Katara re-opened her eyes (she didn't even remember closing them) and gave him a weak nod and smile. "I'm fine. It's just going to take me a second. I should be all right by the time we get where we're going." Stepping away from the wall - grateful she stayed upright - she added, "I'm just glad Zuko didn't see that. I'd never hear the end of it."
Thinking about her boyfriend hurt. She still didn't know if he was okay, if he'd made it out in one piece, she didn't know anything. Last she'd heard he had been told to get Kathy out. She only hoped he'd gotten the message and acted in time.
Raising one arm, she slowly gathered the ice that was on and around Kris and liquefied it, returning it to the pouch on her hip. She needed as much water as she could keep on her, since sucking it out of the air around her was going to prove tricky now that she was so weakened. Then she dropped the appendage at her side and simply let her body recover as they began heading toward the other side of the hotel.
"The stairwell to the third floor is just up here," she pointed to it as they approached. Giving him an apologetic sort of smile, she asked sheepishly, "Would you, um, mind opening the door this time?"
She wasn't afraid. Really, she wasn't. But the snakes didn't seem to bother him, and she knew no one had opened the door to the stairwell in quite some time, so she was willing to bet it probably resembled the laundry room, or close to it. Snakes slithering around, wanting to get out, hissing and just waiting for a chance to strike...
Katara shivered slightly. If she didn't have an issue with serpents before, she definitely did now.
"I'm going to just throw up a wall of ice, so it should only take a second," she assured him, feeling bad for asking him to take the lead when she was the one given the orders to see this through. Katara always did have too strong of a sense of responsibility. She just couldn't help it, she honestly felt she had to keep everyone around her safe at all times. It was the way she was.