“Welcome to Team Avatar! I’ll show you around and give you the breakdown of what we are doing here.” Sokka said.
“I still can’t walk that well.” I said.
“It’s alright River. You can lean on me.”
“Okay.”
Sokka put his arms around my waist and pulled me to my feet. We walked out of the tent and I had to lean heavily on Sokka because my legs were still too weak to hold up my weight. Everyone was awake already and beginning to do chores. Katara was at the river washing clothes. Aang was practicing bending although it looked like he was practicing all forms of bending.
“Over there is Aang. He is the last Avatar. He’s practicing his bending although he still needs to learn fire bending. Katara is our water bender. She’s cleaning the clothes at the river. Toph is over there. She’s an earth bender and she’s the one who taught Aang how to earth bend. She’s blind, but she’s the best earth bender there is. Then there’s Appa. He’s another one of Aang’s pets. He’s a flying bison and how we usually travel. And then there’s Momo. You met him this morning. And last, there’s me. Katara is my sister. We both came from the Southern Water Tribe. Our mom died when we were little. She was taken by the fire nation. We haven’t seen her since that day.
And that’s the end of the tour. We’re gonna have to get your strength built up. We’ll work on that for the next few weeks.” Sokka said.
***
For the next two weeks, Sokka and Katara worked on building up my strength. By the end of the second week, I was back to normal or at least my strength was. Sokka and Katara never left my side. There was always one of them by my side. Sokka was there most of the time although Katara kept making him go do chores. At night, both of them slept with me. When we were relaxing, I would switch between laying on Sokka’s lap and Katara’s lap.
One day I was helping Katara wash the clothes, when she gasped.
“River! You’re water bending!” Katara said.
“Huh?” I said.
I looked down and saw the water was wrapping around my hands and staying there.
“Guys! Looks like we have another water bender in the group.” Katara shouted.
Everyone came running and watched as the water swirled up my arm. Everyone seemed shocked except for Toph.
“You guys do realize that I can’t see what she’s doing.” Toph said.
“The water is swirling around her in a water bending way, not a river way.” Aang said.
“Katara, are you going to train her?” Sokka asked.
“Of course! I’d be delighted to train someone besides Aang. No offense Aang.” Katara said.
“None taken.” Aang said.
***
Over the next few weeks, I stuck to a strict schedule. I woke up in the morning, ate breakfast, trained, ate lunch, did chores, and then passed out at the campfire next to Sokka. Each night Sokka would bring me back to my tent and then go sleep in his. After a month passed, my water bending was equal to Katara’s everyone was surprised. Then Katara surprised me at the campfire one night.
“Tomorrow will be your last day of training. Then we will hold a competition. You will fight against Sokka, Toph, Aang, and then myself. If you make it through the competition, then you won’t need anymore training. But if you fail, you will have to start training with everyone for at least one more month before we hold another competition. Is everyone in?” Katara asked.
“I’m in! I wanna see what this girl can bring!” Toph said.
“Sure, I’ll do it.” Aang said.
“Katara, are you sure she’s ready?” Sokka asked.
“Yes Sokka. Give River some credit.” Katara said.
“Speaking of River, Sokka I think you have a sleeping child on your shoulder.” Aang said.
“I’ll bring her to her tent.” Sokka said and lifted me into his arms.
I went limp and let him carry me to my tent. He laid me down on the floor with my head on the pillow. He carefully placed a blanket on top of me and turned to leave. I grabbed his wrist and watched him turn around.
“What’s the matter River?” Sokka asked.
I sat up and laid my hand against his cheek.
“I know you only too well. Don’t try and throw the fight. I’m a lot stronger than I look. You don’t like to watch me train because you are afraid that I will get hurt. You don’t have to be afraid.” I said.
Sokka starred at me for a few second before pulling me onto his lap. He pressed his forehead against mine and closed his eyes.
“You just seem so fragile to me.” Sokka sighed.
“That’s because I’m precious to you. You don’t like to think of me fighting.” I said.
“I’ve barely left your side since we found you nearly two months ago. I don’t want to fight you.”
“Please, I’m not a child Sokka. I’m the same age as you and I’m a strong water bender. I’m just as strong as your sister. She even said that during one of our training sessions.”
“I don’t know what I’ll do if anything happens to you.”
“Nothing bad is going to happen to me.”
“Promise me that you will do everything in your power to avoid harm.”
“I promise. Should I seal it with a kiss?”
Sokka smiled and then opened his eyes and starred into mine.
“Yes.” He whispered.
Before I could react, his lips were pressed against mine. His lips were soft and warm against mine. We breathed through our nose and continued the kiss for what seemed like eternity. Sokka laid me back down and continued to kiss me. I wrapped my legs around his waist and held his face in my hands. We ran our hands up and down each other until we memorized our bodies.
Sokka pressed up against me and wrapped some of my hair around his hand. He was extremely gentle with me. Suddenly, he released me and starred at me.
“I’ll stay the night.” He whispered.
He laid down next to me and I snuggled up next to him. We intertwined our hands and they ended up against Sokka’s heart. He kissed me for a brief second and then pulled away.
“Goodnight River.” Sokka whispered.
“Goodnight Sokka.” I whispered.
***
I felt lips against my forehead. My eyes fluttered open and I saw Sokka starring at me.
“Good morning.” I said and stretched.
I rolled on top of Sokka and kissed him. I laid my head on his chest and felt him stroke my hair.
“Good morning.” Sokka said.
He kissed the top of my head.
“You should get going. Today is your last day of training. Katara will get anxious if you keep her waiting.” Sokka said.
“You should come with me today and watch me train. It could relax you a little if you just watch for a few minutes.” I said.
“I don’t know…”
“Sokka please. It could ease your worry.”
“Fine, but only because you asked.”
We both ate breakfast and then we met up with Katara. She said nothing about Sokka’s presence and continued with my last day of training.
“I’ve taught you almost everything there is to water bending. Let’s see you make water out of thin air.” Katara said.
I breathed in deep and then twisted my hands and fingers around the air. Water began to appear on the tips of my fingers.
“Good. Now attack me.” Katara said.
I froze the water on my fingers and threw them at Katara. She easily dodged the ice and started throwing attacks at me. I dodged and then attacked back. It was like that for awhile until Katara called it a tie. Sokka stayed for the whole thing. Katara managed to make a very small cut on my arm and I managed to get a pretty good sized cut on her leg.
Once the fight was over, Sokka came running and grabbed my arm. He wiped off the blood and then tied a piece of cloth around my arm.
“I thought you said you weren’t going to get hurt.” Sokka mumbled.
“Sokka, it’s a scratch. Relax, I’m not gushing blood.” I said.
He grumbled something that I couldn’t make out.
“You are such a worry-wart!” I said and laughed.
“It’s not funny!” Sokka said.
“Sokka, I’m fine. Really I am. See.” I twirled around to give him a full view.
“See? No harm done.” I said.
“Yeah, yeah. Let’s go get lunch. Then I am helping you with your chores.” Sokka said.
“Sokka-”
“No arguing!”
Sokka grabbed my hand and pulled me to camp. I laughed, but let Sokka pull me into the camp. He sat down and then pulled me down next to him. Katara handed us bowls of soup which I gladly ate because the fight wore me out. After I was finished with my bowl, I cleaned my bowl in the river and then packed it away with the other kitchen supplies.
Sokka was still eating his bowl and was trying to frantically finish it.
“Sokka, before you choke and die, slow down.” I said.
Sokka just glared at me and slowed down eating a bit. I went to my tent and grabbed a towel. I went along the river and found a private spot to bathe. I created an ice wall along the spots that were exposed. I washed up and then got dressed. I took down the ice walls and saw Sokka standing on the shore. I laughed and waded over to him.
I got up on shore and then dried my clothes by water bending the water out of them. I stayed silent and went to do my chores. Sokka followed me around like a lost puppy. Whenever I went to pick up a box, he would run and grab it before I could and carried it to where I told him to put it. Finally, all my chores were done and dinner was ready. The sun was beginning to go down when we got to the campfire. Katara handed us our bowls and everyone ate in silence. As usual, we began to tell stories around the campfire. After I was done with my bowl, I listened to the stories for awhile. Then I got up and stretched.
“I’m surprised. You usually fall asleep on Sokka.” Aang said.
“Not tonight. I’m gonna go for a walk. Sokka, stay here.” I said as Sokka started to get up.
Aang laughed and Sokka threw a spoon at him. After I was out of sight, I ducked into my tent and passed out. Tomorrow was going to be a long day and I needed my rest.
