The Forgiven (Zutara)

The Spirit Guide

I'm sorry I've been gone for so long! I know, I'm a sucky author! I admit! There's been an unbelievable amount of things going on in my life, and frankly I've been too depressed to even open this. However, on my mental break, I saw that we've reached 1,000 views!!! That's in-friggin-sane! Thank you guys so much! Thank you to everyone who has voted! Much love from me to you💋- Bklvr out✌🏻
———-

"I won't leave her here with them! I'll carry her! Let me go! Let me go!" I screamed. Once I was put back down I ran towards Freya and picked her up hoisting her onto my shoulders.

"You can't carry her." My father said but everything anyone said seemed to go in one ear and out the other. When we made it outside we climbed into Appa's saddle. I held her to my chest, cradling her, petting her.

"Katara she's dead weight. Appa can't carry all of us, she just makes it heavier." He said. He made to grab her but I shielded her.

"Don't touch her. You guys found a way to bring me back to life, Aang stayed trapped in an circle of ice for 100 years and he's fine. If all of that can happen, I can find a way to bring her back to life. She's mine, and I'll do with her as I please, I'll take her wherever I want, and right now that's wherever I am, so don't fucking touch her." I growled. My father looked at me sadly as I clutched her breathing in her scent, sobbing into her body. Everything was blurry. I didn't speak again after that. I had traveled to the spirit world with Aang to find some way to bring her back. They all gave confusing answers with no real answer at all. Every night I would fall asleep by her, one morning I woke up and she wasn't here. I ran out of my tent. "Where is she?" I asked my father. Zuko held me back.

"Katara Stop." He whispered. His grip on me was right, but I kept thrashing around anyways.

"Where is she!" I yelled.

"Katara she needed to be buried. I'll take you to her if you can calm down." He demanded.

"You buried her? She hates the dark! She hates being alone!" I thrashed around but Zuko just held me. Eventually I went limp in his arms and cried into his shoulder. "I wanna see her." I whispered once I had calmed down.

"We'll take you." Zuko whispered back holding me the entire time. When I got to her grave I just sat there for a minute.

"I should've been able to heal you. Protect you. Like you've done for me so many times over, I'm so sorry." I whispered. "So tell me, without my spiritual animal guide...What am I supposed to do? The only person I get along with is Zuko, and he's got enough to shoulder right now, am I supposed to just wait here lost?" I asked.  "I love you Freya." I whispered standing up and turning around. It was Freya. Sitting right behind me, sitting up straight, simply staring at me. My eyes went wide.

"Freya?" I asked. I shook my head. "Holy shit I must be going crazy." I muttered to myself. I kept shaking my head and blinking waiting for her to go away.

"Are we going to keep staring at each other or are you going to hug me?" She asked. I gasped and tackled her. When we had spent enough time in each other's arms she turned into a black panther, I climbed onto her back as she climbed up trees jumping to each one.

"Hang on tight Katara. I can do some new things!" She yelled. She jumped from where we were to a different tree only ten feet away from the camp. She changed into a tiger and roared to let them know she was back. When I got off of her everyone was staring at us.

"You're back!" Zuko was the first one to speak. Everyone had their turn to welcome her back, and we all spent time together. Then she got serious.

"I've spoken with some of the spirits when I was dead..." she started off, I began to speak for her telling them what she was saying. "And they said that Zozen's comet is nearly here. It'll be here a week from the day of black sun. I don't think we should invade then. I think we need to get the Earth Kingdom to realize what's going on. We should split up, go to each water tribe and tell them that the comet is coming earlier than expected and that we need to fight. I think some of us should stay here and convince them to look at what's going on while the rest of us go around and get everyone we can to fight. They're first target will be Ba Sing Sa since they've not been able to bring it down, they want to redeem themselves. This is what the spirits have gathered and asked me to tell you." I translated for them all. We were all in quick agreement. "So then it will be me and Katara to go and warn everyone else. Katara choose who's coming with us." I nodded.

"Zuko, and dad you're coming with me and Freya. Sokka, Toph, Iroh, and Baku you're staying with Aang. They will need you here. The Di Lee have been proven quite difficult. There's no way you'll be able to get to the king without a lot of help. We need to leave immediately. Is everyone okay with this?" I asked. They all nodded.

"Yeah. Go ahead, We'll take care of things here." Toph said. I nodded. Freya turned into a bison, and we all climbed on top of her. I bid them one last farewell then left.

"She's going a little fast for you know...No saddle don't you think?!" Zuko hollered. I chuckled.

"She knows what she's doing." I replied leaning back on her. Happy she was once again with me. When she had slowed down and wasn't in such a hurry I climbed back to where Zuko and my father were. "I want to apologize." I said. This caught both of their attention. "I-I have no excuse for how I've acted when Freya died and I have no way to make up for it now that she's back either." I spoke gently not meeting their eyes.

"At first I couldn't understand why you were so angry, and I sure as hell didn't want to ask you. We've all felt loss, I have many times over the years, but I couldn't recall ever acting like that, so I talked to Aang since he has a animal guide as well. He said that if he were to loose Appa as you had Freya it would be as though it were your soul you lost." My father said gripping my hand. For a minute I thought Zuko was still mad at me and I didn't blame him. Then his hand went under my chin and made me look up at him.

"If anyone knows how it feels to have uncontrollable anger it is me. If I couldn't forgive you, I don't deserve you." He said. I wrapped my arms around him pulling him towards me. He gently kissed me, I leaned into his touch.

"It'll be cold. Do you guys have anything warm to wear?" I asked looking at them. They both shook their head. "Freya go ahead and stop at one of the centers, we've got to get warm coats." I said. She turned ever so slightly and we landed on a cliff top. We all walked into town together, I kept my hood on, as I looked around. They didn't have any coats. I sighed.

"Alright, pick out fabrics and furs, I'll have to make them." I said not excited. Everyone did. Zuko of course picked out red and black materials. Meanwhile I picked out blue and black, father picked out blue and white. When we were done we bought some provisions as well, we headed back towards Freya, trying to be quick about it. We made it back to her rather quickly then left once again. I knew I needed to start on the jackets as soon as possible considering it wouldn't be long before we were there. The merchants had already measured everything which made my job much easier. The first jacket I made was Zukos. I held the fabric I had already sewed together up to him. I smiled imagining the final image in my head. I began getting to work, creating inside pockets as well as outside ones, once the outside fabric was done I made him put it on. It fit just like I wanted it to, except for his waist. I cinched the waist ever so slightly, and broadened the shoulders, then made him put it back on. I sewed a hood onto it, and sewed the black furs onto the entire inside of the jacket. I sewed it down the arms, and created fur cuffs on each arm, lined the pockets with fur, and lined all the major seams with fur.

"Try it on." I said to him. He shakily stood up on Freya as we were flying and pulled it on, pulling the hood on. I smiled. "What do you think dad?" I asked. Zuko turned. He nodded.

"Very good daughter. It shapes him well." He said. "Your mother never taught you to sew, you were too young, gran gran can't teach you her hands are too shaky how did you learn?" He asked inspecting every part of the jacket for flaws.

"Well, being one of the only older girls in the village, a lot of people needed repairs in their clothes, you just kinda learn?" I shrugged. It had taken me all day to make Zukos jacket, once I added all of the details onto the jacket. I refused to let him see it until I was completely done. I added things that would only be on a princes clothes as a surprise for him. I had bought gold thread for this exact reason. I decided to hold onto it until morning then give it to him. The boys had set up camp while I was finishing the jacket. There were only two tents, I quietly chuckled, crawling in the tent Zuko went in. Freya soon followed. It was the first night in a couple long nights that we were able to fall asleep in each other's arms. It was a very peaceful sleep.