Book 1:
Chapter 1:
The waves washed peacefully and lapped at the edges of the ice. The sun shined down, sparkling on the snow as the air was crisp and cold.
"Sokka look!" A young girl was holding her hands out before her and the snow before her was moving and rising from the ice. Her brown hair was tied back into a braid and two loops moved from near her temples to the hairband behind her head at the nape of her neck. She wore a thick blue coat which had the collar of white fur. On her chest was a crescent moon and her hands were gloved in mittens.
As she shouted, a small boy no more than two years older than her came running. His hair was shaved at the sides and the top was pulled back into a pony tail. He wore mittens and his collar was covered in fur. In his hand he held a blue boomerang and he looked around holding it high as though looking for a threat.
"What is it!? What's wrong!?" the young boy called.
"I'm doing it! I'm lifting the snow!" the girl shouted with a beaming look on her face.
The boy stopped and his face dropped to annoyed as he lowered his hand holding the boomerang and stared at the girl with frustration.
"That's why you called me out here!?" he demanded but the girl just stared at her moving snow and ignored the boy. "Katara I thought something had happened!" the boy snapped.
"Isn't it amazing!?" Katara wondered with a sigh of wonder.
Sokka's eyes narrowed as he watched annoyed, annoyed the girl was ignoring his protests.
He watched however in amusement as the snow controlled by the girl flopped back to the ice and lay motionless. Katara frowned with disappointment.
"I thought I had it…" she muttered
"I thought it was weird." Sokka said and Katara glared at him.
"Now come on," Sokka suddenly grinned and rubbed his hands together, the boomerang between them. "I want some meat!"
Katara rolled her eyes and followed as the boy turned and began to jump hungrily across the snow. They moved through the cold land of white as Sokka moved along the edge of the ice, staring at the water in hopes of seeing some sort of animal below the water.
"Sokka I don't think you're going to find anything this close to land." Katara believed as she smirked, following him.
"Look!" Sokka stopped and pointed towards the edge of the ice and water. Katara looked surprised before hurrying to his side to see what he'd spotted.
The two children stared down into the water with confusion. Something was light, glowing slightly and just below the surface, it was blurred due to the water. The two watched as it moved through the water and went below the ice they were standing on.
"Don't let it get away!" Sokka said determined and he began to shuffle over the ice, staring down at the thing that went below the ice, bobbing along. Katara followed in confusion, staring between Sokka and the ice.
"What is it?" she questioned but Sokka only shushed her.
They followed the ice for a while in silence, Katara watching Sokka who never took his eyes off the rather bright object below the ice and snow.
Both children suddenly came to the stop as the object bobbed just below their feet and stopped moving, only shifting from side to side slightly.
"Sokka…" Katara said in a worried tone as the boy's grip on his boomerang tightened slightly.
She watched in surprise as Sokka suddenly began to bash the ice below him in an attempt to get to the thing.
The ice was thick and so did not crack out in branches as he hit it. Sokka was able to create a hole and then chip away at it to make it bigger and bigger. When he was finished the object floated to the surface of the crystal blue water below the ice.
The two children jumped backwards in shock.
To the surface of the water floated a rather strange shaped block of ice. The hole wasn't big enough for the large object to completely emerge, it tipped upwards, one side above the the water, the other still below the ice.
But at a closer look the two children realised that it was not simply a block of ice.
Within the middle of it was a body. It wore blue and white like the two children and had brown flowing hair which was flared out around her head within the ice. Her eyes were closed and her arms were spread out beside her. She looked peaceful and as though she were asleep.
Katara and Sokka stared at one another in shock before turning back to the frozen girl. She could not have been more than ten years old, close to Sokka's age.
Before the two children's eyes they watched in surprise as the ice around the girl melted. It ran along her skin and clothes, seeping into the fabric until all the water dispersed from the body, some of the ice water running into the water below her where she floated. Katara and Sokka's mouths were dropped open and their eyes wide.
There was a pause before the girl's eyes unexpectedly opened.
She squinted her eyes shut quickly as the sun beamed down on them. After a few seconds her blue eyes shone once more as she remained floating on the water. She looked around the sky before her eyebrows furrowed. She looked confused.
Katara had grabbed Sokka's sleeve as they watched her and the girl turned to them. They stared at one another before the blue eyes suddenly widened and the girl stopped floating. She splashed as she was startled and she grabbed the ice before looking around, her body shaking from the cold.
Katara watched as a scared and worried look crossed the ice girl's expression. She loosened her grip on the boy's sleeve and slowly she moved towards the trembling girl.
"Katara…!" Sokka muttered, trying not to let the mysterious girl hear as she looked worried and untrusting.
"Are you alright?" Katara wondered, ignoring her brother as she kneeled beside the hole in the ice.
"Where… a-am I…?" the girl's voice broke and trembled slightly, either from the cold or from fright she wasn't sure.
As she looked around some sort of understanding seemed to cross her expression and she then turned to Katara before her, staring at her surprised and then with curiosity.
"Who are you?" she wondered. Katara looked at her somewhat confused.
"I'm Katara." she answered, Sokka was looking between the both of them with surprised and somewhat confusion. "Who are you?" Katara wondered.
The girl looked at her, blinking, almost as though she was thinking about her answer.
"Freya." she answered.
Katara looked at her with slight confusion, almost as if she wasn't sure the girl was positive about that.
A shudder racked through Freya's body and Katara quickly moved as Freya began to pull herself from the icy water and onto the snow. She sat with her arms wrapped around her chest as she shivered.
"We need to get you warm." Katara realise in worry as she noticed the girl's skin was deathly pale and her lips and fingers were blue. "Sokka help me." she said as she moved to help Freya to her feet.
"What if she's from the Fire Nation!?" Sokka demanded in surprise to his sister's sudden care for the girl. Katara began to walk with Freya, Sokka beside them.
"Look at her," Katara said as she indicated to the ten year old girl's outfit. She wore fur boots which were tied to her calves with string and deep blue pants which clung from the water. She had a light blue, short sleeved kimono, crossed over her chest with white fur over the seams. It fell to her knees, a slit up the side and a deep blue under a white waist band held it all in together. Her hands were gloved with deep blue, the fingers cutting off at her knuckles.
"She's clearly water tribe." Katara believed
"Or that's what she wants you to think." Sokka scowled as he walked beside Katara who was leading the shivering girl. "Besides, I've never seen her before so how could she be from our tribe?"
"Maybe she's not…" Katara mumbled, her eyes widening "Maybe she's from the North!"
"Uh huh. Yeah. Sure. Freya, did you say your name was?" Sokka turned to the girl who's eyes only glanced at him as she watched the ice, almost as if she was worried she was going to fall over. "Yeah, how'd you get in the ice!?" Sokka demanded.
The girls eyebrows furrowed and she turned back to the snow before her.
"I… I don't remember." she muttered.
"Don't worry about it, let's just get you something warm to put on." Katara decided and she, despite the girl's worry to the ice, began to pick up the pace slightly. Sokka pouted beside her, not sure if he trusted this mystery girl, no matter what she wore.
The three arrived at a snow wall. It was on the edge of the ice and within it was a rather large igloo and then only around ten small tents. A few children ran around and women sat watching and chatting. A few were doing chores, sewing, cooking, making the fire stronger.
"Katara, Sokka, where have you been?" an old women moved towards them, she was short, grey haired and had the same hair loops as Katara.
"Gran-Gran," Katara called as she held Freya. "We need some hot water and some dry clothes."
"Dear me, what happened?"
"We found her in the water." Sokka admitted, giving the girl a scrutiny look.
"She was frozen." Katara admitted
"My poor girl," Gran-Gran muttered as she moved forwards, grabbed the girl's arms and helping Katara move Freya to one of the tents.
They sat her down and Gran-Gran easily removed the cold clothes from the girl and wrapped her in a dry and soft fur pelt.
"Sokka, go and get the girl some food. Katara, will you wash her clothes for her?" The two quickly left and the old women stayed with the girl.
"What happened to you dear? How did you end up in the ice?" Gran-Gran wondered
"I-I don't k-k-know." Freya shivered as she placed a hand on her head. "I d-don't r-r-remember." she confessed
"Do you remember where you're from?" Gran-Gran wondered
"Yes." Freya looked up at her "The S-S-Southern Water T-T-Tribe." she answered and the old women looked surprised.
"Are you sure dear?"
"Yes. But… I d-d-don't think I was there when th-th-this happened…" she furrowed her eyebrows as she thought in confusion. "I don't r-r-remember the snow and i-i-ice, the last thing I remember were b-b-b-buildings and t-t-trees…" she stopped and winced as though the memories were painful.
"And darkness."
"Sounds like one terrible ordeal." Gran-Gran smoothed the girl's hair and then took a towel to it to dry it.
"I found some food!" Sokka came barging into the tent with a plate in his hands.
"Keep your voice down Sokka." Gran-Gran ordered and Sokka frowned before he stepped lightly over towards the two and his Gran took the food. She handed it to Freya.
"Here you are dear, you must eat this. Who knows how long you've been without food." Gran-Gran said and the girl smiled at her before eating some of the penguin meat.
A little while later Katara came back and hung Freya's clothes on a line that hung in the tent.
"I've washed your clothes for you Freya," Katara went to light a fire beneath them, allowing the heat to dry and warm the materials. "They'll be nice and warm by the time you need them." Freya was too busy eating to answer.
They were silent and soon enough the girl had finished the food provided to her.
"Thanks very much." she said as Katara took the bowl.
"You're welcome." Katara smiled before Freya yawned.
"You should rest my child, you body will be able to completely heal itself now that you've warmed up a little." Gran-Gran said and Freya looked at her and then to Katara and Sokka.
"Okay." she was hesitant but she laid down in the fur pelt and closed her eyes. Soon enough Freya fell asleep wrapped in the warm pelt by the fire which was drying her clothes. Her skin was no longer as pale and grey, the blue tinge had left her lips and fingers and Sokka and Katara stared at her in confusion as their grandmother sat behind them.
"It was so strange, seeing the ice melt around her Gran-Gran." Katara admitted as they watched the child.
"Yeah, it just melted straight away and she opened her eyes as if nothing had happened." Sokka said
"Did you bend it Katara?" Gran-Gran wondered
"No." Katara answered "Or at least, I don't think I did…" she whispered glancing at her hands, the mittens having been removed from them.
"So, who is she?" Sokka wondered
"She said her name was Freya, Sokka." Katara reminded him
"She says she's from the Southern Water Tribe." Gran-Gran admitted and both children gasped.
"But, I've never seen her before…" Katara thought
"Neither have I." Gran-Gran confessed
"But how can that be?" Sokka admitted "She's only ten years old, she'd have to be an old lady to have lived here before you wouldn't she?" Sokka questioned and his grandmother sighed while Katara hit him.
"You can't say stuff like that Sokka!" she scolded.
"It could have been that this girl was in the ice for many years." Gran-Gran wondered
"Years?!" Katara asked, her eyes wide "How could she have lived all that time?"
"The ice could have put her body into a status in which her vitals were sustained." Kanna offered
"So, then she could be years old!" Sokka said surprised as the three looked at her.
"But how did she end up like this in the first place?" Katara wondered
"That is the ultimate mystery." Gran-Gran nodded.