The Girl He Won't Remember

Chapter 5

"How're you feeling?" Katara asked as we trod to the river. "It's been over a week since what happened at the Earth Kingdom base, and you still haven't let me heal you. You could have a concussion, or internal bleeding!"

"I'm okay, Katara," I protested with a laugh, completely disregarding the shooting pain I'd been feeling in my head and back for the last eleven days. "I've taken harder hits than that, trust me."

"You know, that's really not comforting at all," she said. The four of us were planning on taking some time to ourselves for a moment. Katara and Aang could practice waterbending, Appa could get some much deserved rest from flying, and Sokka could do... whatever it was that Sokka did to relax. All three of them had demanded that I simply sit. They were afraid that I would somehow strain myself while pretending that I wasn't in excruciating pain every moment of the day. They were probably right, of course, that didn't make me hate it any less. I sat on the edge of the spring, my legs engulfed in the water as Sokka floated on his back with Momo sitting on his belly. His hair was no longer in its signature ponytail, which left it to be matted to his face thanks to my numerous splashes. 

After a few hours of relaxation, Sokka was ready to leave. "You guys are going to be done soon right? We've got a lot of ground to cover if we want to make it to Omashu today."

"What like you're ready to go right now, naked guy?" Katara looked over her shoulder. Yes, Sokka was in his underwear — but then again, weren't we all? We didn't exactly own any actual swimwear.

"I could be ready in two minutes!" Sokka answered, lifted a section of drenched hair from his eye to look at his annoyed sister. "Seriously, whenever. Besides, I'm sure Saki is bored out of her mind just sitting there. She's probably ready to get moving too. Right, Saki?" This was a habit of his when we were kids, and it apparently never died. Whenever he wanted to do something and Katara wouldn't cooperate, or vice versa, I was used as the minority vote and forced to side with one of them. I usually sided with Katara, just as I will in 3... 2... 1...

"Actually," I said, swirling my feet in the cool water, "I don't mind this. It feels good to finally be able to just lie around and feel serene." Sokka grumbled at me in response, then kicked water at me as he floated by. His sister and the Avatar chortled, and resumed their practicing. Slowly, I slid myself into the water, biting my lips together to keep any pained groans from being heard. I let myself sink for a moment before gaining the wonderful idea of messing with Sokka. As he floated above me, I slowly drifted upward towards him and cupped my hands together. I then popped out of the water and squeezed my palms together, shooting a small stream of water at him. He flailed and spattered as the rest of us laughed. Just as he pushed the hair from his eyes again and splashed me back, music came from the trees:

"Don't fall in love with a traveling girl.

She'll leave you broken, brokenhearted." 

The music stopped when the trio came to the edge of the river. "Hey, river people," said the man that was singing. 

"We're not river people," Katara said. 

"You're not?" The man squinted quizzically at us as Sokka splashed around trying to gain some footing. "Well, then what kind of people are you?"

"We're just people," Aang shrugged. 

The man smiled. "Aren't we all, brother."

Sokka finally was able to stand upright, and grumpily stomped through the river to point accusingly into the strangers' faces. "Who are you?"

"I'm Chung," he introduced himself. He pointed at the flute-playing woman to his right and introduced her as his wife, Lily. "We're nomads. Happy to go wherever the wind takes us!"

"You guys are nomads?" Aang asked with a smile. "That's great! I'm a nomad!"

"Hey, me too!" Chung grinned. 

Sokka and I shared an uneasy look. Aang expressed one of his own as he said, "I know. You just said that."

"Oh," Chung shrugged, scratching the back of his neck. His eyes widened as he looked at Sokka, speaking with an odd mesmerized voice, "Nice underwear." I covered my mouth with my hand to stifle a giggle as Sokka fumbled to use Momo as a shield. Once again, the three of us were laughing at Sokka's dismay as he fumbled for his clothes.

"I guess we should all get dressed now," Katara laughed. She and I walked to the rock where our clothes were neatly folded, though my clothes were originally just a wadded up mess before Katara opted to "fix" it for me. I picked up my red dress and slipped it over my head, clipped my necklace in place, then slipped my feet into the heinous brown sandals that were going to deteriorate any day now. Suddenly realizing that these nomads had seen me in Fire Nation attire, my heart seemed to stop. What if they thought I was an enemy? It then dawned on me that these people were more fascinated by the shape of the clouds than they were with what I was wearing. 

"I'm going for a walk," Sokka announced. He'd only made if a few feet before I ran to join him. "What are you doing?"

"I'm coming with you," I said. "The go-with-the-flow types of nomads terrify me. Plus, I'm really not in the mood for any of their songs." Just as I pointed this out, they began playing their instruments. Suddenly, I missed Iroh's tsungi horn, and Zuko's horrid attempts at playing it. "So what's wrong?" I asked. "You seem grumpier than usual."

"Where do I even begin?" He sighed. 

"You know, I hear that starting from the beginning is always a good idea."

He sighed again. "I just don't know what I'm doing anymore. We're traveling the world with a kid who has to learn so much in so little time to make up for being gone, and part of me just doesn't think we can pull this off. What if we can't? It'll be our fault if the Fire Nation wins this war. Sometimes I just wonder... What would my dad do?" He stopped and leaned against a tree. He didn't say another word. 

I had planned to give an award-winning speech, but, instead, five simple words came out: "I believe in you all." He looked up at me, his eyes misty. "I believe in the three of you, and your father would too. You're on a journey to save the lives of innocent people, to save the world! Look at what you've already done in the time you've been together." I smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You're destined for big things, Sokka." 

At this, he smiled and placed a hand on my shoulder as well. "How is it that I can never just be in a bad mood? You always know just what to say to fix it." 

My heart sank. Zuko had said the same thing to me back on the ship. I gave a weak smile, trying to look as convincing as I could. "What can I say?" I shrugged, choking down the tears that demanded to make an appearance. "You're stuck with me."