Avatar Zuko

Chapter 16

Katara’s excitement was quickly building as they neared the very edge of the Earth Kingdom, her waterbending training was closer than it had ever been in her entire life. In fact, within minutes they would land in their last stop of the Earth Kingdom and then be straight off to the North Pole.

And, Zuko’s airbending training, after the first little hiccup, had been going surprisingly well- she had often seen him airbending a little tornado in the palm of his hand out of the corner of her eye, something he'd been practicing since a few weeks ago when he started airbending. Though, he didn't seem to be consciously practising it, more like whenever he got nervous he'd start doing out of habit. Which was worryingly often if Katara was completely honest, and Sokka had noticed too, it seemed, and had taken to starting up a conversation with the firebender whenever he began creating the little whirl of air (that was progressively getting neater and spinning faster).

Currently, Katara was steering Appa whilst the others slept; it was nearing 3am and for some reason her sleep schedule had screwed itself up, making her stay up all night and then sleep in the day. She wasn't sure why, but she noticed Zuko had a similar problem and seemed unable to sleep in the day despite constantly looking exhausted. Curious about the avatar’s sleeping habits, at that moment Katara decided to look back at Zuko to see if he was actually unconscious or really did stay up all night (like she'd guessed). He was underneath some blankets so it was difficult to tell, but he was asleep, she was sure, yet he was also fidgeting a lot, and tossing and turning- probably nightmares.

The view of the coast interrupted her thoughts, the usually blue sea shining black in the moonlight. It was the last part of the Earth Kingdom and the sight caused a bright smile to spread across the waterbender’s face, as she steered the bison down to the sandy shores. Sokka had been very clear that they had to make this last stop for supplies, otherwise they wouldn't have enough to last themselves until they got to the North Pole. The following morning they would go to the nearest market, then Aang would probably make Zuko do some more training, and then in the early evening they'd set off.

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“This place isn't Fire Nation occupied, but they're also not very aggressive towards the Fire Nation since most of their fighters have gone to war and they don't want to trigger an attack.” Explained Sokka, he seemed well rested and ready for the journey ahead, whilst Aang was distracted by Momo and Zuko looked like he could pass out at any second.

“Great, can we just go now? I'm sick of the Earth Kingdom.” Zuko complained warily, rubbing his eyes and leaning against the market stall Sokka was looking through.

“Sorry, Hotshot, but we still have some very important shopping left to do.” Following this sentence, Sokka proceeded to shove twenty more useless things into his pack, and both the waterbender and firebender let out long sighs.

“Don't worry guys, there's no rush! We have until the end of summer to defeat the Fire Nation and save the world, that's like 7½ months away!” Aang beamed and the others stared at him in bewilderment.

“Umm, Aang, that's not very long…” Commented Katara worriedly, only just taking in how much they had to get through in such little time.

They walked in silence after that, the mood tense until Momo scrambled from Sokka’s head around to his back, causing him to squeal in surprise. Aang snickered at this and Zuko rolled his eyes, only to get jumped by Momo seconds later.

“Aww, Momo likes you two best! You're like a little family!” Cooed Aang, tilting his head and watching as Sokka and Zuko both blushed furiously and turned away from each other.

Katara assumed the firebender would throw the lemur off or give him to Aang or Sokka, but instead he allowed him to stay nesting in his growing dark hair until the end of their shopping trip and they went back to Appa at the coast. Katara thought there'd be a flock of people at the beach, since, despite the cold weather, it was still a pretty nice place. Yet, curiously, people seemed to be moving away from the beach, hurriedly as well, and Sokka, probably being the most observant of their group, quickly made a suggestion as to what was going on.