Chapter Seven.
He willfully ignored the mountains to the east and looked into the gray swirling sky for Appa. He could almost feel the sense of relief and elation that would flood him at first sight of the bison. "Come on, big guy, come and save Sokka," he said, knowing he would be obliged to worship the beast as a god once he was rescued.
He reached the other half of the airship and began to walk around it looking for an entrance while still hoping he would see the bison. Sokka had to keep his head down the closer he came to the crash as there were more stiff bodies in the snow. As he stepped around them his mind quietly informed him that because they were frozen the meat would not rot. -Don't go there,- he thought, hoping whatever spirits ruled this lonely place would not test his will to live so severely.
The black wreckage held white snow in its cold folds and gaps. Sokka could not smell smoke, only the flat odor of char and the ship appeared dead and still like the bodies of the men around it. Rather than invite investigation, the dark hollow places where snow had not fallen looked outward like eyes on a skull. He circled the wreck two times which took over an hour given the waist high powdery snow which covered the back side of the wreck. The V-shaped middle area was not much better as it was a foot of powder over ice.
He focused on the area where the ship had broken in half and using a broken pole he was able to pry up a loose flap of metal that let him crawl into a collapsed passage. Inside were more bodies, again making him wonder how he and Azula were alive. -Guess it didn't pay to go down with the ship,- he thought, seeing that most had been crushed by the collapsing metal around them or burned. -Maybe I am dead and nursing Azula in the afterlife is my punishment.-
Using a flint he lighted a torch he had fashioned beforehand and moved over more mangled bodies down a hallway that was partially collapsed and tilted to one side. It smelled of stale smoke and he covered his mouth when he passed the body of a young Fire Nation soldier. The steel walls and ceiling had not been kind to his slender frame and Sokka stepped over him hoping he would find another way back out of the wreckage.
This half of the ship was also in disarray. Beds were overturned, furniture was scattered, desks had been cleared off and their drawers emptied. The chaos almost seemed deliberate in how thorough it was. He found snacks the crew had stashed in their quarters but nothing like a pantry or ration warehouse. Many rooms were so disheveled he could not identify their purpose.
"Ah," he said, coming to what had to be the airship's bridge. It had listed to one side, piling all the loose items in the room to one end where they obscured the bodies of the crew. One thing that had not been sent flying was the gas lamps a few of which still worked and he lighted with his torch.
It was cold on the bridge and he could see where the glass windows on one end had shattered and let snow in. There were men on top of it dead and frozen, stretched as though they had tried to dig their way out. He could smell smoke still but could not see it and wished he would come across something useful soon, anything to keep from thinking about the suffering and death he had caused.
His search became aimless. The debris was so scattered it would take hours to sort out anything useful from the junk. Sokka felt like he was taking too much time now but found he did not want to go back and see Azula for a while. As he meandered, his mind wandered to what he might do with her should he succeed in getting her captured. Negotiate a peace perhaps or at least get the Fire Nation out of Ba Sing Se. The logistics were making him light headed or so he thought until he saw the sconces he had lit were dimming. "I'm burning up all the air," he muttered. "Time to go."
On his way out he caught a glance at a piece of paper lying crumpled beneath a desk with one edge sticking out. The grid pattern drawn onto it had caught his eye and he freed it without tearing it. He saw it was a map and folded it crudely before going out the way he came, trying not to look at the mangled body with the frozen blood. Once outside the wind picked up and made his skin tighten as it kicked snow over fresh drifts and dunes.
He trudged back to the other half of the airship trying to think about what Azula might say to him so he could compose witty retorts. Back in the hallway that was their makeshift home he doused his torch and took the lamp from Azula's side to set next to himself so he could read the map.
"Did you find anything to eat?" she asked. She had been meditating and the air was warm.
"A map," he said. "But not a very detailed one it looks like."
"There's nothing in the south to detail," she said. "But tell that to a cartographer."
"What would help us more is a map of the ship. How well do you remember it?"
"Well enough," she said.
"Where did they keep the food?"
"I don't know. I had my meals brought to me."
"Of course you did," he said, loudly and kicked the wall. The sudden burst of frustration surprised him. "Well I know the bridge is in that half over there, so..."
"Then the food would have been stored on this side," she said. "The furnace room, which regulated the gas in the balloon, was in the center but closer to the bridge so orders could be more easily transmitted there. Now if you want to preserve food you would keep it in a cool, dry, place not near a furnace room I should think."
He let a sigh go whooshing out of him. He supposed such information was helpful but he had already searched this end of the ship as far as the wreckage would let him which was why he had braved the deep snow outside to search the other half to begin with. He snapped his fingers. "I haven't tried from outside this half yet," he said. "I can't get any further from in here, but maybe there's a hole torn open outside."
"Go then, time is wasting," said Azula. "Did you see the mountains?"
"No," he said, leaning back and crossing his arms.
She scowled. "I would think they're hard to miss, but perhaps you can consult your map next time you go out."
He snatched up the map and looked at it. The light was dim and his only goal in looking was to annoy Azula but all the same he saw something interesting. "Looks like on the other side of the mountain is an ice flow. Weird."
"Weird? Why? Why is that weird, tell me."
He said nothing and wondered what was so fascinating about these mountains. He had been thinking stress was making Azula loopy, but now he wasn't sure. "Well," he said. "I guess it's not so weird...but it is. I mean, this place hasn't seen spring in a thousand years. It should all be frozen solid all the time, but your mapmakers seemed to think there was an ice flow on the other side leading to the northern coast."
"Well then that's true," she said. "It might interest you to know that the Fire Nation has explored many parts of the globe, including the south pole. Clearly one of our ice breakers traveled the length of the flow."
"Or they read it off an Air Nomad map," Sokka said. "See, they named it Fushi. Doesn't sound like a Fire Nation name to me. Map's probably a draft and they hadn't Fire-ized it yet."
She seemed about to raise an argument, but curled her lip. "Aside from the unfortunate name, why is it strange?" Azula asked.
"Apart from it existing, you mean? Well, that's it. It shouldn't be there. Maybe warm air from the east gets caught behind the mountain range and it's not so cold all year round but that would have to be some serious warm wind blowing off what I know is a cold sea."
"Assuming you're not mistaken, what else would cause it?" she asked. "Let me see the map."
He tossed the map to her, not wanting to be physically near her. She was like a furnace and if he got close the temptation to remain might be too great. "Of course," she said managing to sound both astounded and indulgent. "It's volcanic. That would explain the heat from the mountain."
"Heat?"
Even under her layers of clothes he could see her body tense up. She did a poor job of pretending to study the map while she mulled something over. "I may as well tell you," she said after a while. "You remember the dreams I've been having? They're about the mountains. I can sense heat coming from them. I think it has to do with by bending ability."
"So? You and the fire under the mountain want to be pals. Great. How does that help us?"
"Fool, I can't keep this place heated forever. Most firebenders wouldn't be able to bend at all in cold like this. If it's warm at the mountain that's one less problem we have to solve."
"Only it's not warm there," Sokka said. "It's an ice-covered mountain. Maybe there's enough lava underground to keep the eastern side a little damp in the warm season but we're stuck on this side without any food."
She let out a tired sigh. "Very well. Continue to search for a way to access the ship's food stores, it's our only chance."
"Yes, ma'am," he said, saluting and getting to his feet. He took the torch with him and went outside, nearly knocking down the cloth door he'd strung up.
"It's 'your highness, not 'ma'am,'" she called after him as he trudged off into the snow.
To be continued...
