We get back on track, flying across the islands. And as we come to the next one, we stop for the night and watch a meteor shower. I remember when my dad used to watch meteor showers with me. He would get the whole family out so that we could watch it together. Thinking about that makes me sad. And then, I think that the meteorites kind of look like tears falling down in the sky.

But then, one of the meteorites shoots towards us, and flies over our heads, slamming into the ground just a short distance away. We all get up and rush over to where we can see it, and what we see isn't good. The meteorite has set a huge fire, and that's really, really bad.

Katara panics. "The fire is going to destroy that town!"

"Not if we can stop it." Aang leaps onto Appa's head, and we all follow suit.

We fly over and check it out, and the bad news is that the fire is a bit too close to a town. So, with a silent agreement between the four of us, Aang, Toph, Katara and I head down to battle the fire. I run out ahead of the rest of them and plunge right into the middle of the fire. And once there, I start doing my thing.

While Aang and Toph make trenches between the fire and the village, and Katara heads off to the river for water, I get to work. Sokka looks at us hopefully. "What should I do?"

Aang considers him for a moment. "Keep an eye on Momo." Sokka doesn't like that, but there is no time for complaining right now.

Fire swirls around me, and the flames swirl towards me, I lift my left hand into the air and the flames swirl into my hand. Then I lift my right into the air and shoot all of the heat energy into the sky. It's similar to what I did with the volcano. I'm taking the heat and shooting it into the sky, making the flames dimmer, but not extinguishing them completely.

Then, when the fire has died down a little, Katara dumps water on the entire area, while Toph starts stamping it out. Then Aang gets hold of some water, and he sprays it out with airbending, showering the whole area, and freezing it into snow and ice.

We then go into the town for some food, and Aang looks around at the people. "These people have no idea how close they were to getting toasted last night." He sits at the table with me, Katara and Toph, while Sokka sits on the edge of the floor.

"Yeah, the worst thing about being in disguise is that we don't get the hero worship anymore. I miss the love." Frankly, I think that what Toph is complaining about is the least of our worries."

"Boo hoo, poor heroes." Sokka sounds pretty bitter about it, probably because he was stuck on lemur duty.

Katara is perplexed. "What's your problem? You haven't even touched your smoked sea slug."

Sokka sighs bitterly. "It's just, all you guys can do this awesome bending stuff like putting out forest fires, and flying around, and making other stuff fly around. I can't fly around, okay? I can't do anything."

"That's not true. No one can read a map like you."

Toph tries to help. "I can't read at all."

Sokka looks at me sourly. "Ciara can read a map perfectly…"

Aang looks a little uncomfortable, then grins. "Well, who keeps us laughing with sarcastic comments all the time? I mean, look at Katara's hair, right? What's up with that?"

Aang's joke is obviously lost on Katara, who clutches her hair. "What? What's wrong with my hair?"

Nothing, I was just trying to…"

Sokka sighs. "Look, I appreciate the effort, but the fact is each of you is so amazing and so special and I'm…not. I'm just the guy in the group who's regular."

I glance at him, and then back to my food. "You know, maybe that's not such a bad thing. Imagine how much worse our group arguments would be if you were. Plus, someone needs to come at problems from a normal perspective, otherwise who knows what kind of chaos we could wreak, especially me and Aang. Air and fire are difficult elements to control, especially once they get going." Then I stare at Aang. "At least you haven't managed to make a tornado yet. That's some good news at least."

"Ciara, I know that you mean well, but that doesn't really help either." Sokka sounds downright miserable.

So, to cheer him up, Katara decides to take him shopping for weapons. And of course, Aang goes and puts on a full suit of armor that frankly, scares the crap out of me. But Sokka tries out a variety of weapons, swinging them around and testing them out, before seeing a sword rack that catches his eye.

And after hearing about the guy who made it, Aang gets an idea. "That's it! That's what you've needed all along Sokka!"

"A sword?"

"Not the sword, a master. We've all had masters to help us get better. You should see if you can study with Piandao." And Aang is getting way too excited about this.

Katara smiles. "That's a great idea. I could've never gotten to where I am without Master Pakku. Everyone needs a teacher."

"I learned from badger moles. They don't talk, but they're still good teachers." I don't know if I want to know how animals taught a blind girl to earthbend.

Then, Aang looks at me. "So who was your master? You must have had one."

I look at him, and then smile sadly. "My dad. He taught me how to firebend. He was a true firebending master. In fact, not only could he firebend, but he could make lightning, and he also mentioned one other kind of firebending offshoot that he could use. He just never had the chance to teach it to me. I wasn't old enough to learn it before he died."

Encouraged by our stories, Sokka decides that he's going to go see this sword master and try to get him to teach him. So the rest of us stay back and let Sokka do this on his own, because that's the only way that he will be able to become a strong and courageous warrior.

So while Sokka trains with his new master, I decide to find some inner peace by meditating on the edge of a cliff. I keep my eyes open and take in the scenery. I find that it's a good way to calm myself so that I can take a step back and think about things in a more orderly fashion. And it's also a good way to start a nap.

A few days later, Sokka finally returns to our camp, which excites everyone, since they've been tremendously bored without him around. "Sokka's back!"

They smother him in a group hug, and he smiles. "Hey guys, how're you doing?"

Katara lets go of him and smiles happily. "We missed you so much!"

Aang backs off, grinning. "Say something funny."

"Funny, how?" And somehow, that makes everyone burst out laughing.

Sokka finally gets serious and down to business. "I'm going to need some help. I need to get that meteorite from last night."

I raise an eyebrow. "Okay, but why?"

Sokka grins. "I'm going to make a sword out of it."

We go to the site of the meteorite crash, and we help him to transport the large piece of rock to Piandao's castle, carving a trench up the hill. Then Sokka knocks quite annoyingly loud on the door, using both door rings.

A man with greying hair and tanned skin opens the door. "Who's this?"

Sokka looks around at us. "Oh, these are my friends. Just other good Fire Nation folks." He bows to his master, who bows back to us, and I swear that the old man's eyes linger on me while he bows. And now, Sokka is really excited. "Do you think we can make a sword out of a meteorite?"

Piandao puts a hand on the big rock and looks carefully at it. "We'll make a sword unlike any other in the world."

Piandao has his butler come and help us transport the rock, since it's way too heavy to just pick up and carry. And once we get it over to the forge, Piandao has his butler bring us to one of the gardens. And there, we hang out together while Sokka makes his sword. We stay at the castle for a couple of days, waiting for Sokka to finally finish.

Then, Piandao has us all come to a large room, where we all sit, and he addresses Sokka, who sits in front of us. "Sokka, when you first arrived, you were so unsure. You even seemed down on yourself. But I was something in you right away. I saw a heart as strong as a lion turtle, and twice as big. And as we trained, it wasn't your skills that impressed me." The butler kneels and presents the sword to Piandao. "No, it certainly wasn't your skills. You showed something beyond that." And now, he unsheathes the black sword and swings it once. "Creativity, versatility, intelligence…these are the traits that define a great swordsman." Piandao sheathes the sword. "And these are the traits that define you." He kneels and presents the sword to Sokka. "You told me you didn't know if you were worthy, but I believe that you are more worthy than any man I have ever trained." He stands, looking proud of Sokka.

But Sokka looks ashamed of himself. "I'm sorry, Master. You're wrong. I am not worthy. I'm not who you think I am. I'm not from the Fire Nation. I'm from the Southern Water Tribe. I lied so I could learn swordsmanship from you. I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too." Piandao swings his sword at Sokka, but as Aang, Katara and Toph rush to intervene, Sokka cuts them off. "No, this is my fight, alone."

The two of them take this duel to the courtyard, and I watch with interest as Piandao moves a little like a dancer. But Sokka is fighting smart, using agility against Piandao, who is much older. And he uses the terrain as well. He even pulls a dirty trick and tosses dirt into Piandao's eyes. Then he screws it up by stepping on a twig and giving away his location.

Piandao makes short work of Sokka's sword, hurling it away from him, and pointing his sword at Sokka's throat. Aang, Katara and Toph spring into action, but Piandao removes his sword from Sokka's throat, making the panic pointless. And his butler throws a sheath at Piandao, allowing him to put away his sword.

"I think I'm a little old to be fighting the Avatar." Piandao's comment quickly shakes the three of them out of their combat stances.

Aang is suspicious. "How did you know?"

Piandao seems to be a lot smarter than he looks. "Oh, I've been around a while. You pick things up." He wipes his face with the cloth that his butler provides. "Of course, I knew from the beginning that Sokka was Water Tribe. You might want to think of a better Fire Nation cover name. Try Lee, there's a million Lees." Then he takes a cup of tea and sips on it. "Oh, and of course, traveling with Her Highness gave you all away immediately. She has a very distinctive look about her, to those of us who knew her father. And I knew that she was traveling with the Avatar, so it was easy to recognize your group."

I walk over and huff impatiently. "Well, it's not like I'm hiding anymore. The Fire Lord, and probably the entire military know about me by now, they just don't know where I am. So I guess it makes sense that someone like you would know."

But Katara is confused. "But why would you agree to train someone from the Water Tribe?"

"The way of the sword doesn't belong to any one nation. Knowledge of the arts belongs to us all." Piandao hands his sword to his butler, then walks over to Sokka's sword, pulls it from the ground and hands it to him. "Sokka, you must continue your training on your own. If you stay on this path, I know that one day, you will become an even greater master than I am."

Piandao sends us off happily, but before I head out, he stops me. "Your Highness, I presume that you received the package?"

My eyes widen. "You sent it? How?"

He smiles. "My ancestors served yours as smiths and elite swordsmen. So I am privy to certain secrets that rest in these islands. So, when I was informed by a friend that you had resurfaced, and were traveling with the Avatar, I made arrangements to have that package delivered."

My breath catches in my throat, and then I incline my head to him. "Thank you."

"Be well on your journey." He bows to me in a very unique style, laying his right arm on top of his left. And I recognize it, the style of bowing that my family and their retainers used, a gesture of highest respect.

I run off to the gates and meet up with the others, and the butler comes running to meet us. "Wait!" He catches us and takes out a small bag. "The Master wanted you to have this, as something to remember him by."

The butler leaves and Sokka opens the bag, removing a lotus tile. "It's a pai sho tile."

"The White Lotus. Huh." Aang looks at it, perplexed. And Katara is just as confused. "What does it mean?"

"I have no idea…" Sokka shakes his head. Then he reaches into his pocket. "Oh, that reminds me! Toph, I thought you might like this." He offers her a piece of the meteorite. "Since you've never had a chance to bend space earth before."

"Sweet!" And immediately, she starts playing with it.

But I'm fixated on the lotus tile. The White Lotus…no way…is he? I look back towards the castle. He's a member of the White Lotus…that's how he knew! But then if he's a member…then what about Bumi and Pakku? Are they…? I shake my head. Right now is not the time to be dwelling on those thoughts.

We head back to our campsite to get Appa and Momo, and to get the hell out of here. We've stayed a bit too long, and we need to make up for lost time. But not entirely lost, since Sokka has a new sword, new confidence, and a slightly new function in the team.