More Bakoda Drabbles
Again, these are a part of my 100 Themes Challenge over on DA. Posted in their original order of posting on DA.
THEME 88 -PAIN
Bato rolled over onto his back, once again finding himself unable to sleep. It had refused to come easily to him since his injury nearly three months ago and the resulting healing time spent alone at the abbey. Though it was a reluctant decision that Hakoda had made, Bato still felt utterly depressed after being forced to stay with the nuns while the men continued their journey to Ba Sing Se. He had never in his life been separated from his tribe- much less Hakoda- for such a long period of time.
Hakoda had assured him that he would send a message back to the abbey each time the tribe set up camp so that, as soon as the nuns deemed him fit to travel, he could come and rejoin them. But that was not enough to dull the deep, throbbing pang in his chest at night. The healing process was taking way too long in his mind. The nuns, on the other hand, disagreed, stating that the warrior was fortunate to be breathing considering how close the blast had come to his heart.
Bato glanced down at his bandaged arm- the dressing would be changed again shortly after breakfast as it had everyday since he was brought here- and tried to will his arm to move, to just be able to flex his fingers. The digits barely twitched in response, earning a defeated sigh from the man. The nuns had also told him he was blessed to still have the arm intact and that he would be extremely lucky if he managed to regain full use of his arm again. The nerve-endings in his hand and arm had been burned away in the flame and the nuns told him to be glad he couldn’t feel the agonizing pain that came with such a horrible burn.
There were moments, however, in which he wished he could have the physical pain and, in exchange, lose the tormenting mental and emotional anguish he felt on a daily basis. It was a horrible feeling to be separated from his tribe, his pack, his family, but the feeling was made worse when he realized he may never be able to use his left arm fully again, which would make it hard for him to scrimmage and fight. Unless he could regain full use of his arm, he would be an ineffective warrior and he would be a burden on his fellow warriors. That thought: the idea of being unable to aid his tribe- to aid Hakoda- pained him far worse than any burn in the world.
THEME 1 - INTRODUCTION
Bato hated being placed among the tribe’s children during the days that his father was away. He was a quiet little six-year-old and didn’t feel like he belonged around the rambunctious herd of children. His mother died nearly years ago after suffering for weeks due to some unknown illness that the village doctors couldn’t treat. Since the incident, he chose to close himself off and remain completely silent, having not uttered a word in that long period of time. His father, Massak, had been left no choice but to ask the village elders if there was anyone who could watch his son when he was to go on hunting expeditions in order to support himself and his boy. An older couple agreed to take Bato under their care when his father wasn’t around. He respected the couple for taking care of him, but he refused to talk to anyone, despite their efforts. And when he was rounded up with the other children to learn and play, he chose to sit on a snow bank and stare out over the icy plains and over the sparkling sea. Early on, some of the children had tried to get him to play, but he pointedly ignored them and they quickly gave up, leaving him isolated within the pack.
So here he was: six years old and desperately wanting to be somewhere other than this snowy village. He wasn’t sure where he would go if he left- the Earth Kingdom probably- but so long as it was away from here, the place where his mother no longer was, he didn’t care. Thoughts of his mother drifted through his head, and each day, try as he might to stop it, he felt her memory slipping away from him. It was enough to make him want to cry, and he would have had someone not plopped down beside him.
“Hey there!” The boy exclaimed happily. “I’m Hakoda. What’s your name?”
He willed away the sadness and gave the other boy a blank stare before returning his gaze to the sea.
“So what’cha looking for?” The intruder of his personal space asked, peering at him with big curious eyes. Bato had seen the boy before, playing with the other children; he seemed to be a natural leader despite his goofy nature. “Are you looking for turtle-seals? I’m going to go hunting for them with my dad next year!”
Bato’s eyes stared at them boy as though he were crazy when the kid suddenly jumped up, flailing his arms.
“And I’m gonna be all RAAAAARGH! WhenI see one and jump on it’s like SWOOSH and it’s gonna be all ARRRARRRARRRR and then I’ll take my club and THWACKAPOW! It’ll be dead!” The animated boy had been moving his arms in an illustrating manner while talking and ended his summary of how the hunt would go by dramatically falling over “dead”. He quickly sat up again, grinning at Bato who stared at him as though he were a madman. This was certainly the most creative attempt anyone had made at starting a conversation with him and he felt a smile beginning to tug at the corner of his lips.
Hakoda noticed this and jumped up again, running to grab a stick from a crude snowman; the defenseless snowman was now missing an arm, but that didn’t seem to bother him as he spun it around. “Or maybe I’ll take a spear and kill it Hakoda-style!” He twirled around with stick, trying to show off his “skills”, but quickly slipped on a patch of ice and fell flat on his butt. The stick flew out of his grasp when he slipped and, obeying gravity, bonked the embarrassed boy on the noggin as it fell back down to earth.
After watching the completely absurd scene unfold before him, Bato finally cracked a smile and chuckled at his fallen companion. It was such an odd sound to his own ears.
“You think that’s funny?” Hakoda tried to pretend being offended, but the wide grin on his face gave him away. He stood up and walked back over to Bato, his eyes twinkling with joy. “Now that I made you laugh, you wanna tell me your name?”
Bato gave him a quizzical look and the boy stuck his tongue out teasingly.
“We can’t be best friends if I don’t know your name, silly.”
Best friends? When had that been established? He pondered. Hakoda, having seemingly read his mind, laughed.
“You look like you need a friend, so I’m going to take that spot! And we’re going to be the two most awesome warriors in the tribe! We’ll be SUPER BEST FRIENDS!”
For some unexplainable reason, Bato felt he could trust Hakoda on that and opened his mouth to speak. His voice came out soft and with a light rasp from disuse, “I’m Bato.”
THEME 70 - 67%
“It smells delicious.” Hakoda said with a grin, placing a kiss on Bato’s cheek before sitting down at the table with the family. Sokka had already began wolfing his dinner down and was well on his way to getting seconds by the time his father had joined them. Bato often marveled at how much food the boy could eat. It was equally amazing how the teen hadn’t eaten them out of house-and-home by now. Luckily his sister didn’t share the same eating habits as she politely ate her dinner, stopping for a minute to poke at the peas, her nose turning up a bit in disgust.
“You don’t have to eat them if you don’t want to.” As their step-father, Bato didn’t ever purposefully do anything to upset the kids. Hakoda told him he didn’t have to worry about that, but he still wasn’t going to risk having them dislike him.
Katara smiled and pushed the peas to the side, “Thanks, Bato.”
Sokka grinned and pointed at them with his fork, his mouth still full of food, “Can I have ‘em?”
Katara, though slightly disgusted by her brother’s bad table manners, nodded and raked the peas onto his plate.
“So how was school?” Hakoda asked before popping a piece of the roast in his mouth.
“I passed my CPR class!” Katara beamed. Hakoda gave her a proud smile. He knew how much she wanted to go into the nursing field and passing CPR practically guaranteed her an internship at the city’s hospital through the high school’s nursing program so long as she kept her grades up.
“And what about you Sokka?”
The teen continued to eat as he responded, “Well, I read something interesting today before practice. See, in my sociology class, we’re getting into the chapter on love and relationships and stuff and I was reading an article for our assignment. And I saw this statistic…”
Sokka trailed off as he took a bite out of a rather large chunk of meat. “Actually, I wonder if you and Bato fit into it…”
“Well, what is it?”
“The article said that 67 of all gay couples have sex at least three times a week. What about you guys?”
The reactions he received from the causally asked question were priceless. Katara looked absolutely horrified. While her dad’s sexuality and choice of partner didn’t bother her, she did NOT want to think about her dad having sex. Period. Bato’s eyes widened and he dropped his fork, his face turning several different shades of red. Hakoda face-palmed and sighed. He was definitely going to have to have a talk with his son about what was inappropriate to talk about at supper.
Sokka blinked, clearly not realizing that he had just mentally scarred his sister and embarrassed his dads. “Did I say something wrong?”
THEME 88 -PAIN
Bato rolled over onto his back, once again finding himself unable to sleep. It had refused to come easily to him since his injury nearly three months ago and the resulting healing time spent alone at the abbey. Though it was a reluctant decision that Hakoda had made, Bato still felt utterly depressed after being forced to stay with the nuns while the men continued their journey to Ba Sing Se. He had never in his life been separated from his tribe- much less Hakoda- for such a long period of time.
Hakoda had assured him that he would send a message back to the abbey each time the tribe set up camp so that, as soon as the nuns deemed him fit to travel, he could come and rejoin them. But that was not enough to dull the deep, throbbing pang in his chest at night. The healing process was taking way too long in his mind. The nuns, on the other hand, disagreed, stating that the warrior was fortunate to be breathing considering how close the blast had come to his heart.
Bato glanced down at his bandaged arm- the dressing would be changed again shortly after breakfast as it had everyday since he was brought here- and tried to will his arm to move, to just be able to flex his fingers. The digits barely twitched in response, earning a defeated sigh from the man. The nuns had also told him he was blessed to still have the arm intact and that he would be extremely lucky if he managed to regain full use of his arm again. The nerve-endings in his hand and arm had been burned away in the flame and the nuns told him to be glad he couldn’t feel the agonizing pain that came with such a horrible burn.
There were moments, however, in which he wished he could have the physical pain and, in exchange, lose the tormenting mental and emotional anguish he felt on a daily basis. It was a horrible feeling to be separated from his tribe, his pack, his family, but the feeling was made worse when he realized he may never be able to use his left arm fully again, which would make it hard for him to scrimmage and fight. Unless he could regain full use of his arm, he would be an ineffective warrior and he would be a burden on his fellow warriors. That thought: the idea of being unable to aid his tribe- to aid Hakoda- pained him far worse than any burn in the world.
THEME 1 - INTRODUCTION
Bato hated being placed among the tribe’s children during the days that his father was away. He was a quiet little six-year-old and didn’t feel like he belonged around the rambunctious herd of children. His mother died nearly years ago after suffering for weeks due to some unknown illness that the village doctors couldn’t treat. Since the incident, he chose to close himself off and remain completely silent, having not uttered a word in that long period of time. His father, Massak, had been left no choice but to ask the village elders if there was anyone who could watch his son when he was to go on hunting expeditions in order to support himself and his boy. An older couple agreed to take Bato under their care when his father wasn’t around. He respected the couple for taking care of him, but he refused to talk to anyone, despite their efforts. And when he was rounded up with the other children to learn and play, he chose to sit on a snow bank and stare out over the icy plains and over the sparkling sea. Early on, some of the children had tried to get him to play, but he pointedly ignored them and they quickly gave up, leaving him isolated within the pack.
So here he was: six years old and desperately wanting to be somewhere other than this snowy village. He wasn’t sure where he would go if he left- the Earth Kingdom probably- but so long as it was away from here, the place where his mother no longer was, he didn’t care. Thoughts of his mother drifted through his head, and each day, try as he might to stop it, he felt her memory slipping away from him. It was enough to make him want to cry, and he would have had someone not plopped down beside him.
“Hey there!” The boy exclaimed happily. “I’m Hakoda. What’s your name?”
He willed away the sadness and gave the other boy a blank stare before returning his gaze to the sea.
“So what’cha looking for?” The intruder of his personal space asked, peering at him with big curious eyes. Bato had seen the boy before, playing with the other children; he seemed to be a natural leader despite his goofy nature. “Are you looking for turtle-seals? I’m going to go hunting for them with my dad next year!”
Bato’s eyes stared at them boy as though he were crazy when the kid suddenly jumped up, flailing his arms.
“And I’m gonna be all RAAAAARGH! WhenI see one and jump on it’s like SWOOSH and it’s gonna be all ARRRARRRARRRR and then I’ll take my club and THWACKAPOW! It’ll be dead!” The animated boy had been moving his arms in an illustrating manner while talking and ended his summary of how the hunt would go by dramatically falling over “dead”. He quickly sat up again, grinning at Bato who stared at him as though he were a madman. This was certainly the most creative attempt anyone had made at starting a conversation with him and he felt a smile beginning to tug at the corner of his lips.
Hakoda noticed this and jumped up again, running to grab a stick from a crude snowman; the defenseless snowman was now missing an arm, but that didn’t seem to bother him as he spun it around. “Or maybe I’ll take a spear and kill it Hakoda-style!” He twirled around with stick, trying to show off his “skills”, but quickly slipped on a patch of ice and fell flat on his butt. The stick flew out of his grasp when he slipped and, obeying gravity, bonked the embarrassed boy on the noggin as it fell back down to earth.
After watching the completely absurd scene unfold before him, Bato finally cracked a smile and chuckled at his fallen companion. It was such an odd sound to his own ears.
“You think that’s funny?” Hakoda tried to pretend being offended, but the wide grin on his face gave him away. He stood up and walked back over to Bato, his eyes twinkling with joy. “Now that I made you laugh, you wanna tell me your name?”
Bato gave him a quizzical look and the boy stuck his tongue out teasingly.
“We can’t be best friends if I don’t know your name, silly.”
Best friends? When had that been established? He pondered. Hakoda, having seemingly read his mind, laughed.
“You look like you need a friend, so I’m going to take that spot! And we’re going to be the two most awesome warriors in the tribe! We’ll be SUPER BEST FRIENDS!”
For some unexplainable reason, Bato felt he could trust Hakoda on that and opened his mouth to speak. His voice came out soft and with a light rasp from disuse, “I’m Bato.”
THEME 70 - 67%
“It smells delicious.” Hakoda said with a grin, placing a kiss on Bato’s cheek before sitting down at the table with the family. Sokka had already began wolfing his dinner down and was well on his way to getting seconds by the time his father had joined them. Bato often marveled at how much food the boy could eat. It was equally amazing how the teen hadn’t eaten them out of house-and-home by now. Luckily his sister didn’t share the same eating habits as she politely ate her dinner, stopping for a minute to poke at the peas, her nose turning up a bit in disgust.
“You don’t have to eat them if you don’t want to.” As their step-father, Bato didn’t ever purposefully do anything to upset the kids. Hakoda told him he didn’t have to worry about that, but he still wasn’t going to risk having them dislike him.
Katara smiled and pushed the peas to the side, “Thanks, Bato.”
Sokka grinned and pointed at them with his fork, his mouth still full of food, “Can I have ‘em?”
Katara, though slightly disgusted by her brother’s bad table manners, nodded and raked the peas onto his plate.
“So how was school?” Hakoda asked before popping a piece of the roast in his mouth.
“I passed my CPR class!” Katara beamed. Hakoda gave her a proud smile. He knew how much she wanted to go into the nursing field and passing CPR practically guaranteed her an internship at the city’s hospital through the high school’s nursing program so long as she kept her grades up.
“And what about you Sokka?”
The teen continued to eat as he responded, “Well, I read something interesting today before practice. See, in my sociology class, we’re getting into the chapter on love and relationships and stuff and I was reading an article for our assignment. And I saw this statistic…”
Sokka trailed off as he took a bite out of a rather large chunk of meat. “Actually, I wonder if you and Bato fit into it…”
“Well, what is it?”
“The article said that 67 of all gay couples have sex at least three times a week. What about you guys?”
The reactions he received from the causally asked question were priceless. Katara looked absolutely horrified. While her dad’s sexuality and choice of partner didn’t bother her, she did NOT want to think about her dad having sex. Period. Bato’s eyes widened and he dropped his fork, his face turning several different shades of red. Hakoda face-palmed and sighed. He was definitely going to have to have a talk with his son about what was inappropriate to talk about at supper.
Sokka blinked, clearly not realizing that he had just mentally scarred his sister and embarrassed his dads. “Did I say something wrong?”