Started this late, but this isn't one of my better stories and I've been working on my other ones. Not much of an excuse, but it's what I've got. This should be worth the effort though. I have plans (sort of) for this so we'll see how they turn out.

Two days had passed since Aang and his friends left Omashu. It was still all a bit too hard for Aang to swallow. It hurt that Bumi had to leave the only home he ever knew. Still, what else could be done? At least he saved the citizens. The spirit of the city was in them, not in the ruined buildings they left. Just like the Earth Kingdom. Spirits, how was he ever going to get used to all this madness?

The group made camp. It was still a long, long way to the North Pole, and a lot of occupied Earth Kingdom to go through. The Empire was everywhere, though with two years of peace, they weren't exactly out in force. Yet.

Having been camping for some time and unable to resupply in Omashu, the group had to go out and forage. Thanks to Aang's already extensive traveling experience, he knew what plants were safe to eat and which were best left alone. He and Katara had found quite a bounty when they heard a strange noise coming from the direction of their camp. Katara quickly grew worried as Sokka had been fishing in the river there. The two of them rushed back almost into the waiting arms of a group of Fire Empire soldiers, had Sokka not pulled them out of the way. Unfortunately, Appa was a bit too big to hide.

"Now what do we do?" Sokka complained more than asked. "We can't leave Appa behind, but we can't take on that many soldiers!" Even with his voice hushed it was hard to believe none of the soldiers heard it.

"I think we can do it…" Aang whispered, much more quietly. He looked around. There were about twenty or so men in armor with spears. If the spears were any indication, there weren't any firebenders among them. "All we have to do is get to Appa and fly away. There's no way they can catch us after that."

"It seems a bit risky…" Katara warned. "Maybe we can find a way to distract-"

"I found you!" an angry voice yelled. They turned around to see a firebender rearing up to attack them. The three jumped out of the way, but now all the soldiers in camp knew they were there. The soldiers turned their attention from the snarling Appa to the Avatar and his friends that just landed in front of them.

The firebender leapt at Aang, the attack blown away with a blast of air from Aang's glider. The firebender spun in the air to land upright and charged launching fireballs. Aang deflected the attacks than blew the firebender into a tree.

Sokka was having a bit of trouble with a group of soldiers that surrounded him. He was blocking their attacks with his club just fine, but there were too many to counterattack. Just as the soldiers were closing in he heard Appa roar distinctly in his direction. Sokka looked over at Appa, who was lifting his large, paddle-like tail. Sokka knew what that meant and duked. Appa dropped his tail and a gale blasted away the solders over Sokka. "Thanks, big guy," Sokka flashed the thumbs up before running to pick up what he could from camp.

Katara was holding off a few soldiers herself. She had the advantage of the nearby to draw water from. She kept them at bay with waves of water drawn from the river. When she saw Sokka loading Appa's saddle, she drew up as much water as she could and dumping it on the approaching soldiers. Aang blasted away a few other soldiers away and leapt onto Appa's head. With a flip of the reins and a "Yip yip!" they were off. They didn't stay to see the soldiers get ambushed a few minutes later by Earth Kingdom guerrillas.

"That was a bit too close!" Katara breathed, relaxing into the saddle.

"It looks like we didn't lose anything from camp," Sokka reported as he looked through the bags and stores on the saddle around him. "We were lucky. But we might not be next time. We need to do something about the Empire, or we'll never be able to make camp again!"

"But we can't just keep flying all the way to the North Pole," Aang reported from his perch on Appa's head, "Appa needs rest and we all need to eat."

"You're right," Sokka sighed. "And we don't really blend in as former Earth Kingdom or Fire Empire citizens, so it's not like we can go town hopping."

"Maybe we can find people who would be willing to help us," Katara suggested, "Like Ginn Tsu."

"We can't rely on finding a Ginn Tsu in every town we wander into. It takes just one mistake for us to get captured and then it's all over!" Sokka warned

"You're such a pessimist!" Katara complained.

"You're such an optimist!" he countered.

"You make that sound like it's a bad thing!"

"That's because it is!"

"Guys, quit it!" Aang barked from the reins. "Look, no matter what we decided, we're going to have to find a place to land." Aang motioned to the sun, it had already set. Only the purple glow of dusk remained and it was fading fast. "We're just going to have to risk it for tonight. We'll only get out what we need and decide what we should do in the morning." The Water Tribe siblings agreed.

Appa touched down in a little secluded hollow. The area looked devoid of human interaction. Aside from lifting Aang's spirits to see such an untouched location, it also meant that Imperial troops were unlikely to wander by. Instead of making a full camp, unloading Appa's saddle and all the other things usually associated with preparation for the night's rest, the group just unloaded the sleeping bags, and took off Appa's saddle. It was amazing how heavy it was when they didn't take time to remove all their effects from it. In any event, they had had a fast day, so Sokka and Katara decided to turn in early.

Aang sat awake, staring into the little campfire he managed to scratch together. "This is pretty crazy, huh buddy," he said sadly to Appa. The Sky Bison inched over and nuzzled Aang with his big wet nose. Aang couldn't help but smile. "Heheh, you always know what to say."

Katara rustled in her sleeping bag and looked over at her friend. "Aang? Are you still awake?"

"Sorry," he said as he poked the humble flame. "I didn't mean to wake you…"

She sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, "It's okay. Is something on your mind?" She immediately looked away after asking, "Sorry, stupid question."

"No, I…" Aang couldn't really put into words what he was feeling. The world had turned upside down as far as he was concerned. "Can I really do anything? Everything is so messed up and I feel too powerless to fix it…"

"I have faith in you, Aang. I know you can set things right."

"So the monks told me. But I never asked to be the Avatar. I never wanted to be."

"I said I had faith in you, Aang," Katara smiled. "Sure you're the Avatar, but you're also brave, strong, smart, talented, kind, and the most amazing bender I've ever seen."

"That's only because I'm the Avatar…" Aang countered sadly.

"I don't think that's true. I bet even if you were just an ordinary airbender, you would still be just as amazing." Aang smiled at the compliment. It didn't hurt that it had come from his crush. "The world needs the Avatar, but the world also needs you Aang."

Aang was about to thank her when suddenly a dozen figures clad all in black brandishing swords and spears appeared and surrounded the group. "Great, what now?"

Not perfect, but more than passable. This kind of shaped up as I made it, but it's fitting in with what I'm going for. This might just be a turning point and reenergize this story a bit for me. We'll see how the next one goes.