Only a few minutes after the realisation that the fire nation was attacking the Northern Water Tribe, the entire population of the tribe sat huddled on the floor of the ice palace interior. I sat with Aang, Katara, Sokka and Kyana. There was an aura of terror in the room, and despite the many people, nobody said a word. At the front of the spacious room sat Princess Yue and master Pakku, and standing in front of them was chief Arnook. The chief stood in front of us and addressed us all.
"The day we have feared for so long has arrived. The fire nation is on our doorstep. It is with great sadness that I call my family here before me, knowing well that some of these faces are about to vanish from our tribe," he announced glumly. "But they will never vanish from our hearts. Now, as we approach the battle for our existence, I call upon the great spirits. Spirit of the ocean, spirit of the moon, be with us!
"I'm going to need volunteers for a dangerous mission," the chief boomed, and almost instantly I saw Sokka stand straight up and announce determinedly that he wanted in. I stood up soon after; as a member of the Northern Water Tribe army, I knew it was my duty to volunteer. The chief continued describing what we were signing up for. "Be warned: many of you will not return. Come forward to receive my mark if you accept the task,". All the volunteers who had stood up began shuffling towards the chief. I gave a quick glance at those around me: Aang and Katara looked sad, and Kyana looked extremely worried. I gave them a quick nod of reassurance that we would be okay, though truthfully I didn't know if I would see any of them ever again. Finally, I made my way up to chief Arnook to receive my mark. He drew three vertical wavered lines on my forehead, and I quickly followed the rest of the volunteers out of the ice palace and towards the barracks.
A few hours later all the volunteers stood nervously in the barracks. There were a few whispers and murmurs, but they all halted when the chief walked into the room. "Men, you'll be infiltrating the fire nation navy. That means you'll all need one of these uniforms," he announced as he gestured to a young man who wore a spiky crimson uniform. Sokka, who I had been stood next to, let out a laugh at this reveal.
"What's your problem?" the young man who was clad in the armour questioned, evidently annoyed.
"Fire navy uniforms don't look like that," he explained, and the young boy in uniform scoffed.
"Of course they do. These are real uniforms captured from actual fire navy soldiers,"
"When, like a hundred years ago?" Sokka joked, though the chief had a deadly serious look on his face.
"Eighty five," he admitted. Sokka detailed the differences in the modern uniforms, and everyone took notes. Well, everyone except for the annoyed guy in armour.
"How do we know we can trust this guy? Such bold talk for a new recruit," he stated in a frustrated tone.
"Sokka is from our sister tribe, Hahn. He is a capable warrior and I value his input," Arnook explained, and I saw Sokka grinning mockingly at Hahn.
"Any friend of the Avatar's is a friend of ours," I added, and Sokka's teasing grin grew even wider.
"Now, our first objective is to determine the identity of their commanding officer," the chief announced, and Sokka was quick to jump in.
"His name is Zhao," he casually stated, and once more a strange feeling of hatred and sickness passed over me when I heard the name. Zhao was behind this? "Middle aged, big sideburns, bigger temper," Sokka continued to detail.
"Sokka, I want you to tell everything you know to (Y/N) and Hahn. They're leading this mission. Hahn show Sokka your respect," the chief told the angsty young man. "I expect nothing less from my future son-in law,". Sokka's jaw practically dropped to the floor at this reveal, and quickly expressed his distaste for this news. Hahn responded to him rudely, and I could tell that there were bad tensions between these two already.
More time passed, and we were all making our final adjustments before battle. The fire nation must have started launching a ranged attack already, as multiple large vibrations had rumbled through the city, meaning that they had struck. I wasn't yet super concerned as I knew that master Pakku and the other adult waterbenders were resolving the issue. But there was something else that made me feel confidence. Tonight was an almost full moon, and as evening quickly approached, I felt myself growing more powerful. As waterbenders draw their powers from the moon, a full moon is the maximum power that a waterbender can achieve. I stood next to Sokka and Hahn, who were both sharpening their blades.
"Let me tell you Soaker," Hahn said as he butchered the pronunciation of Sokka's name. "I've courted a lot of girls, but Yue is the finest. And she comes with a lot of perks,". Sokka, who I knew had been crushing on Yue since his arrival at the city, widened his eyes and responded with disgust.
"Perks?!" he questioned. "What does that mean?"
"I mean, Yue's nice and everything, but the points I'll gain with the chief aren't bad either," Hahn pointed out nonchalantly. Another argument quickly ensued. I tried my best to calm things down, but all my attempts were ignored. Hahn started scolding Sokka about his ignorance of the political complexities of the tribe. This angered Sokka even more, and before I could do anything about it, he launched himself at Hahn. They tussled on the ground for a few seconds trading a few punches and insults before I managed to get my body between them. Unfortunately, the moment I intervened was the moment that the chief arrived.
"That's enough!" he bellowed. "Sokka, (Y/N), you're off the mission," he instructed, and this took me by surprise. Surely the chief knew that I had done nothing wrong?
"Alright, fall in, men!" Hahn announced to the rest of the volunteers, clearly showing off his leadership to the disgruntled Sokka. "Everybody listen to what I say, and we'll take out this Admiral Cho in no time!"
"It's Admiral Zhao!" Sokka shouted at him. Like usual, I felt a jolt in my stomach when I heard the name. I was also surprised to discovered that Zhao was an admiral; did my father not say that Zhao hated him because my father became an Admiral instead of Zhao? 'Zhao must have been promoted since my parents fled the fire nation' I thought. Moving on from the thought of the cruel spirit hunter, I led Sokka to a corner of the barracks so as to not get in everyone's way. I thought to distract us both from the misery of being booted from the mission, I would start a conversation with him. After all, I knew Aang and Katara well, but had never really spoken to Sokka.
"I know you like princess Yue," I awkwardly told him, not knowing where to start. Before I could think of something else to add on, Sokka hastily responded to me.
"You wouldn't understand," he grumbled. "I really want to be with her, but I can't be,"
"Actually, I kind of do understand in an opposite way," I said, and he gave me a quizzical look. "I'm in an arranged marriage with my best friend, but we don't love each other like that," I quietly explained, to which Sokka nodded in understanding. Before we could continue our brief conversation any longer, chief Arnook approached us both.
"Is something wrong, you two?" he asked us, having looked at our miserable faces. I was going to give a calm and respectful answer, but Sokka spoke faster.
"Oh, no," he said sarcastically, not bothering to look at the chief. "Hahn's out there on the top-secret mission, while we're here doing nothing. Everything's fine!" he exclaimed. Despite Sokka's arrogance, the chief gave us both a sympathetic look.
"Listen, I took you of the mission for selfish reasons. I have a special task for you." He explained, causing us to both give him a questioning look.
What, you want me to scrub the barracks?" Sokka continued with the sarcasm, but the chief quickly cut him off.
"I want you to guard my daughter, Princess Yue," Arnook instructed, and immediately Sokka regained a happier look on his face, though he tried to hide it.
"And what about me?" I asked the chief.
"(Y/N), I want you to protect the water spirits, Tui and La," he explained importantly. "They are key to a successful defence today,". I nodded and bowed to the chief, who promptly wished us luck before heading off with the volunteers. Myself and Sokka quickly followed our orders, running out of the barracks and towards the ice palace. The night had already passed and the sun had returned, and I felt myself become slightly less powerful as the moon lowered for the day. But I knew that the next night would be a complete full moon, which would aid in our defence. However, as Sokka and I sprinted to the ice palace, we ran into Princess Yue. She looked terrified, and I could see tears in the corner of her eyes.
"Help!" she wailed. "Aang is in the spirit would, and somebody is trying to capture him!". I saw an angry look wash over Sokka's face.
"Zuko!" he exclaimed angry. "Follow me, guys" he added before grabbing Yue's hand and running off, away from the ice palace, leaving me confused.
"Uhh Sokka? Shouldn't we be running towards the ice palace?" I asked as I ran to catch up with him.
"I think it's time you met my friend, Appa," he told me.
A few minutes later and Sokka had led us to the large white beast that I had seen with Aang on the day of his arrival. Sokka explained that the beast, who was apparently called Appa, was the last remaining flying sky bison, and that he would take us to Aang. Hesitant, I followed Sokka and Yue onto the back of Appa. Sokka gave Yue a hand up onto Appa, but I got no such luxury. Once we were all on board, Sokka shouted "Appa, yip yip!" and the giant bison started elevating into the air! I held onto the saddle for dear life; heights weren't my favourite thing in the world. Despite his huge size, Appa was rather speedy, and quickly took us to the spirit oasis. As we landed, I heard Yue gasp. Katara stood motionless on the grass of the oasis, and Aang was nowhere to be seen.
"What happened? Where's Zuko?" Sokka questioned her. Katara looked away, upset with herself.
"He took Aang. He took him right out from under me," she desperately claimed. "I can't believe I lost him,"
"You did everything you could," Sokka comforted her. "And now we need to do everything we can to get him back. Zuko can't have gone far. We'll find him. Aang's going to be fine,". Sokka, Katara, and Yue all climbed back onto the saddle of Appa to set off to look for Aang and Zuko. They looked down at me expectantly as I stood still on the oasis' grass.
"I'll stay here," I told them. "I need to protect the spirits. Good luck,". They nodded at me before Sokka pulled on the rope between Appa's horns. They flew away, leaving me by myself with the spirits. As I watched them disappear into the sky, slowly turning into just a speck in the distance, something unexpected happened: I heard a voice from behind me.
"Well, now that they're gone, only you stand in my path,". I whipped around to see a tall figure only a few metres away. He had dark brown hair and big, bushy sideburns. I instantly recognized the description.
"Zhao," I muttered, though apparently loud enough to hear.
"So you've heard of me," he said menacingly as he took a step towards me. "Good, so you know it would be wise to get out of my way," he growled, and I got into a waterbending stance.
"Of course I know you," I told him. "My father was promoted to Admiral instead of you years ago," I tried my best to intimidate him, though admittedly it was a feeble attempt. Zhao didn't look intimidated in the slightest, but he stood still as he look at me quizzically. I could tell his mind was whirring, trying to find the connection as to how I knew that. However I was not prepared for him to actually find the connection.
"So you must be (Y/N)," he stated with an evil grin, and I instantly became paralysed. How could he possibly know my name?
"How do you know my name?" I shouted at him threateningly, still in my waterbending stance in case he decided to suddenly strike. Nothing could have prepared me for the words that were about to leave his mouth. With a malicious grin, he spoke.
"How could I possibly forget the name of my own nephew."
Word Count: 2191
(A/N: Hey everyone, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! The Siege of the North is quite action packed, so it's split into 3 different chapters. I'll be releasing part 2 tomorrow, and part 3 the day after that. I've currently written up to chapter 12 of the story, so I still have plenty of content ready to publish! Anyways, that's it from me. See you guys tomorrow! -JetDragon09)