Chapter 11 - The cure

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The cure
 
            ***
Zuko woke off and on through out the rest of the day and far into the night, and the next day as well.  Each time he felt worse.  If this was dieing he was glad he only had to go through it once.  The pain was terrible.  And the worse part was he was starting to forget.  He never had learned the girl apprentice’s name, but now he could no longer remember what she looked like.  He was starting to confuse Hagi with his Uncle.  Not to mention he was starting ask for his father, whom he knew had never visited a sick room in his life.
            Zuko was like a five year old child with a nightmare, and nobody had the heart to tell him his father wasn’t there.  Soon enough Zuko wasn’t even fully waking up. Instead he was slipping into a state of sleep and wakening, without knowledge of what was going on in the room around him. he would talk to people not there, give orders to a crew that had long since abandoned him, shout at deeds long since forgotten, and beg with those he cared about not to leave him.  Most often it was his father he would beg with before falling back into a deep sleep. 
            His fever raged and no longer would the people in the house risk leaving him alone, rather they would take shifts.  One or two people would sit with him as the rest searched for the rest of the ingredients for the cure.  It was a complicated brew.  Though most of the ingredients could be found in the market, there were a few that had to be picked fresh.  In fact they very quickly accumulated everything except the heal-all herb, which though native to the island, grew in only very shady moist areas, making it difficult to find as there were no woods or swamps on the island of Kameko. In fact after three days of searching they were beginning to despair of finding it at all.  Hagi and healer Kiata had needed to enlist the help of several of the villagers.  If came as a great surprise when three children who were only visitors offered to help.  But the girl had a great interest in healing and the younger of the two boys thought the healer might be able to help him find somebody, so after some discussion it was decided that after the herb was found they would talk.  But that herb had to be found.  The healer would not loose her patient to poison. And so they searched.
 
            ***
It was late in the afternoon of Zuko’s last day.  If they did not get the antidote soon, he would die before morning.  Hagi had fallen asleep in the chair he occupied in the sick room.  He was worried about the prince but exhausted from searching. He’d just sat down for a moment. Kiata’s apprentice was in the house as well, so it wasn’t as if there was no one else there, but falling asleep had not been part of his original intentions.  He’d wanted only to rest.  Hagi woke with a start and slightly ashamed looked around the room to make sure every thing was ok.  Prince Zuko was asleep, but looked worse then ever.  Hagi sighed.  He hated not being able to do anything.
            “How is he?” a soft melodic voice sounded in his ear.  Hagi started and looked at the girl he hadn’t seen come in.
            “Same as ever.” he said sadly.
            There was the sudden frantic sound of voices and a pounding at the door.  Hagi was out of his seat in a flash and rushing through the house for the door, the girl following him.
            When he opened it he found three kids staring up at him.  Two, a brother and sister, were obviously from a water tribe.  In fact they looked rather like Kahlil.  He had spent quite a bit of time with the other man in the past few days.  The third was a boy younger then the first two, and clutched in his hand was a cluster of purple flowers.
            “I found it!” he announce panting a little.  Seconds later Kiata’s apprentice had pushed past and was running for her mistress.  Hagi him self was leading the boy and his friends in to the kitchen area where all the ingredients for the cure were laying out on a scrubbed wooden table.
            “There’s more.” The boy was telling him.  “I only picked a little incase all you needed was the flower, but if I did something wrong there’s plenty more . . .”
            “As long as it’s fresh,” Hagi said kindly, “everything will be fine.”  Hagi gestured for the three to sit down.  He was curious as to if he was right about who they were.
“I don’t dare try to start the cure myself.” He explained to them, “but as soon as Mistress Kiata gets here it should go relatively fast if you are all willing to lend a hand?”  They all nodded. “Good!  My name is Hagi by the way.  I am from the earth nation.”
            “My name’s Aang.” The younger boy said first with a huge grin.
            “I’m Sokka, and my sister’s name is Katara.” The other boy said jabbing his thumb at the girl who was studying some of the plants on the table intensely.
            “Lavender?” she asked, “What is that used for?”
            “Migraines . . .” That was all Hagi got out.  He’d been going to ask if they were related to Kahlil, but Mistress Kiata and the girl rushed back in.  Seconds later the healer had given everybody a job.  Sokka chopping sea slugs, Katara grinding lavender, hyssop, thyme, and purple sage in one bowl while the girl ground the heal all with Loosestrife in another.  Hagi was given the task of turning willow bark to powder . . . not to mention the various other tasks Kiata handed out.
            It didn’t take long, as Hagi had predicted, and soon enough Kiata had taken the two girls aside to show them how to press the pulp through a screen into a pot of boiling water.
            This gave Hagi the chance he had wanted to ask his question of the boys.  Though the answer he got was exactly what he had expected, but the reaction Sokka gave him was one entirely knew to Hagi. Normally when he asked if somebody knew a friend of his he either got surprise, or a confused no.  Sokka however acted as if it were perfectly normal for people to know his uncle, the surprise didn’t come until Hagi told him Kahlil was on the island.
            “He’s here really?” Sokka practically leaped out of his chair.
            “Hey Sokka, now I get to meet more of your family.” Aang grinned. “I wonder if . . .”
            Hagi never got to hear what the boy was going to say next.  He was plucked out of his seat by Kiata who pushed him into the hall in front of her, closing the door to the kitchen behind her.
            “Iroh asked that they not know he or Zuko were here.” She said softly.
            “Your apprentice . . .”
            “She knows to keep her mouth shut.” Kiata said quietly leading the way into the sick room.
 
 
           
Zuko opened his eyes. Everything was fuzzy.  He was freezing, and he hurt.
“Father?” he asked softly of the figure who was lifting him up against the head board of the bed.
“No,” a voice answered, “it’s your Uncle Iroh.”
“Uncle, where is Father?”
“In his thrown room no doubt. Planning the War.”
“The War!” Zuko gasped with a sudden moment of clarity. “Uncle I have to find the Avatar, I have to find him.”
“Shhh, no you don’t you need to drink this and rest.”
Zuko waved away the glass that Uncle Iroh tried to hold to his lips.  “No I have to find him!  Father must be stopped, I have to find the Avatar and teach . . .” he got no further.  The glass was held to his mouth again and he nearly chocked as a cold liquid poured in.  Zuko swallowed convulsively, and nearly chocked as the rest of the glass’s contents was poured into him.
They wouldn’t let him talk afterwards either.  Zuko soon fell asleep again, angry that no one would listen to him, half lost in the delusion that he was still at the fire palace.
 
They watched him closely long into the night.  Sometime near morning his fever broke and the entire house gave a sigh of relief.
 

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