4. Changes
I awoke startled, expecting to find the palace walls surrounding me. Instead when I sat up I was buffeted by wind. "Zuko?" I expected him to land and join me on Aapa's saddle when it got late.
"I'm here," he called back to me from the reigns.
"Didn't you stop and rest last night?" I started to climb down to him when a gust of wind nearly blew me off. I anchored myself and waited for an answer.
"No," he said softly, I could tell he was exhausted.
"Come on, we need to land and find a place to rest," I started to pack up the sleeping gear.
"No, we'll make better time if we keep on flying," I knew Zuko was stubborn, but would he really risk his health for somebody who could be dead? I stopped myself from asking that out loud. Of course he would. I did when I went to avenge my mother.
"Zuko, I'm sorry but I have to do this," I told him quietly, then swiftly bended water from our jug into a rope.
"What are you do.." he started to protest but my rope was faster. It wrapped him up and pulled him into a saddle, where I sat. "Put me back Katara," he struggled under the grip of my bending, unable to bring himself to hurt me with his.
"No, I won't. Appa will land himself and you're going to sleep," she released him, knowing that the wind was enough to keep him where he was.
"You don't understand! You never will. Nobody will," he lowered his head and all I could see was the bottom of his scar.
"No, I won't," I wasn't talking about his mother, no, I was talking about his whole life. I did understand about his mother though. I guess I always have. His mother was a victim to his father's tyranny just as my mother was. The only difference was that his mother might be alive. I climbed down to the reigns and looked for a place to land Appa. As I did I thought back to months before then, when Zuko wanted to join our group. Then only a few weeks later when my feelings changed for him. Then I thought back to that night when I found him outside, and how he looked at me when he saw me running towards him, the way he was probably looking at me then, and I new that when this journey was over, things would never be the same.