Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender.
The Southern Air Temple
Aang was in high spirits; laughing lightly as he ran ahead on the path to this supposed air temple. He pulled Kaya behind him. Pausing a couple of times to point out objects to the yellow-haired girl and giving her their names. Of course, on this path that meant she was learning the words for rock, cloud, and cliff.
Katara walked next to me, studying our surroundings closely and bothering her bottom lip in worry. None of us knew what we'd find at Aang's home. But Katara knew it probably wouldn't be good. Especially with Aang's apparent optimistic denial.
But if Aang wasn't going to worry about it, I didn't see a reason for me to either. "This place better have food", I said clenching at my rumbling stomach. Using seal blubber jerky for starting a fire, blasphemy!
Aang came to a halt in front of an edge looking out at something below with Kaya standing slightly behind him, listening to whatever he was telling her. Briefly, she looked over her shoulder at us. Like she was making sure we were still there. Once she saw we were still walking, Kaya faced forward again.
Katara rolled her eyes. Her little hair loopies blew around in the wind. "We're one of the first outsiders to see an airbender temple and the only thing you want to ask about is food?" She gestured with her hands to show how ridiculous I was being.
Frowning, I made my own gestures. "I'm a simple guy with simple needs", I stated. Why was that hard to understand? Besides, we'd see who the ridiculous one is when everyone becomes hungry and there's no food because we didn't make it a priority.
As soon as we were close enough, Aang smiled before pointing to the field below; directing our attention. Said field was a bunch of bamboo poles sticking out of the ground. What is that? Some type of airbender torture device? "That's where me and my friends played airball. ", he explained the field of bamboo poles. "And right next to it is where Appa and his friends would sleep. And-" Aang continued, but he cut himself off with a sigh, dropping Kaya's hand in the process. Aang's shoulder's slumped as Kaya took one big step away from the edge.
"What's wrong?" Katara asked. But I'm not sure why. When this day started, both Katara and I knew it wasn't going to be easy. Probably something to do with the people skills Katara was always claiming to be better at than me.
"I just see weeds", Aang answered; his normal light-hearted air gone. "Where are all the bison, the lemurs, and the people?"
Katara shot me a look in a silent order to do something. I shrugged in response. Unsure about what she expected me to do about it. Besides, as far as I was concerned, she was the one who brought Aang into our lives. So, he was her problem. My problem was currently standing within reaching distance of me looking content and seemingly unaware of the heaviness of this place. I wasn't responsible for both foreigners. Kaya was taken care of, so Katara needed to step up and take care of her foreigner.
My mind was changed for me when Katara jabbed her elbow in my ribs a little harder than necessary. Causing me to grunt as air was forced out of my lungs. Kaya turned at the sound, eyes a little wide as she tried to decide if my slightly hunched-over form was something she needed to be concerned about. Glaring at Katara, I sighed and gave Kaya the downward hand motion for 'everything's cool'. Fine. I thought; stepping forward and around the yellow-haired girl. Looks like I have to do anything. I mean… I guess I am still the oldest dude. That means I'm in charge, right?
"So, uh…", I started to say; asking Aang for his attention. "How do you play? Airball, you called it".
Aang recovered fast if his broad smile was anything to go by. "Okay! Let's play. I'll teach you". Jeez, if he kept this up, his fast-changing emotions were going to give me whiplash. Aang made a running start before leaping off the cliff; letting the wind carry him and lessen the impact of his landing. When he was standing level with the airball field, he turned and waved up at the three of us. "Come on!"
My jaw was slack as Kaya and Katara came to stand next to me. As if afraid I'd be stupid enough to make the same airbender leap that Aang did, Kaya latched onto my sleeve. How…. I'm not sure I'll ever understand how little Aang cares about gravity.
"Aang!" Katara yelled down to the boy. "How do we get there? Is there a path or stairs?"
Aang lowered his arm as some color entered his cheeks. Rubbing the back of his neck he laughed a little. "Sorry! I'll come back up and show you the way".
It was a trial to figure out how to climb the bamboo poles. Apparently, if you're an airbender, you're supposed to float up. Then, seeing as I had no way to manipulate the ball which was really just a tumbleweed, I ended up knocked off the bamboo poles and onto my butt seven times. Seven times! Groaning, I pushed myself up; catching Kaya's attention in the process from where she had been sitting next to a patch of tall weeds. She seemed to like them. Not weeds specifically. But any green plant-growing-thing. Nothing really grew at home. Maybe vegetation was something she missed. Or maybe this was the first time she was seeing it. Who knows what type of place yellow-haired people come from. "Making him feel better hurts", I complained.
Kaya blinked at me as she picked apart the words she understood. "Sokka hurt?" She asked slowly; stumbling over a couple of sounds.
I paused, looking at her. Hurt. That was a new word for her. Too bad she only seemed to know what it meant in a literal sense. "Just my pride", I answered; feeling less annoyed as Kaya's nose scrunched up in confusion. We really needed to work with her on using pronouns and verbs. But how?
"Sokka", Kaya interrupted my thoughts. She waited until she had my full attention. With one hand Kaya parted the tall weeds. With the other, she pointed. "Look. Kaya find".
My shoulders tensed at the unwelcomed confirmation, but I'm not surprised. Sitting at the base of the cliff is a cracked and old fire nation soldier helmet that looked like it hadn't been touched in decades. "Look at what I found", I corrected kaya's sentence as I crawled over.
With less confidence than before, Kaya repeated the statement back to me, except she missed the pronoun completely. But still an improvement.
My attention was fixed on the soot-covered helmet that was probably older than my dad. Maybe even Gran-gran. Causing Kaya to shift her focus back to it as well. She doesn't touch it; sensing it wasn't something she should dirty her hands with. She probably didn't understand, but the odds of us visiting a graveyard just became extremely more likely. "Katara", I called to my sister from where she was watching Aang goof off airbender style.
Kaya looked away from the helmet to watch Katara's approach; trying to read my sister's face as Katara took in the discovery. "Fire nation", Katara stated, sounding like how I was feeling.
"We need to tell Aang", I said. I didn't want to. Not so soon after we got him to stop looking like a kicked otter penguin. But… I also didn't want him exploring his old home unaware and stumbling upon something worse than an old helmet.
Katara gave me a long look before sighing with a long nod. "Aang", she called, turning around to where Aang was still playing with the tumbleweed. "Come take a look".
"Okay", Aang called back; running and laughing as he blew the ball around his shoulders.
As Aang approached, I watched Katara's face morph through a couple of different expressions. And before Aang reached us completely, Katara waved her arms causing snow from the ledge above to come crashing down. Kaya squeaked and scrambled away just in time as cold, wet, mushy ice crystals drenched my head and shoulders, and buried the helmet.
"What is it?" Aang asked as I gasped at the sudden chill and hurriedly worked to brush the snow off. I mean, come on! I didn't even have my coat on.
"Uh" After a brief pause, Katara lied easily. A little too easily if you asked me. "I learned I could bend snow as well as water".
Kaya stood up with me and started to brush to worst of it off my shoulders. At least somebody cared. Too bad that somebody wasn't my own sister. "Nice", Aang commented. Not seeming surprised that snow was another type of bendable water. "Are you guys ready to see the rest of the air temple?" Aang didn't wait for a response, already turning and heading in a direction we hadn't explored yet.
"You shouldn't protect him from this", I warned once Aang was out of hearing distance, ducking slightly to get the last of the snow off the top of my head.
Katara's gloved hands balled into fists. "Yes, I can", she stated stubbornly, refusing to look at me as she started after Aang.
Sighing, I turned to face Kaya. "I don't know if you have little sisters. But if you do, I bet they listen to you better than Katara listens to me".
Kaya tilts her head to the side. Something she often does when she's thinking. I waited; having no hurry to watch Aang realize what happened to his people. And who knows. Maybe whatever Kaya was about to say would be something worth the wait. Maybe she'd finally be able to share something about herself. Maybe she'll spontaneously make some gains in understanding our language and we'll be able to have a conversation. She'd actually be able to understand my jokes and she'd tell me how funny I am. Or how good-looking I am.
But when Kaya opened her mouth the only thing she said was, "Sokka… covered in snow".
… Yeah, I got ahead of myself. That… that was hoping for too much too soon. "Yup. I was covered in snow. Good job", I praised. At least cover was another new word she managed to pick up.
Kaya beamed before she started after Aang and Katara. I hesitated for another moment longer. Sometimes… sometimes it's really hard being the dude in charge.
The southern air temple is something else. Something I've never seen before. Their walls are built out of stone. Not ice bricks or compacted snow. There were tall curved archways that must have taken hours and hours of work; creating a sense of a lot of open space. Like the walk up here, the paths were curved. But not as twisted.
It was quiet. Too quiet. The only things to listen to were our footsteps on the smooth stone floor and Aang talking Katara's ear off. Something about a sanctuary with a locked door that he hadn't been ready to open until now. I don't know.
Kaya and I were busy with something more important. The search for food! At first, I hadn't wanted to poke around too much. No matter what culture you're from, it's bad-mannered to go into someone's home without their knowledge or their permission. Especially since we didn't know if these could truly be called homes anymore. They could be tombs. And disturbing a final resting place was ten times worse than entering a home uninvited. If Gran-gran's stories were going to be believed. Although, now that I'm thinking about it, I wonder if that's why we release our dead to the sea. It was hard enough living in the south pole, we didn't need any trapped spirits making it worse.
But Aang said we were free to look in any room we wanted as long as something wasn't locked. "We are nomads", he explained. "Not a lot of us stay in one place. Temples are meant to offer lodgings to all traveling air nomads. So if a room isn't occupied, you're allowed to go in". He left out the part where he had been gone a hundred years and the part where we hadn't seen another soul outside our group all day. Katara and I took the coward's path and didn't remind him.
So, as Katara and Aang went to investigate the sanctuary, Kaya and I poked our noses into the different buildings. There wasn't much. Just a lot of dust. Dust on old wooden furniture that looked ready to become dust itself. Dust cover fabrics that had a lot of holes in them. But that didn't stop us. People need to eat! "Food", I told Kaya. Mostly just to make some sound. "We're looking for food. Something tasty and preferably meat". But who was I kidding? If we did find meat it wouldn't be safe to eat.
Kaya picked up what looked like a spinning top with its paint faded from age. "Food", she said holding it out to me.
"No", I said, feeling confused. Kaya knows the word for food. Tapping the object in her hand, I gave her the correct name. "Spinning top. You know like a toy. We're looking for food". Kaya's face was blank, leading me to rub my stomach. "You know, yum".
In response, Kaya set the top back down where she found it, leaving the dust in the nearby area disturbed. She walked away from me and further into the room, seeming unaware that I was feeling perplexed and was staring at her back. Food was one of the first words Kaya learned. 'What's for dinner?' is my favorite conversation topic. Of course, Kaya learned the word for food first. So, what's with the relapse?
Brushing some loose strands of hair from her face, Kaya squatted to look under a low table. Narrowing my eyes, I watched as she dug out what looked like a hat that lost its shape. Smiling to herself, Kaya stood up the dingy old thing in her hands and made her way back to me. The closed-lip smile on her face was pleasant to look at. But, for some reason, it had me on edge. Kaya wasn't frugal with her smiles. All you had to do was look at her to provoke one. But right now, it was unprompted.
Just as she had done with the spinning top, Kaya held out the mishappen hat for me to see. Even when she was holding it, I could see the dust now sticking to her scarred hands because she'd chosen to pick it up. "Look at…" Kaya paused, her face twisting up as she tried to remember the phrase I told her earlier in the day. After a few seconds, Kaya shrugged and gave up. "Kaya found food", she finished her butchered sentence. Yup, pronouns were the next thing she needed to learn.
But, staring at the very inedible hat in her hands, a pronoun lesson wasn't something I was concerned about at that moment. What was this? Kaya knew what food was and when I was talking about food? "No", I started again, this time with my eyebrows wrinkling. "This isn't food. It's a hat". Had Kaya really forgotten food? I mean, it's food. It's kind of essential! "You know, a hat? You wear it".
Kaya blinked twice without her usual signs of comprehension flickering in her brown eyes. Did something happen that we're not aware of? From when she was stuck on that fire nation ship with prince scarface? Did she hit her head and Aang wasn't there to see it so he couldn't tell us? But then, why did she only forget the word for food?
I started miming what one does with a hat by putting a pretend one on my head. "Hat", I repeated. "You wear it on your head". Kaya continued to stare blanking at me. "Um…. Head", I said, reaching over and patting the top of her yellow hair as an example. "Head. You wear a hat on your head. We want to find food. Um… food". Pinching my thumb and fingers together, I touched my lips a couple of times. "Food; things you can eat". Um… how else can I explain this without any real food to demonstrate with? Better question, why did I have to explain this? I know Kaya knew this… Or she used to. Was this bad? Whatever this was, could it be fixed? And…. And why was she laughing?
Having watched me mildly panic, Kaya turned her face into the should of her jacket as humor made her shake. The worry I held in my shoulders evaporated as I caught on. Oh. "You're messing with me", I said with a sigh. But the sound didn't match the corners of my mouth pulling upward.
For a short moment, Kaya made eye contact and without thinking, I reached out and pulled her closer. "Was it funny? Making me act stuff out?" I asked, even though I was confident she didn't know the words I was using. Matching her playfulness, we made a big show of Kaya pretending to get away from me and me pretending to never allow her to escape. "You knew what food was all along", I accused as Kaya giggled and darted away. At the exit of the lodgings, we were in, she looked over her shoulder, just long enough to make sure I was following before taking off.
And then, I played my first game of tag in years. Although, playing with Kaya was a lot different than playing with Katara or other kids from the village. We ran from house to house. With Kaya ducking behind curtains or furniture to keep distance between us. Though she made sure never to be out of sight; laughing whenever I got within catching distance. This game of tag had a lot more baiting and teasing than the times I'd played as a kid. Impressive really. Since Kaya could only use her mannerisms and expressions to egg me on.
Occasionally, when she had time to do it, Kaya would find other non-edible items in the different places we entered. Each time she'd hold them up for me to see and ask, "food?" And every time, I'd pretend to growl and start the chase all over again.
It was nice; to be able to play a game without feeling like I was slacking off. Or that someone was going to go hungry because I wasn't out hunting. It was nice. Seeing Kaya laugh freely; far away from the women who thought she was a bad omen. It was nice to forget about my growling stomach. It was nice…
A few steps ahead of me, Kaya ducked into another lodging; pushing aside a cloth curtain serving as a door in the process. I hesitated outside. Partially to give Kaya some time to figure out how she wanted to continue this game, but also to take a quick look around. Just in case Aang and Katara had left the sanctuary thing and were looking for us. During our game, Kaya and I had wandered a little from where they left us. I couldn't see them or hear them calling for us. So, they much still be in there.
Shrugging to allow myself to be unbothered and stay in this moment, I started forward. Only to be stopped with Kaya re-emerged. Her eyes were held wide open and there was a slight tremor in her hands as she held the curtain out of the way. "Sokka", she said in a strained voice that sounded close to breaking.
"What is it?" I asked, stepping closer. Close enough to make out the little bits of water collecting in the corner of her eyes.
Kaya offered no verbal response. Instead, she pointed behind her and made sure I had enough room to get around her to enter the lodging. Which I did, carefully. What had she found? Kaya re-entered the room behind me, keeping close to me with our game of catch and release completely forgotten. Kaya didn't have to point in order for me to see what she had discovered. Soon, my feet stilled on the smooth stone floor as I took in the sight of dust, ash, destruction that was possibly a century old, and … a pair of skeletons.
The sight was a painful reminder. Of where we were, why we were here, and what this would mean for Aang. Did we… tell him? We had to, right? Or I had to tell him. Since Kaya couldn't and Katara so far hadn't been willing to have difficult conversations with him. Oh, La! What if the reason Katara and Aang were taking so long in that sanctuary was because they found more skeletons in there? What if Katara was trying to handle this on her own?
"Sokka", Kaya whispered; acting completely different from how she was just moments ago. I tore my eyes away from the skeletons. Instead, watching Kaya stare at the bones. In the time we'd spent in this specific spot, she'd grasped the sleeve of my coat in both of her hands. "Here is… What…" Kaya paused and nervously gestured to the skeletons as frustration showed in her slanted eyebrows. "Why… Why Kaya and Sokka here?"
She didn't know. My eyes started to feel dry as I spent a little too much time staring at Kaya without blinking. I mean, it makes sense she wouldn't know about where we were or why we were here. Not one of us had told her. Or tried to tell her. Kaya didn't know Aang was over a hundred years old. Nor did she have any sense about what went down at this temple all those years ago. Kaya, more or less, was just along for the ride. And I had let her run around without warning about what we might find.
Turning around and stepping in front of her, I made sure Kaya was looking at me. Both of our smiles were long gone as I tried to figure out what to say. But it was difficult to think of the right words. Especially since I was in no hurry to teach her the word for genocide. "This is Aang's home", I finally settled on; using words Kaya already understood.
Comprehension flickered in Kaya's eyes before it was washed away with grief. She looked away from me to stare at the floor as she used her left hand to trace the swirling scars on her right hand. I didn't rush her and kept the skeletons out of sight as she thought. Slowly and a little shaky, Kaya raised her head and pointed to another cracked and dirty fire nation helmet that had been left behind. "Fire nation?" Kaya asked. Probably remembering what Katara said when we found the first helmet at the bamboo pole field.
"Yeah", I confirmed with a nod; heart aching. "The fire nation… um, hurt Aang's home". Hurt wasn't a strong enough word to describe what happened here. But my answer was limited to the words Kaya knew.
Kaya lowered her arm to continue to trace her scars. Her next question came out in a watery mumble. "Fire nation hurt Sokka's home?"
I nodded. A sudden tightness in my throat made it difficult to talk, but somehow I managed. "They hurt our home too". Not as bad as this place. At least we still had a tribe and people. But we lost many. My mom… And it led our fathers and brothers leaving in the small hope of securing some sort of future for us.
"Fire nation bad?" Came Kaya's next question. Though judging from her voice, it sounded like she already knew the answer.
Taking a step closer, I wrapped my arms around her; pinning Kaya's arms to her sides, and rested my chin on her shoulder. "Fire nation bad", I agreed; holding her tight. "The fire nation is very very bad".