isolated,, sokka

iii.

the group had been flying for a few hours now, all of them excessively tired from the air. katara had dozed off briefly, but the rest stayed awake. and as much as zhavia wanted sleep, her inward fear of falling asleep whilst in the air didn't allow her and she simply laid in appa's saddle and looked at the sky.

"hey, zee," aang began, looking curiously towards zhavia as she sat up, "can i ask you something?" zhavia was a bit taken aback at how quickly aang seemed to trust people, something she couldn't bring herself to do. and even more, how quickly he seemed to grow attached, even giving them nicknames. zhavia wasn't complaining— it felt nice to have friends and be trusted, and she could only hope that it would last.

"sure, aang." zhavia told him, wondering what he seemed rather timid to ask.

"i don't mean to overstep—" that line got the attention from both sokka and katara who watched aang and zhavia, "—but back there, what did that guard mean about your father? not that it matters, i just didn't know if it was something important or not." aang speedily added that last sentence, not wanting to give zhavia the feeling that he or the others didn't trust her.

"my father? he's, well i don't really know where he is right now." zhavia replied with a small shrug, glancing towards the saddle to avoid eye contact. she had assumed they didn't know who commander zhao was, and zhavia wouldn't mind being honest with them. "he's a war commander. he's ruthless, which got him his high ranks."

"and about you being a prodigy?" katara piped up, remembering how the warden also exclaimed that detail.

"i mastered firebending when i was ten, and then excelled with the fire nation princess after that. i don't know why he brought it up, but yeah." zhavia answered.

"how'd you master firebending so quickly?" sokka questioned, the first time he'd talked in around an hour. not because he was sleepy or angry— but because he was hungry... more like hangry.

"firebending's all about the breath control. a lot of benders rely on physical strength and movement when that doesn't really matter. i learned that young, which helped me." zhavia answered, a fond smile formed on her face as she remembered the multiple training sessions her and zaia would go through.

zaia never wanted to push zhavia to bend, but zhao certainly did and made sure she repeatedly practiced.

she didn't want to think too much about it, and looked over to aang and the others curiously before they could reply to her previous reply, "have you mastered anything besides air?"

"uh," aang scratched the back of his neck sheepishly and shook his head, "i'm able to waterbend, but i haven't mastered that yet." aang replied.

zhavia hummed a bit. she had done a bit of avatar research back in school and knew that aang needed to master water first. then earth, if he wanted to be able to get in the right headspace to master fire. she didn't want to say anything to aang about her hesitance to show him fire as fast, so she'd play it by ear.

"is katara teaching you?" zhavia asked, and sokka let out a snort of amusement.

"only thing she's teaching him is how to freeze innocent people's feet." sokka added bitterly, causing katara to whack him on the shoulder. aang laughed, before jumping down towards appa's neck since they seemed to be getting close to something.

"we haven't found a good spot to practice." katara interjected. she then looked towards the clouds and a content smile crossed her face, "those clouds look so soft, don't they? like you could just jump down and you'd land in a big, soft, cottony heap."

zhavia looked to the side, making sure she didn't look down— but just next to her and nodded.

"maybe you should give it a try," sokka suggested, not seeming to care too much.