31. Pants II
"My pants!"
Katara dropped the article onto the floor, glaring. Sokka flinched, sensing a fight on the horizon. "I can explain."
"Sokka . . ."
"No, really! I thought that was the laundry pot. I thought you were doing laundry."
"I did laundry two days ago! I'm not washing your pants again."
"You did last time they got dirty!"
"This is the third time this week!"
"Please, Katara."
"No!" She picked the pants up from the ground and threw them at him. "Wear them or wash them yourself."
"Katara!"
She crossed her arms. "Fine," he said, groaning. "I'll wear them."
32. Brothers II
"Would you like to hold him?" her mother asked, holding Tom-Tom in front of her.
Mai stared at the squalling baby, nauseated. The midwives had cleaned him off, but patches of blood and amniotic fluid still clung to his wrinkled skin. "Ew."
"Come now, darling. Don't you want to hold you baby brother?"
"No. He's wrinkly and covered in slime."
"Honey, that's from the birth. It's perfectly natural."
"I don't want to hold him!"
Her mother opened her mouth to protest. Mai's father intervened. "He is awfully slimy."
A rare smile graced Mai's lips. She'd never loved her father more.
33. Storm
Aang clung to the reins, hands shaking with fear and cold. The storm raged around him, rain slicing into his skin.
He wasn't ready. Not ready to be the Avatar. Not ready to leave Monk Gyatso.
A sudden gale slammed into Appa's side. They lurched in the air. Lightning flashed as the frigid sea embraced them. We'll drown, Aang realized, horrified.
They sank deeper into the water. The chill seeped into his flesh. Numbness flooded his body, but something buried instinct rose up and pushed the numbness away.
The water around him turned to ice. The world faded to black.