EDIT ANNOUNCEMENT: I'm going to be testing until the tenth of june, so I won't be able to post for a while. (finals looming over head) AHH! Sosorry everyone… thanks for your patience and those great reviews! (guilt trip) I'll update asap after exams!
The night was cold, black, devoid of both warmth and color. It was one of those nights when the clouds hang thick and close, while the stars seem immeasurably distant.
Overhead, a mute battle raged between the two, as if the yin and yang of the heavens had turned against one another. White, wintry starlight defied the inky mass of black clouds that still lingered from the Storm. The besieged stars bravely shone in broken torrents onto earth, but would inevitably succumb to the dark. The ever-churning sea lay impartially below, glittering with starlight and shadows alike.
Hanging in between was the flying bison, ferrying his passengers along their hopeless mission. They were still searching for what they'd lost, that friend who'd parted when their backs were turned.
"Kataaaaraaaaah!" Aang called, hands over his mouth, using his bending to project his voice into the distance. The effect was eerie: not a single echo reverberated back to them, as if his voice had simply dissipated into an infinite nothing. "Kataaaraah!" he called again, weaker this time. Sokka hunched lower in the saddle, hearing the quiver in Aang's youthful tenor. This was no time to be getting all weepy.
The young avatar sat heavily on Appa's hindquarters, releasing his hold on the winds. "I can't hear her at all, Sokka," he said softly.
"Shut up Aang," the older boy growled.
"We've been searching since the storm… If she even was on the ocean this long, she'd be, she'd be—!"
"I said shut UP!"
Big, wet tears began rolling down Aang's cheeks, falling to their furry resting place in Appa's coat. "SHE'S DEAD!" he wailed.
SLAP—Sokka's ungloved hand raked across Aang's face, sending a few tears sailing into the sea. "She'd not DEAD, you ASS! Whatever happened to NOT GIVING UP UNTIL WE FOUND HER, HUH?" he demanded, voice cracking. "Just GET UP and GET ON with your BENDING crap and—and—" Aang released a few strangled gasps, face contorted in childish vulnerability. Sokka still felt the boy's brackish tears between his fingers, and became aware of a similar wetness on his own cheeks.
"Aang, I'm so sorry…" He rubbed his face on the back of his sleeve, ashamed. "I just… won't accept that."
"Was a stupid thing to say…"
"But you're right, though. There really isn't any chance… finding her out here." He slouched miserably back into his seat, bringing the exchange to a bleak halt. Even if there wasn't any hope… he was determined to at least carry out the motions.
Aang quietly tried to compose himself, closing his red-rimmed eyes, focusing his powers n the air around them. His mind still drifted… Katara… her laugh, would they ever hear it again? Her beautiful blue eyes…
The priestess! His eyes shot open, their grey depths burning with hope. Ancient events came rushing back in a swirl of color and sound—he knew how to find Katara!
"Sokka!" he cried, scrambling forward to the saddle packs. Sokka looked back when the noise of his rummaging demanded it, to see the child whip out the much-used (butseldom-understood) world map. "We might not be able to find Katara," Aang grinned, "but I know someone who can!" He traced an eager finger to the eastern Earth Kingdom, a region of plains and marshes. The marker of Dai Mae City was nestled in those fields…
"Who?" Sokka ventured, craning his neck closer.
"The priestesses of Dai Mae!" Aang bounced excitedly. "They know everything! I went there a long time ago with Monk Kyatsu. They told us the most amazing things!"
"Like what?" was the skeptical reply.
"Like…" Aang searched his memory. His mind's eye saw the priestesses sitting by the sacred springs, their all-seeing blue eyes staring with chilling scrutiny. What was it Kyatsu had asked? "Where Kyatsu's lost glasses had gone to!" Yes, that was it!
"..Where were they?" Sokka asked.
"On his face."
Beneath them, Appa rolled his eyes and groaned.
"Aang!"
"Wait, that wasn't all! Before we left, one of the priestesses caught my hand… she said that a great disturbance was coming... that it would last a hundred years! I didn't think much of it then, but—"
"The war? You think she was talking about the Fire Nation attacks?"
"Maybe! And she couldn't possibly have known about that, now could she?" He grinned, wagging his finger in almost comical smugness.
Sokka heaved a sigh. He didn't put much stock in fortune tellers… and it certainly wouldn't have been hard to fool the gullible young Aang… but… "It's not like we have any other options," he shrugged. With a slight tug on the reigns, he turned the bison eastward, onto the Dai Mea. The dubious coastline, perhaps his sister's final resting place, vanished from sight. It was hard to see it go…
Overhead, the cavalry arrived. A shaft of bright moonlight pierced the clouds, illuminating the night with its comforting glow. Sokka looked up at it, and, baffling even to him, a small smile crept onto his face. Maybe this wasn't so hopeless after all.
PEOPLE: (stunned silence)
ME: that wasn't so bad, ne? (takes good look at People's horrified, disgusted expressions) Well at least you made it to the bottom of the page...