Hakoda surveyed his daughter as she smoothly operated the airship controls. Pride and sorrow warred within him as he marveled at her competence and maturity. She had been so young when he left, all big eyes and adolescent awkwardness. Now she was poised and confident. She didn't look like Kya, not really. But something about the way she held herself reminded him strongly of her mother. The old familiar grief filled his chest with ice. Mourning someone was like that, sometimes. Life crept back in and eventually you moved on, thought of the one you lost less often. But then a stray thought would turn your attention to your loss and the emotions would well up again, as sharp and painful as the first moment they pierced your spirit. He cleared his throat, trying to dispel the wave of grief.
Katara turned her face toward the sound and smiled tiredly when she saw him. "Is it your turn at the helm?"
Hakoda nodded, not trusting his voice to disguise his sudden anguish. He moved to stand beside Katara at the control panel. The Fire Lord's people had trained him and his daughter well and both felt completely comfortable controlling the ship after days spent piloting it. Katara shifted to the side and allowed him to take her place. She watched for a while as he adjusted the altitude to lift above a sudden crosswind that threatened to blow them off course. Katara reached around him to make a slight change in the aft rudders, aligning more solidly with their plotted course.
Since passing the last land mass two days ago, they had been unable to land and rest for the night. Instead they took turns, one sleeping while the other flew the ship. It was exhausting, but they didn't regret refusing the offer of some of Zuko's men to help them on the journey. It had seemed unwise to bring Fire Nation pilots to a country that had been attacked by the Fire Nation less than a year ago. Hakoda shook his head, astounded by how much everything had changed in such a short time. And his thoughts circled back to how their time apart had transformed his daughter.
It would be her birthday next week. He had spent the last few of her birthdays away from her, still thinking of her as the small girl he'd left behind. If someone had told him when he left that she would become a master waterbender, help end the war with the Fire Nation, and travel all over the world before he saw her again, he'd have thought them snow-addled! Yet, here she was—not yet fifteen and a master waterbender, sifu to the Avatar, no less.
She resumed the conversation they had been having off and on for the entirety of their week-long voyage. "Where you sit in the dining hall really matters, Dad. I was practically shunned for sitting next to Aang even though I didn't know their rules. We should hang back and let one of the Northerners indicate where we belong in the hierarchy, even for something as simple as breakfast. It's stupid, I know. No one is better than another person because of who they're related to, or whether they can bend. But in the North they really care about things like that."
Hakoda grimaced and wrapped his arm around his daughter's shoulders. "I begin to understand why my mother left everything behind. It must have been hard for you there."
He pulled Katara closer and leaned his cheek against the top of her head and allowed in all the regrets stirred up by his surge of grief. Before her mother's death Katara had been so full of fun—the child most likely to play pranks on her family or sneak off to go penguin sledding when she was supposed to be doing chores. His devastation when Kya was killed had prevented him from being the father he'd always intended to be. He had allowed Katara to take on way too much responsibility, and her sense of mischief had disappeared under the weight of burdens she shouldn't have had to carry. His mother had tried to warn him, but he'd been too lost in pain to heed her.
Katara sighed and stepped away from Hakoda. "Yeah, it was hard. But eventually Pakku came to respect me and I learned so much. Did I tell you that Aang refused to learn from Pakku if he wouldn't teach me as well? I wouldn't let him do that, of course, because he had to learn waterbending to become a fully realized Avatar and defeat Ozai."
Hakoda felt the familiar irritation that mention of Aang brought on and deliberately tamped it down. His children loved and respected Aang, so he needed to try to get past his anger at the boy. But Aang had hurt his daughter, made her cry! It was glaringly obvious that she was infatuated with the boy. How could anyone turn down such a great gift as Katara's admiration? Hakoda sighed and decided abruptly to stop the double talk in his own head. Katara wasn't infatuated with Aang; she loved him. She was in love with , she was young, but she had always known her own mind quite well. And she had grown up fast after Kya died.
Aang was very young. Perhaps the intensity of Katara's feelings had frightened him. Hakoda smiled to himself, remembering how Kya's decision to pursue him had scared him into leaving on a 6-month-long trading journey to the Earth Kingdom. His disappointment in the Avatar cracked a bit. Hakoda had been petrified by Kya's interest in him at 17; how could he blame a 13-year-old for being intimidated by Katara. Though Kya had been bold and determined, Katara surpassed even her mother in strength of will.
Hakoda recalled himself to his daughter's words and searched for a neutral response. "It was honorable of him to make the offer, even if you wouldn't accept his sacrifice."
Katara sighed. "Yeah, Aang's filled with honor." Then she giggled, "Pakku really was a jerk! Before he agreed to teach me, Aang and I got back at him by hiding his favorite water skin every time he put it down."
Hakoda chuckled and in that moment felt his resentment toward Aang finally slip away. The boy had brought back Katara's sense of fun, had helped her feel like the child she still was. Aang deserved Hakoda's gratitude for that as much as for defeating Ozai and bringing an end to the war that had cost him so much. Had cost the world so much. Hakoda admitted to himself for the first time that Aang had lost more than anyone else, set adrift in time, his nation swept away along with everyone he'd ever known. Hakoda's laugh and smile both died abruptly and he felt grief tightening his throat as he truly grasped the magnitude of Aang's loss. He tried to imagine having to live without everyone he'd ever loved—no Katara or Sokka or Bato or Kanna left to tether him to the world. And he knew he'd never have been able to adapt as Aang had. His respect for the young man—he could no longer think of him as a boy in the face of these realizations—grew until it erased every trace of bitterness.
And with that profound shift of opinion Hakoda decided Aang was worthy of Katara. He'd seen the way the Avatar looked at his daughter, all flushed cheeks and wide eyes. Hakoda would eat his parka if Aang wasn't in love with Katara. Whatever has caused him to flee the Fire Nation, it wasn't a lack of feelings for her.
Katara interrupted his musing. "You went awfully serious, Dad. Did you see something?"
Hakoda focused on her face again. "No sweetling, just thinking about Aang, wondering how his quest is going."
Her lively features stilled. "I don't know how it could be going well. Nothing I've seen or heard since leaving home has suggested there are any Air Nomads left other than Aang."
She seemed about to add more, but fell silent, chewing on her lower lip. Hakoda waited, sure she had more to say on the subject. However, she remained silent as her gaze drifted to the large windows in the front of the gondola. She stared intently at the sky before them until a jaw-cracking yawn forced her eyes closed.
Finally Hakoda broke the silence. "We'll reach the North Pole sometime tomorrow morning. You should sleep for a few hours. I'll wake you up when we arrive."
Katara stepped close again and wrapped her arms around him. Another yawn overtook her as she nodded. She squeezed him tighter, murmuring "Night, Dad."
Then she left Hakoda alone with his regrets. He wished he could take back the harsh words he'd already said about Aang. Kya had been the one in their family who quickly responded to threats or insults to the children. His mother had always said Kya reminded her of a mother polarbeardog, growling and brandishing claws at the slightest threat to her cubs while Hakoda had responded in a more measured way. He had accepted the response from her while she lived, but with her gone he truly understood. He felt as though whatever impulse had caused Kya to react that way had inhabited him once she could no longer host it. He wanted to stand sentry over Sokka and Katara, never allowing anything to cause them a moment's grief.
But it was too late for that sort of protection. Now they had both grown so far beyond needing a father to stand between them and danger or pain. They had rushed out into the world and changed it, healed it. He was in awe of how brave and accomplished they'd become in his absence. But surely he had a few years left before they were truly adults. He would do everything in his power to encourage them to still be children while they could.
And the Avatar? He really should be allowed to be young, to play and to make mistakes that didn't endanger the world. Hakoda decided to make it his mission to ensure his children and their friend were given the space to be kids. When the inevitable romance blossomed between Katara and Aang, he would support it.
x-x-x-x
Hours later Hakoda squinted into the rising sun and contemplated waking his daughter. According to her directions, they'd reach the edge of Northern Water Tribe territory within the hour. Or perhaps sooner, he mused, considering the tailwind he'd picked up overnight. But just as he turned from the controls to approach Katara's berth in the back of the chamber the airship gave a sudden lurch accompanied by a horrific grinding noise. Another loud scraping noise set his teeth on edge just before the airship rocked in the other direction.
He leaned forward and searched the sea ahead frantically. Had he somehow not seen an iceberg and run the ship into it? Twice? There was a noise behind him and he turned to see Katara racing toward the windows.
"What is it? Did we hit something?"
Before he could answer a spike of ice shot out of the waves ahead of them. Gleaming white and coming to jagged points, the frozen plume nearly scraped the port side of the ship. Hakoda desperately steered away from it only to see another spike rising to the starboard side. He swore and reached for the altitude controls. He'd flown quite low through the night to take advantage of the winds, but it looked like the time had come to fly higher.
Katara stopped his hand. Her expression was grim as she told him. "Northern Water Tribe welcoming party. I'll handle this."
She slid fluidly into a wide legged stance and drew her arms toward her chest. When she pushed them out to the sides the ice in front of them abruptly shattered and collapsed. Water and foam flew up as each chunk of ice smashed into the sea.
Katara made a beckoning gesture and a huge wave formed under them, almost touching the underside of the ship. She raced to the door and opened it, then leaped out of the airship. Hakoda's heart stuttered in fear, but his terror was quickly supplanted by pure admiration when she landed smoothly and skated over the surface of the water, surfing across the top of the wave. More ice raced toward her in lethal points, but she dismissed each new attack with a fierce downward swipe of her arms.
Wide catamarans with curving decorative prows slid from behind a monstrous floating chunk of ice. There were six of them and on each broad deck stood eight men in blue, two of them at the rear of every boat clearly using waterbending to propel the craft. The boats surrounded his daughter in a tight circle. Hakoda cut the engine so he could hear their confrontation from his position floating above it. If he'd had a weapon nearby he'd have held it at the ready. But this was a diplomatic mission and his spear and club were packed away in storage with his clothing.
"Can't you see the Water Tribe symbol on our airship?" Katara screamed at the people surrounding her. For indeed, the first change Zuko's people had made to the vehicle to ready it for their journey was replacing the red gas envelope with blue. The stylized waves of the water symbol featured prominently on the azure fabric. "This airship carries only Chief Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe and me, Master Katara of the Southern Water Tribe!"
Hakoda adjusted the altitude, dropping closer to the surface of the water. Before the breeze could push him further from the people below, he crossed to the door, which still hung open from Katara's departure. He leaned out of the yawning opening.
"I am Chief Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe and I mean no harm here. Please escort my daughter and me to Chief Arnook!"
Most of the men on the boats looked up at him. Then they looked toward the only man who had not looked away from Katara. Apparently he was in charge of the "welcoming party."
The man, who looked quite young, hunched his shoulders and flushed. "I'm sorry, Katara. Uh. Master Katara. Remember me? Sangok? But, um, it's Master Sangok now."
Katara glared at him, saying nothing.
Sangok turned to face Hakoda. "Greetings, Chief Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe." His voice gained confidence as he continued. "I apologize, we were unable to make out the color of your conveyance from our watchtowers and Chief Arnook believed that you were from the Fire Nation. We've heard stories of the ash-makers having flying machines. But now that we see you are from our sister tribe, of course we'll take you to our chief. You should be able to land your machine in the central square by the palace."
Sangok faced Katara again. One hand stole up to rub the back of his neck as he addressed her "If you want, you can ride back to the city on the boat with me." Even from well above the scene, the young man's hopeful look was clear to Hakoda.
"I'll be with my father" Katara responded in her haughtiest tone, the one she usually reserved for demanding that Sokka knock the snow off his boots before coming inside their home. Hakoda grinned and watched with pride as she called the water to her again and rode a cresting wave back up to the airship.
A/N I tried so hard to write a Katara chapter, friends. But Hakoda insisted on taking over. He had lots of thoughts about his kids and the Avatar. If everyone cooperates, the next chapter will focus on Katara.
Wil02 I'm really glad you're still reading! It makes me so happy that you're hanging in with my inconsistent updates. Thank you!
Gabriela N Gonzalez Would you believe I've had Katara's response to Aang's letter written for more than a year, just waiting for the story to catch up? I totally have. My outline says you'll see it in the next chapter.
CoyoteLemon Thank you so much! I hope my love for the Air Nomads shines through because they're my favorite!
Ashley Barbosa Oh no! I'm sorry I made you cry. If it's any consolation, I cried a bit myself.
Cagalli01 Thanks so much for reading. It's really nice to hear from you!