When I woke up the next morning, I felt achy and sore. Like something had happened the night before that I should know about. I glanced down at my hands. Bloody. Again. But this time, when I licked my chapped lips, I tasted the salty metallic flavor of blood there too. I practically flew out of bed and down to the stream.
I soaked my hands in the river until there was no sign that blood had ever been anywhere near my hands, then bended a chunk of water into ice to act as a mirror. Now I saw why I tasted blood. My whole face was splattered with it, like one of the rabbits had exploded in my face.
It took all of my self control not to throw up right then. Instead, I stripped as quickly as I could and jumped into the water. The water was icy cold, and as soon as I jumped in, I was chilled to the bone, and my brain was working furiously. I dunked my head and scrubbed as hard as I could all over my face and even in my hair, making sure that there was no sign of dried (or fresh) blood anywhere on my person.
Next I quickly jumped out and grabbed my clothes, dunking them and rinsing away the spots of blood that had gotten onto the clean blue fabric. I finished and dressed, though my clothes and hair were soaking, and I was freezing out in the air. I bended as much water as I could out of my clothes, but they were still damp. What I needed was an Airbender to dry me off completely.
I sneaked back into the temple and headed down the hallway and into Aang's room. I quietly opened the door and walked up to his bedside. He was sleeping on his back, breathing gently. He was so cute when he slept.
Too bad I'd have to wake him up. I got on my knees and put my mouth right by his ear. "Aang," I whispered softly. He stirred a bit, but kept sleeping. "Aang," I whispered a little louder. He moaned and turned over in his sleep. Ok, I was done being nice, "Aang!" I practically shouted. He sat bolt upright, completely alert, looking around. He saw me with my hands on the side of his bed, hair down and slightly damp, and he gave me a strange look. I smirked at him, happy to have finally woken him up, and in the process, I had gotten a bit of entertainment.
"Katara, what's wrong? Why did you wake me?"
"I'm kind of wet and I needed to get dry. I bended as most of the water as I could out of my clothes, but I'm still kind of wet. I thought maybe an Airbender could help me out a little bit." I answered. He got out of bed and told me to stand to one side of the room, which I did, and he blew a gust of air at me, drying me of completely. "Thank you," I said.
"Its no problem," he returned, "Just one thing; Why were you wet?" At this simple question, my brain went into a furious battle, should I tell him the truth? No, he was already disgusted and scared enough as it is.
"I…uh went down to the stream and… uh… fell in."
"I know you're lying," Aang said simply, his face falling, "But if you don't want to tell me, I respect your privacy. I just thought we could trust each other."
"Aang…" He had a decent point, we were supposed to trust each other, and he already knew what I did each night. "Ok, ok. What really happened was that, I woke up this morning, and you know about the blood right? So there was more blood than normal this time, and so I had to completely wash off and wash my clothes and hair to get all the blood out instead of just my hands like normal." I said quickly. I saw Aang's face pale, but his expression didn't change.
"Its probably nothing," he said reassuringly. "Maybe one of the rabbits just died really violently. I'm sure its nothing." I let out a breath of air that I hadn't realized I had been holding. Just being told by Aang that everything was ok made me feel immensely better. I grasped his hand and we walked out into the courtyard and started to cook breakfast.
As we were cooking Sokka, Toph, Zuko, Teo and the Duke stumbled in sleepily. "What's cooking?" Sokka asked immediately.
"Uh, I think Aang's cutting up some fresh fruit, and…" I looked down, "rice. Again."
"Why is there always no meat?" Sokka grumbled.
"Hmm… I duno," I countered, "Maybe because the air nomads were vegetarians as is Aang!"
"Sorry, Sorry." He said holding up his hands to admit defeat, "You can't blame a guy for asking."
"Hey, has anyone seen Haru?" Teo asked as I served the rice, "Its not like him to get up late."
"He's in his room," Toph answered quietly. I knew something was wrong just by the tone of her voice.
"Well, someone go wake him up," Sokka complained, "I nominate Zuko!"
"Fine," Zuko mumbled as he got up and walked to Haru's room.
We sat in silence eating our rice as we heard Zuko walking down the hall, mumbling to himself about being the one who has to wake people who don't even do anything up. We heard a door open and Zuko's call of "Haru, get outta bed!" then, we heard a Zuko scream. We all looked at one another; what could be so awful to make Zuko scream? He almost never displays fear, and now here he was yelling after walking into Haru's room.
Zuko sprinted into the courtyard panting, "Guys, come quick! Something's happened!" He took off down the hall once again and we all followed. Except Toph. She stayed where she was, her face stone. I glanced back at her, but ran down the hall to Haru's room with everyone else.
Zuko pushed open the door, and we were greeted with the sight of blood spattered across the floor, and Haru's mangled body slumped over in the corner, in a pool of blood. There was a sharp intake of breath throughout the room, as Aang carefully avoided the small pools of blood to get to Haru's body.
Aang turned Haru's body over and we could all clearly see that it looked like his chest had been ripped open. His face was barely reconizeable. It was soaked in blood, and his open eyes held an expression of utmost terror and surprise.
I heard short choking sobs from behind me and looked back to see the Duke, clearly trying not to cry. Anxious for an excuse to leave Haru's body, I escorted the Duke into his own room, and we sat down on the bed. He lay down and put his head in my lap, his crying finally stopped. "Katara, why did Haru have to die?" he asked looking up at me with his big brown eyes.
"I duno sweetie," I replied, "But we'll figure out who did it and why soon. I promise."
"Thanks Katara," he sniffed.
"Why don't you take a nap and get your mind off of things, while we figure out what happened, ok?"
"Sure," he said quietly and I got up and pulled the blanket up to his chin. I carefully got up and closed the door, then ran as fast as I could down to the courtyard.