Push and Pull
The Search
Disclaimer: I own literally nothing.
Katara's POV
"He's… a monkey."
"Yes."
"…Is he meditating?"
"He's probably a spirit or an enlightened sage."
"…Alright."
"Let's go." Zuko moved to step into the cloudy green water surrounding the platform.
"Wait!" Katara said quickly, and he paused, turning slightly to face her. Her eyes flickered up to the cuts on his face. They weren't deep and had already started to scab over, but they were a striking red and stood out harshly against the paleness of his skin."I can heal you. You should take care of those cuts before they get infected."
He flinched back, startled as she reached out to his face. His golden eyes met her blue ones and she was surprised at the bewilderment she saw in them.
Katara pulled back. "I'm not going to hurt you," she said mildly. "I just want to heal them."
"I don't need your help," he grunted, and looked swiftly away, starting for the water again. Katara caught his arm, noting the cool dampness of his sleeve, and stopped him.
"You were in the swamp water," she insisted, and drifted closer, reaching up to his face again. "They might get infected. You should take care of them before anything happens."
He caught her wrist, just like before, and his hand was no gentler this time. "Don't touch me," he said sternly, and she wriggled her hand in his tight grip. Zuko dropped her hand and stepped into the water before she could protest any further.
Katara watched him go and crossly swallowed back her peacemaking offer to pull the water from his clothes and dry him off. Fine. Katara huffed and the proceeded to pull the water out from her own clothes. The water fell with a splash on the wood as she followed Zuko into the murky swamp. It felt cooler than before, though Katara knew that it was only her skin playing tricks on her, and her feet sank gracelessly deeper into mud with every step. Katara knew Zuko was feeling similarly, as he stumbled now and again when the mud made his feet stick to the ground, but he didn't show it. He was faster than she was, taking long strides with his taller legs, and Katara had to work to keep up to his pace. They trudged along silently through the swamp for a minute, hearing only the birds in the sky and their own breath, before a thought occurred to Katara.
"I wonder how much time we have before it grows dark," she mused to herself, looking up at the orange light that filtered through the cloudy skies. It'd been night when they'd fallen into the pond, but she didn't know how many hours had passed before they'd woken up. She wasn't sure why she'd even been asleep in the first place. Did travelling to the Spirit World do that to you? Or was it the spirit who'd brought them here who'd done that?
"It's just past sunrise," Zuko's voice came from ahead of her and she peered at the back of his head suspiciously. Maybe she'd gotten it wrong. Maybe Zuko had been the one who'd brought them here.
"How do you know that?"
"I can just tell."
Katara gritted her teeth, and immediately knew that he wasn't the one responsible. He was too annoying to be devious. She recalled the pirates and the waterbending scroll incident and tried not to smirk at the memory. Zuko had consorted with pirates, going as far as to think he'd had the upper hand, and then in the end watched as his own ship was commandeered. And besides, she'd seen the water pulling them in, and Zuko was definitely not a waterbender. Definitely not devious, though the trick with my mother's necklace was mean. I still don't know how he got that...
They reached the enormous tree root where the monkey sage sat after a few minutes of trudging through the swamp water. Though they'd made a fair bit of noise splashing through the water, the sage didn't seem to notice. He sat with his eyes closed and his back straight, looking impressively occupied with the task of humming, "Om." He ignored them as they climbed the tree root and stood before him. Katara thought that the white fur covering his body looked remarkably clean for someone who lived in a swamp.
"Excuse me—" She began politely, and sighed when Zuko broke in.
"Have you seen a young bald monk around here?" he rasped, glowering down at the sage as if he could read the answer on his face.
"Go," the sage replied somberly, his voice laced with a distinct accent, "away."
"We—" Determined.
"Om."
"Look—" Perplexed.
"Om."
"But—" Frustrated.
"Om."
Here Zuko looked outright offended, and Katara stepped in when she saw him open his mouth with a look of outrage on his face. She didn't need him to insult the monkey sage and ruin their chance to find Aang.
"We can see that you're busy," she cut in quickly, shooting Zuko a be-quiet look, "and we're sorry to bother you, but we really need your help."
The sage didn't move from his spot, or open his eyes, but he didn't cut her off with an indignant "Om" either, so she took it as a good sign.
"Did a boy with blue tattoos pass by here a few hours ago?" she continued, ignoring the affronted look Zuko had on his face. "Do you know where he went?"
The monkey sage sighed heavily, a dramatic gesture that made Zuko even angrier. "He ran off somewhere in that direction." He tilted his head slightly to his left, gesturing somewhere deeper into the trees, and settled back, resuming his chant.
"Why did you answer her and not me?" Zuko demanded, and Katara grabbed his arm, tugging him away from the sage with a cheerful, "Thank you very much!"
Zuko jerked his arm back immediately, but Katara ignored him, eagerly starting off in the direction Aang had gone. There was nothing there that told her that Aang had ever ventured this way, but she figured that the sage would have told her if he'd known anything more. She wasn't sure if the monkey had been a spirit or not, but she thought that if they'd stayed any longer, Zuko would've surely picked a fight with him, regardless of who he was.
This time, Katara led the way through the swamp, and Zuko trailed behind her, muttering something she probably didn't want to hear. They didn't get very far before she heard Zuko yell out in surprise behind her. Katara turned, half hoping it was Aang, and half ready to bend a wave of water at whatever had startled Zuko. She was disappointed when she saw that it wasn't Aang, but soon recognized the familiar face.
"Hei Bai!"
The enormous panda bear spirit gave a quiet rumble at her exclamation, and Katara marveled at his size. She hadn't seen the black and white spirit in his docile form back at the village, and only knew what he looked like from the statue of him that Aang had taken them to after the whole ordeal was over. Hei Bai was nearly a third of the size of Appa, but she knew that he could grow even larger if he turned into hus other form. He looked at her as if he recognized her, peering around Zuko, who was looking at her incredulously.
"Do you know this thing?"
"He's not a thing," Katara scolded him, and slowly stepped around him to smile hesitantly up at the spirit. "This is Hei Bai. He's a spirit that guards a forest back in our world. He was the one who took Sokka and some others into the Spirit World before, but that was only because he was angry that his forest had been destroyed." She glanced at Zuko. "He won't hurt us."
Zuko looked unconvinced, but nodded anyway, casting suspicious golden eyes on the spirit.
Katara turned back to Hei Bai. "Have you seen Aang? He came into the Spirit World a few hours ago, and we're trying to find him."
The panda bear made a small noise and slowly dropped down onto his knees; Katara had been around Appa long enough to know what that meant. Her face broke out into a wide smile and she ran toward the bear, carefully climbing onto his back. Katara thanked her lucky stars that the first spirit they'd met in this strange world was a familiar and helpful one.
"He knows where Aang is! Come on, Zuko, he'll take us to him."
Zuko looked at Hei Bai, who grumbled at being kept waiting, and then at Katara, who nodded encouragingly. With a resigned look, he walked over and slowly pulled himself up behind Katara. As soon as Zuko was on, Hei Bai took off in a run, and Katara and Zuko nearly fell off his back. Katara regained her balance easily, catching herself on Zuko's chest, but Zuko had to grab for Katara's shoulders and pull himself back up with a grunt.
"Oh no," Katara said as she felt Hei Bai slowly pick up speed, and twisted her hands tightly into his fur. She vaguely remembered how fast Hei Bai had run off with Sokka into the forest the last time they'd met. Even Aang hadn't been able to catch up with them on his glider. "You'd better hold on, Zuko."
Zuko barely had time to put his hands on her waist before they were flying through the swamp. The enormous trees around them turned into a blur as Hei Bai raced past them, and the water from the swamp splashed against their legs in a constant stream. It became harder to breathe as the speed pushed the pungent air at her face ferociously, and Katara's face burned against the wind. It whistled in their ears, and made their eyes water, but Katara barely noticed any of this.
She'd hugged Aang more times than she could count and felt his hands on her waist, but she'd never felt like this before. Her heart hadn't pounded, and her cheeks hadn't flushed, and her thoughts definitely hadn't lingered on the feel of his hands on her waist.
"I don't understand this place," Zuko muttered behind her, and ducked his head as Katara's flying braid threatened to hit him in the face. His voice was startlingly close to her frame as he hid his face somewhere near the nape of her neck.
Katara didn't understand why she was suddenly so flustered. What was wrong with her? Was it the sound of his voice, low and rough by her ears? Or was it the way the heat from his hands seeped through the fabric of her tunic and touched the skin of her waist? His hands were warmer than she expected. Firebender hands, she thought, and that was enough to her snap her out of her moment of lunacy.
She tried to distract herself.
"I hope your forest has been growing well," she murmured to Hei Bai, and tried not to pull too hard on the fur she was gripping in her hands. He wasn't as furry as Appa and his coat felt somewhat oilier than Appa's, but the thicker outer-coat with a softer inner-coat was familiar to her.
Hei Bai rumbled lightly under her as he flew through the swamp, racing onto a strip of earth that was elevated above the swamp waters and took them upward and out of the swamp. She squinted into the opening that he led them to, and saw that the path lead onto the edge of a cliff. Huge boulders of earth stood floating in a long path at the edge, leading to a gigantic gnarled tree that stood on one of the tall rock formations that dotted the valley. The tree was peculiar, with thick roots that extended into the sky, rather than into the ground. A small pool of water stood somewhere off to the side, and at the base of the tree was an ominous-looking cave, a wide opening that seemed to lead deep into the ground. Hei Bai headed right for it.
"Are you sure he's taking us to Aang and not to our deaths?" Zuko's voice called out from behind her.
"I'm positive," Katara replied, but didn't sound so sure. She couldn't see any trace of light inside of the cave, and worried.
Hei Bai slowed his pace when he reached the edge of the cliff, but leaped onto the floating boulders without hesitation, following the path of rocks until he reached the rock formation the tree stood on. He came to a stop a few meters away from the cave and Zuko slid off of him easily, Katara following soon behind.
"Thank you," Katara told Hei Bai graciously, and shot Zuko a dirty look when he didn't move to thank the black and white spirit. "Aren't you going to at least say thank you?"
Zuko was already moving toward the cave. "I'll say thank you once we find the Avatar."
"Sorry," Katara mumbled to the panda bear. "He's kind of a jerk." Hei Bai rumbled easily, and Katara stroked his fur gratefully before starting to walk to where Zuko was standing in front of the cave. She paused when she heard a soft chattering coming from somewhere to her left. She turned and spotted the back of what looked like a small monkey sitting near the small pond, its tail curled strikingly. Its fur was a light brown, soft-looking but covered in dirt. She briefly wondered if it was a spirit.
"What is that?" Katara murmured, gazing at it curiously, and Zuko turned to glance at the monkey.
"A curly tailed blue nose," he said dismissively, and started to turn towards the cave. He whirled back around when Katara shrieked.
"What is that?" Zuko yelled in horror as he caught sight of what had made her scream: the monkey had turned around to face them, revealing a smooth and entirely blank space where its face should've been.
"A curly tailed blue nose," Katara couldn't help sarcastically screeching back, trying to mask her terror with attitude. What was this place?
The monkey seemed startled, and swiftly leaped away until it disappeared behind the gigantic tree. Katara watched it go and cast her wide eyes on Zuko.
"Something tells me that we probably shouldn't go in there," she said, and swore she heard Zuko give a small, breathless chuckle. He opened his mouth to reply back and turned to face the cave, but snapped it shut when his eyes fell on the opening. Katara followed his gaze and immediately reached for the small pool of water that stood off to the side. She pulled a stream of water closer and prepared to fight; out of the corner of her eye, she saw Zuko do the same. He exhaled sharply, a burst of steam flowing from his nostrils as he shifted into a firebending stance.
A dark figure rapidly approached from inside the cave.
Dun dun DUN. Jk you probably already know who it is. Who else would be inside Koh's lair?
I had such a hard time writing this chapter because 1. it just wasn't that interesting, 2. i hate describing setting so much fml 3. Zuko's no fun to write b/c it's still early on in the series, so he's still a little shit, and 4. keeping these babies in character is hard :/ please forgive any out of character behaviour!
I noticed during The Siege of the North episodes that there was no day or night in the Spirit World even though the mortal world had them (I assume it's because the Spirit World no longer has a moon spirit/maybe a sun spirit), so there will be no night times in my story, though there will be sleepy times! I'm looking forward to those… *rubs hands maniacally* Zuko can still tell when the sun is up or down back in the mortal world though because he feels it when the strength of his bending shifts. Same goes for Katara and the moon.
HUGE shout out to faloodahloodle on tumblr for kindly letting me use her AMAZING art as the cover for this story (I saw her art piece and immediately knew that it was the only one I wanted even though it was still in a doodle form and I seriously just would've left the cover blank if she'd said no b/c I couldn't bear to have any other but omg she said YES). Seriously though, I creeped through all her Zutara art on her tumblr AND deviant art AND side blog and this lady is too talented for life. Definitely go check her out!
I didn't have time to edit this, so let me know if you find any glaring mistakes and I'll fix them (lol, only on chapter three and I'm already getting lazy). As always, reviews are much appreciated!