Oh snap, is this an update? It is! And guess what. There's gonna be a second update the day after this chapter is posted, because this is a two-parter! Yep, this was supposed to be one chapter and it ran long, so I split it into two. Let's roll!

CHAPTER SIX - TRUST AND TRUTH, PART I

"...Ow."

Kuei was awake, and immediately wished he wasn't. His entire head felt like a bruised and overripe melon, his throat was parched, and his eyes felt gritty. A thin beam of sunlight was lancing through the narrow gap at the tent flap, piercing right into his aching eyes.

"Warned ya," said a voice close by. Lifting his head, Kuei saw Zafirah sitting on her bedroll nearby, cross-legged and leaning her elbows on her knees. Her attention was focused on her hands; she had a circle of string stretched between her fingers, and she was plucking it into a woven web between her hands.

Pausing, her eyes flicked up briefly to look at him. There was something cold about her expression, something sharp and stony. And then it was gone, replaced by a thin, tight smile. "Didn't take my advice, huh?"

"Advice?" Kuei echoed, wincing. Moving his mouth to speak made his head feel as if it might burst.

"About not letting those guys set a bad example." Her eyes were back on the string.

"Well, I'd never been invited to a party before, and I didn't want to be rude..." he said, trailing off self-consciously.

"Uh huh," Zafirah said dryly. "Anyway, Basam's already gone and gotten started on chores. You slept through breakfast. I brought you something, though." She jerked her head towards a bowl and a small flask of water sitting next to his bedroll.

"Oh, thank you. That was very thoughtful," Kuei said. He sat up slowly, wincing again.

Zafirah snorted. "Thoughtful has nothin' to do with it. Can't keep up your strength if you don't eat."

"All the more reason I should thank you, then," he pointed out.

"Yeah, well, it was me and Basam that brought you out here, guess that makes us responsible for you," Zafirah muttered. Kuei paused as he reached for the items, glancing over at her. She was staring intently at the string, forehead furrowed and frowning deeply. Was she angry that he hadn't followed her advice? Although, after the troubling things he'd overheard the day before, perhaps it had nothing to do with him, at all.

He hesitantly took the bowl and canteen and sat back on his bedroll. As he ate and drank, he watched from the corner of his eye as Zafirah took the string off her fingers and shook it out, only to loop it around her hands again and start all over.

"What are you doing?" he asked tentatively.

"Owlcat's cradle," she said. She stared contemplatively at her hands for a moment, then looked up and held out the string with that same thin smile. "Wanna try?"

"May I?" He was almost reluctant to accept; it felt as if something had changed while he'd slept, as if there were something odd in the air, but his curiosity about the string game got the better of him.

"Sure. Here, hold up your hands like this."

He mimicked her, holding his hands up, palms facing inward and held a little apart. Zafirah scooted closer and handed him the string.

"Put it around both your hands, like a bridge. Yeah, like that. Try making some shapes with it, get a feel for it."

He tried to mimic what she'd been doing, twisting his fingers this way and that to pull the string into a pattern.

"So, you didn't go to a whole lot of parties at Ba Sing Se University, huh?" she remarked after a few moments of silence. Kuei, caught off-guard, lost track of which piece of the string he'd been planning on pulling next.

"The University?" he echoed, confused.

"Yeah. You said before you were a student there, right?" she asked casually.

Ah. He'd almost forgotten about that little cover story he'd made up during the desert crossing. "Ah, yes, of course. No, I... I suppose I was quite focused on my studies," he said. He ducked his head and fiddled with the string, feeling a tug of guilt at the lie.

"Hmm. Interesting," Zafirah said smoothly, and he felt a sudden prickling at the back of his neck.

Suddenly feeling quite self-conscious, he plucked and pulled and twisted the string hurriedly, until... "Um, I think I made a mistake, here," Kuei said. He held up his hands, which were now entirely tangled in the string.

Zafirah's eyebrows raised. "Huh. Well, anyway, eat up. We got chores to do," Zafirah said. She hopped to her feet and headed for the tent flap; as she went, she pulled her headscarves up and tucked the front scarf across her nose and mouth.

"Right, of course, but...?" Kuei held up his ensnared hands.

She paused, glanced at the problem, then shrugged. "You're the fancy-pants with the fancy schooling, I'm sure you can figure it out." And then she ducked out.

He looked back down at his entangled hands and heaved a sigh.

Zafirah caught up with Basam across the camp, where he sat under a canvas shelter with a circle of others rolling cactus fibers into new thread to make rope.

As she wiggled into the gap next to Basam, she spotted Shai sitting across the circle; he looked up and their eyes held for a moment. He nodded, she nodded back. It occurred to her that she hadn't talked to Shai very much since they'd arrived. Then again, considering they hadn't parted on the best of terms last time, it was probably for the best.

"How's your head?" Zafirah asked Basam as she plopped down next to him.

"I've been worse, but I've also been better," Basam said lightly.

"You're faring better than our wayward guest, then," she remarked.

"Where is he, anyway?" Basam asked. He hesitated, then leaned in closer and asked in an undertone, "Hey, so, uh, about the thing I was saying last night? About Kuei? I know you said you were gonna handle it, but, I mean, look, I was thinking about it, and I know I was the one that brought it up and all, but I was thinking, it might not even be anything bad, or-"

"I'm gonna do nothing," Zafirah said bluntly. She grabbed a handful of fibers and a drop-spindle from the baskets in the middle of the circle and started vigorously spinning.

"Nothing?" Basam echoed, surprised. "You seemed pretty angry about it last night."

"Yeah, well, I ran into Qamar after breakfast this morning. She says she's sending a team out on a supply run to the desert's edge at nightfall, and he's gonna be going with 'em," Zafirah said. "So... whatever he's hiding from us, it ain't gonna be our problem very much longer. So, I'm not even gonna ask him about it."

"Oh," Basam said, blinking owlishly. "Uh... okay. I mean, are you sure...?"

"Why bother bringing it up? What difference does it make? You can ask him about it if you want to, but I'm not gonna. Whatever it was he lied about, he'll be outta here soon and it won't matter anymore, it's not like we're ever gonna see him again," she retorted.

"I mean, yeah, I guess so," Basam said, fiddling with his fibers. "Kind of a shame to part ways like this though, isn't it? Without clearing the air? After crossing the desert and all? I was almost starting to like having him around."

Zafirah snorted. "He's an outsider, what's to like?" She ignored the tight feeling in her throat as she said it.

She had just yesterday been thinking that Kuei didn't seem like the dishonest type. The guy was a bumbling doofus and no doubt about it; what would someone like him even be lying about, and why? It seemed ridiculous to think he was harboring some deep, dark secret; then again, if there was anything she'd learned at the Oasis, it was that you could never be sure about outsiders.

Granted, everyone had secrets and she'd never expected (or wanted) to know everything about this random tourist who'd blundered into her life, but it was the lying that got to her, the dishonesty on purpose. She knew she should just let it go- it wouldn't matter soon, anyway, and she knew she was way more worked up about it than she really should've been- but the lying just bothered her, a lot.

Not long after, there came footsteps behind her and a familiar voice. "Ah, so this is our task for this morning?"

Zafirah glanced back over her shoulder to see Kuei arriving with Bosco in tow. He didn't have his headscarves pulled up, the idiot.

"And this is... what is it?" He peered down curiously at the baskets of cactus fibers, shading his eyes against the sunlight and wincing.

"Spinning," she told him. "Making thread outta cactus fiber."

"Oh!" Kuei's face lit up, headache apparently forgotten. He sat down next to her. "I've read about the spinning process! How fascinating, I never knew cactus fibers could be spun into rope! Well, I've heard of bamboo cord, but I suppose I never thought about other kinds of plants one could use..."

"...Uh huh," Zafirah said skeptically, staring him down from the corner of her eye.

From this side, with his headscarves down and his damn idiot face exposed to the sun and weather, she could see what was left of the bruise around his right eye, a souvenir from his stupid, reckless charge at that damn Firebender at the Oasis. The swelling had almost completely gone down, thanks to the salve, and the bruise had faded to a sickly purplish-yellow. She turned her eyes back to her fibers; she didn't like looking at that bruise. She didn't like remembering why he'd gotten that bruise; it was just one more thing she didn't understand.

Luckily, it soon wouldn't matter anymore. Once he was gone, she wouldn't have to wonder why he'd gone and done a stupid thing like that. In fact, she wouldn't have to think of him ever again.

On Kuei's other side, an older woman named Nasrin spoke up. "Well, spinning is pretty simple. Would you like to try it?"

"May I, really?" he asked excitedly.

"Of course. You're here, you might as well join in. Spinning can be dull, but it must be done, so we can always use another set of hands to get it done faster. Here, this is how it works." Nasrin demonstrated with her own bundle of fibers, and Kuei watched with close attention. He plucked a wisp of fibers and a drop-spindle from the baskets and began carefully twisting out a thin strand, glancing back at Nasrin's often to double-check he had the technique right.

What is with this idiot, anyway? she thought, irritated. Why did he event want to learn something like spinning? But, she reminded herself, him and his oddities wouldn't be her problem for very much longer. Pretty soon, he'd be on his way and she wouldn't have to think about this nonsense anymore. And speaking of which...

"Oh, hey, got some good news for you," she said, turning to Kuei.

"Good news? What is it?"

"Saw Qamar this morning, she said the supply run's gonna be ready to go by nightfall tonight. That's your ride out of the desert."

"Oh. I- I see." He sounded surprised, but not particularly excited.

"Yep. Back to the ol' dusty road," she said, waving one hand in a broad gesture.

"I... see. Well, it will be good to keep traveling," he said, but he didn't sound convinced.

"Yep," Zafirah agreed. He looked like he was about to say something else, but he didn't. Instead, he went back to work, and so did she.

"Here, how's this?" Kuei asked after a little while. As he showed his work to Nasrin, Zafirah lowered her work and snuck a sideways glance at the fibers he was offering for Nasrin's approval.

"Not bad at all, for a beginner!" Nasrin told him. "You've got the right idea!"

Zafirah didn't say it out loud, but she had to admit (grudgingly) that Nasrin was right. It was clumsy work, but he'd obviously been paying attention to Nasrin's instructions. He was definitely at least trying. And that, for some reason, was even more annoying.

Kuei beamed at her. "Wonderful! Maybe I'll get the hang of it by the time the caravan leaves." He chuckled and shook his head, a little wistfully.

Zafirah scowled down at her fibers, seething with frustration. She knew it was stupid, but it annoyed her even more that he was still being so embarrassingly sincere and helpful. She liked it better when outsiders were just plain hostile; all outsiders who came to the desert saw themselves as high and mighty amongst the "poor savages", but the ones that played nice were less honest about it.

Nasrin remarked, "I don't think I've ever seen anyone so excited about learning to spin, least of all an outsider." Her eyes twinkled with amusement from beneath her headscarves.

A few others chortled along with her, but Zafirah spotted several who kept their heads down, eyes on their work. One of them, of course, was Shai; as she glanced his way, he looked up and their eyes met again. She couldn't see his mouth, but she knew he was frowning. She recognized the set of his eyes and eyebrows.

Behind her own scarves, Zafirah frowned too. She could guess what Shai was thinking; he wasn't any fonder of outsiders than she was. He'd lived at the Oasis for a while, too, though not as long as she had, of course. He would be just as wary of this guy's helpfulness as she was.

Helpful... something stuck in the back of her mind, something half-remembered. Was it something Kuei had said before? She furrowed her brows, trying to think of what it was. Then again, what difference did it make? No point in wasting time on anything to do with this guy; he'd be gone soon enough.

A sharp, distant crackle cut through the air. Next to her, Kuei let out a startled yell and jerked backwards, falling back and catching himself on his hands. They all turned their eyes skyward, just in time to see a waterfall of green sparkles that had just burst high in the sky over the western horizon. Zafirah watched the sparkles fall back down towards the dunes, eyes narrowing.

Kuei gaped at the light. "What in the world...?"

"Huh," Zafirah muttered.

"What is it?" Kuei asked, turning to her.

"It's a signal flare, from one of the other tribes," Basam answered. "It's just, it's awfully early in the day for one..."

"Early?" Kuei echoed

"Yeah. Usually they'd wait till night," Basam said.

Zafirah eyed the last traces of the fading flare. "Green, Basam."

"Yeah," he said grimly.

"Green? Is green bad?" Kuei asked.

"Green is-" Basam started.

"Don't worry about it," Zafirah cut in. This was Sandbender tribe business, Kuei didn't need to understand it.

"But-" Basam started.

"He. Doesn't. Need. To worry. About it," Zafirah said through gritted teeth. She didn't look to see Kuei's reaction, whatever it might've been. She didn't need to see. She didn't need to feel guilty. She didn't feel guilty.

It wasn't long before Qamar appeared, hurrying across the camp and stopping everyone she saw to tell them something. The people sitting around the spinning circle muttered amongst themselves.

Qamar passed by the circle and called over to them, "Get ready to sail out! Now!"

Right away, everyone around her sprang to their feet, getting their supplies stowed away. Swearing under her breath, Zafirah stuffed her spinning into the basket and reached a wordless hand over to Kuei, who caught her meaning and handed his work over.

"Sail out? Does that mean the camp will move?" he asked, and she could hear the worry in his voice. All it did was raise her hackles even more.

"Yeah," she muttered as she glanced around, taking stock. She and Basam would find somewhere to help out. Usually, everyone in a tribe had their own duties to attend to when moving the camp, but she and Basam weren't Aqila. They'd jump in wherever they were needed.

"But-"

"Don't worry, you'll still get a ride out of the desert," she grumbled, and she took off towards Marwa's tent; helping Amaris's family pack up was as good a place to start as any. Kuei did not take the hint, trailing along after her with Bosco in tow.

"I appreciate it, but... what's wrong? Is it the Fire Nation?" he asked.

Zafirah rounded on him, anger flaring hotly in her blood, jabbing a finger at him. "Look, it's not your problem, and pretty soon you're not gonna be here anymore. So why do you wanna know so bad, huh? Why do you care? Just, just... go sit somewhere and stay out of the way!"

Kuei took a step back, eyes wide, hands raised as if to ward off a blow. In the heavy and sudden stillness, she could've sworn she heard a ringing echo. She hadn't even realized how her voice had risen till she was already shouting.

She opened her mouth to say something else- what it was, she didn't even know. But she said nothing. Instead she spun on her heel and walked away.

She did not feel bad. She didn't need to feel bad. He had no business worrying about it in the first place. There was nothing to feel bad about.

Stay tuned tomorrow for Part 2!