The Northern Water Tribe (2)

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***

"That was one bumpy ride," Suki smiled with a trace of pity in her eyes as Nik glared at her while still on the makeshift metal sleigh, "Bumpy is... an interesting way to put it."

His scoff was more than enough to make Mai's lips curve up slightly while Katara jumped down from her Komodo Rhino. Already recovering quite well from the recent events, she had regained her not-so-witty remarks, "Look at it this way, others back at the settlement have one extra Komodo Rhino for themselves."

It was true. Nik couldn't ride anymore so a sleigh was tied onto a Komodo Rhino's body that pulled Nik while Pakku from the front did continued to make the icy and snowy surface even but the movement of the Rhino itself was quite rough.

However...

Feeling the silent stares from those around her, Katara couldn't help but frown.

"What? I just made a joke."

"It was tasteless," Suki shrugged.

'And I thought my jokes are bad. I did forget Katara's talent that balances Sokka's witty comments...' Nik narrowed his eyes. The two were perfect siblings— balancing each other's wits.

"Enough jokes," Pakku attracted everyone's attention with a stern call, "We are now near the outskirts of the Tribe and will be waterbending to infiltrate. This means that we won't be able to ride anymore."

"What of our rides?" Katara inquired.

"They stay and hunt like the beasts they are meant to," Pakku narrowed his eyes. Mai didn't have anything to add as she stepped down while Katara frowned, a little bothered by the reply. However, her attention was soon pulled by Nik trying to stand up with Suki's assistance as she promptly reached out for his other hand and pulled him up.

"Oof, thanks," Nik huffed as he moved his hand slightly to form the crutches once again.

"Looking good," Mai commented sarcastically as Nik chuckled.

"That was funny?!" Katara gasped as Nik nodded, "Moderately, yeah."

"Didn't know you enjoyed making others laugh," Pakku mused as Mai's expression turned gloomy for a second, "Wasn't my intention."

Suki and others shrugged.

Parting with the Komodo Rhinos was hard but Nik wasn't about to just reveal his final ability to pull others into his personal space. There were various factors that made him consider not bringing in the four Komodo Rhinos but the most major of them all was the discomfort of the possibility of being used as a smuggler for invaders.

He simply wasn't that chummy with the waterbenders to entertain the idea of facilitating men and women with deadly desire to avenge their fall.

Oh, to reclaim what was once theirs.

Sorry, no, to remove the traitorous 'winner' of all this.

No matter how Nik looked at it, such words would only lead to bloodshed, and with a rather grave injury of his own, Nik wasn't keen on being the major reason why such things are inflicted on strangers that did him no harm— Hahn included. To him, it was better if all this occurred due to their own effort.

The four of them walked slowly to accommodate Nik's speed as Pakku began to carefully look around. Whatever move he used, he would make Nik and Katara practice it once before moving on to other subjects. What truly confused the remaining four happened to be what was Pakku looking for in such a wide expanse of ice and snow?

"Probably a path to the tribe," Suki whispered her conclusion.

"What else could it be?" Katara rolled her eyes at the obvious nature of the reply while Nik kept his silence alongside Mai. The indifferent woman walked a step behind the trio while Nik already noted a few key differences in the teaching methods of Pakku and Hama.

Both of them were versatile in their techniques, sure, but Pakku only instructed while Hama made them challenge themselves every day either by endurance training or making them come up with more ways to waterbend. This difference can also be seen in the two master's accomplishments in waterbending. One achieved bloodbending while the other one grew more focused and spiritual.

"Anyway, I don't like him," Katara suddenly spoke up, "He made us walk all this way when he said we were already at the outskirts of the tribe."

"You should just ask him," Nik suggested casually.

"Maybe I will," Katara huffed and picked up her pace.

"Master Pakku, I was wondering why we have to walk so much when we could have ridden the Komodo Rhinos all along?" Although a bit frustrated by the act, Katara knew well to be respectful of those who taught her and Pakku taught well. He went over a few basic details that even Hamma didn't register.

"Oh, you were wondering?" Pakku frowned and looked back before nodding, "Walk ahead."

"Eh?" Katara blinked as Pakku urged, "We need to infiltrate the tribe before its hunting hours. Walk ahead."

Looking back, she found Suki and Nik looking at her with innocent expressions.

It was merely a suggestion. Nobody asked her to follow it, right?

Gritting her teeth at his antics, Katara began walking forward as Pakku would make her change the direction in between when he deemed necessary.

Of them all, Nik was slowly finding it harder and harder to walk. His breathing grew rougher over time and was noticed by Suki and Mai but seeing him walk without speaking up, Suki kept her quiet, too. There is a difference between feeling sorry and showing pity. Suki wouldn't want any help from those around her until she asked for it if she was inflicted with such a wound so she gave Nik the same respect she thought he deserved.

But of course, not everyone here was out looking for Nik.

"I can't keep on walking at a snail's space," Mai called out to Pakku as others stopped, too.

The brunt of her words clearly fell on Nik, something that Suki and Katara began to find a bit annoying themselves. But then again... thinking of why Mai was doing this, they couldn't help but swallow their words back.

"Why don't you walk ahead of us, too?" Nik questioned, "That certainly is an option, right, Master Pakku?"

Pakku nodded calmly as Mai frowned for a moment.

"Fine..." With that, she joined Katara in leading the remaining trio.

However, all that Mai's remark led her to do was... walk at a snail's space ahead of others which was even more frustrating.

The situation only laster for the next couple of minutes when—

*Khcch*

Both Katara and Mai suddenly plunged into the ice as Nik's eyes widened, "Katara!" He hurried to move only for his non-existent knee to give up as he tumbled down while Suki quickly rushed forward to see what was going on. Nik, too, quickly waterbent himself up. Thinking the worst— i.e. another attack from spirits— Nik couldn't help but grow wildly concerned about her well-being.

"Ugh..." Nik heard Mai's grunt at this point as Katara croaked, "We're fine..."

Suki had reached the spot only to find Mai and Katara slowly standing up on a layer of ice that seemed... inconsistent with the surroundings as Pakku walked up and pointed towards the bone spikes further below the duo, "And that is why we needed to move without the Komodo Rhinos. To prevent unnecessary blood."

Nik, too, slowly walked up as he frowned, "You couldn't have said so instead of putting both of their lives at risk?"

Pakku only looked back with his aged face breaking into a menacing smirk, "One brush with death and you're already afraid of it, hmmm?"

However, what Pakku didn't expect was the sharp retort—

"Too many life and death encounters and you're already thinking it's alright to risk life for dramatic lessons?"

Both the men's gazes locked, unwilling to budge from their stances. Of course, Nik spoke from experience. Dying freed him in a way but that didn't mean it didn't suck. Pakku may have indeed more brushes with death but one doesn't merely survive such encounters out of pure luck but also a healthy desire to live and seeing such a man subconsciously thinking he's unafraid of death... made Nik simply feel unpleasant.

'At least, be a hypocrite consciously to know what you're doing...' He narrowed his eyes further as Katara and Mai walked out from the hole.

"Hey, it's fine. Master Pakku did waterbend ice around us to stop the fall immediately." Katara smiled reassuringly.

"And you learned a valuable lesson," Pakku nodded.

"And what would that be?" Mai frowned unpleasantly.

"You never question a master who knows what they're doing."

The girls pursed their lips in a rare moment of unity against Pakku fuelled by their dissatisfaction as Nik scoffed lightly, "Man, I didn't know you were such a dick!"

Pakku's expression froze, "What did you just say?!"

"I didn't say anything. Did you girls hear something?" Nik turned to look at others as they shook their heads calmly.

"Tch, we move," Pakku snorted, too, and began moving. However, after this 'life' experience, Nik heard Mai asking Katara to make some knives out of ice.

"Would that even work against him? Master Pakku is a waterbender, you know," Katara inquired softly as Mai grew silent for a moment.

"Who says I have to only use it against him?" Mai questioned in return.

"I can waterbend, too... just a reminder," Nik coughed. He needed to make prospects of ice knife used against him useless if he needed to have some peace with Mai around. She may not try to kill him but what if she just wanted to vent?

"Her sword it is then," Mai looked towards Suki who chuckled wryly at the moment, "Yeah, that's not happening. The hilt is stuck because of the cold..."

"One of the many reasons why we use weapons made out of bones," Katara smiled.

---

"Here we are," Pakku stopped in front of a small snowy hill and began to waterbend, "Look carefully. This is a technique present within the earthbending schools that around them to move underground easily."

Nik and Katara watched intently as Suki and Mai stood further behind, keeping an eye out for the surroundings.

The surface parted ways soon enough and formed a descending tunnel on which Nik tread the last while slowly keeping himself in balance by sitting on the sleigh once again and erecting a small surface of the ice to keep his descent at a consistent speed that matched others.

Pakku soon opened the tunnel and the group walked out to find themselves viewing a breathtaking sight from quite a short distance.

They were sneaking their heads out of a platform far above the giant city made of ice. It wasn't that they were walking up but the city was built on sea level itself and was surrounded by giant walls of ice including the one the group stood on.

From a distance, the pure white city of ice could be seen having numerous branches of streams that ran within the city and seemed to concentrate around the giant castle near the end of the city with only a humongous cut of glacier covering its back. Yet, the pure red flag with a golden phoenix emblem stood out the most.

The flag fluttered proudly to the chilly gusts as Pakku's stare turned icy seeing the flag.

"Damn that Phoenix King!"

"Great... more ice," Mai sighed with an offended tone while Nik prayed internally to find a method to heal within the city itself.

"So this is the Northern Water Tribe... huh..."

"Look," Suki pointed towards the entrance of the giant city that had its gates facing the sea where an armada of fire nation cruisers could be seen anchored.

"They must have anticipated that we are planning to do something big," Suki narrowed her eyes.

"Or they just want to go all out and get to Aang," Nik added.

"Let's get going. Welcome to the Northern Tribe, by the way. I hope this trip is as revolutionary as we have planned all along," Pakku sighed softly.