lavanya_six | Facing Fearful Odds: special sneak preview (Reply)

With FFO almost done cooking, I think it's time to offer a little sneak preview. I've been working on this project for nearly a whole year now. Here is the very first portion of FFO posted publicly. Enjoy!

2 Years Ago

Katara checked over the satchel one last time, making sure to count and recount every piece of seal jerky, every bit of blubber, and every strip of salted whale meat she had packed inside -- everything her father would need on his voyage to the Earth Kingdom. It wouldn't do to send the village's men off to war without them being prepared. On impulse, Katara stuffed in a small sewing kit, just in case her father needed to mend his clothes.

"There," she said, "that's perfect."

"Did you really just put needle and thread in there? You think warriors have time to do women's work?"

"Shut up, Sokka!" she snapped at her brother, who was sulking next to her in their family tent. "You said you wanted to help. If you don't, go find something else to do!"

"I'm just saying there will be plenty of women in the Earth Kingdom to do that sort of thing for them." Sokka stood up. He helped his sister to her feet. "You don't need to pitch a fit, little sis."

"I'll little sis you," she said, hefting the heavy bag over her shoulder. "Another word and I'll freeze off your eyebrows!"

"You promised Gran Gran you wouldn't do that again!"

"Then I'll find something else to freeze off." Katara stomped out of the seal-skin tent. Sokka followed in her wake.

"Y'know," he said, "instead of giving him that sewing kit, you should give him something he can really use in the Earth Kingdom -- like your walking stick."

"It's a staff." Katara slowed her pace to come alongside her brother. "You... you think he could use it?"

"It's a walking stick. He'll be going to a place called the Earth Kingdom -- lots of walking there. So, yes. He'll use it."

She paused. "You're right. But Gran Gran might get angry." Both Katara and Sokka recalled the debacle the previous summer when the walking staff had been used by Bato in a game of fetch with the village's guardian polar bear dogs. When Gran Gran had seen the staff being slobbered and gnawed on by the furry beasts, she had flown into a whirlwind rage against Bato. The children of the village had added many new words to their vocabulary that day. Afterwards, no one ever touched Katara's walking staff and the polar bear dogs forevermore cowered in Gran Gran's shadow.

"Well," Sokka said, as they approached their grandmother's tent, "let's ask her. Or better yet, do it and not. After all, what she doesn't know can't h--"

"For the last time," their father said angrily, speaking from inside the tent, "I'm not taking her with me!"

Katara frowned. "Wh--"

"Ssssssh!" Sokka hissed, raising a lone finger to his lips.

The pair leaned as close to the tent's opening as they dared.

"She's too young!" their father continued. "If I'm not bringing Sokka with me, surely I'm not going to bring Katara!"

"Hakoda," Gran Gran said in a voice so stringent that it startled both Katara and Sokka, "the child must learn waterbending. How else can she--"

"I'm through listening to this," he commanded, using what Katara knew was his chieftain's voice. Katara was shocked that her father would take such a tone with her grandmother, an honored elder. "You might have filled Kya's head with all this nonsense, but I have to live in the real world."

"Katara is special, my son. She has a destiny to fulfill."

"Yes -- one here, safe at home, where she belongs."

Gran Gran's voice rose to a near-yell. "You saw the body in the iceberg!" Katara and Sokka glanced at once another, utterly befuddled by their grandmother's non sequitur. "It was him. That means--"

"NO!" their father shouted. "And even if it was him, which it wasn't, that doesn't mean Katara is the Av--HEY! What do you two think you're doing out there?!"

Caught red-handed, the two children stepped through the tarp into the tent to meet their punishment. Sokka smiled nervously. "It... um... er... IT WAS ALL KATARA'S IDEA!"

"What?!" She wheeled on her brother. "What do you mean it was my idea? YOU were the one who shushed ME!"

"Sokka," Gran Gran said, "is that true?"

"W-w-well she should have stopped me!"

"What kind of excuse is THAT?!"

"You're always bragging about how you're the responsible one!"

"I--"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" their father thundered. Silence fell over the tent. "Now isn't the time for families to be fighting," he said, casting a dark glance at his mother. "We fight enough in the war."

Sokka cast his head down in abashment. Katara hesitantly stepped forward, presenting the satchel. "I, um, we, that is, Sokka and I, we thought--"

Their father's expression softened. "Thank you, daughter." He took the satchel and planted a soft kiss atop Katara's head. He also kissed Sokka's head, and Sokka, sensing in a rare burst of insight that now wasn't the time for machismo, did not object. "And thank you, son. If you both can plan something like this, then the village will be in good hands."

"Katara put a sewing kit inside," Sokka said lamely.

"Good idea. We warriors won't have any women around to do our chores."

"See?" Katara said. In response, Sokka stuck out his tongue.

"Come on," their father said, "it's almost time. Let's head to the ships."

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