Disclaimer: I only own some peanut butter crackers.
The sun was just beginning to rise when Sokka, Suki, Aang, Katara, and Zuko woke up. Well, actually, Sokka woke up first, and then proceeded to wake everyone else up with a rather girly scream.
"Whaa-? Who…Sokka?" Aang asked, relaxing from his stance. Zuko had sprung up as well, screaming something about Fire Nation soldiers. When he saw that there was no real danger, he facepamled, slowly dragging his hand from his forehead to his chin.
"Sokka, please tell me you had a good reason for waking me up", he said with a deathly calmness.
"We're…out of meat!" Sokka exclaimed. Aang flopped back to the ground, but Zuko went up to Sokka and slapped him upside the head.
"That's what you woke up up for?" Katara yelled. She then turned to Suki.
"You won't mind if I kill my brother, will you?" she asked. Suki shrugged.
"How about: seriously injure?" she said and saw Sokka pale visibly, knowing the wrath his sister could bestow upon him.
"How about you and Zuko go hunt for meat, then?" Aang said, with his arm over his head, playing peacemaker. Zuko shot him a glare.
"Why do I have to go? Why not you?" he asked
"Uhmm…vegetarian, here?" he said, pointing out the obvious.
And so, with continuous grumbling and half-finished threats, Zuko and Sokka set out to go find "nature's man candy", as Sokka liked to call it. As they walked, Zuko's mind wandered to how he joined the "Gaang", another one of Sokka's ridiculous nicknames. It was just after the Day of Black Sun. He had caught up with them rather quickly, and asked if he could join the Avatar. At first, the vote was unanimous; no. Strictly and utterly no. But he kept coming back, hoping that they would accept him. After days of begging and groveling, they finally said he could join. He wasn't accepted, and his only purpose was to teach Aang firebending. After all, he was far behind on his training. He only had airbending and waterbending mastered. Bumi had taught him the basics of earthbending, but they were quickly forgotten. After time, the group had come to accept Zuko. Aang first, when they learned the real secrets of firebending. Then Sokka, when had helped save his dad and girlfriend from the Boiling Rock prison. And finally Katara. She'd been the most difficult, but when Zuko helped her avenge her mother, she grudgingly accepted him. He was broken from his thoughts with a rustling noise from behind a thicket of bushes.
"Okay, Zuko, you gotta be extremely quiet so you can sneak up on it", Sokka said, tiptoeing towards the bushed.
"Sokka, you're making more noise than me", Zuko pointed out.
"SHHH!" Sokka said from his crouching position. Zuko rolled his eyes. They were almost behind the bush when a small whimpering broke through the clear air. Sokka smiled, and the look of it made Zuko actually fear for his life.
"Ready…set…NOW!" And with a roar, Sokka pounced. But instead of hearing growls or signs of struggle from the animal, there was only a shard intake of breath from Sokka. Zuko made his way to the other side of the shrub to see what was wrong; he thought maybe Sokka had stabbed his hand with his spear again. He edged around the bush, and his good eye widened. A girl who looked to be about 13 was lying on the ground, her white dress stained with blood and torn everywhere. Her black hair was a tangled mess. Her skin was a pale ivory color.
"This…is not meat", Sokka said rather stupidly. Zuko looked at him like he was hopeless, than looked back at the girl. Sokka was poking her check.
"Is she…dead?", he asked. Zuko nudged her with his foot.
"Hey! Girl. Wake up!" he said. She moaned but did not wake up.
"Nah. She's just unconscious", Zuko told Sokka. He nodded.
"I think we should take her back to camp", Sokka said. Zuko was shocked that he actually had a decent thought for once. Zuko picked her up and carried her bridal style. They hurried back to camp in silence. When they got back to where everyone else was, they saw Katara washing Appa, and Aang and Suki practicing their arts. Zuko cleared his throat loudly, and when everyone looked over, Sokka said "A little help here, Katara?" The group rushed over as Katara went into mother mode.
"Zuko, take her by the fire. Suki get me a cloth, and Aang, go get me some water from the stream. Sokka, go get the emergency supply of food for when she wakes up", she ordered. Everyone rushed to do Katara's orders, but Sokka paused as a thought hit him.
"We have an emergency food supply?" he questioned with outrage.
"It's in my sack on Appa. Just go", she snapped, when she saw his mouth open to argue.
"Katara, she's still cold. The fire's not doing anything", Zuko said from his position next to the girl.
"You're the firebender, can't you do something?" she said, preoccupied with preparing her healing water. Zuko looked down at the small girl and took her into his arms, cradling her against his body. She was freezing. Using his inner fire, Zuko warmed his body up just enough to warm the girl. Katara kept shooting him glances, but he didn't know what for. After a few minutes, she came over with her prepared healing material.
"I think she's warm enough", Katara said icily. Zuko shrugged.
"For now. But when you're done healing her, I'm going to need to warm her up again. Her core temperature is really low. If we'd found a little later, she would've gone into a coma or died", he said. Katara's look softened.
"Okay. Just…let me take a look at her."
For the next half hour, Katara worked on the girl, cleaning the blood from her head and body. There was no salvaging her dress, though. The rest of the group sat around the girl anxiously, waiting for Katara to say everything was alright.
"Well", she said, voice tired and slightly shocked, "she had a large gash on her head. No internal damage, really. Just some cuts and bruises." Katara bit her lip and looked down at the frail girl. She was debating on whether or not to tell the group the extent of the girl's injuries.
"Is that all, Katara?" Zuko asked quietly. She smiled internally; he always could read her like a book. She knew that from the beginning, when he'd returned (using the word loosely) her mother's necklace. She took a deep breath.
"Yeah, that's all", she said. "Go ahead and take her, Zuko." He nodded and took the girl into his arms, warming her up instantly.
"I should go start on breakfast, Sokka did you get any meat?" Katara asked.
"Err…not really. We were to caught up with her", he said, motioning to the girl. Katara nodded, and turned away.
"HEY!" an unfamiliar voice yelled. Katara whipped around to see the girl struggling against Zuko's hold, wild-eyed and panicked.
A/N- Hey people. I think I may switch P.O.V a lot, but it should be easy enough to follow. If not, lemme know!
Chapter 2 should be up soon!
Rate and review, please! :D