Kya Maiden of the Sea Book 1 ATLA

Chapter 3

I finished quickly on my chores then I went towards Sokka's "warriors lesson". Which is him just trying to convince 5 year olds they're capable of fighting. It was kind of sad to watch.

"Now men, it's important that you show no fear when you face a fire bender. In the Water Tribe, we fight to the last man standing. For without courage, how do we call ourselves men." Sokka said in a confident voice. The kids remained quiet, I mean their kids, what did he expect?

"Great speech Sokka." I said clearly being sarcastic.

"Why than-" He looked at my eyes. My usual blank expression saying it all. Looking at my left with one of the younger boys almost entirely asleep against the snowy ground. I let out a breath of amusement.

One of the boys shot his hand in the air, "I gotta pee!"

"Listen, until your father's return from the war. They're counting on you to be the men of this tribe. And that means no potty breaks!"

"But I really gotta go." The little boy whined

"Sokka do you really want an accident here of all places?" I encouraged the little boys. Mostly because I do not want to clean pee from the kids' pakra.

Sokka sighed " Okay, who else has to go?"

All the boys jolted, raising their hands. Even the one that was falling asleep. I gave a small pout at Sokka who was defeated.

"You know you can just try to care." He groaned as he rested his weight on my shoulder. "If I didn't care I wouldn't do the "morning training" with you. But they're just kids." I responded by resting my head on his. We were always close, we're twins after all.

"So were we," Sokka said a bit sad

"I know," I said looking around trying to figure out how to cheer him up a bit.

"Have you two seen Aang? Gran-Gran said he disappeared over an hour ago." Katara said approaching us.

Commotion coming from where the bathroom was, Aang was there with the kids following him laughing.

"Ugh! Katara, Get him out of here. This lesson is for warriors only!" Sokka frustratingly turned his back. A "wee" in the distance caught my attention and I started walking towards the noise.

"Kya get back here!" Sokka groaned following me.

I ignored his calls and petted the giant animal. Appa was huge, I could have never imagined meeting a flying bison before. It was an experience. My eyes widened and I could feel a smile trying to creep on me.

Sokka's frustrations grew, "Stop, stop it right now." 

He yanked my arm violently,"Ow Sokka!" 

"We don't have time for fun and games with a war going on!" He retrieved my spear that was being used to help the animal's tail stay elevated, throwing it at me. I caught it, giving it a little spin in my hands.

Aang jumped off the animal confused,"What war? What are you talking about?"

Sokka gave him a dumbfounded look, "You're kidding, right?"

Aang suddenly grew a wide grin and became ecstatic,"Penguin!" As he bolted towards a penguin.

Sokka, clearly growing tired, glanced at Katara, "He's kidding, right?"

Katara shrugged, "I'm going to go after him,"

>>>

After a little while I abandoned Sokka's attempts to round the kids up again. I hadn't done any of the other work that I needed to do but it didn't really matter to me today. I went to my usual spot. I thought about Katara and her overwhelming friendliness to the boy she just met. I stood in formation. As I swung my spear I thought about how Sokka was in utter distrust of Aang. Always displeased at having fun with the foreigner. With good reason we barely know Aang. Formation two. I didn't know what to believe. I didn't trust him but a part of me reminded myself, he's just a kid. How much harm can he really do? Such a happy kid Could he really be a threat? He was a change to our everyday life. Maybe his happiness really is contagious. I felt a bit better than I usually did.