II
She knelt by the smoldering remains of the campfire, running her fingers idly over the parchment in her lap. Her pack lay beside her, half-forgotten. It was barely past dawn but the sun was already a brilliant disk against the cloudless sky, transforming the forest into a lush tapestry of green and gold. The smell of the roasted fish and wild yams that had been their breakfast still hung in the air, subtly reminding her of the task she was supposed to do, but for some reason she couldn't bring herself to move. Instead, she turned to gaze at the stream where Aang and Momo were playing, and sighed quietly.
She felt a bit…odd this morning. Not sick, exactly, just…odd. Her stomach felt fluttery, although she was sure she hadn't eaten anything out of the ordinary. There was a textured quality to the air she breathed, and her senses seemed to be working a little better than usual—the sunlight seemed just a little brighter, the forest smelled just a little woodsier, and the water in the stream had never felt as cool and delicious against her skin as when she washed herself that morning. She watched as Aang splashed around in the water, doing waterbending forms and laughing when Momo did a sort of gliding dive from the rock. It warmed her to see him acting like a carefree child again. Last night, there had been no trace of that child when she looked into his face. His gray eyes had been haunted, filled with the shadowy remnants of his dream and behind them, the terrible knowledge of his responsibility. She knew he was the Avatar and was destined—no, duty-bound to save the world, but last night, for a few moments at least, she had wanted nothing more than to take away the shadows in his eyes and give him a chance at the childhood the world had attempted to deny him.
She sighed again, then giggled when a dripping Momo launched himself at Aang's shoulder and shook himself dry, spattering water everywhere. Her hands clasped together absently, recalling the touch of another. She had very nearly asked him last night; just thinking about her near-slip gave her the chills. It was just some crazy notion of hers, albeit an annoyingly persistent one, but for one breathless moment she had very nearly given voice to it. It seemed so ridiculous now, and she was glad for the return of daylight and sanity and the simple familiarity of practical, sensible things such as cooking and packing and planning a market trip. Through some miracle, she had managed to hold on to her pride and dignity despite the strange, dreamlike fit she had had, and she was glad.
…wasn't she?
Yes, she was, she decided. It was just a stupid idea brought on by too much worrying and too little sleep. Besides, it wasn't as if anything remotely like last night was ever going to happen again. He was the Avatar and she was his waterbending teacher, and they were on a mission to save the world. They had no time for weird moments like last night.
No matter how wonderful it was.
"Katara, you're either memorizing that map or you're going to start drooling and mumbling to yourself any minute now."
"What?" Startled, she glowered up at her brother, praying he wouldn't notice her guilty flush. "I'm not drooling!"
Sokka snorted. "Are you kidding? You've been sitting there with this goofy look on your face for the past ten minutes and you haven't even looked at that map once. What the heck's so riveting about the stream, anyway?" He squinted in the direction of said stream while she sent a silent prayer of thanks to the deities that Aang had moved out of the line of sight. Finding nothing interesting, Sokka huffed disgustedly and turned back to her. "Whatever. Tell me you've at least found this town on the map."
"I have," she snapped. "Tai Shen's located at the base of a mountain southwest of here. All we need to do is follow the stream." She rolled up the map and stuck it in her pack with a flourish.
Sokka was clearly unimpressed. "Right," he drawled. "And I can definitely feel a sense of urgency radiating from you this morning. An urgency, I might add, that you've been drilling into us all yesterday afternoon."
"Sokka, stop ranting and start making sense," she said, trying to stave off the beginnings of a headache. Dealing with her cranky brother first thing in the morning was not high on her list of favorite things to do.
He scowled at her. "What I'm saying, Katara, is that you're the one who's been telling us how badly we need to drop by this town yesterday, and now look at you. You haven't even put out the fire, yet!" He pointed accusingly at the still-glowing embers. "At this rate, I'll be as old as Bumi by the time we make it to Tai Shen, let alone Ba Sing Se."
Growling, she grabbed her water canteen and jumped to her feet. With a wave of her hand, water flew out of the spout, twirled in the air, then jetted onto the remains of the fire with an impressive splash and a hiss of steam, forcing Sokka to scuttle away from the blast site. "There. Are you happy now, oh Great Lord Sokka?" she said sarcastically.
"Aaugh! There's mud all over my pants!" he yelped, batting at the black splotches.
"Hey, Katara, are you done yet? There's something I—what's wrong with Sokka?" Aang, wearing only his wet leggings and a damp Momo on his shoulder, slowed to a stop when he came into the campsite.
"Nothing. He's just not a morning person, that's all," Katara said blandly.
"Oh, I'm not a morning person." Sokka shot her a nasty look, still scrubbing at the mud stains.
"You know, you can wash those off in the stream," Aang pointed out helpfully. "It'll dry out in no time. Come on, Katara. There's something I want to show you." He grabbed her hand and began to pull her toward the stream.
"Show me what?" she asked, beginning to smile despite herself. Aang's enthusiasm could be downright contagious.
Aang gave her an engaging grin. "You'll see."
Katara, who had been about to insist that Aang tell her what he was up to, suddenly found herself with no words to say. Her stomach was fluttering again, a not unpleasant sensation, and it took all her self-control not to pull her hand out of his grasp. After last night, his hand in hers felt too warm, too solid, too…too right. It was thoroughly disconcerting, to say the least. And when he looked at her…well, she'd always been able to read every thought and emotion in his wide gray eyes, but when did she start believing, even worrying, that he could do the same to her? And why, in the name of all the gods, should it matter? The confusion was starting to unnerve her, and she didn't think she'd ever been so grateful to hear her brother hollering indignantly behind her.
"Hey, where're you going?" Sokka demanded. "Haven't you two gotten sick of playing with water yet?"
They stopped and turned, and Katara thrust her hand behind her discreetly as soon as Aang released it. "This won't take long, Sokka. I just want to show Katara a new waterbending move I came up with," he explained cheerfully. "Besides, I'm sure Appa wouldn't mind waiting a bit longer. Right, Appa?"
All eyes turned toward the bison that was sprawled contentedly nearby. Obligingly, Appa opened his mouth wide, revealing a mass of half-chewed leaves and branches, and gave a bone-rattling bellow.
Sokka's eyebrow twitched. "Oh, sure. Ask a ten-ton flying monster to be the voice of reason in this group."
"Come on, Sokka, it won't kill you to be a little less uptight." Smiling impishly, Katara picked up her pack and walked over to him. "Then again, since you're so eager to get going, would you mind putting this up in the saddle for me?" she added sweetly, dumping her pack in his arms.
"Katara, I'm not your porter! And where're you going?" her brother yelled.
"I want to check out this new move of his," she called over her shoulder. "I am his teacher, after all."
That's right, his teacher, she thought as she stood in the stream across Aang, arms held ready, waiting for his move. Soon, the air was filled with sprays of water and ice, sparkling like gems in the sunlight.
His teacher and his friend. That's the way it should be.
The only way it should be.
o – o – o – o – o
"So tell me. Why are you so dead-set on visiting this town, anyway?"
Katara glanced briefly at her brother, who was slouched against the saddle beside Momo, one arm hooked over the rim. "One word, Sokka: Thread."
He arched an eyebrow. "Thread?"
She lifted the shirt she was mending and poked her hand through the hole, waggling her fingers meaningfully. "Thread. You didn't really think it was just food we were using up, did you? Tai Shen's a small town so it's unlikely that the Fire Nation would bother with it, and it's not going to take us too far off course to get there, anyway."
"Mm-hm," Sokka muttered, unconvinced.
"I've heard about Tai Shen," Aang spoke up, twisting around in his seat atop Appa's head. "Back when we were in Aunt Wu's village. I overheard a couple of ladies talking about jewelry, and one of them was saying how her necklace had been made in Tai Shen. Her friend seemed really impressed."
Sokka's mouth stretched into a cat-like grin. "Oh, now I get it. Tai Shen's a town known for its jewelry. Thank you, Aang, for enlightening me. But wait! This detail couldn't possibly have anything to do with Katara wanting to go on a little jaunt to Tai Shen, could it?"
Katara frowned. "What exactly are you getting at, Sokka?"
"Nothing," Sokka replied innocently. "Just thinking how predictable you are, that's all."
"Predictable? You're talking about Katara, right?" Aang's perplexed gaze swung from sister to brother and back again.
The expression on Sokka's face practically oozed smugness. "Uh-huh. It's girly stuff, Aang, and trust me, that's predictable. I mean, think about it. We're going to a town full of jewelry and stuff, and we're going shopping. Hmm, maybe I better hold on to our money for a while, otherwise there's no telling how many silly gewgaws and sparkly doodads she's going to load us with. So come on, Katara. Be a good girl and hand it over."
Katara's temper, hardly known for its restraint to begin with, finally boiled over. "That's it!" she yelled, flinging Sokka's shirt into his face. "You can darn your own clothes. And to think I was planning on buying you something new to wear for warm weather when we got to Tai Shen. Well, forget it! You can go around in shredded shirts and pants split at the crotch for all I care. Move over, Aang," she barked at the hapless young Avatar. "I'm sitting with you. If I stay any longer around this jerk, I'll end up pushing him right off Appa's back."
"Whoa!" Aang quickly dropped the reins and grabbed Katara's hands to help her clamber over the saddle and settle beside him. He moved to give her as much space as he could, but there was only so much room on the back of Appa's head. She knew she was probably crowding him, but she couldn't quite bring herself to abandon her new post so soon after commandeering it. Besides, a voice whispered inside her head, it feels nice to be sitting next to him, doesn't it? She stifled that thought as soon as it emerged.
"Kataraaa!" Sokka whined. "At least finish fixing my shirt. The sleeve's about to fall off!"
"Hmph." She tossed her head, determined to tune out her idiot brother. When she felt Aang staring at her, she fixed him a quelling glare. "Say one word about how silly I am, and I'm pushing you off Appa. Even if it doesn't really work on you," she added, deflating a little when she remembered what he was and what the glider staff behind him was for.
He gulped and nodded. "No problem. I wasn't really thinking it, anyway."
"Oh? What were you thinking of?"
For some reason, her question appeared to have caught him off guard. "What? Oh, uh, nothing. I wasn't thinking about anything," he said, his gaze skittering away from hers.
She smiled teasingly, curious about his odd behavior. "Oh, really? That didn't sound like 'nothing' to me."
To her surprise, he became even more flustered. "It was just—just dumb stuff. Not worth talking about, honestly," he said with manic cheer.
"Aaugh! Momo, stoppit! Stoppit, I said! Leggo of my shirt before you—oh great! The sleeve's completely ripped off!"
She spared a glance at her brother, who had just lost a spirited tug-of-war with the lemur over the shirt, before turning back to Aang. He was staring straight ahead, a pensive look on his face. She felt her heart turn over, and impulsively slipped a comforting arm around his shoulders. "You're thinking about last night, aren't you?" she asked, recalling the nightmare that had woken him up.
He stiffened for a moment, his face going red, then the blush faded away with his sigh. "Yeah," he replied, looking up to meet her gaze. His gray eyes caught and held hers, and she felt her breath hitch. A thrill of alarm shot through her, but before she could pull away he smiled at her, a warm, heartfelt smile that slid right through her defenses. "Don't worry, Katara," he told her. "It's going to be okay, you'll see."
Once again, it was Sokka who unintentionally came to her rescue, an irony that only she took note of. "Ahem," he cleared his throat meaningfully. "Sorry to interrupt you two lovebirds, but I think something's happening down there."
They turned in the direction he was pointing at. For the most part, they had been following the stream as it wound through the forest, but for the last few minutes their flight had begun veering to the right. The new position brought them within sight of a wide road at the edge of the forest. Several men were blocking the road, apparently intently focused upon something in their midst, and the sound of jeering and mocking laughter could be heard despite the distance. All of the men, the three noticed with sinking dismay, were clad in crimson armor.
Sokka hissed through his teeth. "Fire Nation soldiers. Katara, what was that again about Tai Shen being too small for the Fire Nation to notice?"
"They've got rhinos with them," Aang observed grimly. "Appa, fly low and keep as much forest cover as you can between them and us."
"No, wait," Katara said quickly. "I think they're leaving."
Sure enough, the troop of soldiers and their mounts were moving on, galloping briskly down the road in the opposite direction and leaving behind a cloud of dust—and two rather forlorn-looking figures crouching in the dirt.
"Oh man, don't tell me the Fire Nation's into mugging innocent travelers now," Sokka commented disgustedly.
Aang frowned. "We have to help them. Come on, Appa."
With a grunt, the bison swerved in mid-air and began to descend. As they drew closer to the figures on the ground, they could hear a hoarse voice spitting out a steady stream of abuse against the soldiers.
"…took the new batch… didn't even spare poor Killer…cursed Fire Nation brigands…"
Even before Appa's feet touched the ground, Aang had already leaped off with a gust of air, glider staff in hand. He was followed a few seconds later by Katara and Sokka with Momo on his shoulder. They found the two erstwhile victims of the Fire Nation's soldiers crawling around on all fours, picking up small objects on the ground and stuffing them into pouches, one of them muttering and cursing all the while. They appeared oblivious to their new audience and would have likely remained so if Aang hadn't cleared his throat loudly to signal their presence.
With a surprised gasp, one of the figures lifted her head in Aang's general direction, frowning mightily. When no attack was forthcoming, she stood up and faced them, gripping her cloth pouch in front of her. She was followed reluctantly by her scowling companion, who turned out to be a skinny old man dressed in typical Earth Kingdom garb—baggy brown trousers and a beige, high-collared shirt. His sharp, green eyes glared at them fiercely from underneath his one, bushy eyebrow while the brown folds of his face were pulled back in a defensive snarl, revealing a perfect set of shockingly white, even teeth. His white hair was as thick as his eyebrow and rose around his head in a kind of snowy inverted pyramid, adding inches to his height. He clutched a pouch in each of his gnarled hands, his entire stance daring anyone to try and take them from him.
The girl herself looked no older than Katara. She was also dressed in cream-colored trousers and a high-collared blouse with little white beads down the front, although both trousers and blouse were dirty and disheveled from her encounter with the soldiers. Her black hair had come loose from the wooden sticks holding it in a bun, and several strands were hanging in her face. She looked even more guarded than her companion, as impossible as it seemed, obviously aware of the curious stares in her direction, which were focused mostly on the length of white cloth tied over her eyes.
Sokka cracked first. "You're blind!" he exclaimed, pointing at the girl.
"Yes. What of it?" the old man retorted challengingly.
"I wasn't talking to you—ow! Katara!"
Katara lowered the hand she had whacked her brother upside the head with, and bowed to the couple. "Please excuse my brother. He hasn't had a lot of practice using tact."
"Tact?" the old man snorted. "He's a rude young whippersnapper, if you ask me."
"No, no, please. It's all right," the girl said quickly.
Aang stepped forward. "We saw what happened. Are you guys okay?"
"Yes, we're fine now," the girl answered, just as the old man shouted, "No! No! A thousand times no!"
Aang raised an eyebrow. "Sooo, which is it?"
The girl touched the old man on the arm and shook her head once. He grunted loudly and turned his back on them. "Thank you for your concern, kind strangers," she said with careful politeness. "My grandfather and I are unhurt, but those soldiers took away our belongings—"
"And Killer! They took Killer, the wretched thieves!" the old man cut in, shaking a fist.
"Killer!" Sokka squawked, earning another smack from Katara.
The girl moved her head as though she were rolling her eyes. "Yes, and Killer. Some of the things they stole from us were worth a great deal. Some were even irreplaceable."
"What did they take from you?" Aang asked.
"And who's Killer?" Sokka wanted to know.
In reply, the girl crouched down and felt around the ground until her fingers closed around something. She held her hand out expectantly until Aang figured out what she wanted and brought his own hand up to take the object from her. The three of them stared down at tiny yellow ball in his palm. It rolled slightly, revealing a pair of holes on either side.
Katara blinked. "It's a bead."
"It's jade," the girl said patiently.
"Jade?" Aang echoed. "But I thought jade was green."
"Jade comes in many colors. There's red, white, lavender and even brown jade, although the most popular color is green." The girl held out her hand again for the bead, which she then dropped into her pouch. "My grandfather and I had gone to fetch a delivery of beads from the neighboring town and were returning to Tai Shen when the soldiers came upon us. They took everything—"
"Don't forget Killer!"
"—except for these jade beads, which they scattered all over the ground," the girl continued, ignoring her grandfather's interruption. "I suppose like you, they didn't believe that jade could come in any other color besides green."
"It was worth a fortune, those beads!" the old man lamented, pulling at his bushy mane of hair. "A fortune! An entire year of scrimping and saving to build up capital, wasted!"
The girl touched her grandfather's hitching shoulders comfortingly. "It's okay, Grandfather. It could have been worse."
"Worse!" he howled. "Tell that to poor Killer!"
Sokka nearly tore at his own hair in aggravation. "Somebody better explain who or what Killer is or I swear there's going to be trouble."
The old man sniffled pitifully. "She was our faithful steed, our Killer."
"So those soldiers stole your beads and your family horse, er, bird, er, whatever. Hmm." Aang rubbed his chin thoughtfully, eyes narrowed. A second later, his face lit up. "No problem. I can get them back for you. And Killer, too."
"You can?" the old man and his granddaughter chorused disbelievingly.
Katara frowned. "Aang, you're talking about at least half a dozen soldiers. On rhinos."
Aang grinned jauntily, spinning his staff with casual ease. "I can take them."
"But Aang—"
"It's okay, Katara. I can handle this. What's more, I won't even need Appa for this job. You guys stay here and help them pick up all those bead things, okay? Be right back!"
"Aang, wait!" Katara called out, but Aang had already tossed his glider staff in the air, launched himself after it, and was soaring away. She brought an arm up to shield her face automatically, but the backlash of air caught the old man and his granddaughter by surprise. Katara barely noticed their astonished gasps, however; she was too intent on tracking Aang's flight with her eyes.
Sokka clapped a hand on her shoulder. "Relax, Katara. If Aang says he can take them, he can take them. Besides, what's a bunch of Fire Nation thugs against one powerful airbender, right?"
"That boy is an airbender," the old man mumbled, appearing shaken for the first time.
"Can he really do it?" his granddaughter asked doubtingly. "He sounded so…young."
"Yeah, he is. It pretty much works to his advantage," Sokka said, looking over at the girl.
"But he could be—"
"Hush, Li Mei," the old man admonished, grabbing her arm. "You shouldn't question the Avatar. His companions have faith in his abilities and for good reason."
The girl appeared confused. "But he might—the Avatar?"
"Yes," Katara said softly. "Aang is the Avatar. You can ask him yourself when he comes back."
"The Avatar," the girl whispered, then twitched a little as though suddenly realizing something. "Oh my goodness. Please forgive our rudeness, companions of the Avatar. My name is Li Mei and this is my grandfather Wang. Our deepest gratitude for all your help." She clasped her hands in front of her and bowed low. After a tiny pause, her grandfather followed suit, looking just a little less hostile than before.
Katara smiled nervously in the face of such formality. "I-it's all right, really. Glad to be of help. My name's Katara, and this is my brother Sokka." She pointed at Sokka, who was standing with his arms crossed, staring hard at Li Mei. "The furry little guy on his shoulder is Momo. Come on, we'll help you pick up the rest of these beads."
Li Mei smiled back. "Thank you."
It took several more minutes, but soon all the pouches were full again. Katara, however, had managed to retrieve only a handful of jade beads. She was too busy scanning the horizon for tell-tale stirrings of air, unaware of the two pairs of eyes watching her.
(To Be Continued…)
Author's Notes:
Thank you so much to everyone who read and reviewed. I hope you enjoyed this installation, too. For those who've read an earlier version, I've already put in some corrections--changed a few words, added/deleted some phrases, that's all. Speaking of corrections, I've also done a bit of fine-tuning on the first chapter, too.
Oh, and thanks again to D.Tempest for the explanation on Mary Sues. I hope to God my OCs work out okay,but if they don't, please let me know so I can do more fine-tuning on the fic.
Again, thanks for reading (and reviewing! makes my day, you know ) and God bless.