Hello again everyone, I know I haven't updated like I promised but I'm still working on the story and I will try to update whenever I can. I have a million and one things happening right now and its hard to find the time to write, I have also been working on other stories I will probably be publishing soon.
Thank you all who reviewed and stuck with it.
Happy Reading!
Zuko woke up to the sound of lighting hitting his ears, he was a light sleeper, and even more so being on the road. After another forty-five minuets he sat up, unable to fall back asleep.
He blinked at the morning sky it wasn't quite dawn yet bug the rain had let up a bit.
He could feel the tiny drops hit the tent and it make his skin tingle, it remind him of when he lived in the firenation, and the sun would blaze down and he would feel the engery sink into him.
All he wanted to do at that moment was to go outside and soak up as much rain as he could. (he was pathetic).
After lighting the small kerosine lamp he sighed.
"I guess this is how water benders feel." huffing he ran his fingers trough his hair, and turned to look at Katara 'speaking of waterbenders'.
She was still sleeping in the far end of the tent, and with the light the lamp added he could see her shaking. He raised his head and watched her when she suddenly thew the blankets off her body, and he noticed that sweat was covering her whole body.
"Damn it." He cursed, as he moved over to her and moved the hair that was hanging in her face.
The damp locks fell between his hand,as he felt her forehead and sighed Outside the tent the wind whistled and shook the tent while he grabbed the canteen and a clean cloth to try and cool her down.
She began to squirm a little but didn't resist the coldness hitting her face, she cracked eyes open a bit and looked around.
"Zuko." She whimpered, and he felt a tug at his heart, he knew how bad firebenders fever could be.
"Shhhh." He whispered softly, as she looked at him with her huge eyes.
"I'm sorry Zuko." She whispered, and moved her head closer to him and closed her eyes.
His heart was pounding in his ears, and he let out another sigh. Why was it that all the moments he actually enjoyed being in her company with her she was passed out.
She mumbled something and snuggled closer to Zuko setting her head on his chest.
"Damn it." He mumbled again before he drifted off to sleep as well.
Kartara awoke in the morning feeling very wet. She cracked her eyes open a bit when she felt something blocking her vision, and when she moved the damp rag that was covering her eyes she could recall a bit from last night, and she looked around for Zuko.
The tent was empty, but she could feel the sun through the clouds and without looking she guessed it about midday.
"Damn it." She mumbled, getting up slowly. She stumbled, still feeling a bit woozy.
She grabbed her stomach, fighting the urge to vomit.
"Ah." She moaned trying to stand up.
"What are you doing?" An annoyed voice hit her ears, and she turned around to see Zuko standing at the tent flap holding a stack of firewood in his arms.
She stared at him blankly, a little amazed he would actually go out and gather fire wood.
"Well, what are you doing up?" He snapped again, when she didn't speak, he took in her pale face and how she was protectively holding herself, and he tossed the firewood aside and stepped into the tent.
"You should still be asleep, we don't have to leave until nightfall." He said.
Her eyes narrowed at the young prince.
"You did this, I don't know how, but you did this." She snapped , and as she shifted in confusion he studied her for a moment before letting out a long breath. He pressed a hand to his temple in frustration.
"how?."
Her mouth droped open. "What do you mean how?. I don't know, but I'm sure you do " She said angrily, he simply studied her wondering if the fever had come back, or if she would share the alcohol she had (clearly) been drinking.
"contrary to what you may think my life goal is not to irritate you it just so happens to be one of the perks of this journey" He said clamly trying to keep in rage in check. Her mouth dropped open.
Zuko simply sighed in anger.
"I'm done: I'm not arguing with you anymore Katara, I'm done explaining myself and I'm done trying to be civil on this trip" He said softly she expeesion almost looked hurt but said nothing at all.
"now if you'll stop acting like a crazed loon I would like to get to Aunt Wu's without an ulcer" and with that he turned back to forest leaving Katara to sit with her thoughts.
"loon?"
"Princess Alzula, we managed to pick up a trail, but we're not sure if it's the Princes or not"
Alzula didn't look up from the table she was correctly sitting at, her face was buried in a piece of paper, and she set it down slowly before glancing up, causing the young soldier to flinch.
For a second he could have sworn her eyes were glistening, but it was gone just as quickly as she stood up.
"Excellent, I plan on defeating my brother and capturing the Avatar by the end of the week." She said confidently, taking a step forward, her armor made her look much larger then her small form and she made her way over to the soldier.
"Get me Ty Lee and Mai, we'll leave at first light."
She walked out of the tent leaving the solider behind, but before he turned to follow his eyes caught map she had been looking at, and his eyes widen in confusion but then shook his head.
He was clearly seeing things, he thought has he made his way to Ty Lee's tent, after all, there was no way Princess Azula kept a photograph of a young Prince Zuko with her.
The wind whipped in Katara's ears, but that was nothing to pain that was pounding in her chest.
Instead of gripping Zuko shirt this time, her hands were holding on to the side of the saddle that was rocking her back and forth.
Zuko had somehow managed to put as much distance between them as possible.
She had apologized over and over again to Zuko, but every single apology rolled off his shoulders. She had thought the silence between them was awkward when they wear both mad at each other, but now it was pure torture.
The same feeling Jet had given her only 100 times worse, she let out a sigh, great now she wanted the approval of fire prince, today just wasn't her day.
She let back a sob and realized she still felt a bit sick, the sky had cleared off a tiny bit, and the sun would pop out trough the clouds every once and awhile, making her smile when it hit her skin.
The ostrich horse hit a bump making her jerk back in her seat a little. Zuko said nothing to her little jump.
She felt childish and like a idiot for what she had said to him this morning.
She was a healer she knew it was from lack of sunlight. While in the North Pole she had studied about Firebender Fever, it was caused from a lack of sun, her teacher had told her it was why the Firenatsion didn't come to the South Poles very often, the many mouths they went without sunlight would surly kill most Firebenders.
Zuko said he was done being civil, did it mean he wasn't going to speak to her and ignore her as much as possible, this hurt Katara in more ways then one.
"Zuko." She said quietly, trying to hold her voice in place.
He ignored her.
"Zuko." She said again, a bit louder, and lifting his head he stopped the horse.
"What is it Katata?" He asked slowly, and her eyes fell to her hands.
"I….I was just wondering when we we were going to stop." She asked trying to hide the emotion in her vocie.
"Are you feeling bad?" He asked bluntly.
She glanced up and even though he couldn't see her she shook her head.
"No, I was just wondering." She wanted to kick herself why was this so hard she should be the one that's ignoring him. She took a deep breath, and swallowed every ounce of pride in her body.
"Zuko I-"
"Shh." He snapped, whipping his head back. They sat for a moment and then he jumped off the animal, she watched him walk to the end of the hill, Katara jumped off the beast as well and, gave the animal a gentle pat before going after him.
Zuko could heard Katara's footsteps behind him, he mentally sighed and his eyes glanced to the young women, she was dressed in a dark red pants and matching tunic with sliver clips, her hair was pulled into a messing bun she looked a million times better then he did in his dark green sleeveless tunic and pants.
Rubbing his dark eyes and holding back a yawn, he had found his worry for Katara had kept him up half the night checking on her.
He wanted to slap himself what is with this girl, one moment she was angry, then sad, and then mad again.
Zuko sighed he had never understood woman.
They walked up the hill a little more before a scream made Zuko and Katara's eyes meet for a spit second then they saw the smoke coming from the other side of the hill.
It lead them to the cause of the scream before Kaktara moved an inch, Zuko grabbed her and pulled her down behind the hill, blocking her from the sight of the thieves raiding the tipped over carriage at the bottom.
"What do we do?" Katara whispered to Zuko who caught the sight of a man and young women huddled together, the woman cradling a baby in her arms.
He made out three thieves, two males and one female. One of the men stood over the family making sure they didn't move while the other two looted the wagon.
Zuko glanced at the young family for a moment and made a decision.
"We're not going to do anything." He stated.
Kataras eyes widened in shock. "But we have to, those people-"
"Are none of our business." He finished in a cold tone.
She felt that sick feeling in her gut again.
" We can't leave them." She gasped in horror.
"We can't help them, and getting into trouble with a few earthbenders is the last thing we need."
Her horror looked stayed in place,
"but they have a baby, Zuko we can't just leave them like this." She begged.
He studied her for a moment and then looked back at the raid.
"They only seem interested in their stuff, I doubt very seriously they will go out of their way to hurt them."
"It doesn't matter, they need our help." With that Katara stood up.
Zuko grabbed her arm and pulled her back down.
"Fine." He said defeated.
"We will help them." Kataras face lit up before she started to stand again, only to be jerked back down angrily.
"I will go distract the bandits and you get the family to safety." He said, standing up and pulling out two swords that were tucked safely into their sheath.
Katara glared at the prince. "I can fight" She stated.
"You're useless without your bending." He said simply, and her face fell.
"Wait until I have them distracted, then get them out of here."
"Zuko." She hissed, but he was already gone.
"Why is it always me?" Zuko mumbled, as he made his way down the steep hill. His shoes sank deep into the mud, and he growled when he felt the water sinking into the hole in his boots.
"Hey!" Zuko called, the three bandits didn't even look up from there looting.
"Hey!" He yelled, angrier this time, finally making the criminals look up.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here." The women was the first to speak, she was a short women looking in her early 20s with tattered and torn black clothes, her hair was a messy uncombed golden blond and was being held up with a red bandana; with little braids and twists all intwining her hair, her face was a pale and pointed and went well with her small features and light blue eyes.
"What do you think your doing boy?" The other man yelled. This one was bit older Zuko noticed, he was a well fit man, short light brown hair, and a tight face that was lined with wrinkles. His cloths were not any better then the girl's and a red sash blocked his left eye. Zuko tensed at the sight of the man; he was three times the size of Zuko and pure muscle.
"You need to mind your own business boy." The man snarled as he dropped the basket he was holding.
The woman whimpered and Zuko could hear the baby screaming in his mothers arms.
"You need to leave these people alone." Zuko said, narrowed his eyes to meet the man's.
"Or what?." Another voice spoke up, and a young man with messy short red hair stepped away from the family to stand in front of Zuko.
"Or, I will make you." Zuko started smoothly, moving closer. If there was one thing Zuko loved it was a good fight.
The red haired boy let out a loud laugh and pulled out the sword.
"Carful there." The older man spoke up to the boy.
"I'll tell you what," the man said slowly walking up to Zuko who tightened his hold on the swards, he glanced up the hill and saw Katara slowly making her way down to the family.
He needed to get a move on he turned his eyes back to the man who started talking again.
"If you leave right now, we'll pretend you didn't see any of this, there is no reason for," he smiled, "unnecessary conflict. So, what do you say?"
Zuko twitched at his tone, and then he looked at family again, the women looked frail and small, her dark black hair was hanging in her face hiding a bruise, she was huddling her baby tight in her arms, the man she was with looked much older; he was also small with dusty hair and Zuko began to wonder if he was her father or grandfather.
"Don't worry about them, just worry about yourself." The man said, bringing Zuko back to reality.
"Look buddy," The red haired boy stated annoyed at Zuko silence. "Either you get lost or get dead." He stuck out his sword a bit as a warning.
Zuko wanted to rolled his eyes. " Let these people go, leave their belongings and i'll leave." Zuko stated simply.
The large man crossed his arms and raised his eye brow. "Three against one, tisk tisk boy the numbers are against you, not to mention." He flexed his arms and popped his fingers.
"Chi and myself here are trained in the art of the sword, and Shi," he pointed to young women,
"is a master at hand to hand combat, so now boy I'm going to give you one last chance leave here and don't turn around."
Zuko saw Katara making her way to the family, she was inches from them hiding in a bush.
"Enough of this." The red head said before he made a stab at Zuko who raised his swords, they clashed with Chi's, making sparks fly in the air.
Zuko and Chi eyed each other before Chi brought his blade up and then down again, trying to hit Zuko who flipped around taking his swords with him, before hitting them with Chi's.
"Now this is a fight!" The older man yelled, watching as Chi and Zuko fight.
Chi's blade moved fast trying to hit Zuko anywhere he could, but Zuko was faster with his blade, and he almost became a blur as he twisted and move with each motion.
Chi moved again, bring the blade to Zukos face who quickly moved it nearly stabbing Chi with his own sword, Chi yelled angrily and moved quicker trying to get Zuko.
Katara wasn't the type to be impressed by fighting skills, Jet had ruined that for her, but watching Zuko fight was memorizing.
She felt herself go into a daze while he fought; until she heard a muffle and quickly looked at the family who were trying to get away. The women was struggling to break the ropes and keep her baby safe at the same time.
Shi and the other man were watching the fight as well, and were not paying attension the family.
She quietly moved to the family; the women jumped a bit kept quiet when Katara placed her hand on her mouth.
"Shhhhh, I'm here to help you." She whispered softly getting the women to calm down. She was young with long dark brown hair that reached all the way down her back, her eyes matched her hair, with pale skin and a small figure; a gag was sticking out of her mouth, next to her was an old man shaking with fear, he also had a dirty gag sticking out of his lips.
Katara ripped the gag out of the women's mouth first and then began to work on her hands.
"Please, my baby." She whispered, and Katara looked at the young thing who seemed to have fallen asleep ageist his mothers chest, how a baby could sleep through this she would never know.
"Your baby's fine, he's just sleeping, try to stay quiet while a get these ropes undone." She whisper softly.
Zuko was still in battle and drawing had drawn the attention of Chi and and the old man, while the girl was standing there watching silently.
Katara quickly got the ropes undone releasing the women.
"Hurry, my father" The women begged moving her baby closer to her.
Katara moved to the old man, his hair was a dark gray that was mostly patches on his head his face was covered in wrinkles that almost covered his dark brown eyes, and dark tunic, he stayed quiet as Katara went to remove his gag and undo his bounds, the women moved closer and tried to help and balance the baby at the same time, they needed to get out of there before….. Katara then glanced back to find the girl standing guard,was gone.
Katara tensed,and sensed someone behind her, before the girl could react Katara had grabbed the knife in the boot and shoved it it backwards into the unexpected person lurking behind her.
"Hey!" The girl yelled, as Katara's knife hit her leather boot. The three boys halted for a moment to watch Shi go after Katara, and the older man narrowed his eyes at Zuko.
"He's not alone." He shouted, and that's when hell broke lose.
"Katara!" Zuko shouted as he crushed his swords to Chi's and pushed him back, throwing him off balance and knocking him to the ground where he lay motionless.
"CHI!" The man shouted, his eyes narrowed at Zuko who had began running to Katara; who was still trying her best to protect the family.
He then watched in horror when the girl slashed at Katara with her sword. He made a straight dodge for her, but then he saw the man yank out his axe. Zuko just barley mangled to duck as the heavy object made a vertical swing at his head.
While the axe made it way down to him, he crossed his swords creating an x and protection , his knees sunk into the mud as he struggled to keep a grip.
Zuko shifted to find balance, and then jumped to his feet.
"Ah, so I see you're also trained." The man said as he began to circle Zuko.
"But it don't look like your girlfriend is."
His eyes shot up to Katara who was at the mercy of women, after about 30 seconds of ducking, Shi had Katara in a death grip, and Sokka's knife was pointed into Katara's temple.
"Stop now and she won't be harmed." The older man shouted as he looked at Katara's horrified face.
"And, if you refuse, we'll do worse things then just kill her, and we'll make you watch." Zuko eyed the man and then Katara, anger died from his face when he looked at her frightened form.
Without a second thought Zuko threw down his swords, but he kept his gaze on Katara, who watched him with horror, she had never seen him give up so easily.
"Get on your knees." The older man shouted looking back at Chi who had been knocked unconscious by Zuko and laying in a pool of blood that matched his hair.
Zuko obeyed and slowly got to his knees.
"Now for hurting my son you'll have to die." The man said, Zuko's eyes narrowed.
"you and your family are cowards, you would steal from a helpless mother and an old man, just for some cheap crap" he yelled, the old man simply smirked.
"how honorable, that's what your girlfriend can say at your funeral" the man said, Zuko's eyes widen as he raised his axe to Zuko.
"Let's see some blood!" He shouted triumphantly.
"Zuko, No!" Katara shouted. Zuko's eyes shot up only in time to see the gaze of orange flame and screams of the girl, as she let go of Karara and fell back.
"She's a firebender!
Finally some real action!
Thank you all for reading.
The song for this chapter is "Sliverstein- My Dagger Versus Your Sword. "