So, it turns that I actually ended up writing this far sooner than I expected. Now the bad news: I've got nothing written for chapter seven (but now I have almost sixty pages for the hypothetical chapter ten or eleven), so it'll probably take a while, I hope I can do it before December, I've finished the credits of my bachelor's degree and I only need to finish social service and the thesis, so I should have some free time. Anyway please visit my deviantart page (just write undeclinable plus dot plus the deviantart domain), there you'll find a map; if it doesn't look clear enough, in my profile page there's a dropbox link to the map, you'll need it to understand what's going on.
Regarding the maps, I took the liberty of making up names for the places that where not classified or documented on the Avatar Wikia (Just google: Map of the World of Avatar, Avatar wikia). Now, as you can see from the map, I had originally planned to end this chapter with Katara and Zuko passing through the Cave of Two Lovers and dedicate the next to the rest of the journey from the Mining village to the Senlin village and finally the arrival to Pohuai. After discussing this with my dog, some wine and two whiskeys I've decided to scratch that, it's too much scenes to write and few opportunities to implement the developments I desire, plus after making some "time calculations" it's become evident that if I stuck to the original plan I'd have to delay much of the events that (logic dictates) should happen much faster, thus the plot would be significantly altered, so I'm going to have them travel directly to the Makapu village and from there to Pohuai. I'll update the map as soon as I'm able.
Along with my usual pleas for a beta, I'll add another one. Is there anyone out there that's good at drawing maps? It's not urgent now, but I'll probably need help soon enough, I have planned some other travel scenes, a few descriptions of places and economic trade, but most importantly battles, there'll be plenty and in order to better explain them I'll need to put in picture the troops' movements, battle lines, supply lines and such. As I've told you I'm a lowly classicist with no drawing skills whatsoever. I'm taking this much trouble for the sake of their stories and for your enjoyment, so any help would be greatly appreciated... specially if you are a beta-volunteer.
Another thing, as you probably have guessed, one of my personal interest is politics, how they work, why they work, how people live it and react to it, etc. But sadly much of the technical terms typically used to analyse it by modern scholars come from different foreign languages, so in an effort to make this story as homogeneous as possible in its vocabulary, I'll sometimes make up terms or use some that are not the trend in modern scholarship. Some examples: form now on, whenever you read (specially in "political contexts") the terms "power", "real power" "factual power" or similar, you have to understand the german term "Realpolitik"; or when you read "people's war" you are to understand "guerrilla warfare". Right now I'm struggling to come up with a term for "democracy", which I do not want to use.
Also, this story is classified M for a reason, there's going to be a lot of very controversial subjects popping out soon enough: war, slavery, killings, cruelty, torture, discussions about the nature of love, hate, legitimate violence; encounters between religious and irreligious people, between corrupt people and honest people; and of course descriptions of what happens during a war, sieges, mass murders, rape etc. There's going to be characters that condemn certain actions, other that will justify or defend them, others that will simply not care; I'm not going to sugar coat anything, I'll act like a good little philologist and describe the facts, their contexts, the opinions and emotions of people involved, and the reasoning behind actions and costumes, all will be discussed and described sine ira et studio, I'll call everything by its name. So if you are easily scandalised or offended, I respectfully recommend you to stop reading.
It's not my intention to justify, defend or promote any political, social or ideologic agenda, I'm just here doing something I like in the hopes of sharing some fun with you.
Last but not least, thanks to my reviewers. To crazyaboutto: Yes, I agree, more dialogue is needed, but right now the story is still in diapers, I'll need a bit more time to structure the basis of the narrative framework so as to let characters just move and talk at will. To Pririn: I'm trying to be "realistic", it'll take time, but yes, Katara's "sassy side" will eventually come out, I just can't conceive a preteen girl, specially a pacific one, suddenly becoming a badass warrior.
Do enjoy and please review.
„Das zusammen treffen zweier Persönlichkeiten, ist wie der Kontakt, zweier chemischer Substanzen: wenn es irgendeine Reaktion gibt, verwandeln sich beide.".
"The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed."
― Carl Gustav Jung
For a girl who had never seen any form of architectural progress, unless you counted igloos as architecture, watching even a small village must have been a thrilling experience. Thus it should have not surprised Katara to find herself stunned at the sight before her.
The ancient city of Omashu, the second largest city of the Earth Kingdom was nothing like Katara had ever imagined a "city" would be; her mental image of a city was that of a relatively big village, and perhaps she was not wrong in her definition, but Omashu far exeded her expectations.
Zuko had told her that the city they were traveling to was located in the Kolau Mountains in the southwestern Earth Kingdom, what he didn't mention was the fact that the city itself was on top of what had been a mountain, or rather that it was the mountain itself. It rose out of a deep chasm, that had previously been the slopes of the mountain, and had been created over the centuries by earthbenders as a means to easily defend the city; the only way to reach the gates of Omashu was across one of the four long narrow bridges of stone that spanned the sheer gorge.
They had not stayed in the city for long, much to her relief. In fact it had even taken Zuko a great deal of determination, and necessity, to actually enter it. The moment they had come out of the swamp, the enormous four peaks of its legendary piramids came into view and Zuko had once again grown taciturn and wary, he voiced his concerns and worries about the unusually tight security in the whole perimeter around the city. Several times was Zuko questioned by passing soldiers about his destination and origin, to which he had invented a clever lie, much to her surprise the soldiers had barely acknowledged her existence and one had actually asked if she was on sale. She had been about to express her anger and bewilderment about the comment, but a very strong grip from Zuko on her shoulder had stunned her into silence.
"She's not on sale" he had answered to the soldier and they had continued into the city; before entering the bridge, Zuko sternly said to her that people would think her to be a slave and that she should keep quiet if any of them were to make it safely out of the city. When Katara asked him why they thought she was a slave, his answer had frozen her in fear, indignation and horror.
"Slavery is traditional to these Earth Kingdom savages, they think a human can own another the same way you own your shoes or your clothes... And women are slaves by definition, according to these barbarians... when they see you they'll automatically assume you are my property, so should you act like a beaten and submissive goat-dog towards me, or they'll figure out that we are not from the Earth Kingdom, then I'll get killed and you will be sold to the first savage that wants to add you to his harem".
Katara had not dared to ask what a harem was, but it did not sound pleasant. She was far too horrified by the mere concept of slavery, naturally opposed to the water tribe's idea of mutual support and community, to ask or complain. To her the idea of forcing or treating a fellow tribe's member as an object or animal was beyond cruel or illogical, it was a monstrous act bellow beasts, and Zuko thought the same apparently, if his anger at her being treated as cheap merchandise was any evidence to his opinion.
Many years later, Katara would remember this experience as the first time she had a real view of the reality of the Earth Kingdom, not of the idealised version of the noble "soldiers of freedom" that opposed the conquests and occupation of the Fire Nation that she had heard from her father and the warriors of her tribe. She would also remember this first encounter with slavery as another source for her many regrets. Right before the Earth Kingdom soldier had asked for her price, she had been contemplating the possibility of publicly denouncing Zuko as the prince of the Fire Nation, she had thought that with it she could effectively end his search for the Avatar and give the Earth Kingdom a valuable hostage in its war efforts, only her indecisiveness, her conscience and her gratefulness towards the prince's many acts of kindness and favours towards her had stalled her desition until the Earth Kingdom soldier had horrified her out of her idea, not only had the soldier made her fear for her own safety, but she had feared for Zuko's life.
They had quickly entered the city, ressuplied some food and left; and they had entered the city not because Zuko had wanted, but because they had to cross through the city to enter the mountain roads that lead to the other side of the Kolau mountains, or so Zuko said.
Now Katara shot a last glance at the titanic city, with all the mixed feelings that she had gotten from it. She had been marveled at the sheer size of its bouldings, the magnitude of its squares and markets, not to mention the wonder of its mail system. But on the other side she had clearly seen many of the so called "slaves" get mistreated or beaten in public; and as they had passed through the central market, they had happened upon a slaves's acution, specifically of female slaves.
As the sun began its desent and casted a light shadow over the hills of Omashu, Katara's stomach turned in revulsion and horror as she remembered what she had witnessed.
A group of women had been pulled out of a caged carriage and brought in chains to the top of a platform in the middle of a market, there they had been paraded them one by one, stripped so as to show their bodies to the men that eventually bought them. The men inspected the slaves as if they were buying an ostrich horse, with a mere gesture to the seller the women would be brought closer to the interested parties and these strangers would freely touch and fondle the slaves' breasts and bottom, testing their skins for firmness.
Katara wiped a few tears that had begun to slip out of her eyes, as sting of pain in her left shoulder reminded her of the second time Zuko had had to forcefully restrain her from running to the platform and attaking both the seller and the buyers. A small girl no older than herself had been brought to the centerstage, one of the surroinding men had asked if she was old enough to bear children, and she had begun to cry uncontrolabbly when the seller had forcefully held her neck so the client could test the firmness of the girls' breasts.
Only Zuko's firm grip on her had held her in place, he had slowly dragged her away from the scene and out of the city, only later would Katara reflect on the fact that no one had raised an eyebrow to the fact that she had been dragged against her will out of the city, not the baker they had passed at the end of the market, not the silk merchant, nor the guards at the exit; one of them had even asked Zuko if his slave needed to be beaten into obedience. Apperantly it was also the duty of the guards and soldiers to help the owners to control their slaves.
Katara had thought about screaming, but a stern, and frankly quite scared and scary look from Zuko had stopped her. Only once they were at a safe distance from the city had Zuko freed her arm.
"Never do that again! Do you want us all killed?" He had almost screamed and began to walk deeper into the mountains.
Katara had quietly gulped down her sobbs, it had been a very intense and emotional day, little did she know that it was about to get worse. Though at the time she still had practically no knowledge of sex or its place in society (much less in Earth Kigndom society), and thus she had no idea what those slaves had been bought and inspected for, she did know that she would seriously dislike if a stranger were to see her naked or touched her in any way. Empathy and compassion were natural to her, and her horror, eventually gave way to anger.
"You did nothing!" She screamed at prince Zuko as she ran up to him, her face reddening in wrath and frustration. Much to her ire, Zuko simply waved her to shut up.
"Coward! What kind of man abandons an innocent girl to her fate?" Katara's scream was heard by the prince, but he said nothing and continued to walk.
"You call yourself a prince? Why do you abandon your subjets?"
Katara had no time to react, Zuko had quickly turned to face her and grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing her to look at him.
"You think I like it better than you? You think it pleases me to see these animals enslave and sell one another like cattle? I can't do anything for them now, we have not conquered these Earth Kingdom garbage yet, but I promise you once I regain my rightfull place in court I'll come back with an army and cut off the hands of every slaver I get my hands on!" He said, menacingly looking straight at her eyes, never blinking. When he freed her sore shoulders she colapsed on the floor. Too confused and disturbed by the day's events to keep up with reality, but Zuko had already begun to walk again, and she needed to catch up to him, in every way possible.
Retired general Iroh exited the war meeting room quietly, as was his habit, the moment his brother Fire Lord Ozai declared it ovet. He had kept quiet, it seemed that the spirits were smiling upon his plans, not only the slow and tedious progress of under-the-table negotiations was going faster than expected, but it appeared the Earth Kingdom was offering him an opportunity to aid his nephew without putting the boy in a position were he would have to choose between his home country and world balance and peace.
Lord Mek Kang quietly followed his steps, Iroh noted, but his old comrade spoke no word until they were safely away from prying eyes. They silently sat in one of the palace gardens, near a pond. Iroh called for tea yet he didn't say another word, he simply observed Lord Kang until the man spoke.
"I offen wonder how you do it, you keep your thoughts buried deep… my instincts tell me that you are plotting something, something bigger than our little bussines with your nephew…"
Iroh said no word, he sipped at his tea, as if Lord Kang's voice was a mere passing breeze, he naturally didn't plan on telling his old subordinate about his machinations, what he was planning was beyond treason, Iroh doubted that even his son's friend and companion would keep loyal to him if he found out. The young lord sighted.
"Whatever, you can keep your secrets General… I have nothing new to report on our bussines but there are things that I recently found out that you should probably know."
"I'm listening Mek." Said the general.
"It appears that Bujing's faction has even more reasons to recent you nephew that I thought. My source assures me that Zhao was not by mere chance so far south and so near Gaoling and the southern mountain trail. My source tells me that Bujing had deviced a plan to mobilise the whole southern army there and follow up the mountain trail, pass Tu Zin and up north all the way to Chamaleon bay."
"Go aroung the Si Wong Desert? That sound pretty stupid, even for Bujing."
"It gets even more stupid… he has been "twisting the truth" in the war meetings." Mek whispered. "You remember Admiral Chan? The former captain of the Lady Ilah?"
"I remember him, I hear his comminucations skills are lousy as ever… I will never understand what spirit posseded Ozai into promoting him." Answered Iroh as he took another sip.
"Its seems his chaotic communication system has saved the fleet from surprice attacks from a small fleet of water tribe warriors… twice. The water tribe fleet still managed to sink some seven ships and captured other three, they used them in combination with an army of Earth benders to completely block the entrance of Chamaleon bay to the Yellow river, they have succesfully cut us off from the East lake. Admiral Chan has tried unsuccesfully to break the bloquade, but whenever he gathers more than a few ships, those Water tribe bastards sneak up in the cover of the night and sabotage most of them. He lost captain Nung in a suicide attack from those pests."
"The minister Qin undoubtedly knows of this…" Said Iroh. "Yet none spoke of it in the meeting". Iroh, began to put the pieces together, this may end up being easier than he thought.
"So this attack to Chamaleon bay was meant to be a fully amphibian attack, with both the southern army and the eastern fleet combining to break the bloquade, possibly even calling reinforcements from the southern fleet." Mek continued.
"A waste of time and resources, the Yellow river is not such a valuable strategic access to merit so much human and material resources." With an acted "hump" of disdain, Iroh sentenced. "Even when following his pride and bashfullness my nephew still manages to save thousands of innocent troops from being massacred at the orders of Bujing."
"Perhaps…" Continued Mek. "But only temporarily, the old man Bujing has begun to fear for his post."
They both knew that since general Bujing had been appointed a high general and given direct command of the Eastern army and the task of leading the whole invasion efforts, he had done nothing but lose men, positions and conquered territory. Lands that Iroh had won with great effort, the whole region from between the Shisui and Xa rivers, the West lake and the Serpent's pass had been lost in the last three years. And now he had managed to allow a bunch of Water Tribe low-lifes to steal away direct access to the Yellow river and the West lake, a valuable trade and supply route to the most important ports of the central Earth Kingdom, not to mention the key factor to completely isolate the whole Ba Sing Se region and launching another attack on Ba Sing Se itself.
"You see general" Continued Mek "It seems that even the Minister Qin has realised that this General Fong is a very serious threat. I'm sure you heard all the details of how he crushed General Shu's southern army and prevented the succesfull implementation of a siege in Omashu. He's been using the Senlin mountains as a supply route to the fortress he established between our mining villages near the Xa river and the Senlin village. I still think that he does plan to use that fortress for something more than preventing General Shu from attaking Omashu, but the High generals and the minister Qin believe it to be a distraction, they are all convinced that Ba Sing Se is weaker than ever."
"And so Bujin sees this as his last chance to save face and keep his job, hum?" Said General Iroh. "What is he up to?" He asked as Lord Kang smiled, that young man was ever pridefull of his network of spies and was very happy to be acknowledged by his former general so much that the old man trusted him to have all the answers to his questions.
"His southern attack was the first part of a plan he hatched a few months ago, he intented to have the southern army and the eastern fleet take back Chamaleon bay and the Yellow river from the south. While he lead the eastern army and the western fleet to take back the Wu river and Nixuan." Said Mek, as he looked into his general's eyes. He offered an apologizing look for bringing up sad memories from their retreat from Ba Sing Se.
"And he planned to launch a double attack on Ba Sing Se after archieving these objectives, all the while, trusting General Shu and whatever skeleton forces he left him, to keep General Fong from sending help to his capital, possibly defeating him and putting a siege on Omashu while he himself sieges Ba Sing Se, right?" Asked Iroh while rolling his eyes, it was clear that Bujing was once again underestimating the Earth Kingdoms' soldiers and generals.
"Exactly, and Zhao's demise and your unexpected return have interfeared severely. Now he has no one he trusts with leading the southern army and the eastern fleet. And with you here, he fears Ozai will put you in charge again or one of your former subordinates."
"I never thought him stupid enough to beleive my brother would trust me." Said Iroh.
"It gets worse, he crafted some false reports, stating that an attacking Earth Kingdom army was being assebled at Najuan, so he had the entire eastern army movilized there a two days ago. He hopes he can take the city, cross his army over the Wu river, while the western fleet attacks Nixuan, so he can sneak up on Nixuan and cut it off by land and sea. Once there is a straight path to Ba Sing Se."
"Bloody idiot, he'll only get good men killed, winter is less than two months away, even if he manges to take Najuan, he'll freeze to death before he can return to Nixuan." Iroh put down his tea, his face got serious for the first time in many years.
"He's also movilized the whole western army to Gaipan. The northen army is to remain at Pohuai, to be shipped either to Omashu or to the West lake, deppending on where our beloved General Fong makes his appearence." Finished Mek.
Iroh pondered about it while keeping a distressed face, if Bujing's plan failed, as he thought it would fail, he'd have an excellent oportinity to pressure Ozai into offering peace terms, or at least accepting them if propossed, that would allow him to reach another agreement with his secret brothers. If it all went well, and the right heads rolled, he'd be able to put enought supporters in office so as to succesfully petition for Zuko's return. But for now he needed to keep Lord Kang in the dark.
"I'll speak against this nonsense with Ozai, spread the word about Bujin's lies, make sure the right people hear about them, and find more dirt on him, and Qin also." Iroh said as he waved goodbye, hoping that everything would fall into place and he'd be able to bring Zuko back home while peace and balance were restored to the land. He never would have imagined just how wrong would it all turn out.
Prince Zuko was unusually angry, not only had Katara's words hurt him deeply, but he did feel frustrated about the whole slavery bussines. The first time he had seen slavery he had reacted pretty much the same way Katara did, it had been his uncle the man who had to stop him from doing anything stupid.
Still, he hated slavery and profoundly so. It was contrary to the whole ideologic and religious world view of the Fire Nation, that emphasised the will, free will, decisiveness, courage and strenght. Their whole history had been shaped by those ideals, and by the example of men who had freely chosen the best way to pursue their lives. The only authority that a Fire Nation citizen accepted was that of the spirits and of its Fire Lord, and even that authority was not absolute, every man, woman and child from his country knew and undestood that there were basic freedoms that none could dispute. Provided they did not brake any laws, everyone was free to live the way they wanted, to work the way the way they wanted, not to work if so desired, to marry freely, etc.
One of the greatest prides that the Fire Nation army could boast, was that under the last years of Sozin's reing, slavery had been totally abolished in almost the whole Taku region. Now not a single slave or slaver was to be found in between the Northern sea and the rivers Yangtze and Shisui the penalty for such a crime was death by fire.
And by far the harshest, and probably only, critical jugment that had been passed on Iroh, was that he had failed to completely wipe out slavery from the conquered territories in the Ba Sin Se region, and that he had negotiated several non-agression pacts with many cities in the Omashu region, allowing them to continue that horrible practice, among several other benefits, in exchange of being allowed access to the land and sea markets from the region, to supply his army during the siege. A calculated plan, some argued, if the siege on Ba Sing Se had been succefull, it might have been accepted as a reason for not hunting down every slaver he could find. But the siege had failed and the slave market was still a very important source of economic abundance to the unnconquered parts of the Earth Kingdom.
Zuko could only sight in disgust. While on his ship, he had personally captured several of the slaver's ships that he had chanced upon, he had burned the slavers and freed the so called merchandise, but he was still amazed at the sheer number of people that risked their lives to continue their horrendous trade, no matter how much the profit, even if these savages had no moral qualms, at least the death warrant on slavers that was effective on all seas and lands controlled by the Fire Nation should have dissuaded them… but it hadn't.
If my uncle and cousin could be patient about it so shall I. He said to himself, but the guiltness did not fade from his conscience, he could have helped those slaves, but he hadn't. You would be dead, Katara would have been enslaved and those slaves would still have remained slaves. He argued to himself as he walked.
He glanced behind to see Katara still trailing behind him, she had not spoken a word since their argument, and frankly he did not have the patience nor the mood to try and make up with her at the moment.
They were almost in the entrance to the mountain pass when they spotted a group of Earth Kingdom soldiers that were closing all access to the mountains. Zuko inmmediately turned around and began to search for a discrete place to sleep that night. Tomorrow he would think about other possible rutes, but for now he needed to eat and rest, he didn't look foward to facing Katara again, but the day's journey had already been horrible enough, so Zuko would do everything to ensure it finally ended.
Lord Mek Kang strolled past his garden and sat before the altar of his ancestors. Like all nobles he had a house in the capital, which he used when he attended court bussines. He found it ironic that he now spent more time playing politics than searching for female company and just when he had managed to push all the administrative tasks on the hands of his wife and councerlors.
"You'd probably laugh."
He said to the image of Lu Ten that he kept in the shrine, not a day went by that he didn't stop to say a few words to his gone friend. Another irony, Lord Kang was a very sceptic man and he didn't believe in any form of life after this one, he didn't believe in the existance of the spirits; he sincerily thought that when you died, the inner mechanisms of the body that allowed thought and sensitivity shut off and that was it, you simply stopped existing. He remebered how much fun he used to have scandalizing the traditional, and odly religious, Lu Ten. He'd spendt hours annoying him with arguments and evidence that denied the possibility of the afterlife or the existance of the spirits; and he had inmense pleasure when he got the crown prince to admit that he could not counter his arguments… and yet here he was. If their roles had been reversed, he doubted that even the pious Lu Ten would actually take the time to constantly speak to him in the shrine or to visit his grave. No, prince Lu Ten would probably spend his days and nights administering justice, building some bridge or hospital, visiting schools or colleting money for the poor or some other foolishly pious action.
"I suppose that friendship does inspire more devotion than religion. You could never convince otherwise. Anyway, I have to go, your father is plotting something fishy again and has decided to leave me out of the loop."
Mek took a moment to picture his friend and imagine his reaction.
"Don't worry, I'll watch his back, I owe you that much… Your old man does not realise it, but he's gonna be needing his army back for whaterver he is plotting… Ozai would never let him command the royal army again but I think your foolish uncle has given me an opportunity to steal away the loyalty of the army from him."
Mek smiled as he imagined what Lu Ten would say if he was alive. He'd probably be more scandalized about Ozai's reforms than Mek's intention to twist them. The young Lord had realised inmediately that these new militia, as Ozai called them, from the plebeian class where like sheep. As the overlord of the south, he was tasked with the conscription, feeding, payment and training of the plebs that joined the army and came from his area of jurisdition. It had taken no time for him to become aware that now he had the loyalty of those men, a temporary loyalty of course, so long as he paid and feed them they would answer to him, but they still would not rise against Ozai, he needed to have the idea of justice and the love of the people on his side… something that General Iroh happened to have, if he could convince Iroh to use the thirty thousand men that Mek had on his command, plus the loyalty of the western army and the loyalty of those lords who, like him, had command over a significant portion of plebeian militia, they could strike and dethrone Ozai before the Fire Lord could test if the new officers he had appointed at court and the army and navy were truly loyal to him.
Mek chuckled, he didn't know what Iroh was planning, but he would be prepared to help the old man when he needed it. He rose from his sitting position and walked to the entrance, he stopped and turned around.
"By the way, you still look too tense… you should have taken two or three women, you would have died with a less sour look."
"I'm sorry" he had said. The words kept floating back in Katara's mind. She had never thought she'd hear those words comming from the prince. For many years she had suffered from her brother's disrespectful complains, his bad habits, his annoying comments and at times ungrateful critics. Only because of the love they shared as siblings did she put up with his crap, despite her brother's stupid pigheadedness at admitting when he made a mistake or crossed the line.
And today she had gotten to witness a prince of the Fire Nation apologise for screaming at her, even if she had given him good reason to snap at her. And that was what surprised her the most, her brother and sometimes even Gran-Gran would not ask for forgiveness when they had reason to believe they were right, yet the prince had. Katara was aware of her ingonrance concerning they affairs outside of her village, her knowledge of the Fire Nation was limited to the fact that they had a big army, liked war and conquering other people and that they had killed her mother, she had no idea how a prince of that Nation was supposed to behave, but she believed that he ought to be at least twice as arrogant and stubborn as Sokka and cold and unforgiving like the winter. Prince Zuko had proven her wrong... again, he had shown clearly that he was not as cruel as she had thought he would be, or as she would have liked him to be, and he was humble enough to apologise to her, a girl of no importance, with no money, power, influence or knowledge to merit his recognition.
If she was previously not ashamed enough for bearing ill will and conspiring against a man that had saved her life three times in the past month, and who took the trouble of bringing her with him, feeding her and providing to her needs, not to mention the fact that he bothered every day to teach her to read and even helped her to train in waterbending, now she had one more item to her long list of injustices towards the princes's kindness and favour, she had not found the courage or words to apologise for screaming at him, for putting both their lives in danger, for blaming him for the missfortune that had befallen those women on the market, she was still too shocked to think clearly about it.
She did remember hearing once or twice to her father talk about slavery with Sokka, her father had explained that when a person was a slave, that person stopped being considered a person and was treated as an object, like a shoe or a shirt, to be used and discards with no regard to its feelings or will. At the time she had not clearly understood the concept, it had been just that a concept, a word, today she had faced the reality of that word and it had terrified her.
What if Zuko began treating her as a slave? What if he mistreated her or forced her to work? What if he tried to undress her and touch her the way the men of the marked had touched those poor women? Katara shuddered, she knew that she would be powerless and defenceless to do anything against him, just like she had been her whole life. She repeated to herself Zuko's clear words of disaproval about slavery and she forced herself to remember that her father had told Sokka that slavery only existed in the Earth Kingdom. It was forbidden in the Fire Nation and it had never taken root in the Water Tribes.
For the first time of in her life Katara questioned the image that she had gotten from her elders, that the Earth Kingdom was good and the Fire Nation was bad. Something she had not entirely believed until her mother's death, from then on she had not questioned it until now. So far she had seen nothing but kindness, respect and even empathy from a Fire Nation prince, and cruelty and injustice from an Earth Kingdom city.
Just as she came to this realisation she thought of her mother. How could the Fire Nation be anything but evil? They had killed her mother.
As sleep offered a kind reprieve from the onslaught of questions and emotions, Katara tried her best to ignore the most disturbing questions of them all: what would her mother think if she found out that she now shared food, roof and bed with the prince of the Nation that had killed her? That she had shared his tears and sufferrings and felt true empathy for him? What would her mother think if she knew that she had found warmt, kindness, respect, knowledge, protection and comfort in this prince's arms?
They're mobilising troops. Thought Zuko as he entered their tent. They had scoured the whole southern foothills of the Kolau Mountains searching for an access to the mountain pass to no avail. Every access point or path, big or small, official or improvised was blocked and heavily guarded.
Prince Zuko had also not missed the fact that in every place they had traveled to that day, there had been footprints, a massive amount of them. Though Zuko was no tracker, he knew the basics and there was enough evidence that indicated that many of the footprints were a few weeks older than the rest and while others were recent. Zuko had also managed to see the dust clouds in the distance and the smoke trails from the bonfires deep into the mountains, hundreds of them, it required no genius to figure that there was an orchestrated mobilisation of troops.
A secret one... Thought Zuko as he laid in his sleeping bag, the rigorous control of transit, as well as the severity of the disciplinary measures that the Earth Kingdom soldiers exercised in order to forbid access to and from the mountain paths was more than disturbing, they were plotting something. As soon as they reached Fire Nation controlled territory he needed to report everything he had seen.
He sighted as he heard Katara enter the tent. It had been a rough day for both of them. He had somehow managed to swallow his pride and apologise for his outburst. The ungrateful brat had not deigned to answer. It was going to be a long voyage, and Zuko did not want a difference of opinion to make it any more annoying and aggravating. He even had taken the trouble to change their path during the day and to make a lot of detours so as to avoid markets and main squares in the villages they passed. He did not want Katara to try something stupid every time she saw a slave auction or worse, if they ran into an execution.
As he closed his eyes Zuko was partially grateful for all this trouble and anger. He could concentrate on it instead of dwelling in his past regrets, if he remained angry he could rest assured that he would not be weak once more, that he would not need to cry in Katara's arms again.
Fire Nation religion, education, and practically all its culture was based upon dualities and analogies with fire. The most important, at least for its education system and basic legal, political and religious framework, was the duality will-resignation, passion-restraint, defiance-submission. Just like in firebending, will and passion were nessesary elements for human life to take place, but just like in firebending there were limits that needed to be acknowledged.
The classic example taught to Fire Nation children by their mothers and repeated again in the first years of school was that if a firebender lacked will and passion, that is to say, the determination to face and defy a power greater than him he would not be able to firebend at all, but on the other hand of he became conceited and became unaware of his own limitations, weakness and powerlessness, he would eventually unleash fire's devastating power, which he had refused to acknowledge along with his own incapacity to control it, and he'd be destroyed along with whatever surrounded him, thus restraint and resignation were needed. Fire represented reality, something that man studied and struggled to understand, to an extent he was able to control it, but ultimately fire and reality had secret and powerful wills of their own.
Another example was that of cientific progress, it was true that thanks to their own will and determination they were able to predict rain seasons, change the course of rivers, make ports and dikes, buildings and even cure diseases and make vaccines. But nature was like fire, unpredictable, unstoppable, and merciless, if a man did not account for his own powerlessness and limitations he would be destroyed, thus resignation, restraint and submission were taught.
It was good and healthy to try and understand, change and control the world as long as one did not exceed his limits. These teachings had also their place in the political world. It was permitted and even encouraged for the plebs and urban citizens to actively engage in political debate, to question their rulers and offer suggestions and criticism, but ultimately they needed to acknowledge their positions as ruled and not rulers, if they did not acknowledge their limits and attempted to change or control a power bigger than their capacities it would destroy all of them and chaos would ensue.
The same thing was thaught to noble children, it was true that they held power, it was true that they had the means to enforce their wills upon the population, and that it was their duty to control it, to keep it from total revolt and protect it from itself and form external enemies, for those reasons it was natural and justified to repress them with laws, regulations and punishments, but the rulers themselves needed to restrain themselves and limit their actions to merely dispensing justice and peace.
Every noble child was told clearly that if he overstepped his authority and allowed discontent to grow among his subjets he'd be destroyed. If every man under his control decided that they would kill him, he'd be at their mercy, thus the rulers had to recognise the fact that people, just like fire, had wills and desires of their own and that believeing that they had absolute control over their people was foolishness. The power they held over their subjects was their greatest strenght and their greatest limit, they had a resposability to them, if mistreated or dissatisfied their subjects would rebel, but they could not give them free reign to do as they wished, the mass was stupid and clumbsy by nature. If the ruler became afraid of his subjects he'd be just as doomed as if he had looked down on them, despite all he was there precisely to rule. In way the ruler was subject to his subjects just as they were to him, just like a firebender was simultaniously master and slave of his fire.
It was because of these wise teachings of the dualities will-resignation, passion-restraint, defiance-submission that a balance was archieved and political and social stability had blossemed for thousands of years in the Fire Nation, unlike the Earth Kingdom that had so far suffered from civil wars for the last two thousand years, it was a divided territory, at so much odds against one another that they could not even be called a nation. Each city hated and misunderstood its neightboor and civil unrest was the order of the day, it was not uncommon for a city to experience a revolution twice or thrice every decade or so. Sometimes they had a king, sometimes the nobles ruled, at times even the masses of peleians attempted to govern themselves, never enduring much before the military leaders organised a coup and so on.
Fire Nation scholars firmly beleived that the Earth Kingdom's incompetence to rule its own territory was owed primarily because they did not show restraint and they were not taught to submit themselves to reality, the lack of resignation was the root of the civil discontent. If one does not accept his own weakness and limits there can be no negotiacion or agreement, in short there can be no politics. Politics were currupt and imperfect by nature, precisely because it obeyed reality instead of ideals, but the alternative was anarchy and chaos.
Historians agree that, along with the superior technology and military organization, the main reason for the Fire Nation's initial success in the war of conquest against the Earth Kingdom was the fact that the Fire Nation fought as that, a united nation, under one leader with a single purpose. While the Earth Kingdom had been divided, each city wishing and plotting for their neighbors' destruction, each village wanting to exact revenge against the other for past offences and slights, real or imagined.
Fire Lord Sozin's conquest of the Taku region had been archived in just three years, because as soon as his army landed in Yu Dao, he had found allies form the whole region, entire cities had surrundered to him under the condition that he helped them destroy a neighboring city or a distant rival. A man as cunning and shrewd as Sozin had quickly taken advantege of this situation, he knew that a wise general was a general that won wars fighting as few battles as possible. The cities that did not surrendered to him, he conquered with diplomacy, the ones that refused he destabilized by giving money and resourses to the opposing factions and promoting those loyal to him, he prefered assassination rather than battle. In fact, during his conquest campaing of the Taku region, he had only fought five battles, the most famous was the siege of the city of Taku which had ended in the total anihalation of the city and the death of its entire population, yet military historians and generals offen studied Sozin's victory at the battle of Han Tui with more interest.
Sozin had found allies and accepted terms of surrendering that were not always as favourable to him as he would have liked, at the time he was critized for this, but as years passed and he consolidated his power, he broke his promises and destroyed the old allies in which he could not trust or rely on. He had first resigned to reality and acknowledged that he needed help in order to conquest, thus he had given his allies what they wanted, he had acted based on what was real not on what he would have liked to be real, only when his control over his new territories had become stable and his enemies had been destroyed did he proceed to weaken his old allies, which he no longer need, and destroyed them, thus aknowledging the new reality.
Now the conquered territories were part of the Fire Nation and thus the values, culture and institutions of the Fire Nation needed to replace the old and incompatible institutions of the Earth Kingdom if his new population wast to adapt and become loyal to him. Fire Lord Sozin spent the last ten years of his life consolidating the cultural influence of the Fire Nation in his colonies, he was so susccesful that for as long the Fire Nation existed, the Taku region would never revolt against its rulers, and the Fire Nation culture became so deeply rooted in the region that for the next thousand years its inhabitants would name themselves Fire Nation citizens and would remain devoutly loyal to the central government.
Peace, stabiliy and economic growth in a region that had been known as the poorest of the Earth Kingdom, the total abolition of slavery and the end of opression of the farming villages by the big cities as well as the end of civil unrest and constant war had been archieved by Sozin because he had understood and followed the most basic teachings and wisdom of the Fire Nation.
The best example of Sozin's successful policies was the city of Yu Dao, before the arrival of Fire Nation coloners, it had been a poor backwater village that survived mainly on selling its inhabitants as slaves, now, thanks to the blending of Fire Nation culture and the cooperation of the original inhabitants, it was the richest city of the entire Fire Nation, and its metal industry, result of the combined work of firebenders and earthbenders was the most prestigious in the world. Sozin had accepted the reality that earthbenders were useful and their skills allowed them to archive goals different than what a firebender could. He needed them.
Prince Zuko reminded himself of all these facts as he breathed in and out and stuggled to remain calm. He needed to exersize restraint on his anger and frustration, just as his uncle had told him until his ears bled.
It was now midday and they had unsuccesfully searched for an entrance into the mountain paths, if they could not find a way to cross the mountains, they'd be forced to go around them, it would take them at least a month and drive them far too deep into enemy territory. Because of the heat Zuko had agreed to let Katara practise her waterbending for a while on a small lake they had stumbled upon. He was a bit glad that she acted like the preivous day's fight had not happened, it would be easier for them to ignore any source of conflict.
But to be truthful he was very frustrated about his current difficulties, and he was disapointed in himself for enyoing watching as Katara swam and waterbended in her underwear a little bit more than he should. He was about to tell her that it was time to continue their journey when he heard some singing in the distance, whomever was singing and playing instruments was getting closer. For some reason he groaned, he had the feeling thet he would not like this. With a sight he remembered, he needed to exersise resignation and submit himself to reality, whatever was coming he would meet it with as much grace and strenght as he could muster.
Katara was so concentrated on her waterbending that she did not hear the approaching group, despite their singing, until they were some fifty meters away from her. As she looked up to the incoming group she smiled, she was happy to finally meet people that didn't look like cruel savages, and to find a distraction from Zuko.
She needed some space and even though her training did offer something to concentrate on, it was ultimately tied to Zuko, whenever she hit a dead end or got stuck with a movement she would need to ask him for advice or to help her search for tips in the waterbending book. Although she justly felt that she had made considerable progress both in her bending and her reading, specially considering that she had been studying scaersely more than a month, Katara still had a long way to go.
She could now push and pull water at will, but she could not yet hold more than a litre of water in midair without losing control of it; and even then she could not throw it with enough to strength to actually hurt anything, and she could only shape it with great effort and focus that left her exhausted after a few minutes. Katara felt a bit more confident in her reading, she had almost memorised all the basic characters and their pronuntiations, she could now read small sentences as long as the vocabulary was not too complex, she was confident that soon she would know enough characters and words to read the waterbending book on her own.
Dada, da. Don't fall in love with the traveling girl. She'll leave you broke and brokenhearted. Went the song. Two men and a woman dressed in what Katara could only identify as large loose robes with flowery embroidment stopped singing and playing as they saw her and Zuko by the lake. A man with large messy hair underneath, a very big and weird-looking hat, a flower necklace and a pipa approached, and warmly greeted them.
"Hey, river people!"
"We are not river people." Answered Katara before she could reflect on it. The man looked at her and Zuko like an addlepated nitwit before asking.
"Then what kind of people are you?"
"Just people." Dryly stated Zuko, finally joining the conversation.
"Aren't we all brother?" The man asked in a very emphatic and dramatic tone, something that Zuko evidently did not like, the prince walked over and stepped right in between them and Katara before asking accusingly.
"Who are you?"
So much for friendliness, thought Katara.
"I'm Chong and this is my wife, Lily. We're nomads, happy to go wherever the wind takes us!" Answered the man before suddenly crazily strumming his pipa. Katara could almost hear Zuko's disdain from his sight, she decided to be more polite and make some small talk with them, she was happy to meet some normal people, and happy to see that not all women in the Earth Kingdom were not treated as animals, Chong did refer to Lily as his wife and Katara knew for a fact that husbands were always kind and gentle with their wives. Little did she know what a mistake she had made in assuming that the social structure and characteristics of marriage in the Water Tribes were the same as those in the Earth Kingdom, and in ignoring the fact that usually among nomadic people, women always tended to be in more equal terms with men than in sedentary cultures, and that in the Earth Kingdom the word "wife" and "slave" were completely synonymous.
After meeting the rest of the group and a few minutes of intense talk with nice music to accompany, Katara decided that it would be nice to have Zuko join the conversation, she called for the prince, who sat on top of a rock angrily brooding over something.
"Zuko, come over here, you should here some of these stories, these guys have been everywhere." Katara noticed that Zuko's shoulders stiffened. He's still angry, she thought. She did not realise that now, in the presence of others, Zuko had realised the familiarity, specially in the way they spoke to each other, which had grown between them and it disturbed him. Nevertheless she did owe him an apology for her behaviour. Her thoughts were interrupted by Chong.
"Well not everywhere, little lady. But where we haven't been, we've heard about through stories and songs." Chong corrected.
"They said they'll take us to see a giant night crawler!" Katara told Zuko.
Moku, the other male memeber of the group of nomads, lying on the ground added in a dreamy voice and making a delicate hand gesture. "On the way, there's a waterfall that creates a never-ending rainbow!"
Zuko's cold, dry and serious reply effectively killed the calm and inviting atmosphere that had surged in the conversation. "Impossible", he said "we need to get through the mountains." Before he could continue Chong interrupted him.
"Wow, sounds like someone has a case of destination fever. You're worried too much about where you're going."
His wife Lily nodded in agreement and added. "You've got to focus less on the 'where' and more on the 'going'."
Zuko simply glanced at Katara, his meaning clear in his eyes, he was offering her the same choice he had offered her back in the swamp. You can go with them if you want to. Katara lowered her gaze in shame. How childish of me! As she assented with a nod.
"You're right, we need to get to the sea"
"Sounds like you're headed to the mountain's path" said Chong as if he had just arrived at a great conclusion, and Katara could almost hear as Zuko's tears clenched in annoyance and impatience. He must have thought that the man was either a halfwit or was making fun of them, neither option would have particularly pleased Zuko, but before the prince lost his temper Chong said something that caught Zuko's attention.
"There's an old story about a secret pass right through the mountains".
"Is this real or a legend?" Asked Katara, happy to see that the scowl on Zuko's face had suddenly disappeared.
"Oh, it's a real legend." Answered Chong, managing to revive Zuko's scowl. "And it's as old as earthbending itself." He began to strumm his pipa and sang along with his wife and his friend.
Two lovers, forbidden from one another,
the war divides their people and the mountain divides them apart!
Built a path to be together!
Chong stopped playing and said. "Yeah, I forget the next couple of lines, but then it goes ..."
Secret tunnel! Secret tunnel!
Through the mountains, secret, secret, secret, secret tunnel! Yeah!
Katara looked as Zuko drew a calming breath and with silent resignation in his eyes said. "Looks like we've got no other choice."
Zuko was not really happy about his new traveling companions, but they had agreed to show them the way to the tunel that went under the mountains and frankly he had no other choice if he wanted to arrive this year to Pohuai. If the passage was really under the mountains he could even cross them in half the time he had expected.
"How far are we from the tunnel?" He asked Chong, trying his best to ingore his annoying singing and pipa playing.
"Actually, it's not just one tunnel. The lovers didn't want anyone to find out about their love, so they built a whole labyrinth!" Chong said as-a-matter-of-factly.
"Labyrinth?" Asked Zuko. Are they brain dead? Why didn't they tell us sooner?
Chong dissmissed his worries by saying cassualy. "Oh, I'm sure we'll figure it out." And he kept advancing, before Zuko could begin to scream at him his wife Lily told him.
"All you need to do is trust in love ... according to the curse."
To Zuko's anger he could not even beign to loose his wrath upon these dimwitted fools, for before he could even complain, Chong announced to the gruop.
"Hey-hey! We're here!" And after a pause. "The curse says that only those who trust in love can make it through the caves. Otherwise, you'll be trapped in them forever." Explained Chong as he gestured towards the enormous entrance to the cave. Two massive pillars suppourted a giagantic door, on top of wich a human sized inscription of three characters stated "The Lovers' Cave".
"And die." Said Lily
"Oh yeah, and die." Assented Chong, before stopping in his tracks and as if struck by lighting claimed. "Hey, I just remembered the rest of that song!" He stands before the entrance and strumed his pipa while he sang in an ominous low voice. And die!
Zuko started to calculate their possibilities, they had enough supplies with them to last for a week or so, assuming they found a source of water inside the tunnels. Had he known that instead of a tunnel they were heading to a labyrinth, he would have been more reluctant to follow these singing clowns. But still, this was a chance he had to consider carefully, going in meant they risked getting lost and dying of dehydration or starvation; not going in meant that they had to circle around the mountain, which could take months, and risk getting caught by the enemy or worse, by slavers or thieves.
Zuko overheard as Katara asked to Lily. "So all you need to do is trust in love to get through these caves?" But he did not realise that she was looking at him when she spoke.
In the end his impatience decided for him, he had already lost a month and he had no time to lose if he was to find the Avatar. He quickly thanked the group and waited a few moments while Katara also bid the goodbye. She followed him inside the cave without question.
Despite her travels with Zuko, Katara was still amazed at how convenient firebending could be, just imagining the possibilities of using it for practical purposes back at the South Pole brought a smile to her face. For the last three hours they had been walking non stop in the near darkness, had they depended on torches, they would be almost out of them by now, fortunately Zuko's fire was practically unlimited.
They had been unusually quiet, even for Zuko's standards, not wanting to get lost again they had resumed their old habit of holding hands, Katara swore the awkwardness would never leave, and now more than ever it was an uncomfortable situation for both of them. Katara was still brooding over how she should finally apologise for her childish behaviour when she spotted an enormous door in front of their path.
"Zuko look, We found the exit!" She said as she ran towards the door. Katara waited until Zuko was at her side befor she pushed it open.
"This isn't the exit." Stated Zuko as they walked in. Zuko increased his flame so as to illuminate the whole room.
"No. It's a tomb." Said Katara after noticing two gigantic sarcophaguses in the middle. "It must be the two lovers from the legend; that's who's buried here." She continued and pointed to the engravings on the walls, two figures, a male and a female appeared in almost all of them.
"These pictures tell their story." Katara was glad that to find that there were almost no writings used to explain the story, she did not feel confident enough in her reading skills. Caught in a moment of excitement and wishing to prolong her talking time with Zuko she began to describe the scenes of the pictures around her while Zuko quietly examined the room in search for a map or a way out.
"They met on top of the mountain that divided their two villages... The villages were enemies, so they could not be together but their love was strong and they found a way." Katara remembered the times when her mother told her love stories, she had been too young to pick an interest in them, now for some unexplicable reason she felt like hearing one.
"The two lovers learned earthbending from the badgermoles; they became the first earthbenders. They built elaborate tunnels, so they could meet secretly. Anyone who tried to follow them would be forever in the labyrinth." Katara stopped to contemplate the picture of the lovers kissing.
"But, one day, the man didn't come; he'd died in the war between the two villages. Devastated, the woman unleashed a terrible display of her earthbending power - she could have destroyed them all... but, instead, she declared the war over. Both villages helped her build a new city where they would live together in peace. The woman's name was Oma and the man's name was Shu. The great city was named Omashu as a monument to their love." With a gasp Katara realised her heart had started beating like a drum, she felt nervous and her checks warmed.
With no small effort she managed to remember the characters needed to read inscription on the relief in the wall right over the last carving, a carving of the couple kissing in the dark "Love is brightest in the dark."
Zuko kept uselessly looking for a map while Katara realeted the lovers' story, after finding a second door and confirming it only led to another tunnel he asked to hiself outloud. "How are we going to find our way out of these tunnels?" Maybe it was not such a good idea to come through this path.
"I have a crazy idea." Katara's voice interrupted his thoughts.
"What?" Asked Zuko letting curiosity get the better of him. What could this girl possibly had thought of that could help? Zuko couldn't believe he was that desperate, still they had a few hours before dusk, not that it mattered in this obscure cave, but he did not fancy spending the night in such a place, next to a tomb and spirits know what other night creatures.
He turned to look at Katara, she stopped and hesitated for a while, finally she walked away, slightly embarrassed. "Never mind. It's too crazy."
"Katara, what is it?" Now Zukow as getting annoyed, if there was any way to get quickly out of this mess, he wanted to know it immediately.
"I was thinking... The curse says we'll be trapped in here forever unless we trust in love ..." Finally spoke Katara while she looked nervously at her fingers.
"Right..." Zuko did not follow.
Katara turned to face him and gestured to the portrait. "And here, it says, 'Love is brightest in the dark' and has a picture of them kissing."
Zuko was now utterly confused and lost. "Where are you going with this?"
It took Katara almost a full minute before she shyly, asked. "Well, what if we ... kissed?"
"What?" Blourted Zuko, he was not sure he had heard right, he was beyond normal confusion and surprise, Zuko was not sure an adjective existed that described his current feelings, baffled, befogged, garbled, muddled, perhaps?
"See? It was a crazy idea." Zuko did not know it, but Katara as blushing madly, just like him. "It was stupid... I'm sorry..." Katara stopped and Zuko could hear how she drew a breath, slowly walked up to him and looked straight at his eyes before saying. "...for everything."
Zuko was not sure exactly what happened next, one moment he was frozen in surprise, unable to process exactly what was happening, the next his heart accelerated, he felt a warmt spread through his body. He could see only the eyes of Katara, and the flames on the top of his palm reflected in her irises. He had never seen such a pure and clear blue in his life. In the almost complete darkness that enveloped them his twisting flames not only danced in his palm, they also danced in Katara's eyes, adding a layer of redish colour and resembling the movement of weaves, Zuko had never seen a sunset in the sea that could compare to the enthrancing beauty of Katara's eyes.
At that moment a thought occured to him, though he probably did not realise it, if his flames were to extinguish, all the beauty of Katara's eyes would be shrouded in darkness, but their union had created something new, somethign unique, something beatiful, something that belonged only to the two of them. Zuko stopped thinking, he lowered his hand and put out the flames, right before he caputed Katara's lips on his own.
Later, Zuko would confess that he had never kissed a girl before, it had really not interested him. Though he had heard her sister and her friends gossip about it from time to time, and more than once he had read about it in the books he liked. Now Zuko undestood why people made so much fuss about it, it was not so much about what he physically felt, but how he felt.
Not a second had passed before a blinding light forced the two to open their eyes and break the kiss, it took some moments to their eyes to adjunst to the light, when they did, they found themselves standing underneath a ceiling of glowing crystals, their hands were linked and their blushing faces were close enough to feel each others rapid breath. They quickly separated and shyly looked at the crystals, pretending that nothing had happened.
"They're made of some kind of crystal. They must only light up in the dark." Said Zuko, finally breaking the awkward silence.
Katara readily followed suit, and gestured along the ceiling "That's how the two lovers found each other. They just put out their lights and followed the crystals."
Both quickly realised that the glowing crystals formed a single line, one end came from the same door from which thay had entered, the other, naturaly, exited from the second door towards another tunnel.
"That must be the way out!" Exclaimed Katara, she advanced and gestured Zuko to follow her. They exited after an hour or so, and set camp for the night close to the beach. But neither of them were to sleep that night, vivid memories and feelings from the day's events replayed endlessy in their minds. The nagging question would haunt them for the next months: What was that?
He was going to die this time for sure. He had known from the beginning that this was a very dangerous journey, he had known that traveling at sea in the late autum was a bad idea, doing so in a small boat with no other help other than his arms and paddles was suicidal, risking it all to search for someone that might already be half a world away, with no leads whatsoever to follow, no money to financiate the journey and no allies or friends to count on was stupid; even more so when one considered the possibility that the person he was looking for was already dead.
But Sokka, son of Hakoda of the Water Tribe was never a man to calculate much when his loved ones were at risk. His father had trusted the security of the memebers of the village to him, thus he had hesitated at first. Should he remain in the village and care for its memebers? Or should he try and rescue his sister?
When he took his decision, not even Gran-Gran could dissuade him otherwise. He had taken enough supplies to last for about a week, he had calculated that since the currents and the wind marched northwards, he could reach Whaletale Island in just about that time, from there he could find transportation into the Earth Kingdom and then a way to enter the Fire Nation, he guessed it wouldn't be too hard to find the prince, once he did it, was a straight path to his sister.
Six days had already passed and so far he had not seen any sing of solid terrain, his time was running out and he did not want to turn west even in if he was sure that there he could find an inhabited island. His father had told him several times that any sane man was to avoid Kyoshi Island at all costs. Terrible stories circulated about what happened to men that were captured by those savage Kyoshi warriors. Sokka shuddered at the mere thought of it, he would rather risk the wrath of the ocean than the wrath of Kyoshi inhabitants, he knew for a fact that at least one of his father's cousins had once dared to take his ship far too close to that island, no one had ever seen him or his crew ever again.
His father had told him that even before the war, that is to say, before the Fire Nation had all but obliterated the once proud fleet of the Southern Water Tribe, no one from the Soth Pole had managed to travel to that island and returned to tale the tale. Hakoda had explained him that the South Pole used to be the third largest economy in the world thanks to their fleet, they would use it primarily for commerce of whale oil, ivory of elephant-whales and skins; sometimes they would be hired to transport (or smuggle) other goods around the world, and it was also relatively common that some tribesmembers would even take up piracy, Hakoda had admitted. If memory served Sokka right his great-grandfather from his mother's side had been a world renowned pirat that controlled his own private fleet of fifty ships and was rumoured to have had some hundredth spear-wives all over the world.
Even back in the glorious old days of the South Pole, when they had emporiums in practically all the wold, and would force all islands to accept their outposts and private harbours in their territory, when they even had the means to raid the coasts of the Fire Nation and the mere sight of their sails was enough to cause entire villages to flee in terror or to submit, when every warrior in the Southern Water Tribe would pride himself in having numerous spear-wives all over the globe, even then no man had actually managed to successfully disembark, let alone raid or attack Kyoshi Island.
What could Sokka hope to do in that dreaded place, when he himself had never even passed the coming-of-age ritual of his forefathers, despite the fact that not even that was as difficult as it used to be?
Originally the coming-of-age for a warrior consisted on three steps, first was the ice dodging, then he was allowed to search for a wife, the second step, to gain right of marriage he had to defeat in hand-to-hand combat the father or brother of the intended bride, if he succeeded he was allowed to carve an engagement necklace, the proof that the woman was now his. The third step was to participate in a naval expedition overseas, wound an enemy and take at least one spear-wife, only then was a man of the tribe acknowledged as a full fledged warrior and gained the right of voice and vote in the councils, as well as the right to eventually command his own ship.
Many people of his father's warriors had never completed the last step, by that time they no longer had the power to travel the seas at their leisioure, their proud fleet had been destroyed, their emporiums and outposts burned to the ground, either by the Fire Nation or by the locals that took advantage of their defeat, they had never recovered. And neither would he if he stumbled upon Kyoshi Island, thought Sokka, he would wait and hope to see the shores of Whaletale Island or die trying.
Sokka heard thunder in the distance and saw clouds gathering over the horizon, he knew that he had no means to try and avoid the storm, he was going to get caught in the middle of it. He thought that he was going to die, this time for sure.