Chapter Text
Aang was excited about the fortunes, sure, Sokka didn’t believe in them, but it was fun!
He’d been expecting most of it, but not exactly the extra detail she noticed in the bone crackings, a traveler waiting in the forest? She said it would be a good idea to go find them, so why not?
And so, that’s what they were doing now, searching the forest for the “traveler” in his prediction. Katara waited back at the village while Sokka and Aang looked.
Sokka was keeping Aang close enough to avoid getting lost, or ambushed, when the two picked up on the distant sound of hoarse crying.
Sokka wasn’t one to believe in fortunes, he made such very clear, and was clearly taken aback by an indication of someone actually being there.
“Shh” Sokka held up a hand, Aang nodded, following his lead towards the source.
Hidden among trees, they found the source. What appeared to be a child, curled into themself.
A white cloak concealed their body, strangely colorless, but that wasn’t not possible, just…odd. Their hands grabbed at their hair with what looked like a painful amount of force.
Sokka had his machete at the ready, slowly approaching the kid.
Aang went ahead however, they didn’t want the kid to feel threatened! They were alone for who knows how long, and were clearly not okay!
“Hey lil’ guy, you okay?”
Aang crouched, holding out a hand to them.
They flinched, hands releasing their hair and returning beneath their white cloak.
unlike most, it was made of a single connected piece of fabric, the ends stitched together precisely.
It had a collar of sorts, spread wide around their neck, with two safety pins connecting just under the collar.
A single eye stared at them, glittering with fresh tears, the other concealed by a piece of black fabric that fit well across that side of their face, a tailored eyepatch.
Their hair was white, with the ends dyed black, knotted like it hadn’t been brushed in weeks, with two very distinct clumps of hair on either side of their face, and a messy matted tangle of hair behind their head.
Tears still dripped down their cheeks, they’d been crying for a while…
They looked Aang up and down, before slowly bringing a hand out from underneath the cloak hiding their body, to shakily hold Aangs.
Their hand…aside from being freakishly cold, wasn’t just pale, it was devoid of color, it was nearly white, so were their arms and face..
Aang was okay without getting a response to his question, maybe they didn’t want to talk? Their throat was definitely sore, if their scratchy sounds of confusion and fear were anything to go by.
He slowly stood up, trying to bring them to stand with him. And they did! But they were shaking…a lot, maybe they were hungry? Or cold? Their arms felt colder then what should’ve been possible here.
Their arms were shockingly thin, even for someone their age…how long were they alone?
“Come on kid, there’s a town not far from here, where you can rest!”
He was doing his best to be encouraging, gently leading them back through the forest Sokka and he had been going through.
“…kid?” They muttered, voice cracking, but the edge of exasperation was evident.
Sokka walked alongside the two, eyeing them cautiously, staying on their blind side.
“y-yeah? You’re a kid, right?” Aang felt a bit uncomfortable now, did they guess their age wrong? Some people were just short…but they were so small…?
“I’m—I'm an adult! I’m 27!” They snapped back, followed by a violent shudder throughout their body, they leaned away from Aang, and jumped with a yelp when they bumped against Sokka.
Their index and middle fingers remained outward, while their other fingers closed into their palm, before they settled into a relaxed position.
They slowly took Aangs hand again, twisting their head back and forth to look between the two on either side of them.
They looked nervous. But they just needed to get back to town, and then they could relax.
They got back to the village in one piece—despite the attempts of the trees and thorny bushes—And Aang brought them to the local doctor to see what was wrong—why they were so thin, and shaking so violently.
Malnutrition and sleep deprivation were what they were told, Aang brought them back out, and gave them something to eat—an Apple Pear he’d grabbed from a nearby tree during their search.
Aang believed they could probably fare for themself, being supposedly 27 and in a quite lively village.
And after a quick goodbye, the two parted ways.
Sokka had something he wanted Aang to help with, then they took a detour to find a panda Lily—on the rim of the volcano.
“I can’t believe you’re dragging me all the way up here, for a stupid flower!” Sokka complained.
Aang hopped effortlessly up rocks, turning back to look at Sokka. “Not just any flower, a panda Lilly! I’ve seen it in action, and boy does it work!”
Sokka was climbing the rocks, finding footholds to grab and pull himself up with. “Flowers are fine, once you’re married. But at this early stage, it’s critical that you maintain maximum aloofness.”
“But my heart is telling me to get this flower! And aunt Wu told me if I trusted my heart, I would be with the one I love!”
“What!? Don’t tell me you believe in that stuff too!”
“Well...aunt Wu hasn’t been wrong yet, why should she be wrong about love?” He turned back, hopping higher. “There! On the rim!”
Aang hopped up a few more rocks to the flowers.
the petals were shaped more like claws, white petals outlined by black stripes. Each flower had little more than two leaves, and they were all quite crisp, perhaps due to the heat emanating from the volcano?
Aang noticed a second after that thought how close the magma was to the rim, smoke steadily billowing out.
Aang dropped the flower, staring in disbelief. “Oh no… aunt Wu was wrong…”
Sokka climbed up a moment after Aang finished his sentence, gazing at the interior as he processed Aangs statement. “Those people all think they’re safe! We’ve gotta warn them!”
Aang grabbed his glider, with a light tap against the ground, the wings opened. Aang wasted little time, grabbing Sokka’s arm and pulling him along into the air. “There’s no time to walk! Grab on!”
With a short-lived scream, the two started their way back to the village.
Siffrin didn’t recognize this place, anyone’s accents, or the style of clothing anyone had. The closest he could relate it to was… Nathiel, even then it wasn’t this everywhere.
So no wonder they didn’t recognize craft sickness. He knew this place wasn’t normal, if only because of the “colors”, No one seemed to be taken aback by it?… he felt weird, still being in shades. He was supposed to be part of the rule, not the exception…
Siffrin stared down at the dagger in his hand. If he had the strength to wish, maybe he could still loop?…no, no they’d have looped the moment they knew he was ripped away from Isa, and their wish to see loop had brought them here, it wouldn’t let them leave. maybe he can wish himself back, somewhere, while not risking his health in any manner! He was getting better!
A violent shudder caused them to drop the dagger.
They picked it back up with the lack of hesitation one wouldn’t normally have with a knife, and sheathed it with minimal issue.
They raised their eye to the sky, cloudy…the volcano was wreathed in smoke.
An eruption was due, he needed to find a way out of the area before it popped.
Where did they learn to tell if there was an oncoming eruption?…
Siffrin ended that thought when the headache started. Home, then.
The clouds moved…weirdly, two twisted around each other, mixing together in unnatural swirls.
He watched in awe, the rest of the clouds moved normally? This looked like something intentional, but there wasn’t a way to control the clouds from what Siffrin knew! Then again, it could easily be normal here, if colors were…
…was there something moving in the clouds?…
“Aunt Wu! Look!” A voice drew their attention, one of the kids who found him out in the forest earlier, they think.
Siffrin smiled at him briefly, before turning their gaze onto the old woman he was talking to. “Something’s happening in the clouds!”
“That's very strange? It shouldn’t—” a gasp of fear that reminded Siffrin too much of her. “Oh my!”
Siffrin turned back to the clouds, more curious then scared.
They’d formed a skull, definitely intentionally made then…somehow.
There was no way clouds would naturally form into such a dense shape.
A moment later, the other kid showed up, followed by another similar to the first. They liked the one in…he didn’t know what those colors were called, he thought of fire. He was nice, helped them out of the forest and cared enough to check if they were okay.
“We could still save the village if we act fast! Sokka has a plan!” The second called out upon arrival.
“Lava is gonna flow downhill to this spot. If we can dig a deep enough trench, we can channel all the lava away from the village, to the river!” Sokka explained.
“If any of you are earth benders, come with me!” The second called.
“I’m an earth bender!” A child called,
“I’m not!” Their twin spoke in the same tone.
Identical twins! Always fun to watch, when they weren’t intentionally getting mixed up.
“Everybody else, grab a shovel!” A loud rumble of the volcano indicated the short period of time remaining. “Come on! We’ve gotta hurry!”
And thus, the trench was being dug out. Siffrin watched in awh, fear, and confusion as people manipulated the earth, shoving, pulling, and pressing large pieces of rock and dirt out of the way without even touching it.
Siffrin was deemed unfit to help, whether it be due to their small size(they had kids helping?), their sickness, or just no one remembered they were there…
Taciturn as always…
Ash rained down as the trench was finished, magma dripped and boiled and shot up from the rim, brightening the sky in a firey light. time was quickly running out.
Siffrin doubted he was making it out with what looked like a decently sized eruption this close, well…one way to test if the loops were still in effect.
They could right their mistake in the last one, get their perfect, happy ending with their family this time.
They’d never died to anything hot before, they wonder how it feels!
Siffrin walked up the main path of the now desolate village, towards the kids as Lava pooled into the trench, watching it build up with anticipation of the death to come.
“It’s too much! It’s gonna overflow!” The sister(?) called.
The ground shook, magma and smoke were expelled in a violent display of the power the volcano held, confirming her statement.
The two in similar clothing(siblings?) started running back, stopping to look at Siffrin as he passed them, then their friend as the kid leapt into the air.
Siffrin couldn’t see anything happening around the kid, but they could feel the air pulling towards him, sucking, tugging…
There is no tug on your stomach.
Siffrin backed away, watching lava burst over the trench, and accepting that he was going to die here.
The kid was definitely doing, something, as the lava in front of him was thrown back and around, before the towering spikes of overflowing lava around the edge of the trench…cooled.
He stood still in front of the spikes around him, silhouetted by the light of magma and thin veils of steam.
Siffrin watched in awe of the spectacle, was…was he manipulating the air? They supposed that wasn’t too big of a stretch if people could more the earth so easily.
“Man, sometimes I forget what a powerful bender that kid is.” The brother(?) mused.
His sister(?) turned to him. “Wait! What’d you just say?”
“Nothing, just that Aang is one powerful bender.” He repeated.
Siffrin was curious about what was going on with these kids, but who was he to judge? He would like to know what “bending” was, though, maybe a different kind of craft?
“I suppose he is…” she turned to face the kid(Aang?) silhouetted by the gases of lava still rising from the trench.
Siffrin started back into the village, coughing with the fumes the volcano was spreading into the air, passing out not too far from the kids.
Siffrin had woken up in an infirmary of sorts, and remained there for what felt like an hour, before getting up, explaining to the few people there that he was fine(liar…), and walking out to witness the crowd outside.
“By the way, we kind of…borrowed your book.” Aang confessed.
“So you messed with the clouds, did you?” The elder accused, followed by amused laughter. “Very clever!”
Siffrin watched the four from a distance, he didn’t like big crowds like this too much, but he could stand watching from afar.
“No offense, but I hope this has taught everyone a lesson, about not relying too much on fortune telling!” Sokka shouted to the village.
“But, aunt Wu predicted the village wouldn’t be destroyed,” a member of the town informed “and it wasn’t! She was right, after all.”
Sokka was in that guys face in an instant, clearly ticked off. “I hate you…”
“It’s okay, Sokka. Everything’s gonna be alright!”
The siblings(?) walked out of the crowd, leaving the other of the trio alone.
Siffrin zoned out during the rest of the conversation, but clicked back in when the sister was calling out goodbyes. He went up to the weird… six-legged creature the trio of kids were riding, as quickly as he could with a body still suffering from craft overuse.
Sokka looked down at him, curiosity and caution clear in his eyes.
“I’d like to…come along, I don’t want to be near an active volcano, and you kids shouldn’t be alone traveling!” Siffrin reached up, paused, and thought for a moment how to get up.
Aang peeked back down at him, “Sokka? Katara? Do you two mind?”
Sokka was clearly displeased with the thought, grumbling, but nodded.
Katara gave a hum of approval.
Siffrin debated for a moment longer, and decided to jump up.
He landed awkwardly in the saddle, leg bent in a way that would’ve sent pain through his body if not for hundreds of loops desensitizing him to pain.
Katara signaled the creature to take off, startling Siffrin. As what had looked like a terrestrial herbivore took into the air with a slam of its wide tail. Siffrin laid flat on the saddle, not wanting to get caught up in the wind that was surely blasting this high up.