This chapter is slightly shorter, but just so you know, I got it out as soon as I can. I don't really have much of an idea of where this story headed- I don't even know what exactly will happen in the next chapter yet. So the reason it might take just as long if not longer to upload is because, with the little free time that I do have to write, I am not only writing and editing the next chapter, but I am planning it too. Maybe I'll focus a little bit more on this if it starts to get popular, so don't forget to review!
"Sokka, stop it!" Katara admonished harshly as she protected Aang's head from being repeatedly jabbed at by Sokka's club.
Beneath her, Aang stirred and groaned. She watched with wonder and awe as his eyes flickered open. Finding a teenager trapped in an iceberg was the last thing that she expected to find on this fishing trip.
Once his eyes had adjusted, he let out a sharp gasp. His first thoughts were that he had died and was waking up in the spirit world. Before him stood what he would have imagined a spirit would look like. Her cerulean blue eyes accentuated the heavenly glow of her face as they regarded him with curiosity.
And then she smiled. If it were possible, it made her face glow even brighter. Aang would have stayed in a trance if it weren't for a cold wind which blew sharply across his face. For the first time, he noticed his surroundings. The figure in front of him was not a spirit, it was a young girl, and standing next to her in a defensive stance with a weapon pointed right at him was a slightly older looking boy. Judging from all of the snow and ice, and the fact that there must have been civilisation nearby, Aang concluded that he had reached the south pole.
He must have stayed silent for a long time as he took in his surroundings, because the young warrior spoke up.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" he demanded, pointing his club at him, as if preparing to knock his head off his shoulders.
"Sokka," the girl hissed.
Aang's attention snapped back to the fierce young man.
"Are you a spy?" Sokka narrowed his eyes at Aang.
"A spy?" Aang asked, bewildered. "No, I'm not a spy, I'm just a traveller. I guess I must have crashed on my way here," he said as he stood up with the help of his airbending and dusted himself off. Sokka jumped back slightly, but did not lower his weapon. A little unnerved by the warrior's less than welcoming demeanour, Aang tried the friendly approach.
"My name is Aang. I take it you're Sokka."
Sokka narrowed his eyes and silently lowered his weapon. Aang breathed a sigh of relief before looking to the girl, inviting her to introduce herself. But when he met her eyes, he found them regarding him with intense scrutiny. Suddenly feeling a little self-conscious, Aang fidgeted and cleared his throat.
Realising she had been staring, Katara ripped his eyes away from Aang and tried to find something else to look at, but failed miserably. A tinge of pink crept up to her cheeks as she stammered, "I-I'm Katara. S-Sokka here is my brother."
Aang smiled, finding the girl's shyness endearing. "Nice to meet you both," he said politely.
A deep groan coming from behind them trembled the ice they were standing on. Sokka and Katara's eyes widened, while Aang let out a cry of relief. He scrambled over the ice wall and found Appa stirring.
"Appa!" he cried as he ran up to him to hug and caress his gigantic nose. "I'm so glad you're safe," he whispered against his thick fur. Aang couldn't recall much before he woke up. He remembered that there was a severe storm, and he remembered going underwater. What followed was very hazy in his memory. Nevertheless, he was thankful that he and Appa were both unharmed.
As Sokka and Katara rounded the wall and came face to face with a massive, furry, six-legged beast, their jaws dropped.
Sokka pointed towards the creature, stammering helplessly "Wh-wh-w-".
Aang noticed their presence and smiled.
"This is Appa, my flying bison."
Sokka's face fell, clearly disappointed by Aang's answer.
"Sure, and this is Katara, my flying sister," he replied sarcastically.
Aang chuckled at how quickly his expression changed from surprised to unimpressed.
"So it's your first time seeing one, huh?" he asked as he patted Appa. "Appa, meet Sokka and his sister Katara." Appa grumbled weakly in response.
Aang clicked his tongue. "You sound dead tired. Are you alright, buddy?"
Aang turned around to Sokka and Katara. "Maybe you guys can cheer him up," he said with a smile.
Sokka crossed his arms. "I'm not going near that thing."
As if to punish him for saying that, Appa sneezed in his direction, covering him with a filthy green muck as Sokka shrieked in disgust.
After rolling her eyes at her brother, Katara took a tentative step towards Appa and gave him a pat on his cheek, surprised at how incredibly soft he felt. Appa groaned in satisfaction.
Aang smiled in Katara's direction. "I think he likes you," he said.
Katara smiled shyly in response, turning her gaze back to the furry beast.
As Sokka cleaned himself of the last remaining bits of goo, Aang decided to ask them if they would like to take a ride on Appa.
"I suppose we don't really have any other way of getting back to the village," Katara muttered as she looked around her.
"Yeah, no thanks to you," came Sokka's response, which earned him a glare from Katara.
After a while, and after much protesting on Sokka's part, the three took off on Appa…for a couple of seconds, before Appa landed straight into the water and decided to swim instead.
"I knew there was no way this thing was a flying bison," came Sokka's voice from the saddle.
"He's just very tired," Aang defended as he released his hold on Appa's reins.
"Right," Sokka rolled his eyes.
Behind him, Katara crawled up to the front of the saddle and saw the peculiar blue tattoo that traced the back of Aang's skull. As if sensing eyes on him, Aang turned around to find Katara staring at him yet again.
"Um, is there something on my head?" Aang questioned as he ran his fingers over the back of his head.
Katara's eyes widened as she realised she had been caught. For the second time that day, she found herself stammering before him again as heat rose to her cheeks.
"N-no no no. There's nothing wrong with your head- wait, no- I mean there's nothing ON your head. I was just looking, um, I was just looking at um…your umm…your tattoo," she finished, her cheeks now burning with embarrassment.
"Oh," came Aang's response.
Katara looked down quickly, unable to stand Aang's eyes on her.
"You've never seen one before?"
"No," Katara's voice came out quietly.
Aang frowned. For four years, the air nomads had stopped going on their annual excursions. Prior to that, they would travel to many different parts of the world, as was part of their nomadic culture. Aang himself had been to a fair few places in the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation. Realising that Katara had probably not seen an airbender before, he felt slightly guilty that his people had virtually secluded themselves from the rest of the world. Cowardly, even.
"We airbenders receive these tattoos once we achieve mastery of the element."
Katara gasped. "You're an airbender?" she asked, incredulous.
Aang nodded.
Sokka rolled his eyes and groaned. "This day could not get any weirder."
His remark did little to quell Aang's shame.
Which was why, after a long silence, when Katara asked Aang about whether he knew about the Avatar, Aang felt even more ashamed. The Avatar was someone whose responsibility was to the entire world, not just to their own nation. By staying hidden in the air temple, Aang was not living up to that responsibility. Aang cringed as he remembered himself confidently declaring that he had accepted his identity as the Avatar. Now that he realised that he had barely tasted the full weight of an Avatar's responsibility, he wasn't so sure if he truly had accepted it back then. Which brought him to ask himself what exactly he had been doing during those four years. He had been preparing for this day, he told himself, preparing for the start of his Avatar journey.
He didn't yet fully comprehend the extent of the burden and responsibility that his title would eventually bring him once he was a fully realised and globally recognised Avatar. He knew it would be a heavy responsibility, but he had already determined that he would not run away from it, even though he had initially wanted to. Since then, Aang had been strengthening his resolve and determination. After all, he was here in the South Pole to do just that, to begin his Avatar journey. Though he feared that the two water tribe siblings would probably never look at him as anything apart from a powerful, almighty Avatar, he stamped down that doubt by reminding himself that he had come to terms with his identity.
Aang must have been lost in these thoughts for a while, as Katara, whose question was still not answered, spoke. "Um, Aang?"
Aang snapped his attention back to Katara. "Huh?"
"I was just asking you about the Avatar. Do you happen to know him or where he is, since you're an airbender and all?"
"Oh, right…Yeah, I know him."
Katara's eyes widened. "Really? Where is he?"
Aang's eyes travelled back to the village which was approaching in sight, not wanting to see how her expression would change once he broke the news to her. "He's me."
"Aang, I'd like you to meet the village. Everyone, this is Aang."
Aang smiled and waved shyly as he felt the silent stares of the entire village on him. An old woman stepped forward, clearly the eldest and most respected of the group.
"So you're the Avatar?" she asked in a leathery voice that fitted her old age.
"Yes ma'am," Aang replied respectfully. He was hardly surprised that that was the first question she had chosen to ask him.
Katara took the opportunity to introduce the old woman as her grandmother, Kanna, as some children started to gather around Aang to ask him about his staff, his clothes, his tattoos and his bald head. Aang chuckled at their unconcealed curiosity.
As Katara was dragged away to complete her chores, Aang found himself occupied with the children. Their enthusiasm and curiosity was such a joy to see. Aang found himself smiling broadly as he showed the children tricks with his glider and airbending. He loved the way that children were so non-judgemental. They didn't see Aang as a powerful, fearsome deity. They probably didn't know much about the Avatar at all, actually.
And on top of that, seeing the children laughing with merriment and mirth at his goofy tricks was a wonderful sight to Aang. After spending the last four years in little more than silent brooding, this change was a welcome one. It also reassured him greatly to know that his childish nature had not disappeared, but was only buried deep within him. It felt liberating to be able to express some of it again.
Sokka, who didn't really have anything to do, found himself sitting near his watchtower with a bored expression on his face, watching Aang play with the kids. He still didn't quite believe that Aang was the Avatar, and he had made that clear when Aang revealed it to him and Katara earlier. Katara, on the other hand, was evidently filled with many questions for Aang, but by then, they had reached the village, and Aang was suddenly too tired for anything. Appa and Aang had fallen asleep until the next day, both visibly exhausted. Their time in the iceberg had visibly taken a toll on them.
As Sokka currently watched Aang pull off his goofy stunts to entertain the kids, Sokka rolled his eyes. He couldn't see how this kid could possibly be the Avatar. Abruptly, Aang stopped showing off his marble trick to the kids, his eyes frozen onto something in the distance. He pointed towards the figure in the distance.
"Is that- is that a penguin?"
The kids followed his gaze and giggled their affirmation. Aang's eyes lit up.
"You guys wanna go catch him?"
Before they could respond, Aang was already darting towards the penguin. Terrified, the poor creature turned around and frantically waddled its way back down the hill, disappearing from sight.
"Aww man," Aang whined.
As Aang comically trudged back up to his previous spot with his shoulders slumped in defeat, the children once again burst into laughter. Sokka snickered, and Aang noticed him sitting there for the first time.
"Hey Sokka," Aang greeted cheerily as he walked up to him. Behind him, the kids were already complaining and calling for Aang to come back.
"Hey Aang," Sokka replied in a bored voice.
"That was a penguin I just saw, right?"
Sokka rolled his eyes. "You have a very weird reaction to seeing a penguin for the first time."
"Well, you had a very odd reaction to seeing an airbender for the first time," Aang shrugged.
Sokka looked sharply at the boy.
Not wanting a repeat of their awkward introduction from the day before, Aang nervously cleared his throat. "So anyway, I remember hearing that you guys do penguin sledding down here, and it sounded pretty fun. Do you think you can show me?"
Sokka just stared at the boy, his mouth hanging open.
"You're serious aren't you?"
Aang rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Well, yeah?"
As the water tribe warrior continued to stare at him like he grew a second head, Aang dismissed it. "Well maybe later, if now isn't a good time."
"Later?" Sokka asked. It then occurred to him that he didn't know why Aang was even here in the first place. "Wait, are you planning on staying here? How long, and for what reason?"
It was then Aang remembered the main reason why he was here, and he mentally kicked himself for getting distracted so easily.
"Oh, right, I guess I got a little carried away," he said as he looked behind him at the children, who were now tugging at his knees, begging him to come back. He swatted them away as respectfully as he could.
"You still haven't answered my question."
"Well, I'm not sure if you still don't believe me, but I am the Avatar. And I came here to complete my waterbending training."
Sokka snorted. "Yeah you're right, I still don't believe you're the Avatar. And if you are, then you've wasted your trip."
Aang blinked at him in confusion. "I have?"
"Yeah, you can't learn waterbending here."
"Why not?" Aang frowned.
"There are no waterbenders here except for my sister, and she's still a rookie. Nobody here can teach you waterbending."
At first, Aang did not believe him. But as he thought back to when Katara introduced him to the village, he remembered how few the people were.
"What? Really?"
"I'm not kidding." And it definitely did not look like he was.
Later that day, Aang sought out Katara after she had finished her chores. He found her coming out of her brother's tent after having deposited his now clean laundry. He waved as he approached her, but the smile from earlier was missing from his face.
"Sokka told me there are no master waterbenders here that I can learn from." Aang hesitated. "Is he- is he telling the truth?"
"I'm afraid he is," Katara replied with a sigh.
"But you are? A waterbender, I mean?"
Katara looked away from him shyly. "I'm just a beginner, I'm still learning myself. I'm definitely not qualified to teach anybody."
"That's not right," Aang said after a while, frowning. "You should be finding yourself a master. Bending is a gift and a privilege, and mastering it is one of its rights over you."
"It's not that easy. The nearest master waterbender is all the way on the other end of the globe, and I can't just leave this place if I wanted to." Katara said in a defeated tone.
"So you'd have to go all the way to the north pole if you wanted to find one," Aang surmised. His eyebrows scrunched in confusion. Why would the elders send him to the south pole if there weren't any master waterbenders here? Wouldn't they have sent a message to prepare anyone for his arrival? Evidently, they hadn't, Aang concluded. And it meant that this trip would have been for nothing. Or maybe it wouldn't be a complete waste after all…
"Katara?"
"Hmm?"
"Will you go penguin sledding with me?"