She waited in the shadows of the forest. Some commotion stirred her. She watched as a kid with blue arrow markings and a watertribe girl and boy panic at the side of the river. The Avatar, she realized, was the one standing in a canoe with a long staff, the water tribe boy was furthest from the water and the girl with a long braid was in between them both pleading with the Avatar.
She couldn't hear what it was about, but they were all arguing and in a panic. Eventually, they decided on something and the watertribe members left the airbender alone in the canoe, one foot in the boat and one on land, unsurely holding his staff with both hands near his chest.
She licked her dry lips to wet them.
Now.
Aang felt bad leaving Appa and Momo at camp, but they had to. They planned on going to the North Pole, but they also needed to lay low from Zuko. So, they set up camp in a forest on an island and let Appa rest for a while from flying, hoping to lose Zuko if he didn't get any sightings of the rare creature in the air. But, if they got any further from camp, they risked losing their way back. Sokka had a map, but it was a poorly drawn one and no one could decipher the illustrations he put on there. They were supposed to get food and also find if there were maybe some people around where they could get supplies for when they would fly. Sokka liked the camp they made because of the traps he had set up around the perimeter, he felt very safe in the circle of those traps, and didn't want to venture away from them. Katara was concerned about leaving Appa unattended. Aang was definitely concerned about all those things, but they needed to either find people or make sure they were alone, and find food! There would be no flying if they didn't get any food! Katara and Sokka hadn't brought any with them from the North Pole, and Aang technically hadn't eaten in a hundred years…
He could go on ahead, but then he had the only boat that they found. Katara and Sokka wouldn't be able to follow with how deep and wide the river was. They'd be stuck to one side. And Appa definitely needed to rest, which is why he was okay with leaving him.
How convenient, the boat was that they found. It was just lying there like it was waiting for someone! Aang had got in it right away, marveling at the craftsmanship, but Katara was weary. When Sokka kept protesting, the two watertribe members slid back to camp as they could find their way back this far. Aang's stomach was rumbling, and the marveling of the wooden boat over, he longingly looked out to the river where berries were calling his name. He was a vegetarian, so he didn't eat the meat Katara could catch. Looking back to where Katara and Sokka had gone, the boy monk dressed in yellow and orange then let out air and sank down into the seat of the boat immaturely.
And that's when it happened.
It jumped from the nearby bushes like a monkey blur and Aang yelled on the top of his twelve year old voice, but as he lifted his arms to airbend the limbs were caught, a rope looped around his wrists and ankles tight and then he saw black…
She straightens up from the boy lying in her canoe, looking down at him.
A notion passes in her mind at how easy that was. Her face is blank. She's weary.
She uses her small wooden paddle to paddle the canoe downstream, the practiced, lean muscles in her arms used to the work. She puts one dark eye over her shoulder to glance at the Avatar tied up in the seat behind her. Why, he's a boy. How on Earth did he stay so young for a hundred years? Maybe she'd been right about being frozen in time. Ah, once upon a time when she had spoken to the banished Prince and his uncle. Things were so easy back then. So simple. She looks forward as she shifted the paddle over her lap to the other side of her small boat and it smoothly cuts through the water.
She debated whether or not to take the Avatar to her more sophisticated camp, or if she should make a temporary one to mislead him if he brings his friends, or if they find them first.
When he wakes up, she says,
"You are remarkably easy to spot."
He quickly shuts his eyes again to pretend he's asleep, but he lacks guile, and she's seen him anyway, so his grey eyes frightfully open. The ropes are tighter than the last time he was tied up – and with a gasp he saw the canoe bobbing at the river bank. He felt silly as he realized it was hers.
"Aaah, I'm sorry. I didn't know the boat was yours," He said quickly, trying to make amends.
She's silent. She was sitting before him in front of a camp fire, but it was still afternoon and it wasn't lit. She was sitting with her arms encircled at her knees lightly, where there is a lot of space between her knees and her torso.
She's looking ahead like he won't try to get out of his restraints and pose a threat to her or escape. He notices she has long dark hair and black eyes. She's wearing clothes the color of the forest, and boots. She's very pretty, and he finds his heart beating faster and a small blush come to his face. She looked to be maybe Zuko's age, although he hadn't paid much attention to his fire bending pursuer. As if sensing his staring, she darts her eye to him. He's trapped in their bottomlessness, and he doesn't notice his breathing rate is noticeably getting faster.
The girl notices him staring at her strangely, and she narrows her eyes. He realizes and stops himself by dragging his eyes away to the forest floor. He busies himself then by trying against his restraints again. He tries to lighten the situation.
"So… the boat is yours, right?"
His chuckles die when it is met with a solid stare, then she looks ahead again.
"Yes, it is." Her voice is smooth and low.
The silence is terribly awkward for Aang. He pulls himself upright from his position lying on the floor and presses his back to a tree conveniently in place. The bark bites his skin through his shirt. He looks at the ropes and is surprised by how tight they are. She must be someone really good at this kind of stuff, and if the canoe was hers… He puts two and two together that she must have been out here in a while, and she must be very good with her hands and with tools. She stands for something, standing tall and powerful, wiping her trousers. Seeing she wasn't looking, he bites the ropes to test how far they'll give.
"Don't try. You won't get out of those." She is looking at him now, and he averts his eyes.
He sees a fire emblem on the sword near her feet on the ground, and he narrows his eyes distrustfully back at the girl who is still looking at him.
"Are you going to take me to the Fire Nation? Are you working with Zuko?"
She bends down near a satchel bag, her back to him. Aang couldn't help but itch and his eyes dart to the water where the canoe is.
"Do you not want food?" She asks, her back still turned. Aang's stomach grumbled on cue when she turned around and puts a pot over the firestones.
She sits down casually in her spot, munching on something crunchy in her mouth.
"Here." She puts something small and green in his mouth before he could protest, and he tastes something savory and minty. He crunches it and it releases a bittersweet taste. His saliva starts secreting in his mouth, and he swallows the flavor. It then eases his stomach's hunger a little.
Aang is so preoccupied with the crunchy vegetable thing in his mouth that the girl in front of him goes about lighting the fire unnoticed. She chops vegetables quickly with a hand knife and deftly cooks them in a pot over a roaring fire. She's got more skill at it that he had seen in his GAang in the last few weeks. His stomach growls as the scent of the food when it wafts over to him through the air. She looks over at him when she hears it and chuckles.
When Aang finishes his little hunger-quenching snack, he suddenly notices the glint of her silver knife in the sun. The girl looks focused on her task as she cuts and strips vegetables, collecting them in the pot. Aang wonders if he can make a run for it, but first he has to ask.
"Why did you take me?"
She's unashamed at her next words. "You got in my canoe, Avatar." Her eyes slide over to him and then back to what she was doing. "I saw an opportunity and I took it." She said tonelessly and spat out her crunchy vegetable snack. Aang's stomach squirms as he watched this and he realized he wasn't meant to swallow the thing.
"You…" He pulls his knees to his chest. She looks over at his movement. "You're not going to take me to the Fire Nation are you?"
She turned back to what she was doing, pulling the skin off a vegetable and stripping it into the neat pile next to her saved for composting that she would then give back to the forest.
"The whole Fire Nation is after you." She says, and for all he could tell she was uncaring in the statement. Her eyes are only on her working hands as the fire reflects in them and makes him realize that they are deeper pools than he could originally see. "You're bound to be worth something."
Aang gulps.
She tastes the cooking, taking a bite with her teeth only because of the heat, scrunching her face as she chewed and putting the vegetable back in the pot to keep cooking.
"…Is there any chance you'll let me go?"
"You got in my boat, Avatar." She says lowly. She turns her face so he can only see only eye, and she's smiling. When she smiles, he notices the color and shape of her eyes, the way her cheeks arch into her jaw, the way her jaw tapers into her chin. "You wanted to go with me. You are now mine for a while." Her cheekiness, lively eyes, and Cheshire grin made her look like a jester or a clown to him. A pretty one.
"But… You'll let me go, right?"
She looked at the wildlife about them as she mock contemplated what he said. She brought a finger to her chin, thinking, and took it away, smirking.
"Perhaps… if your friends can trade me something of equal value." She said slyly, laughing again, this time a mix of her voice and of her breath, her head tilted back a little. Her words don't seem to scare him, and she notices that perhaps it's because he doesn't realize that no one is of equal value to the Avatar. And that fact is why she chuckled. She looks at the fire pit, the curve of her smirk making the boy look at it on her features.
The sentence doesn't make sense to him, but he rattles his brain for something they might have that might be of equal value to him.
He's happy to have learned that she knows of his friends, who would rescue him.
"But there is nothing of equal value to the Avatar," Aang says in confusion. It wasn't said out of arrogance or ego, it was a fact.
Her grin is gone already, and she answers shortly.
"Exactly. That was the joke."
She hands him food. He doesn't want to eat it, but his hunger has come back with the tantalizing smell, and he scarfs it down when he thinks she isn't looking.
Now with his stomach fed, he licks his lips to get as much of the juice and flavor as he could in his stomach, he feels more endeared towards her.
"Uh, I never introduced myself. My name's Aang." He pushed his pointed fingers together. "What's yours?"
She's sitting with an almost lazy smile on her mouth, with her cheek in her hand and her elbow on her knee. She turns to him.
"It amazes me, how you sit there and introduce yourself to someone who's captured you."
He's shocked a little at the rebuke. He was too stunned to form a coherent thought.
Her eyes lazily stay on him with a lazy smile on her face. She's so pretty.
"And you behave like I want to know your name."
What a jerk!
Aang, flustered, tries to turn his body away from her, the pressure of the bark easing slowly on his back. He hears her chuckle from where she sits, and she snaps a twig in her hands.
"I was just tryna be nice…" He says quietly, poutingly.
"I'm just saying, assuming someone's emotions is very insulting and inaccurate."
He's starting to feel a little sleepy. He's surprised when she talks to him.
"You can't afford my name right now."
"…Huh?"
She didn't repeat herself, staring ahead, thinking quietly and going back to her thought system that dealt with people and conversation. Then, she said, her eyes on him,
"You're better off not knowing my name. It won't serve you in any way, anyway, but if you get captured in the future it's best that you don't know me."
"Oh." Aang said in understanding.
But then a terrifying thought entered Aang's mind. What if she was really going to take him away? What if she did work with Zuko? What if she was going to bring him to the Firelord?
"Don't you worry little Avatar, you won't find your way out of here. We are too deep in the forest." He's so charmed by her that the words don't sound creepy until later when he reviews them in his confused stupor. How did she read him with his back to her?
She then straightened her back like she was curious at something she heard. She looked to his right, although he didn't hear anything. She turns to look back at him, and he can't conceive an idea or fathom what her eyes were saying.
She cuts loose his wrist ropes, claiming that he wouldn't get away from her, and he finds himself not contradicting her iron, quiet confidence. He notices as she moves about camp that she stands tall and powerful in her hips and stance, her shoulders back, back strong. Even though she's petite, he thinks that he wouldn't be able to knock her down or move her.
His eyes start to feel heavy. The last thing he sees is her tall back.
"My name is En."
She blinks. She doesn't care. She almost tells him so, but it's rude.
"What's your name?"
She sighs, her side to the other Fire Nation boy.
"Kori."
He smiles, like he's triumphant in something. If Kori wasn't pretending she didn't see it, she would have rolled her eyes.
Her disinterested brown eyes look over the balcony she's standing at with her hands behind her back. It's the evening, at a party that she had to attend with her parents. She hates parties. She hates conversation. She hates interaction. Maybe if she gave this boy a hint he'd go away.
En looks at the girl up and down. She was in his school, both the twelve year olds in the same year. She's so strong, and silent, he thinks. She's admirable, and different to every other girl he knew. She stands always as if she is authoritarian, her hands behind her back. Some people, mostly girls, made fun of her for this, but to him, it made him respect her. She was strong, and a mystery.
"Don't you like the party?" He asks hopefully. She hears it in his voice, and glances over to him. The last thing she wants to do is offend the son of the family who was hosting the party. She doesn't know whether to be honest or to make something polite up.
"I just wanted some air. There are a lot of people in there."
He grins, relieved.
"Yes, it can be stifling at times."
Kori relaxes, and gazes peacefully out into the night sky. En moves closer.
Once Aang had fallen asleep from the special leaf she gave him in his food, she looks at him. He looks different than to how the paintings and books described an air nomad. He's smaller and his skin is smoother. His arrows aren't funky or obscene. He didn't have monstrous, beady eyes. He's serene to be around. She reaches over to where he's slumped against the tree and boldly puts her hand down the collar of his shirt, pulling out light orange, wooden prayer beads with the air bending symbol on them and a pendant of the airbender's symbol hanging at the bottom. She looks at the carved prayer beads for a while, then pulls them over his head and pockets them.
She traveled back to her previous camp and packed everything up in minutes, putting a small bag of her few personal belongings on her shoulder, the clearing now looking like no one had inhabited there. She looked around and left the clearing.
Zuko was taking a detour through an island that his map showed to have a wide river through the center. His boat was probably the only commercial fire nation boat that was small enough to get through it. The banished Fire Nation prince had last seen the flying... thing, his uncle called it a Sky Bison, with the Avatar a few days ago. However, he lost him. He was thinking maybe they were around the island, and instead of wasting time going around it, he could just cut through it.
There had been some white fur in the water near the island, which suggested that they were low enough to land here. It was a good idea on their part, on island there were more people and less places to hide.
Zuko closed his portable scope and handed it to his baffled soldier who seemed confused but took it. He stalked into the ship through a squeaking door and then went to the captain's helm where a soldier steered the boat.
"Keep moving through. I want the Avatar,"
"Prince Zuko, would you like to play a game of Pai Sho?" came his cheeky Uncle's voice.
"No thanks." He said slowly, making it clear he wouldn't be anytime.
Katara and Sokka were at camp, packing everything up because they just decided to move camp, when Katara was facing the sea and she gasped. Zuko's ship was nearing the land.
"Sokka!" She pointed. Appa moaned. The watertribe warrior stood up and walked around their furry friend, and his eyes bugged at the sight of the ship.
Ignoring Sokka's 'witty' comment, Katara set quickly to pack everything on Appa's back saddle, Sokka hopping up in front of it and taking Appa's reins.
"No, Sokka! If we fly, he'll see us!" Katara stopped him before he could lap the reins.
"So what are we supposed to do? Sit here like turtle ducks?!" Sokka squawked.
"I don't know!" Katara said sternly, hands on her hips. "But we can't fly!"
"Appa's too big to get through these trees! We can't just leave him!"
"But what about Aang? We have to warn him!"
"Aang's fine," Sokka waved a hand, not raising his voice anymore. "He put himself in an iceberg when he was in danger last time, he can take care of himself!" Momo brought a stone over to Sokka, landing on his shoulder. Sokka 'ooh!'ed and got preoccupied with the stone.
Katara raised a doubtful eyebrow at her brother. She didn't like his lack of concern over Aang. Aang, after all, was twelve, and a naïve boy that was the last of a whole race of people. Plus, he was the Avatar. If Zuko found him…
Katara set her eyebrows.
"I'm going to find him –"
"Okay, good luck with that," said Sokka, tinkering with the stone with his boomerang, chipping at it like an expert diamond collector to appraise its value.
Katara made a 'humph' noise, turned on her heel, and made a run through the brush to get back to Aang.
Katara's face showed her disappointment and irritation when she came upon an empty river bank.
"Well, looks like he went to go find food by himself…" She muttered to herself. She heard the engine of the Fire Nation ship behind her, although she couldn't see it yet.
He has to be able to hear that when it comes closer to him. He'll be okay… She thought to herself, her hands holding each other at her chest insecurely.
She was about to turn back to go back to camp, but then she had a weird feeling to follow Zuko's ship. Yes! If they could follow Zuko's ship, they could find out whether or not he found Aang!
Zuko stood on deck, spying through his spyglass again, glancing around at the forest on both sides. They were now thick in the island, unable to see the sea on either side past the trees.
"Found anything yet, nephew?" called his Uncle.
"No, Uncle, no sign of him." He said, still looking through is scope.
"Keep looking!" encouraged his Uncle. Iroh then turned around with a cheeky grin and placed his White Lotus tile into position.
Minutes passed, and Zuko had not tired from looking through his spyglass.
"Well, Prince Zuko," Iroh ambled from his seat when he noticed this of his nephew. "Maybe you should take a break? The forest air is fresh and clean, the perfect environment to have some good tea…"
"I don't need TEA, Uncle. I need the Avatar," He closed his scope and turned away, only to see something immediately.
A small canoe.
"That! What's that! Make a course for that boat!" He shouted to his operator soldier, who alerted the Captain immediately for the altered course towards the innocent canoe.
She made her way back to her temporary camp and packed everything up there as well. She checked the ropes Aang had to make sure they were tight. When the boy woke up it was good timing because Zuko's boat was coming, as she anticipated. Zuko was never far behind Aang.
Aang had fallen asleep. But he only knew that when he woke up with a start. He looked around the camp and his captor was gone. Before him was a deserted camp. Or more like a deserted clearing. There was nothing that suggested human settlement there. He thought he had imagined the whole thing. But before he could jump up and run for it, (he's still tied up), a clothed arm shot out in front of his vision and pulled Aang to his feet, then dragged him out into the middle of the clearing by his wrist ropes. Aang didn't have to ask why, a few seconds later a metal ship pulled up to the river bank. Aang gasped at the sight of Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation at the ship's edge. The girl who had a strong grip on him, however, seemed to merely glare up at them, her face closed, a fist on her hip.
"You are in possession of the Avatar," Zuko's eyes narrowed. It was more of a statement than anything else.
"That I am." Came the smooth voice of his captor, her glare still in place. "I am willing to trade him for safe passage on your ship until the next port."
Zuko's one black eyebrow narrowed, as the other had been burnt off.
"How do I know I can trust you?"
She shrugged apathetically. "Well then, fine. I'll just pass him onto Zhao when I next see him," She turned Aang around and was walking away when the Prince called out.
"Wait! - Deal. Crew, bring her and the Avatar aboard."
As a bridge lowered to land and two fire nation soldiers with white masks came down to seize the Avatar, Aang felt his captor lean her body close to him.
"I release you from me. You may leave, if you wish, to find your friends, once we are on the ship. Or you can stay. It's just an idea, but it doesn't mean anything to me."
The Avatar was taken and Kori followed with dignity as she crossed the bridge. The sixteen year old's hips and arms swayed naturally as she climbed wooden ridges on the plank, head lifting in a habit of dignity as she leveled out onto the deck. Aang was led away. He looked back at her.
She turned to Zuko, who was looking at her already.
He recognized her instantly now that she was closer, a few meters away. He knew that pretty face and that hair anywhere. She was different. Her hair was longer now, to her mid-back, where when he had seen her last it had been at her shoulders. She possessed a hardening, a strength that she didn't have before. But all he knew was when he had met her that one time face to face and passed her a few times after that and during those times there had been a focused look in her eyes like she was thinking about something.
She used to have such a high position in the Fire Nation, in the elite academy that's head was his father, and was even becoming well known in the Nation, apparently, from what he had heard from Zhao. Admiral Zhao had once come upon their ship to see if they were stowing away the traitor to the Fire Nation. That was the only way that Zuko knew she had left the Fire Nation. When they stopped next at a port, they found her wanted poster on a billboard. Because he was banished, he otherwise didn't know much about the going-on's of his nation.
Either way now, Zuko was noticing how different and the same she was than when he met her a year ago. As different as he could tell, because he had only met her that one time. And she had been right about the Avatar. He was alive, and he was young.
Iroh surveyed the ex-Fire Nation warrior. She stood older and wiser, immovable. She still possessed her delicate features, and petite body, but she was every bit a Fire Nation warrior that the elite academy spat out. They trained her well, he thought. She used to project the impression she was easy to topple over when they met her, however now she seemed as immovable as a cliff. He decided not to mention her defecting from the Fire Nation to keep things smooth sailing.
"Ah, Kori," He said with ease. "Just how did you come across the Avatar?"
Kori smiled just a little, beautiful but not warm. Her arms were in the standard position behind her back.
"He just fell into my lap." She then flipped her head so some hair in her eye would move out of her vision. "I knew wherever he was, you wouldn't be far behind. So I left my canoe out so you would find us."
Iroh nodded with a 'hmm', noting that that was clever to himself. It was difficult to tell if that was a product of intellectual talent, or if that was her training.
Zuko narrowed his gaze, becoming suspicious. He stalked over until he was in front of her.
"And why did you not keep him for yourself? And use him to trade your way back in to my father's good graces?"
"Zuko," Iroh scolded sternly.
Kori wanted to glare at him.
She wanted to keep her answers to herself, why was he making her answer him?
"Just be glad I gave him to you. Now you can go home." She said stonily.
Zuko's back straightened, his chin leaning back a little. She's got stones, he'll give her that. No one talked to him in that way except his Uncle.
"I only ask that you treat him humanely."
Zuko glared harshly at her. She appeared unaffected.
"Kori, how would you like some tea?" interjected Iroh with a kind tone to diffuse the situation.
"I do not drink tea, thank you for the offer, though." She answered calmly. It was a twisted truth; she didn't drink anything that she didn't know what went in it. If she could not identify everything that went into something, she didn't eat or drink it.
Iroh bowed accommodatingly.
"Very well, Prince Zuko," He turned to his nephew. "How about you show our new guest to her room?"
Kori didn't want to, but she smiled and let the grumbling Prince lead the way.
When Zuko saw a soldier leer at Kori, he jumped to escort her to her new room before he realized he did it. It was awkward on the way down there. Frustrated, awkward, and confused, he didn't know what to say to her when they got there. She was about to go in, but glanced at him when she saw he wanted to say something. When he felt so many emotions at once and he couldn't make sense of them, it came off like he was angry. Seeing that she was staring at him, it made him more embarrassed than he already was, and then he exploded with the first thing he could think of.
"Have a good night!" He shouted, walking away down the corridor with fire coming from his hands. It came out more like an order than an expression of goodwill. She watched him leave with a puzzled look on her face.
Zuko stalked back to the helm with angry steps. God, he was so stupid! Have a good night? It wasn't even evening yet! And why did he have to shout in her face? Zuko sighed and entered the room where his Uncle was sitting playing Pai Sho with a crew member and a soldier was steering the ship. Zuko pushed his lady troubles out of his mind and stalked over the man steering the ship.
A soldier entered the room and bowed before Zuko.
"The Avatar is in the room you requested, sir."
"Good." The soldier bowed and left.
"Set a course to my father. I'm going home." Zuko said to the soldier steering. He turned to the window with his hands behind his back.
"Ah ah ah, Prince Zuko," Zuko's shoulders hitched at the sound of his Uncle's voice. "What about getting some supplies first, hm? We're practically running out of rice, and tea! Good tea!"
"Fine! Make a course to the next port, and then set a course for my father!"
Just to clear things up, Iroh and Zuko attribute Kori's 'change in character' to her academy training, but you'll see and find out (I hope, as you read) that she can just control how she comes off to people in the way that she acts and behaves. This is why they think she has 'changed'.