Water
The Refugee: Part 2
She had barely entered the village when Aang came flying up to her, grinning, with at least ten girls trailing after him.
"Katara!" he shouted, then skidded to a halt. "Where have you been? You're missing out on everything. This place is great!"
His enthusiasm took her off guard, and one of the girls caught up, grabbing him by the arm. "Come on, Aang-y! You said it was my turn for a ride on your glider!"
"Just a second, Koko," Aang answered, shaking the girl off. She gave Katara a jealous look but fell back a few feet. "Isn't this great?" he asked Katara, speaking louder than he needed to in his exuberance. "Everybody is so excited to meet the Avatar. We're celebrities here!"
Katara felt her own expression darken. She had nearly forgotten how irritating it was to watch the girls fawn over Aang, and now that he had accepted the attention, it was worse. "I'm glad you're enjoying yourself," she answered flatly.
"You can join us if you want. I'm sure if you tell everyone—"
Katara grabbed him by the arm before he could go on. "Can I talk to you?" She shot a look at Koko, who was inching forward again. "Alone?"
Disappointed, Aang looked back at his little band of followers before facing Katara again. "Sure."
Head held high, Katara marched away with Aang in tow. Koko tried to follow them, but Katara shot an intense glare over her shoulder. With a loud huff of annoyance, Koko folded her arms over her chest and stomped back to join the other girls.
Once they were out of earshot, Katara spun Aang around to face her. "How many people have you told?"
Aang looked confused.
She sighed, looking upward. "About being the Avatar?"
"Oh!" Aang grinned. "Well I think I actually only told two or three of them. But everybody knows. I guess news spreads fast around here." Katara folded her arms, and Aang paused. "Why? Is there something wrong with that?"
"Can't you see how dangerous this is?" she demanded. "If people know who we are, it's going to make it a lot easier for the Fire Nation to find us."
With a smile, he shook his head. "I don't think we need to worry about that. This town loves me! They even had a portrait drawn, see?" He fumbled around in his tunic and produced a roll of paper. Unrolling it, he held it up next to his face and grinned.
Katara didn't spare the portrait a single glance. "I don't just mean here. We're going to be stopping in a lot of towns on our way to the North Pole, and if you keep bragging about being the Avatar, we're going to get caught." Aang appeared unmoved, and she deflated a little. "I'm beginning to think that Gran-Gran was right to keep this a secret. Even from me."
"Come on, Katara. I'm just trying to have some fun. If you'd just tell them that you're the Avatar too—"
"No!" She was surprised at the force in her own voice and dropped back to almost a whisper. "The reason I haven't anyone is because I don't want anyone to know. It's bad enough that everyone knows about you. But since they already know, go ahead and parade around all you want. Just leave me out of it."
For a fraction of a second, Aang looked hurt, then he scowled. "Fine. I can have plenty of fun without—"
There was a sudden commotion across the street, and they both turned to see someone in one of the warrior's uniforms—someone a little too tall, a little too broad, whose hair didn't quite suit the outfit—burst from the training hall, followed by peals of laughter.
Katara's jaw dropped. "Is that Sokka?"
Aang looked equally bewildered, but he cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, "Hey, Sokka! Over here!"
He turned toward them for an instant. It was unmistakably Sokka. His eyes widened at them, and he shielded his face with his hand. With as much dignity as he could muster, he turned away, heading back toward their room. Aang and Katara grinned at one another before running to catch up with him.
"I like your dress, Sokka," Aang said.
"And the makeup," Katara added. "The red really brings out your eyes."
"Shut up." Sokka slammed the door open and stomped into their room. "It's just a uniform."
"If it's just a uniform, then why are you so angry about it?" Katara asked as he struggled to untie the sash around his waist.
"Yeah, Sokka. It looks good on you."
Sokka scowled and threw the sash at Aang.
Katara rolled her eyes and snatched the sash out of the air. "If it's that humiliating, why are you wearing it?"
"Because!" Sokka's voice went high at the end of the word. "I wanted to know how those girls managed to knock me out, and they wouldn't show me anything until I put this stupid thing on." He struggled his way out of the uniform and pulled his own clothes back on. With a sigh of relief, he flopped down on the floor. "That's better. I feel like a man again."
"You're still wearing the makeup," Aang observed with a smile.
"Gaah!" Sokka rubbed furiously at the side of his face. "Is it coming off?"
Aang leaned in closer. "No. I'm sure that stuff is made stay on during battle. There must be a special way to wash it off."
Sokka gave a prolonged groan. "Katara," he whined. "Help me."
"What makes you think that I would know how to get it off? I've never worn makeup in my life."
"But you're a girl!"
"And you wore face paint when you wanted the boys to take training seriously. I think you can manage."
"That was warrior's face paint."
Katara shrugged. "So how is this any different?"
Sokka sputtered. "It—it just is, okay? Are you going to help me or not?"
Katara shook her head. "I'm not. There's someone I need to talk to." She turned to leave.
"If you see Suki," Sokka yelled after her, "tell her I'm not wearing the dress tomorrow!"
Rolling her eyes, she closed the door. The streets were quieter without the boys—or it seemed that way for a moment. Aang's group of followers stood in a huddle at the corner, and when Katara emerged, they crushed in toward the door, squealing. Koko grabbed her by the elbow.
"Where's Aang-y?" Koko demanded. "He promised me a ride on his glider."
Katara narrowed her eyes at the younger girl and shook her arm free. "Aang is busy right now."
Before Koko had a chance to respond, Katara stalked off in the opposite direction. There were more important things to worry about than whether Aang's little fan club liked her or not. Though she was anxious to get moving again—staying in a place where everyone knew that Aang was the Avatar was as dangerous as it was maddening—she needed to find out all she could about the waterbending boy and his mother.
She took a meandering, half-deliberate route back to the training hall, and found Suki sitting alone on the front step. Suddenly uncertain, Katara approached her.
"Could I talk to you for a minute, Suki?"
Suki looked up. She had taken the blades of her fan apart and seemed intent on polishing each one individually. "I guess so." Watching intently as Katara sat on the step, Suki picked up the next blade. "I think I know why you're here. And before you ask, the answer is no."
"What do you mean?"
Suki's eyes were turned downward again, focused on the smudged metal. "I'm not changing my mind about your brother wearing the dress."
Katara raised her eyebrows. "I thought it was a uniform."
"It is. And you can remind your brother that as long as he's a student of the Kyoshi Warriors, he has to follow our rules." Suki looked up again, her expression fierce. "And our rules say that he can't train with us if he doesn't wear the uniform. That means the dress and the makeup."
Katara shrugged. "That's fine with me."
For a second, Suki studied her critically. "Good." She finished with the blade and picked up the final one. "As long as Sokka didn't send you here to beg for his dignity."
"He tried to. But I had something else to ask you." Katara pulled her knees up to her chest and clasped her hands together. "You know everyone who lives here, right?"
Suki looked out across the street, and her eyes landed on a boy who was slouching past. "I know some of them a little too well. "
Katara followed her gaze. "The foaming-mouth guy?" The boy turned their direction, and she clapped a hand over her own mouth.
Suki groaned, but gave him a small wave. With a strange little nod, the boy slouched away again. "Don't ask. It's a long story."
Embarrassed, Katara nodded and watched in silence until the foaming mouth guy was gone. "I meant to ask," she said eventually, "if you knew anything about a little boy who lives in the woods outside the village." She pointed roughly in the direction of the little house. "I met him today, and his mother seemed—"
"Weirdly secretive?" Suki finished for her. "She's been that way as long as I can remember."
"She threatened me with a shovel."
Suki's eyebrows raised. "That's new. Normally she just—doesn't talk."
"That would have been nice," Katara said wryly. "Any idea why she's like that?"
"Not really." Suki set the blades of her fan aside, looking thoughtful. "She seemed normal when I was younger. Her parents and her brother were always friendly."
"Were?"
"Her parents died. I don't know what happened to her brother, but I think he was gone for a while before her son was born."
That sentence caught Katara's attention. Something almost made sense to her, something about the brother, about the timing—but before her mind could sort it out, there was a crashing sound, a few blocks away, but still loud enough that both girls jumped. The hollow thumps and metallic jangling gave way to profuse apologies, and Katara wished that she were surprised to recognize Aang's voice. With a sigh, she stood.
"I'd better go. Hopefully he didn't break anything too important," Katara said. "Thanks for everything, Suki!" And with that, she sprinted off toward the growing commotion.
Zuko leaned over the map. The island they were headed for was small—just a featureless blob of green ink in the middle of the ocean.
"Why don't we have a better map of this place, Uncle?"
Iroh didn't look up from his game. "Kyoshi Island is small, Prince Zuko. No more than two hundred people live there. And to my knowledge, they have not participated in a single battle in the past hundred years. There was never a need for detailed maps."
"That's no excuse!" Zuko slammed his fist down. "I need to know what we're up against!"
Raising a single eyebrow, Iroh looked at his nephew, then picked up a tile. "If we had maps of every village the Avatar might choose to visit, there would be no space left for your crew." Turning the tile over in his hand, he rubbed his beard.
"Are you just going to keep playing your game?" Zuko snapped contemptuously. "This is more important, Uncle."
"Never underestimate the importance of Pai Sho, Prince Zuko. Perhaps you would like to join me?"
"No." Zuko scowled down at the map again. "I can't waste time on games."
"In my experience," Iroh said, placing the tile down on the game board, "games of strategy are never a waste of time. They provide clarity that few things can match."
In disbelief, Zuko watched his uncle for a moment. "How is Pai Sho supposed to help me if Commander Zhao reaches Kyoshi Island before I do?"
At that, Iroh raised his head with a smile. "Ah, but Prince Zuko, that is one problem that you will not have to face. Commander Zhao does not know that the Avatar has been spotted on Kyoshi Island."
"How is that possible? If your old friends from the Army sent word to us, Zhao must know too."
Iroh's smile remained. "Never rely too much on a single source of information, Prince Zuko. I have other connections that Commander Zhao cannot claim to share."
Zuko scowled as his uncle turned back to his game again. "What sort of connections?" he grumbled, staring at the green blotch on the map. "A network of gossipy old men who eat too much?"
Iroh chuckled. "Not quite." He stopped, stroking his chin. "Although that may not be a bad idea." Staring into the distance, he picked up another tile and turned it absently over in his hand. "Yes. We could use food vendors and merchants—"
"Before you found a secret society of fat people," Zuko snapped, "could you at least pretend to be helpful? Maybe glance at the map?"
With a heavy, thoughtful sigh, Iroh lifted himself from the floor and came to join his nephew.
The sun shone too bright through the windows of their room the following morning. Katara was usually eager to arise and start the day, but Aang had gotten on her nerves again last night. He was just so proud to be the Avatar, so excited to be able to show off his airbending. She glared up at the ceiling. His exuberance hadn't relented until he crashed headfirst into a cart drawn by an ostrich horse. And even that hadn't been enough for his fan club—at their encouragement, he had attempted the same trick several more times.
Aang tried to cajole her into joining his band of followers again. If she refused to tell anyone who she was, he insisted, she could at least enjoy the benefits of his fame. There was a creature called the Unagi, he told her, eyes bright with excitement, that lived just off the coast. Koko had told him all about it, and now that he knew that such a thing existed, the only logical course he could see was to ride the beast in front of all his admirers.
Katara refused. She didn't know what she was going to do with the day—despite his protests last night, Sokka had gathered up his Kyoshi Warrior uniform and stomped back to the training hall after breakfast—and after yesterday, the idea of practicing her waterbending had lost its charm. Still, anything had to be better than watching the girls gush over Aang's every move.
She hadn't been alone long when there was a quiet rap at the door. Answering it, she expected to see Suki or Oyaji, or maybe one of the little girls, wondering where Aang had gone. Instead, a little boy beamed up at her.
"Hi!"
Startled, Katara took several steps back.
"Oh." The boy's face fell. "Sorry. I guess my mom really scared you."
"What?" Katara realized that her hands were clenched into fists and made a conscious effort to release them. "No. I'm sorry, you just surprised me."
The grin slowly returned to the little boy's face.
"What are you doing here?" Katara asked in what she hoped was a friendly tone. "I hope you're not getting yourself into trouble. Your mom was pretty angry at me."
The little boy produced a long, narrow box from behind his back. "I wanted to show you. This is how I learned waterbending." His grin turned mischievous. "Since you're so bad at it, I thought this might help."
Katara opened and closed her mouth a few times but couldn't find a way to respond. Instead, she motioned the boy inside, and as she shut the door, he plopped onto the floor and opened the box. Inside, there was a carefully preserved scroll, and he pulled it out with the utmost care. As Katara sat, he unfurled it, and her eyes widened.
"These are waterbending forms," she said softly, her hands drifting uncontrollably toward the parchment. With a tremendous effort, she stopped herself before she could touch the pictures. "This is incredible," she told the boy. "Where did you get something like this? My grandmother told me that there used to be scrolls like this, but I thought they were all destroyed."
"This one was my uncle's." The boy unrolled the scroll to its full length—it was longer than he was tall, and there had to be nearly a hundred forms sketched in various colors of ink.
"Your mom's brother," Katara said softly. "So he must have been a waterbender too."
He nodded. "Mom says he was the best. And that's why the bad people took him away."
She dragged her eyes away from the illustrations. "What bad people? Firebenders?"
"No. Some of them were waterbenders like me. Mom says they wanted my uncle to fight, and then he never came home."
Katara's heart sunk. Everything that Suki had told her last night came rushing back. The boy's uncle had disappeared before the boy was born—it had to have been six or seven years in that case. Just before the raid that had taken her own mother's life. She swallowed hard. It certainly didn't make the woman's threats any less frightening, but they suddenly made more sense. Kyoshi Island was safe. The South Pole was not. The boy's family would have counted on that fact when they came here, however long ago that may have been. There were no raids on Kyoshi Island. But that didn't matter if survivors from the South Pole came begging for help when they were in danger. The boy's uncle had tried to help, and it had cost him his life.
The little boy traced a finger along the edge of the parchment. "I can't do many of these yet. Mom doesn't like it when I practice. But you could learn." He looked up at Katara. "I'll let you borrow it for today."
Her jaw dropped, and for a second, she couldn't find a way to respond. "Are you sure?"
Smiling, he nodded. "You need more practice than I do."
The boy stood to go, leaving her gaping at the scroll. She was torn. On the one hand, the scroll was amazing—she could learn more by studying it for two minutes than she had been able to teach herself in her entire life. On the other, a day simply wasn't enough. If she wanted to learn all the forms—and she did, desperately—she would need months.
As the door swung shut after him, she sprang to her feet and darted to the door.
"Hey!" she called, and the boy turned back to her. "Do you know where I could buy some paper and ink?"
Katara was no artist. If she had ever doubted that before, her attempt at copying the waterbending scroll proved the point. Splotches of ink dotted her arms from her fingertips to her elbows, and her hair kept falling in her face—she was almost certain that she would find black streaks all over her forehead when she finally summoned the courage to check her reflection. But after a day of hard work—she leaned back on her hands and sighed. Her figures were crude and stiff, but they were finished. Eighty-six waterbending forms.
There were footsteps outside the room, and in a panic, Katara rolled up the original scroll and tucked it back into the box. There was no time to deal with her own copy, and some of the figures weren't dry yet. Composing herself as well as she could, she stood in front of her scroll and shoved it back against the wall with her foot.
"Katara!" Aang burst in, soaking wet, and full of energy. "You should've been there! It was amazing—I finally caught one of the elephant koi! They're just as much fun as I remember! And then I saw the Unagi, and—" he broke off upon seeing her face. "Did you let Sokka test out his makeup on you?"
Feeling her face redden, she wiped the back of her hand across her forehead. A few blue-grey smears came with it. "Not exactly."
"It's everywhere." Aang grabbed her arm and pulled it down to his own level. "How did you get ink on your shoulder?"
Katara followed his gaze to the black splotch on her right shoulder. "Monkey feathers!" She pulled her arm from Aang's grasp and stretched the sleeve of her dress out as far as she could. "I hope that washes out."
"What have you been doing all day?" Aang asked, and his eyes fell on the scroll behind her.
"Wait!" Katara grabbed him by the arm and placed herself in front of the scroll again. "I don't want you to see it right now."
"What? Why not?" he tried to crane over her shoulder, but she pushed him back.
"Please, Aang." She could picture the little boy and his mother—and the longer she had hovered over the waterbending scroll today, the more she understood the reasons behind all the woman's precautions. She ought to understand—she had worried almost as much when Aang revealed himself as the Avatar. "It's not important right now. I'll show it to you later, okay? Just—not until we leave Kyoshi Island."
Aang looked bewildered, and she turned him around, throwing an arm around his shoulders. "It's nothing bad, I promise. I just want it to be a secret for now." She smiled in response to his uncertainty. "So, what were you going to tell me about the Unagi?"
The island came into view around midmorning. Much as Zuko hated being confined to such a small, outdated vessel, he had to admit that it made good time. Clasping his hands behind his back, he turned to face his crew. "Today," he announced, "We are going to capture the Avatar."
Several of the men shifted, looking uncomfortable. Zuko's expression darkened.
"I understand that some of you have expressed doubts. But now that we have seen what the Avatar is capable of, we will be more prepared to face him." It felt odd to refer to the airbending boy as the Avatar after he had seen the girl's eyes glow, after he had watched her destroy his ship without a thought, but Iroh was right. The fewer people who knew about the girl, the easier it would be to capture her. "He's traveling with a waterbending girl. We need to capture her as well."
At that, there were grumbles. One of the men called out, "What's so important about a waterbender?"
Zuko turned toward the voice, fuming, but Iroh saved him the trouble of speaking. "The last surviving waterbender of the southern tribe," Iroh said calmly. "The girl is the last her kind, just like the boy. She is the sort of curiosity that the Fire Lord appreciates."
Zuko gave a single nod. "Precisely." He turned to face the island again. "I'm going to give them both to my father."
When she saw the whiskered gray-green head break through the surface of the water, Katara regretted agreeing to watch Aang ride the Unagi. It was too big, too toothy, too ferocious. From where he floated, Aang waved back to her, grinning. She tried to return his smile. Then her eyes caught on a darker, more distant shape on the horizon. Her heart dropped.
"Aang!" she shouted, waving both arms furiously. "Aang, come back to shore!"
Her waving didn't seem to bother him, and she should have known that he wouldn't hear a word she said. Taking a deep breath, she plunged into the water and ran until she stood knee-deep in the ocean. "Aang! Look behind you!" she yelled, gesturing toward the ship with both arms. A tremendous arch of water rose up behind her and froze, hanging over her head. She gave a small squeak of surprise and made another motion with her hand, releasing the water back into the sea.
Again, Aang didn't hear her, but her display of unintentional waterbending was enough to grab his attention. With long, powerful strokes, he swam back toward shore.
"What's wrong?" Aang shouted when he was finally near enough to hear her.
"Behind you!" Katara yelled. The ship's outline was growing more distinct as it came nearer. "A Fire Navy ship! We have to go!"
"Huh?" Aang turned back to look, and his eyes went wide. "Oh, no."
"Come on." She ran forward just far enough to grab his arm. "We have to get Sokka and get out of here while we still can."
Aang dressed in a matter of seconds, and they ran as fast as they could back to the village. Katara didn't even care that she was soaked to the waist—all she knew was that they had to go.
When they burst into the training hall, Sokka and Suki were alone, standing almost uncomfortably close together. Eyes wide—and looking wider than normal thanks to the makeup—Sokka pulled back. "This isn't what it looks like," he said too loudly.
Aang's eyebrows raised. "What's it supposed to look like?"
Katara looked from Sokka to Suki and back again. "I'd apologize for interrupting your 'training'," she said, "but we really don't have time for that. Sokka, come on, now. We're leaving."
"What? But Suki was just going to show me the—"
"There's a Fire Navy ship coming, Sokka," Aang interrupted. "We need to pack Appa up and get out before something bad happens."
It seemed impossible, but Sokka's eyes widened further. He glanced at Suki one more time, then he was off too, only half a step behind Aang and Katara.
"How far away was it?" Sokka asked, starting to loosen the sash around his waist before the door closed. "Do we have a little time to—" he turned around and saw Suki watching him from the doorway. He yelped, then tightened the sash again. "Oh, forget it. I can pack like this." And, still wearing the Kyoshi Warrior uniform, he knelt and started throwing everything he could into bundles.
"They aren't far away," Aang answered as he scooped up his glider and shoved their extra food into a sack. "We probably only have a few minutes."
"So you're all just leaving?" Suki asked, incredulous. "Running from a fight? Is that what this is?"
"Have you ever met a firebender, Suki? They aren't nice people," Sokka answered.
Katara rolled up her sleeping bag, and tied it shut. As she reached for her last spare dress to shove it into her bag, her hand met the corner of a box—the little boy's waterbending scroll. Carefully, she pulled the box out.
"Ready, Katara? Time to get moving."
She nodded and shoved the dress into her bag. She would have to find a way to get the original scroll back to the little boy. There had to be a way.
Sokka burst out the door, then spun back around. "Back. Back, back, back." He shoved the other three across the room.
"What is it, Sokka?" Aang asked, practically crawling up the older boy's arm to see out the window.
"It's firebenders, what else were you expecting? They must have taken a landing boat ahead of the ship. We're trapped."
"There's no such thing." With that, Suki drew out her katana and wedged the blade into the frame of the back window. After a tremendous heave, the glass swung outward. "What are you waiting for? This way."
"Suki, you can't just break things," Sokka hissed as he wedged himself into the window frame. His skirt was too wide for the opening, and he stuck there, half-in and half-out the window.
"Nothing's broken." She shoved Sokka's head, and his skirt popped free, sending him tumbling to the ground outside. She winced and glanced back at Katara. "Except maybe your brother."
Aang tossed his staff and the pack of food through the window and dove out, much more gracefully than Sokka had.
"Wait," Katara said quickly when Suki motioned her toward the window. "I have a favor to ask you." She pulled the scroll box from where she had balanced it on top of her sleeping bag. "Could you get this back to the little boy? You know, the one I asked you about the other day? It belongs to him, and I think his mother is going to cut my head off with her shovel if he doesn't get this back."
Suki paused for a moment and looked at the box. "What is it?"
Katara managed a small smile. "Hey, I didn't ask you about the foaming mouth guy. Could you return the favor? Just this one time?"
Suki looked skeptical but nodded. "You'd better hurry."
Katara smiled and tossed her sleeping bag and her pack outside. "Thanks, Suki." She dropped lightly out the window and gathered up her things.
The boys were waiting for her, crouching low alongside a porch, barely hidden from the street.
"They've got Appa surrounded," Aang whispered. Katara peeked over the edge of the porch and dropped back down immediately. There were four firebenders standing around the bison, and Zuko was one of them. And he looked angrier than he had last time.
Suki crawled up behind them, the scroll box sticking out of her waistband. "So, what's the plan?"
"We just need to get to Appa," Aang said.
"Okay. And how's that going to work?"
Sokka screwed his face up in concentration for a moment, then his eyes lit up, and he grabbed both Aang and Katara by the shoulder. "We're going to fight."
"Sokka, that isn't a plan," Katara hissed, pushing his hand off. "We're not going to be able to beat them."
"No, you're not going to fight," he said to her. "The rest of us are. And we don't need to beat them, we just need to keep Prince Jerkface busy. And while we're doing that, you're going to sneak past them and get everything loaded into the saddle. Then once you're ready, all Aang and I have to do is climb up on Appa and fly away."
Katara stared at him, but Sokka didn't seem to notice or care. He shoved his sleeping bag and his pack into her arms, then grabbed the bag of food from Aang and piled it on top of their other supplies.
"Go," he whispered. "Quick, before they find us."
Scowling at him, Katara adjusted the bags in her arms. She didn't like his plan, but it was better than anything she had thought of so far.
Her heart raced as she rounded the edge of the village, keeping to the trees until she was on the opposite side of Appa. The firebenders hadn't noticed her yet—cautiously, she crept nearer to the edge of the woods. An instant later, Sokka sprang to his feet with a bellow, and Suki and Aang burst out after him.
Katara waited just long enough to be certain that the firebenders were occupied before she emerged from the trees and tossed the sleeping bags up into the saddle. She ducked behind Appa's tail any moment she thought she saw one of the firebenders glance her way, but one by one, she managed to toss each of their bags up into the saddle. She saw only bits and pieces of the fight—Sokka was constantly up and down, being knocked on his rear and leaping back up, and Aang twisted and spun one direction, then another. She saw less of Suki—but then, Suki was a steadier fighter, relying less on constant motion and more on solid, well placed strikes.
Climbing up Appa's leg without making a sound or showing herself was difficult—when Katara grabbed a fistful of fur to haul herself up, the bison turned his massive head back and rumbled at her. She froze.
"Just a few more minutes, Appa," she hissed. "Hold still until I get everything tied down, and then we can go."
The bison's huge brown eyes lingered on her for a moment, then he snorted and turned forward again. Letting out a slow breath, she grabbed onto the edge of the saddle, and Momo poked his little pointed face out. The lemur shrieked at her, and she tried not to scream in response.
At that instant, a hand closed around her arm, and she spun around.
Zuko's eyes narrowed at her. "Going somewhere?"
Katara fell back to the ground, and Zuko smirked down at her.
"You almost had me fooled." He flung his fist open, and a flame burst from his palm. Katara scrambled to her feet and backed away, heart pounding. "I didn't think that the Avatar would find it necessary to use her friends as decoys."
In a panic, she backed farther from him, farther from Appa. She could defeat him—she had done it before. But unless she wanted to reveal herself as the Avatar, her chances were slim. Clenching her fists, she glanced back to her friends. They were gaining ground against the remaining firebenders, but they hadn't seemed to notice the prince's absence. Even if they had, they wouldn't reach her in time to help.
With a grimace of concentration, Katara pulled as much water as she could from her still-damp skirt and formed it into a ball. Zuko snickered.
"That's it? What happened to all your other tricks?" He shot a fist-sized fireball at her, and with a yelp, Katara managed to bring the water up in time to block the flames. The water sizzled, and when she formed it back into a ball, it was considerably smaller than before. Giving a crooked smile, Zuko advanced on her again, and she backed up further. She could almost feel the water in the stream behind her—only a dozen or so strides behind her now, but still too far for her to reach.
He shot a volley of small fireballs, apparently amused by her attempts to dodge and block the attacks as she continued her retreat one step at a time. Over Zuko's shoulder, she could still see the others caught up in their own fight, gaining ground toward Appa.
And then, Katara could reach the edge of the stream. She pulled a stream of water up over her shoulder and sent it flying toward the firebender. His eyes widened briefly in surprise, and before he could strike again, the water closed in over his hands and froze them together.
Katara took the opportunity to run. The ice wouldn't hold Zuko long, she knew that, but at the least, it had taken him by surprise. If she could just make it back to Appa, they had a chance to escape.
She was still several feet away when the boys broke free of the fight and sprinted to the bison. Sokka vaulted over the saddle and took the reins while Aang sent one last blast of air to knock the remaining firebender off his feet.
"Katara!" Aang yelled to her, raising his staff over his head as if to come to her rescue.
"Go!" She shouted back, racing as fast as her legs could carry her. "I'm right behind you!"
Aang nodded and leapt up into the saddle, then turned to watch her. Katara was only a few strides away, and Aang reached a hand out to her. Sokka was watching over his shoulder too—the moment her feet landed on Appa's tail and she reached for Aang's hand, he cracked the reins.
"Yip-yip, Appa!"
With a roar, the bison lifted off the ground, but Katara's hand fell short of Aang's. Zuko had managed to grab the hem of her skirt—she tumbled backward and fell several feet before she landed on top of him. His grip on her hem failed, and Katara leapt back up and started to run. Before she made it more than a few steps, though, his foot hooked around her ankle, and she fell face-first into the dirt.
"Not today," Zuko growled, climbing back to his feet as Katara slid farther from him, trying desperately to put some distance between them before she rose to her feet. She heard and felt the roar of the flames, and she turned back in time to see him reach down with one hand while he held a ball of fire in the other.
Katara slid back a few more feet, but before Zuko could reach her, Suki came racing in from the side and slammed into his shoulder. In an instant, Katara was on her feet again.
"Go!" Suki shouted.
Katara didn't need to be told. She was already sprinting after Appa, too far behind to catch up, but a moment later, a shadow swept down over her, and Aang glided up to her side. Almost without thinking, she leapt forward and flung her arms around Aang's waist, and they lifted off of the ground.
Her heartbeat didn't slow until they were safely in the saddle, lying in a jumbled pile of their unsecured supplies. By the time she looked down again, Suki and the other warriors were driving the firebenders back toward the shore.
Sokka hung over the side of Appa's head too. "Do you think Suki's going to be okay?"
Katara straightened up and started moving their supplies into a more organized heap. "She'll be fine. Zuko's chasing us, not her."
Sokka let out a long, mournful sigh, and Aang gave him an odd look. "Are you blushing?"
"What? No! Why would I be blushing?" Sokka dropped the reins and shielded his face with his arms. "The makeup must be smeared."
Katara rolled her eyes. "I'm sure that's exactly—" She broke off midsentence when she came across her own pack and found that the drawstrings had come open. "Uh oh." Plunging her hand in, she dug through its contents. "No, no, no. Please don't tell me I lost it."
Aang scooted over to her. "What are you looking for?"
Her hand closed around her scroll, and she sighed in relief. "This." Smiling, she pulled the scroll out and passed it over to Aang. He unrolled it and stared wide-eyed at the drawings.
"A waterbending scroll? Where did you get this?"
Grinning, Katara leaned back on her hands. "Someone let me borrow theirs, so I made a copy. Now we can start training before we get to the North Pole."
Author's Note:
Finally! This chapter took me ages to finish, so I'm really grateful for your patience. I hope it's worth the wait!
Real life is getting a lot more hectic for me, so updates are going to slow down for a while. I'll be starting on Chapter 7 shortly, but it'll be a few weeks before it's ready to go—in the meantime, please feel free to leave comments! Feedback is really helpful, and I know that there was a lot going on in this chapter—if anything was confusing, please let me know, and I'll be happy to clear things up for you!
Thanks for reading,
SooperSara
