Congrats, this fic officially got my longest chapter to date. Go me! I couldn't find a good place to stop it until the end. So, yeah, you get a very long chapter this update.
Chapter 3
Sokka had to admit, it was weird waking up after nearly drowning and then freezing to death. He'd been stuck sitting in his family's hut for the better part of a week, suffering through a cold that he knew he'd gotten from his impromptu dunk into the ocean, but the Water Tribe boy couldn't deny that he was a bit disturbed by how he had fallen into the ocean to begin with. The cold he could deal with, his mom and grandmother stuffing him with as much hot soups and broths as they could, it was the odd thoughts drifting through his head that he couldn't.
Not that he'd admit that he'd freaked out over seeing a dead body to his sister or other female relatives. He had a reputation to uphold, after all. He was supposed to become a man. Men didn't scream and flail around when they came across dead bodies. They persevered and remained stoic the entire time. They certainly didn't have hallucinations about people that didn't exist or places they'd never visited before.
Therefore, Sokka remained silent, instead blaming his fall on the great white beast that had, for some odd reason, taken to sleeping right outside the igloo he and his family lived in. The flying bison certainly couldn't complain (not like Appa could, and how the heck he'd come up with the name as well as what Appa was, he couldn't figure out) and for some odd reason, Sokka didn't have as much of an urge to turn it into bison jerky as he thought he would have in other situations. He chalked it up to the whole weirdness of the situation itself, consoling himself and reminding himself that it had to be a result of the fall in the water. Nothing else made any sense.
What he didn't miss were the looks his Gran-gran and mom gave him when they thought he wasn't looking. Katara either never noticed them, or ignored them completely, but they looked like they were seeing a ghost. Which, Sokka reminded himself, wasn't possible since there were no such things as ghosts. However, the feeling persisted, and he just wished that they wouldn't look at him like he'd disappear at any moment.
By the time that he'd been allowed back out, five days had passed. Sokka had been going slowly stir-crazy during the time, and had jumped at the opportunity. He all but raced out of the hut, closely followed by Katara. Grinning, he took his first breath outside of the hut and wished for a minute that his nose wasn't so stopped up, but still stretched and gave a whistle for Kiba.
What he didn't expect was for a giant tongue to suddenly assault him, leaving half of him soaking wet and the left side of his hair sticking up. "Ugh, Appa! Did you really have to do that? Ew ew ew!"
"Who's Appa?" Sokka blinked and turned toward Katara, who was looking at him curiously.
"Um, the ten-ton flying bison? You know, the giant furball we've had for the past five days?" Katara still looked confused, and Sokka groaned. "What? That's his name."
Katara looked exasperated. "First, I didn't even know what a flying bison was until you told me, and second, how do you know what one is? It can't have come from the poles since we would have seen something that big before."
Sokka had to stop and think, considering his sister's words as he absently bent the slobber off of him. After all, he didn't want another case of hypothermia. He couldn't answer her question about how he knew any of it though, and that bothered him. How did he know, anyway? A stray thought came to mind when he remembered the whispers. Nope, he wasn't going to get into all that mess right now. It gave him too much of a headache. "I dunno. I just… knew."
The weirdness didn't end with his near-drowning, and Sokka found himself more and more growing frustrated. Frustrated with the fact that he could still hear the whispers, even months after the accident, frustrated with the fact that waterbending, while hard before, had become a nearly impossible task, and frustrated by Katara suddenly becoming a mother hen. It didn't help that when the men had come back from the hunt, his mom and grandmother had gone to discuss something with Bato, and now even Bato looked at him in that weird way.
His dreams had taken on an odd tone, with him constantly flying above the mountains, and it made him wonder if this was what it was like to suffer from the nastier effects of winter nights. Which, when they started, it hadn't even gotten into the dark part of the year quite yet. Sokka found that the more he dreamed, the stranger his dreams got, almost but not quite to the point where he didn't want to dream. He persevered though, convinced it was just an aftereffect of his dunk in the ocean. Nothing more.
Sokka, determined to escape the weird looks and the strangeness that seemed to be his life now, ignored it all and threw himself into the work the tribe needed. He'd become pretty adept at figuring that if no one knew he had any issues after, then they wouldn't bother him. No one did thankfully, so he let the incident drift to the back of his mind, eventually nearly forgetting it years later.
Of course it had to be when they went out to sea to fish that fate decided to screw with him again. He and Katara, having watched the men of their tribe disappear off to war, had become the de facto leaders of the tribe. Sort of. They were the eldest children, and as Sokka was the only male left, he had a job to do. He was supposed to be protecting and providing for the tribe, and while the women worked, Sokka took it upon himself to go out hunting, fishing, and teaching the younger boys of the village how to fight.
Not that Sokka had much experience in that department. He had only ever been in one battle before, and that particular battle had been the worst experience in his life. However, it was better than none, and the boys were supposed to be prepared for anything, especially since no one was left at the village to defend it. He didn't expect for them to be in a battle with firebenders, but the fact remained it was still a very real possibility and he didn't want to see what happened years ago to happen again.
He and Katara had been in a canoe, trying to catch fish. Of course, Sokka had been concentrating on getting the fish. Katara had decided to waterbend a fish out of the water. One wet Sokka later, and he was too busy wringing out his parka and glaring at his sister.
"Why is it that every time you play with magic water, I get soaked?"
Katara huffed, annoyed. "It's not magic. It's waterbending. You'd do it too if you ever bothered to practice."
"Yeah, like I need to know how to move water." As if being contrary to his own claims, he swirled his hands to throw the water overboard.
"See? Right there. You just waterbended Sokka. Admit it. You wanna learn." Katara fixed him with her most scolding glare, arms crossed as she stared down her brother. "Besides, you keep saying you want to protect the village. Why not learn to waterbend?"
Sokka crossed his own arms and harrumphed. "Yeah, no. We've had this argument how many times now? Every time you ask, I say no. Besides, what good is it going to do? If you haven't noticed, we're at the South Pole, with no masters around. Unless you know of some masters off in the ice, I'll just stick with Boomerang."
Katara snorted. "Well, at least I try to learn. What happens if a master shows up? Are you going to tell them you haven't even tried the basics yet?"
Sokka shrugged. "Hey, at least I'll be truthful."
"Whatever."
Silence reigned for a bit. Sokka decided to enjoy it for a moment. Katara, of course, had to break that moment of peace.
"You don't talk about Dad much, you know."
Sokka sighed, laying his spear across his lap so he could pinch the bridge of his nose. "Katara, please. Don't-"
"Don't what? It's been how long now, six years? Dad wouldn't have wanted this." Katara was studying him carefully, and Sokka shifted.
"There's probably a lot of things Dad didn't want, but they still happened. I don't think he would have liked Bato going to war, but that still happened. He probably would have hated even more the idea of us being left behind too." Sokka sighed, bringing his hand down to look at Katara. "I just don't want to talk about him, okay?"
Katara scowled but said nothing. He could tell she wanted to scold him again, like she always did, but he wasn't letting that get to him. He knew as well as she did that it wouldn't do any good. He was being as stubborn as an iceberg and she knew it.
Instead he considered what he was doing and looked back over the water to see if he could spot some fish. Maybe he could manage to spear some if his sister wasn't messing with the water? It was probably a futile hope, but Sokka was determined to bring something back.
His attention, however, was jarred the moment that he felt the canoe give a jolt. Sokka froze, and then paled considerably when he realized that the canoe was no longer sitting idly, but was instead moving swiftly down a current of water. Katara seemed to realize it too, and she started trying to gesture to possibly dislodge the craft from it. Sokka meanwhile was paddling as quickly as he could.
"Go left, go left!"
"I'm trying!"
Sokka didn't even try waterbending. He knew he wasn't skilled enough to attempt to get the current to slow down or even divert itself enough for him to get out of it. Instead, he had enough of a challenge avoiding the ice floes and hoping they didn't smash their canoe into tinder. Katara was trying, and he knew she was, but she didn't have nearly the skill to get them out of the current either.
The resulting crash of two floes sent them sprawling across the ice, and Sokka slid dangerously toward the edge. A quick glance behind him affirmed to him that Katara had managed to stay on the same piece of ice he was on, but now they both had a problem. They were stranded.
"Great. We're stranded." Sokka would have flopped over, but he didn't want a repeat of hypothermia. Instead, he rolled over and looked at his sister. "Any ideas on how we can get out of this mess?"
"Well, if you had helped me waterbend, we might not be in this situation." Katara crossed her arms and glared.
"Well, I hate to break it to you sis, but what's done is done. We need to find a way to get off of this ice and get back home." Sokka scanned the floes, trying to figure out a way out of the mess.
"What about over there? I think I might be able to freeze enough of the water to get there." Sokka turned and saw Katara pointing toward a lone iceberg. Suddenly a shiver ran down his spine as he realized that Katara meant to go to it.
"Can we go another way? I mean, some of these floes happen to be pretty close." Sokka really didn't want to go near any icebergs, not since his last encounter with one. Judging by the shape of this one, he wouldn't have been surprised if it held the same thing.
Katara however wasn't listening. "Oh come on Sokka. At least if we climb up it a bit, we can see where we need to go."
"Never listens to me," he mumbled, shaking his head. He eyed his sister. "Lemme guess, we both have to freeze the water."
"Well, if you want to get out of here, yes." Katara was already standing at the edge of the floe, gauging the distance. "There's no way I can get the ice thick enough for us otherwise."
"Fine." Sokka rolled his eyes and joined Katara at the edge. "If this doesn't work, I'm going to say I told you so."
"If it does, you won't hear me complaining about your lack of waterbending for a week." Katara grinned. "Now, come on. Just copy what I do."
Katara swept her arms back and pushed forward, her arms extending. Sokka tried to follow, but found that he hopped in the middle. Grimacing, he tried it again with the same results. "This isn't working."
"You're hopping around. Stop that and keep your feet on the ice." Katara rolled her eyes now.
"I'm trying! Gimme a break!" Frustrated, Sokka threw his arms down instead, and blinked as the ice between the iceberg and the floe froze solid. "Um wow, that's never happened before."
Katara smirked. "I told you you could do it." She then tested the ice before hopping onto the frozen sheet. "Now come on! I bet we can see all the way home from the tip there."
Sokka shook his head. This was such a bad idea, he thought, but Katara wasn't listening. By the time he'd crossed onto the sheet, she was already on the iceberg, looking it over.
"Um, Sokka…" He frowned, hearing the tremble in her voice. "Nobody's been out this way in years, right?"
That bad feeling gripped him again as Sokka froze. "No, not to my knowledge. Uh, why?"
"Come here then, I think you need to see this."
"No I don't," he murmured, and would have run if not for the fact that there was literally nowhere else to run to. He swore there were whispers on the wind, and his feet felt like lead as he walked toward where Katara was. Cresting the edge of the iceberg, he looked first to Katara before looking toward where she was pointing.
His stomach turning in knots, Sokka stared at the blackened corpse he'd left years ago. Well, he hadn't left it per se; he'd been carried away from it more than likely. That didn't mean anything as he could hear the whispering getting louder. He shook his head, trying to get rid of it, but it just increased in volume. Then everything disappeared in a sea of blue.
Katara hadn't known what was going to happen when her brother came over with her. She certainly hadn't expected him to freak out like he did. He was shivering, and Katara could understand why. Whoever was in front of them, they were long dead, and she didn't like the idea of seeing a corpse either.
However, all of that was chased from her mind the moment that Sokka's body suddenly burst with light. His eyes glowing, a wind suddenly whipped around him, causing Katara to have to try and shield herself. "Sokka?" What was going on? She'd never seen anything like this before.
Sokka couldn't hear her. Whatever was going on with her brother, he seemed to lose the ability to do anything. Katara cast about, trying to think of something to snap him out of this, but was coming up empty. It wasn't until she heard a bellow above the cacophony that she realized that she might have help.
"Appa!" Boy was she glad to see the bison. She thought him weird and definitely alien, but at least Sokka had seemed receptive toward the strange creature. The rest of the village didn't know what to make of him, but Sokka had prevented him from being turned into meals. She didn't understand why, either. Sokka was crazy about meat.
The flying bison landed on the iceberg, in between Katara and her brother, and she couldn't help but feel relieved that Appa was taking the brunt of the wind. Her attention then turned toward her brother, and her heart plummeted as she realized he was now twenty feet in the air. "Appa, we need to get Sokka to stop this!"
Appa rumbled, and attempted to grab Sokka with his teeth. However, the winds buffeted the bison, preventing Appa from getting close. It was then that Katara got a crazy idea. Appa couldn't get close, but Sokka wouldn't hurt her, right?
Climbing on top of Appa's head, she swallowed nervously before she decided to launch herself off toward her brother. Catching him around the middle, they both crashed to the ground, rolling precariously toward the edge. Appa seemed to sense they were in danger of falling off, and sucked in a breath to drag them back.
Whatever had gotten ahold of Sokka, her knocking him down seemed to have snapped him out of it. He groaned, holding his head and sitting up slowly. He then looked at Katara with the most confused look on his face. "Um, what just happened?"
"I don't know." Katara admitted. "You just started glowing and then there was this wind that went crazy."
Sokka pressed the palms of his hands over his eyes, rubbing them before looking around. "I think we'd better get out of here."
"What about the body though? We can't just leave it."
Sokka bit his lip. "I um, I don't think I should be around it." At Katara's incredulous stare, he added, "This isn't the first time I saw it and it just, I dunno, something happened the last time too." Pressing his hands to his temples, he looked toward where he knew the body was, but Appa's bulk was blocking his view. "You think that it'd be a good idea to just send it to the ocean?"
Katara examined her brother carefully before nodding. Whatever had happened with Sokka, it had really freaked her out, and she wasn't keen on seeing a repeat. Standing, she made her way around Appa before kneeling to examine the body. The robes were unfamiliar, and Katara winced before she started searching through them.
"What are you doing?" Sokka had come around Appa and was standing a distance away from her, not quite looking at what she was doing but obviously paying attention nonetheless.
"I'm looking to see if there's a way I can find out who it is. We can't send it to the Ocean without something like that." Katara winced as her hand brushed against the body's flesh, but she shook it off and continued investigating.
"…Aang." When Katara looked back toward him in confusion, Sokka shuffled uncomfortably. "His name. It's Aang."
"How do you know that?"
"I don't know!" Sokka threw up his hands in frustration. "Look, can we please go back to the village where things make sense and I don't get all glowy? All of this? Well outside my comfort zone Katara."
Katara leaned back on her heels, frowning. Sokka had never been comfortable with spirit talk and she knew it, but this was like some sort of spirit tale. Shaking her head, she stood, deciding that maybe now wasn't the best time to deal with the body. "We'll leave this for later then. It just… It doesn't seem right to move it yet." Not to mention she wasn't about to freak her brother out anymore. Whatever had happened had freaked him out, and she wanted to know more about the first time he'd come across the body.
The trip back to the village was a silent affair, Sokka having taken the reins and directed Appa back. He had to admit, flying did have some advantages, such as going faster than boats could travel. It was how Sokka used Appa to go out further than he usually did to get food, especially since the ten-ton bison required a lot of food. Sokka was just glad that Appa spent a lot of the winter more north, where he could actually eat his fill on food up there. Seaweed could only go so far in the bison's diet, after all.
What had happened, though? All he remembered was that the whispers started, and then he couldn't see anything but blue, until some kid appeared and apologized. Sokka was pretty certain that he was going crazy now, and that he needed to talk to Yuka before it got worse. Especially since the kid was the same one he'd been dreaming about for years.
Sliding off the bison, he wobbled uncertainly before he was caught by Kiba, who had raced forward and was even now trying to nuzzle his way forward to assault Sokka with his tongue. Sokka chuckled without any humor before he looked over to where Katara was getting off. She'd tried to ask him about the body and how he'd come across it, but he'd refused to speak.
"Sokka?" Speaking of which, there was Katara now. He hoped she didn't ask him about any of it again. "I wanted to say sorry. You said it was a bad idea, and I didn't listen. I didn't realize you'd run into that before."
Sokka blinked and proceeded to poke his sister with the tip of his club. "Okay, who are you, and what have you done with my sister? You're not some kind of Fire Nation infiltrator, are you?"
Katara gave him an indignant look. "Fine. See if I care about you doing that again." She huffed and stormed off, though Sokka was certain that she'd be back with a vengeance.
Sighing, he ran his fingers through Kiba's fur again, trying to reorient himself on the here and now before he faced the rest of the tribe. He was certain that this latest incident regarding him was going to have the entire village gossiping like the last time. Except last time, he'd gotten a bad case of hypothermia. This time, he came back with an even weirder tale of dead bodies and weird glowing and winds out of nowhere.
Giving Appa one final pat, he decided to leave it for later. He was exhausted, and Kiba was doing pretty well for keeping him upright. He needed to sleep for a while, preferably for a decade if he could help it.
"I'm sorry."
Sokka blinked, turning around in an ocean of blue to stare at the kid from his dreams. The kid was tattooed with blue arrows, and he was dressed in oranges and yellows. He had no hair, and Sokka suspected it was more to do with shaving his head than any natural baldness. "Sorry for what?"
"It wasn't supposed to happen like this. I messed up, and now you're stuck with the job." The kid scuffed one foot against the nonexistent ground before looking properly at Sokka. "I didn't mean to do that to you. I'm sorry."
Sokka felt something drop in his stomach and he frowned, brow furrowing at the boy. "What did you mess up?" A thought occurred to him, and he blinked. "Wait, you're the body, aren't you?"
"Oh, you found me? Wow, I must really look bad now, huh?" The kid rubbed the back of his head and let out a nervous chuckle. "I guess I should apologize for that too, huh?"
"Huh?"
"Well, Gyatso always said that you should never try to find your past incarnations' resting places, since it can get pretty bad." The kid grinned and leapt up and then floated into a seated position. "I guess that's why you keep going into the Avatar State."
"The what?" Sokka blinked, sure he'd heard the kid wrong. "Wait, you're my past incarnation? What?"
"Well yeah. The Avatar is always reincarnated." The boy stared. "Wait, you didn't know that?"
Sokka felt faint. "Know what? Which part?"
"Oh, um, well, maybe I'm not the best one to explain this." The kid rubbed the back of his head again, looking around. "I wonder if Roku's around to talk to you. He kind of left this whole thing a mess for me to deal with, but I got stuck. Which, I'm still sorry about that."
"I'm suffering from midnight sun madness, aren't I?" Sokka sat down with a thump, not even caring anymore if the surroundings had nothing to support him. "None of this can be real."
"Oh, it's real all right. I was told I was the Avatar by the Temple Elders, though Gyatso said I shouldn't have learned I was until I was sixteen." The kid grinned at Sokka. "You're almost there though, so maybe it's better for you? I mean, you got to be a kid and everything first."
"Yeah, sure, if being a kid meant trying to make sure your family survived the winter." Sokka shook himself. "I'm the Avatar?"
"Well, you wouldn't be talking to me if you weren't." The kid stuck out his hand, which Sokka took hesitantly. "I'm Aang. What's your name?"
"Sokka. Um, you do realize you should have picked someone else, right?" Sokka was reaching and he knew it. Maybe if he wished hard enough, he would stop being the Avatar.
Aang looked confused. "Picked someone else? Um, it doesn't work that way, sorry."
"But I'm the worst bender in the whole South Pole! Heck, I don't even want to be a bender. Can't it all go away and I go back to hunting and stuff? That's what I'm good at." Sokka flailed, trying to illustrate his point.
"You mean like go to that cute girl that was with you?" Aang blinked at Sokka.
Sokka however sputtered and waved his arms around to banish the idea of Katara being cute from his mind. "Oh no, no, no, no, no. My sister is not cute. She's pushy and bossy and nitpicks everything and refuses to leave me alone about bending. If you had to choose an Avatar, sure, pick her, not me."
Aang shrugged. "Well, it's kind of too late now. Unless we could bend time, but that doesn't work." Aang then gave Sokka a pleading look. "Look, I'm sorry, but I can't change who was chosen to be the Avatar. You're the greatest hope the world has right now."
"Way to pile on the responsibility. You know, I was just happy being a nice, normal person, you know."
"And I was happy being just a kid and having fun." Aang suddenly looked older than just a kid, making Sokka wonder just how old he really was. "Life kind of doesn't work that way."
Sokka groaned, holding his head in his hands. "Well, okay then. What do we do now?"
Aang relaxed, and bit his lip. "Well, you have to master all four elements first."
Sokka looked up in horror. "What? I don't even waterbend! I can't! How am I supposed to learn all four elements?"
"But you have to!" Aang looked hurt. "I know you can do it. There's no one else that can!"
Sokka felt desperate now. "But even if I manage to learn the others, there's no one that can teach me airbending! I mean, c'mon! Gimme a break!"
Aang looked sad then, drawing himself together into a ball. "I'm sorry Sokka. You have to though. You'll figure it out. I mean, you do have Appa, and airbenders learned from sky bison. You can do it." Sokka made to protest further, but Aang started fading from sight. Reaching out, it felt like he was trying to grab a gust of wind before Aang disappeared completely.
Sokka awoke with a start, looking around before he realized he was alone within the hut. The Avatar. The dream kid stated he was the Avatar. His arms wrapped around his knees as he chewed his lip. Why him? He was an awful bender, he preferred reality to fantasy, and he certainly wasn't spiritual like Katara was. Ugh, this was a nightmare waiting to begin, he knew it.
He stood from his bedding, stretching and grabbing up a change of clothes before he ventured out of the hut. Glancing around, he didn't see Katara anywhere, but he did spot his mom and grandmother working on some baskets. He decided to approach, thinking if anyone knew about all of this crazy happening to him, it was Gran-Gran.
"Hey Mom, Gran-Gran, hypothetically, what would happen if someone just woke up one day and found out they were the Avatar? Just hypothetically." Hopefully they didn't get the impression that he was asking for himself.
Kya stared at him for a moment, and Sokka fidgeted. She then turned to look at Gran-Gran, who was studying him quietly before she sighed. "When did you find out, Sokka?"
Sokka felt like the ground fell away from underneath him as he stared before sitting down heavily. "Oh man, you mean it wasn't a crazy dream? I'm really it?"
Kya closed her eyes before looking at Sokka again. "It was when you had hypothermia. We were convinced you were going to die, but then you breathed fire."
"I breathe fire? What?"Sokka's eyes then narrowed. "Wait, you knew for the past two years? Why didn't anyone tell me these things?" He waved his arms for emphasis, before groaning and covering his face again. His brain needed to reboot. He'd developed midnight sun madness. It was literally the only explanation that made sense.
"How did you find out?" Kanna's eyes examined her grandson carefully, before Sokka realized that he hadn't said how. It was going to sound bad and he knew it.
"I um, I had a dream about some bald kid apologizing and telling me that I used to be him, or he used to be me? I dunno, it was really confusing." Sokka shrugged. "But they said I was the Avatar and, um, why are you looking at me like that?"
His mom and grandmother were staring at him, and Sokka shifted nervously. "Sokka, you dreamt you were the Avatar?" Kanna's eyes were sharp as she frowned.
"Well, yeah, I guess so. I think he was the last airbending Avatar. He didn't tell me much other than I need to master bending." He left out the fact that he'd pleaded with the other kid that they'd made a mistake and that they should take it back. No one needed to know that.
"He never said what happened to him?" Kya blinked as she looked at Kanna before looking back at Sokka.
"No, he just said he messed up and was stuck." He then paled, realizing what else he'd mentioned. "He, um, he also died. I accidentally found him two years ago in ice."
Kya looked worried. "Sokka, there's a pretty big reason we never told you. When we found out, we were shocked, but we then realized something. You're not safe here."
"What does me being safe have to do with knowing?"
She placed a hand over Sokka's. "Because if you knew, then there was a greater chance that other people would find out. We've heard that the Fire Nation has been searching all over the world for the Avatar. With no benders to teach you, you're not capable of dealing with them on your own."
Sokka snorted. "So what? I basically have to hide that I'm the Avatar? Mom, I know you protect me from a lot of things, but honestly? What if I go all glowy during one of the raids?"
"That would be why Bato felt it best if during his travels, he tried to find teachers for you." Kanna sighed, rubbing her forehead. "Trust us when we say that he did mean no harm, and neither did we. We just didn't feel that there was much we could do, not until you were able to protect yourself while you trained."
Sokka considered it for a moment. "So there's not much anyone can do right now. I can understand that. Just, um, Mom, Gran-Gran? Maybe tell me next time? That way I can avoid Aang's corpse?" He then paused. "Or does that make it my corpse? Ugh, this is too confusing. I'm going to go train the kids."
He wasn't lying either. The idea that he had a body lying around that belonged to his past life made his head hurt, and he decided it was best that he ignore the idea for now. He proceeded to deal with the group of kids that he was used to, unaware that his life was going to get a lot tougher.
Katara sighed as she carried down a basket filled with food to the village below. Ever since her brother had his freak out, she hadn't been able to talk to him about it. It was one thing for Sokka to avoid bending, she knew he'd do that, but it another for him to avoid her completely. Though, part of that avoidance was because Sokka had dropped off to sleep as soon as his head hit the pillow last night and he hadn't woken up until late in the morning. Katara wondered how much of what happened to her brother wore him out to the point he was pretty comatose for fourteen hours straight.
Nevertheless, she could see him out now dealing with the younger boys in the village. She could tell he was in a crabby mood judging by the fact that he was being short with some of the younger kids, but so far, he wasn't acting any differently that she could see. She still saw her silly, hyperactive, crazy brother, and whatever happened to him obviously hadn't affected him too much.
Shaking her head, she went about the rest of her day, preparing things and getting things ready for when they had to settle in for the winter. Honestly, she had other things to worry about than what was wrong with her brother. She could worry about it later. It wasn't until later, when her mother had sent her to go get Sokka for lunch, when she spotted something on the horizon.
It looked like a dirty black smudge, and she decided to climb the snow wall near the village to examine it properly. It wasn't for a good few minutes that she realized that she was staring at a ship, one she hadn't seen in years.
Suddenly forgetting all about lunch, she raced down the wall toward the village below. "There's a ship! A Fire nation ship!"
Her mother had come out of the hut, looking toward where Katara was coming from. She disappeared back in, only to reemerge moments later with Gran-Gran. Together, the two women started calling for the other women to get people to safety.
Sokka, who had just dismissed the young boys to go to lunch, had turned to look in the direction Katara was. Frowning, he raced up the wall, Katara deciding to follow right behind as she refused to hide behind something. Sokka had stopped, but she could easily see how pale her brother looked as he looked at the ship bearing down on their village.
"It's my fault…"
"What?" Katara stared at Sokka for a moment, sure she'd heard wrong. "What do you mean, your fault? You haven't even left the village since we got back. How is this your fault?"
Sokka ignored her, instead racing toward their hut. Katara was confused and frustrated. Why was it that everything about her brother lately left her frustrated? Clenching her jaw, she stormed into the tent after him. "Sokka, what are you…?" She trailed off, watching what he was doing. "You can't seriously think you're going to fight them alone."
"Bato left me in charge of defending the village. I have to Katara." Sokka grabbed up his boomerang and club, then slipped his machete over his shoulder. He hadn't put on war paint, but she realized it didn't matter. He'd have no time.
"Well, not alone you're not." Katara stared him down as she grabbed one of his spears before frowning as she realized she'd never fought with one before.
Sokka groaned. "Ugh, fine. You shouldn't even be in this anyway. You're a girl. But, if you really want to do this…" He grabbed the spear from her and readjusted her grip. "You really can't fight, but if you have to, just jab it at the other guy. Seriously though? Don't even try attacking. If something happens to me, yeah, but don't."
Katara glared. "What makes you think something's going to happen to you? After all, we're fighting together."
"Can we not get into a fight before we have a fight?" Sokka palmed his face before shooting a look at his sister. "Look, they're probably after waterbenders again. If I have to…" Sokka swallowed but shook his head. "Look, if I have to, I'll say I'm one. Maybe they'll leave you alone, but if not, then if I go down…"
"You're not going down." Katara said it with as much conviction as she could put into her voice. "I'm not going to let that happen."
Before Sokka could reply, a crash sounded from the direction of the wall. The siblings exchanged a look before Sokka grabbed up his other spear and raced out of the hut. Katara followed, ignoring the look the other women gave her. Sokka may have been the only adult male left in the tribe, but that didn't mean he had to deal with everything by himself.
She stood by Sokka, even though he kept on trying to shoo her behind him. The ship, which had just been a tiny shape on the horizon when she had looked, had cracked the ice and knocked down a portion of the wall. The bow of the ship was parked within the wall in the middle of the clearing before the village. Looking at it, she felt small before the ship, but kept her grip on the spear in her hand. She wasn't going to let the Fire Nation have their way.
A creak was the only warning either sibling got before the front of the ship dropped into a ramp, causing Katara and Sokka to dive to either side. Sokka recovered first, standing quickly to face the invaders. A group of soldiers descended the ramp, one of whom was an older man, while another was a short person with a weird helmet in front.
Sokka didn't hesitate and charged, Katara standing open-mouthed behind him in horror. The person in front easily blocked Sokka's spear thrust, snapping the weapon in half and tossing Sokka over the side of the ramp. It didn't stop her brother though, as Sokka dug himself out of the snow and threw Boomerang at the leader.
Katara shouldn't have felt like giggling when the man ducked only to have the projectile hit him in the helmet on its return trip. The older man managed to catch it when it bounced, studying it curiously for a moment before he returned his attention to the scene. By this point, Sokka had run at the person in front, trying to strike him with his club. A sound roundhouse knocked Sokka into the snow again, and the person in front seemed to be getting annoyed.
"Where is the Avatar? I know he's hiding somewhere."
Katara's eyes widened, and she glanced back to notice that not only her, but her village had come out to stare at the spectacle. She didn't know how to answer him though. The Avatar was a legend, a person that hadn't been seen in a hundred years. If they had visited the South Pole, they'd never known it.
A hand shot out, and Gran-Gran was snatched from the group in front. The person in front demanded again, "Let me ask again. He'd be this age, master of all elements. Where is he?" He shoved Kanna back at the group, and Kya caught her again.
Suddenly a wave of ice erupted from the side, and people stared over to who had caused it. Sokka stood firm, but Katara could tell he was terrified. "Don't you dare touch any of them!"
The ice wave, while it caught him by surprise, didn't seem to slow the man down. Growling, he lashed out with a foot, catching the wave with a blast of his own fire. It broke apart, and Sokka was again thrown back.
"Sokka!" Katara acted without thinking. She threw the spear she was holding, only for the man to kick it out of the way. He then stormed over and grabbed Katara by the braid, yanking her in front of everyone.
"No!" Katara looked over at Sokka, who looked like he was going to get sick. "If we tell you who it is, will you leave the village in peace?"
"Sokka, no…" Gran-Gran looked shocked, and her mother didn't look any better. If Katara didn't know any better, she'd have thought they were afraid of what Sokka was going to say.
Suddenly pieces started falling into place in Katara's mind, and the man – no, teen, she could see him better now that she was up close – considered Sokka for a moment. At a nod, Sokka relaxed his stance, but looked like he was going to his execution instead. "It's me. I'm the Avatar."
"No…" Katara held one hand in front of her mouth, but the teen holding her paid her no attention. He shoved her toward her mom, who caught Katara and was instead staring in horror at the scene in front of her. Sokka, her stupid, moronic, boneheaded brother, he was the Avatar?
"You're him? You're the Avatar?" The teen sounded as shocked as Katara felt.
"Going all glowy, weird whispering only I can hear, ghosts that don't stay ghosts and instead tell me I was them in the past, and firebending? I think that covers a lot of it, don't you?" Katara was going to hit Sokka. She was going to tear open all the seams in his pants and make him eat seaweed for a month. Why was he doing this?
"Take him." At the order, several of the soldiers with the teen grabbed Sokka. The teen gave Sokka a look. "If you're lying…"
"I'm not. The last Avatar froze in the ice." The look in Sokka's eyes was hard, and he glared at the other teen.
Jerking his head, the teen turned and started toward the ship. Sokka was shoved ahead of him by the soldiers holding him, and Katara felt her knees give out. The last she saw of her brother before the ship closed was Sokka glancing back, looking just as scared as she felt.