A/N: This is going to be a collection of filler chapters about Azula's childhood in the South Pole. Feel free to suggest some prompts for these filler chapters, I'm going to post about 3-5 chapters before going on to The Boy in The Iceberg. Enjoy!
The sun shining through the palace window in Azula's room was the thing that woke her up each morning. So she was rather surprised to see a dark room when she opened her eyes after her first night in the South, until she remember that igloos don't have windows.
"So, you're finally awake, sleepy head." Came a teasing voice. Azula rubbed her eyes and saw Katara making her bed, if you could call it that. Beds in the Tribe were more like a pile of furs on the floor, followed by a pile of furs for a blanket. So different from the four-poster bed and deep red comforters Azula was used to.
"We thought we'd wait until tomorrow to start you on the chores. Let you get used to the Tribe, you know. Now, come on, before Sokka eats all the breakfast!" Katara threw Azula a blue parka, lined with white fur, which the latter pulled on, and the two made their way to the central room.
Breakfast was chopped fish mixed with rice, a rather plain meal, by Azula's standards. A lot of the Fire Nation food was spicy and had a lot of flavor, unlike the fish and rice the Southerners ate for almost every meal.
Katara handed Azula a bowl and they sat down to eat. Sokka glared at the princess while wolfing down his own fish. Azula sneered at his sloppy eating
"Were you raised in a sty? You have worse manners that a cowpig!"
"What's a cowpig?" Asked a very confused Sokka.
She smirked. "It's an animal. A very messy, sloppy animal."
Sokka nodded, until he realized what Azula implied. "Hey!"
Katara, trying to maintain peace, got Azula's attention. "Come on, Azula. It's class time."
Azula stared at her incredulously. "You have classes here?"
"Of course we do! Boys and girl are coached separately. Boys learn fighting and hunting, while we learn cooking and cleaning and sewing and other chores." Answered Katara.
"Oh." The disappointment was evident in Azula's voice. "We don't learn that in school, there are servants for that. We learn etiquette, calligraphy, dancing, art and history. That's what a proper lady is expected to know."
Katara sighed dreamily. "I wish I could learn all that! Anyways, let's get a move on, or we'll be late!"
The classroom turned out to be a smaller igloo in the middle of the village. The other girls were already, legs crossed. Azula sat down in a kneeling position, like how they were taught to sit in the Academy.
"You really should stop sitting like that." Said a girl who was sitting next to her. "If you put too much weight on your legs, you can cut off circulation and have a nasty case of frostbite."
Grimacing at the thought of freezing her legs off, Azula crossed her legs in front of her. The girl smiled.
"My name's Niyok." Said the girl.
"Azula." Responded the princess. Why was this girl being so nice? Before she could ask, the teacher, an elderly woman around Kanna's age, walked in.
"Good morning class. Today you will be learning how to sew animal pelts. The fur can be tough, so you need to know the proper way to penetrate it with a needle."
The next two hours passed rather quickly. Sewing was easier than Azula imagined. She even got a lot of praise from the teacher, being the first to successfully sew a pelt.
After the lesson, Niyok came up to Azula and Katara. "You know, we have half an hour before we have to make lunch. Wanna go and see the boys train?"
Since the men and older boys were hunting, Sokka was teaching the class as the older boy. The three girls stood Of to the side, watching. It was rather funny, seeing as some of the spears were taller than Sokka himself. He noticed them snickering and glared.
"What are you laughing at?" He demanded. The girls didn't stop laughing, which made a Sokka even angrier.
"That's it! You, me, one on one. Let's see who's a better fighter, Ashmaker!"
Azula stopped laughing. "You really want to fight me?"
At Sokka's determined nod, Azula pulled off her parka and threw it to Katara, leaving her in her training uniform which she wore underneath.
"What are you doing? You'll freeze to death!" Shouted Katara.
"Don't worry. It's about to get hot in here." Answered Azula as she delivered the first punch, sending blue flame at Sokka.
He tried to get her with the spear, but she was too fast. She avoided his every blow, sending her signature blue flames in return. As he charged at her, she sidestepped him and grabbed his shoulder, pushing him back. He ended up on the ground with Azula's foot on his chest.
"And that's why you don't fight with me." Azula took her foot off of his chest and stepped back. Katara handed her back her parka, and Sokka walked off, grumbling to himself.
"That was fun."
"And you know what would be even more fun?" Asked Niyok. "Penguin sledding!"
Before she knew it, Azula was clinging onto an otter-penguin, balancing on the edge of a slope. "I think I changed my mind." But Katara already leaned over and gave the penguin slight kick, sending it down the slope, her and Niyok soon following.
Screams of terror soon turned to shrieks of laughter. The three girl glided down the icy terrain, giggling like mad. The penguins stopped abruptly, sending their riders into a pile of snow.
As they were catching their breaths, a figure towered over them. "What are you doing here? Kanna was looking everywhere for you two." The figure, which turned out to be a girl only two years older than the princess and her friends, said, pointing at Azula and Katara. "As for you, you have chores to do, Niyok!"
"I'm sorry, Nutha." Said Niyok. "We were just playing!"
"Chores first, Games later." Said Nutha, plucking her little sister from the snow and leading her away.
"Bye Azula! Bye Katara! I'll see you later!" Shouted Niyok as she was lead away.
Both girls waved their goodbye and started their own trek back to the village.
"Katara." The blue eyed girl turned at the sound of her name. "I just wanted to thank you. I haven't had fun like that in years."
"You're welcome, Azula. But we should get back to the village, or Gran-Gran will be angry.
The two girls walked back to the village, hand in hand. Both tired, but very happy.
A/N: Niyok and Nutha aren't my OCs. They appeared in 'The Rift' comic.
