Path Ahead

Epilogue

Firelord Zuko kept his word to the Bei Fongs, sending many gifts to Toph over the successive months: more jewelry, hair ornaments, bolts of cloth to make dresses out of, special shoes without soles so that she could appear to be wearing stylish footwear while maintaining her connection to the ground. He also visited as often as he could, getting to know the young woman Toph had become and developing their relationship in new ways.

By the time all was said and done, eight months had gone by, and they finally stood before General Iroh, the Dragon of the West, for the wedding ceremony. It would normally be the Fire Sages who presided over such an event, but Zuko felt better about having his uncle there instead. He'd already changed many traditions, so one more didn't seem to matter.

A silken cord was tied around Zuko and Toph's wrists in a symbolic binding. They said their vows, followed by affirmations from the guests. Then Iroh set a careful fire to the cord, incinerating it to ash to symbolize that their binding was now part of them and no longer needed the outward reminder. Finally, they exchanged gold rings as a symbol of their commitment to one another.

That night, Zuko took his bride to his bedchamber and proceeded a little hesitantly. She seemed so small and fragile that he'd decided to be gentle with her. His resolve only lasted, however, until she demonstrated rather forcefully that she was really not all that delicate.

Aang and Katara enjoyed a long and happy marriage. They did have some disagreements and misunderstandings along the way, but Aang's easygoing nature and Katara's recognition of her own volatility led them to make up their fights quickly. Katara was also careful not to let Aang leave on Avatar business with any harsh words. She knew better than most how easy it would be to lose him, and she always wanted to make sure he knew how much she loved him.

Katara suffered two miscarriages, which caused grief to both her and Aang. However, she managed to bring 3 healthy children into the world, 2 of then were airbenders. The settlement that they established at the Eastern Air Temple became a thriving community of people from all nations. Their children found their perfect mates . Aang even found a mate for Momo, so that the skies were soon filled with flying lemurs, many of which became pets to his children and grandchildren. He missed the sky bison, but it appeared that he had the last one of those, and he was happy to see some semblance of the life that this temple had once held.

When she was finally done having children, Katara formed a small waterbending school. Since Aang was spending a lot of his time training their young airbenders, it seemed only logical for her to teach the ones who were waterbenders. After that, it was a small step to add her niece and some other southern waterbenders to the instruction. While some waterbenders from the north had moved to the South Pole, Katara had wider experience than most of them and could offer the new techniques she and Aang had developed. Besides, none of the northern waterbenders who'd migrated were healers, and everyone agreed that was a useful skill. Some young swampbenders even made the journey to learn her style.

Both Aang and Katara fulfilled Aunt Wu's prophecy, living long enough to see several great-grandchildren brought into the world before crossing over to begin their final adventure in the next world.

The relationship between Sokka and Suki had a tendency to be confrontational, but they were solid for all that. Motherhood mellowed Suki considerably, and she threw herself into the tasks that would make her a good wife for the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe. Visits from or traveling to relatives on both sides kept her occupied as well.

For his part, Sokka was not as patronizing of women as he'd once been and was open to the ideas that his warrior wife brought to the South Pole. She taught some of her fighting techniques to the females of her new tribe, awkward as some of them were while wearing heavy parkas. In turn, they taught her how to survive in their frozen surroundings.