Book One: Wind

Foreigner

Katara

It's difficult to sleep on top of a dragon.

I mean, it's not impossible, but... Oh, well. Imagine if you had to sleep crushed by an overweight snail sloth against a hard wall. Save that the overweight snail sloth is my brother and the hard wall is Zuko's back. (Damn, his shoulders could hold cannons!) (Maybe that's how he got rid of the cannon Zhao was going to shoot us with.)

There's not enough space on Druk's back for us to lay down and we have to hold on to each other in a row while we fly, for Druk doesn't has any leashes and we don't want to fall off from only Spirits know how many feet up. So, I – stupid me – decided to sit between Sokka and Zuko. I should have just hanged on to Druk's tail, I would have slept much more comfortably without Sokka's godawful snoring next to my ear.

I push myself off from Zuko's back as I can, blinking away the sleep; Sokka's still snoring and drooling on my shoulder. (Geez, I'll have to ask Zuko to burn this parka.)

He doesn't look like he has slept at all, his back is almost unnaturally straight and his muscles are stiff.

"You should get some rest, you know," I say. "It's not safe for you to fly when you haven't gotten any sleep."

"Don't worry about that, Katara," he answers. "It's not the first time I ride Druk without destination and awake for days."

The melancholy in his voice creeps to my insides, it's charged with a palpable unsaid memory. I picture Zuko riding alone from the Fire Nation to the South Pole.

Banished prince.

As a reflex, my arms tighten their grasp around his waist.

"Do you mind if I ask you something?" I wonder.

"What?"

"What did Zhao mean when he called you 'banished prince'?"

He tenses, but it's only his spine, his shoulders were already way too squared up – had been since we left the Water Tribe.

The sun creates a halo around his figure. "That's... a long story."

I shrug. "I have time. And we are going to be together for quite a while anyways."

He doesn't answers for a few long moments. It gives me time to look at the clouds surrounding us, get a little panicked at how high we are, stare at the dawn's colors.

As beautiful as the reddish pink and clear blue are tinting up the sky, it makes me shiver with uneasiness; I'm not use to see sunrise during this time of the year. This remembers me how far we are from home already. How farther are we have yet to travel.

"I guess I'll tell you when the time comes," Zuko says finally.

The halo around him intensifies the more the sun raises. It's golden, like Zuko's fire and eyes.

"And when will that be?"

I prop my chin on his shoulder to get a look at his face. He glances at me like I'm a sudden second head growing from his neck.

"Are you always this confident with the people you just meet?"

"Yes," I admit shamelessly. "Not that I get to meet much people. The South Pole is lonely."

"I noticed. Were you and Sokka really the only teenagers around?"

I nod. "Yep."

Now, he just looks unsure. "Um... I know it's none of my business, but... um... how exactly were you going to... I mean... whom were you supposed to..."