I looked at the boy in front of me with a solemn expression, feeling very drained at the moment. Sokka stared down intensely at a green and tan bag. He'd been contemplating his need for it for about ten minutes. Katara had been listening to him talk about it for about just as long and Aang had given up and sat on the ground.

"Sokka this is getting ridiculous, either you want the bag or you don't." I said in a tired tone.

"It's pricey, but I really do like it." It was his fifteenth time saying this.

"Then you should get it." Katara answered. "You deserve something nice."

"I do don't I!" He smiled before suddenly frown. "But no, it's too expensive, I shouldn't."

"Then don't." I retorted, rolling my eyes and walked out of the area. He could over analyze his need for the bag all he wanted, but from a distance. I walked a little ways before hearing Aang say my name from behind me.

"Hey, where are you going?" He asked.

"No where really, just thought I would look around a bit." I said, adjusting my glasses as my gaze fell to a shop a few feet away. Aang followed me and we walked inside to see vases, tables, chairs and other types of refurbishments for a house hold. There didn't seem to be anything of interest until I took a step towards the back wall and saw what seem to be an ornamental wooden staff.

My steps quickened out of curiosity and I couldn't contain the intrigue that I felt. I place my hand over it without touching and looked at the engravings before seeing the very top of it had the head of a lion-turtle.

"This is so cool!" I said a loud, turning to Aang who seemed to be looking at it as well.

"Yeah look at all those swirly things. Somebody must have taken a lot of time on it." He said bending lower to get a better view. "You should get it, Sozai."

His sudden words threw me off. "Me? Get this? I don't know."

"Come on, you like it right?" He asked with a smile. I nodded. "Then get it."

"But we don't even know how much it is. What if it's expensive?"

"You're starting to sound like Sokka, Sozai." Aang grinned at me teasingly and I narrowed my eyes.

"Fine, we'll check the price, but that's it." I said firmly. A part of me hoped that it didn't cost that much because I desperately wanted it. Everyone else had a weapon of their own and I wanted one too.

We both walked up to the front counter where an older man was counting money to himself. He looked up at us as Aang greeted him with a wide smile.

"Hello there, sir! We are very interested in that cool swirly staff you have and would like to buy it-" I put my hand over his mouth.

"We're just interest in the price if you would tell us, that would be great." I glared at the young monk before smiling kindly back at the man.

"Mmm, that staff..." He told us the price and my mood immediately dropped. Yeah, that was way too much and there was absolutely no way that I was paying for it. Especially since it was the groups money. I would be fine, no matter how much I liked it.

"Thank you, sir." I said grabbing Aang wrist and walking out of the store, so that he wouldn't go back to grab it.

"Wow, I didn't think it would be that much, but we can still get it. Sozai?" He tilted his head to examine my features. I looked away.

"It's fine, Aang. I don't really need it. There will be others, I'm sure." I said with a shrug and a half-hearted smile.

Before he could say anything else Sokka walked up giddily holding the bag. "I decided to buy it!" He exclaimed.

Katara rolled her eyes. "Yeah after going back and forth for like twenty minutes. Where did you guys go?"

"Just to look around." I stated casually. I saw that Aang was getting ready to say something about the staff. "Well let's get going!" I said quickly, running into a man standing directly in front of me.

He almost dropped his papers, when I caught one. "Do you kids like earth bending?" He asked suddenly. "Do you like throwing rocks?"

I took a step back. "Uh-"

"Well check out Master Yu's earth bending academy." He walked away seeing that I already had caught a flier in my hand.

That was a bit rude.

I glanced at the others, shrugged, and then handed the flier to Aang. It wouldn't be of any use to me. "Hey theirs a coupon on the back." The boy said. "And the first lesson is free!"

"Who knows, Master Yu could be the earth bending teacher you've been looking for." Katara said with an optimist tone of voice.


When we arrived at the earth bending academy, we all stood outside as other, much younger students, walked inside. "We can wait out here while you take your lessons inside." Katara said. "Then you can see if he's the right fit for you."

"Yeah I can do that." He walked inside and we sat down on the bench just outside of the door.

"I wonder how long it's gonna take." Sokka asked.

"Beats me, though Zuko and Azula's lessons would sometimes go on for hours." I said as the water tribe siblings glanced at me. "They had an at home tutor."

"Ah hours?" Sokka moaned.

"But I don't think this will be the same. My father was very strict about what he wanted accomplished." I wouldn't tell them that sometimes Zuko wouldn't get it right and he would have to continue the same training over and over again.

"I can imagine, the fire lord is hard person to deal with." Katara said.

I tilted my head and laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, but I never had to be apart of the training sessions, so I guess I was spared a bit."

I avoided looking at either of them, because sometimes talking about my family was a hard subject to take. I mean my family was literally responsible for the majority of their problems, not to mention the worlds. Also, they were the whole reason Aang had to wear a disguise in the village and why he had to train so hard to begin with.

Suddenly there was a loud earth rumbling noise that caught us all off guard. "What was that?" Katara questioned.

Sokka shrugged. "Earth bending is noisy, I'm sure everything is fine."

"Yeah, that's true." I said as we sat in silence before some of the kids began walking out. Aang looked tired and unhappy. That couldn't be a good sign.

"Eh, he's not the one." The boy said walking in front of us.

At that moment two boys came out and their conversation could be heard from where we were seated. "I think the boulder is gonna win back the belt at earth rumble six."

"Yeah, well he's gonna have to go against the best earth benders in the world to even get a shot at the champ."

This caught Aang attention as he ran up to the boys. "Excuse me, but where is this earth bending tournament exactly?"

The short haired boy answered. "It's on the island of nunya. Nunya business." The two boys laughed as they walked away and I wasn't impressed with their joke.

Aang looked disappointed as Sokka began to laugh. "Ah, I got to remember that one."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "It wasn't even funny Sokka."

"Yeah, it was." He grinned back. My eye twitched.

Why did I even like him?

Katara put a hand on the monks shoulder. "Don't worry I'll take care of this." She ran after the boys as they turned the corner. "Hey strong guys wait up!"

Sokka looked down at his bag and gave an unsatisfied expression. "What was I thinking? I don't need a new bag! Why did you let me buy this?" He dropped it on the ground as Momo made himself comfortable inside it.

"Sokka you had like twenty minutes to decide if you wanted that. If you don't like it now that's your problem. Besides, we weren't even their when you got it." I said.

"Yeah without proper supervision, I made a mistake!" He paused. "Where did you go?"

"We went to go look at a staff that Sozai wanted." Aang answered quickly, knowing that I would cut him off if I had the chance. I frowned at him as he smiled in victory.

"A staff? That's great Sozai, you've been wanting one of your own." Sokka said. "You guys didn't get it?"

I shook my head. "It was way out of price range, besides I didn't really need that one specifically." I reason and neither boy looked convinced. Katara finally came back saving me from explaining myself more, thank the great lion-turtle spirit himself.

"Are you ready to find an earth bending teacher? Because we're going to earth rumble six!"She exclaimed.

"How did you get them to tell you?" Aang asked.

Katara paused with a grin. "Oh, a girl has her ways."

Aang smiled. "Great! Then let's go!" He started walking ahead with Sokka.

I leaned over to whisper to the girl knowingly. "Water bending?"

She smiled. "Water bending."


I was thoroughly impressed by the arena being that it was all under ground. People were already cheering a yelling despite the fact that no one had come out yet. We walked around until was saw an entire empty section.

"Hey front row seats." Aang said. "I wonder why no one else is sitting here?" I wondered the same thing, but no sooner we sat down as gigantic rock flew into the seats beside us. I yelped and quickly moved from my spot. I walked around and sat beside Katara. Why did bad things always happen to me? I must be cursed or something.

My attention was shifted when a man earth bended his way out of the ground. "Welcome to earth rumble six! I am your host Xin Fu"

Katara sighed. "This is just gonna be a bunch of guys chucking rocks at each other, isn't it?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, seeing the different ways people fight has always been pretty interesting to me."

"Who cares about that? Rock chucking is what I paid for!" Sokka said. Well then.

"The rules are simple, just knock the other guy out the ring and you win!" Xin Fu jumped out of the ring as two men went in. "Round one! The Boulder vs. the big bad Hippo!"

I blinked. "Why do they call him the Hippo?" The man opened his mouth and growled. I saw only four teeth. "Oh."

They two began taunting each other and the fight began. The Hippo started to shake the arena, before The Boulder lifted the earth from underneath him and threw him out of the ring.

"What about The Boulder?" Katara asked. "He's got some pretty good moves."

"Mm, Bumi said I needed someone who listens to the earth, he's just listening to his muscles." Aang said before looking at me. "Sozai, what do you think?"

"Well from what I know about my brothers tutor as well as my uncle, they were very much in tune with their element." I looked at The Boulder flexing at his victory. "I can't see him working out for you."

"What about you Sokka?" Aang asked, but Sokka was screaming and standing up from his seat in excitement. "Never mind."

Xin Fu announced the next match. "Our next round is The Boulder vs. Fire Nation Man!" My eyes widened at the name as the earth bender walked out wearing fire nation colors and waving around our flag. The audience booed him as he walked into the arena.

I lowered my self in my seat, feeling more awkward then I did before. "Please rise for the fire nation national anthem." The man began to sing and everyone threw rocks at him.

Sokka picked up a rock of his own. "Go back to the fire nation!" He yelled hitting the man directly in the head. I grimaced, feeling more uncomfortable.

Suddenly, The Boulder lowered the man into the ground and he jumped off a rock, knocking the man out of the ring. The Fire Nation Man, landed on the boulder that had been hit directly beside us.

"Yeah! The Boulder knows to put the hurt in the dirt!" Sokka screamed at the unconscious man and I was honestly becoming concerned with his sanity.

Several rounds went by and each person was defeated by The Boulder. Then the last round was being announced. "Now the moment you've all been waiting for, The Boulder verses your champion, The Blind Bandit!"

A small girl wearing earth kingdom colors, holding up the championship belt, handed it off to one of the women beside her. "She can't really be blind right? It's just a part of her act." Katara said in suspicion.

"I think she is." Aang said.

I nodded, feeling more interested all of a sudden. "Yeah, look at her eyes. There discolored and cloudy, that's a common trait in blindness, though some people can still have a regular eye color." I explained.

"Well I think shes going down!" Sokka yelled.

"You really need to calm down." I said with a deadpanned expression.

I watched as The Boulder took a step closer to the little girl. "The Boulder is feeling conflicted about fight a little blind girl."

The girl smiled and pointed at him. "Sounds to me like your scared, Boulder!"

The man frowned. "The Boulder is over his conflicted feelings and is now ready to bury you in a rockalanche."

"Whenever you're ready, the pebble." She began to laugh and I glanced to Aang who seemed to realize something, but I decided not to ask him.

When the match start The Boulder lifted up his foot and the moment that he placed it down a trail of earth displaced the arena and made him drop into the splits. I winced at his howl of pain. I watched the girl move her foot and hand slightly, when the earth around the man catapulted the man out of the ring.

"Wow!" I said, clapping my hand. "That was amazing!"

"How did she do that?" Katara asked.

"She waited and listened." Aang answered with a smile.

Xin Fu jumped down into the arena holding a large green bag. "To make this more interesting, I'm offering this sack of gold to anyone who thinks they can defeat The Blind Bandit."

No one spoke. Which wasn't a surprise, she defeated a man twice her size in less than ten seconds. "I'm gonna go up their." Aang said.

"What, but you don't know how to earth bend yet." I said, watching him get up out of his seat.

"Yeah Aang, you saw what she just did to The Boulder." Katara added in agreement.

He shook his head. "I'm not going to fight her. I really just want to talk."

"Alright, well be careful." I said, knowing that wasn't much else to say to change his mind.

"What?" Xin Fu said, seeing that no one else would volunteer. "No one dares to fight her?"

"I will!" Aang said walking up the stairs. Xin Fu leaves the arena as the girl smirks.

"Do people really want to see two little girls fighting out here?" She taunting. The crowd reacted with "ooh" and "ahhh".

"I don't really want to fight you." Aang explained. "I just want to talk."

"Boooo! No talking!" Sokka yelled. Katara glared and hit him in the arm.

"Don't boo at him."

"Yeah Sokka, chill out." I said, leaning forward to get a better look. The girl moved her feet and a rock came out of the ground at Aang. He flew a few feet away from the girl.

"Someone's a little light on his feet. What's your fighting name, the fancy dancer?" She taunted. Aang smiled and shrugged. Another rock came from underneath him as he flipped forward.

"Where did you go?" She asked.

Aang landed on the ground. "Please wait-"

"There you are." She said lifting a large rock from the ground pushing it towards him. My eyes widened as Aang clearly used air bending to knock it back as well as the girl out of the arena. I wondered if anyone else noticed? I hoped not.


Aang had received the championship belt and the bag of money. His was a bit down about the girl ignoring him and leaving without knowing her name. However, he wasn't deterred from looking for her. Though somehow, I couldn't shake the fact that something was wrong.

"I got to admit, now I'm so glad that I bought this bag. It matches the belt perfectly." Sokka said. I looked at the belt around his waist.

"That is a big relief." Katara said sarcastically, then looked at me. "What's wrong Sozai, you've been quiet this whole time?"

"Yeah, normally by now you would have said something to make fun of me." Sokka interjected. "Not that I want you to." He added quickly, looking away quickly.

I raised my left eyebrow and for a moment I thought I saw his cheeks darken. It was probably my imagination. "Well, something is bother me."

"What's that?" Aang asked.

"Well, you won the tournament, but you used air bending." I stated slowly. "I just- I know what air bending looks like, we all do, and you're suppose to be in disguise. What if one of those guys catch on or something? It's kind of like you cheated. I don't know, maybe I'm just being paranoid."

"Sozai, you need to relax, if you stress yourself out about it. Then you'll never find any peace of mind." Sokka said patting the belt around his stomach.

"Says the guy, fretting over a bag for twenty minutes." Katara countered. "But I sorta agree with Sokka here."

"Sozai, I didn't mean to knock her out of the ring, I really did just want to talk." Aang said. "Once we find her I'm sure we can set this straight."

"Okay." I still wasn't sure about it, but no one was really on my side here. It wasn't like we could go back and tell the Xin Fu guy Aang was an air bender.

"And the best place to find her is asking the academy." Aang said as we walked through the front gate. The two boys from earlier, turned around when they saw us coming.

The short haired boy frowned. "Oh great it's you again." I guessed he was referring to Katara.

She jumped at him and they both flinched. "Yeah, I didn't think so."

"Go Katara." I said as she gave me a high five and a smirk.

"Hey you're the kid who defeated The Blind Bandit." The other boy said.

"We're looking for her." Aang said. "Do you know where she could be?"

"The Blind Bandit is a mystery. She comes and goes without a trace." The shorter haired boy said dramatically.

Aang looked sad and I glanced at Katara who nodded. "You're not telling us everything."

The boy looked scared. "No I swear, no one knows who she really is or where she goes."

"That's because we're asking about the wrong person." Aang seemed to realize. "In my vision I saw a girl in a white dress with a pet flying boar, know anyone like that?"

"Well the boar is the symbol for the Beifong family. Their the richest people in town, probably the whole world." The short haired boy said. The other boy hiding behind him added.

"But they don't have a daughter."

"Flying boar is good enough for me, lets get going!" Aang said running out of the gate.

"Yeah you better run!" The boy said.

"I got my eye on you." Katara said as we left.

Sokka whispered. "Water tribe." I shook my head, turning away from them without saying a word.


When we reached the the residence of the Beifong family, I saw that the house hold was very impressive. They had guards at the front door and there was flying boar engraved into it.

"That's the flying boar from my vision, come on!" Aang said as we sunk around the back to climb over the wall. I wasn't sure how I was personally going to get over it. I looked up and adjusted my glasses. "Sozai, get on my back." The young monk said.

I glanced at him. "You sure?" He nodded, as I climbed onto his back and he jumped high in the air before landing on the ground. I got off him and smiled. "Thanks."

We tip toed behind a bush and looked out at to see if anyone was there. Suddenly, the ground underneath us rumbled and I was thrown into the air landing directly on top of Sokka, he groaned in pain. "Sorry." I grumbled, moving off of him.

"What are you doing here twinkle toes?" I glanced up to see the girl from the underground fight arena.

"How did you know it was me?" Aang asked.

"Don't answer to twinkle toes, it's not manly!" Sokka exclaimed.

"You're the one whose bag matches his belt." Katara said, standing up from the bush she landed on.

"Well a crazy king told me that I had to find a teacher who listens to the earth and then I had a vision in a magic swamp." The girl did not look impressed.

"What Aang is trying to say is that he's the avatar and he needs someone to teaching him earth bending. If he doesn't find a teacher soon, he won't be able to fight the fire lord." The girl put her hand in front of Katara's face.

"Not my problem, get out of here. Leave before I call the guards."

"Look we all have to do our part in this war and yours is to teach Aang earth bending." Sokka said.

"Guys I don't think this going to work. It doesn't matter if Aang is the avatar, she doesn't know us. We should go before we get in trouble or something." I said to them, as the girl turned slightly in my direction

Aang wasn't having it. "But I need a teacher, if she would just-"

"Guards! Guards!" The girl yelled.

"See!" I said running around the back end of the building. We all waited until she and the guards left, when I saw Aang drop down from the roof.

He held a devious smile. "I've got an idea."

"And what's that?" Sokka said.

"Yeah, she doesn't want to talk to us." Katara said.

"I'm going to introduce myself to her parents." He stated proudly. "As the avatar of course!"

I looked at him with a hand to my chin. "I suppose that could work, but something tells me that her parents don't know that she talented earth bender base on how those guards acted. We need to be smart about this."

Aang turned to me. "Well you're smart Sozai, so how do I do it?"

"First and foremost you need to actually listen to me for once, Aang." He nodded with a smile. "Alright so this is what we do."