trans_9 | The Sinking Feeling You Get When You Eat Magic Food

The marsh is filled with various sounds, from the hum of insects to the slight rustling of vegetation as some of its occupants move through them. Jamie stops, craning his head slightly to listen for any signs of frogs calling out. And soon enough, he picks up on a faint, high-pitched chirping noise. He motions to Katara to follow, and takes off towards the noise.

It's not too far until he can see their quarry - a small, brown creature with irregular black blotches covering its smooth skin. It's sitting on a rock, and appears blissfully unaware of their presence. "That's what they look like," murmurs Jamie, as quietly as he can. "Ye want to try and sneak up on it and grab it before it gets away." Once it's found a plant to hide under, it's much harder to spot.

Katara followed him, heaing the noise herself. She was pretty good and moving quietly, but catching something as small as a frog was something she was woefully inexperienced at.

She nodded at Jamie's words, and decided to try her hand at catching on herself. She crept up as quietly as she could, moving with stealth as she'd done the day that she'd went hunting for the man from the Southern Raiders. She was about to grab him...when a particularly muddy hole in the mash tripped her up. Not only did the frog get away, but Katara fell face first into the marsh.

She came up sputtering, sprigs of plant in her hair and mud everywhere.

"I think I'll let you show me," she said dryly.

That's pretty funny - and while he doesn't actually laugh out loud at Katara's misfortune, there's a hint of a smile on his face. He's trying very hard not to be a jerk about it, though, and goes over to help her up.

"Aye, maybe you'd better."

Once he's sure Katara's okay, he moves back out into the marsh to try and find another frog. It takes a bit, since the ones in the immediate area took off once they heard the noise. Finally, though, he does spot one. He's more used to this area than Katara is, so he's able to find a path where he can move into position without falling in.

Jamie inches closer and closer to the frog and is just about to reach over and grab it when there's a faint pop from the water's surface as a particularly fetid bubble of swamp gas bursts practically under Jamie's nose.

His face contorts as he tries to fight back a sneeze...and fails. "Ah...ah...achoo!" The frog takes off and Jamie falls on his rump back into the water - with a very unhappy expression on his face.

Oh, Katara could forgive you this time, especially since you were looking adorable enough as it was, Jamie. Still, she also looked a little surly about tripping all over herself, so she followed him with a grouchy look for the moment, her pride noticeably taking a hit.

Once she saw he was closing in, she watched from a distance so as not to disturb the frog. She could watch easily enough, and though this area was new, she could still move about water pretty easily.

Jamie was closing in, almost had it, and that bubble bursts and throws off Jamie's pursuit. She bit back a giggle and made her way toward him, looking only slightly amused.

There was an easier way for her to do this, but she was almost guaranteed that Jamie wouldn't approve, so she helped him up to his feet.

"Try again?" she asked.

Just don't tell him he's adorable. He'll get all cranky about it...rather like he does right at the moment, actually. He knows full well that Katara probably has some sort of water-bending trick up her sleeve to try and catch the frogs. It's not like the place is lacking in the liquid, after all.

But it's not half as much fun as trying to catch them the other way, even with impromptu sneezes, so he nods. "Aye, follow me." And he's off again, making his way through the swamp. This time, he almost doesn't spot the frog until he's nearly on it. Realizing it's there at the last second, he throws himself at it with a yell - completely forgetting he's supposed to be quiet.

Fortunately, he's gotten used enough to being back in a smaller form that he doesn't trip over himself in the process, and he manages to grab hold of the frog. "Got it!" he says, triumphantly.

He turns to show it to Katara, and the frog takes that moment to squirt free from his hands and launch itself in the general direction of Katara's face. Well, at least she's got a chance to catch it now?

Katara watched as Jamie moved with gusto for the next frog. Yes, she would make sure to keep how cute he looked to herself for fear or embarrassing him, even if it really was nice to see him so excited. It looked like he might fail again though, but she was soon proved otherwise wrong.

Mostly.

He finally did grab this one, and she was about to clap her hands enthusiastically when the frog shot out of his grip and went straight for her face. Without thinking about it her hand shout out and nabbed the frog, holding him just enough not to squish him but tightly enough so it wouldn't get away.

Whoa. Every once and awhile she was amazed at how much better she'd gotten at this sort of thing since arriving on the ship. She would definitely had fumbled and yelled about the frog coming near her face in the past.

"Nice Jamie!" She said, grinning, letting the frog bounce away, using her bending to get some of the mud off him. 'Let's catch another together!"

Being muddy was part of the fun, but Jamie figures it's better not fuss when Katara bends some of the goop away. Getting into an argument over it would mean less time frog hunting. And, eventually, if things didn't wear off, they'd have to stop playing and figure out what to do next. Better to simply continue with what they're doing, he figures. So it was back to creeping through the swamp. Jamie thought idly that this part was rather easier than he remembers it being - although he's not sure if it's his size, or the extra experience he's gotten in moving quietly since he was actually a lad.

"Funny how this stuff works," he comments idly. "Ye can catch them easier and I can move easier...hey. That gives me an idea! Wait here."

He disappears into the depths of the swamp again, and a few moments later there's a mighty yell of 'Creag an tuire!' and some thrashing about. A very startled looking frog comes hopping in Katara's direction with a second and a third frog following close behind. Apparently they were all in the same area that Jamie just chose to make a heck of a lot of noise in.

"Katara! See if ye can't grab one of those!"

Katara was also pretty pleased to see how quickly Jamie was maneuvering himself through the swamp: she was pretty sure it was because of all of his new duties as Red ranger. She made a mental note to let him know this once he got bigger, but for now they had nigger fish to fry. Or frogs to catch, as it were.

"We've gotten a lot better because we're faster now," she said, then stifled when he moved on faster, keeping up. With the yell, Katara's senses were on alert, and once the frog came through she seized it quickly, then nabbed the second and placed them in her lap just in time to grab the third.

By the time Jamie came back he'd see three ribbing frogs and a beaming older Katara, pleased as punch that the slipperiness of the frogs still hadn't prevented her from overtaking them.

It wouldn't be entirely due to that - although it does help. Jamie did have three years or so where there was plenty of creeping along in various places to be had before coming to Stacy. He's just not thought to apply it to frog hunting before...mostly because he hasn't thought about frog hunting itself in quite some time. This whole reverting to a younger age did have some benefits, it seems.

Spotting Katara and the frogs, Jamie grins himself. "Hey, ye got all of them!" That's pretty impressive - even he thinks he wouldn't have been able to do that. Not that he'll say so out loud. Even wee Jamie has some pride.

"Do ye want me to flush out some more for ye or should we take a break?"

Katara herself hadn't expected to catch the frogs so quickly, which just goes to show that she'd gotten even better and hadn't known it. It was really the terrain she'd had to get used to though: she hadn't been in a marsh in a really long time. In any case, it was definitely fun to see Jamie enjoying himself so much.

She grinned. "I guess I did! I can see why you like doing this, its a challenge! I only just barely held onto all of them!"

She thought a moment, then said, "Oh, let's keep doing this a little while longer. It's fun!"

"Only barely, aye?" Jamie says thoughtfully. He would never be able to hold on to all of them, and he knows it. One time he did manage to catch two at once, but that was a fluke. Hm. How many could Katara manage, anyway?

"We can keep going," he says agreeably. Too agreeably. "I'll go find ye a few more." Jamie disappears again, hopefully before Katara's caught on to the fact he's plotting something. This time it takes him longer, but then the marshy area comes alive, frogs hopping out from every which direction towards Katara's position.

Jamie creeps up behind a low growing plant of some sort, and parts the leaves so he can peer out at her with a cheeky grin on his face He's quite curious to see what she can do.

Even she didn't know, to be honest. It really had been a long time since she'd actually put skills like this to the test. In any case, she had no idea what Jamie was plotting, and innocently waited while Jamie went hunting for a few more frogs.

Oh so she though. She waited while he went off, and a little while later, she heard quite a bit of hopping and ribbiting as frogs started to hop all over the place. A small grin came on Katara's face as the challenge came at her.

Ok Jamie. Accepted.

For a small second she closed her eyes and remembered how Toph had trained Aang when he was first learning Earth bending. She had even blindfolded him so when she sent a huge boulder his way, he would be ready. Here Katara knew she'd be relying on two things: her own hearing, and the speed she'd acquired when training as a Bene Gesserit. Both required her to let go and be one with her senses, and for a moment everything disappeared as Katara's body moved with a speed she'd only saved for the battlefield.

One. Two. Three. Four.

The trick was not allowing herself to forget they were living creatures and could be squished if handled too roughly. It wasn't an easy one, going with speed AND grip, but she'd been trained to have a deft hand, whether in fighting, bending or healing.

Five. Six. Seven.

She was a blur, her hands were getting full enough that the frogs would either leap out. She had to know her limit, and

Eight. NINE!

that was it. She held the frogs to her chest, breathing quickly, but still holding a grip on her captives.

"How's that?"

"Och, not too bad," Jamie says dryly, rising up from his hiding place. It's very impressive, actually, but he can't resist the urge to tease a little.

"Ye may have missed one or two," he adds, as a good half-dozen frogs hop off to find new hiding spots. Someone may have cheated a little when thinking them up a few minutes ago.

He's trying very hard to keep his face as bland and expressionless as possible, though. That way maybe she'll fall for it. "But...I'm sure you'll do better next time."

Edited 2010-12-04 09:32 (UTC)

"Not too bad huh?" Katara said, her face giving nothing away, but looking a little stern. "In that case, I think you should give it a go. You know, just to show a beginner how its done."

She can tease too, and she's freely making sure that she gives her younger friend a hard time if she can.

She smiled and ruffled his hair. "Even when you;re young you give me a hard time!"

"Hey!" Jamie reaches up to try and bat away Katara's hand, not much caring for having his hair ruffled. He generally has to be asleep for him not to complain about that on some level.

"Now," he continues, once she's done, "If I'd not haven given ye a hard time on that, you'd think something was wrong."

Katara may happen to notice that he's not said anything about going after the frogs again. It's purposely done - he's still trying to think of a way he can do that in his smaller form.

She laughed and took her hands away from Jamie's head. Somehow, home doing that was incredibly cute. He was the rough and tumbly kid that she'd expected

"That you're even able to say it when you're small is pretty funny," she said, chuckling. "But I have to admit, this was something that was pretty fun."

She changed the scenery, and now they were in her village, and she presented Jamie with a snow cone.

"Reward?"

"I'm not...och." Okay, technically he's small(er), but she doesn't have to find it funny. "It's not like I'm still not me, aye? I just look a wee bit younger." Mentally, he's pretty much the same Jamie.

Any grumpiness he's feeling over the issue vanishes along with the imagined Scotland. Instead, he looks about curiously - first at the village, then at the snow cone. He accepts it, but isn't quite sure what to make of of the treat.

"What's that?"

"I can tease you too, can't I?" She said, grinning. "It would be a waste if I didn't while you're like this. Besides, I know. It'd take a lot to make you different, and I don't think de-aging you would make a bit of difference."

Seriously? "It's a snow cone of course. You take a sort of flavoring and pour it compacted ice. I'm usually not one for sweets but it's very good. Have a try!"

Ice cream was rare enough in Jamie's day. Snow cones didn't really exist.

"Oh? Aye, alright." He peers at the treat in his hand for a second longer, then takes a tentative taste. It's not as good as ice cream, but it's got a nice flavor to it, and he looks pleased. "Hey, that's not bad!"

Jamie is happy enough to continue to eat the sweet treat. Not too fast, though - he suspects that, like ice cream, if you eat it too fast you wind up with a headache. While he does, it's back to looking around at the surroundings.

"Is this your home, then?"

"Darn right it isn't!" Katara exclaimed, grinning. "I've always liked these, to be honest. I'm just glad that that you get to experience it!"

She nodded. "It's a lot smaller than what it once was, but it's still a nice, sturdy place. There's a lot of love here, because family meant everything to us, you know?"

"Me too," Jamie admits. "These sensoriums are very useful for things like that, aren't they?" Not that it's new to either of them, but sometimes it just bears saying. Taking a bite from the snow cone, he nods and starts to walk through the village.

"Yes, I know what ye mean," he says after he finishes, not wanting to talk with his mouth full. "Even if ye don't have much, if ye have family, it's something."

He finishes the last little bit of the snow cone and looks at the wrapper with a faint air of surprise. Apparently he likes that more than even he thought. Looking down, however, brings back to mind the predicament they're currently in. He had forgotten about it for a little while.

"So what are ye going to do if this doesn't wear off?"

She nodded. "Honestly, if it wasn't for the Sensoriums, Id be feeling really homesick. I'm sure a lot of other people would have been the same way." She took another bite of the snow cone, waking with Jamie.

She smiled. "We'd been through a lot, and of all the nations, I think the waterbenders are the ones most adaptable to change. I think its why I wasn't completely sad about being on this ship. There's so much to learn from others, and you find new sort of family sometimes."

Well that was quite a question. "I'll have to look into getting new clothes, I guess?"

"Aye," Jamie says thoughtfully, thinking about everyone he's met on the ship, and how some of them have become a sort of family. At her reply to his question, though, he turns slighltly, giving Katara a rather skeptical look.

"That's all ye are worried about, getting new clothes?"

"Of course not," she said, sticking her tongue out and giving him a playful look. "I just wanted to see what small Jamie's face would look like if I said something like that. You were scared for a second, weren't you?"

She laughed lightly. "No, I'd definitely feel pretty bothered. I mean yes, I do want to become an adult soon, but I'm not so anxious to leave the last few years as a kid. It's not like I got to have that many kid moments. I figure that even though I'm stuck on this ship and we have to fight an alien menace, I can still keep that part of me that likes having fun and playing games."

Not that she thought this was permanent, of course.

"No, I was not," Jamie says firmly. "I was just wondering if being older had scrambled your brains or something." His lips press together in a vaguely exasperated way, then he shakes his head and mutters, "Women."

There's a something in his tone that hints at him not being nearly as annoyed as he seems, but he's doing his best to keep it from showing on his face. After all, where's the fun in Katara figuring it out right away?

"Aye, well, I suppose ye have a point. I'd not care to have to go through growing up all over again, though. I wonder if there's a way to find out for sure..."

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