Meeting Spot

They departed from Gaoling the next day. Etain wouldn't leave until she could say goodbye to Gold Pants so their departure was delayed by a few hours, much to Noa's chagrin. Mina had noticed how tense he had gotten over their slightly late start and was quite perplexed. It was true that he did not like delays, but his mood had never been this bad before.

"Hey." She was determined to get to the bottom of it.

He continued to keep his gaze on the conversation going on between Etain and Gold Pants. "Hey." He finally returned curtly.

Mina bit her lip before surprising him by forcing her way under his arm. "What's the matter?"

His gaze looked not to her, but rather back to the busy marketplace. "Nothing. Just want to get going already."

His disbelieving tone hardly convinced her, but with his sour mood she knew this was not the time to press him. "Alright."

Her concern did nothing to distract him from either of his current interests, so she decided on another tactic. She forced his eyes down to her before lifting herself up and engaging his lips in a deep kiss. After a second of reluctance, he relented and gave into her. His worries seemed to melt away in Mina's mind. Well at least her worries were going away as he deepened the kiss.

Malu's lofty travel goals had proven to be too ambitious even for her. Flying by glider left her too sore to move for at least an hour afterwards. Her meager portions certainly weren't doing her any favors either.

All told the rest of her exhausting trek took her five days as opposed to her estimated two. She was just finishing the last of her rations as she stared at the inconceivable ice block from her resting spot a few hundred feet from the oasis.

Her now expired provisions had provided her with quite the unsolvable problem. She checked her pack in the vain hope that some money had magically deposited itself in there. So much for remembering the smart stuff.

"Come on Malu. You're a smart girl." Nara always joked that she only talked to herself when she was tired.

The motivation still helped her enough to muster the strength to fly into the village. The loose sand sprayed to all sides as she landed with a hard thud. She was wrong when she thought the soft sand was going to cushion her inevitably tired and sloppy landing.

She sat on her rear rubbing her hurting legs for a few seconds before standing up begrudgingly. The entire oasis was filled with an assortment of sandbenders, vendors, and rough looking people who showed off more weapons than skin.

Malu recognized this last group to be bounty hunters. She also knew to be careful around their kind. Only a few sandbenders and bounty hunters seemed to stare though. Intimidation would not work on her though.

She brushed the dust off her robes before proudly readjusting her Air Nation garb while meeting their gaze with just as much spite. However, having a long staring contest seemed like a poor use of her time so she pressed onward.

There was only one inn for the small village and it was not hard to find. After all, only two buildings in the entire oasis seemed to be filled with people. The first, which was surrounded by people drunkenly stumbling about, was no doubt the tavern. The inn was just across the way from it.

The inn was clearly at max capacity as it was standing room only. All the tables were filled as loud foul mouthed customers did their best to prevent Malu from reaching the check-in desk.

"What do you want girl?" The old woman behind the desk asked her as soon as she reached it. The desert weather had not been kind to her as her face had been wrinkled into a permanent scowl.

Or maybe she's just always angry. She hoped it was just the sand as she did her best to put on a cheerful tone. "I was wondering if you would be willing to exchange a room and some food in exchange for work."

Her beady eyes gave Malu a once over. "We have no rooms left."

"You must have somewhere for your workers to sleep." She knew there was no way the town had enough tenements to support the amount of workers here.

The innkeeper loudly swallowed her saliva without recourse. "I do. Isn't comfortable though."

"I don't need comfort."

She remained unconvinced. "What good is an airbender to me?"

"Protection. You wouldn't need to pay for a bounty hunter to watch the door as long as I'm here." Malu pointed at the one bounty hunter who didn't appear to be enjoying himself as he stared across the many patrons.

Her raucous laugh echoed loudly as bits of saliva came flying from her mouth. "You couldn't protect a fly girl. No."

Malu wiped some spit from her cheek before refocusing on the impossible woman before her. Her pride may be wounded, but her spirit was untouched. "I can help the chef in the kitchen."

"My customers ain't as in love with the earth as you air freaks. They like meat."

"Just because I don't eat it doesn't mean I can't cook it."

"I don't think so. But you're desperate so I suppose I can help you out. You do have quite the mouth on you." She stared Malu down in thought before snapping her fingers. "You're my newest waiter. That'll help you take orders from my customers. They ain't as polite as you air folk."

"I'll do just fine."

"You better. You start now." She threw a dust covered apron at Malu.

Dez had unsurprisingly agreed to help her get to the Eastern Air Temple the next morning. No words of apology were spoken by either of them though as he slipped out the door quickly after breakfast. He had said that he was going to secure them transport, but Nara wouldn't really care if he spent the day bathing in the mouth of a sky bison.

She resolved to get her mind off both him and Malu by spending the day seeing the sights with Bumi. Even though the young boy could not recite off the history of each individual street corner, Nara enjoyed his company much more than Dez's. The young boy's sense of wonder had her smiling from ear to ear all day.

It dropped quickly as she entered her shared room later that evening. Dez was already in there tapping on the table impatiently.

"We leave tomorrow." There was no playful banter this time. "I was able to hire a sandbender tribe to take as across the Si Wong Desert. It will be faster and you won't have to go sailing anymore." His tone softened slightly as he announced the plans.

Nara felt a brief twinge of guilt as he remembered her sea sickness, but it passed soon enough. She refused to be the first to apologize to Malu as well. "Good. How long will it take?"

"A week at the most. The desert is massive and we can travel during the night in order to avoid other sandbenders out there. They are quite hostile to one another."

"Thank you." The gratitude was just as curt her previous night's "goodnight".

"You're welcome." Based on his tone it was quite clear he did not enjoy apologizing either.

This time they just fell asleep without bothering to say anything.

Their journey north to the Misty Palms Oasis took them four days. The days were stressful on Mina as Noa spent their entire journey looking behind them every thirty seconds. However, the nights quickly made her forget the day as each night she slept curled up in the same bedroll as Noa.

She didn't seem to mind the slight discomfort and she was beginning to doubt Noa knew what the word comfortable even was. She even made sure to ask him if he was alright with them sharing the much too small bed roll and he launched into a story of how he spent an entire week sleeping on a thin tree branch.

The Misty Palms Oasis came into view about midday on their final travel day. Even from this distance the town left Mina in awe. Although it was only made up by a few humble buildings the reason the town existed here at the edge of a desert was clear. In the center of those buildings stood a giant ice block that stretched far and wide.

"How?" Mina's brain finally formulated the question as she continued to stare at the ice block in shock.

"Nobody knows." Noa offered simply before directing them to set up camp on the outskirts of town. "We'll move into the town after sundown. I don't plan on staying so no shopping. Got it?"

Both girls just nodded at his serious tone.

The Earth Kingdom Avatar Temple was not far the Stony Fingers Forest so the trip only took them another two days. Kiron had let Owyn fly the entire way.

Much like with everything else, he picked up guiding the sky bison quickly. Once he got in tune with her the smile never left his face. He may have flown on Appa plenty of times, but actually being in control of the majestic beasts was something else entirely.

Once they spotted the temple sitting between two mountains he brought Vania down reluctantly. Clearly he had thought they would have needed to spend more time flying.

The temple was built upon a circular plateau with a huge staircase leading all the way down to the valley below. The building itself was rather small which fit the humble nature of sages perfectly.

"Greetings young airbenders." One of those humble sages approached them after they had dismounted from Vania. "What brings you here?"

Owyn opened his mouth to say something before being forced behind Kiron. "We need to speak to the elder sage. It concerns the Avatar."

The wise sage's smile remained on his face, despite Kiron's less than stellar introduction. "I will show you right to him."

He led the pair into the building and through the entry hall, where three other sages were sitting down in meditation. If they noticed the airbenders they certainly didn't care.

The sage leading them pushed open a door with rather intricate green markings. The room beyond it was dark save for a ring of candles in the center of it. In the middle of the candles was a man who was undoubtedly the elder sage.

"Come in. Join me." His soothing voice echoed through the room.

Owyn wasted no time before bounding up to him and sitting before him. When Kiron made no move to follow he looked back at his Master expectantly.

"I think I'll let you handle this one. I need to check on Vania anyway." Kiron wasted no time before turning on his heels. He wasn't exactly comfortable in this amazingly spiritual place.

The only reason he had visited here on his spiritual journey was due to his former master pleading with him to. Some last ditch effort to get Kiron to get in touch with his spiritual side. It hadn't worked.

As soon as he stepped inside for the second time he got the same sick feeling in his gut from his first visit.

AN: To reviewer Marikunin: Thank you so much the review, glad to see you are enjoying the story and Owyn's new ability. As to your question about where the airbenders could possibly hide, you will have to wait and see to find out.

Thank you everyone so much for reading as always.