Bella [AANGXOC]

Chapter 39: Bato Of The Water Tribe

Getting my quarter two grades soon, that should be fun. Maybe I'll show them on here.

It had been a day since the fortune tellers village. We'd gotten in a lot more flying and the space between us and the north pole on the map was becoming smaller and smaller. And as it got smaller I felt us becoming more restless and excited. Aang and Katara being excited to learn waterbending and Sokka and I, I guess we're excited to stop flying every day. Our camp had been set up behind us as we were currently out in a near forest to find food. Sokka had caught an underweight squirrel that would only feed one of us and Katara had gathered an assortment of pears and apples.

We continued walking forwards until we found a steep hill, we half walked half slid down until Aang stopped moving. He bent down and took something out of the ground. "Hey look, a sword made out of a whales tooth." Aang said holding the knife above his shoulders. Sokka stumbled over to him, "Let me see that." He said grabbing the knife, he studied it closely for a moment.

"This is a water tribe weapon." He said looking around. "See if you can find anything else."

I wonder if we will ever stay on task.

Katara stumbled over the hill and walked over to us, "Did someone lose something?" She asked to Aang and Sokka rummaging through the bushes. "No we found something." Aang replied.

Sokka found a burnt arrow, "It's burned." He stated. "There was a battle." He said walking further down the hill and out of the forest. "Watertribe warriors and firebenders." He said. "They drove them down this hill." He said again running down the hill. We hastily followed. We followed him, running, all the way to a sandy area that outlooked the ocean. Sokka stopped at the water.

"So then what happened?" Aang asked Sokka.

"I don't know, the tracks end here." Sokka said looking out into the ocean.

I scanned the sea line until something caught my eye on the other side of the beach, there was a huge boat that looked exactly like the ones that used to be at the southern water tribe. "Look!" I said pointing to it. "It's one of our boats!" Sokka replied to my comment immediately. We ran over to it.

Katara ran her hand along the edge, "Is this dad's boat?" She asked. "No, but it's from his fleet, dad was here." Sokka said.

---Not Necessarily A Time Skip---

Sokka and Katara wanted to move camp next to the boat in case a southern water tribe person shows up, so that's what we did. The fire in front of me was crackling loudly. I felt my eyelids getting droopy, Aang and Katara were asleep as far as I knew. Sokka and I however seemed to be awake.

I heard a sound of moving sand ahead of us and I saw a person like figure. I immediately stood up and Sokka did the same, "Who's there?" He asked, waking up Katara and Aang. The person walked into the fire light and I had to stop myself from groaning out loud, Bato.

"Bato?" Sokka asked.

"Bato!" Katara exclaimed happily.

It's not like I didn't like Bato, it's that he didn't like me. Whenever I was around, weather I was 4 or 10 he just seemed to ignore me and pay all attention to Sokka and Katara. I could never understand why, I guess he just saw me as an alien person, since my father wasn't from their tribe.

"Who the what now?" Aang asked sleepily.

"Sokka! Katara!" He exclaimed as Sokka and Katara ran up to hug him, he was like an uncle figure to them.

"Bella." He said, at least he acknowledged me. I gave him a polite nod and stuck close to Aang, who I am sure would be treated the same way.

"It is so good to see you two!" He said hugging them, "You've grown so much."

Aang walked up to them, me following close behind, "Hi, I'm Aang." His introduction was lost.

"Where's dad?" Sokka sked quickly, "Is he here?" Katara followed. "No." Bato said, "He and the other warriors should be in the eastern earth kingdom by now."

A cold wind blew against us and we all shivered. "This is no place for a reunion." He said grabbing both Sokka's and Katara's shoulders and leading them away down the beach. He made a slight hand movement for us to follow.

He lead us to a courtyard that led to many little buildings. "After I was wounded, your father carried me to this abbey, the sisters have been caring for me ever since." Bato explained.

I hadn't even noticed that his entire right shoulder and arm were bandaged.

Aang seemed to get the idea of what was going on and stuck close by me. Bato led us into a little hut, it had a fire in the middle and was covered in dead animal skins. Not only that but the moment you walked in it was instant sea prune smell. It was as of you took the entire south pole and shoved into one room. I found myself gagging on the air.

"Bato! It looks like home!" Katara squealed appreciatively. "Everything's here! Even the pelts!" Sokka added. They went and laid down on the skins. "Yeah...Nothing's cozier than dead animal skins." Aang said under his breath, saying my exact thoughts.

Katara took the lid of the pot that was dangling over the fire and the smell became more intense. "No way! Stewed sea prunes!" Katara said. "Help yourself." Bato said cheerfully.

Before I could stop him Aang had picked up a bowl of it. "Don't eat that." I whispered to him pushing the bowl back down on the floor. He'll thank me later, it's terrible.

Aang and I sat against the cloth wall while Sokka, Katara and Bato took turns sharing stories from the southern water tribe. Stories I've heard way too many times for them to ever be funny again, not that they ever were.

Aang kept trying to get involved but they kept shutting him down. I felt him getting more and more frustrated so I rested my hand on his to comfort him, that only seemed to make us both blush.

So yeah...I stopped doing that.

After another couple minutes, Aang stood up and left the tent.

Only I seemed to notice.