I just wanted to thank all my reviewers, especially my multi reviewers; pfnelly, peanut26, 1x1pEnyUIn89, lw, badculture and Wren Sharpbeak.
Just as a FYI, I tend to write chapters out of order based on the scenes that pop into my head at any given time, then I try and make it fit the plot I've worked out in my head. It was this process that lead to the Sokka chapter. It just came rolling out fully formed and I adore Sokka too much to leave him out, it was also helpful with some foreshadowing, but I'm not going to talk anymore about that. Plus I like having moments of mundane in a world that has flying bison in it, and believe you me trying to get a picky baby to eat is very mundane. And I needed to introduce the Roku/Otok dynamic.
Don't worry, Zuko and Katara will be making a stronger appearance here shortly. It may not be the next chapter, but I can already see how future chapters are shaping up and it will be heavy with the two of them. Like possibly changing the rating to 'M' kind of heavy, but that all depends on how the plot rolls out. Right now I have a Toph chapter and an Aang chapter that may never see the light of day as they are not currently working with the plot.
But for those that just can't wait for Zuko/Katara 'action', here's a small excerpt from a future chapter.
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Zuko had felt time stand still before and some distant part of his mind marveled at how often it seemed to happen around this woman. The first time he saw Katara's frightened and defiant face in the South Pole the first stirring of shame had surfaced fixing him to his spot before he had forcibly grabbed her grandmother to brake himself of it. The way her face had lit up with hope, if only for a spark of a moment, when he had promised to save her from the pirates had shocked him into staring into her eyes hoping that he would see more. And then in Ba Sing Se...
The Fire Lord pushed those dangerous, traitorous thoughts aside and choose to focus on his current fixation.
Katara walked towards her prey confidently the metal weights on what remained of her lower clothing sounded like wind chimes with each step. Her arms were crossed in front of her bare stomach and Zuko couldn't seem to stop his eyes from tracing the long curved swath of naked dark skin from the bindings at her breast all the way down to where the soles of her feet disappeared into the grass. Only two things marred the perfection; the twisted material at the flare of her hip that served to hold up the front and back flap of Katara's coverings and a scar across her mid thigh.
It was plain to the firebender's eyes that it had been a burn, but where the waxy skin over his left eye had turned a brilliant red on his pale face, Katara's was bone white on her deep tan skin. As with all burn scars the tissue was stiff and ungiving as she moved and it pulled at strange angles on the rest of her supple skin. It wasn't a large mark, only maybe the width and breath of his palm but it was impossible to miss.
His first rational thought beyond the realization that she was in his palace courtyard almost completely unclothed with dozens of servants and other sundry palace officials staring in awe and surprise was how she could have received such a mark. Katara's healing abilities made scarring, even from burns, an unusual occurrence. His own abdomen was blemish free despite the flaming arrow he had taken while guarding Toph's back when they had escaped the Western Air Temple and the thugs Azula had sent to harass them. After a handful of healing sessions nothing but the memory of how his skin had tingled under her hands had remained.