Cold slowly seeped into Zuko's joints. He shivered, unwilling to open his eyes. The darkness that enveloped his mind was comforting, safe. Memories loomed beyond the blackness, threatening to shatter his haven of night. He shrank away from them, clinging to the shadows of oblivion, but the memories grabbed at Light slowly leaked through Aang's eyelids, accompanied by a cool, soothing sensation. He moaned slightly and opened his eyes. Katara was leaning over him, her face drawn with concentration. A blue glow suffused the air around her.

Aang groaned a little as he started to wake up. Katara's face lit up at Aang's signs of consciousness. "You're okay!" She smiled. The worry in her face evaporated.
Aang slowly sat up on the ground. He looked around and saw Sokka and Toph standing near him.
"Glad to see you're okay twinkle-toes," Toph said with her arms crossed and a slight smile on her face.
"I know you just woke up Aang," Sokka started, "but you need to tell us what happened back there." His tone was stern and serious, with a facial expression to match. "We need to get going right now to try and catch up to them!"
"Aang needs to rest," Katara cooed with a motherly tone, "Why do you need to know so badly? I mean, Zuko can handle himself for a few more minutes."
"No I need to go save him right now!"
"Since when do you care about him so much?" Katara raised one of her eyebrows at her brother.
"Since I fell in love with him!"
Katara looked at him with a blank expression. Her mouth opened but no words came out.

"Wow, way to let everyone know with a bang Sokka." Toph muttered.

"Yes!" Aang jumped into the air above the trees and twirled in circles all the way back down to the ground, "Zuko's not a rapist!"
Everyone stared blankly at Aang as he fluttered about.
"...What...?" Sokka asked.
"Oh uh... I saw you two on the hill and... Good for you Sokka!"
Katara shifted her gaze away from Aang back to her brother. Her eyes were swimming with disbelief. "You..." She started but couldn't find the words to finish her sentence.

"Oh, here we go." Toph rolled her eyes. "Why am I not surprised you'd be against this?"

"How am I not surprised that you're for it?" Katara snapped at Toph. She looked back at Sokka who was now biting his lip in anxiety. "Is it true Sokka? Are you...?"
"Let's go save Zuko!" Aang shouted, interrupting Katara, "Yip! Yip!" The group heard the loud grunting from the air-bison as he landed next to them, shaking the ground.

Toph ignored Aang, and glared at Katara with her unsettling blank gaze. "So what if he is? You can't even accept it when it's your own brother?! What is your problem?!"

Sokka shuffled away meekly to the bison as the two girls argued.
Aang jumped into the air and pushed the air under his feet to do a flip before landing on Appa's head, "Zuko! He awaits!" he tried again to change the subject.
"What problem? There's not a problem with me! There's a problem with him," She threw her arm out in the direction of her brother who was climbing into the saddle on the bison's back, index finger extended in an accusing pose. "I knew that stupid firebender would cause problems! We never should have let him in our group!"

"Zuko's not the one causing problems!" Toph shouted back, the earth trembling a little beneath the wave of her indignant fury. "It's you needing everything to be perfect all the time! If anything comes along and bursts your little bubble of what's "acceptable" you have to freak out because it offends you. Well I've got news for you: Sokka can be whatever he wants because the world doesn't revolve around a bitch like you!"

Katara opened her eyes wide in surprise and scoffed at Toph, "Why I-" Before she could make a counter argument, the ground beneath her feet seemed to vanish. She yelped and then realized that the ground hadn't left her feet, her feet had left the ground. Aang sent a stream of air towards her to break up the argument before it got any worse and split his tutors, let alone his friends, apart. "Aang put me down!" Katara said with little physical protest. Her expression however showed a pit of rage building in her gut.
"We need to go save Zuko! Can't you two just deal with your differences for right now and fight about it later?" Aang had no intentions of them fighting it out later but it seemed like a good excuse to stall them for the time being. "Now come on!" Once he dropped Katara into the saddle, he sent another stream of air to Toph. "Sorry about this Toph!" He moved the air in such a way that landed her on the bison's back with the rest of their group. "Appa! Yip, yip!" He called out. Without fail, the bison leapt into the air and started flying, following the trail of broken trees the komodo-rhinos had left in their wake.

The path of devastation was a scar of ruined trunks amid the sea of fluttering leaves. They followed it with ease across the island, until the trees were halted abruptly by a sharp drop-off to the ocean. Appa landed at the cliff edge, and the group stared across the wide flat expanse of water stretching out before them, searching for any hint of a ship. Nothing met the eye but a lone storm-petrel skimming across the water. A fog was rising from the ocean as the sun appeared at the rim of the world, streaking the clouds of mist with blotches of deep gold and fragile pink. The petrel flapped once, and disappeared into the haze.
"The island ends here, doesn't it?" Toph asked quietly, truly blind from her perch on Appa's back. Aang stared at the misty horizon, sure that Zuko and his captors were hidden somewhere within the fog, and murmured an assentive. Toph nodded slowly, "is there a ship?"

No one answered her question as they were all distracted with searching the sea below for clues to Zuko's whereabouts. Eventually, Aang's vocal chords sang out in happiness, "There!" He pointed into the blue texture to point out a dark piece of cloth being tossed about the waves. He jumped off the bison who was hovering in place and froze a spot of the water underneath his feet to land on. Aang picked up the cloth and jumped back onto Apa.
"Here, let me help!" Katara said as she moved her wrists and pulled the water out of the cloth, drying it off for easier examination.
"Give it here!" Sokka said taking it from Aang's hands. He stretched it out and prodded it as his eyes scanned the colors and hues for any indication about where it was from.

"Step aside," Toph commanded. She snatched the cloth from Sokka's fingers and ran her hand across its surface, her sensitive skin picking up every nuance in the cloth. "Sometimes you seeing people are so handicapped. This is made from the pelt of a hyena-wolf. They are almost extinct, and only found on a tiny island on the very northwestern edge of the firenation, Yatuzaki. If they have hyena-wolf pelt, they are either extremely rich, or they live on Yatuzaki."

"Terrific!" Aang beamed, "Apa! Yip, yip! That-a-way!" He pointed towards the mist covered horizon and they were on their way.