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Hakoda watched Iris' fluid movements as she carved the hide from the lion-sharks that the warriors had hunted. Her strong pale fingers as deft with a knife as they were with a comforting gesture to Katara or any of the children or women of the Southern Water Tribe. In five days the men would leave again, the annual blue whale hunt would begin. He waited patiently as she taught Katara and three older girls how to skin and gut the lion-sharks, so that all parts were usable. She cleaned his kill, her every action proclaimed the place she held in the Tribe.
He fingered the necklace he'd carved and the leather cord that it rested on. In three bold strides, he moved up behind her as he knelt next to her. His hands, slightly less steady than he anticipated, held the ice colored crystal pendant in front of her eyes.
Surprised ice colored eyes stared into turbulent sapphire ones, in an odd sense of recognition she realized that Katara's eyes were exactly the color of her fathers. With the slightest inclination of her head she accepted his proposal.
Hakoda's eyes danced in the torchlight as his ice-Iris smiled just for him, he moved her hair out of his way and fastened the betrothal necklace around her neck. Brushing the column of her throat with his fingers as he settled the crystal into the hollow of her throat.
Iris's bloody hands were still within the great beast as she smiled just for the intense blue eyed man and tried to beckon him closer with her eyes. When he moved his face close enough, she pressed her lips to his with a content sigh.
Hakoda pulled her closer as he deepened the kiss between them. The sound of giggles pulled him from the hungry haze that the feel of Iris' lips aroused in him. He stood quickly and returned to his residence.
Katara smiled at the blush that her new mother wore.
"Girls' keep up," Iris demanded strongly, as a faint smile rested on her lips.
After their communal diner Katara smiled at her new mother as she kissed her fathers cheek, "Ran-Pakku has promised to play Pai-sho with me, don't wait up."
Kana and Pakku followed their granddaughter back to their own apartments with wide grins.
Iris smiled as she cleared and cleaned the bowls from diner and once the last was returned to it's place she found herself wrapped up in strong arms.
Hakoda smiled down at his light skinned wife, the gentle light of La filled their sleeping chamber and danced over her pale skin. She looked luminescent in the moon's light. The fine strong line of her back bathed in the soft light and her hips disappeared under the furs that graced their bed. With lazy fingers he stroked her skin and was pleased with her soft moan and how she arched into his touch.
Five days later he emerged from his residence, revitalized and ready to hunt the blue-whale. He'd exhausted his wife and left her smiling and sleeping in their furs as he joined the other warriors and they left for the far tundra and the blue-whale hunting grounds.
The raucous howls and glinting eyes of his friends did nothing to dissuade his contentment, though it lasted long into their trip.
Katara stared at her new mothers betrothal stone, the carving was a picture of the Ice-Iris. The details of the petals highlighted in a blue so pale it matched the woman's eyes. "It's beautiful," she smiled at the older woman.
Iris kissed the younger girl's cheek, "Thank you daughter." Then her eyes glinted, "come there is much work to be done, I've been abed for five days."
The day was spent visiting the other women of the tribe, now that Iris was officially the Chief's wife it was up to her to gift the women of the tribe.
Katara watched as slowly all the furs and possessions that Iris had managed to accumulate disappeared into the other women's homes. When the final gift was given they returned to their own residence with the few items that Iris had not given away. Once they were within their own residence Katara asked, "Why did you give each woman of the Tribe something of yours?"
Iris smiled as she started the fire for their evening meal, "It shows that as the Chief's wife, I value each family's comfort as I value that of my own family. In giving away my possessions, it is inferred that my worth as wife to the Chief of the Tribe is not measured in dowry. I also am a member of the Tribal Council, as the Mother of Memories it is my place to teach the old ways, by example."
Katara paused, "There were many furs and skins, all of which you hunted, they were your wealth."
Iris winked, "I am warm enough in my bed, though I will miss the heat of your fathers body and his hunger," she grinned at Katara's blush. "I require no more furs and skins than I have now. That does not mean that we will not hunt daughter, not even La could keep me from that. The gifts given, mean more to those who receive them during the dark time than they do laying unused, unneeded."
Katara smiled, "Use all that we harvest from the sea and the ice, that is the Water Tribe way."
Iris smiled at the younger woman as she pulled her close, "What would you share as meal with your new mother?"
Katara smiled, "frost-berry custard."
Iris laughed and hugged the younger girl closer, "We can set out tomorrow to find a nest and feast on their flesh and eggs, how about for this night?"
"Stewed sea prunes and sea-rino?" Katara replied with her own smile.
Iris frowned as her sharp eyes caught sight of black against an iceberg at the start of the narrows. The only reason she spotted it was because she looked out the ice-window from her and Hakoda's bedroom window. A soft smile played on her lips as she thought of her husband, he pleased her greatly and she hungered for him to return.
Her gaze narrowed at the black form. She turned from the window and made her way down stairs. Carrying her spear and her bow and quiver as she left the safety of the residence. She moved quickly over the ice flows, then she moved carefully over the icebergs themselves. Once she was close enough she recognized the shape as a metal ship. The torn and battered flag she didn't recognize. Quietly she moved over the ice under La's delicate sliver of light.
With out sound she moved from ice to frozen metal and moved around the deck of the ship. Hearing nothing and wondering only at the covering of ice, she moved toward the pilots cabin. The bodies were frozen in their chairs and the three on the floor surprised her into stillness. She moved around to face the corpses and was startled back three paces. The skin under the ice was rotten, by something more than ice or scavenger. She stood paralyzed as her mind considered all the possible causes. When she heard a sound come from the door, she pointed her spear at the entrant.
Katara's deep blue eyes froze as Iris pointed her spear at her, she stopped moving immediately.
"You shouldn't have come Katara," Iris sighed, "Do not touch them, don't touch anything with your bare flesh."
"What is it?" Katara asked suddenly concerned.
"I don't remember the name," Iris growled, "I've seen this before, it's familiar this death of the flesh. Find parchment," she gave her an arrow. "Use this to return to the deck with it and if you find pen and ink use ice."
"Mother Iris?" Katara asked quietly.
Iris glanced at the girl, "Never mind, you stay on the deck, come no closer to the corpses and do not go below decks. Focus on bringing one of the fleet to us, we will need it to return home."
Katara was getting more and more nervous, "Mother?"
"Please Katara," Iris pleaded, "please, if I could only remember more." Then Iris disappeared below deck and Katara returned to the deck as she sought her connection to the water and began to move one of the boats toward them.
Iris moved through the levels of the ship, glancing into closed rooms through the small windows and leaving all the closed doors closed. When she came to the most richly furnished room, the door was open and there was but one body in the ice encrusted room.
With her spear she moved the body from the desk, hearing ice crack under its solid form. She pierced the papers on the tip of her spear and collected the ink and brush. Moving quickly, she removed the ice from the door and closed that as well. She retreated to the deck as her eyes tried to read in the pale light.
Katara heard Iris return to the deck, though her concentration was focused on moving the ship closer. As Katara moved the boat slowly toward them, Iris tried to read the journal entries. La was too pale a companion to see anything other than the vague shapes of words.
Once the water tribe boat was on the other side of the iceberg. Iris jumped off the ship and tied the boat to the spear that she pierced the iceberg with. She pierced the parchment with an arrow and secured them to the iceberg as well. Turning and facing their home Iris in one commanding cut, broke their chunk of iceberg from the larger remainder.
"Katara we need deep and cold waters, away from the tribes sea routes! Take us out of the narrows!" Iris called out.
Katara nodded as she slowly moved the great black ship away from Tribe waters and toward the open sea.
As Katara's bending pulled them from their icy shores, Iris glanced at the pages stuck to the iceberg. A chance combination of light reflecting from her betrothal necklace onto the ice illuminated a part of the pages. For a moment her eyes read two words clearly, 'burning death'. Then the pale light was no more. Hastily Iris pulled the ice from the ink and brush and wrote a note. She pierced the parchment with an arrow and shot it into the ice of their home. She fired the note arrows until there was nothing left to write on and a dozen arrows littered the far shore.
She hoped their family could forgive her. She glanced at Katara and she hoped that the two of them survived this.
After La set into the night sky Katara called out, "Mother, are we far enough away?"
Iris replied, "Yes daughter, you must sink the ship, she must never be recovered!"
Katara's eyes widened as she scrambled onto the iceberg. With a sigh she removed the ship from the iceberg and bent water over it's prow until the great ship filled with the frozen water and ever so slowly began its descent to the depths of the sea. 'It's done."
Iris nodded, "Good, now the hard part."
Katara's eyes widened, "hard part."
Iris removed her outer coat, and began stripping off the rest of her cloths as she said, "strip Katara, we must leave behind these cloths and boots. We risk much being on that ship. Move closer so that your boots are the last to be removed."
Katara stared at the older woman, "Mother?"
Iris sighed, "Please Katara, we must do this now," she continued stripping herself of all her clothing until all that remained were her boots.
Katara shivered as she moved closer to the taller woman and once she was stripped of her cloths she shivered as she stood next to Iris.
"Like this," Iris Leaned over the railing of the Water Tribe boat and used the iceberg to pull her boots off. Then she climbed the railing and stood on the frozen deck.
With a deep breath Katara mimicked Iris' actions and found herself standing on the frozen deck, shifting from foot to foot as the cold tried to freeze her skin.
"Get below and into the furs," Iris commanded as she considered the iceberg and the rope. She pulled an ice dagger from the iceberg and cut through the rope. Releasing them from the iceberg and once they were far enough away she shattered the ice into dust and watched as their clothing slowly sank into the depths. After she was certain nothing floated, she moved quickly into the cabin to find warmth.
Neither of them returned to the frozen deck until the moon was high in the sky. They did so in borrowed cloths and boots that were far to large.
Katara sighed, "I can get us back to the water tribe."
Iris rested her hand on the other girls shoulder, "No Katara, until we know if we have contracting the 'burning death' we can not return to the Tribe. We can not risk them."
"Gran Gran, Father?" Katara gasped.
"I left them messages, when we are missing they will follow our tracks and find them.
After 10 days we will know." Iris replied with a heavy heart.
"10 days?" Katara dropped to the deck, "In winter storms, just the two of us?"
Iris nodded, "Yes."
Katara sighed, "Oh boy."
Iris agreed whole heartedly.