Light. He could just barely register the light, it shone against his eyelids, he could see it. The almost imperceptible change in the darkness that was always around him.

He tried to move his head to look more towards the light. He couldn't.

He tried to move his arms to reach in its general direction. He couldn't.

He tried to stand up to be closer to the light. He couldn't.

It seemed as though every part of his body was frozen in place, he couldn't even twitch a single finger on his hands.

He felt as though this should have been freaking him out. But oddly enough he found himself in an oddly calm state. He could feel his emotions but it was almost like he was looking at them from the other side of a large canyon. They were there, but just out of reach to him. Instead he felt a strange calmness that radiated from his core and throughout his body, sustaining him.

The light was brighter now, and despite himself he found himself attempting to open his eyes to take it in.

The calmness prevented him from being shocked when his eyes bolted open.

In front of him were to figures, distorted by some material that was dividing them, was that… ice? He must have been in one of the poles, but how had he gotten here? He couldn't quite remember. There was something about a storm, but then the memory faded and the calmness washed over his confusion.

The skinnier figure was twisting in a striking motion. Perhaps she was trying to break the ice? That would be nice, maybe with it broken he would be able to move around again. His mind wandered to his knowledge of the poles. There had always been something that he wanted to do if he traveled here, maybe now he would get his chance.

There was a loud cracking sound, then a whoosh of air and a bright light as the ice surrounding him broke. With his ability of motion restored he took a few steps, but then the calmness left him, and all his pent up emotions clashed together before quickly subsiding.

The strength left his body, and he found himself being caught by one of the figures. He could make out some more masculine features.

As his vision cleared he saw that the one holding him had been a young man, probably in his mid-teens by the look of it, he would guess maybe two or three years older than him.

He opened his mouth and whispered quietly, "come closer," the teens eyes widened and then narrowed in suspicion, but still he moved a bit closer to him. "Closer," he whispered again. The boy once again leaned just a bit closer to his face.

A mischievous smile spread across his face as he put his mouth to the boys ears and shouted, "Would you go penguin sledding with me?!"

~0~

She held in the laugh as she watched her brother scramble away from the boy, holding his ear with one hand while brandishing his spear with the other. Pointing it at the young boy.

Now sitting up, the child looked at the two of them with a wide smile on his face. "Hi!" he said enthusiastically. "I'm Aang, who are you guys?"

Her brother eyed Aang suspiciously before replying in a slow tone, "Hi Aang, I'm… Shang. This is my sister… Suzy."

She rolled her eyes and punched him in the shoulder with a small grunt of anger, "Sokka!" he looked at her incredulously, "What!? We don't know who he is. For all we know, he's a Fire Nation spy." He darted his eyes back over to the boy, who was still sitting watching them with a confused expression.

"Right, I completely forgot about the Fire Nation's newest technique, Iceberg spies." the sarcasm dripped off her voice before she turned to the boy and addressed him in a friendly tone. "Sorry about my brother, I'm Katara, and loudmouth here is my brother, Sokka."

Aang smiled at her again, and opened his mouth to speak again. "Nice to meet you Katara and So… So.. Soooachoo!" he sentence was cut off by a loud sneeze, and Katara found her mouth dropping as she watched a 12 year old boy get launched 20 feet into the air.

~0~

His sister was far too trusting. Aang was a stranger they had just found in a block of ice. They had no reason not to believe he didn't pose a threat to both the two of them, and the nation as a whole. Still, Katara had already told the boy their names, so there was no point in hiding anymore. If he was Fire Nation, he already had all the information he needed to destroy them.

His eyes shot open as he watched the boy get launched upwards, disappearing into the clouds overhead before slowly floating back down to the ground in front of them.

The boy looked back at them shyly, "excuse me," he mumbled.

Sokka couldn't believe the causality of the boys response, "Exc… Excuse you! You just shot 20 feet into the air!" The boy looked up, scratching his head, "Really? Only 20 feet? I thought it was higher." Sokka's jaw fell open. This was insanity. He went out today only hoping to catch some fish, instead his sister had managed to find a magic boy in a block of ice. Just once, he wanted to go out and have a normal experience.

He glanced over at katara, scared at what he might see. His sister's eyes were sparkling as she looked at the boy. He sighed, this was only going to get worse.

~0~

"You're an airbender!" the girl exclaimed, her hands were clasped together and she took a step closer to him before her brother shot his hand outwards to stop her.

"Alright Aang, who else is with you?!" Sokka pointed his spear at Aang, jabbing the air in front of him to accent his question. Aang pushed the spear aside with his hand, and followed it with a shrug, "even if you ask me that, my answer would still be that it's just me and… APPA!" He couldn't believe that he had forgotten about his fluffy buddy.

Aang quickly scrambled his way over the wall of ice behind him, calling out the animals name as he went. "Appa! Appa!" As he crested the small glacial mound he sighed in relief as he saw the large hairy torso of his sky bison rise and fall in steady motions. "Come on buddy, rise and shine," he reached the animals face and shook it slightly. Slowly the large creatures eyes opened, revealing deep brown irises gleaming with years of intelligence. Appa's mouth opened wide and he released a deafening roar of a yawn, causing the ground itself to shake. "Good to see you too buddy." Aang enveloped the bison in a big a hug as he could manage and squeezed.

He heard a gasp behind him. Turning around he could see the Sokka and Katara had reached the hilltop and were now staring in awe at the large sky bison before them.

Sokka was the first to speak, muttering under his breath, "great, now the magic ice child has a pet." he grumbled to himself and followed his sister as she approached the creature. "This is amazing!" she said softly, looking back towards Aang.

"Allow me to introduce you guys. Sokka, Katara, this is Appa. Appa, this is Sokka and Katara." Once more the Bison released a loud yawn to show his recognition of the two.

Sokka spoke up once more. "Great, now that we've all been introduced, me and Katara have to get going, it's going to be a long trek back to the village now that our boats been destroyed.

Aang took a moment to ponder before speaking, "if you guys want, me and Appa can give you a ride."

~0~

How had a fishing trip turned into this? A simple outing with his sister to secure some more food, that had been all that he signed up for. Now he was sitting on the back of a "flying" bison swimming lazily through arctic waters back to the village while Katara had an animated conversation with a boy whose sneezes carried enough power to launch him several dozen feet in the air.

To make matter worse, he hadn't even caught any fish.

In any case Sokka watched his sister and the bay through wary, though slightly defeated eyes. She talked excitedly for a bit and he responded in equally kind manner, nothing too suspicious he supposed. Then Katara got awfully quiet, "umm, Aang?" she questioned nervously, obviously a bit nervous. Sokka raised his brow and peaked his listening a bit, whatever was about to happen, it would at the very least be entertaining to watch his sisters reactions.

"Yeah?" Aang's response was simple, but he turned his head towards his sister and gave her his full attention. "I was just wondering if… you happened to know the avatar?"

Sokka almost slapped his own head at the stupidity of the question. "Katara, why would a 12 year old boy we found in a block of ice know the 100 year old man that abandoned an entire world?" He stared at his sister, his brow lowered and jaw thrust forward, showing his frustration the best he could.

"Abandoned, 100 years… what are you guys talking about? Why are firebenders such a bad thing?" Sokka stood still, his eyes wide for a moment. Then he stood up and tried his best to clear his ears before turning to the boy with a strained smile. It was one thing to be an ignorant child, that he could understand to a degree. But even the smallest children in the village now about the war. "I'm sorry, I think I may have just misheard you there. Did you just say you have NO KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE WAR!?" his voice was strained as he asked this, the boy scooted away from him as he began to shout, covering his bald head in as if to protect himself. Sokka was about to keep going but his sister grabbed him and threw her hand over his mouth.

"Stop it Sokka you're scaring him!" he thrashed about for a moment before calming a bit, slumping his shoulders to signal to Katara he was finished. Slowly, she released his mouth and stepped away. He then turned to her and gestured back to the boy, who had hid himself behind the horn of the large bison and was peering over at them tentatively. "If you believe that you can handle this better, by all means, go ahead." With that he stomped his way to the back of the saddle and closed his eyes, the best thing for him right now would be a good sleep, with any luck he would wake up back at the village, shepherd captain ignorance on his way, and this while event would be over.

~0~

She stared at her brother for a moment, her eyes raised judgementally as he laid down, his back turned to her, once she was satisfied, and sure he was asleep, she turned back to Aang who had stopped hiding behind the horn and was now leaning against it, his head in his hands, and muttering to himself, she couldn't exactly hear, but it almost sounded like he was just repeating the phrase, "abandoned" over and over again. She walked over and gingerly placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Don't let my brother scare you, he's loud, but otherwise harmless. What did you mean when you asked about the war? It sounded like you had never heard of it." she kept her voice calm and smooth, just like her mother did when she had been scared as a child.

Aang raised his head, and his eyes were wide, terror flickered in them like he was watching hundreds of people burn in front of him. He stared at her and mumbled something, "I didn't mean to, I didn't abandon you, I just didn't want to accept it."

She sighed, he was talking to himself. She didn't know about what, but for now talking to him would only be reminiscent of talking to a brick wall. She patted his shoulder once again before walking away, "I'll just leave you to yourself, we'll talk again once we reach the village."

With that she sat back down and busied herself with trying to bend the water as they rode past it, the sound of Aang's mumbling the only background besides the sounds of the ocean.

~0~

She watched with wide eyes as the ship moved in the direction of the light beam, hands tapping idly at the metal railing. "Princess," called a frail voice behind her, "it will be a while still before we reach the source and are able to investigate, it would be best if you were to return inside and get some rest, being awake for too long will damage your mind." this was a second voice, similar, but yet also different from the first. She turned to her advisers and looked upon them. Pushing the mild irritation at being approached aside she smiled at them, "While I appreciate your concerns, this is the most interesting thing that has happened for me since Uncle's coronation ceremony, let me be for now and I promise I will return below deck soon for some rest soon." Her advisers looked at each other for only a moment before they shrugged and turned back towards the the door leading into the vessel. Headed back inside.

With the nuisances gone Azula returned her gaze to the far horizon, clasping her hands together and warming them with a small puff of fire.

She was very much looking forward to finding out the source of that light. She wasn't certain, but her instincts told her that whatever was about to happen would be very, very interesting.

-For those who are following me for Looking Forward, I'm not stopping that story, merely dividing interests. Other than that I just want to say that I spent a good amount of time writing this, but I know I'm not the best and I'm certain there are mistakes and ways to improve, so just let me know. Thanks.