Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: the Last Airbender! If I did, Aang and Katara would have long since hooked up!

A/N: This is my first stab at writing a fan fiction! Hope you all enjoy it!

-Belze

Paper Fortunes

The wind rushed past their faces as they flew. It was pouring. The rain was falling in sheets; stinging the four companions faces as it fell from above. Below them three people were chasing them and were not too far behind. Every now and then a barrage of lightning would be fired from the ground towards the flying companions. The rain prevented it from reaching the target.

Appa was flying as fast as he could. Had the wind not been screaming past their ears, the four companions would have been able to hear the sky bison's groans of effort. The distance between the predators and prey was slowly increasing.

Even a person with the very best vision would see practically nothing from that height in this inclement weather. One of the companions tried to look over the edge; she was blind. After suddenly realizing that she was very likely to fall off the bison at the edge and looking over did no good for her at all she quickly moved back into the center and into the clump of warmth.

Once she had resumed her position in the bundle of humans located at the center of Appa's saddle she quietly asked, "Are they still close behind us?" No one heard her over the roar of the wind. She repeated the question again but louder. Still no one heard her. Toph grew angry. She lost her temper faster than usual on Appa because there were no vibrations from the earth that allowed her to see. Additionally she was grumpy; so she screamed, "Are we finally getting away from those stupid Fire Nation assassins that have been following us for the past three days?!" Finally, her companions heard her.

"Yes Toph. We've started to move faster than they are. No one can fly faster than Appa." The cool, calm, and collected voice answered her question simply, reassuring her. Katara always seemed to be able to calm Toph down. Maybe it was just part of her character as a master water bender, to be able to be calm and serene in times of importance and distress. Maybe it was just a gift. Maybe just luck. Toph could never really figure it out.

From the middle of the three bodies came a soft noise that was, strangely enough, easily heard over the torrential downpour and monstrous gusts. Momo poked his head out of the top of the clump of people, realized quickly that it was far too wet out for comfort and hid once again in the middle of the huddle.

The last person in the cluster on Appa's back was Sokka. He had also heard Katara's response to Toph's question after she had fully awoken him from his semi-sleeping state with her frustrated yell. He didn't bother questioning Katara. Every time he questioned his sister's statements they ended quarreling, sometimes even physically fighting and he normally ended up losing. As a warrior of the water tribe, he didn't like getting whupped by his sister and therefore tried to give her as few opportunities as possible.

Inwardly, Sokka was elated. The fact that they were escaping from the most certain doom that lay below in the form of the Fire Nation assassins meant that there was food in the future. And nothing made Sokka happier than the idea of food except food itself. His composure was anything but elated. It was pouring. It was cold. He was tired. He was hungry. But most importantly he was hungry.

Katara reached into her thick water tribe coat and brought out a bottle. Clink Clink. Sokka had his eyes closed and therefore couldn't see what was in it. But he knew that sound and his eyes shot wide open. In Katara's hand was a bottle half filled with nuts. These weren't the 'nuts' that Sokka had found his first foraging trip. Far from it. These were roasted nuts from the last village they stopped at. He could taste the sweet yet salty flavor in his mouth and drooled. Unfortunately for Momo, Sokka's mouth was situated directly over Momo's sleeping head. And poor Momo was quickly covered in saliva.

Katara took five nuts out of the bottle and saved the remaining ones for later. She ate one herself then gave one to each Toph, Momo, and Sokka. She then took the last one and tucked it with her hand inside one of her coat pockets. She stepped out of the cluster of warmth and the cold immediately hit her full in the face. The cold coursed through her body and she shivered. She then slowly advanced towards Appa's head where the last member of their party sat. He hadn't moved in over an hour. He was constantly staring straight ahead with his eyes barely open. He looks like a statue, Katara noted. His determined look gave Katara even more faith that they would get out of this chase. The only apparent fact that he wasn't a statue was that he was shivering. Aang was cold. Aang was very cold. He had not been receiving warmth from anyone the entire trip. Instead, he got the full force of the wind and rain and it impacted him more due to his thin and small airbender clothes. Had there been different circumstances he would have created a bubble around Appa shielding the group from the wind and rain. However, he was too concentrated on keeping Appa at full speed that he hadn't even considered the possibility. Aang . . . the Avatar . . . When he first met Sokka and Katara he was twelve years old. He hadn't changed a bit . . . except now he could bend water and earth as well as air. He wasn't a waterbending master like Katara or an earthbending genius like Toph. But he was the avatar . . . The last and only hope to defeat the Fire Nation and reunite the four nations to their original state.

Katara sat down next to him. Aang's tried to speak, but the wind ripped the words right out of his mouth. Katara moved closer and Aang repeated the phrase. She barely heard him say, "Why are you up here?" She wasn't surprised that he asked. He was always worried for her but she never fully understood why. She believed that he was a caring and kind person and there was nothing more to it. She didn't respond to his question but just took the nut out of her coat and pushed it against his lips. He opened his mouth and started chewing it. When he realized what it was he chewed slower, relishing the taste. Slightly sweet yet somehow salty, he thought. Color returned to Aang's pale face, the arrow on his head became a deeper blue, and instead of his fully determined and serious demeanor from before . . . he was smiling. Katara smiled too.

Katara then reached under her coat and handed Aang a blue bundle "I had been saving this as a present for you for some other time. But you need it now. Before we left the South Pole, Gran Gran Kanna had found a new water tribe winter coat that no one used. I thought it looked a little big for you at the time . . . but I thought you might grow so I took it anyway. I dunno . . . It still might be a little big for you."

By the time she had finished explaining what the bundle was Aang had the water tribe coat fully on. He wasn't shivering anymore. However, at a brief glance no one would have recognized Aang in it. Instead of seeing the slim form of Aang that Katara normally saw, all she saw was a big coat . . . a really big coat. The sleeves went well past Aang's hand and he could barely see out from under the hood that draped so far over his head. Katara was giggling and went to look at Aang's face and ask what he thought of it but before she asked she noticed that instead of shivering it looked like he was bouncing in place. She stopped laughing; she was confused and moved to get a look straight at his face. He was laughing and smiling and she couldn't help but notice that the blue of the coat emphasized the grey of his eyes that she so secretly loved staring into. She pretended to laugh as well and turned away so he couldn't see her blush. Between laughs he said, "Thanks Katara. I'll be warm now. Go on and huddle up in the group with the others I'll be fine now." He was smiling at her.

Katara smiled back, slowly stood up, and turned around only to see Sokka chasing Momo who was clutching his half eaten nut in circles around Toph who was laying face down clutching the saddle. Katara tried to tell Sokka to stop goofing off but as soon as the words came out of her mouth Sokka tripped over one of Toph's legs and was sent flying. Katara screamed out but the scream barely got out of her mouth before it was lost in the wind. Sokka barely grabbed a stray strap hanging off the side of the saddle in order to stop himself from falling. Katara struggled against the rain and Appa's slippery fur to get to him but just as she got close enough and reached out to grab his hand the wind gusted a little too much to handle. She lost her balance and almost fell off but caught herself. Sokka wasn't so lucky, the wind blew him right off the strap and down into the thick forest below.

-----

Far below the three traveling companions chasing the Avatar saw the object fall off of the sky bison and fall into the forest below. They couldn't hear Katara screaming for Sokka over the wind gusting and the rain pelting. The leader in the front took nothing more than a moments glance at it and yelled at her partner on her left to go check it out. Her partner just cocked her head to the side and blinked; the wind was still too strong to hear anything. The chief assassin pointed at the person on the left then at the falling object. The primitive message was understood and the left assassin of their squad broke off and chased after the falling object.

-----

Sokka was falling. He was falling very fast. When he had caught onto the spare strap from Appa's saddle he realized that he would need to do something if he fell. As he fell, he took off his coat grabbed all 4 corners of it together and used it like a parachute. It didn't help much but it helped enough. When he hit the trees he was almost immediately knocked unconscious. But he held on to consciousness. Not long after hitting the upper branches of the tree was he jolted to a stop. At first he thought it was the ground because he could feel pressure on his feet, but then he released that his feet had gotten wrapped up in a drawstring in his coat and he was hanging upside down from the bottom branch of a tree. To say that Sokka was injured was an understatement. He was bruised everywhere except for his left arm which amazingly seemed to feel no pain. Then he saw it falling after him . . . His boomerang. It came straight down strangely missing all of the branches and hit him smack in the forehead, knocking him out completely.

-----

Katara had watched Sokka fall and seen one of the assassins break off of from the group and head towards the falling Sokka. Katara was crying. It was impossible to tell due to the rain washing over her face; but she was crying. She stumbled over to Aang and tried to explain everything that had happened between her sobs. Aang's heart panged and he started to think.

Aang thought, I can't turn around. Then all the assassins would follow us and we would all be in danger . . . I can't leave Sokka . . . But I can't bring Katara back there. I could go alone though. That would work. Katara and Toph would continue to the next city and I would follow after with Sokka when I found him. I have to hurry though. One of the assassins is probably already where Sokka fell. Must hurry.

He started to say his idea when he realized that Katara wouldn't have heard him. He pulled her closer and told her his idea.

At first she was hesitant but agreed when she realized that it was the only way to get Sokka back safely. She nodded in agreement and was given barely enough time to say goodbye before Aang had grabbed his glider and was soaring higher so that the rest of the assassins couldn't see him fly away. They didn't.

Katara took Aang's place urging Appa forward. While the cold air and water rushed in her face she cried and wished for both Aang and Sokka's safety. Toph in the back wished for good solid earth. And Momo wished for more nuts.

-----

Far below hanging from a tree, Sokka slowly regained consciousness. It was still raining, though not quite as hard as before, and the wind was gone. Water dripped from his nose, and his legs were still tangled in the coat. After he checked to see if he was alright he saw a girl ride out of the woods on what looked to be a lizard. She dismounted and tied the lizard up then came over to look him dangling upside down. She then sighed sat down at the base of a tree where the rain wasn't reaching.

Ty Lee had found the falling object. But it wasn't the Avatar. Azula would be disappointed. Although Ty Lee still wanted to find out who this boy was. He looked funny upside down. She was strangely glad he was alive.

Sokka didn't know what to do. He was stuck and couldn't do anything so he just decided to hang there and pretend to be dead. It didn't work because he soon heard the voice calling up from below.

"Hello!!!!! Are you ok up there? You are upside down you know! Did you try to fly? My mommy always told me people can't fly."

What the heck was this girl doing . . . wasn't she a Fire Nation assassin. Her outfit looked like something from the Fire Nation. It was hard to tell exactly what it was though because of all the rain soaked into it from the run. In an instant, she rose from her sitting position. She jumped up and cart wheeled over to underneath him. "Hi!!" she said in a very cheerful and innocent voice, "I'm Ty Lee!! Nice to meet you Mr. Whoever you are!" She looked into his eyes and smiled.

Sokka was so confused. He thought she was gonna kill him. All of his expectations of a Fire Nation assassin were completely incorrect when faced with this girl below him. She seemed like a very flexible, kind, and humorous person. And right as this thought entered his mind, she did a couple handsprings and a back flip with amazing grace and ease back to under the tree in the dry spot. He goggled but then thought. 'Maybe if she is so nice she will get me down from here if I ask politely.' So he tried asking.

"Hey . . . umm . . . Ty Lee was it? I'm Sokka. Would you mind letting me down from here? It's quite uncomfortable."

She laughed at him and then started stretching. "Sokka . . . I like that name" she giggled. "Sorry Sokka. I am supposed to wait for Azula to get here and just make sure you don't get away. Then she is either gonna kill you, use you as a hostage, or leave you here. I really would love to let you down, cause you seem like a nice enough person . . . but Azula would kill me. Sorry!!" She smiled up innocently and then spotted his boomerang. "Ooooo! What is this pretty thing! Is it a toy?!"

Sokka never liked anyone touching his boomerang. Last time someone else touched it, it ended up getting lost. He quickly yelled down at her "It's not pretty and it's not a toy . . . It's a boomerang . . . A warrior's boomerang. And it's mine . . . Don't touch it!"

Ty Lee frowned. 'Looks like a toy to me', she thought. But then shrugged. "Ok! It's yours! I'm ok with that! Here ya go! " She ran straight up the tree trunk, flipped herself gracefully onto the branch, slipped the boomerang in one of Sokka's pockets, and was flipping back to the ground before Sokka realized what had happened.

The only thing he could think was, 'Who is this girl?' First she had said hello in a friendly voice and engaged in small talk . She had tried to be helpful. And finally she had given him back his weapon. What kind of enemy gives you your weapon back once you lose it and then starts doing gymnastics . . . Sokka decided in his head that Ty Lee definitely wasn't an assassin . . . She seemed like she was from the circus. Yet before he could think anymore he felt a gust of wind fly by and send Ty Lee flying. She landed in a perfectly balanced handstand but the ground wrapped around her wrists and the water in her clothes froze, rendering her unable to move in this upside down position. She looked even more confused than Sokka did. The air had come from behind him so he had no idea what caused it. It was a couple seconds before he felt the air cut him free from the tree. Unluckily for him, he fell on his left side, injuring the only uninjured part of his body. Aang had arrived. There was no time for chit chat because Sokka had a feeling that Azula was on her way. He ran towards Aang who was urging him to hurry. They left out of the small grove where Sokka's encounter with Ty Lee had occurred, but before losing sight of her he stole one more glance at this pretty, yet bizarre young lady. She was smiling at him.

She was thinking, "I never got to see him right side up. I wonder if he is as cute right side up as he is upside down! Maybe he is cuter!"

"Sokka . . ." she whispered to herself and smiled.

A/N: Next chapter will be up ASAP!

-Belze