Save Me

Author: YolandaFriella

Okay, so I know I just recently updated this, but I stayed up with my siblings and I had an idea hatch in my head. And when that happens, I must write it down. This chapter may confuse or freak you out at first, but it'll explain itself as you read on. I'm so excited! Only two or three more chapters before Zuko comes again! :D Sorry for the wait, but Katara needs to "discover" something first.

Here's my usual, grateful thanks to my recent reviewers: Alice, th3darklord, Marnie Wolffe, Books 'n' Arrows, KristenStewertFan, Draminoe-Fan 17, .Reading, ArrayePl, MadameJelly, MaroonAngel of Darkness, spockjasperzukowriting, I'm-INSANELY-aweSOMEful, and AnnAza. That's one more review than the previous chapter! :) Thanks sooo much for ya'll supporting this story. Seriously. I feel so bad about keeping Zuko out of this until later, but who knows, I may shock ya'll and just throw him in :).

Special thanks to Books 'n' Arrows. Thanks for your review! She asked a question, and I suppose I failed to mention that Katara is 14 in this story and Zuko is 16. I assume those are their ages during Zuko's banishment, so please let me know if I'm incorrect! Thanks!

I know you are all dying to read on, so go ahead! Have at it! If you're like me, you ignore the AN and go right to the story. And then once you finish it, you go back in curiosity and read what the author wrote ;p but no matter what I do, I always read the AN in the story. I don't know why, but I just do.

Without any further ado, here's the story =)

Here...we...go!

Chapter Five: Vision or a Coincident?

I woke up, and what I saw made me gape in disclosure.

I wasn't staring up at a ceiling of crimson, nor did I feel the heat waves rolling past me. I wasn't alone in a cot, with nothing but a thin blanket and a rag for a pillow. My body didn't feel weak, and I didn't have the grubby layer of filth coating my skin. I didn't have absolute stillness surrounding me, with shadows blurring my vision from every perspective. There were a couple of things missing. No racket of the workers functioning was in the background. My hair wasn't entangled to my head, covered in a slick sheet of sweat from the hot temperature in the late hours.

No. It was definitely different.

I stared uncomprehendingly up at a setting so keen to my eyes that I blinked frantically, in fear of this being just another hallucination. Wintriness cooled my skin to its habitual temperature, and I didn't have the thin blanket at my feet in an attempt to cool myself off. Instead, it was pulled up securely under my chin, and was thick and bulky. Above me was the normal sight of the "ceiling" of an igloo; the ice staring back at me as if it's been there the entire time. Lifting my hand, I felt around my face and felt my unscathed, spotless skin meeting the touch of my palm. All the scrapes and bruises I felt previously have mysteriously vanished, as if they never even existed. My hand trailed over to my head, feeling my vigorous, tangle-free hair flowing past my shoulders abundantly. There was no sign of dishevelment from my curls—instead, I felt as if I recently bathed.

Feeling astonished and dazed, I sat up in the cot, feeling the blankets fall from my torso and pool in my lap as I looked around hysterically. This was my igloo; my room. My customary clothes basket was in the corner, my hair supplies on a timber desk my father made for me on my ninth birthday, and my beloved parka hanging over a stand on the ice wall. The distant sound of the wintery landscape entered my ears freshly, and my eyes changed over to the doorway, which was closed entirely, the flap linked to the bottom as a bolt.

Feeling alive once more, I grinned gleefully and bolted from the bed, reaching my dresser instantly. I touched the surface abstractedly, the custom-made wood feeling so novel and poignant against my cool hand. The design that my father carved into the wood by himself shone back up at me, the lines imprinted so accurately that I wondered briefly how he ever was able to do that. I picked up my hair utensils, gazing through blurry eyes down at my comb I preferred using, instead of those thick brushes the elderly women used. Hesitantly, I picked up the comb and ran it through my hair, closing my eyes as I savored the marvelous sensation of my hair being taken care of. Finding the stretchy hair-tie, made from a penguin-seal from Balto, a close friend of my father, I brushed back my hair efficiently, but left a few strands dangling on both sides of my face. As I wrapped the tie around my hair, I leaned my face down so I had better access and finished what I was doing. Afterwards, I took the two chunky strands and felt through them, memorizing the memorable method. On impulse and remembering effortlessly, I formed the two loops I imaginatively fashioned long ago, as a child.

Just as I finished attaching the loops, a voice spoke behind me.

"Katara?"

Stunned, I looked over my shoulder to see Sokka poking his head into my igloo, having broken the so-called trustworthy lock. Seeing I wasn't asleep still, Sokka motioned towards the outside of the tent. "I thought you'd never wake up. Seriously. Remember when I told you we were going fishing? Well, hurry up! I have to go early –"

He stopped talking when he noticed my pale and besieged expression. Giving me a confused look, he opened his mouth to say something but I interrupted him.

"Sokka?" I whispered inaudibly, gazing at him through broad eyes. I thought I'd never see his face again. I once dreamt of that same aggravated, yet sardonic voice he always had. Or how his eyes moved strangely when he was angry. In all my dreams, I always thought I would never be standing in my igloo I grew up in, brushing my hair with the comb I always used, or especially staring at Sokka.

"No. Actually, I'm Bato." He replied sarcastically, eyeing me watchfully as my eyes became lustrous with tears. "Katara? What's wrong?"

"Sokka!" I finally cried in recognition, running forward to leap headfirst into his arms. Automatically, Sokka wrapped his arms around me, but he tensed up from my unexpected explosion. I knew he was baffled. I'd be even more astounded if he wasn't. "It's you! I-It's really y-you."

"Look, I know I'm a huggable guy and all," Sokka's parka-filled chest vibrated as he spoke. I buried my head in his affection, savoring the recognizable sensation of love. "But I really wasn't expecting this. Did you have a bad dream or something?"

"You don't know what I've been through," I admitted without thinking. My mouth ignored my protests of calming down and went into an overload. "I went to the Fire Nation, and had to work so hard. You wouldn't believe it, Sokka! And then they found out I was able to heal because I healed some random lady because she hurt herself, and then she told on me! So guess what? I had to talk to the Fire Lord head on, and it scared me half to death. I couldn't even feel any water in there. I thought he was going to burn me to death. So he tells me I'm supposed to heal the soldiers, so I refuse and—"

Sokka pulled away, peering down at me in disorientation. "You have a wild imagination, Katara. Has anyone ever told you that?"

I wiped away the tears falling past my cheeks, my heart brimming with happiness at the sight of my older brother. "Have I ever told you I loved you?"

"Okay, that's enough." He pulled me away lightly, reddishness coating his cheeks in a slight blush from my sudden announcement. I longed to hug him again—to be with him and never let go—but I knew I was critically scaring him. "Get your jacket on. We have to get moving or the fish will leave."

"Okay, okay." Getting over my emotional state, I looked around to find my parka. There it was—hanging on that familiar rack I saw earlier. I quickly put that one and found my shoes, which lay besides my bed where I last put them.

All the Fire Nation stuff was just a nightmare. Nothing more.

"We know one another's faults, virtues, catastrophes, mortifications, triumphs, rivalries, desires, and how long we can each hang by our hands to a bar. We have been banded together under pack codes and tribal laws."

~Rose Macaulay, explaining the relationship between a brother and sister

To my relief, my mother's necklace was strapped around my neck.

I held the consoling insignia in my hand with closed eyes, reveling in the soothing quality it, in return, gave to me. My mother gave this to me as a child, moments before her demise. And I, regrettably, misplaced it as I was taken from my tribe sadistically. Just thinking about it made me recoil from the scene of such cold-blooded people attacking innocents.

I then realized Sokka was watching my face as he was rowing the canoe we were seated in, gliding with poise through the stationary waters neighboring us. Giants of ice loomed over us in unspoken composures, and if we spoke, our voices bounded from the giants and echoed elsewhere. As Sokka drove the oars into the water, flouting through their synchronized tranquility, his movements sent serrated ripples to crack through. I met his eyes and saw a knowing smile cross his indigo, frosty lips.

"That," He told me slyly, "sure must've been some nightmare you had. You've been dozing out ever since we got out here, Katara."

"It sure was life-changing." I grumbled sulkily, my eyes drifting to the water. Unlike the Fire Nation, shockingly, water was so plenteous here. So used in our everyday life. It wasn't unexpected; since water tribe people lived here, water was anticipated. I let go of the necklace, for the first time since I got in the canoe, and stared out across the water.

"Oh really?" Sokka turned his attention back to rowing, his back facing me. "Anything about the Fire Nation is life-changing, if you ask me."

"I healed the prince."

Sokka paused at my voice and glanced back at me, his eyes narrowed. "You did what?"

"In my dream." I looked away, remembering how the dream was so pragmatic and valid. I recalled the look in the prince's face, feeling slightly snubbed that it was all just a mere dream. "I healed him. He got burned or something, so I healed him."

"Now that has to be a dream." Sokka muttered, going back to his rowing. "I know, for a fact, that you would never heal some rich and spoiled prince."

The scar flashed in my mind. Or the anguish thriving in those golden eyes. That speechless, frozen in utter pain expression was imprinted in my mind—forever. I swallowed the lump in my throat, holding back the defensive statement I was about to counter. Was I truly about to stick up for a royal of the Fire Nation? Over a dream?

The dream was so practical that it was actually hard for me to believe I never once touched the Prince's cheek, nor did I ever heal his scar. That horrible, mind-boggling storm was nothing more than a figment of my imagination. That mystifying, life-saving woman was another figure lurking in my mind. And meeting the Fire Lord never took place.

And if that dream was real, I knew one simple thing: The Prince was everything but spoiled and rich. He was a scarred and lonesome teenage boy, in my perception.

"Here we are," Sokka finally announced, after a great amount of time, setting down the paddles between us. He found his prominent boomerang, which glistened in the sunshine above us, and focused on the water on the side. "Let's….fish."

"Sokka, you're never going to catch anything like that." I stared at him in disbelief.

"Shush," He stuck his tongue out in deep concentration, leaning forward slightly as his eyes gazed into the vast and glacial water.

"Sokka—"

"—look, I know you're getting over that stupid nightmare or whatever," Sokka gave me an exasperated peek, "but I'm fishing for the entire tribe. Do you know how many I need to catch? And it sure doesn't help if you're sitting there, watching me. You could help me, you know."

"Fine." I held my head high and turned to the water, wondering what I could use to fish. My eyes widened when I saw something moving inside of the water. A fish!

Having a knowledgeable yet uncertain scheme, I lifted my hands, took one look at Sokka who was flexing into his reflection, and did what I did best.

I bended.

I was even more taken aback when I picked up a large amount of the water, with the fish inside, and I floated it around, my mouth open in pure astonishment.

"Sokka!" I said, moving the blob of water in flowing movements. "Sokka, look."

"I'm busy," Sokka said in return, finding a fish in front of him and leaning forward. He licked his lips. "Almost there….."

I jumped when Sokka suddenly yelled, "Gotcha!" and the water left my instruction. To my horror, it went splattering all over Sokka, who just barely had a fish in his hand. Sadly, in the abrupt bombshell, the fish escaped his grasp and went back into the water, swimming away for its young life. Drenched in water, Sokka slowly turned to me with an infuriated and aggravated expression.

Before he even opened his mouth, I pointed to the fish on his head. "Look! A fish!"

In a desperate attempt to save whatever he lost, Sokka scrambled around for the fish, which in return, began flopping around violently. The two fought one another for a good ten seconds before the fish decided to end it, sending a brutal SMACK to Sokka's face and exploded into the water, joining its friend in a reunion.

"Look, I can explain." I stuttered, trembling under his steel-like glare.

"Explain what, Katara? I swear, you're getting freakier every day!" Sokka wailed helplessly, shaking his head to get the water off. Offering him a guilty smile, I bended the water off of him, planting it back into the waters.

"Look, we're going to a different spot. Since the fish obviously know we're here." He grabbed the paddles and began rowing once more, muttering something I couldn't recognize under his breath. It involved "playing with water" or "freakish tales".

"Sorry, Sokka."

"Just, can you try to not play with your magic water around me? Because if I'm with you, I always seem to be the one getting wet—not you. Tell me that's not messed up."

Suddenly, the canoe began rocking. Frightened, I looked over Sokka's shoulder to see something dangerous: a maze of boulders sticking from the water, and fast rapids. I gasped, watching Sokka suddenly stiffen from the awareness of jeopardy.

"Hold on," He warned, skillfully dodging a patch of boulders as the rapids took him away from them.

I inhaled sharply as I saw another bundle directly ahead, with another close besides it.

We were surrounded. This, obviously, didn't look promising.

"Go left! Go left." I cried out as Sokka failed my instructions, and the canoe went plunging unswervingly into the rocks. A crack was made into the bottom, right under me, and I panicked.

"Sokka!" I yelled chaotically, standing up. The canoe sank deeper from my sudden weight and it groaned in response, water invading the inside. Sokka tumbled out of the canoe, landing heavily onto a nearby miniature glacier. I followed shortly, breathing heavily from the confrontation, and waited a few moments to catch my breath. My gloved hands held onto the ice firmly, my mind frozen in fright. The water was freezing. I was already shivering and my whole body didn't even get into the water entirely.

"Are you alright?" Sokka asked, trying to hide his chattering teeth. Alas, even I could hear him trembling from where I was laying.

"I'm fine." Sitting up, I took in our surroundings. We were in the middle of nowhere, a giant field of icebergs. I then glowered at Sokka accusingly. "You call that going left?"

Sokka sighed, standing up. The thin iceberg rocked from the weight set down on one side, and I scrambled to the other side to level it. "You think you could do better?"

I opened my mouth to reply, when suddenly, the water began vibrating—literally. Sokka took notice as well, staring in horror down into the depths as sudden waves pounded into the iceberg.

"What's going on?" I whispered, seeing my breath fan in front of me as I spoke. Sokka ran towards me just as something large parted from the water, rising to soar before us. I stared in awe, seeing what looked like an enormous mass of ice staring back at us.

My heart froze. I squinted my eyes to see better as the mass of ice bobbled on top of the water, floating there now motionless.

"What is that?" I breathed, gazing at the mass through inquisitive eyes.

"Katara, don't even think about getting near it." Just as Sokka finished speaking, I snatched his javelin and hopped over two icebergs, getting closer to the mass of ice. It was larger up close, casting a shadow over my tinier body. "Katara! See, I tell her not to go near it, and what does she do? She goes near it!" Sokka followed behind me, talking to himself gruffly.

As I stared closer up, I saw something inside that made the inquisitiveness within me cultivate.

A pair of eyes glowed back, and what looked like a human head gazed back at me.

Could it be….?

"Katara! Katara? You must get up—now!"

Someone was shaking me, shaking my shoulders in an attempt to awake me. Opening my sapphire eyes, I stared back up at one of the healers. She looked absolutely exhausted.

"You've slept in," She whispered, pitching my outfit in my stunned face. "You're lucky I stayed behind to wake you up; everyone else left."

Was that all a dream? Tears flooded my eyes as a sharp pain entered my senses: the girl slapped me.

"Get up!" She hissed in my face, raising her hand to slap me again. I stopped her with my hand grasping onto her wrist, giving her a livid look.

"If you slap me again," I whispered in a warning, "then I'll—"

"Ladies!" A woman called, and the girl jumped back.

"We're in here, Reeni." The girl said in reply, sitting up. I sat up now, feeling the usual sweat layering my skin, instead of the heavenly coolness in my dream. I blinked rapidly, the dream returning to me.

Sokka…..

I had him in my grasp, and I lost him….just like that.

Melancholy enveloped me, and I then realized how alone I truly was. I needed some kind of companion, some kind of friend I could trust. My mind went back to Lady Ayaka, who I talked to for hours the night before. I poured my heart out to her, all my feelings, all my losses. And now, I lost even more….yet I saw Sokka again, even though it was only in a dream. Oh how I wished the dream would come true….

I lost him. Again.

Reeni appeared in the doorway, who was the head woman of our quarters. She sent a harsh look at our direction. "What's going on here?"

"She slept in," The girl, who woke me up, told Reeni, giving me a disgusted look. She left the room quickly, not giving me another glance. I sighed, that abandoned sensation recurring.

Reeni towered over me, hands on hips and a scowl. "What're you doing? I'll give you some slack since it's your first day, but get up and get dressed. We've had a whjole bunch of wounded soldiers come in this morning."

Wounded soldiers?

I thought of refusing to heal, but then the thought of starving entered my mind once more. Sighing in a submissive manner, I got on my knees and began getting dressed. As Reeni exited the room, I felt more relaxed about dressing in private. Remembering how the girl from yesterday fixed my hair, I put it back the proper Fire Nation style. Just as I stood up, I fell back from the sudden comprehension of what just happened.

Was that dream a vision of some sort? Who exactly was in the iceberg? Did it actually mean something important, or was it just an irrelevant dream?

"I'm waiting," Reeni sounded from the door, losing her tolerance. "Now that you slept in, you're going to have to eat breakfast really quickly. I'd hurry if I were you."

My mind threw my dream away when she mentioned "breakfast" which in turn, meant "food". My stomach growled in response. All I ate yesterday was those two rolls, and shockingly, I haven't realized I was hungry until I actually thought about it. Throwing the uniform on my body, I hurried to Reeni, who sighed when I was finally ready.

"About time," She grumbled and without even a smile, she led me down the hallways. I followed behind shakily, my eyes taking in every single thing I passed by.

Suddenly, I remembered those pair of glowing eyes through the thick sheet of ice. I remembered how I stood before it, seeing the thing within stare back at me.

My eyes widened and I paused when a scandalous, severe contemplation came to my mind:

Could that be….the Avatar?

TO BE CONTINUED!

Ooh yes I'm evil for leaving you guys on a cliffhanger XD I would apologize, but ya'll will thank me later-trust me :)

If you have spare time or this chapter blew your mind to piecers (not literally), then leave a review please! :D