Hey everyone! Enjoy the next chapter! Read and comment! Sorry for the long wait, I hit a dead spot…(writer's block)
Thanks for being my beta grlwithapen!
As the sun rose over the trees of the forest and shined on the gang's tent, Sokka slowly began to rustle in his sleeping bag and opened his eyes. Katara was curled up in her sleeping bag in the corner of the tent and breathing quietly. Aang was snoring loudly and Sokka began to wonder how he slept through it. And Suki was sleeping with a smile on her face, probably dreaming about the Kyoshi warriors.
Sokka slowly climbed out of his sleeping bag and walked out of the tent and began to pack their supplies and loading them into Appa's saddle. As Sokka curled up his sleeping bag he heard shuffling in the tent and looked up to see Aang walking out stretching his arms over his head and yawning.
"Morning Sokka!" Aang said walking over to Appa. "Beautiful day for flying isn't it?"
Sokka looked up into the cloudless sky and smiled. "Yeah, actually. It is!"
"I'm going to go wake up the girls, then we can get started!" Aang said letting his enthusiasm show on his face that they were going to the air temple.
Sokka finished packing the bags and turned around to see two very grumpy girls walking out of the tent with a serious case of bed head. Katara climbed into the saddle mumbling something about air bending and covers. Aang quickly followed after her. "Sorry girls!"
Suki came over to Sokka and kissed him good morning then started patting her hair back into place.
"What happened?" Sokka said helping her.
Suki sighed. "Katara and I said that we didn't want to wake up and he," Suki said stabbing a finger in Aang's direction. "Air bent the sleeping bags off of us and messed up our hair."
Sokka kissed her forehead and walked over to the tent to disassemble it. "You look fine!"
Sokka began taking the tent down piece by piece and rolling it all up into one bundle. Once he had finished he did a once over check to see if they had everything. Seeing nothing out of place, he climbed into the saddle quickly as Aang yelled Yip Yip in Appa's ear. Once they were in the air, Sokka began passing out fruit to everyone for breakfast. An apple for him, a peach for Aang and a peach for Katara, and berries freshly picked yesterday by Suki for Suki.
Sokka leaned back and started eating his apple one bite at a time as he watched the clouds pass above him. Once he was finished with the apple he threw the core down to the ground when no one was looking, then took out his boomerang and rock and began sharpening it.
Katara was on Appa's head talking to Aang as they started bending the clouds for fun to pass the time. Suki on the other hand was going through the bags looking for something to do. When she couldn't find anything, she crawled over to Sokka and sat beside him and watched him sharpen his boomerang.
"Can you teach me how to use a boomerang?" Suki said resting her head on his shoulder.
Sokka looked down at the top of Suki's head. "What? Why?"
"Because I'm curious!" Suki said sitting up. "And bored. Please?"
"Fine." Sokka said putting the rock down and standing up to be copied by Suki.
Sokka held out his boomerang and the light caught and caused a glare to shine in Suki's eyes. "A boomerang is a very complex instrument, for me it's a good weapon, to others…a good play toy. Now, I'm going to show you how to throw it."
Sokka held out his arm and looked over Appa's saddle to the trees below. He saw one with a long branch sticking out onto the top, and he found his target. He raised his arm above his head and tilted it at an angle. As Appa flew farther from the target, Sokka thrust his arm down and released the boomerang waiting to see the light glistening off it while it cut off the branch.
Suki listened closely as she heard the distant cracking off the branch as the boomerang came back into view and over Appa. Sokka jumped up to catch it and smiled at his success. Suki smiled with a twinkle in her eye as she looked at the boomerang then back to Sokka. "Can I try now?"
"Not yet." Sokka said facing away from Suki. "Now I'm going to show you how you should throw it."
"Didn't you just do that?" Suki said slightly confused.
"No, that was the way I throw it, as a weapon. You should throw it as a way to be entertained."
"Oh really?" Suki said taking the boomerang and looking over Appa's saddle while she held the boomerang out of Sokka's reach. She looked for at least a minute before finding an apple tree. She walked back, took a deep breath, held her arm and thrust it at the apple tree releasing the boomerang.
Sokka quickly tried to catch it. "Why'd you do that? That was a gift from my dad! AANG! MAKE APPA LAND WE HAVE TO LOOK FOR MY BOOMERANG!"
Suki was tuning him out completely as she watched in wonder as the boomerang sliced an apple in two and came back to Appa. She grabbed it from the air and tapped Sokka on the shoulder when he was done screaming. He turned to find Suki licking the side of the boomerang which was dripping with juice.
"Wait…what?" Sokka said confused.
"Mmm!" Suki said handing Sokka the boomerang. "Apple!"
"But…you threw it…and…it didn't come back." Sokka said still looking confused.
"Sokka you're so sexset. I threw it just like you did and sliced an apple in half on a tree down there." Suki said pointing to a tree covered with red dots.
"I'm sorry!" Sokka said. "I didn't think you'd be able to grasp the concept of the boomerang that quickly!"
"I've handled other weapons before Sokka." She said rolling her eyes. "It wasn't that hard."
Sokka sat down flustered as he took out his sharpening stone and got back to sharpening. "It took me a year."
The moon began to peak over the mountains and the sky began to turn a light pink fading into yellow then orange as Appa landed on the familiar stone of the Air Temple floors. Aang jumped off hurriedly and ran off quickly leaving Sokka, Suki, and Katara to unpack everything and set up camp but they didn't mind.
Sokka looked up at Katara and saw a slight hint of worry on her face as she put on her heavy clothing to keep warm. He understood the feeling, the last time they were here Aang lost it and nearly blew them off the mountain. "I'm going to look for him." Katara said when she was done.
Sokka nodded and pulled on his heavy clothing and winter boots. He looked over to see Suki pulling out her Kyoshi Warrior uniform as she began putting it on one piece at a time.
"How can you stay warm in that?" Sokka said as he finished putting on his second boot.
"Sokka," Suki said. "You've worn the uniform before, you should remember!"
"But it was such a long time ago!" Sokka said blushing at the memory. "Plus I don't like to remember moments of me wearing dresses."
"Well, even though you don't remember, the under part is skin tight and keeps the cold out, the second cover is padded enough that it'll keep me warm. As for the gloves and boots, they're pretty self explanatory."
"Right…" Sokka said breaking branches off a nearby tree. "How could I forget?"
They stayed there with Appa and Momo and set up camp while Aang and Katara were off somewhere. Sokka started a fire while Suki broke vegetables apart.
"Katara and Aang need to get back here so they can bend some water into the pot; we need to get dinner started before the vegetables freeze." Suki said standing up.
"Why don't you go look for them and I'll finish setting up?" Sokka said rubbing two rocks together trying to get them to spark.
"Alright," Suki said walking up to Sokka smiling. She knelt down to Sokka's level and kissed him gently on the lips. "I'll be back soon."
She walked off and out of sight leaving Sokka alone with his stupid rocks. He threw them aside and took advantage of the quietness to work on the finishing touches on Suki's betrothal chocker. He pulled out the emerald lace with golden swirls and admired his work, then pulled out the gold chain and emerald.
He stuck the emerald onto the flat golden surface and hooked it onto the lace and just looked at the finished piece. He held it in his hands and pictured it around Suki's neck as he asked her to marry him. He blushed and grinned as Suki came back into site with Katara and Aang following.
Katara stopped in front of the pot and began moving her arms through a series of swift motions later to be mirrored by Aang. Water drops began following their hands where ever they went as Sokka and Suki watched in awe at the talent they will never posses.
They moved their hands towards the pot and let the water rush in quickly. Katara then walked over to the chopped vegetables and poured them into the pot and began bending. Aang got down on all fours and stuck out a hand underneath the pot and onto the pile of branches that Sokka had been trying to light. They instantly burst into flames and started heating up the water; he then sat up and helped Katara bend the water to get the juices of the vegetables mixed in.
Sokka and Suki sat there with nothing to do. "What should we do?"
Katara looked up. "You could take Suki to the hall of Aang's past lives, I'm sure you'll like the statue of Avatar Kyoshi." She said smiling then focusing back on the stew.
Sokka nodded and helped Suki up off the cold ground and lead her away.
As they walked, Sokka told Suki everything that he could remember about this place that Aang told him the first time they were here. As they walked up the steps Monk Gyatso's statue came into site. They climbed the last step and stopped in front of it. Suki squeezed Sokka's arm to get his attention. "Who's that?" She said pointing at the statue which was partially covered with snow.
"Oh," Sokka said. "That's Monk Gyatso. He was sort of like Aang's dad, guardian, and best friend."
"What happened to him?" Suki said stepping to the statue to get a better look at Gyatso's face.
"I'll show you." Sokka said grabbing her hand and leading her away and into a room with a gaping hole in the side. They climbed through and maneuvered their way around piles of snow and skeletons wearing robes. Suki looked around in horror as the skeletons grew in population. Finally, Sokka found Monk Gyatso's skeleton still sitting in the light where it was last time. He stopped in front of him and held Suki's hand tight. "Suki, this is Monk Gyasto."
Suki gasped in terror. "This is awful!" She knelt down in front of Gyatso's skeleton and closed her eyes.
"What should we do?" Suki said standing back up.
Sokka was confused. "What do you mean?"
"Shouldn't we give him a funeral or something? Set his soul at rest?" Suki said walking out, to be quickly followed by Sokka.
"Well I think that we should leave that up to Aang." Sokka said. "But it's a thoughtful idea. You should suggest it to him when we get back to camp. But until them, I'm going to show you the hall of Avatars."
"Sounds like fun." Suki said smiling and taking Sokka's gloved hand in hers. They walked back to the statue of Gyatso, but this time walked past it and into a long hall. They came upon a doorway that had been left open and went inside to find statues filling the room. Suki let go of Sokka's hand and explored.
Sokka followed and saw Suki stop in front of Avatar Kyoshi's statue. She looked at it without saying a word. She looked at the face, the stone fans in her hands, and her robes, then she stepped back to admire the full view of the art. "This is the most detailed statue of Kyoshi I've ever seen!"
"Yeah, these statues are amazing." Sokka said in agreement.
They stand there admiring the statue for what felt like forever. "Come on Suki. We come back later if you'd like."
Suki looked at Sokka, smiled, and walked out of the hall of Avatar's.
As the sky slowly got darker, the gang gathered around the fire and feasted on the stew. They were quite until Suki stood up.
"Aang, I wanted to suggest something" Suki said getting more stew from the pot.
"Go ahead." Aang said before slurping on the vegetable juice.
"Today, Sokka took me to see Monk Gyatso. You must have been so upset…" Suki said sitting back down next to Sokka.
"You have no idea." Sokka said loud enough for only Suki to hear.
Aang shifted around where he was sitting, growing un-easy. "Yeah? What's your point?"
"Well when I saw him, I was very upset…even though I didn't know him. But I thought it would be an honorable thing to do, for his memory, to give him a funeral." Suki said hoping that Aang would like her idea.
Aang didn't say anything. He just stood up and left. Suki stared at him in disbelief. "I'm going to check on him."
Katara and Sokka nodded as Suki left to follow Aang. She wandered aimlessly in the dark until she found herself where Monk Gyatso was. She stepped through the hole in the wall and heard small whispers.
"…She suggested a funeral…but you know…" was all she could catch.
"Hello?" Suki said to no one she could see. "Aang?"
"Suki?" Aang said in response. "Why did you follow me?"
"Because I wanted to make sure you were ok." She said finding the little monk sitting in front of Gyatso's skeleton. "Did you think about what I said?"
Aang looked at her with big brown eyes. "Yes. And I think that it's a great idea, but to give a proper Air Nomad funeral, we need five Air Benders…"
Suki found this as a problem but quickly found a solution. "Well we could do what we always did on Kyoshi Island."
Aang didn't show any emotion on his face but was curious. "What did you guys do?"
"Well," Suki said sitting on her knees. "When someone we loved and cared for died, we would bury them and place three of their favorite things on top of their grave. And we would share stories in their memory."
Aang stood and started pacing in the snow and rubble that covered the floor. Then stopped and looked down at Gyatso's skeleton.
"Aright," he said smiling. "Let's do it."