Author's Notes: Sorry this chapter took a while! I found it hard to write because I didn't have much source material for this. I'm going to do a few chapters detailing Katara, Sokka and Bato's journey through the Earth Kingdom. I probably won't do as many like this as I will about Aang (after all, the original story is mainly supposed to be about Aang) but I like the idea of making up some completely new ideas and adventures for the watertribesmen. Tell me what you think!
Chapter 3: Ostrich horses!
The airbender had long since left the abbey on Appa, yet the water siblings were fixated on the figures slowly dwindling into the distance. Sokka, realising that Bato wanted them to start moving, awoke himself from his saddened daze and readied himself for the travel.
"Yeah, you're probably right," he sighed, before remembering the storm clouds gathering from the west. "We should get moving before this storm hits us."
Katara was still in her stupor when Sokka poked her shoulder, unsuccessfully trying to bring her back to the present. She wished to be on that bison with Aang, travelling up to the Northern tribe. I'm so worried, she continuously thought. What if he gets hurt? What if he runs out of food? What if he… what if he dies/ She felt a tear well up in her eye as she feared about Aang's death. But she couldn't think for much more, as Sokka's poking had grown ever more incessant and irritating, like a woodpecker drumming onto a tree trunk. She shook her head and awoke from her daze, startled.
"What? Oh right yeah… yeah ok, let's start moving."
The trio began their journey by walking to the nearby pine forest after waving goodbye to the nuns living in the abbey. Bato had thanked them graciously beforehand for caring for him for almost 6 months, and was sad to leave them. It had been almost as hard to pull Bato from the ladies as it was Katara from Aang. But nevertheless, the group departed into the woods for the second time that day and with a curt glance over her shoulder to the black dot on the horizon of Aang and Appa, Katara followed them into the foilage, unsure of when she would see the airbender again.
The trio all knew the start of this route, and had planned their first resting point to be under a rocky outcropping close to a dwindling stream. It was a few miles out from the abbey and they had passed by it earlier; when they had initially left Aang at the monastery after learning he had kept the message from their father secret. Wow, had things changed within only a few hours. They had both gone from never wanting to see Aang again to never wanting to leave Aang again in less than a day.
They settled back down at the rocky outcropping. It lay about a hundred metres or so off the beaten track, masked by a thick array of trees and low growing plants. It sat above a narrow stream that ran through the cracks between large stones, heading back westward towards the abbey. This must lead to the abbey's reservoir of water for perfumes, Bato realised.
They set out tents under the jutting rock and gathered firewood quickly; just in time, it turned out, as the rain began to pour just as the kindling was lit. Bato took a case of stewed prumes out of his travelling rucksack, a gift from the nuns who had given him a few food supplies for the start of their journey. They also gifted him a bit of money which he had initially declined out of kindness but after being reminded they had no use for money and could earn it back regardless by selling perfume, he gratefully obliged in taking the gold and silver pieces.
Sokka limberly stretched his body by the glow of the fire. "Man," he started, rotating his shoulder to relieve built-up pressure and releasing a few satisfying cracks, "I forgot how much I hated travelling before Appa. I didn't really appreciate how easy it was with him around." He pushed his arms up above his head and winced as a few of his vertebrae cracked from the stretch. "Ow."
Katara laughed, preparing a pot of pre-stewed sea prunes over the open flame. "Sokka, you're such a wimp. I thought you were supposed to be a man," she teased.
He gave her a stupid look and scoffed, trying to defend himself. "I'm not a wimp! I have the body of a model." He flexed his arms to prove his point, but there was little change in the size of his bicep. "I – I just haven't worked out recently," he stammered, desperately tying to defend himself as Katara cackled.
"You're right, though. I much preferred travelling on Appa with Aang." Realising what she just said, Katara quickly turned around to Bato apologetically. "Oh no, Bato, I didn't mean it that way, I swear! You're super great to travel with to!" she said. Of course, this wasn't completely the truth. All three of them knew she'd preferred travelling with Aang, Sokka and Appa but Bato took no offence.
He waved his hand dismissively. "It's fine, Katara. I know he was your friend. Besides, I can sort of understand the appeal of not having to walk while travelling," pointing to his feet. "My foot is as hard and tense as a piece of seal jerky right now," he joked.
Katara poked her tongue out in disgust as she served the reheated stewed sea prunes into three small wooden bowls. Sokka, eager for dinner, pouted when he saw the unappealing amount of food for his dinner. "We have to conserve food, Sokka. We should try and keep this for as long as possible so we can save money and not have to worry about hunting."
Sokka sighed. "I hate it when you're reasonable," he grumbled. But he watched curiously as Katara served up a fourth bowl unconsciously. "Uh, Katara," he pointed out, "what are you doing?"
Realising that she had prepared a fourth meal, her cheeks flushed red in embarrassment. "Oh, whoops, I didn't mean to. I guess I just forgot that…" Her voice trailed off and her eyes gazed wistfully into the distance. She sighed and continued, "… that Aang's not here."
Katara poured the fourth bowl back into the pot and the three of them ate in awkward silence. Sokka noted that this was the first time they had eaten without talking to each other for quite a while; at least since before Aang had come. He glanced over at Katara and found her sight already set on him. He could sense her question, his caring gaze seeing right through her façade. It's not the same. We shouldn't have left.
Bato, once again, was out of their picture. But he didn't mind nor care. He was just like them when he was a kid, he and Hakoda were practically inseparable as teenagers. He knew these kids meant no harm to him whatsoever, and that an adult couldn't quite comprehend their nagging problems. He coughed, alerting the children of his decision. "I'm going to go to sleep now." He cast a glance knowingly over at the siblings. "We have a long journey ahead of us. I suggest you two get some rest as well." As he stood up, he silently laughed to himself. He knew much too well that those kids would not sleep anytime soon.
As Sokka watched Bato get up from his sitting rock surrounding the dying campfire, he cast his eyes furtively back to Katara. "Sis… are you doing okay?"
She sighed, turning her face down towards the glowing embers. "Yes. No. I don't know. I jjust haven't quite gotten over the fact that Aang is gone, and that we might never see him again."
Sokka shuffled closer to Katara on the log they were sitting on together. "Hey, don't say that. We're going to see him again, I know it. And remember, Katara, he's okay with us leaving him for now. He's an understanding guy and he wants us to go find our family."
Katara turned her face round to Sokka so that he could see the tears welling in her eyelids.
"But Sokka, that's the thing!" Katara was struggling to talk without choking on her sobs. "Aang was family! We were his family! Don't you think that what we've just done to him is exactly what Dad did to us? Leaving us alone to fend for ourselves, with no one to help us? Forcing us to take charge? I know that we should find Dad. And don't get me wrong, I still miss him so much. But – but – " Katara cried and fell into Sokka, sobbing into his shoulder. He moved his arms around her arms and embraced her tightly, struggling to keep the tears out of his own eyes. Katara paused her stifled sobs and mumbled into his shoulder, "It just feels wrong, leaving him alone. We were the only people he had for a hundred years, and we've just gone and left him alone again."
Sokka pressed his face against her crown, unable to hold back his torrent of emotion. He knew she was right. Hakoda was their father, but Aang was their brother. A goofy, annoying, airbending, childish but wise, caring, sometimes stupid, brother who wasn't of blood but of love. It probably wasn't right for them to have him at the time, but it was ages too alte by this point to go and try and find him again. He would be long gone at this point.
After a minute or two he hoisted his head back up and released his grip from Katara, who had stopped crying and also sat back up. Her tears had left an unfortunate stain in his clothing, but he didn't care. Now wasn't the time for Funny Sokka or Stupid Sokka. Now, it was Older Brother Sokka's time to shine. "Aang's a smart kid. He'll figure his way out to the North Pole and he'll probably get someone to travel with him. We don't have anything to worry about. And think about it. In not too long we'll look back on this and realise this was the best thing that could've happened. We can gather people in the Earth Kingdom to help us fight, and we might even find you a waterbending teacher." Katara still looks unconvinced. "And think of how sweet it will be when we finally see Aang again! We'll have Dad with us and it'll be like he never even left. He'll tell us all about his insane adventures and how he went and beat the Fire Lord with one hand behind his back and blindfolded!" Sokka exaggerated this last part with his hands which brought a smile to Katara's face and satisfaction to his heart, knowing he had just succeeded. "And no matter what, if we for some reason never see Dad or Aang again, you'll always have me." He smiled compassionately, causing Katara to giggle slightly.
"You're so lame sometimes, Sokka," she teased as she lightly punched him on the arm. "But yeah… likewise."
The pair said their goodnights, but neither went to sleep right away. Sokka retreated to his tent whilst Katara watch the ceasing rainfall drip over the edge of the outcrop. She had promised Sokka she was going to go to sleep soon but both siblings knew she had no intent of crawling into her sleeping bag just yet
Sokka lay on his sleeping bag, resting his head on his arms. He stared into the darkness above him, contemplating on his future reunion with his father. He wondered if he would be impressed by how much Sokka had grown up. After all, he had taken up the mantle of the head of the tribe when he was still very young in his father's absence. Everything Sokka had done thus far, was only to try and live up to Hakoda's great legacy as chief. Hakoda was a natural born leader and could inspire anyone with his words. His resourcefulness and selflessness were unmatched in the South Pole and as hard as Sokka tried, he felt that he always fell short of his father's feats of greatness.
Hakoda had asked him before he had left to look after his sister and the tribe. But bringing Katara through the Earth Kingdom, risking capture from the Fire Nation and leaving the Southern Water Tribe to the mercy of the Southern Raiders, was he fulfilling his father's wishes? Could he ever truly be a man in his father's eyes if he was risking the safety of Katara and the whole tribe? Hakoda told him before he and the tribesmen left for war that"Being a man is knowing where you're needed most. And for you right now, that's here, protecting your sister." Yet the pleace he was needed most, was in reality to him, by Aang's side. There was the Avatar, the sole saviour of the world, the only person with any hope of beating the Fire Lord, and he had left him alone to fend for himself in an unforgiving theatre of war in exchange for the selfish desire of seeing his dad.
Sokka sighed, rolling onto his side. We'll just have to wait and see, he pondered, shutting his eyes and drifting off to a profound sleep.
Katara sat on the log staring out into the unknowns of the night, its eerie silence interrupted by the constant dripping of water and the occasional rustling of the nearby bushes from a small nocturnal animal scuttling about. She had collected a small pool of rainwater by her feet in the emergency of an ambush, ready to fling a water whip at the slightest sign of danger. In the meantime, she threaded and looped a thin sliver of water around her fingertips subconsciously, swirling the liquid in figure eights around her digits. Her mind was once again drifting to the boy with the arrow tattoos, and his journey to find a waterbending master. Spirits, she thought, I wish I could learn with him. I'm going to be next to useless if by the time we attack the Fire Nation all I can do is do a stupid water whip.
Instinctively she reached her hand up to her neck, forgetting that her necklace was no longer situated with her and belonged to Aang now. She frowned, feeling vulnerable without the betrothal necklace. She had forgotten how heavily she had relied upon that for so many years as the last proper reminder of her mother Kya but she found solace in the fact that comfort now found itself upon Aang, who needed support now more than ever.
Aang. Only a day had passed and still her worry for him piled up. Still, her mind was too preoccupied on him to focus on their task at hand of finding their father. He was stopping her from accepting Bato, stopping her from completing mundane tasks like serving dinner, and he was even stopping her from going to sleep. It's only natural, she reasoned, he is supposed to be my best friend after all.
Of course, she couldn't be totally honest with herself when calling Aang 'just her best friend'; she couldn't deny the slightest shift in dynamic regarding her interactions with him ever since leaving Aunt Wu's village.
Katara had been overjoyed to hear her fortune. I feel a great romance for you, Wu had said. The man you're going to marry, I can see that he is a very powerful bender. Her happiness had consumed her and she had already begun to mold an idea of her future husband in her mind, as was the nature of her teen brain. But never had she thought that Aang was her prophesised partneruntil an abrupt volcanic eruption threatened to consume the village.
Katara had merely stood and watched as Aang had defended the village from the incessant stream of magma. He had vaulted high into the air, gathering a whirlwind into his arms and returning to the ground with nothing less than a miniature cyclone. Almost engulfed by the lava, Aang had swirled his arms around viciously, gathering the air and sending a powerful gust with his breath, instantly cooling the fiery liquid into hardened rock surrounding the village ominously before it could be consumed.
Sokka and Katara stared in awe, marvelling at the immense feat the young kid in front of them had just achieved before Sokka had exclaimed, "Man, sometimes I forget what a powerful bender that kid is."
Katara flinched and backpedalled. "Wait – what did you say?"
Sokka, still staring at Aang's lonesome figure, sighed. "Nothing. Just that Aang is one powerful bender."
Katara looked back to the silhouette of the Avatar against the cooled rock, calming himself down after his draining displays of airbending. "I suppose he is," she had replied, curiously studying the airbender in a new light.
And that was what had done it. The curiosity had set in and Katara's mind was racing. Aang could fight a volcano – and win. He was the Avatar for crying out loud, the most powerful bender in the world.
She shook her head. The fortune could be talking about a million different people; it was hardly like Aang was the only powerful bender in the world. Besides, he was her best friend.
And yet, it could all become so normal, so natural, to be more. His inhumane ability to always make her laugh and smile. His goofy nature, his love of fun and his knowledge, wise well beyond his years. The way his innocence would rub off on her, and the way he blushed awkwardly whenever she said his name. She was his confident, the only person he could truly unload emotionally upon about his past, the only person able to calm him from the Avatar State. Those scenes of Aang saving the village had flashed through her mind since that day and had caused ripples in her heart, ripples she wasn't altogether sure would ever subside.
Sighing, she decided she would have to shelve those lucid dreams of hers temporarily for the time being. Aang was her friend. Until the moment they (hopefully) meet once more, she would have to learn to cope with him being nothing more. Still, she thought to herself, slightly giggling, one can't resist to imagine time to time.
The waning crescent moon had risen to its prime position within the night time sky when Katara had awoken from her imaginative thoughts. Her eyelids were drooping and her muscles desperately called out to her to take a rest, knowing full well a full day of hiking awaited her tomorrow. She stood up from the log and carefully snuck her way into her sleeping bag, past the long-dead remnants of the campfire and past the curled figure of Sokka, snoring inside his sleeping bag cocoon. She fell asleep quickly, images of Aang still flashing in her mind.
The trio had been meandering along a winding dirt road within the light forest for what felt like days until they reached the plains. Kneehigh grass stretched as far as the distant mountains situated in the east on the horizon, their next checkpoint. The occasional baobab tree could be seen here and there, with various fauna Katara had never seen before congregating peacefully under their shade to escape the blistering sun. Crossing the savannah would be a draining yet fulfilling walk to the mountains but as necessary as it was to get moving to their checkpoint, it would have to wait.
Bato's foot had been increasingly aggravated over the morning and over the last few miles till the edge of the clearing, he had been heavily limping. It seemed that the sisters at the abbey didn't quite do their job yet Katara was hesitant to acknowledge this out loud, knowing full well of Bato's graciousness towards the nuns for voluntarily healing his burns. Instead, Katara had offered to take Bato back to the monastery a number of times, with him respectfully declining each time.
"I don't want to leave you kids alone in the Earth Kingdom. It's not very safe what with the constant Fire Nation attacks and all and between you and me, your brother can't read a map yet to save his life. Besides, I need to regroup with my brothers in arms," Bato had answered every time, or somewhere along those lines.
The trio reluctantly paused by a small pile of boulders, hiding in the shade for the time being to let Bato recuperate.
"You need help, Bato. You're not going to be able to walk anywhere well without us first fixing your foot," Katara chided, her motherly instincts kicking in.
"Katara, I'll be fine. I've dealt with much worse than a cramped foot."
"Bato, it's clearly more than just a cramp. Let me at least see if I can do anything to help."
While the two were having the conversation, Sokka was climbing up the rocks to obtain a better view of their surroundings. He lifted his hand up to his forehead to block the sun's rays from hitting his eyes when he saw them, not too far in the distance, idly picking at the ground.
"Hey guys!" Sokka called over his shoulder. "I think I got a plan!"
Katara glanced up at her brother, his limps sprawled over the rocks like a demented spider to keep himself from falling down. "Sokka, get down from there! You're gonna hurt yourself!"
"Well sorry but while you've been chattering, I've been up here to find a solution from up above. Y'know, being a genius and all. Not all of us are gifted with my brilliant knack for ideas. It's a blessing and a curse," Sokka added dramatically, his feigned solemn attitude drawing a giggle from Katara.
"Okay then, what's this great plan you've got yourself in a fuzz about?"
"Excellent question!" Sokka exclaimed, pointing to the sky with his hand that wasn't shielding his eyes from the sun. His sudden loss of balance caused him to fall flat on his back in front of Katara, who couldn't hold back her laughter. Bato did well to try and stifle a chortle as well.
Sokka stood up, scowling, and dusted his clothes off before continuing. "It's simple. We catch those three ostrich horses I saw over there and ride 'em!"
Katara almost couldn't believe her ears. She had heard her brother come up with many silly and far-fetched ideas, not least of which was him once trying to train an army of five-year-olds to become warriors to protect the village, but this took the cake.
She scoffed at him. "And how do you propose we do that?" Sokka raised his finger about to object when, after a moment of hesitation, began to scratch his chin thoughtfully.
"May I interject?" Bato asked, receiving encouraging looks from Sokka and Katara. "I think I might know how to tame those beasts out there. It's not too hard either. In fact, a year or two ago, your father and I wrangled a few of the beasts so that we could travel to Ba Sing Se. There we were, stranded – " Sokka cut him off.
"Yeah, yeah, we get it, you and Dad went on some heroic mission, blah blah blah. Tell us how to catch those ostrich horses!" Sokka exclaimed, rubbing his hands together.
Bato sighed, but not before Katara caught a sudden gleam in Bato's eye. "Fine then. The trick to catching an ostrich horse is to sneak up on it all quiet like from behind, then jump onto its back suddenly and hey presto, you've caught yourself an ostrich horse!" The corners of Bato's mouth twitched into a small mischievous smile but Sokka didn't notice. He was already peeking out from behind the boulder, sizing up his target.
He interlocked his fingers and pushed out his hands, cracking his knuckles before telling Katara, "This is how you catch an ostrich horse. Watch, and learn." He began to slink off into the knee high grass that stretched off the side of the road but as Katara went to follow him, Bato held out an arm and beckoned for her to stop.
"Wait," he grinned. "You might want to stay and enjoy the show."
Katara was puzzled by what he meant but followed Bato's advice, climbing up onto the rocks and sitting down at the top to fully understand what he meant. She could see Sokka's outline within the grass, now no more than 10 metres behind one of the beasts and slinking through the flora like a stealthy snake.
The beast was standing idly, nibbling on the shrubland and the small insects that had made their lives within the tall blades of grass. It didn't notice the two sets of curious eyes watching it from afar, or the gangly figure approaching it stealthily from behind.
Sokka stood just a metre behind its white tail and still hadn't been noticed. He eagerly awaited his moment to pounce and, just as the ostrich horse began to lift its head back up to a standing position, he leapt.
Yes, Sokka had crept behind the beast, just as Bato said. Yes, he had gotten onto its back, just as Bato said. But he had no information as to what he should actually do once on its back. He glanced worryingly over to Bato, who he could see was chuckling to himself. Only then did Sokka horrifically realise what he had just done, and that rather than tamed it he had only aggravated it. He turned his head slowly back towards the beast who had craned its neck to glare furiously towards Sokka.
Sokka laughed nervously. "Good ostrich horse?" And then the mayhem started.
Katara felt a multitude of emotions flow as the mount began bucking and heaving while Sokka clung on for dear life. Embarrassment for her brother, fear for his safety, anger at Bato for not telling Sokka the truth about taming the beasts but above all, she was hysterical. She had to hoist herself down from the rocks else she risked falling off unintentionally from laughter.
"Oh my goodness… Sokka, he's… I can't… oh," she spluttered in between outbursts of laughs. Bato smiled, standing alongside her.
"Now for the real secret," he said slyly, not taking his eyes off of Sokka and his antics. "The actual way to tame an ostrich horse is to be calm. They're very gentle and docile animals, but fiercely defensive in dire situations so in order to safely get on one's back, you need it to trust you. Hakoda and I figured this out after being thrown off about twenty different animals." He smiled, reminiscing.
He continued. "You have to approach them from the front. Stand tall, look it in the eyes, and don't back down. Hold a bit of grain out in front of you, with a straight arm, and allow the animal to walk over to you and eat from your palm. While it's eating, you have to slowly reach your hand around to its forehead and give it a slight scratch between the eyes, just above the beak. If all's gone well, he should nuzzle up to your hand and hey presto! You've tamed yourself an ostrich horse!"
Three hours later, the trio were clopping along down a rocky path. About an hour ago had they crossed the threshold into the mountainous terrain, a lot faster than they had anticipated and a lot more comfortably. After Katara had tamed ostrich horses for her and Bato, she had shown her brother the correct way to befriend one of the creatures. Still, the boy and his steed remained at odds at one another, his ostrich horse occasionally bucking to send him flying..
Katara noticed that the once-tense vibe between the three was beginning to lessen. No longer were the siblings as unwillingly hesitant about Bato joining their group in the absence left by Aang. No longer did Bato feel as shunned by the children, and began to instead feel accepted.
The trio kept their steeds continually forward, travelling further into the mountain range with steep cliffs surrounding them on all sides. They stretched upwards into the clouds, their peaks distant points in the heavens that could only have been reached by Appa.
I bet Aang would've loved these mountains, Katara frowned. They looked so much like the mountains surrounding the Southern Air Temple, where Aang had suddenly had his destiny and reality forced upon him by a withering skeleton named Gyatso. That day had cemented his desire to end the war, but also had Katara tethered to the young airbender boy destined to save the world. After all, his job now was to look out for the world, but who was going to look out for him?
It couldn't be her anymore, sadly. Her own destiny had led her astray of Aang's path in life, towards her father and his fleet of fierce and loyal tribesman. She still felt guilt in leaving Aang alone, guilt she wasn't sure would ever completely palliate her, but she felt confident that their diverged paths would merge once more and that she would see him again. She wanted to apologise, whether she needed to or not, for leaving Aang and she didn't know what she'd do if she was robbed of that opportunity.
Their fast headway into their journey already had them a day in front of schedule. Sokka took this as an opportunity to make camp and gather materials so that Katara could weave them basic saddles to make their jjourney a little more comfortable. They had been slipping off ever so slightly and Sokka complained regularly of chafe due to Beaky's coarse hairs. They stopped in a small, wild paddock adjacent to a flowing river and tied the three animals up with a long length of rope Sokka had salvaged from the wreckage of Bato's ship days before. The ostrich horses had a bit of room to roam and were able to reach the water to drink, and Katara came over to them regularly to measure their dimensions to begin weaving with an assortment of narrow tree roots and elongated leaves Sokka had collected from a forest.
About an hour later, they all sat around another campfire, preparing the last of the stewed sea prunes from earlier for dinner. Katara had considered preparing a bit extra food for their mounts but Bato urged her that ostrich horses only really ate grass and bugs, and giving them such food as their own would be a waste. Katara served three bowls of the grub and made sure not to serve a fourth to the reception of warm smiles from Sokka and Bato.
"I must say, it's been quite pleasant so far travelling with you kids," Bato sighed, slumping down onto a tree stump and spooning a sea prune up to his mouth.
Scowling, Sokka grumbled, "Would have been more pleasant if you had told me how to catch the ostrich horses in the first place."
Katara jjust laughed. "Shush up, Sokka, you gotta admit you deserved it at least a little bit for interrupting Bato."
"Yeah, but now look at me! I've got bruises everywhere and now Beaky hates me!" he exclaimed.
Bato looked slightly confused and taken aback. "You… named yours Beaky?"
"Of course I did," Sokka said. "Just because it's an ostrich horse doesn't mean I have to treat it like a complete animal. And I figured by naming it, I could try turn over a new leaf with him."
"That's very adult of you Sokka." Bato smiled. He was glad that the mkids were becoming more comfortable around him and that Sokka was returning to his boisterous self. "And I'm glad that you're both starting to accept me a bit more."
That last comment threw both Sokka and Katara off guard. "What do you mean?" Sokka asked, curiously. He and Katara both knew exactly what he meant but had both nonverbally agreed not to mention the underlying tension between them and Bato.
"Bato laughed off the uncomfortable feeling. "Oh come on, we all know what I mean. And don't wirry, I take no offence by any of it." He paused. "This isn't coming out quite as well as I planned. The point is, I know you think I've come and just replaced Aang. That was never my intent. I know how close you two were with him and I never want to ever replace that. But at the same time I'm happy that you both are becoming more friendly with me." He smiled.
Sokka shifted in his seat. "Sorry Bato, it's just that… Aang was like our little brother, you know. And having him gone feels kind of like Dad leaving all over again. Both of us –" he glanced at Katara "—hate that it feels like we've had to choose between our family again, and I guess we've been taking out on you. So, sorry."
Bato had a satisfied expression on his face. "It's quite alright. But if I may say something before I head off to bed, it isn't all too different. Maybe travelling on these ostrich horses is a bit like travelling on Appa?" He winked and before he got up to head to bed, Katara and Sokka looked at each other once more.
Katara sighed, still gazing into Sokka's eyes, both siblings remembering and contemplating Aang's prominent absence. They both still wished he was here and the wound of his departure had only begun to heal.
"Not quite," Katara replied.