Five Caves Katara Never Made It Out Of:

Cave of Two Lovers

An idea sparks in her mind when she sees the statues. Lovers, she thinks, kissing.

But she is hesitant to say anything, hesitant to react. This is not Oma, a darker part of her mind admits. This is not your love.

So they sit, and they wait; in the dwindling darkness of the desolate cave, they begin to lose hope.

Eventually, they die; doesn't all love?

Cave of Destiny

For once in his life, Aang listens. He sits, he waits, he learns to let her go. Eventually, the premonitions regarding her death slowly fade away until he no longer believes in them, anyway.

Miles away, she rests her head on the shoulder of her newest friend, her closest companion, the recently healed and scarless Prince. "Will we die down here?" She asks, oh-so-tired and ready to die. "Will they really let us die?"

He frowns, and pulls her closer. "If we're lucky."

Cave of Mirrors

Eventually, she thinks, the gods will stop sticking her in caves for their own amusement.

She is alone this time, though, and wanders the cave feeling as empty on the inside as she is on the outside.

There are two paths and she takes them both. The walls are coated with what she thinks might be mirrors, but they do not show her reflection. Slowly, she reaches up and touches the blue-eyed girl she sees in the glass.

"Are you really me?" She asks the hardened warrior whose face she cannot read.

People go mad in here, she thinks. People go mad looking at all the possibilities.

She turns and goes down the second path, and faces a wise mother of three. "Or just what I could be?"

Cave of Ordeals

It is a rather difficult time in her life. Her friends are gone; her family is dead.

I want to die, she thinks, and means it, too. It is cold, and raining, and she is so alone. So terribly alone.

It would be okay if she wasn't alone, she thinks. She would live if she wasn't alone, she thinks.

She hears the soft steps of her one-time friend and mostly enemy three seconds too later, after the sharp ice slices her wrists, and she hopes he'll care enough to give her a decent burial.

Cave of Two Lovers (revisited)

They have come a long way in such a short time. Near Omashu, she thinks, but isn't sure.

"Up there," he says, half dragging her by the hand. "There's a cave, I think."

They are tired, and hurt, and might die if they can't find shelter soon, so they run as fast as they can to the entrance to the cave.

The cave wall behind them collapses as they land on the cold, hard ground, their bodies exhausted and their fingers entwined.

Love, after all, shines brightest in the dark.

XXX
END

jak