He remembered a time when he loved sailing. A time when he was youthful, barely reaching his father's hip when he stood uncomfortably with his back straight like his mother taught him.
He remembered how he would gasp as the large, sea foam coloured waves would crash against the rocky shores or white beaches. He would dig his toes into sand while looking for brightly coloured shells, which at the time, were more of a treasure than any gold.
He remembered when his cousin, tall, broad shouldered and brave would come home and tell him of far of lands and adventures and endless endless amounts of ocean that he could sail to places beyond his wildest dreams. He remembered the time he and his uncle took him on a large wooden sailing ship and he marvelled as it bobbed up and down to the mesmerizing waves and how his mother would turn into nothing more than a red speck on the shore.
He remembered the amber skies of sunset and the crimson sails waving goodbye to his homeland- which was much much bigger than he ever thought. Would they sail to the land where wolf-warriors would prowl the endless ice and snow- what was snow? He had never seen it before- and bend the very ocean he was sailing on? Or to a place of soaring mountains and men with barn broad shoulders who could bend the very earth beneath their feet? He remembers begging his uncle to take him on an adventure to some place he had seen, and his uncle and cousin's warm smiles and bell-like laughs at the eager boy.
He remembers watching them weave and sail around all the islands that made up the Fire Nation and the sound of the sea birds as they flocked and flied in the incessant baby blue sky. He could recall the bright spring sun, the warm moist breezes and the salty smell of the balmy Fire Nation waters.
He remembers being at dinner that night telling his father about all the wonderful things he had seen and telling him that next time, he should come to see them too.
Now as he looks on from the peer of a metal ship, too many years later, at the cold, still icy ocean, he cannot help but feel differently. This was not the balmy ocean, or the great adventure, or the warm sunset skies. He remembers when he loved sailing, and now it just reminded him of the endless endless amounts ocean between him and home.