Koete ↠ Sokka

Chapter 12: The Red Spirit

After what had probably gone on record to be the worst day of her life, Charlie spent the next few hours sprawled out silently in the middle of Appa's saddle as they continued their journey north. She stared blankly at the night sky above her, watching the clouds float by, illuminated by the soft glow of moonlight. Her starfish position wasn't exactly heat-conserving, but she absolutely could not be bothered moving. She'd be damned if she saw the ocean right now. After a brief inner-reflection, she concluded her new life sucked to an epic proportion of suckage. Maybe it was a premature assessment considering she'd only been there for 17 days—yes, she kept count—but Charlie wasn't the kind of person to dance around an issue. No, she was sure of it. Now coddled with one near-death-experience after the other, her life seriously sucked.

It also didn't help that Charlie had the worst night of sleep she'd ever had. Actually, that was a lie. Having the worst night of sleep would actually require having slept at all, which was something Charlie had none of. She tried of course, but each time she closed her eyes, she found herself back at the ocean's floor, unable to move, lungs constricting. Usually her dreams were a jumbled mess, nothing needing to look beyond a surface level for—but this one screamed at her. Her lips pursed in annoyance. Needless to say, Charlie spent her night counting an obscene number of proverbial koala-sheep, watching the sky change above her. So now she was sleep deprived, cranky, and freezing. The air only got cooler as they reached further towards the Northern Water Tribe, which was not fun for her heat-preferential constitution.

Daylight had finally come, and she watched as the others all slowly awoke—except for Sokka, which she'd initially pinned down to pure laziness. She prodded and poked him, making faces at his sleeping form, trying to annoy him out of his slumber. Unfortunately, her theory regarding his laziness was proven wrong when he abruptly broke into a fever with a shien of cold sweat lining his rapidly paling skin.

"Woah, what's up with you?" Charlie asked confusedly as he finally stirred awake. She let her arms keep her upright as she crossed her legs, eyeing the way he rubbed his hands frantically against his arms.

He went to answer but was silenced by a string of coughs, sending him doubling over at the waist. Charlie recoiled and scooted to the opposite corner of the saddle.

"He must have caught a cold," Katara supplied, pressing her wrist to his forehead. "Aang, do you think we can land somewhere?"

"Yeah, sure." He softly jumped over to Appa's head, pulling them to the left. Beside them, a vast greenland spanned over a mountain range and beyond, cloaking what looked to be the abandoned ruins of a city. Carved out of light stone, bushy vines crawled up the sides of the crumbling buildings seeming to slowly eat away at the marks of civilisation.

Aang spotted a place that looked stable enough, bringing them to shelter. The opening was lined in consecutive arches leading to a small balcony. Although some columns and parts of the walls had eroded away, the structure itself was sturdy.

Katara was quick to set a small fire to keep Sokka warm as Aang went searching through their bags for medicine. Charlie was tasked with helping Sokka into his sleeping bag—a struggle, considering his lanky body had gone limp, and she didn't particularly want to be close to his germs. Eventually she resorted to dropping him in the nook between two of Appa's legs and forcing his legs in, before jumping on Appa's saddle again and leaning awkwardly over the edge to pull it up his body from the hood.

All that work left her exhausted. She let her upper body hang off the side of the saddle as she caught her breath. Sokka below her tilted his head back to meet her eyes.

"You know what I love the most about—" He doubled over into a coughing fit. Charlie signed and rubbed at her temples. "About Appa?"

"What, Sokka?" she questioned in resignation.