When the Wind was Reborn

Chapter Thirteen

Sokka liked being Kallik, he liked everything about it. The tribe didn't matter, his eye didn't matter, his father didn't matter, the Fire Nation didn't matter, all that mattered were his wares and his customers. He was trading goods and making money on every transaction, finding things cheap that he knew others would buy for more, finding merchants who didn't know the value of their product, selling his wares with a smile and a good conversation. It was easy for him, it came naturally.

The Skua's Flight, that wouldn't do for a name, he thought. No, that was his father's boat, and it was his now. It seemed so strange to him now that he'd wanted to be known as the Skua's talon, once upon a time and not so long ago, when now he felt for the first time like he was his own person, divorced from the tribe.

"Feathersail," he whispered under his breath, and placed his hand on the hull with a smile.

He was glad when Katara disappeared in the morning. Finally, it would be good for her to go outside and get away from the ship. She had been miserable ever since they first arrived, missing the south pole and questioning their journey, he supposed. It would be good for her to see the world, to see all these new people and interesting faces. He was very happy for her.

He loaded a pack with items, went out to the merchant's district and set up a shop on a dusty street corner with the other merchants. He had Water Tribe jewellery made of bone, beads and shells, with a small few having precious metals and stones, he had collected some old but good quality Fire Nation knives, some whetstones and sheaths, he had an Air Nomad ocarina and a flute, he had Earth Kingdom textiles and a scattered few scrolls from different parts of the world. Just a tiny fraction of his wares, but ones that he could carry and ones that he was sure he could turn for some coin on the corner of the street.

Sokka wasn't stupid though, and neither was Kallik. He carried his jawbone knife concealed and always kept a hand on it.

"Hey, friend, that's a nice blade," he addressed a passing firebender, a young man only a few years his senior. His clothes were a little scruffy, but he carried a beautiful, long, curved katana at his waist. He was proud, Sokka judged, the blade a family heirloom harkening back to his family's glory days.

"Thank you," the firebender said, stopping immediately, a smile on his face. "It's name is Tokagekirā." Dragon-killer, it meant.

"Did your ancestors carry it?" Sokka asked.

"Yes, they did," he said. "My grandfather in his youth slayed the great dragon Huoyan and landed the killing blow with this blade."

"That's quite a story! And your side-arm?" Sokka asked. The knife that the stranger carried was old, worn and very ordinary.

"Oh, this? This is just an old knife," he said with a laugh.

"It looks not dissimilar to one of mine," Sokka lied, and picked up a Fire Nation tanto. "Yours is much older, but maybe they were brothers?" He presented an antique blade, characters running down the length of the blade that read 'Yabureta'.

"Severed claw...?" The stranger took the proffered knife and appraised it. "I think you're mistaken, friend, it bears no relation to my own humble blade. It's beautiful though. Would you be willing to part with it?" And just like that Kallik the merchant made some money.

He whiled away the rest of the day in conversation with pleasant strangers, offering them just the thing they wanted. An young Earth Kingdom noblewoman with a taste for the exotic bought some of the jewellery, a nervous scholar purchased a couple of scrolls, a travelling bard took the Air Nomad ocarina, and by the end of the day Sokka had gotten rid of nearly all the wares he'd taken with him.

"Katara?" He called when he got back onto the clipper ship. No answer. He checked below decks. Not there. He went back outside and looked at the sky. The daylight was just beginning to fade, and in an hour the sun would be setting. She'd been out all day and it didn't sit particularly right with him. He wasn't stupid, he knew she was a powerful bender and that she was smart and cautious, but she was his little sister. He left the boat with knife, club and machete on him and walked under the dusky sky towards town.

He nearly missed it, but his one remaining eye was sharp. Just before he left the jetty he spotted something, a ship in the distance. Not just any ship, a fire nation ship, he knew that outline very well. He had a feeling, and so he went back to the clipper ship and leaned on the bow as it approached. He wouldn't look out of place, he was just a merchant relaxing on his ship, but he wanted to get a good look at it. As it drew closer he became surer and surer - it was that fossil of a Fire Nation cruiser that he'd been blasted from. As it drew up and dropped anchor he could even see the patched up hole he had been sent through.

They wasted no time. It dropped a small tender vessel loaded with a dozen men, among them the prince. Why did Sokka have the feeling that this had some bearing on Katara's whereabouts? He had a sense that this is who he should follow, that if he tailed them he'd find his sister and the Avatar both.

When the tender vessel berthed they disembarked and started marching. Sokka made after them.

They were arrogant, the firebenders, and self-important. They didn't so much as cast a backwards glance over their shoulder as they walked, so used to being the hunter and not the hunted. All except the prince, the prince cast backwards glances over his shoulder, checked reflections in windows and scanned the crowd and city with his eyes ceaselessly. The prince alone among the firebenders had at some point been the hunted himself, Sokka judged.

Sokka followed, hiding in shadows and behind other pedestrians, always just out of sight. The prince was a careful watcher, but Sokka was a better follower.

For the thousandth time Sokka cursed his missing eye - what was he going to do if they found the Avatar? If only he could shoot a bow, or maybe even throw a boomerang, he could end the Avatar from a hundred yards away. As is, he couldn't exactly march past a dozen firebenders with his club in hand, could he? Still, he followed, the firebenders had purpose here, that much was certain, and Sokka was going to find out what it was.

He followed them out of the city, and into the hills as the sky grew dark. One of the firebenders summoned a flame to light the way, and the prince slapped it out of his hand.

"Do you want to be seen?" He snapped.

"My apologies, your highness."

They walked for some time, and Sokka had to trail further and further back as cover grew sparser and sparser, much too far away to hear them anymore. He just about feared that he'd lost them when he saw the sparks of fire and heard some yelling. A skirmish? He continued climbing the hill.

Sokka found a path of rutted mud as he approached, and he bedded down and covered himself in it. From there he slithered up the hillside, invisible but for his one eye, slowly, slowly, until he was on the edge of the camp. Under cover of the mud and some bushes and shrubbery he might as well have been invisible.

A rumble vibrated his bones and he squinted through the leaves to see the gargantuan bulk of a beast that could only be that sky bison. It was just beside the camp, tied down with thick ropes, marred by several large patches of burned fur and a few seeping wounds. How was it that a monster like that had been captured three times, but a twelve year old boy keeps eluding everyone? Sokka wondered.

"Are you sure the fire's okay?"

"We'll snuff it soon as we see them coming. The Prince said that Zuko would be carrying fire to make it easy for us to see them."

"Huh. Okay, sounds good." Sokka smiled. He knew it.

Then men talked round the fire, passed around some food, told some stories, shared some laughs. All except the prince. Lu Ten sat there, staring into the fire, hands clasped in front of him. He moved only to look up in the direction of the city, scanning for any signs of his man. Sokka could only assume that Zuko meant to deliver the trusting young Avatar into Lu Ten's hands.

Sokka was very conscious of the fact that if he was seen he was dead. With the element of surprise he might be able to kill one or two men, and even then that was doubtful. He wished Katara was here. Katara would level the playing field. With the element of surprise and Katara's waterbending prowess they'd perhaps even be able to take the prince hostage, or figure out some other way to win. As is, Sokka had to wait and watch.

"There he is." The prince had noticed before anyone else, even Sokka. He squinted, and could make out just a slightest pinprick of orange light. The men quenched their fire and even bended the smoke apart and down as it dissipated. They took their spears and crawled off into the undergrowth, taking their hiding places. It was an amateur effort, Sokka thought, but the game they were hunting perhaps weren't too sharp either. Only Lu Ten truly disappeared, and even Sokka didn't see where he went.

The tiny flame came closer, closer, closer. A half hour passed, and Sokka remained still. He could see the firebenders squirm in discomfort as they began to cramp and ache. He smirked to himself. The flame drew closer and closer, not close enough to see them, but it wouldn't be long now. The flame stopped moving.

"Why did he stop?"

"Shh!"

The flame hovered in place for long minutes. Then it went out.

"Find them!" Lu Ten barked, and the men all started running.