A. N. : On to the Painted Lady arc ! The good news is, it shouldn't take 15 goddamn chapters because of Jet. And, there should be more Lin. The bad news is, it's probably not the wholesome father-daughter interaction you're all craving, because this is me, and this is a stressing situation for Zuko. Still, that's not the focus of today's chapter. Today is Katara, and a lot of water I guess.
The river is crying.
At least that's the feeling Katara get, but maybe it's really just her wanting to cry at this – this pollution, this grey and viscous stuff that's stopping the river from breathing –
Wait. What ? Rivers don't breathe, and yet Katara could swear this one – Zuko called it Jang Hui – is suffocating.
Jang Hui is suffocating and Katara's throat feels like there's a knot in it. If she tells Sokka, he will probably say it's just her imagination, that she's just angry at the state of the river – and she is, and he would probably be right, but Katara doesn't want to hear it, so she keeps it to herself.
Aang doesn't seem to be bothered by it. Tui, he even swims in the muddy, ill water – he does point out there's something wrong with it, and Katara wonders if he feels the same as she does, or if he's just talking about the pollution. Both are linked, but they're not the same, Katara knows that – it may be just a figment of her imagination, but she is sure of it.
When Aang dries himself by blowing the water on them – the water touches her skin, and Katara feels physically ill. It's not just a feeling at the back of her mind anymore, no, now Katara is shuddering – get it out get it out – and it's like she's shrinking – she feels so dirty someone please help her – and for a second she can't breathe –
Then the water is gone and the sickness with it, and all that's left is Lin crying and the temperature rising by the second as Zuko grows closer to exploding, and Jet moving closer to Katara and looking like he's going to either puke or break something – that's some sort of progress, she guesses – and Lin keeps on crying and Katara's head hurts –
Something is wrong but she can't pinpoint what exactly and Lin's crying really doesn't help, and why doesn't Zuko calm her down instead of screaming at Aang, please shut up –
He does, and now Aang appears to shrink a little when looking at Katara. Oh. She didn't mean to scare him, but she isn't going to apologize.
The temperature is finally going back to a relatively acceptable level, and Toph chooses that moment to say she's hungry. And it's so out of the blue that all the tension just – disappears !
It probably wasn't her intention, but Katara is thankful nonetheless – she hates infighting. Unless it's really justified by, say, someone not playing by the group's rules. It's not like they can banish anyone of them after all – except for Jet, but he hasn't done anything yet, and if she didn't know him she'd really think he's turned into a good person.
Sokka agrees to put a food break into his monster of a schedule, and they stop near a village built on the river. Heh. That's a sweet idea. If the water wasn't so polluted, it would be such a nice, quiet place. Who knew the Fire Nation could build something like that ?
She turns to Zuko to see if he knows anything about this place – their last stop taught them he is surprisingly good at geography, or maybe it's just that he comes from the Fire Nation, so he has to know these things – but all he has is that, since it's customary for floating towns to bear the name of their waters, this village is probably also called Jang Hui.
Implying towns like this one are common place – and he wouldn't say they are, exactly, but they're not uncommon either, this one is pretty small and built using the root pillars system, but some others are much bigger, and the oldest one is also the biggest and is found at the middle of Lake Tenuht, and is much more like and actual floating city, with even floating fields, and –
Katara can't help but chuckle. This is the most she's heard Zuko say in one sitting – he even sounded like Sokka for a moment here. Even Lin has fallen silent at his monologue, and there's no way she understood any of that.
Zuko looks horribly embarrassed though. Mumbles that he likes architecture – it's pretty useless though – and Katara frowns because who cares about useful ? It's still interesting ! Toph calls him a nerd – but it's alright, she still likes him – and Sokka looks like he wants to ask all the questions about how that could work. He refrains himself though, and says they should go now, else they'll be even more behind their – his – schedule.
They go, Zuko stays – Katara can't say for sure if it's to avoid being recognized, or just because he is that embarrassed by the public display of his secret passion for buildings – and Jet surprisingly comes with the rest of them.
Sometimes Katara wonders if Jet just conveniently forgets about Zuko's bending whenever they hang out, just like he conveniently forgot Zuko's name until recently. But he doesn't seem to mind the Zuko-enhanced firecamps, so Katara just really doesn't know. These two don't make sense anyway.
A man named Dock ferries them to the village and explains that the pollution comes from that hideous factory over there – and oh, the headache is back, and it makes Katara even angrier at the unfairness of the situation. The others don't seem to mind, but she minds enough for five.
Or, well. Aang looks a little sad, and Jet looks angry but he probably just wants to blow up an army factory so that doesn't count. Part of Katara, the part with the headache and the bad feeling that just doesn't go away, agrees with that – but the rest of her remembers the dam and would like Jet to just go to hell.
She starts to seriously consider the idea once she sees the fish and clams at Xu's shop. And she makes a decision to do something when that little boy asks her for food – maybe not destroying the factory, since this is a Jet idea, but at least finding actual food where there's bound to be some. And if it annoys the army, then that's just a bonus.
She will help these people, Katara decides, because they don't deserve any of this and because she can. She will protect these people.
And maybe breathing will become a little easier in the process.