Sprawled out underneath my blankets with my head turned at a funny angle, I woke up when I heard Aang and Katara near to me with Appa, who was rolled onto his side groaning. "What's the matter, Katara?"

"I think Appa's sick." Sokka was up in the blink of an eye, gripping his head in disbelief as I sleepily rolled over and rubbed my eyes, hair a mess and my neck aching.

"What, Appa's sick? That's awful!"

"Wow, Sokka, I didn't realise you cared so much." Toph noted as I pushed myself up and yawned, sauntering over to Appa to fall against him with a big hug, upset to see him feeling unwell, the poor guy.

"Of course I care. I might as well just throw our schedule away now." Sokka announced as he flipped through his long scroll of schedule filled fun until he realised that the rest of us were glaring at him pointedly, so he quickly recovered and rushed to embrace Appa lovingly. "And I'm concerned because my big, furry friend doesn't feel well."

"He must have gotten sick from being in the polluted water."

"But Aang and Momo aren't sick and they were playing in it like fly-hopping-fish." I pointed out as I rubbed Appa's stomach just in case it was hurting him and wanting to make him feel better. "Maybe he ate something whilst we were gone and it's disagreed with him." Aang inspected Appa closely, unsure about what was wrong.

"He doesn't look sick. You okay, buddy?" When he pulled out Appa's tongue, Aang retracted his hand and yelled in surprise to see the tip of Appa's tongue had gone from pink to a rather shocking shade of purple. "His tongue is purple! That can't be good. Katara, can you heal him?"

"It looks like he needs some medicine. Maybe we can find the right herbs in town." Katara said as I continued to run and lean against Appa's stomach.

"I'll stay here and see what I can do. I have some ginger and honey I can use to make a tonic for him for now, it'll settle any stomach troubles if he ate something, but that tongue doesn't look too promising." I volunteered, making Aang thank me for taking care of him before he left with the others to find medicine. Once they were gone, I walked around to Appa's head then placed my hands on my hips as Momo landed on my shoulder. "Alright big guy, you can drop the act now. What's going on with you?" With a grunt, Appa rolled back onto his front, landing on his other three feet with a heavy thud which made the ground shake underneath my feet before he licked me with that purple tongue of his. "I love you too buddy, but how is your tongue purple? If you were sick you'd have other signs like cloudy, unclear eyes, fur loss, lethargy and such but I don't see any of that. Did you eat something?"

Squeaking at me, Momo flew off my shoulder and I looked at him go, pausing before following after him and Appa came with me. Not too far from the campsite, Momo landed in front of a bush which carried a lot of purple berries and he started to eat one before he then turned around and spread his wings, opening his mouth wide as I knelt down and took a look. "Purple tongue. So it was the berries you ate that made it purple. Why would you eat so many though? Something's not adding up." Thinking it over, I had a suspicion that Katara might be up to something, but decided not to worry too much about it. "Well whatever the case, I'm glad you're alright Appa. Come on, let's take a nap and get those extra forty three minutes sleep back, sound good?"

Growling in agreement, Appa and Momo went back to the campsite and I made myself comfortable on Appa's head with a blanket, Momo climbing under with me to sleep where we enjoyed a very pleasant morning being completely lazy and doing nothing. When the others returned, I got the warning when Appa suddenly turned on his side and started groaning, making me slide off his head and crash into the ground with a yell, Momo being pulled with me. "Appa! Little warning next time." He growled apologetically.

"Hey buddy! You feeling any better?" Aang questioned as he got back with the others just as I was shaking out my blanket from the dust, Momo flying off to find somewhere else to nap. "He doesn't look any different and his tongue's still purple."

"Did you get any medicine?" I asked but Katara told me that all the medicine in the village went to the factory. "Huh, that seems a little unfair. Do the factory people have that many sick people? That's just plain greedy."

"Well whatever, it's not our problem. We'll stay here until Appa's feeling better but then we have to leave." Sokka informed us all pointedly before going back over to where his bedroll was in order to take a nap. "Wake me up when it's time to eat." Toph then held up a two headed fish, making me shriek and leap away from it.

"Ew gross! Why does it have two heads?!"

"Because apparently you get more for your money that way." Katara drawled and I shuddered before reluctantly taking the mutant fish. I really hope we don't die from these polluted fish. Even after I purge them, I'm still not all that confident it's safe. Dinner was the same as yesterday, and the next morning, Appa's tongue looked even more purple so we had to stay another day, though this time I gave Katara a pointed frown.

"You're up to something." I noted to her and she quickly became awkward and skittish, putting her foot in it.

"What me? No way of course not, why would you think that?"

"Because Appa's not sick from eating purple berries." Holding up one of the berries from the bushes, Katara winced before admitting everything to me.

"Okay, so maybe Appa's not sick, but he's been helping cover for me so that I can help the people of the village at night. You should come take a look Kayo, they're so much happier in just two days! First I stole food from the factory and gave it to the villagers, then last night, I healed their sick people. They think it's the river spirit called the Painted Lady, and I've just been going along with it so far, but it's really working!" I stared at her blankly.

"You've been going around pretending to be a spirit to help the villagers by stealing food and medicine from the factory that polluted their river?!" I couldn't believe it, I couldn't believe it at all.

"Are you mad? I thought you'd be happy I was helping." Katara said, looking a little upset.

"Are you kidding me? I'm upset you didn't ask me to tag along! That sounds like so much fun, besides those jerks up in that factory deserve it." Giving her a warm smile I rubbed her head proudly, her eyes brightening as I did so. "Great job Katara, you did the right thing." Happy that I was in agreement with her, Katara tackled me with a hug, making me laugh before I returned it. Once that was out of our systems, we went back to the others who were waiting for us to head back to the village for more food.

Katara was right, it was like a magic transformation had happened in the village. Everybody was smiling and laughing, clearly much happier than when they were before. They had hope again, and the Painted Lady had given it to them. Honestly speaking, Katara was incredible. In just two nights she had completely transformed this village. Looking around smiling, I stopped as a couple of kids rushed in front of me with their toys in hand, making me chuckle after them before I followed the others. "Hi, Dock. Is Xu around?" Sokka questioned, just rolling with the whole Dock and Xu persona this guy had going on.

"Let me check." Running around the shop, he then ducked under the counter to switch hats, which this time no one reacted to as the Xu guy popped back up. "Hey there! Back again, are ya?"

"We need more food. Our friend is still sick and we can't leave until he's better." Toph explained to which Xu sympathised.

"Oh, well, that's too bad. Maybe if you guys are lucky, the Painted Lady will visit you in the night, and heal your friend." He suggested in all seriousness as he held up his box of toxic looking clams since we'd already bought out all his fish. Seriously, I think I'm going to hurl.

"And maybe she'll cook us a midnight snack, and we'll all have a sing-along." Sokka said in complete sarcasm, but Xu was completely oblivious to the fact.

"Yeah, maybe! You know, last night she visited us again. Healed most of our sick folks."

"Is that why this place seems so festive?" Aang questioned and we all looked over to a large wooden carving of a lady with paint on her face being erected in the centre of town, a broad rimmed hat on her head.

"Yep, it's all because of the Painted Lady." Buying some of the clams, I held them at arm's length as not to knock myself out with the smell as we headed back to the boat where Dock was already waiting for us, having run out of the shop to get his boat ready and switching hats.

"Can you believe how much an entire village can be affected by one lady? I mean, spirit?" Katara asked happily, clearly satisfied that she'd made a positive impact on the village.

"Well, I hope she returns every night. Otherwise this place would go right back to the way it was." Sokka shrugged, nonplussed about it all. Seriously, the guy just couldn't read the room at all.

"Why would you say that? Look how much better off these people are." I tuned out as the siblings started to argue, though I did hear Sokka make a rather good point about the fact that the lives of these people wasn't going to get better so long as the factory was still there polluting their river. Yawning tiredly, I focused on the clams we'd bought for food and spent a good hour cleaning and detoxifying them before I deemed them safe to eat.

Just as with last night, Katara left the camp in order to help the village, only this time she happened to wake Aang and Momo. I woke up briefly to see the young Avatar chasing after her and for a minute I thought about going to help but then decided against it. Katara and Aang were strong benders, I didn't need to worry about them. Besides, I'd spent the entire day washing clothes and Sokka's sleeping bag smelled funky, I deserved some beauty sleep. I slept until the early morning, where I was awoken by Sokka yelling.

"I can't believe her! What does she think she's doing? I knew she was hiding something!" Groaning as I got up, I asked what was going on. "Katara lied about Appa being sick, he's just being eating these berries which make your tongue purple so she can go off playing hero." Rubbing my eyes, I blinked at them both.

"Yeah? So?" Sokka exploded.

"You knew?!"

"Yeah? So?"

"Agh!" Raking his hands down his face in frustration, Sokka stomped about the camp grumbling in rage until Toph informed him that Katara and Aang were coming back so he quickly turned around in order to wait for them as I continued to snooze for a while, only waking up when our two little saboteurs returned from their midnight raid.

"Hi! Sokka! We were just...out on a...morning walk!" Katara bluffed unsuccessfully, not expecting her brother to be up so early.

"Oh, really? A morning walk?" Lifting up her sleeping back he dumped the dry grass she'd used to make it look like she was under the covers, revealing her ploy. "I know you're the Painted Lady. I know you've been sneaking out at night, and I know you've been lying about Appa and feeding him purplising tongue berries!" Sokka accused as Toph stuck out her tongue to reveal it had also turned purple from all the berries she'd eaten, probably sick of eating dodgy fish and seafood. "Katara, what you did put our whole mission in jeopardy. We're leaving right now." Turning to Aang, Sokka then interrogated him loudly. "And how long did you know about this?"

"Hey, I just found out this morning." Quickly sliding away before he could get yelled at too, I got up and started to roll up my bed.

"Calm down Sokka, it's not a big deal."

"It is a big deal! We're on a time schedule here people, which means we don't have a lot of time to spare!"

"Your schedule puts us at the rendezvous point twelve days before the actual day of the eclipse. You've also factored in time for unexpected detours, extra rest stops, natural disasters and everything else that could possibly happen under the sun." I reasoned with him as we all started to pack up the campsite. "You're being cautious, I get that, but you shouldn't put Katara down for wanting to do the right thing and help people in need. If we're not here to help people and do good, then I don't know why I joined up with you all, because that's why I want to be here." I reasoned with him in a mature and calm manner, guiding him to calm down also as he begrudgingly accepted that maybe he overreacted, but that soon disappeared when a strange humming kind of sound began to vibrate around us in the air.

"What's going on?" Freezing in place ready to fight, Toph looked around as the humming sound grew louder.

"Fire Nation soldiers are heading to the village." Now angry again, Sokka turned on his sister with a yell.

"What did you do?!"

"I...kind of destroyed their factory." Oh boy, here we go.

"You what?!"

"It was your idea!" Throwing his hands up into the air incredulously, Sokka continued to shout at Katara who continued to hold her ground.

"I was joking! I also said to use spirit magic and made funny noises. Did you even think this through? The army's gonna blame the villagers. They're headed there right now to get revenge."

"Well, what was I supposed to do?"

"Leave! Do nothing!" Clenching her fists and biting down on her lip, Katara tried to hold in her anger before she suddenly sliced out her hand, refusing to back down.

"No! I will never, ever turn my back on people who need me!" Getting up to leave, Katara faced the village as the Fire Nation soldiers continued to approach in order to punish them for what Aang and Katara had done. "I'm going down to the village, and I am gonna do whatever I can." Sokka looked frustrated, but got up to follow her after a moment and caught hold of her hand to make Katara stop.

"Wait. I'm coming too." Frowning in confusion, Katara looked back at her brother who stood before her.

"I thought you didn't want to help."

"You need me, and I will never turn my back on you." Suddenly the heavy expression on Katara's face lifted, touched at her brother's loving words and I couldn't help but sniffle as Aang did the same, moved by such sibling affection as they hugged.

"Sokka, you really do have a heart." After a moment, Aang sniffed.

"He really does have a heart, doesn't he?" Toph on the other hand, was unmoved and instead, punched Aang in the chest in response to all the mushiness going on around her, so with a laugh, I helped Aang to his feet then called out to the siblings.

"So Katara, what do you want us to do?" Turning around, she smirked at us, a plan forming in her head.