Disclaimer; I don't own anything from 'Avatar: the Last Airbender'. I only own the concepts of this fanfic, including my character Shin.
Shared Fates
By Ryoko Porter
Chapter Two – Unexpected Encounters
Sokka had to fight desperately to keep awake, so that his surrogate family could safely rest their weary bodies. He had little doubt that their pain was much greater than his, but still his body ached! A small voice in the back of his mind whispered that it was the fault of his Water Tribe blood that he suffered so in the desert. Sokka's body was made to bear the cold of the South Pole, not the sweltering heat of an Earth Kingdom desert! The cactus juice he had drunk had quenched his thirst; but had left his body weak, and still he'd had to endure. And now, he wanted nothing more than to sleep his sickness away, though he could not.
Trusting that there was nothing to harm the others, Sokka decided to take a short walk. He wouldn't go far, just far enough that he could still have both his privacy and sight of camp. As he ventured out, Sokka noticed that despite the similitude of all of the sand dunes surrounding the glider, the storm had drastically changed the terrain. The shape of the land was different, and debris littered the ground. He thought for a moment that their might be something that he might salvage amongst the broken cacti, palm leaves, and locust corpses, but he knew that there was likely nothing usable. Well actually, they could eat the locusts; but he wasn't yet hungry enough to do that, maybe in the morning.
As Sokka went further out, he detected an odd shape protruding from the sand only a few yards away. So with his curiosity to nagging at him, the clever yet trouble attracting teen went to see what had been buried. His fatigued legs had nearly carried him to the odd shape when his foot caught on something and he fell heavily onto his face. Frustration flooded his face with hot blood and he cried out, ready to kick whatever had tripped him. But as he turned, the blood suddenly left his face and he felt a bit sick. It was a hand. A human hand stretched out of the sand, and contorted in the most distressed way. As if it had been trying to use the air to pull it's owner out from under the suffocating sand, the fingers were stretched outward desperately. But it was unmoving, and heavy with death. Sokka did not have the nerve to dig out any other part of the man -judging by the hand's features- who'd obviously been killed by the desert. Instead the teen covered the hand, so that he and the others would not have to look upon the flesh.
After taking moment to say a quiet prayer for the poor soul, Sokka remembered the reason that he'd come this way. Turning, he saw that they unusual looking mound of sand still had yet to give up any of it's secrets. Now being much closer now though, he could tell that whatever was under and within, was something not naturally of the desert. So with care not to again trip over the place where the hand was buried, Sokka got up and took the few more steps to his quarry. He hoped with everything he had that whatever he was about to uncover, was not the friends of deceased man behind him. But both his logic and his instinct told him that he should still see what it was. So with a steadying breath, he started to dig. He didn't have to go far, as he felt the smoothness of a polished terracotta. It turned out to be two huge pots, both amazingly undamaged, though lying on their sides. Excited at the prospect of having found food or drink, Sokka rushed to uncover the rest of the pots so he could stand them upright. Yet as he tried to lift the first of the pots, he found that it was much too heavy. So he tried the other, which was lighter, but still too heavy for him to lift alone. But sure that there was no liquid to spill pointlessly onto the dry ground, Sokka decided to it was safe to open them on their sides. So with a bit of difficulty, the desperately curious teen opened the lighter of the two.
"HOLY SHIT!" Sokka cried out in surprise as he fell back a few feet away from his peculiar prize.
There curled in an uncomfortable sort of ball, was the Firebender Zuko!
End chapter 2.
It bothered me that Zuko and Iroh crossed the desert being pulled along by a lone, unprepared old man, pulling them along in a sled… So this is my answer for it.
Ryoko Porter