A/N:

Team: Air Nomads

Round: 3

Category: Drabble

Prompt: "Can you come up with an actual idea?"

Word count: 645

~*Q*~

"There it is," Sokka whispered. "Get down!"

Obediently, his sister, Katara, age nine, crouched lower into the snow. Ten-year-old Sokka narrowed his eyes at the the artic seal peacefully dozing next to a hole in the ice.

"Okay, you can watch, but you can't make a sound," Sokka hissed to Katara. "Dad told me they can sense vibrations. So I don't want some girl messing it up!"

"I'm not 'some girl!' I'm your sister!"

"Fine, fine! Just let me hunt."

Katara huffed and sank down behind the snow pile she used as cover. Sokka hefted the too-big harpoon and aimed at the arctic seal, closing one eye. Carefully...and...now!

The harpoon swished through the air and cracked onto the ice, skidding forward violently. With a couple of terrified yaps, the arctic seal wiggled into the water and darted off, visible only as a blot beneath the ice.

"Darn it!" Sokka stomped his foot. "I almost had it."

Katara popped up from her hiding place quick as a snow weasel. "You missed! Can it be my turn next time?"

"No! You don't understand, Katara. This is a guys' thing. You're too little, anyway."

"I'm not! I'm old enough to help!"

"No, listen to me," Sokka growled. "I need to get meat back to the village. Now that-now that Dad and the others are gone, we might run out of food."

"Gramma said we could pick snowberries and raise our own arctic hens, though," Katara said fearfully.

"She's just trying to make you feel better," Sokka said dismissively.

"Then I wanna help!" Katara leaped for the harpoon, and Sokka fended her off.

"Stop it! What makes you think you could do better than me?"

"I can waterbend," Katara bragged, puffing out her chest.

"Please. You were trying for hours yesterday."

"Well...shut up!" Katara yanked the harpoon from Sokka, ignoring his yell of 'Careful, that's sharp!' She started to slip across the ice in the direction of the seal.

"Katara!" Sokka scolded. He followed her, trying not to fall, and kept pace with his shorter sister easily. Katara tried to keep marching forward. As she got progressively more angry, her purchase on the ice grew more steady. It was actually melting to form a grip around her feet.

Sokka caught up to her and grabbed her shoulder, forcing her to turn around. "Don't just run off! Can you come up with an actual idea?"

"I was gonna waterbend," Katara muttered.

"How, exactly? Stab it with an icicle?"

Katara deflated when she realized the holes harpooned into her plan. "I just wanted to help…"

Sokka put his face in his mittens and sighed. His frozen breath gushed through his fingers. "Look, I get it. But it's not going to help us if I have to fish up my sister." He pointed to the melted ice beneath Katara's feet.

She gasped a little when she saw it and shuffled to the side. Only when she was on safer ground did she look up with fear in her wide blue eyes. "Sokka...I'm scared. Of what's gonna happen to our village."

"...Me too," Sokka admitted. "But one day, I'm gonna be the best warrior in the South Pole. And you're gonna...play around some more with your weird fish magic, I guess."

"You saw it, though, Sokka!" Katara bounced on her heels. "I made the ice move! I did it!"

"Yeah, yeah. Now, quiet a moment." Sokka knelt down next to the patch of thin ice, studying a mass of familiar shapes that floated just beneath the surface. His face lit up. "Hey...those are sea prunes! Nice going, Katara! We can harvest those if you break down the rest of the ice."

"What about the seal?" Katara asked, already crouching down.

"We'll get it next time." Sokka patted her shoulder. "I think letting you take care of this is a much better idea."

~*Q*~

A/N: Finally uploading an entry before the day of! WHOOPS! Maybe next time the themed story will be done at a reasonable time too am i right

*Akirys*~