Chapter One - Siku
Ice and snow crackle beneath my feet as I jump from one drifting island to the next, careful to find my footing and not slip into the arctic waters all around me. I push forward, gaining speed, my breathing hard and heavy as we gain on our target. I look over my shoulder.
"Hurry up Sedna, you're falling too far behind."
"Coming." She huffs out, sprinting to catch up with the pace of our hunting group.
I jump onto a large section of ice connected to the snowy shoreline, and stoop down, examining the white powder. My two teammates, Sora and Mizuki, take note of my sudden stop, and circle around as I check the track marks in the snow. Sedna soon catches up to us, panting and gasping, short spear swishing wildly to and fro on her back.
"Sedna, your spear isn't tightened correctly," I critique as I stand up, "you could hurt yourself. Or someone else."
"Ah, you're right!" She exclaims, hurriedly trying to reach behind herself to adjust the leather sheath holding it.
"Here, I'll help you." Mizuki says, spinning the frantic Sedna around and tightening the belt for her.
I purse my lips. "The tracks seem to be slowing, I don't think it's too far ahead. Be on guard."
Sora and Mizuki both unsheath their spears, quietly creeping along the snow beside me as we approach the shoreline. Sedna quickly follows suit, joining us as we cautiously advance over the sloping hills of the tundra. As we crest the first peak I motion for my comrades to stay low. Just below us is a large, white polar bear-dog pawing fruitlessly into a hole in the ice and snow, probably looking for seals.
I crouch down with my teammates, looking them all in the face. "It's right down there. There isn't really a good angle to come at it since it'll see us rather easily as we come down the slope, so Sedna and Mizuki, I want you guys to take the right. Sora and I will take the left. And remember, we need to kill it, but keep as much of the hide intact as we can for coats for the village," I look at Sedna, "Don't do anything stupid, and don't get anyone killed. That includes yourself. Got it? Good. Let's go."
I swiftly vault over the peak of the snow drift and gracefully slide down the slope, using that velocity to the push me into a sprint. I look back and see Sora and Mizuki quickly follow my lead, Sedna nowhere in sight. I tsk under my breath. Whatever. I told the chief we'd be better off without her anyway.
The bear-dog tosses its head to the side, noticing me and Sora first. It roars aggressively at us, changing its footing to be more stable, its large shoulders hunched and body low. I slow my pace, prepared for it to charge, and steady my breathing. Mizuki's made it to the dog's backside and picks up a handful of snow, throwing it at the animal who turns quickly in fear and confusion.
It growls again, this time at her, and Sora takes initiative, hurling another snowball at the animal. It turns towards him, and he uses the opportunity to draw it out, away from the seal hole, allowing me and Mizuki to advance closer, circling around to its sides. Mizuki thrusts her spear at the animal, and Sora quickly follows suit, keeping the beast off balance. I use this chance to breathe deeply, focusing my energy into a stream that flows into every part of my body.
The bear-dog lunges at Sora and he jumps back, too close to its fangs for comfort. Mizuki takes the head of her spear and whacks the animal, making a resounding smack and causing the beast to roar again in pain and agitation, and quickly, much too quickly, turn and swipe at her, catching her side. She gasps as its claws puncture her skin and the momentum tosses her to the ground, her body sliding on the slick ice.
Sora yells and jabs the beast twice in the side, and each time he pulls back, his spear glints crimson in the bright winter sunlight. The animal cries out and turns again, biting deep into Sora's spearhead as he thrusts once more, and yanks it out of his hands. Sora, now unarmed, regains his balance and begins to back away. Mizuki is just now regaining her footing, holding her side, her own blood causing small stains in her parka as the bear-dog rears up on its hind legs, towering another six feet above even the tallest member of our tribe, with Sora in its sights.
It roars menacingly as it staggers towards him, Sora backing away even more quickly now, with no means to defend himself. Mizuki quickly runs after her own spear, but I know we're running out of time.
Fuck concentration Master Jiro, it's now or never.
A stream of crystal clear water quickly follows my will, and as the bear-dog raises its paws higher to deliver a crushing blow to the man beneath it, a liquid rope tightly wraps itself around the beast's neck. Using all of my physical and mental strength, I use the rope to pull the animal backwards, the beast falling with a ground-shaking thud. Mizuki and Sora both scramble for their spears, the polar bear-dog huffing as it slowly stands again, but I'm not finished. I gather my energy and make a geyser out of the seal hole, icy water spewing into the air, and then I force it to fall as hard as I can onto the bear-dog, forcing it back to the ground. I continue hitting it with massive currents over and over again, the beast being pushed back and forth by the powerful streams until I have to catch my breath. My arms ache and my chest is heaving, but the animal somehow has enough breath to get up. I look around; Mizuki has her spear dug deep into the ice and is holding onto it for dear life, and Sora has been knocked off his feet by the constant waves and is only now beginning to get his bearings.
I push through my intense exhaustion, and grab hold of the water pooled at the bear-dog's feet. I inhale deeply, and as I exhale the water around the animal begins to freeze. It belatedly tries to step away from the growing layer of ice, but its small back legs get caught in the quickly hardening water. The beast breaks each leg free in turn, but not before the others begin to become ensnared. I start to circle around the animal, trying to more quickly freeze the water around it, removing its ability to escape as Sora, having regained his mangled spear, runs over to Mizuki to help pull hers out of the ice. At that point, Sedna, apparently having regained her courage, steps over the snow drift, and, running part of the way down, begins to waterbend.
Sedna pulls the excess water from around us and suspends it in the air, shaping it into a large spear-like object of its own above the polar bear-dog.
"Don't try to be the hero, Sedna," I yell towards her, still trying to focus on my own bending.
"I'm just trying to help!" She yells back.
"We need that hide for the village," Sora calls out to her. "Put it down."
She hesitates, realizing he's right. "I-I don't know how!" She exclaims. "Siku, help me!"
"Just release the energy, Sedna!" I say, losing concentration, the ice beginning to melt back into the water it was. "Relax your body! Remember the ebb and flow of the currents, and let the power recede slowly." The bear-dog begins to struggle free of its confines, but Sora and Mizuki have regained their flanking positions around our target, ready for its next attack.
"I CAN'T!" Sedna yells out frantically, realizing her little stunt is costing us our focus, and therefore our mission. "Siku! Please help me! I can't! I ca-AH!" I toss my head around just in time to see Sedna lose her balance and fall forward, her speed and the slickness of the ice and snow catapulting her forward towards us.
"Sora!" I call out and he and Mizuki turn quickly at my tone, seeing Sedna hurtling towards me, arms covering her face to protect herself from the sharp ice. I try to refocus, and quickly turn Sedna's ice spear into rain as it falls, finishing just as her body hurtles into my legs, knocking them out from under me. The bear-dog takes this chance to pounce on Mizuki, but she blocks it's ferocious jaws with the body of her spear to its throat, the animal only managing to pin her beneath its gigantic frame. Sedna, however, is still catapulting forward on the ice, body spinning in circles now from clipping my legs, headed straight towards the engorged seal hole.
Sora lunges for her as she passes him, managing to grab hold of the waist of her parka and altering their trajectory slightly to the right, but still straight towards her former destination. Shit shit shit shit shit! Is all I can think as, for the first time in a long time, my body freezes in fear.
"Siku!" Mizuki yells, a ferocious wild animal just inches from her face, while Sedna screams as she and Sora come closer and closer to plummeting into the icy ocean. I quickly suppress my fear and get back to my feet, using the water around Mizuki and the polar bear-dog to create another large wave and push the beast off of my friend, turing then to save the others, but Sora, seeing the path that they're on, places his feet and hands on Sedna's back, and pushes her away from him with all his might, sealing his fate but sending her crashing into my legs for the second time.
I topple over, Sedna and I a mess of limbs, and simultaneously two things happen; First, I watch in horror as Sora takes one last breath before plummeting into the the icy ocean. Second, the polar bear-dog, still much too close to Mizuki, begins to stand and shake off the water still in its coat.
I quickly and decisively grab Sedna's spear from its holster and yank my body away from hers, in turn pulling her up off the ground and thrusting the spear into her hands. "Help Mizuki," I growl at her dazed features, "and if either of them are hurt I swear to the Spirits I'll kill you." I then sprint towards the seal hole and Sora.
Knowing that the arctic ice sometimes freezes to be several feet thick, I know there's no way I could find Sora from the surface, so I take a deep breath and dive in after him. The shock of the cold through my body makes my lungs ache, and I feel like a thousand tiny needles are simultaneously piercing my skin. I create a bubble of air for myself so I can breathe in quickly and deeply before beginning my search. With the meager light from the seal hole, and varying thickness of the ice, a few feet beneath the surface is sufficiently illuminated for me to see a shadowy outline slowly sinking toward the dark ocean floor.
I force my arms and legs to move through the water, my limbs already feeling like lead as I manage to grab hold of the unconscious Sora, enlarging my air bubble for him, and drag us both back up to the surface. I must've gotten turned around somehow though, because swimming over to a particularly bright patch of water that I thought was the hole to the surface yields only a clear, but dense piece of ice.
I push against the ice above us, moving along it and hoping to maybe find a piece that moves, or another hole for us to squeeze through, but Mother Nature isn't letting us have that kind of freebie. I glance at Sora, feeling the lack of his breath against my skin, and my own body already numb and heavy, and decide that there's no other way. I'll have to chance it. I clutch him to my body with one hand as my legs desperately kick to keep us afloat, and with the other I press my palm to the ice and will it through the cold surface. The ice almost looks like it's melting around my fingers, but in reality I'm changing its form, allowing me to move through it as easily as water.
I start to pull the rest of me up through the ice in the same manner, still holding Sora tightly. I push and keep pushing through the dense layers of ice, my energy and stamina waning low, but I know if I stop we'll be trapped here until we die. So I keep going, and slowly but surely we begin to climb out of the frozen water and into the light of the sun.
I gasp as my face emerges, gulping down the fresh air, and slowly work my shoulders and then arms out, pulling Sora out after me. I shiver with cold as the air hits me, somehow colder now than I was in the sub-zero waters. I look around for Mizuki and Sedna, spotting them several yards from us just as Mizuki runs her spear through the bear-dog's skull with a victorious battle cry.
I turn my attention back to Sora and unbutton his parka, pressing my ear to his soaked wool undershirt. He's not breathing, and his heartbeat can only faintly be heard.
"Ah, shit! Fuck! What do I do.." I panic before I pinch his nose and press my mouth to his, breathing air into his lungs. I then pump my hands three times over his heart and when he doesn't respond I start the process all over again. And then again. And again. "No no no no no, don't you dare Sora. Don't you fucking dare!" I yell at his unresponsive features, scared tears congregating in my eyes before I realize that I'm a fucking idiot.
I place my hand on his chest and delicately sweep it up towards his face, a palm sized amount of water escaping his mouth. He remains still, so I plug his nose again and do the same as earlier, and then he coughs rapidly, gasping and struggling to sit up.
"No, don't." I say to him, holding him where he is on the ground, and moving some of his dark, wet hair from his face. "You'll hurt yourself. I need you to stay still. Mizuki!" I turn and yell towards her. "Hurry!" His hands feebly grab hold of the one resting on his cheek, turning his face to kiss it, and only then do I realize I can't feel my hands. Or the rest of me. "Sora, I was so scared." I whisper to him, and I only know that I'm crying when I see my tears splatter on his chest.
"Is Sedna ok?" He asks through coughs, voice thick and raspy.
"Hey! Are you two alright?" Mizuki yells, as she and Sedna rush over to us.
"Sedna," I say, my eyes narrowing at the sight of her.
They bound over to us, Mizuki bending down to help me up as I let go of Sora and stand. And Sedna, the little punk, she smiles at me in what I assume to be relief when she sees us both.
"Siku, I am so sorry! I'm so glad you guys got out! How are you? How's Sora? How can I hel-" she gets cut off by my fist, it promptly connecting with her face.
"Siku!" Sora objects, surprised.
"Woah! Hey!" Mizuki yells, trying to get in between me and Sedna, but I push past her and pick the little brat up by her collar.
"Are you handicapped somehow, or seriously just that stupid, to think your apology could even slightly measure up to the damage you just caused? You almost killed us, all of us, you little brat. Be grateful that that's the only thing I'm giving you for this." I push her over, sending her toppling to the ground, sliding a bit on the slick ice. "Hurry and get up, we need to get Sora back to the boats before we both freeze to death."
"She didn't mean anything by it Siku, it was an accident." Sora says as Mizuki and I help him off the ground, "she's just a kid."
"Just a kid?" I ask, incredulous, "and what are we, Sora? What were we when we first became a team? Adults? I don't care that she's 'just a kid' or that 'it was an accident'! She could've killed you! She could've killed all of us! She doesn't get a free pass just because she's inept! She needs to be held accountable for her 'accidents', and this," I gesture to her entire being as she stands up, "is exactly why I didn't want her to come in the first place!"
He just looks at me, and Mizuki and Sedna are both silent, the latter tending to her bloody nose. "Whatever," I continue, "We need to get going before she manages to do anything else."
~.~.~.~
"Chief Antou," I exclaim, "she's a hazard! She's a nuisance!"
"She's my daughter."
"Apparently that doesn't keep her from knocking people into the ocean and not knowing how to hunt an animal." I glower at him, and he barely glances at me.
"That's why I asked you to teach her, Shizuka. You're one of the most promising students the Southern Water Tribe has, in both water bending and martial training. Are you saying my thirteen year old daughter is too much for you to handle?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying!" I yell at him, walking quickly as Chief Antou strides through the fortified ice walls of Harbor City. "Because if I have to deal with her constant stream of useless facts, sudden disappearances and apparent homicidal tendencies, you may never see one of us again. I may actually strangle her, Chief. That, or throw myself to the leopard seals."
"Sedna isn't homicidal, Shizuka."'
"I go by Siku now," I grumble, jogging ahead of him and stopping directly in his path, blocking his way forward, "and is that all you were listening to? She almost killed us! Her being your daughter has nothing to do with it anymore, Antou, I'm not going to let her continue to endanger me and my team."
He looks at me and begrudgingly sighs. "Alright, I understand your concerns, … Siku, I only ask that you give her another chance. She really admires you, you know. Perhaps you get through to her more than you realize? You leave many marks on her, Siku, and not only with your fists." He looks at me, passing by me to wherever it is he's going, and I feel a slight pang of guilt, but I quickly suppress it.
"Fine," I say, "what else would you have me do with her?"
"You could take her out and teach her to spar. The activity could do you both good."
"Wait, you're giving me permission to beat her up now? I thought you just asked me not to."
"You're not going to beat her up Siku. Go easy on her. She's learning. Be patient and teach her well, and she may just surprise you."
He strides away, leaving me standing in the middle of the hallway as the guardsmen pass me by.
~.~.~.~
I stomp down the stairs and back into the city streets, silently cursing to myself. I take the time to readjust my gloves over my still sore fingertips and start towards the village center, the hustle and bustle of people in the city making it hard to stay in my mood for very long. Children run through the streets, laughing with friends as their parents bargain and haggle with the stall vendors in the streets. Couples sit at the fountains decorating the center of town quietly giggling to themselves as they lean in.
The smells though .. the smells are always what make me feel the most at ease. The scent of seaweed soup and seal jerky emanates across town and coupled with it, smells of imported spices like cinnamon fill desert stalls baking fresh bread pudding. I breathe in deeply, both to calm myself and reminisce of the smells from my childhood, stopping at a stall to pick something up for Sora and Mizuki.
I then make my way into the healer's hut where I can see both my teammates still within. Mizuki has been finished by now, her wounds having been closed by the benders, leaving only small scars in their wake. She is sitting next to Sora who has been placed in a chair next to the fireplace, heaps of blankets covering his body and a large pot of boiling water resting above the fire, emitting steam into the room, all to try and help his temperature reach normal. They chat softly with one another and Mizuki laughs at something Sora says.
"Hey guys," I say, stepping closer towards them, "How are you feeling? I picked these up for you." I hand them each the bear stew I bought for them, and the bread pudding I got to go with it.
"Thanks Siku," Sora says.
"Yeah, thanks!" Mizuki smiles at me, her warmth then quickly taken over by concern. "Are you sure you shouldn't be in here with us? I mean, you both went under and you both had to endure the ride home, freezing your asses off."
"I'm fine. Really. I'm more concerned about you."
"Well, I'm fine," she states definitively, " I'm only here to keep Sora company."
Sora chuckles. "Thanks, Suk, I appreciate it."
"No problem." She nudges him with a grin.
"And I'm ok too." Sora says, readjusting the blankets that had started to slide off his shoulder. "But are we gonna talk about what happened with you and Sedna?"
"Yeah, that was rough." Mizuki interjects. "Like, on the way home I thought at a couple points you were gonna tip our canoe in vengeance."
"I wouldn't have done that!" I state defensively, "You were in it too!"
She scoffs. "And there we have it folks."
"You guys are acting like I'm the one who fucked up here, but I wasn't. Sedna was. So I don't know why you're coming down this hard on me when I'm only mad because she was careless and useless and constantly in the way and-"
"And that's where you're wrong," Sora says, and I fume at his words. " It's not like she went out of her way to throw us into danger, she-"
"Didn't care to think of the consequences of her actions and instead-"
"Acted on impulse like you have countless times before?" He asks, eyebrows raised. "I'm pretty sure she only infuriates you this much because you guys are so similar."
"Like remember that time with the Yak corralling?" Mizuki says.
"You mean the one where Siku totally forgot to watch for snow leopards like Master Adan told us?" Sora laughs. "And only missed being pounced on because she moved last second to pick up a snowball?
"And then she was afraid the Yaks would run away and so she-"
"Ok! I get it!" I say exasperated.
"Or the time that we were following her down the river in our kayaks-" Mizuki starts.
"And I kept telling her I was pretty sure there were rapids ahead?" They both laugh "And then she sees them and she's like 'oh shit!'" Sora makes an overdramatic scared face and Mizuki bawls laughing.
"Alright! Enough! I said I get it already! By the Spirits!" I pout, slumping back in my chair.
"All we're trying to say Siku," Mizuki begins, "Is that you haven't really given her a chance. She could still surprise you."
"I doubt that." I mumble and then sigh. "But whatever, I had the Chief remove her from our squad in exchange for me tutoring her. So maybe I should get going."
"And I should probably be getting back to Ryu." Mizuki says, a fond look on her face as she mentions of her fiance.
"Well, don't worry, I'll be here." Sora says, waving us off to our individual tasks. "See you later!"
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
"Alright brat, here's your first lesson. LESSON NUMBER ONE! Never put your teammates in danger. Ya got that!?" I look at Sedna expectantly, walking to and fro in front of her.
"Y-yes, of course." She refuses to meet my gaze, her nose and under eyes purple from our last encounter.
"And you've got to look at me. I can guarantee that I'm much less dangerous than half the things you and your team will face in this tundra, and if you can't look me in the eye, how do you expect to be able to face the reality out there?" I ask, arms folded, stopping my feet and staring at her head on.
She meekly lifts her eyes from the ground.
"Now stare at me for as long as you can." I command, glaring right back at her. She manages for some time, then falters and looks away. "Nope, that's not how this is gonna go. You see, to be a good, even ~great~ waterbender, you have to overcome your fear. Of me, of failure, of Tiger-Sharks, of drowning in the ocean, I don't care what it is. You have to get over it. And that's because if you don't, your fears will control you, disrupt the flow of your energy, and isolate you from any and all talents you possess."
She lifts her head up.
"Point in case, today with your ice spear, you managed to create it just fine, but when it came to controlling it, your fears overcame you and kept you from being able to manipulate that water at will. And that takes us back to lesson number one. You put your teammates in danger. How? With your fear. You froze up, and once you did that, the mission went haywire. We had to focus on you and not the wild animal right in front of us. You could've done any number of things that prevented you from sliding into that seal hole, but once you froze up, you stopped thinking, and that put all of us at that animal's mercy. Do you understand?"
"Y-yeah, I do." She pauses. "So you're never afraid?"
"No, trust me, I am. But the thing that makes people brave is not that they never feel fear, but that they are never subject to it. That they can will themselves to move forward in spite of that fear and accomplish their goal. I can't even count the times that I've been afraid for me or my team, but I'm always propelled by the desire to protect them, to finish, to make it back home regardless of what happens out there, and those desires make me have to act."
"That … makes sense."
"It does, doesn't it. And that's the link I think you're missing, so today we're gonna focus, not just on technique, but on mentality so you can build your strength of character." I chuckle. "You might hate me before this is over … Now I want you to sprint from here to that snowpile as fast as you can, twenty times over!"
"But that's so far aw-"
"GO, GO, GO!"