Edited: 01/04/2021
A/N: So, I'd done some editing to chapters 1 and 2. Thank you SenSen-Chan for leaving a review about the animals found in Avatar. I've gone back and changed that slightly, as well as some other things about life in the Southern Village which will be seen in this chapter. Thanks TwinTigerLover for letting me know about those minor word errors and use of she instead I.
Chapter 2: The Boy in the Ice
Once a week, I took my siblings outside the village.
As the oldest, and most capable, adult in the village it was my job to ensure that the village was fed. Our most important source of food was fishing, and so every two days I would take a canoe (one of a handful that we'd gotten from the Earth Kingdom near three hundred years ago, and was too small to bare their warriors who had gone off to fight) out onto the water in order to catch some fish for them to eat.
When I was sixteen, I'd left the village for a few weeks to travel to the Earth Kingdom. I'd filled as much of the canoe with earth as I could, and a second canoe (which I obtained from the Earth Kingdom) with chickens, and returned to the village. I'd built a large igloo and built several vegetables patches. Using a complicated system where I used the heat of the fire to ensure that the plants had warmth and reflect the fire for light, I'd been able to grow some crops and so improve the health of the villages which had declined since the decimation of their people and village. The chickens were kept in a second igloo, and fed from the seeds which wouldn't grow.
Over the years since, I'd returned to the earth kingdom several times, returning with more earth to expand on what I'd built. I'd also travelled across the ice-land, and managed to round up some arctic camel (four mating pairs), some artic hares and six polar bear dogs which I was training for guarding and protection. After a while of travelling across the south, I managed to get a herd of arctic hens which I bred with the chicken to increase the egg count they were getting while also having more surviving chicks (arctic hens could survive the cold easier, but had low egg counts).
The final things she did was create an under-water pen behind their village and accessed by large tunnels that she formed into the frozen ground. She was the only one who could use these under water pens, because it required a bender to reach the animals kept within. She penned in whale-walrus because their fat could be used for burning oils and their meat could be cured easily for long winters, as well as puffin-seal (who were turned into sausages) and koalaotter (whose furs were useful in coats, which means they didn't hunt down the polar bears as often). Of course, no meat went to waste – they used every part of the animal from skin and fur to meat, fat and bones.
The Elders had been overjoyed at the expansion in their diets, since they knew that the children's growth had been impacted by only eating fish with the occasional vegetables that they important from the closest earth kingdom islands. Some of the younger elders, the ones who felt they could still be of use to the village outside of telling stories and teachers, helped tend to these crops. Children who'd broken rules or otherwise done something wrong, were assigned to 'fertilisation duty'; taking the excrement of the people and animals, and the ashes from their fires (where they burnt the limited amount of wood, they had access to as well as the bones of animals which could no longer be used in broths or soups) into a compost mixture until they were ready to be repurposed as fertiliser. They also had to ensure that the mixture didn't freeze, because if it froze then it wouldn't decompose and release the nutrients their plants needed.
Since I couldn't take all the responsibility of providing for the village onto myself, and Katara at fourteen, and Sokka at sixteen were the next oldest in the village, I would take them out fishing once a week. I'd venture to the other villages as often as possible to ensure that they had people within them capable of providing food, and I had also built them greenhouses and pastures as I had for my own village. Once I felt that all the villages would be adequately supported, I would leave for the Northern Kingdom, but as it was Sokka and Katara couldn't work together enough for me to feel safe leaving them – but the other villages had now reached a point where I felt confident leaving them.
Sokka was stood behind Katara, his spear held at the ready. Like all the men of the tribe, he was wearing a blue coat with white fur hood and cuffs. The coat was also stuffed with fur to help insulate it. In memory of their father, Sokka had insisted on shaving his head, leaving only a pony tail behind. Katara was stood with her back to her brother, focusing on the water. She was also wearing a blue coat, however hers trailed down to her ankles in a similar manner to a dress, unlike Sokka's which stopped at his thigh and was cut into triangles at the bottom front and back.
I was stood at the helm of the canoe, the paddle resting at my feet and the basket for the fish behind me so that my siblings could access it as well. I didn't fish in the under-water pens, because the schools that lived there kept the other animals fed and I needed to teach the others how to fish for themselves because they wouldn't have access to the pens.
"Sokka, you need to remember that speed is your ally. You need to be like a rock, until the last possible moment. And then, you strike like a snake." I reminded Sokka before turning my gaze to Katara, who was trying a very basic water bending technique to capture fish.
If she could master this exercise, I knew I could leave the village knowing that they would be fed and Katara could continue developing her skills in water bending since she would have gotten the feel for what to do. Water bending was a matter of being in control and yet free – flowy is a word some people used to descript the personality and stance of water benders. Katara however, was naturally rigid – like their father – so she was struggling to get a grasp on the basics.
"Katara, you need to steady your heart and your mind in order to bend. Only once you have reached your calm can you control your bending."
With these words, I returned to my own fishing. Unlike both Katara and Sokka, who needed to wait for the fish to swim to the surface, I was capable of reaching out into the water and guiding the fish to me before I lifted them in a bubble of water before removing them and placing them in the basket. Katara couldn't focus her bending for long since she had to remove her glove in order to do so, but I could sustain water bending because I could control my power through my gloves.
I'd nearly filled the basket when I was distracted by Sokka's loud complaints. Turning around I found that Sokka was soaking wet and shivering. It seemed that Katara had lost control of her water orb.
"Katara, you need to control your excitement. Your happiness split your concentration and destabilised the water." I reached out my own hand and pulled the water from Sokka's skin. There was no reason to leave him freezing – I couldn't afford to have an able-bodied warrior/young adult down with a cold, especially when he would spread it to the elders and run the risk of killing them off.
"It only burst because Sokka hit it with his spear." Katara disagreed with a frown.
"And if your concentration had been solid enough, the sphere would have held. Just because you are shaping the water into a bubble does not mean it holds the same properties. Water is constantly moving, flowing, which means it can simply form around a blow from a spear. This is what makes water benders so dangerous in battle. Our water is capable of containing an attack from an enemy, even if we do not turn it into ice." I scolded Katara.
This was something I had explained to her before, but she viewed the water as something rigid, in the same way an earth bender would and that was one of the reasons she was having so much trouble. Once she'd mastered her thought process about water and her emotions, I knew Katara would be a great water bender, but for now, she was barely a novice. If there were more people in our village older than the age of ten, I would take her with me when I went to the Northern tribe, but she was needed here.
"Why is it that every time you play with magic water I get soaked?" Sokka complained, checking himself over to ensure that he was actually dry.
"It's not magic. Its water bending, and its-" Katara started scolding but Sokka cut her off with a wave of his hand and a dismissive tone.
"Yeah, yeah, an ancient art unique to our culture, blah blah blah. Look, I'm just saying that if I had weird powers, I'd keep my weirdness to myself."
"Sokka, you know that water bending used to be what our tribe was built on. Only in the last eighty years has bending been lost to our culture. I don't know where your distaste of our culture, spirituality and bending came from, but please be aware that you are outnumbered in this family." I cut in before their normal argument could start. "Katara, you are fourteen years old now. I need you to start putting more focus on your meditation and control so that I know that when I leave the village there will be someone here capable of feeding our people without spending over nine hours out on the water like Sokka needs to in order to catch enough fish for everyone. Sokka also needs someone capable of helping him defend this village from attacks."
"Sorry Wera." They apologised together, looking down at their feet shamefully.
They both knew that once I left, they would be the ones completely responsible for the village. Before now they had always had me to full back on. But they were old enough that I needed them to truly start taking responsibility for themselves and their roles in the village. And they needed to work together to have a functioning village instead of one which was falling apart at the seams.
"Now," I glanced up to judge what time it was, "you have one more hour to try and capture as many fish as you can."
"Right," they said together and turned back to their own techniques.
I turned around only to widen my stance to stabilise myself on the boat and began bending. While I had been distracted, we'd been taken by the current towards a funnel.
"SOKKA, take up the ore! Katara, help him with directions." I ordered my siblings just as we reached the strongest part of the current. I focused on trying to counter the current and slow the canoe so we didn't get thrown into the ice water or one of the ice floats.
"Watch out! Go left! Go left!" Katara shouted.
Without the aid of Sokka pushing the canoe left, I didn't have enough control over the ocean to direct us away without simple slamming sidelong into the ice float. Making a snapped decision, I grabbed the collar of my sibling's coats and threw them onto the closest ice float before following after them with the fish. I landed on the ice float just as the canoe slammed into the ice float.
"You call that left?" Katara demanded of Sokka.
I ignored my bickering siblings and instead jumped to the ice float that the canoe had slammed into. Using my bending abilities, I lifted the canoe from the water and onto the ice.
I carefully assessed the damage. Where the side had hit the ice float, it had a hairline crack. I turned the boat upside down and found that there was a crack at the bottom, but it didn't go all the way through like the crack on the side did. The boat wouldn't be water worthy, but the damage wasn't bad enough that I couldn't fix it. I'd need to get some animal hid – but I always kept some back so that it wasn't used for clothing for this very reason.
My head snapped up when I felt the water suddenly reacting to an unnatural anger. Katara was shouting at their brother and the water was responding, and a large circular ice burg was cracking behind them.
"Katara!" I shouted, hoping to snap her out of her anger before she shattered the ice float they were stood on.
When I was ignored, I jumped back to the ice float they were stood on just as a large piece of ice fell from the ice burg. The ice caused a water displacement, and I quickly reached out to connect to the water and split the wave before it could break their ice float. I breathed deeply, doing such a large amount of bending without preparation was draining.
With the ice float settled I placed a heavy hand on Katara's shoulder, snapping her out of her anger. She turned to me with a glare, clearly wanting to continue her venting, but I silenced her with a look.
"You are a water bender, stood on an unstable ice float. You cannot lose control like that." I told her coldly.
Katara blushed and bowed her head shamefully. When I'd finally deemed her old enough to receive basic instructions, this was one of the first things I'd told her. She couldn't afford to lose her temper once she started training, not until she had control over her bending and could be angry without effecting the environment around her. This was why I hadn't taught her anything beyond mediation before she turned twelve. After two years, she should really know better.
"Okay, you've gone from weird to freakish, Katara." Sokka broke the uneasy silence.
Suddenly, the water just in front of them began to glow an iridescent blue. I stepped in front of both my siblings defensively, separating them from the water as a light-coloured iceberg broke through the surface. After a moment the water and ice both settled.
"Stay here." I ordered my siblings, pulling my staff from my back and carefully approaching the iceberg. That light was not natural, and I was worried that this was an unknown weapon that had been lost in the fighting.
As I got closer to the iceberg, the blue light was fading from the heart of the ice revealing the figure of a boy. He was sat in a typical meditation pose with his fists pressed together. He had blue arrows on his bold head and fists, which were the cause of the light. I never thought I would see someone with the arrows on their head and hands, since this was a common sign of an air-nomad – who were thought to be extinct.
Jumping to the iceberg, I put the staff back on my back and pulled the sword from my hip instead. I jumped forward, raising the sword above my head to get as much power behind the blow as I could. The sword slid through the ice easily. I pulled my sword free, and with it there was a large burst of air.
As the crack began to widen, I jumped back to join Katara and Sokka who had moved closer to the edge of their ice float. The ice burg had been hollowed on the inside, and with the crack and release of air, the ice crumpled until there was a pile of ice rubble around the boy. However, when the ice exploded it released a blue beam of light into the air – intense and bright. That light, like the Southern lights, would be seen for miles around.
Once the ice had settled and the light was gone, I moved back onto the remainder of the ice burg and crouched at the boy's side. Now that he was free from the ice, I saw that the boy was wearing the traditional robes of an air nomad.
"This isn't good." I sighed, checking the boy over. He didn't appear to have an injury and his pulse was strong. I knew some basic healing which Gran had talked to me about, but she wasn't a bender and had left the North when she was eighteen and so had only a limited amount of knowledge to pull from and no true practical experience of even the non-bending healing arts.
"Wera, what was that? Is the boy okay?" Katara asked, stepping forward and hovering worriedly while Sokka had his machete-club raised threatening.
"Sokka, put that away. The boy isn't a threat." I snapped.
"How do you know that? He could be from the Fire Nation." Sokka snapped back. "That light could have been a signal."
"He is not dressed for the weather of the South, nor does he carry anything from the fire nation on his person." I answered, turning my attention back to the boy who'd opened his eyes. "Hello, are you okay?"
"I'm fine." The boy sat up, looking around the ice. "Where am I?"
"You're in the South Pole. We found you in an ice berg." I explained.
"Really, that means Penguin Sledding!" the boy shouted happily, bending the air under him to get to his feet.
"Impressive," I complimented the boy. "Air bending. I'd be careful with that, it's quite rare to see an air bender these days." I warned, a sinking feeling settling in my stomach. The air benders had been wiped out because that was who the next Avatar was supposed to be, the glowing arrows and burst of light. That could only mean one thing – this boy was the Avatar.
"What do you mean? There are hundreds of air benders in the southern temples alone. I'm Aang, air bending master at your service." He introduced with a theoretic bow.
"It is a pleasure to meet you Air Master Aang. I am Wera, master of the Southern Water bending technique. This is my sister and apprentice, Katara. And this is my brother warrior Sokka." I introduced formally. I could technically have used the title of Water bending master, but I was uncomfortable doing so until I had a chance to study that of the north bending to see if there were any severe gaps in my bending knowledge beyond knowledge of formal bending techniques and stances.
"Aang, do you know how you got into that ice burg?" Katara asked hesitantly.
"And why aren't you frozen?" Sokka added.
"I don't know." Aang admitted.
"Hold on," I held up a hand to silence everyone as I heard something. Deep breathing. "Can you hear that?" the breathing turned into a deep rumble of an animal.
Aang gasped and scrambled up the iceberg. I followed after him, curious about what had affected him so. On the other side of the ice, there was a large bison, covered in thick white fur, with the air nomad symbol in brown fur upon his head. His tail was flat and without the fur that coated the rest of his body.
"APPA!" Aang slid to the head of the large bison. When all he got was a snort from the sleeping beast, he tried lifting one of the large eye lids. "Are you all right? Wake up buddy." When this didn't work, he tried lifting the animals head but it had no effect.
"A bison." I said in amazement. I never thought I'd see one. They were native to the eastern air temples, and partnered to those air nomads who were part of the air scouts and had reached a certain skill level. An air nomad's bison was their partner for life. And much like the air nomads themselves, it was unknown if any had survived the attack of the Fire Nation.
"A flying bison." Aang corrected without turning away from trying to wake his friend. The bison's tongue rolled out and licked the Avatar. "Haha! You're okay!" Aang laughed and hugged his friend.
The bison stood up, his six legs taking his weight as he shook his whole body.
"He's amazing," I came to stand by Aang. "What's his name?"
"Appa." Aang answered proudly.
"Appa, would you mind if I petted you?" I asked the large bison. The Bison snorted, and his tongue lolled out to give me a nice long lick. I laughed, taking that as a yes. Being covered in mucus wasn't a problem for me since I could just bend it off again and I'd been covered in worse during the times I'd been looking after the younger kids of the trip or when dealing with gutting the animals we ate for food. I moved forward, taking my glove off, so I could run my fingers through Appa's fur.
"What is that?" Sokka demanded. I ignored him, simple running my fingers through Appa's fur. It was so soft, softer than even the fur of polar bears.
"This is Appa, a flying bison." Aang introduced.
"Right. And this is Katara, my flying sister." Sokka said sarcastically.
Aang went to reply, but it was Appa who informed Sokka of how much he didn't like the sarcasm by sneezing all over Sokka. He had impressive aim because not a single drop landed on Katara who was stood next to their brother.
"Ewwww! Aahh!" Sokka cried out in disgust before throwing himself on the ground and rolling in the snow. Trying to use the cold to freeze the snot and knock it off him.
"Never insult things which are larger than you." I informed Sokka with a tone full of wisdom and amusement. One day Sokka was going to learn that insulting people was a bad idea.
"So, do you guys live around here?"
"Don't answer that." Sokka shouted and jumped to his feet. "Did you see that crazy bolt of light? He was probably tying to signal the Fire Nation."
"That was not the signal for the Fire nation." I said simple and full of confidence. "Aang is a child of the air nomads, and he would never work for the fire nations while it is working to rule the entire world."
"What do you mean, rule the world?" Aang asked confused.
"The fire nation has been sending out their armies and taking control. The southern water tribes have already fallen, and they have moved through a large portion of the earth kingdom as well. Only their largest cities have remained standing, but they are constantly having to repel the fire nation from their boarders. The Northern water tribes have remained strong, but they don't send ships from their stronghold anymore because they can't get past the blockade of the fire nation and their outer patrols have been under attack for the last eighty years." I informed Aang in a grim tone of voice.
I'd kept a lot of the information of the world from my tribe since they didn't need the extra knowledge, or the burden, but Aang clearly had no idea what was happening. If he was truly the Avatar, and the last air bender, that meant he had been trapped in the ice for over a hundred years. Before the Fire Nation declared war by destroying the air benders and the air nomads.
"What, what about the air nomads? Have the fire nation attacked them?" Aang asked.
"I'm afraid so," I softened my tone. "No one has seen an air bender, or an air nomad in near ninety-nine years."
"But I was at the southern air temple. That's where I'm from." Aang disagreed.
"You don't know how long you've been in the ice for Aang. I'd say you've been asleep for a very long time." I told him sadly. "But if you know where the temple is, I'll escort you there. It could simple be that your fellow nomads have remained hidden so as to protect themselves. The fire nation can't destroy what they don't know exists."
"Yeah, you think so?" Aang, whose shoulders had been drooping in sadness suddenly straightened. "Can I see your village?"
"Of course. You'll need somewhere to rest up. And we can get you some warmer cloths. You must be freezing."
"Wera!" Sokka frowned, clearly not happy with my decision.
"Sokka, you know I'm chief until father returns. Aang is not a threat, and he needs somewhere to stay until he can return to his temple." I informed him. "Sokka, you'll be carrying the fish since I need to go and get the canoe. There is a chance that I'll be able to repair the damage and we need all the boats we can get."
Although I always came back with another canoe (and in two instances longboats) every time I left the village, we still only had an eighth of the boats that we had before the warriors left since there was going to come a time when we'd have enough people to need more than one canoe per village in order to fish. All of the boats I had managed to trade for (typically with furs since the southern tribe didn't have money) were hidden in a concealed yard. The yard was something that I had built not far from the village which I had then revealed the location off to one of the elders, although I kept one canoe in the village for fishing. No one had caught onto the fact that I would occasionally swop out a canoe to do repairs.
I walked across the rubble of ice, hearing the others following – Appa wasn't exactly stealthy with his large body mass creating a lot of noise as he stepped over the ice. When I reached the edge of the iceberg I simple stared out over the open waters. Whilst we had been talking the ice floats had been taken by the current. The ice float with the canoe was well over forty metres away and there wasn't any ice float's close enough for us to hop-scotch across.
"Um… you think you can do your water moving thing and get us over there?" Sokka asked.
"I can get myself to that ice float, and I might be able to carry each of you one at a time. Once we're on that ice float I'll be able to manipulate the currents under it like we're on a boat. But I'll be exhausted by the time we reach shore." I explained.
The float we were currently stood on was too large and thick for me to attempt to move. I knew my own limits. I could create a bubble of air around them and walk through the water without harm, but it was taxing to do such a thing with enough air for all of them even if it was only for the few minutes it would take to reach the float.
"Well, if you guys need a lift Appa can take us." Aang offered, using the air currents to manipulate himself up onto the back of the bison.
"I'll grab the Canoe, you join Aang on Appa's back. Thank you for the offer, Aang." I nodded politely to the Avatar before focusing.
This was a trick that I'd developed on my own, simple because it was faster to move across the water than using a canoe or going under and across. I could create a small ice float under my feet and move across, but my way was quicker and less taxing.
I stepped forward, one foot making contact with the water but not sinking into it. Smiling, I put my other foot on the water and began running. With each step, I condensed the water under my feet into a solid platform so that I wouldn't sink. Running like this was amazing, knowing that I stayed up only because of my bending. If I miss-stepped even a little bit I'd be plunged into the frozen water.
"WERA, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Sokka shouted after me.
Ignoring him, I focused on my destination. Neither of my siblings had seen me do this before, so I was not surprised by Sokka's reaction. I tried to keep my water bending to a minimal around the village, and around Sokka. The most they'd really seen me do was capture fish. Not even when I was building more igloos or reinforcing the wall, did they see me bend since I did so at night time after everyone had gone to bed. Sokka and Katara had seen more bending that day then they ever had before.
Approaching the ice float, I jumped from the water and landed with a roll on the ice float in order to break my forward momentum without slowing to a walk. I picked up the canoe and rested it against my back like a long turtle shell. I had to lean forward so the edge of the canoe didn't touch the ice. And then I was running back to the others, who were now sat on Aapa's back.
"That was awesome." Aang shouted as I slowed my run to a walk and stepped onto the ice.
"Thank you." I passed the canoe to Sokka who rested it against Appa's saddle. I used Appa's leg joints in order to reach the bison's back. "Now then, we'd best get going. I'm sure the village saw that light and is worried about us."
"Okay." Aang took up the reigns which were attached to Appa. "First time flyers, hold on tight! Appa, yip yip!" Aang commanded, shaking the reigns.
Appa's tail flapped into the ice, kicking up an icy powder, as he launched himself into the air. However, instead of remaining airborne, Appa landed in the water with a huge splash and began swimming.
"Come on, Appa. Yip yip." Aang tried to encourage, shaking the reigns again.
"Wow." Sokka yawned sarcastically. "That was truly amazing."
"Appa's just tired." Aang defended. "A little rest and he'll be soaring through the sky. You'll see." He made a motion with his hands like he was flying, before his eyes came to rest on Katara. Instead of looking away, he continued to stare at Katara with a smile on his face.
"Why are you smiling at me like that?" Katara asked shifting uncomfortable.
"Oh… I was smiling?" Aang quickly dropped the smile and looked away.
"Uuuuh." Sokka groaned in disgust while I simple rolled my eyes. Hormones.
Fortunately, I'd past through that stage of life without anyone of the opposite gender being around me. Now I was older, I could look at others and consider them in an objective fashion to determine if I liked them on an aesthetic level or a more complex intelligent and emotional level. Of course, there was going to come a time in my life when I was going to be attracted to someone, but for now I had skipped past that stage in life and would be able to retain rational focus if I ever encountered someone I was attracted to.
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