Earlier that day...
Sokka was in a state of shock at the blue skinned body laying atop the ice. Everyone fell silent as they thought of possible solutions to the problem.
"We could take her back and give her a burial..."
"Maybe we could put up posters and someone will give us a reward..."
"She's not a lost polar-dog for goodness sake..."
"Guys stop it." said Sokka not peeling his eyes away from the figure. It was definitely female, and he could swear that she had no hair. But the faint shadows from the setting sun told him otherwise. Her clothes (or what was left of them) were decaying and torn and singed in multiple places.
He could hear some sighs of disappointment at the discovery that she was indeed wearing under-wraps.
He suddenly pulled back from the side of the rocking vessel and grabbed a length of rope. "Pull her in, she could still be alive."
The boys doubted it but obeyed their future chieftain none the less. So after a bit of struggle of hanging off the edge of the boat and trying not to weigh their clothes down with the icy sea water, they managed to haul the young woman into the boat.
Once safely aboard, Sokka grabbed a blanket and wrapped her up, covering the large amount of exposed skin (again more sighs), before handing her over to one of the older ones of the young men. He enthusiastically held her in his arms and refused to let go when any of the others volunteered to give him a break.
By now it was getting dangerously dark and he had to call everyone's attention away from the frozen damsel in order to turn the ship around and head back to land.
Just as the last ray of light drowned itself in the ocean, a familiar figure came gliding towards them.
It was an unmistakable silouhette, even though Aang had grown reasonably taller in the last few years. But as the airbender landed, Sokka could still see the childish features that defined his face. The only difference was that now his eyes had a glint of maturity.
"Aang we need your help. We found an ice body, you know, like you were." he said jumping forward and almost hugging the monk. Having a fire, water, earth and air bender in a ship that was in the middle of an iceberg infested ocean in complete darkness...was a godsend.
Aang noticed the pale skinned female at the base of the mast and walked forward. Removing some of the blankets and some of the torn garments (which pretty much fell to pieces as he touched them.) and placed a hand on her body. He closed his eyes and waited, and listened.
"She's still alive." he said snapping his eyes open before turning to Sokka.
"Aang, can you lead us back to shore. Its pitch black out here."
The avatar looked around and he was right. Apart from the small amount of light coming from the mast mounted lamp, its was completely dark. Steeping out of the light meant relinquishing sight of your own hand.
"Don't worry, I'll light the way. Just follow me, its not far." he said tapping his glider on the boat, unlatching the wings. It was only then that Sokka noticed that the glider had been modified. The wingspan was larger and so was the length of the staff. Most likely it was adjusted to account for his growth spurt.
Then they were moving. Going around the glacier run proved easier than going trough it. Not only were there less obstacles, but now they controlled how fast they went.
Aang found the shore and extinguished the flame he held in his hands to help navigate. He landed softly next to Katara who didn't waste time in giving him a welcome back hug. But seeing the expression on his face she withdrew.
Sokka had seen Aang land and didn't even bother slowing down before the boat crashed into the icy shore.
Prying the girl from the appointed baby-sitter's arms, he carried her to the village.
Trampled Snow
Her awaken didn't last very long before slipping back into unconsciousness.
Everyone was mostly in shock that 1) she was alive and 2) that her origins were completely foreign to them.
"Maybe she came from a time before Aang..." said Sokka thoughtfully "...I mean, think about it. All the nations would have had to split from something."
They all sat in silence pondering his theory.
"But then her clothes wouldn't be as well sewn." said Suki inspecting the rags that were hanging over some old/broken spears.
In their haste, they had carried the girl into the weapons igloo. Luckily, there was always a bed there in case of storage mishaps involving the more sharper artillery.
They all looked at Suki, a bit befuddled at how she had called the clothes 'well sewn'.
"Are you kidding? They're falling apart!" shouted Sokka unnecessarily. Suki glared at him and he slunk into the corner.
"She's right Sokka. This used to be a really fine material. I'd say silk of some sorts." said Katara picking up a torn piece and rubbing it between her fingers. "I can't tell what colour it used to be...even in the full light."
Aang lit up a handful of fire and found she was right. The clothes were completely ridden of all colour.
Katara continued to inspect the clothing before finding something. She reached her hand into the skirt of the outfit and pull out a small satchel.
They all stared at it before a small vile fell out of a hole in the bottom and clinked on the floor. Aang picked it up as it rolled to a stop at his feet and examined it.
"No label...it looks poisonous."
"I know what that is!" said Sokka jumping forward and grabbing the small bottle of milky white liquid. He pulled out the small cork that was sealing it and took a whiff.
"Its cactus juice."
Everyone turned in unison at the small and weak voice coming from the bed. The girl had managed to hoist herself onto her elbows. Her smile was large and kind, even as she held her head in some sort of pain.
"Digested normally it can cause hallucination. But injected directly into the blood can give it a paralysing effect."
Katara walked over and pushed her gently back down onto the pillows. She closed her eyes, but her smile still stuck to her face.
"Where am I?" she repeated, though this time was a little more understandable.
"You're in the south pole." said Suki returning the smile, even though her eyes was closed and she couldn't see it.
"Where's that?" she replied absent mindedly.
Katara knew a smart-ass remark was about to erupt from Sokka's mouth without any thought involving her condition, so she quickly intervened.
"What's your name?" she asked, placing her water covered hands over the young woman's forehead.
She opened her eyes as the pain disappeared and thought over the question carefully.
"I...I'm not sure."
Katara stopped and looked at her thoughtfully. "Maybe you just need some rest. You might remember in the morning, but right now you need rest."
She nodded quietly and Katara grabbed some extra fur blankets from the other side of the room. " Just sleep tonight and we'll come back to check on you tomorrow."
But she wasn't listening. She was already comfortably wrapped in the warm furry sheets and drifting off into an uneven sleep.
The friends walked out of the igloo and started to head for the centre of the village where the 'ice palace' resided.
It wasn't much of a palace, that was just the name Sokka had bestowed on it seeing as he was part of the construction team who built it. On the outside it looked like any other ice village building. But like the rest of the domiciles in the south pole, it was only the outside that was made of ice. The inside consisted of stone walls and wooden floors. This combination allowed them to have fireplaces indoors while keeping the heat in. It was quite pleasant during a blizzard to come inside and sit by a blazing fire.
They reached a pair of thick oak doors and pushed them open. After coming through the door they found themselves in a corridor that split two ways. Sokka and Suki went one way while Katara and Aang went the other, both pairs giving their goodnights to the other.
They walked down the corridor for quite a while before reaching a set of doors. One on each side of the hallway. Hakoda had insisted that the avatar have his own room, but they both knew it was only because they were older then when they had just started out together. Now they weren't even capable of a goodnight kiss in the palace as there was always some sort of guard on duty near their rooms. However, they knew that they were leaving for the earth kingdom in a couple of days, so air kisses sufficed.
Sokka was awoken rudely by a pair of footsteps running down the hallway. He rolled onto his side and reached an arm over. But unlike last night, there was no Suki to hold onto. It was a common occurrence as she was strained in the stealthy arts, and she did comment once about how he slept like a flying hippo-cow.
But at the moment he was wondering what the commotion was about so early in the morning. At least he thought it was early...it was hard to tell with the fact that there weren't any windows in order to keep in the heat.
As quickly as his sleeping limbs would allow him, he slipped on his blue furs and sttod up. He looked in the mirror and rubbed a hand on the small beard hanging off his chin. He then grabbed for a hair tie but it slipped out his fingers and he waved his hand in a dismissive sort of way before walking out the door.
He walked out of the 'ice palace' and looked around. It was indeed early in the morning and as far as he could see, not a soul was awake.
He was about to turn back into the tall snowy tower before he heard a loud scream.
That was when Aang appeared next to him and he noted mentally to ask the avatar how he got up so quickly.
"There it is again.." he said almost to himself before running off in its direction. Sokka followed, his feet sinking into the fresh morning snow. He reached the weapons igloo before realising that its previous occupant was not inside. He then noticed Aang running towards the shore behind it and peered around the icy hut.
Something dropped in his stomach and he felt fear in his chest. He started a fumbled run down the hill towards the scene.
Upon his arrival his limbs froze and he stood in knee high snow, staring dumb founded at what was happening.
A girl sat, slumped over her waist in the snow. Her hair was long and it dangled gracefully and satin a silky lump on the icy surface. Her clothes were blue and elegant and he felt a pang in his heart.
"Yue?"
The girl looked up at him and his hopes were dashed. It wasn't Yue, but rather the girl he had rescued the night before. Her hair was cleaned and by the looks of it Suki had had a turn at braiding it. It was almost pure white, but in his own haste he hadn't realised that the faint tint of golden streaked it.
Aang patted his shoulder as he breathed deeply in almost relief. He could understand how he could've mistaken her for Yue.
"What happened? I heard someone scream!" came a shrill voice from the top of the hill. Suki wrapped the young woman's arms around her shoulders and dragged her back to the igloo.
"Its ok," cried Suki "no fatalities."
Reaching the igloo, Suki sat the girl back on the bed. "There you go sunshine." she said softly
Everyone raised a brow at her and she shrugged. "I figured because she is always smiling and she can't remember her name..."
"You still can't remember?" ask Katara hurriedly
The girl shook her head, still clutching her abdomen. Katara opened the blue furs now covering her body and coated her hands in water. The water glowed as it touched the skin.
"Its ok. Your body just isn't used to moving yet."
She nodded as Katara began to undo and redo the messy braids in her hair.
"Suki said...that you found me in an iceberg?" she asked in a small voice.
Aang stepped forward. "Yea. Are you sure you can't remember anything?"
She pondered his question before smiling widely. "I can fight. But that's about it."
Sokka was just about to ask if she meant if that was all she could do or if it was all she could remember before Suki saved her the agony of having to answer.
"Really?" she said, sounding genuinely interested.
The girl picked up the tone in her voice and stood up, not showing any of the pain that was previously overtaking her body. The smiled widely at each other before both threw off their heavy furs and raced outside. This left both women in their under wrappings, and though they were absolutely freezing, they were too busy concentrating on other matters.
Katara, Aang and Sokka followed closely behind, following the two girls past the protective walls and to a large group of turtle-seals. The seals scattered as they approached, leaving a large patch of trample snow in their wake.
Suki can't resist a challenge ;)
...Even if it is from a slighty less than healthy person.....no one was forced anyway XD
Please Review