Chapter 6 - Every Change Life's Thrown at Me

"So much blood. What did Shiyu know? There was no other explanation, I had to be dying."

.

The day preceded much like the ones before it. The crowds could be heard from the arena out his window, cheering for whom they wanted to win. He remembered the days when he had been young and stood amongst them in the stands. Of course, he had been partial to betting back then, and he was never very good at it.

That might have been the reason he enjoyed what he did so much now. There was no luck involved in his practice, everything was skill. He was not here thanks to his luck, since he did not have much; he was the arena medic purely thanks to his talent and determination.

So he did not see it as luck when the girl child he had taken in was a quick learner and a gifted doctor in the making. It mattered not to him that she was from the Water Tribe with no Fire Nation ancestry, not anymore. The girl was good at what she did. The matter of if she had previous masters no longer plagued him. If they had not come searching for her by now, they never would. Though, he would have liked to know where her contract was, just to keep everything official.

Shiyu heard Katara explain to the current patient what she was doing as she worked with him. It was something she had started on her own; he never did it himself. The men who came in did not need to know the medicine they were given, only that he was treating them. He heard her explain how the herb she was applying would kill any infection in the wound and nodded subconsciously. She had been a quick study, after a few panicking blunders the first several times, she picked things up remarkably well. Maybe the fact she had been so young attributed to that fact.

It surprised him at first that no one had been looking for her. He knew for sure that she was not a freeborn Fire Nation citizen. Even the assumption the Blue Spirit had made had been proven false before long. The child had belonged to someone before she lived on the streets. Slowly, without meaning to, Shiyu pieced together her background.

He knew she was from the Water Tribe, though he didn't know if it was the north or south; he couldn't tell the difference either way. She had a brother and a father who fought in the gladiator games of the Arena. And she was young. Shiyu had always thought of the earth and water tribes as not as advanced as his own people. How else would they have lost the war his great nation had almost completely won and allowed themselves to be taken prisoner to slave away here for the victors?

Working as the medic, his views of his own nation had fallen, strictly in terms of the absence of humanity. He felt pity for fighters, but he still didn't think they were on his own level mentally. It was not until Katara had come into her own that he realized these people were just as capable as him, given the chance.

Finally, he realized what his nation was doing to the world. Surreptitiously watching his assistant with her brother had been his turning point. Not that he could do anything to change things.

Shiyu heard Katara escort the fighter out the door and then call him down for lunch. The games had paused outside for a moment as the arena was readied for the bending matches.

The doctor shut his journal and cleaned the ink from his brush. With Katara taking care of the injured, he had more time to work on his book of techniques for his successor. He still needed to find someone to replace him; he was well aware of the fact that he wasn't getting any younger. He walked down the steps from his room and spotted Katara seated at the table, doubled over onto herself. Her eyes were closed tight and her arms gripped her stomach.

"Katara? Are you ok?" The girl lifted her head in surprise and moved to stand.

"I'm fine," she stuttered. Shiyu watched her struggle to straighten up as she stood, gritting her teeth.

"Sit down Katara," Shiyu instructed. The girl obeyed; her eyes held worry as she watched him move to the fire under the teapot.

"I've been drinking willow bark," Katara spoke. Shiyu opened the teapot and nodded, seeing the truth in her statement.

"What hurts? Are you sick?"

The girl shook her head and looked to her lap. "My stomach feels like it's tied up in knots. But it's not all the time. The pain comes and goes." Before Shiyu could offer advice on stomach remedies, Katara stood and hurriedly excused herself from the room. He heard the door to the bathroom close and set down the apple he had selected. When he didn't hear anymore sounds coming from the room she had vanished into, he assumed she had not vomited.

He ran his assistant's age through his head, counting through the years she had assisted him and her likely age when she had shown up. She'd be around the right age. The realization sent Shiyu into his library of old health texts. He found the large book he had been looking for, pulling it from the shelf and flipping through it. The topic he was searching for was not something he was trained to handle, most men weren't. This was strictly women's stuff, except he had no one to explain this to the girl for him. He appeared the door and leaned against the wall.

"Are you ok Katara?" he asked. After a second, he heard her reply.

"No."

"Katara, it's ok."

"I'm dying."

Shiyu took a calming breath; this was not going to be easy. "No you aren't. Come out and I'll explain it to you. This is completely natural." Shiyu waited, his finger wedged in the text on the page that he would hand over to Katara.

When she finally appeared, Shiyu guided her back to the table. He set the book down in front of her and then offered her more tea. He added an infusion of green crushed leaves that he knew would help her specific pains. She shifted in her seat, looking as physically uncomfortable as he felt.

"What's this?" Katara asked, tasting the new flavor in the tea.

"It will help. Katara, what's happening now is a part of growing up for young women. Did you ever hear your mother or other women talking about their monthlies?" Katara shook her head.

"I was still very little back in my village," Katara said. "The only thing that seems similar is Moon time. Some of the older girls would talk about that. I didn't pay them too much attention though." Shiyu knew the moon hid its face on a monthly interval, and even if that was not the correct word, no one would know the difference.

"Well this 'Moon Time' happens once a month when a girl becomes a woman," Shiyu explained.

"So this will happen every month?!" Katara's face was tight with panic.

"Yes." He had nothing more to offer the girl, aside from referencing the book. "Read this section, Katara. It explains everything you'd ever want to know about your month- I mean moon times." With that, Shiyu left the room with the lunch he hastily put together. The girl peered into the book as she sipped her tea and clutched her abdomen. Shiyu did not want to be around if she had more questions. The subject was awkward enough already.

He had been exposed to the topic in medical school. That lesson had been the source of jokes and other lewd notions for the semester of classes as he trained to be a medic at the Fire Nation Military Academy. The students in his medical class, being all men, were not thrilled to be learning about that undesirable side of the fairer sex. It was a short lesson, thankfully, since anything that was of use knowing they all already knew through experience or fell into the domain of midwives.

The book simply stated that once their monthlies began, a woman could bear children. But there was no mention as to how said children would come to be. The realm of women was still largely unexplained by men and there was no push to change that or even write down the newest studies.

The doctors and midwives had pieced together some new information about bearing children that was written in medical scrolls but was still not widely accepted outside of the most noble circles. Shiyu sat down at his desk upstairs in his bedroom and opened his manual once more. Giving the puberty talk was definitely Not being added.

(Updated Notes)

While this chapter caused eh- mixed responses, in the original edit, I was NOT about to remove it. It truely does play an important function in the storytelling.

(Original Author Notes)

Another short chapter. Poor Shiyu getting all embarrassed. I assume it wasn't too awkward to read, since I hope the chapter gives Shiyu some more dimension as a character and begins to show that however much Katara knows about the world she can't know what she hasn't been taught. (which will come into play later in the story.)

Hint hint, we get to see our favorite prince soon! ;)

*The chapter title is from 'Lessons Learned' by Carrie Underwood*