Chapter 3 – The Grasses Unload Their Griefs on my Feet as if I were God
She wondered if the heavy atmosphere could really be mid-morning after all. They were seated at barstools under an awning with only a few feet behind them to the half-curtain-draped entryway. On the narrow bamboo-wood bar the cook slammed their bowls down without a word then returned to stir the next customer's order in the cast iron wok. The stand was filled with cough-inducing fumes smoky with onion and capsaicin blocked in by the steady rain. The dirt floor puddled with rivulets streaking across.
The zha jiang mian was rough and hearty but amazingly good after a night of drinking, the noodles freshly made and the ground pork crisp in glossy rich sauce. The liquor had been watered down—the reason both that it was so cheap and that she was spared a hangover. Tea in footed heavy mugs was thrown down in front of them, sloshing over the rim. Apparently the typical customers gave the owner trouble and he'd long ago abandoned all sense of hospitality and gentleness. Despite the frequent state of rain, it looked like the chef hadn't known the touch of water for months. His apron was more oil stain than fabric and set wrinkled over his prominent round gut. He cracked an egg to fry and put his hand on his waist, not bothering to wipe the trace of eggwhite-slime off first, watching it sizzle in the oil like it was a criminal.
Zuko had found them both outfits in rough Earth colors of muted green and beige. He certainly looked like he fit into that atmosphere with various scars, his eye covered and other set into a habitual scowl whenever they weren't alone, and black hair thrown into a sloppy bun he wouldn't let her fix. Their cloaks were draped over the backs of their chairs. He didn't want everyone in the harbor town to know she was a waterbender, so she had let the rain soak them both helplessly to keep in character.
The rain didn't let up. By afternoon they'd bought everything they could want for the trip and left it piled on their bed, the only safe area of the shared room. Jet, in a rage that Azula (actually Zuko) had called for a maid, was doubling down to filth it back up in record time and had started smashing the furniture and upturning their luggage, shouting every slur and curse he could think of at her while she smirked at him from the safety of the bed knowing he dared not actually touch her. Zuko shook his head as they slipped back out, though it was a question if, in his state of fresh noon drunkenness, Jet had even noticed their visit.
"He'll die of a self-inflicted ulcer at this rate," he said as they returned to the inn's entryhall, eyeing the still-falling rain. "If he starts drinking again tomorrow I'll have to beat sense back into him."
"Can we do anything in this rain?"
"There's nothing much in town except food and booze. Apparently no one in this place has heard of an umbrella. It rains three quarters of the year and they just walk around in it like it's business as usual."
She replied, "Not even waterbenders enjoy being perpetually drenched." It was afternoon but so dark it could have passed for late evening. With such a heavy meal in their stomachs neither would feel hungry again before dinner and there weren't much in the way of luxury services like hotsprings or gardens for entertainment. "Let's just go for a walk and enjoy the fresh air."
With their hoods up and keeping to cover when possible, the rain wasn't intolerable. Most of the structures were built of local wood and, in that humid environment, moss grew on every surface, which they routinely had to scrape off as it would slowly decompose the construction materials it lived on. The harbor was pitted by heavy raindrops on the water's surface and reflected the grey of the sky. Window-shopping killed an hour parsing through odds and ends and foreign imports, half of which were likely stolen or fraudulent in some capacity, and the portside market district was the only draw of the town as it held few residents who were not involved in the trade or providing services to the sailors. Frogs croaked in flooded-out seasonal ponds and mushrooms sprouted with frequency, growing to large sizes. She'd seen the same species used in the local cuisine and thought they must harvest whatever grew of its own accord. Pig-chickens wandered loose, grazing on scraps from the restaurants and picking worms from the soaking-wet soil as they surfaced to escape the flood and breathe. Small hutches for them had been built into spare spaces but were in disrepair.
They settled at a teashop, a doorless stand with cafe seating overlooking the harbor and the main roadway. A merchant pushed a cart of cabbages through the pitted dirt street until the wheel became caught in a rut and it toppled, knocking the vegetables into the mud. Zuko asked her, "Do you want to split a custard-puff?" and she looked away from the struggling merchant and agreed. It was brought to them without even a plate and they passed it back and forth to nibble. Lapsang souchong poured near-black into the mugs, steaming hot with a note of campfire smoke and dried berries thrown in for balance. With the warm beverage and under cover of the awning, listening to the rain was pleasant and calming. On the far side of the harbor a man sat alone fishing beside the hill. To the other end the cluster of ships floated rocking at dock, their mast riggings clacking and swaying with the wind. Few birds were out, preferring to shelter through the weather, but periodically a warbler or thrush would flit between branches. A heron continued swooping the water's surface, fishing unbothered by the damp.
Katara looked up as something caught her attention. A boy around ten wearing an oversized jacket of dark brown, the sleeves flopping empty at his sides, followed two men with another walking behind him in very close proximity. In the rain it was hard to notice, but a rope draped from the boy's back and hitched up his jacket. There was an odd lump under the fabric at his back, like his hands were tied there hidden under the garment. Her stare lingered too long and the man at the rear met her eyes. His were cold and stabbing and seemed to look right through her. She felt a chill and a sharp instinct of danger. Though it lasted no more than a second, she had the premonition he knew who she was and they wouldn't see the last of him. She tugged Zuko's sleeve with urgency, then whispered to him what had happened.
"Are you sure?" The group was heading towards the docks. "They won't be setting sail in these conditions. We have time."
"Can we save him?"
"Maybe, but we need to inform the drunken lout and my sister. I don't want to make a move until we receive the information from June."
"It might be too late by then."
"Katara, it's what I can offer. Come on, we can at least see where they are going." He proceeded down a side-path into the thick of the forest, leading uphill to a crest. The rain had turned the ground foul and the slope dangerous with muddy footing. From the way trees were toppled and the hillside broken, the area was not unaccustomed to mudslides. They paced through keeping grasp on trees for stability until they arrived at an overview of the docks. "I think they went into that ship, the one with the black-painted taffrail."
"Are you sure?"
"I think so. A door just shut on it, so someone is there, and it was in the direction they were heading." They had gone as far as they could but the view was obscured by branches, and his shoe slipped in the mud when he tried to lean further and get a clear view. "Wait here."
"Zuko?"
He leapt down and slid until stopped with his side against the trunk of a large pine, after which was an unstable area. If not for the tree, he'd have slipped off the edge and tumbled into broken branches and a fall of several yards. She held back, worried but trying herself not to fall, and watched him anxiously as he kept hold of the trunk and peered at the ship several minutes, waiting for someone to emerge so they could know for sure if they had the right target.
She looked behind her and saw only pine sharp and darkly silhouetted in the rain-soaked forest. If she moved too much they might be discovered, so she stayed waiting as the rain dripped from the canopy, able to view only part of the ship in question, trying to trust him not to fall or be exposed. A branch snapped. She glanced over but saw no one around. Zuko crouched and leaned further out from his handhold, catching her attention, and she refrained from calling out to him to be more careful to not break his concentration.
Pain exploded in her shoulderblade. She gasped and dropped to her knee, slipped, and raked her nails against the treebark trying to keep a hold and halt her forward motion. Her leg kicked out over the emptiness. "Katara!" Zuko pushed off the trunk and climbed towards her, but the slope was too steep to make easy passage back up and he would have to climb the dissolving mud and erosion. He shoved a foothold in and tried to reach to the top ledge, slipped, and shouted, "Fuck!"
In the density of the forest from the direction of the arrow-shot, the bed of pineneedles shifted almost imperceptibly. A second shot is coming. She kicked off and slipped over the ledge, tumbling poorly, and landed with a scream as the shaft was jostled. Zuko abandoned his furtive attempt to climb and ran over to her, flinched as the arrow clipped his shoulder, then pulled her to her feet. "Down," he said, and pulled her against his body before leaping off the precipice.
They fell over the last section of cliff as he shielded her from the impact. Branches snapped as they crashed through the saplings and dead branches of their fallen precessors, ending on the ground in a pile of broken wood. It hurt too much to think. He struggled to his feet, pulled her to standing, and started running for cover, dragging her along while she was blinded and disoriented.
A metallic sound rang out and Zuko grunted, stopped in his tracks, and her forward momentum sent her tumbling to her knees as their hands were ripped from the other's. On the ground, she didn't know how she would get up again as the agony was overwhelming. Zuko began fighting someone, but she sensed that he was just as injured as she was as he'd taken the brunt of their fall while protecting her from it. Squinting at the blurred shapes, she tried to find which one he was and who were the attackers. Grass blades wet and flecked in mud prickled her palm as she reached forward. Ice spread under the feet of the attackers. Caught off guard, the enemies slipped and crashed to the ground. Zuko withdrew panting and tried to help her up again, but she couldn't coordinate so well a second time and he was forced to scoop her into his arms and carry her. She tried to focus on extending the ice even as they left the scene, locking them in place slicing into their legs and backs, while he stumbled from the outskirts to the pathway looking for shelter.
Panicked voices screamed as a wooden stand was torn apart. Something large made impact and boards exploded into splinters. The sound of a whip cracked, followed by a lashing sound and screams. Zuko stumbled and fell to his knees, trying only to keep her head from impacting the ground, and his weight pressed across her body with the mud cold below them.
"We'll need that boat ride sooner than planned," June said, then shouted an order to her animal. It tore across the ground towards the cliff and leapt up, shouldering the ratty trees apart and scraping chunks from the hillside as it ascended. It passed from sight into the forest in pursuit of someone. "Get up, boy. Which ship did you reserve?"
He got to his knees over her, enough to turn and point, saying, "The one with the white and green striped sail."
Katara struggled to her side to alleviate pressure from the arrow-shaft, aware that the last impact had knocked it aside to rip the wound open further. June's hands slipped under her arms and she was thrown over the woman's shoulder. "Go fetch your friends and luggage. Now! When Nyla gets back from tracking the last one, we need to be off. They'll be down for twenty minutes, maybe less."
Muddy pathway changed to wooden planks of the boardwalk by the harbor. Black spots waned in and out shifting like starbursts as the blood rushed to her head. Every footstep sent her injury pounding. She tried to struggle up to look behind them and see what had happened to Zuko but couldn't lift herself that much. She closed her eyes, trying to build up a reserve of energy for it, but next came to awareness being laid onto a cot in a small wood-paneled room. "Don't move," said June, and she had the impression of her leaving the room. She could feel the water underneath the ship rocking it.
"Zuko?"
No one answered, so she thought she must be alone. Katara slipped in and out of consciousness for an unknown amount of time, and then was being shaken awake. June said, "Come on, we need our waterbender to wake up if we want off this dock," and moved her face with a hand at her chin. There was commotion on the deck above them, she could tell by the creaking of the boards that there was a heavy weight leaping around and thrashing. A bestial screech resounded, reminiscent of the elephant-mandrill. A shudder tore through her. "Minor procedure, we'll have to get that arrow-head out before you can move your arm," said June, and someone else braced her while a cold metal tool pressed against the wound.
Katara hadn't known she could scream that loud. The white-pain afterwards left her gasping.
Gauze was pressed to her back. "No time for healing that right now. Up and onto that deck. Get us out of this harbor before they overwhelm us."
Someone pulled her up and helped her walk while keeping the gauze under pressure to stymie the blood. A steep staircase was in front of her. "Up," Azula told her, and supported her while she began climbing. She grit her teeth and tried to keep her right arm from moving. At the top they were on deck. Azula walked with her, keeping her upright, and held the gauze against her back while she stood. "The wind isn't right to launch. Waterbend."
They were surely under attack, but the rest of the deck was a confusion beyond her comprehension. The shirshu was the only aspect obvious in shape. It twirled dodging incoming weapons and flicked its tongue at people standing on the dock. The gangway was already taken in, but it wasn't a far distance and certainly close enough for someone to leap if the animal's defense lowered. Jet was somewhere nearby engaged in combat, by his voice, and three of the opposing ships were on fire, though having been rain-soaked and under continual downpour they were not too hampered by it and continued attacking. Smoke blended with the grey surroundings.
She mumbled in slurred words, "Where is Zuko?"
"Here. Now lift the water and get us out. The anchor is already up."
With teeth grit and her eyes clenched shut, she lifted her arms to initiate the push and pull of a mass large enough to set the entire ship in motion. She could sense the harbor greatly disturbed by other boats trying to move to check them by oar, men in the water, and the storm cresting the surface into rough waves. Rain pelted her and washed down her face as she began, every motion pulling at the injury bounded by the gentle pressure that Azula kept on it.
#
"Ugh!" Zuko groaned. "You did that on purpose!"
Katara blinked her eyes open slowly, not sure where she was. The room was confiningly small, like the cabin of a ship. Two people were seated nearby with scent in the air of medical supplies. A wooden splinter the size of her finger plinked into a collection bowl and Azula clacked the tweezers. "So what if I did? If you prefer, Jet can be the one doing this. I'm sure he'll treat you oh so gently." He grumbled and resettled to let her continue, and she smiled and sighted out the next. "You have half a forest lodged in your back." As she pulled out the embedded fragments of wood and stone-chips, she periodically paused to wipe the blood away so she could see better. "This will all be an infection by tomorrow. How many bar patrons piss and vomit out in those woods? That mud is saturated with excrement. You might even die of it."
"Try to sound less thrilled. You're still depending on me. Where is June?"
"June won't save you. She's helping the kid." She yanked the next splinter out and inspected it while her brother swore and moaned. Azula noticed she'd regained consciousness. "Your girlfriend is awake. Best not move yet, Water-peasant; you're even worse than he is. Just enjoy the show." She flourished the metal tweezers and resumed.
Zuko, seated on the wooden stool with his shirt off, shouted, "For Agni's sake, Azula!" and stamped his foot in pain, his fists balled at his knees.
His sister responded unsympathetically, "What kind of firebender gets ambushed with a fight and doesn't even firebend? Father taught you better than that."
"Don't bring him up. Katara, are you—UGH!"
"Shush. There's only one way these are coming out and it's the hard way."
She tried to tell him, "I'm fine, Zuko," but her voice betrayed her with pain and weakness sounding distorted. As she searched for water nearby, unsure of what happened to her bending pouch, the impact of her injuries set in and every bit of motion highlighted a new one. I can't even sit up until someone helps me, much less fetch water. They were at sea somehow, and she didn't know how long she'd been unconscious.
Someone entered the room from a narrow doorway leading to a dark hall. Jet, looking worse for wear himself, stated, "The damage to the ship is minimal, but they'll be charging you extra for it, and extra for the short notice and extra for the change of itinerary."
Zuko replied, "I figured they would try to bilk me for as much as they can get away with demanding."
Jet had a cut on his cheek in a position unable to be bandaged easily, which was smeared with ointment to congeal it and provide some stoppage to the flow, but a streak had leaked down to his chin and smeared against the skin. He noticed she was awake and turned his attention from Zuko to her. "Can you waterbend yet?"
"Yes," she murmured.
Hesitant to approach her, he looked to Zuko for permission, then stepped past the two siblings engaged in their own nursing treatment. He helped her sit upright, sturdy and thoughtful of the injury, and pulled out a flask. She worried it might be liquor, as she could smell it on his breath, but the contents were pure water. He uncapped it and held it for her with his arm supporting her back.
With the motion initiated she couldn't back down, as the pain was returning in full flush instilling an urgent need to treat it. She reached to the water and pulled it out, forming it around her hand, and pressed it against her upper back. As she concentrated, she could sense Jet's level breaths beside her and the heat of his body in the damp chilled room. Zuko, still under assault from Azula's assistance, cursed and groaned, thrashing around with every extraction of deep-set splinters. She shut her eyes and listened to the water's internal flow.
Halfway through she had to take a break when her concentration reached its limit. She returned her hand in front of her and stared down at the bloodied sphere of water held above her palm. Jet shook the empty flask, offering her to return it there, and she shook her head and explained, "It's dirty now."
"It's fine. I'll wash it later."
She funneled it in and he capped it to set aside. The worst of the damage was repaired, though the bone had been chipped with the force of impact from the arrowhead and the shoulderblade would be sore for a few more sessions. She asked what had happened. Once she was stable resting against the wall the cot was against, Jet backed off and went to the other room, spoke to someone, and brought back June. Her makeup was washed off and her face was surprisingly plain and gentle. She paced to the other side of the room where hammocks were strung and took a seat on one, letting the momentum slowly swing back and forth contemplatively in an unguarded gesture almost girlish.
With an exhale she leaned forward with her elbows on her knees and slicked her hair back. "I'd been in town with Nyla to get her a last serving of a local dish that's her favorite. This is the only place I've ever found it in, and we won't be coming back here again, that's for sure. While she was eating, I heard the commotion and thought it was probably your group at cause. After all, I have to protect my walking paycheck," she said, and nodded towards Zuko, who had been released from Azula's clutches and held an unbuttoned jacket loose around himself to cover the injuries to his back without putting pressure on them yet. Bandages wrapped his torso. "I found the kid you had seen. You have to understand something—interfering with business causes reciprocation, not just from one group but from all their associates. An attack on one is an attack on all, here. Think of it as a thieves' code of honor to protect the sanctity of their trading grounds. It got a bit chaotic, but between Nyla, Mr. Knife, and the Fire siblings, we fared well while you took a nap. The crew are pissed."
"I know," said Zuko. "They're intending to bankrupt me. If they can't work in the industry again I can offer them a place in the Fire Nation navy."
"For all their families, too? You've caused a ripple and it's spreading quite far. You can't exactly wage war on the pirates, either, since they fall under Earth jurisdiction."
"And what the hell is Kuei doing about them?"
"Little more than keeping them out of public eye." She pulled a rolled-up sheet from a leather bag at her side. "Here is your information." Azula took it and began reading.
Katara asked, "You mentioned the boy we saw. Is he okay?"
"They have him drugged out of his mind. I got him to vomit, which might clear it faster, but they used a large dose. They probably didn't adjust for how small he is. He'll be fine in a few days, but he needs to rest. What I can tell you, from the way he was dressed, is that he's not from around here. Wherever he is from, you'll have a long trip to return him."
Zuko replied, "I can't just detour the ship all over the country. Take him back with you to Caldera City for now and my uncle will help you find his family and arrange for him to be returned."
"If his family aren't alive anymore?" As he paused in realization, she explained, "They tend to not leave loose ends. You need to verify their status before you return a child to an empty house with his parents dead and forgotten on the floor."
"Okay, okay," he interrupted her, his voice hinting too much emotion. "My uncle will see to it, just let him know the details. The men who were transporting him, do you know who they are?"
"Yeah. The Sheng Group. They didn't do the work themselves, by the way. They operate on a handoff system to restrict information, which prevents anyone learning the entire length of the system when they can only follow a lead to one node. They only bought the boy from an intermediary to take to a more profitable market."
"What can we do to stop it with that setup?"
"Hit the nexus. The procurement teams hand goods off to an intermediary trader, and they get it to the right purchaser. Everything flows through one point. However, there is a reason no one has taken them down yet. They're elusive. The desert is their backyard and proves hostile to outsiders."
"The Beetle-headed Merchants?"
"Impressive. You won't be able to get your hands on them just knowing their name, though. Only they know the safe routes of passage through the desert. I've heard what has happened to the territory recently, but their operations still run from the remaining area of desert to the north of that weird library. You'll die of thirst before you manage to find them."
"That desert has already failed to kill me once. We'll find them."
"I like that attitude. You'll need it. We're routing south to drop you off before heading to the Fire Nation. Girlie," she addressed Katara, "you had best finish patching up yourself and your boyfriend before then. The pirates won't be far behind us and we need to head into Fire Nation waters as soon as possible to enter under their protection. You have four days."
"That's plenty."
June left to check on her animal, who had itself sustained a few injuries which, at its size, were more easy to shake off than for humans. Jet brought her clean drinking water and she realized how dizzy she was. "You should rest a while," he told her. "Then finish healing your own injury. No one else is as bad off as you."
Minding the injury, she laid back down to rest feeling like she couldn't keep her eyes open a moment longer.
#
A/n:
Super fun but foreceps are usually needed to remove an arrowhead (this is what June used). June has probably been shot more than once and learned how to perform a removal. Luckily we have magic healing so I don't have to be too graphic with the process after that.
Mr. Knife refers to Jet. Ever since Zuko beat his hook-swords with a knife in #1 he's favored using a knife himself. June doesn't know any of their names and doesn't care to learn them. Azula is the only one who firebent, but June already knew the Firelord was a bender.
Sheng Group – sheng means weasel or stoat in Mandarin. 鼪