parallel lines

chapter viii

Word Count: 3, 262 words

Chapter VIII: 苦しんでいる乙女

---

Whatever Aang tried to do at the dead of the night before the sun could even start to make its way up the sky, he wasn't doing a quiet and great job at it. The rest of them were still snuggled up against a bed, it might've been less comfortable than what Natsuko has been sleeping on this past few days but it was still better than solid ground.

However, the continuous ruckus Aang and Appa was making woke not only Katara, Natsuko, and Sokka at that order, but as well as the villagers of the town they helped.

They were still there the moment those three arrived, looking at how Aang was in no match to Appa's massive weight, the other villagers went outside as well to examine the scene about to unravel.

It was the day of the Winter Solstice and the night before once the villagers and Sokka were back from the void the two girls of the group had come between a little bit of a misconception and stepping on the wrong foot. Natsuko wasn't even there the time they saw Aang in the iceberg and more of it was that she had already spent time in the enemy ship and somehow was able to escape from it, from Katara's view, she seems herself as a person who can help Aang, especially when she proved herself when Aang went in an Avatar state while she saw Natsuko as a normal human being who was there at the wrong place, at the wrong time.

"We can't let Aang go to the fire nation, what if he gets hurt?" they were still in debate that has been going on for half the time they should be resting well in order to travel to enemy territory but Katara was still going on and about her loss again.

Natsuko had to admit that Katara's caring nature runs deep just as hers and that she wasn't as trustworthy to the kids who had been travelling around meeting already people with no good deeds to do, even if Sokka's intuition was on par with Aang's when it came to the acclaimed "Spirit of the Avatar" and yet is somehow as helpless as a damsel in distress.

She was a damsel, she was in distress, she can handle it.

But Aang, who had experienced what Natsuko has been trying to prove to them what he had seen, he knew that it wasn't Natsuko's deed to help him with the given answers whether or not she knew the answers, she couldn't let him be pampered the way she did Kuruk.

She had experienced war in its worst and glory in its finest, her guidance was only her significance in the life of the Avatar, who needs to learn to make decisions for himself when time comes and Natsuko was to return back to the Spirit World. He knew of what Roku was there for, he had the guidance of his past lives as well, and he knew the dangers of what was to come.

"Please don't go, Aang, we can't lose you to the Fire Nation. Neither can I."

Now, Natsuko understood where Katara is coming from, her whole significance of being the sole waterbender left from her tribe stemmed from losing her mother who gave her life for Katara's, she knew of that story because just like every other person Katara encounters, Katara also told Natsuko of how she was truly devastated when her mother was killed by the time she had reached their tent. It doesn't mean she understood Katara's grief, it meant that she would let Aang stop from fulfilling his significance just for the life of one person.

The rule utilitarians always had was 'Not for the sole but for the whole', that's what the Avatar's also live by, their emotions never getting the best of them and their past always entwined with their future. If there was anything to be learned, it was that he had to fulfill his significance.

"But I have to talk to Avatar Roku to find out what my vision means. I need to get to the Fire Nation before the sun sets on the solstice, that's today."