ATLA:The Survivor (Water Book 1)

Chapter 1: The Boy in the Iceberg

Katara's P.O.V

Slosh. Wosh. Wish. Gentle ripples broke along the smooth water. On days like that, when the air is peaceful, the wind is settled and the sun gives off gentle rays, those are the days when I can let go and forget the war and my losses. The peace and tranquility lasted only a second before...

"It's not getting away from me this time!"Sokka, my older brother said, snapping me back to reality. My brother and I were out fishing once again. I watched as a shadow danced beneath the water gleefully unaware of Sokka, staring intently, spear in hand, ready to strike it.

"Watch and learn Katara, this, is how you catch a fish." he continued, poised for the kill. Rolling my eyes an object caught my attention. A flashing object darted below the water. 'A fish!' I thought excitedly, 'I'll show Sokka!' a smug grin creeping along my face. Drawing in a deep breath I reached out to the water, I pictured the blue ocean below me and the frozen ice that surrounded me, I focused my energy on the ocean, on the ripples that the fish was causing. Waving my arms to control my bending I called the water to me. Soon a small ball of water could be seen floating above the waves. I could feel the peace of the water and the thrashing of the fish as it swam around in the bubble.

"Sokka, Look!" I yelled, almost giddy from the excitement.

"Sssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Katara!"He scalded,"You'll scare it away! Mmmmmmm. I can already smell it cooking." he daydreamed.

"But Sokka!" I pleaded, moving the water through the air,"I caught one!" Slowly I moved the bubble through the air towards Sokka. POP! Water rained down upon Sokka as the dull end of his spear popped the bubble, drenching him from head to toe, the fish happily jumping away. "Hey!" I complained, frustrated that A. he just lost the fish, B. that he had ignored me and, C. that he had popped my bubble.

"Uuugn! Why is it that every time you play with magic water I get soaked?"

"It's not magic, it's waterbending. And it's..."

"Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, an ancient art unique to our culture. Blah, Blah, Blah. Look, all I'm saying is that if I had weird powers I would keep my weirdness to myself." That stung. I was really getting sick and tyred of Sokka's ignorance about it and his meaness towards me about my bending.

"You're calling me weird?" I quizzed, keeping my cool,"I'm not the one who makes muscles at myself everytime I see my reflection in the water." I said almost bursting out in laughter. I was at the edge of spilling my laughter as I watched Sokka hurriedly pull his blue coat back over his arm that he was just using to make muscles with. He turned to smile at me, Oomph!

We flew sideways desperately grabbing at the side of the boat. Looking up, every hint of laughter left my body. Up ahead was the ice rapids, a current that  pulled all canoes unlucky enough to get caught in them down and out to sea, well that's if they survived not getting smashed to bits by chunks of ice. Recovering quickly from his shock Sokka grabbed the paddle and started frantically paddling on down the current. As best as he could Sokka steered the boat around the giant blocks of ice.

"Watch Out!" I yelled. Oomph. Despite my warning we still got hit by a slab of ice. "GO LEFT! GO LEFT!" I yelled frantically. Watching as giant blocks of ice closed in on our canoe. Unfortunately Sokka was as good at steering as he was at fishing, hopeless. Wham! I flew out of our canoe as peices of wood flew past my head, sliding to a halt on the very piece of ice that destroyed our canoe. Crawling up to where Sokka was sitting I said, "You call that left?"

"You don't like my steering. Fine. Well then maybe you could have waterbended us out if the ice." he replied.

"Oh, so it's my fault?"I said, standing up, my anger bubbling within me.