Disclaimer: Most unfortunately, I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender. Though if I did, it would probably be called Prince Zuko: The Banished Firebender.
Author's Note: Hey! Now—uh—please don't all kill me for being # 1 procrastinator of the year! I know I've got to pull myself together and start getting things done quickly—it's absolutely horrible how long it took me to update this. Please, forgive me! School and other petty things also got in the way of updating this, but now I'm going to make a definite attempt to update faster.
For any of you continuing to read 'Unspoken,' the first chapter is basically the same as it was before. The only difference is that I added a lot more description and made it take place near more current episodes. Instead of them going to the North Pole, they are going to Ba Sing Se. This takes place in the Second Season and there WILL be spoilers. Take caution.
To anyone still reading, enjoy! And thank you for being so patient! I'll try not to disappoint you with long lapses in between chapters again. And please forgive any errors. I do read over my work, but errors in grammar always seem to elude me.
"Ah, how easily innocence is corrupted…when the flame sputters and dies…"
UNSPOKEN
Sympathy for a Stranger
The huge bison grazed quite lazily across the late afternoon sky, a fat white dot against a sea of dusty blue, now and then emitting deep, rumbling groans that shook its riders. It gave a rough snort from its large nostrils, and plunged dangerously closer to the forest of evergreens beneath them, before reeling itself almost painfully back up.
"Easy, Appa," Aang spoke in a soft, pacifying voice. He patted the creature's gigantic, fluffy head—battling with the intense desire to sprawl across it and fall into a deep slumber. His gray eyes felt sore and gritty, and his tense muscles had taken to screaming whenever he preformed even the slightest movement. His once bright mind had been dulled into a hazed jumble of whirling thoughts and emotions. They moved so fast, so sudden, that he didn't know where they began or ended. He could barely decipher them.
"I promise I'll get you something to eat as soon as we make camp," he finished assuring the bison.
"Him?" Sokka whined indignantly, massaging his grumbling stomach. "I'm about to die of starvation over here!"
Behind the young warrior, a slight quirk elevated his sister's lips. The soft breath of wind ruffled her brown hair—so similar to her brother's—as she stroked their jittery pet lemur, Momo, between its large ears. Brushing a strand behind her ear, she grabbed a bag and sent Momo scampering towards Aang's shoulder.
"Well, we still have a few loaves of bread left," she started, "but we should probably save them–"
The girl was cut off abruptly when Sokka lurched forward, grappling desperately for the half-empty sack.
"Katara, give it here!"
"No!" His sister cried, pulling the bag out of harm's way. "We don't have that much left; it can't be wasted just because you always have to stuff your face!"
"I do not always stuff my face!"
"Do so!"
"Do not!"
"Alright," Aang replied quickly, turning over to his comrades' feud. The twelve-year old boy held up his hands, both which, as always, bore the light blue tattoos of an arrow, just like the one printed across his bald scalp. A smile peeped out of the corners of his lips. He knew he shouldn't, but he loved it when Katara and Sokka quarreled. It reminded him of times when life seemed lighter and less serious.
"Sokka, we'll be making camp soon, so you can get something to eat then. And Katara, I'm sure we'll be able to replenish our supplies once we make camp. There are lots of nuts and berries near these woods."
Both nodded, though rather stiffly, and each pair of blue eyes remained hard as they broke away their icy glare. Aang's smile widened. The only thing more satisfying than watching his friends quibble was knowing that he was the one responsible for breaking their arguments up. After all, that was his job as the Avatar, wasn't it? To make peace?
The two were probably just on edge for the same reason he was—the Siege at the North Pole. Remnants of the battle still haunted Aang at night, and he was aware of how harshly the combat had scarred Katara, how difficult Yue's death must have been for Sokka. But they all merely huddled together and sealed their stubborn lips shut. Duty forced them to cope with their inner troubles, rather than simply wallowing in neck-deep nightmares.
That was why it was so essential for him—for the Avatar—to master all four elements before the summer ended. If he didn't in time, if he didn't stop the war, the consequences would be severe…
The boy knocked the troublesome thoughts out of his head. They always left him with a painful knot in the pit of his stomach, and he had worried enough for the day. He wished he could find something fun to think about, but his mind remained dull and useless. Instead, he merely peered over Appa's downy head, squinting for any signs of a clearing.
"Hey, look, a town!" Sokka called, pointing a tan finger towards the east. "We won't even need to make camp tonight!"
Appa lurched happily forward, zooming closer to the tiny clearing before the town. Katara screamed and Sokka let out a muffled sound somewhere between a groan and a shriek; Aang gave a giggling squeal of delight. Appa came to a heavy thud and the trio clambered off, grateful to once again be on land. Sokka was already racing towards the tiny town, a patched, brown bag hitched over his shoulder.
"Give that bread back, you obnoxious thief!" Katara yelled, bolting after him. Aang shrugged his shoulders, sending Momo awry, and sighed openly. 'I guess you can't always keep them from fighting,' he thought earnestly as he sped up after them.
The town turned out to be a small, tight-knit sect from the Earth Kingdom, though very few had the ability to bend rock. The children that sprinted around them were clad in weathered, ragged clothing and had faces smeared with dirt. Adults shuffled along reluctantly behind them, towing woven baskets laden with fruits that looked dry and unsweetened. Houses jutted up from long, bland meadows, brown and shambled against the darkling blue sky.
Still, it was better than camping in the forest.
Sokka's eyes were wide and hungry as they passed a group of creaky stands, brimming with some sort of hardened bread wrapped in waxy paper. His empty stomach gave a howl of discontent, and he shot Katara a begrudging glare. She merely grinned.
"Why can't we get something to eat now?" He flailed his arms in exasperation, loosed a grunt similar to Appa's, and kicked at the stony ground impatiently. Much to his misfortune, he failed to notice the rather large rock perched directly ahead of him—
Until his foot collided with it.
"Ah—ugh!"
Sokka grabbed his now throbbing toe, hissing through his teeth as he hopped on one foot. Katara threw her head back and laughed, her long braid rippling in a slightly harsher breeze. Dusk had iced the air.
"That's what you get for being greedy, oh mighty brother!"
Sokka flung her a glare shaper than a hardened dagger, but Katara's clear gaze had already strayed from him. Her laughter seemed to die on her lips, and a strangely dark look flitted across her face, as quick and elusive as a phantom.
"What's going on over there?"
Sokka and Aang turned their attention over to the tiny shop Katara was looking at, its windows' dingy and a lopsided sign hanging sadly from its peeling door. Despite its tattered appearance, it looked like more than half the town had swarmed all about it, jeering and spitting at something in the very heart of the crowd.
The trio exchanged glances; it was strange how quickly they were able to reach their mutual agreement. Something about this situation was terribly wrong. The feeling of immortality hung over the area like a dark, quivering shadow, carving the villager's faces into something inhuman and unrecognizable.
"What's going on?" Sokka asked a bystander garbed in ragged brown robes.
"A firebender tried to sneak into our village!" the man spat in disgust, teetering on the tips of his toes to see over numerous heads.
"Only one?" Katara questioned skeptically. The man simply nodded, no longer acknowledging the group's presence.
"Let's get a closer look." Sokka murmured, pushing his way through the thick horde of people. He finally broke free into the very inner circle, engulfed by hissing citizens, their faces creased in hatred and hands clenched with rage. A young man was flinging bits of moldy trash and dirt.
Sokka turned his glare warily to the subject of their anger; a moment later he wished he hadn't. A feeling of total sickness crashed into him, hot and sticky, burning his ears and knotting his stomach. He whipped his head away, determined to erase such a site from his memory, but the image was now charred into his brain, like black upon white paper.
Crammed into a small corner, shuddering in a crumpled heap was not a bulky Fire Nation warrior, but a mere girl. Her face was pressed against the filthy folds of her shredded skirt, but her pale arms were littered with numerous cuts and scars. Atop her head was a tangled mop of bloody red hair, hanging around her head like frayed ribbons. Her thin frame was limp and shaking convulsively.
Sokka felt someone brush past him, and rather numbly recognized his sister's presence.
"Stop it!" Katara yelled out shrilly. "Stop it–she's just a girl!"
"Just a girl?" mimicked a coarse woman with stringy, brown hair. "She must be a spy! I saw her bending fire!"
From the floor, the girl let out a low, stifled moan. Aang's gentle gray eyes flicked from her to the woman's face in an instant.
"What was she trying to do?" he asked curtly.
The woman opened her mouth, but closed it, suddenly appearing awkward and unsure of herself.
"Well, she...she was trying to rekindle her camp's fire, but– "
"And that deserves this punishment?" Sokka cut in. He had intended for his voice to come out in a thunderous bellow, but instead it was soft, whispery, and threaded with a slight tremor. But each word was soaked with deepest repulse, the purest dislike, so that each syllable was painful on the people's ears.
Scenes from long ago flashed before Sokka's eyes. That wretched rebel, Jet, attacking a lone, elderly man simply for being of the Fire Nation. This was just the same; this was slaughter of the innocent. He couldn't stand it.
"She's done nothing to you, but still you ridicule her?" He continued in a louder voice. "Making her suffer for being born into a certain nation? Things outside her control?"
The throng turned upon him like a pack of angry wolves, fury burning in their eyes. They scorned this girl for being born into a nation of fire—yet here they were, kindling their own flame with smothering amounts of loath. It burnt all humanity and compassion.
"Her type has been over-taxing us for years!" A man snarled over the confused babble. "They took my son away!" Another villager shrieked.
The girl began to moan and rock herself, softly, back and forth.
The action brought their attention back towards her. The citizens' words had ignited their own thickening hatred, and they eager to resume tormenting their enemy.
"Enough!" A sharp voice cut through the air. Aang stomped his foot heatedly on the floor, his soft eyes glazed over in an icy sheen. "I'm the Avatar, and I'm here to make peace! Believe me, I know about all the bad things the Fire Nation has committed. They murdered and wiped out my entire people. But that doesn't mean this girl, personally, has done anything wrong. If she hasn't hurt anyone, I demand you to let her go!"
His voice resounded loud in the suddenly quiet area.
The girl lifted her head a fraction of an inch, revealing a small sliver of an extremely green eye, but she buried it back in her knees the moment the crowd's accusing stares turned upon her.
"How do we know you're the actual Avatar?" The rough, stringy-haired woman from before barked. "He was an Airbender that hasn't been seen for over a hundred years. The Avatar is dead! He was probably killed along with all the other Airbenders who died in that Fire Nation raid. Besides, what a skinny, little boy you are. How can this be possible?"
Her words were followed by a murmur of agreement.
Aang gave a furious snort, his face contorted in a dark anger unnatural for such pure, kindly features. The air surrounding him began to quiver and quake dangerously, and he jumped agilely into the sky, lifted by the winds he controlled, and flipped back down onto the ground, his eyes narrowed coldly at the townspeople.
"I am the Avatar!"
There were dull, feverish whispers rippling throughout the throng of people now, all of whom were gaping at the twelve-year old before them in utter shock. Slowly, the stringy-haired woman staggered backwards and fled. A few people eyed her nervously over their shoulders, and the horde began to thin somewhat. A handful of people, however, stayed rooted to their spots.
"A-Avatar, please forgive me." The man who had first informed them of the girl's presence whimpered. He bent his head in a jerky bow and scuttled away. Those who had stayed behind asked for forgiveness in a manner very much the same, though the confused shame in their eyes revealed their sorrow to be genuine. As the last person departed, Aang bent down to the huddled girl's height, smiling gently.
"It's okay," he replied. "They're all gone now, you can come out."
The girl lifted her pale face slowly, framed by tendrils of the deepest blood red, and her lips twitched into what might have been a ghost of a smile.
But what took the trio aback were her piercing, almost unsettling, green eyes. They were sharper and brighter than jade, seemingly glowing in their sockets. Sokka couldn't help but stare at the way they shimmered and sparked in the hazy dark falling around them.
She placed her bruised hand over her heart as she looked up at them, eyes wide and grateful.
"Erm...what?" Sokka asked confusedly, her strange motions shattering his musing. He scratched the back of his almost entirely shaved head—apart from the brown ponytail he always wore—and frowned openly at her.
But the girl pressed her hand still firmer against her heart, as if begging for them to understand. Even so, she did not utter a single word.
"I think she's trying to thank us," Katara replied slowly, turning over to the foreigner. "Is that it?"
She nodded brightly, beaming at the brunette's success.
"Can't you speak?" Aang asked, gazing at her quizzically.
The girl widened her penetrating eyes as though she had just been threatened, shaking her head fervently to make her point.
"Alright," Sokka replied quickly, waving her nervousness out of the way with his hand. "You can't speak–that's okay."
He turned over to Katara, whispering lowly out of the corner of his mouth. "What are we going to do with her?"
"Take her with us!" Aang replied, scampering back over to his friends. "What do you think we're going to do? Leave her here?"
Sokka shuffled his feet uncomfortably.
"I...don't know. We're just going to drag her all the way over to Ba Sing Se? We've met other people, but we've never taken them along. How do we know we can trust her?"
"Sokka!" Katara chided. "You hypocrite. Didn't you just scold all those people for scorning her? And now you don't trust her?"
Sokka pouted, crossing his arms moodily over his chest.
"I'm not saying it because she's a firebender. I'm just saying we don't know anything about her, or anyone for that matter. Everyone here's a stranger to us!"
Aang peered over at the thin, ragged female, her poorly sewn dress slashed and streaked with dirt. Her hair was scraggly and uncombed, falling in numerous strands before her unhealthily whiten face. It looked like a halo of blood. There was nothing about her that would make her appear even remotely untrustworthy or dangerous.
"Come on, Sokka," he whined pleadingly. "We have to bring her with us. She has no where else to go."
He gazed up at the pair with large, almost teary gray eyes, resonating with utter hope and compassion. Katara tugged nervously on her tightly braided hair, staring over Aang's shoulder to the mute girl.
Drawing a breath to steady her nerves, she broke away from their small circle and kneeled down to the redhead's height, just as the Avatar had done a few moments ago.
"Where's your family?" Katara asked softly. "Do you have one?"
The words sounded cold and cruel on her tongue, no matter how gently she tried to say them. Katara was suddenly conscious of the weight her mother's necklace gave off, strung around her neck.
The only fragment of her mother she possessed now...
The brunette wondered regretfully if this girl too could only cling onto a foolish scrap of jewelry to recall wistful memories of her dispersed family.
As if Katara had thrown daggers, the foreigner cringed painfully at her words, her milky face shadowed in past events unknown. Her brilliant eyes dimmed as they trailed away from Katara, wide and empty. Slowly, tediously, her head nudged from left to right.
"Then that settles it," Aang said promptly. "We're taking her with us."
For the first time, the girl's eyes stretched in realization of what they were talking about. She began shaking her head wildly, locks of hair flying, hands held up to emphasize her strong feelings.
"It's fine," Aang said sweetly. "You won't be a burden or anything."
Another phantomlike smile flickered across the girl's lips, but her eyes darted worriedly to Sokka, whose crossed arms and stiff mouth gave away his begrudging emotions. Upon seeing her face, however, his expression softened, and he held out his hand to help her up.
"Yeah, it'll be fine." he assured her in a tone that was only slightly flat.
The girl stumbled on weakened legs, but gradually began trudging forward, though there were times when she lost her balance and caught onto Sokka's wrist for support.
The young warrior turned over to her once, and noticed that for the first time she was smiling a true, natural smile–not the ghostly facades she had given off back by the shop.
The first time he realized how entirely beautiful she was had to be when she smiled.