Sorry for the delay. Well, here's chapter 11.
Nighttime came eventually and the group landed to get camp ready. Zuko jumped down, then motioned for Katara to climb down. The Waterbender looked over at him, then slowly got down, slipping on the fur and nearly falling
"Gotcha," Zuko grunted as he caught her. Katara blushed and stood.
"Thanks," she muttered. Zuko waited for her to leave his arms, but if anything, Katara seemed reluctant to.
At that precise moment, something sharp and shiny zipped by, ripping Katara's bandages. She screamed, collapsing against Zuko's chest.
"We're under attack!" Ty Lee, who was still on Appa, looked out.
"It's Azula and Mai." She grimaced. "Looks like they've got a replacement for me."
"Got that right." The sound of Jun's cold voice rang out in the trees.
"Oh shi…take mushrooms," Toph muttered. "RUN, TWINLKE TOES! RUN!"
Aang needed no second bidding. Sokka, who had just come back from looking for firewood dropped it and ran over to Appa. "Hurry, Toph!" both boys cried. Toph nodded, sent a large boulder in the girls' general direction, then ran to Appa.
Zuko struggled to get Katara back on Appa. "She…got me again," she gasped, wincing at every movement.
"Yes, yes, I know," Zuko murmured, trying to calm down the Waterbender. He handed her to her brother, jumping up after him.
Appa didn't Aang's cry of "Yip yip!" to get going. With a groan, Appa took off. Before leaving, though, both he and Momo left rather smelly presents for the three girls.
Ty Lee giggled. "Azula's gonna love that…" The sound of Katara crying turned her attention to where the Waterbender lay.
Both Sokka and Zuko were inspecting the newly reopened wound. "It looks bad," Sokka muttered. Zuko, agitated that Katara's brother could only state the obvious, nodded.
"Y'know, if you untie me, I could check it out a little better than you two could," Ty Lee said. Zuko nodded and reached over to untie her.
"I don't think so." Zuko looked at Sokka.
"Ty Lee could tell us if Katara is seriously injured and you're still being a stubborn Water peasant?" he asked, trying hard to hide his disbelief and anger.
"She could run off and tell your sister," Sokka said simply. At that moment, a small rock hit him in the back of his head. "Ow! Toph, what was that for?"
"You're being an idiot, Snoozles! Zuko, untie Ty Lee and ignore Sokka," Toph ordered. "I do." Sokka's mouth hung open; Zuko took Toph's advice and ignored him.
Ty Lee stretched after she was freed. "Good," she said, perky as ever. Sokka rolled his eyes, but scooted over to allow Ty Lee access to his sister, who was whimpering in pain.
"Well? Is it poisoned? Infected? Is she okay?" Sokka asked, concern erasing his paranoia.
"I think she'll be fine. It doesn't look poisoned or anything other extremely painful," Ty Lee said. Katara gave her a look of relief. "But it needs to be cleaned and better bandages would be useful. And we should definitely camp."
"We can't yet," Aang pointed out. "That bounty hunter's pet whatchamacallit can find people by follow scents, and Appa and Momo left something full of scent for them to follow."
"I think Jun's pet will have a hard time trying to sort through the stink, let alone trace it," Zuko muttered. Ty Lee and Toph nodded in agreement. Suddenly, Ty Lee turned to Zuko.
"Hey, what happened to your uncle? I haven't seen him in a while. Azula said he was traveling with you, but obviously he's not." She motioned to show the obvious lack of Iroh. Zuko frowned and turned away.
"We got separated in Ba Sing Se," he said. "I don't know what happened to him." But I think I do, he thought. Ty Lee, totally oblivious to the depressing thoughts in Zuko's head, merely nodded.
"I'm sure he's fine. Could you heat up some water so someone can clean her back?" Ty Lee asked, nodding towards Katara.
"Her name is Katara, and yes, I will," Zuko replied. Why he corrected Ty Lee, he didn't know, but he shrugged it off and heated up the canteen Ty Lee handed him. Toph was digging in the bags for something.
"Here." She handed Zuko a small open-ended gourd. "Pour the water in there." Zuko muttered his thanks and dumped the warm water into the container. He reached for a rag.
"Hold it," Sokka said. "Whaddya think you're doing?"
"Washing your sister's back," Zuko said. "What does it look like?" He then proceeded to clean Katara's wound.
Sokka was about to protest Zuko touching his sister and any way, but Katara looked at him.
"Sokka, shut up before I get Momo to hurt you! Zuko'll be gentle; I don't mind him helping."
When Katara said that, Zuko realized something. He liked it (though he would never admit it aloud) when Katara showed trust in him. The only ones who had ever done that were his mother and his uncle. Zuko's subconscious decided to make an effort to earn, and truly deserve, her trust.
"OW!"
Katara's screech nearly deafened Zuko. "Was that really unavoidable?"
"That hurt!"
"It should. The water has to be hot enough to kill any infection and the herbs probably cause a stinging sensation when they make contact with your open wound," he said matter-of-factly.
It was almost half an hour after Mai's shuriken had hit Katara and the wound still was not clean enough to be wrapped, or so said Ty Lee. Zuko had been gently washing the wound for the entire thirty minutes, throughout Sokka's glares and the infernal stink of the perfume the two uninjured girls had dumped on Momo's entire body and Appa's rear end. (That smelled worse than the unwashed bodies of Zuko's old crew.) Aang was looking for a place to land that no one could reach without a boat.
"Where exactly are we going?" Toph asked
"Some place where not even those creepy lizards that walk on water could reach us!" Aang said.
"Better find an island at least one hundred and ten yards away from the shore then," Ty Lee said, absently batting at Sokka's wolf-tail. "Giant basilisk lizards can go that far on water."
"Stop that!" Sokka complained, jerking his head away from Ty Lee.
"I think it looks kinda cool," Ty Lee said. "Plus I'm bored."
"What did you do when you were traveling with Princess Evil and the Despondent Ninja?" Toph asked. She was warming up (somewhat) to this perky pink acrobat.
"Oh, practiced my flips, messed with Mai's weapons, played with the lizards…" Ty Lee said casually.
"You actually played with those things?" Sokka asked. "Are you crazy?"
"No, just easily entertained," Zuko replied. Ty Lee stuck her tongue out at him. "Back at the palace, she would…" Zuko paused. "Flip cartwheels, get pushed in one of the ponds by Azula when she did a flip better than her, and play with the turtle-ducks when I wasn't in the gardens. Then she'd annoy me, tease Mai, mess with Mai's training weapons, annoy me, play with the young lizards, annoy me, pester my cousin, annoy me, and annoy me," Zuko finished, not looking up from Katara's back.
"I'm noticing a pattern," Aang said, chuckling. Toph lounged.
"It's so easy to annoy Scarface though. And kinda fun!" Toph laughed.
Ty Lee was smiling as she looked Katara's wound over. "I think you can wrap it now, Zuko." The acrobat turned to Sokka. "Where are the bandages?"
Sokka tossed her the bundle of bandages. "This is all we have until we can stop at a shop or herbalist," he explained. Ty Lee nodded and handed them to Zuko.
Slowly, the fugitive Fire Prince helped sit Katara up. "This is going to hurt some more," he warned.
"I'm getting used to it," Katara replied as dryly as she could. As she made movements to revel the rest of her midriff, Sokka stopped her.
"Hold it! I don't think so, not while he's watching," Sokka said, nodding to Zuko. Katara rolled her eyes.
"Zuko's the only one who can wrap bandages properly, dear, lovable, paranoid brother of mine," she pointed out.
"Let…uh, what's her name again? Sokka asked, pointing to Ty Lee. The girl giggled.
"Ty Lee. But I am absolutely hopeless in wrapping bandages," she said with a crestfallen look, a first for the perky acrobat. Zuko noticed Sokka look at Ty Lee differently and smirked inwardly. Ty Lee was not only a great acrobat; she was a grade-A flirt and actress. In reality, she was a perfectly adequate medic, capable of wrapping bandages just fine. Why she was refusing to do so was beyond Zuko, but she was flirting (in his opinion) shamelessly with Katara's brother. And he was starting to fall for it, Zuko could tell.
Katara turned her head to meet Zuko's eyes for a moment, and mimicked giggling. She could tell that Ty Lee was flirting and thought it funny. Zuko shook his head, rolled his eyes in agreement, and began to wrap Katara's back.
It didn't take nearly as long to wrap the wound as it did to clean it, so Zuko finished quickly. Suddenly, Momo, who had been sitting next to him, screeched and jumped on his head.
"Dumb lemur," Zuko muttered. "You're lucky I don't fry you."
"Poor Momo," Katara said, gently prying the lemur from Zuko's head. "He's scared of something."
"There's an island down below," Aang informed his friends. "I'm taking Appa down."
"Fine. I'm beat," Sokka said with a stretch.
"You're always beat, Sokka," Aang pointed out. The warrior shrugged.
"So?" The small group on the bison laughed.