Percy Jackson and that kid in the iceberg

I lose two fish and explode some ice

Water. Earth. Fire. Air.

My mother used to tell me stories about the old days: a time of peace when the Avatar kept balance between the Water Tribes, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation and Air Nomads. But that all changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only this guy the Avatar mastered all four elements; only he could stop the ruthless firebenders. But when the world needed him most, he vanished, which was incredibly unhelpful. Since then we've all been screwed. That's a hundred years old of war and bloodshed and all that good stuff. Two years ago, the men of my tribe journeyed to the Earth Kingdom to help fight against the Fire Nation, leaving Katara, and her brother Sokka to look after the tribe. Big responsibility for a couple of kids, but hey, they're the chief's kids so I guess it checks out. Better than what my father did, which was run off for who knows what reason before I was born.

Personal drama aside, the world is, as I said, screwed thanks to the avatar up and disappearing. Some people think that the Avatar was never reborn into the air nomads and the cycle is broken. Some people being me. But Katara hasn't lost hope. She still believes that, somehow, the Avatar will return to save the world.

She's strong like that.

———-

I'm Percy, by the way. Me and Katara were the last water benders of the southern water tribe. Me and Sokka were the last 'men' of the southern water tribe, but I'm fourteen and he's fifteen. I seriously doubt that counts as being a man. But try telling him that. Try telling him anything.

"Watch and learn, Katara. This is how you catch a fish," he smirked, holding his spear in what I was pretty sure was the wrong way.

Katara wasn't paying any attention. Her eyes had caught sight of another fish, and I watched as she raised her hands. She made a fluid motion, and the water—along with the fish, began to rise in the air.

Waterbending! Seriously, why haven't I thought of that?

"Sokka! Percy! Look," Katara gasped, as the fish continued to rises. Sokka didn't pay her any attention, but I leaped into action, raising my hands in sync with her. I meant to pull the fish into the boat. Instead, I pulled it onto Sokka's head.

"Argh!" Sokka shrieked, jumping upwards. "Katara!"

Now we'd lost both fish. Great. Leave it to Percy to mess things up.

"Sorry," I cringed. "That was on me."

"How come every time you guys play with magic water, I get wet?"

"It's not magic," Katara insisted. "It's waterbending. And it's-"

"An integral part of our culture, blah, blah, blah." Sokka scowled. "I'm just saying if I had weird powers, I'd keep them to myself."

"I'm the weird one? I'm not the one who makes muscles at myself every time I see my reflection in the water."

Sokka, who had been doing exactly that, turned to glare at her. I was about to join the argument when suddenly we hit a current and our boat took off towards some very sharp, dangerous-looking ice chunks.

This is where actually knowing waterbending would be really useful, but after the fish incident, I was probably more likely to steer us right into a sharp ice chunk. So we are forced to rely on Sokka and a stick. Spirits help us.

"Go left, go left!" Katara screamed as we clung to the widely spinning boat.

Sokka paddled desperately and pointlessly, as we barely missed crashing into the ice. Just as it looked like we might actually survive our boat slammed into a wide ice chunk. The three of us spilled onto the ice, while the current tore away our boat.

Great.

"You call that left?" Katara grumbled.

"You don't like my steering? Well, maybe you two should have just waterbended us out of the ice."

"I was going to, but you said you wanted me to keep my weird powers to myself." I snapped back.

"Yeah," Katara said, folding her arms. "We were trying to do you a favor."

"I knew you should have left you at home," Sokka said. "Leave it to a girl to screw things up."

Katara's face rapidly contorted into an expression of pure anger. I hurriedly moved to the edge of the ice. Sokka wasn't quite as smart.

"You are the most sexist, immature, nutbrained-"

The waves began to rise at an alarming rate and I tried to move to a place that was far from both the edge and Katara.

"I'm embarrassed to be related to you!" she screamed. "Ever since mom died, I've been doing all the work while you've been off playing soldier!"

I heard a loud crack behind me and turned to see the iceberg next to us begin to fracture.

"Katara..." Sokka stammered.

But there's no stopping Katara when she's mad.

"I even wash all the clothes! Have you ever smelled your dirty socks? Let me tell you, not pleasant!"

"Katara-" I said, looking at the iceberg behind. "Stop! The ice-"

"You're no better! You're always skipping out of chores and getting distracted by a penguin or this ice blob you thought was a fire nation ship, or running off to practice waterbending while I'm scrubbing your boots—"

Well, she wasn't wrong about that, but we were about to get crushed by an iceberg. Saving my guilt for later I squeaked out a final, "Katara!" before the iceberg shuddered and broke in half.

The top half slid into the water, creating a wave that sent our ice floe spinning away. We all fell to our knees at the impact.

"You've gone from weird to freakish, Katara," Sokka said, struggling to get up.

"You mean I did that?" Katara stared at the iceberg in amazement.

I gave her a grin. "Yup. Guess we know how to waterbending now. We just need to get mad at Sokka."

"That shouldn't be hard."

"Hey, it's not my fault girls are so sensitive," Sokka retorted.

"I'm not a girl!"

"And I'm not sensitive!"

"Is that why you're both shouting?," Sokka snickered.

What happened next stopped our argument entirely. Bubbles began to, well, bubble out of the water, where something blue shone from it. Being the smart guy I was I leaned towards it. Sokka pulled me back and saved my life.

A sphere of ice erupted from the water. I ducked from the icy spray as Sokka pulled a protective arm around Katara.

There was something in the sphere. Or someone. Katara took a tentative step towards it. Sokka held his hand out weakly in protest. Then without any warning, the figure began to glow with the same eerie blue light. Someone was in there, sitting crossed legged. He was bald with glowing arrows on his hands and head. His eyes flew open, and they were also shining with pure blue light.

"He's alive," Katara gasped. "We have to help him."

Without entirely knowing what I was doing I grabbed my club and hurried to the ice sphere. I brought my club down in a firm arc.

On the fifth strike, the ice exploded with a burst of blue light.