"Then we're going," Sokka said, trying to keep all the feral teeth out of his tone.

For Toph's benefit, he explained on the way. "You remember Hama, right? Well, one of the raids she talked about ended with the waterbenders freezing a Fire Navy ship in ice. It's been just over the horizon for as long as I can remember, and it's all our nightmares wrapped up into one convenient symbolic symbol of..."

Oh, the word fails.

"Everything we've lost," and he's glad Zuko isn't here to look down, or Katara to look fierce, or Aang to look off into the middle distance. Right now, he's the only one who's got this particular baggage, and that much he can shoulder.

"It's been forbidden for anyone of our Tribe to go near it ever since, so you know it was the first thing Aang and Katara did together."