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Borealis: A Zutara Story	By : jaded_priceless Category: Avatar - The Last Airbender > AU/AR - Alternate Universe/Alternate Reality Views: 33555 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 4
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, Avatar: The Legend of Korra, any historical figures or events, or easily recognizable persons, places or things. I make no profit from this work of fanfiction

Chapter List
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Chapter 230
“Why? How can I scare you more than he does?” Zuko asked confused.
“Because you are Wrish-wrish, Zuko,” Katara explained this time holding the last “sh” with a longer and softer exhalation.
He frowned in confusion, “The dog thing?”
Katara shook her head and repeated the subtle difference in pronunciations, “Wrish-wrish is the sound of winter snow falling. It is a comfort and one of the greatest dangers to my people. The first snowfalls of winter are beautiful but without warning they can turn into a blizzard. Freezing to death is peaceful, you simply go to sleep and don’t wake up. Wrish-wrish is the last sound you hear before succumbing to hypothermia. Wrish-wrish is anything wrong that slowly becomes normal. You are Wrish-wrish.”
“Is that bad? That being with me is becoming normal?” he asked quietly.
She nodded, “My grandmother makes the most beautiful dies in the village. She had a student named Anana that is a year older than Sokka; Anana has an older brother named Kiluan. During the raid their mother shoved them in a cabinet and pushed a large piece of furniture in front of it. She told them to always love and protect each other. Those were her last words. She killed three of the soldiers who came into their home. They had to listen while their comrades avenged their deaths. She kept repeating ‘love and protect one another’ until her screams became whispers.”
“You know how much power are in a mother’s last words, Zuko. They were inseparable. The only time they parted was to use the restroom. The other would wait outside the door and they’d talk to one another. It was almost two years before they were able to be apart long enough for Kiluan to participate in warrior training and the hunts and for Anana to resume her lessons. He was left behind when the men went to war for that reason. He and Sokka were the only two males in the village under the age of 70 and in double digits. Women began to make advances toward them. Gran-Gran and Amnak kept the more persistent ones away from Sokka but Kiluan was 15. He was close enough to sixteen to be considered a man and capable of making his own decisions. They spoke to him and explained what the women wanted and how to select a good wife but he didn’t court one. A few months later we started hearing rumors about him and his sister. We dismissed them as the bitter words of scorned women.”
Katara raised her head to look at Zuko, “Women’s moon cycles synchronize the more they are around each other. I spent a lot of time with Anana so our cycles coincided with each other. There are rituals to be performed afterwards. One is to thank Tui for healthy bodies and the ability to one day bear children. The other is primarily for married women as it asks for a child to carry. I noticed Anana’s offering was different from mine and there were bruises on her body when we bathed.
“I mentioned it to Amnak. She told Gran-Gran. They sent me on some errand when Anana came for her next dying lesson. I forgot my mittens so I came back and heard everything they were saying. Her mother had told her and her brother to always love and protect each other. She heard what the women had been saying about her brother and knew they were competing against each other to see which one could get him. It was a game; none of the women pursuing him really cared for him.
“We are taught what happens during puberty so she knew it was only a matter of time before he had his heart broken by one of them. She knew what a woman with impure intentions would do to him and how badly it would hurt him to learn he’d been used,” she half-smiled at Zuko, “You and Aang remind me of Kiluan. Like Aang he is very open, kind-hearted and wants to believe the best about people but he is as sensitive and easily hurt as you.”
Katara lowered heard again, “During the winter families sleep beneath the same furs for warmth but we use baleen as dividers to prevent accidental contact between family members. She confessed to moving the divider and touching him as he slept to curb his urges shortly after the other men left. She knew it was wrong but she didn’t want him to be hurt by those types of women. The marks I saw on her weren’t bruises. They were love bites.
“Their mother’s dying wish for them to love and protect one another became Wrish-wrish. It came from a place of pure intentions but grew into something neither one of them expected. No one expected that leaving them to themselves after their mother’s death would end up like it did. They were not mistreated but they were not welcomed either. Gran-Gran continued Anana’s lessons but I could no longer take part in them. I was curious about boys but there were none my age except for Sokka. Gran-Gran was afraid I would be influenced by her actions. They left the tribe the summer before I found Aang. They wanted to go someplace where no one knew they were brother and sister.”
“It was a relief when they announced they wanted to leave. Our blue furs have great monetary value in the Earth Kingdom. We all gave them what we could and everything they needed to start a life elsewhere. I saw them at the Ba Sing Se ferry station when we were trying to get tickets. They appeared to be at peace and happy. I saw no harm in approaching them. Anana became upset when she saw me walking towards them so I kept going without saying anything.
I stayed away so long that Toph got worried and came to look for me. When I walked past again they and their belongings were gone. The people around them were muttering about how foolish it was to leave after such a long journey. I guess after they realized someone who knew them would be in Ba Sing Se they changed their mind about going.”
Katara looked up at him, “Anana was pregnant when I saw her, Zuko. Kiluan was holding her the way you hold me.”
Zuko shook his head unable to believe what he was hearing, “But how, why? No one in his right mind would do that with someone he knew was his sibling. I know what Bong Cha said about Grandfather but he really was crazy.”
Katara fingered the bracelet he’d given to her, “Did the man who sold this to you seem abnormal?”
Zuko looked at the bracelet and answered, “No, but what does he have to do with anything?”
Katara removed the bracelet and guided Zuko’s fingertip to a notch, “Kiluan carved this. This symbol is his name. Anana is the one who dyed the beads. Do you see the small bands of lighter blue between the colors? This is my grandmother’s technique. Anana is the only one of us who came close to mastering it. The happy couple you purchased this from was born and raised as siblings.”
“But…how?” Zuko gasped. He remembered the couple. It met them during the time of his and Katara’s separation. The sight of blue furs in the market had drawn his attention. It and the woman’s smile had reminded him of Katara. He’d asked her what she would like to have as a gift from an apologetic lover. Her husband over heard his question and misunderstood his intention. He frowned and placed his arm around his wife thinking Zuko was attempting to accost his wife until he muttered, “Katara’s mad at me and I don’t know how to fix it.”
At the time he thought he’d imagined the flicker of recognition on their faces when he mentioned Katara’s name as well as the odd look the man gave his wife when she went to the back of the stall returned with this bracelet. He thought he’d imagined the catch in her voice when she gave it to him saying “she’ll like this one”. The woman was right. Katara did like the bracelet. She loved it. She wore it every day. All this time thought it was only woman’s intuition but she knew Katara would like the bracelet because she knew Katara.
Zuko protested, “They seemed normal. The baby was fat, healthy and smiling. He was reaching for my crown.”
Katara paused to find the right words in the common language to explain what her Gran-Gran and the sages had told them, “Their relationship is a taboo in our tribe but we couldn’t condemn them because we allowed it to happen. The spirit’s wrath would fall on us, since elders often spoke of their attachment as being unnatural but no one made an effort to stop it. They were children who were hurting emotionally. No one had the heart to take away their source of comfort and channel their energies elsewhere. There were others who were hurting physically and needed the attention and resources more so than two healthy uninjured children who could contribute to our people so long as they were treated as a single unit. By the time everyone’s physical and survival needs were met Anana and Kiluan’s minds had already twisted around each other.”
“Once Gran-Gran learned what they were doing she took them to the sages. Kiluan confessed he woke up one night when she was touching him. He heard her explaining her actions to the spirits and praying for forgiveness. He knew it was wrong but didn’t want her go to the punishment realm alone so he began touching her in return. There was no lust or selfishness in their initial actions only the heartfelt wish to uphold their mother’s dying wish to always love and protect one another.
Tupilek, the head sage, said Anana and Kiluan couldn’t be separated at that point. Any attempt to do so would create more harm than good. The trauma of losing their mother and her last words had caused their spirits to grow close. The years of sadness and loneliness had caused them to merge. The mind and the body can be separated but the body and spirit cannot; where one goes the other follows,” Katara said curling farther in on herself. “As time progressed their boundaries eroded and the feeling of wrongness went away.”
“There was nothing to prevent their bodies from following their spirits. They were aware of being siblings but did not see each other as brother and sister or themselves as two separate people. They saw themselves as an extension of the other. If you asked their names they would say ‘Anana who must care for Kiluan’ or ‘Kiluan who must care for Anana’. They acknowledged other people but their world consisted of only the two of them. Even thought it had crossed the line into taboo their relationship was rooted pure devotion to each other and their mother’s last words. That purity had drawn the protection of Yakone and Yuralia, Yuki-Onna, Nukka, Tui, and their mother.”
Zuko recognized the names of the Water Tribe spirits from the time he spent watching star-gazing with Katara. Yakone and Yuralia were the patron saints of self-sacrificing love, unrequited love, and heartfelt devotion. Yuki-Onna and her child Nukka were the patron saints of orphans and mothers who’d lost children.
Katara turned to face him again, “Wrish-wrish is a slow death of acceptance. You become accustomed to your surroundings and what was once terrifying becomes standard. Familiarity and comfort eat away at your awareness until there is nothing left to warn you about danger or say that this is wrong. Like death by hypothermia the sight and sound of falling snow is so familiar you don’t realize you can’t feel your toes and your life is slowly slipping away. You are Wrish-wrish; what I do with you to protect Sokka and Aang is Wrish-wrish.”
Her eyes were starting to water when she whispered, “It’s wrong but I’ve become accustomed to spreading my legs for you. I expect to feel you inside me and have accepted what happens to my body when I lay with you.”
“At times I-” she stopped before verbally admitting sometimes her body hungered for him. She bit her lower lip before speaking again, “What happens to me when the day comes that I no longer have to do so? What happens to me, Zuko? I’ve questioned that long before that woman said anything. What kind of life will I have whether I am able to escape or I am forced to spend the rest of my life in the Fire Nation?”
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Borealis: A Zutara Story