Instinct's Info: Woohoo, I'm halfway there! Well, there's always the chance of the story getting away from me like Book Three did, but I doubt it for this one. Anyway please review. I always appreciate any constructive criticism given.
Chapter Ten: A Cause Worth Fighting For
Although Appa left the Northern Water Tribe at a fair clip he slowed down shortly afterwards. Aang would have loved to take his time getting back to the Sleeping Zephyr, but the feeling of unease he'd acquired when he'd heard the threat spoken to Hahn refused to let him rest easy. Try as he might though, he couldn't keep the feeling from showing on his face.
"So can you tell me where we're going now?" Katara asked in attempt to take him out of his gloom. The subject had seemed to cheer him up before so she figured it could work again.
It worked immediately, "We're just staying with some family." Aang answered nonchalantly; the smile on his face said something else though.
"Hmm," Katara tilted her head back, feigning deep thought, "Are we staying at one of Mai's houses?"
"Nope." Aang answered happily.
"You joined the travelling circus Ty-Lee was part of!"
"Hey, that's an idea!" Aang laughed with her at the idea, "What do you think boy? Wanna join the circus?" He patted Appa on his head and the bison gave a roar of disproval. None of them had learned of his bad experience with circuses while he was carted all over the Earth Kingdom.
It took a full three days for them to make it back to the Sleeping Zephyr with Appa collapsing on the coast at the end of the third day. Aang left him where he was, knowing that if Appa was tired there were very few forces on this earth that could move him.
"Does Zuko have a house here or something?" Katara asked looking around at the volcanic rock and forest a little further in land.
"Not that we've found so far." Aang replied. He grabbed her hand and led her into the forest. The bugs continued their incessant wines and chirps even with the sun about to disappear under the horizon. The smell of some of the fruit on the trees hung in the air like a veil. It didn't take long to become accustomed to the smell though.
They came to the rock face where the entrance was supposed to be hidden. Toph's new entrance was visible to the side of it still. It irked Aang a little bit she'd circumvented what had taken the air nomads so long to construct in a few hand movements.
"Just whose family are we staying with here?" Katara asked when she saw that she was being led to the tunnel entrance.
"You'll see in a second. Come on, don't you want to sleep on something other than Appa's saddle tonight?"
"I don't know. I kind of enjoyed sleeping on his saddle. It brings back memories." Katara answered, though she could imagine a bed being a little more comfortable than the saddle. She let him lead her into the tunnel and down the passage. It was once they were at the end of the tunnel that Aang realized the flaw in his surprise: the sun was below the opening in the volcano's top so the only light came from the tunnel and the fires that dotted the spires.
"Wow...Aang this is incredible." Aang was mentally kicking himself since Katara could only see what Toph had the first time.
"There's more to it than this. We aren't the only ones living here." As if on cue to this there was a scraping noise ahead of them past where the ledge they were standing on ended. A glider formed in the darkness as the person steering it tried to land. The person turned out to be Zuko when h tipped the nose of the glider up to try and slow it down so he could stop. It wasn't nearly enough and he was forced to run down the ledge with his hands over his head as the glider tried to take off again. Aang sent a gust of wind towards the glider to stop it and Zuko skidded to a stop close enough to knock them over had he taken another step.
"Zuko, I don't try to fly with this little light and I'm an air bender." Aang looked at him with a mix of admiration and worry.
"I was told it was a rite of passage." Zuko said, clinging to the hope that he hadn't been duped.
"And who told you that?" Katara asked. She could list the number of suspects on one hand.
Zuko paused for a second, apparently considering his words, "Well, I saw Azula back in and she told me what she'd been doing. I decided to try it."
"Did you actually see her flying around?" Aang asked though he was pretty sure he knew the answer already. Zuko apparently did too and fire flared from his hands, catching part of the glider on fire. He snuffed it out before it caused too much damaged. A black handprint was embedded onto the middle of the glider.
"Wait," Katara was apparently starting to catch on to what was going on, "since when is gliding in the dark a rite of passage for anyone? The only people I've seen glide are Teo and the others and I know they're still at the Northern Air Temple."
"You haven't told her yet?" Zuko asked, Aang just shrugged his shoulders, "You know you might want to find another surprise, you've milked this one as long as you can."
"Well, I thought we'd get back when there was still light in here." Aang replied slightly sheepishly.
"Em, could someone tell me what's going on here?" Katara asked, feeling like she was interrupting their conversation.
"So what were you planning on now? Waiting until light came back in?" Zuko continued oblivious to Katara's question.
"Well, I was hoping something would kind of strike me."
Katara reached over and knocked on Aang's head, "If no one's going to tell me it might be better to show me instead of just waiting here."
Aang rubbed the back of his neck when he answered, "Yeah, that'd be a good idea." Zuko led the way along the edge, not that it was needed. There were really only two directions to go: forward or down if a particularly masochistic feeling came over you. When they reached the end of the ledge Zuko grabbed the rope and swung towards the fire that marked where you were supposed to land.
Katara moved to take the rope when it swung back and Aang stopped her, "Don't go fast. You can ask your brother why." Aang grinned at the memory of Toph's collision with him. Katara took a deep breath and stepped forward. Somehow walking off a cliff didn't seem natural. She felt her stomach drop out from beneath her as she started to swing and had to concentrate not to yell for the giddy feeling it gave her. She let the rope swing back and Aang appeared out of the dark a few seconds later after he'd secured it back where it had been.
It didn't take long for Aang to find some of his new 'family'. He pretended not to notice them and walked past. Katara did notice however and stopped where she was and stared, trying to find out if her eyes were playing tricks on her.
"Are they..." Katara stopped staring and drove her vision elsewhere. One of them had noticed her and waved in her direction.
She turned and saw Aang with a giant grin on his face, "How could you not tell me about this!" Her reaction surprised Aang enough to make him take a step back. She came closer to him and for half a second he thought she was going to hit him.
Instead she threw him into a hug which confused him a little bit; it didn't really bother him though. After a moment Aang tried to back up; his shoulder was damp with tears and he was worried that he'd hurt her by not telling her. He couldn't really understand why it would but he was paying much attention to that part of his brain at that moment.
"I'm sorry Katara. I won't keep any secrets anymore, okay?"
"You're blinder than Toph sometimes. I'm happy for you." Katara let him go and wiped her eyes clear. Aang's confusion remained on his face, though the fear was gone now.
"I'll make sure to let you know the next time something like this happens, okay?" Aang replied his voice comforting and low. She smiled and nodded and went back into the hug.
It was at this point that Azula walked past, "You know, generally when people act like that it's in the privacy of their room." She received a 'hi, now leave' glare from Katara instead, "Okay, I didn't know the
laws of public decency don't apply to you." She walked off once she saw Aang's ears turn red. It'd taken longer than she'd expected to happen.
Aang woke up early like he did almost every morning with a dream buzzing just outside his consciousness. It reminded him of the veiled threat to the Southern Water Tribe and went to see if Rayk was up. He was a light sleeper and usually got up around the same time as Aang did. Aang still had euphoria from being at another air temple and jumped between the spires to go up levels instead of taking the stairs.
Rayk was sitting where he had been when Aang had left. Something was different from Rayk's old position though. Sokka, Toph, and Azula where sitting with him. The fact that Azula was there didn't surprise him all that much, but Sokka's presence was enough too weird him out. The fact that Toph's eyes were even open (not that it really mattered to her) defied all the logic Aang had.
Aang started to ask and was interrupted before he even formed the first syllable by Toph, "It's his fault." She pointed a finger accusingly at Rayk. Rayk just laughed under his breath a little.
"Insight makes you a light sleeper apparently." Rayk answered Aang's unspoken question, "Any threat to the Northern Water Tribe?" Even Toph's ears pricked up when he asked that.
"Yeah," Aang answered uneasily, "there was. I though you said that they wouldn't be attacked."
"I never said that." Rayk corrected him quickly, "I said that if Lanorit moved to attack they would have plenty of warning."
"You knew this was going to happen, didn't you?" Aang felt a little despair creep into him.
"That wasn't a complete truth either." Sokka added sleepily.
"You lied to all of us?" Aang asked in disbelief.
"I didn't think I had a choice. These three can attest to it." He added with a gesture to the three people sitting around him, "I'll explain everything once everyone's up."
"Katara won't be up for a while. Aang probably rocked her to sleep." A smirk crept to Azula's face as she said it. Aang immediately blushed at the memory.
Sokka perked up at that, "What were you doing?" A mix of curiosity and concern colouring his voice.
"Sokka, Aang blushed at the thought of rocking your sister to sleep. Do you honestly think anything they'd do anything irresponsible?" He glanced at Aang after he said it though, "You didn't, right?" Aang shook his head amid another short burst of blush.
Before breakfast was served Sokka learned of something that he ranked in the top three meats. It'd come over from the swamp benders in the great bog. It involved frying strips of meat without getting rid of all the fat; bacon in other words. It was shunted down the list after Sokka learned the hazards of cooking it, namely the flying fat. Toph got a good laugh out of his antics until she stepped on a globule on the floor. They both promised that they would never attempt to make it.
When Toph and Sokka were finished nursing their wounds the food was served. Nobody ate with the gusto they normally did though. Rayk's plan hung over everyone's head like a dark cloud. Apparently they weren't expecting to like it.
"Okay, I've had enough of the gloom." Rayk said after even Mai's expression had become gloomier than normal, "Whatever you were told I assure you it's not that bad." Everyone perked up at the sound of his voice and stopped eating.
"First, I'm sorry that I didn't tell the whole truth about the Water Tribes and what would happen once Katara was here. I've had some sense knocked into me so don't worry, it won't happen again. Secondly, feel free to ask questions. We need this thing to be fool proof.
"Okay, I believe that Lanorit tried to conduct his genocide on the Fire Nation to set the world on the brink of chaos. If he did that the basis of our world would have to shift away from the elements for it to be saved. The only alternative would be his religion so he'd end up ruling the world. After that Cordow would be able to do whatever he wanted. There's no way to tell what that actually is, though it's a pretty safe bet that we don't want it.
"After he failed with the Fire Nation genocide the only other target would be the Water Tribes. He still needs the Earth Kingdom's backing to attack so he needs to have a reason to attack that they'd believe. I had Toph come here to give him that opportunity.
"If it looked like she was abducted he would be able to call on the Northern Water Tribe for assistance. If Katara was abducted before the request could be made the tribe would be scared to give aid. That would give Lanorit all the reason he needed to launch an assault." Rayk paused to see if there were any questions.
He wasn't disappointed, "How does he expect to be able to fight both Water Tribes? When Zhao attacked the northern tribe he had over half the Fire Nation fleet with him." Zuko asked the scepticism in his voice obvious.
"Every defence has holes. The weakness of the water tribes is also their strength. Everything is made of snow and ice. Start melting it and you can split their force with repairs enough to make a very good go of beating them. Now they aren't going to just let a fleet sidle up and start melting their home so Lanorit's weapon of choice will be something that's not much of a stretch from something they already use. The Fire Nation's fire rocks didn't hold up against the cold, but Lanorit's ships make tremendous amounts of heat, enough to melt even rock. Magma would go right through whatever the Water Tribes defended with. Add that knowledge and ourselves into the equation and his advantage is gone."
"What happens once we're done that though? He'll just find a reason to attack the Fire Nation again." Mai asked, showing curiosity when she spoke.
"There are plenty of people that are close to people from the Water Tribes. Add that to the fact that Lanorit's reason for attacking isn't all that strong and his followers will be shaken. He's anxious to score a victory after we stopped him in the Fire Nation and he'll do something rash. He'll lose his following and go down."
"And after that? We still have your dad to worry about don't forget. I thought were supposed to be looking for a way to get us into the spirit world." Azula leaned her head on her hands, it gave the impression she was looking right into him.
"It'll be done in time, don't worry about it." Rayk answered, a smirk coming across his face for a second as he saw the previous mood was all but gone. Things were back to normal.
Sokka's Instincts: How is he is going to figure out a mass transportation? Well, you're going to have to wait about five chapters to find out. Not the way you'd think of, I guarantee that! And PLEASE review! I don't have many so far and depression is starting to set in.