BUTTERFLIES! ━ prince zuko

𝖛𝖎𝖎𝖎. Akiara, Sokka, and the Warrior Girl

𝖆𝖐𝖎𝖆𝖗𝖆, 𝖘𝖔𝖐𝖐𝖆, 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖜𝖆𝖗𝖗𝖎𝖔𝖗 𝖌𝖎𝖗𝖑
akiara, sokka, and the warrior girl
volume ii, chapter viii

❄️🦋💦

          A DAY LATER, after they finally got out of the Si Wong Desert, Akiara feels good.

     It's a quiet, sunny afternoon and they're all hanging around a pool of water at the base of russet canyons. The water feels wonderful on her dry and cracked skin, it's cool and soothing and washing away whatever the pain the desert gave her. Kiko's OK. Toph can see again and Sokka's not crazy and Katara's not scared. Even Aang's smiling a little, though Appa is still nowhere to be found.

     Of course, there's never really a dull moment when it comes to their little group. They're surrounded by a pool of water. Which means —

     "OK, that doesn't count — I slipped!"

     "Because I pushed you."

       — it means that Akiara and Katara are continuing on with Akiara's training. Unfortunately, Akiara's on a little bit of a losing streak. And by a little bit, she means a lot a bit. Apparently, she's advanced enough to hold her own against for Katara for all of thirty whole seconds!

"No, because I tripped on a root," argues Akiara, brushing her sopping wet hair from her eyes.

"Right," says Katara and she makes a big show of rolling her eyes. "It's OK, you've only lost, what... seven times in a row now?"

Akiara's eyes narrow playfully. "Oh, that's it."

     Summoning up an enormous column of water, she absolutely drenches Katara with it. It's powerful enough that it ends up washing Aang — whose encased in an ice cube to cool down — ashore, taking Kiko with him too. Somewhere under the tsunami, Katara's shrieking with laughter.

     "Give it to her, ice princess!" Toph cheers. laughing loudly. Aang's clapping, too.

     When Katara emerges from the downpour, she's grinning as she says, "That's cheating!"

     "All's fair in love and war," says Akiara, winking.

     Only Sokka, whose perched on top of a boulder and entranced by some scroll he stole from the library, looks annoyed. In fact, he scowls a little as Akiara backstrokes through the water, unbothered.

     "Sure, 5000 year old maps from the spirit library, just splash some water on 'em," Sokka grumbles.

     Akiara lazily floats by him. It's too nice of a day for her to be bothered by Sokka's grumpy mood. "Chill out, Sokka," she says and then she grins to herself. "No pun intended."

     Katara seems more sympathetic to her brothers cause and she climbs out of the river, wringing water out of her hair. With a hurried sorry, she uses a waterbending technique to draw the water out of the map Sokka is holding up.

     "So," back on dry land again, Aang walks towards Sokka. "Did you figure out what route we're gonna take?"

     "OK," says Sokka, flattening the map. "We just got out of the desert, so we must be around here, and we need to go to Ba Sing Se, which is here....