┊𝑰𝒈𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆┊

chapter 14

It was daytime, he knew it, but hunger and thirst had clouded his vision. Maybe it was just the fog from the rain. Either way, he was imagining things. He thought he heard voices over the sound of the waves. He thought he saw a ship out on the ocean. But he didn't imagine the people that broke him free of his earth prison. They introduced themselves, but he didn't pay attention. He was too busy concentrating on holding himself up and not falling. The men helped him to the ship he thought he imagined and they gave him food and a blanket as he told them what happened.

After he ate, he could see better and realized a little too late that these people that helped him were pirates. He'd never known pirates to be accomodating, but these days nothing was impossible. The captain explained the reason behind this, going into detail with the waterbender girl's attack and destruction of more than half his crew. He needed to rebuild. He needed more men. He needed him. Kiatoh.

"Katara.."

Katara rolled over and mumbled something incomprehensible in her sleep. Zuko rolled his eyes and shook her shoulder a little but to no avail.

"Katara, wake up."

She growled and pulled a pillow over her head. Zuko just took the pillow from her and started tickling her to wake her up. She jumped up and grabbed his hands, but he didn't stop.

"Okay, I'm up! What do you want?"

He removed his hands and stood up. "We're landing soon."

"What?" she yelled as she jumped up out of the bed, trying desperately not to get tangled up in her blanket and failing miserably. She fell forward out of the bed and Zuko just barely caught her. He set her gently on the floor so she could untangle her legs, then they went to the deck together, Katara trying to brush her fingers through her hair a little.

"Katara! It's about time you got up!" her brother called across the deck.

"How did I sleep so long?" she asked as she looked at the darkening sky. "I wasn't even that tired."

"Get your stuff together, we'll be docking in a couple minutes."

"What stuff?"

"Oh, right. Well then, just prepare yourself."

Katara laughed as Sokka ran around getting stuff ready to go, slipping here and there. The deck was still slick from the rain earlier and the constant drizzle after the downpour eased up. Clouds still covered the evening sky, making it seem later than it really was. There was a light fog on the water, but she could barely make out the docks ahead of them.

"Feeling okay?"

She turned to see Zuko and smiled. "Yeah, I'm fine. It'll be good to get back to civilization again, although I'm not too excited to get back to where your sister can get us."

"Yeah, I'm not exactly looking forward to that either. It's okay though, I'm sure you can handle her."

"Not if we're in the middle of the woods. Maybe by the ocean, but in the woods I have a limited supply of water."

"We'll be fine, we have more than enough people to overpower her. I'll even talk to the owner of this ship about the swords Sokka found. We're more than prepared."