This is the first part of chapter one. Part 2 I hope to have up sometime soon.
"What's that?" Asked the eight year old, Kotak, as I was outside gathering some firewood, getting ready to prepare some leftovers for lunch. Everyone outside looked ahead to see what he was pointing at.
"By my golly,what in the seven sea turtles is that?" I asked.
"I don't know, I've never seen anything like that before in my life," said Onna.
"They're back!" Kotak yelled before we had anymore time to wonder what that giant, white, six-legged beast was.
I was the first one to greet thematic the villages entrance. "What is this? What's going on? What took so long?" I fired out of my mouth before they had anytime to answer. "A small group went out looking for you this morning," I said, then I pulled them both in for a giant seal leopard hug. "We were worried sick!"
"So what happened? What's going on?" I asked for the second time, after letting go of them.
"You really want to know what happened?" Sokka irratibly yelled. "One of the worst fishing days of my life is what happened! No sorry the woorrssst fishing day of my life! Never, ever, ever, in all times being will I evverrr bring Katara fishing again!" He pointed both hands at his sister and that giant, animal with the arrow on his head.
"Sokka!" Katara scolded him, "Gran-Gran, I'll tell you all about it," she said as she wrapped her left arm around my shoulders.
"Who's that?" I pointed towards a bald kid. Who had the strangest tattoo in the strangest place I've ever seen. He looked to have what seemed like a giant blue arrow tattooed onto his forehead.
"Gran-Gran this is Aang, Aang this is my grandmother." Katara gestured between the two us. "Sokka and I found him when we were fishing."
This young child looked to be a couple years longer than younger than Katara. He wore a long, orange, what is that? A cape? Huh. Under that he had on a long-sleeved, yellow shirt, and matching trousers. He wore an orange sash around his waist to help keep his trousers up. He also had his trousers tucked into his knee-length, brown boots. This child didn't look to be freezing by his lack of a parka and proper clothing for the cold weather, so that was good.
"Yeah, he's the other reason why this fishing trip was a total waste, and he took us on the most boringest ride ever!" Sokka said.
"Sokka, mind your manners." I reminded him.
"My name is Kanna, but call me Gran-Gran," I said as I looked at Aang.
"Okay, and this is Appa, my pet Flying bison," he smiled with glee as he said this.
"What's that?" asked one of the younger children.
"He's a flying bison and is sacred to the Air Nomads. Oh, yeah and he can fly too." Aang proudly informed him.
"Can not!" Sokka yelled.
"Oh yes, he can, Sokka. Appa is just tired is all," he said to Sokka as he looked at him, and then he turned his attention back to the small child. "I can show you sometime if you want, after he rests up a bit."
Some of th children cheered.
"Yep!" Aang answered with a huge smile on his face. Well he seemed like a nice kid, so far...
"Air Nomads?" I looked at Katara.
"Oh Yeah, Gran-Gran," she said with excitement seeping through her voice,"he's an Airbender! Sokka and I saw him airbend!"
"An Airbender?" I looked at him in disbelief.
"Yep!" Aang said,"the one and only here...I think," he answered awkwardly, as he rubbed his right hand on the back of his head, and closed his eyes with a slight blush creeping to his cheeks.
"Don't mind my grandson's rudeness, he's just...skeptical is all." I explained to Aang.
My grandson hadn't had much trust in anyone these days outside of our tribe, since the day his mother was murdered. I thought quietly to myself, not wanting to bring up the unpleasant past, at the moment.
"That's okay, I understand. I mean it's not everyday you meet and rescue an Airbender and his fly bison from a giant, frozen iceberg," he said happily and awkarldy laughed. "I mean, am I right?" He gave a few more chuckles.
I went onto explain to the young Airbender,"that's because no one has seen or heard about Airbenders being around in one hundred years. We thought they were extinct."
"Ex-extinct?"
Well that was odd, I thought to myself. How could one not know Of their own people's extinction? Perhaps a small group of Airbenders did survive the Fire Nations attack and are still living in secret. But any which way you look at it, it must be awful to know that one man could do such a thing to an entire civilization, all just to eliminate one person. Even today I still feel great sadness over the loss of my daughter, and she was just one person, so I cannot even imagine how this child must feel over the loss of his entire culture.
"Yes," I answered and to avoid anymore of this already awkward conversation I hurriedly reminded Katara that she had chores to do and that Sokka had the little warriors to train. But not without getting a warm, cooked meal of some left over stew first, which Sokka happily agreed too. After we had made our way from Aang.
"So Katara, after I get you guys some stew, you're going to have to tell me about this little mission of yours." While we were walking away from Aang, I noticed that Sokka had stopped to tell some of the other tribes women to keep a close eye on Aang and Appa. "We don't know if they're Fire Nation or not."