Chapter 55

The hours leading up till sun set were exceptionally hectic as the tribe went into full panic/war mode. Katara was working with Yugoda the old lady in charge of all of the healers. The healers we're all relocating to a central secure position. Then they were setting up a field hospital to treat the warriors. Sokka despite coming with us to the spirit wilds was off with the rest of the warriors doing who knows what. Well, he came back to us right before we would be leaving with Princess Yue, so I could maybe guess what he was doing. Aang spent his time packing up Appa, which I guess is a lot more involved when only one person is doing it and all of the stuff is spread all over the place. I spent my time carving out an evacuation path. The northern water tribe is in a cutout section of a glacier, so behind the city is a large ice wall. I carved a staircase into and out of the ice. Then went to help prepare the civilian evacuation gather up supplies for the trip.

The evacuation was both bigger and smaller than I thought it would be. The evacuation was going to included several thousand people. Which is way more than I realized would be going. But after I thought about it, it was way less than should be in a capital city. The evacuation was made up almost entirely of young women and children with only a handful of elderly people. All of the benders and young men are staying behind to be part of the war effort. Still, the population didn't add up to me so I had to do a little asking around. Turns out that the northern water tribe has an extremely large fleet. Which is made up of both civilian and military ships. The ships patrol the northern ocean, trade with the earth kingdom, and fish. Apparently, a large portion of the population almost lives at sea. I was a bit confused about how they weren't in danger from fire nation navy and pirates. Although I guess with a continual fleet that size piracy is probably pretty limited, and small ships with water benders can probably outmaneuver fire nation ships.

Thinking about the Northern Water Tribe population honestly just confused me more, because it made me think about the rest of the world. The earth kingdom is like 90% uninhabited but has Ba Sing Se which is a city with walls encompassing an area as large as the entire north pole. Honestly, just thinking about all the little oddities is starting to give me a headache. I'm broken out if my thoughts when sunset nears and the evacuation begins.

Aang is flying on Appa well above us acting as a lookout. Sokka and Princess Yue were at the front of the march leading us all north. Katara and I were spread in the middle of the pack. I had shown Katara how to change snow to steam and both of us were using the technique to keep everyone noticeably warmer. Close to two hours of marching later and we had arrived at the outskirts of the spirit wilds surrounding the north pole. Despite the name and location, the whole forest seems rather mundane. It looks like a regular forest and the only distinguishing characteristic is that the forest is surrounded by tall ice walls. Ice walls that I had to carve a path through. Similar to my staircase I made to leave the city I made another set of stairs going down into the forest. It wasn't long before everyone was in the forest and setting up tents and campfires. As the night progressed almost everyone went to sleep except for a few lookouts. Given the size of the group, we needed quite a few people to stay up, which included the entirety of Team Avatar. Our first night went as well as one could hope. When the sun began to rise and people woke up the lookouts got a chance to sleep. The day past quitely as those who were awake morosely waited. Cold and worried about their home the camp was sullen and listless. Only breaking from the drudgery to switch shift. By the time the sun was setting for the second time team Avatar as well as the other lookout were up again for the second night.

We all sat around a fire keeping a watchful eye over the camp.

"I hope everything is going well" Katara said breaking the silence.

"Nothing we can do about it so might as well just focus on the here and now," Sokka said giving out some surprisingly sagely wisdom.

"Sure you say that. I bet you actually meant focusing on the Her and now"

"What?"

"Just saying you've been spending a lot of time with Princess Yue" To which Sokka just sputtered and grumbled while Katara and Aang laughed.

"Ohh man, that was good. With how peaceful it is right now it's hard to imagine things not working out." OHH Aang why would you say that? "I mean Arnook seemed so confident it's hard to imagine them losing and really what are the odds that we'll run into an evil spirit in these woods"

"Aang! Don't put that mojo on us"

"Huh"

"The world loves to make people look dumb. If you say things can't get any worse they can always get worse."

"That can't be a real thing"

"You're doing it again"

He rolls his eyes and the smirks "Well if it is real wouldn't you look really dumb if nothing happened after having a full paranoid freak out?"

Alright, maybe I did have a bit of a freakout.

"You're right the world isn't out to get us. Sorry for freaking out you guys"

"It's fine" "Don't worry about it" "Apology accepted, it's just surprising to see you so stressed. Usually, you're so calm"

"I don't know what came over me. Maybe it's just because everything is going so well. I mean there have been like no real problems. Even the invasion was caught early which is like a best-case scenario."

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!???"

"MONSTER!"

Screams echo through the forest waking everyone in camp. I jump up and shout

"HA, I knew this would happen" while quickly shoving out my hand to point at Aang. Katara stands up and slaps the back of my head and gives me a stern look.

"Sorry again guy, wrong priorities."