Chapter Text
Katara inhaled the cold, salty air of her home. She exhaled slowly and watched as her breath created fog in the air.
Sokka was lecturing her on fishing techniques behind her in the canoe. If he didn’t stop waving that spear around, she’d stick it— IN. She took a deep breath. OUT. She sighed. A flash of silver caught her eye in the water. A fish swam tauntingly under the surface directly next to their boat.
She quietly called Sokka’s name. He was too busy discussing the merits of carved spear handles vs regular handles to hear her. She was too afraid to speak louder, lest she scare the fish away. Slowly, she removed a glove and took another breath. IN. OUT. She wound a sphere of water around the fish and floated it into the air before it noticed what was happening. A thrill shot through her. She was doing it!
“Sokka, look!”
“Personally I don’t think the difference is that significant to-“
In an attempt to illustrate his point, he reared back his spear only to burst the flimsy bubble of water. He was soaked faster than you could say puffin-seal.
“Katara! Leave it to a girl to mess everything up with stupid magic water!”
Her eye twitched. Magic water? Stupid? “If you had been paying attention, you’d know that I caught a fish! A fish that you just made me lose! Plus it’s not magic water and you know it. And another thing, you selfish, penguin-brained-“ she felt all the little annoying things Sokka did bubble up and boil over. “You could stand to wash your own filthy stinking socks sometimes! You ungrateful, self-centered-“
“Katara!” She realized Sokka had been trying to get her attention during her tirade. It was too late. The unmistakeable crack of a glacier sounded behind her. She froze, then turned slowly to look. There was a massive glacier behind her littered with the unmistakeable slashes of water bending and it was starting to crack.
“Paddle!”
“You don’t have to tell me twice!”
They hauled the canoe as fast as they could but there was another crack and a gargantuan slab of ice slipped into the water. The resulting waves slammed them onto an iceberg and dragged off their ship. Once it was clear no more ice was going to collapse, they picked themselves up and Katara bent what water she could from their parkas. While fishing through her pockets to see what she had on her, Sokka pointed over her
shoulder to where the ice had fallen.
“Katara- look!” She followed his gesture and gasped. The snow has revealed a solid sphere of ice, giving off a slight glow. She could have sworn there was something moving inside it.
“Sokka, we have to check that out.” He nodded without hesitation, which surprised her a bit.
“No way I’d let you investigate the glowing ice orb without me.” A mischievous glint entered his eyes. “Last one to the ice ball is a lame otter-penguin!”
“Hey!” The ice structure was much larger up close. Something about it made her uneasy. Sokka seemed to be thinking the same thing.
“Maybe we should be careful. Could be a fire nation trick.”
“I don’t think the fire nation is hiding it’s sneak attacks inside of icebergs.”
“We won’t know until we crack it open I guess.” He held up the fishing spear which somehow survived the ordeal. Katara took a deep breath. It took her a few tries but finally she managed to damage the ice enough with her bending for it to crack open. A powerful gust of warm air bursting out of the sphere almost knocked them off their feet. Sokka shot her a look and she shrugged. A deep lowing sound echoed out of the sphere. Was something inside? Sokka raised an eyebrow. Katara let him lead with the spear as they climbed to look inside. Curled up was a massive, shaggy animal unlike anything Katara had seen before.
The next thing to catch her eye was the skeleton. Katara had more experience with death than anyone her age should have had to endure, but she audibly gasped.
“Oh spirits, Sokka, someone died in here.” She carefully slid down to stand near the animal and look closer at the skeleton. The clothing remained mostly intact. It was billowy and yellow. It wore a wooden necklace with a familiar symbol. She couldn’t quite place it, though, and it was bugging her. Sokka spoke up behind her, “Katara! There’s a baby!” She quickly looked and saw what Sokka meant. Nestled in a wool blanket was the sleeping face of a baby. The blanket was the same color as the sleeping creature and she hadn’t seen him. Her veins ran cold. She quickly scooped the baby up in her arms and held his face up to her cheek to see if he was breathing. She felt him exhale and she calmed slightly.
“He’s breathing.” As she gently rocked the baby, Sokka knelt by the skeleton, muttering a prayer for his spirit, and searching for clues as to what happened here. His search produced a scroll. He opened it and Katara read over his shoulder as she rocked the baby.
I know I am not long for this world, yet I must believe Aang will survive. The spirits will protect him. In the event of his survival and my own death, I write this letter to plead for whoever finds him to care for him and help him fulfill his great destiny. Aang was born in the southern air temple. He is the Avatar of this age.
The letter continued to describe the circumstances which led to the pair being trapped in the ice. They were airbenders. There was a fire nation attack on the temple where they lived. Katara guessed it was an early precursor to the raids which killed the airbenders. The now dead monk, Gyatso, fled with Aang on an air bison named Appa, afraid that Aang might be found and killed by the firebenders. They were caught in a storm, and Gyatso was overwhelmed despite his best efforts. A freak miracle occurred and the swirling ball of air Gyatso had formed around them started to freeze over with ice. In the letter, Gyatso speculated that this was an act of the spirits to protect the Infant avatar. Aang’s destiny was to survive to bring balance to the world. The handwriting became more stilted, the words of a dying old man. It ended with a simple request - to care for the child and help him bring balance to the world.
Tears were forming in her eyes. It was tragic. To believe she held the Avatar in her arms. He wasn’t dead! She pressed her forehead to his and silently promised to do everything she could for him.
“We can give him a proper burial when we get back home.” Sokka wrapped Gyatso’s body in the blanket they found the baby-Aang wrapped in and Katara tucked the baby into her parka, the same way the mothers of her village carried their babies. His eyes fluttered open and gazed up at her. She gave him a quick peck on the forehead and he smiled and made a short babbling sound.
“There’s no way we’ll be able to walk all the way home, Sokka.” Then she got an idea. She went up to the large sleeping creature- Appa. Using both hands, she shoved at his side. “Come help me wake him up. Maybe this sky bison can give us a ride home.”
Sokka joined her and with enough pushing, Appa began to stand. He yawned and eyed them warily. He warmed up to them easily enough once he saw they had Aang. They scrambled up onto his back, carefully taking Gyatso’s body with them.
Sokka pointed in the direction of their village, “Can you give us a ride that way, big guy?” Appa didn’t move.
“He mentioned some code word or something in his letter, Sokka.”
“Oh yeah. What was it? Woah-now? Yippie? Yip yip?”
Suddenly Appa shifted and raised his tail and they were flying. They both screamed as they took off.
“Oh spirits! Katara we’re flying! We’re really flying!”
“Gyatso did say Appa could fly in the letter.”
“Oh come on. You were just as surprised as me that he could actually fly,” He patted Appa’s fur. “The big guy is far from aerodynamic.”
Aang shifted around in the soft fur for a bit before settling in for the ride. They had found the lost Avatar and were on their way back home on a magical flying bison. Katara smiled for what felt like the first time in a long time.