Post by shoblackheart on Apr 18, 2007 22:46:17 GMT -5
If you do not like Zutara... do not read this.
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Book Two: Earth
Chapter One: Bitter Works
It had been several days since Zuko had started to travel with them, and several days since that death of Uncle Iroh. Many things had changed but a lot of things remained the same. Zuko was with drawn but he spoke up every once in a while but it was normally sarcastic and dark. Katara and the others didn’t really except anything else out of him, his uncle did just die a few days ago. Katara still remembered the event rather clearly.
Azula had been tracking them for a while, and they hadn’t rested in twenty-four hours. When they finally faced her though, despite past disagreements and misunderstandings they worked together. And it wasn’t just Toph coming back it was the whole fact that Zuko was working with them. Katara hadn’t been surprised that Iroh helped, in fact she was happy that he did. He wasn’t a bad person, she had seen that in the North Pole when he defended the Moon Spirit. But Zuko, she hadn’t seen it coming. She guessed that he hated Azula just as much as they did.
“Well, look at this. Enemies and traitors all working together. I'm done.” She rose her hands up into the air, in a gesture of surrender but no one lowered their guard. “I know when I’m beaten. You got me. A princess surrenders with honor.”
While Katara was staring at the Fire Princess she guessed that Iroh had been slightly distracted and Azula took advantage of that. She struck Iroh suddenly and with out warning and the water bender guessed that he was dead before he hit the ground. Together the four benders attacked Azula and in an attempt to defend herself she put up a shield of blue fire. The combined forces of the benders and her blue fire created and explosion and when the smoke cleared she was gone. Aang turned to see that Zuko was already with his uncle. Katara went over to help but he told them to stay away.
“Zuko, I can help!”
“No you can’t,” Toph said, her blind eyes down cast.
“You don’t mean to tell me…”
Zuko had stood up, and everyone could see the rage and pain written across his face. Zuko himself felt an overwhelming want for revenge because he could feel very well that his uncle was gone. She had to pay. Suddenly though he looked at Aang. “Avatar.”
Aang had looked up from Iroh’s body at the Fire Prince, there had been a confused expression on his face. “What?”
“Take me with you. Azula will continue to track you and the next time she is attacking I can defeat her.”
“What’s with the sudden change in attitude,” Sokka asked and Zuko had looked at him in slight frustration.
“First it was my mother who was taken away from me and now it’s my uncle. I couldn’t avenge my mother but I can my uncle. That’s why.”
In the end they had decided to let him come with them, since Aang said that he could most likely teach him some firebending once Aang was ready to learn. They had also made a good team while fighting Azula. Sokka had told the Firebender that he was going to keep an good eye on him though. Couldn’t trust him so soon. The others didn’t mind however. They did have to make sure that he wouldn’t end up betraying them. So far he hadn’t.
It was Aang’s first day of earth bending practice and the little bald monk was nothing but a ball of energy. He was practically bouncing around the camp because of all the excitement. When Toph got up she also seemed excited. Zuko was still half asleep, and didn’t really care about the bending at the moment. Sokka also seemed less then cheerful about having his sleep disrupted by a over excited twelve year old.
“So what is first? What are you going to teach me?”
Zuko stood up and walked closer to the camp site, listening to the voices of the members of the group. Aang looked at him for a moment before turning his attention back to Toph. “This is going to be interesting I have a feeling.”
“First, moving a rock. Come on twinkle-toes.”
Toph grabbed the front of the Airbenders shirt and pulled him away from the camp site. Katara turned to Zuko and shrugged. “Aang can be over energetic when it comes to learning something new.”
“Like I haven’t noticed,” the fire bender said in a monotone. Katara turned her attention back to Toph and followed the two to watch the bending. Zuko just sat down and ate breakfast.
---
“Aang doesn’t seem like he is getting the hang of Earthbending yet,” Zuko said softly as he sat down on the rock ledge by Katara. She looked over at him for a moment before looking back at Aang.
“Has Aang told you yet why he is rushing to learn all four elements?”
He shook his head. “No. We haven’t talked much since I started coming along with you guys.”
“At the end of the summer Sozen comet is coming and it will strengthen the Fire Nation. Your father will have the power to take over Ba Sing Se and end the war.”
“I did hear about the comet. So that’s why.”
Aang attempted to move the rock that Toph had told him to move but he ended up flying back into Appa, and Zuko could hear Sokka laughing in the back round. He shook his head and then turned his attention back to the bending teaching.
“Seems to me like he will have to work hard to learn Earthbending,” he told her before standing up. “Maybe you should remind him that every element does have his opposite.”
He jumped from the ledge and returned back to camp, leaving Katara pondering over his words. She tilted her head and looked at Aang. He really did have a point about that. Fire was the complete opposite of water, and so of course they were pretty much equally matched in battle. So if water was the opposite of fire then earth was the opposite of air. It would be very hard for Aang to master Earthbending. She shook her head and turned her attention back to what was going on.
“Come on Aang. You can do better then that, There is no other way to do it, remember. Now again.”
Aang tried again and again but he couldn’t seem to get it right so Toph moved on to different kind of exercises. They were rather basic things, like keeping your footing and feeling the vibrations of the earth. He also had to try to push Toph while she was cover in earth. Those tasks were meant to strengthen his ability to handle what Earthbending would soon have to throw at him. Katara watched everything with an keen eye, wondering. She couldn’t help but look around though. She wondered if her brother was watching but she found that he wasn’t.
‘Must have gone hunting,’ she mused to herself. She then watched Aang.
After a few hours of intense training Toph decided to do things a little different. She took a rock at the top of a hill, a nice size bolder and put it at the edge of the cliff. From there she bended a rounded craves and then made her way down. Katara decided that it was her time to join them down there.
“Now we are going to do something a little different. Instead of moving the rock we are going to try and stop the rock. Alright, stop the rock like this while in your horse stance.”
“Toph, don’t you think there is a better way of doing this?”
For a moment the blind Earthbender did nothing but then a smile formed on her lips. “Actually there is.” Grabbing the blindfold she had used before during some of Aang’s harder training, she covered his eyes. “Now you’ll really have to fell the vibrations of the rock in order to stop it. Thanks Katara.”
“Yeah,” Aang said in annoyance, “thanks Katara…”
She laughed nervously and took a seat far away from where the rock was likely to crash and watched. Toph send the bolder rolling at Aang but instead of trying to stop it a moment before it struck him, he moved out of the way. He attempted to tell Toph he was sorry but Toph started talking first.
“What was that? You have the perfect stance and you didn’t stop it. You have to face it like a Earthbender, without fear. Can you do that, Twinkle toes?!”
Aang couldn’t, he knew that much. He just knew the rock was going to crash into him, and he knew that he would be crushed under it if he tried. So he just couldn’t. Shacking his head, he turned away. Katara though put a hand on his shoulder.
“Come on Aang, you still got lots of waterbending to learn so lets take a break from Earthbending for a while.”
“That sounds good.”
Toph though felt them though, and felt strongly disappointed in the young avatar. Well, it wasn’t complete disappointment she just knew he could do better then that. She could feel the potential in him. It was just his peaceful attitude. If only she could do something about that. Sudden though, a smile formed on her face. She had a wicked plan in mind.
----
“You know Aang, Zuko told me something that made me think.”
Aang looked at Katara, a confused expression on his face. “What was that?”
“Well, every element has it’s opposite right? Well if I am a Waterbender then my opposite is fire right? Well, then what is the opposite of air?”
He took a moment to think about it and then nodded. “Earth I guess.”
“Your working with your complete opposite, and that is why it is taking you so long to get the hang of it. I have a feeling though once you learn the first technique it will all become far easier for you.”
“Thanks Katara.”
----
“I know… I know… You are really cute but you are made of meat and we need to eat. Sorry.”
Sokka was out hunting, like his duty in the group told him to do. He sat, perch on a tree limb as he watched the small creature on the ground walk around. He judge the distance with a keen eye and smirked. Almost… that’s the exact spot! He sprung down and attempted to kill it but all he ended up doing was falling in a hole. The creature turned to him and he swung his club but ended up going deeper in the hole.
“Great… Just great. Why does this stuff always happen to me…”
The creature was brown in color and small, and hand little stumps coming out of it’s head. It ‘s big eyes stared straight into Sokka’s own blue eyes and he found himself short of pitying it. Almost, but not really. He had to hunt, and he couldn’t be a good hunter feeling pity for those things that he had to kill in order to survive. He stared at it, and it stared back.
“I’m going to be stuck this way for a while, aren’t I?”
---
It was growing late and Katara was growing more and more worried. Sokka had been gone for a long time, and that normally didn’t mean something good. She decided that it was best to find Aang.
Toph meanwhile was also going to see Aang, but for a completely different reason. She walked over to his mediation spot and smiled. “I found these nuts in your bag so I decided to help myself to them, not that you would mind.”
“Your right, I don’t mind.”
“Besides, your too much of a push over to take them back. And I also have this great nut-cracker.” She spun Aang’s air staff in the air before she brought them down on a nut and cracked it open.
“Actually I do mind.. It was crafted by the monks themselves! Please don’t!”
She didn’t listen and left his area. He sighed in frustration and then went back to his mediation but before he could, Katara cut him off. “Aang, there’s a---”
“I’m meditating here!”
“I’m sorry but this is important. Sokka’s been gone for a while and I’m getting worried. We got to look for him.”
“If we split up, we’ll find him faster.”
---
Instead of finding Sokka, Katara found Zuko again. He had been training for a while it seemed, from the sweat that clung to his shirtless torso. He sat on the ground at the present time, his eyes closed. He was meditating, she realized quickly. She inched her way forward and walked in front of him. He sat in a lotus style, his hands folded on his lap. She shook her head and was ready to continue her search when she heard Zuko speak up;
“What are you doing here water-bender?” He had the same tone in his voice as he did the first time she had spoke to him that morning. A monotone, sounding emotionless. She turned back to him.
“Looking for my brother.”
“He hasn’t returned yet? Strange… Most likely got lost.”
She shook her head. “Why don’t you help?”
“Sokka isn’t my problem,” Zuko said as he stretched. “He’s your problem. He is your brother.”
“Well, we are allies.”
He took a few moments to think about that as he stood up and put his shirt back on. He then nodded slightly and sighed. “Alright… I get your point. I’ll find the oaf.”
She nodded her head. “Thank you.”
“Oh, did you tell the Avatar about what I said?”
“Yeah, he seemed to understand.”
Zuko nodded and then walked away, without saying another word. Katara couldn’t understand what ran through the young man’s head just yet, but she did plan to figure it out. Maybe it would help her understand the reason he had truly began traveling with him. But she would have to deal with that later. For now, she had her brother to find.
---
“Aang! Aang you found me! Have anything to eat?”
“Katara was worried about you. How did you get stuck in this hole?”
He sighed, but didn’t bother explaining. “Just get me out of here, please?”
“I bet I can get you out with a little bit of Airbending.”
He tired but all he managed to do was mess Sokka’s hair up really bad. Sokka looked at Aang, a pleading look in his eyes. “Please Aang. Do a little bit of Earthbending.”
“I can’t.”
“What? Well, if you can’t then get Toph.”
“I can’t do that either. It would be… uncomfortable.” Sokka nodded his head, saying that he knew how that felt sarcastically, but Aang didn’t hear. “Everyone expects me to get this Earthbending thing right away but I can’t. I don’t know why but I can’t. I want to give up, but if I do I’ll never master it. And I have to master it. It’s a lot of pressure.”
Just then the little creature Sokka had been hunting scrambled over and Sokka introduced the creature as Foofoo-cuddly-poops. Aang smiled and picked it up. “What a cute name for a Saber-tooth moose lion.”
“It looks nothing like one.”
“It’s hard to tell before their teeth and horns grow in. But it is defiantly one.”
Just then they heard a roar behind him as the mother came out of the bushes, and growled in anger at them. Aang laughed and let the baby go. Foofoo-cuddly-poops ran into the bushes behind it and the mother turned their attention back to them. Her animalistic eyes narrowed in rage and she charged. But Aang jumped in the way and blew her to the other side of Sokka. The Saber-tooth moose lion turned around and growled.
“Hey, look at me!”
Aang jumped onto a rock spire and began to dance as a distraction and he did managed to grab it’s attention and it charged at him. He blocked it and pushed it far away from them and it ran off. Sokka sighed in relief. Just then they both heard clapping and turned just to see Toph sitting not to far away from them.
“What are you doing here,” Sokka asked, and Toph just smiled.
“Just enjoying the show.”
“You were there the whole time?”
“Pretty much.”
“Then why didn’t you help? Sokka was in trouble! I was in trouble. You could have helped!”
“You didn’t seem to need it.” She dropped a nut on the ground and was about to crack it open with Aang’s staff when he grabbed the end of it in anger.
“Give me my staff back.”
She jumped down from her spot and poked his chest. “Do it twinkle toes.”
“What?”
“Earth bend. You stood your ground against a crazy beast, and even more impressive you stood your ground against me. You got stuff.”
“I can’t-”
“Do it!”
Aang turned his attention to the closes rock and then summoned his energies. He did the motion just as she taught him and the rock slammed into the cliff. Toph smiled approvingly.
“You did it. You’re an Earthbender.”
“This is a wonderful, touching moment. Now can you get me out so I can give you both a big, snuggly hug?”
“Alright!”
Aang was about to do it when Toph grabbed his arm and held him back. “Let me do it. Your kind of new at this so you might accidentally crush him.”
“I wouldn’t like that…”
She slammed her foot into the ground which caused Sokka to raise up a few feet and then she grabbed him by the pony tail and pulled him the rest of the way out. He was so happy he did hug them before they made their way back to camp. By that time both Zuko and Katara had returned to the camp site to see if the others had found her brother. Katara saw them coming first and smiled brightly.
“You’re safe!”
Sokka nodded. “While I was in that hole… I began to think about things. I realized-”
“Katara,” exclaimed Aang, cutting Sokka off mid-sentence. “Look what I can do!”
He got into his horse stance and a rock rose slightly off the ledge and slammed into the cliff wall close by. She smiled and hugged him. Zuko for a moment felt an unrecognized feeling when she did that but quickly dismissed it.
“I knew you could do it!”
Aang was so happy that he went to tell Appa, but the flying Basion cut him off by licking him, cutting off his unmovable air. Everyone, including Zuko who chuckled, laughed at that.
By the time that they had all gotten over the excitement, it was nightfall so they all decided to rest for the night and travel some more at sun raise. All in all, it had been a good day for them all. Aang went to sleep feeling very content, and so did a certain Earthbender. The five travelers, along with Appa and Momo, soon drifted off into a peaceful sleep free from dreams.
The end.
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Book Two: Earth
Chapter One: Bitter Works
It had been several days since Zuko had started to travel with them, and several days since that death of Uncle Iroh. Many things had changed but a lot of things remained the same. Zuko was with drawn but he spoke up every once in a while but it was normally sarcastic and dark. Katara and the others didn’t really except anything else out of him, his uncle did just die a few days ago. Katara still remembered the event rather clearly.
Azula had been tracking them for a while, and they hadn’t rested in twenty-four hours. When they finally faced her though, despite past disagreements and misunderstandings they worked together. And it wasn’t just Toph coming back it was the whole fact that Zuko was working with them. Katara hadn’t been surprised that Iroh helped, in fact she was happy that he did. He wasn’t a bad person, she had seen that in the North Pole when he defended the Moon Spirit. But Zuko, she hadn’t seen it coming. She guessed that he hated Azula just as much as they did.
“Well, look at this. Enemies and traitors all working together. I'm done.” She rose her hands up into the air, in a gesture of surrender but no one lowered their guard. “I know when I’m beaten. You got me. A princess surrenders with honor.”
While Katara was staring at the Fire Princess she guessed that Iroh had been slightly distracted and Azula took advantage of that. She struck Iroh suddenly and with out warning and the water bender guessed that he was dead before he hit the ground. Together the four benders attacked Azula and in an attempt to defend herself she put up a shield of blue fire. The combined forces of the benders and her blue fire created and explosion and when the smoke cleared she was gone. Aang turned to see that Zuko was already with his uncle. Katara went over to help but he told them to stay away.
“Zuko, I can help!”
“No you can’t,” Toph said, her blind eyes down cast.
“You don’t mean to tell me…”
Zuko had stood up, and everyone could see the rage and pain written across his face. Zuko himself felt an overwhelming want for revenge because he could feel very well that his uncle was gone. She had to pay. Suddenly though he looked at Aang. “Avatar.”
Aang had looked up from Iroh’s body at the Fire Prince, there had been a confused expression on his face. “What?”
“Take me with you. Azula will continue to track you and the next time she is attacking I can defeat her.”
“What’s with the sudden change in attitude,” Sokka asked and Zuko had looked at him in slight frustration.
“First it was my mother who was taken away from me and now it’s my uncle. I couldn’t avenge my mother but I can my uncle. That’s why.”
In the end they had decided to let him come with them, since Aang said that he could most likely teach him some firebending once Aang was ready to learn. They had also made a good team while fighting Azula. Sokka had told the Firebender that he was going to keep an good eye on him though. Couldn’t trust him so soon. The others didn’t mind however. They did have to make sure that he wouldn’t end up betraying them. So far he hadn’t.
It was Aang’s first day of earth bending practice and the little bald monk was nothing but a ball of energy. He was practically bouncing around the camp because of all the excitement. When Toph got up she also seemed excited. Zuko was still half asleep, and didn’t really care about the bending at the moment. Sokka also seemed less then cheerful about having his sleep disrupted by a over excited twelve year old.
“So what is first? What are you going to teach me?”
Zuko stood up and walked closer to the camp site, listening to the voices of the members of the group. Aang looked at him for a moment before turning his attention back to Toph. “This is going to be interesting I have a feeling.”
“First, moving a rock. Come on twinkle-toes.”
Toph grabbed the front of the Airbenders shirt and pulled him away from the camp site. Katara turned to Zuko and shrugged. “Aang can be over energetic when it comes to learning something new.”
“Like I haven’t noticed,” the fire bender said in a monotone. Katara turned her attention back to Toph and followed the two to watch the bending. Zuko just sat down and ate breakfast.
---
“Aang doesn’t seem like he is getting the hang of Earthbending yet,” Zuko said softly as he sat down on the rock ledge by Katara. She looked over at him for a moment before looking back at Aang.
“Has Aang told you yet why he is rushing to learn all four elements?”
He shook his head. “No. We haven’t talked much since I started coming along with you guys.”
“At the end of the summer Sozen comet is coming and it will strengthen the Fire Nation. Your father will have the power to take over Ba Sing Se and end the war.”
“I did hear about the comet. So that’s why.”
Aang attempted to move the rock that Toph had told him to move but he ended up flying back into Appa, and Zuko could hear Sokka laughing in the back round. He shook his head and then turned his attention back to the bending teaching.
“Seems to me like he will have to work hard to learn Earthbending,” he told her before standing up. “Maybe you should remind him that every element does have his opposite.”
He jumped from the ledge and returned back to camp, leaving Katara pondering over his words. She tilted her head and looked at Aang. He really did have a point about that. Fire was the complete opposite of water, and so of course they were pretty much equally matched in battle. So if water was the opposite of fire then earth was the opposite of air. It would be very hard for Aang to master Earthbending. She shook her head and turned her attention back to what was going on.
“Come on Aang. You can do better then that, There is no other way to do it, remember. Now again.”
Aang tried again and again but he couldn’t seem to get it right so Toph moved on to different kind of exercises. They were rather basic things, like keeping your footing and feeling the vibrations of the earth. He also had to try to push Toph while she was cover in earth. Those tasks were meant to strengthen his ability to handle what Earthbending would soon have to throw at him. Katara watched everything with an keen eye, wondering. She couldn’t help but look around though. She wondered if her brother was watching but she found that he wasn’t.
‘Must have gone hunting,’ she mused to herself. She then watched Aang.
After a few hours of intense training Toph decided to do things a little different. She took a rock at the top of a hill, a nice size bolder and put it at the edge of the cliff. From there she bended a rounded craves and then made her way down. Katara decided that it was her time to join them down there.
“Now we are going to do something a little different. Instead of moving the rock we are going to try and stop the rock. Alright, stop the rock like this while in your horse stance.”
“Toph, don’t you think there is a better way of doing this?”
For a moment the blind Earthbender did nothing but then a smile formed on her lips. “Actually there is.” Grabbing the blindfold she had used before during some of Aang’s harder training, she covered his eyes. “Now you’ll really have to fell the vibrations of the rock in order to stop it. Thanks Katara.”
“Yeah,” Aang said in annoyance, “thanks Katara…”
She laughed nervously and took a seat far away from where the rock was likely to crash and watched. Toph send the bolder rolling at Aang but instead of trying to stop it a moment before it struck him, he moved out of the way. He attempted to tell Toph he was sorry but Toph started talking first.
“What was that? You have the perfect stance and you didn’t stop it. You have to face it like a Earthbender, without fear. Can you do that, Twinkle toes?!”
Aang couldn’t, he knew that much. He just knew the rock was going to crash into him, and he knew that he would be crushed under it if he tried. So he just couldn’t. Shacking his head, he turned away. Katara though put a hand on his shoulder.
“Come on Aang, you still got lots of waterbending to learn so lets take a break from Earthbending for a while.”
“That sounds good.”
Toph though felt them though, and felt strongly disappointed in the young avatar. Well, it wasn’t complete disappointment she just knew he could do better then that. She could feel the potential in him. It was just his peaceful attitude. If only she could do something about that. Sudden though, a smile formed on her face. She had a wicked plan in mind.
----
“You know Aang, Zuko told me something that made me think.”
Aang looked at Katara, a confused expression on his face. “What was that?”
“Well, every element has it’s opposite right? Well if I am a Waterbender then my opposite is fire right? Well, then what is the opposite of air?”
He took a moment to think about it and then nodded. “Earth I guess.”
“Your working with your complete opposite, and that is why it is taking you so long to get the hang of it. I have a feeling though once you learn the first technique it will all become far easier for you.”
“Thanks Katara.”
----
“I know… I know… You are really cute but you are made of meat and we need to eat. Sorry.”
Sokka was out hunting, like his duty in the group told him to do. He sat, perch on a tree limb as he watched the small creature on the ground walk around. He judge the distance with a keen eye and smirked. Almost… that’s the exact spot! He sprung down and attempted to kill it but all he ended up doing was falling in a hole. The creature turned to him and he swung his club but ended up going deeper in the hole.
“Great… Just great. Why does this stuff always happen to me…”
The creature was brown in color and small, and hand little stumps coming out of it’s head. It ‘s big eyes stared straight into Sokka’s own blue eyes and he found himself short of pitying it. Almost, but not really. He had to hunt, and he couldn’t be a good hunter feeling pity for those things that he had to kill in order to survive. He stared at it, and it stared back.
“I’m going to be stuck this way for a while, aren’t I?”
---
It was growing late and Katara was growing more and more worried. Sokka had been gone for a long time, and that normally didn’t mean something good. She decided that it was best to find Aang.
Toph meanwhile was also going to see Aang, but for a completely different reason. She walked over to his mediation spot and smiled. “I found these nuts in your bag so I decided to help myself to them, not that you would mind.”
“Your right, I don’t mind.”
“Besides, your too much of a push over to take them back. And I also have this great nut-cracker.” She spun Aang’s air staff in the air before she brought them down on a nut and cracked it open.
“Actually I do mind.. It was crafted by the monks themselves! Please don’t!”
She didn’t listen and left his area. He sighed in frustration and then went back to his mediation but before he could, Katara cut him off. “Aang, there’s a---”
“I’m meditating here!”
“I’m sorry but this is important. Sokka’s been gone for a while and I’m getting worried. We got to look for him.”
“If we split up, we’ll find him faster.”
---
Instead of finding Sokka, Katara found Zuko again. He had been training for a while it seemed, from the sweat that clung to his shirtless torso. He sat on the ground at the present time, his eyes closed. He was meditating, she realized quickly. She inched her way forward and walked in front of him. He sat in a lotus style, his hands folded on his lap. She shook her head and was ready to continue her search when she heard Zuko speak up;
“What are you doing here water-bender?” He had the same tone in his voice as he did the first time she had spoke to him that morning. A monotone, sounding emotionless. She turned back to him.
“Looking for my brother.”
“He hasn’t returned yet? Strange… Most likely got lost.”
She shook her head. “Why don’t you help?”
“Sokka isn’t my problem,” Zuko said as he stretched. “He’s your problem. He is your brother.”
“Well, we are allies.”
He took a few moments to think about that as he stood up and put his shirt back on. He then nodded slightly and sighed. “Alright… I get your point. I’ll find the oaf.”
She nodded her head. “Thank you.”
“Oh, did you tell the Avatar about what I said?”
“Yeah, he seemed to understand.”
Zuko nodded and then walked away, without saying another word. Katara couldn’t understand what ran through the young man’s head just yet, but she did plan to figure it out. Maybe it would help her understand the reason he had truly began traveling with him. But she would have to deal with that later. For now, she had her brother to find.
---
“Aang! Aang you found me! Have anything to eat?”
“Katara was worried about you. How did you get stuck in this hole?”
He sighed, but didn’t bother explaining. “Just get me out of here, please?”
“I bet I can get you out with a little bit of Airbending.”
He tired but all he managed to do was mess Sokka’s hair up really bad. Sokka looked at Aang, a pleading look in his eyes. “Please Aang. Do a little bit of Earthbending.”
“I can’t.”
“What? Well, if you can’t then get Toph.”
“I can’t do that either. It would be… uncomfortable.” Sokka nodded his head, saying that he knew how that felt sarcastically, but Aang didn’t hear. “Everyone expects me to get this Earthbending thing right away but I can’t. I don’t know why but I can’t. I want to give up, but if I do I’ll never master it. And I have to master it. It’s a lot of pressure.”
Just then the little creature Sokka had been hunting scrambled over and Sokka introduced the creature as Foofoo-cuddly-poops. Aang smiled and picked it up. “What a cute name for a Saber-tooth moose lion.”
“It looks nothing like one.”
“It’s hard to tell before their teeth and horns grow in. But it is defiantly one.”
Just then they heard a roar behind him as the mother came out of the bushes, and growled in anger at them. Aang laughed and let the baby go. Foofoo-cuddly-poops ran into the bushes behind it and the mother turned their attention back to them. Her animalistic eyes narrowed in rage and she charged. But Aang jumped in the way and blew her to the other side of Sokka. The Saber-tooth moose lion turned around and growled.
“Hey, look at me!”
Aang jumped onto a rock spire and began to dance as a distraction and he did managed to grab it’s attention and it charged at him. He blocked it and pushed it far away from them and it ran off. Sokka sighed in relief. Just then they both heard clapping and turned just to see Toph sitting not to far away from them.
“What are you doing here,” Sokka asked, and Toph just smiled.
“Just enjoying the show.”
“You were there the whole time?”
“Pretty much.”
“Then why didn’t you help? Sokka was in trouble! I was in trouble. You could have helped!”
“You didn’t seem to need it.” She dropped a nut on the ground and was about to crack it open with Aang’s staff when he grabbed the end of it in anger.
“Give me my staff back.”
She jumped down from her spot and poked his chest. “Do it twinkle toes.”
“What?”
“Earth bend. You stood your ground against a crazy beast, and even more impressive you stood your ground against me. You got stuff.”
“I can’t-”
“Do it!”
Aang turned his attention to the closes rock and then summoned his energies. He did the motion just as she taught him and the rock slammed into the cliff. Toph smiled approvingly.
“You did it. You’re an Earthbender.”
“This is a wonderful, touching moment. Now can you get me out so I can give you both a big, snuggly hug?”
“Alright!”
Aang was about to do it when Toph grabbed his arm and held him back. “Let me do it. Your kind of new at this so you might accidentally crush him.”
“I wouldn’t like that…”
She slammed her foot into the ground which caused Sokka to raise up a few feet and then she grabbed him by the pony tail and pulled him the rest of the way out. He was so happy he did hug them before they made their way back to camp. By that time both Zuko and Katara had returned to the camp site to see if the others had found her brother. Katara saw them coming first and smiled brightly.
“You’re safe!”
Sokka nodded. “While I was in that hole… I began to think about things. I realized-”
“Katara,” exclaimed Aang, cutting Sokka off mid-sentence. “Look what I can do!”
He got into his horse stance and a rock rose slightly off the ledge and slammed into the cliff wall close by. She smiled and hugged him. Zuko for a moment felt an unrecognized feeling when she did that but quickly dismissed it.
“I knew you could do it!”
Aang was so happy that he went to tell Appa, but the flying Basion cut him off by licking him, cutting off his unmovable air. Everyone, including Zuko who chuckled, laughed at that.
By the time that they had all gotten over the excitement, it was nightfall so they all decided to rest for the night and travel some more at sun raise. All in all, it had been a good day for them all. Aang went to sleep feeling very content, and so did a certain Earthbender. The five travelers, along with Appa and Momo, soon drifted off into a peaceful sleep free from dreams.
The end.
