A cold wind blew in the starry night sky. A full moon lit the sky, making it easy to see in the darkness.
As Aang, Katara, Sokka and Toph rode the back of Appa and Momo flew near, they looked down at the woods below them. Aang drew several deep breaths. They had just made it out.
Several minutes before, they had been in their campsite, asleep. At about three in the morning, Aang shivered and woke up because of the cold. He looked the group's makeshift fire pit, made from Toph arranging the rocks in a perfect circle, Sokka using some of his fire starters, and Aang blowing them to create an instant fire. It was only a pile of orange embers and black ash now.
Suddenly, the fire shot up. Embers flew in all directions. Aang yelled to wake everyone up. As the gang slowly got up and to their feet, the heard several rustling noises from the woods around them.
Out of the green forest surrounding them came several arrows. Many whizzed by Aang's face.
The shaft of one of the arrows came too close and sliced a cut in Aang's face. Blood started to drip down.
Then out of the shrubs came a Fire Nation soldier in full attire. He had long hair and eyes that glowed a bit yellow in the darkness of the night.
He raised his hand back in an attacking position. He then thrust it forward, shooting flame in the Avatar's direction.
He jumped the incoming flames and countered with a strong gush of wind from his hands.
This new fire bender ducked low, dodging the blast. He then ran at a breakneck speed in Aang's direction.
As he decreased the distance between the two of them, Aang let out another powerful blast.
In response to the Avatar's move, he jumped above him. From his aerial position, he fired a concentrated blast of fire to the target below him. If this attack hit, Aang would be scorched.
Katara saw this from a ways away and quickly let loose a water strike to counteract the fire. The fire was doused quickly, and all that hit the Avatar was some harmless steam.
Katara quickly drew the water back into her flask and prepared to attack again.
The fire bender looked at Katara skeptically.
"Yes, of course. The girl who teaches the Avatar water tricks. I hear you have some skill. Well, I have some skill as well."
Katara glared at the fire bender. His glowing eyes stared at her for a few seconds.
She then saw something a little out of the ordinary. He quickly glanced at Aang, then looked back at her and rushed her way.
Though she wondered a bit why he hesitated to look at Aang, she had more pressing matters to attend to. He was coming, and she could see the fire building up in his hands.
As this was happening, Sokka and Toph were fighting the other Fire soldiers. One came at Toph with a broad sword, but was easily swept aside by a boulder launched from the "Blind Bandit".
Another notched his arrow and took aim at her. He let go of the string and let the arrow fly. Before it reached its intended target, however, it was stopped by a wall of stone created from Toph stomping her feet.
Sokka was having a bit more trouble stopping the soldiers that were attacking him. One in particular was a soldier with a long, sharp sword that made almost no sound as it swung away.
The soldier took a swing in the direction of Sokka's head. Sokka used his boomerang to stop it before it hit his face. He jumped back and threw it, hoping that a ranged attack from afar would be a better tactic.
As the boomerang came close to the soldier, he turned sideways. The boomerang kept going. As it flew, it hit a tree and sliced a notch in it. It was stuck there, like a throwing axe stuck in a wall.
"Having a spot of trouble I see. Perhaps you should have trained harder before joining the Avatar."
Sokka glared at him as he drew his knife. He rushed at his foe. The soldier swung, but Sokka dodged it. He drew up his knife to attack.
Before he got in his slice however, the soldier lost his footing and fell on his back. He dropped his sword. It clanged to the ground.
"Hmm, perhaps you should have brought another weapon?" sniggered Sokka as he prepared his attack.
"You spoke too soon."
The soldier drew his own knife, and the two began their fight again.
At this point, the fire bender with the glowing eyes was rushing towards Katara while dodging her water attacks. When he came within range of Katara, he leaped in her direction. However, she jumped in a sideways direction and shot a water whip at him while in midair.
The bender was caught off guard for a second, but then hit the ground and, in a split second, moved his leg into a kicking position.
He moved his leg in a sweeping motion, sending flame in the direction of the water whip. The flame hit the water and temporarily both were stopped. In this second, the man with glowing eyes jumped in Aang's direction with a fireball in his hand.
Aang quickly grabbed his air bending pole. He drew it back in a baseball player's stance.
For about a second, time seemed to slow. Aang saw the bender jumping forward at him, about five feet away. He swung his pole.
The fire bender's eyes open and his pupil's dilated, making the whites of his eyes glow even brighter. He saw what was coming, and unless he could move out of the way without using his body itself and within less than a second, he was about to be in a world of pain.
Unfortunately for the fire bender, he couldn't move in that time. His full body was hit with the pole and sent him flying. He landed far back in the forest, hitting trees and shrubs as he went.
"Guys! We need to escape! There's too many of them, and they're powerful!" yelled Aang. The others looked to him and those that could nodded. Sokka yelled his agreement, kicked the fire soldier out of the way, retrieved his boomerang, and jumped onto Appa.
Toph, at the same time, fired rocks in all directions the enemies were coming from and also jumped to Appa.
Aang ran to Katara, grabbed her hand, and pulled her into the air.
"Appa! Fly, now!" he yelled. Appa jumped from the ground with great force. He flew through the air with speed. As he came closer to Aang and Katara in the air, Aang steered them both to Appa's back.
They flew away, looking down at the defeated soldiers below them. The glint of the shining eyes was visible from several feet away.
And that is how they got in this position. Flying above the forest. Not sure exactly where they were going, but heading for the nearest town, slightly visible from their position.
Aang looked ahead at the lights from the town. They slowly faded into each other and he drifted to sleep.