Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction ❯ Metamorphosis ❯ What Survives The Kiss Of Sokka? ( Chapter 2 )

"Metamorphosis: What Survives The Kiss Of Sokka?" by Abraxas (2009-12-17)

 

The world is not what it used to be.

 

A day - like any other day - only my perception is changed. Everything is altered by a taint of illusion. As if I am trapped not by reality but by a wrenched, uprooted version of it.

 

I am familiar with that confusion. I learned to live with it at a very early age. When my father forged, this, my condition....

 

Fire Eye!

 

My scar - it shackles to the past as it frees from the future.

 

I stumble into the saloon. Somebody plays Beethoven while Ty-Lee and Mai walk upstairs. Jeong-Jeong and Piandao play poker amid a cloud of smoke and intrigue. I sit by my uncle's picture - it is surrounded with Indians - symbolism?

 

Bumi offers a drink - to forget - yet I cannot avoid Sokka.

 

My father was angry when the men informed that the fugitive escaped. Zhao talked about my visiting the Indian frequently. My father dismissed it, citing the influence of my uncle.

 

I do not trust them - I am suspect and know it.

 

I empty the glass, a line of white, sticky foam streaks across my knuckles.

 

If my uncle were not away....

 

The cattlemen arrive. I joined them partly to rebel against my father's future. Partly to enjoy the benefits of their companionship. As a child I adopted the cowboys who strode through the ranch as a fantasy of manhood. How that crumbled when tested by reality.

 

Like my uncle I know where manhood begins and ends and neither will be found where I stand.

 

I exit resigned that I cannot forget Sokka. And I cannot if I linger there as I see my Indian in the voids that others leave. Now that I tasted a warrior I will not retreat into the arms of its imitation.

 

END