Categories > Cartoons > Avatar: The Last Airbender > Trapped in a Golden Bedlam
((Kettles: Chapter 3. Again, I'm uploading all my chapters at once so I can carry them over to fanfiction.... Well now, no one really needs to hear a disclaimer, right?
Good.
"DJ, spin that shit!" ....sorry, I love that movie))
((dream sequence start turns on fog machine))
"Run! Faster, faster. Get away." Tan feet slapped against the crystalline floor, ripples erupting with each contact. "Don't let them near, don't let them touch you." Above the translucent floor reared an imposing nothingness, as mercurial as oil, swelling, receding, swirling, snaking. "They're close! Move quickly!"
A curtain of chocolate hair waterfalled behind the scrambling figure, snapping at the darkness around, clawing at the opalescence below. "Go!!" Her limbs worked furiously, legs pounding the ground into oblivion, fists abusing the void about her. The drops of lapis lazuli that were her eyes darted this way and that. When they came to rest upon the floor beneath her, the voice resonated against her skull. "No! Look forward, never down, they're coming, coming."
Those nettled words alit a fury in her feet. The girl streamlined her body in an attempt to delay the inevitable, the enigmatic unavoidable on her heels. "Good, good," the silence whispered in her ears, "Fast. Keep going. Almost there." But despite the added fervor with which she sprinted forward, "they" found her. It began with a glint of gold in her peripherals, her discovery of these assailants.
She chanced a look down, contrary to the words raging in her mind of "No! No! Don't look, never see, not there." Beside the girl, stretching to the undefined horizon and then some, rolled millions of honey spheres, drawn into columns, simply moving towards their own destination, flowing with her and yet omitting her.
"What are you doing?" the silence screeched. "There! Run, now, fast, run."
But why?
"Don't question, RUN!" The orbs kept gliding forward, obstinate in their determination, still ignoring her existence. Soon she fell in stride with them, the anxious voice in her head momentarily soothed. It was for some time that the multitude of entities traveled like this, and during the start of the parade the girl simply complied. Her verbal companion kept up an urgent mantra all the while as it perched upon her shoulders: "Move, run. You have to keep up. You have to get there."
Get where?
A complex murmuring drifted down from the ominous sky. It seemed to be composed of many layers of lilting sounds, and as the tempos dripped against the cloudless ground, the girl noticed that specks of flames sprouted from each collision. Fear began its decent unto the girl's shoulders and spine, pinching her skin with an icy touch. The sounds continued to shower upon the procession below, and fire graffitied the terrain.
Finally it seemed to the girl that their group was making some headway, for the horizon, flat and solid as a wall, began to advance towards them, hoping to meet them halfway. "Move, run. You have to keep up. You have to get there."
It was close, so much so that the girl began to wonder what would happen once these queues were to reach the barrier. Within her next breath this query was answered dutifully as the wall crumbled suddenly, starting at the corners and eating inward. With this action, a being was gradually exposed.
It loomed over the rest of this twisted realm, silver shavings blanketing teal, leathery skin that was pinched in at the corners, and blank white eyes that stared unceasingly out at the pinpricks of fire. Its lips were pressed thinly across its muzzle. "Get there. Get there. Get here." The voice slid then into the icy depths of nothingness, and the girl felt horribly lonely, despite the intense activity occurring around her.
They were perhaps a few meters away now. The countenance spanned from the ground to the bloated gloom above, and the girl could only imagine that its blind eyes continued its fruitless scrutiny.
What now?
To this question, the image responded by loosening its jaw and letting it come to rest on the mirrored grounds, directly in their path of travel. Should she continue her dash, all that the girl had to look forward to was a long, dank slide down a trachea. Not completely enthusiastic about the latter, she dug her heels in and halted. But this didn't last long, for the spinning globules were intent on finishing their trek, and so the girl was knocked off her feet. Unfortunately, the spheres held her aloft, making her partake in the common end.
A thick darkness enveloped the girl as she was hoisted into the figure's mouth. She tore her lips apart, and poured whatever air her body contained into what she hoped would be an agonizing shriek, but the only noise filling her ears was that of a great exhalation of breath.
Her heart began to clatter, shatter against her ribs, and she thrashed against the grip that the curious travelers had on her. Throwing her head back, she watched in dismay as the alabaster fangs began to close unto themselves, fixed into the nooks between each other.
Darkness.
((turns off fog machine))
**********
A menacing growl rumbled through the water bender's bedroom, resonating against the lemon walls with choleric passion. Katara lurched upright at the sound, her hair plait whipping forward over her shoulder, only to rebound and smack her smartly against the face. But this barely bothered the water girl, whose head snapped about feverishly. She chewed on her bottom lip and held the bed's blanket like a lifeline; she desperately wished that she had her waterskin right there on the bed with her.
Where was it? The beast, the one who ate her.
Her chest rose and fell sharply and sporadically. Still her mind had not calmed, she had not been released far enough from the clutches of her nightmare to put things into perspective.
'Ok, calm down Katara.' She forced her eyelids to shut tightly, and focused on her panicking diaphragm. Presently, she was allowed to regulate her breathing and ease the torrents of blood being pushed through her body. Now, open your eyes, and look around. Obeying her own inner voice, Katara unleashed her dazzling eyes, and took in the room. A deep sigh erupted from her lips, the lower lip now slightly puffed from biting onto it.
'See? Nothing's there. It was just a dream.'
The waterbender then swung her legs over the side of the bed, and gingerly lowered her feet to the hardwood floors. Letting her soles rest against the surface for a moment, the chill from the floor seeping through her skin, she gave her heart a few more seconds to rest serenely, while her mind started to work itself up into a frenzy.
'What type of a nightmare was that? I've never even had a normal dream, so why this all of a sudden?' No aspect of the situation made any genuine sense, but then again it didn't really provide sufficient cause for alarm either.
Another snarl broke the tranquility of dawn. With a shrill, Katara bounded up off of the bed and was by her dresser, leather canteen in hand. She parted her legs and crouched down low, one palm hovering over the cork. Glaring around at all sides of the room, she searched for that demon.
'Where are you...?'
A third groan issued, but this one sounded a bit more muffled... and near-at-hand. With a vacant expression settling onto her features, Katara tucked her chin into her collarbones, and stared intently at her stomach. She was met by the offending noise, and a mortified blush claimed her entire face.
'See, Katara?' The waterbender coughed slightly at this, immensely grateful that no one was present to witness her actions. 'You're just hungry. Now...now eat something, and get on with your day.' But still she held her waterskin with a vice grip as she made her way over to the food platter. It was as she left it the night before: brimming with food goods. Her stomach rumbled greedily at her, and with her unoccupied hand she grabbed a loaf of rye bread and crammed as much as was possible into her mouth.
This continued on for the better of ten minutes, and was stopped only by an anxious set of raps on her door. She gave a start at the sound, but wrenched the door open anyway. A pie-faced woman, clouds of chestnut hair wafting down her back, was produced then. A pleasant smile painted her lips, and her hands were folded neatly over her stomach. But Katara hardly noticed the visitor herself; she gaped shamelessly at the woman's dress.
It was nearly a duplicate of the one on the fountain statue of Avatar Midori, at least in construction: four thin straps (two for each side) fastening over the shoulders, a bodice that spans only until under the breasts, and then yards of fabric flowing from here to just below her knees. However, the hue of the garment was what struck the waterbender so dramatically. As a breeze rippled through the material, Katara gazed on in awe as the colors transitioned from lilac, to azure, to rose seamlessly. Her eyes never left the marvel, and the pie-faced woman, awkward with this attention, attempted to bring the girl's focus to the words she came to say.
"Um, Miss Katara?"
The waterbender blinked and tore herself away from the dress. "S-sorry, ma'am," she said with a sheepish grin.
"No, no, it's quite alright," the pie-faced woman shook her head casually, and did a little spin for the water tribe girl. Air caught up under the cloth, and picked it up into the shape of an overturned bowl. Again the colors transmuted to others, and Katara's jaw dropped splendidly.
"...Gorgeous..." Katara breathed, in about the same tone as when she first laid eyes on the city.
"You think so?" The response to her question was in the form of a fervent nodding of the water girl's head. Pie (as Katara would later refer to the woman, for she never was able to string enough words together at that moment to request her name) grinned, "That's good. Otherwise you would need a new festival gown."
An amiable silence passed as the phrase processed in Katara's mind. The recognition was clear as the waterbender's jaw popped off its hinges. Her eyes sparked and flashed, and she could barely speak, for fear of having her words get cut off by her own excitement. "I...get one? I get to WEAR one?" Both her and Pie wore matching expressions.
"Of course. I came by earlier this morning and dropped it off in the top drawer." An uncharacteristic giggle snagged in the water tribe girl's throat, and she was by the dresser in three seconds, tearing the drawer out and retrieving the tiny square of fabric. Before her glee could develop any further, Pie said as an afterthought: "You were moving about a lot, almost like something was chasing you. Some dream, eh?"
"Yes, crazy dream," Katara's sugary voice provided, even though there was a thin haze of preoccupation over it. Shaking off her dark thoughts, the Southern Tribe teen rubbed her fingers against the cloth, practically drinking it in.
"It's made of a fine muslin," Pie's voice was faint, white noise, subliminally telling Katara all she wanted to know as she was absorbed in the fabric. "The seamstresses were somehow able to hand stitch every inch of every dress, using multicolor threads to achieve the rainbow affect." Katara held it from the top, letting the garb unfold itself. The material brushed against her thighs, and she bit against her lower lip again, though this time in order to stifle laughter. "In Festival terms, we women are to wear these variable dresses to show the spontaneity of life, of nature, of emotions, while our men wear simple white cotton to represent purity and a clean slate."
"When do I get to wear it?"
"Whenever. All day if you wanted."
"How about now?" Katara pressed the bodice against her chest, and twirled about to get a taste of what was to come. Pie rested her hands on her stomach once more.
"Now, I would recommend a shower, then you can put it on, and if you would like I can help you with your hair." After placing the clothing down with painstaking care, the waterbender grabbed Pie's hands tightly, forcing a few "thank-you"s at the woman, and then allowed herself to be led to a shower. It would be her first true bathing in a week, and Katara could barely contain herself.
*********
Perhaps the entire process of cleansing herself of dirt and grime, donning her clothing, and fixing her hair had taken about two hours. At the end, Pie stepped backwards from her work, wiping her hands off on her skirts. "There."
'This isn't me,' a stunned waterbender twisted about in front of a mirror, trying to capture her image in all directions and vantage points. Her brunette hair was unbraided and brushed out long, so it murmured against her lower back. The colors in her dress complemented her cerulean eyes, striking them with internal light, and deepened the tan in her skin. There was even a borderline theatrical change in her contours, making her look slimmer and ethereal. Even though it was traditional for women to be unadorned jewelry-wise, Pie found it in her heart to accept Katara's very special necklace.
'Stop looking, that isn't you'.
True, Katara felt... glamorous, gorgeous, elegant, but she couldn't help but wonder if she was still trapped inside her nightmare, and that beast was about to burst from the floorboards. In her whole life experiences, all this water bender was accustomed to were her mukluks, mittens, trousers, her anarak, her blue tunic and skirt; nothing as delicate as what breezed across her hips and thighs. It was almost too much.
But still her lips were quirked into a bemused grin.
'What's Aang going to say?'
The words had already zipped through her mind before she could hinder their presence, and for that Katara slapped herself. Pie, though a gossamer of worry glided over her features, maintained an easy air. "Good?" she inquired. The waterbender could divine both sides of the statement: Are you happy with your appearance? Is something the matter?
"Very much so," she said, before bombarding the woman with a hug.
'What will he say?'
'Nothing, he won't notice. Toph's going to be wearing the exact same outfit.'
'He won't even see you, should she be there.' There was a slight pressure leaning against Katara's skull, but she dismissed it with her own fantasies of the night to come.
**********
After Pie had gone to such trouble as to make a little dandelion like herself into a Forget-Me-Not, Katara felt obliged to assist in setting up the Festival. The majority had miraculously been erected during the night ("The Wallflower Witch, I suspect," Bai Ping stated thoughtfully, crawling at a forty-five degree angle under the weight of a box of decorations), but still the shops had to be set up and the shops were devoid of the flowers that they were intending to sell.
The pair of them, Katara and Pie, were busy clipping a set of rouge carnations, during which they chattered gaily, ignorant to the war raging around this little oasis, of the blood shed, and still they cast about their words so lightly. This place was simply perfect, so pure and untouchable, how could one possibly fathom such a depressing topic within the walls?
But regardless of the grim reality of the world, the two passed a half of an hour swapping stories (Katara learned the woman's name to actually be Lin Tal, though she would always resemble a "Pie" to the waterbender.), and then Pie finished out Bai Ping's explanation of the floral symbolism.
"Okay, so light red means admiration. When someone gives you this they are basically asking you to develop a relationship with them." Then Pie removed a single carnation from the vermilion mass they had compiled. "Darker red is for a deeper love and affection, like old couples or married couples or even just long relationships." She placed the blossom back unto their stack. "Then there're white carnations. They represent pure love and good luck, and are normally swapped between new couples or new marriages.
"The striped ones are basically tokens of regret: regret that a love cannot be shared, recognizing that your lover has found a new interest, patching up after a break-up, or whatever. That one is personally my favorite, I hate to say," Pie grinned distantly. "It just makes dismissal so much less painful.... But-ah- I'm sure Mayor Bai Ping explained the yellow flowers to you, how they're for citizens who don't fall under any categories, and can just be given between friends and family."
It was almost tangible, the scheme forming behind Katara's eyes. 'This could be my last chance. And I mean, I know what the worst that can happen is. And I know that it's probably going to happen. But if I never confess, I don't know if I can continue traveling with them....'
"Hey, where is the stand for the light red carnations?"
**********
The sun dipped across the walls, scooping low, trying to skim the terrain. As soon as both heavens and earth embraced, streaks of fuchsia, tangerine, and saffron inked across the sky above the Midorians and Avatar crew. Surprisingly, Katara hadn't once met up with her brother, Toph, or Aang at all that day, and this suited her nicely. But, while her and Pie were carting the last crate of flowers into the town square, Katara's voice rung with a familiar sound.
"Katara!" Were she not supporting the same box as Pie, the waterbender would have whirled around. But as she was, she had to apologize to her companion, and force the rest of the burden upon the kind woman, before turning to Aang and Sokka. Her breath hitched at the sight of the Avatar in his white cotton garb, his grey eyes and pale skin becoming almost otherworldly in the little contrast, and the tattoos enflaming in vibrancy. Sokka, on the other hand, looked like a slab of obsidian dusted with a few inches of snow. Enchanted, almost intoxicated smiles were plastered about their faces as the three approached one another.
"Magical, isn't it?" The Avatar propelled himself a few feet into the air, and then landed on Katara's right. Her stomach did a flip as he appeared so near to her, and she forced herself to nod at him.
"Yeah," she said, her voice slow. "Tonight's going to be very... nice." I hope.
"Nice? Nice? Of course it is! Have you even seen the spread they're making for dinner?" Sokka threw his arms about in boisterous explanation. A few passing Midorian girls chuckled behind their hands, and flashed coy looks to the water warrior, whom must have appeared very exotic to them. 'Exotic, erratic, who's counting?'
"No, what are they making?" Katara asked, rupturing Sokka's thoughts....
"Oh...oh! Wild boar, leechi nuts, meats, cabbage, potatoes, yams, carrots, asparagus, stew, breads, meats, nuts, fish, did I mention meat? Oh! AND there's going to be beer!" The vegetarian monk cringed at the constant referral to carnivorous habits, while Katara grew apprehensive over the mention of alcohol. But the warrior, oblivious, drooled quietly by himself as the other two continued on their conversation.
"So, Katara," Aang said, "what have you been doing all today?"
"Um, well, the woman who came to wake me up helped me to get dressed, and then I basically just helped out with setting up until now."
"Whoever she is, she did a great job."
Katara froze. Her ears heated, and she could almost feel the warmth seeping from them. "Th-thanks, Aang. You l-look really n-n-nice too."
"Aren't these great?" He grabbed a fistful of his shirt and pulled it taut. "It breathes! Airbending is...well, a breeze in them!" That boyish smile dominated again, illuminating his features in a way that made Katara feel like she was about to go insane. "Oh, and did you see Appa?"
"N-n-no."
"Oh man! They braided flowers in his mane. Can you believe it? I watched them put them in, and boy did Appa put up a fuss for a while...." The boy hero continued gossiping like that for some time, Katara absorbing every word put out. Then her euphoria was snapped when a shout issued from the now drool-soaked Sokka.
The pair turned about to face him, only to find that Momo had manifested out of nowhere and flew straight into Sokka's face. At this, the monk and his waterbending teacher laughed openly, and Katara truly felt that she could be struck by lightning right then and die happy. At least, those were her thoughts, until....
"Hey, Katara?"
"Hmm?"
"The festival's about to start, and I haven't seen Toph all day, do you know where she is?" It seemed like Katara's light feelings shattered at that moment, shards piercing her heart.
"No, I haven't," she spat icily, and stalked off, leaving the two boys to flash each other questioning glances.
Good.
"DJ, spin that shit!" ....sorry, I love that movie))
((dream sequence start turns on fog machine))
"Run! Faster, faster. Get away." Tan feet slapped against the crystalline floor, ripples erupting with each contact. "Don't let them near, don't let them touch you." Above the translucent floor reared an imposing nothingness, as mercurial as oil, swelling, receding, swirling, snaking. "They're close! Move quickly!"
A curtain of chocolate hair waterfalled behind the scrambling figure, snapping at the darkness around, clawing at the opalescence below. "Go!!" Her limbs worked furiously, legs pounding the ground into oblivion, fists abusing the void about her. The drops of lapis lazuli that were her eyes darted this way and that. When they came to rest upon the floor beneath her, the voice resonated against her skull. "No! Look forward, never down, they're coming, coming."
Those nettled words alit a fury in her feet. The girl streamlined her body in an attempt to delay the inevitable, the enigmatic unavoidable on her heels. "Good, good," the silence whispered in her ears, "Fast. Keep going. Almost there." But despite the added fervor with which she sprinted forward, "they" found her. It began with a glint of gold in her peripherals, her discovery of these assailants.
She chanced a look down, contrary to the words raging in her mind of "No! No! Don't look, never see, not there." Beside the girl, stretching to the undefined horizon and then some, rolled millions of honey spheres, drawn into columns, simply moving towards their own destination, flowing with her and yet omitting her.
"What are you doing?" the silence screeched. "There! Run, now, fast, run."
But why?
"Don't question, RUN!" The orbs kept gliding forward, obstinate in their determination, still ignoring her existence. Soon she fell in stride with them, the anxious voice in her head momentarily soothed. It was for some time that the multitude of entities traveled like this, and during the start of the parade the girl simply complied. Her verbal companion kept up an urgent mantra all the while as it perched upon her shoulders: "Move, run. You have to keep up. You have to get there."
Get where?
A complex murmuring drifted down from the ominous sky. It seemed to be composed of many layers of lilting sounds, and as the tempos dripped against the cloudless ground, the girl noticed that specks of flames sprouted from each collision. Fear began its decent unto the girl's shoulders and spine, pinching her skin with an icy touch. The sounds continued to shower upon the procession below, and fire graffitied the terrain.
Finally it seemed to the girl that their group was making some headway, for the horizon, flat and solid as a wall, began to advance towards them, hoping to meet them halfway. "Move, run. You have to keep up. You have to get there."
It was close, so much so that the girl began to wonder what would happen once these queues were to reach the barrier. Within her next breath this query was answered dutifully as the wall crumbled suddenly, starting at the corners and eating inward. With this action, a being was gradually exposed.
It loomed over the rest of this twisted realm, silver shavings blanketing teal, leathery skin that was pinched in at the corners, and blank white eyes that stared unceasingly out at the pinpricks of fire. Its lips were pressed thinly across its muzzle. "Get there. Get there. Get here." The voice slid then into the icy depths of nothingness, and the girl felt horribly lonely, despite the intense activity occurring around her.
They were perhaps a few meters away now. The countenance spanned from the ground to the bloated gloom above, and the girl could only imagine that its blind eyes continued its fruitless scrutiny.
What now?
To this question, the image responded by loosening its jaw and letting it come to rest on the mirrored grounds, directly in their path of travel. Should she continue her dash, all that the girl had to look forward to was a long, dank slide down a trachea. Not completely enthusiastic about the latter, she dug her heels in and halted. But this didn't last long, for the spinning globules were intent on finishing their trek, and so the girl was knocked off her feet. Unfortunately, the spheres held her aloft, making her partake in the common end.
A thick darkness enveloped the girl as she was hoisted into the figure's mouth. She tore her lips apart, and poured whatever air her body contained into what she hoped would be an agonizing shriek, but the only noise filling her ears was that of a great exhalation of breath.
Her heart began to clatter, shatter against her ribs, and she thrashed against the grip that the curious travelers had on her. Throwing her head back, she watched in dismay as the alabaster fangs began to close unto themselves, fixed into the nooks between each other.
Darkness.
((turns off fog machine))
**********
A menacing growl rumbled through the water bender's bedroom, resonating against the lemon walls with choleric passion. Katara lurched upright at the sound, her hair plait whipping forward over her shoulder, only to rebound and smack her smartly against the face. But this barely bothered the water girl, whose head snapped about feverishly. She chewed on her bottom lip and held the bed's blanket like a lifeline; she desperately wished that she had her waterskin right there on the bed with her.
Where was it? The beast, the one who ate her.
Her chest rose and fell sharply and sporadically. Still her mind had not calmed, she had not been released far enough from the clutches of her nightmare to put things into perspective.
'Ok, calm down Katara.' She forced her eyelids to shut tightly, and focused on her panicking diaphragm. Presently, she was allowed to regulate her breathing and ease the torrents of blood being pushed through her body. Now, open your eyes, and look around. Obeying her own inner voice, Katara unleashed her dazzling eyes, and took in the room. A deep sigh erupted from her lips, the lower lip now slightly puffed from biting onto it.
'See? Nothing's there. It was just a dream.'
The waterbender then swung her legs over the side of the bed, and gingerly lowered her feet to the hardwood floors. Letting her soles rest against the surface for a moment, the chill from the floor seeping through her skin, she gave her heart a few more seconds to rest serenely, while her mind started to work itself up into a frenzy.
'What type of a nightmare was that? I've never even had a normal dream, so why this all of a sudden?' No aspect of the situation made any genuine sense, but then again it didn't really provide sufficient cause for alarm either.
Another snarl broke the tranquility of dawn. With a shrill, Katara bounded up off of the bed and was by her dresser, leather canteen in hand. She parted her legs and crouched down low, one palm hovering over the cork. Glaring around at all sides of the room, she searched for that demon.
'Where are you...?'
A third groan issued, but this one sounded a bit more muffled... and near-at-hand. With a vacant expression settling onto her features, Katara tucked her chin into her collarbones, and stared intently at her stomach. She was met by the offending noise, and a mortified blush claimed her entire face.
'See, Katara?' The waterbender coughed slightly at this, immensely grateful that no one was present to witness her actions. 'You're just hungry. Now...now eat something, and get on with your day.' But still she held her waterskin with a vice grip as she made her way over to the food platter. It was as she left it the night before: brimming with food goods. Her stomach rumbled greedily at her, and with her unoccupied hand she grabbed a loaf of rye bread and crammed as much as was possible into her mouth.
This continued on for the better of ten minutes, and was stopped only by an anxious set of raps on her door. She gave a start at the sound, but wrenched the door open anyway. A pie-faced woman, clouds of chestnut hair wafting down her back, was produced then. A pleasant smile painted her lips, and her hands were folded neatly over her stomach. But Katara hardly noticed the visitor herself; she gaped shamelessly at the woman's dress.
It was nearly a duplicate of the one on the fountain statue of Avatar Midori, at least in construction: four thin straps (two for each side) fastening over the shoulders, a bodice that spans only until under the breasts, and then yards of fabric flowing from here to just below her knees. However, the hue of the garment was what struck the waterbender so dramatically. As a breeze rippled through the material, Katara gazed on in awe as the colors transitioned from lilac, to azure, to rose seamlessly. Her eyes never left the marvel, and the pie-faced woman, awkward with this attention, attempted to bring the girl's focus to the words she came to say.
"Um, Miss Katara?"
The waterbender blinked and tore herself away from the dress. "S-sorry, ma'am," she said with a sheepish grin.
"No, no, it's quite alright," the pie-faced woman shook her head casually, and did a little spin for the water tribe girl. Air caught up under the cloth, and picked it up into the shape of an overturned bowl. Again the colors transmuted to others, and Katara's jaw dropped splendidly.
"...Gorgeous..." Katara breathed, in about the same tone as when she first laid eyes on the city.
"You think so?" The response to her question was in the form of a fervent nodding of the water girl's head. Pie (as Katara would later refer to the woman, for she never was able to string enough words together at that moment to request her name) grinned, "That's good. Otherwise you would need a new festival gown."
An amiable silence passed as the phrase processed in Katara's mind. The recognition was clear as the waterbender's jaw popped off its hinges. Her eyes sparked and flashed, and she could barely speak, for fear of having her words get cut off by her own excitement. "I...get one? I get to WEAR one?" Both her and Pie wore matching expressions.
"Of course. I came by earlier this morning and dropped it off in the top drawer." An uncharacteristic giggle snagged in the water tribe girl's throat, and she was by the dresser in three seconds, tearing the drawer out and retrieving the tiny square of fabric. Before her glee could develop any further, Pie said as an afterthought: "You were moving about a lot, almost like something was chasing you. Some dream, eh?"
"Yes, crazy dream," Katara's sugary voice provided, even though there was a thin haze of preoccupation over it. Shaking off her dark thoughts, the Southern Tribe teen rubbed her fingers against the cloth, practically drinking it in.
"It's made of a fine muslin," Pie's voice was faint, white noise, subliminally telling Katara all she wanted to know as she was absorbed in the fabric. "The seamstresses were somehow able to hand stitch every inch of every dress, using multicolor threads to achieve the rainbow affect." Katara held it from the top, letting the garb unfold itself. The material brushed against her thighs, and she bit against her lower lip again, though this time in order to stifle laughter. "In Festival terms, we women are to wear these variable dresses to show the spontaneity of life, of nature, of emotions, while our men wear simple white cotton to represent purity and a clean slate."
"When do I get to wear it?"
"Whenever. All day if you wanted."
"How about now?" Katara pressed the bodice against her chest, and twirled about to get a taste of what was to come. Pie rested her hands on her stomach once more.
"Now, I would recommend a shower, then you can put it on, and if you would like I can help you with your hair." After placing the clothing down with painstaking care, the waterbender grabbed Pie's hands tightly, forcing a few "thank-you"s at the woman, and then allowed herself to be led to a shower. It would be her first true bathing in a week, and Katara could barely contain herself.
*********
Perhaps the entire process of cleansing herself of dirt and grime, donning her clothing, and fixing her hair had taken about two hours. At the end, Pie stepped backwards from her work, wiping her hands off on her skirts. "There."
'This isn't me,' a stunned waterbender twisted about in front of a mirror, trying to capture her image in all directions and vantage points. Her brunette hair was unbraided and brushed out long, so it murmured against her lower back. The colors in her dress complemented her cerulean eyes, striking them with internal light, and deepened the tan in her skin. There was even a borderline theatrical change in her contours, making her look slimmer and ethereal. Even though it was traditional for women to be unadorned jewelry-wise, Pie found it in her heart to accept Katara's very special necklace.
'Stop looking, that isn't you'.
True, Katara felt... glamorous, gorgeous, elegant, but she couldn't help but wonder if she was still trapped inside her nightmare, and that beast was about to burst from the floorboards. In her whole life experiences, all this water bender was accustomed to were her mukluks, mittens, trousers, her anarak, her blue tunic and skirt; nothing as delicate as what breezed across her hips and thighs. It was almost too much.
But still her lips were quirked into a bemused grin.
'What's Aang going to say?'
The words had already zipped through her mind before she could hinder their presence, and for that Katara slapped herself. Pie, though a gossamer of worry glided over her features, maintained an easy air. "Good?" she inquired. The waterbender could divine both sides of the statement: Are you happy with your appearance? Is something the matter?
"Very much so," she said, before bombarding the woman with a hug.
'What will he say?'
'Nothing, he won't notice. Toph's going to be wearing the exact same outfit.'
'He won't even see you, should she be there.' There was a slight pressure leaning against Katara's skull, but she dismissed it with her own fantasies of the night to come.
**********
After Pie had gone to such trouble as to make a little dandelion like herself into a Forget-Me-Not, Katara felt obliged to assist in setting up the Festival. The majority had miraculously been erected during the night ("The Wallflower Witch, I suspect," Bai Ping stated thoughtfully, crawling at a forty-five degree angle under the weight of a box of decorations), but still the shops had to be set up and the shops were devoid of the flowers that they were intending to sell.
The pair of them, Katara and Pie, were busy clipping a set of rouge carnations, during which they chattered gaily, ignorant to the war raging around this little oasis, of the blood shed, and still they cast about their words so lightly. This place was simply perfect, so pure and untouchable, how could one possibly fathom such a depressing topic within the walls?
But regardless of the grim reality of the world, the two passed a half of an hour swapping stories (Katara learned the woman's name to actually be Lin Tal, though she would always resemble a "Pie" to the waterbender.), and then Pie finished out Bai Ping's explanation of the floral symbolism.
"Okay, so light red means admiration. When someone gives you this they are basically asking you to develop a relationship with them." Then Pie removed a single carnation from the vermilion mass they had compiled. "Darker red is for a deeper love and affection, like old couples or married couples or even just long relationships." She placed the blossom back unto their stack. "Then there're white carnations. They represent pure love and good luck, and are normally swapped between new couples or new marriages.
"The striped ones are basically tokens of regret: regret that a love cannot be shared, recognizing that your lover has found a new interest, patching up after a break-up, or whatever. That one is personally my favorite, I hate to say," Pie grinned distantly. "It just makes dismissal so much less painful.... But-ah- I'm sure Mayor Bai Ping explained the yellow flowers to you, how they're for citizens who don't fall under any categories, and can just be given between friends and family."
It was almost tangible, the scheme forming behind Katara's eyes. 'This could be my last chance. And I mean, I know what the worst that can happen is. And I know that it's probably going to happen. But if I never confess, I don't know if I can continue traveling with them....'
"Hey, where is the stand for the light red carnations?"
**********
The sun dipped across the walls, scooping low, trying to skim the terrain. As soon as both heavens and earth embraced, streaks of fuchsia, tangerine, and saffron inked across the sky above the Midorians and Avatar crew. Surprisingly, Katara hadn't once met up with her brother, Toph, or Aang at all that day, and this suited her nicely. But, while her and Pie were carting the last crate of flowers into the town square, Katara's voice rung with a familiar sound.
"Katara!" Were she not supporting the same box as Pie, the waterbender would have whirled around. But as she was, she had to apologize to her companion, and force the rest of the burden upon the kind woman, before turning to Aang and Sokka. Her breath hitched at the sight of the Avatar in his white cotton garb, his grey eyes and pale skin becoming almost otherworldly in the little contrast, and the tattoos enflaming in vibrancy. Sokka, on the other hand, looked like a slab of obsidian dusted with a few inches of snow. Enchanted, almost intoxicated smiles were plastered about their faces as the three approached one another.
"Magical, isn't it?" The Avatar propelled himself a few feet into the air, and then landed on Katara's right. Her stomach did a flip as he appeared so near to her, and she forced herself to nod at him.
"Yeah," she said, her voice slow. "Tonight's going to be very... nice." I hope.
"Nice? Nice? Of course it is! Have you even seen the spread they're making for dinner?" Sokka threw his arms about in boisterous explanation. A few passing Midorian girls chuckled behind their hands, and flashed coy looks to the water warrior, whom must have appeared very exotic to them. 'Exotic, erratic, who's counting?'
"No, what are they making?" Katara asked, rupturing Sokka's thoughts....
"Oh...oh! Wild boar, leechi nuts, meats, cabbage, potatoes, yams, carrots, asparagus, stew, breads, meats, nuts, fish, did I mention meat? Oh! AND there's going to be beer!" The vegetarian monk cringed at the constant referral to carnivorous habits, while Katara grew apprehensive over the mention of alcohol. But the warrior, oblivious, drooled quietly by himself as the other two continued on their conversation.
"So, Katara," Aang said, "what have you been doing all today?"
"Um, well, the woman who came to wake me up helped me to get dressed, and then I basically just helped out with setting up until now."
"Whoever she is, she did a great job."
Katara froze. Her ears heated, and she could almost feel the warmth seeping from them. "Th-thanks, Aang. You l-look really n-n-nice too."
"Aren't these great?" He grabbed a fistful of his shirt and pulled it taut. "It breathes! Airbending is...well, a breeze in them!" That boyish smile dominated again, illuminating his features in a way that made Katara feel like she was about to go insane. "Oh, and did you see Appa?"
"N-n-no."
"Oh man! They braided flowers in his mane. Can you believe it? I watched them put them in, and boy did Appa put up a fuss for a while...." The boy hero continued gossiping like that for some time, Katara absorbing every word put out. Then her euphoria was snapped when a shout issued from the now drool-soaked Sokka.
The pair turned about to face him, only to find that Momo had manifested out of nowhere and flew straight into Sokka's face. At this, the monk and his waterbending teacher laughed openly, and Katara truly felt that she could be struck by lightning right then and die happy. At least, those were her thoughts, until....
"Hey, Katara?"
"Hmm?"
"The festival's about to start, and I haven't seen Toph all day, do you know where she is?" It seemed like Katara's light feelings shattered at that moment, shards piercing her heart.
"No, I haven't," she spat icily, and stalked off, leaving the two boys to flash each other questioning glances.
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