Katara: A Private Life of the Bloodbender

Chapter V.

Dame Hickory, Dame Hickory! Here's a wolf at your door, his teeth grinning white and his tongue wagging sore!

"Nay" said Dame Hickory, "Ye False Faerie!" But a wolf t'was indeed, and famished was he.

- Walter de la Mare: Dame Hickory

For the rest of the day, no one had saw Zuko and Katara anymore. Aang took a break from firebending practice and during the day, he was mulling over all the events, meditated for a few hours and also trained a bit. Acrimonious morning dialogue with Katara and Zuko disquieted him and made him thinking about it again and again. He had no idea neither how to solve this situation, nor how to fix the incident with Katara when he mistakenly slapped her. Afternoon, right before the sunset, he visited Sokka in his tent.

„They're gone. The whole day..." sighed Aang. "Sokka, I have no idea what to do now."

"If you want to know my opinion..." started Sokka. "Well, I'm not sure what to think about it all. I don't understand what they're going to do, but Katara really made me angry. She was my mother, too – and does it mean that I'm going to be so mad about it?!"

"I was just thinking that maybe I was too fierce..." said Aang.

"No, really not..." Sokka waved his hand. "She needed to be disciplined a bit. We tried to pacify her peacefully for the first time, and it didn't work. So now we just wait if she got it."

The sun hid behind the horizon. But Katara and Zuko were still gone. Although rice and tea were prepared for diner, these two rebels didn't appear. Team members weren't searching for them at all, they're not little children, they themselves decide about where they want to go. Anyhow, they're planning something rebellious, both Aang and Sokka knew it. But for Sokka, Katara's absence on a dinner was especially irritating. He was used to Katara's service during all the communal meal and he also had distinctive sense of family, he was glad to see everyone together during their dinner, so Katara's absence offended him personally. Friends had quick and silent meal.

While they were diverging in their tents, Sokka said to Aang; "Dude, I'm really going to show her my fist after finding her, I swear!"

Aang felt tired after such day, he just came into his tent and went to bed. He fell asleep quickly and even though he was just snoozing, he had really vivid dream, which he reminded clearly after waking up. He dreamed about Katara. She looked just like once upon a time in South Pole – smiling, with children face. They were running somewhere together, running through the white snowy plain, laughing loudly. Aang felt an enormous happiness and joy, although he wasn't sure where in goes from. Then, they appeared on a beautiful clean riverside near a waterfall, surrounded by dark green pines and yellow sandstone rocks. Aang recognized this place, he knew that they've been practicing here during their trip to the North Pole. Katara was running along the stream, the water was flowing around her ankles and the drops were glittering in the air like a pieces of glass. She was grinning joyfully and tempting him into some game. And then, they suddenly appeared inside the huge alight, where in July, they organized a dancing party for teenagers from the school Aang attended for a few days. In this dream, Aang felt that he fell in love with this girl again.

Amazed at her beauty, charm and loving, tender personality he wake up. In his after-sleep lethargy, while sitting on his bed and wiping his eyes, he reminded the moment, when Katara got him out of an iceberg and when he saw her for the first time. Immediately after, he reminded the painful moment when they discovered the skeletons of his people and Katara, also in this darkest times, could calm him, also like during the sea storm while he felt sorry about leaving his people right before the attack. Katara always understood and support him. With Sokka, she made a magnificent denial when they decided to continue their way with him instead of separating a visiting their father, and she also never reproached him for that he burned both her hands because he wasn't obedient to his firebending master. He also remembered the days in Ba Sing Se and the desert, while they were searching for lost Appa. Katara was still with him and helped him like anyone else. Without her, he would remained alone in the middle of the desert, sitting in the sand. And he recalled that she saved his life after Azula's flash attack and she took care about him in very hard time when they were surviving on the fire nation's boat and he was boycotting her help wilfully because wanted to do everything by himself. She had enormous sympathy for him and huge patience with his rude behaviour for all the journey, like anyone else did. Aang realized how deeply he loves her and that he really don't want to lose her nohow. And then, he felt sorry about the fact that he slapped her this morning, and he rethought his opinion on her.