When the Wind was Reborn

Chapter Six

"Stubborn, bone-headed idiot!" Katara hissed as Sokka crossed the snow and ice to the Fire Nation cruiser. Against her better judgement she waterbended an enormous snow slope to afford him access up onto the ship. Only after he'd leapt over the railing and disappeared through one of the steel doors on the ship did the weight and finality of it really hit Katara. Her brother was aboard an enemy ship, alone, outnumbered, outclassed - if he was discovered it was death, pure and simple.

"You better be as clever as he says you are," Katara said, mostly to herself, turning to the little falcon. "Eshka, follow." Katara pointed at the retreating form of the ship, and the column of smoke that rose from its chimneys. She squawked, spread her wings and took off into the wind, sailing through the air in lazy swoops as she closed in on her target.

She couldn't just leave Sokka on his own, she had to help him, but she could hardly outrun a cruiser ship. Katara turned and made for home as fast as she could, using her waterbending to ride enormous waves of snow and water until she tired. Even then she ran where she could, her only concern making good time. By any standard she moved as fast as anyone was able, but it felt painfully slow to her - knowing that Sokka was alone and in danger at best, and at worst...it didn't bear thinking about.

Katara reached her father's snow house gasping and sweating from exertion, and raised her hand to push through the hide drapes then paused. What would her father say? What would he think? He would be nothing but angry with Sokka, and her brother would only be angry at her for telling their father. As for Katara herself? There was no question what would happen, her father would send her back to her healer's hut and gather some men to go rescue Sokka - men who weren't half as skilled a bender as she was, no doubt. Katara dropped her hand and turned away. She wouldn't stay meekly at home, not again, not this time, not when it was Sokka's life on the line. She made for the docks.

The rickety wooden pier creaked as she made her way across it, slivers of the frothing sea visible between the gaps in the wood underfoot. Nobody took any notice of her, and why would they? She was just another villager. Nobody noticed when she jumped aboard the Skua's Flight, her father's cutter ship, the deck swaying slightly beneath her feet as she landed. It was nowhere near the size of a Fire Nation cruiser, but it was still a big ship - the biggest in their tribe's fleet, naturally, with blue sails bearing the Water Tribe symbol and depictions of its namesake seabird painted on the hull. No one noticed her unmoor the ship or open the sails, and no one noticed when the ship started to drift out into the water or when it began to sail away from the village, the lantern hung on its bow casting a yellow glow into the water, illuminating her way as she left her home behind.

Katara wasn't much of a sailor - that was another boys-only activity, she thought bitterly - but she didn't need to be, she was a waterbender. She used the very water the ship sailed on to take a hold of the boat and push it forward, faster than it had any right to move. She flinched every time she battered the hull of the ship against the ice on either side, but that was the price of speed, and she needed to get to Sokka as soon as she could.

She didn't know where she was going, though. She couldn't even see the smoke from the ship anymore, so she pushed the cutter ship in what she hoped was the direction she'd last seen the cruiser. A screech, a whoosh of wind and then a hand on her shoulder. Katara gasped and whirled around but it was only Eshka perched there. The bird took off again and wheeled through the air, guiding her, Katara realized. Sokka trusted the creature, so she would too, she decided, and followed her.

The sky darkened above her - not quite night, not yet, but evening, late enough that the light was draining, the colour leeched from the sky so that it looked like a sheet of dirty ice suspended overhead. Just as Katara was beginning to lose hope she saw something in the air, almost blending in with the dull sky, almost, but not quite. It was a pillar of smoke! Eshka returned to the ship and perched on the bow, her job done, and Katara followed the smoke until the Fire Nation cruiser came into view. What an ugly vessel, Katara thought, what a monstrous, unnatural piece of technology - it suited the Fire Nation perfectly, she supposed. She took a breath and waterbended thick, rolling mists around the ship to obscure her from the enemy.

What to do now, though? She couldn't very well take on that many firebenders at once, that was out of the question. She could just follow, there as Sokka's backup should he need it, but then she ran the risk of idly sitting by and doing nothing if he was caught and killed. Should she try to sneak aboard the ship? She didn't think that was a good idea, she was no Featherfoot, she'd more than likely be spotted, and then what? What if Sokka was successfully stowed away on the ship, and her trespassing achieved nothing but blowing his cover? It occurred to her that she could stall the ship instead - this was her area, her home, her element, she could stop or stall it with colossal waves, icebergs, blizzards, she could roll out a fog or mist thick enough that they couldn't see through it, forcing them to stop.

A crash interrupted her train of thought and she saw a glow, a flare of light through the mist. She dropped the mist just a little, enough for her to see, and her eyes went wide. An explosion, strong enough that it had burst a hole in the hull of the ship! She squinted, seeing a shape through the fire and smoke, then her blood ran cold. That was the shape of a person and he was wearing Water Tribe blue.

She raised her hands and sent the Skua's Flight surging forward with reckless abandon, out of the mist that had cloaked her and straight towards the falling shape - she didn't care if they were seen, not anymore. She wouldn't make it in time, she thought, she was too far away, and her brother was falling too fast - he'd hit the water and break his bones, he'd shatter like he was made of ice. With another flourish of her hands the water beneath Sokka rose up like a reaching hand and enveloped him. Katara exhaled, feeling a small measure of relief - his body wasn't broken, but still he was in the water, he'd be near to freezing and he couldn't breathe. She pushed the boat ever forward while bending the very water that encased Sokka, lifting him closer and closer until she could lower him into the cutter. She didn't do it carefully, she was too desperate - she flung water everywhere, soaking the deck and sails, lucky that she didn't end up capsizing the boat in her haste.

"No," she whispered, seeing the state of Sokka. He was unconscious for a start, chest rising and falling shallowly, weakly, but that wasn't the worst of it. There was a deep wound in his side, from his ribs down to his hip, his back and shoulders were black and blue and misshapen, things broken and shattered beneath the skin, and his chest was burned nearly to charcoal. Katara felt tears prick at her eyes but got moving nonetheless - she used the water to envelope and carry him, taking him down the stairs below the deck - he needed the warmth, and she needed to work in peace.

Katara did her best to purge herself of her feelings - they wouldn't do her any favours when trying to do her work - so that only thoughts remained, but she couldn't, not completely, not even mostly. That was Sokka's strength - logic, cold as the sea, separating one thing from another in his mind until he could piece everything neatly together, without any feelings to get in the way. Katara's blood ran hotter, it always had. Still, mind clouded with worry and grief, she made do and went to work.

The cold, the silent killer, would get him first, so she bended the cold seawater out of his clothes and hair, off of his skin, every last drop, and deposited it in a bucket in the corner. He'd still be cold, but not dangerously so, she could work on the rest now. She took some water and swirled it around in the air, focused until it gave off a healing glow, then she put it to his wounds - the cut in his side, the burn on his chest, the broken bones beneath his skin, everything. The work was slow, and bitter, every moment she was terrified that Sokka's breathing would stop, that his body or soul would give in, and every second it took was a second too long. Katara worked until her arms ached from bending and she was drenched with sweat, she didn't stop for food or water or sleep. Katara stopped only when her arms wouldn't move, such was her exhaustion, only when her arms trembled so badly that the water wouldn't go where she told it to and wouldn't do the healing work she wanted did she stop.

It was a hack job, she thought, but it was enough - or so she hoped, she madly, desperately hoped. His chest was still burned and it would scar, as would his side, but it shouldn't kill him, no. His broken bones were healed as well as she could, splinters and hairline cracks remained and they would hurt terribly, but it was enough for now, the rest she could fix later. She couldn't even move him, exhausted as she was, and instead she took furs and hides that were stored and piled them on top of him to keep him warm - all Water Tribe people knew and respected the power and danger of the cold, the invisible, silent killer.

After that, Katara collapsed on the hard wood and cried. She did that for a long while, body convulsing as she was racked with wild, violent sobs, until her eyes went red and they itched and stung and she ran out of tears. She hadn't felt like this since her mom had passed, but even then when that had happened the responsibility hadn't fallen on her shoulders. Here and now, if her brother didn't make it that was her fault - she had helped him get into the ship in the first place, and if she couldn't heal him that was another failure.

When it passed, and she felt able to think again, she stood up and started doing things. Stupid, pointless things, like going up on deck and mooring the ship - it had floated freely while she did her work but she couldn't leave it like that, of course. She took stock of the stores below deck - being her father's ship he had stocked it well, with plenty of food and fresh water, pots and pans and cooking utensils, furs and hides, even shields and weapons. She set up a stove above decks, sparked a fire and began to cook. It was hard, having to check on Sokka every thirty seconds, but when he awoke - and he would wake, she told herself - he would need food, he'd need the strength. She cooked mixed vegetable broth and halibut stew, then made some seaweed noodles, and on and on it went - she made more than was needed, mostly just to keep herself occupied and to keep her from thinking too much about what was downstairs below deck.

It was near daybreak the next day when Sokka finally stirred, and Katara hadn't slept for a moment - every time she blinked she felt like there was sand in her eyes, they were so bloodshot. He shifted just slightly beneath the pile of hides and cracked his eye open.

"Had better mornings," he muttered.

"You're awake!" Katara resisted the urge to hug him - he was still in far too fragile a state. "Here!" She thrust a bowl of vegetable broth at him before he could say anything else. Just like him, he didn't even try to speak and instead inhaled the food like he'd never eaten before - then again, that was how he ate most things. He finished and pushed the bowl away.

"Good food," he remarked. "But the healing? Not so much. Maybe you should give it up, I still feel like shit." He winced in pain as he moved.

"I can get right back on it -"

"Get some sleep," Sokka interrupted her. Katara froze, a ball of glowing water already floating between her hands.

"Your injuries still aren't healed! You need -"

"Sleep," Sokka repeated.

"No, I think there are still fractures -"

"Sleep."

"Listen -

"Sleep." There was silence between them for a long moment, a stalemate.

"But -" Katara began.

"Sleep." Katara screamed in frustration. "If I was going to die I'd have died already," Sokka went on. "You look like you've been through it, just go get some sleep then we'll talk."

"Fine," she agreed reluctantly - Sokka knew fine well that she needed to eat and sleep and rest, and so long as he thought she was suffering he wouldn't back down. She trudged over to a pile of hides in the corner, collapsed into them and was asleep before her head even hit the fur.

The next day came and went. Katara continued to heal Sokka, who grit his teeth and bore it - although not without complaint. She cooked, and they sailed, and she sent Eshka to scout ahead. She didn't know where they were going, but not back home - she didn't feel like she could do it.

"What happened on the boat?" Katara asked Sokka when they were sitting on the deck. He was propped against the bow, mobile but still in pain. The sky was dark and overcast, spitting a thin drizzle at them that turned the snow to slush and darkened the ice to a pale grey, like stone. Sokka shrugged, wincing in pain as he did so.

"I saw the Avatar," he said distantly. There was something else, Katara thought, something that he wasn't telling her. "I had my knife to his throat. Nearly had him, and I just...I choked." He said it ashamedly and she knew that he saw it as an act of weakness, of cowardice. Katara wasn't sure if she'd have had the resolve to do it either - she wanted to fight, to be a warrior, to protect her village, she wanted that more than anything but she had never liked the idea of taking a life. It was a contradiction that she chose not to think too much about.

"You did well to make it so far," she told him, and meant it. Sokka grunted dismissively, thinking it consolation.

"So, what now, sis?" He looked at her expectantly. "What comes next in your plan, after stealing dad's cutter ship?"

"We go after the Fire Nation cruiser," she decided. "We find the Avatar and we...then we return home, successful." Katara was far too aware of the step she had skipped in the middle of the sentence.

"The Avatar escaped the cruiser, he's in the wind," Sokka told her.

"It makes no difference," Katara replied, a confidence in her voice that she didn't quite feel in her heart. "We'll track him down, we'll find him."

"Alright. Lead the way, sis." With that, the siblings sailed into the mist, straight into the unknown.