on," Zuko said to Trina who nodded and followed closely behind him.

Trina noticed that when had had been gone for that short time he had changed into an outfit that was almost exactly like the one she was wearing (she still didn't know what had happened to her clothes). She followed his up on deck where he took her by the hand and led her off the ship.

"I don't want you to get separated form me. After all this is a strange place to you," Zuko said to her softly, and at that she gave him a warm smile and he couldn't keep himself from smiling back at her.

"I'm glad I have you to keep me out of trouble because it seems to find me."

Zuko led her through the market stopping occasionally to examine an item. They stopped when they came to a stand that was selling women's clothing.

"Pick something out. I can't have you wearing my clothes all the time." At the comment Trina blushed and the exchange did not go unnoticed by the vender who laughed a little. Zuko glared at him and he stopped laughing right away.

Trina picked out a blood red shirt with gold trim and a pair of darker red pants. "Your girlfriend has quite an eye for quality sir," the vender said when Zuko paid him.

Trina and Zuko looked at each other and started to answer at the same time, "We're not-." They looked at each other again and shared a nervous laugh for answering like they did.

"You know Missy you remind my of a girl who was here yesterday."

"Oh really?"

"Yes ma'am. Her hair was about the same color as yours, maybe a little darker. I remembered because I hadn't seen anyone with hair like that before, and now two people in two days. Small world huh?"

"Guess so," Trina said. "Sir could you tell me if you remember if her hair was shorter that mine?"

"Oh yeah quite a bit."

"Do you know what direction she went when she left?"

"She went off toward the woods with a girl and two boys who were younger than her."

"What did her companions look like?" Zuko asked the man.

"The girl and one boy wore blue and the other boy was a little bald monk guy."

"With a blue arrow on his head?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"Let's just say we've met before." Zuko thanked the man for his help and started leading Trina back to the ship.

"It was Lomi Ka! I know it was!" Trina said happily.

"She's with the Avatar! " Zuko said (this fact made him quite enthuastic about going to find Trina's friend.)

"Who?" She asked, deciding that it was best to play dumb about it for the moment.

"I'll explain later. I hope Uncle Iroh has things ready to go when we get back to the ship."

Zuko was pleased that when they got back to the ship Iroh did indeed have things ready to go and he had found only one man who was sober to go with them.

Zuko pulled his uncle aside and said to him, "Tarrina's friend is with the Avatar. We found out when we stopped so she could get some new clothes." Zuko continued speaking to Iroh and told him what the merchant had told him.

"If this is true Prince Zuko, you must consider your actions very carefully, especially if you care for this girl."

"I know. It's a delicate situation. What will I do when I capture her friend's companions?"

"Perhaps before you do anything you should explain the whole 'Avatar' situation to her."

"How Uncle? Do you think I can make her understand?"

"Of course, you just need to explain things."

Zuko nodded. He hesitated slightly because he knew that to make her understand he would have to tell her about the Agni Kai. "Tarrina, come here a moment please."

"What is it Prince Zuko?"

"I told you before that I would explain to you who the Avatar is, and now is the time. The Avatar is the only thing that stands between the Fire Nation and total victory. He also stands between me and my homeland. I cannot return until I have captured him and present him to my father." His voice cracked slightly at the mention of his father. "I have been banished and stripped of my honor until I return having captured the Avatar."

Tarrina put her hand on his shoulder in a gesture of comfort. "You're worried about what I might say when you capture the people who were taking care of my friend."

"Yes," he looked away form her not knowing what to expect from her in response.

"Do what you have to do. Your honor is at stake and that is a very important thing."

Zuko looked at her again and from the look on his face he was clearly surprised by her response. "You really mean that don't you?"

"Yeah I guess I do. Anyway you need people of intelligence on this sort of mission… quest…thing," Trina said. She smiled at him trying to lift his mood.

Zuko smile at he for a few seconds as well. He was pleased that he had been able to avoid talking about the Agni Kai. "Alright, I guess we better get going then. Have you ever ridden a Komodo Rhino before?"

Trina shook her head. "No I haven't."

"You'll ride with me then."

He got on first and pulled her up after him. She sat in the saddle behind him. When the rhino started forward Trina gasped and laced her arms around Zuko's waist to keep herself from falling off. Both of the teens were quite pleased with the close proximity to each other, not that either one would let the other know that.

Iroh mounted another rhino and the other soldier mounted another one. They proceeded down the lowered ramp and went toward the woods that the vender had mentioned.


With Caroline

Caroline was up exploring her surroundings. She was glad that she hadn't been injured too badly in the lightning strike and that she had been able to get some new clothes because the ones that Katara had let her wear were too small and her own clothes were in bad shape.

She knew that Sokka was somewhere nearby scowering for food. Probably all he would come up with would be nuts. Not the most appetizing meal in the world, but she ignored that fact because she didn't want to say anything to hurt poor Sokka's feelings


Wow I never realized just how short the ending of this chapter was till just now. Oh well... bed time. gotta get up at 7:30 and it's already 1:30.

Until next time...