Sorry
Author: hermonthis
Characters: Katara, Zuko, Sokka
Challenge: the zutara hour in an hour challenge
Links: Posted at katara_zuko here, and at FFN
Words: 1,788
A/N: Dang, this came out weird.
I’ve got this other one-shot called Devoid (a Toph/Aang piece) that deals with dreams, Koh, and the spirit world. In the beginning, it mentioned that Toph was temporarily acting as a substitute for Katara as ambassador, she had gotten sick while travelling through the earth kingdom swamps.
This is what happened to Katara while she was travelling through the swamp.
Aside from the correction of grammatical errors, this is in raw form due to the challenge’s #5 rule: You can beta after the hour is up, but can not make any significant changes to the plot, happenings, or sentences, etc. Damnit.
Start: 9:33 pm
End: 10:33 pm (barely, barely made it)
Sorry
Zuko thought he knew everything about his wife. He thought that he knew everything there was to know about her and then some. But there were still some things that he didn’t know, such as how many guys did she date before he came along, who gave her her first kiss, where did she have her first date, and why did she have a fear of travelling through the swamp?
“Katara, come on! We have to get to town before the sun sets!” Zuko rubbed his face with his right hand and sighed irritably. He didn’t know why she was being so stubborn at this time of day, in the later afternoon when everyone in the party was tired, hot, and hungry from the day’s journey.
And that party consisted of Katara, Zuko, and Sokka.
They were travelling through the earth kingdom with a fire nation entourage on official business when they came across a town that was quarantined due to a vicious bout of stomach flu. Unfortunately, the fire nation soldiers, who were unused to the bayou landscape of this particular province, got sick and soon all that was left of the entourage was the fire nation prince and princess and the water tribe warrior.
“Zuko!” he heard her yell from behind him. Katara was wading through the swamp, lifting her skirts as she trudged through the damp moss and squinted in his direction, the fading sun blinding her eyes. “Zuko! Don’t rush me, I’m having a hard time here!”
“You’re a waterbender, couldn’t you go any faster?”
Katara huffed, feeling definitely annoyed. Sure, she was slower than he was but she also wanted to get out of this swamp as fast as she could. Behind her, Sokka kept a hand close to his boomerang and gently prodded his sister onwards with a hand at her back.
“Come on, Katara, you know you can go faster.”
To his dismay, she wheeled around on him, pointed a finger directly at his face and growled, “Sokka, don’t you even talk.”
Turning back around, the waterbender looked up at the top of the willow trees, making note of the red-black colour of the sky and the lengthening shadows, before saying out loud,
“Zuko, are you sure we know where we’re going?” The individual in question felt the muscles on his back stiffen at the repeated question.
“You know, we would be going a lot faster if we had those ostrich horses.”
“Well, Mr. Smarty Pants, I don’t remember seeing any ostrich horses in town!”
“Because we never looked!”
“There was a epidemic in town! All the goddamn animals were sick!”
“We should have never stopped there!”
“And forget to re-supply?! Oh, great idea!”
Sokka remained quiet as he listened to the argument between his sister and his brother-in-law. The argument originally concerned him but as he quickly learned this was another marital tiff and something that he wasn’t involved in, even if he did know the way through the swamp.
In his impatience, Zuko wanted to get away from the flu-infected town while Katara wanted to stay behind and help the villagers by trying to heal some of them. As it turned out, the origin of the flu was unknown and the local physician came out of the house where some of Zuko’s soldiers were being cared for and shook her head.
“We have no more room here. You have to leave.”
Katara protested and told the woman that she could help. But the middle-aged mother turned her brown eyes at her and said,
“There are messengers running from the other villages - coming and going, the last one left two days ago asking for more medicine and aid from the other villages. Lady Katara, this is no place for you. We do not know what is causing this sickness and already, we have lost two people from it. Please go.”
Then Zuko suggested that they hurry up on their journey, there wasn’t much they could do with a sick town. But maybe they could go across the swamp as a shortcut and bypass the flu. The next province on the other side of the swamp was probably untouched.
Katara didn’t like the idea at all, going through the swamp. Sokka, who shared the same concern was his sister, also felt that Zuko’s plan was sound and agreed with him. After all, they didn’t know for whether the other villages in the province they left behind were infected. The last runner, they were told, left days ago and since then, no one had come forward with news. Maybe the flu had spread quicker than they thought.
At that moment, the sun sank down and the swamp was plunged in utter darkness. Afraid, Katara called out to her husband, asking him to come back to the group where she could see him.
Then something happened; too sudden for any forewarning and too quick for any sort of action.
“Sokka!”
Sokka was pushed backwards into the water as a large screeching owl fell from the trees and dove towards him. His boomerang immediately at the ready, the water tribe warrior caught the bright glinting eyes of the bird and aimed for it. The boomerang whistled through the air and the bird ducked, disappeared into the trees and into the darkness.
“Sokka!” Katara called out to her brother. She felt the gust of wind between them as her brother’s familiar touch left her back and heard a splash of water. Quickly, she removed the cork of the water skein that hung beside her hip and the water whip was ready. It was hard to see in the dark, but a flicker of light to her left signalled her husband’s presence. She recognized a ball of flame anywhere.
But then, she lost control of the water whip. Instead of remaining in her hands, it flicked at her face, spraying water across her eyes and she fell back in surprise, letting out a cry. The water whip flicked around once more, like a menacing snake and flung itself around her body, up her throat, and around her face, suffocating her in her own element.
The last thing she heard was the cackle of a man’s laugh before she fell to the ground.
“Katara! Katara! Speak to me!” Zuko knelt down, his knees sinking into the murky swamp water as he held Katara’s held above the water and waited for her blue eyes to open. He put his head to her chest, waiting for her heartbeat but heard none. Startled, he untied her robes until he saw the white bandage of her undergarments and put a delicate hand over where her heart was.
Lifting her out of the water and into his arms, Zuko turned to his brother-in-law for help.
Sokka, grabbing his boomerang with one hand from the air, hesitated for whatever it was that attacked his sister, then looked back at her. Zuko was carrying her limp form in his arms and heading towards dry land.
“She’s not breathing!”
Sokka rushed over and knelt over his unconscious baby sister.
“Katara! Breathe!” Putting his hands over her chest, Sokka shoved Zuko aside and pushed down one, two, three times, hoping to jumpstart her heartbeat with his own rhythm. When she didn’t respond, he bent over her face, pinched her nose and blew air into her lungs.
Across from him, Zuko frowned as he watched his wife remain lifeless on the mossy floor. When the sun disappeared and the swamp was plunged in darkness, he lit a flame in his hand and stumbled towards the sound of his wife’s voice. He saw the shimmering reflection of the flame reflected in her water whip, and he saw what happened. He saw her step back in surprise as the whip hit her across the face and started to smother her. He started running then. Then he saw her open her mouth to scream, the pane of liquid fell away from her face like rain, and then she fell.
“She’s not breathing, Zuko, I don’t know what’s wrong with her.”
“I’m sorry, baby, I’m sorry!”
“Here, you do it.” Sokka leaned back on his knees, buried his face with his hands to suppress the fearful tears that pricked at the corner of his eyes. But he wouldn’t cry, not in front of Zuko, one of them had to be strong for her.
“But I don’t know how.”
With trembling hands, Zuko placed his hands on top of Katara’s chest, just like Sokka instructed him to do, and firmly but with not too much force, he pushed down on her ribcage, counting one, two, three inside his mind just as Sokka was saying it out loud. The water tribe warrior reasoned that since Zuko was a firebender, that maybe he had more of a chance to save her with his touch than he did.
One, two, three. Blow. Zuko pinched Katara’s nose with one hand, tilted her head back with his other, and blew air into her mouth. Nothing. One, two, three. Blow. Again, Zuko repeated the process and again, she didn’t respond.
“Come on, sis, come on.”
One, two, three. Blow.
Zuko felt as if she were falling apart in his hands. In his hands. He could feel the warmth of her body slowly fading away; she was falling into a deep sleep.
Don’t leave me, Katara.
What kind of husband was he, one that couldn’t save his wife?
I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.
He should have listened to Katara; maybe they should have gone another route instead of taking a shortcut through the swamp. Maybe he should have listened to Sokka and let him guide them through the landscape. So many “maybe’s” swam through his mind that Zuko was starting to get light-headed. He put one hand to his forehead, and felt the world around him sway with dizziness. He turned his gaze towards Katara’s face, her features were starting to get blurry and he thought he saw her eyelashes flicker.
Closing his eyes and looking away, Zuko could hear Sokka try to control his emotions. But he had to be strong for her; he had to be strong for Katara. Taking a breath, Zuko turned back to his wife, her face looked so pale in his darkness, like she was sleeping and dreaming peacefully, and tried once more.
One, two, three. Blow.
His lips touched hers as he tried to bring her back to life. He had to, she couldn’t leave him so quickly, not like this; it was ridiculously unfair. But his warm touch wasn’t working the way Sokka thought it would, and when his lips touched hers, all he felt was cold.
Katara, breathe.
Characters: Katara, Zuko, Sokka
Challenge: the zutara hour in an hour challenge
Links: Posted at katara_zuko here, and at FFN
Words: 1,788
A/N: Dang, this came out weird.
I’ve got this other one-shot called Devoid (a Toph/Aang piece) that deals with dreams, Koh, and the spirit world. In the beginning, it mentioned that Toph was temporarily acting as a substitute for Katara as ambassador, she had gotten sick while travelling through the earth kingdom swamps.
This is what happened to Katara while she was travelling through the swamp.
Aside from the correction of grammatical errors, this is in raw form due to the challenge’s #5 rule: You can beta after the hour is up, but can not make any significant changes to the plot, happenings, or sentences, etc. Damnit.
Start: 9:33 pm
End: 10:33 pm (barely, barely made it)
Sorry
Zuko thought he knew everything about his wife. He thought that he knew everything there was to know about her and then some. But there were still some things that he didn’t know, such as how many guys did she date before he came along, who gave her her first kiss, where did she have her first date, and why did she have a fear of travelling through the swamp?
“Katara, come on! We have to get to town before the sun sets!” Zuko rubbed his face with his right hand and sighed irritably. He didn’t know why she was being so stubborn at this time of day, in the later afternoon when everyone in the party was tired, hot, and hungry from the day’s journey.
And that party consisted of Katara, Zuko, and Sokka.
They were travelling through the earth kingdom with a fire nation entourage on official business when they came across a town that was quarantined due to a vicious bout of stomach flu. Unfortunately, the fire nation soldiers, who were unused to the bayou landscape of this particular province, got sick and soon all that was left of the entourage was the fire nation prince and princess and the water tribe warrior.
“Zuko!” he heard her yell from behind him. Katara was wading through the swamp, lifting her skirts as she trudged through the damp moss and squinted in his direction, the fading sun blinding her eyes. “Zuko! Don’t rush me, I’m having a hard time here!”
“You’re a waterbender, couldn’t you go any faster?”
Katara huffed, feeling definitely annoyed. Sure, she was slower than he was but she also wanted to get out of this swamp as fast as she could. Behind her, Sokka kept a hand close to his boomerang and gently prodded his sister onwards with a hand at her back.
“Come on, Katara, you know you can go faster.”
To his dismay, she wheeled around on him, pointed a finger directly at his face and growled, “Sokka, don’t you even talk.”
Turning back around, the waterbender looked up at the top of the willow trees, making note of the red-black colour of the sky and the lengthening shadows, before saying out loud,
“Zuko, are you sure we know where we’re going?” The individual in question felt the muscles on his back stiffen at the repeated question.
“You know, we would be going a lot faster if we had those ostrich horses.”
“Well, Mr. Smarty Pants, I don’t remember seeing any ostrich horses in town!”
“Because we never looked!”
“There was a epidemic in town! All the goddamn animals were sick!”
“We should have never stopped there!”
“And forget to re-supply?! Oh, great idea!”
Sokka remained quiet as he listened to the argument between his sister and his brother-in-law. The argument originally concerned him but as he quickly learned this was another marital tiff and something that he wasn’t involved in, even if he did know the way through the swamp.
In his impatience, Zuko wanted to get away from the flu-infected town while Katara wanted to stay behind and help the villagers by trying to heal some of them. As it turned out, the origin of the flu was unknown and the local physician came out of the house where some of Zuko’s soldiers were being cared for and shook her head.
“We have no more room here. You have to leave.”
Katara protested and told the woman that she could help. But the middle-aged mother turned her brown eyes at her and said,
“There are messengers running from the other villages - coming and going, the last one left two days ago asking for more medicine and aid from the other villages. Lady Katara, this is no place for you. We do not know what is causing this sickness and already, we have lost two people from it. Please go.”
Then Zuko suggested that they hurry up on their journey, there wasn’t much they could do with a sick town. But maybe they could go across the swamp as a shortcut and bypass the flu. The next province on the other side of the swamp was probably untouched.
Katara didn’t like the idea at all, going through the swamp. Sokka, who shared the same concern was his sister, also felt that Zuko’s plan was sound and agreed with him. After all, they didn’t know for whether the other villages in the province they left behind were infected. The last runner, they were told, left days ago and since then, no one had come forward with news. Maybe the flu had spread quicker than they thought.
At that moment, the sun sank down and the swamp was plunged in utter darkness. Afraid, Katara called out to her husband, asking him to come back to the group where she could see him.
Then something happened; too sudden for any forewarning and too quick for any sort of action.
“Sokka!”
Sokka was pushed backwards into the water as a large screeching owl fell from the trees and dove towards him. His boomerang immediately at the ready, the water tribe warrior caught the bright glinting eyes of the bird and aimed for it. The boomerang whistled through the air and the bird ducked, disappeared into the trees and into the darkness.
“Sokka!” Katara called out to her brother. She felt the gust of wind between them as her brother’s familiar touch left her back and heard a splash of water. Quickly, she removed the cork of the water skein that hung beside her hip and the water whip was ready. It was hard to see in the dark, but a flicker of light to her left signalled her husband’s presence. She recognized a ball of flame anywhere.
But then, she lost control of the water whip. Instead of remaining in her hands, it flicked at her face, spraying water across her eyes and she fell back in surprise, letting out a cry. The water whip flicked around once more, like a menacing snake and flung itself around her body, up her throat, and around her face, suffocating her in her own element.
The last thing she heard was the cackle of a man’s laugh before she fell to the ground.
“Katara! Katara! Speak to me!” Zuko knelt down, his knees sinking into the murky swamp water as he held Katara’s held above the water and waited for her blue eyes to open. He put his head to her chest, waiting for her heartbeat but heard none. Startled, he untied her robes until he saw the white bandage of her undergarments and put a delicate hand over where her heart was.
Lifting her out of the water and into his arms, Zuko turned to his brother-in-law for help.
Sokka, grabbing his boomerang with one hand from the air, hesitated for whatever it was that attacked his sister, then looked back at her. Zuko was carrying her limp form in his arms and heading towards dry land.
“She’s not breathing!”
Sokka rushed over and knelt over his unconscious baby sister.
“Katara! Breathe!” Putting his hands over her chest, Sokka shoved Zuko aside and pushed down one, two, three times, hoping to jumpstart her heartbeat with his own rhythm. When she didn’t respond, he bent over her face, pinched her nose and blew air into her lungs.
Across from him, Zuko frowned as he watched his wife remain lifeless on the mossy floor. When the sun disappeared and the swamp was plunged in darkness, he lit a flame in his hand and stumbled towards the sound of his wife’s voice. He saw the shimmering reflection of the flame reflected in her water whip, and he saw what happened. He saw her step back in surprise as the whip hit her across the face and started to smother her. He started running then. Then he saw her open her mouth to scream, the pane of liquid fell away from her face like rain, and then she fell.
“She’s not breathing, Zuko, I don’t know what’s wrong with her.”
“I’m sorry, baby, I’m sorry!”
“Here, you do it.” Sokka leaned back on his knees, buried his face with his hands to suppress the fearful tears that pricked at the corner of his eyes. But he wouldn’t cry, not in front of Zuko, one of them had to be strong for her.
“But I don’t know how.”
With trembling hands, Zuko placed his hands on top of Katara’s chest, just like Sokka instructed him to do, and firmly but with not too much force, he pushed down on her ribcage, counting one, two, three inside his mind just as Sokka was saying it out loud. The water tribe warrior reasoned that since Zuko was a firebender, that maybe he had more of a chance to save her with his touch than he did.
One, two, three. Blow. Zuko pinched Katara’s nose with one hand, tilted her head back with his other, and blew air into her mouth. Nothing. One, two, three. Blow. Again, Zuko repeated the process and again, she didn’t respond.
“Come on, sis, come on.”
One, two, three. Blow.
Zuko felt as if she were falling apart in his hands. In his hands. He could feel the warmth of her body slowly fading away; she was falling into a deep sleep.
Don’t leave me, Katara.
What kind of husband was he, one that couldn’t save his wife?
I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.
He should have listened to Katara; maybe they should have gone another route instead of taking a shortcut through the swamp. Maybe he should have listened to Sokka and let him guide them through the landscape. So many “maybe’s” swam through his mind that Zuko was starting to get light-headed. He put one hand to his forehead, and felt the world around him sway with dizziness. He turned his gaze towards Katara’s face, her features were starting to get blurry and he thought he saw her eyelashes flicker.
Closing his eyes and looking away, Zuko could hear Sokka try to control his emotions. But he had to be strong for her; he had to be strong for Katara. Taking a breath, Zuko turned back to his wife, her face looked so pale in his darkness, like she was sleeping and dreaming peacefully, and tried once more.
One, two, three. Blow.
His lips touched hers as he tried to bring her back to life. He had to, she couldn’t leave him so quickly, not like this; it was ridiculously unfair. But his warm touch wasn’t working the way Sokka thought it would, and when his lips touched hers, all he felt was cold.
Katara, breathe.