Chapter Two

Boy in the Iceberg

Katara stands in the canoe, opposite of her brother, one gloveless hand being held above the water heedless of the chill. They are fishing right now, or trying to anyway; Sokka is scaring all the fish away.

"Mm, we're having fish tonight," she hears Sokka say. The words echo in the quiet for a long moment, so she shoots him a glare. "I can already taste it."

They say, 'don't count your fish before you catch them' for a reason, Sokka, she thinks. But she has long given up correcting her brother, having learned that the energy is better spent elsewhere. Like on the chores that she is neglecting to do so she can make sure that the tribe eats tonight. Right now, she could be tidying their living space, or laundering their clothes, or fixing the village wall, or watching children so the mothers can have a break... Or she could be fixing the tear in the village's one fishing net- the tear that made this trip necessary in the first place.

So she doesn't correct Sokka, even if she does think he needs to be checked. Instead, she bends the water around a fish that he has missed, carefully making the orb that she lifts from the sea smaller and smaller, and then dropping the fish and its barely-there swimming space into the boat. Katara has done this a few times now, so there are quite a few fish in the boat- and quite a bit of water.

Her brother notices the increasing wetness around his ankles. Which means I have to fix his shoes now. Joy, Katara thinks as Sokka mutters something about patching up the canoe- something about having her patch up the canoe.

Suddenly, all is still and Sokka is doing more talking and posing than fishing and Katara needs to get out of the boat before she pushes him in to the water and leaves him there until his lips turn blue. "Okay," she says. Her voice is calm despite the anger rushing through her veins and she is proud of that. "That's enough for today. Let's head back, now."

"What?! But we haven't gotten any-" he turns around and sees the small school swimming in their boat- "...fish." For a moment, Katara thinks that that will be the end of it, and she's so proud of her brother. She thinks he's finally growing up, finally going to help her and the village, not just build look out towers and pretend he's a warrior. Then he mutters, "Stupid magic water. Should've known when my feet got wet- this canoe doesn't even have holes."

And she is so disappointed.

But he turns the canoe around and steers them towards home and she doesn't say anything.

That night, they have fish tea for dinner, with the promise of enough leftovers for breakfast. So Katara puts aside the iciness clinging to her heart and and instead fills the hollow of her stomach.

Tomorrow will be better, she tells herself. Just as she has for years.

They are out fishing again.

Yesterday, they had gotten enough that the village wouldn't starve, not just yet, but the stores of seaweed and blubber and seal jerky are too low to last the rest of the winter (and they haven't been able to find any seaprunes or seacucumbers this year, and Katara has no clue what they're going to do when the harsh summer months arrive and the sun disappears and the wolves are as hungry as the village is).

Yesterday, one of the children had fallen into the water. He is a strong swimmer- one with bright blue eyes and a love of playing in the snow that reminds Katara so much of herself when she was younger that she thinks he might grow up to be a bender too- so he didn't drown (La doesn't drown his favored sons and daughters, Katara knows, he only welcomes them home when they have already lived their lives and given up their spirits) and he has yet to fall ill. But Takerru did fall into La's domain, and the commotion made it so that the women did not repair the net, and Katara was too tired yesterday to have done it after completing her chores and eating supper (and then helping with the children and doing some of Sokka's chores).

So Katara is out fishing with her brother again.

She raises her hand, pulling up a fish- the first one that they've seen all day. "Sokka," she says, the anger of yesterday washed away by the excitement she feels from seeing the size of this fish- it might be enough to feed everyone, all by itself! Katara just needs him to move closer to the edge of the canoe so she can fit it somewhere.

"Shh!" her brother whisper-shouts. He doesn't turn around, but even that doesn't phase her. Instead he raises his spear. "I think I see one. It's not getting away from me this time."

"But, Sokka, I-"

"Not now, Katara."

"If you could just-"

Somehow, the blunt end of his spear manages to jab her in the stomach. She looses both her balance and the fish, and the canoe capsizes as she falls into the water. The two siblings flip the boat over and haul themselves out of the cold water, but the damage is done: the fish have been startled into hiding and Sokka has lost his spear, besides; and Katara can only bend out so much of the water clinging to their furs.

Sokka, starts to say something, but the boat is caught in a current and they're too busy trying to dodge ice floes to do much talking other than panicked shouting.

They end up stranded, their canoe smashed to pieces.

A wet, hungry and frustrated Sokka yells, "I knew I shouldn't have brought you along! Leave it to a girl to mess everything up!"

Katara has had years to practice burying her temper.

But Katara is also hungry and soaked and frustrated and there's only so much a girl take. So she lets her anger out. "You are the most sexist, immature, nut-brained-! I'm embarrassed to be related to you!" She hears her bones crack from the force she swings her arms with.

Sokka cowers away from her, pointing nervously at something. "Uh, Katara-"

"No! I'm not finished! Every time we've gone out looking for food for the past year, all you ever do is pose and make funny faces at yourself whenever you see your reflection!"

"K-Katara!" The little patch of ice they're on rocks dangerously.

"And another thing- I do all the chores while you're running around the village playing warrior, including the laundry- have you ever smelled your dirty socks?"

Sokka's eyes go wide. "Katara, settle d-"

"Let me tell you: they. Are. Not. PLEASANT!"

"Katara!" Sokka lunges forward and grabs her as a huge wave rises out of the water and pushes their little patch of ice far, far away from where it was.

She sits up as soon as the bobbing slows and her bright blue eyes widen when she sees the cause. The entire ice shelf that had once formed a canyon around them is gone. "What...?"

"That's it!" Sokka spits out, pushing away from her. "You officially gone from weird to freakish, Katara!"

She freezes. "You mean I did that?"

He stares at her with hard eyes and Katara isn't sure she wants to hear what he has to say- she's seen that look on him, on the whole tribe, before. But she doesn't have to. Just as he opens his mouth again, a giant dome of glowing ice pushes its way through the water and through the glaring light, Katara can make out the form of a small person- a child- opening their eyes.

She remembers Takerru's incident, the sight of small bodies sinking through the water- remembers once, when she had been outside the village, when she had stepped through ice and nearly drowned, alone.

"He's alive- we have to help him!" Katara grabs the whale-bone club that her brother carries strapped to his back and hops over to the glowing sphere. If several smaller floes move to make her path smoother, she does not notice. (Her brother does, but is more afraid of the being causing the light than his sister's subconscious use of her magic water; especially since the water isn't being destructive this time.)

She strikes the ice once, feels it rebuff the club.

"Katara, get back here!" her brother shouts. "We don't know what that thing is!" She ignores him.

Strikes twice, with more focus, and feels the ice begin to crack.

"Katara, no!" He reaches for her.

Thrice, and air billows out, pushing the siblings away from the sphere as it cracks and falls apart. A beam of bright light reaches for the heavens and a blinded Katara drops the club and mutters, "Father..."

(She misses the startled, squint-eyed look Sokka aims at her. He hasn't realized that she's not talking about Hakoda.)

A figure is cut against the light, standing atop what remains of the once-sphere. Then the light dies and Katara finds herself freed from Sokka's arms, rushing forward to catch a small boy before his head hits the ice.

Sokka rushes forward, his club in hand, and makes to prod the child with it. Katara aims a look over her shoulder and he freezes, letting her gently lower the boy to the ice.

The child lets out a groan at this. Hazel-gray eyes open with a gasp and she frowns. Is he hurt?

"I...I need- need to ask… you..." she hears the boy whisper. He is thin and his colorful clothes thinner. The dullness of his eyes contrasts unfavorably against the brightness of his warrior's tattoo, and Katara panics.

Hypothermia, she realizes. There's no way she and Sokka can save him, not out here. He was in the ice too long. Her heart sinks. "Yes...?" she prompts. If she keeps him talking, will he live longer?

"Please, come closer." She leans in, heart constricting. His face brightens suddenly and he pushes himself upright with too little force, "Will you go penguin-sledding with me?"

She blinks once, "Uh." What? Penguin-sledding? Blinks again.

But the boy doesn't wait for an answer, raising to his feet and asking, "What's going on here?"

The question of the day.

That seems to kick-start Sokka though. He gets into what could be a warrior's stance as the boy rubs his head, brandishing his club. "You tell us! How'd you get in the ice- and why aren't you frozen."

Katara frowns at this, wondering the same thing, but the boy just waves aside her brother's questions and looks around, still obviously befuddled. "I-"

A rumbling groan interrupts and Katara goes still. The strange child (because nothing about him seems to make sense), however, jumps into action, clambering over what remains of the icy dome and exclaiming, "Appa!"

What follows is an introduction to a fluffy monster, a sneeze, and a giant wad of smelly snot sticking to her brother. Katara watches all of this with a blank face and can only think, Koh's face, this day can't get any weirder.

Then, as Sokka attempts to rub the smelly green stuff off onto the ice, the boy says, "Don't worry, it'll wash out."

And Katara scowls. Great. More smelly laundry.

The boy pets the fluffy monter. "So... You guys live around here?"

Sokka stops trying to clean himself off, reaching for his club again and spouting off paranoid theories about the boy being a spy. Personally, Katara thinks he's more likely to be a waterbender than some Fire Nation brat- especially with how innocent he seems- but she is worried that the Fire Navy is going to show up to investigate the light show, so she rushes through the rest of the introductions. Aang (turns out that that's his name, which seems to be neither Water Tribe nor Fire Nation in origin) sneezes, flying several feet upwards while doing so.

Katara was wrong. The day can get weirder. "You're an airbender."

"Yep."

"I must have midnight sun madness." Sokka decides he's had enough for the day and insists on going home and leaving Aang behind. Then he remembers that the canoe is gone.

"Appa and I can give you guys a lift."

Katara doesn't even blink. With how the day is turning out, she's half certain that the seaprunes in the soup last night were bad and she's going to wake up with a migraine and a bad stomachache. "We'd love a ride. Thank you."

Sokka protests the whole time, even as Katara sees him climbing onto the bison.

"Hold on tight! Appa, yip-yip." Of course, the bison can't really fly- which prompts Sokka's sarcasm, and the look that Aang gives her while she directs him to the village is creepy, even by full-stomach dream standards.

Katara wonders, still not quite sure if she's awake, if Aang knows the avatar, seeing as he's an airbender. But she hasn't been one to ask questions for quite some time, so she just lets the ride back happen in silence.

By the time they get back, nearly everyone is sleeping. The few who aren't glance at the boy from the corners of their eyes and disappear into their tents and igloos after frowning at Katara.

"Again?" those frowns seem to ask.

She forgets to remind herself that things will get better before she retires. She doesn't sleep well that night.

Word Count: 2,347. Posted: 1/09/17