A Joke
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Avatar: Awakened Gamer
🕑 Added 2021-12-06 10:01:57 +0000 UTCChapter 72
After learning that healing skill, I quickly went back to where I was needed. And helped with the crash site of the tower and grabbed big degrees of ice and rock, throwing them away easily.
Though by using the [Map] I didn’t go to save the chieftain, Arnook, but his daughter Yue. She didn’t seem to have anyone close to her, so she was either pushed under the table for safety or got there herself.
Pulling up one of the icy stones just above her, I saw that Yue was trembling in fear under a table that had been able to hold out quite well. “There, there,” I comforted her. She looked at me, eyes streaming down her face, and she had an ugly expression on her face. But I just pulled her up and enveloped her into a hug. “It’s okay now, everything is okay. I will take care of this.”
“Sokka… my father, the others. What happened to them,” she cried on my shoulder, her tears making my shirt wet.
I patted her back, feeling her shaking body. This probably was a very traumatic experience, something that will stick for the rest of her life. PTSD usually happened due to a situation happening that was outside of your power, experience, and something that you never contemplated. It has to be something so outside of expectation that will make her paranoid, and feel powerless.
Trauma… that’s normal. Well, no trauma was normal, and overcoming it is even harder than most things in the world. I would know a thing or two about it. An outsider could never understand. “Yue, don't worry, I will protect you. You don't have to worry about anything.”
Knowing that the words coming out of my mouth were lies, I continued telling them. In reality, I had forgotten about her when the explosion happened, I just took myself and Katara out, others were relatively unimportant.
I could play the victim here and tell Yue that I was sorry for being unable to save her. Next time I will help her no matter what. But this was too early, as Yue just had images of being powerless in her mind, and saying that I was unable to save her wasn’t something she wanted to hear.
As her wailing continued, I was unsure if she even heard me. But still, I kept on comforting her, seeing that she was probably in shock and denial, one of the first stages of grief. She probably won’t remember my words, but the comforting embrace was something else. Poor girl, she didn’t even know her father was alive. But I won’t tell her, because that would expose my [Map] ability.
Normally I would have said it anyway and people would assume that I used it as a way to comfort her. If anyone asked, I would use the same excuse too.
But there was one thing that stopped me from saying it… well, a couple of things. First and foremost, it was that I didn’t want to come out as a liar to Yue, who would tell her anything to make her feel better. It works short-term, but not for long. Also, it will make her value my words less. Then there was the main reason, Spirits, those bastards were observing and I don’t know if they can tell when I am lying or not. Some probably do, and I wasn’t willing to test if any of them was smart enough to figure out I could sense living presences. Though [Map] didn’t exactly do that, it was something similar.
I wonder what Azula is thinking right now? Probably laughing maniacally while celebrating her victory.
***
At the same time, on Azula’s ship, she was still observing the situation from afar and had a frown on her face as she saw the giant tower-like palace that had been ionic to the Northern Water Tribe fall.
“Damn it,” she cursed, annoyed at the outcome.
Mai was by her side and didn’t ask her anything even though Ty Lee was less reserved. “You seem angry? Didn’t everything play out as you wanted?”
‘Having a friend like her is useful. She always seems to ask the questions I am unwilling to ask.’ Thought Mai, with almost a smirk making its way onto her face.
“No…” Azula hissed, blue fire coming from the corners of her mouth. “There was supposed to be another explosion, but it didn’t happen. They have someone amazing on their side that took care of the problem fast while others were panicking.”
“Maybe it was a coincidence,” Ty Lee once again said out loud what Mai was thinking. “An accident could have happened.”
“No,” the Fire Princess refused immediately, her eyes staring glued towards the wall where the Water Tribe’s most monumental building used to stand. “Thinking like that is dangerous. Someone who could stop this would be a danger to anyone.”
‘Kuzon, he is there, that is very dangerous for him. No, he is smart enough to not fall for traps, so maybe this was why he has not been sending any information or letters. I should have thought of this sooner.’
Azula was on guard, but in the end, could do nothing as she knew that charging now would lead to devastating losses. Especially since the Avatar was there too. She was quite confident in her win due to the size of her navy but didn’t want to sacrifice too many ships and troops, just to get a frozen land full of rebellious people that they would have to leave troops here to control.
In her mind, attacking the Northern Water Tribe wasn’t the best idea as they were already isolated and weren’t in the fight. if she was in charge, the Azula would have first dealt with one problem at a time, after taking over the earth Kingdom, only then she would delve into and easily take over the North Pole.
‘I am sure father has a well-thought-out plan that I haven’t been able to figure out yet.’
She tried to reassure herself that her father wasn’t incompetent enough to do something like this, just for the sake of glory or just to take it over for the fun of it. But certain thoughts passed through her mind like a poisonous snake, but she shook her head to get those kinds of things off her head.
“Start shooting catapults in every 3-6 hours intervals, let’s keep them scared and awake all night. We will be fully rested, while they will freak out by just a couple framing catapults,” she smiled, putting the spyglass down and walking back, with Ty Lee and Mai following behind her. Azula looked up while walking and saw the full moon shining brightly in the sky. “Soon… in one week it will be a new moon. When waterbenders are at their weakest during the night.”
**
Hours pass by, and Sokka, with some of the surviving Elders, Military Leaders, and Chieftain Arnook had gathered to a small, undisclosed meeting room. Unlike the usual festive mood, they all had grave looks on their faces.
Sokka leaned back, gazing at everyone in the room that was sitting at the small table. No one said anything initially, so he was the first one to mutter, “If we are just going to stay here and stare absentmindedly into space, then we are in the wrong place, gentlemen.”
Though his tone was polite, everyone could tell that it was an insult. That made some people frown, but that didn’t affect Sokka at all and he just looked the frowning people in the eyes, as if daring them to challenge him. He was an outsider and had no place in this meeting, but he was the one that had done the most during the incident and event took care of it. Not having him here would leave many people questioning the leadership’s competence.
Still, that didn’t mean the Elders liked an inexperienced young man like him here.
Arnook saw this and decided to not let any bad blood develop between anyone here. “Then, let’s start the discussion about the war plans on how to take care of the Fire Nation’s attack.”
*************
A/N: Sokka has changed quite a lot from the beginning of the story. Hopefully, the change has been subtle so you haven’t been noticing it so much. I tried to make it realistic, because people don’t change spontaneously, but slowly, through a period of time. Even in the time of a key event that causes them to change, they ponder the event for some time before changing.
