Chapter 6 - Dreams Explained

V
Dreams Explained
 
          Zuko stood silently leaning against the ship’s railing on the foredeck.  A soft breeze filled his nose with the sent of the ocean’s salty waves, in the early morning light.  So absorbed in his own thoughts was he that he failed to hear the foot steps that came up behind him.
            “Trouble sleeping, Lord?”  Zuko turned to se the water tribesman, his prisoner, his guest, standing behind him.
            “Nightmares.” He murmured turning back to face the ocean.
            “The war?”
            “My face.”  There was silence, but Zuko was aware of the older man coming to stand beside him, leaning against the railing.  “It’s strange what dreams do to us...” Zuko continued no longer able to stand the silence.  Kahlil’s knowing glance annoyed him to no end.  “What they would have us believe happened. I could swear I was as I am now or nearly so, in that dream, though I know I looked different.
 “I only ever fought my father once, in a training exercise.  I challenged him and was kept in my room for a week after Mistress Kiata was banished.  I was told I could be let out when I stopped acting like a child, but not punished beyond that.  In the dream . . . That training exercise became a fight for her life.”  He laughed ruefully.  “I almost wish that had been how things happened.  Better to be banished for that than . . .” He trailed off glaring at Kahlil as if it was the water tribesman’s fault he had said so much.
            “If I may ask,” Kahlil said slowly, “what did happen.”
            Zuko sighed.   He had said this much, he might as well say more.  “I begged to be let into the council room during talks of war.  One man would have slaughtered our troops and I spoke against it.  But I spoke out of turn I shouldn’t have said anything.” His anger at the memory had long since died away.  There was only bitter sadness now.  “I was told I would have to fight, Agni Kai, for my disrespect.  But when the time came, it was my father they would have me face.”  Zuko shook his head as if trying to chase away the memory.  “I refused to fight him.  And for my disobedience . . . my . . . weakness” he grimaced and gestured at his face.  “I was banished as soon as I woke . . . Better for me if it had been for Kiata”
 
            Zuko looked over at Kahlil who seemed to be nodding to himself.  “Well are you a prophet or a seer?  Can you interpret dreams? Or is their another reason you seem so interested?” he snapped.
            “No Lord, I am neither of those things.” Kahlil said a small smile across his face, “And while I can not tell you what the dream meant perhaps I can offer you some insight, if you would listen.”
            “Well let’s have it” Zuko muttered, “I could do with a laugh.”
            “I seems to me that while your father was willing to indulge you with the life of your friend . . . and he did let her live.  Your Uncle told me the story.  When it came to talks of war your disobedience could in it’s self be seen as a threat, and a man in your father’s position might consider the matter well, if the threat was removed.  Especially, lord, if you had said or done other things that might give weight to your argument in an out right confrontation, and I don’t mean a simple argument.  I mean the type of thing that might cost your father the thrown.”
            “But why would he think,” Zuko started before Kahlil interrupted him.
“The country is nothing more than a mob, and he who controls the mob rules.  If by some chance you had secured the love of your people rather that their fear, the Fire Nation might do well to overthrow your father in favor of you.  It wouldn’t be the first time in history a son overturned his father or a nephew his uncle.”
            “I still don’t understand why he would fear that of a mere boy?”
            Kahlil shook his head, “It is not who you were, but who you could become.” 
            Zuko who was starting to get angry by now, opened his mouth to say something rather cutting to the other man about how his speculation was just that, when he dissolved into a fit of coughing.
           
            “Why do you call me Lord?” he asked instead when he could talk again.
            “Because that is what you are.” Kahlil replied calmly. “Perhaps you don’t believe it so, But exiled or not you are the crown prince, what ever your sister would claim, but you are not my prince, and so I would call you lord . . . and I think you are the type of man who could be called lord even if you were of the common people.”
            Zuko frowned slightly and stifled another cough.
            “Is there a medic aboard your ship?  I think you should have that cough looked at.”
            “It’s nothing.”
 
            But it wasn’t nothing.  As the day wore on Zuko’s cough grew progressively worse.  His throat felt like it was on fire and he had developed a slight headache.  Finally Uncle Iroh put his foot down.
            “Nephew this is foolishness.  You are not feeling well, and what ever it is you have caught is not getting any better.  I insist you let Hagi look you over.”
            “Uncle he’s the steersmen not a medic.”
            “But he knows some medicine, maybe he can help.”
            “And if he can’t?” Zuko said with a slightly sarcastic tone to his voice.  Their current crew was made up of various sailors from any port they had put in at.  Only the cook had managed to return to them after Zhao’s death and the fire armada’s failure at the city of the northern water tribe.  The rest had not been heard from, and the cook had no idea what had happened.  It seemed Zuko’s original crew had been split up in hope that any loyalty they had towards Zuko would vanish with out the support of their comrades.
            Hagi, had been picked up in an Earth kingdom port, and was the son of a healer.  He claimed to know a great deal about herbs and illness. Uncle Iroh considered him the equivalent of a Fire Nation medic.
           
            “If he can’t help, then we put into port and find a healer.”  Zuko wanted to protest.  He wanted to shout and rage, claim that he was fine; what ever he had would go away on its own.  He needed none of Hagi’s foul tasting concoctions, but he did none of it.  The shouting would only make his headache worse.  He couldn’t breathe well enough to rage, because of the coughing.  He felt terrible, and no matter how foul tasting he was willing to drink anything so long as it made him better.
           
            “Alright,” he said hoarsely after a moment of silence, “Alright.”
 
Hagi was very quick and very thorough.  Zuko not longer had any doubts about the man’s skill, but after a few minutes of prodding and poking, of having his eyes thumbed open and holding his mouth open so his throat could be looked at, Hagi shook his head and stepped back.  “I don’t understand it, the entire illness is too much too fast, in one day nothing should have progressed like this.  It’s already beyond me.”
            “Can you do anything?” Uncle Iroh asked in a voice so low Zuko almost didn’t hear him.
            “I can give him something to help his head, and something to make him sleep, but until I know exactly what is making him sick . . .”
            “Do it then.  We will put into shore and hope to find a healer.”
            “The nearest Island is Kameko.  There is a small base there.  Hasn’t been needed in years, but there is always a healer near a base.”
            Zuko was handed a glass of something that smelled awful.   It tasted awful too.  It was all he could do to get it down without choking.  Whatever the white powder Hagi had mixed with the water was, it made him cough, which made his head pound.
            “Powdered willow bark.” Hagi said answering the unasked question.  “Taste terrible doesn’t it, but it’ll help your head, takes a while to kick in though.  Here this’ll be better.  It’ll make you sleep.
            The second liquid was an amber color, but it was sweet and cool, and it washed away the taste of the first.  He laid back and let his eyes slide closed.
 

You are not authorized to comment here. Your must be registered and logged in to comment