Chapter 9: The Hub Part 8

Katara quickly reacted in response to the familiar voice, then proceeded to exit the igloo with her arms crossed, meeting the person who spoke outside. 

"Gran Gran," Katara called, facing an older woman who bore a resemblance to Katara herself. Only instead, she had gray hair pulled back into a bun and possessed soft wrinkles on her face that marked her aged appearance. 

She wore traditional Water Tribe clothing consisting of a blue tunic but with white fur trim, which symbolized her status and role in the community. She had a narrowed expression on her face as she wondered just what was going on, so she asked, "What is it that you two are arguing over so early?"

Katara didn't hesitate in the least to explain. She directly pointed into the igloo and vented, "Gran Gran, Sokka promised that he would help me collect sea prunes today and is refusing to get out of bed."

As she accused, Kel quickly came out of the igloo, still wearing what was apparently considered nightwear in the Water Tribe. 

As the steam slowly drifted out of his house from the main entrance and from the ventilation hole above, Gran Gran directed her attention over to him, looking a bit upset. Her expression then shifted to one of confusion as she slowly sized Kel up.

She then brought her hand forward and raised it, moving both up and down in quick succession before muttering, "You've grown a bit."

Katara, who hadn't noticed at first due to Kel being under covers, turned her attention over to Sokka and eyed him up and down, noticing he did in fact look a bit different physically, looking more like the teen he often portrayed himself to be.

Seeing both Katara and Gran Gran eyeing him up oddly, Kel quickly responded by saying, "It's just puberty. What, did you think I'd never grow?" He asked, now showing the confused expression.

Gran Gran seemed settled down and sighed out, "No, no, it's just that both you and Katara seem to be growing so fast. First, it was her, and her—" 

Before Gran Gran could finish speaking, Katara cut off, "Gran Gran!! Not infront of Sokka, to which Kel shrugged before asking, "What? too embarrassed to talk about. your little problem down there?" 

As Sokka outrightly said that, Katara looked both embarrassed and angry.

"That's none of your business!" she yelled before quickly turned to leave. But as she was doing so, she moved her hand in an aggressive manner and caused some of the snow from above the igloo to fall down onto Kel's head, causing him to immediately face plant into the snow on the ground as more from above dropped and eventually covered most of his upper body, forming a small hill.

Whereas Gran Gran didn't have so much as a snowflake drop on her. 'This guy's bad luck was supposed to be a running gag,' Sokka sighed.

Gran Gran shuffled over and patted off some of the snow on his back. "Quickly get up, take a bath, and go help your sister collect sea prunes. You're now becoming a man, and it is important to keep your promises, especially to your younger sister. You are supposed to be an example, Sokka. Look after your sister and don't burden her with responsibility over your actions when you are the adult."

Kel sighed again. 'I traded one nagging parental figure for another. These early responsibility talks really take me back to high school,' he reminisced, though on the surface he gave a mock salute to Gran Gran.

Gran Gran nodded before slowly walking away. Shortly after she had left, another chunk of snow fell from atop the igloo and fell on Kel's back, prompting him to simply mutter, "fucking hell."

After taking a moment, Kel's circumstances coaxed him up from the snow as he began to wonder if it was really going to be as easy as he thought to carry this out. He didn't bother thinking too much on this exact point.

He instead stumbled back into the igloo. 

"Fuck-my bath water is gone," he said aloud, thinking how nice it would feel to strangle Katara in that moment, or something even more disciplined.

While he was thinking this, he heard Sylvia's familiar voice come from behind. "Don't Kel." 

Kel was alerted by this but didn't panic and slowly turned his head, but saw no one behind and then lowered it, meeting his gaze with that of a penguin.

A brief silence followed before the penguin asked in a serious voice, "Is something wrong, Don Kel?"

Kel looked at the penguin for a moment but then shook his head. "No, no, talking penguins are just the new norm, I guess. Is that supposed to be a disguise?"

The penguin nodded. "Yes, the mistress says that I cannot assist you much here because she wants to see what you're capable of achieving on your own. She's only tasked me with checking in on you to see if there's anything you're unhappy with."

Kel pretended as if he was thinking long and hard before nodding. "Now that you mention it, considering I have to mess with the guy who's going to master all four elements, I'm at a bit of a disadvantage, and given how dangerous this world is, I'm going to need more than this guy's trusty boomerang and chronic bad luck to get through this."

"One moment, I shall ask the mistress," the penguin replied, then fell silent for a moment. Just a few breaths in, Kel already got impatient. "Could you hurry up, please? I just got here and I don't want people to start spreading rumors that I invite penguins into my igloo for God knows what."

Shortly after Kel said this, Sylvia gave a nod and flapped her wings while nodding. "The mistress has acknowledged your request and will grant you the in-world ability of water bending. How you choose to handle that, however, is up to you."

Before Kel could say anything else, the penguin waddled away as quickly as it came in. "Wait, wait a minute," Kel tried to stop it as the penguin slid away, gliding across the snowy surface. 

Kel could only stop as he watched the penguin slip away, thinking to himself, "Next time I see Sylvia, it's a spanking."