Chapter 97: The Heart of the Tribe
The command from Master Pakku was like a stone dropped into a still pond, sending ripples of immediate action through the frozen crowd. The initial shock of the sky bison's arrival was subsumed by a wave of disciplined purpose. Two of Pakku's senior students broke from the circle and sprinted across the slick ice of the plaza, their footsteps sure and swift, heading towards a low, domed structure built into the side of the glacial wall.
The silence was broken by the frantic, raw sound of Katara's sobs, a mixture of relief and terror. "Did you hear that, Sokka? They're going to help you. You're going to be okay," she whispered, her voice cracking as she brushed a strand of hair from his fevered brow. Her healing water still glowed against his chest, but the light was flickering, her own energy reserves nearly depleted.
Aang helped her carefully maneuver Sokka toward the edge of the saddle. Every jostle drew a pained gasp or a weak, delirious murmur from Sokka. He was a dead weight, the vibrant, boomerang-slinging strategist replaced by a shell of a boy clinging to life by the thinnest of threads.
Within moments, the students returned, not with a simple stretcher, but with a sled-like pallet made of polished, dark whalebone and supple sealskin, carried by four grim-faced men in the deep blue tunics of the tribe's healers. They moved with a quiet, solemn efficiency that spoke of generations of practice.
"Gently," the lead healer, a woman with lines of experience etched around her eyes and streaks of grey in her black hair, instructed. "Support his head and back. The injury is to the core."
With Aang and Katara's help, they transferred Sokka from Appa's saddle onto the pallet. The moment he was settled, the healers lifted him in unison and began a swift, smooth procession away from the plaza. The crowd parted for them, their murmurs now hushed and respectful.
"Don't leave him," Aang said to Katara, his own anxiety a tight knot in his stomach. He felt utterly useless, his airbending and nascent Avatar State meaningless against the slow creep of death.
"I won't," Katara vowed, her gaze locked on her brother's pale face. She stumbled slightly as she walked, her legs numb from the long flight and the emotional torrent. Aang caught her arm, and together, they followed the healers, a small, desperate procession trailing the wounded warrior.
They moved from the open expanse of the plaza into a network of narrower, covered pathways carved through the ice. The sounds of the city faded, replaced by the drip of melting ice and the echo of their own footsteps. They entered the domed structure, the entrance flanked by two massive, arched whale ribs. Inside, the air was noticeably warmer, heated by low-burning oil lamps that cast a soft, orange glow on walls of smooth, milky ice.
The main chamber was a long hall lined with cots, most of them empty. The healers took Sokka to a private alcove at the far end, curtained off by a heavy pelt. Here, the light was brighter, coming from a single, large lamp hanging from the ceiling. The walls were lined with shelves holding clay pots, bundles of dried herbs, and an array of waterskins, some ordinary, others seemingly special, made of finer leather and sealed with intricate knots.
The lead healer, who introduced herself as Yuna, began her work with a quiet intensity. She cut away the rough, makeshift bandages Katara had applied, her face tightening as the full extent of the lightning burn was revealed. The skin was a horrific mosaic of black, angry red, and waxy white, the shape of the blast radiating out from his sternum. The smell was worse here, in the enclosed space.
"Azula's lightning," Aang whispered, his voice thick with guilt. "It was meant for Katara."
Yuna nodded, her expression unreadable. "The fire is not just on the skin. It has poisoned his chi, his spirit. Normal healing can only do so much." She turned to one of her assistants. "The blessed water. Quickly."
The assistant hurried to a small, locked chest made of dark, lacquered wood. He produced a key from a chain around his neck, unlocked it, and reverently lifted out a small waterskin, no larger than a drinking gourd. It was crafted from pure white leather and inlaid with mother-of-pearl that shimmered in the lamplight.
Yuna took it with both hands, her demeanor shifting to one of profound reverence. She untied the seal and poured a small amount of the contents into a shallow, stone bowl. The moment it was exposed to the air, the difference was palpable.
This was not like Katara's bending water, or the melted ice of the tribe. This water glowed. It was a soft, internal, aquamarine light that pulsed gently, as if it held a tiny, living star within its depths. It seemed thicker, more viscous, and it moved with a life of its own, clinging to the sides of the bowl without spilling.
"The spirits provide," Yuna murmured. She dipped her fingertips into the glowing water, and her own hands began to radiate the same ethereal light, far brighter and more intense than Katara's bending had ever been.
She began to work, her touch feather-light on Sokka's chest. Where her glowing fingers passed, the angry, blackened flesh seemed to sigh. The inflammation visibly receded, the color shifting from necrotic black to a painful but healthy pink. The water didn't just heal; it seemed to cleanse, drawing out the lingering, malevolent energy of the lightning. A faint, silver steam rose from the wound, carrying with it the scent of ozone, which was swiftly replaced by a clean, alpine fragrance.
Katara watched, mesmerized and humbled. This was a level of healing she had never dreamed of. It was spiritual alchemy. She could feel the profound peace and power radiating from the water, a balm to her own frayed spirit. She saw Sokka's breathing deepen, the terrifying rattle in his chest quieting, his body relaxing into a true, restorative sleep for the first time since the attack.
For nearly an hour, Yuna and her assistants worked, reapplying the blessed water until the entire wound was stabilized. The raw, open flesh was now closed, covered in a layer of new, pink skin. The battle was not over, Sokka was still dangerously weak, his body exhausted from the trauma but the tide had turned. He was no longer dying.
It was then that the pelt curtain was drawn aside. Master Pakku stood there, his stern gaze taking in the scene. His eyes lingered for a moment on the now-sleeping Sokka and the still-glowing residue of the blessed water on Yuna's hands.
"The Avatar," Pakku said, his voice low but firm. "And his companion. Chief Arnook has arrived. He wishes to speak with you."
Katara didn't even look up. Her hand was clutching Sokka's, her knuckles white. "I can't leave him," she said, her voice a raw whisper. "Not now. I'm not going anywhere."
Aang stood protectively beside her. "Where Katara stays, I stay. Sokka is my friend."
To everyone's surprise, including Aang's, Katara shook her head. She finally looked up at him, and her eyes were different. The desperate, grieving sister was gone, replaced by someone with a hard, fierce resolve. The sight of that miraculous water, the brush with a power so far beyond her own, had lit a new fire in her.
"No, Aang," she said, her voice gaining strength. "You have to go."
Aang blinked, confused. "Katara, I…"
"You are the Avatar," she cut him off, her gaze boring into his. "A healer is with my brother. Your duty isn't in this room. It's out there." She gestured vaguely beyond the walls of the hut. "You stopped a war once. Now you need to prepare for the one that's coming. I felt it, Aang. On the wind, as we flew. A storm is gathering. You need to be the Avatar right now. For all of us."
Her words were like a physical push. She was shutting him out, not out of anger, but out of a desperate, painful need for him to be the hero the world required. She would hold the line here, with her brother. He had to hold the line everywhere else.
Stung and deeply confused by her sudden shift, Aang could only nod. He gave Sokka one last, long look, then turned and followed Master Pakku out of the healing hut, leaving Katara alone in the warm, quiet alcove, her hand still tightly holding her brother's.
Outside, the polar air was a sharp slap after the hut's warmth. The plaza was now clear of most onlookers, save for a new, solemn group. Standing before a weary, groaning Appa was an older, dignified man with a long grey beard and a tall, wolftail headdress adorned with sacred tokens. He wore robes of the finest dark blue fur and leather, and his presence carried the weight of a lifetime of leadership. This was Chief Arnook. Flanking him were his personal guard, warriors with stern faces and hands resting on the hafts of their spears.
Pakku led Aang before them. "Chief Arnook," Pakku said, with a respectful bow of his head. "This is the boy. The Avatar."
Arnook's wise, weary eyes studied Aang, taking in his shaved head, the arrows, his youthful face etched with exhaustion and worry. He saw not a legendary figure, but a tired child who had just brought a world of trouble to his doorstep.
"So," Chief Arnook said, his voice a deep rumble that seemed to emanate from the ice itself. "The stories are true. The Avatar has returned. And you arrive not with hope, but with a trail of fire and lightning. Tell me, young Avatar. What storm do you bring to our gates?"
Hanging heavily in the air around him. The icy plaza seemed to press in, the grandeur of the glacial city feeling less like a sanctuary and more like a gilded cage. He was the Avatar, a title that now felt less like a calling and more like a curse that drew danger to everyone he loved.
Back inside the healing hut, the warm, quiet hum of spiritual energy was broken only by Sokka's steady, sleeping breaths. The frantic terror had passed, leaving behind a hollowed-out exhaustion in its wake. Katara sat on a stool beside the cot, her brother's hand clasped tightly in both of her own. Her thumbs traced absent circles over his knuckles, a desperate, grounding ritual.
Yuna and the other healers had given them space, moving to the outer chamber to prepare poultices and speak in hushed tones. In the profound silence of the alcove, with the glowing residue of the blessed water still fading from her vision, the dam finally broke.
All the fear, the helplessness, the sheer, unbearable tension of the frantic flight and the sight of her brother's lifeless form… it curdled. It turned inward, seeking a target, a reason for the agony. And it found one.
Her head bowed, her shoulders slumped, and the words slipped out in a venomous, shuddering whisper, meant for no one but the spirits and the ice itself.
"This is all Aang's fault."
The confession hung in the sacred space, a blasphemy against the peace of the healing water.
"If he had never been found… if he had just stayed lost in that iceberg…" Her voice was a raw scrape of sound, her grip on Sokka's hand tightening until her own knuckles turned white. "We would be home. In the South Pole. Minding our own business. Sokka would be complaining about seal jerky and trying to invent a new way to catch fish. I'd be healing scrapes and listening to Gran-Gran's stories."
Tears, hot and angry, finally spilled over, tracing paths through the soot and grime on her cheeks. They were not tears of sadness, but of bitter, furious resentment.
"There would be no Fire Nation princes. No sieges. No… no lightning." Her gaze fell upon Sokka's bandaged chest, the memory of Azula's smirk and the searing flash of light burning behind her eyes. "Sokka wouldn't be lying here, half-dead. None of this would have happened. We were safe. We were ignorant, but we were safe."
The thought was a seductive poison, offering a simple, clean narrative where the cause of all their pain was not a war, not a cruel princess, not a chain of impossible choices, but a single, simple variable: the boy she had come to think of as family.
But was it true?
The moment the question formed in her mind, the foundation of her anger trembled. She remembered the Fire Nation raid on her village, long before they ever found Aang. She remembered the empty space where the men should have been. The war had already taken everything from her. Aang hadn't started the war; he was the only conceivable way to end it.
Yet, the feeling remained, ugly and undeniable. His arrival had been the catalyst that ripped them from their simple, struggling existence and hurled them into the heart of a global cataclysm. His destiny had become their shackles. Her love for him, genuine and fierce, was now tangled with a thick, thorny vine of blame.
She had urged him to go, to be the Avatar, to face the gathering storm. But as the pelt curtain fell back into place, separating her from him, a chilling realization settled in her heart.
Had she sent him away to fulfill his destiny?
Or had she sent away the living reminder of everything that had gone wrong?
With a question that coiled deep within Katara's soul, as cold and sharp as the ice of the North Pole. What did this bitter seed of resentment mean for her? For her friendship with Aang? And for the fragile, fractured hope of a world depending on them to stand together?
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