Sokka awoke to the sound of birds chirping and the sight of sun-dappled green trees above him.
"Where are we?" Sokka asked blearily, sitting up and rubbing at his eyes.
"Northern Earth kingdom," his sister replied. He glanced around him, his gaze snagging on Katara. He hadn't really been expecting an answer, but alright, then.
"How did we get here so quickly?" he asked. "Didn't it take, like, days for us to get to the North Pole from the Earth Kingdom last time?"
Katara smirked. "Well, you didn't have a master bender on with you last time."
Sokka chuckled, earning him a dark look from his sister.
"Besides, you've been out for nearly a day and a half," she said, her gaze somewhat concerned. Sokka blinked, surprised.
"Really? That long?"
Katara nodded, kneeling down and poking at the little campfire that was burning nearby.
"Huh," was all he said.
That was weird. Sure, he was a heavy sleeper, but he'd never really slept that long.
He glanced back at his sister after a moment, only to see her staring at him. She smiled weakly at him. Sokka frowned.
"What's wrong?" he asked exasperatedly. Katara shook her head.
"Nothing. Hey-why don't you go find Aang. He's looking for breakfast right now."
"Oh, goody," Sokka snarked. He stood up, grabbing his boomerang from besides his sleeping bag. If he left Aang to find breakfast alone, they'd just end up eating lychee nuts or grass or something like that. He'd been out for days, apparently, and he wasn't going to have the first thing he ate be some crap that the kid had foraged.
He traipsed through the forest for a little while, searching for either the young airbender and, potentially, some edible creature.
He was just passing a small pond when a shudder raced up his spine. Sokka froze in his tracks, his pupils dilating. Slowly, he turned to face the pond. His hand went slack around his boomerang, and the weapon fell to the ground.
As if entranced, Sokka shambled towards the pond. He dropped to his knees, and his fingers curled into the grass around the edge of the pond. He let out a shaky breath, leaning forwards. There was something dark in the water, something familiar.
A fish.
A black fish with a little white spot on its head.
Sokka took in a shuddering breath, his fingers digging even deeper into the grass. That was the fish that had been in the Spirit Oasis before Yue died, the fish that-
The fish that had been the last thing he'd seen before he'd drowned.
Sokka gasped, scrambling away from the edge of the pond with a burst of panic. Panting, he stared at the pond as if it had bit him.
He'd drowned.
No, he hadn't just drowned-he'd been drowned. He'd been drowned, drowned, by people he'd thought he could trust.
He felt sick.
Slowly, he pulled himself up to his feet, grabbing his abandoned boomerang. He glanced at the pond-only to see that the fish was no longer there.
Had he just imagined it?
This pond was smaller even than the one in the Spirit Oasis; there was really no place that the fish could hide. He was sure he'd seen it-but looking into the pond, he could only see wriggling tadpoles.
Sokka sighed, rubbing at his eyes with his free hand. It wasn't really the weirdest thing to have happened in the past few days. He'd been unconscious for an extended period of time, he'd had two lunatics ramble on about him becoming the ocean spirit-hell, he'd been drowned. Hallucinating a fish wasn't really at the top of the list of bizarre things to have happened to him right now.
"Sokka?" a familiar voice asked curiously. The teen turned around, only to see Aang standing behind him.
The Avatar's eyes widened. "You're awake!" he cried, bounding forwards and tackling the older boy with an enormous hug. Sokka stumbled backwards, letting out a surprised cry. He returned Aang's hug, a wave of concern rolling through him. Aang wasn't the most….huggy person he'd met.
Aang pulled away, averting his gaze to the ground. He was silent for a moment, fiddling with his hands. "I was so scared. You just...stopped moving," Aang said, his voice shaky. With a start, Sokka realized that Aang was talking about when he had been drowned. "Katara bent so much water out of your lungs, but you still wouldn't get up, and I almost-"
"Aang, stop," Sokka said, placing his hands on the kid's shoulders. "I'm okay now, and that's what matters, alright?"
Aang nodded solemnly. He glanced up at Sokka, meeting the older boy's gaze-and promptly sprang backwards, letting out a cry of surprise. Sokka's brow furrowed with confusion.
"Whoa," Aang said, giving Sokka a weird look. "Katara told me they were weird, but-"
"What's weird?" Sokka asked. Aang glanced down at the ground nervously.
"Oh. So you don't know."
"Know what?"
"Uh…" Aang trailed off, looking a bit uncomfortable.
"What, Aang?"
"Your eyes," Aang blurted, glancing up at Sokka. The nonbender frowned.
"What about my eyes?" he asked, somewhat defensively. Aang didn't respond for a moment, fidgeting nervously, his gaze trained on the ground. "Aang-"
"They're black," the airbender stated bluntly, forcing himself to look up into Sokka's eyes once again.
"What?" Sokka whirled around, glancing at his reflection in the pond. "No they aren't, they're-"
He broke off, staring at his reflection. Two narrowed black eyes stared back at him. He froze, frowning confusedly.
"They're black," he said, dumbfounded. He turned back to Aang, who was watching him concernedly. "What did you-"
"It wasn't me, I swear!" Aang cried, waving his hands frantically. Sokka narrowed his eyes.
"Oh really? Than what, Aang? You're the only one with freaky magic powers I see around here! What else could have done this?" He snapped, pointing at his eyes. Aang swallowed, looking down at the ground.
"The ocean spirit," Aang offered weakly. Sokka groaned.
"Come on, Aang, not you, too!"
"Sokka, it was all Arnook and Master Paku would tell us when we came to save you They kept saying that they were trying to unite you with the ocean spirit!"
"By trying to kill me, Aang! Clearly, they're not in their right minds!"
"The spirit went up to you!"
"Yeah, it probably wanted to see if I was dead so it could nibble on my rotting flesh!" Sokka cried, throwing his hands up in the air. "Come on, Aang, do you really think a spirit would actually want anything to do with me?"
"Well…" Aang said, trailing off. Sokka huffed, crossing his arms.
"Exactly. Now come on, let's go find something edible for breakfast," Sokka said, turning and storming off into the forest. Aang lingered for a moment, staring into the pond that he'd caught his older friends staring into. What had Sokka seen there that had brought him to stare into it so intently?
"Come on, Aang," Sokka called, turning annoyedly to face his young friend. Aang shook his head, and bounced over to Sokka, following him into the woods.