Chapter II: Reunion

"Ugh! This is taking forever! How did we ever get around without Appa!?" Sokka exclaimed before he flopped down on his cot.

"Well, look on the bright side, Sokka. We wouldn't have gotten half this far if we'd been walking." Four days had passed since the two had set sail from Kyoshi Island, and it was expected that it would take another two days before they landed in a town that was a reasonable distance from the Wulong Forest. There was silence between the two for several long moments before Sokka said, "I can't believe that was really Chao."

"Yeah, you keep telling me that," Suki replied.

"I know. But I just can't get over it! He's so… different than he was two months ago."

"You keep telling me that, too. And you might have noticed it sooner if you hadn't been travelling back and forth between Kyoshi Island and the South Pole so much."

"Well, they need me over there, okay? And you really should come and see it with me one of these days. It's a lot different from when we visited after the war ended." Sokka and Suki had stopped by the South Pole a few weeks after the war ended, after all the treaties and diplomatic meetings had ended; the Southern Water Tribe had suffered from one last Fire Nation attack before Sozin's Comet, so Sokka and Katara were dropped off to assist with reconstruction. Aang returned Suki to Kyoshi Island a day or two later before returning to assist with the reconstruction as well, and eventually, the Southern Water Tribe was restored, rivaling even the Northern Water Tribe in its magnificence. Sokka would travel to Kyoshi Island as often as he could to visit Suki, but she would always turn down his offers to come back with him to the South Pole.

"I will, eventually." There was another long silence between the two. Eventually, Sokka asked, "So, how are things between you and the recruits? They're not giving you any problems, are they?"

"Things are just fine, Sokka. What, you think I can't handle things by myself?"

"Hey, I never said that, Suki!"

"I'm just teasing Sokka, calm down." She paused. "You know, I've been meaning to ask you this for a while, but how are Aang and the others?" Suki's lie from before had reminded her of her other friends.

"The last I heard, Aang, Toph, and Katara are all trying to deal with those renegade Fire Nation generals holed up in the Earth Kingdom, and Zuko and Mai are having some problems in the Fire Nation they're trying to fix. …That reminds me, I should send a letter to Katara, let her know where we're going." The conversation lulled again. Finally, Suki asked, "Sokka, this might sound like a weird question, but what's the deal with Chao? He's so much younger than everyone else."

Sokka sat up. "It's not really a story I'd like talking about," he said, before telling her Chao's story.

Chao and his father had been some of the first people to come down from the Northern Water Tribe to help rebuild their sister tribe. Master Pakku had said that Chao's mother died when he was three years old from some sudden illness, leaving his father to raise him alone. Chao's father had been a warrior, and had high expectations for his son to follow in his footsteps. But after they had been in the South Pole for a few months, something happened. A small group of Fire Nation soldiers patrolling the area, largely out of boredom than anything else, decided to raid the village. The warriors were able to drive the soldiers away with only one casualty: Chao's father. Afterward, Chao lapsed into a state of depression, becoming extremely timid and withdrawn. He wandered back and forth between the few families that would take him in, until after the war, when Sokka announced that he would be taking a few warriors to train on Kyoshi Island. Chao had been one of the first to volunteer- at first, Sokka refused, in respect to his age, but after hearing what happened from his father and Master Pakku, he decided to take Chao with him.

Some time passed before Suki finally said, "That's awful! I can't imagine what it must be like- to not have anyone there for you, to not have a home…"

"That must be why he's so attached to you- since you're his master, you're the closest thing he has to a family. He probably thinks of you like a big sister."

"Huh… I guess so."


Two days passed. The ship finally landed in a small port a few miles south of the Wulong Forest; it was as close as they were going to get, since the next port was another thirty miles north of where they landed. As Sokka and Suki walked along the road leading out of the village, Sokka suddenly stopped. Suki stopped as well and asked, "What's wrong Sokka?" But Sokka didn't answer- he was sitting on the ground, digging furiously through his bag. He pulled out a brush and a piece of paper, before hurling his bag at her and rushing off, shouting hurriedly, "I'm sorry there's something I need to take care of I'll be right back!" A few minutes later, he returned, collapsing to his knees as he gasped for breath. "Okay, so, do you mind explaining what just happened?" Suki asked.

"I'm sorry…" Sokka gasped. "I… almost forgot… to write… that letter… to Katara…" Eventually he caught his breath. "I'm sorry for running off like that. I just had to get that done before we head out."

"It's fine Sokka," she replied, tossing Sokka his bag. "We should get going. The Wulong Forest is a big place, and we've got a lot of ground to cover if we're going to find Space Sword."

A few hours passed, and the sun began to sink toward the western horizon. They had finally reached the threshold of the forest. Before them, innumerable stone columns rose from the ground, trees growing from their steep sides. Much of the forest, however, was still scorched black from Fire Lord Ozai's attempt to burn the Earth Kingdom to the ground- it would be some time before the land would ever fully recover. "Wow," Sokka said. "Look at the size of this place!"

"I know," Suki replied. "And if we want to find Space Sword, we have to search this place from top to bottom."

"Well, we might as well get some searching done while we still can," Sokka said, as he began to walk into the forest. "We still have an hour or two before--" Something caught Sokka's foot and he fell flat on his face. Suki rushed over to him and asked, "Are you okay Sokka?" Sokka pushed himself up from the ground. "Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry." He looked back to see what he had tripped over. "It must've just been a root or--" He stopped at once.

There was a small object buried in the dirt. Although it was stained a dark brown, the object was flat, and almost perfectly rounded at the tip- there was no way it could be a mere rock. Sokka wrapped his hand around the thing and wiggled it; it moved, loosening the surrounding dirt. Then, with one tug, he pulled the object from the earth. It was clotted with dirt, and the elements had created a line of rust along the blade, but there was no mistaking that elbow shaped object.

"Oh Boomerang! You really do come back!" Sokka hugged Boomerang against his chest. "Wow, I wasn't expecting that," Suki said. "Maybe this won't take as long as I thought." Sokka wasn't paying attention however, busily brushing off the clods of dirt that had attached to Boomerang. He held it up to inspect it- the metal had been stained an ugly brown, but other than that, and the line of rust along the blade, Boomerang seemed to be in good shape. But just to make sure, Sokka drew back his arm and snapped it out; Boomerang flew through the air, eventually arcing around back to Sokka. Reflexively, he caught it on the non-sharpened section- even after four months without practice, his skill remained just as sharp as ever.

"It still works," Suki said. "So, are we going to keep searching, or…?"

"No," Sokka replied, never taking his eyes off of Boomerang. "I think we've done enough searching for today."

The two set up camp soon after, just before night fell. As the two climbed into their tent, Suki whispered to Sokka, "So, Sokka… since we found Boomerang, how about you and I… celebrate?" She spread herself seductively on her sleeping bag, eyeing him hungrily. He gave her a brief glance before climbing into his sleeping bag and replying, "Not tonight Suki. I want to be up early so we can find Space Sword."

Suki was stunned. Sokka never turned her down her advances when she wanted to… be intimate with him. But more importantly, he never wanted to wake up early. Ever. So, she crawled over to Sokka, rolled him onto his back, straddled him, forced his eyelid open with her finger and asked him, "Okay, who are you and what have you done with the real Sokka?"

"Suki, it's me, really. I just really want to find Space Sword first, okay? I promise I'll make it up to you."

"Okay, but I'm holding you to that."


Sokka groaned as he felt the filtered rays of the sun shine on his face. He sat up and stretched, before looking over and saying, "Good morning Suki." Suki groaned and looked up at Sokka, saying "I can't believe you actually woke up before I did."

"Me neither. Oh, and I'm very happy to say, good morning Boomerang." He picked up Boomerang and hugged it to his chest again. He slid it into his bag (he hadn't brought Boomerang's sheath), climbed out of his sleeping bag, and said, "Well, since we're both awake, I think we should get started."

After breakfast, the two set out into the forest. The place was unimaginably massive, and there were so many places that Space Sword could be- stuck in a tree, on top of one of the rock columns, stuck in the side of one of the rock columns, stuck in the ground, obscured by all the trees and rocks… the possibilities were nearly endless. Sokka stopped, hand on his chin, lost in thought. "What's wrong Sokka?" Suki asked.

"I'm just trying to remember where the airship was when I lost Space Sword."

"Well, we should probably start with that burned section over there."

"Alright then." The two headed over to a large blackened section of the forest. The ground below was coated with a fine gray dust that scattered with every step they took; the trees were scorched and cracked from the intense fires created by the firebenders during Sozin's Comet; from time to time, they would come across large metal fragments embedded in trees, stones, and the ground, remnants of the Fire Nation's airship fleet; and the air was filled with the scent of burning- not of burning wood, but seemingly by the very essence of fire itself. But there was something else, something that struck Sokka rather suddenly. The forest had been fairly quiet before, with only the occasional rustling of some animal of the singing of some bird… but here, the silence seemed to press down on him and Suki. "Wow, this is really creepy," she said, clinging onto his arm.

"Tell me about it. Let's just hurry and find Space Sword so we can get out of here." The two began searching through the burned section to find Sokka's Space Sword. Time passed, and the sun slowly began to climb to the top of the sky. But they found nothing. Sometimes, they would come across a glint of metal, or a long, straight object, but these objects were always just branches or airship pieces, never a sword. After a few hours of searching, Sokka, who had been bent over a long metal object, stood up and said, "No, this isn't Space Sword either. It's just a pipe." He looked back at Suki. "I don't know about this, Suki. Shouldn't we have found something by now?" Suki replied, "Hey, don't worry Sokka. This is a big place, and I'm sure if we keep looking, we'll find Space Sword eventually." Her eyes trailed up a tall stone column nearby, squinting when her eyes fell on an object seemingly stuck in a tree growing out of the pillar. "Sokka, look up there." She pointed to the object. Sokka followed Suki's arm up the column, his eyes falling on the object as well

The object embedded in the tree appeared to be a branch at first glance, but with a closer look, Sokka saw that it was far too straight to be a normal branch, and lacked the small green sprouts growing on the other branches, but more notably, the object glinted gold near the top. Without thinking, he approached the column and began to climb; Suki asked, "Sokka, wait, what are you doing?" but Sokka was hardly aware of her. He rapidly climbed up the column, hardly aware of how fast he climbed, or how high, his mind fixated on that mysterious object. Soon he came to the tree. Wrapping his limbs tightly around a thick branch, he reached over, gripped the object's hilt, and pulled; the object slid out with ease. He examined the sword he now held, one that had become incredibly familiar to him, one he had crafted with his own hand. The leather on the grip had been worn away by exposure to the elements, and a piece of the pommel had broken off, but the black blade was in perfect shape, as perfect as the day it had been forged.

Space Sword.

Sokka looked down at the ground and called out, "Suki, get out of the way!" before dropping his sword, blade-down, to the ground- unlike with Boomerang, Sokka had brought Space Sword's sheath, but had left it at the camp. The sword fell to the ground, sinking almost all the way up to the hilt. Suki glanced over at it briefly before looking back up at Sokka. She expected that he would be climbing down, but instead, he was still holding onto the tree. "Sokka! Start climbing down!" she called up to him. What she didn't know was that Sokka had seen just how high he actually was, and was too terrified to move.

"This is a lot higher that I thought!" he called back. "Um… help!"

Suki laughed at him, and quickly climbed up to where he was. "Come on Sokka, grab on," she said as she clung to the tree next to him. Slowly, cautiously, he scooted closer to Suki, and stopped.

"Come on Sokka. Climb on."

He shook his head. "Don't make me let go of the tree."

"Fine. Hold still." She slipped under Sokka's arms and legs, positioning herself between the tree and Sokka, and said, "Now grab on." Sokka quickly slipped his arms and legs around Suki's body, holding on tight. Then, Suki began to slowly climb down to the ground. Had the circumstances been different, Sokka would have thoroughly enjoyed having himself pressed against his curvy girlfriend; now, however, he was too terrified of falling to really appreciate anything. After several long minutes, the two finally reached the ground; at once, Sokka let go and flopped down on the ground. "You know, I think I understand how Toph feels whenever we fly anywhere now," he said to Suki.

Suki had wandered away to where Space Sword had landed and pulled it from the ground. "I'm surprised this is such good shape, considering it's been out here for four months." She rested the blade briefly in the palm of her hand, only to cry out and drop it; the brief contact had made a large cut across her palm. "It's still sharp."

Sokka approached, picking up Space Sword. "We should get back to the camp and get that wrapped up. It might get infected." The two began to head back to the camp. As they headed back, Suki began, "So… we managed to find Boomerang and Space Sword. How would you feel about celebrating now?"

"Suki… I think we should wait until we get back to Kyoshi Island."

"Humph! You know, you're not doing a good job of carrying out your… boyfriend-ly duties. I think I'll head off by myself and find Aang after we get home, show him how you're supposed to treat a lady. I'm sure he'd appreciate the stress relief."

"You wouldn't!"

"Oh come on, I was just kidding. But considering everything that's been going on, the kid could use some time to unwind. If it's okay with you, I think I'll go visit him, give him a few pointers, maybe even let him get some hands-on--"

"Stop it! Just… stop! I don't need to think about Aang doing… that, okay?" Back when he, Aang, Katara, and Toph had still been together at the South Pole, Sokka had gone out of his way to make sure there was no funny business between Aang and Katara- they weren't allowed to be alone in the same room, or alone anywhere that wasn't in Sokka's direct line of sight, and as long as he was with them (which was almost always) they weren't allowed to kiss, and any hugs couldn't last longer than two seconds. For the times he went to visit Suki, he enlisted Toph to watch over them. The others protested vehemently about the arrangement- Aang, Katara, and even Toph (who otherwise avoided squabbles between the two siblings, complaining mostly because she'd been sucked into it unwillingly), but Sokka was determined. Aang might have been the Avatar, but that wouldn't save him if Sokka ever found out he'd taken Katara's innocence.

But after Master Pakku and his dad convinced Suki to train the Water Tribe warriors, he had to travel to Kyoshi Island to watch over their progress. Toph was supposed to be watching them, but knowing her, she wouldn't care either way; without anyone watching, they were probably pawing all over each other at this very moment, doing Spirits-only-knew-what. The mere thought made his stomach churn.

"I know what you're going to say- Aang's a nice kid and I should trust him more. But I've always looked out for Katara. And I don't--"

Sokka stopped when he noticed something unusual- smoke was curling up in the air ahead, where he and Suki had set up camp. He hurried ahead, with Suki alongside him, when they returned to the edge of their camp. Their campfire had been lit, a pot of tea settled over the fire, but Sokka's attention was focused there for only a moment. Someone was already there, sitting on a log, waiting for them- he looked up when he heard them approach. Neither Sokka nor Suki had seen this person since the invasion.

"It's good to see you again, Sokka," Master Piandao said.