I am very sorry for not updating in so long. I got really caught up with school and some original stories I'm writing, but I promise I never forgot this story or all you wonderful readers and reviewers.
"So what do we do?" Sokka asked the next morning. They'd stopped in a small town in the mountains last night.
"Do 'bout wha'?" Aang asked, his mouth full of the porridge they'd gotten from the local inn.
"I mean about Prince Jerk. Do you really wanna take him up on his offer?"
"Ummm….I'm still kinda thinking about it."
Sokka opened his mouth to argue, but Katara cut in. "This is a big decision. Aang doesn't need to be rushed into making it."
"But if we are going to make it, don't you think we should before we get to the North Pole? You know, so we can get a plan in place?"
"Sokka, it'll be weeks before we reach the North Pole. We have time" Katara said, taking a bite of her breakfast.
"No, we don't have time. We don't know how long it'll take for the Fire Nation to plan their attack and reach the Northern Water Tribe or exactly when they plan to. For all we know, they may not be attacking till this summer. But we need to get there as soon as possible so we can warn them and they can prepare-and so Aang can get started practicing waterbending."
"We're going as fast as we can. But Appa needs to rest every once in a while. We'll be fine." Aang said. With that he went off.
"Where-? Oh, never mind." Sokka grumbled.
Katara petted Momo, who sat in her lap. She felt a little guilty realizing she hadn't thought much of the lemur at all when she'd been away, even though he was part of their family too.
She handed Momo a piece of fruit. "So does Aang still want to go to the Fire Nation? To figure out his whole comet dream, I mean?"
"Who knows? The kid's mind goes from one thing to another so fast, it's like a leopard seal in the water. You just can't keep up."
He scarfed down the rest of his breakfast. "C'mon we need to get supplies and get out of here."
"Aang was supposed to keep track of what we needed to get."
"I know. That's why we need to go."
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"How about a necklace, for a pretty lady perhaps?" a merchant asked, holding one of his wares up.
Aang noticed the carving on the necklace. "This is an air nomad necklace! It must be a hundred years old! Where'd you get it?"
"Ah, but it's not! I actually got it in the mountains. The man who had it traded it to me in exchange for medical supplies." He started to whisper. "Do you want to know a secret?"
Aang nodded and leaned forwards.
"I think the man may have been an airbender!" whispered the merchant excitedly.
Aang's heart leapt. Was it possible; was he really not the last airbender?
Before he could reply, Sokka and Katara appeared. The merchant tried to talk Sokka into buying some of his goods before Katara dragged him away, chiding that they needed to save their money for important things, not little trinkets.
Half an hour later, they'd gotten nearly everything they needed. While Sokka bartered with a merchant over the price of new fishing hooks (they'd lost some of theirs), Katara wandered over to the neighboring stall.
It was filled with books and scrolls. Katara became excited when she realized she could read some of the words.
"Anything I can help you with miss?" asked the elderly man standing behind the stall.
"Ah, no. I'm just…" she was about to say "looking" but stopped. Lying in front of her was a very familiar book. Red and blue dragons were flying in circles on the cover.
"Is this "Love Amongst the Dragons"?" she asked, picking up the book. It was similar to Zuko's version, only slimmer and not as worn.
"Yes, only it's the abridged version, I'm afraid. But still a good read."
Katara chewed the inside of her cheek. She scolded Sokka when he wanted to buy useless trinkets, but surely this wouldn't be useless! She could use it to practice reading and when she saw Zuko again, she could impress him by how much she'd learned and that she knew some of his favorite story.
"Most people don't want to buy Fire Nation literature. But if you really want it, I'll sell it to you for twelve copper pieces."
That seemed a slightly hefty price for a book, but still…
"How about six?" she asked.
"Ten."
"Eight. That's my final offer."
The man nodded. "Fair enough."
Katara counted out the eight copper pieces and handed them to the man. She carefully put her new book inside her bag. Excitement danced around in her stomach. She couldn't wait to look at it.
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Aang sat up from where he lay on Appa's tail. The three-quarter moon shone in the night sky, illuminating their little camp.
He silently leaped off of Appa. The bison grumbled as he watched his master slip away.
"Shhh. Don't worry, buddy. I'll be back in a bit. There's just something I need to check."
Aang had snuck off to the merchant's booth that afternoon while Katara and Sokka were getting the last of the supplies. He'd gotten the location of where exactly the man got the necklace-a cave in the mountains not too far from here. Aang had to check it out. He had to know if he was the last airbender.
He was sure to be quiet as to not wake up Sokka and Katara. When he was sure he was far enough away where they wouldn't hear him and wake up, he speed off, using airbending to make himself go faster. He didn't notice the flashes of red in the bushes he passed, glinting in the moon's light.
He wasn't sure exactly how long it took to reach the cave. The mouth was deep into the side of a sharp cliff and half hidden by trees. It seemed like a good enough hiding spot. Surely the Fire Nation wouldn't have thought to look for airbenders in here.
Aang descended into the cave. "Hello? Are there any airbenders in here? My name's Aang; I'm one of you and I'm the Avatar!"
There was no response, save for a bit of water dropping from the ceiling.
"Hello?"
There was a scuffling noise behind him, followed by the clink of metal. Aang spun around, too late, as the glow of several flames lit up the entrance to the cave.
Admiral Zhao stood at the entrance to the cave, with half a dozen masked soldiers behind him. Off to the side, stood the very same merchant Aang had seen earlier, clutching a bag in his hand.
Zhao gestured to the merchant. "You did well and you've been rewarded. Now get out of here."
The merchant scuttled away without so much as a backwards glance at the boy he'd betrayed.
Zhao's smug grin filled Aang's vision as the man stepped in front of him. "Well Avatar, it looks like once again you're in my clutches. And this time your little masked friend isn't here to rescue you."
"But we are."
Zhao spun around at the sound of the voice. Aang peered around him. "Sokka! Katara!"
Zhao snarled at the sight of the two Water Tribe siblings. "Don't just stand there," he shouted to the dumbstruck soldiers. "Get them!"
Have spent three weeks on a Prince's ship, sparred with said Prince, seen a bloody fight with pirates, and studied her treasured scroll, all increased Katara's confidence in herself and her fighting abilities. She and Sokka had heard Aang take off into the woods and they'd immediately taken off after him, relying on Appa's flying to help them keep up.
Now Katara stepped forward gracefully and pulled her element from her waterskin. She smiled a bit as she unleashed the water whip, a move she had just perfected recently, on the Fire Nation soldiers. She managed a few hits and was rewarded by their yelps of surprise and pain.
Beside her, Sokka drew his club in one hand and boomerang in the other. A sure throw knocked one soldier out.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Aang locked in a fight with Zhao. Aang was taunting the man and running about, dodging his fire blasts. Veins were appearing in Zhao's forehead now and he growled in frustration as the Avatar continuously dodged his attacks.
Katara took a deep breath and drew all of the water out of its container. Waving her arms with practiced grace, she gave a loud yell, catching the Admiral's attention, and sent all of her water at him in a wave, with as much force as she could put behind it.
Zhao gasped as the wave struck him in the chest and sent him sprawling several feet away. He got to his feet with an angry growl as smoke curled out of his nostrils. The Avatar and his friends had disappeared. Make no mistake; he silently thought to the Water Tribe girl, I'll get you for that.
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"That was close!" Aang gasped. They were safely away from the cave now.
"I'll say!" said Sokka. "What was with you sneaking off like that?"
Aang hung his head. "I'm sorry, guys. I just wanted to see if there were any more airbenders."
Katara and Sokka shared a look. Aang looked and sounded exactly like a small, lost child right now. Sokka sighed and mentally cursed. That had been too close. But with the sad look Aang was giving him, he couldn't bring himself to yell at the boy.
"So what did Zhao mean about "your masked friend" and you being rescued?" he asked.
"Oh, er, well he meant…uh. When you guys got sick after the storm and I had to get you medicine, I accidently got captured by Zhao. I mean, he had these crazy archers who could shoot through ice and…"
"Wait, you mean that time we sucked on frozen frogs?" Sokka opened his mouth and pointed inside. "I have a wart on the back of my throat for that!"
Katara sighed and put her hands on her hips. "Sokka, there is nothing there."
Her brother started to argue, but Aang interrupted. "So, did you guys want to hear about the masked guy or not?"
They stopped in a small clearing and sat down. "Go ahead, Aang." Katara said.
"Well, this guy wearing a blue demon masked came in to the room where I was being held. And he cut me free. I mean, he had these two swords that could cut through metal. And he was wearing all black. It was kinda creepy."
"Anyway, we started sneaking out-and he never said a word that whole time, which was creepy too- and then alarms went off and we had to fight our way out. He-he forced Zhao to open the gates and we left the fortress. But then an arrow came and hit him in the shoulder. I gave us some cover and we ran into the woods. I didn't know what he was going to do with me, and I tried to tell him how you guys were sick and needed those frogs and he told me to go get them. I don't know what happened to him. I haven't seen him since. I didn't even get his name."
"You don't know what happened to him?" Sokka asked this.
Aang shook his head. "I wanted to get back to you guys."
"Aang that's great, but you're telling me some stranger freed you, was injured doing it, and then let you run off, but you didn't even think to ask him if he would be okay?"
"Well, yeah".
Sokka sighed. "I'm sorry, that just seems a little…ungrateful. I wish you could have at least gotten his name or something."
"Why?"
"Well, one, maybe we could find and thank him for saving you and two, if he can break you out of a highly secure fortress with just a couple of swords, he sounds like a handy person to have around."
"Maybe we'll run into him. I mean a guy in a blue mask. How many people could miss that?"
Katara spoke up. "So what did this mask look like exactly?"
While Aang went into a surprisingly descriptive detail of the mask, Katara felt shivers run up and down her spine. Zuko had worn a blue demon mask when he saved her. A man in all black clothing and a blue mask that carried two swords? What were the coincidences?
The following night, the three children sat around a campfire, listening to a villager tell stories about the airbenders. Katara was only listening with half an ear. Her mind kept wandering back to Zuko. He saved Aang. He saved her. But why? Maybe rescuing Aang had only been an attempt to capture him for himself, but what about her? Zuko had never given her an answer as to why he really saved her.
Her thoughts couldn't sort out any answers even as they traveled through the mountains to the Northern Air Temple the next morning. Aang was just as excited as he'd been when they'd visited the Southern Air Temple and Katara couldn't see why. Were they really going to go on the word of two random storytellers that Air Nomads still existed?
There was another thought that made her nervous. They'd seen the remains of Gyatso. What if there were more like that at the Northern-?
Katara stopped mid-thought. They saw Gyatso. But no one else. There had been no other remains anywhere on the Temple except for Gyatso's. So where were they? She tried to tell herself that after a hundred years, the bodies must had all disintegrated or, ugh, maybe they were eaten by wild animals.
But that didn't explain why Gyatso's remains happened to be the only ones left there. Something just wasn't adding up.
"So guys, I was thinking…" Aang started, interrupting Katara's thoughts.
"I think I'm going to take Zuko up on his offer. That encounter with Zhao was really close and I think maybe having some extra help would be a good idea."
Sokka propped himself up on one elbow. "I'm still not too sure I like the idea. But if you think its okay…well, I guess I'll go along. Katara, what do you think?"
Katara's heart had made a funny little leap when Aang said Zuko's name. There was a tremor going through her body, not unlike the one she felt when Zuko had given her reading lessons and their hands had briefly touched.
She managed to keep her voice steady. "I think it's a good idea."
A/N: The idea about Aang being lured into a cave by Air Nomad artifacts came from the Avatar Comics.
So what do you think might have happened to the Air Nomads? I wondered why Gyatso's remains are the only ones we see. And I know it's a children's show, but still if they showed one, why not more? I understand there wouldn't really be any at the Northern Air Temple with people living there and its possible Guru Pathik took care of the ones at the Eastern. But it's obviously colder up at the temples with them being set in the mountains, I'd think, and wouldn't the cold be more likely to preserve bodies rather than make them decompose faster? I'm not an expert so I don't really know. That's why I'm asking you guys for your ideas.
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