Sand in the Hourglass
summary: set before the invasion on the day of black sun. The gaang decides to visit all the places they have been to try and recruit more people for the invasion force. When they return to the Si Wong desert, they meet a very strong and mysterious sandbender named Kai, who joins their team. But with their previous endeavors with sandbenders, can they trust him? And what does Kai mean when he says that "no one can escape their fate"? This is my very first fanfic so please be nice. TophxOC, slight KataraxOC, Kataang.
Disclaimer I do not own Avatar, but I do own my OC, Kai
Chapter 1
"Everything is set." Sokka said, folding up his maps of the Fire Nation.
Katara stood up, "Then it's settled, we are going through with the invasion."
"This is going to be big. You sure you're ready for this, Twinkle Toes?" Toph asked as she also jumped to her feet, causing a small quake that caused Sokka to drop the maps. Sokka grumbled something under his breath as he bent over to pick them up.
Aang continued to sit there, unaware of the humorous situation that had just occurred. He seemed almost in a meditative state, staring blankly at the floor. He was thinking of the brave men and women of the invasion force. Haru and the earthbenders, Sokka and Katara's father and the rest of the Water Tribe soldiers, even the guys from the swamp, all came to help the rag tag army.
He was also thinking about how some of them may not make it out alive. The plans were good, Sokka was always good at plans, but the invasion force was small. Sokka had said that this will help them catch the Fire Nation off guard, but Aang wasn't too sure if it had enough manpower, and on the other hand, he didn't want to put anymore people in danger.
Finally, Katara rested her hand on Aang's shoulder, breaking him from his train of thought. Aang looked up at Katara, who had a concerned look on her face.
"What's up, Aang?"
"It's nothing" Aang said, as he finally also stood up from the ground using his staff to help keep balance. But the rest of the team looked at him, and he realized that he could no longer keep his doubts a secret.
"Are you sure the invasion force is ready for this Sokka?"
"Yeah, we've been training for this for a long time now."
"I know that, I just mean...do you think there are enough of us? I know you said that it's ideal to keep it small so as to not attract attention, but I'm just worried..." Aang trailed off, and bowed his head as he racked his mind of what he wanted to say.
But as Aang looked up at Sokka, and he could tell that either he understood what the Avatar had meant to say or he too had the same worries as him, because he too was deep in thought.
Even the others had joined in each with their own contemplative looks on their face.
It almost made Aang laugh a bit.
It was Katara who was the first to break the silence. "Why don't we go back to the all the places we've been and see if we can find more people to join the cause."
"I suppose it would be nice if we had a couple more capable fighters..." Sokka added, slowly being convinced of the new idea.
Toph also chimed in, her pale emerald eyes looking in Aang's general direction. "Yeah, I mean we have two months before the Day of Black Sun, so it would give us plenty of time to visit a few places before we have to be back."
"Plus it would give us some time to relax, almost like a mini-vacation." Katara said reassuringly.
That would be nice Aang thought. We've been planning and training non-stop since Ba Sing Se fell.
Aang looked back and gave Katara a big smile. "That sounds like a great idea."
Katara smiled back, happy to see Aang a bit more relaxed. "Well, what do you guys think?"
"I'm in." Toph said, "It'll be nice to have some downtime."
"Well, Sokka?"
Sokka looked at everyone tentatively, until he finally gave in, "Alright, but remember we are on a mission." making a point to say it very seriously.
Katara rolled her eyes. "Okay, Mister Buzzkill, we'll be good little soldiers." she said and gave a Sokka a sarcastic salute.
"Alright, you ready Appa?" Aang said excitedly to his huge flying bison.
Appa grunted back at Aang with approval. I guess he wanted a break too.
"Jump on everyone!" Aang yelled, and everyone got on Appa, the last being Toph who grumbled about how she couldn't see anything.
"Yip Yip"
And with that, Appa propelled himself into the air, and they flew off.
So here's the first chapter of my first fanfic ever. Please read and review. I want to hear your comments. I don't know when I will have the next chapter up, but I'm hoping that you will be able to meet Kai, my OC soon. I'm still working on some trait stuff and how I want him to interact with the others and especially Toph. I had hoped that this would seem more Toph centric, but I ended up focusing on Aang more in this chapter. I'm not completely sure why but I hope you like it so far.