"Wow, Zuko. You look paler than usual." Katara commented as they stepped out into the sunshine. "Are you feeling okay?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine." he replied, attempting to dissemble his pain with a smile.
"He's lying." Toph said matter-of-factly. Katara looked at Zuko and frowned.
"Okay, so maybe my stomach has been acting up a bit, but it's no big deal." He added sheepishly.
"You know more…" Toph said quietly.
"Quit pestering him!" Sokka said. "If he says that he feels fine, then he feels fine."
"Hey, I care too, you know." Toph said, somewhat vexed.
"Stop it you two." Katara said sternly. She turned to Zuko. "Now tell me exactly what's wrong." she said.
"It's an illness." he started. "I had it once before when I was eight or something. By what I'm feeling now, I can tell that I have it. If I remember it correctly, it will only get worse from here."
"Define worse." Aang commented.
"At its peak, I won't be able to move, I'll hallucinate, speech is out of the question and my vision will fail. The good thing is that this illness isn't contagious and it takes away my firebending." He said and smiled. However, that smile faded and he clutched his stomach.
"Wait, how is it a good thing that you can't firebend?" Katara asked.
"Trust me, it's better that I can't firebend while I'm hallucinating. It's too dangerous." he said.
"Is there any way to prevent it?" Toph asked.
"Not prevent, but cure." Zuko answered. "There's a flower that grows around these parts, and its roots are the only way to help. It's yellow on the outside and blue on the inside. The forests around here are filled with them. It shouldn't be too hard."
"So… I guess that means that we go look for that flower?" Aang asked.
"I guess." Katara said. "But someone has to stay here with Zuko." Everybody stepped back, except for Toph. She actually seemed happy about it.
"At least I get to stay on the ground." she smiled. Everyone nodded. It was agreed that Toph would stay to make sure that Zuko stayed out of trouble and Aang, Sokka, and Katara would go to look for the flower.
"It may take a day or two, but I should be fine until then. Just hurry." Zuko said as everyone climbed onto Appa.
"Alright, we'll hurry." Aang assured him, and they flew off.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Moooooooooaaaaaaarrrrrr!" Appa roared.
"I'll have to agree with Appa on this one." Katara said and turned to Aang. "We've been flying all day and there's still no sign of that flower. To add to that, we're all hungry, thirsty and tired. If we don't find a place to land soon, Appa is going to run out of energy! We can't keep doing this to him." Katara petted Appa's huge head. "Isn't that right my fluffy friend?"
"I know," Aang sighed, "but there is no way that we can land anywhere with this dense tree mass everywhere." He turned to Momo. "C'mon Momo. Let's go see if we can find a place for Appa to land."
"I suggest you hurry up because my stomach is starting to sound like Appa." Sokka retorted. Everyone laughed.
"I'll try." Aang promised. He spread his glider and flew off.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
"Man Momo, this forest is endless." Aang said. Momo chirped in agreement. Aang's cheeks were red from the sun and he was tired from hunger. "I bet," he said to Momo, "that Katara and Sokka wouldn't mind if I went down to look for food for us." And with that, Aang dove down into the trees.
After a few minutes of walking, Aang found a few berries that he knew were not poisonous. Taking a bunch, he fed first himself, then Momo, and then he just took a few that were left and put them in his bag for the others.
"That should do it!" Aang said with a smile across his face. After securing the rest of the berries, he prepared to fly back to the others. He opened his glider and flew up into the sky. The air had gotten cooler. A storm is approaching, he thought. In fact, Aang had noticed that a large storm cloud had moved into the area, casting a shadow over the forest.
He turned to Momo and told him to fly ahead to the others. Without further ado, Momo did as he was told. I hope that I can reach the others before the storm gets too bad, Aang thought to himself. But his hopes were in vain. Soon, wild winds whipped across Aang's face and the stinging rain hurt him like a million needles. But the worst thing was the lightning. It chased Aang through the sky, getting wilder and more unpredictable as time passed.
Each time that the lightning struck, it got closer and closer to Aang so that he had to dodge the lightning bolts as if he was fighting Azula herself.
Suddenly, lightning struck Aang. Not being able to control his flight because of the hole in his glider, Aang plummeted down into the trees. Before he fainted, however, he noticed a bird's eye view of three clearings in the shape of a triangle…