PARADOX

Chapter Thirteen: Roughing it, part 2

A/N: This chapter is dedicated to OneWorldLife and Naomi Gardiner who gave me the kick in the pants I needed to write an actual story. So thank you. I didn't even notice I was just copying the episodes.

I woke early the next morning. I slipped out of my sleeping bag looking at my companions as I did. With a silent sigh I slipped out of the flap of the tree house. I hated heights, why was I even here. Its not like they others were going to believe that Jet was actually evil. After all he was "handsome" which was all the incentive Katara needed to listen to him. Aang would follow Katara off the edge of a cliff and Sokka would be at least a little skeptical at least until he saw for himself how bad Jet was.

Speaking of which, the boys should be getting ready to head out on their secret mission. Maybe I should follow just to see if I could change anything. I didn't want to change anything too drastically or the timeline could change completely and I would have no clue what to do. But what was the harm in following the boys just to help the old man? Its not like it would completely change the timeline if I helped one man, right?

Maybe I should get a mask. Like Zuko had for the Blue Spirit episode. Maybe a red one to mock the fire nation. I shook my head as if I could dislodge my thoughts by physical movement. I checked to make sure I had my weapons. Dao swords, bow and quiver of arrows, water pouch, and a small knife I could use in close combat.

Yep, I was set. I used a small bit of air bending to help me drop to the ground lightly. I was pretty good at both air and water bending. Probably because they fit my personality. When I was in school and I got mad enough to punch someone I never did. I let taunts and teases flow off of my back like water and I lived day by day not planning too far ahead. I had a vague goal and worked toward that and nothing else.

The sound of teenagers getting around warned me I should hid if I wanted to follow without alerting them to my presence. I hid behind a thick tree watching as Jet, Smellerbee and Longshot led Sokka where ever they were going. I waited for three minutes before following at the same pace they had. The distance would let me keep them in sight and keep myself out of their sight and hearing range.

I had learned that the hard way hunting Carribou-goats. If they heard you they either fled quickly or if you were unlucky turned to take a chuck out of you with their antlers. One had tried once to maul me with his antlers. I had barely managed to avoid a serious injury. Kovu had ended up jumping in to save me.

Flashback:

It had been a year since I had gotten Kovu. He had grown rapidly under my care. Without his siblings to hog his share of food he grew like a weed. He now easily reached my waist. (He would grow to reach my shoulder by the time I left the South Pole.). We had been tracking a herd of Carribou-goat. One male and his harem of eight females. Well, more like Kovu had been tracking them and I was following his led while watching for signs that would help me if Kovu was doing something else while I was hunting.

Kovu sometimes left randomly for short periods of time. I thought he had found a female friend besides me but I didn't try to follow him. I was happy he had someone for himself. I have always felt I would never find someone and I was glad my friend had managed to find someone for himself.

Kovu was eager. He bolted forward several yards before running back to my side then forward again. He acted just like my dog, Angel would when she wanted me to hurry up. I gave in and picked up my pace to a light jog instead of the speed walking I had been doing.

We came over a small hill of snow and walked right into the herd's resting ground.

Big mistake. As soon as the buck saw us enter he charged. His antlers lowered as he charged at me like a knight with a lance. I nearly froze in fear but quickly jumped to the side to avoid the deadly horns. He keep galloping for several more feet before wheeling around for another try. I struggled to my feet, the ice and loose snow hindering my movements. The buck charged this time faster than the last. It seemed to have become angrier because it's first attack had failed.

By the time I had gotten to my feet the angry animal was almost on top of me. Before I knew what happened I had been tackled, but not from the side I was expecting.

Kovu seeing my dilemma knocked me out of the furious animal's path.

Kovu stood over me protectively for several seconds to make sure the buck wasn't going to immediately attack. The buck couldn't though, he had built up too much momentum to stop so quickly. As soon as Kovu noticed this he took it as he's chance to attack.

Lynx wolves, like Kovu, usually hunted in packs. Mostly for convenience, they were big and strong enough to hunt for themselves but wolves were social creatures much like humans. They liked working together. They were probably able to work alone because of the lynx part of them. Lynx hunted alone, or if they were female, with their cubs.

Kovu proved that he didn't need a pack that day. He was on the buck before it could turn around for a third run. He leapt through the air flying almost like a diving eagle. Kovu landed claws out on the buck's back. The claws dug in piercing flesh. The injured animal bellowed in rage whipping it head around to knock Kovu off it with it's horns.

Kovu leaned back just enough for the antlers to miss his face completely. He then attacked the portion of the neck that had been left open by the buck's reckless attack. Kovu bit into the flesh on the creature's neck and shook his head viciously snapping the buck's neck like I would snap a dry, brittle twig.

He made sure the animal was dead before moving over to me. I still sat in the snow stunned by the attack. Kovu approached me almost cautiously, like he was afraid I would run at the slightest fast movement. He nudged my face gently trying to catch my attention. I automatically reached up to rub his ears like I had done a hundred times before. He leaned into my hand and laid down at my side. He leaned against me providing the comforting warmth I needed. I didn't realize how much I needed it until I received it.

I had missed contact. I had not hugged anyone for three or four years. I missed the comfort provided. I reached out and hugged Kovu burying my face into the warm fur on his chest. He laid his chin on top of my head gently as if he could understand I needed to have a hug. I needed contact. We sat there for a long time before I finally let Kovu go and stood up. I didn't know how long we had sat there but I did know that when we got up the buck's corpse was cold. It had started to freeze in the arctic weather without the body heat caused by blood being pumped around the body.

I struggled to lift the large animal onto Kovu's back. We needed to build a sled. Kovu didn't complain though he did look mildly disgruntled at being used as a pack mule.

We had taken a long while to get back to my home, our home. We spent the rest of the night cutting up the buck and cuddling with each other.

That night I had fell asleep against Kovu feeling safe and warm.

End Flashback

I shook the memory out of my head. I smiled a little at the memory then frowned. Kovu. He was still in the South Pole. Hopefully he was taking care of the village and himself. I wouldn't know what to do without Kovu, he was my first true friend in this world, I didn't seem to fit in.

I nearly didn't notice the branch in my path but stopped just centimeters from putting my foot on the branch that would have no doubt cause a loud snap to echo in the stillness. I would have been caught. And knowing Jet killed, he was willing to kill a whole village to get rid of some fire nation soldiers, imagine what he would do to one person who had made it perfectly clear how much s/he hated him.

I jumped lightly up on to a tree branch several feet above my head. I was in a good position to see the path and to hear what was going on. I had reached my position just in time to see Sokka stand up to Jet on the old man's behalf. Jet was yelling about the man being fire nation but finally left with the rest of his group at Sokka's insistence.

I waited a minute or two to make sure they would be out of range before dropping softly from my perch. I quietly picked up the old man's walking stick, which had been thrown away by Jet, and moved to his side without his knowledge. I gently grabbed his elbow and pulled his light weight up. Well, at least he was light compared to a dead Carribou-goat.

His head whipped around to stare at me. I gently grabbed his hand and wrapped it around the head of his walking stick.

"Thank you." He whispered in a wavering voice.

"You're welcome." I answered just as softly. "I'll walk you to your village. But I can't come in." I told him calmly as I walked by his side. I had to slow my pace a lot to keep his pace. It reminded me of when I walked by my gram. She had a cane too, she had a slow shuffling gait that made me be several feet ahead of her whenever I walked with her. I always ended up looking behind me to make sure she hadn't fallen and she was still there. I managed to slow my amble to nearly a crawl to walk beside the man.

We walked in silence. He looked thoughtful and I didn't want to interrupt his thoughts.

I stopped at the edge of the forest and he continued for several more feet before noticing I stopped. He looked back at me curiously. I smiled and gestured for him to go on. As soon as I saw him enter the village I melted back into the forest like I had never been there to begin with.

It took me a good amount of time to get back to the head quarters of the so-called Freedom Fighters. When I got there Aang and Katara were off with Jet. Sokka was angrily packing stuff onto Appa. I approached him gingerly, wanting for him to turn and snap at me for some reason even I could scarcely think of.

And I was right. As soon as he noticed me he snapped out a question. "Where have you been?" It sounded more like a demand than a question.

"I didn't know you were given the duty of knowing where I was twenty-four/seven. Next time I go for a walk I'll tell you." I retorted as scornfully as I could.

My tone seemed to snap him out of whatever mood he had been in.

"Sorry." He apologized sheepishly.

"Its fine. Jet?" I returned easily.

"Yeah, he beat up a harmless old man. And then Katara took his side and Aang took her side." He reported.

I nodded. "Yeah, well, she obviously has a crush on him. Its sort of expected she will chose his side to get him to notice her." I answered. "And Aang has a crush on Katara so he'll agree with her." I finished wanting to see his reaction.

He just nodded. Hm, guess that meant he knew Aang liked Katara.

"We have to stay another night." Sokka said. "Katara and Aang fell for Jet's story about fire benders going to set the forest on fire." He answered my unasked question.

I nodded in understanding. We mulled around wanting the day to just hurry and get over. I showed Sokka how to use my dao swords which he really seemed to like. Apparently slicing stuff seemed more exciting than smashing stuff. I showed him some of the moves I made up myself based on other shows I'd watched like Naruto, Inuyasha, and even some Bleach.

I told him he could probably buy a pair of swords when we stopped in a town if we had enough money. I sat against the base of a tree watching him repeatedly practice the katas I had shown him. He was a good student. If he found a real master he would impress him or her.

After a while I grew bored of watching the repetition of Sokka's motions. He was doing the katas right so I felt confident enough to let him practice without my eyes on him. I found a small bundle of string in one of Appa's packs. They were odds and ends of strings. I measured one out using my arm as a measuring tape. It was just about long enough to make a friendship bracelet. Now if I could find two more about the same size... There's one. And there's another.

I went to work on my bracelet. The colors were blue, yellow, and brown. I lined all the strings up so one of each of there ends touched then folded it in the middle so all six ends touched. Then I tied a loop in the middle for the place where the bracelet would have a bead. I lined the colors up the pattern I wanted. Orange, brown, blue, orange, brown, blue and began working. The orange string tied two knots on the brown, then two on the blue, two on the orange, two on the brown and two on the blue and then let it lie on the end. Then the process repeated with the next string in line and the next and the next.

I didn't even notice time pass. It was nearly dark before I noticed the day was gone. It didn't matter though. I was done with the bracelet. I looked around for something I could use as a bead, when I didn't find one I grabbed a small branch from the ground and used my knife to carve a crude bead.

I slipped the six strings through the hole in the bead and tied a knot after it examining my work after all. It looked good. It was a simple bracelet but it made me feel more at home. I had taken a class called mosaic and textile art in 12th grade and spent most of the textile portion making a lot of friendship bracelets.

Sokka had been watching me I noticed as I put the bracelet on my wrist slipping the bead through the loop to clasp it.

"That's cool, where did you learn it?" He asked examining the bracelet.

"I learned some from a book, the rest I learned through practice." I said with a small blush. It wasn't all that impressive. One of the girls in my class could make a bracelet in such a short amount of time it put mine to shame.

He tugged gently on the bracelet and it stretched but didn't break. "It also stretches." He mused looking at it one more time before stepping back. He picked up my dao swords which he had oiled and sharpened while I had been working on my project. I could tell because I could smell the oil and one didn't oil swords unless you sharpened them first, or you got them wet.

"Here, I took care of them because I didn't know when you would be done and didn't want you to have to take care of them after you were finished because I used them." He said handing me the dao in their sheaths.

I accepted them gratefully. "Thanks." I said with a smile. I pulled them out of their sheaths to make sure he did a good job. He had.

"I guess we should be going to sleep." Sokka said.

"You go ahead. I'm going to enjoy the night a little longer." I announced leaning back against Appa's furry side.

Sokka nodded in understanding and went up to one of the ropes that ripped people up into the trees. I watched him as he shot upwards like a soda cap when you shook the bottle too long.

I didn't even notice when I fell asleep against Appa's side.

The next morning I was woken up to the sounds of urgent whispers. I stood up slowly working and kinks out as I went as to not alert them if I stretch and a bone popped later. I then followed the sounds of the voice, watching my feet as I went. I had almost snapped a stick yesterday, I wasn't going to do so today.

Sokka was yelling at Jet, Pipsqueak and The Duke had him with his hands tied behind his back. I waited patiently. Jet finally left with Longshot and Smellerbee. This was the part where they blow up the damn.

I set a whip of water out smashing Pipsqueak's head into a tree just hard enough to knock him out and freezing The Duke to another tree. I had the water cut Sokka's ropes even as I appeared out from behind the trees I had been behind.

"Sokka, go warn the village." I ordered as I moved to check Pipsqueak. The large teenager was alive, I checked his eyes to make sure he didn't have a concussion. He didn't that was good. He was going to have a monster of a headache when he woke up though.

The Duke yelled angrily not making much sense but I was sure he said something insulting about my mother and father. I approached him calmly. He squirmed against his frozen binds furiously. "Let go of me!" He commanded sounding more like a whiny child then the threatening person he was trying for.

"No." I replied simply.

"Why not?" He demanded.

"Because, if I let you go, you'll run to Jet tell him of my interference and then he'll kill all those town people and come to kill the loose end which is me." I replied.

"He's not going to kill anybody!" The Duke denied upset I would bad-mouth his leader.

"Yes, he is. He's going to kill a town full of civilians; women, children, old men. They aren't involved in this war because they either are women or they are too young or too old. Jet doesn't care. He wants to get rid of the fire nation. What's a few dozen innocents to a dozen evil people. He doesn't care, he wants revenge for his parent's deaths and he'll take it no matter the cost." I bluntly told him. He needed to hear it without any sugarcoating even if he was just a kid.

The word seemed to sink into The Duke's brain and he began to sob. I let the ice holding him drop and instead held him in my arms. He buried his head into my shoulder and sobbed like a lost child. Which the more I thought about it the more I realized he was a lost child. He had lost his parents and had clung to the next person who gave a damn about him. Which happened to be Pipsqueak, then Jet.

He finally cried himself to sleep after about thirty minutes of hard sobbing. His eyes would itch tomorrow and he would never be able to trust Jet the way he had before but he would be alright. I gently laid him down next to Pipsqueak his head on the older boy's chest.

I then ran to reach the damn. I reached where Aang, Katara and Jet were faced off just as he whistled signalling Longshot to blow up the dam. I instinctively reached for my bow but it wasn't there. I had my dao, but I had forgotten to grab my bow. I swore, cursing my forgetfulness. I guess that was one thing I wouldn't be able to change. The village would have to rebuild anyway.

I let the sound of Katara yelling at Jet sooth away the stress of the past three days.

Sokka came riding Appa just in time to let Jet know his plan hadn't worked and he had managed to save the town.

"Sokka, you traitor!" Jet screamed in rage.

"No, Jet, you're the traitor. You became a traitor when you stopped protecting innocents." He said.

We hopped on Appa and flew away Jet's angry yells following us until we were out of hearing range.

"How did you know to go to the village?" Katara asked.

"Instincts." Sokka replied proudly.

"You do know you're going the wrong way." I interjected before they could continue on said topic.

Sokka sheepishly turned Appa the correct way.

We laughed together at that. Now that we were away from Jet I felt so much more relaxed.

I had changed something and the whole world didn't implode on me so I guess it was safe to change some things. I didn't want to change too much or else my information wouldn't be useful anymore. But I guess a few little changes here and there wouldn't hurt. So I was definitely going to stop Sokka from going on that stupid fishing trip that turned into a disaster. Maybe the gang wouldn't get sick, and Aang wouldn't get caught by the Yu Yan archers but that would be a bit much to ask.

A/N: So what do ya think? Better? Please review.