Water

The Boy and the Beast

"Katara, what are you doing?" Sokka leapt out of the canoe after his sister, nearly missing the frozen bank in his hurry.

There was a loud crack as she struck the ice with his club, and Sokka dragged the canoe just far enough on the bank to keep it from drifting away. There was an unmistakable shadowy shape inside of the frozen globe, something like a person. Katara struck the ice again, and a long, glistening crack spread across the surface. Sokka's eyes narrowed as his sister drew the club back again. From the heart of the ice, a faint, blue-white glow appeared, and the figure inside became perfectly clear.

Sokka sprinted toward his sister, and as the club met with the surface of the ball of ice, the crack deepened, and the light grew more intense. He pushed Katara to the ground, throwing one arm over her and the other over his head.

The sound of it was less sharp than Sokka expected—there was a definite crack, but he felt more than heard the rumble deep in the pit of his stomach. The light grew so intense that the glow was visible even through his closed eyelids. There was a blast of air, and a cascade of ice shards rained down on the siblings' backs, and then, in an instant, the world was still again.

"Get off me." Katara shoved her brother's arm aside and scrambled to her feet.

A little indignant, Sokka stood, brushing the snow off of his chest. "In other words, thank you, best brother in the world, for keeping me from being blasted to bits."

Katara shot a glare in his direction, but there was a rustling sound from inside the jagged bowl of ice, and she took a hasty step back.

"What is that?" Katara whispered, eyes wide as the glowing shape moved on the opposite side of the ice.

"Proof that you need to stop messing around with your stupid magic water," Sokka snapped, but he was already angling himself in front of his sister, club raised, as the figure began to climb.

At the crest of the frozen crater, the figure emerged, and Sokka lowered his club a fraction. It was a boy. Younger than either Sokka or Katara, and fairly small in both stature and build. The stranger's eyes turned sharply on Katara, blazing with an ominous blue-white light. And then the light dimmed. The boy went limp and toppled forward.

Katara shoved past her brother in time to catch the boy. Lying in the snow, it evident that the boy didn't belong so far south. He was pale, his head shaven bald, his clothing too brightly colored to blend in with the ice and snow around them, too light to keep out even a gentle summer breeze.

"He's freezing." Katara lowered the boy to the ground stood to pull off her coat.

"Of course he is! He just came out of a block of ice!" Sokka slung his club onto his back and tried to shove his sister's arm back into her coat. "How is it going to help if you freeze to death too?"

Katara ripped her arm free and wrapped the boy in the parka, glaring at Sokka. "I'm not cold. Are you going to help me get him back to camp or not?"

Sokka stared down at her, at the strange blue arrows tattooed on the boy's forehead and hands. "But we don't even know who he is!"

"And that means we should let him die?" Katara stood, glaring at Sokka. She let out a frustrated groan. "Sokka, you are the—"

From inside the icy bowl, there was a deep rumbling sound, almost a growl, and both siblings turned toward it in time to see a shadow moving on the other side of the ice, huge and indistinct in shape.

"Now will you listen the next time I tell you to leave your magical water alone?" Sokka squeaked, but he scooped up the boy without argument and ran, just a few steps ahead of Katara, back to the canoe.

Whatever the creature was, it was massive. As Katara clambered into the canoe and pulled the unconscious stranger onto the bench next to her, the beast let out a roar so loud that Sokka nearly slipped as he pushed the canoe back into the water. Less graceful than usual, he jumped into the boat, landing with a hollow thump in the space between the benches.

"Give me those," Sokka said, reaching for the oars. "I can row faster than you."

Over the crest of the ice, an enormous furry head appeared as the canoe pulled away from the shore. The creature roared again and it reared up, slinging its broad white feet over the jagged rim.

"What is that thing?" Katara asked, her arms wrapped tight around the small stranger's shoulders.

"I don't know," Sokka answered, dragging hard on one of the oars to round a tight bend. "But I bet it was trying to eat your new friend when he got frozen."

As the canoe drifted out of sight, the creature heaved itself out of the bowl of ice and let out an almost melancholy bellow. Then the canoe slipped through a narrow gap in the ice, and she could see no more.

Sokka wove through the maze of icebergs faster than he ever had before, and as the canoe glided through the glassy water, the growls and roars grew fainter behind them. It seemed that the beast wasn't giving up its pursuit, but such a large creature could make very little progress in the tight, twisting channels.

By the time they reached the village, Katara had to listen very hard to hear even a faint rumble from the beast. She hopped out of the canoe ahead of her brother to guide the boat onto the shore, and then between the two of them, they carried the strange boy back to their tent.

The siblings burst in abruptly enough that Gran-Gran didn't have a chance to begin scolding her granddaughter for forgetting—or losing—her coat before the strange boy caught her attention. The old woman's eyes caught the tattoos on the boy's head and hands and the flash of yellow fabric protruding from beneath her granddaughter's coat.

"Bring him here," Gran-Gran said quietly, and while she and Katara tended to the boy, Sokka headed back outside. There was a training session to prepare for, and since fishing had taken less of the day than Sokka had expected, he could use the spare time to create a real challenge for his warriors. Granted, none of the boys were over the age of eight, but there was a war going on. Every potential warrior needed training.

Sokka was putting the finishing touches on his new practice dummy—a crude mound of snow wielding a stick as a spear—when the massive, furry white beast lumbered into camp. The few women and children who were outside yelled in fright and retreated into their tents, but the creature didn't so much glance their direction. It came straight for Sokka.

For a second, Sokka fumbled for his boomerang or his club, but he had left both at home. Instead, he grabbed the stick from the dummy and braced himself to fight. The creature batted the stick aside, came within a foot of Sokka's face, and let out a roar. Then, although the beast was large enough to swallow Sokka whole, it shoved its way past him, knocking the boy into a snowbank as it went.

Bewildered, Sokka scrambled back to his feet, brushing the snow off of his clothes as the creature lumbered between the tents, sniffing at the air. Brandishing the stick, he trailed several paces behind it. The clear path that the beast's dragging tail left behind was quieter than the surrounding snow, and Sokka almost convinced himself that the furry beast didn't know that it was being followed. That illusion didn't last long. As it turned a corner, the beast looked straight back at Sokka, and with a grunt, the creature slapped its broad tail against the ground, sending out a gust so strong that it knocked Sokka into his backside. He yelled in surprise, then clambered back up, covered in snow. Unconcerned, the beast went on, still sniffing.

At a slightly greater distance, Sokka continued trailing the beast clear to the other end of the village. There was something on its back, he realized, something large and boat-like, maybe a saddle. Maybe the creature hadn't been trying to eat the strange boy, maybe it was—Sokka shuddered at the idea—his pet.

At the entrance of the tent, the creature stopped and let out a mournful roar. There was a shuffling sound inside, and Katara poked her head out between the flaps. She shrieked and did her best to close the flaps again, but the creature nosed its way in and sniffed. Its saucer-round eyes landed on the strange boy, still unconscious in a bed of furs, and the creature gave another mournful rumble. Then, without warning, the beast flopped onto its stomach, sending a spray of snow high into the air.

It took a while before the siblings accepted the fact that the creature had no intention either to harm them or to move. After that, nearly half an hour passed before Katara was brave enough to squeeze past the huge face to find her grandmother while Sokka watched over the boy.

When Gran-Gran returned and saw the creature, something like recognition flickered in her faded blue eyes. While Sokka and Katara talked over one another, trying to explain how the creature had followed them back from the iceberg, the old woman stroked the beast's ear, and it let out a satisfied rumble. Gran-Gran hushed her grandchildren and the beast turned its head, curious. After that, the creature allowed Sokka to lead it to an open space at the back of the tent, where it settled onto the ground and promptly fell asleep.

The boy didn't wake that night. And Gran-Gran didn't sleep. By the faint light of an old seal-oil lamp, she watched her grandchildren sleep alongside the small, pale stranger. It should have been impossible. The fact that a child had survived being frozen inside of an iceberg was a wonder, but the boy himself was strange. His clothing, all oranges and yellows, his tattoos, and the creature snoring behind the tent—they were all relics of a time long past. Even in her own childhood, sights like the boy and his beast were nothing more than a distant memory in the minds of the elders.

Sokka snored and rolled onto his side, almost on top of his sister. Katara mumbled something in her sleep and pushed her brother away. And Gran-Gran, sitting cross-legged over them, closed her eyes. She knew what her daughter-in-law would have wanted—Kya had always been something of an optimist—before the raid that had taken her life, she had been privately planning to find a teacher for Katara in the north. There were enough masters in the world to teach the girl to control water, earth, and fire; even a chance that her family could have kept her safe while she learned, but it was all useless if there were no more airbending masters. And so, for years, Gran-Gran had resolved that her granddaughter's safety was more important than the chance that an Avatar with incomplete training might be able to save the world. But now, impossibly, the boy had appeared.

Katara rose with the first light. She seemed disappointed to find the boy still sleeping, but turned her attention quickly to the morning chores. Gran-Gran smiled and told Katara that there was every reason to believe that the boy would wake soon.

And then, while Sokka snored and Katara helped her grandmother prepare breakfast, the boy stirred. His wide brown-gray eyes opened, and he sat, looking around the tent in astonishment. Katara stared back.

"Wow." The boy rubbed his eyes and shoved the furs aside. "Penguin sledding must not have been such a good idea."

Gran-Gran gave the boy a severe look. "Young man, my grandchildren found you frozen inside of an iceberg. Whatever you were doing was an awful idea."

For a second, the boy looked surprised, but before he had a chance to respond, his nose scrunched up, and he let out a sneeze so forceful that he slid several feet backward, and the furs lifted off the ground, landing squarely on Sokka's face. Sokka yelled and flailed himself awake, kicking and punching at the air.

Katara laughed. "I'm Katara," she told the boy.

He smiled back. "I'm Aang."

Scowling groggily, Sokka sat up just long enough to glare at the newcomer. "Great. Just what we needed, another bending freak." And with that, he rolled over and pulled the furs back over his head.

Author's Note:

The story begins! I really appreciate everyone who stopped by to read the prologue, and I'm hoping you'll keep visiting. The next few chapters should be ready to go soon, so keep checking back—I'll be posting a new chapter each Sunday for at least the next few weeks. Right now, I'm trying to figure out how I want to handle introducing some important secondary characters in upcoming chapters, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can keep my focus on the chapters that need to be written now rather than several months from now. And if you have any comments, reviews are very welcome!

I hope you all have an amazing week!

Thanks for reading,

SooperSara