The Kuruk was stuck.
This, in itself, had not surprised Sokka - in fact he had more than expected it. What had astounded Sokka was how thoroughly and irreparably the boat had managed to find it's way into the crawling, creeping sheets of ice that had steadily consumed the open water, without any hope of escape.
Before the bow of the ship, there stood the gorgeous figurehead of a rather shabbily-clad mermaid (her indecency, though, was covered with a number of barnacles dropped off by some lone whale). Her sightless face was several feet from a sheer wall of glacier ice, stopped only by the massive beam of wood that jutted forth above her head. The hull of the ship was half-way submerged beneath rolling sheets of ice, packed harder than iron and glued so tight together that barely the faintest crack showed through. All around the ship the ice stretched like glass, both before and behind, closing in around them in an explicably impenetrable fashion. In the middle of this frozen desert, the Kuruk was a black dot against endless white, the ice-plains all windswept and impossible to navigate, mocking in its perpetuity.
The air was harsh and stinging against any barren skin, but luckily it was not snowing. Sokka was slouched unhappily on the railing of the ship, despite the fact the entire vessel was coated in frost and his chin would probably be stuck to the wood soon. Suki was standing beside them, and in an effort to keep out the cold they had both dawned great bear-coats and sealskin boots, great bundles of fur and leather against the wind. The temperature had hovered at about ten degrees above zero for awhile, but it was beginning to drop as time went on, which only worsened the intensity of the ice flow.
On top of everything, a great curtain of dark clouds was rolling from the northwest, an ill foreboding of a snowstorm to come. Sokka's annoyance level was inflating as every motionless moment passed, as though he was steadily expanding balloon.
"This is unbelievable..." he snarled to himself. Suki put a hand on his shoulder and rubbed it gently, an uncertain attempt to comfort.
"I'm sure Captain Chong is figuring something out, Sokka," she tried to assure him.
Captain Chong, however, seemed blissfully unaware that the forces of nature were working so tirelessly against him. In fact, he had just happened upon deck with his arm around his wife, leaving her simply to sidle up alongside the Prince and peer over the edge of the Kuruk.
"Hey!" Chong peered over the side of the ship, and seemed honestly surprised at the immobility of his vessel. "Look at that! That could be a problem, man."
Like a Sokka-shaped balloon and a very sharp, Chong-shaped needle.
"No. Really?" Sokka's lip twitched.
"Sokka," Suki hissed alongside to the Prince. Sokka groaned and slammed his forehead onto the railing.
At that moment, Toph came up the stairs, clinging blindly and angrily to the railing. Katara was behind her, but the earthbender had flatly refused her sister's help in climbing the stairs. Normally this would have put the waterbender in a bad mood, but Katara had been uncharacteristically numb lately, and understood, to some extent, the feeling of helplessness her sister was enduring. It was unbelievably frustrating for someone like Toph.
Aang knew of Toph's independent nature, but nonetheless he watched her apprehensively as she mounted the steps, her feet unsure for the first time ever. Her uncertainty seemed well placed; at the last stair, she raised her foot and over-compensated, her foot coming down wildly through that air. Aang saw it happen like it was in slow-motion; airbending himself towards her, fast as lightning, he caught her before she could split her chin on the wooden dock, before she could even utter a cry of surprise. His rescue of her, however, was short-lived, as she pushed roughly away.
"You alrigh'?" tried the Avatar, in the kindest, most apologetic voice he could manage.
"I'm fine," Toph spat, but she did not entirely let go of Aang's shirt. There was an ashamed look in her face, that made Aang feel dirty for having helped her.
"I know you's is real strong an' all, Toph," said Aang cautiously. "We all know, y'see, 'ow strong y'are. But you gotta' 'ave some 'elp for righ' now -"
"It's fine, Aang. Besides, what's going on?" Toph evaded Aang's words by effectively changing the subject. "Why aren't we moving? Even I can tell we're not doing that."
"...Got a bit stuck in th' ice, is all," Aang chanced a very worried glance at Katara, as Toph wrapped her arm around his. "Is ice every place, y'see. We'll have a hell of a time tryin' to get out, see. 'Ey! where's Zuko when ya' need 'im? Heh."
Katara felt her chest tighten a little at Aang's words. She looked upwards and realized she couldn't find the sun - the sky was too overcast. She wondered what the weather was in Acchai.
"'Ey! Crew-mates!" Chong put his arm back around Lily with a very undeserved, triumphant air that made a vein in Sokka's forehead stick out. "No worries! We've got a plan, we do?"
"Great," Suki sighed in relief, until Chong and Lily both whipped out about four ice picks and held them out, generously, to the passengers assembled on deck. Everyone knew what that meant, even before lily said anything, and the idea of it was devastating.
"Everybody grab a pick! Don't be shy!"
And the prospect of hacking their way out of this tundra-like ice flow was enough make Sokka slap himself so hard, he fell over.
For several hours, then, they were at work, hacking wildly at the ice coating the ships sides, trying to ignore the fact it was freezing faster than it was chipping away. It was an altogether futile sort of plan, even with Katara waterbending big chunks of ice away from the front of ship. The sad fact that no one seemed to notice (besides Sokka, who only grumbled about it fleetingly) was that the ice wasn't just in front of the boat - it was everywhere. It had completely enclosed the ship like bricks of cement, and no matter how many hands they had hammering away at it, they'd never get out in time - especially before the storm hit.
Sokka found it very important to point this out every half-hour or so, but Chong happily ignored his comments. At about the third hour mark, however, Sokka was growing considerably irritable, and it was taking Suki a lot of effort to keep him calm.
"This isn't, fucking, working," he breathed, before throwing his shoulder into a particularly angry blow. The ice shuddered beneath him, but hardly cracked.
"Relax, gloomy-man. We'll get out!" Chong said cheerily, and Sokka snarled.
"Yeah, we'll get out alright. We'll just have to leave the boat and walk to the North Pole..."
"He knows what he's doing, Sokka," Suki tried to convince him. Sokka grumbled and slammed his pick back into the ice.
"Why is everyone putting so much trust in this guy? Seriously? If you met him on the street, would you trust him?"
"Sokka!"
"See? That's a no."
Suki was resisting the urge to slap Sokka when Katara made another futile waterbending strike against the ice flow. The ice parted momentarily before her feet, but in moments was replaced again by new sheets, as tough and unforgiving as the previous. It was weary and endless work, and Katara had not managed to get the boat moved even a few inches forward. Mother nature, it seemed, was almost mocking her spiritual talent. And you thought you were a waterbender! Ha!
"I'm not good enough, Lily," Katara gasped, bending over to clutch her knees. The combination of the endless cold, and the physical and spiritual strain of hacking her way through layers and layers of ice, was taking its tole on her. She was not yet trained enough to harness her energies in a way that would best part the ice; in fact, she was bending against the current, and that was only weakening her more.
"Oh dear, you're doing wonderfully! Don't get discouraged!" Lily tried to encourage her, from her place shoveling beside Suki.
Katara sighed at Lily's attitude. The woman was bright and positive, but Katara did not quite feel in the mood for that. She was cold and tired, and incapable of aiding them in their hour of need.
Where's Zuko when ya' need 'im?
But before she could stray into that despairing line of thought, she felt the ice tremble beneath her in a way that did not come from her, nor the movement of the ship. Even Toph felt it, if only briefly, as it shook the soles of her sealskin boots. As Katara stared strangely at the ice beneath her feet, Toph dropped her pick and crept blindly away towards her, worried and fearful for one of the first times in her life.
"Katara? Katara, where are you?"
"Here, Toph, right here -"
As Toph scrabbled at her sister's cloak, another tremor went through the ice. It was more noticeable this time; Sokka and Aang both stopped working for a moment, looking down at the packed ice beneath their feet. For a long moment, though, nothing else happened; and thinking it was probably just a blue whale passing underneath them, Sokka encouraged Aang to resume to work. Chips of ice flew up into the air, and Katara looked out apprehensively at the white plain before them.
It was not long until a speck of black caught her eye, and she was staring intently at one spot on the ice, a few yards in front of them. At first, she thought perhaps some polar creature had made a hole in the ice to come up for air - a tiger-seal, or white otter, or something of that nature. However, after a few moments, she began to notice that nothing was poking upwards through the ice - the hole had just appeared, suddenly, inexplicably. It gave her an ominous and uncomfortable feeling.
"What is that?"
"What? Where?" Toph took hold of her sister's arm suddenly, uncertainly.
Then the hole in the ice began to move, to swirl, to grow, and Katara felt her confidence slip away. With each passing moment, the edge of the chasm crept towards their feet and suddenly fear strangled her; grabbing Toph blindly, she turned to run, but only slipped hard on the packed ice, pulling the earthbender with her.
"Katara - !"
A rush of water exploded from the hole at their feet. Instinctively, Katara spun and clutched a shocked Toph, to her to shield her from the cold geisure; water trickled down onto her back, but not nearly as much as the flood she had expected. When the sound of rushing water dimmed behind her, and she heard Sokka's voice calling out, loudly and worriedly, towards where they were, she decided to turn and look at what creature had confronted them.
But when she stood back up, the hole in the ice was gone, and the ice was whole again. What ha taken place of a massive, whale-like creature in Katara's mind, was instead about a dozen-or-so savage looking soldiers in blue and black armor, their faces hidden beneath wolf-like helmets. A man stood before all of them, and he alone had his head uncovered; his long, white hair was tucked back in a ponytail, though he was all bald on top, and he had a lined mustache and beard similar to Jeong-Jeong's. But whereas Jeong-Jeong was ferocious and terrible, this man only seemed annoyed and petty.
For a long time Katara stared at him and his soldiers, as did everyone near the boat. The man seemed to disregard all of them fairly easily, looking at the immobile state of the Kuruk rather critically.
"...Sir?"
"Yes?" the man looked at Katara with a raised eyebrow, as though she had interrupted something very important. She instantly disliked him.
"Sir... are you here to help us?"
"That depends," the man was not even looking at the two girls; he was studying the state of the ship, and glancing every now and then towards the three men assembled at the base of the hull. Sokka, Aang and Chong were staring dumbly at the men who had risen from the ice, Sokka too tired to even run to his sister's aid. Katara stared incredulously at the stone-faced man, and then resumed her pleas for help.
"Please, you see what happened was, we got stuck in the ice -"
"I'm aware of you're situation. I do have eyes."
The man brushed passed Katara like she was just child, striding straight towards where Sokka and Chong stood with their ice picks. The brisk, disapproving way he overlooked her made a very feminine fury erupt suddenly in Katara's heart, and judging by the way Toph's grip tightened on her arm, she was seething too.
"Who the hell is he?" spat the earthbender disdainfully.
"Are you the Prince Sokka?" the man stopped before Sokka and brushed a few flakes of gathering snow from his jacket. Sokka, still a little out of breathe from the work, glanced at a confused-looking Chong before replying, unsurely:
"I... guess so."
"You guess so?" said the man sourly, then added: "If you're unaware of who you are, simply state so, and that way we can move through this a lot quicker."
"...Yeah, I'm the Prince," Sokka stated foully. The man's attitude was rubbing them all the wrong way.
"Good. And you there, waterbender! You were doing a poor job in breaking that ice. You need to put less into your shoulder."
And with that the man leapt, did a complicated slicing movement in mid-air, and came down hard on the white surface before the ship. The ice hissed, cracked, broke and separate like a bomb had torn through it; suddenly they could all see the dark blues waves beneath the blinding white ice, and the older man was turning back to climb into the ship, completely disregarding the astounded faces of the present company. The warriors followed him onto the Kuruk without hesitation.
"I suggest you get everyone back on your ship, if you plan on bringing them to the Tribe, Captain," the man spat towards a very bewildered-looking Fong. Katara took a moment to glare at his haughty form, and then took Toph roughly by the hand to drag her back to the ship.
"Who is he? And why's he such a dick?"
"I don't know. But I really hope we don't have to see him again after this."
The ride the Aurora Tribe, after that, was unhappy and tense. The man had not bothered giving any of them his name, and no one (not even Aang) liked him enough to ask for it. Some of the warriors, however, struck up a little conversation with the Prince, and seemed a little more agreeable. They explained that they were one of a few parties sent out to intercept them, at the command in a letter sent by Sokka's father. The entire Aurora Tribe was expecting their arrival with much anticipated glee, especially at the idea of both their Chief's son, as well as the Avatar, arriving among them. Sokka managed to steer the conversation away into matters of weaponry and battle tactics, as with each mention of the Avatar the warriors looked pointedly at Aang, as though expecting him to say something. Aang, however, was starting to feel unwell, and for his sake Sokka directed the soldier's attention away, however briefly.
Yet when they saw the gates to the Aurora Tribe, the malcontent melted away, and they were astonished. Two tall, jagged glaciers, hundred of feet up, marked either side of the entrance to the Tribe's city; they were carven with pictures and characters of the Tribes entire history, mentions of spirits and benders and battles, of Yin and Yang, of the forgiveness and charity of the moon. The middle was bared with several gate of solid ice, that were bent open when the man at the helm raised his hand towards their keepers. A they passed between the long tunnel made between glaciers, Sokka noticed lines of names inscribed into their walls; names of Chiefs, in Nine different categories, all with a picture of an animal atop them.
Then they entered the city, and everything became chaos. Great pillars and walls of ice loomed around them; balconies and platforms and bridges, all overlapping in ever-growing towers of ice, and all of them loaded with people. Crowds of excited civilians screamed down at the ship from ever height and angle; people threw colored beads and shimmering silver dust into the air, to cover the Kuruk and it's passengers. mothers and fathers held up their children so they could catch sight of the Prince, and the Avatar; warriors were waving their spears in the air to signal their lost Prince, though Sokka knew nothing of how to return their gestures. By a team of waterbenders, the boat was guided swiftly through a maze of waterways, all of them as coated with people as the front paths had been; people ran after the boat in groups, tumbling into the water whenever a road became too overcrowded. It was pandemonium that followed the Kuruk, though their hosts seemed very unconcerned with it.
"This is where I leave you," the sour, waterbending man said, and hopped nimbly off the boat, propelling himself to shore.
"Good riddance," Toph muttered under her breathe, and Katara had to agree with her. Now if only the crowds following the boat would go, they would have a bit of privacy and normalcy back.
But when the boat docked, the crowds had not thinned - rather they had multiplied, and the pathway to the Speaking Hall was overrun with civilians. Sokka stepped off the boat first, and immediately all the women closest to him fell upon their knees and began to praise Tui and La, and the River-Daughters. The Prince stood dumbfounded as young men, hardly as old as himself, fought their way through the crowds, trying to offer up their blades and clubs and boomerangs into his service, swearing their lives on Sokka and his great father, Hakoda. Older men begged for news of the missing Chieftain, but Sokka knew less than they, and answered only with a dumbfounded looks. Suki clung instinctively to the Prince, and this must have encouraged the people to think they were soon-to-be betrothed. Women congratulated her in languages she couldn't understand; men took one look at her gorgeous face and called their approval to the Prince Sokka. Both of their faces were flushed red by the time the procession was ended.
Katara was helping Toph off the boat when another section of the audience bustled towards her; older women with baskets of food and clothe and healing herbs, beautiful hand-woven dresses, fur pelts and sealskin slippers. Precious, tinkling blue-glass jewelry was in the hands of those rich enough to afford such costly presents, along with rare bottles of blessed water, earrings and silver bowls. Toph gripped tightly to her sister as uncountable presents were laid at their feet; multi-colored blankets, slabs of carven coral, strings of fish and eel. Katara nearly tripped over a long, braided headdress of startling, sapphire hawk-feathers; a ring was slipped onto one of Toph's fingers against her will, and when she took it of in surprise there was a wail of disappointment from someone in the audience.
Then Aang stepped off the boat, and the crowds erupted.
Women screamed until their voices grew hoarse. Men banged deep, hollow drums and blew great ram-horns. Banners flew suddenly in the crowds, marked with symbols that would have utterly offended anyone in the Union or the Empire; the three swirls of the long-lost Airbending Nation, the arrow of the Avatar, the words "Unity" and "Peace" written in three languages. Children threw glittering silver dust into the air and it shimmered around the Avatar, who stared mutely and sickly at the elated crowds, until Katara had to reach back and drag him forward.
The dozen or so warriors amongst them had a difficult time keeping the public at bay. The dangers loomed anywhere from a raving drunk to an adolescent girl, lovesick for the new Prince; Katara and Toph had their hands full trying to deny the presents being placed at their feet all along the way; and even before the warriors could separate the crowds from the guests, a tiny toddler girl had thrust a miniature ice-flower into Katara's hands. Before Katara could attempt to return the tiny trinket, the guards were pushing them past the crying multitudes and into the Speaking Hall, a giant dome-shaped room made entirely of carven ice.
It was like a cavern in an ice-glacier, more than a room in a city. A thousand candles had been lit around its edges, and their reflections across ice and glass had made the room bright as day, and twice as beautiful. Rainbows arched in the ceiling, where murals of gods and goddesses and spirits were painted in abundance, eerie and beautiful against the row of colors.
Suki stopped dead as soon as they crossed the threshold, and as a result so did Sokka and the rest of the progression. The warriors gestured, as meekly as he could, for Sokka to keep moving; the Prince tugged in vain at Suki's arm, the Kyoshi-Shaman's eyes risen and fixed on the great, dome-shaped ceiling.
"Come on, Suki," Sokka whispered to her, tugging again at her arm and dragging her forward a few steps. Suki only gripped his arm in a tight, terrified way that made the Prince stop short and look at her, really look at her, and read the fear on her face.
"Sokka," her voice was small and cold. Sokka felt his heart beat in distant, dangerous way.
"What, Suki?"
"It's her."
Sokka followed her line of sight to the ceiling, where he saw the most beautiful mural he had ever laid eyes on.
Her face was set in a sad, but triumphant expression, eyes like the reflection of a clear wave. Her brilliant white hair spread around her in a flourishing, fantastic design, blending oddly with the flowing fabric of her dress. The moon glowed behind her head, more heavenly than a halo; against the icy backdrop of the ceiling she was a goddess, an unearthly reflection of beauty in the times when spirits still strode the earth, undisguised. It distracted Sokka for one long, heart-breaking moment, as the warriors grew a little impatient and finally hissed to get him moving.
"I can't be here - I can't -" Suki started to retreat, staring up at the fixed, gentle eyes of the Moon Spirit, but Sokka stopped her.
"It's just Yue, Suki... come on, you've never seen the Moon Spirit before...?"
If not for Sokka's sheer force of will, and his hand on her upper arm, Suki may have turned and bolted. As it was, he half-dragged her forwards onto the stage before them, following the instruction of the warriors. Eight men sat on either side, with one chair in the middle empty; before Sokka could wonder why this chair was vacant, he was looking out over the edge of the stage and down about fifty feet, where the crowds ad re-gathered in the Hall.
It was packed and deafening. The drums and singing voices from outside, once brought within the arching dome of this room, reverberated and repeated and became a mess of jovial noise. Warriors were standing on raised platforms above the crowd, signing with their spears for the crowd to quiet down. The five confused newcomers stood awkwardly on the stage, staring out fearfully at the elated multitude. It took a good ten minutes for the audience to quiet, and in that time Sokka had looked around desperately at all the eight faces assembled on the stage. None of them returned any sign of greeting, besides identical smiles; only the last man stood to answer Sokka's silent call for help.
He had a long, but strong face, and a hairstyle similar to that of Sokka's father. He was wearing a mole-bear cloak that, while far smaller than Jeong-Jeong's and less imposing, was still very impressive. Sokka saw the creases of age and wisdom on his face and started to feel more at ease.
"I am Chief Arnook, of the Bear Clan. We welcome you gratefully to the Aurora Tribe, Prince Sokka."
The crowds erupted again, but this time Arnook raised his hand, and they clamed much faster. Sokka felt his mouth go very dry.
"...Chief?" It was the only thing Sokka could manage to say. He was not used to having hundreds of adoring, obedient eyes fixed so intently on him, unused to the admiration and respect. He was used to the heat and danger of Acchai, the scowl of soldiers, the ever-changing loyalties. The calm, collected state of these people was unusual to him.
"Yes," Arnook smiled encouragingly, aware of the Acchain style armor Sokka wore under his fur-lined cloak, the savage line of his face. Aware he knew nothing of his heritage. "When the clans united some hundred years ago, the Chiefs of the Wolf Clan were chosen to lead us. The clan of you're father - and you're own."
"...I see."
The seven other elder men assembled around Arnook suddenly made more sense, when Arnook mentioned the other Clans. Sokka had never heard of the division of Clans amongst the people of the North, nor had his father seemed it fitting to mention what their own Clan was. Not that his father had said much to him, anyways.
"And whom do you bring with you?" Arnook nodded towards Sokka's companions.
"Oh... I -" Sokka had completely forgot about Suki, and his sisters, and Aang. He turned haltingly towards Suki first, who looked positively petrified, made to stand on stage beside him before this entire staring crowd. That, and the looming mural of the white-haired woman hovering above them, worse than a ghost.
"This is Suki - Lady Suki," he gave an apologetic shrug when she looked at him weirdly. "She is... a Kyoshi-Shaman. From the far south."
Arnook inclined his head respectfully, taking Suki's hand in a gracious, gentlemanly way. Nothing, however, could assure Suki beneath the massive, staring picture of the white-haired woman above them. Her hand shook in Arnook's as he placed his forehead against it, but ever the good host, the Chief made no sign he had felt her uncertainty.
"And... my sisters... Katara, and Toph -"
"Princesses of the Aurora Tribe," Arnook bowed to them each in turn, and took their hands as he had taken Suki's. "Your grace is a light to the plight of our people."
"Plight?" Katara breathed, but Arnook had already turned to look, finally upon a very awkward and uncomfortable-looking airbender.
"And...and that's Aang," Sokka announced, a little bit louder, as though to get Aang to listen too. "The Avatar."
"Avatar Aang... it is the Aurora Tribe's greatest honor, to have you among us."
And then Arnook did something Aang did not expect. He lowered himself to his knees, and pressed his forehead to the icy floor.
The entire multitude obediently followed suit. First the other Chiefs stood from their chairs and bowed themselves (stiffly, for many of them were well aged), and their wives alongside, and outward and outward in a wave-like motion, until the entire hall bowed before the Avatar. Young and old alike went their lowest to show reverence, black and white and gray hair spread upon the floor, eyes staring willingly into the ground.
A very mocking, terrible silence enclosed Aang. Then a fleeting, inexplicable thought occurred to him; a death-pale face with blood-red lips, laughing, high and cruel and cold.
By the time the vision had passed, Chief Arnook was rising to his feet again. Aang had a sudden feeling like he was going to be sick.
"Aang... say something," Sokka hissed sideways to the Avatar. All eyes in the room were fixed on him, expectantly.
White teeth again charred black, living red. Dismembered corpses. The smell.
"Than' - Thank you," it was all he could say, before he blurted out: "But I can't - can't take such kind - a' mean, you's all, thinkin' I'm... I'm so great, an' all... but -"
"Chief Arnook," Sokka put a supportive hand on Aang's shoulder, which silenced Aang instantly and gratefully. "I think what Aa - what the Avatar means, is that we are very tired from our journey, and, um -"
"Of course," Arnook saved Sokka before he could make himself look like a fool, and then turned for a moment back to Aang. "Tomorrow I will introduce you to Master Pakku, and Guru Pathik, Avatar Aang. You may begin you're waterbending training at that time."
"Yeah..." Aang felt very hollow and fake. But something still pierced the back of his mind, and even as Arnook turned to dismiss them, he blurted out: "Wait! Ka - Katara. Wha' about 'er?"
"Princess Katara?" Arnook turned to look at her, which made Katara's cheeks flush deeply.
"Yeah... she a waterbender, y'know, Sa'."
"Ah! Very good. You can study beneath Master Pakku too, if you wish," he inclined his head to her again with a friendly smile.
"Yes... thank you," it was all she could manage.
She was still holding the tiny ice-flower the toddler had given her. It was starting to melt from the embarrassed heat of her hands.
--
"This is Kimba. She'll be in class with you and Pakku. Right now, however, she'll do the favor of showing you to your rooms."
Kimba bowed very graciously, Katara noticing in a strange, akin sort of way that their hair was of the same glossy, deep brown hue. Sokka and Aang had already been led away by a male hos; now it was there turn. Kimba was a pretty, caramel-skinned girl a bit lighter than Katara, with one long braid and hair-lops similar to Katara's. The way she was not wearing the niqab had not escaped any of their notices; in fact, both Katara and Toph were feeling very self-conscious about their head coverings, but dare not attempt to remove them beneath the shadow of their brother. Katara even wondered, as Kimba led them to their rooms, what these Aurora Tribe women thought of the head-covering.
"Your mother - was she part of the Turtle Clan?"
Kimba's words surprised Katara out of her thoughts. She looked oddly at the girl, not really catching what she had asked her.
"What?"
Kimba smiled in a way that made Katara feel a little less apprehensive, and then pointed to a blue gem at her neck. It was carven into the vague shape of a bear and a flower, and suddenly Katara was vividly reminded of that night on the docks.
Dark hair brushing against her forehead. The intensity of his lips on her, his arms encasing her. Slipping a cold blue necklace into his heated hand.
"I'm of the Bear Clan - many of us have darker eyes," Kimba was explaining. "But women of the Turtle Clan - they often have blue eyes, like you. The Beaver Clan too."
"I... I don't know," Katara answered honestly, looking down at her feet.
"I don't know if I want to look like a turtle or a beaver," Toph noted blandly, and Kimba laughed.
They walked down a side-hall near the Speaking Chamber, that had a sign above it in a Tribe language. None of them could read it, but Kimba said it meant "women's quarters". Katara was happy to learn that, like in Acchai, men's and women's rooms were still not allowed to be too close to each other. Kimba led them to a large ivory door, enscripted with more characters in a foriegn tongue, and gestured for the sisters to enter.
"You will have to share a room," Kimba said it a little apologetically to Katara and Toph. "We don't have much to space to spare. There aren't as many waterbenders, nowadays, to help with renovations... Lady Suki, your room is this way."
"Please, don't call me Lady," Suki said uncomfortably. She still looked very uneasy and apprehensive, and it was bothering Katara; for the first time she began to really question this Kyoshi-Shaman from the south, who had such dramatic reactions to simple murals of Moon Spirits.
The room was comfortable, the ice-floor completely covered in carpet and blankets to ward off cold, the beds a mountain of fur. On one end of the room, a fire was burning lowly, to keep the space at a reasonable temperature. In an adjoining room, an ivory bathtub was placed precariously over another low fire, to keep the water warm for the guests; various lotions and shampoos were assembled around it's edges, with hooks on the walls for towels and clothing. Bed-clothes had been left in this bathing room for them, but they were unlike any bed clothes Katara had ever seen; all of them were thick and fury, and looked uncomfortably warm. Unable to speak much, they took their baths in turns, though Katara went first, so that she could aid Toph when she needed help discerning the shampoo from the soap.
They undid each other's hair before getting in bed, as they had done every night since they were old enough to say each other's names. In this one endeavor, Katara knew Toph could still feel capable - she had never needed the vibrations in the earth to know how to undo Katara's bun and braids and loops. Usually they would go on talking about their day as they did this, as it took some time to finish properly - and this day, unlike many of their days at Al-Abhad, had been a seriously eventful one. But neither of them seemed able to speak.
So in silence they undid each other's hair, and in silence they readied for bed. The huge glass and ice archways of the room were covered in furs and blankets to mute the reflections of the firelight. The flames burned low on the hearth as they moved to their separate mattresses; it would be out by morning.
"I'm going to hate it here."
Toph said it as she slid her feet under the covers. She was still wearing socks, as Sokka had commanded her - otherwise her feet might freeze.
"It won't be that bad, Toph," even though Katara was already starting to feel like a crow amongst bluebirds in this foreign Tribe. "It'll just... take some getting used to."
"Yeah, easy for you to say. You like the cold. You're going to be trained by a Master. You can see where you're going."
"Toph... come on," Katara sat up in her bed and looked across the dim room at her sister. The waterbender had half a mind to walk over and embrace the poor girl, as she had done so many times before in the gardens of Al-Abhad. This time, however, Toph was turned away from her, shielded by a mountain of blankets.
"I know," for the first time ever, Toph did not feel at ease in the captivating darkness of her existence. She couldn't feel the earth beneath her, the beating of her sister's heart, the overall awareness of her surroundings she had come to take such easy advantage of. Through the tremors of stone and earth she had stabilized herself - but now her foundation was gone, and her confidence eroded away.
"It's just... It's like when we were little. We'd want to run away... from Fong, from Acchai, from everything. You used to talk about going to the North Pole. I used to talk about going to the Ruin Mountains. We never could agree on where to go first, though... but I guess you won that."
Katara moved to leave her own bed, and go towards Toph - but as she rustled the sheets to do so, she saw Toph retreat further into her blankets. The blind girl's precise hearing had noticed her movement, and rejected it.
Katara suddenly had a very sour taste in her mouth. She moved back slowly onto her own bed.
"We'll only be here a little while, Toph, while Aang gets trained. It's just a little while..."
Toph did not move, buried deeply in her bed. Blind eyes misty and distant in the dark.
"Yeah... Aang..."
The room fell very silent then, with Katara still sitting up and looking over at her young sister. Perhaps it was the faded lighting in the room, or the way the fire flickered, but Toph seemed very small within her fur-lined sheets. For as long as Katara could remember, as long as they were sisters, Toph had always been the stronger of the two, the most resolute. She did not change like the tides changed. She was steady and stable, and unrelenting.
But now she was small and unsure in the firelight. It made Katara feel cold, in a way that had nothing to do with the frigid air of the north.
She wanted to say, This wasn't how I wanted it. I want to go back.
But Toph would have heard her.
Katara was exhausted from battling wind and ice and snow, but when she rolled over to face the fire, she did not slip under the covers. Instead, she gathered up the sheets and clutched them to her chest, to the soft spot on her neck where her mother's pendant would have hung.
She fell asleep staring into the soft flames of the fire, the image of golden eyes in a half-scarred face.