The Traitor Princess

Chapter 30 - The Cave of Two Lovers

The group was packing up for the day, preparing to finish the last leg of their journey to Omashu. Thanks to Sokka's tea, Eziri finally got a full night of sleep for the first time since they left the North Pole. She rolled up her sleeping bag and started to hand it up to Sokka.

"Hey, did you sleep ok?" He asked as he loaded the sleeping bag onto the saddle.

Eziri nodded. "Yeah, my head feels a lot clearer. I...I'm still uh..struggling a bit, but I'm ok."

"I'm glad to hear it." Sokka gave her a smile.

"I wanted to thank you for the tea by the way. It really helped."

"Oh uhh...you mean K-Katara's tea? Because she–"

"You don't have to lie, Sokka. Your sister already spilled your secret."

Sokka scratched the back of his neck nervously. "Oh. I'm sorry, I just wanted to help."

"You don't have to apologize." Eziri sighed and Sokka climbed down so he could stand in front of her. "Listen, I know things are still a little weird between us, but I don't want it to be that way. I miss my friend." She gave Sokka a half smile.

"I miss my friend too."

"So....we'll try to go back to normal? Well–at least as normal as things can get."

Sokka chuckled. "Yeah, I'd like that." Eziri nodded and turned to walk away. Sokka stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "Eziri?" She turned around to face him again. "I really am sorry. For everything I said at the North Pole."

"I know." Eziri took a deep breath. "I forgive you."

"Really?"

Eziri groaned. "Yes, now can we get going? We have shit to do." Sokka laughed and the pair resumed their tasks.

The group finished packing and went on their way. Around noon, they saw a small river and decided to stop for a while so Aang could work on his waterbending. Sokka stripped down to his undergarments and floated on a leaf with Momo while Aang and Katara started waterbending together. Eziri sat by the water's edge, sewing the last pieces of her new clothes.

"You guys are going to be done soon, right? We have a lot of ground to cover if we're going to make it to Omashu today." Sokka called out from his leaf.

"What? Like you're ready to go right now, naked guy?" Katara teased.

"I could be ready in two minutes. Seriously, whenever."

Aang and Katara went back to their waterbending. Eziri finished the final touches on her new clothes and went behind some rocks to change. When she came back out, she walked to the edge of the water near Sokka.

"Okay, I don't have a mirror or anything so how does this look?" She held her hands out to her sides and did a little spin in her new outfit. Sokka pushed the hair out of his eyes and looked over at Eziri.

"You uh.." Sokka cleared his throat and tried to deepen his voice. "You look great." He hoped desperately that she couldn't tell how flustered he was.

Eziri gave him an annoyed look. "I know I look great. I need to know how the clothes look. Is anything weird? Are the proportions off?"

"Um...I mean...your pants are kind of baggy..."

"They're supposed to be baggy."

"Oh...then uh..I don't know. I think it's fine."

"Ugh. Unhelpful." Eziri muttered. She walked over towards Katara to get her advice but stopped when she heard music.