Author's Note: my deepest thanks to all those who have reviewed. May the great moon above watch over you.
-Nightwolf, King of the Wolves
DISCLAIMER: Much to my greatest sorrow I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender
Jak-jak's P.O.V.
I jumped to my feet as the blackened snow began to drift towards the ground. A sharp tang met my nose and I was instantly reminded of soot. "The Fire Nation" I found myself yelling as I recalled Sokka's grave account of the soot-snow that had fallen before his village had been invaded. "Come on" I urged Aang, my hand closing over the wooden pole that was my trusty glider. Aang stood up, my cloak still around his shoulders than he sat down again with a pained expression on his face. "We can't" he told me with a shake of his head. "We were banished, remember". "I don't care" I snarled. Now I was getting angry.
I struck my glider against the ground, its black wings popping out on impact. Riff scrambled up the wooden frame and rested on its point on his dainty feet. I threw it hard, to gain altitude before leaping onto it with a final glare at Aang who remained on the icy ground with Momo chirping on his shoulder.
It wasn't a long flight to the village but the air was cold and thin and soon I found myself shaking with the cold once again. The wind blew my red, unruly hair into a frenzy and I had to squint to see. Riff chattered loudly, signalling the village up ahead.
Before long I had descended but I could barely speak. "The snow" I managed to gasp to Sokka who had run out to greet me. He led me behind the walls and sat me down, allowing me to catch my breath.
"The Fire Nation…" I began but at that moment a crude-looking metal ship loomed into focus. Its pointed metal prow split through the ice as though it were mere butter. I made myself appear calm but inside I was a screaming wreck. Never before had I felt such fear. It coursed through my veins and chilled my bones to the very marrow.
Sokka hastily smeared traditional war-paint across his face and grabbed his jaw-bone dagger from the ground beside him. I stood too, I had long since learned to Woodbend and even though I felt it wasn't really a proper element I was glad of it as I bent a nearby stake into a pointy, wooden mace.
Sokka leapt onto the back of an approaching soldier and whacked him hard on the head. The soldier toppled forward and blood splattered the ground. Quickly I turned to my advancing foe and with my make-shift mace I whacked him hard in the stomach and sending him flying into a tower of snow which crumbled and caved in on top of him, burying him.
"My tower" Sokka yelled in a mixture of shock and pure disbelief as the pillar of snow fell. His expression made me want to laugh, his jaw hanging open and eyes wide but this wasn't the place to laugh.
A tall, pale teenager stood at the edge of the ship's prow. His skin was pale, he wore his hair up in a high ponytail at the back of his head and a mean looking scar covered his left eye. He jumped down, landing gracefully on the thick snow. He marched towards me. Sokka screamed as he ran towards him, about to strike, he was stopped easily by a short burst of fire from the teenager's fist. "Tell me where the Avatar is" he demanded marching up to me. "I-I do-don't kn-know" I stammered, answering truthfully. "Tell me where he is now!" he threatened his amber eyes glared, he didn't believe me.
"Leave him alone, I'm here" I looked up to see Aang swoop down on his glider, Momo on his shoulder. "Aang!" Katara cried. "No Aang, go back, we've got this" I yelled, if this fire nation boy wanted him so much there was no way that he should be allowed to have him. The boy marched up to Aang "I am Prince Zuko" he proclaimed loudly "you're coming with me avatar". "Why should I do that?" Aang asked boldly" Zuko grinned menacingly "because if you don't I'll burn this place to the ground" and as if to prove his point several other fire nation soldiers leapt from the boat and shot flames towards the village, setting fire to anything wooden and melting their defensive walls.
Aang put his hands up in surrender "I'll go" he said his voice echoed gravely "just promise you won't harm the village", Zuko nodded and Aang was led into the ship as the tribes people ran around, extinguishing the last of the flames with thick handfuls of ice.
"What are we going to do?" Katara asked for what must have been the fourth time that day as she paced back and forth in front of me. We sat in her igloo. "I don't think we should do anything" Sokka murmured as he sat sharpening his boomerang. "What?!" Katara asked turning on him. Sokka put his boomerang down and sighed "look, I'm just saying that he brought this on himself, if he hadn't gone with you to the fire navy ship then he wouldn't have set off that flare and none of this would have happened!" ."What!? It wasn't his fault", Katara looked infuriated. I sat back, it was safer not to say anything. "It was his fault, he was the one who decided to go to the ship" Sokka reasoned" "yeah, but…" Katara trailed off. I stood up "well, I'm going to go save him anyway" I declared, "He's still my friend". Katara nodded in approval. Sokka sighed "well then, I suppose I'll come too after all I can't leave my only sister with a stranger we just met" he stated with a wink.
"Come on" I urged Sokka forward. "Why are we looking for a bison that can supposedly fly?" he asked, his voice thick with sarcasm. Katara glared at him, she had been glaring a lot recently. "Look, he's just over there", I ran over to Appa before another argument could start between the bickering siblings.
"Now what?" Sokka questioned as he dragged himself up onto the saddle. "Yip yip" I ordered, silently willing the Flying bison to finally fly unlike last time where he merely swam. To my joy he took off, soaring into the sky with me clutching the reins tightly. A high pitched scream came from behind me, I turned expecting it to have been Katara but instead it had been Sokka who was now hanging tightly onto his sister's arm. I found myself grinning and urging Appa to fly even faster.
3rd Person P.O.V.
As the trio flew over the expanse of ocean they eventually spotted the fire nation ship that held Aang captive. Jak-jak gently eased Appa into a dive, slowly headed towards the ship. He squinted to make out the small figures on the ship. He watched as the metal door was suddenly kicked open, Aang bounded out, his wrists bound tightly behind his back. His face lit up in recognition as he spotted the fast approaching Appa. "Come on" Sokka ordered, over his earlier fear of flying. Aang swiftly kicked the attacking fire nation soldier hard in the head before he air-bent himself up to rest beside Sokka. "Go" he yelled as Katara worked on untying him. Appa veered sharply right as they made their way back to the icy village.
Thy touched down smoothly and dismounted Appa, Aang looking uncertain as he dropped to the ground. Gran-gran rushed out to meet them "come on" she said warmly, beckoning them into their igloo. "You too Avatar" she added with a smile as the young airbender hesitated.
They sat down around the small fire that crackled in the centre of the room, radiating warmth. "So" she said as they sat around sipping cups of hot tea. She turned to Jak-jak "you're a spacebender aren't you", Jak-jak spluttered, coughing on his tea. "Yeah" he answered sadly after he had recovered. "Why do you sound so down about it?" the elderly woman asked. Jak-jak sighed "well, I'm a sign of evil" he told her. "What? No you're not, you can't be held accountable for what your ancestors did a hundred years ago, and you didn't choose to be Space Empire". "But what about my eyes?" he asked "What about them?" she asked confused", "they're the sign of the devil!" he exclaimed. "Now why would you think that, just because they're different colours? Some people have blue eyes are they evil? I know that brown eyes aren't so if you have one of each it doesn't make you evil. What you do and how you act can make you bad, but even then people can change" Jak-jak nodded, a small smile on his face. "And how can you be seen as evil when your helping the avatar?" she mused, patting his cloaked shoulder comfortingly. "Thank you" he said gratefully.
"Not to be the one who interrupts a touching moment" Sokka began, standing up "but we've really got to decide what we're going to do now". Aang got to his feet beside him. "I have to save the world" he said, "we have to save the world" I corrected. "Oh, yeah" Sokka yelled ecstatically, "we're gonna beat that Fire Lord to a pulp" he exclaimed waving his dagger around, narrowly missing Aang's head.
The foursome were ready to take off. After loading the supplies kindly donated by the water tribe onto Appa's back and saying hasty goodbyes they were finally ready to take off. "Yip yip" Aang called to Appa giving a small upward motion with the reins. Sokka and Katara waved madly to the people far below them as they rose up into the air, headed for the Earth Kingdom.
"Why are we goin' to the Earth kingdom again?" Sokka asked. "Well, Sokka since it was your plan maybe you should know" Katara answered with a sigh. "I know" Sokka said, sitting up with a smug expression plastered across his tanned face "I just wanted to hear you say it", Katara groaned "are we nearly there yet?" she asked Aang who was perched on Appa's head. "We'll be there in a few weeks" he answered with a light chuckle. She groaned again and slumped down, arms folded across her chest.
"Don't worry, we'll be landing soon and then you can get as far away from him as possible" Jak-jak told her, "I thought you were supposed to be my friend" Sokka called out in mock being anger. Jak-jak laughed and Sokka joined in heartily.
"I'm starving" Sokka groaned, "hey, Aang is there anywhere we can get some food?" "Nope" Aang called out cheerily. "But we'll stop soon, we've got plenty of fish from the tribe" Jak-jak consoled him as Aang made a face "guess I'll have to settle for seaweed" he said.
Jak-jak stroked Riff absentmindedly as he watched the sun sink below the horizon. "Hey Aang, I think we'd want to land soon" he called out to his friend. Aang nodded and began his search for a place to land. They circled once before landing in a clearing in the middle of a pine forest. "It's spooky here" Sokka whined as he crept off Appa, half hiding behind Katara. "Well you can always leave but I guess you won't get any food then" Katara told him. He instantly stood up straight "never mind" he said meekly.
Jak-jak rolled his eyes at Sokka before making his way into the forest, in search of fire wood. "Sokka go help Jak-jak" Katara ordered and Sokka was soon walking beside him. "Hey" he greeted as he caught up to him. The pair made their way deeper into the forest. "So what's it like being part of the Space Empire? Ooo, can you spacebend? What's it like? Are you able to do other kinds of bending? Gran-Gran said you could but I don't know if it's true, I mean I know you can Woodbend and stuff but is that the only other element you can bend?" Jak-jak opened his mouth to answer the flurry of questions that he had been bombarded with when the ground moved under his feet. He shot upwards and realisation sank in. he was suspended high above the ground. Suspended in a net, with Sokka in a very awkward position…
Author's Note: Let me know what you think of this chapter. Constructive critism will be gladly accepted. Please review.
I am Nightwolf, King of the Wolves.
I am the Teller of tales long forgotten.
I am a Storyteller.
