Chapter Eight

Sorry for the long wait. I've been busy watching this movie at least twice a night for the past week. It's called Killer Klowns from Outer Space. How bad could it possibly be? I highly recommend it if you like horror/comedy B-movies. It's rated PG-13, if that matters any to you.

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar, but due to the above movie, I do own an acute fear of clowns.

It was two days after the incident with the airship. Sokka and Suki both appeared to be in good condition, although Suki was still shaken. However, they were all awake, which was an improvement over the previous day, in which Suki didn't wake up at all. Appa was flying steadily, and was nearing Ba Sing Se.

Aang looked down onto the ground far below. The rich forests below; over far to one side of him, the Great Desert; Omashu fading behind them in the distance, just a tiny blot on the horizon facing their backs, all pristine and picturesque to Aang's eyes. A vision of charred rubble, smoke, and ash filled the landscape for a moment. Aang shook his head and closed his eyes quickly, and everything was back to normal. But, the momentary lapse reminded him of how close they had been. "What if I don't have the same luck with Iroh?" he thought. "What if we miss an airship or can't do anything about it?" Pushing the thoughts to the back of his mind, he continued to fly.

Another good day of flying and they would make it to Ba Sing Se late in the afternoon on the next day But, night was beginning to fall, so Aang took Appa down to a clearing in a dense forest. The group set up camp, four sleeping bags, underneath the stars, surrounding a dying fire, embers glowing dimly. All four fell asleep without a meal, fatigue having taken its toll. With their eyes gently closed, still asleep. Subconsciously, Aang began to inch over to Katara, she was doing the same. Sokka and Suki were going through a similar move. When he woke up, Aang felt his and Katara's shoulder touching. He looked around, everybody else was still sleeping. It was, in fact, very early in the morning, and Appa needed the rest anyway. Aang closed his eyes again, and fell back into a sweet slumber, a smile on his face.

"It's Momo!" Sokka yelled. The others sat up, rubbing their eyes, straining for a glimpse in the early morning sky. Sokka was already up and running; and Momo landed on his shoulder. Sokka put his hand up to his shoulder, and groped for the prize. His hand grasped a ball, with hundreds of prickles attached to it, and knew Momo hadn't him down. He hid the cactus into his sleeping bag. "Okay, everybody, wake up. Wakey wakey!" Sokka kicked his sleeping bag, slyly hiding the cactus from view. He was quite pleased with his fine work.

No less than ten minutes later, the fire was doused, and all supplies were on the saddle. If someone were to come twenty minutes later, they never would have known that the Avatar had been there. "Yip, yip!" Aang commanded, and the giant bison kicked off the ground and took off into the sky. They climbed higher and higher into the air, until they were in the white, fluffy clouds.

After about five hours of flying, the great outer wall of Ba Sing Se began to materialize. As they got closer, the wall seemed to get even more immense as time went on. Finally, Appa flew over the first wall and began his descent. He flew over a thriving zoo, some farm patches, and then went over the second wall. Appa was just gliding over rooftops, until they reached the Jasmine Dragon. There, he dropped the remaining height, and landed right next to the tea shop.

The four dismounted from Appa, and walked into the shop. In an instant, Toph and Zuko were running to them. Everyone hugged, and there was a great feel of happy throughout the shop. Aunt Wu had yet to emerge from her room. Suddenly, Katara grabbed Zuko by the shoulders.

"It wasn't you, right?" interrogated Katara, a look of pure intensity on her face.

"What are you talking about?" Zuko responded.

"The airship with bombs that was going to destroy our village."

"What? An airship? I ordered that they all be dismantled and never put together again!"

"Zuko's telling the truth." Toph said. "It wasn't him." Katara let go of Zuko.

"I'm sorry about that, it's just that we all nearly died, and the fire nation crest was on the side, so I thought the Fire Lord could be related."

"It's fine, Katara. I would blame the Fire Lord too if I was in your position. I'm sorry that y troops are on the loose. Anyway, did anything good happen while you were away?"

"Of course!" Sokka said. "Suki and I are getting married!"

"That's wonderful!" Once again, the air turned pleasant, and everyone began telling stories, and for a while, no one ever could have guessed the circumstances that brought had brought them together.

Another chapter, plain and simple. Another reason for the update lack is band camp. It's pretty time consuming. In other, totally non-related words, please review!