AUTHOR'S NOTES— We all know that all-seriousness is boring. That was part of Shamalamadingdong's unforgivable sin. Also, it seems like Toph's got a few Fire Nation souvenirs. Also, apologies for the delay.

AVATAR: THE LAST FIREBENDER

BOOK 1: WATER

CHAPTER 4-1: THE WARRIORS OF KYOSHI, PART 1

skies between the Southern Air Temple and Kyoshi Island; afternoon

Flying over the next while proved to be relatively uneventful. Recent storms, narrow evasion of Air Warrior navies, and lack of knowing where their destination was had thrown Aang, Toph, and Zuko all out of balance. They had recently run into a group of Air Warriors, and so another battle was under way. The hardest part about fighting the Air Warriors was their absurdly swift speed. If they lost their speed, their low strength and attack power usually helped Zuko, Aang, and Toph bring them down. Pointed weapons, such as Toph's swords and Zuko's spears, proved effective against their war balloons, however, and Toph took the last balloon down by lunging towards it and slashing it. Once it started falling, Toph lunged back as Aang piloted Appa to get below her so that she would not freefall to her death. Zuko caught her by the hand and helped her back up. Except for a few scratches though, none of them were injured.

"All in a day's work," Zuko shrugged, kicking back. Air Warriors usually dominated the skies, and so running into small scuffles like this was not a rare occasion. Many rouge airbenders would often ambush land travellers by dive-bombing them. Even ships sometimes fell victim to this. The sole dominance of such a powerful medium such as the sky continued to keep the air benders ahead of the other nations in battle terms.

"You know," Toph idly commented as she rummaged through her bag for some things, "taking into consideration all of this random crap that's been happening over the last couple days, I'm up for landing somewhere and taking a break."

From where Aang sat, Toph looked like a dodgy figure, what with her dark green clothes, and her hat tipped to conceal her face. The only parts of Toph's body that were exposed were her hands and head.

"Where at?" Aang raised an eyebrow, turning around indicating the water below them, "the water?"

His tone was a little more sarcastic than Toph liked.

"No, stupid," Toph snapped, "the next piece of land we hit."

"I like that idea, come to think of it," Zuko chipped in, "those damn airbenders took a lot out of me."

Aang was not offended by Zuko's remark because he knew which airbenders he was referring to.

"Well," Aang asked, "do you know where the nearest mass of land is? I've been going in circles I think."

"Well," Toph remarked, sliding her trousers off in order to sew a large hole in them up, "chances are if you keep going north you'll hit something. That Earth Kingdom continent isn't exactly small, you know."

"I thought that's what I was doing," Aang shrugged,

"I think you were more northwest," Toph remarked as she started sewing her trousers, "but maybe Ike here knows a little more about navigation than I do."

Aang turned to Zuko, and Zuko nodded that Toph was right. They were heading a bit too far to the northwest, and so Aang diverted their course more towards the east to get back on track.

"What's this," Zuko joked, "you mean you DON'T know everything, Toph?"

"Nah," Toph shrugged, crossing her legs, "but we keep going the way we were and we would have hit the Fire Nation."

When Toph had crossed her legs, Zuko noticed a Fire Nation emblem tattooed on Toph's right leg. He asked her about it, and even Aang's head turned when he heard the words 'Fire Nation'.

"It's just a souvenir, if anything," Toph explained, "I've also got one on my arm."

She pulled up her left sleeve to reveal another Fire Nation emblem, and then pulled it back down to hide it again.

"I thought the Fire Nation was gone," Zuko wondered,

"Not entirely," Toph explained, "just the Firebenders are gone. There are still a few civilians here and there, but they're ruled by the Air Warriors. Most of them still cling to their old culture though, and I don't think that aspect will ever die down."

Aang frowned. He knew that he would eventually have to find a firebending teacher, but if they were all gone, what would he do then? He seemed deep in thought, but he was also now paying more attention to where they were going.

A few uneventful hours later, Aang pointed out a small-sized island, where they landed. Zuko and Aang jumped out and begin surveying the area. Toph joined them a few moments later once she had finished sewing up her trousers and had put them on.

"So are we just resting here?" she asked Aang, "or is there some sort of ancient legend of some giant massive beast that eats Earth Kingdomers?"

"Well," Aang raised an eyebrow, "now that you mention it…"

Seconds later, a massive eel-like creature jumped out of the water and then disappeared again below the depths. Toph jumped back, but Aang and Zuko both laughed.

"The Unagi doesn't explicitly eat people," Aang chuckled, using the name of the beast, "but you've gotta be careful when you're treading these waters."

"I ain't treading any water anyways," Toph spat, "not when there's creatures like Chuck the Magic Dragon swimming around."

"So where are we, exactly?" Zuko looked at Aang, "think there's any civilization more inland?"

"Most likely," Aang nodded as the trio started pushing their way into the island, "I think we're pretty close to Kyoshi Island if anything."

Toph's eyes shot open. "you mean this island is inhabited with those painted warrior-"

"TOPH!"

"…s that hold their allegiance to the Air Warriors?"

"The Kyoshi Warriors are enemies too now?" Aang raised an eyebrow.

"They were part of the force that was stamping faces across the coasts of the Fire Nation and southwest Earth Kingdom," Toph replied, "but apart form that, maybe not all of them are necessarily evil just because a few joined the airbenders."

"It's a good idea never to underestimate the Kyoshi Warriors," said a voice from the surrounding trees, "and it is definitely a wise idea NOT to insult them, earthbender."

Toph, Aang, and Zuko froze and looked up and around, but were too slow to react towards the swarm of warriors that overtook them. Within seconds, all three had been knocked unconscious.