Safe & Sound | Book 1

18: Little Girl

I have decided to edit this story, however upon reading the last three chapters of this book I realized that editing would not be enough so I've rewritten them. If you read this story ages ago and don't feel like rereading that's totally fine, the main story hasn't changed, Kida's just a little more open with herself now. To everyone who is rereading, I hope you enjoy and don't mind my changes. (New readers, you weren't missing anything.)

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Art: At Bay by Clare Elsaesser

I repositioned myself again. After a lifetime of wearing several layers of fur, it seemed ridiculous to feel so uncomfortable returning to them but my coat felt much more restricting than I remembered.

"I'm not one to complain, but-" Sokka started to say but I cut in.

"You? Not complain? Ha!"

He shot me a glare but continued. "Can't Appa fly any higher?" Sokka's words had barely even left his lips before Appa lost more altitude and his feet began to drag through the water before he rose up again.

"I have an idea! Why don't we all get on your back and you can fly us to the North Pole?" Aang replied irritably. That was probably the most sarcastic thing I had ever heard out of the young monk's mouth.

Sokka got on his knees and turned his back to us, he looked over his shoulder and wiggled his hips. "I'd love to. Climb on everyone, Sokka's ready for takeoff."

I rolled my eyes at my stupid brother.

"Guys, we need to just calm down, before we start killing each other," Katara said calmly.

"Since when did you become the calm one?" I commented.

She gave me a small glare but Sokka was the one to snap back, "When you went to go make out with prince pouty." Even though Sokka and I had our little talk he still liked to bring it up. I knew he was just getting his anger out of his system so I let him be most of the time. This was not one of those times.

My glare was deadly and I would have likely strangled him if Katara hadn't grabbed my arm. "Look, we're all just a little tired and cranky because we've been flying for two days straight," she urged.

"And for what?" Sokka exclaimed. "We can't even find the Northern Water Tribe. There's nothing up here!"

He was right. After a brief stop at the Northern Air Temple, we continued to travel north straight through the next two days. In those days we hadn't seen any sign of civilization. It was all ice and water. I never imagined that instead of missing this stuff like I thought I had, I would come to resent it. I had been sick of only seeing ice for miles all my life and now we were right back in it.

A slushing sound broke through our banter.

I sat up straighter. The water in front of us rose and turned to solid ice spikes, blocking us in. Aang yelped and pulled Appa to the right in an attempt to avoid the obstacle. It wasn't long until we were surrounded by a frozen cage. Before any of us could do anything, we spotted several boats with familiar-looking designs on them.