AUTHOR'S NOTE: I hate my life! I hate not being able to write like I want to! I swear I am doing my best to ignore things like work and family drama in favor of writing. But it sure is hard. Meanwhile, thank you to everybody who's reading and reviewing. Please keep it up!
Chapter Seven
The next morning, the group gathered again in the courtyard where Zuko and Aang carefully brushed and tended to Blaze and Appa.
"Sugar, we need a big animal to ride, too," Jet declared to Mai as he lounged on a bench beside her, his legs stretched out languidly before him, one arm draped across her shoulders.
"I could probably find us some lizards," Mai answered.
"Or maybe Bo or Hu could fix us up with some tree geckos," Jet countered.
Toph snorted at him from her seat on a beautifully earthbended settee. "Earthbenders are bound to badger moles," she corrected him firmly. "If you need a big animal, I'd suggest you go visit them in the Cave of Two Lovers."
Zuko stopped washing Blaze's front leg and looked at her quizzically, "Cave of Two Lovers?"
"One of the most sacred places in the Earth Kingdom," Toph answered. "A secret pathway through the mountain to Omashu. Few know of its existence and even fewer know how to find it," she finished smugly. "You should make the trip a priority, Jet."
"I've been there already," Jet said with a shrug and a grin at Toph's look of surprise. "I didn't see any badger moles. But I did meet a group of traveling musical nomads. That's how I got to Omashu after the war. I guided them through the cave."
Aang looked up from brushing Appa and laughed. "That was an interesting place indeed. Do you still have to find your way through in the dark?" he asked.
"Not any more. Somebody put up signs that say, 'Exit this way,'" Jet answered.
"There's no fun in that," Toph declared firmly, then she turned back to Jet. "But just the same, you really need to pay the badger moles a visit. They are the original earthbenders like the dragons are the original firebenders."
"And like the sky bison are the original airbenders," Aang added, giving Appa a pet on the head.
"Who are the original waterbenders?" Mai asked curiously.
"The two koi fish in the Northern Water Tribe Spirit Oasis," Zuko answered.
Aang shook his head. "Not exactly. The original waterbender was Tui, the moon spirit. She and La, the ocean spirit, took up residence in the Spirit Oasis in the form of the koi fish as a link to the natural world."
"Why?" asked Mai curiously.
"The spirit world and the natural world run sort of parallel with each other," Aang explained. "What happens in one effects the other. Having a presence in both worlds and in the center of the Northern Watertribe gave benders more access to the power of the Moon for bending."
"So the fish are an extension of the spirits," Zuko surmised, wiping the damp hair away from his forehead. "That explains what happened when General Zhao killed the white moon fish."
Aang and Katara nodded in agreement, leaving Mai and Jet looking confused. "What happened?" Mai asked curiously.
"When Tui was killed," Aang began sadly, "the moon itself went dark and the waterbenders lost all their power. Then Yue gave her life back to the koi fish, and she took Tui's place as moon spirit."
Katara looked up from where she knelt next to the playing babies and sat back on her heels, deep in thought. "The other night when Sokka went missing, the moon went dark for a moment, and I lost my bending ability. Aang, what do you think happened?"
"Only Sokka knows," Aang answered, giving Appa another good rub on the head and a fresh supply of oatbarley grass to eat. "And I'm not sure if he's ready to tell us yet."
Suki came out of the house then, Zutara at her side. "Has anybody seen Sokka this morning?" she asked. "He left early to go check on the boat and hasn't come back yet." It was evident to all that she'd grown anxious for him.
"I'll take a look around at the dock," Jet offered. "Since I don't have a large earthbending animal to tend to."
"We could go find a grizzlywolverine," Mai suggested as she rose to go with him. "They can't earthbend, but they pack a mean punch."
Jet laughed and rubbed the back of his head at that. "I'll pass on that one," he declared firmly.
The two walked down the dock hand in hand, teasing each other until they reached Sokka's fishing vessel. It lay quiet in its berth at the harbor. Sokka was nowhere to be seen, so they decided to take a walk down to the beach and check out the surf. Jet had to agree with Mai that surfing had been an exhilarating and addictive experience. He couldn't wait to get out there again.
As they turned the last bend in the path that led to the beach, a most unexpected sight met their eyes.
Before them lay a huge castle on the sand, glistening like crystal in the morning sun.
Mai walked closer, her eyes barely able to take in the sight before her. This was not a sand castle. This was an ice castle. It shone in the sunlight like diamond.
And it was huge—at least as large as the governor's mansion on the island, if not larger.
They approached the beautiful entryway, climbing a set of steps to the front door, which stood partially open. She walked toward the door, mesmerized by the detail in the carving and the size of it. Then she pushed at it with her hand to see if it actually moved.
To her surprise, not only did it swing freely on its hinges, it felt funny as well.
It wasn't cold.
Cool, maybe, she decided, but like stone or iron. Not like ice at all.
Jet followed her through the doorway and Mai could hear his intake of breath as they entered the main hallway. The ceiling was translucent blue and glowed from the sunshine outside. A clear crystal chandelier hung down from the ceiling, the sunlight dancing through it as if through a thousand tiny skylights, sending shimmers of light around the room.
"That took a long time," Sokka's voice sounded behind them, echoing a little off the walls. "But I think it was well worth the effort."
Mai walked forward to touch the bannister of the curving staircase that led to the second floor. Again, it felt smooth and solid beneath her hand, but not cold. "How?" was all she could manage to ask.
"Well, I just started playing around this morning and got the idea to build Suki a house," Sokka answered. "I'm working on the kitchen now, making furniture."
"It's beautiful," Jet said behind her. "But won't it melt?"
"I don't think so," Sokka replied. "But we won't know for sure for a couple of years probably."
At Jet's look of disbelief, Mai grabbed his hand and placed it onto the handrail next to hers. She watched her husband take in the nature of the ice Sokka had created, then heard him echo her earlier question. "How?"
Sokka reached out one hand to the wall beside him, stroking it gently like a sculptor. Mai watched as a chair rail appeared on the wall as his fingers passed. "I like these," Sokka commented. "Zuko has them in the dining room of the fire palace."
"How did you make this, Sokka?" Jet managed to ask again. "How did you create ice that doesn't melt?"
"Well," Sokka began, "I just started playing with some ice early this morning. Making little models of things. Then I just kept experimenting with pressure and temperature until I came up with a way to make the water lock into ice crystals but without freezing it."
Mai and Jet could only look around them in amazement.
"Probably any bender could do it given enough time and practice," Sokka added dismissively.
"I don't think so, Sokka," Mai whispered. "I think this is one of a kind."
Within minutes, the rest of the group had found them and all stood around in varying stages of amazement, admiration, disbelief, and horror.
To Sokka's surprise, Suki hadn't fallen in love with it like he'd wanted. Instead, she wandered around the rooms, the look on her face more kin to fear than joy.
But it was Katara's reaction that puzzled him more than anything.
She was horrified. In fact, she wouldn't even go in. "This isn't right, Aang," was all she would say as she stood with her husband before the door. "It doesn't feel right. I can tell it's water but I can't bend it. It's like it's been locked away from me."
Sokka tried to reassure her that it was water still, just different. But she would not set foot inside.
After a short walkthrough holding Zuko's hand tightly, Toph joined Katara outside. "That was weird," was her evaluation. "It felt like stone beneath my feet but was completely invisible. It was like when Sokka walked on the ocean. Only I was the one suspended in space this time." Toph shivered at the memory. "Weird."
"Not weird," Katara stated firmly. "Wrong."
After a while, Aang joined them outside. "That was different," he declared. "I never felt water like that."
"I couldn't bend it, Aang," Katara declared, her voice shaking. "How can he do this? How can he change water that way?"
"I don't know," the avatar replied with a sigh as he watched the sunlight shimmer off the roof of Sokka's not-quite-ice palace. "I wish I did. But I have to agree with you. It's not right."
Within the walls of a palace of red coral, Ocean had felt the bending powers of Yue's human and it had felt like the squeal of fingernails down slate. What had she done? What had she created when she'd given part of herself to him?
The element he governed was so vast and benders so few that he rarely felt any hint of activity from the human world. The last time he'd felt benders working was when the Fire Nation had attacked the Northern Water Tribe. The concerted bending of so many warriors had roused his interest and brought him near the natural world even before Tui's life had been taken.
He'd been close enough to their plane that he'd seen and felt her death in multiple dimensions—in the koi pond, in the spirit world, and in the water itself. He'd lost the other half of himself in that moment and had felt it in every way possible.
But likewise when Yue's life had poured into the koi fish and into the moon and into the spirit world, she had also poured into his life. He'd felt her keenly, all her fear and her innocence, all her bravery and her generosity.
In the aftermath of his fury against the Fire Nation, he'd withdrawn from the new moon spirit—partially out of grief, partially out of courtesy. And though Yue had taken up residence in Tui's place in the koi fish and in the spirit world, he'd not visited her in the ivory tower of the moon.
Now, Ocean found himself barging into that same ivory tower uninvited and unannounced.
She sat on a low settee, gazing out the nearby window. As he entered the room, she turned to face him, her lovely face surprised and a little alarmed at his entrance.
"This is an unexpected pleasure, La," she said and the soft melody of her voice ran over him like silk. "What brings you to my house?"
He had not been inside the tower in many years. She had changed things, he realized, made it her own.
"Come. Sit." Yue beckoned to him with a smile.
Ocean shook his head. "I am not here on a social visit, Moon."
"Then why are you here?"
He looked at her standing there, so beautiful, her expression so welcoming, and he could not find the words.
Then the human bender she had created twisted more of his element out of balance and the feel of it sickened him. He grew dizzy and reached out a hand to the back of a chair to steady himself.
Yue ran to him. When her hand touched his arm, a shock ran through him and he grabbed her wrist.
"Tui had lovers. I knew that," he hissed angrily. "But she never . . ." He wasn't quite sure how to go on. Then another spasm wracked him. "What did you do?" he gasped. "What kind of power did you give this human?"
His grip on her wrist tightened even more as another wave of sickness ran through him and she cried out in pain. Somehow Ocean forced his fingers to relax but did not let go as he looked up at her.
Yue's eyes were wide with fear now. "I had hoped you were different from her. But I was wrong. You and Tui are just alike." He let go of her and forced himself to straighten despite the sickness and the pain. "Two faces of the unfaithful Moon."
Ocean glared at her, doing his best to ignore the tears welling in her blue eyes, eyes as blue as the sea in summer. "This must end, Yue," he declared. "And if you do not end it, I will."
Then as suddenly as he arrived, he was gone.