Chapter 64: Chapter 64 - Exotic
A/N: Chapters in advance in Patreòn
Pa treon.com/HolyJoker
(20+ chapters in advance)
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Chapter 64 - Exotic
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"Young man~ I must say, your abilities are quite fascinating."
Vaatu, that was someone Sokka didn't plan to get involved with at all, any time soon. The last thing he wanted was to have the creature be released from its prison prematurely. "Hello there. Sorry but I don't have a lot of time right now."
He teleported away, not hearing what one of the oldest and strongest spirits had to say. It would be just a waste of time. Also, Sokka planned to one day find a way to kill these so-called immortal spirits. Sealing Vaatu wasn't a permanent solution to things, and neither was having the Spirit of Fate swimming in the river of fate, or whatever he was doing.
Of course, Sokka didn't tell any of that to Vaatu. Insinuating your plan, or bragging to your enemy was stupid. He would rather keep it to himself and not even have Vaatu be aware of what was going on.
Sokka liked the more permanent kind of solutions, but he didn't want the spirits knowing about his plans to kill off most of them.
But for now, he wasn't worried about that as he teleported to a forest, and looking around, he smiled. He was in the North Pole, the forest around him was the one that exists due to the Spirit Portal. This place was filled with spirits too.
***
At the same time, on the other side of the North Pole. Appa swam in the cold waters while Aang, Katara, and Sokka's water clone looked around, trying to see if there were any waterbenders.
Katara, especially, was excited to finally find a waterbending teacher. This had been something she had waited ever since she could remember.
Sokka's clone suddenly stands up and looks at the water, its eyes narrowing. "How cold do you think these waters are?"
"...very cold," Katara stated, raising her brow, confused, pointing around. "See the ice? That means it's cold, brother. Are you getting dumber each day or something?"
Aang heard Katara talk and whispered under his breath. "She is becoming more like her brother with each passing day. Even his dry sarcasm is rubbing off on her."
"What?!" Katara heard his whispers and was outraged. She isn't like Sokka… or at least that was what she liked to think. "I am not like him?" She pointed towards her brother, who was already mid-dive and went on the water with perfect form.
Katara just looked at the water as he sank under and then glanced back at Aang. "You see? He really jumped in the water."
Not long after, he climbed back into App, shaking due to the cold. "I feel like this is even colder than back home. Can you waterbend the water off my clothes, dear sister?"
"No, learn from making such stupid mistakes."
"C'mon~" he whined, "What if I catch a cold, or hyperthermia?"
Like many times before, his words caught into Katara's soft heart and with a sigh, she got all of the water off her clothes.
Immediately, like always, Sokka ignored her and went towards Aang. "So anyway, mister Avatar, how is your waterbending training going?"
"I will show you how mine is going," said Katara, creating a water ball and ready to douse her brother in water again. But luck wasn't on her side as suddenly, all of the water around Appa froze and some dozen men in small boats came forward.
"Who goes there?!" The looks on their faces were fierce and ready to attack.
Sokka immediately walks to where they can see him and puts his hands up, with a harmless smile on his face. "Sorry for bothering you, everyone. But can you tell us where the Northern Water Tribe is?" He grabbed Aang and pulled him up so everyone could see him too. "We have the Avatar with us, and we need a waterbending master for him."
The men narrowed their eyes in suspicion at first but then nodded when Aang blasted a blob of air, creating a gentle wind around.
They nodded, with stern looks still on their faces. A stern middle-aged man, who seemed to be in charge, pointed towards two of the other boats. "Yes, we will welcome the Avatar. They will lead you back, we still have a patrol to continue. Some weird things have been happening around here."
'Huh? Weird? I don't think that happened in the show.'
Sokka kept the smile on his face but was ready to pull out his spear and cut anything that might seem troublesome. He could guess who was behind this weirdness but decided to still keep his guard up. Azula was very different from Zhao, and her attack on the Northern Water Tribe would be different too. He felt a little excited just thinking about the things she might scheme.
For now, Sokka wasn't playing as Kuzon and had to fight against Azula. Mostly intellectually, and he couldn't go on the offensive, had limited forces and the Northern Water Tribe soldiers might not even listen to him.
To others, this might sound like a disadvantage, but to Sokka, it sounded like an Intelligence and Wisdom stat grind. He had to try very hard to stop his excitement from showing, as he knew that Azula was no dummy. In the original series she took down Ba Sing Se without a real army, but now she has one… the biggest army in the world at her side.
Appa was slowly escorted towards the Northern Water Tribe and the group finally caught sight of the ice walls that kept this Water Tribe safe for a hundred years. Sokka on the other hand stared at them with melancholy.
The Southern Water Tribe, unlike the Northern, was poor and after the war people might have to move out and work in other places, outside of the tribe, just to get food. This was the harsh reality of the world. While he hadn't read the Avatar comics in-depth about what had happened after the story, Sokka knew that the people of the Southern Water tribe were left quite poor.
'Finally, those explained youtube videos have become quite useful here. Small details like this became more prominent in memory the longer I stayed here. As everything around will remind me of them.'
As they entered the walls, Aang and the others expected at least a normal, nonchalant greeting at worst. But instead, they were surrounded by waterbenders, ready to encase them in ice.
"Wait, wait," one of the people from the boats waved at them. "I think this Avatar might be the real deal. He used airbending."
"Are you sure of that?" An old man came forward, with hands behind his back. Sokka immediately recognized him as Pakku, Aang and Katara's waterbending master. "The first time we believed the Avatar came back, Elder Hanzo got killed."
It didn't take long for Sokka to figure out what Azula was playing at. She had already sent some fake Avatars this way, and since the Northern Water Tribe didn't have too much contact with the outside, as long as the person was bald and had some air nomad tattoos, it would fool them.
Elder Hanz was probably some kind of important government personnel. That was all that Sokka could gather from such a short conversation. "Aang, show our new friends that you are the Avatar."
He didn't hesitate and used airbending, creating a gentle wind with small movements, then he gathered a water ball and made it float between his hands.
Everyone had their eyes on him, except Sokka, as his gaze wandered towards a silver-haired woman, riding on a boat down the river canals. With two guards and a waterbender with her.
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