Chapter 4

Aang

The only good thing about this whole situation is that I was with Salina this whole time holding her in my arms. I'm proud of myself for saving Salina from her brother but at the same time I really wished that we could have helped save her father. If only we were trained enough, or at least had more time to train so we could at least get the basics down. I really hate this whole situation and Avatar stuff! I never wanted to be the Avatar in the first place because they were taking me away from Monk Gyatso! I tried to clear my mind from all this but what do I get? An interesting history lesson about Avatars, and they were taught by my past lives! I really didn't care about this at the moment all I wanted was to see Salina again. I got my wish when Katara and Sokka found us and got us out of that iceberg. Little did I know was that Salina would hate Katara right away. Girls.

"Aang, are you awake?" Salina asked.

"Yeah Sal I am." I answered. I knew that she was going to ramble questions as soon as I said I was awake, and wasn't surprised when she did.

"Where are we? Where's Dad? Where's the palace? Aang, I missed you." She stammered.

"Sal calm down. We're at the South Pole, so that's why we aren't at the palace, and Sal I've missed you too." Aang explained.

"What about Dad?" She asked again with a strained look on her face, she already knew what the answer was but was still hoping for a better answer. I really wish that it wasn't me giving her this news.

"Sal, your brother Hakeem, killed him." I answered with a very sad look on my face.

This scared the living crap out of me. She collapsed on the ground, I came rushing up to her and pulled her into a hug as she cried her eyes out. Which I'm surprised she let show, she was taught never to cry because it shown weakness.

"Excuse me, but who are you guys?" Sokka asked.

"I'm Aang and this is Salina." I answered I was a little annoyed that we were interrupted especially from another guy. At least she stopped crying though.

"Well I'm Sokka and this is my sister Katara she's a waterbender." Sokka kept on talking. Man does this guy ever shut up?

"I'm an airbender and Salina is a firebender. Also we are the Avatars how do you do?" I answered sarcastically.

"She's a firebender! That changes everything, Katara we have to go." Sokka yelled. I couldn't help feel anger at him. Such prejudice against another nation! That was never a problem before. I would have yelled at him, but Salina beat me to it.

"What's wrong with firebenders! I come from a time of peace, and everyone respected every nation! How dare you suggest that just because I can use fire means I'm bad!" She yelled at Sokka. Her eyes were like fire and I would have backed down but Sokka didn't seem to notice her fury.

"What do you mean you come from a time of peace? There's been a war for a hundred years and you're only twelve!" Sokka yelled back. I really wished that he would just drop the issue.

"I already told you we were the Avatar's! What do you mean there's been a hundred year war! There hasn't been any war at all! Unless, Aang how long were we in that iceberg?" She asked letting her anger slide away when she looked at me.

"I don't know Sal; I'm just as clueless as you are. I have a feeling we're not welcome here so let's get Appa and Serko and get out of here." I said with an annoyed look. These people are not very welcoming people.

"NO, don't go! Sokka how could you be so rude! They're the Avatar's; they could help stop this war! Even though they don't know it yet, they've been in this iceberg for a hundred years that's why they haven't been able to stop this war." Katara exclaimed.

I thought Katara wasn't able to speak at all, so when she spoke I was very surprised especially her anger to her brother. Katara's anger towards her brother though was nothing compared to what I saw when Salina was angry at her brother. I swear if she would get any angrier at someone or something she's going to melt away. At least Katara was stepping up to defend us, because Salina would have killed Sokka if it wasn't for his sister. I hope he knew that too. Salina wasn't giving Katara that thank you face that she does when someone defends her. She was giving her a back off glare that confused me since Katara was trying to help get Sokka to like us.

"Katara don't yell at me! It's their fault for running away like that which got the hundred years war started!" Sokka yelled back.

"Our fault? OUR FAULT? YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED, YOU WEREN'T THERE! MY FATHER WAS MURDERED BY MY OWN BROTHER AND WOULD HAVE KILLED ME TOO, INCUDING AANG! THERE WAS NOTHING I COULD DO, I WASN'T TRAINED ENOUGH TO BE ABLE TO HELP OUT THE PEOPLE. SO DON'T YOU DARE SAY THAT IT'S OUR FAULT!" Salina screamed. Now Sokka did it. He struck the nerve that I was hoping he wouldn't cross.

"Sal, calm down please." I answered calmly. "You got so angry that your firebending started to come out of your hands. Please calm down, for me?"

"Why should I be calm? He said the war was our fault! We couldn't do anything!" She screamed again.

"Sal the war isn't your fault its mine. I pulled you away so you wouldn't get hurt in the process, because I was selfish." I answered sadly knowing that it was my fault for wanting her safe and not care enough about her father.

"Aang it's not your fault, if you weren't there I probably would be dead, but I also want to hurt my brother. Even though he's dead probably, but I still wish to hurt him as badly as he hurt my father, and me." She answered.

"Salina I'm sorry, I didn't know what happened back then. I was probably just upset because my dad is off fighting the war and he hasn't been home in a while." Sokka answered quietly. Well at least he looked sincere about it, but it was a little too late for that.

"It's alright I shouldn't of lost my cool. I was just too upset, and stressed out therefore I'm sorry." She answered. The fire was gone from her eyes so I guess that was a good sign.

"Why don't you guys come to the village with us? You can eat and get some rest." Katara asked. She looked at me when she said it, but out of the corner of my eye I could she Sal looking extremely mad.

"We'll give you a ride, we just need to find Appa which shouldn't be too hard to find since he's a flying bison. Oh and we need to find Serko or else Salina wouldn't leave." I answered.

Just like it was a normal occurrence with us.

"Did you just say flying bison?" Sokka asked.

"Yeah, he did." Sal answered.

Sokka looked worried and confused at the same time, but didn't say anything back. I saw that Sal turned to Katara who was still staring at me, feeling her gaze she turned to look at her. She smiled at her, and gave her a wink. I finally got enough evidence for me to ask Sal what the heck was up between these two. So I called her over to help get Appa up.

"What's going on between you and Katara? You were giving her the death glare which I only see you giving it to your brother." I asked. Sal was really a gentle person and I only see her give people the death glare that she absolutely hates.

"She likes you and I'm making sure she knows that she can't have you." She answered. I was expecting her to say because I'm hers, but she didn't.

"Sounds like somebody's jealous." I said with a cocky smile.

"I am not! What would give you such a crazy idea like that?" She answered even though her face was turning red.

"Sal, you don't have to worry about it. I have a girlfriend whom I love, and I would never hurt in any way."

"Is this girlfriend a firebender and the Avatar?"

"Come to think of it yes she is."

She laughed that gorgeous laugh I love, "Aang, I admit it I was starting to get jealous, but she didn't do anything yet besides stare at you, fixing her hair, and giving you the girly smile. I know how much you hated that kind of smile because you thought it was awkward."

"Well you're the only girl for me Sal."

She hugged me and answered, "Good."

We finally got Appa up, found Serko, and then we headed to the village in the South Pole. When we arrived at the village, everyone was gathered around the fire. Katara and Sokka went to talk to some old lady, and everyone got up to meet us. I could see looks of hate when they saw Salina, because she was wearing her fire nation clothes. They gave me weird looks since I was in my airbending clothes.

"Salina, Aang this is the entire village. Entire village this is Salina and Aang, the Avatars." Katara answered sweetly.

"How can they be the Avatars if they are only twelve?" The old lady answered.

"Gran-Gran, they were frozen in an iceberg for a hundred years." Sokka answered. Oh, so this old lady was their Grandmother. Well I feel stupid.

"I know this is kind of hard to believe, but I came from a time of peace. Aang and I don't know about any war, even though my brother, Hakeem, killed my father and tried to kill me in the process so he could start this war. We didn't know he would actually go through with it. We also weren't trained enough to even stop my brother. I can tell you this, I am nothing like my brother, and I didn't even want the throne to begin with. My dad wanted me to be on the throne so that Hakeem wouldn't rule at all." She explained.
"That still doesn't explain why they were frozen in the iceberg." Gran-Gran answered.

I could tell that she was shocked by this question, since she had no idea herself why we were frozen in the iceberg. I guess her past lives didn't give her a history lesson.

"We were frozen in the iceberg because a huge storm hit and knocked us off Appa, my flying bison, and plunged into the water. It triggered our Avatar State which is when we have the power of all our past lives." I answered.

"And you knew that how?" She asked.

I shrugged. "I was researching."

The look on the village's faces was in utter shock and disbelief. I mean, could you blame them? Here Salina and I show up out of the blue from being away for a hundred years, and we just expect them to believe that we were the Avatars? I was nudged by Salina, She looked at me, and I knew that she just wanted to go to sleep. Of course we said that we were tired and we'll explain everything in the morning before we left. As we walked away I noticed that Salina looked up into the moon, like she always did when she was sad. I really hate it when she's sad; it makes the whole world looked sad.

"Salina, I see you looking at the moon, what's wrong?" I asked.

She looked at me. "I'm fine, never better actually."

"You're a really bad liar Sal."

"Ok fine, I'm just missing my dad that's all."

I pulled her into a hug, and just held her there in silence. She smelled the same as I remember, like a camp fire. Too bad that we had to leave and get frozen right away we could of hung out by a camp fire just the two of us. I let go of her and looked into her eyes and said, "Let's go to sleep." She nodded and as soon as we reached Appa and she laid down she fell asleep. I waited to fall asleep because I loved looking at her when she looked so peaceful. I knew this would be the only time she would look peaceful. I looked into the stars and hoped that my home was safe and everyone happy there. If they got attacked by Hakeem, I don't know what I would do. And with that thought I fell asleep hoping that today would be a better day.