ZERA'S TALE » Sokka x OC

1.14

Gentle reminder that we support strong female characters and their traumatic experiences in this house 😌💖 also ty guys for being patient with me for this chapter. Fall semester started up again a few weeks ago and it took a while to sort out my work and school schedules enough to get free time for writing.

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There was a yellow glow to the late afternoon light filtering through the trees when Zera and the group came upon a stone travel marker. The four sides of the monolith all had recent flyers and announcements layered up over older pages, creating a chaotic and weather worn collage of information.

"This should give us a good idea of what's around here." Aang suggested, stopping at the side closest to them to read from a huge, brightly colored poster.

"See if you can find a menu, I'm starving!" Sokka complained from next to Zera, tipping his empty ration bag upside down for emphasis. He had been moaning and groaning for the last four hours about being hungry, despite eating an entire fish by himself for lunch.

"You're always starving, Sokka," Zera pointed out. Spotting crumbs stuck to his cheek, she rolled her eyes as she brushed them away despite his protests of 'saving them for later'.

"I bet we'll find something to eat here, the Fire Day's Festival!" Aang exclaimed, reading off the attractions from the flyer. "Fire Nation cultural exhibits, jugglers, benders, magicians-- This would be a great place for me to study some real firebenders!" He turned back to the group with those big eyes glazed over in excitement as he tried to convince them to go. It was almost physically impossible for Zera to say no to Aang when he had that puppy dog look aimed at her, which is why she chose to retreat to the other side of the stone with Sokka instead of having to face him.

"You might wanna rethink that. Look at this." Sokka called to the others, his eyes scanning over the weathered pages of portraits and descriptions of people wanted by the Fire Nation. It wasn't the vast amount of pages that put the panic in his voice, but the two freshly printed likenesses of Aang and Zera that were front and center.

"Hey, it's a picture of me!" Aang chirped, giggling as he pointed out the gigantic ears and lopsided blue arrow on his composite image's forehead.

"My nose isn't that big, is it?" Zera asked as she stared at her own poster with a pout, scrunching up her nose to try and make it smaller.

"No, it's—" Aang started, only to be cut off by Sokka's exasperated yelling.

"Would you two focus on the bigger issue here! These are wanted posters!" The older boy emphasized, giving the pair of them a look that said he wanted to club some sense into them. Zera opened her mouth to argue that it wasn't a big surprise that they were wanted in Fire Nation territory, but Katara's diplomatic voice was filling the silence before she got the chance.

"I think we better keep moving," the waterbender spoke up to agree with her brother, staring at the posters with concern.

"I have to learn firebending at some point, and this could be my only chance to watch a master up close." Aang pleaded, turning that kicked puppy look on Katara. She didn't last long under his stare, breaking down with a disapproving sigh.

"I guess we could check it out," she relented, biting her lower lip nervously. That left Zera as the deciding vote for whether they were going.

As much as her home country had wronged her and so many others, there was a flood of nostalgia at the thought of attending a Fire Festival. Her and Zuko had gone each year with their mother, giggling and play fighting as they ran towards the palace gates with their carved masks on. Zera always chose a dragon mask decorated with gold leaf and intricately carved feathers, while Zuko hid behind the blue face of a spirit with a tusked grin. Azula never went with them, insisting that she'd rather stay in the palace than mingle with the commoners in Capital City.