OK, folks, I've got some good news and some bad news. On the nice side I inform you that I have over thirty written pages and a nicely though-out plot for you… but these things do not belong to chapter six, rather they probably will be the core of a potential chapter ten or eleven… so I've got almost nothing in between, which means that I'll have to start chapter six from the meagre two pages that I had almost a year ago, hopefully it will not take long, but everything would be much faster if I actually get a beta. I have written to several people on the Beta site, but so far I have not received any answer. I would like to thank The Congressman for his kind words… and to the reviewer known as Mee-Mee: I understand your point and appreciate the advise, but sadly everything I have written is the foundation for the plot development that I have planned for, if I remove even one line of the historical background that I strive to create here, the rest of the story would not make much sense or at least it would not be "objectively" justified and it would just seem as a whim or arbitrariness from me. So I beg of you to bear with this boring classicist for a little while and give a read to the history sections.
I hope I can live up to your expectations and I assure you this story will be unlike anything you have ever seen before, but it will be rather long and it will take time for me to actually write it out, so I humbly beg for your patience and hope that some good-intentioned soul out there will come to my aid and become my long-awaited beta. By the end of August I hope to have at least a final draft of chapter six.
Also since I'm terrible at descriptions and we're going to need them soon enough, I'll refer to the page of dressup-avatar at deviantart (just add the name plus "dot" before the deviantart domain) for mental images and some other's that I'll show you when the time comes. And I've made some minor adjustments to the previous chapters, just a few words, no need to reread everything, but if you feel impatient with the next chapter do take this chance to look for details and imagine the whole structure of the story so far.
„Deine Vision wird nur dann klar, wenn du in dein eigenes Herz schaust. Wer nach außen schaut träumt: wer nach innen schaut, erwacht."
"Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes."
― Carl Gustav Jung
VISIONS
As prince Zuko began to set up camp for the night he gave one last look at the ocean for the first time in many years. Come the morrow he and Katara would arrive at the most unexplored and inhabited place of the Southern Earth Kingdom, a place called The Swamp, or the Great Swamp, which extended from the southern Gaolin Mountains and the Turtle's Paw Bay all way north to the Kolau Mountains and the ancient city of Omashu. This vast portion of wetland covered almost the totality of the southwestern Earth Kingdom from the coast to the great Si Wong Desert, thousands and thousands of kilometres with almost no human population to account for.
Zuko cursed at the prospect of constant humidity and almost complete lack of sun he'd have to face in that place and double cursed his luck, he had no other option but to pass through it if he wished to get to the colonies alive. He had no longer a ship to take him by sea and any attempt to go around the swamp would mean entering far too deep into Earth Kingdom territory and entering the most deadly and desolate desert in the world. This route at least guaranteed him the constant supply of water and local wildlife as food, not to mention the fact that there was virtually no danger of running into any Earth Kingdom soldier.
The sound of Katara setting up the tent, took him from his thoughts back into reality. The girl had at least proven herself to be very useful in almost all these quasi-domestic chores. Prince Zuko supposed that a whole life in the South Pole helped to develop certain skills, mainly how to set up tents, cooking and cleaning, which she did without complain. Zuko had been embarrassed in letting her do it all alone so he helped her with the cleaning and the tents, but after many unsuccessful attempts at cooking he had let her handle it.
It was weird for him to acknowledge at even this as a benefit from his uncle's "trap" in having him take the girl, though he'd never admit it to the old man or Katara for that matter. The young prince had also found queer the way that Katara had managed to establish an aura of familiarity to their conversations, brief though they were. The first time that she had called him "Zuko" he had been shocked almost to the point of indignation, not even his uncle dared to address him openly in such an informal manner. He had tried to reply and demand the use of honorifics, but when he was about to speak he had been unable to find a proper way to address her himself; she was no lady nor did she held any titles, and calling her "Miss" made him feel old and out of place, so he had eventually decided to call her Katara too, surprisingly, he had gotten used to it all; specially considering how seldom did he spoke to her, basically only after dinner when he gave her a daily lesson in reading, or when he had something practical to communicate.
She on the other hand was rather talkative, as they walked she usually spoke about this being her first time seeing this or that, how useful would so much wood would be back home or some anecdote about her brother or such. Usually he ignored her, so she was left to comment on the weather or the difference in food in here compared to her home. This had reminded Zuko of the necessity to limit their rations and supplies, so far that had kept close to the sea and the small rivers so they had abundant water and some fishes that Zuko had managed to catch, along with the cheese and hard bread he had brought from the port.
Zuko also found odd that Katara had yet to mention her waterbending even though his uncle had specifically told him to teach her. I wish he had told me how. So far he had read the most basic instructions in the waterbending book and he understood the idea, but he just couldn't phantom a practical way to explain her the instructions since, other than the movements described, he himself couldn't understand the way waterbending worked, to him it seemed as if it was the exact opposite of the methods taught in firebending: the emphasis wast not on the breathing but on the "undulated" movement on the limbs, the response and adaptation to the opponent's moves; the stances seemed as if they depended wholly on the opponent instead of the bender, in short Zuko dreaded the moment when Katara would ask him to teach her. Besides he was more interested in the book that the previous princes had read and written, Zuko had made it his habit to memorise, sentence by sentence at least some paragraphs every night before sleeping while Katara practised her letters on the floor.
That day marked exactly a fortnight since they had begun this journey, thought Zuko as he and Katara finished setting the tent, he gathered some wood and made a fire, then he sat and waited while Katara cooked the fish he had caught that day. Tomorrow they would need to catch something again, he wanted to keep the cheese and hard bread as intact as possible in case they found themselves in need of it.
While she cooked, Katara began to talk again about how different the fish were back at home, Zuko tried to ignore her. To be completely honest, he did so not only because he found her conversation boring nor because in the last three years he had barely uttered a word that was not a command, and so the ability to make small talk was completely lost to him, but because he was very embarrassed to speak to her without a practical objective. Zuko even suspected that the same embarrassment was what make Katara try to talk to him.
When they had set out they had brought with themselves only one tent, at the time it had seemed wise to avoid carrying unnecessary weight. But it had completely escaped Zuko that this meant that they would have to share, somehow Zuko had unconsciously assumed that Katara would sleep outside the tent as if she were a servant, so he had been very much surprised the first night when, after cleaning their pots, Zuko had entered the tent and immediately gone to his sleeping bag. Only when Katara had come in as well and laid at her own sleeping bag a few centimetres from him, as far away as the tent allowed, had everything dawned on Zuko. They were completely alone, in a tent, just a boy and a girl, he wondered if the Water Tribes were so savage so as to tolerate such a scandalous behaviour from a girl, specially since Katara had not said a word of complaint.
Somehow Zuko had gotten to sleep, but once again the nightmares woke him several times. Much to his surprise, Katara also had nightmares of her own, she had woken up crying a couple of times and quietly sobbed herself back to sleep. Zuko felt himself awkward and impotent as the girl whimpered at his side, he had not dared to ask her what was wrong, nor he had offered any kind words. When Katara had embraced him in her sleep, he had not pushed her away that night, nor the next one, nor the next one after that. Every single day the sun had come out to find a Water Tribe girl in the arms of a Fire Nation prince.
Most of the times Zuko had managed to slip away before Katara woke up, but twice he had been just halfway gone when she did. Zuko somehow knew that Katara was very much aware of the had been happening, or at least suspected it, and yet those mornings at breakfast neither had said any word about it, neither had accused the other or apologised, they had merely wished each other an awkward good morning and continued their way.
When they finished their dinner, they did what had become their routine. They would wash their dishes, then Zuko would check Katara's letters and let her study while he read, then they would go to sleep in their bags with their backs against each other, but during the night they would return to their nightmares and to each other's arms.
Retired general Iroh of the Fire Nation, better known as The Dragon of the West among the populace and the plebs, was still held in the highest regard and honour by the entire population, nobles and commoners alike. Thus it was no surprise when the captain of his ship informed him that a grand welcome was prepared for his arrival, this was not the usual business of throwing a fancy party for a returning lord, it was far more than that, people would come from all over the country to greet him at the port and follow him in a procession to the capital. The nobles would celebrate games in his honour, commoners would make offerings at the temple for his good health and the Royal Palace would be particularly active the following days.
Many years ago, when he had first sailed out at the head of an army with the task of conquering what remained of the Earth Kingdom and capturing Ba Sing Se, he would have been overwhelmed with joy and pride at the hope of receiving such a welcome. Today the old and tired man dreaded every bit of it. Not even the prospect of greeting old friends could take away the burdens of his heart and the bitter memories that now surfaced.
Five years ago, after the death of his son at the siege of Ba Sing Se, he had given the order to retreat and returned home many months later, with the shame of defeat and the pain of his loss in his heart. Almost a year passed between the beginning of the retreat and his arrival at the capital. Those months that he had spent looking for consolation and search had led him to the Spirit world, where he had found a new purpose in life, but in those months the human world had also changed radically.
While he was away, his friends in court, his generals and soldiers, and every honest and loyal citizen of the Fire Nation had tried desperately to locate him. His father Fire Lord Azulon had suddenly died while he was making preparations for Iroh's coronation and reorganising the Great Fire Council by appointing new young members and ministers close and loyal to his son, whose competence and proved effectiveness guaranteed a fresh and vigorous start for Iroh's rule.
So all alarms and suspicions had been raised when Azulon's will declared his younger son Ozai as his heir and successor, not only was it very uncommon for a Fire Lord to skip over his eldest son, but it was common knowledge that Azulon had always preferred Iroh over Ozai. Iroh was a proved general, a valiant warrior, an outstanding firebender and a competent politician. Since birth he had been raised and trained to rule. Since he had become of age Iroh had been trusted with the administration of the royal palace, he had travelled through his nation to mediate and solve all sorts of political and administrative conflicts with great success. He was loved by the plebs, admired by the commoners and highly respected by the nobles. The great trust in him had only increased with the years, his great victories and legendary deeds at the head of the conquering army had elevated his image to that of a national hero. His magnanimity and generosity had won him the total devotion of the plebs and his intelligent and effective interventions on economical and legal matters had secured him the eternal gratitude and awe of the nobles and merchants. In short he was the perfect prince and nobody doubted that he would soon be the perfect Fire Lord. The only noticeable defect on his character had been his weakness for women, which the Fire Sages openly condemned, but even that had stopped being a scandal when he took Eila of the ancient and influential Bei family as his wife.
To make matters worse, the executive head of Azulon's Council and his most trusted advisor and friend, Lord Ga of the Sun family had died a few hours after the news of Azulon's death reached him, the last time he was seen alive he had announced that he was going to investigate personally all the legal proceedings regarding the Fire Lord's will, shortly after he had been found death in his house and rumours spoke of a secret visit from princess Ursa, who had also disappeared and to this day her whereabouts remained a total mystery.
The Fire Council, guided by the followers and close and loyal friends of Azulon and Iroh had immediately called into question the whole affair and demanded a thorough investigation, they declared a state of emergency and urged prince Iroh to assume absolute power and authority to guarantee the peace, justice and security of the nation; but the prince was nowhere to be found. And Ozai was not without friends and supporters, even if they dwarfed in comparison to the multitude that questioned him and stood behind Iroh; the ten divisions that Ozai had had at his command marched on the capital and forbid Iroh's most staunch supporters from leaving their houses, many flew to their provinces or to the colonies to wait for their leader and prepared for war.
Since no one actually dared to openly accuse Ozai of murder and declare Azulon's will as a forgery, the Fire Sages, allegedly bribed by Ozai, had crowned him right after Azulon's funeral. The new Fire Lord had the Great Fire Council purged and filled it with people loyal to him, he bribed many with positions and favours, those he could not bribe, he bullied into a self imposed exile or openly threatened with charges of treason. Many popular revolts against him rose across the nation but Ozai crushed them mercilessly, it was the first time since the ancient civil war that a Fire Lord ordered an attack against civilian population. He arrested the generals and officers that did not declare their loyalty, and some mysteriously disappeared from the face of the earth.
When Iroh appeared before his waiting armies, three of every four noblemen flocked to his side, Azulon's friends and supporters declared their loyalty to him and put themselves at his disposal in in whatever course of action he decided. The officers of the army also declared themselves ready to protect him from any harm or injustice, civil war was at hand. But to the shock and disbelief of the whole nation, he acknowledged Azulon's will and Ozai's coronation, he disbanded his armies and returned home as a private citizen, but even then his soldiers refused to abandon him and he entered the capital with three armies, almost the whole nobility, commoners and plebeians at his back.
Iroh would never forget the face of his younger brother when he saw him, waiting at the doors of the palace full in armour and with an army of his own ready to fight, but despite his external and imposing appearance, Iroh had clearly seen in his brother's eyes a terrible and incommensurable fear, many witnesses claimed that when Iroh began to walk to face his younger brother, Ozai had actually trembled and it was known that the new Fire Lord had gasped in surprise when Iroh bent the knee and declared his loyalty right there, in front of every living soul in the capital. Ozai's soldiers had cheered, while Iroh's had simply stared and mumbled in shock and disbelief; so when Ozai had asked for their loyalty they were forced by Iroh's example to comply. Ozai wasted no time in dismissing any and all civil and military officer in which he could not trust, sadly the most experienced and competent people had been very open in their devotion and loyalty to Iroh, so far Ozai's new government had continued with its legitimacy questioned and its members' competence in doubt.
Even today, five years after the transition, there where those who secretly called Ozai an usurper, and the proven incompetence of Ozai's supporters along with the hostile and cold treatment which Iroh's friends and supporters received at court that kept them in practical exile from any official positions did little to ease the political tension, this situation had prompted many of them to constantly remind Iroh of their loyalty and readiness to follow him. When Zuko had openly chastised the foolish general Bujing for his plan, many had been glad that Ozai's son had actually spoken some sense, and when the young prince had been banished Iroh received many secret visitors that took this chance to try and persuade him to take action and seek justice for the boy, since apparently Iroh didn't care for his personal affronts. It was only then that Iroh learned a terrible secret that kept many of his nights in restless thinking: in the last session of the Fire Council presided by Azulon, the Fire Lord had ordered for Zuko to be adopted by Iroh; apparently Ozai had never been informed of this, or if he had he had not cared, but the legal procedure had been fully completed and the official act lay in the royal archives. Iroh had been moved to tears when he found out that fate had given him another son to love and cherish, but still he had refused to revel against his brother.
Now he returned again to his country, but this time he had a clear intention in mind. When he decided to accompany his dear nephew in his exile, he had done so on the conviction that he was far too young to travel alone and he needed much counsel and guidance in order to adjust to his new life and to search for the Avatar, but now Zuko was already a man and at the age where he would not listen to his elders, so there was little Iroh could do if he remained at his side against the orders of his brother, instead he intended to try and pressure the Fire Lord into pardoning Zuko.
As soon as Iroh reached the capital he would take advantage of his welcoming party to get up to date with the political terrain, even if his most loyal supporters and his closest friends no longer held any position at court or in the council, there were many who still owed him favours, and many more had close ties with his own followers so Iroh intended to secretly reorganize his political influence and gather as many supporters as he could at court, so he could negotiate with Ozai a pardon for Zuko.
But this was a very risky task, his followers had many reasons to distrust and dislike Ozai, if Iroh called on them they would answer, but they would immediately revive old grudges and demand that Iroh to take up arms and this Iroh would not do, he had sworn never to take arms again and the last thing he wanted was to cause a civil war. Thus Iroh needed to be extremely discreet about it and could only count on his most moderate followers to help him keep everything under control, and even then Iroh risked the pace if Ozai learned that he was plotting in secret.
The task was difficult and it would take time, years perhaps, he would need to slowly and carefully gather supporters to stand behind Zuko instead of him, he needed to increase the influence and power of his nephew from the shadows, so he would have to trust in his nephew not to do anything stupid until he had enough leverage to negotiate with Ozai.
It would all be much better if Zuko gave up his life as a prince and searched for a quiet and happy life outside Ozai's reach. He thought.
Iroh feared he would not live long enough to see that day, so he needed to quickly and quietly plant his seeds and nurture them for as long as he could before he returned to his nephew. At least he had left him with a friend, that water tribe girl was the first good thing that had happened to Zuko in many years, sadly, Iroh knew well enough that many more years would pass before Zuko realised it, if he realised it at all. Still Iroh needed to find someone who could guide his nephew in his absence and help him in the hard path that lay before him.
Iroh sighed as he decided that in order to ensure Zuko's future he would have to trust other external powers, for Iroh had many secret friends, but those mysterious friends had plans and projects of their own, and if Zuko ever became a threat to them they would most likely summon all their power to destroy him, so Iroh needed also to trust this to Zuko: that he'd open his eyes to the truth of the world and choose the path of balance, even if it went against his nation.
There were too many variables, too many risks, too many forces and factors to account and so little to trust, so little time. Iroh was nonetheless determined to help his nephew, he held his gaze and looked at the coast, he could distinguish the multitude that had gathered to greet him at port, as soon as Iroh was done with the formalities he would begin to move his pieces at court, then he would go and search for his other friends at some Pai Sho table.
To say that Katara was completely taken aback at the enormous quantity of trees that stood before her would be an euphemism. Even in the port Katara was surprised at the abundance of flora that surrounded them, now she was simply entranced and marvelled at the sight of so much green, leaves of all shapes and tonalities came out from trees larger than a ship. When she was little, her father had told her stories about the Earth Kingdom and its wonders, but even her wild and innocent imagination could never have conceived such a landscape.
"Is this the swamp?" She asked Zuko, who was walking a few meters ahead, that morning he had told her that they had to cross a gigantic swamp and that it would take them at least a week to do so. Katara had never even heard the word "swamp" before.
"We need to hurry, I want to find a good resting place in there before dawn." Said the prince while nodding.
Katara was still a bit cautious when speaking to him, but her fear of him was long gone. She blushed as she thought about the way he kept her company at night, she was sure Sokka and Gran-Gran would disapprove of her audacious attitude, but she herself found no harm in it, even if it embarrassed her. She was glad Zuko had not confronted her about it, she was sure she would die from embarrassment if he were to ask her why did she have so many nightmares and why did she cuddle with him to sleep. Katara had somehow convinced herself that it was no different from when she cuddled with Sokka or her father when she was little, but she knew that for some reason it was improper for her to do so.
Besides she now had time to look closely at Zuko and she found him very handsome, perhaps she only noticed it now that Zuko's hair was growing back; it was not much, but at least his head longer looked like a mirror. Apparently it required too much soap to shave his head, so he decided to spare on that account, plus he didn't want to waste the sharpness of his razor on something so trivial; he only had that razor, a small knife and a sword at his back and they didn't know when they would need them. His long ponytail contrasted with the shortness of the rest of his hair and made him look a bit funny, but handsome nonetheless, of course she would never dare to say that out loud.
As they entered the first trees of the swamp and the smell of humidity and putrid leaves enveloped them, Katara gagged and looked at Zuko, secretly hoping that he stopped and changed the route, but he continued on, ignoring the smell and the bugs flying around him. His determination impressed Katara, until she remembered why he was advancing and why she had followed him so far. Her heart got heavy with guilt, she had come to stop him from accomplishing his plans, if possibly to convince him of leaving the Avatar alone or at least to distract him, and if necessary to use force. But Katara had a gentle and understanding heart, and so far Zuko had proven not to be the cruel and heartless monster she had thought, even if he was a murder.
Katara trembled, she could not believe that she was thinking well of a murderer, even if the victim had been someone who had hurt her, she needed to focus and determine herself, but every time she tried to remember the reasons for her actions the facts came to face her, so far she had received nothing but kindness from Zuko and his uncle, they did not deserve her personal enmity, on the contrary she was in their debt. Once again she was at a loss, she wasn't completely sure if her cause was just or not, and she didn't know what she was going to do and how.
Katara was still pondering on these matters when she became dizzy because of the smell, she was about to ask Zuko to rest for a while when she noticed that he was no longer in front of her, she increased her pace hoping to catch up with him, but she never did. She called his name at first, then screamed it. It would take a few more minutes before Katara completely panicked, right when she realised that she was lost in the middle of the swamp.
Visions were sadly nothing new to general Iroh of the Fire Nation, ever since his journey into the Spirit World his dreams had been full of them, most were of no practical importance, simply sketched pieces of messages from joking spirits that had nothing better to do than attempt to communicate with humans. Iroh had found that the vast majority of the spirits were harmless playful creatures that cared for nothing more than games, a good joke and a nice conversation. And Iroh heard them all avidly, wisdom he had found was more often in the childish jest than in the stern dialogue.
There were of course other more dark and sinister spirits whose seriousness in speech and contempt for the human world made them almost intolerable. And then there were the great old spirits that actively searched for illumination and balance, from these had Iroh leaned to accept his son's death as a just punishment for both their actions and their disregard for peace and balance. Many great men across the world had come into contact with the spirits and some had banded together and sworn to dedicate their lives to protect the balance in the world, and Iroh had the honour of belonging to these men, even if their endeavour had so far proven very unsuccessful, in no small part thanks to Iroh's very past actions from the time before he joined this secret brotherhood. Iroh knew that eventually he would have to decide if he would carry out his mission even against the misguided dreams of his nephew and the ambitions of his brother, but he hoped that with time and patience would Zuko open his eyes to the truth and follow his steps or at least look for happiness without further disrupting the balance of the world.
On rare occasions one of these great spirits would deliver him a message or offer him advice and guidance. This time it had been a warning, a very stern and frightening warning. He had seen his dear nephew in a bloody battle fall wounded, then he had seen him again in a dark room surrounded by spectres blaming him for their deaths. And finally he had seen Zuko lost in anguish, hate and desperation, cry for help while he carried an enormous boulder at his back, the boulder was made of dead or agonising men that kept hurting him as he walked into a dark abyss unable to be free of his burden. Iroh had watched in horror as his nephew was consumed by regret, sadness and despair, but he knew better than to interfere with a vision sent by the spirits, and soon enough he saw Zuko laying in a makeshift bed, his whole body was covered with bruises, burns and wounds, but there were several hands that tended to him, cleaned his wounds and cared for him. Suddenly the whole scenario changed and now Zuko was with a girl whose features Iroh could not identify, Iroh gasped as he realised that the girl was dressed in blue and had very distinctive hair that shined like pearls in the darkness, but was horrified when he saw that Zuko was strangling the girl; Zuko's eyes were red, his face distorted in a beastly rage, all humanity had left them and nothing of his nephew remained in his body, like an empty shell that had been filled with wrath. Light slowly left the blue eyes of the beautiful maiden and the darkness consumed everything taking Zuko into an eternal pit.
Right before he woke up, the spirits granted Iroh a last fragmentary vision, he saw Zuko slowly walking towards him, he was in his armour and was covered in blood, but he was not alone, there were seven shapes at his sides helping him to walk, together they were carrying the boulder, one of these shapes Iroh did recognize, it was the clear figure of Katara of the Water Tribe, Zuko was no longer suffering, but calmly continued on his way, Iroh couldn't help but notice that this time Zuko was wearing the Royal Crown.
Iroh looked from his balcony into the royal gardens and took a sip of tea while he heard the crickets sing in the night. He was very distressed because of his vision and worried for Zuko more than ever.
What does it mean? Is Zuko's only hope that of silent resignation? He asked himself, it would have helped if at least he knew which spirit had send him the vision, but suspected that it had been the work of more than one spirit and with different intentions. So far the only thing he could be sure of it was that his nephew was in great danger and needed help, his future was filled with difficulties and uncertainties; but what scared Iroh the most was the fact that of the only two parts of his vision that were not completely unfavourable to Zuko pictured him hurt and one clearly showed him wearing the royal crown of the Fire Lords. If this premonition proved true, almost all of Iroh's plans and expectations for his nephew would prove useless. So far the spirits had never lied to him, but he knew from personal experience that visions were never as accurate was they appeared and they were not always depictions of an inexorable future.
With tears of desperation flowing from his eyes Iroh came to the realisation that he had come to the point of no return, he needed to decide once and for all how was he going to help his nephew and by what means, he no longer had the luxury of time to delay the decisions that could save or condemn his nephew, nor could he continue to rely in chance and hope alone. He ought have to gamble it all on his vision, thus his hopes of Zuko living peacefully away from the Fire Nation were shattered, and all he could do was salvage his hopes of avoiding a direct confrontation with Ozai on behalf of Zuko and perhaps to convince his secret friends not to act harshly against his nephew, and give Zuko a chance to prove himself a partisan of balance. Iroh dreaded to think what would happen of Zuko's destiny was indeed to be a cause of further unbalance, Iroh would then be trapped between love and duty, and forced to make a decision he no longer had the strength to make.
He called for his personal servant, the old general had still many followers inside the palace that would answer to him only.
"On the morning I'll be away from the palace, make sure nobody notices my absence." Said Iroh. "And arrange a secret meeting with Lord Bei, Lord Kang and Sage Shyu, I'll meet them separately at the usual places."
Not once since his banishment had Zuko ever cursed so much in a single day, he cursed his luck, he cursed this swamp, he cursed his father, he cursed his own dam foolishness and distraction and he cursed that stupid girl that had managed to get lost in less than half an hour after going into the swamp.
Zuko had been thinking how to finally offer some training to Katara that evening, since they were in a swamp and thus surrounded by water, they could perhaps train a bit everyday before going to sleep until they crossed the swamp, hopefully he could manage to teach her the basic moves from the book. As he had turned to tell her that they would stop to rest and eat in an hour or so, he had found that Katara was no longer behind him.
He had looked for her and called her name for the last four hours but to no avail, he'd thought about sending some fire signal into the air, but then decided that it was a stupid idea, the trees were so tall and so thick that no one would be able to see it and he just ran the risk of causing a fire. His well known impatience was slowly getting the best of him, and he was getting very angry and frustrated. Not even a half a month had passed since his uncle had made him swear that he would protect the girl and keep her in sight and he had already lost her in a gigantic swamp, thousands of kilometres away from any hope of civilisation or help. He needed to find her and find her quickly, she had on her some food for about a week but he doubted she'd last a day if a wild animal attacked her, she had no weapons and she couldn't waterbend for her life.
Zuko was hungry and tired, his throat was sore from so much shouting Katara's name, he had always been a man of few words who rarely spoke and in last few hours he had used his mouth more than in the last month. He knew that he had to keep calm, if he let panic get a hold of him, he was a dead man. He was about to sit and rest for a while when he heard steps behind him.
"Katara?" He said as he turned, but no answer came. His hand went immediately to his double sword, he didn't separate them as he drew, rather he kept them as one so as to confuse the enemy, he didn't know against how many opponents was he up to and he wanted to keep a surprise for them.
"Katara! Is that you?" He repeated as he slowly walked towards the gigantic tree from which the sound had come. When he was about a meter away he saw a shadow-like figure spring at full speed and run away from him. Under normal circumstances Zuko would have ignored whatever it was and continued to search for Katara, but now Zuko needed information and resources and he suspected that this spy would have them both, so he went after him, hoping to surprise him with his own speed but he ended up being the surprised one... he couldn't catch up.
After some minutes in pursuit Zuko stopped and was about to walk away when he heard the steps right behind him.
"Who goes there? Show yourself!" This time, Zuko decided to make use of his secret skills of stealth and with one quick and silent jump he went up a tree and rapidly jumped from branch to branch into his approacher's rear, from here up he could lay in wait to discover and capture whomever was following him. To his surprise and amazement there was no one down there, he took a good look at the area, there was indeed no one, yet still Zuko felt observed, his many years of training and avoiding danger had taught him when to sense an enemy's presence and he felt it close, way to close... Sure and steady watchfulness on him, but Zuko couldn't figure out from where did it all come.
Not from below and certainly not form above... He thought. That means... Zuko's heart skipped a beat and went into a defensive stance as he turned to his right and there it was, just some six or seven steps away from him on the same branch. It was a tall figure, dressed in a red coat and its face completely covered by a hood. Now Zuko was scared, there weren't many people in the world that could evade his stealth, much less get behind him without him noticing, he was facing a professional.
An assassin perhaps? He thought. He could have killed me already if he wanted to. Zuko took a closer look at his opponent, behind the large and heavy coat he could distinguish some pieces of red clothing, a very familiar red...
Only now did Zuko take notice that the person in front of him was a woman, her figure was distinctively feminine, her hips and breasts were noticeably large once Zuko took a more careful look. Then his eyes went to her hands, he could have sworn that he had seen those hands before. At last he glanced at the woman's chin, his eyes widened and he gasped in surprise.
"Who are you?" He said as he took a step forwards. The figure immediately jumped to the flood began to run away.
"Wait! Please wait! Who are you?" Said Zuko as he ran behind her. His mind was in complete turmoil, he no longer paid any mind to his surroundings, he simply ran with all his might behind the woman. He must have been running for too long, by the time the woman stopped in front a small stream he was exhausted and breathing heavily. The woman's back was still, almost as if she wasn't breathing, and Zuko was more confused than ever. How could anyone run so fast for so long and have no need to catch some breath?
"Who are you?" He asked again to the woman whose back he observed, the woman slowly removed her hood without turning to face him. Zuko's sword fell from his grasp, he couldn't breathe, he knew that hair, that head and the crown that rested upon it.
"Mom? Mom! Mom it's me Zuko!" He screamed as he rushed to her. He was about to embrace her when he realised that there was no one in front of him, just a couple of bamboo trees and a bush.
Zuko gulped, he didn't know of he was angry or sad, he tried to rationalise the situation, it was obvious that he was hallucinating, it was impossible that his mother was here of all places. It had all been an illusion, even though it seemed so real. Only when his vision became blurry did Zuko realise that he was crying, his jaw was trembling and his whole chest hurt. "Mother..." He whispered as he went to his knees.
"MOOOOM!" His scream echoed across the trees. Zuko covered his face with his hands as he slowly began to weep, the pain in his chest only increased each time he sobbed, he didn't realise that someone was behind him until he felt a hand in his shoulder.
When Lord Mek Kang received a secret message summoning him to a secret meeting with prince Iroh, he simply nodded in acknowledgement. He had been expecting such an invitation form him, perhaps such attitude was the reason many considered him to be arrogant, yet in his mind it was obvious. He was a very rich and influential Lord, and a very smart and successful one at that, moreover, he has a former official of Iroh, whose loyalty was not in question, and he had been honoured by the late prince Lu Ten with his close friendship.
He had much to talk about with Iroh, so he eagerly prepared for the meeting. He wished to speak with him after many years and reminisce of a kinder past... and there was of course politics. He didn't know for sure what Iroh wanted of him, but he suspected that it was related to the young prince Zuko. Whatever it was, Iroh could count on his help.
Mek had long ago given up hope of Iroh challenging Ozai for the throne, he knew he old man well enough to recognise that he was no longer The Dragon of the West, his general had died with Lu Ten at the walls of Ba Sing Se; now it was only Iroh, the father of his best friend, and the man that had trusted in his talents and virtues and accepted him despite his many faults. Mek had heard the rumours about Iroh's love for his nephew, if it was true that Zuko was what held Iroh's old heart together then Mek would help the young prince out of his loyalty to Iroh and the love he had held for Lu Ten.
And it just happened that Mek had just the insight of the current political developments of his nation to help organise and plan whatever Iroh intended to do, plus he had the resources and loyalty of the whole south at his disposal and the influence that came with it. Mek Kang had not remained idle since his return form the war front… at least not completely idle, while the whole court looked at him with contempt and openly mocked him for his known reputation as a lascivious and eccentric man, he quietly observed, moved his pieces and gathered his strength.
A common observer might think that the only loose end in Ozai's government was the suspicions that fell on his ascension, but that was merely a superficial circumstance, important though it was; there were still deeper structural changes that needed to be reckoned with if one were to truly comprehend the whole political machinery of the Fire Nation.
Ever since the Fire Lord had reduced the legal attributes of the Council of Fire Sages after the civil war, the Fire Lord had secured his position of power based on the loyalty of the army (that is to say, farmers and small land owners eligible for military service) and the plebs (the free citizens that constituted the working class), a loyalty that had its base on the conflict of interest and constant struggle between this lower class and the upper class: the nobles (educated landowners that had almost exclusive access to governmental posts) and the merchants (mostly tradesmen, shopkeepers, artisans and craftsmen, that lived in the cities and were perhaps the strongest pillar of the nation's economic growth; though they were forbidden from working in agriculture, they owned almost all of the nation's industry: factories, banks, shops and such).
So long as these forces kept each other at bay while the Fire Lord acted as supreme authority and had the legal preeminence over the rest of society, backed by the strength of the army as his sword and the favour of the plebs as his shield he could live in total security and rule without any real challenge.
But some factors in this power balance, that were normally taken for granted, had begun to change. First the legitimacy and legal basis of the Fire Lord's absolute power rested on belief, religion, in theory it all depended on the fact that he had been chosen by Agni as ruler of the Fire Nation and for that reason Sozin had dissolved the Council of Fire Sages, the only other possible challenger in this aspect to the Fire Lord's authority. Second, to guarantee the constant struggle between upper and lower class, its forces needed to be balanced as well, for that reason the nobles were forbidden from dealing with any commercial activity outside agriculture and landowning while the merchants were forbidden from agriculture; at the same time the Fire Lord had to constantly become the protector and champion of the plebs and farmers, defend their rights and interests against the combined greed of the upper class. And third, as the population grew, so did the cities and habited land that was farmed, that meant the Fire Lord had to rely on a big bureaucratic system to administer his nation and dispense justice, this system was best represented in the Great Fire Council, but as the nation continued to grow so did this system that slowly began to draw more and more of its members both from the nobility and the merchants, despite the Fire Lords efforts in choosing, few competent farmers or plebeians were ever found fit to form part of the council. The Great Fire Council at the beginning was but a mere tool of the Fire Lord, composed only of loyal nobles, military leaders and capable plebeians, as centuries passed slowly it transformed and became the main centre for political struggle as it came under control of nobles and merchants; since the Fire Lords no longer had the time to personally oversee all of the matters of his nation, if fell on the Fire Council to appoint local magistrates and decide over most of the administrative tasks. Even if legally the decisions of the council were mere "recommendations" that required the final approval of the Fire Lord, the continued growth of political and administrative tasks and perhaps a decline in the political vigour and sagacity of the Fire Lords slowly forced to delegate most decisions to the council, in practice but not de iure.
It had taken a very strong, smart and decisive Fire Lord like Sozin to force the council into submission and have it act in harmony with his own agenda. But that had not solved another problem, the Fire Lords had slowly become arrogant and distant from their base of power, neglecting their duty to protect and represent the interest of the plebs and small owners, and left them at the mercy of the ever powerful and ambitious nobles and merchants. As he had tried to demonstrate to Ozai a thousand times, this was slowly destroying the base of their nation's power: their army. Mek smiled as he maliciously remembered that he had forgotten to point out to Ozai that it meant his own base of power as well. How absent-minded of me! He thought with scorn.
And there was also the fact that even in their weakened state the Fire Sages still held much influence and moral authority over the lower classes. Though Mek admitted that the traditional religious piety that characterised the Fire Nation society was slowly disappearing and slowly becoming a mere ornament or formality.
These problems had only grown with their military expansion on the Earth Kingdom, the more land they conquered, the more the administrative tasks grew and in turn the Fire Lord had to rely more and more on his council. Even if Sozin's colonisation plan had been an excellent solution to their overpopulation problem, it also had its drawbacks, it depended heavily on their military success to conquer new land, protect it once conquered and administer it. Ozai cared only for the conquering part apparently. To make matters worse, since appropriate actions had not been taken at the appropriate time, the balance had been disrupted and the nobles and merchants had gained far too much power at the expense of the lower class and the Fire Lord, one of its most immediate consequences was that the small farmers had alarmingly decreased and passed over to the ranks of the dispossessed plebeians, diminishing the core strength and base of the army while overpopulating the cities with work-less plebeians, the poverty and lack of work, owed to the super abundance of workforce, eventually forced the plebs to turn to crime or a life of practical servitude to a rich man.
They had not advanced much in their conquests since Iroh left command of the invading forces, so there was no new land to colonise and the already existing colonies did not offer enough security and were for the most part poorly administrated, Ozai's brilliant idea had been to allow the plebs to join the army. The fool thought that it rid him of the plebs and gave him more soldiers, but in reality he was cutting his own veins by allowing men not loyal to the Fire Lord alone to form the majority of the army; as if his "solution" had not been stupid enough, he had assigned the nobles with the task and full authority for conscription, training, and providing for the new plebeian elements of the army until deployment, thinking that he was only forcing them to spend their money and resources on this task to save himself the trouble of doing it himself. In reality he was placing in the nobles the power they had lost back in the civil war! He was putting armies on their hands! Since the conscripted plebeians were under the authority of the local lords, they were classified as mere militia until they had completed all appropriate training and were annexed into the official army.
To increase his folly, Ozai had done all this while his own position as a ruler was in a very weak state, since most of his nation suspected him of usurping the throne if not actual murder of his own father and wife, he had to rely heavily on whatever friends and allies he had at court, so he was constantly forced to accept the decisions of the Fire Council, composed of people more or less loyal to him. Also he had to constantly make do with whomever entered into his service since the most capable and proven political and military leaders questioned his rule and where loyal or at least more inclined to favour Iroh.
Mek found it all very ironical, Ozai was known to have aspirations of restoring the absolute monarchy of the old days, reviving the absolute power of the Fire Lord, but so far he had done nothing but weaken it. Right now the council made its decisions based almost solely in personal rivalries and grudges among its members, which Ozai happily overlooked as long as it was detrimental to the interests of those whose loyalty he doubted. Even in the military operations in the Earth Kingdom this was very noticeable, he had discharged almost all of Iroh's offices and appointed people of his own, or his council's choosing as replacements, varying from half-competent officers like the late commander Zhao, to utter fools like General Bujing, who were responsible for the streak of defeats and follies that had so gravely endangered the colonies and caused the loss of almost all the advances that Iroh and Lu Ten had made through much hardships and sacrifice.
Mek had heard that recently an Earth Kingdom general named Fong had established a great military fortress right on the border of the colonies, between Senlin village and one of the conquered mining villages, right in front the Fire Nation's coasts and a few kilometres away from Omashu. It was a disgrace and a strategical defeat that put their citizens and army in great danger, that fortress could lend quick aid to Omashu and vice versa and be used as a spear point to attack on the colonies, if the Earth Kingdom had any navy left it could even be used as the base for naval attacks directly on the Fire Nation.
Mek sighted in frustration as he thought about the problems his nation faced. He owed to Lu Ten to look after it, it had been his friend's sole objective and dream his whole life. He took a drink from the wine the had in front of him as he reminisced. "Enjoy life." He'd told him. "Find a wife that makes you happy and gives you sons to love, then find some lovers that make you happier and give you more sons to love." He used to say to Lu Ten when he came to drag him out of whatever brothel he found himself in.
Mek had all the reasons in the world to dislike and disapprove of Ozai, and even if he hadn't, Ozai's incompetent rule would be enough reason for any man of sense to oppose him. Ozai was an excellent firebender and he no doubt had enough balls and some cunning to actually take the throne and somehow keep his power, but at what cost for himself and for his nation? What was the purpose of burning a country in order to become king of the ashes?
Iroh and Lu Ten had been different, they had both dedicated all their efforts to win the favour of the plebs and were ready to listen to his advise if it meant the good of the country; Ozai was far too obsessed with loyalty to actually listen to reason no matter where it came from.
As Mek turned to grab more wine a man entered the room.
"It has been some time Mekki. I see your bad habits have not changed… I don't suppose I could persuade you to go and pray with me instead of wasting your time and money with these… women" The man said.
"I reckon that I could not persuade YOU to bring in some of the girls, they are true professionals, I heard you used to be a constant patron in this establishment." Mek answered as he invited the man to take a seat.
"That was a long time ago, now I'm far to old to keep up with the ladies, but I hope I still can keep up with my friends." The old man said as he sat.
"Of course general Iroh, I'm at your orders." Said Mek as he emptied his cup.
Katara was already beyond fear, she had been completely scared and in panic for so long since losing Zuko, that her body had naturally stopped feeling fear altogether, it was a horrible sensation to be so afraid for so long, without any rest or relief, that your body simply could not keep up feeling fear any more. Her breathing was so heavy that she felt as if a Polar bear dog had fallen on her, her voice was rough from constantly shouting for help.
Long gone was her feeling of admiration for the swamp, normally she would have gaped at any of the threes that surrounded her for hours before another thing caught her interest, just the roots of those tree were two times larger than she was. Somehow she had even managed to lost complete sight of what little solid terrain there was in that place, and was now walking in a completely flooded place, the water was deep enough to reach her knees, and her boots were completely soaked in muddy and stinky water.
She walked aimlessly, not knowing really what she was doing and somehow hoping to find Zuko and deliverance, she knew that she would not survive for long if she was on her own, for the second time in her life she felt close the fatal and final inevitability of death, the last time Zuko and his soldiers had saved her and her brother from certain death, and Katara could only hope that he would do it again.
Katara had already gotten used to the strong smell of putrid plants and muddy water but the dizziness had refused to leave her for a second, now she was tired, scared and confused, at an eye glance she saw that she was walking in an area with more sunlight passing trough the top of the gigantic trees that left a greenish aura in its path until it reflected on the white flowers that covered the tree roots. As she looked a head, Katara saw a figure in the distance.
She tried to run and call for help again but her body was too tired to respond, barely managing to approach the person that had its back towards her. It was a woman, Katara noticed.
"Hello? Hello? Can you help me?" Katara squinted, that woman was wearing almost the same clothes as her, as she walked closer to the woman Katara realised that she had the same hairstyle as herself, her heart and her breathing stopped death on its tracks. "Mom?" She asked, and ran towards her as she called again, more loudly "Mom!"
In an instant she had reached her mother, and Katara was crying in joy. Katara began to speak "I can't believe... " And then her world and her heart shattered anew as the scene in front of her cleared, the smile that had slipped into her face disappeared.
Katara was standing in front of a tree stump and had to look at it several times before she realised that she had seen an illusion. She fell to her knees gasping and began to cry again, this time she couldn't control the sobs and snivels, her tears overflowed her small hands and cheeks the same way that the painful memories and longing overwhelmed her broken heart. She cried all the tears that she had not cried every single day since her mother's funeral, in her need to remain strong for her family, she would have stayed there and collapsed had she not heard a shout.
"Wait! Please wait! Who are you?" Katara recognized the voice, it was Zuko and he was not far away. She forced her exhausted body to a make one final effort at running, stumbling all the way she arrived to a small stream, as she looked around she heard another shout at her left behind some bamboo trees.
"Mom? Mom! Mom it's me Zuko!" Katara's body froze and her breathing got suck on her throat, her mind failed to make a coherent sense of the world any more, yet her body continued to advance, when Katara finally saw the prince, he was in front of a bamboo, his body was shaking. Katara saw Zuko fall to his knees and shout louder than she had ever thought possible for a man to shout, the whole swamp seemed to vibrate in response to the prince's cry.
"MOOOOM!"
Now Katara saw clearly that Zuko's tears covered his whole face, his back and shoulder quivered with each sob; and for the first time in her life Katara felt a deep empathy for a man of the Fire Nation; Zuko was a person just like her, he had a father and a mother whom he loved too, he could cry like her. Ever since her mother had been killed in a raid of the Fire Nation, Katara had thought that the Fire Nation was nothing but a viper's nest, filled with beasts that cared for nothing but death and destruction and had never known what the pain of losing a loved one. Her vision of the world was shattered, right in front of her a prince of the Fire Nation was crying for his own mother.
Did he lose her too? She asked herself. And Katara did the only thing that she could, she embraced him. Her uneasiness, doubts, fears and anger were gone, in her, only the pain of her loss and her gentle heart remained, and she could never stand to watch others suffering. She felt no embarrassment when Zuko embraced her in turn, he buried his head in her shoulder and continued to cry. Katara held his head closer and when she realised that she was crying herself, she let her sadness out, snuggling up her head besides Zuko's and her chest against his, they both cried until their sadness got purged out of their hearts and sleep took over them.
General Iroh of the Fire Nation was more than used to receive all sorts of deference and signs of respect and admiration when seen in public and he enjoyed very much when children and young men approached to ask for advice or stories, thus he had spend much of that afternoon on the streets of the capital and visiting old friends.
So far his two secret meetings with Lord Kang and Lord Bei had gone smoothly and without interference, it had been a good day, he had procured the help of the two most powerful men in the country, so they could begin to work on moving and setting all pieces for Zuko's return, it would perhaps take one to two years to reshape the political scenario into one that could be used to pressure Ozai without direct confrontation between the Fire Lord and himself, as Lord Kang had put it, they would use some fool to run the fool's errand, they would simply move the threads from the shadows and use intermediaries to negotiate under the table. It was a tedious and slow business, but it did not pose any danger and had very high chances of success.
With that done Iroh only needed to make one last visit that day, and he had always believed that the most secrets of meetings should always be held in the open. He wandered through the capital until he found an old man in front of a Pai Sho table.
"May I join you for this game?" Iroh asked the bald man in front of him, the man answered by gesturing him to sit.
"The guest has the first move."
Iroh sat and placed the lotus tile in the centre of the board.
"I see you favour the white lotus gambit, not many still cling to the ancient ways." The man spoke as he cupped his hands towards Iroh.
"Those who do can always find a friend." Answered Iroh mimicking the man's gesture and cupping his hands towards him.
"Then let us play." Declared the old man and then quickly moved a pile, Iroh answered and thus they did in a continuous succession of moves, each placing a tile after the next until their tiles on the board formed the shape of a lotus flower.
"Welcome brother, The White Lotus opens wide to those who know her secrets. How can I help you?" Asked the man.
Iroh simply replied as he left. "Tell the Grand Masters that the time is near and the dragon will meet them on Yu Dao."
Katara woke up when a slight trace of warm breath passed by her cheeks, as she opened her eyes she saw that she was inside their tent, for a moment Katara had forgotten the day's events until she realised that she was sleeping once again in Zuko's arms, this time she could not delude herself by believing that she had moved into his arms in her sleep nor that Zuko hadn't noticed. This time it was Zuko that had probably carried her from the stream into a slightly drier part of the swamp, it was Zuko who had set up the tent and placed her inside and, Katara's face steamed in heat at the thought, it was probably Zuko the one who had slept beside her or at least he must have noticed when she had slipped into his arms.
Katara lifted from his arms and crawled to her backpack, she was very hungry, and she knew that they still had enough hard bread and cheese to afford eating some that day. As she ate, Katara kept gazing at Zuko's face while he slept, she even counted the seconds that passed each time he inhaled and exhaled.
Though dim, there was some light in their tent, so it must have been morning already, they had lost a full day of travel thanks to their little adventure, but at least they were still together. Katara didn't want to think about the fact that were perhaps completely lost in the swamp's wilderness, so she focused her thoughts on the firebender that peacefully slept in front of her. He looked like a normal boy like that, his face devoid of his usual scowl, even his scar didn't look as menacing as it normally did now that there was no frown on Zuko's forehead to distort it into a very intimidating sight to behold. One day Katara would gather the courage to ask Zuko about his scar, which now intrigued her more than ever. He seemed like a very capable warrior on his own right, and he had made a very bloody demonstration of his skill before her very eyes when he had killed the commander, whomever had managed to injure him like that must have been a very strong opponent.
Katara was beyond confused about her actual feelings regarding the prince and his actions towards her and she barely felt the increase of the conflict in her heart when she reflected on what she considered an abominable act of murder. She was in nature a kind person, the thought of hurting anyone was already monstrous for her, murder was for her the worst of crimes, specially since she knew from first hand experience the kind of suffering it caused on the victims' family. For so long she had tried to forget the fact that her own father had killed people, as had many of the men from her village, even Sokka might one day kill another man, and Katara could never justify such a cruel and unjust act, so she had ignored it, just as she had ignored the fact that her father had left them to go to war and to kill men, but worse of it all, she had turned a blind eye towards her own hypocrisy, because deep in her heart she had wanted the man that killed her mother to feel the same pain as she did, she had at one point in her life wished death upon an other.
Now here she was in front of a killer, a killer that had saved her and her brother, a killer who planned to end the world's only hope for peace, a killed whom she had even considered to kill. And now her hypocrisies were laid in front of her face to mock her in the most irrefutable way; this killer was no different than Katara's own father. Indeed Zuko was no different than herself, he also had a mother whom he loved, he cried like she did, and he could suffer like she did, and Katara had to acknowledge that she had no right to take his life, she had to acknowledge that he was a human just like she was, she had to acknowledge that her father too was a killer, yet that did not make him the monster she had believed all killers were. To admit that even her mother's killer might be something else than a barbaric beast would have been too much for her, so once again she pushed everything into the deepest corner of her heart and thought only of the man in front of her.
Katara was no fool, but sadly she was ignorant to the ways of the world, innocent to much of its cruelty, the circumstances in which she had lived had made her ignorant even of much of her much of her own social and cultural background, and her kind and trusting nature had made her very naive. Perhaps that was one of the reasons for her considering the possibility of truly persuading Zuko to end the war, he was a prince and one day he would be Fire Lord, he could end the war at his will.
It would take much time before Katara finally understood how wrong she was, and how blind she had been for not noticing that the prince whom she gave so much credit, was at that moment sleeping in a tent in the middle of nowhere, dressed as a peasant and forced on a humiliating trip to fulfil a bureaucratic requirement.
A couple of hours passed before Zuko awoke, if he noticed that Katara had slept in his arms he didn't show it, nor did he made any mention to the previous day's events. Katara didn't know if she was glad or sorry for it, a part of her wanted to tell him about her past and hear whatever he had to say, but the other was afraid of how he might react when he heard her thoughts and still more afraid of how she might react when she heard him, her vision of the world had been severely shaken in the few weeks since she met prince Zuko, she didn't want to face yet again the harsh truth of the world.
"We need to get going, I'll go clean myself outside and see where we are, we'll move out in when I'm finished." Zuko told her.
Katara nodded silently and prepared for the day's journey.
Despite what his sister might believe, Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation was not a stupid man. True he was not a natural genius like his sister Azula, his cousin Lu Ten or his grandfather and great-grandfather. His tutors could testify to his intelligence and slightly-above-average academic skills, but of course this was not enough in the Fire Nation's royal family. Thus he had not developed a very intellectual life. He was too rash, irreflexive, impatient and passionate for the contemplating life of a scholar, so much of what he knew about philosophical matters, came either from his uncle or was the result of actual personal reflection on his own pain. None of which had prepared him to fully understand the feelings in his heart.
Zuko had always been kind, and his passionate nature made him prone to empathy, but these characteristics were seen as a weakness by his father, his sister and to an extent even his cousin Lu Ten had agreed with them. Since his mother had disappeared, prince Zuko had lost the only person open to give him and receive from him any sign of affection, his sister's and father's coldness and harsh personalities had effectively subdued Zuko's kind nature, and his banishment had left almost nothing but anger, shame, resentment and even self-hatred in his passion-fuelled heart.
The guilt and doubt that had dominated him since his battle against the Earth Kingdom ship and his Agni Kai, were the only force that had distracted him enough not to actually kill someone in wrath when he received the task of passing the military training, a decision that had obviously the intention of humiliating him and forcing him to walk his way through the Earth Kingdom.
Now, next to all this hurt and pain, and the sadness that had been stirred in his heart by the vision of his mother, he had to deal with the shame or insecurity that he felt when talking to Katara, it was a sense of defencelessness and vulnerability that Zuko had long forgotten and now he could only associate with weakness, it was the sense of sharing feelings with someone and a longing of emotional support. But Zuko had spent far too much repressing all of his emotions with anger to be able to understand his current feelings. Not only was he astonished because he had been so strongly affected by a vision, he was also surprised and confused as to how he felt about Katara seeing him and comforting him in the sorry state he was then. Katara, the Water Tribe peasant that he had been forced to bring along and protect, the girl who in her nightmares had taken the habit of snuggling into his arms and the girl who had cried in his arms with him to sleep was now the centre of his thoughts. Now, more than ever, Zuko wanted to know why had she cried, why did she have so many nightmares, why had she showed him such kindness. But this sudden and rapid birth of emotions confused and scared Zuko back to his now usual coldness.
But doing his best to ignore his thoughts was not easy, understandably, because of their shared experiences, short as they may be, they were nonetheless very extreme and emotionally challenging, specially for a boy that had just reached military age and a girl of barely more than fourteen summers, who had suffered so much in their short lives. But what made ignoring the thoughts of Katara practically impossible was the fact that since they had set out that morning, they now held hands as they walked; it had been Zuko's decision, since at the time it had seemed the best idea to avoid getting separated and lost again.
All this distraction helped him at least not to dwell much in the fact that they were lost in the middle is the biggest swamp in the world. Zuko did have some experience in travelling large distances and knew how to read the stars and find his way around, but he was no tracker nor a trained scout, and this time the situation was clearly above his means, they had a limited supply of food, and now they were reluctant to separate from each other, so hunting would difficult.
In his absent-mindedness Zuko failed to realise that he was advancing not in the direction he originally had set out to, much to his fortune, but he had slightly deviated from his path. A "force" or a calling had begun to attract them into a gigantic tree, but Zuko did not notice the tree until he felt Katara stopped to contemplate it; it was bigger than a palace, its thick branches reached up all the way to the clouds and its roots spread out through the swamp.
This magnificent wonder of nature was impressive enough to make the ever uninterested prince Zuko ponder about it, that tree must have been as old as the Earth Kingdom itself if not more. If he had known his exact location and precise coordinates, he would have undoubtedly recorded them and sent them to his uncle and the Royal Academy, so that they could send some scholar to study it in detail. It was a source of pride to Zuko as a prince to know that his country was so advanced scientifically and culturally to make the discovery, record and study of all nature's mysteries a priority to the government and their academies so as to further develop and increase their understanding and knowledge of the world. In comparison, the primitive Earth Kingdom did not have such interests, not the educative and research institutions to do the work. Had this discovery been made by and Earth Kingdom citizen, they would have likely built a shrine in honour of the spirit of the three and revered it as a local deity. Or used it for wood... Though prince Zuko. He wondered how the Water Tribes would react to it, would they turn to superstition and religion or would they use their brains to study a biological phenomenon as such.
Zuko was about to ask Katara for her opinion when he felt again a sense of hostility and danger.
"Katara get behind me." He said sternly as he drew his swords and got into a defensive stance. Katara did as she was told and cautiously looked around for danger.
Zuko stared directly into the tree, waiting... The whole atmosphere had become eerily quiet. He saw movement from the plants and prepared to attack, but he stopped, shocked in surprise when he saw a gigantic plant monster, covered in vines and foliage, it was some four meters high and its tremendous arms and body resembled the movements of a jelly, Zuko had no time to reason that its walking and swinging as it advanced made it clear that this beast was a boneless creature, much like a rat-squid or an octopus-dove, and thus it was physically and biologically impossible for it move in such a fast and secure way outside the water.
It attacked them at once, large series of vines were shot from its arms at them, Zuko cut them easily enough, but the creature was relentless. Zuko had to continuously step back in order to keep Katara out of reach, his years of training had paid off, even in this dangerous situation, he kept calm and kept his distance from the beast, holding it off. Zuko refrained from firebending for the moment, he wanted to catch his opponent off guard and retain the element of surprise.
He remembered his uncle's lessons: fear, surprise and intimidation were the key to archive victory, specially against bigger and stronger opponents that were too confident on their physical advantages. Zuko would keep slicing through the vines, dodging, and keeping Katara behind him, as far away from harm as possible; he would wait until the beast got tired of them and left, or until it became desperate and launched a frontal physical attack, only then would he firebend and manage to injure the monster severely enough to kill it, or at least to scare it away.
His plans went awry when he heard Katara scream behind him, somehow the beast had managed to slip a vine underneath them, but instead of attacking him, the beast had grabbed one of Katara's legs and pulled her to itself. Zuko then took no decision, his instincts acted for him, though his brain probably registered the fact that the monster was smart enough to attack the weakest of them and launch a stealth attack while distracting him with his frontal vine-attacks, thus making it a more dangerous opponent; Zuko paid mind only to the fact that if he let the beast pull Katara to its side, then she would die and he would be unable to protect her. So Zuko gambled it all on a frontal and relentless firebending attack.
First, he finally separated his double swords and jumped at the beast, setting them aflame in mid air and launching them at its stomach. The beast managed to deflect one, but the second pierced right trough its shoulder and stuck in there. Zuko seized the beast's confusion and pain and continued with his attack, sending fire blazes to the beast's upper body and arms, forcing it to release Katara's ankle. Zuko then proceeded to to concentrate his next shot into a continuous and increasing flame, giving it consistence that made the flame look like it was water thrown with a hose, this move was called the "flame thrower", it was particularly effective in open areas against bigger or more numerous opponents, and the whole wet swamp guaranteed that the flames would not start a fire. Zuko had to remind himself to keep breathing as his opponent was completely engulfed, he would have probably continued had he not heard a human scream from within the flames and beg to stop.
At first astonished by the fact that the monster had spoken, he nonetheless decided that no matter what the monster was it would be unable to fight after having all of his body scorched. As the flames died down he and Katara gasped when they saw a old fat man emerge from the charred vines and steaming water, the old man's body was luckily not severely burned, just very bruised and covered in ashes, he appeared to have no more clothing than foliage to cover his private parts.
Zuko was even more impressed when Katara rushed to help the man out of the scorched carcass that had been the vine monster, and give him fresh water. Upon interrogation they found that the man was named Huu and he was protecting the sacred tree. When asked about the monster they found that the man was controlling the vines all along. He claimed that he had meant no harm and merely wished to draw away any unwanted presence from his sacred tree, and almost died in the attempt, had it not been for the water inside the vines and the fact that he immediately submerged in the knee-deep water, he would have burned to death. Zuko was still distrustful.
"And how did you control those vines?" He asked.
"I bend the water from inside..." The old man answered as he regained his breath. Zuko's eyes widened as Katara gasped in surprise and launched a myriad of questions. Zuko interrupted them, he spoke in a rough and menacing voice, deep and raspy, clearly showing the barely suppressed anger he felt at being attacked.
"You attacked us, without provocation and endangered my companion... I will spare your life on two conditions."
His threat had made its effect, somehow it seemed as if his throat had also been scorched by the flames and his every word emanated a sinister and menacing echo, and his recent display of devastating power only increased the intimidating aura that irradiated from him. The old man Huu was trembling and scarcely managed to nod.
"First you'll guide us out of this swamp, to the Kolau Mountains..." The old man nodded vigorously at this."And while we're on the way..." Zuko paused and looked at Katara. "You'll teach this girl how to water bend."
"Would you like to stay?"
For many reasons it was something that she had not heard or expected to hear in a long time. Since her mother's death, only her grandmother had ever asked what she wished. Her life had been a constant routine of discipline, of selfless sacrifice and effort for her brother and for her tribe, she had worked herself to exhaustion every single day since she could remember for the good of the tribe, without expecting anything in return, it was her duty and no one could do her chores but her. It was the first time in many years that someone had asked her what she wanted, and this nice detail had come form none other than prince Zuko, the man she had plotted against, once again her conscience and guilt began eat her away.
A week had passed since their violent encounter with Huu, the old man had been loyal to his promise and had actually escorted them to their destination. They were just a day's march away from the Kolau mountains. Zuko had been ever distrustful of Huu, but Katara herself had taken a liking for him, not to mention the immense respect she felt for the first waterbender she had met.
Each day after they stopped to rest, Huu had taught her the basic principles of waterbeding, right under Zuko's watchful eye. Her progress had not been astonishing, but she was nonetheless grateful to have learned in that week more about waterbending than she had in her whole life. After sunrise and breakfast she would continue her reading lessons with Zuko, she had already memorised her letters and Zuko would help her read small fragments from the waterbending book he had brought, it was mostly the same things that Huu told her in the evenings, but Katara cherished each of those words and valued them for what they were: the cultural heritage of her people. At the time the irony of the fact that she was learning her own historical and cultural heritage from a Fire Nation prince and a swamp dweller escaped her.
Water was the element of change. It was clearly stated so in the book and Huu had told her the exact same thing in her first lesson. In essence waterbending was learning to go with the flow of energy; it was a mainly defensive form of bending in which the opponents' own strength and impulse was used against them. To exemplify this, Huu had shown her the push-and-pull move, the most basic form of water bending. He explained that, despite its name, in this move the bender did not really push nor did he pull the water out of a motionless state, he merely used the already existing movement in the water, increasing it and using it until he could move it into the direction he desired. But he never ceased to emphasize that they were not controlling the water, they were merely guiding its already existent movements into a certain direction.
Zuko had read her something similar form the book. Rather than supporting a separate set of offensive methods, waterbending employed defensive techniques, transforming attacks into counters - defence into offence. Instead of simply deflecting an attack, waterbending's defensive manoeuvres focused on control, achieved through turning an opponent's own strength against them, rather than directly harming the opponent. And he had commented that firebenders used quick strong punches and kicks to shoot fire, while waterbenders used slow movements and elegant turns and spins to return the momentum of the opponents' attacks with blasts of water. The nature of their elements made it natural that firebenders attacked first, while waterbenders waited and turned their target's attacks against them. He had also mentioned that the moves he had seen from Huu were rigid and straight in comparison to the more fluent and graceful movements from the book.
It had not been much, but at least Katara had learned how to make small waves, and her attempts at making a whip, though weak and not very far-reaching had been mostly successful. She had so far failed to make water go up in front of her to form a shield, she had merely succeeded in elevating some of it, but it was very thin and lacked mass, also, despite her immense concentration she could only hold it up for about a second. As it were she would be just as useless in battle as she had always been, but at least she had learned something and had great hope of improving. Huu had told her that he was impressed by her great improvements in such a short time.
The amount of concentration required in bending left her exhausted, but she had never been so grateful and satisfied with herself in her entire life. And now she had even more reason to be grateful than ever.
As she looked at prince Zuko's eyes she felt that he really did not want her to stay, and she had no idea why; hell she had no idea why he had brought her along in the first place. But she clearly saw him gulp as he repeated the question.
"Would you like to stay?"
Katara saw before her eyes the opportunity to learn from a real waterbending master. Huu had told her that his tribe was not far away from their current whereabouts, and there lived more waterbenders, he had offered her to stay, and to train her if she so wished. Zuko must have heard him, and that was the reason that he now was letting her stay.
Katara would remember that moment as the second time in the past month that she made a decision that shaped her life. She would remember that once again her mind was a turmoil of contradicting emotions and she could not even begin to process the chain of thoughts that had tormented her for the past weeks. Where her intentions towards prince Zuko just? Was it ungrateful of her part to betray the man who had helped her and shown her more kindness and understanding than anyone ever before? Should she abandon her childish quest to help the Avatar? Should she confess everything to prince Zuko? She never got an answer.
Huu called to them and pointed to a visible trail that must have been a road a few decades ago. If they followed it in less than a day they would reach their destination. It was now or never, Huu would only lead them until the mountains were visible and the trees began to disperse and let way to the open fields. Katara pushed away all her doubts and followed her heart.
"I'll come with you." She said as she took his hand and they began their way towards the Kolau Mountains.