Azula looked at Sokka, confused. Penguin sledding? What was that? Some sort of game that they played here in the Southern Water tribe?

"What is penguin sledding?"

Sokka could barely contain his excitement. She was interested in learning about it! So far, so good.

"It's really fun! We go to where a group of penguins are, offer them food as a peace offering, pick one to ride on, and then we sit on its back as it slides down a mountain of snow! They go really fast too! So, what do you say? Wanna try it?"

Azula looked at Sokka and then at Hakoda, who was standing behind them. The man gave her a reassuring smile. She looked back at Sokka and nodded.

"Great! Gran Gran, do you have a small fish that we can use?"

Kanna handed Sokka a small fish, "Here. Be careful, you two."

"We will! Come on Azula, let's go!" Sokka said excitedly, grabbing Azula's hand and running out of the igloo.

Hakoda chuckled, "Well, it looks like those two are getting along just fine. I'm glad."

Kanna nodded, "It seems like my little grandson has a crush on the girl."

"So you've noticed."

"Of course I have. I'm old, not stupid. I have eyes, you know."

"Do you think she's going to hurt him?" a tiny voice asked.

Hakoda and Kanna looked to see Katara staring at them with a worried expression on her face.

Hakoda quickly walked over to Katara and knelt down to her level, "No, of course not. Azula isn't going to hurt your brother, Katara. I promise."

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. I trust her."

Katara was silent for a moment before she nodded her head and mumbled "ok" before hugging her father.

Hakoda immediately wrapped his arms around her. He knew that Katara had every right to be afraid of Azula, considering what had happened to Kya. He could only hope that with time, that fear would eventually leave.

Azula would be lying if she said that she wasn't both excited and somewhat nervous to try out this penguin sledding thing that Sokka was excitedly talking about. She had never heard of such a thing back home, which was why she was nervous about trying this in the first place, but the way how Sokka spoke of it made it sound like a lot of fun. And having fun was something that she desperately both wanted and needed after everything that happened to her recently. She deserved that much, right?

Eventually, they came to an area that was filled with penguins. Azula looked around in awe, not used to seeing these kinds of animals at all. She was broken out of her thoughts when she felt Sokka pushing something into her hand. She looked down to see the fish that Kanna had given him earlier.

"Why are you giving this to me?"

"You'll see in a minute."

Before she could ask what he was planning, she found herself surrounded by a bunch of penguins, most likely going after the fish that was in her hand. Azula fell to the ground, laughing.

"Hey, cut it out, that tickles!"

After getting what they wanted, the penguins began to disperse. All except for one.

"Well, it looks like you got yourself a penguin to ride on."

Azula turned around to see Sokka smiling at her, his own penguin standing next to him.

"Now you know the secret to catching a penguin: food!"

"You mean that food is the secret ingredient to get these guys to do whatever you want them to? Why does that remind me of someone….?"

"Hey!"

Azula laughed. Sokka's pout soon turned into a smile. She was making jokes now. Sure, it was at his expense, but the fact that she had even cracked a joke at all spoke volumes. It meant that she was starting to warm up to him. He led her over to a hill, telling her to sit down on her penguins back. She did as told and then looked at him.

"Now what?"

"Wait for it."

"Wait for what - WHOA!"

The two penguins made their descent down the hill, going at a speed that amazed Azula. Sokka was right. This was indeed fun.

"This is amazing!"

"I told you! The best part is getting ready to come up!"

"Best part?"

Soon they were inside a cave made of ice, sliding up, down, and around each other, laughing the entire time. They came to a stop once they exited the cave, and hopped off of the two penguins. Looking around, Azula noticed a large shadow. She looked up and gasped.

A fire navy ship. And from the looks of it, it had been there for years.

"This is from one of the raids on my tribe by the Fire Nation. It's a bad memory for all of us. It happened long before I was born, though. There was another raid on our tribe not that long ago. It didn't last long, and they left almost as soon as they came. But my mother was killed by a firebender. My dad and Katara were the ones who found her body, and Katara was the last person to see our mother alive."

So that was why Hakoda wanted to know if she was a firebender or not. His wife had been killed by one, and he had been the one to find her body, along with Katara. That would explain why the little girl in question was so afraid of her. Azula could count on her hand the amount of times that she felt guilty about something (which wasn't a lot) but right now? Right now she felt immense guilt. This was her grandfather's doing, the man she was named after. Her family was responsible for these raids on the Southern Water tribe. And they were unknowingly hiding one member of the royal family.

"I'm sorry, Sokka."

Sokka looked at her, shocked. What was she apologizing for? She wasn't the one who killed his mother and ordered that these raids happen. That was the Fire Lord's fault.

"Why are you apologizing for? You didn't do anything wrong. You didn't do this to my people, and it's not your fault that my mother was killed, ok?"

"But I'm from the Fire Nation, the nation that killed your mother! I used to think that things like this were just because we're fighting a war, and that's how war is, but now…"

"Now you see things differently?"

Azula nodded.

Sokka sighed and grabbed her hand, "You shouldn't blame yourself just because you're from the Fire Nation. We can't choose where we're born, right? So don't worry about it. I'm not angry with you about this, I promise. The only person who I'm angry with is the Firelord. He's the one to blame, not you." he said, squeezing her hand reassuringly.

Azula looked at him and said nothing. She didn't feel as if she had the right to say anything at the moment.

"Come on, let's head back. We can't go inside that shop because it may be filled with booby traps."

'Maybe' was an understatement. Azula had no doubt in her mind that the ship was filled to the brim with different traps in the event that a prisoner tried to escape. As she followed Sokka back to the village, she couldn't help but replay the last thing that he said in her mind.

"The only person who I'm angry with is the Firelord. He's the one to blame, not you."

Azula wondered if he'd still feel that way if she told him who she actually was.

Later on during dinner, Sokka told his father, Gran Gran, and Katara about how much fun he and Azula had when they went penguin sledding. When Hakoda asked the girl if she enjoyed herself, she gave a small nod but didn't look up from her food as she ate. This didn't go unnoticed by Sokka, who looked at her worriedly. She seemed to be fine earlier, so what happened to change her mood? He thought that taking Azula penguin sledding would have cheered the girl up for sure. And it looked like it had. So what happened? Could it have been the ship? He told her that she wasn't to blame for what happened to his mother and the rest of the tribe just because she was from the Fire Nation, but what if that was still bothering her?

Before he could ask what was wrong, Azula excused herself and went to their room. He would just have to talk to her about it later, he supposed.

Kanna also picked up on Azula's mood but opted not to comment on it. She already knew what the two children had seen, after all.

The next day, Azula was still keeping to herself, much to Sokka's dismay. Not knowing what to do, he decided to ask his Gran Gran for help. She was good with things like this.

"You want me to talk with Azula and find out what's wrong with her?"

"Yeah! I haven't been able to get her to tell me what's wrong, so I thought that maybe you may have better luck talking to her than me, Gran Gran!"

Kanna didn't say anything at first, thinking about her options and how best to approach the matter. On the one hand, it might be best to let Azula deal with this on her own, and let her come to them when she was ready. On the other hand, this would be the perfect opportunity for Kanna to finally get some answers from the girl. Answers that may help with making her feel better.

"I suppose I'll go and talk to her and see what I can do."

Sokka cheered and hugged her before running out of the igloo, most likely going to find Hakoda or Katara. Kanna walked to the children's room and found Azula sitting on top of her sleeping roll, with her legs crossed and eyes closed, appearing to be meditating. Kanna cleared her throat, causing Azula to open her eyes and look to see who was interrupting her. She was shocked to see Kanna instead of Sokka.

"My grandson tells me that you aren't feeling well. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really. I'm fine."

"Well now, I find that hard to believe. You two did see that ship, after all. You saw first hand the kind of terror that your grandfather, Firelord Azulon, has inflicted on our tribe."

Azula stood up and stared at Kanna, shocked. How on earth did she figure it out?!

"I'll take that reaction as a confirmation that I'm right. Why don't you tell me the real reason as to why the princess of the Fire Nation is here in the Southern Water tribe?"