The sun never seemed very bright in the South Pole, but it was especially dull in the winter months. Even when it was up all day and throughout the night, nothing was ever bright. Ko hated it. The winter made him long for summer days he could only barely remember, surrounded by the heat of Ember Island while he sat with his mother in the sand.
"You look cold," Yiara said.
Ko nearly jumped, he hadn't expected her. "Yeah," he agreed, pulling his parka tighter around himself. The woman in the village who made them offered to make Ko a red one - because firebenders were supposed to like red, he guessed. But Ko turned her down for the normal shades of blue and purple everyone wore. In the cities there was a rainbow of colors to choose from, for parkas and underclothes and everything else. Even clothes shipped from the other nations in styles not typical of the Water Tribe. But not in the village. Here everyone wore blue. So did Ko.
Yiara smirked. "All these years here and you still aren't used to the weather. You firebenders are stubborn ones."
Ko shrugged. "My father says my mother used to be the same when they'd come here to see his family. My sister was the opposite, she always had something to complain about with the heat." Ko hadn't thought about his sister in years; she was ten years older, they'd never been close. She'd left home at sixteen, shortly before Ko and Father left the Fire Nation for the South Pole. She wasn't a bender, but definitely took after their father and water tribe side. "I think she would have liked it here."
"But you don't."
Her voice sounded almost sad. Ko stole a look at her. But her face was empty, unreadable. "I don't hate it. It'd be nice if there was less snow. If it was warmer. Maybe a few more trees, you know."
That made her half-chuckle. "So you don't hate it. Just everything about it."
"Not everything. Penguin sledding is kind of cool." Ko nodded toward a group of children attempting to chase down an otter penguin nearby. "I think we might be too big for it now, though."
Yiara rolled her eyes, but said nothing. A couple of children were standing near the edge of a small cliff, by a pile of snow that had fallen off from above. They dug through it, but stopped and ran toward Ko and Yiara.
"Our fort got covered in snow," one of the boys said. He grabbed Ko's wrist. "Can you help us?"
"Help? How?" he asked.
"Can't you just melt the snow away?"
Ko had seen their fort this morning. Nothing but a few spare tent poles and old rags. Definitely flammable. "I don't think that's a good idea."
"Aww, you never use your firebending," the other boy said.
Something cold thudded against Ko's head. Behind him Korek laughed, rubbing the rest of the snow from the crushed snowball into Ko's hair. "Why don't you two let a real bender help you out," he said.
Ko shook the rest of the snow from his black hair. He glared at Korek, who had already stood himself before the pile of snow. Effortlessly, he swung his hands from one side to the other, and the snow followed. It fell away from it's pile until a collapsed bundle of rags, the remains of the fort, was left in its place.
One of the boys shrugged. "Yeah, whatever."
"You're welcome," Korek snarled. "And don't build your fort under a cliff next time."
"Did you two set all this up to trick Ko into firebending?" Yiara asked.
Both boys grabbed at Ko's arms now. They begged for something, anything. A spark, a shock of lightning between his fingers. Something.
"We never get to see you firebend," one of them whined.
Ko tried to pull away from them. He could picture the ruckus firebending now would cause. Half the village would scold him for being so careless around children. He wasn't supposed to firebend near anyone; or anything, really.
"You might as well go ask your parents to light a match for you. That's more impressive than Ko's firebending." Korek laughed.
Ko's lip began to twitch into a snarl, but he turned away and walked toward the center of the village.
"Oh great, now you're all upset," Korek called as he trudged after him. "Come on, it's just a joke. And it's true, so don't be mad at me. We can't all be bending prodigies."
"You're not a prodigy, I'm just as much a bender as you are."
Korek crossed his arms. "You want to put that to the test and duel, again?"
"You're on."
"Fine. Let's go to the arena this time. Then you can firebend all you want, no excuses when I beat you this time."
Korek headed off toward the arena in it's spot at the edge of the village. Ko started after him, but Yiara grabbed his shoulder. "You sure this is a good idea? He always wins."
Ko blushed. "I know, but I've been practicing. A little bit, when I can. I've gotten better. I think."
"You know you don't need to prove yourself like this. Everything you can do you taught yourself. That's impressive on it's own. Korek and I only know what we know because we had people to teach us."
Ko pulled away from her, and kept on towards the arena. Yiara sighed, but she followed too. Dueling, both with bending and traditional weapons, was not unusual for younger members of the village. But Ko and Korek seemed to do it more often than anyone else.
The arena wasn't much - a slightly elevated platform by the water. Not enough for an all-out pro-bending match, but enough to learn the waterbending forms. Rumor was back in the day Master Veni was once the best bender in the South Pole, and he taught in the Capital City. Now he mostly sat around and watched as the other instructors taught. Lazy and, some claimed, a bit crazy in his old age. He'd watched one of Korek's and Ko's duels once, and laughed loudly enough to alert half the village when Korek easily knocked Ko into the freezing water.
Ko had hoped Master Veni would be the only one around. The children's bending lessons would be over by this time. Most people would have made their way back to their homes or at least back towards the center of the village. But Nim was still there, one of the waterbending instructors, and Korek's mother. She was speaking to two people Ko had never seen before, a woman and a girl, probably around his age.
"I'm afraid I don't know where Roruk is, but perhaps Ko can help? Ko, these women are looking for your father."
Strangers were rare in their village, non-Water Tribe ones even more so. They both wore orange and yellow robes. The girl's long brown hair was tied back in two braids. The woman's hair was cut short and pulled away from her forehead, showing off her blue arrow tattoos.
"You're Air Nomads," Ko said. The woman nodded.
"Yup!" the girl said. "My mother is one of the best Airbenders in the world. She even used to train Avatar Kishi."
"That's quite impressive," Nim said.
The girl nodded. "Hopefully I can become just as skilled, and maybe I could train the next Avatar! Maybe even soon."
"Tingley," her mother said.
"Oh, not that I would want Avatar Kishi to die or anything. Of course we wish the Avatar a long and happy life."
"Please forgive her, she can get a bit chatty."
"Um, if you're looking for my father, he's probably at home," Ko said, pointing vaguely in the direction of his hut. "But, how does my dad know Air Nomads?"
The woman smiled. "We used to know each other back when he was an Ambassador to the Fire Nation on Ember Island. We've actually met before, but you were just a kid then."
"Oh, okay." Ko could not remember his father having any friends back in the Fire Nation. His father had hated Ember Island, and as far as Ko remembered, the people there. Father barely even spent time on the island. Most of the time he was in the capital, and only came to visit the rest of his family when he was free from work, as their mother insisted it was better to raise her children there than in the city.
"Korek what are you doing?" Nim asked.
Korek was on the arena stage. He took his spot on the far side. "Me and Ko are gonna duel. We're gonna have one of those, what do you call them, an Agni Kai."
"An Agni Kai is between two firebenders," Master Veni said from his usual seat.
"Well whatever, I'd still win even if there were two firebenders."
Ko climbed onto the arena. "That's not what he meant."
Korek did not give him a chance to prepare. He pulled a thin tendril of water from the river behind, and whipped it towards Ko. Ko ducked at the last second. The water cracked above his head.
"Boys, do you really think this is a good idea right now?" Nim said.
"Don't worry, they usually don't last long," Yiara told her.
"What, they do this all the time?"
Master Veni laughed. "You kids can duel if you want. So long as no one sets my tent on fire this time."
"That was five years ago, Master Veni," Ko said, feeling his face growing red. Master Veni was probably the only one in the village who still slept in a tent. And of course, he kept it dangerously close to his arena.
"Yeah, Ko has way better control over his fire now," Korek said, "yesterday I saw him melt some ice. Very impressive."
Ko threw a punch, and a fireball shot from his first. Only it was smaller than he'd hoped, and moved slow enough for Korek to jump away. Korek laughed, and shot a burst of water back at Ko, strong and fast enough to knock the air out of Ko and send him falling back.
"Can I offer you some advice?" the Air Nomad woman asked.
Ko sat up, gasping for air. "I don't know how much airbending would help," he said once he caught his breath.
"One thing I learned when I traveled with the avatar; the elements aren't as separate as we like to pretend. Not even fire and water. A mistake a lot of benders make is letting your emotions control your bending. Let the power flow through you, just like your opponent is doing with his waterbending."
"Are you giving up already?" Korek mocked.
Ko jumped to his feet. He had no idea what the Air Nomad meant, but he wasn't ready to quit. Korek sent another burst of water to him. Ko rose a wall of fire before him. The water hit the fire, sizzled, and evaporated into puffs of steam.
"Huh, that was actually almost impressive." Korek smirked, and lifted both of his arms in the air.
Behind him the water began to rumble in the river. A wave began to grow until it was above both of their heads. Ko's fire wall dwindled down into nothing, not that it would have withstood the wave. Ko doubted he could make enough fire to best. He took a breath and held his palms up to the water. He thought of what the Air Nomad had just said, letting it flow through him. He still wasn't sure what that meant, but he'd try.
The wave began to curve towards him. Ko tried to focus on - something. The coldness around him nipped at his cheeks, growing worse as the wave blocked out the sun. He let out a breath. The water hung in the air above him. From the tip of the wave down to its source at the river, the water began to freeze. Master Veni leaned forward in his fair, his hands wrapped tight around it's handles.
"What the- Yiara, stop," Korek said.
"I'm not doing that."
Ko turned his head to face them. Yiara and Nim were watching, eyes wide in surprise. Neither of them looked prepared to bend. The Air Nomads looked at each other and smiled.
"Haha, very funny. Whoever froze my water, we were in the middle of a very serious Agni Kai"
"It's still not an Agni Kai," Tingley yelled with a laugh.
"Ko, what do you think you're doing?"
Ko jumped and turned. His father was marching up to the arena. The ice above cracked and shattered. It's pieces fell to the arena with loud crashes between Ko and Korek. Before Father could say anything else, Veni jumped out of his seat.
"You all saw that! Ko just water bended. What have I been saying for years!"
Between Veni's yelling and the crash of ice, a crowd of villagers was coming towards the arena. The closest few paused at what Veni had said. Nim shook her head. "Not this nonsense again, Veni."
"I've been saying it for the past fifteen years, the Avatar died that day in Omashu and since then we've all been lied to. But now it's clear." Veni hobbled over to the edge of the arena. He placed a hand on Ko's shoulder. "Ko is the new Avatar."
Behind them, Korek burst out in laughter. "Come on Veni, even for you that's insane. Ko can barely firebend how is he supposed to be the Avatar."
"But-"
"Korek's right." Ko shrugged Veni's hand off of him. "Obviously someone else was waterbending to mess with him."
Ko's father grabbed his arm and pulled him off of the arena platform. "It's time to go home." Father turned to the air nomads. "You two were looking for me, right? We can talk at the house."
By now most of the village had gathered around. They all watched as Ko's father pulled him back toward their hut. Some of them were whispering. Ko could imagine what they said. Those who heard Veni's declaration probably laughed at the very thought of it. Those who didn't, probably done something wrong - of course, the only firebender causing trouble for the Water Tribe. Nothing new. The Air Nomads followed in silence.
Their house was not far from the arena, in a quite corner of the village. Korek and his family lived close by, as well as a few others. The houses were similar to most, mostly unchanged since they were built shortly after the Hundred Year War. A fire was already lit in the large fireplace in the center. The house was warm, as Ko liked it. Inside it was a normal Water Tribe house, decorated with tribal weapons and costumes, passed on from ancestors. Ko's father had lived there before he left home, and as far as Ko knew, he changed nothing when they returned years later. Sparky, the old half-blind messenger hawk they brought when they came from Ember Island - the only Fire Nation thing in the house besides Ko himself, flew down from it's spot in the rafter to greet them. He landed on Ko's shoulder, and nestled his feathers against Ko's cheek.
"What have I told you about dueling? Firebending is far too dangerous, especially when you can barely control it."
"How am I supposed to learn to control it when you won't let me train?" Ko raised his voice, something he hardly did to Father. Only during fights about bending. "You won't even let me light the fire place. I can learn, you didn't even see me bending. I must have been good, Master Veni thought I could be the Avatar."
"Master Veni is a crazy old man who got too caught up in a conspiracy theory. Firebending is dangerous.
"So is waterbending."
Father shook his head. "People here know about waterbending, they can understand and handle it. And waterbenders never tried to destroy the other nations."
"So what? You think I'm going to become some evil, pro-war Fire Nationalist? Do you not trust me? Are you afraid of me?"
"Enough. I will not have you speak to me like that. Go to bed, we'll speak more in the morning."
Ko started to say something else, but stopped himself. The Air Nomads had been standing in the doorway and watched the whole exchange. Ko left the room, Sparky still riding on his shoulder.
. . .
"You can't hide it forever," Luera, the Air Nomad woman, saod.
"I was doing fine, until you two showed up." Roruk finished pouring each of them a cup of tea. He fell silent for a moment to listen. Ko was silent - Roruk doubted he'd really gone to sleep already, but he'd at least retired to the other room like he'd ordered. If they were quiet enough, he shouldn't be able to hear.
"So you did that on purpose then," Tingley said, "got him to waterbend." Luera smiled.
"Luckily enough he didn't even believe it," Roruk said.
"Even if you continue to try and suppress his bending, he'll find out eventually. And he'll learn quickly, they always do. I need to take him with us, so we can train him to be the Avatar."
"Absolutely not."
Luera stood from her seat, her tea untouched. "Kyosha's health is failing. If she dies it will be the entire world searching for a firebending Avatar, not just a few."
"They'll be looking for a baby."
"The world needs an Avatar Roruk. You've been hiding out here for too long. The rest of the world is not as peaceful as this little village. Skirmishes between the Earth States, riots in the Fire Nations, political unrest in the United Republic. And that's not even mentioning the Order of the Blazing Sun."
"And isn't that exactly why we're keeping this a secret in the first place? You two need to leave."
Tingley rose from her seat, and followed her mother to the door. Luera turned back. "I'll give you two days to think about it. But don't misunderstand me, Roruk, we don't plan to leave the South Pole without the Avatar."
With that, they left. Roruk walked into the other room, then quietly pried open the bedroom door. Ko was in bed, turned away from him. Roruk could not tell if he was asleep or if he just lay there. Sparky was up in the rafters and turned its head to look at Roruk with it's glassy, useless left eye. Roruk shut the door. He had no idea what Luera planned to do, but Roruk would not be letting her take Ko. He had promises to keep.