By sunset, they had reached the ocean. Appa landed, waited for everyone to get off, then shook himself. He walked up to the edge of the cliff and watched the waves crash below. Just like at the other very cold place, the waves here were fierce. He made a low nickering sound. When he had fallen in, the way they tossed him around so powerfully, making him helpless for all his size and all his power… Appa was not eager to fly over such a thing again. Oceans were terrifying. But this little boy, his master, needed him to. So he would fly over the ocean, but he would not enjoy it.
That same little boy came to stand beside him now. "It's okay, buddy," Aang said. He put a hand on Appa's nose. "It's going to be a long flight. But I promise, after that you'll have all the rest you could want."
Appa grumbled. His master did not understand. The ocean was powerful, and it was hungry, and now it was alive, too. Was the thing that brought the water alive still with them? The waves could reach up to pluck him from the sky and eat him whole, and he would be able to do nothing. But all Aang did was pat his snout reassuringly and tell him again that it would be okay. Appa closed his eyes and relaxed. His master knew more than he did. Aang might be small, but he was smart and knew things Appa could not know. If he said so, it was so.
They walked back to the campsite. It was getting dark. Appa took up his usual position on the side of the camp. He was unsure which direction to face. Now that the ocean was alive and had noticed them, might it crawl over land to attack? But the fire throwers could only come from back the way they had come, in the opposite direction. Appa had taken to facing in the direction of potential danger. Which way should he face? He decided to face the ocean. The ocean was more dangerous and he would need every second of advance warning to escape its grasp.
One of his eyes, of course, faced inwards on the camp. He watched the people make a small fire and cook things over it. The little one, Momo, seemed unafraid of the fire thrower. He was quick to forgive and never lost his taste for adventure, like a child. Appa would have to find a way to warn him. He'd been too frozen with surprise and fear to react earlier, but now he was prepared to fight if need be. Appa knew that shade of white! The fire thrower was allied with the living water! That made him very dangerous. Appa kept an eye on him, remembering the large metal thing. Those things were much more powerful than he was, powerful enough even to defeat the ocean. Yet when the water came alive, it too could do nothing to defend itself. Living water was the scariest water.
Dinner went on peacefully. Sunset had come very early, so the people did not go to sleep after eating. The master and the human with the sword made funny faces at each other and started to walk around strangely, like they were things from another world. They made weird sounds. The fire thrower got angry and put the game of flowers on the ground. The sword person sat down and played with him. Then the fire thrower went away and the two water people played with each other. The master talked to them, showing them something. The sword person made him laugh again, which made the fire thrower angry again, which made him play with the master. Appa narrowed his eyes. Whatever the fire thrower was doing did not please his master. Aang grew more and more outraged with every move. He yelled at the fire thrower, and Appa stood up. Living water or no, he would defend his master to the death!
The anger completely disappeared from Aang's face when he noticed. "Woah, Appa. It's okay. We're just playing a game." He patted Appa on the nose and urged him to go back to resting. Appa was reluctant to move. The master started to get worried, and repeated the urging. Appa went back...but he kept his eye open.
Nothing more happened. Whatever the fire thrower was doing, it was all in the game, not in real life. The master buried his head in his hands and groaned. The fire thrower got a look on his face like a predator after a successful hunt. But he only started to put the game away; he did nothing else to hurt anyone. The master got out some hay he had taken from the hay place, and Appa chewed it gratefully. The routine act of chewing lulled him into the usual calm, placid state. His eyelids drooped. He forgot all about dangers that might be. Right now he had food, and the master was nearby, and there was comfort and safety. Appa lowered his head onto his front legs and prepared to sleep.
He was dozing when a distant boom made his eyes fly open. He snorted in alarm. That was the boom of water against a sea cliff! He stood up and turned his horns in all directions, listening. More distant booms followed, regular and steady. That was how the ocean usually slept when they were near the very cold places; he remembered from before. Appa settled down. The ocean was sleeping and so should he.
But the fire thrower was still awake. He approached. Appa watched him closely. When he got too close, Appa rose onto his feet and backed away. He showed his teeth. The fire thrower stopped. "You're afraid of me?" he asked. He sounded hurt and confused. He reached out a hand, a hand coated in treacherous living ice. Appa snorted. The fire thrower suddenly saw his own hand. He took it back. All of his signals changed from hurt to fear. Appa listened in alarm. What had he detected?
The fire thrower inched closer and glanced behind him, as if afraid of something behind him. Appa could see nothing behind him except the sleeping people in their furs. He backed away from the fire thrower. This exchange continued, the fire thrower coming closer and him backing away, until they were far from the sleeping people. Then the fear signals went away. Appa looked up in alarm. Were the fear signals a trick to separate him from his master?
"Please," the fire thrower begged in a whisper. "Don't tell them." He glanced behind him again. Then he gestured toward his chest, and the living water peeled off. It left his hands and upper half, but not his legs, and slunk away to gather in a ball some distance behind him. The fire thrower inched closer, stopping when he saw Appa flinch. "Don't tell them," he repeated.
Appa huffed. He didn't fully understand what the fire thrower was asking. And worse, the living water still clung to the fire thrower's legs. Appa made sure to keep his eye on all of the living water in case it attacked from surprise.
The fire thrower sighed. "I'm going to have to start at the beginning," he muttered. "Appa, you don't have to be scared. The water spirit is friendly."
Appa didn't believe him. The power of the waves, the death screams of the strong metal thing…
"Okay, it did tear apart Zhao's ship," the fire thrower admitted. "But it did that because I asked it to. We're kind of like you and Aa - the Avatar. It does what I ask, mostly." He held out a hand and gestured, Come. The living water came. It uncurled and loped along the ground, bounding from spot to spot like a cat, until the tip of it touched the fire thrower's hand.
Appa's eyes widened. This, he understood perfectly. The fire thrower was the living water's master? He looked at the living water, remembered everything he had seen it do, and relaxed. Everything made sense now. It followed its master and did his bidding, just like Appa did for his own master. But could its master be trusted? Appa looked at Zuko for a long while. He could see all of the human's signals. He knew what they meant. He decided yes. Appa turned to the living water and snorted at it. The snort was a gesture of friendliness and benevolent coexistence. As long as their masters meant each other no harm, they would coexist in peace.
The fire thrower let the living water cover him again. He looked back at the sleeping people. None of them had stirred. "Now you know my secret," he told Appa. "I don't want anyone else to know that I'm the water spirit's master. Human beings hate the water spirit. They're afraid of it. Spirits just don't belong in the human world. If they knew there was any connection between us, they would drive me out of the human world, too. So please don't tell anyone my coat's made of ice, or that it's me the water spirit's following, or that I have any control over it. Or else my, uh, herd will cast me out. You can understand how that's a bad thing, right?"
Appa understood nothing except that communicating with the other humans might get the fire thrower expelled from the herd. So, the fire thrower was asking him to do nothing, then. Because Appa already couldn't communicate with any of the humans. His eyelids drooped. Why had the fire thrower interrupted his sleep? He yawned and made to go back to his sleeping spot.
"You're afraid of the ocean, aren't you?"
Appa paused. He was afraid of the ocean.
The fire thrower sighed. "The ocean is basically a giant herd of water spirits," he told Appa. "They don't all listen to me. I'm only master over this one water spirit. But it can talk to the rest of its herd and convince them that there's no reason to attack us. Water spirits are usually peaceful, like you are. They don't get angry easily. As long as we don't get under their feet, or waves in this case, we'll be fine."
Appa blinked. The ocean was a herd of living waters? A long time ago, when he was in the other very cold place and the sky was angry and it drove him into the water, Appa remembered feeling like he was in the claws of a huge monster. It pulled him in all directions as it dived and it refused to let go. But now he remembered it differently. He was not in the claws of a huge monster. He was squeezed between the moving bodies of a herd! He had been mistaken. Appa turned toward the distant booms of the ocean against the cliffs. Single animals could toss and turn, but how could a whole herd sleep so noisily?
"They're spirits," the fire thrower whispered. "Spirits don't need to sleep. That's the sound of them playing. They're just seeing how big a splash they can make." He turned back. "Come on. You need to sleep."
Appa went back to the campsite. He felt much better. The fire thrower had shown him what was true and now he could sleep without fear. It was good to be with humans; if there were any of his kind living alone, they must be unhappy. Appa yawned and lay down. He faced back the way they had come, where angry fire throwers might be. And he closed his eyes and slept.
.
The next morning, they ate early, before Appa woke up. Everyone took a potty break whether they needed one or not. They stretched. As soon as Appa woke, they were off.
Somehow, the knowledge that they were trapped in the air and would not be able to land made the flight less pleasant. They were no longer flying free; they were the air's prisoners. The resident waterbenders had promised to make ice floes, but there was nothing like strong, sturdy land beneath one's feet. Nobody spoke of it, but they all felt it.
Sokka tried his best to lighten the mood. He told wildly exaggerated stories of exploits at sea, of sea monsters and wild waves and the fury of the ocean. "But we're the Water Tribe, and the sea's just a bunch of water. It can never get the better of us! Right, Katara?"
"Right," she said. "I'm a waterbender. The ocean is my ally, not my enemy."
"Exactly."
Moods were a little lighter after that. Lunch was eaten in the saddle. Zuko spent all of lunchtime leaning against the edge of the saddle, staring up at the clouds. Momo followed his gaze and looked up. Then down at his face, then up again, then down. He blinked. Nothing was very interesting up there! The sky was almost solid grey, with patches of faint blue. Momo shivered at a slight breeze and crawled into Zuko's coat to take a nap.
The day was spent in complete silence. From their viewpoint, anyone who looked around could see to the limits of the world. Ocean and endless ocean, with nothing in sight yet but the occasional dot of an iceberg. The sky above was the same in every direction. The immensity of it quieted even Sokka. The transition between day and night was unclear; the only clue that night had fallen, scarcely a while after lunch, was that the patches in the cloud cover became dark gray instead of blue. Then it began to get dark. Still, the clouds were visible as broad streaks of gray. Appa nickered; the ocean had become invisible. It could only be heard, not seen. Its ceaseless white noise began to take a toll. Zuko covered his ears. Sokka rubbed his head. Katara sighed. The inclusion of a potty break at this point helped nothing. Keeping their balance on a bobbing ice floe provided a nice distraction, but once they returned to the air the blackness closed in again.
As the night wore on, the thin, cold air became thick enough to cut with a sword. Sokka shot Zuko a look for no reason. Zuko returned it before looking away pointedly. Katara elbowed her brother. Sokka next looked at Iroh. Iroh did not respond, so there was no clue as to what kind of look Sokka had given him, but Katara elbowed him again anyway. Sokka elbowed her back in protest. Katara sighed. Zuko scoffed.
They managed to get to sleep amidst the unstopping noise. Nobody got good sleep. The night was filled with minor awakenings anytime there was the slightest bit of turbulence, which grew more common as time went on and Appa grew tired. Each awakening grew increasingly irritating.
By the time they started to give up and just stay awake, it was still dark. Whatever invisible line put an end to daytime was not far away; it might have already been crossed. Zuko studied the sky but saw nothing; the stars were still hidden behind clouds.
Iroh yawned and rubbed his eyes. It was just habit; his vision was already perfectly clear. He didn't need Aunt Wu's gift of prophecy to see that something bad was coming, and quickly. There was no question of stopping it. He just hoped it wouldn't be too bad.
.
Appa slumped again, creating a little bit of turbulence that swung Zuko's head to the side. If he hadn't been so tired, he might have been glad he'd taken the time to reassure Appa. If not for the incessant drone of the ocean, he might have thought about any number of things. But he couldn't think about anything in particular, and neither could he get to sleep. His mind was filled with a kind of restless buzzing. It would have been like a kind of meditation, if he had been capable of recognizing meditation. All he was capable of was recognizing a similar feeling to the one he had had that awful second morning at Jeong Jeong's place. He teetered on the edge. Very little was happening to him, but it was nearly overwhelming. Appa slumped, shaking him again, and Zuko closed his eyes. He couldn't take much more of this.
Sokka rummaged through something. "We're out of jerky," he snapped. They were the first words anyone had spoken since the potty break the night before.
"We have food," Katara muttered.
"But I like jerky. And now we don't have any. That's just great." Sokka slumped back with a huff.
For once, Zuko was not in the mood for a fight. He wasn't in the mood for any interaction at all. He just wanted to rest. He turned around and looked over the side of the saddle at the barely-visible ocean waves, his arms dangling uselessly below him. You're a better torturer than I thought. You have a lot of secrets, don't you? The drone of the ocean answered him. It occurred to him that the drone might not be so bad without Appa's periodic jolts. Without a tired bison to shake him, he would be able to get a perfectly steady if light sleep. He closed his eyes and drifted off…but then Appa made a movement that shook his head again and forced him awake.
Aa - the Avatar made a sound. "Hey, everyone," he called. "I see ice!"
His call woke Zuko up more fully. He sat up and took a deeper breath. He could smell a sharp tang to the air that hadn't been there before, and the horizon was no longer endless. Large ice formations, icebergs just waiting to calve, lay ahead and to their sides. He also realized that the icebergs were faintly lit by light coming from one side of the sky at a very shallow angle. It wouldn't have even been noticeable if not for the ice bouncing it around, magnifying it. With the icebergs around, it could almost have been dawn.
"Can you see them?" Katara asked. She sounded desperate. The Avatar spread his glider and flew up to take a better look. When he landed, he shook his head silently. Zuko sighed and slumped over the side of the saddle again.
Even in his new state of wakefulness, he stared downwards for a long time before he noticed anything. Something…doesn't look right. He blinked forcefully and tried to take a better look. He had to run through part of a mental inventory before he spotted it. Adrenaline bolted through his system. His eyes flew open, and both of his arms jerked reflexively. He sat up and stared in dawning horror at the ragged, patchy tufts that sprouted from the ends of his new coat. The fur lining! What happened? He could have bowed in gratitude to the universe for arranging for everyone else to be too sleepy to notice. What's going on here? Why has the fur lining shrunk? Take some water from the inner lining and fix it! He watched the furs at the ends of his sleeves restore themselves, but it didn't improve his mood any. He had asked the water spirit to do this one very simple thing, and it was falling asleep on the job. Great.
He leaned back down, and winced. Something cold touched him on his chest. He pushed himself up again. Momo had found someone else's coat to sleep in, so he reached up and used his fingers to push apart the two sides of a new dividing seam that appeared down the front of his coat. He pulled out one side and looked at the inner lining. He gasped. It was water - water running along the inside of the coat in neat, orderly arrangement, like blood vessels but outside of him. The remains of the inner lining partially covered the water vessels. Suddenly he understood what had happened. My coat's evaporating. Ice that can't absorb heat is a perfect insulator. If I was covered in that, I'd bake to death on my own heat. So it has water running through it to absorb my heat, and the water evaporates. My coat will evaporate unless I replace the water. For now, he didn't mind if the inner lining failed to protect him from the exposed water vessels as long as the coat looked intact to outside observers. He let it close up again and looked forward. The icebergs loomed. It was disconcerting to note the cracking sounds they made.
"Why aren't we flying away from those things?" Sokka demanded. Aang obligingly turned Appa away from the nearest towering ice wall. Appa groaned. Was he using the danger of being near the glaciers to stay awake?
Zuko decided the answer was yes. Once away from the glaciers, Appa descended until he was barely staying out of the water. He bellowed in alarm when his foot touched the water, so the odds were low that they would actually fall in. Even so, Zuko's heart thumped at the possibility. He had reassured Appa that the water would not reach up to snatch them from the air, but if Appa ended up in the grip of those waves he would almost definitely panic. A panicking Appa meant bad things. Worst of all, it meant a panicking Appa. I really don't want to know what kinds of sounds he makes when he's terrified.
"Can't Appa fly any higher?" Sokka asked.
For the first time all flight, the Avatar lost his cool. He turned around and pointed accusingly at Sokka. "I have an idea. Why don't we all get on your back and you can fly us to the North Pole?"
"I'd love to," Sokka replied. "Climb on, everyone." Momo actually did so.
"Please, don't fight," Iroh said. "We are all tired and upset because we've been flying for two days. Fighting won't help. All we need is rest and a good meal."
"Check again," Zuko told the Avatar.
The Avatar spread his glider, but shot Zuko a glare as he did so. "We're doing the best we can," he said, then took off. He flew for longer than he had the previous time, but the answer was still the same. Zuko groaned audibly. This made the Avatar point an accusing finger at him. "If you wanted to reach the North Pole all rested and toasty warm, you should have stayed on your boat!"
"Maybe I should have," Zuko shot back. "I probably would have gotten here quicker without all those delays."
"I'm the Avatar! It's my job to save people!"
"That's my problem how?"
"You're the one who asked to travel with me! You made it your problem."
"Hey," Sokka said, turning, "didn't you promise to stop complaining so much?"
"He started it."
Katara sighed. "Could you two stop arguing like children?"
"We are not arguing like children," Zuko and Sokka said at the same time. They shot each other venomous looks.
Iroh rubbed his face and sighed. "Don't -" He was soon interrupted. "Why do I bother?" he muttered under his breath. Then he blinked, shook his head. "No; I must never ask that."
"If anyone's acting like a child, it's you," Zuko told Sokka. "All you want to do is play at being a warrior like your daddy."
"I'm the one with daddy issues?" Sokka asked incredulously. "You're the one who thinks your big jerkface warlord of a father is the best person ever! All you do is worship him and try to earn his love."
"I am being completely reasonable," Zuko began.
Sokka opened and closed his hand like a mouth. "I'm hearing, 'Blah, blah, blah, I don't want to believe anything bad about my family so I'm going to bury my head in the snow and pretend we're not murdering thousands of innocent people.'"
"Sokka, you made a promise!" Katara reminded him.
"He started it."
"Please, let's just try to find the Northern Water Tribe before we all fall into the ocean and drown," Iroh said, bringing everyone's priorities back on track. Even Appa made a lowing sound and flew higher.
"How are we going to do that?" Sokka asked. "There's nothing up here."
Unfortunately, he was right. Everyone sighed. In the silence that followed, a firework of ice rose and burst inside Zuko's chest. He had never been given such a signal before, but he knew what it meant: there were waterbenders nearby. He sat up and looked around. "Maybe we don't have to."
Everybody else stared at him. "What are you even -" Sokka started to ask. A loud splash interrupted him. Appa roared as the water in front of him rose up into a huge wave, turning to ice in seconds. He barely managed to avoid being caught in it. Everyone had to grab for something to hold onto. Appa wasn't so lucky with the next one. He tried to shake the ice off but only ended up tumbling sideways, smacking into the ocean with a painful-sounding crack. Iroh fell out. He clambered back into the saddle just in time as Appa righted himself.
Appa had no chance to escape the water as ice flowed toward him from all sides, trapping him. "What's it doing?" Sokka cried. Then, from seemingly nowhere, boats came at them from all sides: low boats, dark, unreflective and covered with wave designs. On them stood people whose furs shone in the reflected icelight.
"It's not the water spirit," Katara said. "We found the Northern Water Tribe!"