Nikko thought how it was funny how Senge would get worried about Jaya if she went off for too long. When that happened, it was up to Nikko to keep the hybrid from wandering around. Nikko wondered why he was as tame as he was. The Armadillo bear was obedient to Jaya and, to a lesser extent, Nikko, but he wanted to know what happened in his life to make him so obedient to humans. He hummed in thought as he reached over to feel Senge's armor. "I think he'll be fine, maybe just a little out of it because of the change in climate, but nothing too bad." He then nodded. "Yeah, we should get some gear for you. I still have my cold weather gear. Always had it in case I wanted to go Back North or down South."

Jaya grinned at him, "Well, that was smart and quite convenient for us."

She looked around the area trying to figure out who would have some warmer clothing for colder weather in this heat. She spotted a store that seemed to be selling clothes and guided Senge over to it. She placed him in front of the window before tying him up. She looked at him and smiled, "We are going to have to go in here together, Senge... Meaning you're going to be alone but you can watch us from here and we'll be right back."

Her eye line then changed to look up at Nikko, "I'm sure they won't have much... but you know cold a lot better than I do... better that you tell me what is warm enough."

She then walked backwards into the store and when she hit the door, she turned and headed inside. She walked to the counter and hit a little bell for service. She smiled at an elderly man when he walked out and looked at her, "Hi, we're heading south and I need some winter clothes... do you still have any in?"

The man smiled, "There isn't much but," He guided them over to a little corner that had only a few garments, "I hope you find something. Just come to the front when you do."

Nikko smiled at seeing Jaya tying up Senge in front of the shop that seemed to have some clothes for sale. Hopefully the hybrid wouldn't cause too much trouble if left alone for a few minutes, and without Nikko to keep him from doing anything he shouldn't. He looked down at Jaya and nodded, hopping off of Senge to join her on the ground. "Yeah. And If we don't find much here, there's bound to be stuff at the Southern tribe that we can get to keep you warm."

He followed Jaya into the store and looked around as he waited fort someone to point them in the right direction of the winter gear. It was a nice little shop, and Nikko turned to face the old man as he appeared. He then looked over at the corner where the small selection of winter gear was. Nikko walked to the corner and began to look at what they had. It was all mostly grey and brown, and not the traditional Water Tribe blue he was hoping to see. moving the thought aside, what they had seemed to be warm, but he wasn't really all that sure if it would hold up if they were to get caught in a snowstorm.

Jaya watched as Nikko looked over the clothing and watched him as he went about deciding what would keep her warm in the South. She stood behind him with her hands behind her back and trying not to get in the way. It was quite obvious that winter clothing what not something she knew about. If it weren't for the fact that they had to know that the clothing fit, she probably wouldn't have been needed. She grabbed a pair of gloves with fur in them and pulled them on, "Like you said... The Southern Water Tribe should have something for me to wear... I only need something to keep me warm from here to there... And it doesn't have to be super warm... I can use my bending too..."

She liked it though, how much he was looking into each piece. He wanted to make sure that she wasn't going to die of frostbite. She was sure that a lot of people in a lot of places would be just fine with that. She knew she had found something true in Nikko and that made her very happy.

"I guess so." Nikko shrugged. She could keep herself warm with her bending, but if it was anything like Water bending, then it would take a fair bit out of her to constantly bend fire, especially in the arctic cold. He then nodded to her. She could just bundle up whatever she had at the moment, and whatever she wanted to buy for now, and then get proper gear once they got to the south pole. He did have a passing thought about boiling water around them to keep them at least somewhat warm, but he knew that it wouldn't work. While Water Benders with a certain level of skill can freeze and boil water, it was nearly impossible to boil water in freezing conditions, and vise versa.

Nikko walked over to the counter and turned to look at Jaya. "Are you ready?"

Jaya grabbed a few things that Nikko deemed as warm enough to get to the South and brought them to the counter. As she did, she looked out the window and waved to Senge, who seemed to be holding up well enough outside alone. She returned her attention to Nikko and nodded, "Ya, I am."

She placed her things on the counter and pulled out her pouch of money, "This isn't coming out of your money... Just mine," She pulled out what was necessary and then doubled it. She gave half of it to the man behind the counter and the other half to Nikko, "That way we don't spend more of your money because of this."

She tied the pouch back to her belt and gathered her things, "And don't try and give it back to me."

She walked out of the store and stuff the winter clothes into a pouch of Senge's before untying him. She then looked at Nikko, "Shall we try and convince these people or just head South?"

Nikko reached down to pull out some money for the clothes before Jaya stopped him, and was about to say something before niciting that she had more than enough money for what she was buying. He didn't understand why she was giving him money. Now she had even less than before. It didn't make sense to him, and he tried to argue and give the money back to her, but she told him not to, so he sighed and complied, putting the money in his pouch. He then followed Jaya outside, where Senge was still where they had left him. He weighed the options as he stood there. "I say we just head to the Southern Tribe" He said to Jaya. In truth, he wanted to head to the South so wee how much different it was, much more so than wanting to reveal Jaya's identity to the village. If things went bad, then they might not be able to get a boat ride. "But it's your decision as well, so what do you thing?

Jaya smiled at him and nodded, "Southern Water Tribe here we come," she climbed onto Senge and started him forward when Nikko joined her. She didn't know what was going to happen in the Water Tribe if they were really going to accept her. She supposed she could only hope and pray that they would because she felt if they didn't there wasn't going to be anywhere for her to run.

When they got to the boat, she pulled out her pouch again, the pouch that held the money that she and Nikko had pooled together, and paid the man who was going to take them South. She patted Senge's side and smiled at him, "You're going to fine boy. You've been a boat, haven't you."

Senge lumbered onto the ship and Jaya could already feel the cold in the wind coming off the ocean. She had Senge lie down and sat down leaning into his warm fur. She looked at Nikko, "Know of anyways to pass the time of these boats?"

After Jaya hopped onto Senge, Nikko did the same and looked around as they made their way to where the ship. The North was closer to the Earth Kingdom than the South was, so he was sure that the ride there would be longer than the one that he took to get to the Earth Kingdom. Once they were on the ship, Nikko hopped off of Senge and took a look at the waters. He was used to the cold, but he still needed warmer clothes like everyone else.

Hearing Jaya, Nikko turned to look at her, and shrugged. "Not really. I slept most of the way to the Earth Kingdom. Then I ate, and slept a little more. It was a fairly short ride. but the one to the South will be longer, I'm sure."

Jaya nestled into Senge's fur hiding from the slightly cool breeze. It was still far too warm for the winter gear and she knew it was probably too warm for even her light jacket. Lucky for her, Senge was very warm and so was his fur. She pursed her lips when he mentioned that the trip from the North had been shorter than the trip they would be taking and he spent it eating and sleeping. She reached into her bag and pulled out a deck of cards. She looked at him, "Well, I suppose we should kill sometime in other ways than as well."

She leaned against Senge and started to deal the cards.

Nikko sat down in front of Jaya and took the cards that she dealt out to him. He wondered what game she had in mind, and sat quietly, collecting the cards given to him. He inspected them and held them in front of him. Whever game they were playing, he knew that it wasn't a good idea to show the other players your cards. "So." he said. "What game are we playing?"

Jaya smiled at him and picked up her own hand, "I figured we'd play a game of Crazy Eights... The game can be really quick or take for hours. I think it will be a good game to pass the time."

She started to refresh his memory with the games rules before they jumped on it.
~
Some days later, Jaya was wrapped up in her new coat and hat as she leaned against the railing of the ship. It was freezing out and she was shivering. Her gloves were stuffed in her pocket as she held her hands to her face. She blew fire into them discretely now and again. They still hadn't told anyone on the ship where she was from and she didn't feel like facing the possibility of being tossed overboard without being able to get a word out. When her hands warmed up a little she stuffed them into her gloves and held them close to her as she stepped away from the railing.

Nikko nodded. He had played some games with the Nomads every now and then, but they were nonsensical, and didn't really flow with logic. Personally, he believed that they group might have been mixing their water with cactus juice, considering their attitudes all the time, and since Nikko always got his own water and purified it, he wasn't as loopy as they were.

~

Nikko was back in his arctic gear as he sat next to Senge. He felt almost at home with the cold weather and the warm clothes, and he was curious to see how his sister tribe was holding up. The North and South hadn't talking much at all during the war before Aang came along, and added with the fact that they didn't have any of their own waterbenders anymore, he believed that the tribe itself wouldn't be all that astonishing.

The young waterbender took a look at Jaya and smiled slightly. They had yet to tell anyone on the ship about where she came from. There was obvious worry about being thrown overboard, but Nikko was a waterbender, and he could simply make them a platform of ice and steer them to the Southern Tribe. Of course, it could take much more time since Senge would no doubt walk around, making it hard to balance, and he would have to stop every once and a while to take a break. There was also comfort, which they wouldn't have on a slab of ice traveling south at the pace of a slug.

Jaya walked over to Nikko and Senge and curled up in the beast's fur. She looked at Nikko, "They weren't kidding when they said it was cold."

She laughed a little, as exciting as everything was with the new scenery she found it had to concentrate with her jaw constantly chattering. She adjusted herself against Senge as he swung his tail around and placed it in her lap. She was just glad that he wasn't too cold or at least didn't seem to be freezing. She rested her head against him, "I'm wear three pairs of socks right now but I'm pretty sure they've gone numb," She joked.

Despite the freezing, there was an excitement in her eyes. She'd never seen icebergs or Tiger Seals everything was new and wonderful. Even the cold was a little exciting who knew the cold could actually make her lose feeling in her feet. She looked at Nikko all cozy in his Water Tribe Winter Wear and smirked, "Do you miss it?"

There had been a few times where Nikko forgot that Jaya had never been near the North or South pole, and had never seen things like Tiger Seals and even icebergs. He had seen those things all his life, but she hadn't He had looked at her like she was crazy, but then remember that this was all new territory for her. He smiled and laugh a little at her joke. "You'll get used to the cold in a little while, don't worry." He assured her.

He began to zone out, thinking about all of the things that he should show her once they hit land. It wasn't until only a moment after she spoke that he snapped back to reality. "Huh? Yeah, of course I miss it." He told her, looking off into the sky. "I mean, yeah, I didn't like how the chief did things, but I still had people back there. I had things that I liked to do, and it was home. I'm sure that you feel the same way about the Fire Nation."

Jaya rubbed her hands together as he spoke and smiled as he brought up the Fire Nation. She nodded her head, "I guess... I don't think it is the same though... The Fire Nation was under some pretty strict rules during the war and I lived in a city so... It was a place that you didn't really know your neighbour. I have friends and family back home but things are just different now..."

She took off her gloves again and breathed fire into her hands again, making them glow orange for a moment before it disappeared. She grinned, "I really hope you are right about the whole getting used to it thing... I'm not used to anything below freezing and well," She looked at the ice that lay in the ocean, "This is far passed that."

Nikko laughed at her comment. People that lived in the earth kingdom had it rather easy. They didn't live on mountains like the Air Nomads did, they didn't live near or in some cases right next to volcanoes like the Fire Nation did, and they didn't live in the arctic like he once did. mountains, volcanoes, and high points, but still unlike the other nations. "Some people think we're nuts living in a place where snowstorms are common." He said with a smile, looking out into the waters as well. "You should be alright, so don't worry about it too much"

He looked out to the front of the boat, and just barely, he was able to see the large walls of snow that were protecting what he assumed to be the Southern Water Tribe. The designs on the walls looked like the ones that were on the North walls, but he knew that some people from the north, including Master Paku, traveled south to help the sister tribe. "We're just about there." He said happily.

Jaya laughed at Nikko's comment about people thinking they were crazy for living in the cold as they were. She looked at him and grinned, "Some people think we are crazy for practically living on mountains that ooze lava now and again. The rest just think we are crazy."

She put her hands over her nose that seemed like it had joined the icebergs and frozen. When Nikko mentioned almost being there, she leaned forward and saw the walls. She smiled and rubbed Senge's shoulder, "I bet you've never been this far South either, hey boy?"

The armadillo lion looked over at the two of them and huffed, a cloud of warm air spun out of his nose and mingled with the cold air. She laughed and stood walking to the front of the boat. It was colder here with the winds but she wanted to see everything that the Southern Water Tribe had to offer. She looked back at Nikko, "So, you've never been here?"

Jaya laughed at Nikko's comment about people thinking they were crazy for living in the cold as they were. She looked at him and grinned, "Some people think we are crazy for practically living on mountains that ooze lava now and again. The rest just think we are crazy."

She put her hands over her nose that seemed like it had joined the icebergs and frozen. When Nikko mentioned almost being there, she leaned forward and saw the walls. She smiled and rubbed Senge's shoulder, "I bet you've never been this far South either, hey boy?"

The armadillo lion looked over at the two of them and huffed, a cloud of warm air spun out of his nose and mingled with the cold air. She laughed and stood walking to the front of the boat. It was colder here with the winds but she wanted to see everything that the Southern Water Tribe had to offer. She looked back at Nikko, "So, you've never been here?"

Jaya laughed at Nikko's comment about people thinking they were crazy for living in the cold as they were. She looked at him and grinned, "Some people think we are crazy for practically living on mountains that ooze lava now and again. The rest just think we are crazy."

She put her hands over her nose that seemed like it had joined the icebergs and frozen. When Nikko mentioned almost being there, she leaned forward and saw the walls. She smiled and rubbed Senge's shoulder, "I bet you've never been this far South either, hey boy?"

The armadillo lion looked over at the two of them and huffed, a cloud of warm air spun out of his nose and mingled with the cold air. She laughed and stood walking to the front of the boat. It was colder here with the winds but she wanted to see everything that the Southern Water Tribe had to offer. She looked back at Nikko, "So, you've never been here?"