Sokka was home, he was really home. The igloo was warm, the snow was fresh, and he'd just finished snacking on some seal jerkey. They were expecting visitors today, all the way from the North Pole.
Cheif Arnook was making a visit to see Sokka's parents, but he often brought his daughter along seeing as she got along with the Southern Cheif's children.
When Princess Yue came Sokka and Katara ran to greet her. Normally whenever she came, it meant they would play games and make up adventures. She was sixteen years old now, yet she never saw them childish. In fact, she made time to join the siblings in whatever antics they got into.
When she stepped off the boat, Sokka panicked as he noticed her hair was white. He closed his eyes and willed it away. When they opened, her hair turned back to its usual black, and Sokka knew that she was safe.
She offered him her arm, and the pair walked off. They spent the day doing activities together such as sprucing up the watchtower and feeding the penguins. But for some reason, her hair kept sporadically changing back to white. He couldn't explain it, but it made him tense, afraid. Finally, it stopped. Her hair was its normal color again and Sokka forgot that he was worried.
As they were walking, she stopped and pointed up at the sky. Her hair had turned white again, and she was no longer smiling. Her face had more of a blank expression- no not blank- her eyes were sunken. Like she was exhasted, sad, and maybe a little lonely. Yue grabbed him by the shoulders so he couldn't look away. He looked to see what she had pointed at. The moon turned black.
"We're running out of time."
Sokka tried to respond, but he couldn't say anything. The world around him turned fuzzy.
"Come back" was what he wanted to say. "Come back" were the words that he couldn't form. "Come back," was he talking to the girl with dark or light hair?
"Come back," how did he know she was going to leave?
No sound escaped his lips. She dropped his shoulders, and with that she was gone.
"Come back." Those were the first words Sokka said when he woke up. He was actually able to make a noise this time, but by now it was too late. Yue, whether dream or spirit, was already gone.
It was late, and he could see Toph and Katara already packing up to travel again. They must've heard him because Katara asked "Who did you want to come back?"
"Uh-" he didn't want to explain himself, so he looked for an excuse. Momo was perched a few feet away from him, "Momo! Come back here Momo we need to start packing up!"
"Yeah sure, while you were sleeping in, Toph, Aang, and I already did that. Momo's probably already done more work than you." Katara teased.
He stood up and balled up his sleeping bag, tossing it on Appa's saddle. "Well I don't need much work. See? All done."
Sokka stood proudly with his hands on his hips. Apparently Momo decided now was the best time to come flying at him and land on his back.
"Hey!" He flailed his arms around, but in the process of trying to get Momo off, he fell over. The lemur now curled up by his side.
Katara laughed, "Looks like you got your wish."
His wish. . . the dream was still fresh in his mind, but already the details were starting to disappear. It was kind of a nice dream for once.
By noon, that was all he could remember about it.
--
It was Sokka who suggested they plan some kind of strategy for defeating the Fire Lord. So far all they knew was that Aang need to learn the elements, but then what?
As he was writing, he realized they needed information. Luckily for them, they'd ran into a professor who knew of a library out in the desert.
It may not have taken long to get there, an hour or two at most, but in the heat, time dragged on to no end.
When they finally landed, it was decided that Toph and Appa stay behind. As he was leaving Sokka grabbed his bag, they'd probably need something to keep any scrolls or books they'd find. With that, the four of them descended into the library.
Inside were multiple floors of full of shelves, and stacked with books. They made it to the ground when a they saw figure stalking down the halls. The four rushed to hide behind one of the pillars.
Apparently, they'd been spotted anyways.
"I know you're back there," it said.
The professor approached first, and Aang, Katara, and Sokka followed. After setting up the terms on which they could stay, he let them browse the library.
While the professor did his own thing, Sokka had been searching alongside Aang and Katara. He noticed one parchment encased in glass, it read "The Darkest Day in Fire Nation History." There was a date, but no further description, still it was along the lines of what they needed. He checked to make sure that owl wasn't watching and took it with him.
He got the groups attention and they went to the section about the Fire Nation. When that failed, a knowledge seeker lead them to a planetarium with dates on it.
It was Katara who suggested it, "Sokka, try entering that date from the parchment you took."
He did so, and when the date arrived, the sun was gone. The room was darker, and the moon turned black...
Why does that seem so familiar?
It clicked. They were looking at a solar eclipse- but the spirit had caught them before they could find anything else.
The sand began falling in all around them. They rushed to get out, but they still didn't have the information. He couldn't leave without knowing.
Sokka and Aang ran back to the planetarium to look for the date of the next eclipse. Once they had it, they went back to look for Katara and the professor. They were running out of time.
Sokka, Katara, and Aang made a quick shot out of the library. They were safe.
And Appa was gone.
He clutched his bag close. He was lucky to still have the letters, something he could rely on when he needed to breathe. When his thoughts became too much. But Aang? He didn't have that anymore. . .