Chapter 2: And So It Begins

"There's no way that fish can escape now," Sokka said aiming his spear toward the water.

"That's what you said the last five times. I told you we should have went somewhere else. There's too much ice here," Katara said looking into the water. Even though the afternoon sun gave off an intense glare she could still make out her reflection in the water.

"It's the South Pole. Ice is everywhere. Now shut up. I think I saw the fish."

"We've been stuck in this canoe for half the day though without a single bite." Her brother, however, gave no reply as his entire focus shifted to the water. Fishing was all about patience something Sokka knew Katara could never understand.

It was an unusually cold day even for the South Pole. Each wind gust reminded Katara of how lonely and punishing the cold desert could get. But Mother Nature was neither angry nor vindictive, she was, like Time, completely indifferent. It was a lesson that every southerner learned. Yet here was Sokka dragging her into the middle of an iceberg belt miles from the nearest tribe just to catch fish. Over time the gusts became heavier and heavier and started to churn the waters making the currents run faster.

"Sokka," Katara called trying to warn her brother. But then she saw it. Just beneath the current was a glimmer.

"What?" Sokka asked. But now it was Katara's turn to completely lose herself focusing all her energy on the fish before her. She reached her hand toward the water and started to move it slowly in a circle. The water followed her hand moving in and out around the fish trapping it in a circle. Now the hard part, Katara thought as she raised her hands up. Slowly, but surely, a small sphere of water containing a fish arose into the air.

"Look Sokka. I caught it!" Katara said with a wide grin. She motioned her hands around the fish trying to envelope layers upon layers of water around it but it proved quite difficult.

"Not now. I think I got the fish," Sokka replied. He readied his spear and pulled back only for the spear to penetrate the small sphere that Katara had formed and knocked out the fish into the water.

"Oh come on!" Katara said. "I literally had the fish in my hand."

"Katara, what were you doing? I almost had it," Sokka said drying out the water that had gotten all over him. "How come every time you play with your little water magic I get wet?"

"It's not water magic, it's bending-"

"Yes, yes," Sokka interrupted. "It's an ancient water tribe art. Just do your weirdo things on your own time."

"Sokka look out!" Katara said pointing towards their oncoming collision with an iceberg their canoe was heading towards.

"What the-" Sokka exclaimed before starting to paddle against the current.

"Watch out for the icebergs," Katara yelled holding onto the canoe as it rapidly turned.

"What do you think I'm doing?" Sokka said moving in and out of the ice. It was quite difficult to navigate such tight corners without much experience which Sokka, thankfully had in spades.

'Turn left, turn left!"

"Shut it Katara. I've got this," Sokka said turning the canoe toward the direction Katara had indicated.

However, no amount of experience could prepare Sokka, for flotillas that spun randomly into his path. The two propelled into the air and landed on top of said iceberg.

"Great now we have no food and no way to get home!" Katara said.

"It's not my fault I was distracted. Your little water bending caused this," Sokka replied with his arms crossed.

"How is it my fault? I told you coming here was dangerous."

"I knew it was a mistake bringing you along. Leave it to a girl screw this up."

"Are you kidding me?" Katara said. "You are the most sexist, immature, nut-brained idiot in the South Pole!"

"Wait Katara stop-" Sokka said his eyes widening. An iceberg thirty-foot tall and ten feet wide started to rumble under Katara's yelling. All Sokka could think was waterbending and angry.

"No Sokka. I'm not stopping. Ever since Mom died I have been doing all the work around camp. I even had to do your dirty laundry. Do you know how much your socks smell?" Katara said waving her arms in frustration.

"Katara seriously stop-" Sokka said backing away. half the iceberg had cracked open as some parts of the ice floated in the air and followed Katara's arms. There was a loud and distinct hissing sound, much like a snake's his, which Katara unfortunately couldn't hear.

"Shut up! I just wanted one day where I could go fishing and maybe even relax a little but no you couldn't even let me do that. From now on you can do your own laundry!"

BOOM! The iceberg exploded into several pieces and sent Katara and Sokka flying back. The duo managed to hang onto the edge of the little flotilla as the waves caused by the explosion pushed them further back.

"Congratulations," Sokka said exasperated and yet (and he would never admit this) somewhat proud, "You graduated from weirdo to freak."

"You mean I did that?" Katara said marveling at her own powers. Where there once was a small icy hill now was nothing but icy rumble floating away.

"Come on. If we leave now we can probably get home by sunset," Sokka said taking note of the position of the sun in the sky. Before him lay countless little to medium icy flotillas. Looks like we're going to have to earn our way home Sokka sighed.

"No wait. Look at that," Katara pointed toward a glowing blue region in the water. It started off as a small circle but as it grew it became proportionately brighter until a slightly smaller but more spherical iceberg took place of the hill that used to be there.

"What is that?" Sokka said gripping his spear tightly.

"Hey, do you see that?"

"What?"

"I think someone's inside it," Katara replied. Squinting her eyes she could make out the shadow of a distinct human shape. But there was something much larger that also surrounded that human figure. "Let's go find out."

"How about we just go to our nice normal home?" Sokka said but it was too late. Katara had already started to jump toward the bright iceberg using the remnants of the old one as stepping stones.

"Come on Sokka we have to save him."

"I just wanted to catch some fish. Is that too much to ask?" Sokka said to himself before following his sister.

When Katara reached iceberg she could see that it was definitely a human that was trapped in the middle of the ice. He seemed to be in some sort of a meditative pose with his hands and feet held against each other.

"Katara don't get too close. We don't know what that thing is," Sokka said pointing toward the large shadow around the boy. The large shadow circled the human figure above him

"Who is he?" Katara wondered touching the ice. The iceberg had to be at least six inches thick. It was at that moment that the boy's eyes slowly opened revealing a solid white light.

"Sokka give me the club."

"Why?" Sokka said taking the club out of his bag.

"Because he's still alive in there."

"What?"

"I just saw his eyes move."

"What?" Sokka reflexively asked. He looked again at the boy and lo and behold his eyes were now open revealing a silver light that penetrated right through the ice. "Are you sure about this?"

"We have to get him out now." Katara grabbed the club and started smashing it as hard as she could against the iceberg.

"That ice is too thick Katara. You're never going to be able to break through that," Sokka said staring at the silver eyes. He could feel some sort overwhelming power from them, so much so, that he had half a mind to drag his sister home right now.

"That doesn't mean we give up," Katara said hitting the iceberg with the hardest blow yet. A hissing sound started to come from the ice. "Look. See it's work-"

KABOOM! A huge blue light erupted from the iceberg soaring toward the sky. Sokka grabbed his sister and dove for cover as the beam of light was too bright to behold. The searing heat from the light vaporized the surrounding ice and even singed the sole of Sokka's boots. The waters swung back and forth disrupting the natural current, and though the two never saw it, the water started to switch direction and come toward the direction of the light. The very air itself seemed to pulse with energy as the two felt the vibrations rock through them. After what seemed like forever for the duo but was only a minute long the light faded.

"What in the world just happened?" Sokka said looking toward the sky to see where the beam went but there was nothing. It had suddenly disappeared just as it appeared.

"Sokka look," Katara said pointing toward the boy who was on top of the hill. His eyes were much brighter now that he was out of the ice. But it wasn't only his eyes that were bright but the arrows on his arms and head as well.

"Get back," Sokka commanded the stranger. He pushed his little sister behind him and pointed his spear toward him.

The boy looked at the brother and sister before the light faded and he fainted. He fell down the hill but luckily Katara caught him before he hit the ground.

"Is he alive?" Sokka asked tapping the boy's head with the butt end of his spear.

"Stop that. Can't you see him breathing?" Katara said, before returning her attention to the boy. For one thing he definitely wasn't from around here. While the people of the south wore blue heavy jackets, he wore a long-sleeved yellow shirt with a loose orange shawl, brown pants, and red boots. Anyone with such loose attire wouldn't last ten minutes in the south yet here he was perfectly breathing. But perhaps his strangest attributes were the arrows on his body. On each arm was a long blue arrow that started from the elbow and ended on the back end of his hand. On his bald head a large blue arrow stretched from the back to his forehead. There's no way he's from the Fire Nation. Is he from the Earth Kingdom? Katara thought. But then why was he stuck in the iceberg? And what was that energy?

"Where am I?" Arthur said slowly opening his eyes. He looked up to see a young girl in a blue hood in his field of vision.

"You're in the Southern Water Tribe," Katara said helping Arthur stand up. "I'm Katara and this is my brother Sokka."

"Who are you and how did you get stuck in the ice?" Sokka said with his spear at the ready. Arthur would have properly reacted to such a weapon if he weren't so confused.

"Sokka put that away. You're scaring him," Katara chided. "But it would be nice to know who you are."

"Did you say the Southern Water Tribe?" Arthur asked scratching his head in confusion. "Where is that?" Why does my head feel like skin?

"The south?" Sokka said.

"But I was in a hospital. How did I get here? Wait why are we on ice?" That's when he noticed, in the corner of his eye, a small thin arm. "Wait," Arthur said looking at his arm in horror and moving it about. "This isn't my arm!" He looked at his other arm to see that it was indeed a match for the first one and ran toward the edge of the iceberg.

"Where are you are going?" Katara asked.

Arthur however just ignored her and crouched over to look at his reflection. This face… It's the face of the boy in my dreams, Aang. How come I'm bald? Arthur thought. He was actually quite proud that he still had his hair into old age. And yet here he was as a kid already bald. Where is that white woman? Wasn't I having a heart attack? Am I dead? She probably has something to do with this. I know she does. But more importantly why the hell is there a giant blue arrow on my head?

"What is he doing?" Sokka whispered to his sister. The two watched Arthur as he inspected his body and his reflection. For some reason, he was rubbing his head a lot.

"Maybe it's confusion caused by being stuck in ice for so long. You think he suffered brain damage?"

"Who knows? Maybe we should just leave him here and just go already."

"Sokka we can't just leave him here. He'll die," Katara said. "Just look at what he's wearing. There is no way he's going to survive out here."

"He was already stuck in ice and survived," Sokka said shrugging his shoulders. "Maybe that's his hobby."

"Hey aren't you cold?" Katara asked walking over to Arthur.

"Cold?" Arthur asked. And just like that the malcebo went to work. He put his arms around his chest and started shivering. "Now that you mention it is freezing. Where are we?"

"The Southern Water Tribe! I just said that." Sokka yelled "Don't you know where it is?"

"Uhh… In the south?" Arthur said through his chattering teeth. How in the world did that woman put me in the South Pole? No wait better yet why did she put me here?

"Yes…" Sokka said motioning to his sister that he might be crazy. "Katara I'm going to look around. You stay with him." Sokka then began his search for that large shadow.

"Come on!" Katara said. "I have an extra jacket in my bag".

"Thanks," Arthur said. "I just can't believe this dream is so vivid. It actually feels so cold."

"Dream? What dream?"

"How am I not dreaming? This is too ridiculous to be real. There is no way I'm actually in the South Pole."

You're not in a dream. You're awake." Now it was Katara's turn to look in confusion. Maybe he really did suffer brain damage. She handed him a jacket, which he quickly put on.

"That feels so much better," Arthur said as he rubbed his arms again to generate heat. I'm probably on some really powerful drugs. But what drug can cause such a vivid hallucination? Morphine maybe? Did I get tapped with LSD? I actually feel cold. That's never happened before. Wait… wasn't I dying?

"Hey so do you remember your name?" Katara asked.

"Yeah it's Arthur," he said.

"Arthur? That's such a weird name," Katara remarked.

"What are you talking about? That's a common -AH-AH-ACHOO!" Arthur said before he sneezed. Unexpectedly he launched himself thirty feet into the air.

"Whoa!" Katara said in shock.

"Oh my god! What the hell?" Arthur yelled as he flew straight up fighting the bitter winter air pushing against him. He twirled right through the air, spinning, flailing, all against his will. Flying… Yep definitely in a dream he thought.

"Sokka look," Katara said looking for her brother. "He's flying!"

"Who's flying?" Sokka followed Katara's finger toward the sky. "What the-" Sokka said as his jaw followed the appropriate reaction. It was unfortunate then when the large shadow moved toward him.

"Wait how do I stop?" Arthur asked flailing his arms about. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, gravity shortly answered the question.

"Ahh!" Arthur quickly plummeted toward the Earth. What a short-lived dream…

Just as he was about to hit the ground gusts of air were generated underneath him that slid Arthur right into a pile of snow that had formed when the light beam had melted through the solid ice.

"Are you alright?" Katara asked running toward him. Sokka was about to follow suit but then he heard a low growl in the other direction.

"Yeah. I'm fine," Arthur said pulling himself out of the snow. How did I even survive that fall? He studied his hands closely and for a second he felt like his hands had pushed the air away when he had fallen. Arthur tried to do it again but nothing happened this time. What was that wind?

"Are you an airbender?" Katara asked excitedly, a million questions popping in her head. She started to inspect the boy as if he were an antique. "I can't believe you're an actual airbender! Wait till Gran Gran hears about this. Are there any other airbenders?"

"Airbender? What's that?" Arthur gave her a puzzled look, which she in turn returned. Wasn't that a word I made up when I was a kid? he thought.

Katara clearly recognized the tattoos that only air nomads would where from old paintings that Gran Gran had. Does he have amnesia?

"IT'S ALL OVER ME!" Sokka yelled.

"What happened?" Katara ran and Arthur quickly followed.

"Katara stay back. There's a giant-OH NO, NOT AGAIN!" A low rumble followed causing the small iceberg to swing back and forth in the water. The two stumbled but arrived to find Sokka slowly crawling on the ice.

"Sokka are you ok?" Katara said before covering her mouth in horror. "What is that all over you?"

"It sneezed on me-twice," Sokka replied pointing to around the corner of the iceberg. "Can this day get any worse?

Both Arthur and Katara turned the corner and stared in shock. A giant white bison stood before them. About twenty feet long and eight feet wide the white-furred bison returned their stare in a mix of interest and curiosity. It had a gray underbelly, six legs, two large horns, and a six-foot wide tail. But perhaps its most striking feature was the brown arrow that started from the back and ended in the middle of the beast's face.

"Arthur?" Katara said turning toward him. "Is that your… pet?"

However, Arthur didn't respond but instead continued to stare at the beast. He was paralyzed as his brain tried to understand what it was seeing. Six legs? A bison with six legs? Hold on I know that bison but from where?

With that one question a flood of memories started to rush in. Suddenly Arthur saw a vision of his five year old self drawing a picture of the bison. He handed it to Jane and told stories of a small boy riding on a flying bison.

His next memory was of another time and place. Arthur saw visions of a large mountaintop in a sea of clouds. The sun was setting which made the golden temple glisten in a peculiar, yet beautiful, way. In the fields below the temple there was a young bald boy chasing a small white fluffy cloud of an animal. There were other children as well each, sporting a blue arrow, playing with their own baby bison.

Each memory that Arthur remembered brought two more to the forefront. Millions of neurons started firing off in an exponential runaway of associative reactions digging up memories of what seemed to be another life. It was overwhelming but beautiful in its own right like a long-awaited puzzle finally being solved.

"Arthur you ok?" Katara asked as Arthur tumbled toward the ground overwhelmed with his visions.

"What happened?" Arthur said breaking out of his trance.

"I don't know. You saw the bison and you sort of froze up. Is he yours?"

"He's my… friend," Arthur said contemplating on his memories. He carefully walked toward the giant beast. "I think Appa is his name."

Hearing his name, Appa stood at attention. He looked around for the origin of the voice and started panting excitedly when he saw his best friend.

"Arthur be careful," Katara said taking a few steps back. She saw the bison slowly make its way toward them crushing the hard ice in its way.

"No worries, Katara. He's gentle," Arthur said walking toward him. At least I hope he is. It was a strange feeling that he had: like water flowing downhill, or time flowing forward. Arthur just knew what he was saying was perfectly right. He didn't know how he knew but like a moth to a flame he couldn't resist walking toward Appa.

"You're a good boy? Aren't you?" Arthur said, hesitantly rubbing Appa's nose. He loves being rubbed there, he instinctively thought to himself. "I can't believe you're actually real." Appa licked Arthur in response as a sign of approval.

"So he's your pet?" Sokka said through chattering teeth as he used his spear to help rub the mucus off his jacket. He thought about using the water to wash his jacket but then he would have to deal with the hypothermia.

"More like a friend, but yeah I think so," Arthur said. Seeing Sokka's state he added, "I'm sorry. Appa sneezes often when he's cold." Where are all these memories coming from?

"What kind of animal even is that?" Sokka asked, his curiosity temporarily overpowering his oncoming hypothermia.

"It's a sky bison," Arthur replied.

"Bisons don't have six legs."

"Yeah that's why it's a sky bison," Arthur replied automatically as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Seriously, how did I know that? He thought. What even is this? Is Juliet still waiting for me?

"Right…," Sokka said rolling his eyes. "Katara how are we going to get home by sunset?"

"Ah! You're right," Katara remarked, "We could have been home by now if you hadn't crashed the ship."

"Your water bending caused this. Don't pin this on me."

"My water bending? It was your reckless steering," Katara said crossing her arms. "Why do you have to be such an arrogant idiot?"

"Why do you have to be annoying brat?" Sokka yelled.

"Guys, guys," Arthur said. "It's ok. We can just fly on Appa." Wait Appa can fly? Arthur thought incredulously. He searched these new visions of his and indeed saw that Appa could fly. Great so the laws of aerodynamics have been thrown out the window. Damn that white woman.

"There is no way that bison can fly," Sokka said pointing toward the animal. Appa, in turn, just looked lazily back at Sokka and yawned.

"I think he can." Arthur climbed Appa and took hold of Appa's reins. "Are you two getting on?"

"You think?" Sokka said, "Well I think I'll walk home."

"Well you can stay here and freeze to death," Katara teased as she was already sitting beside Arthur. "I'll just ask Gran Gran for your room."

"Ugh. Fine, I'll get on Appa." Sokka climbed up the fluffy tail onto Appa's back and sat in the back next to Katara. "So how does he fly?"

"Um...," Arthur said trying to remember. "I don't remember. I think I had to say a catchphrase…"

"A catchphrase? Are you sure you're all there in the head?" Sokka asked.

"Sokka!" Katara scolded.

"What? I'm just saying."

"Was it yip yip?" Arthur said as a suggestion. With that Appa slowly got up and using his tail, pushed himself off the iceberg.

"Get ready guys and hold on tight," Arthur braced himself for the rush of air that was about to come. But it never came. Instead Appa only leapt six feet into the air and made a huge splash into the ice water.

"Wow," Sokka said with his arms folded, "We're really flying now."

"I think he might be tired," Arthur said. Appa yawned in agreement. "At least we'll still be able to get to the village."

"You're right Arthur," Katara stared daggers at her brother who tried his best to ignore her. "Thanks for the lift."

"No thank you for getting me out of the ice. Now I just got to figure out what's going on..."

"Hang on," Sokka said, "Your name is Arthur? What kind of name is that?" Sokka just realized that they were getting aid from a complete stranger found in ice. He didn't know a single thing about him and yet here he was helping them.

"Sokka don't be rude," Katara said. "It could be just part of air nomad culture."

"He's an airbender? I thought they all-"

"Shhh!" Katara said interrupting her idiot brother. "I think he has amnesia. He doesn't need to know about that now."

"Oh about my name," Arthur said, "Just call me Aang."

"But I thought your name was Arthur," Katara remarked.

"No," Aang said as he lied down on Appa's head. When in Rome... "I misspoke earlier. I'm Aang." He stared at the blue open sky lost in his thoughts. What the hell is going on...?