Author's Note:

Hello everyone and welcome to the first chapter of my first story for Avatar: The Last Airbender. This will be an AU of the series though I cannot say right now exactly how different individual events will become, it largely follows Sokka so any scenes he's not in or I don't actually cover will happen as they did in the show. I won't be writing about every single individual episode as I feel that would become long and boring so I will be skipping along the timeline, as before any episode I don't specifically write about will happen exactly as it did in the series unless I mention otherwise. I hope you all enjoy this Sokka-centric story and the AU I'm creating.

I do not own any aspect of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Prologue

The moon was always beautiful when it was full.

It hung large and white in the vast sky, its vast light dominating over the countless pinpricks that were the stars. In the clear, frozen air every crack and crater on its ancient surface was visible as it stood sentinel in the night sky as it always had done.

The moon had always been revered by the Water Tribes, Gran-Gran had said many times that it was the reason the Water Tribe even existed at all and many of the elders echoed her sentiments. In all honesty Sokka had little belief in the mystical teachings of his elders, as the only teenage boy left in his village and the only viable fighter he was far more focused upon the defence of his home. He'd wanted to go with his father and the other men to take part in the war but he'd been left with the task of protecting the tribe, as such he'd taken his task seriously and had devoted himself to it leaving little thought to other matters.

However the moon had always touched something within him, something that he kept buried from all others.

His dad knew about it of course, he'd been there on that fateful hunting trip and had seen it first-hand when Sokka first discovered he had something more, just like his sister. Unlike Katara though his ability wasn't a gift but rather a curse and one he had to keep hidden. He suspected that Gran-Gran knew but she'd never spoken about it to him and no one else had ever been told so it remained secret.

In a way that was partly why he was so disparaging of his sister's waterbending, calling it 'magic water'. She could practise her gift and use it within the village and people would smile upon seeing their tribe's only waterbender practising despite not having a master to teach her, if Sokka tried using his ability he knew that those people, his family, would see him as the monster that lurked within him forcing him to hide it.

Katara could use her gift openly but he had to hide his curse.

So he worked at being a warrior, a hunter, everything a true Water Tribe man should be and worthy of the task his father had entrusted him with. Even before all the men left for war Sokka had endeavoured in the ways of a warrior and huntsman, he knew at least the basics of all the traditional Water Tribe weapons, he knew how to sail a Water Tribe ship, basic tactics, hunting techniques and the traditions they followed before and after a hunt, he even knew how to create snow defences and had worked to erect them around their village to protect against the Fire Nation. All in all he was an excellent example of a young Water Tribe boy but his curse remained and there were times it had to show itself.

Now was one such time.

He'd noticed the signs, his temper shortening, the occasional growl and the increased force with which he did things and he'd packed the necessary supplies and headed out away from the village on an overnight 'hunting trip'. It had been a bit of a chore stopping Katara from coming with him, she'd somehow decided that he needed constant supervision when away from the village and would always try to tag along with him. He sort of understood (she was concerned about something happening to him and he'd be lying if he said he didn't have similar concerns whenever she went away alone) but it was annoying when she was being stubborn about it and he couldn't tell her exactly why he was heading off by himself. It took the timely intervention of Gran-Gran to finally convince Katara to not go adding to his certainty that his grandmother knew the truth (she always seemed to know when Sokka was taking these trips and stopped anyone joining him). With the promise of being back by the afternoon of the next day he set off into the icy hunting grounds eager to be far from the village by the time the moon rose.

This led to where he was now, standing in nothing but his smalls staring up at the full moon.

Being basically naked in such freezing temperatures would mean death for most people but Sokka had long since discovered that he didn't feel the cold very easily and he knew that it would be bothering him even less soon. That and he had found that whenever he did this his clothes would be destroyed unless he took them off and going back to the village practically starkers would be difficult to explain away.

He could feel the full moon somehow strengthen him and his burden was always more…eased whenever it graced the sky, Katara had mentioned that her bending appeared stronger in a full moon and he wondered if it gave her strength like it did for him. Over the years he'd come to know that if he let his curse out during a full moon then it seemed to settle for a while letting him continue with his life, in the beginning he'd tried to suppress it entirely but that had caused it to seemingly revolt and become more ferocious until he'd come out here and let it out allowing it to run wild for several days. His father had found him and said he'd seen much of what happened and then suggested that it would be better to let it loose regularly whenever it became too restless, that had led to these trips away from the village that Sokka continued to take even after his father went to war and no longer went with him. The trips had been occasional and always during a full moon (though not every single full moon as that would look suspicious) but recently the need for these trips had become more regular, slowly getting to happening each month making him worry that his curse may be gradually consuming him.

Pushing these thoughts aside Sokka returned his focus to the moon bathing in its beautiful light, the beast inside had begun stirring in anticipation as if it knew it was about to be let out and Sokka reluctantly let it emerge.

Despite what people would think if they ever saw it happen it didn't actually hurt, instead he felt overwhelmed by primal sensations that had long since become familiar to him and there was a rush he couldn't deny he enjoyed. As the beast came forward its presence began to manifest physically upon Sokka's body. His muscles bulged and strengthened, becoming far more powerful than those of a man. His body stretched and reshaped to accommodate them, becoming taller and broader with powerful legs and arms. His teeth grew sharper and sturdier as his nose and mouth began to reshape into one snout, his ears became pointed and bigger, sharpening his hearing to beyond that of his human self. Eyes grew in size, becoming accustomed to the darkness and granting him better night vision as hair started to sprout and grow over his body merging and growing into a thick fur pelt. Nails toughened and grew into lethal claws upon hands that had become far larger than they'd once been. Similar claws grew upon powerful feet that were now more like paws and as the fur pelt finally stopped growing and the body settled into its new form the beast lifted its snout to the moon and gave a mighty, chilling howl. The creature dropped to all fours and bounded off across the wastes with a grace you would feel that such a combination of man and beast should not have.

Under the pure light of the moon a werewolf began to hunt.

PS-And so Sokka is now a werewolf. As I go I will build up exactly how werewolves fit into this verse and what the 'rules' about them are so to speak (or write). I hope you enjoyed this opening chapter and I'll try to update soon.