Sokka was going to Aang and Katara's house, but he wasn't going to see his sister, or his brother-in-law, or his nephews or niece. No, Sokka was going to Aang and Katara's so that he could see Momo.
"'Cause Momo and I are beeeest friends!" Sokka exclaimed to himself. As he approached the igloo's doorway, the lemur suddenly appeared, jumping down from the roof and running toward Sokka at top, joyous speed.
"Momo! Little buddy!" Sokka held out his arms wide. However, Momo did not jump into them as he had anticipated. Instead, Momo jumped onto Sokka's face and started eating it.
Sokka screamed and tried to push the lemur from his face, falling over in the process. "Why, Momo? Why?"
"Oh, sorry, Sokka," Aang said, floating gently down from the sky above. "It's been so long since Momo has seen you, he doesn't recognize you! He must think you're food."
Wheezing, Sokka did his best to fend Momo off, but he was losing badly. His face was being eaten at a rapid rate. And now Momo was slapping him, too-
"Sokka! Are you awake?"'Sokka's eyes sprung open. A shadowy figure knelt over him, tentatively slapping Sokka's face.
Oh. It was all a dream was Sokka's first and very relieved thought.
His second: Why is this creeper in my house?
Why was this creeper in my house while I was sleeping?
Why was this creeper in my house, touching me, while I was sleeping?
But by the time Sokka had finished this thought process, the figure was saying, "It's time to go," causing Sokka to choke back his horrified scream and say, "Where are we going?"
"You'll see," said the figure, whose voice was deep and husky. Squinting, Sokka saw that he (it was definitely a he) wore a dark hooded cloak, which frankly did nothing to lower his creepiness factor.
"Who are you?"
"I," said the figure, "am the Spirit of Past Moon Festivals."
Sokka blinked. "You're kidding, right? Tell me you're kidding."
The Spirit mumbled something like, "I wish," then clearly said, "Toph said a Spirit of Past Moon Festivals was going to visit you tonight, right?"
"Well… yeah."
"Then I am that spirit. Now come on. We've got to get going. There's a long ways to walk."
They walked.
Sokka had protested for several minutes, telling the Spirit all the reasons he couldn't go with him. Then the Spirit said, "I will melt your house." Sokka did some quick calculations and decided that he probably couldn't afford that. So he got all bundled up and followed the Spirit out across the snow.
They walked through the sleeping village, then headed out of town in the direction of-
"The ice caves?" Sokka asked. "Why are we going to the ice caves?"
"There's a place in them where the spirit and mortal worlds meet: a spirit oasis."
"Oh. I didn't realize we had one of those down here in the South Pole."
"It was lost for centuries, but the spirits recently revealed its location to Avatar Aang. He's planning to announce the happy news at the Moon Festival. The oasis will supposedly provide your people with much guidance."
"'Supposedly?'"
"I couldn't vouch for it either way. Spirit oases aren't really my thing."
"That's weird, considering that you're a spirit and all."
The Spirit stopped walking. He couldn't see very well into the folds of the Spirit's cloak, but Sokka could have sworn he rolled his eyes. Then the Spirit said, "Yes. Well. There are all kinds of spirits."
The moon beamed down gracefully over the wilderness of snow. Sokka pulled his hood over his face as far as it could go and hunched over, focusing on the Spirit's footprints, which were… melting.
"You cold?" the Spirit asked, glancing back. "Here." He pulled a small jar from the folds of his cloak and dumped a ball of flame into it.
"You're a firebender? But I thought spirits couldn't bend-"
"They can't," the Spirit said quickly.
"-oh wait, yes they can. There was that one time when Roku appeared and firebended all those sage dudes. It's just in the spirit world where no one can bend-"
"Um, yes," the Spirit said, "That's just what I was going to say. Spot on."
"So what are you? Like, the Spirit of Firebending or something?" Sokka asked with excitement.
There was a short pause. "Um- yes?" The Spirit glanced at the sky like he expected something to fall from it and crush him, but he seemed to relax at the sight of the moon. "Yes. I am the Spirit of Firebending and… its source, the sun." He cringed a little more, then finished, "You can call me Agni."
"Agni! That's so cool! So can you—hey, wait a minute, you already said you were the Spirit of Past Moon Festivals."
"I'm both. This Moon Festival job is, you know, something I do in my spare time."
"Huh," Sokka said. "Kind of weird that the sun spirit would also be the spirit of a moon celebration, especially in a place and during a time of year where the sun never shows up. How'd you get landed with that gig?"
"Downsizing," said Agni. "The Spirit World lays off more spirits every year."
That didn't sound quite right to Sokka, but then Agni said, "We're here." They had hiked up the narrow path to the ice caves, taken a right turn, and were now standing in front of a solid sheet of ice.
"Stand back." Agni raised his arms and a wave of flame washed over the ice, melting a doorway through which they stepped.
"Whoa." The place was comparatively warm, and while it wasn't super green like the spirit oasis at the North Pole, there were delicate silver glowing flowers twined all over the ice. A swirling, steaming pool sat on the far side of the cave. It seemed to be the source of the heat.
"Come." Agni crossed to the pool and sat next to it, cross-legged. Sokka imitated him and stared at the tiny flowers, wondering how much people would pay for those. If they could grow in ice, Water Tribe women would trip over themselves to get some. Gran-Gran had always talked about how much she would love to have a garden…
"Focus, Sokka!" barked Agni.
"Focusing." Sokka straightened up.
"Let's meditate." Agni closed his eyes. The flowers' glow threw a light under his hood. There appeared to be something over the spirit's left eye...
"Agni, are you scarred?"
"No!" snapped Agni. Every time he yelled, his voice went from deep and husky to much higher and strained. It kind of reminded Sokka of… but before he could complete that thought, Agni was yelling at Sokka again, telling him how much time he was wasting.
"Now meditate!" he ordered.
"Why?"
Agni exhaled a long, steaming breath. "Because," he said in a somewhat calmer voice. "We're going to visit the Moon Festivals of your past."
"We can do that?"
"Yes. This particular spirit oasis has a direct link to time."
Sokka looked into the swirling waters. "But… I don't understand. Toph kind of hinted that the spirits were coming to help me change my ways—not that I think my ways need changing—but anyways, I don't understand why we would visit my past. How can that help?"
"Toph's biggest concern is that you are too focused on money and you've lost sight of what's really important," Agni said. "Now, in my experience, when someone becomes too obsessed with one thing—like money, or say, uh, honor—it's because something in their past has twisted them up inside, messed with their ability to be human. Coming to terms with the past and realizing where you messed up or got messed up can be the best way for you to deal with your obsession with honor."
"You mean money."
"Yes. Yes, I do. Now come. Let's meditate, find peace, and use the power of the spirit oasis to-" a flame flickered in Agni's hand "-shed a little light on your present behavior."
"Okay, but-"
"Peace, dangit!" roared Agni. "Meditate and FIND PEACE!"
"'Kay," Sokka said quickly, and they began to meditate.
"So," Agni said. "What have we here?"
Sokka blinked. They were standing in the village arena, the place all spruced up for the Moon Festival, except the decorations were much fancier than the ones Sokka had seen walking in to pick up inventing supplies.
"Enjoy the festivities!" Chief Hakoda cried from the ceremonial stand constructed near the shore, and everyone cheered.
"Um," Sokka said. "This is a Moon Festival from my past, right? How far into my past are we talk- oh."
For Sokka's dad had jumped down from the stand and joined three figures waiting for him in the crowd. Two of them were very small, and the other-
"Your mom?" Agni asked gently.
Sokka could only nod.
"You conducted the opening ceremony beautifully, Hakoda," said Sokka's mother. She kissed her husband.
"Thank you, sweetheart," Hakoda said, squeezing Kya's hand. "How's my baby girl?" He swung Katara up in his arms. "Still tripping?"
"On everything," Kya said, rolling her eyes.
"This must be the Moon Festival when Katara was two," Sokka said as Hakoda placed his daughter on the ground. She took a few tentative steps and then fell flat on her face.
Agni gave a choking noise that made Sokka think he was trying not to laugh. "That's a little old to not know how to walk."
"Not around here," Sokka said. "It's pretty hard to teach babies to walk, with the snow and the ice to slip on and the heavy clothes that weigh them down. Katara actually started walking early, the summer before this, but then during the winter she had to wear my boots from the year before. They were way too big for her and they set her back, like, a whole year. She couldn't stay upright for more than a few steps. And if Katara is two, that makes me three."
Sure enough, three-year-old Sokka poked his head out from behind his mother's back. "Hi, Daddy."
Sokka started. Watching himself was weird. He looked down at his adult self, trying to reconcile the fact that he existed in two places at the moment, but it wasn't exactly comforting. As a spirit, he was insubstantial and glowing blue.
"Come on," Hakoda said to his family. "Let's go enjoy the Moon Festival we've worked so hard on." He sat Katara on his shoulders and led them through the circle of various booths.
"Look, Sokka," Kya said, taking her son's hand. "Uku brought a special meat back from the Earth Kingdom."
"Moose lion," Uku said proudly. "Marinated in my special sauce. One of the best meals you'll ever have, I guarantee it."
Kya opened her beaded purse. "Hakoda? Do you want any?"
"No, thanks," Hakoda chuckled. "It's a little pricey. I think I'll get myself and Katara some sugar lichen cakes instead."
Katara began to fuss. Uku handed her a small glass of polar berry juice and she glugged it down gleefully.
"Why have sugar lichen cakes when you can have meat?"
"I've never understood your obsession with meat," Hakoda said, chucking his wife under her chin.
"Meat is the best food ever. Isn't that right, my little warrior?" Kya handed three-year-old Sokka a skewer of moose lion.
"Yes, Mommy, it is!"
Sokka watched enviously as his younger self devoured the juicy meat. He hadn't had anything that good in at least a year.
"See? Sokka knows what I'm talking about."
"Okay," Hakoda said, raising a hand in defeat. "If Sokka thinks so too, you must be right."
Little Sokka grinned, proud to have his father's approval. His mother wiped moose lion juice from her son's face and kissed his cheek.
"Now you," Kya said, looking at Katara's polar berry juice-covered face.
Katara squealed, "No! No clean face, Mommy!" The remaining contents of her glass suddenly jumped up over the rim and splashed down on little Sokka's head.
"Clean him instead!" Katara pointed to Sokka's dripping hair and face.
"Mommy, Katara's juice flew at me!"
"Oh no, dear," Kya said. "She simply spilled it." But older Sokka caught what his three-year-old self hadn't: the look his parents shared, a look half of pride and half of extreme worry.
"Well, come along," Hakoda said, handing Katara to his wife and swinging Sokka up in his arms. "I'll buy you all sugar lichen cakes. And then pearls for you, Kya, a doll for Katara, and, let me see, Sokka, I think you're old enough for a toy boomerang this year!"
The small family walked on through the festival. Sokka tried to follow them, but the scene faded to black.
"Look at how happy you were," Agni said. "Carefree, unhampered by the woes of life or by the dreadful, selfish scourge of money-"
"Why are you reading off a piece of paper?"
"I'm not." Agni quickly stuffed the paper back into his cloak. "Anyways…"
"They already knew Katara's waterbending might cost them something," Sokka said, staring at where his parents had been not a moment before. "They were already planning to make any necessary sacrifices. What my mom died, it was like… something she'd planned to do for years and years, if she had to, not something she came up with on the spur of the moment. I never knew that until now."
"Mothers are like that," Agni said. "Maybe all good parents; I wouldn't know about fathers. But a mother will always be looking for the possible future threats her children face and then do whatever she can to protect them. And I know it seems like she was just trying to protect Katara, but you saw her just now, how she acted around you. She loved you just as much as she loved your sister. She must have felt like her death would protect you, too."
"Well, yeah, it did. The Fire Nation stopped raiding us after they thought they'd killed the last waterbender. And I've never felt like Mom loved Katara more or anything. She would have done the same if the Fire Nation had been looking for me, I'm sure. At any rate, my mother died such a long time ago that I've pretty much come to terms with it-"
"Over time," Agni said, "I've come to the conclusion that when mothers leave their kids, it's because they can't think of any other way to keep them safe. As much as a mother would rather stay and raise and protect her kids forever, that may not always be an option. You have to believe that your mother knew what she was doing. Otherwise, it's just going to keep hurting forever and forever, and you're always going to be having what-ifs. 'What if my mom hadn't left? Would my sister and I have so many issues? Would my mom have protected me from my father?'"
"I've actually never-"
"The point is, just let it go."
"I was trying to tell you that I have! I accepted the fact that she's gone a long time ago."
"Oh." Agni looked down at his hands with a deep frown, seeming to be lost in some kind of tragic memory. "Well. You're very lucky. Now let us proceed." There was a crinkling of paper, then Agni read haltingly. "This Moon Festival took place quite a few years later, in another land, after you had grown up parentless and feeling lost. Poor pathetic lad, no more mom or dad—that's it." He crumpled the paper violently. "That's the last time I let Aang write a speech for me. This is like Uncle's birthday party all over again-"
But Sokka wasn't listening.
He saw Yue.
"The Moon Festival when I was fifteen," he whispered, "in the Northern Water Tribe."
"I didn't know you guys also celebrated the Moon Festival," said fifteen-year-old Sokka. He and Yue walked together through the icy Northern Water Tribe city, stopping every so often to get something from a booth. They were given everything free, a perk of hanging out with a princess.
"It's one of our biggest celebrations every year," Yue said.
"Same here! Maybe someday after the war is over both tribes could celebrate together."
"That would be great,' Yue said. "Our records show that our tribes used to get together frequently for joint celebrations, some of them very similar to the Moon Festival. If we could revive that tradition, our tribes could truly be like family again. We could bring the Northern and Southern Water Tribes together! Wonderful!"
"I also think it would be wonderful if we could bring the Northern and Southern Water Tribes together," fifteen-year-old Sokka said, gazing at the beautiful princess. Older, twenty-four-year-old Sokka remembered how tempted he had been to kiss her, but that he'd stopped himself out of respect. After all, she was engaged, and besides, she kept saying that she just wanted to be friends.
Yue smiled at him as they walked across one of the city's many bridges. "Well, we'll see. If we can't, maybe others will do it for us."
"What do you mean, 'if we can't?'"
"We are in the middle of a war, Sokka," Yue said sadly. "We don't know what's going to happen. We don't know if there will still be Water Tribes after the war is over. Maybe our people will be wiped out."
"That's a depressing thought."
"It happens in wars, sometimes. Look at the Air Nomads. And even if our people survive… we don't know if we will. There's a chance that neither of us may make it out of this war alive. So we should just-"
"Kiss?"
"-not make any plans." She laughed even as tears rolled down her face. "Sokka, I'm scared. Sometimes, I—I just have this feeling that I'm going to have to do something hard, and because of duty-"
"Hey, none of that." Sokka gathered her in his arms for a tentative hug. "Nothing's going to happen to you. I'll protect you."
Older Sokka flinched as the scene faded to black.
"Oh, this is the one who turned into the moon, huh?" Agni said.
"Yeah. Something like that."
"How many Moon Festivals have you attended since then?"
"In nine years? Technically, none."
"'Technically?'"
"I did get dragged onto the outskirts of some celebrations that happened on Moon Festival day throughout the years," Sokka said, "but none of them were exactly Moon Festivals. They all took place in other countries."
"Like in the Fire Nation?" From the blackness around them rose a Fire Nation palace, its ballroom bedecked with red and gold. Music played, delicious smells filled the air, and most everyone was dancing, eating, or talking in an extremely animated manner.
"Yup." Sokka located himself very easily. At seventeen years old, he sat on a stone bench far from the center of the party. Toph lounged next to him, her silken dress spilling all over the floor as she slouched.
"Don't you want to dance or anything?" she said in a bored voice. "That seems like the kind of thing you would enjoy."
"I do enjoy dancing," Sokka agreed, "but I don't feel like dancing tonight. Why don't you go dance?"
"Already danced with Aang and Zuko," Toph said. "Zuko's a pretty bad dancer. I kept stepping on his feet."
"Doesn't that make you the bad dancer?"
Toph punched Sokka's arm. "I would say it means he moves much too slowly," she sniffed. "What's that thing moving in the crowd?"
Sokka glanced up. "A paper dragon costume," he said. "There are people under it, trying to make it look alive."
"Weird. So what are you doing over here?"
"I'm filling out an application for a patent. Over the course of the war I invented both the submarine and the war balloon. If I fill this out, I might be able to get back some of the money the Fire Nation and other armies made off of selling my inventions, not to mention future revenue."
"So if you're about to come into a bunch of cash, you wouldn't mind buying me a coconut milk and some mango shrimp."
"I would mind. I'm not going to let myself count on this money until I actually have it in my hands. Besides, you should still have plenty of coin after last night's—well—you know."
"Scam?" Toph said dryly.
"Shhh. You know Zuko won't hesitate to throw us in jail if he learns that was us."
"Yeah, next time let's not scam in the country where our friend is supreme ruler. Especially, let's not scam while honored guests in his palace."
"Agreed."
"So are you going to buy me some food or not?"
"Not."
"Fine. I'll go buy us some snacks, since you're such a tightwad."
"Am not a tightwad."
"Sokka, once you wanted to buy a two-headed fish because you thought you would get more for your money."
"It was a really good deal, okay?"
"Uh-huh," Toph sniffed. "How long is this going to take you?"
"A while," Sokka said. "And then I need to write a letter for Suki. I think she's getting a bit ticked that she hasn't heard from me lately, to be honest. So it will have to be a pretty long letter. Like, I-don't-even-know-when-I'm-going-to-be-finished long. Some poetry may be involved."
Toph rolled her eyes. "Then I guess I'll go get the food myself. I'll be back." She stood up and strode away.
"Oh great," older Sokka said. "I just remembered what happens next. It's pretty bad."
"I thought this particular celebration was a day of joy and happiness, thrown by Fire Lord Zuko to celebrate the success of the Harmony Restoration Movement thus far as it had been put into action," said Agni, rather stiffly. "What could have happened this day that helped twist you into what you are?"
"A choice that I'm about to make," Sokka said, and he pointed to the figure walking towards seventeen-year-old Sokka. It was his father, Hakoda.