The Goddess in Chains

by Day of Diana

Something mysterious is going on in the Western Air Temple; Can the GAang find out what it is before it's too late? I suck at summaries, I'm really sorry... plus, it's ZukoxKatara

He was drowning.

Drowning in a sea of salt and boiling oil. And above him, laughter rang out, and he was picked up by a giant ladle. He spun in the brackish water and oil and coughed, spraying a mouthful of salt and liquid over the rim of the ladle. He looked up and cried out when a huge pair of sapphire colored eyes stared down at him. He cowered in the ladle, and the utensil lowered to reveal that the pair of blue eyes had a face, and its voice thundered over him and the ocean of soup, salt and oil below.

"Do you really think that I would let you get away from insulting my cooking?" the huge mouth roared and the eyes stared down at him angrily. "This will be your last breath unless you compliment my soup!"

"Please!" he screamed and the eyes rolled at him, brow above them furrowing. "I really do like your soup! It's just a little too salty.." The eyes then turned to glare at him, and the spoon that held him drifted up to the face's mouth...

"NOOOOO!" Zuko shot up in bed, and immediately lay back down, because he felt like he was going to be sick. Katara's soup last night was severely lacking in the taste department, and though he slurped it down, he didn't really have any choice. It was either that, or be thrown outside the Air Temple's walls to sleep in the rain. There was really only one of those things he grudgingly accepted as his fate, and so drank Katara's soup. But now, looking at his stomach and rubbing it tenderly, maybe he should have chosen option two.

"Ugh, I should have slept in the rain," Zuko muttered to himself, and sighed as he turned over. His stomach churned and gnawed at him from the inside, and he decided he would find his own food from now on.

Inside the air temple room where he slept, he had to share with Sokka, Katara's sarcastic brother. It was only for protection reasons. Everyone shared two to a room, for back up if Azula suddenly showed up. Sokka didn't mind Zuko much, and Zuko was indifferent to Sokka, as long as they slept in opposite corners of the room.

Zuko could hear Sokka snoring, and it was such an unpleasant sound, he wondered how he had gone to sleep in the first place. Groaning, he turned onto his other side and felt the need to be sick...

After a trip to the restroom, Zuko didn't feel much better. True, he had gotten rid of the contents of his stomach, but he still felt slightly sick. He wandered back to his room, and opened the door only to hear a loud blast of snoring.

Shuddering, Zuko closed the door, and dropped to a crouch outside of it. He wanted to sleep the sickness off, but to do that with a snoring Sokka in the room? That would be impossible. So he resumed a comfortable sitting position outside the door, and let the gentle sounds of the rain do the rest.

"Aaaaahhh!" Zuko woke up with a shout. There had been someone standing just in front of him, and when he had rubbed his eyes hurriedly, the person disappeared in an instant.

"Who's there?" came a voice, and it sounded like...

"Sokka! Stop trying to scare the living daylights out of people! Don't you think you're already hilarious enough!?"

"Uhhhh, yeah, Zuko, is that you?" Sokka came into the dawn pink light that shown down from a large crack in the ceiling. "Zuko, I've been wanting to borrow your broad swords-- Oh, sages, you look awful." Sokka grimaced at Zuko, who realized he must look terrible, what with retching up the soup last night.

"Oh, um, must be the air. You know, it's uh, really sticky and humid..." Zuko trailed off into silence as Sokka was staring at his shirt front. Zuko looked down at himself. There was a huge green splotch on it.

"Zuko, are you feeling okay? That looks like, erm....." Sokka winced as Zuko plunked on the ground and tears began to collect in his eyes. "Should I get Katara or someone? Um......"

"NO! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" Zuko jumped up and pushed past Sokka, having no idea where he was going until a door was in front of him, and he opened it and slammed it shut behind him, and sank to the ground.

Within a few hours, Zuko was feeling alright enough to come out and apologize, explain, and eat breakfast. He just had to hope the group would accept the apologies and explanation, and not ask too many questions.

Zuko walked to the open space where the group usually had their meals. He was surprised on the way to find the sun had been replaced by stars, and saw a dark sky where it had been early morning orange before.

He saw a fire lit when he came to the open space, and the group was sitting around it. They were talking, and didn't see him come in. He was about to call hello when he heard his name. Smiling a little to himself, he guessed he would listen to their gossip until someone spotted him behind the stone counter where Katara usually cooked supper. It was exciting, spying on people when they didn't know it, and reminded him of his days as the Blue Spirit. Besides, was it so bad that he wanted to know their thoughts about him? Zuko shrank behind the stone counter, and stayed near the end, so that he could listen to their conversation. Something touched his arm as he put it down. He flinched, but discovered it was just a centi-spider. He squashed it with his thumb, and peered around the counter's corner to hear the group's conversation.

"Well, he has only been here one day. I guess he's just scared and a little homesick. I would be too, you know, if I suddenly joined up a bunch of people who I didn't really know."

"Katara, please. If Zuko just gets sick from being here one day, imagine how much he'll be pining for his Fire Nation in two weeks."

"Sokka! We need Zuko, he's the only one who can teach Aang fire bending before the Comet arrives!"

"I don't know, Katara. I'd sort of been hoping that Zuko would not be hiding in closets instead of teaching Aang fire bending!"

I was in a closet for the whole day? Thought Zuko, and he slapped his forehead. Oh my spirits, they really must be waiting for me to show up so that they can kick me off this temple's edge into that chasm. Maybe I'll do that on my own.

"Calm down Sokka. I forgive Zuko for doing this. I went through it myself. You know, after I came out of the iceberg and then the Southern Air Temple thing happened?" Zuko could hear the embarrassment and sadness in the Avatar's voice. "He needs time to heal, so Monk Gyatso would say. He needs time to get settled into this place."

"Aang's right, Sokka. You shouldn't blow up at Zuko the next time you see him just because he threw up and hid in a closet today--"

"Speak for yourself, Sugar Queen. I might just laugh my head off the next time I see Sparky, and I think I've invented a new nickname for him---"

"Toph! You are not allowed to call him Master Wet Match, or anything you've come up with---"

"Geeez, Sugar Queen, that nickname is so lame. I came up with a way better one than that."

"Well, don't say anything rude or mean."

"Katara, when we told you that Zuko locked himself in an old Bison feed closet, you couldn't stop laughing for three minutes."

"Well--"

"So don't tell us what we can and can't laugh at, Sweetness, 'cause you're mom enough already, and you can't take over what we take for good comedy--"

"Please, everyone, just don't--"

Zuko stepped out from behind the stone counter. Sokka dropped his bowl of soup, Katara swallowed her words, Aang choked on his spoonful of rice, and Toph grinned. Haru, The Duke, and Teo were all facing the other way, so they didn't know that Zuko had been listening. The Duke, however, did pull his helmet down when Zuko started to speak.

"I know what you're thinking. And you're right. I did need to get used to all of this. But I'm better now, and I promise to never run away when someone needs me. I made that promise to myself, and proved it when I joined you guys. Oh, and about the sickness.... Katara, your soup is just awful. I'll get my own food from now on, thanks."

Zuko sat down next to Aang, and reached for a bowl of rice near the fire. He picked up a spoonful and was swallowing it when he realized everyone was staring at him. Actually, they were staring from him to Katara, who was glaring at Zuko with sparking blue eyes, and a twitching eyebrow.

"Rule number one Sparky," Sokka said as his mouth curled into a smirk, " Never, ever, insult a woman's cooking. Especially Katara's."

"Were you sitting back there this whole time?" Katara asked through gritted teeth. Zuko put down his bowl of rice slowly. He thought he knew where this was going, and he didn't like it.

"Were you?" Katara hissed.

"Katara, I don't--"

"Answer the question, Sparky, or you're gonna get it." Toph was grinning as she laid her soup bowl down carefully, and settled against a log.

thirty

"Yeah, I was..." Zuko didn't like the way Katara was baring her teeth at him, or the way her hands were suddenly at her water skins.

"And did you just say my cooking was awful?" Katara's brow was so furrowed, Zuko thought it likely it would be stuck like that for all time.

"...Yes--"

Zuko couldn't say anymore, as a water whip just smacked him full on the face. He hit the ground with a hard thud on his back.

"Yay! Go Katara!" Sokka was up on his feet, already cheering his sister on.

"No!" yelled Aang, pleading for peace before the fight started. "Katara, please don't do this--"

Zuko looked up at the Water Tribe girl, who was standing over him with her hands shrouded in water.

"You want to start this?" Zuko asked, as Katara took up a stance. "Well, then, better get ready to PLAY!"

Zuko flipped over onto his feet as Katara lashed the spot where he had been laying. Flame sprouted on his hands, and he shot at her while she did some pretty impressive dodging....

Sokka cheered while Aang groaned, and The Duke, Haru, and Teo watched in amazement as Zuko shot speeding fire balls of flame at Katara, who was dodging, back flipping, and getting closer to the fountain in the center of the Air Temple, and drawing Zuko along with her.

Zuko almost realized too late that Katara had led him to the centerpiece fountain, and when she made an ice slide on the ground, he very nearly slipped on it. But he stepped outside the path of ice and Katara growled and jumped on it, sliding towards Zuko from the fountain. He smirked and as she slid right in front of him, grabbed her by her wrists and made his palms blazing hot. Then something slammed into him from behind and was very very cold. Katara had been moving water behind him, and now it had frozen him where he stood. But then Katara shrieked as her wrists were burned by his hands, and the wall of ice collapsed into water. She moved to the right, twisted her wrists and broke free of his fire hold. She then froze his feet to the floor. Zuko looked down at his shoes, smiling. The ice melted. And then she was pinned to a column by his hands, and their faces were inches apart.

Zuko could smell sweat on Katara's face, could see fear in her eyes. Liquid ran down her temples in tiny streams, and he could smell jasmine in her hair. Wait, jasmine....

A blast of air broke them apart. Zuko was thrown thirty feet across the floor as Aang ran to Katara, who had the most ridiculous looking air blasted hair he had ever seen. It shortly fell around her face, however, and as Zuko made to stand up, Haru and Sokka seized his shoulders and stood him up for himself.

"Alright, Katara, Zuko, stop fighting!" Aang yelled across the courtyard.

"Twinkletoes, they've already done that. Actually, you've already done that." Toph commented from her place still against the log.

"Thanks, Toph," Aang said sarcastically.

"That's what I'm here for," Said Toph complacently.

Aang shook his head and turned back to Katara and Zuko. "Look, you guys shouldn't be fighting. We're on the same side now, and there's no need to fight unless it's a mock battle..."

"He called my cooking awful! I see that as a challenge to fight!" Katara pushed Aang away from her. She marched up to Zuko, who had now shaken Haru and Sokka off his shoulders. "Look, mister, I--"

"Katara, I already said I would catch and cook and eat my own food from now on. It was your cooking that made me sick, and I can't teach the Avatar when I'm, um, sick."

"Well, fine! And you can clean your own plates, wash your own clothes, which by the way still have vomit on them, and--"

"Katara," Aang sighed sadly.

"No, Aang! I want to be treated with respect by this, this guy, and I'm--"

"Sugar Queen, shut it. Sparky doesn't want to fight, he's gonna pull his own weight, and yeah, your cooking sucks."

The whole group turned around to face Toph, who was picking rice out of her teeth with a muddy fingernail.

"Toph, that was extremely--"

"Sweetness, if Sparky is bold enough to say it, you know I'm sure as spirits gonna second it. Hey, Sparky, you know you have to pay me back, right? So I'm ordering you to make me meals too. If they're as half as good as Princess Pouty over there, I'll want them every day."

Zuko looked from Toph to Katara, wondering if he would have to jump in to save the little smart mouth Earth Bender. But Katara seemed to have run out of hot steam. "Fine. But if his cooking is horrible, don't come back to me begging for seal blubber salad or sea prune soup! I'm going to the showers." And with that, Katara turned on her heal and marched into the shadows.

Zuko found himself lost for words until Sokka clapped a hand on his back and led him to the campfire. He sat down on a log and stared into the crackling flames.

"Well, Zuko, glad that's out of the way, huh? Best to get the arguments out of the way quickly, you know, she's really awful when you're new and don't know her system...." Haru was grinning nervously at him from across the fire. Zuko looked up at him, then turned to Aang.

"She's been your water bending teacher since when?"

"Since last summer," Said Aang, gulping down rice that he hadn't finished.

"How does she react every time you mess a move up?"

"Um, she really doesn't, unless I mess it up big time or just can't get it right..."

"Most of the time she takes her anger out on Snoozles, " Toph grinned.

"Ah."

"And guess what, Sparky? I think Snoozles just passed the lantern of Katara's fuse to you."

"Great. Now I have to teach fire bending to one person, while trying to stay out of another one's path of pain for me."

"And don't forget me," Toph said happily, "You'll have to feed me or I'll lock you in a rock."

"And I can't forget the hungry hungry hippocow."

"That's right. Now on your feet, my valiant ostrich horse! You're going to take me to my room." Toph got to her feet and Zuko was pricked by a rock. He stood up, fuming.

"This wasn't part of the deal."

"Didn't we agree on your payback? Or did you have a chink of brimstone in your ear?"

Zuko sighed tiredly. Toph made a staircase of rock and climbed it. Zuko walked over to it, and Toph promptly plunked herself onto his back. He groaned. For a 12 year old, she was heavy. He was just about to leave for Toph's room when he saw the whole group of boys with their eyes on him.

"What?" Zuko snapped, and they all averted their eyes to the fire, except for Sokka.

"Well, Zuko, happy first day traveling with us."

"Thanks," Zuko grumbled, as he walked off to Toph's room. And when Toph called for him to canter, he distinctly heard snorts of laughter from around the fire. Gritting his teeth and vowing to put fire flakes in all their breakfasts tomorrow, he walked quickly towards Toph's room.

In the week following, Zuko seemed to have gained respect from all members of the group. He didn't put fire flakes in their breakfasts like he promised himself, but did other things so as to gain their trust and their acceptance.

He helped Sokka cut fire wood, The Duke with finding his lost stuffed toy and helmet, Haru and Teo with hunting and gathering, Aang with fire bending, and Toph with what ever struck her fancy. Only Katara seemed to want no part of Zuko's help, even when he offered to do this or that for her. She really seemed insistent that she could help herself, and avoided speaking to him, helping him, and sometimes walked out of a room when he walked into it. It was getting irritating, and he really wanted to be accepted by all members of the Avatar group. Katara not doing this was making him somehow annoyed, and angry. He just wanted to figure out what she was so mad about, and what he could do to make her see he didn't want to fight, and then they could just get along!

"Hey, Aang, do you know why Katara is so mad at me for?"

"Kind of busy now, ask me later."

"Oh, uh, sorry."

It was right after dawn, and Zuko had decided to take a shower before he went to pick some fruit for breakfast. Katara had kept her word, and was not making any food for him. Well, he could manage on his own anyway. As long as there was enough fruit for The Duke, Teo, Toph and Haru, he should be able to eat as well. The rest of the group (meaning The Duke, Teo, and Haru) had switched from Katara's menu to Zuko's when they tasted his recipe for smoked turkey trout. Sokka had only stayed on Katara's side because she was a water bender, and would seriously hurt him if he partook in Zuko's meal times. Haru didn't want to protect Sokka from Katara's wrath, and Teo said Sokka would be too heavy to make a quick get away on his glider. The Duke wouldn't have to face Katara's vengeance because he was six years old, and Toph, well, she had made herself clear after breakfast the day after Zuko and Katara's fight that she wouldn't eat Katara's food any longer. Aang, for water bending lessons to continue, had to eat Katara's food. Zuko, however, suspected Aang had another reason to be in Katara's good graces, but he couldn't confirm what he didn't know.

"Zuko? Oh, no....."

"Sokka? Aaaaaah! Put a towel on or something! Great sages, why me!?" Zuko threw his hands over his eyes and turned away, swearing at the sight he just saw. He rubbed his eyes furiously with his palms, and the image faded away.

"Gods in heaven, no one is allowed in here without a towel or something covering their chest to their feet!"

"Hey, I didn't think anyone would be in here this time of day!" Sokka was fumbling with something that sounded like a towel, but Zuko didn't want to open his eyes until he got the sages out of there. He chanced a look when he heard Sokka pulling down a shower chain. The chain led to a rock door under a waterfall, and when you pulled the chain, the door opened and water from the waterfall flowed down in a steady stream. Sokka was testing the temperature of the water with his hands when Zuko opened his eyes all the way, and he was relieved Sokka had a towel around his midriff. Still, he had to make a point with this, since Sokka was liable to forget other people showered sometimes too, and did not like to retch early in the morning.

"I rise with the sun! Rise. With. The. Sun. Why would I not be in here at this time of day?!"

"Because you weren't here any days of the last week...."

Zuko closed his eyes and steadied himself. No arguments, no anger, just be calm, he told his thoughts. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, before coming up with a not altogether rude remark to say.

"I'm just going to shut up now. You should too."

Sokka raised his finger in difience when Aang ran out of a stall door and shouted, "Everyone has to stop fighting! Sages and spirits, how can I stop the world from tearing itself to pieces when I can't even stop six people from doing that?!"

"Erm," said Sokka, counting on his fingers. "Don't you mean three? Teo and The Duke and Haru don't really do that...."

"Whatever the number is! Just please stop, just stop."

"Twinkletoes, I know we should all learn to stop beating each other up around you, but it's just so darn fun!"

Zuko, Sokka and Aang turned around to see Toph standing in the boy's bathroom doorway. Zuko could feel heat creeping up his face before remembering Toph couldn't see.

"Toph! What are you doing here---!"

"Be quiet Snoozles, this will only take a second. Then you can go back to your nice tea party."

Aang, Sokka and Zuko glanced at each other. The others were both flushed. Zuko could sense that he was too. If Toph could see them now..... she'd be laughing. Why did Sokka leave the door open? Oh, wait, Zuko thought, Toph probably opened it. She can't see the sign on the door. And she can't see me. She doesn't know... Zuko looked down at his towel.

"Twinkletoes, Princess Pouty needs you to get something for her, it's way up high in a corner, and she can't reach it with a water whip or whatever she did..."

"Katara can't reach something with her water stretch technique? Why not?" Aang's voice was high and he was on his tip toes, though Zuko couldn't see why he would be, unless it was helping him deal with this.... situation.

"Because I put it where she can't see, Fancy Pants. Why are your heart beats racing so fast?" Toph cocked her head to one side and pointed a little to the left of where Aang was. "Come on, Twinkletoes, normally you'd be racing to anywhere Princess Pouty needed help with anything. Let's get a move on, or she'll explode." Toph then looked straight at Zuko, and he was unnerved as she smiled and said, "But maybe Sparky can do that anyway."

Aang looked pained as he answered Toph's request. "Ah, yeah, I'll do that in two seconds, Toph, I just need those pieces of fabric to your left...."

The earth bender looked slightly to the right of where Aang was, confusion on her features. "What do you need those for? Princess Pouty will be here any----"

"TOPH!"

"Now you've done it, Twinkletoes, way to go slow." Toph winced and wheeled to the side, ready to face Katara.

Katara was right beside Toph in about two seconds, so Zuko didn't really have a chance to duck into a stall and not be seen. She looked wild and riled. Her cheeks, despite her dark complexion, were pink and there were rivulets of sweat running down her temples. Her clothes were torn and ragged, when Zuko could remember seeing them fine the night before. There was a tear that exposed her flat stomach, and her stockings were gone. There were also little rips here and there showing tiny amounts of skin, and she had the fiercest blue eyed glare Zuko had ever seen.

"Toph! You have got some explaining and--"

Katara was hit on the side by a rock and was slammed into Zuko.

Zuko closed his eyes and leaned forward into her hair. It was bushy and hot and smelled of jasmine, sweat and pepper. His mind seemed to close down and his thoughts raced out of his control. They swirled and twirled and taunted him with images and then his arms wrapped around her waist...

Then she was off of him and yelling at Toph, before she stopped short suddenly and turned very slowly to the three boys behind her. She looked Sokka, Aang and Zuko once up and down, then her hands flew over her eyes and she seemed overcome by a wave of giggles.

"What's so funny, Princess Pouty? Is it ---"

"Toph," Katara said, hands still over eyes, "Do you know what room this is?"

Toph looked a tiny bit to the right of where Katara's face was. "This is where Twinkletoes and his loyal servants Sparky and Snoozles gather for tea parties, right?"

Katara shook her head and her hands came down. Zuko took a tiny step backward, thinking Katara might have her eyes opened. They were closed.

"Toph, this is not a place to discuss this. Let's go back to the court yard. Aang can find me later." Katara turned around and walked down the corridor.

Toph looked directly at Zuko's face, which scared him very much, before he reminded himself that Toph could not see him.

"Well, she sounds sincere, so I'm going now, um, have fun with whatever you were doing." Toph walked the same way after Katara.

Zuko shivered. He suddenly felt very unclean, but did not want to wash here right now. He picked up his clothes from the dry sink basin and rushed out to change and go about his normal day as usual.

That night, he vowed he would find new shower and bathroom stalls, and would never mention the episode in the bathroom of that morning ever again. He carried out his word.

A few weeks after, Zuko had settled into a completely comfortable routine that varied little from day to day. He got up, showered, gathered food, ate, taught Aang, went to gather firewood, catch something tasty for lunch (why was he always hungry now?), do something Toph wanted, cook lunch and eat it, follow Toph's orders, watch Aang practice with Toph, gather food or catch something for dinner, get ordered around by Toph (she was really taking advantage of this payback thing) cook dinner, eat dinner, then tuck (you guessed it) Toph into bed and make up a story so she would go to sleep finally. Then he usually went to bed around 11:30.

This was a great thing, routine, Zuko learned. You never were unexpectedly attacked by your sister, and you were around people you could trust, and every day you knew what you had to do, and so you did just that. It was certainly different from being on the run, where you knew nothing of what was going to happen next, and at any second you could be attacked or killed. No. For now, this was way better than being a refugee, in a world of unexpected nasty surprises. Why hadn't he known about this earlier?

During one afternoon, a little after giving Toph a ride on his back (it was killing him) he settled against a log around the fire pit and picked up a thick stick of wood he had been carving. He had picked up the habit from Haru, except Haru liked to carve things out of rocks, and Zuko wasn't gifted with that ability. He was carving the stick into a knife. He knew it wasn't all that impressive or most creative thing to do with a carving, but it gave him something to do when everyone else was doing their own things. The Duke was taking a nap right now, Teo was playing with Haru in the all day echo chamber, Sokka was out hunting meat, and Katara was practicing water bending with Aang. Zuko didn't know where Toph was.

She was strange, Toph. Zuko felt she was the little sister he never had, and he was, well, bonding with the earth bender. He liked her wise cracks about the others, and she was cute and smart and needed him. She was the little sister he had always wanted, he realized. It was a good feeling, being her "ostrich horse" and chef and story provider. It also was a bad feeling, sometimes, because he knew this was supposed to be between Azula and him, and it wasn't. Azula was a monster, but she was his sister. Toph was a sarcastic little earth bender, and they weren't related at all.

"I wish we were," Zuko spoke aloud to his half carved knife. "Maybe I am related to her in a little way, back through generations and, stuff." Zuko was having a hard time finding words for this thought, when a voice sounded behind him.

"Who are you talking to? What are you doing here?" Zuko half turned to see Katara, in her water bending clothes. They looked like underwear.

"Good question. What are you wearing?" Of course, Zuko knew what she was wearing. It was just pleasant conversation, and he was not thinking about her wild hair or chest or legs or anything related to Katara's body.

"Oh. These are my water bending clothes. I was going to change out of them, but I thought I would take a shower first. I am so sweaty right now." Katara sat on the log that Zuko was leaning against while carving his wooden knife.

"Right," Zuko said, and he was not thinking about the way Katara's thigh was touching his shoulder just very slightly, he was not thinking that her hair smelled very very nice, or her skin being shiny with sweat...

"But then I came along and saw you. So, what is that? It looks like a knife." Katara held out her hand and Zuko mutely put the carved object into it. She turned it over, and frowned. Zuko swallowed. Then Katara sank down next to him, and studied the knife. Zuko was not aware of her leg touching his, or her hair smelling like jasmine. He did not care that she was appraising his carving, and he was not going to say anything about anything when she returned his knife and walked on to the steamy showers. No, no, he didn't care, he didn't care....

"Did you make this yourself? This is well done. Have you carved before?" Katara looked into his eyes, and he was unconsciously aware that he was leaning forward towards her mouth...

"Are you feeling all right? Zuko?" His name was what brought his mind to earth. This was not happening, and he was not just about to kiss a water bender. A water bender peasant. A very hot water bender p--

"No!" Zuko shouted, and he scrambled to his feet. Katara looked scandalized, but her features quickly turned to concern. She jumped up, leaving the knife on the floor.

"Zuko, you're not feeling okay? You looked flushed, do you have a temperature?" Katara put her hand to Zuko's forehead, but he pushed it away.

"I'm fine," Zuko spat. "What's your problem? Going around and touching everybody in those clothes! Don't do that!" Zuko turned on his heal and was about to storm away when he heard Toph calling his name.

"Not now Toph! I'm busy!" Zuko shouted across the courtyard, and then he walked smack into a wall. He swore loudly, holding his head, and his body was zoomed by way of earth to Toph, who for some reason looked ecstatic.

"Sparky! We're rich! We're rich!" Toph jumped on him, and he slammed into the ground, groaning. "Oops, sorry Sparky," said Toph, but she bounced on him anyway. "We're rich!"

"Get off me!" Zuko shrieked. Toph obliged. When Zuko had gotten up and brushed himself free of imaginary dirt, Katara walked up to Toph and said with a skeptical look on her face, "Care to explain?"

"Hey, Snoozles, remember when you tripped on that rock this morning?"

Toph was riding on Zuko's back as he shimmied down a vine. He was frowning at his hands in concentration of not slipping down into the chasm below him, and he was grimacing in pain at Toph's weight combined with his own. Sokka, Katara, Aang, and Haru were above him. Toph wanted to be the leader down to the cave that she had found. It was full of what Toph thought was gold.

"Yeah, thanks for reminding me about that. My head still hurts from falling on the hard rock ground." Sokka snorted and then yelped. He had probably lost his grip on the slippery vine for a second, but as Zuko looked upward, he could still see the water tribe boy climbing down the vine. He shook his head and returned to keeping a hand around his own length of the plant rope.

"Yeah, no problem. Anyway, from where I was sitting, I could feel your vibrations. I knew you fell."

"Uh huh. You laughed." "

"Yes. But I also felt other vibrations, and they went deep, deep down. It was kinda like a right angle effect. Vibrations from you, to me, and then they hit what I felt as a cliff side cave! So I went to explore it--"

"Why didn't you tell anyone? You could have--"

"Yeah, yeah, could have done this or that, right, Sweetness. That's exactly why I didn't tell anyone. They would run off to you, and I know what you would do." Zuko imagined Toph rolling her non-seeing eyes above at Katara.

And she must have done just that, because Katara growled low in her throat.

"Why couldn't we just take Appa down here? He's a flying bison, and we wouldn't have to worry about falling to our--"

"Haru," Aang cut in, "Appa doesn't like cliffside caves. And from what Toph told me, there isn't enough room for Appa to fit in the cave once we fly down there anyway. What's the point then? Besides, he's tired."

"What about earth bending, huh? Haru, Toph, Aang, couldn't we just--"

"Sokka, how much do you know about earth bending? Nothing. It's too risky with this kind of cliff, anyway. Pull out a chunk. See? It's all crumbly." Toph threw a big ball of the cliff at Sokka's head, but he ducked and it knocked Haru's hat off. The yellow and green cap fell rapidly into the mist filled chasm.

"Aw, man. Sokka!"

"Sorry. But that hat looked dumb anyway. Toph, I thought you were the greatest earth bender in the--"

"I am. But if I make a slide or something to speed us down to the cave, it would crumble under our weight. And what's wrong with a little vine climbing anyhow? It's fun."

"Depends on how you view that," growled Zuko from underneath Toph. "If you're carrying someone down as opposed to being carried by someone--"

"Sparky, shush. You owe me payback. This is justified payment. Now, yip yip!"

Zuko groaned and moved down the vine a little at a time. The vine was slippery from the mist swirling in the chasm that was threateningly dark and deep. Fluid was running down his temples and hands, and it was all he could do from slipping and falling. He forced himself not to look down, and just keep moving, just a tiny bit at a time, don't miss a hand down, don't loosen the grip...

"We're here!" Toph shouted in a cheery voice.

"How can you tell?" Aang asked. "I don't see any cave entrance..."

"I do!" yelled Haru. He sounded excited. "I think I see something glinting too, you might be right Toph, maybe it is gold!"

"I didn't say I think it's gold," Toph was standing on Zuko's shoulders while he winced and held his breath, and she was feeling the air for a closer vine to the entrance. "I said, I know it's gold."

Toph found a vine closest to the bizarrely tiny hole that was the cave's 'doorway'. It looked too small to fit Zuko's frame, and he wondered if he could hold on to the vine long enough before everyone came back.

"Uh, Toph," Katara said in a small voice, "That looks very, um..."

"Precarious?" Aang suggested. "Dangerous? Perilous? Maybe a little suicidal?"

"Thanks, Avatar, now I feel a lot better." Zuko glanced up at him before turning his hopeless gaze at the world's smallest gold cave entrance.

"You're welcome. And you can call me Aang," the Avatar sounded sheepish and annoyed at the same time. How does he do that? Make people feel appreciated and hurt at the same time? Zuko wondered. Maybe it's a monk thing....

"Don't worry, my big boned valets," said Toph in a mocking tone. "We'll just have to make the hole bigger. Now let's see, how can we possibly do that? Oh, I don't know..." A piece of rock broke away from the entrance, revealing a little bigger hole in which to enter the gold cave. Toph turned sideways from her vine to the group, who were now clambering down their own vegetation swing. Zuko swung the plant rope backwards, and when it came closest to the cave edge he hopped from it to the entrance, landing splendidly on his feet. Toph jumped on him afterwards, and he slammed to the floor with a thud. "You're welcome."

"Thanks," was Zuko's muffled angry reply. Toph jumped off him to slam Sokka to the ground for not thanking her. Zuko stood up and brushed something glittery off his shirt. Wait..... glittery? Zuko gasped. Diamonds. He had just brushed the dust of diamonds off his clothes. His jaw would have dropped to the floor of the cave if it could have. The whole place was glittering and sparkling, not just with diamonds and gold.

With the tiny entrance, Zuko thought the cave must be miniscule. Not so. The underground miracle was about as large as the courtyard where they had meal times. And just about every foot of it was shiny, and encrusted with jewels, diamonds, gold or silver. There were even some gems glowing on the floor. From what Zuko could see in the entrance's light, the cave stretched on into darkness, for who knows how long. Every where the entrance's light hit, there was a jewel to wink at him.

Haru lit a torch, and Sokka cried out loud. Aang's mouth fell open, and Katara was on her knees. Zuko turned around slowly to Toph, and said hesitantly, without daring to believe the huge expanse of the jewels and gems, "Do you think anyone else knows about this? Can you tell if anyone's been in here before?" Toph shook her head.

"I can't tell. It must look really pretty. Too bad I can't see."

"Toph," Sokka whispered, and it echoed in the vast cave. "What would we ever, ever, do without you?"

"Easy, Snoozles. I think you're about to faint..."

"This is amazing!" Katara shouted, and it rebounded back to her, saying, 'amazing!' "Just think how long it took this cave to make all these gems and minerals! Must be thousands of--"

"Yeah, yeah. Haru! Can you earthbend some of these money makers out of here?! We are going to be so so rich after this war!"

"Can't, Sokka," said Haru, standing in awe of the glittering treasures. "This cave--"

"WHAT!? What do you mean CAN'T!? I want to be rich! I--"

"Snoozles, Super Stache has a point. You can't take a single gem outta here. The cave would be out of balance, and it would crumble underneath our feet. There is an open pocket of air all around here, and the cave is just stable enough to stand as long as no one upsets it. We can stand in here because it's already balanced, but take a single jewel out..."

"Toph! Why would you bring me here just to see the gems if we couldn't take any?!" Sokka shouted, sounding angry and exasperated. Then his face lit up. "Aang, if you could air bend us out of here when the cave collapses, or Toph and you and Haru could rock bend some rocks to--"

"Snoozles, this earth is too unstable to bend!"

"Sokka, even if I could air bend us out in time before the cave crumbles, I still wouldn't do it." Everyone looked at Aang. He sighed. "The monks taught us about greed. It's unhealthy, and it makes us lose sight of what we really need--"

"Aang!" Sokka jumped up from the cave floor and shook him by the shoulders. "Forget the monks! We could be--!"

"Sokka! This cave is underneath an Air Temple floor! An Air Temple! How can I forget the monks and scalp every gem I can when the monks taught me it's wrong! The monks from the Air Temples! Like the one you're living in!"

Sokka let Aang go, and Aang took a deep breath. He whirled around and pointed a finger at all of them in turn. "Maybe you should hack the jewels away from this floor, so that it would be thrown out of balance and you could all be destroyed! Or maybe you'd like the cave left in peace and we can go back to the Temple without turning into greedy animals!" Aang stomped up to Toph and jabbed a finger in her chest. "Why'd you bring us here if it would only cause greed and thoughts of worldly possessions, namely, money!"

Toph's eyes filled with water. Aang did not avert his stormy gray orbs from her face. He narrowed them instead. "Well!?"

"Maybe it's because I wanted to share something beautiful with people I like. Something I could keep to myself, but wanted other people to appreciate how pretty it is." Aang lowered his accusing hand. He looked ashamed. Sokka glanced at a gem, then turned away. Haru was staring at his feet. Katara's features showed concern, and she looked like she wanted to run to Toph and hug her, but was containing herself. Zuko just thought how sorry Toph must be if she wasn't wise cracking at Aang's anger. He then felt a strange sensation in the middle of his rib cage. He hoped it was pity, instead of love or something mushy like that...

"After all, I can't see it." Toph let tears flow down her face, and Katara rushed up to hug her, and Aang did too. Sokka ambled over to join in, and Haru, after hanging back a moment, did as well. Zuko didn't really want to, but at a frown from Katara, he walked slowly over to embrace them all. He was about to close his eyes when he noticed a human figure standing in the half light of the cave. The person had a hood, so he couldn't see all of it's face, but it's lips twisted into a smile without teeth, and as soon as he blinked, the figure was gone. Breaking away from the hug, he took up a fire bending stance and shot flame in the direction of the faded person. No return shot was fired. But the cave creaked, and started to tilt....

"ZUKO!" Katara screamed, and the hug broke up. "What did you DO?!"

"I saw someone, I thought--" Zuko tried, but was cut off by Haru.

"Quick! We have to get to the entrance before this place crumbles, and we crumble with it!" Aang, Katara, Sokka, Haru, and Toph started running for the entrance.

"I don't understand," mumbled Zuko, wondering why he had put them all in life threatening danger for a stupid vision. "That guy was right there...."

"ZUKO! GET OVER HERE AND DON'T PLAY HERO!" Toph shrieked and Zuko started, realized the rate at which the cave was closing in around him, and ran for the exit. He had barely made it out when a rock pinned his shirt to the ground. "Oh, sages, why me, why ever me? Toph! I'm stuck!" He felt stupid for asking help from Toph, but this was very serious.

"ZUKO! COME ON! RIP YOUR SHIRT OFF! LET'S NOT DIE TODAY!" Katara yelled, and made fast motions with her hand towards the vine, which the others were already on.

"Oh, right, am I that stupid?" Zuko thought before ripping his shirt in half and pulling free of it, and Katara grabbed him by the wrist as they ran for the exit, and made a leap from there to the vine, which snapped...

And they all fell to a rock jutting out from the cliff.

"Hurry up!" Toph shouted. "Get to a vine! This is not gonna hold forever!" She made a flying leap to Haru's back, and the older earth bender quickly grabbed onto a vine and started to scale it. Following his lead, Zuko swung Katara, who was still holding his wrist, to the plant rope, and climbed up after her. Sokka followed, but as Aang prepared to take up the vegetation in his hand, the rocky plateau created so fast by Toph gave way. Aang was falling, falling, falling...

"NO!" screamed Katara and Zuko in unison. He prepared to jump after the Avatar, maybe to save him, but then a blast of air rushed past him..... Aang was flying up the cliff on his air scooter.

"Hey guys! Last one up is a rotten platypus bear's egg!" Aang yelled behind him as he zoomed up the rocky cliffside with ease on his air scooter.

"Why didn't we just do that in the first place?" Sokka questioned the whole vine climbing clergy. They all groaned.

"Snoozles, in case you haven't noticed, Twinkletoes is an air bender. You're not. And you need to build up your upper arm strength."

"What's wrong with my upper arms? Aang could have flown us easy down here, then back up. He's being lazy, not me."

"Sokka, it's a lot harder working under pressure. We could have easily fallen to our deaths if Aang just air bended us down here. And Toph is right, you do need to work on those muscles."

"Katara, please. You're jealous of my upper arms. Don't worry. Everyone is. " Zuko kicked his foot at Sokka's head. His foot made contact, and Sokka snarled.

"Hey! And if Sparky hadn't decided to light the cave on fire, Aang wouldn't have been under pressure to zoom us back to the top of the Air Temple!"

"Yeah, Sparky, why did you suddenly want to burn the cave down to the ground?" Katara asked sweetly, and yet oh so sarcastically. "You could have had us all killed, did you know that?"

"Cut the sarcasm. When you guys were, um, embracing all over the place--"

"Aw, Sparky, you were too..." Zuko aimed another kick for Sokka's head. He missed. He heard Sokka stifle a laugh, but pretended not to notice.

"I saw a person walk out from the cave's shadows, and--"

"Woah. Back up. I didn't feel any other person in the cave besides you, me, Sugar Queen, Snoozles, Twinkletoes, and Super Statche. By the way, who's carrying me?"

"I am."

"Oh. I thought you were Sparky."

"Boo hoo. I'm disappointed."

Zuko tried to stop the heat he felt creeping up his face, but it stayed. It would probably be gone by the time they got up to the Air temple, though. He smiled in his head at this thought. He didn't really show his emotions to other people, even if he knew them really well. It was something he had grown up to learn, and do. Old habits were hard to kick. And he would need another shirt. That was another thing he didn't like showing off...

"So, who did it look like? Azula?" Katara's words brought Zuko back to the situation at hand. The air was starting to thin out the mist, and he could smell something roasting, probably The Duke's attempt at making himself dinner. Aang had to be back at the top of the temple by now, and Zuko was hungry. He thought about the gazelle deer he had caught before starting his carvings. His mouth watered. Yummm, gazelle deer.....

"Zuko? Hello?" Katara's foot tapped his head. Zuko looked up, and he could see up her dress to the start of her thighs. He glanced down quickly, flushing. Again.

"Erm, I couldn't tell who it was. They had a hood...."

"Well, they're probably dead by now, let's hope?" Sokka said. "I mean, if they were an enemy. If they were trying to help us, oh well."

"Sokka! What he had was probably a vision induced by no sleep, or something. Zuko, you haven't been having insomnia lately, have you?"

"What's that?" Zuko was messing around. He knew what insomnia was. It was just fun making people frustrated.

"Insomnia? You know, no sleeping? Or cactus juice, Sokka had lots of weird visions during those eight hours..."

"Cactus juice?" That sounded funny. He'd never really heard of that.

"Yeah...."

"We've reached the top. Finally." Haru said. Zuko pulled himself up a few short seconds later. The smell of burning flesh filled his nasal cavity.

"What is that awful stink?" Katara said, more to herself, Zuko suspected, than to him, even though he was standing right by her.

"Uh, a teensy bit of help, Katara, Toph, anyone?" Zuko looked at the ledge where the vine took root in the rock. Sokka was having a hard time pulling himself up. Zuko smirked, and went to see what the burning stench was. As he was walking toward the courtyard, where the smell seemed to be coming from, he distinctly heard Toph say, "See, Snoozles, you need to work on your fore arm strength. Try not to fall as you pull yourself up. See you later. C'mon, Katara."

Then Zuko heard Katara laugh. She had a nice laugh. It was high and light. Zuko turned into the courtyard, and a horrible sight met his eyes.

"Hi, what's up?" The Duke grinned guiltily as he tried prying off a sample of burned gazelle deer with his hands. The whole gazelle deer was burned, from the tips of it's antlers to it's fluffy tail. The Duke must have gotten hungry and found it, and tried to cook it... with little success. And a whole heap of charred failure.

"Teo thinks I cooked it too long. He went off somewhere with Aang.... Do you want some?"

Zuko hit his palm to his forehead.

Aang wanted to learn how to conduct lightning. Zuko had not entertained the possible situation that the Avatar would want to learn how to shoot hot and very dangerous strands of pure energy at the enemy. His father. Zuko himself had never produced the stuff, he had only redirected it. At his father. Oh, spirits, what if they lost this war? What would happen to him? To the Avatar? To Toph, The Duke, Katara? He didn't care so much about Sokka and Haru. Wait, did he just think about what would happen to Katara? He did not care about that girl. Person. He did not try to spy on her when she taught water bending to Aang. He just didn't have anything else to do... Stop it Zuko, he told himself every time his feet wandered in the direction of the smaller more secluded courtyard. True, she was a good water bender, and had only recently become nicer to him... and the way she moved with water bending, she was so flexible, supple, nimble... No! That was not a thought, that image did not just pop into my head! I am not thinking about—!

"Um, are you going to--"

"What? No! No, that is never going to happen!" Zuko just had a mental image that severely frightened him, one of Kata---

"Uh uh! No way!" Zuko swallowed.

"Erm, are you okay? If you don't want to teach me lightning today, I can just go practice water bending with Katara..." Aang was looking worriedly at Zuko. He straightened up, and tried to free his mind from his gross imaginings. He assumed a calm, straight face, and said with slight apologies,

"No, um, I was thinking about something else. We can't practice lightning today. But we can practice your fire leg technique. Your leg has to be completely tense and you have to really imagine the heat in your skin--"

"Boring," came Toph's voice from up top a rock, where she had been sitting and sucking a piece of jade lilly grass. "Make Twinkletoes do the fire crackly lightning. I want to see that."

"Toph, you can't see," Zuko said, annoyed and afraid that he would not be able to teach the Avatar how to produce lightning. He himself had never done it before. He could teach Aang how to do stuff he knew, but not lightning. He wished Uncle Iroh was here with him. If he had just moved faster, and had been able to catch up with his Uncle before his prison break out....

"I know that, but I can still feel vibrations in the earth and sometimes the air. I'm not blind entirely." Toph scoffed from her rock. She spat out the jade lilly strand, and settled back against the stone. Suddenly she smiled mischievously. Zuko frowned at Toph, before remembering she couldn't see him.

"Let's ask Sugar Queen if she wants to see the lightning too!" Toph said, and then stood up on the boulder and bellowed loudly over it, "Hey! Sugar Queen! Sparky's gonna teach Twinkletoes to make fried Ozai in one hot firebending strike! Lightning!"

"Coming, Toph!"

Toph whirled around and sat on the boulder again. She grinned at Zuko. He felt unnerved. Katara rounded a column, and was greeted by a shirtless Aang, who ran to give her a hug. She had been preparing lunch, for she had only recently fought a helpless Zuko on a full moon for a recipe book of his. Now she was the meal matron once again, because her cooking had improved a great deal since she wrestled Zuko for his entire collection of recipe books. He had to take a long, cold shower afterwards. But she won fair and square, and he did not wish to make the breakfasts and dinners and suppers anyway anymore. Wrestling Katara had just been a bonus in.... Stop thinking that! Why is she staring at me?

Katara, in fact, was staring at him because, just like Aang, he did not wear a shirt firebending. She put her hand up to her mouth, seemingly to cough, and went to sit over with Toph, who was smiling widely. Zuko forced his attention to the Avatar, and was intent on not focusing on Katara, but he was, now, going to teach Aang how to fire lightning. And Katara did not have anything to do with that. No, she did not.

Zuko stretched and rolled his head along his neck. Aang did the same. The monk frequently glanced up at Katara, and she gave him a smile each time, an encouraging smile. Aang would beam, and then see what Zuko was warming up with next. After about the fifth time the Avatar looked in the water tribe girl's direction, Zuko was starting to get annoyed. And Toph was smirking, it seemed, right in his direction each time he glanced up there too. Why was he looking up there the same time as Aang?

"Okay, Avatar," Zuko began. Aang turned from waving slightly at Katara to him. "You can call me Aang, you know?" He sounded a little disappointed. Zuko stopped his grin as it tried to force itself onto his face. "I know. Let's get started...

"My uncle tried to teach me to shoot lightning once. It didn't work. I was too angry, I suppose, and I didn't have peace or calmness to separate the energies, to create lightning. You have to be completely at peace with yourself, because lightning is not fueled by anger, rage, or angst. That's what my uncle said. He also said only a select few fire benders can conduct lightning. You might not be able to do it--"

"I remember, in one of my spirit world journeys, Roku shot lightning. He did it really well." Zuko stared at him. Aang smiled happily back. This kid is so frustrating sometimes, Zuko thought. He took a deep breath, and tried again to explain the complex fragile structure of lightning.

"That's great. But you still might not be able to do it. You haven't been practicing fire bending for very long."

"But I'm a monk. I'm totally in a stable mental and physical state of mind, always. The monks didn't have many anxieties to deal with, so I should be able to generate it." He sounded so sure of himself, Zuko made a mental note to laugh into his pillow that night if the kid failed.

"But, Aang," said Katara from her perch on the rock, "Just be prepared if you can't. Like Zuko said, you haven't been a fire bender for very long, so--"

"Twinkletoes, if you don't succeed, try again. And if that doesn't work, suck it in and hold the water works for Queenie. I'm not in a mood for a water show today." Katara rounded on Toph, glaring daggers.

"Toph, I was speaking—"

"Turn on the dazzling fireworks! I can't wait here all day!" Katara opened her mouth and closed it, brows furrowing and eyes piercing. "Toph, that was very rude."

"Sorry, Queenie, but I really ain't got all day to wait for the lightning to strike. Keep your sentimental speeches for after the show, okay?" Katara looked shocked, then narrowed her eyes, and jumped off the boulder. Zuko watched in partial amusement as she settled herself on a heap of stone about thirty yards away from the earth bender. She then glared at Zuko, who averted his eyes right away.

"Well! What are you waiting for? Start the fireworks and lightning and mystical crackles of the fire bending world!" Katara shouted from her seat atop the large pile of rocks. Out of the corners of his eyes, he saw Toph roll her unseeing ones and blow a piece of hair out of her face.

"Right," Zuko said tentatively, "Now that that's settled, um, Aang, copy this stance." Zuko slid his foot backwards, and put one hand a little behind his head, his fingers making an abstract peace sign. He moved his other hand near his waist, and formed his fingers into a kind of fin. Aang copied him. Zuko walked toward him to see if he was doing it right. His hand was a little higher than it should be at his waist, and Zuko corrected it. He also made Aang slide his foot backwards by about two inches. "There. Now imagine there are two kinds of energy all around you. You need to separate those energies, and channel them through your body, but, um, don't try to control them, just try to let them flow inside you, and then release them, erm, over there." Zuko pointed at a distant cliff, across the abyss from where the Air Temple was hanging.

"I'll try my best," said Aang, frowning as he appeared to concentrate.

"Yeah, go for it, but don't be surprised if you don't--" Zuko's good eye popped. Aang had just shot a blue bolt of crackling electricity over the abyss's edge. He saw and heard the rocky cliff in the distance crumble into the chasm. He was really astonished. Just plain shocked. How in the effing world did he do that? On his first try!?

Katara and Toph too, looked speechless. Then Katara cheered loudly, and Toph said slowly, "Wow, Twinkletoes. I never thought you had it in you." Zuko was utterly amazed. Aang turned his shining face towards his teacher, and ran to give him a huge hug.

"You're the best fire bending teacher in the world!" Aang beamed. And then Katara ran from her rocky throne to hug them too. Aang broke away from Zuko and twirled Katara in the air.

"I'm going to cook your favorite meal tonight, Aang. Wait till the others hear you shot lightning on your very first time! They'll be so impressed!" And with that, she hurried away to tell The Duke, Haru, Teo, and Sokka. Aang ran after her, giggling with glee. Zuko found himself staring in disbelief after the pair of them, then scowled and folded his arms across his bare chest. Toph jumped off her tall stone and walked over to him.

"You don't have to be mad at him, Sparky. He's the Avatar. He supposed to surpass normal people at things." Toph looked up at him, though she couldn't see his face. He supposed it was for dramatic effect. Toph then grinned, and said slyly, "And he did like her first..."

Zuko whirled on Toph, flushing and ready to retort something before stomping away. But Toph grinned and arched her eyebrows at him. "I'm not completely blind, you know."

Zuko threw his hands in the air and tried to walk away lightly to lunch. Toph was grinning all through the hour.

That night, the little party where Katara cooked some of Aang's favorite dishes from Zuko's won recipe book, ended with a fabulous dessert and some thick purple drink Sokka had made out of grapes. He had spent the day trying to catch a 'particularly tasty looking meat creature' and had stumbled into a pit, probably made by trackers to catch animals, but had been long forgotten. The pit was too deep to climb out of and it was getting dark outside, and Sokka figured he would be there awhile. That's when he stumbled on a growth of plants, and they bore fruit. Tasty fruit. Also, Sokka realized the plants had long vines that attached to the ground outside of the deep pit he was trapped in. He climbed up the vines, simple as that, and raced to find Haru and Teo so they could taste the plants fruit too. Teo identified the tasty flesh as purple sweet vine grapes, which had grown in the Northern Air Temple's garden. He had grown up eating them. He also knew how to make a sweet drink out of them. The party was a perfect unveiling of the drink. Everyone loved it. Even Zuko had to admit it was good, despite that he was still in a sour mood.

"Sokka, do you think you could take us to the pit tomorrow to get more grapes? This stuff is good!" Katara was drinking her fourth bowl of it. Everyone else was nearly on their sixth, and the pot of the thick drink was almost gone.

"Sure! This stuff is great! Teo, I didn't know you could make drinks out of fruit." Sokka's mouth was stained deep violet. Everyone else's was too.

"It was actually my father's idea," Teo said between bites of egg custard tart. Aang insisted the tart be served as dessert. It was his favorite. Zuko was allergic to pig chicken eggs. Just his luck. Or the Avatar's planning?

"Your father is such a genius," Sokka sighed happily as he shoveled tart in his mouth.

"Yeah, isn't he? I'm glad I got his genius too."

Everyone laughed, though Zuko didn't see what was so funny about Teo's comment. Maybe it was the grape drink. In any case, he didn't laugh.

The next morning after a lengthy shower and lazy breakfast, (The group had decided to spend the day hiking in the woods to find firewood, and the grape pit) everyone started to climb up the vine leading to the top of the Air Temple. There were woods just a little further to the right of the grassy banks above the Temple, and that was where their meat and wood came from. Aang led the way, sprinting into the forest first with The Duke, Teo, and Toph hot on his heels. Haru, Katara, Sokka, and Zuko were left behind to walk a slower pace than them. Like adults, Zuko thought, staying together and talking while their kids run around at the park. He found himself walking besides Katara, and did not try to draw attention to it. But he suddenly noticed her long, bushy hair was touching his shoulder, and he made to brush it off.

"Ouch! What are you doing?" Oh, no. Zuko had hurt her hair. Wait, how is that possible? Hair is dead skin cells growing out of the top of your head, it can't hurt...

"Nothing. Um. When was the last time you washed your hair?" Zuko was taken aback by his question. Did he really just ask that?

"Excuse me?" Katara was looking oddly at him. He fixed his stare ahead of himself, determined not to meet her gaze.

"It's just, really bushy and long and has a leaf in it... do you want me to get that for you?" She really did have a maple leaf in her hair. Why was he suddenly looking at her hair? He had been looking at that tree a second before.

"No," Katara said, and she plucked the maple leaf out of her bushy black locks. "Hmmm. That's odd. It's not windy today."

"You should just cut off all your hair, sis. Like Aang! Want me to shave you when we get back?" Sokka mimed having a razor in his hand, and leered over Katara's head. She shoved him. He stepped on his own toe.

"Ouch! I was just kidding!" Sokka stopped and sat down, holding his foot. Haru, Katara, and reluctantly, Zuko, halted too. Katara bent down beside her brother.

"Sokka, your sense of humor is hard to decipher over your sense of seriousness." Katara laughed, and Sokka growled at her. Zuko liked her laugh. It was... what? What was he talking about?

"Come on, guys. Aang, Teo, The Duke and Toph are way far ahead of us right now. Let's go. Sokka, that's not a serious injury." Haru looked at Sokka's shoe and said, "Or is it?"

Sokka opened his mouth, most likely to complain, when Katara said, "He'll be fine, Haru. C'mon. I think I see Toph... wait, who is that?" Katara squinted and Zuko followed her gaze and narrowed his eyes too. There appeared to be a figure in the distance, and it was walking towards them. It was of medium height and thin, and looked like it was draped with robes. Zuko felt a slight moistening of his palms, and was surprised to see mist had gathered around them. It wasn't foggy a second before. The figure came closer and closer, and Haru, it seemed as an act of courage, shouted out.

"Who are you? What do you want?"

The figure advanced more, then, just twenty feet in front of them, it stopped. Zuko couldn't make out more that its shape, because of the mist, but it seemed familiar in a bizarre way. It was dressed with several layers of robes, and Zuko thought it was a woman's shape, the way the coverings curved slightly at the hips, and it looked like it had long hair too.

"Who are you? Tell us, and we will do—" Haru was shut up with a stomp on his foot by Zuko. "Don't say another word," Zuko hissed. Haru swallowed, and obeyed. The figure swayed from left to right. It did not advance or retreat, but stayed, swaying from left to right, right to left. Zuko felt he ought to say something, and he opened his mouth....

"Are you a spirit?" came a whisper from beside him. Katara was clutching his sleeve very tightly. Zuko sensed she was very scared. The mist swirled, and he suddenly realized it was not sunny anymore. The woods had gotten very dark. The figure stopped swaying. It seemed to stare at the four of them, though Zuko could not see it's eyes or its face, because of a low, broad brimmed hat. The four stared back at the one, tensed, ready, for anything. Well, Zuko certainly was. What he was not prepared for, though, was the creature, or human, or spirit suddenly running right at him, at full speed. It jumped right onto him, and knocked him to the ground.

"Sparky! Sparky! Come on quick! The Duke's sinking in quicksand!"

Toph was on him, bouncing up and down with urgency. How did that happen?

"What? What's going on? Where did the spirit or whatever--"

"Shut up Snoozles! The Duke's in trouble! I tried to get him out, Aang tried to get him out, but the quicksand's holding fast! Hurry!"

Toph pulled Zuko up into a standing position, and soon they were running off to save The Duke. Haru, Katara, and Sokka sprinted after them. "But that spirit!" Sokka panted as they ran along, looking at the ground, being careful not to trip over a root, "Where did that spirit go?!"

"That's for later," Zuko said as he jumped over a gnarled tree root. "Right now, we've got to save The Duke."

They ran, and Toph sprinted alongside Zuko. After five minutes, she shouted, "Stop! There he is!" And Zuko skidded to a halt so fast Katara crashed into him. "Gah!" She said, pulling herself away. "My nose!"

"Where's the Duke?" said Haru worridly, scanning the forest floor. "We're too late! He's been swallowed!"

worriedly

Toph burst out laughing. Zuko stared at her, then shook her by the shoulders so hard she stopped laughing and squirmed to get away.

"This is not a laughing matter! Where is he?!" Zuko later assumed Toph burst out laughing again at the horror in his voice. She couldn't have seen his face.

"I made that one up," said a voice from behind Zuko. He spun around and saw Teo, with The Duke riding in on his lap. "I really do have my father's brain, don't I? You should have seen yourselves running through the forest! That was the best!"

Zuko slapped a palm to his face. "Why did you do that? Why did you have Toph jump on me to tell me the Duke was in trouble, and he wasn't?"

"Well, to be honest, Sifu Hotman, you were being a little slow." Aang landed neatly on the ground, and twirled his staff to close it. "Teo thought this was the best way to get you running here faster."

"Sifu Hotman?"

"Like it? I made it up." Toph waved at him and pointed to herself, smiling.

"Great. Another nickname." Zuko grumbled, and shook his head.

"Teo, that was a clever story, and it made us come running..."

"Yeah, no kidding," Sokka grunted, clutching his side. He appeared to have a serious stitch. Zuko allowed himself a rare smile.

"But don't do that. It would be like the boy who cried sheep wolf, when in the end a sheep wolf really did eat all the koala lambs." Katara turned to Toph. "But that was good acting."

Toph grinned. "Thanks. I do try."

"Did you see the spirit?" Sokka said suddenly. Katara, Haru, and Zuko turned expectantly to Toph. She looked blank.

"What?"

"The spirit! It was standing not twenty feet in front of us, and it got all dark and misty! Then it ran at Zuko, and I was so sure he was dead meat, and it turned out to be you!"

"Snoozles, are you feeling okay?"

"He's telling the truth, Toph. I was there too."

"I know, I can feel his heartbeat. It rings true. Or should I say, beats true."

"Aang," Haru said suddenly, as if in a bout of inspiration, "Do you feel any spiritual presence here? Maybe it was just a girl trying to scare us...."

Aang shook his head, looking concerned and doubtful about Sokka's, Katara's, and Haru's sanity. "No."

"Are you guys all on cactus juice or something? You guys were staring at something with your eyes wide open, and it was daylight and not misty at all, and I put on my best scaredy cat act, and jumped right on Zuko, screaming for help." Toph cocked her head to one side. Then she turned to Aang. "Did you find the grape pit while we were finding the slow poke troupe?"

"Yeah, I did, only it was buried under a few hundred pounds of dirt and rock."

Everyone stared at him, Zuko sensed, a little angrily. Like it was his fault that the grape pit had been crushed? Well, those drinks were good....

"Do you think you know what happened?" asked Toph. She was frowning.

Aang smiled sheepishly. "I was flying, and I saw a giant face of rock. And you know how you were teaching me to make avalanches the other day? I guess I saw the grape pit too late...."

"Aang! I told everyone it was by a giant mountain that was shaped like a Water Tribe Boat! You were practicing earth bending in the air, and set off the avalanche by mistake?! Why didn't you stop it!"

"Sorry Sokka! Like I said, I saw the pit too late...."

Sokka moaned, dropped to the ground, and put his face in his hands. Haru and Teo exchanged glances. Katara stared at Sokka, and rolled her eyes.

"Sokka, be realistic, it's not as if we needed the grape juice," Katara put a hand on his shoulder. "You'll be okay."

"But, " Sokka fake sniffed and raised his head. "It was equal to meat!"

Everyone rolled their eyes, even Aang. Katara shook her head and looked at Teo. "Is there any chance there might be more grapes?" Sokka's head snapped upright, and he jumped to his feet. He took out his boomerang, pumped his arm in the air, and shouted, "Lead the way, O great Teo of the Northern Air Benders!"

Aang snorted. "More like Northern Air manipulators." But so quietly that Zuko was sure only he had heard the monk.

"Um, well, I'm not sure," Teo looked into the others faces hesitantly. "It only grew where the soil was really rich...."

"Spare us the herbology lesson, Mechanics Man. Just tell us where the fruit is," Toph spat at the base of a tree. Zuko grimaced, and Toph grinned at him. He felt, yet again, unnerved by the way she always seemed to know what he was thinking. Just like a tormenting, but also good, sister would.

"I don't think there's another grape plot like that one around here. Sokka just stumbled on it by accident, and there's no guarantee we could find another cluster of them."

"I did not stumble on it. I found it by ingenious skill and planning." Sokka stuck his nose in the air, but no one laughed.

"Well, there goes our day," grumbled Katara. "We were going to hike and eat grapes--"

"Who says we still can't do that?" piped up the Duke. "We can still hike, and try to look for grapes. Those were yummy."

"Yeah," said Aang, brightening up. "The Duke's right. C'mon, Katara, race you to that tree!" And he took off running. Katara looked at Sokka, who shrugged, and sprinted to beat Aang to the tree. The others followed, except Zuko. Then Toph noticed he hadn't come running with everyone else, and stopped to wait for him. Zuko walked slowly, but a rock hit his backside from behind and he was pushed right to Toph, who smirked.

"Why'd you do that? That hurt." Zuko muttered angrily, rubbing his back. Toph grinned at him.

"Geez, Sparky, you're such a whiner. Race you to that hill, and if you win, I don't have to ride your back to bed tonight."

Zuko pretended to think about that offer for a minute. "Deal. And if you win?"

"Too late! Should have voiced your prizes for me sooner!" Toph was already running to the leaf covered hill as fast as she could. "If I win, I'll decide my rewards myself!"

"Why you little..." Zuko said as he ran as fast as he could, overtaking Toph and reaching the hill first. But he didn't. Toph made him trip over a pebble that decided to emerge from the ground.

"I win!" Cried Toph, and spun around to face Zuko. "You will make me a delicious cream tart for dessert tonight, fluff my pillows, no wait, be my butler for the whole day tomo--"

Toph shrieked as Zuko flipped her upside down. She hadn't been paying attention to sight, and Zuko had snatched her ankles when she was screaming her prizes to the forest.

"Let me go! You can't do that!"

"You can't use earth bending in the next race."

Toph stopped trying to beat his shins. "What next race?"

"The one where I beat you and have you be my butler tomorrow."

"Oh." He flipped Toph back over, and she landed on her feet, dizzy and giggling.

"Get set, ready, go!" He zoomed down the hill with Toph hot on his heels.

He won.

It was raining outside the Air Temple, and everyone found there was a simple charm about a rainy afternoon, after everyone's chores had gotten done, Aang had gotten taught, and there had been a finding of several mangos that had been hiding in a dark alcove in the Temple. These sweet fruits had been passed around and eaten, and then everyone settled into doing nothing for the rest of the day. Zuko had been training the Avatar hard since the three days the whole group had been hiking in the woods, and he was very tired. He had also not finished his carving of the wooden knife, so he went about that, shaving and shaping the little knife while everyone else was lazing about.

The Duke and Teo were playing tic-tac-toe in the slightly damp dirt of the Air Temple floor. The game had been devised just that morning by Teo, after having inspiration from a mosaic he had seen with letters shaped in spiraling patterns. Aang had explained the tile picture was representing what the monks thought of words, how they all just spilled into one big drain that you did not need after enlightenment. Wise words speak with a silent tongue, Aang had said, and was received with confused looks and Sokka pretend gagging.

Toph was listening to Katara tell a story about a girl with sparkly green shoes, and it sounded like the girl had found the shoes, tried them on, and couldn't stop tap dancing. Then she had to dance to a grocer, a miller, and a school teacher, but no one could get them off. And then a little boy came and helped her take the shoes off. When she asked him how he did it, he said, "These are my shoes. I know how to make them work." And with that, he tap danced off into the sunset. It sounded like a silly, childish story to Zuko, but he liked hearing Katara tell it. She was a good storyteller, that was all. Zuko did not allow himself to think those thoughts anymore, even when -- no! Stop that! Zuko shook his head forcefully, like trying to keep away horse flies. Don't, Zuko.

Aang was off with Haru, playing in the all day echo chamber. Zuko rather hoped it would collapse around Haru and imprison him in an avalanche of rock. But he's an earth bender, said Zuko to himself. Oh, he thought back. That wouldn't work, then. His mind snorted at him in disgust. Zuko did not pay attention to it. He concentrated on shaping the curve of the knife's handle just right... he looked to Katara for reference. Ah ha, alter it just a tiny bit there....

"Hey! Everyone! Look who I found!" Sokka came running into the closed dome of the courtyard, soaking wet and carrying some big brown bird on his arm.

Zuko cursed as his fingers slipped when Sokka had shouted. There was a thin drizzle of blood there. The scrape didn't seem to be too deep. He put his index finger into his mouth, and tried not to show it when the cut burned.

Everyone else looked up as Sokka had shouted, and started to get up lazily and drift over to him. Sokka was jumping up and down with manic energy, and the bird on his arm squawked and looked riffled, but it stayed on his shoulder, proud head up and yellow eyes glaring straight at Zuko. Wait a moment, that bird looked familiar somehow...

Zuko took his finger out of his mouth and ran over to where Sokka was. He attempted to snatch the bird off Sokka, but the stupid water tribe boy yelped and ducked away.

"Zuko! Stay away from Hawky! You're going to scare him!" Sokka shouted as he ran around a pillar of marble with Zuko trying to scare the bird off. He stopped dumb.

"Hawky?" He said incredulously, and Sokka peered around the column, then stepped out from behind it when he was sure Zuko wouldn't try to run the bird off again.

"Yeah, Snoozles got that dumb messenger hawk when we were in the Fire Nation, hiding out. He loves it." Toph was walking lazily over to Zuko and Sokka, smoothing down her jumper as she came.

"Hawky is not dumb. He made it here all the way from the Earth Kingdom! Look at that stamp! Oh, sorry Toph..." Sokka mocked a sad face, and Toph punched him in his shoulder. Sokka winced, and Toph smiled.

"Hmmm," said Katara, walking just as lethargically as Toph up to the trio. "Hawky must have Toph's parent's letter back, but, what are those other letters?" Katara's eyes widened as Sokka pulled out seven tightly rolled up scrolls. Hawky flew off Sokka's arm to Teo and The Duke, who were not yet distracted from their game. Then the Duke noticed Hawky and reached out to stroke the bird's feathers. It jumped away from him.

"Awwww, but cool bird anyway." The Duke said.

Teo glanced over at it, then back at the tic-tac-toe board, then wheeled around in shock to stare at the bird, who was now trying to dodge the Duke's stroking fingers yet again.

"Duke! Do you know what that is? It's--!"

"It's okay, Teo," Toph looked in the direction of Teo and The Duke. "That stupid bird is Sokka's pet."

Teo put down his shaking finger and smiled sheepishly. "Oh," was all he said before turning back to the game. The Duke joined him a second later, after successfully petting Hawky's head. The bird, agitated and ruffled, flew off in the direction of Sokka and Zuko's room. Zuko cringed. He hoped the bird would be smart enough not to leave droppings everywhere....

"Hey!" Shouted Sokka for the second time in five minutes. "There's a letter for everyone in here! Me and Katara, Teo, The Duke, Haru, Zuko--"

"What?" said Zuko, feeling he misheard Sokka. A letter for him? That was bad news....

"What about me?" Toph sounded angry. She stamped up to Sokka. "That dumb bird was supposed to fly to my parents, not to other--"

"Here's yours," said Sokka, waving it in front of her face before grinning embarrassed-like and depositing it into her dirty hands. "I thought you might want Katara to read it for you..."

"Thanks for that consideration," Toph grumbled. She handed her letter to Katara. Katara frowned.

"Wait, then where's my letter?"

"This letter's addressed to me and you, sis. It has a blue wax seal on it, it's from Dad!" Sokka was suddenly tearing open the letter, and reading it feverishly. Katara, excited as well, read over her brother's shoulder. The other scrolls lay forgotten on the floor. Zuko picked them up. He leafed through them before finding the thinest scroll in the bunch. This was addressed to him. Oddly, though, it did not bear a fire nation seal, but a white lotus stamped in red wax...

Having a sudden epiphany, Zuko tore open the letter and looked at the signature at the bottom. It said, Uncle Iroh. Zuko felt a stinging in his eyes, but willed the tears to come later, if at all. His uncle had written to him, from the White Lotus Quarters, perhaps, and he was safe, most likely. Zuko read the letter.

Dear Prince Zuko,

I am sorry that I left on such short notice, without warning you. But I had to, for I feared you had forgotten your ways.

I am in the White Lotus Camp now, and we are planning. Do not come look for me, for when the time is right, I

will see you again. I was especially pleased to hear that you had joined the Avatar. Good luck to you, for you are

now on your rightly chosen path.

Be wary, and keep a level head. I have faith in you.

Uncle Iroh

That was the end of the letter, but Zuko was just so happy that his Uncle was not angry with him. The tears that had been kept back from when he learned of his Uncle's breakout of prison, the dreaded feelings, the longed to say words, pushed freely out of him. They flowed steady in a little stream, and Zuko wiped them away with the back of his left hand. He was okay. Uncle Iroh was okay.

Behind him, Teo was reading The Duke his letter from Pipsqueak. The little boy smiled at the end of it, and begged Teo to read it to him again. Teo obliged. Sokka and Katara were hugging each other with delighted faces. They had finished their thick scroll, and had received good news from it, by the looks on their faces. Toph was sitting in the dirt, running her fingers over her letter. She was scowling at the paper she could not read. Zuko, filled with joy from his own scroll, decided to help the little earth bender. He walked over to Toph, and sat down on the dusty ground beside her.

"Want some help to read that?" Toph sighed. Then she turned to him and gave him a small grin.

"Read away, Sparky." It was Zuko's turn to smile, albeit a small one. He took the paper from her dirty fingers. Unbeknownst to Toph, the dirt had smudged a little bit of the neat writing, but Zuko could make it out anyway.

"Dear Our Darling Daughter Toph," Zuko began, and forced himself not to snicker. He had a hard time thinking of Toph as 'darling' even if she was like a little sister to him.

"Keep reading, Sparky, and don't laugh, or you'll be doing double pay back duty tonight." Zuko composed himself, and began again.

"We have been worrying quite a bit about you. It was a relief to hear from Master Blah Blah and Blah Blah that you were safe and were going to continue on your mission with the Avatar, regardless of their persuasions--"

"They locked me in a metal box," Toph growled suddenly. Zuko glanced, alarmed, at her. Toph shook her head and grinned. "But I outsmarted them. I'm the best earth and metal bender in the world. Keep reading." Zuko, a bit taken aback, shrugged and did keep reading.

"We hope you are having a nice time traveling with the Avatar, and we hope this messenger hawk knows how to find you. Good luck on your journey, and be careful." Zuko, again, had to stop himself from snorting. He continued.

"We also wish that when the war is over, you will return to us. Love, Mother and Father." Zuko looked at Toph, who was frowning at some rock off in the distance. "That's it?" She finally said, and she sounded disappointed. Zuko was surprised that Toph wanted to hear more. He turned the paper over, but there was no other writing. "Yep, that's it, unless you want me to read the date." Toph shook her head, and stood up. Zuko climbed to his feet as well.

Suddenly Aang came running in with Haru, and Teo shouted over that both of them had gotten letters. Aang and Haru exchanged looks, then ran over to see. Zuko had thrown all the other scrolls to the ground in haste to read what his Uncle had wrote, but he quickly scooped them up and handed Haru his letter, and Teo his thick scroll. Then Zuko looked apprehensively to Aang's paper. Who would be writing to the Avatar? There was a powder blue colored seal on the front of the scroll, glossy and shiny. It looked like some sort of scale. Hesitantly, Zuko picked at it. The stubborn seal did not come off, and felt oddly cool at his fingertips. Aang looked suspiciously at him, and asked for his letter. Zuko held it out to him.

"The seal doesn't want to come off," Zuko warned him, then felt silly for saying that. Seals weren't alive, at least not the ones that bound things shut...

The Avatar, however, easily broke the binding seal, so quickly that Zuko felt both silly and angry. It was like the time Aang had shot the lightning on his first try, while he, Zuko, could not. He watched the monk's eyes grow large, and surprisingly, wet. Then the boy gasped, put a hand to his mouth, threw the scroll to the floor, and dropped to the ground, sobbing. Completely bewildered by Aang's behavior, Zuko attempted to pick up the letter, but Aang reached for it, looked at it, then narrowed his watery eyes and shredded it. Zuko stared at him in complete perplexity, and the others, sensing something was wrong with the Avatar, rushed over to the pair of them. Everyone crowded around Aang, and Zuko noticed Katara stared at the little scraps of paper littering the ground, her bushy hair hanging around her face as she looked down, then her neck snapped up as she accused him.

"Zuko, what did you do this time?" Katara's eyes were icy and dark. Zuko, unconsciously, backed away a few steps and put his hands in front of him, defensively. Why did she always suspect him when something went wrong?

"Aang, what's wrong?" asked The Duke, innocently. Aang's head shot up from his weeping, and he seemed genuinely surprised to find the whole group standing before him. Shaking his head slightly, he got clumsily to his feet. Then he burst into tears and ran headlong into Katara's shoulder, who looked taken aback before cradling the monk's head against her chest, in a most motherly manner. It disturbed Zuko.

After Aang's tears had subsided and been dried, the group gathered around their fire for an explanation of his behavior. It was almost dark outside, with the sun sinking slowly on the horizon, the sky tinged with pink and orange of another fading day. Katara passed out makeshift plates, which had been carved out by Toph, with smoked fish, greens, and a bit of rice. They were running low on rice.

Aang was sitting across from Zuko, picking at his plate of lettuce and tomatoes. Every now and then, Aang would cast a look of annoyance at Sokka, who was eating ravenously, swallowing his fish in huge gulps. The others in the group seemed more conscious of their eating tonight, and picked at their food the same way Aang did. Zuko noticed his fingers were doing a similar thing. Curses, he thought. The group's anxiousness was contagious. He could be the black sheep here, and just eat... Zuko glanced at Sokka. No, he advised himself, tonight, I'll play group talking time like everyone else.....

Everyone around the flickering fire pit seemed to be waiting for something to happen, for someone to break the silence. Sokka finished his food with a rude belch, then asked Haru if he was going to eat his plate of fish. Haru looked down at his meal and shrugged. But he kept the plate on his lap and Sokka did not lunge for it. Disappointed, it seemed, the water tribe boy's eyes roved over the faces of his fellow fire mates. Then he rolled his eyes and focused on Aang, who did not meet his gaze. Sokka threw his hands up in the air.

"Alright, Aang. I know I won't get more food until this little silence is over...." Katara glared at her brother, "But, seriously now, what is wrong with you?" Sokka crossed his arms and stared comically at Aang until the latter looked into the former's blue eyes. The monk sighed.

"Aang," said Katara in a comforting voice, like a mother again, Zuko noted, " You won't feel better about this until you talk about it. It would help us to know what's bothering you...." She trailed off as Aang stared into the crackling flames. Then, after minutes of tense silence, he started speaking.

"The letter I received today, well, it was... strange." Aang looked at each member of the group in turn, and Zuko felt himself turn his head as the boy's stare passed over him.

"Strange in what way?" inquired Teo, sounding like a detective/scientist.

"Well, Katara, Sokka, you know my old Master, Monk Gyatso?" Katara and Sokka nodded. "Well, that letter, that scroll, it was, um, from him." Aang was greeted by a shocked silence, broken by Momo, who chattered loudly.

"But, Aang, Monk Gyatso, is, um..."

"Passed on?" volunteered Sokka, a little nervously. Obviously, Monk Gyatso had been important to Aang, and they knew this well. Zuko was puzzled, yet intrigued.

"So, Twinkletoes got a letter from a dead guy, and that's why he cried today?" summarized Toph, raising her eyebrows in the direction of Sokka and Katara.

Katara started to speak, when Aang said angrily, "Toph, he wasn't just a..." He swallowed, then continued. "Monk Gyatso was a great Master of Airbending. He taught me everything I knew, and still know, today." Tears were visibly gathering in the boy's eyes, and everyone surrounding the fire was raptly listening to him. He plowed on.

"The letter was sent by him. I don't know how, but it was. It was his writing, I recognized it.... and that seal on the front," Here Aang paused and fixed Zuko with a flash of a glare, "That seal was Monk Gyatso's. He had a special kind of seal, the sticky scale of a blue Elephant Koi Fish, the species is now extinct..." Without warning, Aang buried his head in his hands. Katara tried to put her arms around his shoulders, but he shrugged her off. He raised his head, slowly, eyes closed, mouth a thin line.

"But it couldn't have been him," the monk contradicted himself, shaking his bald head. "It can't have been. It must have been a trick, but, but...."

"You're right," a low voice sounded from the shadows, right behind Aang. The group tensed as one, suddenly drawn to their feet and alert, Zuko the quickest of all. But, the voice didn't sound like Azula, or Ty Lee, or Mai. However, the voice seemed familiar yet.

From the shadows of a column, again, came the voice, accompanied by a low laugh that made the hairs on the back of Zuko's neck and the front of his arms stand up.

"The scroll wasn't sent by your beloved Monk Gyatso, Avatar. It was sent by me. As were all of your letters." The voice laughed, cold and low, and stepped out from the deeply shaded pillars. Zuko gasped. Oddly, so did Aang, Katara, and Sokka. The others remained on the alert, but were surprised by the gasps by the other half of the group. Then Toph frowned, and narrowed her non-seeing eyes. "Hey, I think I know you...."

"It's Reilo, the girl who traveled with us during the Serpent's Pass!" Katara said, casting a look in the direction of Toph, who was still frowning blindly at the girl. "Why didn't you alert us to her presence, Toph?"

The girl's lips curled into a smile. Toph's mouth thinned, and she said, "I don't feel her there, but I hear her voice..." Katara shared an alarmed expression with Sokka, who turned back to the girl, pointing at her in a threatening manner.

"Wait a moment," Zuko said, extremely confused. The others turned only their faces to him, but he was staring at the girl....

"But, your name is Jin, right?" Zuko was feeling especially bewildered, and the tinniest sliver of fear shivered up his spine. Toph hadn't felt her, and there was the oddness of it all...

Jin's full lips smiled again, without teeth. Zuko was transported back to the forest, only a few days ago.... he had seen that exact same grin.

"Jin?" Katara was confused. They were all confused, Zuko knew, and a little bit afraid. Something wasn't right.

"I don't usually go by that name," said Jin, walking towards the group. All of the benders got into a stance, ready to fight. Jin rolled her eyes, and kept walking, steadily, un-nervingly confident. She nodded at Zuko. "But with a fire nation prince, I had to be careful. He might have read my story." Jin parted the group of stanced benders, and sat down on a log. A cup of tea was in her hand, and now she was sipping it. Zuko had no idea where she had gotten that from.

"What name to you go by, then?" asked Katara, cautiously creeping to stand over Jin. She was wary, Zuko saw, and frightened. Jin now seemed intimidating, far different from the night of their date....

"I like to be called Reilo," said Reilo, and Zuko thought the name sounded familiar somewhere, it just didn't click.

In ten minutes, everyone was sitting around the flame again, apprehensive, tense. They had not drunk their tea that was offered to them all by Reilo. And Zuko could still not place her name, though he was sure he'd heard it somewhere before. He tried to think of it while Reilo explained her reason for being there.

"I came here to visit you, Avatar." Reilo smiled, a cold, suiting smile, which made her look very attractive. Haru, Teo and The Duke were all staring at her. However, she only seemed to have eyes for one. Aang. She drank in his body and face like it was an extremely delicious tea. She swirled her cup of the stuff in her hands.

"You look so different from when I last saw you, and I was still too late. I had to wait a lot longer this time." Reilo put on a pout. "Why didn't you come sooner?" She stirred her tea with a spoon that just appeared in her cup, without any prior existence of being there. She crossed her legs under her black and gold robe, right over left. Zuko felt heat creeping up his face. The dress was much like the one she had worn on their date, and he had tried not to stare at her chest the last time, but it was more difficult now. She caught him staring and smiled. He turned away, nervous, and felt blush on his face. He heard her laughter, and his neck prickled.

"Ah, Zuko, Fire Nation Prince.... I can't alter your free will, but if I could have, I would have." She laughed again, and Zuko imagined himself turning a deeper shade of scarlet, and cursed his complexion inwardly.

"Lady, who are you, and what do you want?" Toph had been quiet until this time, but now was glowering with a newfound vehemence. Reilo turned to the blind earthbender.

"I am Reilo, and I seek the Avatar," Reilo flashed a smile in Aang's direction, which he did not return. Her smiled faded, and she set down her tea. She sighed angrily.

"I do not know who you truly are, or why you want my services. Please, tell me what I can do for you, or get out." Everyone was startled by Aang's voice. It was steely and mono toned. Reilo smiled at him, one to match his voice tone.

"You used to be like that. Then you weren't, then you were again." Reilo's stare bored into Aang's eyes, and Zuko was amazed to see the monk's steady stare back. This kid had some hard to frighten spirit.

"Forgive me, but I have never seen you in my life, except for the Serpent's Pass," said Aang, in a cold and one noted voice. "State your business here, or leave please."

"Ah, that must be the problem." Reilo's cold smile and deep stare turned into a smirk.

"Excuse me?" Aang sounded a bit curious, Zuko thought, but his voice was still icy and one noted.

"Your life." Her smirk deepened. "Your life."

There seemed to be a ripple of understanding through the group. Zuko caught on, but he couldn't believe it. It was too impossible. That would make Jin, um, Reilo.... He shook his head. This was getting ridiculous. Aang remained unsmiling, seated directly across from her, where Zuko had sat about a half hour before. Then his features showed an unmistakable epiphany. His mouth opened in an 'O' of surprise, his eyebrows traveled up his head, and his already huge eyes widened further. It would have been comical, except the group was suddenly more nervous, frightened, and tense than before. They were all glancing from Reilo to Aang and back again, furtively, with as little movement as possible. Zuko, who had the boy and girl both in his vision range, need not even move his neck. But he could still stare at only one of them in skeptical observance, and he chose Reilo for that. Her eyes never left Aang's face, in the last minutes they had been talking.

"You knew me in a past life?" asked Aang weakly, and, Zuko thought, unbelievingly. "That's ridiculous." And the monk started giggling. "Ridiculous." Reilo watched him, almost hungrily. Aang bit back his giggling. "Okay, so who was I?" Aang seemed to be teasing her now, in a flirting voice, which Zuko found disturbing. All eyes swiveled to Reilo, who looked dead serious, watching Aang. She smiled suddenly.

"I knew you since the day you were created, Avatar." Aang stopped his nervous giggles at once. Reilo stared at him, eyes sparkling with a kind of madness, green and glittery in the firelight. She continued speaking.

"I knew you as a father, a brother, a sister, several hundreds of mortals, and," her lips curled into a strange smile. "A lover." Nearly everyone's jaws dropped. Zuko's and Toph's mouthes alone remained closed. Toph had a very startled look on her face, and Zuko had just remembered where he had heard of the name Reilo before. He hadn't quite caught the last part of Reilo's sentence, because he was remembering one of his favorite myths when he was a little boy: the myth of who had created the Avatar; The Fire Prince and the Water Princess.

"Yes," said Reilo dreamily, turning to Zuko. "That was one of my favorite legends too. I had someone scribe it, of course. Can't have my history turn into dust just because my baby, Tui, took over." Zuko stared wordlessly at her. So did everyone else.

Reilo looked around, beamed, and placed her hands in her lap. "For those of you who do not know the story of "The Fire Prince and the Water Princess", I am she. I am Gisioaah." The centuries old goddess of the winter waters looked around at the eight people. They all gaped at her. She turned back to Aang, whose mouth was the widest of all.

"As I was saying, lovely, you are composed of my father, uncles and aunts, sisters and brothers, and about 431 mortals." The ancient goddess smiled, but her eyes were cold and had suddenly changed their color to blue. "The very first mortal, Roku, died and I sought to bring him about again. He was my lover. 430 is my favorite number, and so I placed a curse on his body so that it may arise again within 430 cycles of human life, so I would have the pleasure of killing him, in reality you, for my own self." A collective, anxious breath was drawn by the group. Except for Aang. He seemed mesmerized by Reilo's voice.

"You see, Avatar, I fell in love with you a long time ago, but you wouldn't have me. I then revealed I was a goddess, so you gave me your child to bear," Reilo's eyes sparkled, and Zuko was fixated on them. In fact, everyone seemed to be holding their breaths, gazing with intense focus at Reilo, even Toph.

"Then," Reilo's voice lowered to an odd whisper, and the group collectively leaned forward to catch her words, "HE came." She sat back and drank some of her tea. The spell seemed temporarily broken. Toph spoke first.

"Who's He?" asked the little earthbender, her voice strangely filled with awe. Zuko looked into his teacup and was surprised to find it half full. Had he drunk some? Reilo placed her own tea cup on the log she sat on. She re-crossed her legs, and leaned forward. The robe's neckline plunged. Zuko found it very hard not to st-- No, mustn't do that. Stop, Zuko. That's not polite....

"HE happens to be the one who sent Roku," the goddess nodded over to Aang, who flushed, "To his death. The first time, and the second time." Aang's eyes popped, and Zuko remembered something else about Gisioaah's legend... her jealous to be husband, Khieso, the god of the flame...

"Wait a moment," Zuko was very surprised to find himself speaking. Reilo turned her body to him, and he forced himself to look away from her chest. "Your husba--"

Reilo exploded. Or, rather, the fire exploded. Bits of flaming sticks and pieces of blue sparks were everywhere. Then the fire calmed, but retained a blue hue, unlike the peaceful orange that had been the color moments before... it reminded Zuko of Azula's bright azure flame...

"Don't. Talk. About. HIM." The goddess was very angry, her voice low and yet magnified, and she was suddenly standing directly over Zuko, towering over him. He involuntarily slid to the ground from his seat on the log. The others around the fire pit were shielding their faces, terrified. Katara was peeking around her fingers, eyes wide and frightened.

Reilo seemed to gain some composure, and looked behind her to see the others scared and hiding their faces. Her lips curled upward, and she went back to her seat. Zuko decided to stay on the floor. It seemed safer.

"Sorry," Reilo looked into everyone's face before returning her unwavering gaze to Aang. "It's just that HE makes me so angry still, it's hard to talk about HIM. I'm still avoiding HIM, though. HE's the reason I couldn't kill you," Reilo's eyes flickered in the firelight strangely, "The night you were killed 101 years ago and turned into another person. He killed you first. He was waiting, and he's such a clever volcano..." Reilo trailed off, lost in her thoughts. Aang was staring at her with amazed features. Then Katara spoke.

"I've heard of you before," Katara said uncertainly. Reilo did not acknowledge that Katara had spoken, and continued to stare at a shadowy column in the distance, musing. Katara cleared her throat and went on speaking. "My grandmother used to tell my brother and I stories of the olden times. Times, like, before spirit times. I had just thought they were amusing tales, but now... Do you remember, Sokka?" Sokka did not respond. His eyes looked glazed over, Zuko thought, as if he weren't paying any attention to anything. Katara wasn't close enough to her brother to shake him or something, so she settled on an annoyed glance before continuing her realization.

"My grandmother told us a story of a goddess who did not want to be married, so she went off into Earth and fell in love, I guess that was the Avatar, but then her fiance killed the mortal man." Reilo turned to Katara sharply, but did not say anything. The water tribe girl looked startled, but carried on with her story. Zuko was impressed. Katara had guts.

"So she, the goddess I mean, got real mad and unleashed havoc on the world, and, erm, she was pregnant, so she had the world's first dragons..." Ah, Zuko knew that part, but that wasn't exactly the myth he had read...

"And then she was tired and afraid of what her father would say, so she went to an icy desolate island to give birth to a third child, the moon." Reilo, oddly, was listening with rapt attention to Katara. Sokka continued to remain glazed eyed, and the rest of the group, Aang included, had gone strangely silent. Zuko cast a look around at all of them. They didn't even seem to be breathing. Something is wrong here, Zuko thought to himself, something is wrong...

"And she told the moon--"

"Tui," Reilo interrupted. "My baby's name was Tui." Katara, startled, nodded.

"So the myth was about you? I'm sorry about your--"

"Yes. I was sorry too. Another reason to hate HIM, and the retched fire nation. But Yue, the Northern Water Tribe Princess, is a competent Moon Spirit. I'm glad Tui chose her as her own replacement. You know," and for some reason Reilo cast an angry glance in Zuko's direction, "Khieso ordered his father, the Lord of the Underworld, it's a ghastly place by the way, to see that Tui was killed for my arrogance." Reilo swiveled back to Katara alarmingly fast. Katara, Zuko saw, slid a little away from the goddess. "I suspect, Katara, that we are a lot alike." Reilo shot a glance back at Zuko, a furtive look filled with poison. Zuko flinched. He thought he caught a smirk on Reilo's lips before she turned back to the girl before her.

"I don't know about that," Katara said, hesitantly. "I mean, you can firebend. Or was that you, Zuko?" She sounded a tiny bit scared, or that might have been his imagination. Either way, he shook his head. That had been Reilo, not him. He placed his hands on the log behind him and started to inch up it, backwards. Reilo snapped her face around to him and he froze.

"Sit back down," she hissed softly. Zuko quickly slid back to the ground. She smiled coldly. She addressed Katara then, turning back to the girl as she spoke. "Yes, I can firebend. I can also Earthbend, Airbend, and Waterbend." Zuko imagined Reilo beaming at Katara, who, by the firelight, was awed.

"How?"

Reilo snorted. "Goodness, I thought you were brighter than that, girl. Put it together." Katara smiled sheepishly. Reilo, with her back to Zuko, nodded slowly.

"Yes. Of course, I had to learn. Not very tricky, though. I'm an excellent learner. So are you, I gather, from Yue. She says you were very quick to pick up waterbending at the North Pole."

Katara, by the firelight, blushed slightly. Zuko could see the color illuminated on her cheeks. However, that was the only thing he could see. He looked around the fire pit. No one else was there. Sokka, Haru, The Duke, Teo, Toph and Aang were... gone. No, they can't be gone! Where would they go? Zuko sat up fast, and swiveled his head this way and that way. The others were no where to be seen. It was like they had vanished into thin air. What in the name of the Underworld was going on?! He then became aware of a curious sensation around his midriff. He felt his stomach. And gasped soundlessly as his hand touched log. His fingers went straight through his waist, and touched the rough wood of his seat. Zuko stood up very quickly. From his feet to his stomach, he was disappearing. Zuko tried to shout. No sound came out of his mouth. He grasped his throat. It seemed in perfect working order. Why couldn't he call out?

Katara was listening to Reilo with undivided attention. The ignorant water tribe girl did not notice that he was vanishing.... was this what happened to the others in the group? And where would he disappear to? Trying to maintain a calm, Zuko moved over to Katara. But what good what that do? If Reilo was an ancient powerful goddess, wouldn't she just zap them into ashes? Zuko looked down at himself. He had a faint outline, very faint, almost as if he was barely invisible. But it was spreading, up to his chest now. He was sure that he would be gone once the, whatever it was, got to the top of his head. Zuko decided to chance warning Katara, even if it meant his own destruction. Katara was listening intently to Reilo. Maybe that was how he hadn't known about the others', and now his, predicament. He had been paying too much attention to the captivating goddess. Maybe the others hadn't noticed their own dissolving bodies either... until it was too late. Uh oh. The stuff had now covered his arms! Better do this now...

Zuko ran at Katara and rammed his skull against hers. It was the only solid part of him left. Katara fell off the log. She sat up slowly, groaning, holding her head with one hand. She had barely looked up at Zuko when Reilo, adamant with rage, made the earth swallow him.

Zuko woke up with a huge headache. It was the worst migraine he had since the time Azula put mercury in his tea. Moaning slightly, Zuko turned to his side slowly and laid his head on soft pillows underneath him. Hmmm, these pillows smelled familiar, like jasmine. Jasmine?

Zuko suddenly remembered the night before. Seeing Jin, erm, Reilo, Katara not knowing he was rapidly vanishing.... Zuko sat bolt right up in bed. He felt his head, stomach, back, and legs. His limbs and torso were solid, or they felt like it. Maybe he had... no. He hadn't died. This room looked exactly like his room at the Air Temple. There was a loud blast of snoring on the other side of the room, then. Zuko stood up quickly, wary. He let his hands drop. Sokka was in a ridiculous position on his sleeping mat, his mouth opening and closing and with each breath a snore shot through. Zuko felt relieved, but was still on guard. Perhaps this was a trick, a made up room, and he was dead... Zuko watched his back as he stepped stealthily out of the bedroom. He kept his hands posed in a fire dagger position, and crept sneaky-like down the hallway to Toph's chambers. Toph shared a connecting room with The Duke, beside the hall to Zuko's room.

The orange of the dawn glared in his eyes as he stepped lightly to the earth bender's room, ears pricking up at the smallest of sounds. After he turned around the third time to find a small noise to be nothing, a nagging doubt sounded in the back of his mind. Its voice took on a tone an awful lot like Katara's.

It was just a dream, said the voice, bossily. There is no need to jump around scared at every single... what was that noise!? Zuko jumped about a mile in the air and swiveled around as fast as he could, shooting a fire ball in the direction of a very surprised Katara. Luckily, she had the reflexes of a mini puma cat, and ducked under the flame ball. Zuko stared as she came up from the ground. She was wearing a towel.

"What were you trying to do? Kill me?!" yelled a very angry Katara. He did not feel ashamed.

"I-- You shouldn't sneak up on people like that!" Zuko snarled, not looking, thinking, imagining, anything about Katara and the fluffy towel....

She snorted, and pulled the thick white towel closer around her. "Says the Blue Spirit." He glared at her. "Aang told me and Sokka about it. You must have snuck up on people a ton of times--"

"That was before! We're supposed to be a team. We can't go around spying and---"

"Well!" Katara cut him off. "You weren't spying your first day here, Team Leader?" He gaped at her. She put on a wicked smile. It went so well with the towel, and the way she was had now turned her body, that he swallowed and turned away.

"That was unnessacary." Was all he said before walking past her to Toph's room. He could swear she stuck her tongue out at him when his back was turned, but he didn't look behind him.

"Yeah, I had a crazy dream too last night," Toph said sleepily from her earthy "bed". "It felt so real." She rolled over to face the wall. Zuko admired her bed head. Her hair really was all over the place. He smiled to himself.

"Care to describe it?" Zuko hoped he didn't sound anxious. His dream had felt too real to take place all in his head.

"Since when are you so curious about dreams, Sparky?" Toph's voice was hazy from sleep.

"I...I don't know. Just, tell me your dream. I want to.. compare it to something else." Zuko looked at Toph's form under her thin covers. Then Toph opened her mouth and snored. Zuko fell back from his haunches, startled, then furrowed his eyebrows and shook Toph's shoulder. "Toph, wake up. Come on."

He was slid to just before the door by Toph's miraculous earth bending skill and precision. She herself had half turned and pointed her left arm in the air to a crack in the ceiling. A small chink of light shown through there.

"Sparky, I ain't telling you anything until it's light enough be called morning." Her arm fell and she turned her head to him on the floor, and he was preparing to stand and frowning. "Ever hear of the word?" And with that, she zoomed him out of her room by the 'Dust Slide', and cleverly closed the door and put a rock chair against it. He did not see her until noon.

Not quite angry enough to set flame to the wooden door, Zuko walked to his private bath and showers.

He walked with a purpose to the courtyard, where Katara was stirring something in a iron pot. It smelled familiar. No time for that now, though. He had to inspect the fire pit. But someone was already there.

"There's something fishy about this," said Sokka to Teo, who was painting characters on a sheet of paper. Sokka was holding up a piece of what appeared to be cracked glass. He was holding it in a spoon, with a ludicrious hat on his head. The hat was green and had an attached magnifying device, through which Sokka was peering at the piece of porcelain in the spoon. Zuko walked up to Teo and Sokka, and tried not to laugh at the water tribe boy's hat.

"Right. The insignia on the glass is a very old but discernible symbol, can I see it again?" Teo reached for the fragment from his wheeled chair. Sokka held it away from him, and studied it closely through the springy magnifier.

"C'mon Sokka, I have to see it, I'm taking a report!" Teo sounded annoyed and exasperated. Sokka shook his head and paced, studying the glazed piece in the spoon with intensity. Zuko couldn't decide whether Sokka was mock concentrating or not, but he spoke. The boys were obviously studying the fire pit because of Ji -- Reilo. Did they remember the dream more than Toph did?

"What are you doing?" asked Zuko, and Teo turned to explain. Sokka kept pacing with the spoon in hand, muttering something.

"I was searching the fire area, because I had a vivid pictorial vision last night. It seemed so real, and it was around our very fire pit, so I thought I could find something left behind from her--"

Zuko broke in. "You mean Reilo, the goddess who came to visit last night?"

Teo looked at Zuko, brows furrowed behind his orange tinted glasses. "I can't remember the girl's name." A pink flush rose up Teo's cheeks. "But she could have been a goddess. She was really pretty."

Zuko just stared at him, then his palm met his face. "You can't remember the girl's name? What, do you have short term memory loss or something?"

"I'm beginning to suspect you had a similar dream..."

"Yes! Well, I don't think it was--"

"What are you arguing about? Sokka! That's my best spoon! You've got dirt on it! " Katara set down eight bowls of oat-mealy stuff, and snatched the utensil out of her brother's hand. The piece of pottery he had been studying fell to the ground with a small clink.

"Hey!" Sokka shouted. "I was figuring that out! Where'd you knock it to?" Sokka got on his hands and knees, scanning the earthen floor for the shard of glass. Katara rolled her eyes. Zuko searched around the ground too, but just with his eyes. He didn't want Katara to think he was an idiot, on the ground like the water tribe boy... wait, what did he care what she thought about him?

"Here, glassy glassy glassy!" Sokka said loudly as he crawled all around the fire pit, searching for it. He glared at his sister. She stuck her tongue out at him. "Why did you do that?" Sokka said, crawling over and onto a log and grabbing a bowl of the oatmeal stuff.

"Because you're being stupid, calling for a piece of non--"

"I didn't mean the tongue thing!" Zuko controlled an impulse to laugh. "I meant, knocked the spoon out of my hands when I was clearly concentrating on it!"

Katara sighed angrily, and plunked down on a rock with a bowl of the oatmeal too. Zuko now recognized it as jook, and it looked tasty. He gave a bowl to Teo, who could not reach it sitting in his chair, and sat on a log with one for himself. The stuff was delicious.

"I did not want my favorite eating instrument dirty, okay? It had some bug in it, or something..."

"No! It didn't have a bug in it! It had a poem in it!"

Everyone stared at him. Well, what was the group then anyway. Sokka showed no shame and plowed on.

"The insignia," Sokka nodded to Teo, "Was actually a well known character in a famous water tribe poem. It was the title. 'Birds of Jade'." Sokka smiled at his sister, who for a moment looked blank. Then she whispered, "How did you find it?" Her small voice sent shivers up Zuko's spine. Besides him, Teo shuddered slightly.

Sokka was clearly not expecting this reaction from Katara. He gave her a funny look and said slowly, "It was your favorite work of literature, Katara. Remember? Back when we were five and six?"

Katara's body relaxed. She leaned back and smiled easily. "Of course. I only did that to psyche you out. Did it work?" Sokka half nodded, then slurped down the rest of the jook. Zuko and Teo continued drinking theirs as well.

"What's up everyone? Hey, Katara, want to hear my dream?" Aang was whirling to the fire pit on his air scooter. Katara didn't look up to acknowledge him, but Sokka smiled and pointed at the jook, and Teo waved at the Avatar. Zuko silently held up a bowl of jook for Aang, as he dissipated the air scooter and sat down next to Katara. Haru arrived right after Aang; it seemed like they had a race to breakfast, and the Avatar had won. As usual. The earth bender looked a little disappointed with himself, but brightened at the jook. Haru complimented Katara on her cooking and stole a glance at her while eating it. Zuko scowled at him.

"So, my dream was really weird last night. We were all sitting around here, just like this, and for some reason I was really angry. Then there was a flash of black and gold, and I was sinking in a pond of pudding. Weird, isn't it?"

Everyone agreed. Haru shared his dream with the group too.

"Well, my dream started out right at a fire, and then," Haru stopped and cast a furtive glance in the water bender's direction. She was calmly eating jook. "Um, so, then I forgot." Haru ended lamely. Zuko snorted inside his head.

Teo told his dream after Haru was done. Zuko was getting rather annoyed by this point. When had breakfast become a share-for-all? He didn't listen to most of Teo's story. However, he noted that Teo left out the description of Reilo, probably because of Katara. It wasn't that Katara wasn't attractive compared to Reilo, it was just that Reilo was somehow prettier. Perhaps Teo did not want to rouse the water bender's anger. If they had had the same dream...

"And then I woke up with my wrists really hurting," Teo finished, though added on thoughtfully, "Because I was being pulled on by invisible ropes that I struggled against, I suppose, while Momo didn't do anything. The mind is a powerful thing."

Sokka spoke next. "That sort of sums up my dream too, except Appa and Toph were playing cards in a corner, while Aang flew over the moon and Katara was singing with Princess Yue... and there was Reilo!" Zuko choked on his last draw of jook. No one paid any attention to him.

"That girl from the Serpent's Pass? The one traveling with her father and pregnant mother?" Aang said, giggling. Haru and Teo exchanged glances, as they so often did. Zuko felt the need to talk, right now.

"Zuko! Aang! What are you doing, lazing about after breakfast! Look at the position of the sun!" Katara was gesticulating towards the sun suddenly, arms a flurry of motion, pushing Zuko and the Avatar towards their usual practice space. Zuko looked up at the sun, which was glowing hot and yellow now, and realized she was right. The Avatar's lesson was far overdue. He got out of Katara's grip and said, "I'll take it from here, thanks." She smiled at him and he and Aang walked quickly towards the 'firebending area'. "Ready for some grueling practice, Aang?" Zuko said as he stretched his arms over his head while Aang copied him.

The Avatar smiled and replied, "I was waiting for you to ask. Watch out!" And so their three hour long session began.

Zuko tried to talk about the dream he had had again, after the Avatar's training session was over. But no one wanted to discuss it; they were all busy. Toph and The Duke couldn't remember their dreams very well, Sokka's and Aang's was far from what Zuko's dream was, and Katara, Teo and Haru thought it was a waste of time. However, instead of being deterred, Zuko pursued the dream business even more. He never gave up without a fight.

Teo, Haru and Katara seemed to remember the dream most, so Zuko tried to get them to talk about it first. He approached Teo as the boy was fixing his goggles.

"Hello..." Zuko said. Teo looked up at him suspiciously.

"What do you want?" Teo wiped his goggles with an old rag, not making eye contact with him.

"Well, erm..." how should he phrase this?