It turned out that warning the Northern Water Tribe they were about to be invaded by someone else's civil war and a raging dark spirit would get enough attention to convene a quick impromptu council.
Not everyone was available, but Aang, Katara, and Sokka managed to wrangle the chief, his intolerably beautiful daughter, and a couple old people, so that was a decent showing.
Chief Arnook and the tribe's best waterbender, Master Pakku, heard them out from their seats up high in the center, while Princess Yue and their most experienced healer, Yagoda, stayed quiet off to the side. The chief had a distinctly grave look about him as he took the adolescent ramblings very seriously, and Sokka saw a brief look of terror from Yue when Koani was mentioned as being part of the treaty that might keep them all from being incinerated by Raven's psycho dad. He'd cleverly hidden his interest in Yue by gawking directly at her like a complete goofus for several minutes straight until she noticed and gave him a little wave. Master Pakku, however, seemed to be staring off into space like it all didn't concern him.
Aang had expected way more interruptions, and upon realizing that his theoretically pages-long spew of unpracticed thoughts had been delivered in one piece.
"Uhh… thanks for listening, sorry if that was confusing?" he gently said as he rubbed the back of his head.
Chief Arnook finally moved even slightly, giving away that he was still alive, to say, "I believe I got the idea. Fire Nation is attacking. Strife between their two fleets… and you think we should be ready to leverage it?"
There was almost a shake of his head, but it turned into a circular motion, and finally settled on a nod as Aang said, "Yeah, pretty much?"
"You skillfully avoided giving us any reason why Fire Nation soldiers would attack each other, Avatar Aang," Pakku stated dryly—not easy for a waterbending master— with a precise fifty-fifty mixture of due respect and 'you're a bit thick, aren't you.'
Katara was just going to let Aang do the talking, despite him being Aang, but both he and Sokka looked over at her like she was the expert, so she perked up.
"Oh! Right… ah," she began, looking like she wanted to rustle through her notes, but didn't bring any, and she cautiously asked, "Have you… heard the story that Prince Zuko, the Fire Lord's son, was banished for murdering a noble girl?"
Pakku's face did not move at all. "We have," came anyway.
Katara lifted her chin, relieved. "Well! His sister Azula really did it. The princess we mentioned—the one leading the royal forces alongside that noble girl's dad leading the Arzayan forces. That's why Lord Arza would turn on the Fire Lord's navy! And he should have just found out the truth earlier today."
Pakku made a thoughtful little sound in his throat.
"Hmm. But is this battle intelligence," he asked, "or palace gossip?"
And then, instead of looking at Katara, he turned his eyes to Sokka and Aang.
Aang looked even more in dire need of the notes that nobody had made.
"Huh?" he said, caught flat-footed. "Yeah, Lord Arza's gonna lose it for sure, but—"
He stopped. Pakku's tone had been weirdly rude. Even Sokka noticed.
Katara looked uncertain, glancing around at faces, trying to figure out what that was all about, so Sokka cleared his throat to fill the shoulder-clenching silence.
"Uhh..." he began, leaning on his stolen and now beloved Fire Nation spear. "I mean, we don't know for sure, for sure. It's the best we've got."
Pakku nodded at once, grave and satisfied, like wisdom had finally entered the room in sensible boots.
"Thank you, boys," he said. "We'll take that into consideration for our strategy."
Katara stared at him. Just stared for a long moment.
Aang wanted to be the mediator, as was his purview as Avatar, but he would risk things he couldn't afford to lose by interrupting her when she had that look on her face.
"Oh," Katara said, voice thin with disbelief. "Is it just gossip when a girl says it?"
Pakku didn't even hesitate.
"Typically."
Sokka's eyes widened, but he resisted ducking for cover to maintain courtly decorum.
Katara let out one sharp, unbelieving laugh.
"Well then! If you want, Master Pakku, I can stand behind Sokka and move his lips for him." She spread her hands with poisonous politeness. "It'd just make everything so much easier, right?"
"Don't touch my lips," Sokka said at once, then frowned at Pakku. "Also, she has a point, you're being kinda rude. Like, we're both Chief Hakoda's kids?"
That finally made Yue blink, the corner of her mouth twitching before she hid it. Not laughter exactly. More the beginning of it, quickly strangled. Sokka didn't miss that either, and took it as a compliment.
Aang gave a helpless little shrug. "I mean… Katara talked to Raven way more than us," he pointed out. "She just knows better?"
Pakku's gaze slid over both boys, then landed on Katara and hardened, which was notable, because it had already been icy.
"So she joined in on more gossip, then," he stated.
That did it. Katara took one step forward, bootheel clicking hard on the polished ice. The real civil war was about to be between north and south.
"If you want proof I can handle battle," Katara snapped, pointing right at him, "you're more than welcome to step outside and face me, you stuffy old jerk!"
The room went very still.
Sokka tilted his head. "I dunno about stuffy," he drawled.
He was justly rewarded with Princess Yue having to cover her mouth and all but actually hide behind the icy chamber box she sat behind.
An "Oh," just kind of fell out of Chief Arnook, like it was a lost cause.
Aang gave his cutest smile, rotating to evenly apply it. "Uhh... can't we all get along?" he asked just as cutely.
Katara whipped her arm around to point accusingly at the old master without even looking at him.
"Ask him that!"
Pakku rolled his eyes, casually leaning back from his previously very stoic position.
"I have no interest in giving a paddling to an uppity little girl," he said. "I'll pass."
That went well.
Chief Arnook watched in astonished horror as Aang and Sokka rushed over to Katara, grabbing her wrists as soon as she scarcely raised her hands.
"Nooooo Icewolf fangs, crazy sister!"
"CLAWS!"
"Claws, yes! It's claws, stupid Sokka, haha!" Aang frantically insisted.
"Katara, I agree he's being a jerk, but please don't start a war! Dad has enough to deal with!" Sokka begged with his tightest smile.
"Ahh," Chief Arnook said, trying for diplomacy before anyone flooded the room, "perhaps we should take a recess and continue when things are less heated?"
Yue raised her voice. "Um, Katara? I just want to know what the Arzayans are after!" She cut in barely before Katara could start tearing off boy limbs and swallowing them whole like an enraged pelican-horse. With Katara's attention somehow actually caught by the snowy-haired beauty, Yue gently pleaded, "If you don't think they want to conquer us?"
Katara spun toward her, still blazing from the interruption, but Princess Yue had actually asked her something instead of the nearest available male, so she gave her the most forced smile seen in either tribe's living memory, and it was arguable that she even respectfully nodded.
Either way, Katara burst out, "Well apparently I can't tell you!" and jabbed a thumb back at Pakku, "Because grandpa fussy parka here thinks he'll get cooties if he listens to me!"
There was a tiny, startled pause. Then Yue made a helpless little sound.
"Ah..." she laughed nervously, not sure how to exist in such a state. "Hehe..."
It was not a mocking laugh, to be certain, and they could all tell that at least, but it did nothing to soothe the disrespected master.
Pakku rose—quickly and smoothly, like someone pulled him from a scabbard.
"If it will stop her from interrupting us with her childish nonsense," he said, every word clipped clean, "I will take a moment to embarrass the girl into keeping her mouth shut, if you'll excuse me, Chief."
Aang's stomach dropped, and he hunched forward as he looked at Sokka like whhhhyyyyy…
Sokka muttered, "The girl," under his breath. "This is gonna be bad, Aang."
Chief Arnook looked at Pakku and said, "I will update the warriors in the meantime."
"How sensible," Pakku flatly stated as he swept past Katara and didn't so much as look at her.
The northern folk didn't notice, perhaps, but Aang and Sokka saw a distinct… haze… gathering in the air around her.
It wasn't like Pakku would ignore the chief too, however, and he turned, stopped, and respectfully bowed to him before saying, "You have my gratitude, at least, for permitting this indulgence, Chief Arnook." And seeing the tense look on his leader's face, he added, "I won't do anything to her Yagoda can't handle."
"Uh..." Arnook said, like his voice might bring the ceiling down on them. "Appreciated..."