Falling For You ✰༄ ѕσkkα

Water || Jailbirds

We went back to the village near the ocean's shore and wore a nón lá to hide our faces. There was a speck of blue in a cart, and I pulled Aang and Sokka over to the side.

"Look, It's Katara!" she was sitting quietly in the wagon, and had brown covering her Water Tribe clothes. Must be some sort of uniform they give prisoners.

She probably recognized us in the crowd, because I could see her looking over her shoulder (Sokka and Aang aren't wearing green and I have a tree branch... we kinda stick out like a sore thumb). There were two soldiers sitting with her, but they payed no attention to us. They went onto a pier, taking her towards a dark metal ship.

We quickly climb onto Appa, and Aang steers him after the boat. We stay high enough in the sky where the clouds give us a thin layer of cover from the Fire Nation. After a while, I can see black smoke brewing in the distance. The air feels heavier, and Sokka seems to notice too. I scooch a little closer to him out of fear that we'll be caught again. I'm not sure how well I would fight against the Fire Nation, considering that I froze up last time I interacted with a soldier.

Aang speeds up, passing over Katara's ship completely.

"Hey, why are we-" I stop talking as soon as I realize where he's going.

There is an ugly building jutting out of the water. It was made entirely out of metal, and not a singe bit of earth could be found (it was put in the middle of nowhere, so it makes sense). The surrounding ocean looks darker, changing from a calming blue to a muddled grey. There is a long pathway leading towards the structure, with more of the boats docked around it. The sky glows a brilliant red, and I feel like I'm going to hurl after sucking in so much of the polluted air. I look to Sokka next to me, and he's tugged up his tunic to cover his face. I do the same. I could faintly hear Aang coughing ahead of us.

How do Fire Nation people breath down there? I'm dying up here.

We have arrived at the jail.

Sokka leaned over the saddle, "She'll be fine, Aang. Katara knows what she's doing."

Aang didn't look up. He was fixated on the establishment below us, searching for any sign of her. We looped back around, going up higher to escape the dirty air.

"We have to wait for nightfall to get Katara. I told her that she only has twelve hours before we come to get her. That should be enough time right?"

"Yeah, I think so. Aang, are you okay over there?"

"Huh?" he looks up at me with wide eyes. "Yeah, I'm just a little worried that's all."

He airbended over to Sokka and I, sitting across from us. Momo climbed on his shoulder, and they started playing with the little marbles he brought with.

"So, what now?" I ask impatiently.

"We wait."

"Waiting is boring," I start picking at some loose strands of rope that were holding the packs down. Sokka's eyes light up, and he shifts his boomerang carrier off his back. He pulls out a piece of braided rope.

I made that when we were traveling to the Southern Air Temple! How does he have it?

I'm taken aback as he holds it flat in his palm, "When did you get that?"

"Well, when we were going up the mountain you had set it down next to you," he glanced up at me and swiftly looks back down at his hands, fumbling with the string. "A-and then you started slipping so I grabbed it and kept it. I forgot about it till now. Here," he tries to give it to me, but I push his hand back.