A Different Destiny

Chapter 8

The gang quickly packed up camping, loading the belongings they had escaped Ba Sing Se with and taking the time to carefully lash Aang to the saddle. Katara and the others weren't likely to get much sleep given everything that had happened, but there was no sense in taking extra risks. After everything was packed everyone clambered onto Appa, Zuko turned and offered Katara a hand. She stared at it for a moment, as though his hand might be an unfriendly otter penguin.

She didn't take his hand, grabbing the side of the saddle and hoisting herself up. When she got to the top she settled herself nearest to Aang and as far away as she could get on the saddle from Zuko. She swept a hand across Aang's lifeless body, and bit back a cry, wishing she could do more to help him. What was wrong with her? First she failed at healing Zuko's scar and now she couldn't close simple flesh wounds for Aang. Normally, healing came naturally to her, like breathing. All she had to do is focus her chi, letting it flow through her and into the person she was healing, unblocking or correcting and harm that might have been done. Katara wondered if her chi had been blocked somehow.

They had flown through the night and well into the midday when they decided to give Appa a rest. By Sokka's estimates they were only another day's flight from the Northern Water Tribe. They could feel it in the air, the hot humidity of the desert had begun to give way to the bitter cold of the north. And in the morning the ground was covered with frost and light pieces of snow.

Appa circled the area and found a grove next to a stream, which would provide shelter and protection should they face any kind of attack. The moment they touched down Katara sprung in to action getting Aang comfortably settled in a nest of sleeping bags on the ground. As soon as she was finished, she straightened up brushing off several day's worth of dust. "I'll be back. I need to be alone." And with no further explanation she headed up the stream, around the bend, and out of sight.

"Ugh women." Sokka said, smacking his face and turned back to the tent he had been putting together with only moderate success. There was a yelp as Sokka stumbled forwarded into his makeshift tent, knocking the entire structure over. "Hey TOPH!"

"What are you yelling at me for? Maybe you should watch where you're going before you try to blame the nearest female for everything." Despite her words, there was a huge smirk on her face and Zuko thought he could see a small bump in the earth receding back into the ground as though it had never been there.

"Uh do you two think she's okay?" Zuko asked, pointing his thumb in the direction that Katara went.

Sokka raised an eyebrow like he wanted to say something snarky or accusatory but was still nursing a big welt between his eyes where his face had struck the wooden part of his tent. "It's been a hard few days for all of us. She just needs some space."

"Are you sure someone shouldn't go after her? She seemed really upset."

"I don't thi-"

"It's a great idea, in fact, why don't you go check on her!" yelled Toph.

Zuko and Sokka both turned to her, a bit confused by her enthusiasm. She shrugged. "Or sit around here wondering, what do I care?"

"Uh, oh. Okay, I'll go check on her." he said a bit skeptical before turning down the path Katara had just gone down.

"Why'd you tell him that?" Sokka asked, looking at Toph. "You know she hates being bothered when she says like this. The last time I bothered her when she said she wanted to be alone she froze my feet together and stormed off, MY FEET."

Toph laughed, "I know, I figured this camp could use some non-life threatening drama."

Zuko wove his way down an unused trail, flowing the faint prints that Katara's moccasins had left in the dust. He wondered if he was going the right way as the prints led away from the main river. Zuko thought he had lost the trail at one point but climbed over a snow covered boulder and found that they picked up on the other side. After a few more minutes of walking he could hear running water again but it wasn't part of the stream.

"Katara!" He called out. Zuko looked around for any sign of her. Strung over a tree was Katara's tunic and it was covered in bright red, fresh blood. Zuko took off sprinting, as quick as he could follow the footprints. "Katara!!" Before he had gone very far he found that the solid ground beneath him had run out, toppling off a shallow edge into the water.

Zuko braced himself for the icy chill, waited for it to soak his clothes and drag him to the bottom of whatever body of water he had just flung himself into. It never came. Instead he was met it felt like being flung into a warm bath, albeit he still took in a lung full of water or two before someone grabbed him by the arm and hauled him into an upright position.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Katara said. She stood in water up to her waist and wearing her white swimsuit that she normally wore for bending practice with Aang. "And why are you screaming?"