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It shouldn’t have happened.
He and Sokka had been flying back from a near by town where they had gone too get supplies and now Zuko was falling.
Appa had been startled by something, causing him to buck erratically and now he was falling.
Sokka’s eyes had widened as he reached a hand out to try and catch Zuko. One hand clenching into Appa’s fur and the other outstretched into nothing but empty air and now Zuko was falling.
Air rushed past his face, whipping his hair up against his face. It was almost serene in a twisted way.
(Really! This was how he was going to die? After all the other fucked up things he had gotten into -this- is how he was going too go?!)
Thin sticks lashed out against him from the branches of the trees he had become level with, causing him to let out a yelp at the sudden sharp pain.
Zuko tried to curl his arms and legs around his body to brace himself somewhat for what he new was coming.
He hit the ground.
Pain.
Agony exploded across his body, ripping a choked off scream from his throat. His breath caught halfway up his windpipe, choking him.
His hands scrabbled for purchase against the twig littered ground, his nails catching painfully against it.
Zuko’s eyes were staring upwards unseeingly, blown pupils darting uselessly skywards. Blood was welling up from his wounds in thick crimson streams that left a warm trail wherever they leaked.
“Wha’? hmm” his head had cleared slightly allowing him to somewhat gather his thoughts from the scrambled heap they had become.
(He had fallen and now he wasn’t. It hurts, gotta make it stop hurting. Where’s the blood coming from?)
Zuko craned his neck up slightly to scan his injuries. He swept his eyes slowly across the plains of his blood soaked and torn clothes, to his arms covered in deep bleeding gashes and rapidly purpling welts standing starkly against the pale plains of of his skin, and further down to-
-Branch. There was a branch protruding diagonally out of his abdomen.
It was about a meter long, blood soaking into the wood were it was sticking out and staining the wood a wet red.
(There’s a branch? There’s not supposed to be a branch there. Get it out, get it out get it outgetitoutgetitoutgetitout-)
“G’t out. Get o-out” Zuko felt a rising sense of hysteria welling up within himself. Panic gripped at his mind as he moved his damaged arms up to try and tear the offending piece of wood out of his own stomach.
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Sokka had almost had him.
He had seen Zuko’s body leave Appa’s saddle and he had almost had him.
His hand hand missed its mark by mere inches -inches- and he had watched the fire-bender fall without being able to do anything. He watched helplessly as Zuko disappeared between the towering trees they had been flying over.
He stared uncomprehending for a few tense moments before letting out a string of swears. He jumped onto the flying bisons head, grabbing the reins and hastily steering the flying mammal back towards where Zuko had fallen.
Landing in the closest clearing he could find, Sokka hastily took off in the direction Zuko had fallen. After jogging for a few minutes with no signs of the fire-bender, Sokka was steadily gaining more worried.
He stumbled slightly when he heard what sounded like strangled sobs coming from his right side. He turned abruptly, making his way hastily towards the sound.
Nothing could have prepared him for what he would see when he finally found Zuko.
The air was thick with the cloying scent of blood while hysterical sobs broke the silence.
At the first glance Sokka got of Zuko’s prone form he had to fight down a gag. There was blood everywhere, it was soaking Zuko’s clothes, skin and the forest floor.
Then there was what looked like a small tree poking up out of the benders abdomen.
“G’t it o-out, get it ou’, ge’ it out” Zuko was pleading in between hitched sobs as his hands scrabbled pathetically against the wood.
“Oh shit oh shit”
Sokka moved.
He dropped to his knees next to Zuko and grabbed the benders hands in his own to to stop him from trying to pull out the branch. Zuko’s glassy eyes locked onto Sokka’s face, their pupils blown wide.
There were bruises forming on his face. Purples and blacks blooming across his features.
“H-hey buddy, your okay, I’m going to help okay. Your okay I’ve got you” Sokka’s hands were trembling slightly as they clutches Zuko’s own bloody ones gently.
He could feel the warm, wetness of blood staining his own hands.
“Shit, okay. Zuko? Zuko buddy- can you hear me?”
Zuko nodded jerkily.
“Good, good job. I’m going to have to cut the branch so I can carry you ok. It’s going to hurt but I have to” Sokka said.
He let go of one of Zuko’s hands to reach down and grab his hunting knife from his belt. Looking down at Zuko’s face, Sokka could tell that he was barely processing anything at the moment. His frame was shuddering with the force of his choked sobs as tears trailed down his cheeks leaving a clean path in their wake.
“Okay” Sokka breathed out, closing his eyes and bracing himself “I have to wrap it first” he shucked off his loose shirt and began tearing it into thick strips. The sounds of tearing fabric and hysterical sobs were the only sounds that could be heard permeating the forest at that moment. Not even bird song could be heard. It was like the woods had heard the suffering happening within and had gone quiet and no forest animals could be heard.
The thick silence was finally broken by Zuko’s broken words.
“Sokka, S’kka g-get it ou’ pleas’” the fire-bender had to fight to utter those few words between his sobs.
“I have to get you to Katara first okay. I’m so sorry buddy, I’ll hurry” Sokka replied as he swallowed down the bile that threatened to flood his mouth at the sight of Zuko, bloody and begging. “Bite down on this ok. I’ll try and be as fast as possible”
Discarding the last strip of fabric into the pile besides him, Sokka cut a strip of leather off of the end of his belt, before holding it to Zuko’s mouth. The fire-bender opened his mouth silently at the press of leather against his lips and Sokka placed it in between his teeth. Once Zuko had bitten down, Sokka took a deep breath, before beginning to wrap the strips of blue fabric around Zuko’s abdomen.
Zuko let out a muffled wail of pain through the leather gagging him as Sokka pulled the fabric tight.
“Shh shhh I’m sorry! It’s okay! It’ll be fine, I know it hurts right now but I have to bandage it before I try cutting the branch cause if it bleeds more it will be a bigger problem” Sokka rambled, while wrapping as efficiently as possible while trying to get it over with.
The next few minutes were filled with muffled screams, accompanied by shaky reassurances from the non-bender.
“I’m going to cut the branch now okay?” Sokka said as sweat beaded on his brow.
Zuko was breathing heavily through his nose, shudders still wracking his frame.
He nodded once again and Sokka began to cut.
Almost immediately Zuko began to scream through his gag as his body began to thrash as much as was possible with his injuries. The vibrations of the knife sawing back and forth soon became to much and he passed out. Zuko’s watery eyes rolled up into his head and his body went completely limp against the ground.
“Fuck! Fuck alright this is fine, I’m good! He’ll be fine” Sokka was rambling to himself now and couldn’t help but doubt his own words.
(Would he be fine? Would Katara be able to heal this? What if he bled out before anyone else was able to help?)
Sokka cut off those thoughts as fast as possible.
“Shut up brain! It’ll be fine! If it’s not, Aang will be sad, and Aang being sad makes Katara angry, and an angry Katara mixed with Toph is just a screaming match waiting to happen! So Zuko will be fine, he has to be!” Sokka continued to ramble as he panted with the exertion of sawing at the branch. The branch in question was about three inches thick.
Sokka’s trusty hunting knife finally managed to saw through the last bit and the branch broke, leaving only about two inches sticking out of the wound.
The branch seemed to have soaked up a large amount of blood leaving the wood soggy, and stained a crimson red. Sokka tossed the branch aside and re-attached his knife to his belt. He tried to wrap the remaining strips of fabric as close to the stump as possible, even wrapping some around the base of it.
Sitting back on his heals, Sokka surveyed his shoddy work. It would have to do for now because torn strips of shirt were the only resources the had. Blowing out a harsh breath, Sokka maneuvered his arms underneath Zuko’s limp form as carefully as possible as not to jostle him more than necessary.
“Up we go- ugh!” Sokka grunted as he lifted the still body upwards. Zuko May have been more on the skinny side but most of his body mass was made up out of muscle “what do you eat? Rocks?!”
Sokka was slightly incredulous at Zuko’s weight. A thought hit his suddenly “shit how am I going to get you onto Appa!”
Zuko didn’t reply, his head merely rolled bonelessly against Sokka’s shoulder.
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Getting Zuko safely onto Appa’s back was somewhat easier than Sokka thought it would be.
After trudging as fast as he could -with a blood soaked Zuko on his back- through the forest back to where he had left Appa, Sokka had retrieved a blanket from Appa’s saddle and laid the unconscious bender on it. He had been able to drag Zuko into the saddle with the help of the blanket.
Sokka sat down with his back against the saddles edge and situated Zuko’s limp form with the benders back to his chest with the rest of his body between Sokka’s outstretched legs. Zuko’s head was lolled back against Sokka’s Bare shoulder and he could very clearly make out the sweat and blood that matted the fire-benders black hair against his face. Even in unconsciousness Sokka could see that Zuko was still in agony. Deep lines were set in his face, contorting his pale features with pain. The bruises that Sokka had seen begin forming had now settled into a deep blackish color edged with violet.
Sokka told Appa to go back to the temple, to go back to Aang, and the bison complied. Giving a roar, Appa took to the sky, gaining altitude and making his way steadily towards the air-temple.
The cold wind bit against his bare torso as he focused on making sure Zuko was breathing. The temperature went ignored the entire flight, Sokka’s mind focused on things much more important then the cold.
The air-temple was just coming into view when Zuko’s eyes blinked open sluggishly. He coughed suddenly, blood speckling his lips and whimpered aloud at the pain of doing something as simple as coughing caused. His pupils were still completely blown and Sokka was beginning to worry that Zuko had hit his head way harder than he thought.
“We’re almost there okay? Katara will help. She can heal you. You’ll be fine” Sokka said. He didn’t know who he was trying to convince, Zuko or himself.
Said ex-prince had opened his mouth and Sokka could see red staining the inside.
“S’kka wanna see u’ncle” Zuko’s voice was small and raspy, and the pitch way higher than Sokka had ever heard before. He closed his mouth and swallowed convulsively after uttering that one small sentence.
Sokka could see blood soaking it way through the blanket wrapped around the benders limp figure, a crimson stain that was slowly spreading outward.
(The wrappings weren’t working damm it)
The water-tribe boys chest and arms were covered in dried blood, the rusty brown-ish stain flaking of it patches. He turned his head to look towards their destination, before turning back to Zuko.
“Iroh’s not here right now buddy, I’m sorry”
And Sokka really was sorry.
He wrapped his arms gently around Zuko’s chest, being careful to avoid the patch of blanket that was tenting from the bloodied stump protruding underneath.
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Zuko could barely breath.
Every inhale he drew was met with white hot spits of agony that shot through his body congealing in his abdomen.
Uncle. He wanted his uncle. He told Sokka as much, using more effort than saying one simple sentence ever should, but Sokka said uncle wasn’t there.
(why wasn’t he there?)
Zuko could feel a wet and warm feeling spreading out along his lower body, kinda like warm water.
(Why is there water on Appa?)
Sokka was yelling something now, his neck craned to look over his other shoulder.
((“Katara! Guys I need help! It’s an emergency!” Sokka had begun shouting as soon as Appa’s six legs had thumped against the stone ground on the wide ledge of the temple.))
“Ss’hhh you’ t’o l-loud” He mumbled. Sokka’s voice was hurting his head, sending a ringing pain sharply through it and his mouth tasted heavily of iron.
((People could be seen running towards the bison, following the sounds of Sokka’s yells.
“Sokka!” it was Katara who reached the bison first “what’s wrong?” She said as she scaled the side of the furry beast as fast as she could.
“It was an accident!” Sokka said back, his tone edging on full blown panic with a tinge of hysteria.
The water-bender blanched as she took in the sight of Zuko wrapped loosely in a blood stained blanket. His eyes were open but they half lidded and completely glazed over. She could see blood speckling on his chin and some leaking out of the corners of his mouth.
“He fell off Appa from like -sixty- feet up”
Katara slowly moved her wide eyes from the bloodied form back to her brother. Everyone else was standing down below next to the bison, waiting nervously until Sokka or Katara would call them up.
“How bad is it?” Katara asked. She was dreading her brothers answer. Sokka grimaced, before shifting slightly to uncover the edge of the blanket to pull it up. Zuko let out a whine at the movement but aside from that he didn’t react at all. Sokka gently threw the edge of the blanket off to the side and Katara -much like her brother- had to fight down a gag.
There was a log, a Tui dammed log sticking out of Zuko’s gut.
“Shit, oh shit”
“Yeah I know”
“Guys! Get all the medical supplies we have, towels and lots of water” the water-bender lent over the side of the saddle to yell down instructions to the impatiently waiting group. There was a scramble of movement as everyone moved to comply as fast as possible.
“Sokka I’m going to use water-bending to get you two down off of Appa. Be careful not to move Zuko too much” Katara said. She wasted no time in calling as much water from the fountain as she could. She slid the water underneath the two still bodies to create a sort of cradle that supported both of their body weight and kept her brothers back supported.))
Zuko was moving.
There was water underneath his legs and it was moving. After what could have been seconds or hours the body sitting behind him moved away slowly. He was adjusted into a laying down position against the floor. The floor was cold and he let out a short scream as the change in position jostled the wounds on his stomach along with the bruises and cuts that littered the rest of his body.
“H-hey no. Dun’ do tha’ it hurts” Zuko mumbles out. His tongue felt foreign in his mouth, twisting strangely against each word as he spoke. A mans face bent over him giving him a view of light brown hair hanging down just above the mans face with the middle parts on the top of his head tied up and concerned blue eyes looking down at him. “Wher’s S’kka?”
(Sokka was here. He said he would help. Where did he go? It still hurts. Please it hurts too much. That’s Hakoda not Sokka. Where’s Sokka?)
“Sokka’s helping Katara set up the things needed to help you” Hakoda replied to his slurred question.
(Help him? Help with what?)
“With wha’, wha’s he helpin’ with?”
“Katara has to heal you, you fell down pretty far son” the mans voice answered deep and soothing.
“Oh” (He fell? He didn’t remember falling) “is’s tha’t wh-why it’s hurting?”
“Yes it is. Don’t worry we’ll get you fixed up real fast” the voice was soothing and Zuko relaxed slightly just listening to it. He nodded slightly and Hakoda took that as a good sign.
((“Dad, I’m going to have to pull it out slowly and heal the damage as I go so I need you and Sokka to hold him down. I sent the younger ones off with Haru and Chit-sang to go to another room so the didn’t have to be here for this” Katara said.
She had come back carrying a stack of towels and kneeled down next to Zuko. Sokka was following behind her, holding a couple of bowls filled to the brim with water.
“You’ll have to hold his upper body while Sokka gets his legs, got it?” Katara spoke as she looked up from laying out supplies. Hakoda nodded an affirmative while Sokka set down the bowls and moved down to settle lightly by Zuko’s legs.
“Okay I’m going to start now Zuko, I’m sorry but this is going to hurt” her dad was holding both of Zuko’s arms down and Sokka was straddling his legs. Zuko’s face was twisting in pain and Katara felt terrible about how she was about to make it so much worse. Taking a deep breath, Katara begun unwrapping her brothers hasty bandage job. Zuko let out more sobs as she did it.
After she finally removed all of the fabric she braced herself for the hardest part. Coating her hands in water, Katara used one to grab on to the three inches of protruding wood and slowly began pulling.
Zuko screamed long and drawn out as more blood began leaking from the wound.
“Stop please stop! Please I’m sorry stop!” He was thrashing -or trying to with two people holding down both ends of his body-. Katara began healing as fast as she could, closing the wounds that each little bit of wood that was slowly being pulled out left behind.))
(Please please stop it hurts- please I’m sorry please stop please stop please stop stopstopstopstopstopstopstop-)
He could feel how the wood moved unnaturally inside of his flesh. It’s minute twitches that felt like they should have been anywhere but inside off him.
((It took three hours to completely heal the impalement wound. Luckily Zuko passed out at around the half hour mark, leaving Katara to work without the wails and screams of pain coming from the fire-bender. By the time she was done healing the deep wound along with some of the lesser cuts, Katara had sweat running down her brow and was panting with exertion. The once clean towels were soaked with blood and water that would surely leave stains.
“I need to rest before I can finish healing everything else but I finished healing the worst of it” Katara said as she wiped sweat from her brow “one of you can carry him to the main chamber and set up a bed for him, I’m not going to let him stay in a room by himself while he’s healing”
“Okay, we’ll do that while you rest up sweetheart” Her father said as he began to carefully pick the fire-bender up. Zuko was carried to the main room in Hakoda’s arms where his limp body was scrutinized by multiple worried gazes. He was gently laid down on a bed roll and his legs were covered in a thick blanket.))
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Zuko blinked open his eyes blearily, not quite taking in anything around him. His eyes felt gritty as he took in the ceiling. It wasn’t the ceiling of the room he had claimed as his own but what looked like the high ceiling of the main chamber. His head was pounding and pains were making themselves known clear across his body.
Zuko grunted as he tried to lever himself into a sitting position, working through the pain he was able to drag himself upwards so that he was sitting up. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, instead there were thick white bandages wrapping snugly around his stomach and arms.
Blearily examining the new additions to his person, Zuko didn’t notice the group of people sleeping in various positions around him, nor did he notice Chief Hakoda waking up and quietly shaking his daughter awake.
“How are you feeling?”
It was Hakoda who broke through the early morning silence. Zuko jerked slightly, before turning his head. The chief was looking at him with worried eyes as Katara made her way over.
“I’m fine sir” Zuko said, his voice sounding rough and unused.
“Are you sure? Anything hurting?”
“Everything hurts but it’s manageable”
Hakoda let out a relieved breath at that news.
“Good, I’m glad. Your injury’s were really bad” the Chief said.
“What were they? I was too out of it to get a clear read on them” Zuko was honestly curious about how bad the damage was. He new it had to have been extensive given how out of it he was and how much pain he had been in.
“There’s still bruises all over you body especially your back but thankfully there was no spinal damage and Katara was able to heal most of the cuts along your arms and legs” Hakoda took a deep breath, steeling himself. The action did not go unnoticed by Zuko and he felt Hilo’s apprehension growing. “There was a branch about three inches thick impaled almost all the way through your stomach. Katara was able to heal the damage completely, only leaving a scar but it was really bad”
(A branch? He got impaled by a branch. There was a fucking branch? Well that explained why he still felt like crap)
Katara was moving around the campground near silently, gathering things into her arms from here and there, as she half listened to their conversation. Zuko’s eyes tracked her movements for a moment before moving on to the lump that was Sokka in a sleeping bag.
He could remember Sokka’s face the most from the morning before. Snippets of memories framed between immense blights of agony.
(“H-hey buddy, your okay” a glance of Sokka’s pale face as he grabbed Zuko’s bloody hands on his own)
(Shhh shhh I’m sorry, it’s okay, it’ll be fine” soothing words accompanied by the sound of tearing fabric)
(Hands reaching out in vain, trying to snag his own from out of the air to stop his rushing descent down into the trees)
“Sokka helped” Zuko said as a statement, not a question.
“yeah he did, he got you to us as fast as possible and did his best to keep you from bleeding out” The Chief sounded proud of his son, something that Zuko had never heard from his own father.
“I’ll glad he was there” Zuko replied, pushing away all thoughts of fathers, before a jaw cracking yawn stole his voice. Blearily he felt large hands helping him lean backwards so that he was once again laying flat against his bedroll.
“I know you have to be exhausted still so go back to sleep, you can talk to Sokka when you wake up again” Hakoda’s deep voice was telling him. He wanted to protest, to tell him that nothing hurt anymore but exhaustion was weighing down on him sending his eyelids fluttering.
“Mmmm tell Kat’ara and Sokka than’k you for me m’kay?” He was barely able to get the words out and even then they were slurring terribly but he wanted the siblings to know that he was thankful.
“I’ll do that okay, just get some sleep”
Zuko was barely able to move his head in a barely there nod before the depths of sleep claimed him.