KaramelKarma
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โกdesign by sirnateunknown, coded by uxieโก
Chieftess Katara
NPC
location
Formerly her cabin, now Aang's Iceberg
Fresh snow pressed against Katara's boot. The cabin was now a bright raindrop in the distance, the wood stacked against its wall, waiting for her return. Meanwhile, there it was. The Iceberg, looming like a beacon in the midst of her seas full of troubled thoughts.
Despite the thousand things crashing against each other in her mind, Katara had composed herself relatively well throughout Boscha's speeches. Or so she thought...
The truth was, the battle inside her was not a matter of belief. It was never hard to let the fox girl speak, never hard to entertain her words, and most of all, for Katara, she could only wonder.
How long?
For how long now, have reports come in about increasing dark spirit activity? For how long now, has the taste in the salt air changed as more Southern Tribe sailors come back home with only strange tales of shadow beasts lurking in the waters to make up for their empty nets? For how long now, has it been a nations-wide sign they, the old friends and now guardians of the Avatar, have been avoiding?
Worst of all, for how much longer will this overwhelming, fluttering feeling of hope last before her mind inevitably pokes holes enough to bleed it out?
Indeed, Katara was almost ashamed of how easy it was. From the moment she saw the flash of light that she now knew had produced Boscha, it was all too easy. As Boscha had talked, all her treasured memories of their time together with Aang had suddenly reached out and embraced her. As if the fox girl's words had themselves formed a key, unlocking what Katara only let herself feel away from everyone, shared only between her and the boy she once loved, six feet deep within ice.
It all felt like a dream. A time of her life that she'd never get back, a time that could only be passed down as a bedtime story, as an Ember Island play or immortalized as pages of a newly-reformed Fire Nation history textbook. The countless hours spent atop Appa, watching Aang do that air spinning trick for the umpteenth time. Zuko in his self-admitted worst form; hair, murderous tendencies and all. Hei-Bai, Kyoshi Island, the deserts, the sandbenders and most breath-taking yet terrifyingly of all, Wan Shi Tong's Library. Teaching Aang how to waterbed, surviving King Bumi's tests, riding the Omashu mailing system, traversing the Cave of Two Lovers, saving the little village with her as their Painted Ladyโฆ
Then, Katara heard her daughter speak up. The river of nostalgia began to freeze over. The dream ended, replaced by the nightmare. The nightmare of facing the echoes of genocide, of losing an air bison, of being chased incessantly from sea to sea. The nightmare of witnessing the effects of the War, watching the innocent suffer under the wrath and thumb of one nation or another, the fear of losing a sibling, a friend or a lover to the forces of dark spirits or the old Fire Nation regime, still festering out there somewhere. Worse yet, facing Azula herself, the one name that could never be spoken in front of Zuko, despite the fact that her face is worn by the little girl he had decided to take under his wing all those years ago. And worst of all, the nightmare of losing a daughter and son, a niece and nephewโฆ
When Hakoda joined in, that was it. She was angry. And proud, and fearful and hopeful, all at once. How could she not be? Her and Sokka's blood ran through their veins. In a different time, a different age, Katara knew she'd have accepted to lend this spirit a hand too, no matter the danger. But that time, her time was over. And for too long in the eyes of the world, so had the time of the Avatar.
Katara closed her eyes, leaning her head against the ice.
But Aang...you know I can't just send them out on a whim. Not like Gran-Gran had to do with us, with you, with the survival of our tribe at stake.
I know Boscha claims urgency, but what proof do I have that I won't be sending my children on some wild goose chase, Aang? What proof is there that you really are where Boscha says you are?
I might be able to convince Sokka and Suki. Toph won't be as easy and neither will Zuko or Mai for their daughters, especially for Himari as heir. Jet needs to know, if he's come back. For Lon Fa's sake. The Umiak elders will need to be consulted too, scroll and all. Hakoda is my son, my heir, and spirits forbid if anything happens...
Katara!
A gasp choked out of her. Was that...did she just hear that?
"Aang?"
It couldn't have been. It was so thin, so quiet that she could have easily mistaken it for the wind, or even her own mind. She blinked, focused on the glow of Aang's arrowhead, which seemed to glow impossibly bright for a moment.
Suddenly, Katara felt the hairs on her neck rise.
Behind her, the growls were deep, dark and tortured. She could only guess, but she estimated around half a dozen. All paid attention to her, and her alone.
Katara turned around slowly. Seven pairs of teeth as sharp as knives bared back at her, belonging to seven heads erupting from a large, single, tarlike canine body. Their wide, staring eyes were a maddening shade of white, jowls dripping with raw, angry spiritual hunger.
Bai chi. Or, as the locals call them, Hundred Tooth Hounds. The name was coined generations before her birth, thanks to the start of the Hundred Year War and the conflicts since guaranteeing their place in the South Pole. But these past few years, decades even, their presence had amplified, to the point where a new phenomenon had started to appear here in the South, something Katara knew the people of Umiak called the Everstorm. Thankfully, the night held no sign of a giant, billowing shadow storm of dark spirits.
Nonetheless, this Bai chi was not alone. From the right and left of the Iceberg, others stalked around the glacier. Most were individual, others had fused into two or three groups of multiple heads, no more than four. All converged past her and the lone seven-headed Bai chi in the opposite direction, picking up a terrifying pace towards the bright raindrop in the distance.
Katara turned a deadly shade of white. No. No, no, no, the cabin. The cabin! Children!
The moment her hand left the iceberg, the attack began. The closest outer head strained out first. Jaws snapped for her arm, but the cold, cutting slice of her water tendril was too fast. No blood came out, only a spurting trail of dark ichor. But the next three heads immediately made up for the loss, splitting free from the original into their own bodies.
She was surrounded. Katara split her own tendril, managing to whip away the first two. The third leapt and buried its corrupted teeth into her flesh, a cry of pain choked out of both of them as Katara regained enough composure to reform her tendril and lash the shadowy canine to the ground. Feeling gravity starting to dissipate just as well as the dark spirit feet away, Katara reached out to steady herself against the Iceberg. Her head swirled from side to side, heart pounding.
She was cornered. Yet to her surprise, the Bai chi did not leap. Instead, what remained of them stayed just as alert and angry as she was. As if they were waiting for her to make the next move. As if they themselves ould not approach.
It's as if...they know something I don't.
Katara followed the intensity of their gazes, zeroing in on her own hand. Eyes widening, she realized the ice underneath had been glowing, brighter than she'd ever seen it.
Tears began to swell. Through blurred vision, she saw his glowing arrowhead, and for the first time since the battle with Ozai, his eyes. Frozen closed, yet she could still make out the birth of a glow shining underneath.
It was not Aang, not really. It seemed to only be the smallest spark of the Avatar within him, but Katara did not care. After years of silence, praying for a sign, for closure, here it was. Aang was not dead. She had been right to preserve him, right to believe when almost no one else did. He may not even know it, but he was protecting her.
Katara looked back at the Bai chi. The tears had died down, but despair nonetheless gripped her heart.
These were not entirely mindless beasts. They were still circled around her, but a safe distance away from any tendril she could make. They could not approach, but she could not attack, lest she was willing to sever her tie with the Iceberg. Even if she managed to kill them all with one good arm, it would not be without more injury, more Bai chi to fend off. It was a clever stalemate.
"Hakoda! Lon Fa! Zhao, Soyou, please! They're coming! Protect yourselves!"
It was useless to cry out. The deafening darkness answered her and told her this. She was simply too far away.
Katara turned towards the iceberg, her head once again leaning against it, a silent tear falling across her cheek. Protect them, Aang. Please, we need you. Protect them, give them strength. Please...
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