Chapter Four
Katara was at a loss for words at how happy she was. Her brother who she had though had been executed over five years ago by the fire nation returned to her, alive and well. It was so incredible, it was almost like a dream come true. She barely registered her father come inside the igloo and pick up the discarded fish that Katara had dropped to the floor, yet there were tears in his eyes as he was doing it, tears of happiness.
"Welcome home Sokka" was all he said before Sokka freed up an arm to include him in the embrace whom he joined in and engulfed both of them in a great bear hug.
It was only then did Katara notice the young women watching with a strange sense of interest in her eyes.
"Sokka, who's that?" she asked, having the strangest feeling of seeing her somewhere before, the way her face seemed to be smiling constantly and happily. Upon bringing her up, Sokka suddenly became very demure and scratched his head as if thinking of a good way to say.
This wasn't going to be good.
"Well…you see…it's like this…" he started when the woman stepped forward and bowed respectfully to both Katara and the father.
"It's a pleasure to meet you both, my name is Ty Lee and I am Sokka's fiancée" she said, her voice and name confirming her suspicions.
"YOU'RE THAT ONE GIRL!!" Katara screamed, jumping back and beginning to let the power that was hers and hers alone among the villagers flow through her veins, the ability to water bend. She quickly gathered a large ball of ice into her hand that would burst into a thousand icy splinters in mid flight, an effective way to paralyze her when Sokka jumped in between Katara and her target.
"Katara, listen, she's on our side. You don't need to get hostile" he spoke, causing her to drop the solid ball of ice to the ground in shock.
"No need to be hostile? No need to be hostile?! Do you remember who she is?! She is one of Azula's personal escorts!! She hunted us down and tried to exterminate us!! And…and…your marrying her?!" the realization suddenly sinking in of what he said. Popping her head over Sokka's shoulder, Ty Lee's smile didn't diminish in the slightest.
"Now I remember you, you're the water bending girl who was always with the avatar. How is he?" she asked, words stinging deeply. How dare she mock her, pretend not to know what happened, what happened to the group when they returned…
What happened to Aang.
"Get her out of this village now Sokka!" she spoke before storming off in a rage, leaving Sokka and his… "Fiancée" alone in the igloo.
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Sokka was confused, but at the same time could understand her mistrust. This was after all an old enemy, but she didn't expect her to go into a rage over it. Call it his brotherly intuition, but something was bothering her, and it was more then what she had just said.
"So Sokka, this is your wife to be, correct?" his father said, pulling him to the side where she couldn't hear them talk as she began to practice her acrobatics with some hand stands in the cumbersome jacket.
"That's the thing dad, I only agreed to it because she made a deal with me to free me from the fire nation prison. If you could just tell her that you don't approve, I'm sure she will back down on it" he whispered to his father. With a hearty slap on the back, his father met his gaze with a warm, if foreboding look.
"Sorry son, but you made a deal. As a man you can't go back on your word, now can you?" he said, causing Sokka to pale.
"You're just saying that because you want to see grandchildren, aren't you?" Sokka asked to his father.
"That…may be one of my reasons" he said, before walking over to Ty Lee who straightened herself back to standing.
"So you're my son's wife to be? Well, I won't lie to you…Sokka's clumsy, bad at fishing, and may be a lot of trouble for you, but he's loyal and strong. I hope he makes you very happy. Also, don't worry about Katara, she will come around in time" he said, clasping his hand onto Ty Lee's shoulder as she gave him a great big hug.
"Thank you very much daddy" she said, causing him to laugh quite shyly.
There was no way around it now; he was going to have to marry her…
Maybe execution wasn't so bad after all…
*************
Sokka searched every corner of the village, asking if anyone had seen Katara. His sleuthing eventually uncovered that she went out to the penguins with a couple of the smaller fish they had caught, probably to enjoy a good penguin sledding. Sokka however highly doubted it. Katara wasn't one to enjoy frivolous play when she was upset, so there was probably something at the penguins she wanted to remember, to reminisce. While Ty Lee was back at the village becoming acquainted with everyone in the village, Sokka worked his way over the snowy tundra to where he saw a large outcropping of the playful creatures gliding around and in blissful play. There was however a small group of them centered on a lone girl, resting her head on her knees and occasionally throwing a fish out to the creatures that ever so greedily ate it up and waited for the next.
As he drew near, Katara noticed him coming closer and turned away from him, the penguins moving to face her new front in case she was still in the mood to feed them.
"Katara, you used to always come here when you were feeling down or upset. You would always sit like you are, feeding fish to these lazy penguins" he said, swearing he saw a few of the penguins give him a scowl when he called them lazy, as if taking offense.
"Like when mother died, you refused to come back for the entire day and just sat out here long after you were out of fish" he said drawing closer and closer.
"Come on, I know you're not exactly happy I'm marrying Ty Lee…come to think of it that makes two of us, but I can assure you she's on our side now and wont betray us. Now, is there something else bothering you?" he said, pulling out a small blanket as he got right up to her back and wrapped it around her, much like what he used to do when they were little. For a long moment, she didn't say anything and he thought this would be a one person conversation but then, so quietly he had to strain to hear over the lapping waves of the ocean, he heard her speak.
"When you…fell from Aappa, it was like our group suddenly was broken, we lost all our spirit. Aang blamed himself, Toph couldn't stop crying over it, and even Aappa would cry out for you in the night. One day we heard you were going to be executed, and we decided we had to go stop it. We were met up with Zuko, who claimed to be on our side, to have a change of heart. We took him with us since we knew we needed every bit of help we could get. We knew the dangers of attacking the day of Souzen's comet, but we couldn't let you be killed" she spoke, barely keeping herself together.
"When we breeched the city, we made it straight for the prisons and freed as many of them as we could. That's how most of the men were returned to our tribe, including father. We looked for you, but couldn't find you…and then the fire lord came. He demanded a duel with the avatar, and said that if we did, he would spare your life. Aang met his challenge, and fought fiercely and valiantly…but…but he…" she spoke, tears finally breaking out of her eyes. Sokka felt he knew the rest of this story and offered his hand to his grieving sister.
"Before we left, Aang told me…he told me he loved me…that he always felt that way for me…" she said, turning around so fast and suddenly it knocked the fish pile over, causing the penguins to scurry over and eat the spilled contents. Embracing his sister fondly, he stroked her hair and whispered soothing words to her, much like he would a hurt animal, knowing it wasn't the words that mattered so much as the presence of his voice. She sobbed and cried against him till no more tears were left, and still it was not enough for her, but Sokka silently and dutifully held his younger sister in his arms as the snow continued to fall.
It was then that Sokka suddenly realized something that filled his heart with dread and anger…
The snow was black…it was soot from a fire nation ship that seemed to draw inexorably closer to his home village.