Chapter Forty Four

Thirst

Sand. Sand for miles. No matter where he looked, for hundreds of miles sand was all that Sokka could see. It looked remarkably like the ocean in a way, Sokka thought, as he saw the dunes that seemed to rise and swell, the golden hills that seemed to shimmer under the springtime sun.

"It shouldn't be too much longer," Aang said as he lounged beside Toph against the saddle wall. "From what I remember, the Misty Palms Oasis should only be another hour or so."

Sokka nodded absently as he continued to stare into the distance. Katara looked up from the book she had borrowed from Zuko and said, "How can you tell? Everything looks the same as it did an hour ago."

Aang shrugged. "It's an airbender thing. Monk Gyatso explained it to me once when I was younger, but I wasn't really paying attention at the time."

"I see," Toph said.

"No, you don't," Zuko answered as he steered the bison, not bothering to look over his shoulder. Toph snickered at the response.

Sokka stood up and tried to nonchalantly make his way to the waterskins when Zuko turned and glared at him.

"You've just had a drink!" Zuko snapped.

"It's hot!" Sokka said, glaring back. "I'm just going to have a sip!"

"You're going to drink our whole supply!" Zuko said, "And I don't want to be stuck out here without any food!" The scarred man was vividly remembering his sojourn through the Earth Kingdom.

"I- Zuko I just want water, I'm not taking any food."

"Wait a bit longer! It hasn't even been twenty minutes."

"Fine!" Sokka grumbled. He sat down again and resumed looking towards the horizon. He smacked his lips together and moved his tongue around. It felt thick and dusty. He considered entering the void in order to ignore it but decided that it would be a frivolous use of the trance.

"So what did you guys do every day? The Air Nomads I mean." Toph asked, deciding to ignore Zuko and Sokka. Sokka made that difficult, as he continued to make loud slapping sounds with his mouth. Now she was getting thirsty. Great, she thought, thank you Sokka.

"Well, we trained mostly when we were at the temple. Airbending, reading, math, a surprising amount of aeronautical navigation," Aang said, "And then you know, horsing around when we weren't doing all the boring stuff. Although, we didn't spend that much time at the temples. We traveled more than anything else."

Sokka turned his attention momentarily away from the horizon and looked towards the two youngest members of Team Avatar. Seeing her brother turn, Katara crawled over to him, asking, "Did you spot anything with your… spirit-vision thing? Like at Omashu?"

Sokka blinked at her, realizing that the idea hadn't even occurred to him. He would have a better chance of spotting danger or even the library if he used his spirit-vision. "Uh… No. And don't call it that."

Katara looked taken aback. "Why not?"

"It's not- it doesn't sound cool," Sokka said. "And besides, Aang didn't use any avatar powers so-"

"What do you mean 'it doesn't sound cool'? Who cares if it sounds cool!?"

"I care," Sokka snapped, "And since they're my powers, I should decide what they're called."

Katara took a deep breath. She clenched her fists and closed her eyes, before asking, "Did you see anything?"

Sokka looked mildly abashed as he looked away and said, "No."

Katara's eyebrows furrowed. "You didn't even use it, did you?"

"No, I did not." Sokka said with chagrin.

Katara decided that hitting Sokka in his eye would not help him use his spirit-vision. She decided to call it that and nothing else until all the lads of the earth fell into the sea. No young men would remain by the time she had finished with it "Well, maybe get on with it, and use your spirit-vision"

Sokka glared at her. "I told you not to call it that."


Azula rode beside Suki at the head of the procession. Despite Suki's best efforts, Azula remained aloof and self-righteous in her denial of the possibility of friendship forming between them. Suki, in Azula's opinion, was a dimwitted country bumpkin from an unimportant backwater island of cowards. Suki, in turn, thought Azula was a bit of a pompous snob.

"Suki. How much further are we from Ba Sing Se, by your closest estimation?" Azula asked, refraining from referring to the warrior as 'peasant'.

Suki rolled her eyes. "About ten quadrillion miles."

Mai snorted from her mount a short distance behind them. Azula shot her a disapproving glare.

"And how long should it take to travel such a distance?" Azula asked.

"Another day or two."

"I see." Azula said, before returning to her position of fierce and burning apathy towards the Kyoshi warriors. Suki let out a breath.

"So, your uncle." She asked, "How long have you been looking for him?"

Azula mulled over the question. Did she owe the girl an answer? Not really. Would not answering be rude? She had to stay in good graces with the warriors if she wanted to get into Ba Sing Se, so perhaps it was better to maintain a reasonable level of reciprocated interest, despite her low opinion of the peasant fighters. So, the question. How long had she been searching for Iroh? Since the siege. How long ago had that been?.. Only two months. Azula was surprised at that, as she had felt like this mission of hers had been going on for over a year.

Azula heard a sigh as she opened her mouth to answer. She turned to glare at Mai and was surprised to find it was actually Hamari, one of Suki's fighters. She rode alongside Mai, and both women had a disinterested look on their faces. Azula returned her attention to Suki, and said, "Two months."

Suki raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

"Yes." Azula said flatly, and swallowing her own distaste for the lower classes, asked, "How long have you been traveling?"

Suki blinked once and returned her attention to the road before her. She shrugged. "Four or five months now I think. After the Avatar stopped at our village and helped us defeat Prince Zuko-"

"You've met Aang?" Ty Lee asked, interrupting the conversation. Azula shot her a warning glare.

"I- yes," Suki said, taken aback. "And his friends, Katara and Sokka."

"Oh, only met Sokka, did you?" Sara teased, emphasizing 'met".

Suki held an embarrassed expression for a moment, before banishing it. "Well, I did make him wear our uniform."

"And kissed him." Haruhi butted in.

"I- Har- That's neither here nor there," Suki said, blushing through her face paint. Azula twitched, barely stopping herself from electrocuting the girl.

"Is that so?" Azula asked, attempting to sound casual. Then, she added through gritted teeth, "Good for you."

It was fine. That was months before they had even met, Sokka had- why did she even care? He was an enemy that she would hunt down and bring back to her father. Maybe keep him around as a servant. Yes, that was actually a good idea. She would take him home with her, and make him carry her around on his back. She would insist that he care for her personally, fanning her and feeding her grapes as the summer sun shone on his dark shoulde- Azula shook her head. What was that? She blushed slightly and hoped that nobody had noticed her vacant expression.

"Azula?" Ty Lee asked, with a tone of concern.

"What?" Azula asked quickly.

"Did you hear what I said?" Suki said, a tone of mild irritation seeping through.

"Of course." Azula lied.

"So what do you think?" Suki asked.

"I don't really care," Azula answered. Suki looked aghast.

"You don't care if the prince of the Fire Nation is teaching the Avatar firebending?"

Azula reeled for a moment and then shrugged. "It's just a rumor."

"It's a lie!" Suki said vehemently. "There's no way that Sokka would let that snake join…"

She trailed off. She gave Azula an appraising look. Then she did the same for Mai and Ty Lee. Azula stiffened. Mai and Ty Lee exchanged a look out of the corner of their eyes.

"You're not really from Omashu, are you?"


Sand. Lots of sand. Sokka squinted with his sight enhanced through Koh's mantle, and with a jolt, he realized he could see… more sand. If he looked directly at the ground below them, he could make out the individual grains of the stuff.

"Do you see anything yet?" Aang asked. Sokka decidedly didn't snap at him. The team had taken it in turns to ask him every fifteen minutes.

"No. I can see sand, but that's roughly the size of it."

"Oh," Aang asked. He looked at Sokka, still unnerved by the shadows that obscured his eyes. It seemed to him that 'shadows' didn't adequately describe it. Better to say a sheer absence, as if part of the world had fallen away, leaving naught but blackness in its wake. It reminded him of crooked, broken, unclean things.

"Well, let us know when you do. We should get to Oasis pretty soon."

"Would it help if we flew higher?" Zuko asked from his position on Appa's head, having switched with Aang earlier in the afternoon. Sokka shrugged. "Give it a try."

Zuko steered the bison skyward, ascending hundreds of feet in a few moments. As they climbed ever upward, Sokka realized that for the past half hour, he had only bothered to look over one side of the saddle. He blushed slightly and blamed the heat and Zuko's insane water rationing. Heat and thirst had been playing tricks on him, leaving him slow and dimwitted. In such a state, he would be no match for any foe, such as Zhao. Sokka's lip curled in anger as he thought of the mad admiral, the man who had taken Yue from him. If he faced him in that moment, exhausted and thirsty, could he beat him? Sokka doubted it. He stood and went to his waterskin, carefully not alerting Zuko. He uncorked it and drank deeply. He wiped his brow with the bandages wrapping his forearms. He wondered how he would fare against Azula, should they meet that day.

He would lose certainly, as he found his legs shaky with exhaustion. Would she be in the same predicament in this heat? He spared a glance for Zuko, who seemed largely unaffected by it. He shook his head. Firebenders.

He plopped down in the saddle and looked out over the side he had been neglecting. His enhanced vision raked the horizon, but his mind dwelled with Azula. Raven hair lining a perfect face, eyes the color of sunlight. Lips like... A tower. Sokka shook his head and rubbed at his eyes. There, on the eastern horizon, a tower rose from the desert sands.


Author's Note

Sorry guys. I've been busy, working seven days every week leaves little time for hobbies. Just got back from a little vacation though, and am hoping to get back into the swing of things with this and other hobbies.

Sorry for the poor quality, i work way too much and have way too little money,

We're nearly at the library, and after that, Azula has an arc that has had me drooling with anticipation since day one. Oh, I can't wait, I've been building to this for so long. Man, I am so excited for it.

Hopefully I can get back to posting 1-2 chapters a week like I did last year.

Charlemagne OR WHATEVER, Or Charlie. That's not my name, but it's way easier to type.

10/08/2023