Last Time…
I took off my fur coat and pinned my braid into a bun. I put on the lipstick that was the only thing in my pockets when I arrived here. I strapped my sword and scabbard tightly to my person. I said a small prayer to the spirits of this world and psyched myself up for the impending battle.
Sokka popped his head in the flap and said, "Rei, come on. Katara's coming back. I need you there with me." I nodded and followed him out of the village.
The entire tribe stood there waiting as Aang and Katara came over the ridge. A couple of kids ran up to Aang and Katara to welcome them back. Sokka stepped out from beside me and Gran.
"I knew it. You signaled the Fire Navy with that flare. You're leading them straight to us, aren't you?" Sokka accused.
"Aang didn't do anything. It was an accident." Katara explained.
"Yeah, we were on the ship and there was a booby trap. And well, we- we boobied right into it." Aang added.
"Katara, you shouldn't have gone on that ship," Gran berated. "Now, we could all be in danger."
"Don't blame Katara. I brought her there. It's my fault." Aang remarked.
"A-ha! The traitor confesses! Warriors, away from the enemy! The foreigner is banished from our village." Sokka commanded.
"Sokka, you're making a mistake," Katara argued.
"No, I'm keeping my promise to dad. I'm protecting you from threats like him."
"Aang is not our enemy! Don't you see? Aang's brought us something we haven't had in a long time. Fun."
"Fun?! We can't fight firebenders with fun!"
"You should try it sometime." Aang interjected, but that just made Sokka more angry.
"Get out of our village, now!"
"Surely, you can't agree with this Rei." Katara looked at me, but I wasn't in the mood for pity.
"No, Sokka is correct in this case. I know you want to be a fearless waterbender, but a healthy dose of fear keeps all of us alive. You may have just led the Fire Navy straight to us. What good will foolish bravery do then?"
Katara looked at me completely betrayed, but I stood my ground. Katara turned to Gran.
"Grandmother, please, don't let Sokka do this."
"Katara, you knew going on that ship is forbidden. Sokka is right. I think it best that the airbender leaves."
"Then I'm banished too!" Katara declared. She took Aang by the shoulder and began walking to Appa. "C'mon, Aang, let's go!"
Sokka took a step after them and demanded, "Where do you think you're going?"
"To find a waterbender! Aang is taking me to the North Pole!"
"I am? Great!" Aang brightened at the thought.
"Katara!" Sokka yelled and Katara stopped in her tracks. "Would you really choose him over your tribe? Your own family?"
Katara paused and it was clear she hadn't thought it through. Aang came up next to her and stated, "Katara, I don't want to come between you and your family." He walked forward away from her and towards Appa.
"So, you're leaving the South Pole? This is goodbye?" Katara said softly.
Aang dimpled at her and simply said, "Thanks for penguin sledding with me."
"Where will you go?"
Aang put a hand on Appa and replied, "Guess I'll go back home and look for the airbenders. Wow, I haven't cleaned my room in a hundred years. Not looking forward to that." He airbended himself onto Appa's head where he takes the reins. He turned and addressed the village, "It was nice meeting everyone."
Sokka scoffed, "Let's see your bison fly now, air boy."
Aang looked down at Appa and encouraged, "Come on, Appa, you can do it! Yip! Yip!" Appa rumbled lowly and got onto his feet.
"Yaeh, I thought so."
One of the little girls rushed forward with a cry to stand by Katara. I think her name was Kiha. or was she Lanuh? Ugh. I can never remember all their names and what face went with which name. But anyways, she cried out, "Aang! Don't go! We'll miss you!"
"I'll miss you too." Aang looked at Katara longingly, then shook the reins again. "Come on, boy." Appa walked off. The little girl ran off crying back to the village and the tribe all dispersed. Gran went up behind Katara.
"Katara, you'll feel better after you –" Gran started.
Katara cut her off yelling, "You happy now? There goes my one chance of becoming a waterbender!" She stalked off angrily. Gran followed her with sad eyes. I went up to Gran and hugged her gently.
"Don't worry about Katara. She'll understand in time. She's too young to truly understand yet," I comforted.
"Oh Rei. You are so wise beyond your years. Come. We must be prepared. You and Sokka are really our only defense." We walked back to the village and I breathed deeply before taking up my position in the middle of the village. Sokka had drilled our defense plan into my millions of times. He was our first line of defense, and I was our second. He stood on the wall and attacked anyone who came from the water. I kept the village safe and protected from any land attackers. I knew he just wanted to keep me out of the way. He didn't believe that I was any good at fighting. I wasn't, but that's not the point.
While I waited standing next to our currently not lit fire pit, I mentally prepared myself for Zuko's attack. I had had a major crush on Zuko when watching the show. I just hoped that maybe he'd be less attractive in real life and I wouldn't have a problem. I put on my game face and imagined roots extending downwards from my feet into the ground. Sokka climbed the wall and groaned as his watchtower came tumbling down. The Fire Navy ship seemed to come out of nowhere. And yikes it was really huge. I did not expect it to be that huge. I didn't flinch as the wall crumbled. A bit of snow caught my shoulder and I brushed it off without taking my eyes off the ship. Sokka ended up falling right next to me and stood up quickly.
The front tip of the warship came down and revealed an opening. Zuko and six of his men exited the ship. Holy shit! It's worse. It's so much worse than I imagined. I froze up and, in that time, Sokka tried to attack the firebenders. Zuko came right up in front of me. Right in my face. His beautiful, perfect face right in front of mine. He must've assumed I was the leader since I was standing my ground in front of everyone else.
"Where are you hiding him?" Zuko barked.
Knowing the situation, I faked furrowing my brows in confusion and said, "Hiding who?"
"He'd be about 100 years old, master of all the elements. I know you're hiding him," He sneered.
I blinked a couple times in mock surprise. "You mean the Avatar? Isn't he dead? It has been a hundred years. And why would he come here? The Northern Water Tribe is much better defended." I eyed the damage to our wall. "As we have seen." I swiftly brought out my sword and swung at him. He blocked it with fire and the heat traveled up the blade and almost burned my hands. I dropped it and yelped, but I still glared at the prince. Zuko growled, walked a bit to the side, lit his hand on fire, and held it close to my neck. Damn he's hot.
"You will tell me where the Avatar is," Zuko growled.
"There is no Avatar here," I sneered back at him.
Just as I said that, Aang slid in and knocked Zuko off of his feet. I threw my hands up and stepped back to make way for the last airbender.
"Oh come on Aang. I might have actually been able to convince him," I griped.
"Hey Katara. Hey Rei. Hey Sokka," Aang ignored me in favor of greeting the siblings.
"Hi Aang. Thanks for coming," Sokka returned from his place on the ground.
Zuko got up off his ass and got into his fighting stance. His soldiers surrounded Aang. He threw snow in all their faces.
"Looking for me?" Aang asked.
Zuko looked surprised and asked, "You're the airbender? You're the Avatar?"
The village collectively gasped.
"Aang…"
"No way."
I just smirked at everyone's reaction.
It was funny.
Aang and Zuko started to circle each other.
"I've spent years preparing for this encounter, training, meditating. You're just a child," Zuko taunted.
Aang stopped short and plainly stated, "Well, you're just a teenager."
Zuko started blasting fireballs at Aang. Aang deflected them and danced around Zuko. Some of the fire got way too close to me and the rest of the village. Aang turned around to look at us, then stopped spinning his glider staff.
"If I go with you, will you promise to leave everyone alone?"
Zuko nodded and Aang was grabbed by Fire Nation soldiers. Katara stepped away from the pack and begged, "No, Aang, don't do this."
"Don't worry Katara. It'll be ok," he reassured. He looked unsure of himself, as I'm sure we all were. "Take care of Appa for me until I get back."
Zuko shouted, supposedly to the captain of his ship, "Head a course to the Fire Nation. I'm going home."
Aang turned and looked at us with a small smile on his face. It dropped as the ship closed up. The ship backed out of the hole it made in the glacier and sailed off. Katara ran to the edge of the glacier and watched it go. I started putting tents back up and clearing out excess snow that had burst in from the hole. I don't know how the villagers are gonna fix that. It was a huge gaping hole in our wall. How the heck were they supposed to fix that? Sokka grabbed me and put a bundle in my hands.
"Here. Carry this and follow me."
I nodded.
"Wait, let me get mine."
I ran to my own tent which had fallen, but I pulled the tent off and grabbed my pack. I returned to Sokka and he showed me to a small canoe. Katara was standing a bit away from us and exclaimed, "We have to go after that ship Sokka. Aang saved our tribe. Now we have to save him."
Sokka turned to her and tried to butt in, "Katara, I-"
"Why can't you realize that he's on our side? If we don't help him, no one will. I know you don't like Aang, but we owe him and -" Katara proclaimed indignantly.
Sokka had had enough of it and he interrupted, "Katara! Are you going to talk all day or are you coming with us?"
Katara turned to see the canoe we'd been filling with everything we thought we would need, gasped and ran to embrace her brother.
"Sokka!"
"Get in. We're going to save your boyfriend."
"He's not my-"
"Whatever."
Gran Gran snuck up behind them as I looked on, amused. I got out of the boat. She questioned, "What do you three think you're doing?" The silbings turned around and tried to act all innocent. She smiled and held up some blankets. She explained, "You'll need these. You have a long journey ahead of you." The siblings looked at each other in disbelief. She turned to Katara and said, "It's been so long since I've had hope, but you brought it back to life, my little waterbender." She and Katara shared a hug. She turned to Sokka. "And you, my brave warrior. Be nice to your sister." She embraced him and he awkwardly patted her on the back.
"Yeah, ok, Gran."
I thought about my own grandparents. I wonder if they're ok. I missed Gran turning towards me.
"And you, Rei. I may not have known you long, but you have such a good heart. I hope you don't mind that I've started to think of you as my granddaughter as well," Gran stated with a smile on her face. I returned it.
"I don't mind."
She embraced me as well. I smiled gratefully and stepped back.
"Aang is the Avatar. He's the world's only chance. You three found him for a reason. Now your destinies are intertwined with his," Gran explained.
Katara turned to our puny canoe and remarked, "There's no way we're going to catch a warship with a canoe." Appa must've heard us or something because he growled from a distance and came over the snowy hill toward us.
"Appa!" Katara exclaimed before running toward the bison who hadn't yet realized that he'd basically just signed up to take us after Zuko's warship.
"You just love taking me out of my comfort zone, don't you?" Sokka griped.
I rolled my eyes, grabbed Sokka's sleeve and started dragging him toward Appa.
"Fine! Fine, I'm going!"
I let him go and grabbed some stuff out of the canoe. Sokka and I loaded up the saddle while Katara climbed up into the driver's seat. Appa turned his head and slid her off. Katara started to yell, "What is wrong with you? We're trying to save Aang!"
Appa growled lowly at her. I rushed to her side and put a hand on her shoulder. I moved over to Appa and stroked down his face and nuzzled up against it. Appa stopped growling and nuzzled his face into me, almost knocking me over, but I hugged back harder. I whispered so Sokka and Katara wouldn't hear, "May I please lead you to where Aang is? He's been captured and you're our only way to get him back."
Appa seemed to be considering it and slowly blinked his eyes. I let a smile crawl onto my face and I swung up gently onto Appa. Katara's mouth had dropped open. Sokka leaned over the saddle and looked at his sister.
"Well, are you coming Katara?"
"Yeah, yeah. I'm coming."
She got on the saddle a little disgruntled and I led Appa into the water.