Author's note: I do not own Avatar: The last Air Bender or the characters from the show. Please read and review. No flames.

And a side note: I feel like this story isn't going well, what do you guy's think?

Mysterious Dreams: Finding yourself

Chapter 36

Water…Earth…Air…So far they had found three of the elements. All they needed now was to find the fire element. Only one thing stood in their path of finding the element of fire. Who would activate the object that held such element? Who? What fire bender would be willing enough to help them in their quest? Maybe Toph could talk with the old, chubby yet giddy man she had bumped into in the woods? What about the old fire bender master that Aang had? Oh, that's right, no one knew where he had gone to. And, the man that had shared tea with the blind Earth Bender was probably with his nephew, the avatar's enemy. What about Aang? Why wouldn't he try to use fire, just this once? The incident all that months ago, that's right. He was still terrified. But they were going to need to use fire soon, one way or another.

Sokka stood by Appa, holding a clipboard in his hands. "So far we've found the water, earth, and air element objects." He said, reading from the paper on the clipboard. In a lower voice, he whispered, "We just have to find the fire one." As much as he hated the fire nation, Sokka was able to grasp the fact that fire was part of the avatar and he would need to master it. Or in this case, they needed the fire to complete the current mission.

"Uh," Aang mumbled rubbing the back of his neck. "I'm sure that we don't really need to find the fire element object…"

Flipping through papers, then stopping on one in particular, Sokka spoke up. "No, we do"

Aang glared at Sokka, wishing that he had stayed mute. "How do you know?" he asked, hoping that the venom of annoyance wasn't evident in his voice.

Either, Sokka didn't notice the bitterness that coated his question, or he chose to ignore it. Pointing at the paper, he explained "It says it right here in the letter."

Aang sighed, shaking his head. "Let me see it."

Sokka nodded, unclipping the letter from the clipboard. "Here." he said, placing the letter in Aang's awaiting hands.

Aang's eyes scanned the letter before glancing up. Aang sighed as Sokka arched an eyebrow up. "I guess there's no choice but to find the object, but how are we supposed to activate it?"

As if the answer was as simple as one two three, Sokka responded "Can't you-" He didn't even get to finish his sentence.

"I can't." Aang mumbled, interrupting Sokka.

"But, what about the short lesson you had with Jeong-Jeong?" he urged on.

"I can't, okay!" screamed Aang, his eyes filling up with tears.

Just as Sokka was about to argue further, he felt a hand touch his shoulder. He turned to see who it was. Katara. It was his sister. He nodded seeing the look in her eyes. Turning around, he walked away, to allow her to calm down the boy.

Aang had slid down to the floor, tears of frustration falling from his eyes. He was in a fetal position, hands covering his eyes as he cried. He glanced up as he felt a warm hand on his shoulder and his name called, "Aang."

He merely gazed into her ocean-like, blue orbs as the tears fell freely from his eyes. Realizing that the boy wasn't going to talk any time soon, she knelt down, and collected him in her arms, bringing him in for a hug. Out of instinct, his arms wrapped around her, returning the embrace.

"Shush, it's okay." she hushed. Trying to bring the boy's tears to a halt, she ran a hand along his back in a calming way. "Aang, please don't cry."

He pulled away slightly. His eyes were red and puffy from crying, but the tears had stopped. Either it be from the lack of fluid in his lachrymal glands (1), or from the soothing words, Katara was just glad that he had stopped crying.

"But, I burned you…" his voice slurred from the choked sobs. "How can I be okay when I burned you?" He lowered his head down in shame.

"Aang, look at me" she said sternly, yet in a caring tone, "Look at me." Aang complied, raising his head to look at her. She sighed. "I'm okay, Aang. Yes, it hurt when you burned me but if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have discovered that I could heal."

"If it wasn't for me you would have never been in pain" he mumbled darkly.

She shook her head, her own tears threatening to fall. "Aang, listen to me!" she exclaimed.

"I am…" he replied.

She shook her head, "Not completely." she sighed. "Aang, I forgave you a long time ago, now you need to forgive yourself."

He shook his head, whispering "It's not that easy."

She groaned, "Stop making this harder than it really is!"

He stared at her in slight shock, he then lowered his head again. "Sorry."

She sighed, ashamed for losing her cool. "No, Aang…I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yelled but I don't want you feeling pity for yourself. It was an accident, Aang. Things like that happen. You just need to learn to forgive yourself for them. Please, if not for you, for me?"

Aang bit his lower lip, and sighed. She knew full well that he could never say no to that. He lifted his head to look into her eyes, he replied in a whisper, "I'll try."

Smiling, she whispered, "Good." She took a deep breath in and then let it out, "That's all I ask you to do. To try." Aang nodded. Katara stood and then held her hand out for Aang. He stared at her hand for a moment before placing his own hand in hers. In one pull, she brought him up to his feet.

Aang smiled at her, staring into her eyes. Lost in his grey orbs, she beamed back at him. Maybe it was his mind playing tricks on him but he swore that he saw Katara leaning towards him, and he, himself leaned in as well.

"There you are, Twinkle Toes! Oh, hey Sugar Queen." exclaimed Toph; startled by the unexpected voice, Katara and Aang broke out of their current trance. Faces flushing a rosy color from embarrassment, they turned to look at Toph. She had a goofy grin on her face that was unusual for her, but neither asked anything of it, too self-conscious of any remarks Toph may make.

"I wasn't interrupting anything, was I?" Toph asked, noticing their racing heart beats.

Katara shook her head, the blush evident on her tan cheeks; She mumbled "No, you weren't."

He wanted to say 'Yes, yes you were, Toph', but instead Aang answered "Nothing, you interrupted nothing."

Toph rolled her blind eyes; It was useless to lie to her, she could tell that they were lying about her not interrupting anything from their vibrations. But obviously the both of them were too embarrassed to own up to that fact. Instead of pointing out that they were fibbing like she normally would in this type of situation, she chose to be kind and not make it anymore awkward than it was already for the two.

Toph shrugged, "Okay." In her head she added, 'If you say so.'

Both, Katara and Aang nodded, looking at Toph, expectedly.

"Did you need something, Toph?" asked Aang, slightly curious but even more annoyed with her for not being her usual self and pointing out that there was obviously something going on between him and Katara. He sighed, inwardly.

"Actually, I did." Toph stated, nodding. She didn't say anything else after that.

"Well?" Katara asked, curious.

"Um, well…" She mumbled, struggling to find the words. She was tentative on how she was going to say all of what she need to say, without them getting the wrong memo. She decided to just pull the band-aid off in one pull. In other words, get it over with. "Sokka told me about the problem…and…well, I told him that I know a fire bender that may be willing to assist us."

"Oh." that was all Aang could say, really. He was too shocked.

"Really?" asked Katara. She was smiling, grateful that Aang may not have to relive the experience of fire bending any time soon. She knew he was going to have to use fire bending soon, but maybe it was better if someone more mastered in the element activated the object. After all, only masters of the element could activate their objects. At least, that's what the encryption on the letter said. "Who?"

"Well, I never really got his name but I remember what he looked like and how he was like." Toph admitted.

Katara nodded, urging Toph to explain further.

"Okay, well he's an old man, not that old but older than us, probably in his sixties or something. For a fire bender, he's actually a really civilized old man. As a matter of fact, I bumped into him in the woods once. He was very benevolent." She paused to take a breather before going on, "When I ran into him, he had been brewing some tea. We talked over some tea, and he mentioned something about his only wish was that his nephew would change his ways." She explained. "That man, he understood me, more than my parents ever could." She whispered, a thoughtful expression her face.

"Iroh…" Katara whispered, snapping Toph out of her own thoughts

"Excuse me?" asked Toph.

"The old man you're talking about, his name is Iroh." she repeated.

"How do you know?" questioned Toph, arching up an eyebrow in confusion.

Katara shook her head, and mumbled "Long story" As Toph arched an eyebrow up, she explained, "To make it short, he's the uncle of the guy who has been after Aang ever since the day we found him. Zuko, that's the name of Iroh's nephew. And, as much as we need Iroh's help, most likely we'll find him with the company of his nephew."

Toph shook her head, and sighed. "Probably not. When I bumped into him, he said his nephew had ran away and that he was searching for him."

"Ran away?" Aang asked, speaking up for the first time after awhile. "Why would Zuko run away?"

Toph shrugged, unsure of the answer. "He never mentioned why really, just that he had been confused and wanted to part ways with his uncle or something." Katara and Aang nodded. "But, if we want to finish this mission, we have to try and find Iroh, accompanied by his nephew or not."

Katara nodded, understanding. "Okay, but if I see Zuko, I won't hold back." she said, hatred in her voice.

"Sugar Queen, if you do see Zuko, you can't just attack him and then expect his uncle to help us." pointed out Toph.

Katara sighed, knowing full well that Toph was right. "Fine, but at the first sign of trouble, I will attack, help or no help."

Toph nodded. "Of course." she agreed, "If there is an trouble for us, then of course we'll fight back in defense, but we just can't throw the first blow. As much as you might want to, you can't. Because then, you'd be just as bad as all of those ruthless fire nation soldiers that attack the helpless."

She wanted to yell, to yell at her for comparing her to those people, but deep inside, she knew that the girl was right. Attacking first, without them even threatening them would be just as wrong as what they had done to her and all of those other unlucky people.

"Okay." she said, giving in.

Toph nodded, pleased. Turning around, she began to walk back to the campsite. A question brewing in her mind, the water bender chased after the fleeing earth bender.

"Wait!" Katara exclaimed, panting slightly.

She halted in her steps when Katara called after her. She turned around to look at the water bender, she waited as the girl caught her breath from chasing after her. From the corner of her eyes, she could see that Aang was still where he had been when she caught the two of them. He seemed to be whispering something to the flying bison.

Finally able to breath normally, Katara spoke up. "I was wondering, how do you expect we go about finding him?"

Toph nodded to the question, she had expected this question to arise sooner or later. Better now than later.

"I'll think of something." she answered, turning back around on her feet. She walked away.

Katara stood there, staring at the girl's disappearing form, head tilted slightly to the left in bewilderment. After a few minutes of just standing there speechless and doing nothing, she shook her head, and mumbled to herself, "What did she even mean by that?" She sighed, walking away. "I don't think I'll ever understand her."

Author's note:

Well, what did you think? Was it any good? Please let know how you think I am doing. Without your reviews, I can not improve as a writer. Well, please review and no flames.

Vocabulary:

(1)lachrymal glands (tear-producing gland): a gland in the outer corner of the eye that produces tears