The encounter with the serpent set their journey back an entire day. There was no point in moving, they decided, with only a few hours' sunlight, weighted down by wet belongings, and with Longshot's injury to slow them. So they camped there for the night, and the next morning they set off as dawn broke.

They moved slowly. Longshot was using his bow as a sort of cane as he hobbled along, while Smellerbee carried both of their bags. She had refused to let Longshot carry his own, though he had certainly tried. By the time they were back on the mainland, it was dusk. Smellerbee was determined to get Longshot seen by a healer as quickly as possible, though. So she had them journey on, just a bit farther, and they were lucky enough to come across a village.

It was very small, nestled on the coast, clearly a fishing village. As night fell Smellerbee managed to find the village healer and explain through a slightly cracked door what had happened in the Pass.

"You're lucky you made it in time," the healer said, ushering them inside. She was an old woman, clearly weathered but still full of life. "The curfew begins at sundown."

"Curfew?" Smellerbee repeated, nonplussed, as she helped an exhausted Longshot sink onto a cushion.

"Oh, yes. The Fire Nation has been implementing a curfew. Everyone is to be indoors by sundown. You'll have to stay the night."

"I'm sorry," Smellerbee mumbled.

"Oh, don't be," said the healer. "This is clearly where you need to be."

Smellerbee sat and watched while the healer, who introduced herself as Jia, removed Longshot's ruined pants and examined the wounds. She seemed pleased with Smellerbee's handiwork, though she also affirmed what Smellerbee had feared – had she not brought him in, he would have been at risk of infection, which could have cost him his leg or his life.

"Luckily it is still early, relatively speaking," Jia said. "Daiyu!" she called, and a young girl, no older than twelve, with hair black as jade stuck her head through a certain that separated the healing room from the rest of the house.

"Yes, Grandmama?" she said.

"I need bandages, cleaning cloths… and the infection kit." The girl nodded and disappeared.

Jia looked back at Longshot.

"This is going to hurt," she said. Longshot nodded. Then Jia asked, sounding amused, "Are you always this stoic?" Longshot smiled despite himself and nodded.

Smellerbee sat on the opposite side of the healer, holding Longshot's hand. Daiyu returned with a tray neatly arranged with bandages, cloths, scissors, and bottles of various herbs, ointments, and liquids.

Smellerbee nearly gagged at the smell of the first bottle the healer opened. She poured some of the slightly purple liquid on a cloth and began cleaning Longshot's wounds. Longshot gripped Smellerbee's hand hard, twisting in agony, his teeth gritted in the fabric of his pillow, all the while trying not to move his leg from under Jia's hands. The sight reminded Smellerbee horribly of Jet when they moved him from the catacombs, his body wracked with pain as he tried not to scream. Smellerbee took a deep breath and held Longshot's hand even tighter.

"I know," the healer murmured softly to Longshot. "This is the worst part. I promise it will be over soon." She worked quickly but thoroughly. Once the wounds were clean, she covered them with some numbing solution, and then ordered Longshot to look away while she stitched the wounds shut. Even Smellerbee couldn't stand to watch this and she sat, Longshot's head in her lap, and stared determinedly at his anguished face and not at the bloody work Jia was doing. She murmured encouragements to him, feeling his fingers squeeze hers each time the needle penetrated his skin. Once that was done, Jia applied some sort of antiseptic that smelled like mint and put on fresh, clean bandages.

"That's it for now,"she said, sitting back on her heels and looking at Longshot and Smellerbee.

"Should I get blankets?" Daiyu asked, seemingly unfazed by the gory procedure she'd just seen, and Jia nodded. While Daiyu vanished back into the house, Smellerbee thanked Jia profusely.

"I don't know what we'd have done without you. I am sorry for the imposition, but tomorrow we'll go –"

"Tomorrow you'll go nowhere," Jia said firmly. "I want to keep him here a few days to make sure he heals properly. If you rush him out of here too fast, all that work will have been for nothing."

Smellerbee looked down at Longshot. She could see how exhausted he was.

"Okay," she said. "We don't have much money, but –"

Jia dismissed her with a wave of the hand. "Then you'll help Daiyu and I with the garden. And anything else we might need you for. And you," she said looking firmly at Longshot. "You will rest and stay off those legs." Longshot nodded appreciatively.

Daiyu and Jia got Smellerbee and Longshot settled with blankets – despite Smellerbee's protests that they had sleeping bags – and were given tea and biscuits. Jia told them to find her should they need anything, then disappeared into the rest of the house with Daiyu.

"We're not staying long," Smellerbee said to Longshot firmly. "Just until you're better."

:–:–:–:

It was easier said than done.

Smellerbee found that she rather liked Jia's bossiness. It reminded her of Mrs. Zhu. And Daiyu, though quiet, proved herself to be a wealth of knowledge, and eager to prove herself to Smellerbee and Longshot, whom she seemed to find fascinating.

"These ones will ease an aching belly," Daiyu said, pointing out the leaves of a purple-rooted plant as she and Smellerbee tended to the garden. "And these ones make tea that will put you right to sleep no matter how restless you are."

Jia had also insisted on laundering all of Longshot and Smellerbee's clothes, sleeping bags, and even their rucksacks. Smellerbee was grateful for it, and even more grateful that they kept her working all day. It felt less like charity and more like a trade, though Smellerbee knew no amount of gold or work could amount to the peace of mind she felt knowing Longshot was well taken care of.

Of course, Longshot was not content simply to sit and be waited upon hand and food, hard as Jia tried. Even from his bed he insisted on finding ways to help. He repaired a broken pot Smellerbee had found in the garden, shucked bushels of corn, and even started repairing with a borrowed sewing kit some of the healer's blankets and clothes. By the time the sun was setting on their second day at Jia's, Smellerbee found herself hoping they would get to stay.

:–:–:–:

They did stay.

For over a week, Jia kept Smellerbee busy helping Daiyu in the garden and around the home. She even had Smellerbee help with a few other townsfolk who came in seeking treatment for small illnesses and injuries. Jia also had Longshot practice moving and stretching as his legs healed, though these were always in short intervals, after which he would be forced to rest again.

"You'll have scars," she announced one evening while she changed Longshot's bandages, looking at the marks left by the stitches she'd removed the day before. "Pretty big ones. But there should be no permanent damage other than that."

"I don't know how we can ever thank you enough," Smellerbee said.

"You'll stay away from the Serpent's Pass, for starters," Jia said.

"Definitely."

"And you'll keep looking out for each other," she added, surveying the two of them. She never asked who or what they were, but she had seen them together enough to guess. "Where are you going?" she added as an afterthought.

"We don't really know," Smellerbee confessed. "We were living in Ba Sing Se…" Jia nodded in understanding. The loss of Ba Sing Se had been devastating to the whole Earth Kingdom.

"What are you hoping to find out here?" Jia pressed.

"We just want to be somewhere the Fire Nation won't get to us. Somewhere safe. Until… until the war is over."

"Sweetheart," Jia said, with a sad resignation Smellerbee had never heard from her, "The war is over. We've lost."