Title: Frozen

Rating: T for trauma/romance/mild profanity, Kataang

Summary: Aang is caught in a dangerous winter storm at the South Pole and fights a desperate battle against the elements beyond the abilities of even his Avatar bending mastery.

Word count: 1498

Author's Notes: This is another in a series of 1500 word limit contest fics from a forum no longer in existence. I hope you enjoy!

...

"Good grief, it's cold!" stuttered Aang as he shivered and leaned against the howling high winds and blinding snow, making slow progress in his 30 minutes already outside against the storm.

As Aang plodded forward on the faint traces of the trail, he was grateful that Katara had forced him to wear the heaviest parka and multi-layer snow suit she had hand-crafted for him. Never again would he ever venture into the polar environment clad only in his lightweight Air Nomad clothing like his first year here. Katara would have none of that.

The light of the low winter sun barely illuminated the white skies and ground. The border between cloud, horizon, and ground was non-existent. Aang could only see a fully white world ahead, above, behind, beside, and beneath him. This was many times worse than the blizzard he survived with Zuko many years ago.

Aang was beginning to doubt his judgment in venturing out, and could hear already in his head Katara's scolding's when he returned. Why was it she was always right?

A gust of wind knocked him over and into a drift with a sudden burst of cold, as snow entered an opening his suit. A bitter cold shiver gripped him, and he tried to warm himself internally, knowing full well that even after only a short time outside, he was starting to reach the safe limits of heating himself internally before damaging his organs. The internal warming was doing little good against this storm. He was getting colder, and his slow progress against the brutal conditions of the storm was not generating enough exercise to keep him warm.

He took his most powerful air bending stance steadied against the winds, took a deep lung-stinging breath of frozen air, and screamed with all his might, "Spirits of the Air: be calm!"

He attempted his best air bending moves to deflect or nullify the terrible winds, but this time the spirits of the wind laughed at his normal mastery of the air by enhancing the force of the gale against him. His parka restricted his air bending movements from properly bending the winds, and in fact the fury of this storm with its gusts and the turbulence was unrelenting and well beyond his world-renowned air bending prowess to stop or slow. Even the Avatar had limits against a continent-sized storm.

The cold was terrible beyond words, and only his gray eyes could be seen from behind the snow mask and fur of the parka. The mask was building with crusted ice, blocking his ability to breathe. The sparkle in his eyes began to dim somewhat with cold-borne fatigue.

Each step forward was starting to be agony. His legs were like blocks of ice and could barely feel them.

And the trail! It was gone! It was clear he was off the pathway, or it had been consumed by the onslaught of the snow.

He muttered weakly to himself, "Keep going Aang! Straight ahead! One step. Two steps, three steps, four!"

He propelled himself onward with this internal chant for a seeming eternity, until he spied what appeared to be the proper direction.

Aang was elated finally as he thought, "There! I see the trail! I'm back on track!"

And then he despaired, "No! It's my own footsteps! I've gone in a circle! I've gone nowhere and no idea which way to go next!"

He knelt on the snow with his head bowed as the winds howled around him like a bad spirit laughing at his misfortune.

"NO!" Aang screamed into to the winds, "I am not going to be stopped!"

He tried fire bending next. He directed an enormous flame wall across the tundra in front of him, but all it did was scorch his parka and fur, when a huge gust blew the flames back in his face, followed by a hail of superheated water that congealed on his clothing and instantly iced over, chilling him further. He muttered under his steam-filled breath, "Bad idea, Aang!"

Aang remembered in his strained thoughts that he was a water bender too, and attempted to bend the wind-driven snow and ice away from him but to no avail. Water as a solid behaves nothing like a liquid. If he survived this, he would have to ask Katara to teach him to bend water as a solid. She could move snow around at will and had obviously cracked open an iceberg. Trying to move snow was a Water Bender's equivalent of sand bending, a hard-earned skill which he had ever needed.

Until now.

Then desperation itself did step in. He started yelling, "Appa!" ahead of him and strained to hear the familiar groan of his animal friend, but could only hear the swirling of the winds and the grinding of ice crystals upon each other in the billions as they were tortured by the gale.

Aang was feeling the effects of the torturous winds too. The cold was numbing everything, and what he didn't know is the cold was slowing his mind down too.

Aang then did a dangerous thing. He started to give into the numbness in his head, and he laid prostrate on the snow field. He thought that perhaps entering his fully-realized Avatar state he could stop this storm or at least survive. A dim glimmer started to well up in his eyes and full covered tattoos, but did not get past the critical flash.

Aang continued to despair and laid his head on the snowpack.

"Must sleep," he said to himself drowsily, "If I can sleep and rest then I will have enough energy to go on."

These words were often uttered by people found frozen to death in the calm after a deadly winter polar storm.

Then a bright glow ahead caught his attention, and he looked up and struggled to crawl toward it. He looked up to see spirit visions of Avatars Roku, Yangchen, Kyoshi, and a multitude of others too numerous to remember - all calling to him, urging him onward, but he could only see them mouth the words and make gestures to stand and walk on. He heard nothing. And soon the glow around them began to merge with the white snow and sky and ground until they were no more.

Aang mumbled, "Must sleep…So very tired…"

The bright light finally went black. Aang never heard the sound of fast moving footsteps crunching in the snow behind him.

...

Blurry, pale orange images swam in his vision as he started to open his eyes. Candlelight flickered from familiar candle holders, casting dancing shadows on Air Nomad and Water Tribe tapestries hung side by side.

He felt himself completely surrounded in furs. They were soothing. His parka was gone. In fact everything he wore was gone underneath the furs. It felt heavenly.

Then he became aware of light breathing beside him – the exhilarating sweet fragrance of Katara! And the amazing warmth of the feeling of skin against skin, the way she and her people always slept with their mates during the depths and dangers of the cold season. Aang knew that Katara was using the fastest way to warm him, and savored it more than ever before.

He was home! He was safe. He was warm. And he was completely surrounded by the one he loved the most in this world. He was grateful that he could feel all his fingers and toes.

"Katara?" he rasped from the incredible dryness in his throat, raw from the now-forgotten cold and wind.

"Shhh, Aang. You'll be ok!" cooed Katara as she put her slender finger on his lips to shush him, and flashed that incredible smile and blue eyes at him.

Aang stammered, "Wha- what happened to me, Katara?"

"Aang, you got lost on the long trail from our home to Appa's stable to check on him. You couldn't fly so you walked. Bad idea, Aang! You know your sense of direction is poor even on a good day" but she smiled despite herself trying to be angry. "I was so scared, but I know you were afraid for Appa's safety."

"Both of us saw your fire bending flare and Appa's sensitive ears heard you call, and we got to you as you were about to be lost to us. Now you are here with me in our bed! Appa is safe right next to our home in a special shelter I bent for him from the ice!"

Aang smiled at his wife, "Katara, once again I have you and Appa to thank for saving my life yet again – how many times?"

"That would be number 18" and they both laughed, and Aang drew her affectionately closer.

"Erm, Aang, you are in NO shape for that kind of behavior!" but she felt a familiar pressure grow between them, "Oh my! Wait! I guess you are!"

Aang snuffed the candles with a simple bending move, and only the glow of the fire place illuminated their love.