Koete ↠ Sokka

Chapter 10: The Worst Episode - Part 3

"Right-o everyone! Your ten minutes are up, so that food better be in your gut or in the garbage!" the guide announced from his rock pedestal, hands cupping his mouth.

"Come on, Charlie," she muttered to herself. "If you're being forced to live out this disappointment of an episode, the least you can do is not make it suck. And who cares if you mess up the ending, this is a damn filler anyways."

Sokka raised an eyebrow. "I have no idea what any of that means."

Charlie looked at him semi-surprised. She hadn't realised he'd been listening, or even that she'd said that all out loud. "Good." She turned back to both tribes, cupping her mouth with one hand. "Hey losers! I know you all have food with you, so give it up now or no one's crossing this damn canyon!" Seeing no one make a move, Charlie rolled her eyes and continued. "I'm not stupid. And I know one of you's packed an egg custard tart, as if that's not gonna spoil."

"H—how did you know?" one of the Zhang spluttered out, pulling said egg custard tart out of his bag. The entire Gan Jin tribe gasped in offence, earning a glare from Charlie.

"Oh shut up, I know you still have food too," she jeered before holding two fingers to her temple. "And I'm psychic, that's how."

"Everyone was trying to smuggle food down there? Unbelievable!" Aang cracked, an involuntary blast of air covering the ground as he slammed his staff down.

"I've got half a mind not to bring any of you down. I warned you bringing food would attract dangerous predators, you would have endangered us all!" the guide exclaimed in his gruff voice. "Have you anything to say for yourselves?"

"We... we only kept it because we thought the Zhangs would try to smuggle food anyway," the Gan Jin leader began, eyes narrowing at the ground. "It wouldn't be fair for my people to go hungry while theirs didn't."

The Zhang leader's fists clenched. "We thought that the Gan Jins thought so badly of us, they probably assumed we'd bring food in and decided to bring food in themselves. That's why we kept it," she admitted, pulling her eyes away from the tribe. "Looks like we were right."

"So, all of this would have been because of a misunderstanding?" Katara said pointedly, her face clear with disappointment as she looked between the two leaders. Neither responded, opting to avoid eye contact and look everywhere but each other, clearly both feeling embarrassed by their assumptions. "I can't believe this. Apologise to each other now, or travel the Great Divide on your own."

Simultaneously, both leaders mumbled out their own versions of 'sorry'. It was almost childish.

"You guys aren't that different, you know," Charlie began casually, causing surprised looks to come her way. "I mean, clearly you both knew well enough what the other would do, you just made the wrong choices based on your preconceived notions about each other. And you were willing to put your own tribe in danger because of it. Is all of that worth some dumb feud that happened over one hundred years ago? Think about it guys, the story is so old, and I'm guessing isn't written down anywhere, so some parts have probably changed over time and become misunderstood."

"It's true!" Aang agreed, nodding frantically. "In fact, I knew Ghin Wai and Wai Ghin and—" Charlie cut him off with an elbow to the side. Perhaps a little harsh, given his slight wheeze, but she considered it a lesson learnt.

"Don't lie Aang," she ordered from the corner of her mouth.

"Sorry," he pouted.

With that, Charlie continued her rant. "I'm sure your tribes haven't always been enemies either, right? Can't you just... start over? Is it really that impossible?"