I'm kind of leaving this to the last minute again, but oh well. This might be a bit more recognizable perhaps, but it should still be good. I don't know where this will stop as the circumstances I've created alter how things go. I guess there's nothing to do but dive in.

Appa's wounded leg meant that the group couldn't move the next day. As it turned out, this was a blessing in disguise as they quickly learned that moving during the day was impossible. It was so hot under the desert sun that it was outright dangerous! They decided that they would move during the cool of night once Appa was able.

It only took the rest of that day before Appa could put his full weight on his leg. Everyone was hoping that Appa being able to walk would also mean he could fly, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. Aang explained that Appa's legs were just as important in his flying as his tail and that flying would be too much of a strain on the wound. As much as Sokka had a hard time piecing together how that worked mechanically, everyone agreed that they'd have to get out of the desert on foot.

That left the problem of which way to go as they had nothing but the eternally shifting sand dunes to guide them. "We're literally in the middle of the desert!" Sokka said, his thrown up arms silhouetted against the setting sun, "How do we even know which way to start walking?"

"I say that way," Tom said, pointing toward the horizon.

"We can't just pick a random and hope for the best!" Sokka complained.

"It's not random," Tom assured, "We still need to get to Ba Sing Se to tell the Earth King about the eclipse, right? That means we should head north. All we really know is that we're right in the middle of the desert, so just about any direction would be the shortest way out."

Sokka glanced over his shoulder at the setting sun, than in the direction Tom had pointed. After a moment of contemplation, Sokka spoke up again, "Alright, but how do we make sure we don't lose our way at night? The sand dunes could throw us off track, and it's harder to get your bearings with just the moon."

"What about the stars?" Katara suggested, "Don't ships use the stars to orient themselves?"

The comment gave Sokka a flash of inspiration. Reaching into his bag he pulled out an expensive looking scroll and opened it against the emerging stars. After looking between the night sky and the open scroll a few times, he nodded. "Yeah, I think that might work. This is a star chart I had gotten from the library. I think we can make it."

"What about food and water?" Toph asked.

"We have enough food for about a week," Katara said, looking over the supplies in Appa's saddle, "but water might be a bit of a problem. We'll have to ration it."

Toph snorted and crossed her arms. "Great. Now I'm twice as thirsty."

"It should only take us a few days to get out of here as long as we don't get turned around," Aang mentioned. "Once we get out of the desert, we should be fine. And Appa should be able to fly just a little as his leg starts to heal. We'll be just fine."

He had to say it. While traveling at night was better than getting baked in the heat of the sun, the group quickly found out that the desert had a colder side as the nights turned frigid. It was slow going at first with Appa limping along, but his pace improved over time. Unsurprisingly the water supply started to dwindle rather quickly. As the sun started to peek above the mountains to the east, the group set up their camp. They put the rain catchers back up using the same set up as before and hid from the rapidly rising heat. Fortunately, with their food stores in Appa's saddle, they didn't go hungry.

They had a little water left, but it was pretty clear it was going to run out. That's when Sokka noticed a nearby cactus. Tom was just trying to get to sleep when he heard him pipe up. "Hey look! There's water trapped inside these cactuses!"

"Don't drink that!" Tom shot up and ran around Appa to see Sokka and Momo finishing a big swig from the cut up plant.

"Why not? It's very thirst quenching."

Tom face palmed as the other looked to see what was going on. "At least there aren't any friendly mushrooms…" Everyone briefly gave Tom a quizzical look, but soon Sokka was the focus when he started to incoherently mutter out what seemed to be an advertisement for "Cactus Juice". Momo seemed equally afflicted by whatever Sokka had.

"So, we're not drinking anything that comes out of a cactus I guess…" Aang said as Sokka and Momo started falling all over themselves in a kind of drunken stupor.

"Why not?" Toph asked, though it was hard to tell if her question was genuine or not.

Katara groaned as Sokka's behavior got more and more silly, "Sokka, you know you shouldn't eat strange plants!" She moved to collect their two compromised companions when she noticed Tom eyeing one of the dropped sections of cactus. "I know we're all thirsty Tom, but you can't seriously be considering…"

"What? No! Of course not." Tom said assuredly. "I was just thinking it might be nice if we could purify the water in that plant somehow. Do you think you could?"

Katara looked at the pool of liquid at the bottom of the section of cactus Sokka had cut for Momo. "I don't think there's anything in it. I think it's just bad water."

"Well, most liquids you normally see is just water with something in it," Tom said, seeming to start to try to piece something together. "This cactus puts a chemical in the water it stores that turns you into that if you try to eat it or drink from it. But I guess I'd be a little ridiculous to ask you to separate the water on a molecular scale."

"I don't suppose you know any tricks for purifying water?" Toph asked, walking back under the shade of the rain catcher.

Tom thought for a second. "Not really. I don't know how to make a DIY water filter or something like that. I guess I could make, like, a sort of solar still, but you need plastic for that."

"What's plastic?"

"It's this thin, clear stuff that's really light and strong," Tom explained. "The idea is you use it to catch the sun and it makes impure water evaporate and then it condensates onto the plastic as pure water leaving the impurities behind. I know you can use it to make salt water drinkable."

"Why would you salt water?" Sokka asked, rolling around in the sand to the side of the conversation, "That's what we have the ocean for…"

Katara walked over to the two afflicted troublemakers to guide them under the canopy and out of the sun. "Well, would glass work for that?" she asked as she helped them to their feet, "After all, we know you can make that here."

Tom smiled, "Yes! Yes, that would probably work! Time to go into the glass blowing business!" He took a step to get to a safe distance from the others, but then stopped abruptly. "I hope I don't horribly burn myself…"

With Katara tied up trying to keep Sokka and Momo from wondering off to their untimely deaths, Aang elected himself to help Tom with trying to make the glass for his "solar still". It was really hard to get up enough heat to melt enough sand into an actual sheet. It wasn't easy to melt some scattered grains in the heat of the moment, but this was a tall order. What he finally came up with was a thin, slightly cloudy, dull sheet of something close enough to glass after an hour of effort. The fact that it was warped and not a flat sheet actually was a boon since it made collecting the water easier.

Tom and Aang dug a pit and placed pieces of cactus with water in them in the hole around the sides. In the middle was a drinking cup and the glass was placed over that. Tom checked the still every few minutes in spite of the others telling him about watched pots. After a more hours in the scorching sun, the still did indeed start working. As the cactus juice evaporated, it collected on the glass and dripped down into the cup as hopefully pure water.

When there was enough water for a sip, Katara bent it out. Just because the water evaporated didn't mean it wouldn't still mess with your head. Tom volunteered to put his mind on the line and try it out. After gulping the half a mouthful of water down, everyone waited. "…Have I done anything crazy yet? I feel fine, am I fine?"

"It worked!" Aang cheered, "Our water worries are over!"

Again, he had to say it. By the time the poor cactus was a stub, they had only added a half a water skin's worth of water. But it was something. Four more nights of thirsty trudging and two cactuses later, the Si Wong's sands gave way to craggy rocks. By then the cactus juice had worked its way out of Sokka and Momo's systems and everyone cheered at the sound of a distant running river. It didn't matter how far away it was, they could hear it and that meant they could find it. They had finally found their way out. Everyone made it out safely.

I don't know if I'll play with this one when I get back around to it. I feel like I could have done more with it, but I still like it. I have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to be doing for the next long stretch. I guess that's about all I have to say. Criticism wanted as always.