Finding a Way
This is my first fic made so I hope that it came out right but any who on to the official stuff that when said will keep my ass law suit free!
Disclaimer: I do not own ATLA. I repeat, I do not own ATLA. There 'nuff said so on with the show.
Ch 1: Friend or Foe
Aang and his friends, after a lot of flying on Appa's back, decided to land for a while in the middle of a forest in order to stretch their legs and camp for the rest of the day to regain their strengths. The place they selected was perfect, since the dense trees would provide camouflage both for them and Appa from Azula's hunting party, and any other fire nation bounty hunters that they might meet.
Finished with setting up their camp, they decided to start up on their usual chores.
"I'm gonna look for some food around here...meanwhile, why don't you look for some water and more firewood, Katara?" Sokka said.
Katara nodded at her brother, while Aang replied, "Ok, while you guys do that, Toph and me are going to go practice more Earthbending." And with that, the two went off running deeper into the woods in search of an appropriate training ground.
With the group split up, as Katara walked towards the river she had spotted while riding Appa, she reflected again on an idea that crossed her mind months before. She wasn't sure if she were the only one that really noticed in their group, but now she was certain: Toph and Aang were spending quite a lot of time together.
At first she didn't really mind, because she knew that Earthbending would probably be the hardest element for Aang to master, being his natural opposite. Of course, stubborn Aang would inevitably keep trying to master it, no matter how long it would take…but then, Katara had noticed changes that started to happen between the two when they weren't training.
Toph, for some reason, started being nicer to Aang, mostly by not calling him "twinkle toes" anymore. More still, she stopped bossing him around almost completely, although she kept close her sarcastic sense of humor, so Katara really didn't think much of it then neither.
It only started to eat at her when Aang began spending less and less time Waterbending, in order to spend more time around Toph. She wasn't very happy with the idea that Aang was ignoring his Waterbending training, but what really upset her was what his and Toph's behavior really meant.
"Oh, great!" she exclaimed angrily, because after losing herself in her thoughts, she realized that she had accidentally waded deep into the shallow river from which she was supposed to collect water. While she was a Waterbender, and removing the wet from her clothes only took a matter of seconds to complete, it did upset her because she usually wasn't that clumsy.
Shaking her head and remembering what she had come for, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes in order to summon complete concentration. Then gracefully, she began to wave her arms around, and, like poetry in motion, the water from the river followed the rhythm of her arms and hands and smoothly entered the waiting canteens. Feeling more relaxed now that her mind was clear, she slung the canteens over her shoulder and went in search of some firewood for that night's campfire.
As she wandered through the forest, she began to hear strange noises that seemed to come from behind a near hill. Curiosity winning over common sense, she climbed the hill to find out what was going on. She crept up the hill slowly and deliberately, so that no one would perceive her presence. Closing in on the top of the hill, the sounds became clearer.
Two voices stood out. "Come on, twinkle toes, is that the best you got, or are you just gonna' stand there evading me all day?" It was Toph's voice.
Seeing them actually training, Katara gave a small sigh of relief as her suspicions were debunked.
Indeed, Aang was only dodging Toph's flying boulder attacks using his Airbending skills to glide from one place to another, finally ending up cornered with his back facing a hill. Seeing as he had no were else to go he breathed deep and placed himself in the horse-stance Toph had showed him.
Aang started to move slowly forward, stomping his feet with great force and with his hands breaking the boulders which came his way, causing the earth around them to tremor. Each step he took forward shook the earth with a growing force, a maneuver which was actually breaking Toph's balance. It was then Aang saw his chance: he aimed and, with the final stomp, sent a direct blow to Toph's foot, making her step back and fall.
Gleeful at Aang's victory, Katara grinned. Aang was progressing and getting closer to dominating the four elements so that he could face the Fire Lord, even beating Toph, whose pride, Katara knew, must surely have been injured. Finally, concrete proof: that never would have happened if they had had a relationship.
Aang then raced to go help Toph up, who had been badly shaken from the blow that finished her, though it bruised her ego more than anything else.
"I don't answer to the name twinkle toes," Aang said, extending a hand to help her up.
Hesitantly brushing her hand against his, she abruptly withdrew and paused, looking away, but then firmly grasped his hand as she smirked, "Now you sound much more like a real Earthbender." Suddenly pulling him down to the ground and flipping so that she was pinning Aang, her face got closer and closer to his, finally closing the distance with a soft kiss. Aang, rendered 'helpless,' kissed back with matching passion.
Katara, wide-eyed and totally stunned, slid down the hill just enough so that she would remain hidden for certain. She couldn't believe that her suspicions were true: Aang had fallen in love with Toph.
This seemed ridiculous to her. "First they hated each other, and now they're making out in the middle of a forest! I mean, they're not even of compatible elements!"
While she was staggered as her discovery, she was more overwhelmed with happiness: Katara was happy that Aang finally had someone. She smiled as she realized it had been ages since she had seen either one as content as they were just moments ago. Toph wasn't nearly as mean or sarcastic as she used to be, and Aang seemed to forget all of his troubles just being around her. She realized that she and Aang made better siblings than lovers. In fact, she thought of him as a brother more than anything—well, most of the time.
Sliding completely down the hill and making her way to the camp, Katara hummed cheerfully, hoping that she would be the first to break the news to her brother that the youngest member in their family was growing up.
Aang and Toph doused her hopes of revealing their secret tryst, however, returning to the campsite even before she did, and long before Sokka.
Katara asked with a wry smile, "So, Aang, did you have fun Earthbending?"
"Yeah, I guess you could say that," he responded with an innocent face, smiling at Toph, who was making earth angels as she waited for the food to arrive. "Has anyone seen Sokka? It's not like him to take this long."
"I hope he's taking so much time getting here because he found himself a big haul…if not, I'm going to squeeze his pony-tailed head with two boulders!"
Finally from the distance came Sokka crying, "Yo, look at what I brought! There's enough berries here to last us for as long as Aang was hibernating!" True to his boast, he had returned with overflowing baskets of berries, which was split amongst the gang. Appa, of course, scored the most.
Holding up a green berry and eying it crtically, Katara asked, "Sokka, are you sure that these berries are good to eat, they look kinda funny to me."
But it was too late. Everybody was gulping the berries down in crazy food frenzy. Aang had shoved more than half of his portion down his throat; Toph was coming in second; and Sokka, determined not to be bested in a contest of gluttony, came in not too far behind in third.
"Come on, Katara," Aang coaxed between gulps, "They're really sweet!"
But of course, Katara was right in questioning the berries, because as soon she was about to try one, Aang, Toph, Sokka and even Appa were beginning to bellow in pain from a severe bout of intoxication.
"Aang, guys, what's wrong?" Katara yelled in horror to see her friends, which were fine just a couple of seconds ago, contract and roll into balls with strong stomach pains, each quickly developing a fever.
She quickly reacted, pulling out blankets from Appa's back and tucking everyone in them as carefully a she could. Next, she got some old rags that she had for bandages and placed them on everybody's forehead, followed by using her bending to soak the bandages in water so that the fevers would be controlled.
Sokka groaned as he tried to suppress his stomach pains to no avail. "Katara, please, you got to go get some medicine for us. Near here, about…four miles west, there's an Earth Kingdom town…there should be medicine there, please you gotta hurry, I don't think this fever is going to go down any time soon."
Katara nodded in affirmation to her brother, picking up her Waterbending canteen and, taking the money they had left, she ran to the town. "Please guys, wait for me, I'll be back as fast as I can, and you guys will be better in no time," she chanted to herself as she ran and got farther and farther away from the camp site.
It had already gotten dark, but after running for fifteen minutes non-stop, she could see some disfigured shapes in the distance: it was the town her brother mentioned to her. She picked up the pace and sprinted through the entrance of the town, asking her way to the closest healer booth.
When she finally got there, almost out of breathe she panted to the keeper of the booth, "Sir…my friends ate some wild berries and got really sick and started to have high fevers that haven't come down, please, I need some medicine for them."
The shopkeeper looked at her for a while, surprised in the hysteric state the young girl was in, but he answered her calmly: "I'll look for something for you in the back." She smiled, thinking that everything was going to be ok. She would just grab the medicine and soon be back to help her friends.
"Here you go, miss," the shopkeeper replied, handing to her a bag with a bottle inside that was full of green powder. "All you have to do is just mix a small amount of this powder in some water for your friends and they'll be good as new".
Relieved, she asked, "How much do I owe you?"
"That'll be fifty gold coins, kind miss."
"Fifty gold coins? That's a lot for just some medicine!" she answered back angrily, knowing that she was being ripped off.
"I understand why you are upset miss, but this town is one of the main town that produces most of the supplies for the Earth Kingdom army, and they need all the supplies they can get, so medicine and other goods hear have a higher price since there isn't a high supply of these things."
"But I need that medicine for my friends, they're in a lot of pain!" she pleaded, but to no avail. She turned around angrily and started to walk off she decided that if the shop keeper wasn't going to give it to her nicely, she would have to take the medicine by force, and so she went to a local shop to get something to eat and wait for night to fall so that she could put her plan into action.
"Aang, hold on I'll be there as soon as I can!" she affirmed herself. But as she as she was eating her meal, her worst fear was happening at that very moment.
Foot steps were heard getting nearer and nearer to the camp site, Aang being the only one awake at the time, sweaty and dehydrated from the fever weakly spoke out, "Katara, is that you?" But as the steps got closer Aang could distinguish that there were actually more than just one person coming up to them. He started to worry, imagining the worst since he couldn't do anything to protect his friends. Unfortunately, his speculation was right.
"Well, well, how the mighty have fallen!" It was Azula; she had finally caught up with them, even though they were well hidden in the dense woods. "Take the prisoners away, we have finally completed our mission, and we are going home!" Aang and the rest struggled to no avail as they were each carried away by Azula's men to their doom.
Meanwhile, inside a local tavern, two of our favorite outlaws had a dinner of their own. A waiter passed by their table, placing on it two hot plates of lobster, followed by two glasses of red wine to drink. "Dig in Zuko, the lobster's so warm and tasty right now it's almost heartbreaking," said the former Dragon of the West in a jolly tone.
"Uncle, are you crazy? Our supplies are nil and we're almost completely broke, how the Hell do you think we're going to pay for all of this."
"Ah, my dear nephew, why do you worry yourself which such burdens, and not just sit back and have some of this delicious wine with me? Besides, our money troubles are all covered if that is what concerns you…here, look at what I found today." Iroh handed his nephew a flier that read:
THREE-DAY PAI SHO TOURNAMENT.
ALL ARE WELCOME!
FIRST PRIZE WILL BE TWO THOUSAND GOLD PIECES!
"See, with this we can't go wrong, my dear nephew."
Zuko sighed and apathetically questioned his Uncle. "It has never occurred to you that we can lose, now have you?"
Iroh smiled, patting his belly rubbing it all around, answering him, "Pai Sho is won by those with the most weight of experience, and with this little red, bottled friend of ours I'll be putting on more experience than our ostrich-horse can carry!"
"Well, if that's what you think, then play your little game, but if you don't win, at least let me know so that we can run out of this town before the people decide to lynch us!"
And with that he got up and started to walk out and leave the tavern. "Zuko, where are you going? You're lobster is getting cold!"
"I'm going to go take real action and ensure our financial future! In the meantime, you can have my lobster, you're probably going to need all the experience you can get!" Zuko lifted the cloth door of the tavern and left, vanishing into the night.
His uncle frowned knowing what Zuko meant by ensuring their financial future, for he already saw how he did it many times, and each time, he disapproved of his nephew's dishonorable actions. Although most of the time those actions were the reason they got by in life as fugitives, they were nonetheless dishonorable. Finally he turned back to table where he was eating, happily muttering to himself, "Oh well, more for me then!"
Two hours had passed and it seemed as though the town itself had gone to sleep. All the lights of the booths were being put out and the doors were being locked up and soon, everything was quiet. Neither moon nor star shone in the cloud-covered sky, which had been a weapon that Katara was counting on, as her bending would be far more powerful under the moon. Still, she had her mission, and couldn't let the fear of getting caught or the trouble she might get into get the best of her.
She silently moved from corner to corner, moving closer to her target. "Hold on guys, I'll be there soon," she thought. Finally, she arrived to the booth of the mean greedy shopkeeper she met earlier that day. She snuck up to the window and stared inside the shop trying to locate her target, and simple enough, there it was. The bottle was right on top a table in the center of the shop, where curiously enough was the shopkeeper, sleeping in a chair beside two younger males inside which she supposed to be his sons. All three of them were armed with Earth Kingdom hammers which were usually used by Earthbending soldiers.
She knew that if she woke them up as she stole the medicine, she would surely end up dead if not seriously hurt by their boulder attacks, so she had to work quick and stealthily.
Waving her arms, she steadily bended the water out of her canteen and made it take the shape of a long tentacle with a thin pin-like end that she steadily used to pick the lock on the window. "Come on you stupid lock!" she whispered. "Click, damn you!" Finally, she heard the click sound she desperately wanted to hear. "Yes!" she thought.
Now all she had to do was carefully, steadily, raise the window up without making a single sound. Small beads of sweat formed on her forehead as she put all of her concentration into this maneuver. But soon enough, her efforts paid off, and the window fully opened with not a single stir from the shopkeeper or his sons.
Now came the easy part. She just had to bend her water into a long tentacle and reach out for the bottle. She did this again with the same concentration as she did before. Slowly, the tentacle went in to reach for the bottle, dodging the furniture that was in its way, until finally the tentacle was only three inches away from grasping the bottle, but then a stirring sound was heard as the shopkeeper flipped around in his chair and saw the tentacle facing towards him grabbing the bottle.
She was busted. "Damn it!" she gritted from her teeth; she jerked the tentacle into grabbing the bottle and, with no time to lose, started to run for her life. "Lee, Cho, wake up! We've been robbed!" The two boys jumped right out of their sleep and started to run out the door with their father, hot on Katara's trail.
"Get back here you little thief!" they yelled at her as the two brothers stopped and began to bend, stomping on the ground and sending powerful waves towards Katara's feet, knocking her down. She quickly got herself up and faced back at the three benders, but as she did, the shopkeeper stomped on the ground to lift a boulder to the air and, with his hammer, he smashed the boulder into small shards which shot at Katara at lightning speed, piercing her canteen of bending water and hitting her on the shoulders. Now unable to lift her arms, she started to run again despite the sharp pain she felt, trying to escape from the Earthbenders.
As she ran she was panting, trying to catch her breathe, but all she was thinking about was getting back to the camp as quick as possible. That the wounds that she had gotten on her arms were nothing: as soon as she returned to camp and had access to water, she could heal herself.
But behind her, the three benders took their stances and did a simultaneous stomp, sending a big wave of earth, moving it like a wave towards Katara, hitting her from behind and thrusting her against a wall.
This was it: she was trapped. She tried to get up, but the blow sprained her ankle, rendering her completely helpless on the ground. Moaning, she turned around to see her attackers. She knew that there was no escape. She was outnumbered, she was disabled from her arms being unable to bend water, she had no defense, and worst of all: No one was coming to save her.
She tried scooting herself with the power of her only good leg, pushing back towards the wall as she tried to get as far away from the benders as possible. Never having stolen anything before, she had no idea as to what to expect. Would they finish her off there, or would they send her to jail? But most of all she felt disappointed in herself because she was going to let her friends down. She clutched the bottle hard believing that if she held it tight enough they would never pry it from her grip.
"What do we do now father, how shall we punish this thief?" asked Cho, the youngest brother.
"Do we bury her alive?" asked the older brother impatiently.
"No," said their father. "We will teach this thief a lesson that will follow her till then end of her days! An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. She used her bending to rob from us, and so we will rob her of her bending so that she can never do it again!"
The two siblings understood what their father meant, and with their father lifted their hammers to the sky. The ground began to shake as two giant boulders game out from the ground and hovered over their heads. They were planning to crush her hands so that she would never be able to bend again.
As the boulders hovered, closing in on her all she could think of was her friends, and how they were paying with their lives for her failure. A crystal tear slowly ran down her cheek as she whispered "Aang, Sokka, Toph, I'm so sorry."
The boulders were suspended in the air, the two sons waiting for their father's signal. Their father had his arm raised like when they're about to start a race. Katara with her big blue eyes observed the shop keepers arm, and suddenly it seemed as though time was slowing down. She could see the arm slowly falling down to signal the attack and then time took back its normal speed.
The arm went all the way down and the two brothers launched their boulder straight for Katara's arms.
She flinched and shut her eyes, when suddenly a shadow shot down knocking one boulder out of the way; breaking it against a wall and the other was cut by two dual broad swords causing a cloud of dust to rise.
She opened her eyes, wondering why she wasn't experiencing the worst pain of her life. As she stared, she strained her eyes trying to see just who was it that saved her life.
"Hey, what the Hell is the big idea!" yelled the shopkeeper. His sons too were furious at how this mysterious person had interrupted them from taking their justice, if you can call it justice to disable a helpless girl completely for life. The dust slowly cleared to reveal a mysterious figure dressed in black, the dust still lingering in the air barely covering the figure's face.
Katara looked at him from his back and sighed with relief, knowing that she was safe. She looked down to her right hand, which was still holding the precious bottle.
"I don't know who the hell you think you are, but we were trying to discipline this little thief and you have no right to just barge in like that!" yelled Lee. But as soon as he was done, the shadow had already made his move by charging to him and with the handle of his sword, knocked him in the stomach hurling him at least fifteen feet away. The sky was still cloudy, and the light of the moon was still completely blocked, leaving the two remaining benders still wondering who the shadow was since the environment was almost completely black like the clothes the shadow wore.
"Lee, are you ok?", asked Cho in a concerned voice. "I won't let you get away with that!" he yelled and started to bend boulders of earth all around him, hurling each one to the shadow. The figure at first began to dodge the relatively slow boulders, but realized that they were also getting very close to injuring Katara, so he pulled out his dual swords again, and with them, began to slice in half all of the boulders that were launched to him.
When the bender was done, the shadow, now hidden by the dust from the broken boulders crumbling on the ground, again charged at him, this time jumping into the air and hitting Cho on the head, making him fall to the ground unconscious.
Katara, with her eyes and mouth wide open in awe, observed how the figure took out the benders one by one. She began to admire his agility, grace and ferocity as he dodged and hit each bender with a mighty blow. This style was probably the most refined form of combat the she had ever seen in a warrior—much better than the savage, mindless direct attacks that her brother would usually use. Her savior was indeed a skilled, courageous fighter.
The shopkeeper, being the only bender left standing, squinted his eyes trying to discern the identity of the mysterious warrior. And at last a gust of wind began to blow through the town, quickly dispatching the clouds that blocked the sky, letting moonlight shine down on his shadowy foe.
As the clouds dissipated, the image of the shadow was finally brought into focus. It was a man dressed in black…but a blue Chinese lion mask protected his face. The shopkeeper began to stutter, "You… you're… you're… you're the Blue Spirit!"
"Cho, Lee, get up it's the Blue Spirit! Run before he destroys us all!" And with that the shopkeeper and his two sons fled from the battleground. Katara did not understand. What was so special about the Blue Spirit and why did they fear him so much? She had honestly never heard of him her entire life, and plus he didn't look like a spirit, anyway.
That's when the Spirit turned over to look at her. She contemplated his mask, which was probably the only scary thing about him as she looked at him. He began to walk towards her, but this time, though she did not feel fear, nor did she feel safe. At that moment she felt only confusion. He slowly walked up to her and knelt down, starting to examine her wounds. Turning his back to her while he still on the ground, the Blue Spirit signaled to her to get on his back, which she did.
With Katara settled on his back, the Spirit rose and walked away from the scene. As she laid on his back the pain of her wounds were felt less as she then began to feel the warmth emanating from his back. Even though it was probably the coldest night she had experienced in her adventures with Aang in the woods, his back felt as warm as a hot spring. This comforted her in a way, she was still alive and still had a chance to go save her friends, or so she thought, as they both moved on into the streets, under the light of the moon.
I know that my summary says Zutara in it and I know that I digressed into Taang instead in the beginning, but I promise that I'll bring up some more real Zutara in the next one.
All reviews are strongly encouraged!