Violent Delights, ATLA

chapter twenty nine, the awakening

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THE AWAKENING

SUDDENLY, SAN WAS PULLED BACK into the real world. She had awoken from a vivid dream; her bloodshot eyes snapped open with a loud gasp escaping from her dried lips as she shot up from where she laid. She dreamt that she lost Tai Yang, that the ocean spirit taunted her, that Yue sang a quiet lullaby last night out on the deck to put her to sleep.

Ah, but it wasn't a dream at all. It wasn't even a nightmare. It was the bitter reality.

"I know I said you could take a breather here but I didn't mean to suggest you could sleep here." Sokka's familiar voice rang throughout as her tired eyes landed on his figure. "Unless you're actually comfortable with that."

"No, I did take a breather last night but accidentally fell asleep here." She straightened out her clothes and tidied her hair a bit. Fortunately, he was the only one present on the deck at the moment. The others were munching on breakfast below deck, according to him. "Aren't you supposed to have breakfast with them, too?"

"I wanted to let you know first. When you didn't answer your room, I went up here." He said, walking past her to lean against the railings of the ship. The sun rays were soft and less brighter than usual — perhaps affected from Tai Yang's abrupt vanishment and San becoming the sun spirit? "Don't you realise?"

"Realise what?"

"The mornings feel cold."

San fell silent. So the sun wasn't as hot as it used to be, surely it become as it always was eventually, and at least it remained present.

"I wonder if this will affect the firebenders in any way...?"

"They can still firebend but maybe it will be weaker in some way." She concluded, finally getting up on her feet. "I'll just head back to my room now."

"Wait."

Sokka reached out to grab her wrist gently, keeping San rooted to the spot. She cursed her stomach as it growled of hunger just as he reached out; proof she needed breakfast.

"San—"

"Fine, I'll eat."

It wasn't like she didn't want to eat but rather she wasn't in the mood to. Today, the grief hurt like a ton of clamps squeezing the life out of her heart, and then poured on with never-ending acid. She swore she needed to lie down after this.

Once they reached the dining room, only Toph was left. Sokka scratched the side of his head. "Where did everyone else go?"

"Your dad went to accompany his friend up at the helm because they plan to make a stop soon. We're already running out of food supplies." Toph spoke as she swallowed the chunks of fishball she bit off earlier. "Everyone else went to do their own thing."

"I see."

Sokka said there were some left over scrambled eggs for San to munch on so she went ahead and scraped them off the pan onto her plate. They tasted... weird. Maybe it was because she hadn't eaten in days and the taste of food had already become foreign in her mouth. But the eggs were so bland.

"Don't like them?" Sokka asked, noticing her make a face.

"Oh, no, not that." San lied.