"Good. Now, try to jump up and push the ground with fire." Caylin told Aang. They were in the middle of a fire bending lesson.
"But… can't I do that with air bending? And why do I need to do that?" Aang asked before he did what she asked.
"Well… yes, you can do that with air bending… and I don't really know why you need to do that. My trainer taught me that for defense because, well, I can't air bend like you." Caylin tried to explain.
"Who was your trainer, Caylin?" Aang asked. Still recovering from her amnesia, she thought for a minute. Her eyes became wide when she remembered.
"Father…" she whispered. "My father. He taught me everything I know about fire and fire bending. He's a lot more skilled at it than I am."
"Do you have any siblings?" Sokka asked her.
"No, I don't."
"You're lucky you don't…" Katara mumbled. Sokka heard her and laughed.
"You can say that again! Wait a minute, are you talking about me?" Sokka asked. Katara and Caylin giggled and laughed together.
"You're so funny, Sokky." Caylin told him. He smiled and tried to look cool.
"Yeah, people tell me that all the time." Sokka conceitedly answered.
"Uh, no, they don't. The only people who say that to you are Suki, Princess Yue and those girls who liked your haikus in Ba Sing Se." Katara commented. Sokka's face became morose as Katara mentioned Princess Yue.
"What's the matter, Sokky?" Caylin noticed his mood.
"Oh… It's a really, really long story that I should tell you some other time. I have lost two people I have loved. Princess Yue and my mother." Sokka quickly explained.
"Caylin," Katara started to say as she walked over to her, "this is a necklace my mother gave to me. It belonged to my grandmother, but she gave it to my mother, who gave it to me." Katara said as she touched the blue pendant of the choker.
"What happened to her?" Caylin seemed concerned yet interested.
"Sokka and I lost her in a fire nation raid. We both have something to remember our parents by. I have this necklace, and Sokka has the boomerang our father gave to him." She gestured to Sokka's bag of stuff.
"The Pyromaniacs…" Caylin cringed, making everyone confused.
"Pyro- what?" Aang asked Caylin.
"My village calls the evil fire benders Pyromaniacs. The evil fire benders call us outcastes." Caylin explained.
"Why do they call you outcastes?" Aang asked again.
"They like to believe that they banished us, but really we escaped on our own. We are also nice, we don't want to capture you and take over the world." Caylin answered.
"Okay, enough with the negatives, let's go do something fun!" Katara suggested. Everyone agreed with her. As they were preparing to go, they heard something animal-like in the woods.
"What is that…?" Caylin asked, afraid of what might come.
"I… don't know, hopefully it's not dangerous." Aang answered. From out of the bushes, a strange beast ran at them with his head facing behind itself. Not aware of Caylin in front of him, it bumped into her and made a small yelp.
"Awe, look! It's a doggie! But… it has strange purple wings…" Caylin informed them, petting the dog's head. It sniffed her hand as Sokka shouted, "Caylin! Don't touch that! It might have rabies or bugs or it could be from the fire na…tion…" Sokka caught himself as Caylin shot him an irritated look.
"Oh… right… sorry about that." He realized. Caylin ran her hands across the dog's wide, purple, almost dragon-like wings. She thought they felt like leather. As the dog panted and she stroked his big ears, she noticed the blue scars across each eye and its prominent canine teeth. The dog suddenly rolled over on its back to reveal its flame colored belly that matched its tail, paws and mane. She was rubbing his belly when she noticed the necklace.
"Look, he even has a collar!" Caylin said, picking up the charm.
"Well, what does it say?" Katara asked a good distance away from the hound.
"Nothing… it's just some kind of… claw, or tooth, I suppose, with some jewel encrusted in it… then a jewel hanging off the bottom…" she explained.
"I wonder what that could mean." Aang said.
"I don't know… but I'm calling him Mico." Caylin announced. "Can we keep him please, Aang? Please?" she begged.
"Sure." He shrugged.
"As long as that thing doesn't bite, I'm fine with that." Sokka added. Mico came up to Sokka and started to sniff him, but eventually he knocked him over and started licking his face. "This thing doesn't eat people, does it?" Sokka yelled as he tried to wriggle out of the dog's affection.
"Um… probably not… but I wonder what he does eat…" Caylin tried to answer. Sokka had had enough, pushing Mico off of him while he mumbled, "Get away from me!" Mico lost interest in him and started to eat some grass.
"I guess he eats grass then." Caylin concluded.
"Okay, let's go. How about we take a trip to the hot springs?" Katara asked everyone.
"The hot springs? But don't we have to go through a desert to get there?" Aang wondered.
"Yes, but it's a very small desert." She answered.
"Okay, that will be fun!" Caylin shouted. Everyone except Caylin hopped onto Appa as Mico sniffed the bison's legs.
"Come here Mico!" Caylin called, whistling a few times before he came running with his head bobbing up and down.
"I wonder if I could ride him like a horse… I mean, he is pretty big and he has wings." Caylin said.
"Yeah, right…" Sokka laughed. "I would really like to see you… try…" Sokka started as Caylin climbed on Mico's back.
"Okay… what do I have to say to get him flying? Maybe I could try… Yip yip!" she experimented. Nothing happened. "Hmm… what about… uh, mi mi?" she suggested. Mico started flapping his wings and floating off of the ground.
"Let's go!" Caylin cried to Aang.
"Yip yip!" Aang commanded.
