Accidental Avatar

Water Tribe Feast

We were seated inside the most awesome palace I had ever seen, with guys banging on drums and other people bringing Appa food. I sat between Sokka and Katara, very much impressed with everything around me. Appa roared, and the people bringing his food ran away screaming. Sokka and I turned to each other and chuckled nervously. Something huge (I think it was meat) was dropped into a pool of water in the middle of the massive chamber, and it hissed as steam rose from it. The Chief stood up, his arms spread wide.

"Tonight, we celebrate the arrival of our brother and sister from the Southern Water Tribe!" He said warmly, and the two siblings looked around in awe as people smiled at them. "And they have brought with them an Outsider given the honour of being one of us, a Firebender unlike any other."

He turned to me and bowed his head. "We welcome you to our home, Mogui Dragonborn."

I stood up then and bowed respectfully to the chief, voicing my thanks to him while internally wondering at the moniker they've given me. Dragonborn? Cool, but what? Sounds like a game name... or something.

"And they have also brought with them someone very special, someone we had thought disappeared from the world until now," the chief continued, serenely once I had sat down again. "The Avatar!" 

He pointed to Aang, who waved awkwardly while everyone clapped for him. Cheers echoed around the room as everyone voiced their joy at Aang's arrival.

"We also celebrate my daughter's 16th birthday!" The chief said, stepping aside to reveal the stunner from before. "Princess Yue is now of marrying age!"
I gave a low whistle and nudged Sokka. "Hey, it's the girl you were ogling earlier. It looks like she's a princess."
"Thank you, father," she said warmly before addressing the gathered crowd. "May the great Ocean and Moon spirits aid us in these troubled times!"

"Now, Master Pakku and his students will perform!" The Chief announced, indicating an older man with two younger men up on a stage. 

They began bending huge globs of water that seemed to get the crowd going. Sokka and I pretty much immediately started stuffing our faces with food. Yue came over and sat on the other side of Sokka.

"Hi there," Sokka said in his best suave voice. "Sokka, Southern Water Tribe."
"Very nice to meet you," Yue said warmly, smiling. Then they sat there awkwardly.
"So," I said, leaning forward to look at her. "You're a princess, huh?"
"You know, back in my tribe, I'm kinda like a prince myself," Sokka said, throwing me a look that is partway grateful, part suspicious.

Katara, who was apparently listening in, scoffed at that. "Prince of what?"
"A lot of things!" Sokka retorted over me. While he and Katara squabbled, I leaned back and looked over at Princess Yue.
"You have a very unusual hair colour, princess. If you don't mind my pointing out," I said casually. She giggled at me and smiled.
"Look who is talking," she responded with a smile.
"Not too uncommon," I said with a shrug. "I know a girl who has hair similar to mine."
"Is she a firebender?"
"Waterbender, actually."

Sokka decided to rejoin the conversation at this point and turned back to Princess Yue. "So it turns out I'm gonna be in town for a while, so I was wondering if maybe we could do an .... activity... together?"
I had to physically restrain myself from facepalming at that. He started strong but seemed to lose his nerve near the end.
"Do an activity?" She asked, with a barely contained laugh there.
Sokka seemed horrified with himself and stuffed food into his mouth before swallowing and turning away.
I chuckled and patted him on the back. Aang had gone down to speak with the Chief and Master Pakku.

"Um...Mogui, right?"
"Yup."
"Your friend, why didn't she come here with you?"
Sokka seemed to perk up at that and decided to rejoin the conversation there. "Yeah, why didn't she come with us?"

I shrugged at that. 

"Honestly? No clue. She could be learning waterbending right now, but she's somewhere out there and..." I paused as that bad feeling spread over my back again. "Sokka, remember how I said I had a bad feeling back at the Air Temple?"

"Yeah?"

"Well..."

"What?" Sokka suddenly seemed to forget Yue's presence. "Do you know when the feeling started?"

"Before we ran into the waterbenders. Every time I thought about Amaya, the feeling would come."

"Do you think she's in danger?" Yue asked, her expression concerned. "Do you know where she might be?"

"She's with the Fire Nation Prince," I said softly. "Last time we saw each other, she helped us get away from him, but far as I could tell, they were friends."

"I think they were closer than that." Sokka cut in. "Zuko was acting ... odd. Like he didn't want her out of his sight but didn't want to admit it either."

"Kinda like you right-" Sokka shoved one of those meat roll things into my mouth, and I almost choked on it between it being shoved in my mouth and me laughing.