8 Years in the Future
Chapter 2: The Dreams of Heroes
Part 2: Singing Little Warriors to Sleep

Three weeks until the Fire Lord's Diplomat Ball

Chi'in, Sokka's assistant, sat in the backroom of Sokka's home, working on books, papers, and scrolls in an array of disorganization. His face scrunched up in repugnance to Sokka's work space. He tapped his inked pen as he listened through the thin walls of the home. Carefree laughter echoed and bounced throughout the dwelling. Chi'in identified the laughter of the young children easiest. Their high voices sounded like the tinkling of crystal bells. They were small, fragile. He heard a woman's laugh that was proud and pure. And then the boisterous discernible guffaw that came from his chief.

They were preoccupied. Chi'in turned back to his work and pulled five sheets of wax paper from his bag. With exact precision, he began to trace copies of Sokka's blueprints.

Several rooms over, Sokka and his family were all seated seiza style around their low dining table. He leaned back on his tatami mat as he held an arm around his wife. Their two oldest children sat across from them listening intently to Suki as she narrated an elaborate tale about Sokka's first encounter with the world of the Kyoshi warriors, dress and all.

Sokka smiled as he watched his children entranced by Suki's tale. She was radiant. Her olive skin had a healthy glow, and her dark sapphire grey eyes shimmered in the cozy light of the lanterns of their home. Her hair had grown long and she wore it tied, gently resting against her back.

Triumphantly he had returned from the final battle, delighting in the idea that Suki could actually be waiting for him to come back to her, praising his courage. He was disappointed. For she had been at war as well. And finding her surrounded by five strapping earth kingdom army boys wasn't his idea of a romantic reunion.

When she saw him, Suki couldn't help herself but cry. Kyoshi warriors were brave, intelligent, and restrained. But to see him alive, when she knew very well that the last time she saw him could have been the last time she'd ever see him, left her heart open to emotions she didn't think possible.

They were married within a few months.

And then came little Koda.

Sokka wasn't sure he was entirely ready to become a father. But when Koda was hungry, Sokka fed him. When Koda needed someone to help him sleep, Sokka rocked him. And when Koda cried, Sokka held him close, and sang to him softly, songs his father had once sung to him so long ago on the clear crisp nights of the southern winter tundra.

His voice was low and gentle. With a gruff potency behind it, recalling the natural balance of his childhood home.

I come from the Land of The Midnight Sun,
Where the white fox and the reindeer run.
Hey ya hey ya hey ya no nah...
Hey ya hey ya hey ya no nah...

Suki would lie in bed with the moonlight gleaming in through the windows and listen to Sokka's songs. In the middle on the night, nothing would comfort her more than to hear his voice out on the veranda calming one of their young children, chanting the legends of his people.

Suki knew it, even if he didn't, but Sokka had become a good father.

Now her small growing family sat together as she watched Koda and Sakari, listen in wonder to the fantastic fables and sagas they would tell the children. Their large dark blue eyes would gaze up into their parents' faces, eagerly awaiting the heroic adventures of the Avatar, or the witty undertakings of General Iroh the Wise, and so on.

"Daddy, tell us a story!"

"Alright. This one's about one of the bravest warriors I know."

"Who? The Avatar? Iroh?"

"Zuko?" Offered two year old Sakari, who pronounced the Fire Lord's name: Sicko.

Sokka chortled. "Nope. Not even close, this one's about….wait a second why didn't you mention me?"

Suki chuckled as she picked up their delicate, youngest child and encouraged her husband to continue.

"Alright, alright, this one's about an honorable and highly esteemed Kyoshi Warrior."

"You mean mom?"

Sokka nodded as he looked at his wife, "The Gods can't be with us every moment of the day, that's why they gave us mothers."

Suki smiled as she rocked little Sesi gently in her tender embrace.

In the back room, Chi'in tightly wound his copied parchments up and placed them in his case as he left the once catastrophic study an immaculate sanctum.

Song is from Songs for Teaching / Sara Jordon Publishing (Which can be found through