A Work of Art

Hello all, thanks for everyone who read and followed/favorited this story. I appreciate it. Usually I never update this fast, but I am on a writing frenzy. Although please excuse any grammar errors, it's 1 in the morning over here. But if anyone is willing to be a Beta, I'd be down for that. Thanks guys!

Disclaimer: I don't own ATLAB, but I do own Zhen

Hira'a went into a frenzy when the Avatar and his friends decided they would say in the village so Sokka's leg could be treated properly. They were given the finest room at the local inn and fresh produce was delivered daily. But after a few days had gone by, everyone settled back into their usual routines. Zhen for one wasn't letting all of the excitement get to her head. She continued on with her daily work, her line of work stopped for no man, Avatar or not. Currently she was dragging a small cart behind her, the bottom sagging from the weight of the clay it was carrying. Sweat formed along her brow as she made her way towards her home, the sun showing no mercy on her.

"Would you like some help with that?" A pleasant voice asked.

Zhen looked back to see a smiling Katara.

"I would hate to trouble you with something as small as this."

"Are you sure?"

Zhen nodded. "I'd enjoy some company if you're willing to spare some time."

"Absolutely."

The two young women started their walk together.

"So what's this stuff for?" Katara asked, gesturing towards Zhen's cart.

"It's clay so I can get back to work, I provide a lot of table wares for the area." She explained.

"Do you like pottery?"

Zhen pursed her lips and shrugged. "I suppose I do, it's always been in my family so I've always been around it. You could say it's in my blood."

"That's great that you get to do something that you like. Especially since it's been in your family, are they around?"

"No, they're not around anymore." She said in a clipped voice.

"Oh I'm sorry…"

Zhen shook her head. "You shouldn't apologize; you had nothing to do with their deaths."

"If it's any consolation, I know how hard it is to lose a family member. I lost my mother to a Fire Nation raid a long time ago."

"My apologies." Zhen offered before pulling her cart up to her house.

"Now didn't you just say you shouldn't apologize for something you had no part in?"

With a soft smile Zhen said, "But the thing is, I'm a member of the Fire Nation."

"That doesn't mean you were a part of the raid Zhen."

"I suppose you're right. Would you mind helping me carry these in?"

Together, the two women emptied the cart one bag of clay at a time and delivered them to Zhen's work shop in the back of the house. By the time they'd finished, Zhen's armed ached in protest, but at least she had Katara to help lighten the work load. She noticed how Katara's eyes lit up as she gazed around all of the tools that decorated the walls.

"Have you ever done anything with ceramics?" Zhen asked, making her ways towards her rack of aprons.

"Me? No I've never really had a chance to."

Zhen tossed an apron in the water bender's direction. "Well here's your chance."

A grin made its way onto Katara's face as she slipped the apron on. In the meantime, Zhen opened a fresh bag of clay and with a wire, cut Katara a small slab. With a flick of her wrist, she gestured for Katara to join her by the table. She cleaned off a spot with a rag and slapped the clay onto the table.

"You'll need to begin by wedging so you can get out any air that's stuck in the clay."

"Um…wedging?" Katara gave her a confused look.

Zhen chuckled. "Imagine you're kneading dough."

"Now that I can do."

Under Zhen's watchful eye, Katara wedged the clay until it was ready for molding.

"Why don't you start with something small like a coil pot?"

With her own slab of clay, Zhen quickly demonstrated how to make a coil pot, showing her the proper techniques. She stopped her student half way through and made her redo her coils; they were far too thin and continued to split apart. But soon Katara was making coils like a professional and used the serrated rib to attach the coils with ease. After thirty minutes had gone by, Katara held out her finished coil pot. It was mediocre at best, but for her first time, it was pretty good.

Katara chuckled sheepishly after passing on her pot to Zhen.

"It's not very impressive is it?"

"You did a great job." Zhen offered while placing Katara's coil pot on a rack to dry.

"I bet you could do something ten times better with your eyes closed, could you possibly show me?"

"I would love to."

Zhen retrieved another slab of clay while she had Katara fill a bucket of water. When the clay was to her liking, she sat at her kick wheel and slapped the clay down onto the plate. After wetting her hands from the bucket, she began stepping on the pedal of the kick wheel to start the plate spinning. Zhen sucked in a breath before placing her hands in the clay and centering it. As soon as she began to open up the clay with her thumbs, she lost herself in a daze. Using a throwing wheel had become second nature to her. Molding the clay whichever way she pleased gave her a sense of power, the clay submitted to her. But she also felt powerless; she had to submit to the clay as well. If one air bubble formed, the structure would collapse. It was a constant push and pull with ceramics, there was only so much she could do before the clay would reach its limits and fall apart.

"Wow," Katara exclaimed, "it's beautiful."

"Huh?"

Zhen shook her head, pulling herself out from her daze. She moved her hands away to reveal an ornate jar. She hadn't realized how long she'd been throwing, her thoughts had pulled her away from the task at hand, but after years of the craft, her hands knew what to do even though her mind was elsewhere.

"You made it look so flawless, like one fluid motion."

"Thank you Katara."

She lifted the plate from the wheel and transferred the plate to the drying rack. She went through her cleaning process with Katara's assistance and in no time the workshop was in pristine condition.

"It will take a day or two to dry and then I can fire it for you," Zhen offered, "then you can glaze it."

"That's wonderful; please let me know when I can come back. I actually like watching you make things."

"It's a pleasure to have you, you're always welcome here."

Zhen led Katara through the work shop and back to the main part of her house. She offered the water bender a cup of tea, but she politely declined.

"I'd love to stay, but I should probably head back to check up on Sokka."

They said their goodbyes and Katara went on her way. Zhen returned to her work shop and before she could get started, she realized she was beginning to run low on firewood. With an irritated huff, she retrieved her axe from the cabinet and went outside. She hated when she ran out of firewood, it was a real pain. She tossed the axe into her cart along with a water canteen and started making her way towards the woods. But she didn't get far when someone called her name. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the blue arrow on his head before heading down to his eyes.

"Oh, hello Aang."

"Hey Zhen, where are you headed?" he asked, matching her steady pace.

"I ran out of firewood for the kiln, I need more." She gestured to her cart.

"Would you like some help?" he offered.

"Oh no, I can handle it. But thank you for the offer."

"It's a little too hot to be cutting wood by yourself, with some help you would be done twice as fast. " He protested, taking the handle of her cart before she could protest.

"If you insist."

Aang and Zhen walked towards the forest and ventured a little bit past the tree line. She lifted her axe from the cart and as she got ready to swing, Aang held out his hand and stopped her. Startled, she jumped back with a yelp, the axe slipping from her grasp and clattering onto the ground.

"Spirits Aang, I could have chopped your arm off!" Zhen cried.

He grinned. "Sorry Zhen, but I think I can help you get done a lot faster than using an axe."

He reached for her canteen and pulled off the cap. Aang bent the water to his will and used it to slice through a thick tree limb. Zhen took a step back and watched as the limb tumbled to the forest floor. Letting Aang take the reins, she watched as he bent the water to cut the limbs down to a more transportable size. When he finished, she slowly clapped her hands.

"Well done, you're putting those Avatar skills to good use." She teased.

"I'm just doing my Avatar duties is all."

They both laughed and started transporting the logs to her cart. Aang had a good eye, the tree limb he'd cut down provided enough to fill her cart.

"And we didn't even break a sweat." He said.

"Although you did use up my water."

She smiled before grabbing the handle of her cart and made her way into town. Aang tried to pull it, but she refused. She wasn't about to let him do all the work. The walk back was spent in a comfortable silence until the Avatar spoke up.

"I bet it would be pretty easy to make pottery if you were a fire bender."

Zhen looked at him out of the corner of her eye and without missing a beat replied, "I suppose it would be, I don't mind it though."

"I bet it's a part of the craft."

"I agree."

They arrived at her home just as the sun was beginning to set and she parked her wagon by the front door.

"I appreciate you helping Aang." She politely bowed to him.

"It was my pleasure; it's the least I could do. Everyone in your village has been giving us plenty of gifts as it is."

"Well regardless, I'm thankful for the help. I'll see you around Aang."

She placed a hand on the door and was about to slide it open when he stopped her.

"Oh yeah, I forgot why I came over in the first place. Have you seen Katara? Sokka was asking for her."

"She had actually just left when you arrived, you must have just missed her."

Aang huffed. "Darn, well she'll probably be back at the inn. Have a good evening Zhen."

She waved at his retreating figure before slipping into her house. After finding a match she lit a few candles, blowing out the match when she finished. As she made her way to the kitchen to prepare, a painting of her family caught her eye. Zhen gulped and shook her head, a frown replacing the smile she'd been wearing. Through her nose, she sucked in a deep breath, ignoring the way the candle's flame grew.

"You deserve this."

So how did things go? Was it good? Let me know.