I don't understand.
That happens a lot. Not like Sokka but still I feel his pain. Confusion comes so clearly but correcting it is complicated. The Avatar leads our crew like a bad metaphor. He looks like a child. His eyes are wide and fearful. Killing that Avatar would not be something a person could do and still be able to sleep at night.
Toph sits next to me in the soft glow of purple flame twiddling her thumbs. She's just a kid too.
Katara hates me so very much. I know why though. She's a water bender. She sees me as the enemy. It's only natural.
Sokka places a hand on mine and chills shoot through my spine. I don't move away. I like how his brown chaliced palms feel. He's telling me a story about a seal moose he had difficulty slaying because of the sound it made.
"You see it sounded like a child." You are a child Sokka.
So am I.
"I needed it to stop. It was more than painful. It was ripping at like-" He placed his hand on his chest.
Toph spoke, "Your soul."
He nods, "Yeah..."
He continues to explain to me that when he lifted it he could feel how much colder it had become in just a short time. I felt like that was a lot because this dude grew up in the Arctic. I don't know why but my brain said to itself, "I'll go with you to the Arctic. I'll keep you warm."
He points at Katara. Tells me the moment she heard the sound she was on her feet. She knew exactly what to do, "What have I told you about hunting animals father said not too."
"I was mad! He's gone!" Sokka told at her.
At this point in the story Katara interrupted while she continued to braid the thick loose strands of appas fur. She says so sweetly to me, "He screamed at me."
"I get that." I responded.
The tea was getting to me. This wasn't ordinary tea. Uncle has a lot of different kinds he uses but the plants Toph and I collected for this evening were from a merlot-Cannibus. It's properties ease the physical pain and lessen the defences. We were safe inside the beautiful purple cavern of Avatar Milo. He's the one who created the bio-luminescent plant. A hybrid of THC and Alchohal infused in an herbal supplication that when consumed made you feel the warm vibrations of the energies within and around you while still holding on to the physical form.
"Oh my Garnet!" Toph cries out, "What is that?"
We all look over at her, this blind earth bender, who is now trembling as her eyes are focusing in on something. The fire. Her hands move up to feel the warmth, "That's fire..."
"Toph you can see?" Asks Katara.
She shakes her head, no. "Not you, or the cave, or the creatures but the fire. And this-" Her hands slip though the surface of the water, "What color did you say this was Aang?"
"Sea green." He stands to his feet and the four of us marvel at how this pale child now reflects blue.
She gasps as she turns to his direction, "Oh Aang?"
She rises and backs away slowly. I catch her before she slips over a hidden edge in the shadows and steady her by bracing her arms. I coo her with soft blows from my lips onto the back of her ears the way my mother did mine in times of stress.
"I don't like this feeling. I need this to stop." She cries.
I nod, "It's not for everyone. Katara, do you have any more water from the north pole?"
She presented it to me and I used it to fill her empty cup. A few mint leaves. An orange wedge. And three drops of pilo berries. My hands heated the cup enough to steam the ingredients into a fusion and not enough to burn the skin. She clutches it slowly and hears my voice, "Sip this. It'll make you feel better."
"What is it?" She asks.
"It's for sleeping. The night will take away your stress." That's how my uncle would say it too.
She nods and sips. Soon she slips in my arms so fast. I curl her up into the bundle of braids next to Katara on Appas fur.
Sokka, standing at the mouth of the cave we hid with braided long thick green leaves to keep us out of sight from passers by, waves at me. I saw the glint of his boomerang in the sparkle of the moon. He had that crazy look in his eye he got when he had an idea. I was terrified. So I went anyway. As we slipped away I saw the Avatar sit indian style on a rock in the water just before the fall fell over the edge wall above our camp.
Up on the rock edges Sokka and I ran with our bare feet pressing into the grainy stones. We made our way up the mossy wall and the vines to the forrest floor and I watched as he got prepared to show me something. He smiled, gave me a wink, and then flung his boomerang. It whirred around through the trees and at first there was nothing. Again, I was confused. Then I heard it. The singing. the leaves were made like wind instruments and a faultless blissful and sad harmony rang in my ears. I saw the color blue every where.
Sokka caught his boomerang and fell to his knees. I could see defeat in his eyes.
"Zuko." He says to me, "I see someone."
I cross the patches of yellow and orange moss to kneel before him. I place my hands on his shoulders, "Who?"
"A child. Children. Hundreds of them." He furrows a brow.
I panic, "What? Where?"
"I don't know. Where ever it is... they're being hurt. They can't get out. The monsters who keep them aren't..." He furrows a brow and buckles into himself.
I think he's collapsed in sobs but I'm wrong. He's unconscious. I cradle him to me.
The Avatar's voice comes from behind me, "Zukko. Bring him inside and let's get some rest. We will divulge this in the morning."
"You heard." I asked.
He nods at me, "Our next mission. Yes. Make sure he's in your arms when he wakes up. A night mare like he's about to have will make him unreasonable in the morning. I want you to be the one holding him down. I'd hurt him."
I heed the warning from the Avatar and take Sokka back into the cave. Together he and I curl up between two risen podiums of earth and the wall. In his chest my head rests and so easily I fall asleep to Katara thanking me for protecting her brother. That one thing sends me in a spiral of fear and chaos because I'm losing my grip on the conscious world to a water bender doing something she would never do. Something is clearly wrong and this was going to be a rough night.