Fall of the White Lotus [Zutara/Taang]

42 | Pillow

Music: Blizzard, Two Steps From Hell

                     The gentle waves of the cold, depthless ocean sparkled softly in the pale light of the full moon as a small boat approached the grim steel scout ship, its tiny shadow disappearing behind the much larger shadow of the warship.

The person in the small vessel - a lifeboat, really - looked up, her blue eyes gleaming in the darkness. There appeared to be no sign of response from the steel ship until a large light flashed up, and the young woman shrank back, shielding her eyes with her arm as her little boat was illuminated by the merciless beam.

Voices started to sound from high above, and a bearded soldier, his red outfit faded to an indistinct grey in the darkness, bowed over the railing.

"This is the HMS Gull Hawk of the Fire Nation Eastern Fleet. Who are you and what are you doing down there?"

The small figure in the boat moved a little and seemed to be saying something. The soldier narrowed his eyes and leaned over further. "What?"

The person in the boat moved up her arm.

"Could you take away that light? You're blinding me!" an irritated voice called back.

Slightly taken aback, the man hanging over the railing signalled for the signpost to slightly turn away the beam of light and watched as the young woman in the boat sat up straight.

"I am the Kyoshi Warrior Suki, and I come with word from Chief Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe, whose ships you have been following for the past week. We have to talk."

                    As soon as Katara had taken the reins, Appa had lifted himself from the garden again, somehow sensing the urgency of the situation.

"Fly as fast as you can," Katara had begged Appa as she'd bowed towards his ear. The bison had grumbled softly in response and gained some more speed. He wanted nothing more than to help Katara.

She'd allowed herself one look down toward the two young Fire Nation men quickly becoming smaller as they followed the bison with their amber eyes. Only one pair had locked with hers, though, and had kept watching her until she must have been barely more than a black dot on the horizon. His fiery scar had paled to a silver tone in the moonlight.

Very soon thereafter, they'd left the Fire Nation and had flown across the seas separating the Fire Nation from Air Nomad territory. To reach the North Pole, Appa and Katara had to brush the eastern part of the former Air Nomad territory and then fly across the northwestern part of the Earth Kingdom. As the plains passed by at high speed underneath them, Katara could see the high mountains of the realm of the Air Nomads with the mountaintops veiled by permanent clouds.

Somewhere in the mountainous landscape on her left, underneath the edge of a cliff, was the Western Air Temple with its spires hanging upside down from the ceiling, like bats in a cave. So many memories lay in this temple. It was there that Zuko had first shown his seemingly unlimited understanding of the angry, hurt waterbender, and despite her resentment of him at the time, she'd still marvelled at this mysterious force pulling him towards the one person who considered him her greatest enemy in the world. Here, he had saved her life for the first time - from rocks threatening to crush her - taking in his stride her lashing out at him because her heart had leapt up at feeling his arms around her. Here, she had saved his life for the first time by taking his hands and pulling him to safety midair.

Her body was aching with loss when she thought of him. She missed the feeling of his shoulder to lean into, and his amber eyes looking at her with so much love in them, and his lips on hers. Above all, she missed the feeling of belonging she felt when she was near him.