Over the next several days, Katara and some of the other members of the Water Tribe cared for the unconscious boy, and Katara found herself becoming more and more fascinated with him. His health was improving, his cheeks gaining color, his bruises and scrapes healing. He still didn't wake, but as time went on, he seemed to be getting closer to it, mumbling in his sleep, his eyelids flickering occasionally.
What fascinated her, though, wasn't any of that. It was a revelation much bigger, much more important. Sometimes she'd be sitting in the room with him, checking on some of his injuries or trying to feed him some soup. Then he'd breathe in sharply and his hammock would start to rock back and forth in a gentle breeze, or the animal skins on the walls of the igloo would flap as if caught in the wind.
She knew others had noticed, too, because the whispers grew throughout the village. Everyone knew, though they didn't always say it in such terms: the boy she and Sokka had found wasn't just anyone, he was an airbender. The first airbender anyone had seen in almost a hundred years.
Could he be more than that, too? It was a thin hope, but it grew inside her anyway. The next Avatar was supposed to have been an airbender before they'd all been wiped out. Everyone assumed that Avatar had died with all the other airbenders, but… Was it possible...was it possible this was him, somehow come back to save the world after a hundred years of war?
Whatever the answer turned out to be, the mystery had the entire village waiting with bated breath for the strange boy to wake up.
Katara sat next to the boy three days after she had brought him back, absently twirling her fingers above the soup bowl in her hand to mix its contents. She was just about to bend a little out and try to get the boy to swallow it when she heard: "Wh—where am I?"
She jumped, losing her concentration, and looked up at him. His eyes—his eyes were open, looking right at her. They were light gray, like a cloud a few hours before rain, and looked as hazy as a cloud, too, as if he wasn't yet entirely conscious.
"Uh, the Southern Water Tribe," Katara said, unsure what else to say.
She didn't know if he'd heard her. His gaze had shifted from her face to travel around the room, taking in the ice blocks that made up the walls, the animal skins that hung from them (he grimaced when he saw those).
"You've been asleep for a long time," Katara said. "I—My brother and I found you unconscious on an iceberg a few days ago, and we brought you here."
The boy looked over at her again, his eyes seeming clearer now. They widened. "Who are you?" His voice croaked from disuse.
Katara hesitated, though she wasn't sure why. "Katara."
"Thank you, Katara," the boy said. He tried to push himself up to a seated position. "You saved my life."
"You shouldn't—" Katara began, reaching out to push him back down. "You're still weak."
The boy waved her hands away and started looking around the room again.
"What's your name?" Katara asked, leaning forward.
The boy snapped his head back toward her and hesitated for much longer than she had. Then, with a sheepish smile, he said, "I'm Aang."
"It's nice to meet you, Aang," Katara said. Questions bubbled on her tongue, wanting to be released, but she took a deep breath. He had just woken up. She shouldn't overwhelm him. "Will you give me a moment? There are some others who want to meet you."
He frowned, but nodded. Katara left, and came back a few minutes later with Sokka in tow. When she got back to Aang's room, he had already gotten to his feet.
"Aang," Katara said, causing him to turn around from his inspection of the little table in the corner. "This is my brother, Sokka."
Aang smiled and gave a slight bow. "Thank you for your help."
"Don't thank us just yet," Sokka said, ignoring Katara as she shook her head at him. He marched a few steps forward, positioning himself in front of Katara, but keeping some distance between himself and Aang. Katara rolled her eyes at Sokka's back.
"Where'd you come from?" her brother demanded. "Why are you here?"
Aang blinked. "I, uh… you brought me here, didn't you?"
"I mean before we brought you here. What were you doing on that iceberg?"
Aang scrunched up his face, his eyes going wide with what Katara thought was confusion.
"Sokka, lay off him," Katara said, turning on her brother. "He just woke up. Let him get his bearings before you start throwing questions at him."
"I've been waiting three days to ask these questions, Katara. I think—"
"Three days?!" Aang's outburst caused both of them to look in his direction. "I've been out for three days?"
"Uh… yes?" Sokka said. He looked at Katara. "Wow, you really weren't kidding when you said he was out of it, were you?"
Aang was shaking his head furiously. "No, no, that's too long. I can't— Where's Appa? Is he okay? Did you find him with me?"
"Appa?" Katara asked, bewildered.
"My sky bison. We were flying, and there was a storm, and—is he okay?"
Katara and Sokka glanced at each other.
"This Appa," Sokka said. "Is he a giant white monster with an arrow on his head?"
"Yes! So you've seen him?"
"Yeah…"
"He's actually the one who led us to you," Katara supplied. "He's been hanging around outside the village since we brought you here."
"I need to see him. We have to—"
"Hold on, there, buddy," Sokka said, holding out his arm to stop Aang as he tried to run out the doorway. "We've answered your questions. Now you need to answer some of ours."
Aang's eyes flicked between Sokka and the doorway a couple of times. "Yeah," he said after a moment. "I guess you're probably right."
He crossed to the hammock that had served as his bed for the past few days and sat down on it. Then, looking up at Sokka, he waved his hand as if to say, go ahead.
Sokka folded his arms across his chest, glaring at Aang for a long moment before he finally said, "Why are you here?"
"Appa and I crash-landed. I didn't even know there was a settlement down here. I was just...exploring."
"Hm. And where did you come from?"
"I, uh…" Aang wrung his hands in his lap, avoiding Sokka's gaze. "I came from… from the Earth Kingdom."
"The Earth Kingdom, hmm?" Sokka's eyebrows rose, and his eyes briefly met Katara's. She could clearly read the I told you so behind his gaze, but she ignored it, looking instead at Aang.
"Why do you care where I came from?"
"I thought I said I was supposed to be the one asking the questions here."
"Why do you care?" Aang repeated. "I crash-landed here, you guys found me. That's all that matters."
"I care," Sokka said, his knuckles whitening where they gripped his arms, "because it's my responsibility to protect the people of this village from outside threats."
"Sokka—" Katara began, but he shot her a glare.
"Katara, can you just let me handle this for once? Why don't you go help Gran-Gran with dinner or something?"
Katara's temper flared, but she held her tongue. She took one step backwards, but crossed her arms, refusing to leave the room. She and Sokka glared at each other for a few seconds before he finally relented.
He grumbled to himself, but turned back to Aang, whose brows had knit together in what seemed like genuine confusion.
"You think I'm a threat?" Aang asked.
"Some strange boy shows up out of nowhere with powers"—Aang jolted at the word, his eyes widening as if in panic for a moment before his expression smoothed over again—"no one has seen in a hundred years? Yeah, I'd say that's pretty suspicious. The Fire Nation—"
"You think I'm with the Fire Nation?" Aang blurted, his voice full of so much anger and pain that it made even Sokka pause. "You know nothing about me. I never— The Fire Nation killed—" He cut off abruptly, pressing his lips together. Katara could see the emotions still simmering behind his gray eyes. They swirled like storm clouds now. He took a deep breath and said, more calmly, "I'm not from the Fire Nation."
Apparently, the outburst had been enough to convince Sokka of that, because he held up his hands in a placating gesture. "Okay, okay. Maybe you're not. I'm sorry."
Aang pushed himself to his feet. "Are we done here?"
"I don't think—" Sokka began, but Katara touched his arm. She shook her head when he looked at him, and he sighed. "Fine. For now." He spun away from Katara and pointed a warning finger at Aang. "But I still have questions for you!"
"Great," Aang said. He pushed past Sokka and stalked out of the igloo into the village.
"Way to go, Sokka," Katara murmured as she rushed to follow Aang.
She caught up with him a few minutes later as he was making his way out of the village.
"Aang," Katara called, running up. He slowed and turned around, reluctant.
"I'm sorry about my brother," Katara said. "He's an idiot sometimes."
"It's okay," Aang said, his voice flat. "I get it. He's just trying to protect his family." There was an edge of pain in his words.
"He's a little overprotective at times, though. He sees Fire Nation traps everywhere he looks. Ever since…" Katara trailed off as her hand instinctually found the pendant that hung at her neck. Her mother's necklace. She blinked a few times, then shook her head. "Well, let's just say the village has been through a lot the past few years."
There was a beat of silence as Aang's gaze fell to the necklace, then came back up to her face. "As I was walking through town, I noticed there weren't any men, or any benders. Is that…?"
Katara nodded. "All the men who were of age left a few years ago to go fight in the war, including my father. He left me and Sokka here to take care of the others. And the benders…" Her voice started to shake, and she looked down at her hands. "Most of them were captured or killed in raids long before I was born. They haven't been heard from since. I…" She looked up at him, hesitating. His gray eyes were sad, as if he knew what she was about to say, and somehow that made it easier for her to say it. He was an airbender, the only airbender anyone had seen since the war started. Surely if anyone was going to understand, it would be him. "I'm the only waterbender that's been born to the Southern Water Tribe since then."
Aang glanced past her into the village, his expression stricken, as if he was looking at the aftermath of a battle and not normal people going about their day. "I'm so sorry, Katara."
Katara formed her lips into a halfhearted smile and forced herself to shrug. "Like I said, most of it happened before I was born. They captured the last of the waterbenders over sixty years ago, and since then, they've mostly left us alone." Emphasis on mostly. But she didn't want to talk about that. Not now.
"They don't know about you?"
"I guess not." Katara scowled and looked away. "It wouldn't matter, even if they did. I'm barely a bender." She swirled her hands over the snow next to her, trying to will it to become liquid and pull it up into the air.
Instead, a few errant flakes barely shifted on the ground, an effect that could just as easily have been caused by the wind as by her efforts. She sighed and let her hands fall back to her sides. "I've been trying to teach myself as best as I can using old scrolls, but we don't have very many of them left."
Aang hesitated for a long moment. When Katara looked at him, she expected to see pity in his eyes, but instead, she saw...understanding. And determination. "What if you had a master?"
Katara laughed. "That would be great. But unless you know how to raise the dead, I don't think I'm going to get one anytime soon."
"What about the North Pole?" Aang asked. "Don't they have waterbenders up there, too?"
Katara blinked, her mind going blank as she stared at him. "Well…yes, probably. But we haven't had contact with our sister tribe in a long time. It's all the way on the other side of the world."
"I can take you there," Aang said, nodding to himself as if the matter was decided. "On Appa."
"You would do that? But… why?"
Aang leaned back on his heels, looking away. "Let's just say I...understand how frustrating your situation can be."
This was her chance to ask, finally. "When you were unconscious, and I was taking care of you..." she began, watching him carefully to gauge his reaction. His body stiffened, but he didn't say anything, so she continued. "Sometimes weird things would happen, like I'd feel breezes that seemed to come from nowhere, or the wall hangings would rustle for no reason." Her voice fell to an awed whisper. "You really are an airbender, aren't you?"
She met his eyes. There seemed to be a war going on inside him, but after several long moments, he finally opened his mouth. "I—"
At that moment, a loud horn sounded from within the village, and both of them turned around, the moment forgotten. Sokka was running down the steps from his makeshift watchtower, blowing a warning horn.
"What is that?" Aang asked as Katara immediately spun to face the ocean. There, in the distance, she could see what had alerted Sokka: a black metal ship cutting through the waves, shooting a plume of black smoke high into the sky. It was headed straight for their village.
"The Fire Nation," Katara said, her heart squeezing painfully in her chest.
