Wow, thanks to you all for the love you have given my little idea!
Please if you could comment, it would make me even happier. :D
A few words before we go into the first chapter of this book.
Hua's outfit was inspired by Toph's winter outfit from the comics and from Mao Mao clothes from the anime The Apothecary Diaries. It's a great anime, you should totally watch it.
I made a pic of Hua so you can see how she looks. It's on my DeviantArt Account: EmpressOfTheSun. ^^
Now happy reading ^^
Book 1.01: The Children in the Iceberg
"You are the most sexist, immature, nut-brained...! I'm embarrassed to be related to you!", screams fourteen-year-old Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, the last waterbender and younger sister of sixteen-year-old, non-bender Sokka at him.
She is so done with Sokka!
Blaming her bending, even blaming her gender, for the situation they found themselves now in.
On a piece of ice in the middle of nowhere.
The young girl doesn't realize how she bends and breaks, one bit for bit, an iceberg behind them.
Sokka who sees this, wants to warn his sister.
This is surely not safe to bend in anger, they could get hurt!
However, Katara's anger is more powerful.
She continues to rant: "Ever since mom died, I've been doing all the work around camp while you've been off playing soldier!"
"Uh ... Katara …"
"I even wash all the clothes! Have you ever smelled your dirty socks? Let me tell you, not pleasant!"
"Katara, settle down!"
"NO! THAT'S IT! I'm done helping you. From now on, you're ON YOUR OWN!"
Her last movement is her most agitated and it creates a huge wave which, when it impacts the iceberg, sends several fissures to snake their way up the iceberg; one of them reaches the top of it, splitting it completely in half.
Petrified, Sokka gasps for air, and it is only now that Katara turns to look behind her.
She gasps as the two halves begin to fall away from each other and collapse into the water.
A wave larger than any Katara cast at it radiates outward toward them and they are thrown to the ice as it pushes their floe backwards.
Protective Sokka wraps an arm around Katara as they both look over the edge of the ice.
"Okay, you've gone from "weird" to "freakish", Katara.", tells her Sokka drier than a desert.
Astonished the young girl mumbles: "You mean I did that?"
"Yep. Congratulations."
Suddenly several small bubbles appear on the surface of the water directly in front of them and a small spot of water begins to glow with a bright bluish and orange hue.
The two siblings scramble back in renewed terror from the edge, just as a large, roughly spherical iceberg breaks the surface of the water.
Mesmerized by the iceberg, Katara strays closer and stares at it; behind her, Sokka halfheartedly stretches out his hand, as if to hold her back.
In the iceberg, she can see three forms.
One is big and represents nothing the waterbender knew.
Then there are two no doubt human bodies in lotus sit.
They seem to flow.
One is male and bluish.
The other female and orange.
Katara raises her eyebrow in confusion.
What was going on and who where this?
In answer the male and the female open their eyes, one a bright pair of white and the other a burning orange, elating shocked gasp from the siblings.
"They're alive! We have to help!"
Before Sokka can grab it, Katara grabs his club out of its sheath on his back and pulls her hood over her head, heading in the direction of the mysterious pair.
Sokka again reaches out his hand in an attempt to hold Katara back, though she is already running across the ice.
"Katara, get back here!", yells the older boy, picking his spear from the ice and running after Katara, who is already at the ice's edge.
The waterbender hops across the short distance between her floe and the iceberg on five tiny chinks of ice; Sokka, close behind her, does the same.
Reaching the iceberg first, Katara repeatedly strikes it with the club.
On her fifth strike, the club breaks through the surface and a great gust of wind, which escapes from within the iceberg, throws her and her brother back from the side of the dome.
Fissures quickly snake their way over the whole iceberg and, in a massive outward explosion, the entire orb of ice destroys itself.
Two beams of light burst from the core of the iceberg and rocket into the sky.
Sokka hugs his sister protectively as the gale slowly settles.
Then he lets her go as he looks around.
Lights still encircle the remains of the former mountain of ice, now reduced to a hollowed-out crater.
The Watertribe teen looks at his sister and they both get to their feet, Katara holding onto her brother.
He points his spear at the crater, ready to defend them, though lowers it in shock as two figures emerge slowly from the depression in the iceberg.
Quickly Sokka brandished his spear in defense once again.
"Stop!"
Now standing atop the crater, the figures slowly erect themselves and look down at Katara and Sokka.
The two siblings stare back in wonder and fear.
Finally, the circles of lights dissipate as the strange children stop glowing.
The figures are revealed to be nothing more than a young boy and girl, who each moans in exhaustion and suddenly they faint.
Katara gasps and runs forward to catch him before he hits the ground. Sokka follows behind to catch the girl.
How absurd and crazy the situation was, Sokka wouldn't let a young girl get hurt.
Like his sister, Sokka puts his charge gently against the crater.
He looks for a moment at his sister with the boy.
He is strange, decides the older.
What kind of clothes is he wearing and why does he have arrows as tattoos?
Shaking his head he looks down at the foreign girl.
Before his father and the man of his tribe left to join the war effort, a merchant from the Earth Kingdom would visit the South Pole four times a year to trade with them.
So it's no problem for him to recognise her as a member of the Earth Kingdom.
He knows how Earth Kingdom habitants mostly look and what colours they wear.
The girl has dark black hair in a low-side ponytail, holding it together with a dark pink ribbon.
She wears a fur jacket with white trims in a light yellowish-green and a green strip from her chest down the end of the jacket and a green strip on each sleeve.
A small dark teal haori incircles her thin waist.
Under the jacket, he sees a bit of a green kimono-styled tunic, he would bet and she wears wide pants in dark pink, which are stuffed in her brown fur boots.
The Earth Kingdom girl's eyes are still closed, however, Sokka bet she also has green eyes, which are common for the Earth Kingdom.
Earth Kingdom girl, is younger than Katara.
Her face still possesses some baby fat, but the swing of her full rose lips is sad.
She looks like someone who hasn't laughed much in her life.
It was kinda sad.
His mussing stops as he hears how the strange boy practically yells at Katara: "Will you go penguin sledging with me?"
"Uh, sure ... I-I guess.", answered his sister awkwardly.
The shout must have woken up Earth Kingdom girl since her eyes flutter open and she stares like a deer-cat at Sokka's face.
Green, like he hypnotized, although why is she staring at him like that? Does he have something on his face?
A cute blush forms on her pale face, as she coughs: "Erm, hi?"
"Hua!", yells again the strange boy. "You are okay! I thought you had flown off!"
With elegance, he swiftly raises to his feet, as Katara and Sokka look at this in shock. They never saw someone so light on their feet!
The now-known Hua seems not slightly impressed with the strange boy and just earthbends herself up.
Sokka can formally see how excited his sister is getting. Even if Hua isn't a Waterbender, she is another bender and Katara has never met someone else like her.
"Not thanks to you.", hisses Hua to her iceberg buddie. "Thanks for not saving my behind in the freaky storm."
"Hey! I tried to grab you!", protests the tattooed boy with a pout.
"Leave it! It's not like we are friends. We only agreed to travel to Omashu together and then anyone would have been on their own. I shouldn't expect and want anything from you!"
"Now you are being unfair! We may not be friends, but I promised to bring you to Omashu, if I could have grabbed you, I would have done it!"
Clearly, you can see and hear that these two, even if they were in a iceberg together, can't stand each other and are ready to argue more.
Something they can do later decides Sokka, he and Katara needed answers.
"Hey you two!", he calls for them and they turn towards him curious. Okay, this was a bit creepy how synchronously they had done it. "How did you get in the ice? And why aren't you frozen?"
He pokes the boy in his side with his spear.
Lazily the boy pushes the spear away, while Hua crosses her arms and tilts her head, thinking.
"I'm not sure.", answered the bald boy with the blue arrow on his head.
"I just remember the huge storm, SOMEBODY…", angrily the Earthbender side eyes her companion. "...steered us in!"
"Give it a break, Hua. I don't control the weather, you know it appeared too sudden for us.", reminds her the boy, giving her a look.
Hua just huffs and looks away, which makes the boy roll his eyes.
Yeah, no love is lost between them.
A low, gruff noise suddenly fills the air, coming from within the crater of the iceberg.
Quickly, the boy scrambles up the ridge of ice and happily jumps on the head of a large, furry creature that has the same arrow-shaped marking on his forehead as the boy.
"Appa! Are you all right?", he asked. "Wake up, buddy."
He opens an eyelid that immediately closes again once it is released. He jumps down to the front of the animal and tries to lift its enormous head.
Hua, Sokka and Katara appear around the corner as Appa finally starts to react to his owner, opening his mouth and licking the boy with his giant tongue.
"Jiayi, girl, where are you?", calls Hua and looks worried around for something.
Suddenly something jumps down from the saddle and tackles Hua to the ground.
Sokka's and Katara's jaws drop upon seeing the beasts.
Especially, Hua's who is licking her so joyfully.
It's so tall that it can probably be ridden like an ostrich-horse. The fur is a beautiful red-orange and nine bushy tails swing around.
"Sokka, is this a real Kyuubi?!", whisper-shouts Katara to him, seeming to grasp for air.
Her brother can only nod, still shocked.
One of the legendary nine-tailed foxes!
Everybody thought they had died out, like the dragons.
Well, all but one as it seems.
Needless to say, Sokka was more worried about the giant fluff beast.
Legend said that Kyuubi's were calm, wise and herbivore creatures, so no danger of getting eaten by Hua's furry friend.
So he asked Arrow Boy what Arrow Beast was.
"This is Appa, my flying bison."
"Right, and this is Katara, my flying sister."
This earned the Watertribe boy an annoyed look from his sister, a little giggle and blush from the now-standing Hua, who was petting her Kyuubi head and also a head title from the Kyuubi.
In its blue eyes, Sokka could see intelligence, it understood them, alright.
Arrow boy looks questioningly at Sokka for a moment, but his attention is diverted back toward his bison when Appa starts to inhale deeply.
Realizing what is about to happen, he ducks before Appa sneezes, sending a large blast of green snot flying directly onto Sokka, who becomes completely covered in it.
He squeals in disgust and begins to frantically try to clean it off, rubbing his face in the snow under the amused gaze of his sister, Hua and Jiayi.
"Don't worry, it'll wash out.", reassured the bald boy. "So do you guys live around here?
Pointing his spear accusingly again at the boy who is surprised to see the thing, Sokka warns Katara: "Don't answer that! Did you see that crazy bolt of light?! He was probably trying to signal the Fire Navy! I bet Hua is his prisoner or something."
"I'm the prisoner of who?", repeats Hua astonished, while Jaiyi lets out a yip, which sounds in Sokka's ears like a mock.
Whose the Kyuubi mocking him?!
Sokka's spear gets pushed away again, this time by Katara who addresses him sarcastically: "Oh yeah, I'm sure he's a spy for the Fire Navy. You can tell by that evil look in his eye. Never mind that he travels with someone from the Earth Kingdom."
Arrow head shoots the water tribe siblings an earnest grin, as Hua just deadpans and leans on her nine-tailed fox.
"The paranoid one is my brother, Sokka. You never told us your name."
"I'm A ... a-a-a-Achoo!"
The boy sneezes, creating an air blast that sends him soaring into the air. He lands on the ground, unharmed.
"I'm Aang."
"You just sneezed …", uttered Sokka in disbelief. "...and flew ten feet in the air!"
"Really? It felt higher than that."
"You're an Airbender!", realizes Katara surprised.
"Sure am!"
Hua and Jiayi look at each other, wondering why Katara and Sokka seem so shocked about Aang being an Airbender.
How long did the Southern Water Tribe not see one?
It can't be that long.
Or?
"Giant light beams, flying bison, airbenders, kyubbi's…", laments Sokka walking away. "I think I got midnight sun madness. I'm going home to where stuff makes sense."
He realizes, however, that he is stranded in the middle of the ocean with no way home.
Again he hears the mocking yip of Jiayi.
Now he was sure the Kyuubi was mocking him!
"Well, if you guys are stuck, Appa and I can give you a lift.", offers Aang.
"Jiayi and I would help you out too, but she can't swim for a long time. It's probably the best if we go together.", adds Hua.
"We'd love a ride! Thanks!", says Katara runs to the side of the bison, where Aang is already sitting on Appa's head.
"Jaiyi, small, girl.", commands Hua and, unbelievably, the Kyuubi shrinks down to the size of a fox cub!
Sokka and Katara had heard the legend that Kyuubi's had a lot of mysterious powers, one was the ability to change size, crazy that it was true!
With a little hum, Hua picks Jaiyi up and earthbends them to Appa's saddle, while Aang helps Katara get on.
Getting over his shock to see one of the Kyuubi's powers in action Sokka formally stomps his feet: "Oh no! I'm not getting on that fluffy snot monster!"
"Are you hoping some other kind of monster will come along and give you a ride home?", challenges him Katara. "You know, before you freeze to death?"
Sokka opens his mouth in defiance and points at Katara, ready to retaliate, but he cannot think of anything.
He sighs and bows his head in consent and defeat.
Now all, beside Aang, are sitting on the saddle, Sokka has his arms crossed in front of him with a sulking expression on his face, Hua sits cross-legend with Jaiyi in her lap, while Katara is full of excitement and anticipation.
"Okay, first-time flyers, hold on tight!", warns them Aang. "Appa, yip-yip!"
Aang whips the reins and Appa growls in response.
He moves his tail up and down and takes a huge jump into the air. He soars through the air for merely a few seconds, making it appear as though he would fly, before belly-flopping into the water with a splash.
The bison begins trudging through the water slowly.
"Okay…that's new.", mubles Hua.
She has flown often enough with Aang or Monk Gyatso on Appa, he had never done this.
Jaiyi made an agreeing sound.
Katara crawls to the front of the saddle while Aang tries to get Appa flying, whipping the reins again.
"Come on, Appa. Yip-yip!"
"Wow, that was truly amazing …", sasses Sokka, making Hua and Jaiyi giggle quietly.
Katara shoots her brother an angry glance, as Aang explains: "Appa's just a little tired. A little rest and he'll be soaring through the sky. You'll see."
The water tribe girl smiles at Aang, who returns this gesture. When she wants to move back, she realizes that he is still smiling at her.
"Why are you smiling at me like that?", she wonders in discomfort.
"Oh, I was smiling?"
Flattered, Katara smiles back.
Sokka throws his head back and sticks his tongue out in disgust while groaning loudly which makes Katara glare at him.
"Ain't she a bit too old for him?", whispers Hua to Jaiyi.
She may have reacted to Sokka a bit too, he was a handsome older boy, but it would be creepy if he would react to her.
He was at least sixteen and she was twelve.
This would be just wrong for a lot of reasons.
Well, if Aang wanted to crush on an older girl, this was not Hua's problem.
She just hoped Katara was not a cradle snatcher.
Two years may not seem much, but when one was in puberty and the other was a pre-puberty it did raise some flags.
Clicking her tongue Hua petted Jaiyi between the ears, while Appa continued to make his way through the icy sea, flapping his tail in the water.
Some time passes and Hua starts to fall asleep. She has laid down with Jaiyi on the saddle, trying to catch some rest.
However, she hears Katara and Aang talking.
How the older girls ask him about the Avatar and the Daimon, if he knew them if she, Hua, knew them.
Thankfully Aang doesn't blow their cover.
Hopefully they would be soon at the Water Tribe Village and then Aang and Appa could drop her and Jaiyi at Omashu.
The black-haired girl was done travelling with the monk.
Lightning splits the sky.
It is raining and Aang is sitting on Appa's head, holding the reigns and screaming at the top of his lungs in terror while they go down. Hua holds everything she got into the saddle, holding Jaiyi tight to her chest. A potent gale throws them off the saddle as Appa and Aang splash into the waters of the ocean. Appa resurfaces again, and growls, but is quickly subdued anew by another wave.
Humans and animals fall unconscious into the water.
As Aang releases the reigns and drifts off, his eyes and tattoos suddenly start to glow brightly. At the same moment, Hua's eyes start to glow orange.
They slam each of their fists together, creating a bluish-white, orange-dark sphere that encases all four of them.
As the air sphere slowly solidifies into an icy globe, the young Earthbender hears a voice calling for her…
"Hua, good morning, it's time to wake up."
It's Katara.
Slowly Hua blinks and looks around.
Ah right, they had reached the village in the middle of the night and then had just gone to bed.
"Morning Katara.", she greets the older girl and gently strokes Jaiyi, still in her fox cub form, awake. "Come on, girl, time to rise and shine."
"I will get Aang, go and make friends with the village.", tells Katara enthusiastically.
Not like she has anything else to do.
So Hua picks Jaiyi up and walks out of the tent.
The Southern Water Tribe is really…something.
Hua is used to poverty in the Lower Rings of Ba Sing Se, however, the small pathetic size of the Water Tribe makes her heart twist uncomfortable.
"As Daimon it is your duty to help the people.", she hears Monk Gyatsu's voice in her head.
The black-haired girl shakes her head to ban away that thought.
She didn't ask to be the Daimon.
It was not her problem.
So she just waves back at the few Water Tribe women who greet her and smiles at the children who look in wonder at Jaiyi.
Hua sees Sokka beside a tent, sharping a boomerang and decides to talk to him.
She greets him with a smile, which he answers with a little manly huff.
It's then that Katara steps out with Aang and presents him to the whole village.
"Aang, this is the entire village. Entire village, Aang."
Aang bows respectfully toward the villagers, but they cower away in fear, bringing a surprised look to Katara, Aang's and Hua's faces. Sokka just watches, while Jaiyi titles her head.
"Uh, why are they all looking at me like that? Did Appa sneeze on me?"
Confused Aang checks his clothing while an elderly woman steps forward out of the line of villagers.
"Well, no one has seen an airbender in a hundred years. We thought they were extinct until my granddaughter and grandson found you."
"Extinct?", repeat Aang and Hua shocked as Jaiyi makes a confused sound.
"What…did she say 100 years?", wonders Hua quietly.
This must be a joke!
They were at the Souther Air Temple just a few days ago, which was full of airbenders.
Sokka heard her and told her: "You can thank the Fire Nation for that."
This only confuses Hua and Jaiyi more.
What has the Fire Nation to do with this?
What is going on?
Meanwhile, the old lady turns out to be Katara and Sokka's grandma, called Gran-Gran, as Sokka walks up to the Airbender, demanding to know what his glider is.
Hua only halfheartedly pays attention to Aang's demonstration of his glider, which makes all besides Sokka ooh-ing and aah-ing and the eventual destruction of a Watchtower.
Even hearing that Katara is a waterbender, doesn't make Hua move or say anything.
Her brain is in overdrive, trying to understand what is going on.
Gran-Gran says how the airbenders are extinct, how for 100 years no one has seen one and Sokka says it's the Fire Nation's fault.
It couldn't be that they had been in the iceberg for 100 years, she remembered with clarity how she and Aang had run away from the Southern Air Temple, so they didn't have to be the Avatar and the Daimon.
Aang wanted to travel the world and she had wanted to go to Omashu to visit Bumi before going home to her family.
Aargh, she never should have allowed Aang to make a quick trip to the South Pole because he wanted to go Penguin sledging.
Look, what happened!
They freeze and the world turns crazy!
"Come, Jaiyi, let's go for a run. I need to clear my head.", states Hua, walking out of the village.
Her loyal nine-tailed fox jips in agreement and shifts to his larger, riding form.
The Earthbender climbs her mount, then they race along the icy tundra of the South Pole.
How long they just race and enjoy the beauty of the frozen land, Hua couldn't say, she only knew that her thoughts weren't getting quieter.
She doesn't want to talk with Aang about Avatar and Daimon's business, they had agreed to forget this aspect of the other and what it meant because they wanted to be normal kids again.
Sadly it seemed, she had to talk with him.
Would she ever be free?
Deep in her thoughts she nearly misses Jaiyi growls.
"Hmm, what is it?", she wants to now as the Kyuubi stops before a ship.
A Fire Nation Ship, lifted with ice.
"What the…?", she stutters. "That looks like a war vessel!"
Out of nowhere, Aang with Katara in his arms jumps out of the ship and lands beside them.
"Hey Hua.", greets her Aang solemnly, while Katara gets let down on the ground.
"Do I wanna know what is going on?", she asks shaking, she has a bad feeling in her stomach.
"Hua, can you give us a lift? We should return as soon as we can to the village.", begs Katara.
The Earthbender nods.
Jaiyi understands and gets larger so Katara and Aang can sit behind her.
It's like Katara is hugging her as she quietly tells her what Aang and she realized on the Fire Nation Ship.
Tears flow done the green eyes of the black-haired girl as she absorbs anything.
They really had been in the iceberg for 100 years, the Fire Nation had turned evil and the world was at war.
However, Hua could only think about one thing.
Her family.
Her mother.
Her father.
Her little brother.
They were probably dead.
She was alone in the world…like Aang.
It would have been better if they had stayed in the iceberg!
Better than feeling this pain!
Softly a gloved hand wiped away her tears.
A little comfort in the terrible reality Hua finds herself now.
This… was her punishment for not accepting her faith as Daimon.
Hua was sure.
Yes, Yua has an animal companion and I thought why not a nine-tailed fox? If dragons exist, why not them?
The Avatar world has a lot of cool fusion animals, but none seemed fitting for Hua, so Kyuubi's exist now in the Avatar World. :D
Jaiyi means Lucky One for everyone who is interested to know.
Thanks for reading and love a comment! 3