Rises with the Heart | By : AngelaBlythe Category: Avatar - The Last Airbender > Het - Male/Female > Katara/Zuko Views: 11670 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0 |
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story. |
RISES WITH THE SUN
XIV.I
Katara was letting her mind wander again. She shook her head and concentrated. If she was patient enough…focused enough…sometimes she could do it. With a sigh, Katara opened her eyes to the swamp before her. Not today. Too much was on her mind. So not now, but later maybe. She knew why she couldn’t focus today. Earlier she’d received a messenger. He said she’d soon be receiving two visitors – her old master, Pakku, and father’s friend, Bato. They were representing the Northern and Southern Tribes in respect to the final signing of the Foggy Swamp Tribe Independence Declaration. The messenger also brought word from her father in the South Pole. The Fire Nation was going to break its blockade for the first time in three years…
This day was one she’d waited for, cried over, fought for, and ultimately died for. The day the blockade came in place…she died a little. Or a lot. The issue was still up for debate. That day was etched in her mind, a thing she thought about every waking moment. Getting into the Fire Nation had consumed her life, every waking moment, for the past three years. And now, to learn that in a few short months they would break the blockade, Ozai’s Plague Blockade, she was unable to concentrate on anything else.
This was the case for several reasons. After the war, the Fire Nation was thrown into a state of chaos caused by the combination of plague, poverty, and Zuko’s ascension to the Burning Throne. It had no contact with the outside world – not that anyone wanted in. The plague was rumored to be horrific, and no one wanted to risk contamination. Nations had taken this time to rebuild their homes, to reclaim their land, and to try to attain peace. There had been several uprisings among the settled Fire Nation ex-patriots, but Aang had been instrumental in quieting these incidents and making peace. With the borders opening, people could go home if they wanted, but more importantly, war reparations could finally start.
War reparations would be the primary concern of the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribe. Both had been ruthlessly ravaged by the Fire Nation for a hundred years, and the Fire Nation was still in possession of many national treasures, riches, spoils, and other rewards of war. They had things that the other nations wanted back. Not to mention all the compensation for invasions and war. War reparations would absolutely break the Fire Nation. Probably for the next hundred years.
And, honestly, there wasn’t a lot they could do about it. Save their navy, their armed forces were absolutely bankrupt. Katara personally had seen to the destruction of hundreds of their battle ships. They didn’t call her the Beauty of the Eastern Islands just for her beauty. The night of Sozin’s Comet was horrific, and the battle had been even more so. After Aang had destroyed the comet, many Fire Nation soldiers lost hope, the will to fight. The battles in the Earth Kingdom were won with surprising ease. And staggering death tolls. The navy that patrolled the Fire Nation – mostly to keep the plague in, but also to keep others out – was about all there was. And they were little better than skeleton crews.
Another reason Katara found it difficult to concentrate on little else was because of all the effort she’d put into Azula. All those months on the Yue with Sokka, searching the Northern Reefs, scouring the oceans, absolutely dissecting the shorelines for signs of Azula and her little band of troublemakers. Their ship had been terrorizing some of the northern Earth Kingdom port villages as of late – raiding and ransacking coast towns for coal and supplies. That started about a year after her ‘death,’ and Katara could only assume that their supplies had run low waiting for the blockade to lower. They had disguised the ship masterfully, even gone so far as to pose Azula herself as some sort of blue-flame witch. But Katara couldn’t be fooled. When she’d seen that ship with her blue-flame figurehead, she knew that Azula was alive. And she knew that Zuko would be in danger.
Zuko…
Of course, of all the reasons she’d torn herself apart trying to get into the Fire Nation, Zuko was the one that burned brightest. But Aang had refused to let her borrow Appa to fly, and no ships – not even Sokka on the Yue – would bring her to Fire Nation waters. For all she knew, Zuko no longer…well…loved her. If he had…or did… She had been the only one to say the words, but Zuko had to feel the same as Katara. He wouldn’t have forgotten her promise. He couldn’t. And that savage kiss…the last one they shared…
Katara brought a hand to her lips as she closed her eyes. Yes, that savage kiss that haunted and tormented her. The last kiss he gave her before he sent her out of the capitol with Toph and Sokka. That had meant something. His eyes had meant something.
She pushed the thoughts away. Too many nights she had been awake and lonely, thinking about the man that she loved. The only man she would ever love…
She had to pull herself together for this. Without a word she left the huge banyan at the center of the Foggy Swamp. She clambered down the roots with ease and grace – she’d done it a thousand times. After all, she’d been living with the benders of the Foggy Swamp Tribe for nearly a year and half. By now she knew her way around the swamps, all its creatures, its peoples, and perhaps some of its mysteries, too. Huu had been her master – though in the Foggy Swamp there were no official masters. Huu was more or less considered to be the leader of the Foggy Swamp Tribe, but more than that he was a mystic, and a powerful bender. It was he who had taught her the secrets of plantbending, and the fast speed techniques the Foggy Swamp waterbenders used to move around on their swamp boats.
But of all the things Huu had taught her, learning to feel the swamp and the outside world through the tremendous power of the huge banyan tree was proving the most difficult to master. As Aang had done years and years ago (with ease, she thought enviously), Katara was trying to train herself to be able to locate and see people across the swamp. She had done this with uncertain results many times. Her true goal was to be able to locate people without the swamp. She was sure she could achieve this…it wasn’t really the roots that connected everything. Huu told her that it was easier to See within the swamp than without it, because humans can physically grasp the concepts of roots connecting all life within the swamp. But it was more difficult to grasp the metaphysical roots that connected all life in the world – and more so to actually find a way to tap into those roots and See, use them to your advantage. Intense meditation beneath the banyan helped connect her to life – past, present, and future. She was no closer to the enlightenment of either Huu or Jeong Jeong, however.
But enlightenment wasn’t her purpose in the Foggy Swamp. The independence and freedom of the Foggy Swamp people was, and that freedom was always her main focus. She supposed that after the construction of the South Pole, and the peace conferences in the North Pole, she had seen the under-representation of the Foggy Swamp Tribe as a travesty. They were not a large people, nor a particularly proud people, but they were good and kind and honest. That had to count for something, too. And they were being taken advantage of in the process. For the longest time, their lands were actually OWNED by a nobleman of the Earth Kingdom. It was a nominal ownership only, but they had absolutely no rights as citizens of the Earth Kingdom.
Katara had worked hard to give them these rights, should they choose to use them. And, honestly, they might not. When she first broached the subject to Huu, he seemed skeptical and…well…apathetic. But the more she explained it to him, and brought up the issues of making actual physical contact with the rest of the world and general peace and good relations for everyone…well, he came around. He was going to with Katara, Master Pakku, and Bato to the Earth Kingdom city of Omashu for the formal signing of the Foggy Swamp Tribe Independence Declaration. He was the formal (though rather informal) representative of the Foggy Swamp Tribe, but Katara did most of the ‘freedom fighting.’
Katara hadn’t only made a name for herself as the Beauty of the Eastern Islands, or the constructor of the Southern Water Tribe, or even as the friend of the Avatar. Katara had become as big a proponent of peace as Aang in some ways. Though technically Master Pakku was the official ambassador of the Southern Water Tribe, Katara was the unofficial ambassador. She had become quite the politician in her own way. Her talents were not in the conference room as Master Pakku’s were, but instead with people, with the background. She made things happen, she made contact with the common man, and fought for them vigilantly and vigorously. She supposed it all started with Haru, his father, and a ship full of coal…but it was how she shone now that the war was over.
Also, in addition to her role in the reconstruction of the Southern Water Tribe, Katara had been placed on the Council of Elders and Benders, the aid to the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe – her father. It had been a great honor, though she supposed she’d earned it. She’d been given a lot of responsibilities, but with them came opportunities. The conferences in the North Pole had been her idea, and she’d pushed them through. It was about two years ago that she’d gone to her father and began speaking about what would happen when the Fire Nation finally broke their blockade. He’d agreed with her that a plan would have to be made to ensure peace when the blockade did break, and that the Water Tribe should be a united front. Those conferences had been her introduction to politics. She’d decided that politics – or at least politicians – was not on her list of favorite things. However, when she saw all the good she could do for her people, her own dislike of politicians was put in the background.
It was then at the Water Tribe Unification Conference that she first began thinking about the water- and plantbenders she’d met in the Foggy Swamp. And how they should be at the conference. But since they were technically members of the Earth Kingdom, they weren’t invited. Or, actually even known about. There were rumors that Northern Water Tribe members had left long before the war for warmer waters, and they were the roots of the Foggy Swamp Tribe. If that was the case, they really were ‘kin,’ and Katara felt a certain amount of responsibility for them.
That was why directly after the Water Tribe Unification Conference she decided to go south once more and find Huu and his Foggy Swamp brethren. It had been difficult adjusting to the Foggy Swamp Tribe way of life. Like all waterbenders, the Foggy Swamp Tribe had a deep sense of community and love…free love that is. The laws of marriage were, well, lax to say the least. In fact, she had never met a married couple her whole year and a half. People seemed to…make love with who they wanted…when they wanted…where they wanted. It was stressful for her. Not only because of this free love mentality, but because quite frequently – until she got her own hut – she would wake up to the sounds of her ‘roommates’ making love.
The Foggy Swamp Tribe was also very lax on the concept of personal property. Everything belonged to everyone. You could walk into another person’s hut and just take any article of clothing, dish, blanket, anything, and no one would pay it any never-mind. She had laid some very firm ground rules about entering her hut and taking things when she finally got one – not that it really helped. Eventually she stopped caring about the personal property and privacy issues, though the free love wasn’t something she participated in. Not that there weren’t offers. In fact, she still received them daily. Putting your hands on someone’s knee was the informal invitation to go somewhere and do something. And by ‘go somewhere’ she meant anywhere, and by ‘do something’ she meant make love. It hadn’t taken her long to figure out the knee invitation.
Aside from not partaking in the free love traditions of the Foggy Swamp people, the only other tradition she failed to keep was the speech pattern. At first it had really irritated her, but she grew used to it as she grew used to everything. Every other cultural trait she adopted, so as to better understand the people she was trying to help. Her Southern Water Tribe clothes had been abandoned in less than a month. It was, quite frankly, too warm to even wear the lightest of traditional Water Tribe clothes. Plus, they got dirty and sweaty all the time, and upkeep was horrible. Nothing ever really dried in the swamp; it was too humid. So Katara had adopted their style of dress – if you could call it dressing. It was basically a loincloth and loose bodice wrap. Men wore even less. Children up to the ages of puberty wore nothing. Katara was a modest girl – most people wore clothes in the poles because of the climate. Eventually modesty became a tradition and a mores. But now she was proud of her body. What wasn’t to be proud of? People thought she was beautiful. Granted, they were smelly, greasy people that lived in a swamp, but the women of the Foggy Swamp weren’t without beauty. As a young girl, Katara had envied the curves of older women. Now she WAS an older woman – seventeen was a woman as far as she was concerned – and she HAD curves. She was proud to show them off.
Though, she had to remind herself, not everyone was used to the state of undress that Foggy Swamp Tribe members ran around in. She should have realized this when she greeted Master Pakku and Bato. She’d never actually seen her old master blush, and Bato could barely look at her. Katara was beyond modesty now, but somewhere in the back of her mind she found this all very funny.
“Master Pakku, Bato,” she said, bowing with her fist in her open hand. “Welcome to the Foggy Swamp Tribe!”
Then, very unceremoniously, she hugged them both.
“You’re looking….well, Katara,” Bato said with a dark red face.
“Yes,” Pakku said stiffly. “It is wonderful to see you again, Pupil Katara.”
She smiled broadly. “It’s been a long time, Master Pakku.” Then, almost forgetting herself, she turned and began introducing them to the other members of the Foggy Swamp Tribe. Huu was gone at the moment, but Due and Tho were there, along with Tan and Lin, two of the prettier, curious women in the tribe. She would have to warn Pakku and Bato about them.
As the tribe began making preparations for the ‘feast’ Katara planned for her old master and friend, Katara escorted Pakku and Bato into her hut. Well, it was a hut on stilts. If you had a hut in the swamp it would flood during the five-month rainy season when the water level raised ten feet. When Pakku and Bato entered her hut she offered them tea – which was about all she had. Her hut was meager and small – mostly just a floor with a bed and some personal clothes on shelves. Her Southern Water Tribe clothes included. She had washed them for the specific purpose of going to the signing with Bato and Pakku – she couldn’t go in her Swamp Tribe clothes!
As Katara crossed her legs and drank some of the tea, she noted that neither Pakku nor Bato seemed to be able to look at her. She should have remembered to change when the came, but she hadn’t expected them so soon after the messenger that morning. They must have gotten good directions, for getting about the swamp was difficult to say the least.
“We’ll leave in the morning for Omashu,” Katara said finally, setting down her cup of tea and smiling at her visitors. “The tribesmen want to give you a feast as a sendoff – though I doubt you’ll recognize the food. No stewed sea prunes, I’m afraid!”
“I’m sure it will be fine,” Pakku said with a tight mouth.
“I have to say I’m rather relieved to see you, both. Rainy season is due to start any week now, and it would have been considerably more difficult to make our way about,” she said pleasantly. “How is everyone back home?” she asked finally. “My father? Sokka?” Then, with a pause. “Gran-Gran Kana?”
Bato chuckled a little, but was silenced by the sharp look Pakku gave him. “Everyone’s fine,” Pakku said. “Your father misses you very much, and Sokka has been given his own ‘armada’ as he calls it. It’s twelve ships, but it’s more than any man in our tribes can boast having at his age.”
Bato smiled. “And Gran-Gran sends her love. She’s doing well, still making the best seal jerky in the South Pole.”
Katara grinned at this. “And how is the council getting on without my ‘youthful exuberance’?” she asked pointedly. Pakku had once admonished her idealistic ways by calling it ‘youthful exuberance and foolishness.’ It had been heated…
“They’re mostly busy with the upcoming issues of the blockade.”
Her eyes closed slowly. Yes. The blockade. She’d been giving that a lot of thought lately… “I see,” she said.
“There’s been a conference called in Ba Sing Se to discuss the blockade’s opening, and what should be done,” Pakku informed her. “Your father, Chief Arnook, and I have been invited. I assume you will be, too as soon as things are made more official. It’s mostly talk right now, and official invitations have yet to go out.”
Katara nodded. “I’m sure everyone’s very glad for the Water Tribe Unification Conference now. I knew the blockade would lift, and now we’re completely prepared. I wonder if the Earth Kingdom is similarly prepared. They don’t seem to be the type to scramble around at the last moment.”
Pakku nodded in agreement. Aside from the issues over the Foggy Swamp Tribe, the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribes had limited contact over the past few years. Each nation had been focused on rebuilding. Katara and Aang had fairly good contact on both sides, but official and higher-level communication was at an all-time low. The conference in Ba Sing Se would be a great help to everyone…and of course a time when the powerful could scheme and the powerless could be taken advantage of. That was usually where Katara came in. She refused to let the powerless be taken advantage of. Not ever again would what the Fire Nation did happen.
Katara got a chance to warn both Pakku and Bato about the sexual invitations they might receive, and they went to the ‘feast’ not long after. The Foggy Swamp Tribe was a tribe of fun and freedom and celebration. They didn’t stand much for traditions, and they didn’t have much in the way of cultural unity. People did what they wanted when they wanted. As a result, happiness was the tribe motto. She could see both Pakku and Bato were uncomfortable with this – though perhaps it was eating bugs that got them all riled up – but they loosened up a little when they got a taste of bayou juice. It wasn’t like cactus juice that made you delusional, but more like rice wine. Bayou juice had a golden brown color, and was pretty strong. Katara could only take it in small, watered down quantities. Pakku and Bato seemed to enjoy bayou juice immensely, and Katara made a note to take some with her when they went to Omashu.
The celebrating lasted late, late into the night, and the dancing and singing that was so similar and dissimilar to Water Tribe traditions was easily adopted, and perhaps even enjoyed, by both of her comrades. It was easy for Water Tribe people to transcend other cultures and traditions, especially if it was based off of their own like the Foggy Swamp. Instead of the percussion driven tunes of the North and South Poles, Foggy Swamp people used more string instruments, and had a lot of fast-tempo dances and songs.
Katara thought that Pakku and Bato enjoyed themselves immensely. In fact, they enjoyed it so much that Katara had a difficult time getting them back into her hut that night. Partly because of the fact that they had to climb the ladder, but also because of Tan and Lin. As much as Tan and Lin respected Katara, and as much as they had grown as friends, it was still hard for them to understand the concept of restraint. Katara didn’t want Pakku and Bato filled with any sense of guilt or obligation (as they surely would if either ended up siring a child on Tan or Lin) when they left the Foggy Swamp Tribe.
As morning came Katara rose her companions gently. When Sokka had visited her a few months back he had been given mass amounts of bayou juice as well, though he had gone back to Tan and Lin’s hut… When he had awoken the next morning he’d had a massive headache. Though that might have also been because of the severe ‘talking to’ he’d received from Katara. Nevertheless, Katara knew the affects of bayou juice, and had some sobering tea waiting for her friends.
“I apologize for –” Pakku began groggily.
But Katara stopped him with a hand. “There’s no need, Master Pakku. I’m well aware of the affects of bayou juice. You’re not the first Water Tribe members to succumb to its…joy.”
Bato laughed and then held his head with a pained sigh.
Katara smiled a little. “I’m glad you both had a good time. The Foggy Swamp peoples are pretty fun-loving and can get worked up around visitors. It’s not like this every night.”
There was a creaking at the entrance of her hut, and Huu burst through the drapes, flooding the room with light. “Good morning, kin!” he boomed loudly.
Bato visibly paled and Pakku held his head.
“Huu!” Katara said in a harsh whisper. “Bayou juice!”
He laughed good-naturedly. “I see,” he said in a cheery whisper. “The swampers are ready when you are. I have a full group of benders to get us to the boarders of the swamp.”
Katara smiled in thanks. “We’ll be out within the next half hour. Thank you, Huu.”
He left with a chuckle and Katara began to pack her meager belongings, fingering her Water Tribe robes. She hadn’t worn them in more than a year. Would they still fit? She sighed and packed them along with some of her more treasured items – feathers from a rare bird that were said to bring good luck, a dried swamp flower that bloomed once every ten years, and a scroll that she had written herself about the Foggy Swamp Tribe. She packed them in her old travel back and gathered several skins of bayou juice. King Bumi would appreciate it at least.
“Did you get my message about finding clothes for Huu?” she asked as she tossed her pack into the swamper.
“Ah, yes,” Pakku answered. Both he and Bato were doing much better. “And now I see why you asked. Good foresight.”
Their voyage out of Foggy Swamp was long and uneventful. By nightfall they had reached the edge of the swamp, and many of the benders chose to stay with Katara and her friends for the night – one more night of partying before their guests left. Bato and Pakku were much more weary of bayou juice that night – and of Tan and Lin.
The goodbyes that next morning were teary for Katara. She had loved these people, despite and because of their quirks and flaws. Tan and Lin were especially hard to leave – in fact, they offered to come along. Katara knew they would be unhappy outside of the swamp, and told them she would visit often. Then she, Huu, Pakku, and Bato left by foot to Omashu. The trip was long and easy, and a week later they were knocking down the walls of Omashu. They had arrived earlier than Katara expected, but she was actually grateful when her first obstacle found her.
“It doesn’t fit,” she said in the mirror.
She sighed. She’d worn her Swamp Tribe regalia all the way to Omashu – it was summer and dreadfully hot, and she was used to her swamp clothes. But now, as she stood in the mirror with her Water Tribe clothes on, she realized how big of a problem this was. They no longer fit. It’s not like she was being paid to live with the Foggy Swamp Tribe – she made no money at all. She couldn’t just buy new robes.
With a shriek of anger, she threw the robes in the corner and turned around to see Pakku in the doorway. “Is there something wrong?” he asked worriedly.
For the first time in a LONG time, Katara blushed beat red. “My robes…” she began. “My robes no longer fit.”
With an amused chuckle, Pakku closed the door behind him. “I know you don’t stand much for Northern Water Tribe traditions, Katara,” he said gently. Katara had to remember that despite his icy exterior, Master Pakku actually liked her. “But it is the tradition that a master and pupil have an official parent/child relationship, and any marriage proposals, financial burdens, and even clothing needs are spread evenly between the master and the pupil’s actual parents.”
“Master Pakku,” Katara said with a smile.
“Think nothing of it,” he said with a wave of his hand. “If buying you new robes is all I have to do to respect that particular tradition it will be my honor. Though,” he said after a pause, “do try to find something more appropriate when we go shopping tomorrow.”
Katara thanked him. Pakku didn’t have much patience for shopping. Neither did Katara. He did force several robes on her – almost half a dozen – and many of them were nicer than Katara had ever even seen. They were all blue, in the traditions of her tribe, and he even bought her traveling robes. She would be doing a lot of traveling over the next few months she reminded herself.
The signing went off without a hitch, something Katara was thankful for. The only person who seemed to be mildly upset about the freedom of the Foggy Swamp Tribe was the Earth Kingdom nobleman who had once owned their lands. However, he was given a small annual percentage of the profits made because of the new trade routes through the Foggy Swamp. King Bumi was elated to see Huu, the Foggy Swamp Tribe representative. They got along famously, probably because of Huu’s different way of looking at things. There was a good amount of bayou juice to go around, and Katara was thankful for her foresight, once more.
There were more updates about the Blockade Conference of Ba Sing Se – as it was being called. Official invitations had gone out, and Katara got hers along with King Bumi, and Huu of the Foggy Swamp. Her father had been invited, along with Master Pakku and Bato, and also Chief Arnook of the Northern Water Tribe. Of course, Aang was invited, as he was Avatar and the only representative of the Air Nomads.
Not for lack of searching, though, Katara thought sadly. Aang had been giving more and more time to searching for his people. Katara sincerely hoped he found at least a handful – that many could have survived the years of war and persecution. It would be up to Aang to continue with the traditions…
Katara sighed as she returned to her rooms in the Omashu palace. She had a lot to think about, and the foremost in her mind was Zuko. How on earth was she going to be able to warn Zuko about his sister? Get him to believe her? How would Zuko react at seeing her…? She assumed she would be visiting the Fire Nation very soon…
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