Koete ↠ Sokka

Chapter 7: The Pirates - Part 1

Mountain tops speckled with flat-topped trees peeked through the thick layer of fog they flew over, golden light streams beaming through gaps in the light clouds above. The morning sun gave a pink glow to everything it touched, but did nothing to calm the young Avatar, still troubled by their previous night's revelations.

Sokka had taken over flying when it was clear the airbender was unfocused, having almost flown them in the wrong direction. He sat in the crook of Appa's neck, holding onto the leather reins attached to the bison's horns. Charlie sat with her back against the front ledge of the saddle close to Sokka, while Katara and Momo were opposite her, leaning against their supplies.

"Hey, Aang?" Charlie called out worriedly, staring at the boy pacing around in circles on Appa's saddle. "You doing okay over there?"

"Yes! No. I don't know, maybe?" he rushed out, twiddling his thumbs and fingers.

Charlie raised her eyebrow. "Are you aware you just gave every possible answer for that question?" She was only met with a look of distress before his pacing speed increased. She flipped over onto her stomach, letting her arms fall over the lip of the saddle. "He's lost it," she muttered to Sokka, who tilted his head back to look at her.

He let out an exasperated sigh, twisting his body to get a better view of the airbender. "Aang, would you sit down?! If we hit a bump, you'll go flying off."

"I know, I know, I'm sorry, there's just so many things on my mind right now," he admitted, looking down at Sokka. "Like what Avatar Roku said—how I'm supposed to master all four elements before the comet arrives. That's less than a year away!"

Sokka looked back in front of him with a playful smirk. "Well, let's see. You pretty much mastered airbending—and that only took you a hundred and twelve years. I'm sure you can master three more elements by next summer."

"But I haven't even started waterbending, let alone earth and fire, and we're still weeks away from the North Pole. What am I gonna do?" Aang quickly fell back into a panicking spiral, pacing around in circles again and throwing out his arms in frustration. Before he could start another loop around the saddle, his ankle caught onto Charlie's extended leg, sending him tumbling face-first into the leather. If anything, the fact that he didn't airbend to break his fall was an indication of his current mental state.

Sokka whipped back around at the sound, grabbing onto the lip of the saddle that Charlie was pressed up against to check on Aang. "What did I tell you thirty seconds ago?"

"Sorry," Aang said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.

"Are you alright?" Katara inquired softly, coaxing him to sit in front of her, so close that their knees were touching. "Calm down, it's gonna be okay." Aang almost instantly relaxed his shoulders as she slid her hands into his, resting them on his lap.

Charlie's mouth formed a small 'oh', quickly turning away to give them some privacy. She lifted herself over the lip of the saddle, plopping down on Appa's head next to Sokka, who greeted her with a weird look. "Their eye-flirting is getting too intense for me."

"I'm not following," Sokka said blankly with a raised eyebrow.

Charlie rolled her eyes heavily, settling her back into Appa's fur. "Doesn't take a genius to figure those two out."

"Wha—those two? Together?" Sokka inquired in an unnecessary whisper, pointing over his shoulder with wide eyes.

She nodded back slowly, whispering, "Yeah, those two." She crossed her arms over her chest, propping up one knee before changing back to a normal speaking volume. "Not right now, obviously—I mean they practically just met. But eventually, yeah."