Chapter 11: A Close Call

Sokka observed Zhi and Ivaneq as they began to scramble for an excuse to get him out of the temple as quickly as they could. It couldn't be more clear that they were hiding something from him, and he wasn't a fan of how they pretended that everything was right in the world when he was already fixed on doing whatever he can to help the situation.

"Is something wrong?" the caretaker asked them.

"No, not all! It's just that—"

"The prince is looking for me?" Sokka finished, giving them a look.

The crewmen trailed off, not knowing the reason as to why the prince was hiding his status under the pretense of "maintaining humility" on temple premises when he couldn't care less in reality. "Um...yes...His Highness needs to see you..."

"I wonder why," he raised his eyebrows.

"We'll notify you of everything, sir, please, come with us."

"You should get your rest, Mr. Wang," the woman told Sokka. "I can imagine how long and stressful the journey must have been. Please send my regards to the royal family."

Mr. Wang? Zhi and Ivaneq shared a confused look before blurting out, "He'll do that, don't worry."

And they would've nearly dragged the prince out of the hallway if he didn't insist on the woman's company, adamantly shaking away from their grip. "Will you be here later?" he asked her. "After moonset?"

She blinked at him as if surprised. "Oh, me? Well...I'm only here during the after-hours when no one is around, which would have to be either before the temple opens or after it closes. That's when I work on the cleaning."

"Will you be here again tonight? After moonrise?"

They were interrupted by a harsh creak of the temple doors. A short, rotund man in a heavy cloak barged in with a frown on his lips and a small cage in his grip, and he was followed closely by a tall, scrawny man, who was likely an assistant. Kya and Hakoda grabbed hold of Kohana and pulled him out of the way as the two men stampeded forward with no regard for anyone in their path. The caretaker seemed to have recognized the men and stood up as Zhi and Ivaneq hastily pulled the flailing prince away, tugging him down a corridor that would lead to another exit. Sokka kept turning around to see what was going on, alarm gongs repeatedly going off in his brain.

"Alright, stop," the prince yanked his arms out of their grip before they could get him to step outside. "I'm not leaving, so you might as well spill it now. What's this about?"

"That's Nuqao and his assistant. Nuqao is one of Khasiq's men. We came to get you before you had a chance to interact with him."

"We understand your reaction to the situation here isn't very...calm…"

"I thought you called it righteous anger," Sokka frowned at Zhi.

"It is, but sir, the one thing the princess asked of us is to make sure that your stay here is as comfortable and conflict-free as possible. We don't want to let her down by failing in our first orders from her."

"This is about her safety. It's okay to break certain rules for that," Sokka said, ignoring the curious looks of his family members from afar. "If you're so worried, keep an eye on my folks and get them out of here. I'm more than capable of protecting myself." And he headed back to the central hallway.

"But there's nothing to observe here, sir!" Ivaneq called. "Sir! Sir, she's just a caretaker! Oh boy, he's not stopping..."

Sokka came to a halt when he saw the short man in the front step forward. The prince remained in the shadows, far enough to not be seen but still have a view of what was going on.

"The temple welcomes you, Brother," the woman bowed to the smaller man and then to the taller man, "And Brother Ishuqan." And as she greeted them, she noticed that there was a small wolf pup in the cage, whimpering and keeping to the corner. Her discontent made itself clear with the wince in her eyes.

Nuqao didn't care to address her and briefly looked around, scoffing as if the place wasn't worthy of his presence. "Where's that woman you call your priestess? I need to speak to her."

"I'm afraid the priestess is not here at the moment."

"When will she be back?"

"Likely after moonset. I will be glad to pass a message to her on your behalf."

"Forget it." Nuqao gestured to the pup in the cage. "This one's gonna be an offering for La tomorrow at sunrise."

The woman blinked. "Offering?"

"Not just any offering. The first official meat offering for La to be given in public after four hundred years," Ishuqan emphasized. "It must be honored with all necessary formalities proposed by the priests at the Grand Temple."

"The palace premises and the temple are too pure to store this filth before the purification process at dawn. Until then, we need a place to store it." A mocking leer, "What better than the so-called 'temple that defies barriers' down the block?"

The distressed pup pawed at the cage, but Ishuqan kicked at it. The creature mewled and settled into a forlorn position, licking its small paws. The woman flinched.

"Hey, that's not nice!"

Sokka was surprised to see his little brother charging into the scene and facepalmed. Kohana, what are you doing?

The little boy managed to strike Nuqao's arm with his tiny fist until he was very quickly pulled back by his mother. Despite the fact, he kept trying to wriggle out of Kya's grip.

"You can't do that to a baby wolf!" he kept shouting. "La gets mad when people are mean to animals— mmph!" his mouth was quickly covered by Kya's hand. The chieftess gave the tribesmen an apologetic look. Ishuqan rolled his eyes in annoyance, but Nuqao only scowled at Kohana. The boy shuffled behind his mother, holding tightly onto her tunic.

"They're newcomers from the South," the caretaker defended. She stepped between the two groups to dissuade the possibility of conflict, drawing Nuqao's attention again. "He's just a little boy, Brother, he wouldn't know. Please, why don't we talk about this somewhere else?"

Nuqao didn't respond to that, but he and his assistant nevertheless managed to follow her to another part of the temple while Kya pulled her younger son along. Sokka remained in the shadows and trailed behind the caretaker with a worried Zhi and Ivaneq at his heels; having left the royals in the care of another official, they insisted on staying with him to make sure trouble is avoided at all costs.

Nuqao ended up dropping the cage before her in a loud CRASH!, startling her. The altar rattled from the force. "Keep this thing alive until tomorrow."

Sokka frowned as he noticed the pup shake and tremble, scrambling to a corner in its confined space.

"My apologies. Our temple does not promote the sacrifice of animals," the woman said. "I'm afraid I cannot help you."

A fierce glint shone in the man's eyes. He turned to his assistant, who sputtered in his defense, "You're not doing the sacrificing. You're just storing this little thing."

"We believe that lives are not objects to be stored, Brother Ishuqan."

"Oh really? Then why don't you just safeguard it for the night, then? Nothing wrong with giving a mutt a place to stay."

"It would still be considered as contributing to its sacrifice, and it would go against our moral code," she said. "Please try to understand."

"You should try to understand that what we're doing is for the betterment of the North," Nuqao drawled. "If Master Khasiq offers this thing to La, then La will be pleased with him for appeasing His hunger and will enthrone him. The reason why the North has sunk so low and is now in danger of being the puppet of a woman—" he spat the word out, "— is because La is deprived of the proper sacrifices."

Sokka snarled, barely held back by Zhi.

"The North has been robbed of the right ruler for many, many centuries," Nuqao muttered. "If you are loyal to your nation, you would recognize that."

"I do, Brother Nuqao, and you are absolutely right when you say that La is starving for justice," the woman said, her voice steady and collected. "But I'm asking you: will the Father Wolf eat His own child? What will be the benefit of taking an innocent life, short term or long term? Isn't La the life that lives in all beings?"

The official's eyes narrowed. "Are you so righteous that you'll turn us all into vegetarians here?"

"Hunting to avoid starvation may have purpose, but stripping a creature of its dignity— that, too, a pup— and killing it to please the Spirit of Life is cruel. We are only parts of nature, not rulers of it. Instead of offering an innocent life as a sacrifice to La, why not feed the same La who is present within all? Arranging mass feedings for the poor and helpless, offering jobs for the destitute, freeing the wrongfully caged," she gestured to the wolf as she said it, "and taking a moment to smile at those you feel responsible for. All of those things are no different from feeding La, providing for La, freeing La and taking a moment to smile at La. If Brother Khasiq does these things, he will certainly win the hearts of the people. La will be sure to enthrone the one who is moved by others' suffering."

"Well said," Zhi nodded but received a restless look from Ivaneq. "What?"

"This is all your doing," Ivaneq hissed at him. "You shouldn't have told the prince about the situation here. Just look at him. Frozen like a pole."

Indeed, Sokka was frozen as he leaned against a pillar, sharp blue eyes glistening like a starry night as they got lost in the masked, white-robed woman, who glowed before him like the moon.

"I don't need to be standing around in this hellish, crumbling prehistoric cave you call a sacred temple and be listening to your worthless opinions," Nuqao retorted.

"Even a pile of twigs becomes sacred to the ant-beaver that lives in it," she answered. "If a pile of twigs can be made sacred, so can a cave made of marble, Brother."

"Watch it!" Ishuqan yelled. "Brother Nuqao is Master Khasiq's right hand man!"

"I am well aware, and I respect—"

"And you are still going to argue?"

The woman sighed. "That is not my intention, Your Excellencies. I am not going to force you to do what we really think should be done, and I hope that likewise, you will not compel us to do something that is against our moral code. You might not think of this temple as being pure, but there are people who see the divine in every inch of this place—"

"And who are those people? Your 'priestess'? Those desperate housewives you call 'priestesses-in-training'? Well I have no reason to pay heed to someone who declares a coward to be the leader of the tribe. What else would you call a so-called leader who hasn't appointed a war minister till date?"

Sokka fumed. "How dare that bastard—?"

"Hold it!" Ivaneq grumbled quietly as he used every fiber of his being to push the raging prince back into his hiding place. "He's one of Khasiq's men, Prince Sokka, please, let it go. We don't want trouble."

"Your priestess does side with the princess politically, doesn't she?" Nuqao went on. "Hmph, that 'princess' has been known to the world for less than a month, and she's already proven herself to be a weakling in line with your cowardice and disobedience you call morality."

"This does not have to be tied into politics, Brother—" the woman began.

"Oh, but it is," Nuqao glared. "I'm not gonna ask you again. Either you support our initiative, or you take it up with Master Khasiq himself."

"No one's gonna tell you again, either, blubbernose," Sokka shrugged off Zhi and Ivaneq and charged forward from his place in the shadows, catching the trio off guard. "No means no, so get the hell out of here."

"Blubbernose?" Nuqao bellowed.

"'Sadist' is more like it for someone who's ready to kill a pup to satisfy nonexistent religious nonsense—"

"He's from the South, too, Your Excellencies, please," the woman defended quickly and furrowed her eyebrows at Sokka, likely frowning. "Mr. Wang, what on earth are you still doing here—?"

"If he's not from around here, then he should mind that sinful tongue of his," Ishuqan snapped. "Who is he to question our rituals? This ceremony is for La."

"For La, huh? Well I'm sure your hypothetical 'La'—"

"Hypothetical?!" Ishuqan squeaked.

"—would be happy with your little dolls play—"

"Dolls play?!"

"— if you actually followed the Water Tribe Code of Ethics, which you yourself credit him with," Sokka retorted.

"Oh dear La," Ivaneq rubbed his head.

"In no way are we breaching the Code of Ethics—!"

"Section two of the Warrior Code in the third chapter deals with hunting ethics, and Article 46 specifically forbids the killing of females and their young—"

"Says the brute Southerner who hunted everything that's alive left and right—!"

"—with the most extreme survival conditions being the only exceptions," Sokka underlined. "Nowhere did 'La' mention that he'll accept blood, much less pups, as a religious sacrifice."

"Oh really, wise sifu? How ignorant of me," Nuqao fumed at the woman. "You and your boyfriend bent on standing around giving me lectures today?"

"No, no, Brother, I apologize on his behalf—"

"Don't apologize for me," Sokka said. "They're the ones causing a scene—!"

"Mr. Wang, relax, will you? Please." The woman turned back to the officials. "I'm really sorry for all that has happened today, and I hope you understand that Mr. Wang here has only been in the North for an hour now, so he doesn't know—"

"Trying to pick a fight on your first day, huh?" Ishuqan glared at him.

"All I ask is that the temple be left out of this," she said. "No other misunderstandings are necessary. We don't want to contaminate sacred ground with the blood of the innocent, that's all."

"Funny how a woman is saying she won't contaminate a temple with blood," Nuqao snickered. "What do you have to say about the impurity that La placed on your kind every month—gaaahhhh!" He was instantly greeted with Sokka's fist in his face. A few of his teeth rattled from the force of the blow as he hit the floor, squawking from the pain. It happened in seconds, even before Ivaneq and Zhi had the chance to react and pull him away.

"One more word, and I'll wring every last drop of blood from your tubby ass and offer it to your precious La, you piece of yakshit!" and the warrior loomed over and sent his fist flying in the tribesman's direction again, making the man's jaw stagger and causing more blood to trickle from his mouth. Nuqao's coat was stained with the blood that trickled from his nose, and he felt the prince's foot press up on his chest. The woman widened her eyes to near impossible degrees at the scene while Zhi and Ivaneq lunged forward, completely horrified by the situation that unfolded before them.

"Oh my Spirits, sir!" Ivaneq grabbed his arm while Zhi reached for the other. "Please, stop! Stand back—!"

"Oh yeah, you see that?" Another punch. "That's the fucking delightful smell of blood right there for your La!"

Ishuqan tried to shove Sokka away from Nuqao only to end up on the floor next to his boss, receiving a kick to the side.

"If you two are really looking for a sacrifice, use your own blood. I'm sure that'll make your La happy—"

"Mr. Wang, calm down!" the woman finally snapped out of her daze and pulled him back. She stepped between the fallen men and the raging Southern warrior, holding her arms out to prevent Sokka from coming any closer. Zhi and Ivaneq managed to grab hold of him while Ishuqan, the less injured out of the two, reached for his writhing boss and somehow helped him up.

"What is going on here?" Kya raced over to them hastily and grabbed her son's hand, which was stained by blood. "What did you do?!"

"Is this your son, too?" Nuqao grated out through his pain, wiping at the blood that oozed from his nose.

The chieftess swallowed and tugged Sokka back in response.

"It would do you good to teach your sons how to hold their tongues and fists in religious matters. And that mouth of his—" Ishuqan pointed to Sokka, "—dear La! Nothing clean comes out of that dirty mouth!"

"Bet you turned out to be a disappointment to your parents, too, with that filthy organ you call a mouth!" Sokka retorted only to be elbowed sharply in the ribs by his mother.

"Oh, dear La, oh heavens, that's it!" Ishuqan cried. "If he's going to keep acting like this even in this wasteland of a temple, then he's sure not allowed in our Grand Temple anytime soon!"

"Well no one cares about your bloodsucking La, so fuck you, too!" Sokka called, earning gasps from the caretaker and Zhi and Ivaneq before his mother had a chance to cover his mouth. The shock on Kya's face was priceless.

Nuqao nudged Ishuqan to get him out of here, so the assistant dragged his boss with him and picked up the cage on his way out. "I'm sure we can find a place in the Western corner near the storage hall, sir."

As they left through the nearest exit, a dazed Zhi caught his breath, gulping at the scene. Ivaneq shook his head in self-disappointment. Kya, meanwhile, glared daggers at her oldest son. She would have exploded on him had it not been for the caretaker's presence.

Kya's grip on Sokka's arm was fierce as she dragged him out of the temple, shaking with rage as Ivaneq and Zhi trailed behind them. Hakoda knew that look on his wife's face; Sokka seriously had to have messed up in some way— in some religious way— for her to be so agitated like this.

"First our younger son and now our older one," Kya huffed. "One is a child and can be taught, and the other is seven years past marrying age but is still acting like one."

"What did you do this time, Sokka?"

"Nothing, I was just trying to—"

"Mr. Secular Righteousness over here was beating up visiting officials to the point of making them bleed on temple grounds! And he was badmouthing them with his oh-so-colorful language in front of the temple caretaker!" And as she went on a tangent about what happened, Hakoda's eyes widened with each detail that flew out of her lips.

"Sokka!" the chief frowned. "Why on earth would you...? And in front of the caretaker? If she tells Priestess Osha, we'll never be allowed to set foot in this temple again!"

"I'd say he's lucky," Zhi said. "The people here are more chill compared to the orthodox branches in other temples, especially the Grand Temple of La."

Sokka groaned. "I didn't do it on purpose, I got carried away—"

"With what, huh? And this better be good," Kya demanded.

"Technically, it was not without good reason, Your Highnesses—"

"Don't try to defend him, Ivaneq," Hakoda said, looking at his son expectantly. "Well?"

"That imbecile was being disrespectful to the caretaker—"

"Is that it?"

"What do you mean, 'Is that it'?"

"Well, considering that it's her personal issue, it's not something for you to butt in and deal with using violence. She didn't ask you to defend her, did she?" And when was the last time their son cared about disrespectful behavior towards the "deceiving and conniving" ritualists and temple committee members?

"That man is horrible!" Sokka burst. "You expect me to just stand there with all the crap that flew out of his mouth?! He was badmouthing Her Highness and all of women in general. And he was looking to kill off a baby wolf and offer it as a sacrifice. You want me to do nothing about it?"

While it made their hearts jerk in positive amusement at his defense of the princess, and while Zhi and Ivaneq also seemed to have caught on, they all nevertheless feared the circumstances. Offerings to the Spirits, whatever they were or how repulsive they may be, were not to be thwarted. "Well his 'crap,' whatever it is, is tolerated here because he's a Northerner in his own home!" Kya yelled. "It doesn't matter what kind of man he is, and it doesn't excuse you for acting like a wild animal. I told you to keep your mouth shut!"

"Cursing in a temple, for goodness' sake, what is wrong with you? And insulting their Grand Temple in their face?" Hakoda shook his head in utter disappointment. "I've tolerated your antics up to this point, but this is just beyond my capacity. Do you expect to be a chieftain like this? What does it take to be respectful of others' sentiments even if you don't care for sacred ground? If you can't take the time to be a decent tribesman, do you expect people to care about your leadership?"

"Dear La, can we not get a break…?"

He frowned at his parents. "You two wouldn't talk like this if you knew what that idiot was really trying to—"

"So what?" Hakoda cut him off. "It does not matter, Sokka. This is not the South for you to do whatever you want. You're not the prince of this place."

"It doesn't take a prince to call out something that's wrong—"

"Quiet!"

Their conversation was quickly interrupted by Katara, who ran over to them, trembling with worry. "I can't find Kohana!"

"What?"

"I don't see him anywhere!"

"Oh dear La!" Ivaneq gasped.

"I thought he was playing a game with you!" Hakoda said.

"We were playing hide-and-freeze, and then he ran off somewhere and..."

She didn't need to finish for them to understand. Moisture welled up in Kya's eyes. "Oh La, oh La, where did that boy run off to?!"

"Don't worry, nothing's gonna happen to him," Sokka assured. "He's probably inside or running around here somewhere."

"He couldn't have gone too far," Ivaneq said. "Let's split up and look for him."

What followed next were several minutes of frenzied worry as Kya ran back inside the temple and vented to the caretaker, who set off to search the temple with the aid of the workers. The previous incident descended to the back of their minds as everyone looked for Kohana. Sokka hollered his little brother's name, the pounding in his chest intensifying and a million thoughts running through his mind. An already dazed Kya was overcome with fright as the minutes passed on, shakily dropping before the altar and praying earnestly before the idols. Hakoda also grew infinitely worried as time crawled by, and though he tried to put on a brave face in reassuring his wife, it was obvious that he was failing. Adding to his distress was the fact that he was unable to do anything useful given the lameness of his leg.

"You had one job, Shinguran, one job!" Ivaneq hissed at the official that he put in charge. "I told you to keep a close watch on the family!"

"The child was just here playing with his sister, I don't know when he snuck off!"

Several minutes later when Ivaneq and the others all defeatedly gathered inside the temple, They froze in place as they heard a deep rumbling noise coming from somewhere in the inner chambers. The little prince's frantic voice suddenly reverberated through the temple, accompanied by the chiming of a distant temple bell. "Mom! Dad!"

"Kohana!" Hakoda called.

"Sokka! Katara!"

"Kohana!" The Water Tribe siblings surveyed the area where the voice was coming from and found to their horror that the rumbling noise, the chiming bell, and their little brother's calls for help were coming from the same location: the eastern chamber that the caretaker had been warning them about this entire time.

"What is he doing there?!" a frustrated Katara ran her fingers through her hair.

"KOHANA!" Sokka called. "Ko-bear, can you hear me?"

"Sokka! Sokka, I'm here!"

The rumbling worsened, and Sokka raced ahead through the eastern division, ignoring the warnings of the Northern officials. The chaos grew louder, and the ice walls seemed to shake, threatening to crumble down on him. In the distance, he could hear Katara and his parents fearfully hollering for him to come back as they were forced to stand back.

"Kohana, I'm coming, buddy!"

"Sokka, I'm scared! It's so dark!"

And it was getting harder for Sokka to see as well as he ventured further into the torchless black marble chamber and transitioned into its provisional extension space crafted by ice. The ice was really unstable by this point, the walls cracking easily, and Sokka had to slow down, taking quick but cautious steps forward.

"Sokka!" Kohana's voice was louder, signaling that Sokka had gotten closer. The warrior sprinted forward quickly and came to an entryway that was blocked by a thick sheet of ice, which acted as a makeshift door. Kohana seemed to have been banging on the ice sheet from the other side, and the commotion caused a gigantic temple bell that hung from the ceiling to rattle and shake, threatening to fall on top of the frozen area and crush Sokka and the boy to pieces. "Sokka!"

"I'm here, buddy, I'm here—"

"My feet are icy!" the boy wailed. "They're stuck to the ice!"

How did…? Whatever. What mattered now was getting Kohana out of here. "Stand back, Kohana, I'm gonna break this thing, and we'll get out, okay?"

Only it didn't work. The sheet of ice was rather thick, and Sokka had to be extremely cautious to not go all out on the ice, knowing that extreme activity could cause the walls to fall in on them and bury them completely in the snow.

"I can't move my feet!" the boy banged his fists against the ice again, causing a crack to start forming in the ceiling near the bell.

"Kohana, stop! Don't move, you're gonna make the bell fall!"

The boy froze in place. Sokka fished for some sort of weapon that he might've kept hidden in his robes, but he only had his boomerang with him. It wasn't of much help, though; aggressive action would've torn the ice sheet down for sure, but the ice was highly unstable, and every time Sokka hit the sheet with his boomerang, another crack formed in the ice beneath his feet. Kohana might have gotten stuck in the ice that way.

There was no use. They needed a bender to melt the ice smoothly and manage to keep the walls up long enough for them to escape.

Wait, there has to be a way to get to Kohana from the other side. "Kohana, is there a way out from where you are? Is there a door? You see a door behind you, buddy?"

But Kohana kept whimpering and wailing. "Sokka, it's so dark!"

"Kohana, it's okay, I'm going to get you out of here, okay? Just tell me if there's a door on the other side."

"It's just ice here…"

"I'm gonna get Katara, okay?"

"Sokka, don't go—!"

"I'll be right back, buddy, I'm just gonna get Katara. Stay here. Stay put and don't move. Don't hit the ice, you hear me? Kohana? Kohana!"

"O-Okay—aaahh!" More rumbling and cracking came from the other side. "The ice is cracking!"

"It'll be okay as long as you don't move! Don't move a muscle, Kohana, you hear? Don't hit the ice!"

His feet couldn't go any faster, and he couldn't be more careful in avoiding the multiple cracks that had started to form. He facepalmed. Shit, I should've let Katara come with me. But a part of him knew that even if Katara did come with him, the ice wouldn't have been stable enough to hold the both of them if it was already struggling with his and Kohana's weight.

"I'm coming, Kohana, I am!" he brushed at the sweat that poured profusely down his face and hollered at the top of his lungs, "KATARA!"

"Did you find him?!"

He took a few more steps forward until he saw the entrance. Katara and the others were waiting, growing disappointed when they saw that Kohana wasn't with him.

"Did you find Kohana?!"

"Listen," he tumbled out of the icy extension in time for the ice to stop cracking. "Kohana's stuck. We don't have much time. I need you to come with me to the other side and melt the ice. We can't go this way, the ice is too unstable—" But Sokka was cut off as the false alarm of fleeting stability doubled over into increased rumbling and Kohana's heightening screams coming from inside. Before any of them could act, the ice gave way.

"Kohana!"

"KOHANA!"

"NOO!"

"AAAAHH!"

Everyone screamed and squeezed their eyes shut, expecting the worst as Kya held her hands over her chest in agony and nearly fell over, shrieks escaping her tear-drenched face. They could hear the giant temple bell crash down, and the boy's screams were drowned out of earshot. The icy extension came crumbling down and left the original black marble structure incomplete.

Crippling silence followed as Sokka dared to open his eyes and look, horror creeping over him at the sight of the devastation, but just before he thought he would give out, he saw a worker scramble inside of the temple, and in the worker's arms was an unharmed Kohana.

"He's safe! Kohana's safe!" Sokka cried.

"Oh Spirits!"

"Kohana!"

"Thank Tui and La!"

As Hakoda and Kya recovered from their paralyzing shock, Katara and Sokka rushed to take their brother into their arms. Kohana was unharmed but unconscious.

"Kohana!"

"Kohana wake up!"

Kya approached them and took her son into her arms, crying and kissing the boy all over and trying to wake him up.

"The boy's probably in shock, but he's fine, he's not hurt," the worker told them. "The caretaker got him out in time."

"The caretaker?" Hakoda blinked.

Sokka gulped, his eyes immediately searching. "Where is she? Is she hurt?"

"She's fine. She just went to get medicine for the boy."

Kohana, squinting from the first rays of daylight that swept in, ended up waking for a minute to swallow the medicine that the caretaker gave him, but he was quick to fall asleep afterward. It was expected under the woman's healing; she had relaxed the boy enough for him to sleep away the anxiety. The color returned to his pale face, and he eventually stopped shaking, leaning into his mother's arms as he dozed. Surrounding him were his family members along with Shinguran, Zhi, and Ivaneq, who breathed sighs of relief. Sokka's relief was priceless, too, but he was awfully quiet the entire time, watching the woman at work with her healing abilities.

"Let him sleep for a little while," the woman told them, the water encasing her hand dimming from its glow as she moved her palm away from the boy's forehead. "He will wake up in time for breakfast, and everything will be normal. The nature of the medicine is to blur images that cause severe distress, so if he asks, tell him that what happened was a dream. It's easier to forget a dream and come out of that shock."

Hakoda brushed his hand through his younger son's hair. "I wonder how he got stuck like that in the first place."

And that was when she revealed to them that Kohana was a bender; according to what she noticed as she was pulling him out of the chamber, she saw that the shapes of the wall were irregular as if swept up in haste. The ice that bound the boy's feet to the floor also appeared amateur in texture and form. It could be concluded that the boy had to have bent the ice wall in front of him on accident.

"It might have just happened, and it didn't help that the region was unstable. Poor thing, he probably didn't know how to melt the wall back down, so he panicked. He also probably froze his feet to the ice by accident. I'm sure he was surprised from discovering his ability right then and there, and judging by your reactions, I'm guessing you didn't know he's a bender, either."

Kya shook her head. "This is certainly a devastating way to find out."

"I'll start teaching him soon," Katara said. "We don't want him getting into any more accidents."

"That would be best," the woman said. "And I must say that you've got a really good bender in the works. It's not easy for someone his age to bend a wall of ice that strong by accident. Once he gains control over his bending, he will be phenomenal."

"Makes sense," Katara said. "Our grandfather is a master waterbender. He taught me all I know."

"Then there you go. He must have inherited your grandfather's abilities," she said, likely smiling beneath her face veil.

"We'll start working on the eastern chamber once the temple closes at moonrise tonight," the lead worker promised. "We're just glad your boy's okay."

"Well we would have lost him if you didn't get him out in time," Hakoda said to the caretaker. "We don't know how to express our gratitude. A simple 'thank you' will never be enough for what you've done for us."

"You're not hurt, are you?" Though Sokka hadn't said much, this was certainly his third time asking her that.

"No, not at all. I'm alright. Oh, I nearly forgot. Please wait here."

When she left, silence fell back over them. Kohana mumbled something in his sleep to his mother, and as he moved his hand, he ended up accidentally freezing Hakoda's crutch to the floor. True to the caretaker's observation, Kohana was a bender.

Kya rubbed her younger son's back, casting a stern look at Sokka. "I told you to keep your mouth shut! If you had just kept to yourself, your brother wouldn't have gone through this!"

To which the warrior frowned. "What does that have to do with—?"

"Wrath! It's the Spirits' wrath!"

"You mean your precious Spirits are ready to hurt a child for what I did? Are your Spirits too cowardly to come at me instead of my brother—?"

"You may not believe in the wrath of the Spirits, but the rest of us do, so keep your mouth zipped!"

"But Mom, this has nothing to do with—!"

"Sokka, shut it," Hakoda frowned. "If you go on like this, it will be dangerous. The Spirits are not to be messed with. You might not feel grateful for the Spirits' compassion, but you should definitely not speak out against them or any practice of faith whatsoever."

The warrior huffed. "Well it seems to me like all of your 'compassionate' Spirits are really nothing more than narcissistic bastards who chop off heads just 'cause a bunch of frail little humans didn't bow to them."

His parents glared at him but didn't say anything as the caretaker hurried over to them. In her hands were two clear packages containing many little cakes.

"Please take some cakes with you. The little one seems to love them." She handed one of the packages to Hakoda and the other to Sokka.

"Oh, that's okay, I'm good," Sokka said.

"It's alright, we have plenty. I know you like them."

I know you like them. Sokka felt himself melt again.

"You've been nothing but kind and compassionate since our visit," Kya told her.

"All compassion belongs to Tui, ma'am."

"I suppose," Kya sighed. "My older son gets carried away with his nonsense sometimes. We're truly sorry for the scene that he caused."

Sokka grumbled to himself and glared at the ground. The caretaker, though, remained calm. "I understand you may be worried about what happened, but don't worry about the officials. I will take care of everything. It's best if you keep away from those kinds of people. The members of the sister tribe should have a peaceful stay here."

Something about her look was cautious, and Sokka couldn't help confirming yet again that standing before him was, indeed, the disguised princess of the North, who was so focused on keeping the newly prosperous Southerners out of the venomous affairs of the North. Sokka and his cynical brain could not grasp how on earth someone can ooze so much compassion.

"And if you don't mind, ma'am," the woman looked to the chieftess, "May I say something?"

"Yes, of course."

"We think of Tui and La to be our Cosmic Parents, yes?"

"Yes."

"Then would it be feasible to think that our Cosmic Parents would distinguish between a human child and an infant wolf? Certainly not. They claim them all as Their own, and They are equally agitated when either of the two are in danger. I'm sure you were equally agitated over your two sons when one of them disappeared in the ice to save the other."

Kya blinked, her agitation melting away.

"You feel that you were nearly punished for what happened, but I think of it as the Spirits being pleased enough to thwart a deadly accident. So why feel restless and think you'll be punished? Isn't righteous temper something to be admired? Isn't that what we admire about La Himself?"

"But using profanities in a sacred setting is abhorring," Hakoda said.

"What are profanities but words used to express one's frustrations and deemed as horrid by societal context?" she said in amusement. "Of course, a filter is very necessary to avoid offending people, but the Spirits are beyond society. La's smile is not affected by a couple of words. La's anger does not strike a child." Another smile beneath her veil. "Just as the Yin-Yang Mother found a way to protect your little one, She will find a way to protect the wolf as well. She does not discriminate the least between them." She turned to Sokka. "And I am also sure that She is smiling down on your oldest."

It was certainly not the response that any of them expected, but it was certainly welcomed. Sokka could feel the harshness in his glare thawing, blazing forth as admiration as he stared at the disguised princess. "She will speak to you like you're the best person in the entire planet no matter who you are."