Chapter Two
Aang sat on the top of Appa's head steering the giant flying animal. It was nearing nightfall and he had to find a place to land and make camp soon; they'd been traveling all day only stopping for lunch and a bit of a break but not long. Everyone was restless and eager to get some sleep. Even though they weren't doing anything, traveling always just seemed to make the group exhausted. Aang's glance started back as he gazed towards his family. His eyes rested on Katara who was arguing with Sokka about what, though, Aang didn't really listen to. He was content on just looking at her until she caught him staring which slapped him back into reality and he quickly shifted his gaze forward again and flushed deeply. The young airbender often caught himself watching Katara. He couldn't help it, in his eyes she was absolutely beautiful. As soon as he recovered he turned back around to ask the group if they thought it was an ok place and time to land. They agreed and started their decent to a small clearing in the woods near a creek.
The group set up camp quickly and prepared a fire before nightfall could consume them. Katara and Sokka had finished arguing but were not talking probably due to the fact that they had only just finished their argument and needed some space from each other. Katara began cooking dinner because it wasn't too long after they landed that all Sokka could complain about was food (or lack thereof). Aang sat himself next to Katara asking if there was anything he could do.
"It's alright Aang, I've got it covered, but thank you for offering," at which Aang replied with his trademark smile.
Katara caught a glimpse of Aang smiling at her before she dropped her gaze back down to the food she was cooking before her. She couldn't say why but lately even seeing Aang just smile at her like that was making her heart just flutter in a way she'd never really felt before. Don't get her wrong, she'd had her fair share of crushes, but nothing really felt quite like this. She couldn't explain it but she also wasn't complaining. She couldn't deny that it was a good feeling, but she still couldn't accept it for what she very well knew it was. She'd frequently find herself saying to herself things like, He's the avatar, why would he want to be involved with someone like me, but that alone couldn't stop her curiosity or her feelings for him at that. She couldn't help but wonder what the young airbender's feelings for her were. Even though she knew getting in a relationship would probably get in the way of his duty of being the avatar she couldn't help but think about and hope he felt the same way.
As soon as everyone finished eating Sokka laid down on his sleeping bag and fell asleep almost instantly. Toph went to find some place with the most rocks and farthest away from everyone else as she could manage but before she could make her tent of stone she yelled out "Hey twinkle-toes! Earthbending practice, tomorrow, be ready early, we didn't do anything yesterday so I want an early start," and she kicked the ground and isolated herself inside her rock tent leaving Aang and Katara alone. Aang groaned at the news Toph had so wonderfully just given him. Earthbending training was hard enough when it was just a normal practice, but when Toph said to be up early Aang knew it was because he had missed a day and Toph would drill him hard to make up for it. Tomorrow wasn't going to be fun.
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Isa rode on, her lizard was fast but not near as fast as a flying bison. And, like Appa, her lizard needed rest too. She was not far off from the kids but she knew she had to get an early start if she wanted to catch up to them. She knew the avatar would have to stop eventually for training and she just hoped that tomorrow would be that day. She didn't know exactly what he had mastered or if he was master of every element yet, but all she knew was that too many days without practice would make a bender rusty and with having four different elements to practice he would have to stop often. She gathered some wood from around the trees, enough for a small fire, and started a roaring flame with the small movement of her fist. And at that she settled down for the night drifting off to sleep with the thoughts of capturing the avatar on her mind.
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