Sorry there was no update last week. I was on vacation, and tried to get a chapter edited, I swear! I'm back, though. No worries! :3
Disclaimer: I disclaim things. Like Avatar, The Last Airbender. I do not disclaim your soul though.
"Oh come on!" Sokka exclaimed, yanking his foot from under the fallen plank of wood. He grabbed his toes and rubbed them through the leather shoes, trying to get them to stop stinging. That was the third time he'd dropped something on his foot that day. It was a miracle he could still walk.
Suki giggled at him as she set her half of the large plank down. "Perhaps it's time for a lunch break," she said. She ran off to gather some food with a quick, "Be back soon!" Sokka settled himself on a nearby set of stairs with a sigh, waiting for her return and watching the activity around him.
People lined the streets, carrying wood or food or water, rushing to help in this repair project or to put that fire out. The village was working as a team, making swift progress in their efforts to rebuild. Everyone but Sokka, that was. He just felt clumsy.
It was because he was distracted, he admitted to himself. His mind kept returning to the day before last. Something didn't feel right with him about the attack on their island. The attackers - whoever they were - said they were there for Aang, but that didn't seem to sit right with him. They had attacked before Aang's arrival, with a full frontal assault. Which meant that if Aang was their goal, either they were willing to sacrifice their men to get that collar on Aang, or they expected to capture the Avatar, despite the odds. Both would have been accomplished through a stealth mission with much greater ease.
So was an assault on the island their initial goal? It was a famous island, sure, but it wasn't particularly big, or influential in the world's governments. It didn't pose any sort of threat, and as far as Sokka knew, there was nothing of any true value on the island. Sokka sighed, rubbing his temple. He had spent the better part of the morning trying to reason this out, and it was starting to give him a headache.
Smoke still rose into the air from some areas of the village, the black plumes dancing in the wind. The sun shone through a cloudless sky - had the village not been attacked the day before, it would have been a peaceful day, with children playing in the streets, adults making excuses to lounge outside. A pang of dismay hit Sokka. If they really were after Aang, then they wouldn't have attacked the village had Sokka not been there. Was he a danger to the village? Was it... his fault?
Sokka shook his head vigorously. He couldn't start thinking like that. You started that, and pretty soon you were a blubbering mess in the corner, rambling about how you'd caused the apocalypse. Or something.
Sokka spotted Suki trotting back toward him, a bag slung over her shoulder. He breathed a sigh of relief, looking forward to the company. He had spent too much time in his own thoughts that morning. He needed a break, something to relax him so he could tackle the problem with a new slate. That, and he was damn hungry. His stomach growled happily at the prospect of food.
Taking a seat beside him - Suki's thigh pressed against Sokka's, and he felt a slight tingle shoot up his spine - Suki opened the bag, revealing a number of ripe pears and a loaf of warm bread. Sokka wasted no time in grabbing a hunk of bread and a pear, and together they ate, their ravenous hunger driving them to a comfortable silence.
It wasn't long before their lunch was interrupted. Old and frail, the mayor of Kyoshi Island shuffled up to them with a sigh. Sokka noticed that she looked worn and tired. He remembered not too long ago when she'd have a spring in her step and a temper that didn't let anything get her down. Too much had happened in the past while.
"Mayor Saila," Suki stood, letting the mayor take a seat. She lowered herself slowly, groaning as her joints bent.
"Ahh," Saila set the butt of her cane on the ground between her legs and leaned on it. "Hard at work, I see."
"A quick lunch break," Sokka replied, biting into his pear.
Saila reached into the sack and pulled out a pear of her own, munching on it thoughtfully. "You know," she mused. "When I was young, I did this rather often. Villages were frequently getting attacked as the Fire Nation made advances. I spent a great deal of my younger years putting up houses and gathering fruits for the labourers." Her eyes took on a slightly sorrowful look. "I had hoped that the Fire Nation would be stopped, and that the fighting would cease. I suppose one out of two isn't bad."
"With the Avatar back, and the Fire Nation quelled, there should be peace," Sokka said ruefully. He truly wished he could believe that - that he could have a quiet life with Suki. To settle down and not have to worry about people getting killed for whatever reason. As long as there was fighting, though, he knew that neither he nor Suki would be able to sit still.
"Peace is... well peace is like this pear." Saila held up her half-eaten pear, the juice sparkling in the sunlight. "On the tree it is a beautiful fruit, a marvel of nature. But as soon as someone is hungry," she took a bite out of the pear, "it is broken, destroyed. No longer the beauty it once was. And when too much is fed off it..." Taking one last bite, Saila threw the core to the ground. The fruit rolled in the dirt, collecting stones and dust. "It dies."
"And is reborn again as something more," Suki added. She knelt beside the pear, digging a small hole and burying the pear.
Saila smiled fondly. "Indeed it does, child. Indeed it does."
Sokka opened his mouth to ask the mayor about her thoughts on the attack, when a scream in the distance tore his attention away. He was on his feet in a second, his hand on the handle of the boomerang that clung to his back. A second scream echoed the first, this time from another part of the village. And a third, and fourth. Sokka moved to run in one direction, then changed as the shouting shifted.
"What's going on?" Suki asked, her katana in hand. She stood in a defensive stance, prepared for an attack at any moment. Sokka moved a hand to grasp his sword, and realized he hadn't donned it that morning. He had hoped that their luck wouldn't be so bad as to have two attacks in the same week. He should have erred toward caution.
An sudden explosion rocked the village, throwing wood and shingles into the air. The ground shook, and Sokka bent his knees for balance. Black smoke billowed from where fire now ate at the broken houses. And through the smoke Sokka saw them. Men on large, lizard-like creatures barreling toward the village. The air around them shimmered with heat. Fire flew, striking here and consuming there. Airbourne as they were, it took the invaders mere seconds to light half the village aflame.
People shouted in the streets. Kyoshi warriors and those willing to defend their homes rushed to take up arms, arrows flying at the speeding lizards. Children scurried for cover, eyes filled with tears. Others ran aimlessly, calling for lost family members or trying to find shelter.
One of the lizards bore down on Sokka's position, the man atop summoning flame from his hands. Sokka took aim and fired. His boomerang slid through the air, taking the man in the back. He lurched forward and fell, a trail of blood following him to where he hit the ground with a thud.
The lizard slammed into the ground beside Sokka and snarled. Two small eyes fixed on them, red with rage. Sokka took one look at the beast's teeth and nearly fainted on the spot.
Snatching his boomerang from the air, he threw it just in time to duck out of the way. The lizard lunged, snapping down on the ground where Sokka had been a second before. As it spat the mouthful of dirt out, the boomerang struck it in the side. It bounced off the creature's scaly skin, the beast barely flinching.
Suki was there in a flash, her saber a blur of death. It struck the creature in the eye, the tongue, the neck. Suki ducked a swing of the beast's wing, bringing her blade up to shear through the wing flap. Blood splattered her as the wing tore, eliciting a roar pain. The beast thrashed wildly, the ground shaking beneath its weight. In its madness it attempted to take to the air. One wing lifted, the other collapsing to the beast's side, and a second later a horrendous crash resounded as the creature slammed into a nearby house. It stirred momentarily, then fell still.
"They didn't have those before," Suki noted, wiping her sword on the cloak of the fallen firebender.
Sokka stared at the sky, trying to count the number of figures soaring through the smoke. There were dozens. Hundreds. They lined the sky, carpeting it in fire and scales.
One fell in the distance, and another, but still more fire engulfed the sky. The blue was gone, replaced by black and red, flames and embers and smoke. Sokka could feel the air beginning to burn his skin, and he coughed as the smoke thickened.
"Come on!" he cried, grabbing Suki's hand. He turned to Saila, pointing toward the ocean. "We need to get out of here!" He hated the idea of running, but remaining exposed would be suicide.
Saila stood perfectly still, staring grimly at the destruction before them. "A captain goes down with his ship; a mayor goes down with her city," Saila replied. She shook her head, her white hair glowing with a fiery aura. "You two, run. Survive. You helped the Avatar save the world once before. I think it might be time to do so again."
She strode forward, her fragile legs moving quickly as she disappeared around a corner. Sokka watched her go with a pang of sadness. He'd miss the old mayor. The whole village. There would be nothing left, he knew. No survivors. He gave the village one last glance, watching as it burned to the ground around him.
"We should go," Suki said softly in his ears. Sokka could hear the sadness in her voice. He turned to her and nodded, a tear sliding through the soot on his face.
They dodged fire and ducked lizards, making a mad dash toward the ocean. Suki took the lead, maneuvering through the chaos. Sokka tried to not look at the corpses already littering the street, but he couldn't ignore them. He could feel the death around him.
Water lapped against the island's beach, red with fire. Sokka noticed bodies floating in the water, facedown and limp. He shuddered, and stepped into the calm ocean bay. The cold water stung his burnt skin, both painful and refreshing.
They swam, ignoring the screams, the explosions, the roaring fire that filled the air behind them. They kept their heads low, submerging completely except when needing a breath. It was a long, tiring swim. As they made it around a small peninsula, Sokka breathed a short sigh of relief. They were out of sight of the enemy now.
"Down here," Suki whispered, motioning Sokka underwater. Her head disappeared a moment later. Sokka followed her, the water blurring his vision. Water churned in his ears, and his soaked clothes weighed him down.
They entered a small cave. It narrowed quickly, and Sokka felt a stab of panic as the rock began to close in on him. Then, just as he thought he might get stuck, the cave opened up. His lungs ached for air, and as he broke the water's surface he gasped, sucking in the wondrous air.
Sokka leaned against the cave wall as he recovered from the underwater swim, glancing around the cave before him. It was dank and dark, a shaft of sunlight from the surface illuminating the cave walls dimly. The ceiling stood high enough for Sokka to stand, but the walls were close, only large enough for about four people to stand abreast.
"This was unexpected," Sokka said, turning his gaze to Suki. She sat with her back against a large rock, inspecting the burns that covered her body. The majority of them didn't look too bad. "Where did you find this place?"
Suki didn't look up at him, but instead began to tear a strip off her shirt. "I found it when I was a kid," she said, using the cloth to bandage up a small gash on her arm. It was bleeding, but not enough to cause worry. "We should be safe here."
Settling himself on the floor, Sokka began to examine himself. Blood was running from a small cut on his leg, and he could feel another gash leaking blood into his hair. He didn't remember getting either. A few spots along his exposed skin were raw from the fires, but he couldn't do much about those at the moment. Instead he set about bandaging his head.
Sighing, Suki leaned her head back against the wall. Sokka could see her watching him as he began working on his leg. "I used to come here a lot," she said, her voice soft. "Whenever Father got mad, or I just needed to get away." Her voice held a hint of fond reminiscence. Sokka gave her a comforting smile.
Suki returned the smile for a brief moment. A couple tears shimmered in her eyes. "Now it's gone," she whispered. "The village, the people. Everything I grew up with."
"We don't know that," Sokka replied lamely. He knew Suki was probably right. The "battle" - Sokka thought it more a slaughter than anything - hadn't shown any hope of leaving survivors. He wasn't about to tell Suki that, though.
Shuffling over to sit beside Suki, Sokka put an arm around her. She leaned into him, pressing her face against his shoulder, sobs leaking out. They sat like that for a long time, Suki crying, Sokka trying to comfort her and keep from tearing up himself. The occasional rumble from the surface shook the cave walls, but otherwise they were alone, hidden. Waiting out a massacre while their friends died.
Sokka glanced up at the ceiling, weariness grappling with him. They needed to find Aang. Something was terribly wrong. Sokka knew that this wouldn't be the only battle the world would see in the next few months. War was coming, again. And it would be up to Aang to stop it.
Suki grew quiet against him, her breaths becoming deep. She'd fallen asleep. Sokka sighed and let sleep take him as well, the sounds of screams and fire raging in his head as it did so.
Waka waka! Thanks for reading, if you read it! If you didn't read it... what are you doing down here? O.o