All Roads Lead To Shukumei
Foxflame: Hello! I have returned with chapter 2! I would have written it last night, but I was too tired…sorry…
Thank you for my first 2 reviews! I know it sounds like nothing but if you're a fellow writer you know they are the best things to read!
So now on to chapter 2! I had to strike while the iron was hot and get this out of me
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Chapter 2: The Meeting of the Minds
"You're alive. Do something. The directive in life, the moral imperative was so uncomplicated. It could be expressed in single words, not complete sentences. It sounded like this: Look. Listen. Choose. Act."
Barbara Hall, A Summons to New Orleans, 2000
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Prince Zuko sat up with lightning speed, banging his head on the cupboard attached to the wall. Rubbing the bump with anger, he looked around his room.
'Same dream…'
He shook his head as he tried to shake the images of the night before out of his head.
Zuko's mother sat in the middle of a field of red fire roses, which bloomed all the way and faced their provider, the sun. She was kneeling with her head down, looking at something in her lap.
Young Zuko ran towards her, but it seemed like he could not run fast enough. "Mother! Get out of the way!"
Zuko shook his head again, rubbing his temples. "No….not today…"
The field was ignited in flames, and there sat his mother, looking more beautiful then ever. She smiled at her son, as she mouthed something he could never understand.
Young Zuko cried and cried as he seemed to float away from the fiery field.
"What are you saying to me, mother?"
Sighing, he went to wash up in the small bathroom connected to his room. As he looked into the water, he was forced to remember the battle with his father. "Water…"
He dipped his hands into the cool substance, trying to remember the feel of it when Katara, that water tribe girl Aang traveled with , healed his arm. 'It's not the same'
It often amazed him, how that girls kindness never faltered with him. They met several times along their journey, and each time they somehow ended up alone, and she showed him the utmost kindness.
However, during that battle, she took time away from healing herself, to make sure he was ok.
"ZUKO!" cried Katara, who watched as their new ally flew across the floor and slammed hard against the war. His arm was smoking with brunt flesh, another blow his father dealt to him.
Katara froze Azula in a ice prison, and leapt over to Zuko. He shuttered away out of sheer habit.
"Don't worry, this wont hurt." Water enveloped her right hand, and glowed an unnatural blue. He watched as his arm glowed for a moment, and absorbed the cooling feeling of her hand on his arm.
They locked eyes for a second and a second only. Before he could mouth any words, she was struck down by Azula, and the fight continued as though nothing had happened…
Zuko splashed water on his face. He had to forget any ties of his past if he was to move on. He easily did forget most, like the Avatar and his travelers, but for some reason not the girl with the startling blue eyes…
The bells throughout the town rang loudly, and the cheers of all the villagers stung the Princes sensitive ears. 'Why are they cheering those…' and then it struck him.
"The Gate is opening!"
Quickly Zuko packed his few belongs, flung the satchel over his back, and ran out of that musty inn for good.
'I'm going to Shukumei!'
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By early morning on the second day, Katara found herself in front of the tall solid wall of rock. ' I guess I am the first one here….'
She could hardly believe what she was doing there! Was she really setting out on her own? Has Sokka and Toph set out a search party despite her wishes?
Katara eyed the carved in sigma of the city of Shukumei. It was all four element's symbols in a perfect square. The swirls of the Water Tribe, flames of the Fire Nation, the rock of the Earth Kingdom, and the clouds of the Air Kingdom.
As the sun rose in the sky, she found herself being joined by more and more travelers, all staring at the in sigma as well. No one spoke; no one knew each other. Hey were, however, all there for the same reason. That simple understanding of the desire to start one's life kept all quite.
That is, until the town's folk woke up and began the festival. The bell for the hour warning signal chimed through the town and near by forests with a loud shrill. Katara covered her ears the for the half hour bell warning, well prepared for it.
'Geez! Like the first wasn't enough!'
After what felt like days, Katara finally saw some movement on the uppermost part of the wall. 20 Earth benders, all in colorful uniforms lined up evenly .
" I can't believe it! It's really time!" she whispered, slightly scared. 'I cant believe I am going through with this…maybe I should go back'
She was in an internal war with herself, crystal eyes racing back and forth from the wall to the road back to her friends.
'I cant do this…they need me.. I am not ready…what was I thinking! They'll all laugh at me if I go back though….oh Katara what have you done!'
"5!" cried out the crowd
"I got to get out of here…" she said, as Katara pushed with all her might through the dense crowd.
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Prince Zuko stood at the edge of the travelers, watching with mild amusement at the town's over joyous festival. Streamers from God knows where fell upon his head, along with the tossing of confetti and silly girls points and giggles in his direction.
'Just lower the damn thing already..' he thought, eyeing those girls with a little fear.
Just as he suspected, one started to approach him. And looking upon her face, he did what any normal man with any amount of sense did; he ran.
Zuko made his way through the crowd towards the gate, pushing and shoving other travlers aside.
"Hey! Watch it buddy, we'll all make it to Shukumei!"
"4…" cried the crowd, counting down as the Earth Benders prepared their stance.
Zuko pushed himself as far as he could through the people, eyes never faltering on the solid wall of the gate.
"3…"
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Katara was stuck between two very…fat…travelers, who seemed to not notice a skinny water tribe girl lodge in the folds of their fat.
"Excuse me! I need to get through!" she cried, trying to move the lard out of her way.
"2!..."
'Here we go..' thought Katara as she suddenly lunged forward.
"1 !" There was a loud crash as the rock wall was lowered, the cheers from the people sounded throughout all ears, and the stampede of the travelers moved with odd swiftness for a large group of compacted people.
Just as Katara lunged forward, the crowd lunged towards the gate.
"Umph!" she and another stranger cried as they collided like the waves upon the shore.
"Hey watch it!" she cried.
"Get off me, peasant!"
The two were entangled from their limbs to their bags, and the crowd of people did not slow down one bit, but rushed around them like a heard of buffalo who avoid a log in their path.
They fought to loosen each other, but it was simply impossible with the people rushing past.
Once the crowd thinned out, the two began the hard process of un lodging themselves from one another.
"Look mommy!" cried a small boy from the village "They were the trampled ones this year!"
A few people laughed, noting how every year at least one person is swept down by the over eager travelers.
"You should watch where your going next time!" said Zuko.
"Well I am sorry next time I'll split the crowd like the Red Sea and make sure your not I my way!" retorted Katara, who stood up and dusted herself off.
With a huff, she lowered her hand in Zuko's face. "Here, let me help you"
Zuko adjusted his straw hat, and looked up into the eyes of his collision partner.
Honey eyes met crystal blue.
"Prince…Zuko?" said Katara, as she grabbed his hand and helped him up.
He stood , and looked into those crystals, those eyes he could not stop wondering about since he first saw them. Before h even opened his mouth, however, the streets got suddenly more quite.
"Prince Zuko!? Here?"
Mutterings ran through out the whole crowd, and all eyes were lock on him, closing in, trying ot get abetter look at him. Some people tried to shout out what they thought of him and his ways, his filthy nation, and filthy honor.
"Go back where you came from!"
"Ha! He can't, no one wants him there either!"
"Death to the Fire Nation!"
Katara glared at the ignorant crowd. "How can yo be so cruel after all you've been through! You should know what its like to be shunned! He dealt with the same war as you!"
But her pleas fell on deaf ears, and the crowd closed in around them.
"Come with me" Zuko said, as he held out his hand.
"But…I can't…" she tried to say.
"Then why are you here!" he cried, as he grabbed her hand, and began a sprint to the gate, and to the Road to Shukumei.
They ran with all their might, bags bouncing on their shoulders, screams in their ears.
Katara was nearing the gate now, the gate moments ago she could not stand to even be near.
And now she was going straight to it.
"Zuko! Wait…I don't know" she panted out as they ran.
The crowd closed in on them even quicker.
He looked back at her, and she looked at him.
The gates were only feet away, and he slackened his grip on her hand. "Go if you need to...this road is for me"
She looked at the road, the long winding path that disappeared into the horizon, and she knew what she must do.
She gripped his hand tighter, and away they ran until they could no longer hear the shouts of the people behind them.
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Sorry that chapter was a little short, but I needed to end it that way…cant carry out my whole story in 10 chapters!
What did you think? I know it seems a little odd how Zuko took Katara with them, but trust me this is not one of this fics where they fall in love automatically…but for me I always feel there needs to be attraction at first, or at least some sort of desire to know the other. Love cannot fall out of the sky into our laps.
Chapter 3 is waiting on deck…so be prepared!
-Foxflame