A/N: Another shorter chapter... Basically I made the choice to chop Ember Island into two chapters rather than one super long one. From here on out expect it to go back to a bit more bulky. Thank you again for all of the great reviews! To my faithful readers and reviewers: I write this as much for you as for me! :)

Summer Air

Chapter Seven

When a knock finally sounded at the door, she fully expected to swing it open and come face-to-face with her first opportunity to deliver that apology. Instead, she met a Fire Nation messenger.

"Er, I'm not sure where Zuko is, actually…" was all she could tell the man when asked.

Luckily, the Fire Lord was right on cue, coming up the path with a sack in one hand and the other ruffling his hair.

"Lord Zuko," the courier bowed, though Zuko waved off the formality and invited him in. He also pointedly ignored Katara's stern look questioning him about his conspicuous absence the entire night before and handed her the sack explaining that it contained their breakfast.

The young messenger seemed equally stubborn in adhering to formality and refused the invitation, politely. "I have more travelling to do, Sire. Your uncle has many messages for me to deliver."

"Iroh sent you?" Katara couldn't help but interrupt, belatedly biting her tongue when she realized the entire thing wasn't any of her business. At this rate she was starting to think she should blame the Ember Island Players for rubbing their stupidity off on her.

"Yes. The Avatar recently returned to the Capital to ascertain Lady Bei Fong's wellbeing, and informed Lord Iroh of your quest to commune with the Immortals. He wanted me to deliver this." Without further ado the man produced a small bundle wrapped in cloth, extending it to Zuko. "He also said to remind you that Lady Katara has not yet learned to play Pai Sho."

"Why would he think we have time for some silly game?" This time she blushed at her own lack of control, and when both men looked at her with varying levels of disapproval written in their gazes, she lifted the sack and backed away. "I'm just going to go make breakfast…" At least that way she couldn't interrupt further.

A few minutes later the sound of the front door swinging shut preceded Zuko's arrival in the kitchen, bundle set on the table as he began to unwrap it. At first she was quiet, already seated as his idea of breakfast hadn't required much preparation at all – it was only bread and fruit – and expecting him to enlighten her as to what the message and delivery could mean. But it quickly became apparent he wasn't going to say anything at all, his focus riveted on the curious present he'd unwrapped and was now turning over in his hands.

"Well…?" she finally prompted.

"It can't be that difficult," he muttered.

Some of her anger from the evening before twitched back to life. "Is that in reference to my complete inability to see how Pai Sho has anything to do with our hunt for the Immortals? Or something else?" She immediately regretted it, and as she hastily continued, "I'm sorry. And I'm sorry about last night—" he cut her off.

"Don't you wonder how my uncle knew we would be here? No one else knew, not even Aang. We only knew we'd be coming to Ember after we solved the first Immortal's puzzle."

She hadn't thought of that. This time she hoped he actually would enlighten her, despite that his attention still seemed to be on the object he was holding. It was a curious mix of pipes that she couldn't make any sense of.

"I just don't know what this is for," he eventually said, offering it to her to take a look. Unfortunately she was just as clueless.

"I've never even seen one of those before. Do you know what it is?"

"It's called a sheng. Except it's too small to be a real one, and it's made of something like stone—although it's the lightest stone I've ever held. It's a musical instrument."

"Wait, you said it's light, but made of stone? That sounds like the basket of flowers I took from the last place." Said basket was wrapped and stowed safely in her room as they spoke.

"So maybe that's it." He wrapped the instrument again, this time handing it to her. "I'll let you hang onto it. Keep it with the other. We don't need to take it with us."

"Are we going to the pond already? You didn't eat any breakfast—"

"I ate on the way back here, but no, we're not going to the pond. Yet."

"Then where?"

With a smirk on his face he retrieved a tile from one of his pockets, the small square emblazoned with a picture of a white lotus. "We're going to play some Pai Sho."

Katara soon found out that when Zuko said "we are going to play some Pai Sho," he really meant that he was going to sequester himself in a room with some old man presumably to play the game while she was relegated to a seat in the parlor with the man's granddaughter. She was a nice girl, but the conversation quickly became stale when she realized that Katara was completely clueless about most of the 'hot' Fire Nation topics of discussion and wasn't much in the mood for friendly banter anyway. At least the tea was nice enough.

Needless to say she was more than relieved when Zuko finally emerged, bowing to the man and his family before steering Katara out of the home and onto the path outside before she could get a word in edgewise.

"Alright, now that we're out of earshot, go ahead and lecture me."

Oh, how well he knew her. It was disconcerting. Suddenly the stern words she did have at the ready tasted like ash in her mouth. "I— Okay, fine. I was going to lecture you but now I won't."

"Thank you," he said with a smug smirk. Meanwhile, he was steering her toward one of the cobbled lanes that headed out of town. "The pond's this way."

"Is that all you have to say?"

"Should I have more?"

"Well, for starters, your uncle sends you this cryptic message about Pai Sho and me and yet I sit on a couch with some stranger for over an hour and all you have to say is 'the pond is this way'?"

He continued to wear that smirk. "I invited you to lecture me, too."

"You know what I meant!"

"Look, you're right. It was cryptic. It didn't have anything to do with you. My uncle was simply giving me," though at a glance at her expression he amended that statement, "us a hint as to what might help us here on the island."

"Really? So you know where the next Immortal is?"

"Yes."

She waited for more but, as ever, it wasn't forthcoming. "Are you going to share?"

"We're going to the pond, aren't we?"

That was enough to quiet her, though she wasn't happy that he got the satisfaction of being right about the location all along. For some reason it irked her.

That settles it, she thought to herself. I really need to get off this island. It's driving me crazy.

Maybe the pond really was haunted. They were about to find out.

"The pond isn't haunted. It turns out that was a rumor someone started to keep people from poking around too much."

"You could have told me that sooner! I've been creeped out by this place for awhile now."

Zuko only offered the information when she had to suppress a shriek over a cave-hopper coming too close for her comfort when they ducked inside the cave he claimed was the right place. She was already getting increasingly tired of dark, damp places being the resting place of the Immortals.

"It's right through here."

Lo and behold it really was. There was no trek for hours through the dirt this time. Zuko's firelight quickly lapped up the remnants of a torch bolted to the cavern wall nearby and Katara gratefully recognized that unlike the first Immortal, this one seemed less fond of intricate – and exhausting – puzzles.

The small chamber held only two things: a single stone chair, and beside it, a table carved with the makings of what seemed a Pai Sho board. While she'd never played the game, she knew enough to recognize it when she saw it. Apparently Iroh's cryptic message hadn't been too cryptic after all.

"Are you supposed to play or something?" she asked quietly, unwilling to rouse anymore of the cave-hoppers from their current places staring at them. She wasn't a very big fan of bugs, but what girl was? She was just intent on ignoring them.

"I don't know." He was already at the board, reaching for one of the pieces only to find it wouldn't budge. "I guess not."

"Did that man tell you more than how to get here?"

"He did give me one piece of advice I wasn't sure what to make of at first… 'Know your letters and numbers.' I just thought it would mean we'd have to piece together some version of the alphabet or something this time around."

She joined him at the table, reaching for one of the tiles herself. They seemed to be carved of the same stone the board itself was. In fact, as she took a step back, even the chair seemed attached to the same slab. The sculptor must have formed the whole scene out of one rock.

"Maybe…" And she perched herself on the chair, only to find nothing happened. When he gave her an odd look she immediately got back to her feet. "Hey, we should test everything, right?" In order to detract some of the attention away from her abysmal failure at discovering anything, she pointed back to the board. "Does the pattern mean anything to you? I've never played before, if you don't remember."

"No, it's nothing I've seen before. I'm sure if it was an established gambit uncle would have used it or taught it to me at least once over the years. But wait…"

"Wait what?"

Rather than answer her, however, he was lost in thought. Ever since the night before, she could feel the distance she'd put between them. It was startlingly tangible in moments like this, where he forged ahead without her, without consulting her, without even filling her in. She was infuriated and yet it only made her feel that much more ashamed about what had happened.

"Zuko, about last night—"

He looked at her sharply, frustration evident in the crease on his brow. "Now's not the time, Katara."

"Then when is? I just wanted to say I'm sorry—"

"It's fine. Let's forget about it."

She frowned but kept silent. Forget about it. She could do that. She could pretend it never even happened. Of course, the prospect only left a twisted feeling in her gut.

He seemed to sense her feelings for he was pointing toward the board, evidently ready to include her. "Remember what the man said. Letters and numbers. Well, the board could be a cipher."

"A code?" It was intriguing enough to erase her guilt and doubt—for the moment.

"Something like that. The way the tiles are arranged has to be significant. If you sit where you're supposed to," he moved to that side of the table, though he didn't actually sit down, "then this first tile would be on the letter 'A.'"

She continued to stare at the board, leaning over to look at the next, making a mental count before offering, "And the next would be 'M'?"

"Right. So we just figure out the rest and it should mean something. You take the last ones, I'll figure out these."

A few minutes later, he was frowning. "A-M-A-R… what were yours?"

Yet it was a minute before she could speak. The realization sent a chill down her spine and for a brief moment, she was afraid she'd need to sit in that chair or she'd faint. Whether he noticed how white she'd gotten or not, the sound of her name finally shook her out of the shock.

"Amarok. It says Amarok."

"You know what that is?"

She nodded mutely. His piercing gaze pressed her to say more. "It's… It's this maze, near where I grew up. It's infested with pigeon-wolves."

"Pigeon-wolves?"

"They're exactly what they sound like. Wolves with wings. We were told never even to go near the place. Once upon a time it was visited by young men of the village who wanted to prove their worth as warriors, but that tradition hasn't been upheld for decades." Not since the Fire Nation all but annihilated her people, she didn't need to say.

"So it's dangerous."

His nonchalance only illuminated her fear, riling something akin to indignance. "Dangerous? That's the tamest word possible! The reason it was always forbidden to venture there was because of how many people died over the years. Even when the young men would go they'd be accompanied by a full band of older, experienced warriors."

And they were just two young people trying to save the world.

"Did any of the men in the tribe go there when they were young?"

"Why does that even matter?"

"Just tell me. Were any of them taken there?"

She frowned, trying to think. "Well… My father was one of the last. I'm assuming Bato and some of the other men went, too." She saw where he was going with the questioning as she contemplated even more. "You think they could take us?"

"It's worth a shot. At the very least maybe they know the way through the maze."

It's worth a shot. That was what kept ringing through her head. Maybe it was. But then again, Zuko didn't know her father.

"I guess we're headed to the Southern Water Tribe, then." She'd let him find out what a force to be reckoned with Hakoda could be for himself. "Unless you wanted to spend another night here on the island."

There was silence before he donned his usual smirk. "I'll pass, thanks. We've wasted enough time as it is. I suppose I should apologize for making you attend that lousy play last night."

She was able to at least mostly laugh at that. "Yes, you should. But Ember Island wasn't all bad. At least this time we didn't waste a whole day shoving stone blocks around the floor."

"You mean I didn't waste a whole day shoving stone blocks around the floor before you caught a lucky break and got to bend them into place."

She simply laughed again and shook her head. He was right, but it was still unsettling. He suddenly seemed so unwilling to invest in actual teamwork, and she knew it was all her fault.

Is this what it's going to be like from now on? she couldn't help but wonder.

On the bright side he was still as chivalrous as ever, offering a hand into Appa's saddle when they finally made it back to the beach house and collected their belongings. But the ride was also as silent as ever, and while she assumed he was reflecting on the familiar face they met on Ember Island, she turned her sights ahead to Amarok.

Zuko saying it was dangerous was the understatement of a lifetime. Yet he wasn't to blame; she hadn't told him all she knew of the treacherous place. Not only was it a maze, it was hedged in by razor-sharp crystalline icicles, just waiting to pincushion anyone crazy enough to enter. Meanwhile, the pigeon-wolves lurked overhead, waiting to pounce on the first sight of flesh they caught from amid the icy barbs. She had to tell herself it was normal to be frightened, but she knew they had to go in there if they wanted to finish their quest.

Let's hope my father helps us, she silently prayed, sending Zuko a glance out of the corner of her eye. He didn't know her dad but she did. It wasn't that he wouldn't help them, she was sure he wouldn't want to let them go. But she was determined whether he gave his permission or not. It was the only way to save Toph.

"My father might need some convincing," she finally confessed after they'd been soaring in silence for a few hours.

"Somehow I doubt even he can resist your persuasive brand of arguing, Katara."

He said it with a slight smile, and she found she couldn't say more. Her concerns remained, but for the first time since learning of their next destination, she actually felt hopeful. She could only hope it lasted.