"Sokka's coming!" Toph suddenly yelled, making me wake up with a start and a grunt before coughing and spluttering, spitting out nuts and berries that Momo had been stuffing into my open mouth.

"Momo!" He chittered and flew away so I brushed myself off before getting up, heading over to where Sokka had been greeted by Aang, Katara and Toph excitedly before leaping on him for a large group hug.

"Hey, guys. What are you doing?"

"Sokka!"

"You're back."

"We missed you so much."

"Say something funny." Frowning in confusion, Sokka looked at them all before responding.

"Funny how?" Clearly starved of Sokka to the point where everything seemed funny, Katara and Aang laughed exaggeratingly as I yawned tiredly, still waking up from my nap. "What's their deal?"

"I don't know. They missed you or something." Toph shrugged before turning away in order to hide her smile and blushing face. "I didn't care."

"Toph, you were the one who said you missed Sokka more than anyone else here." I called her out on her bluff as I reached them, ruffling her hair playfully before looking at Sokka with a welcoming smile. "Welcome back, is everything okay? How's your training going?"

"It's going great, but I need some help." All too eager for something to do, all of us instantly agreed to help Sokka with whatever it was he needed only for him to request that we help him get the meteorite that fell from the sky up to Master Piandao so that he could make a sword from it. Seeing as that sounded totally awesome, I was all for it, though the thing was heavy. It took all of us plus Toph earth bending to push it up the hill all the way to the rich looking castle. Slumping over the celestial rock once we'd got it to the front door, I water bended the sweat off my face before the door opened, revealing Piandao himself. No way! I am totally meeting the legend himself!

"Who's this?"

"Oh, these are my friends." Sokka quickly answered, sounding a little guilty as he rushed to explain. "Just other good Fire Nation folks." Piandao bowed to us in greeting which we all answered as Sokka placed his hand on the meteorite. "Do you think we can make a sword out of a meteorite?" Examining it closely, Piandao inspected the quality of the material before deeming it more than satisfactory.

"We'll make a sword unlike any other in the world." As the others started to push the rock inside the castle, I paused to bow again at Master Piandao.

"Master, you might remember my mother, Azumi from the Golden Dragon Bird group." I said to him, doing everything I could to hide the excessive excitement from my expression to appear calm, mature and reserved. "My mother always told me how much of an honour it was to learn from you, and now it is my honour to meet you myself."

"Azumi's daughter? Yes, Sokka mentioned that he knew you. It was quite a long time ago when I first trained your mother in the ways of the sword. Although she was not meant to be a warrior, she had a delicate grace and elegance with the sword that I had never seen before in any other apprentice I have taught." Piandao said before smiling at me gently, lifting his hand to touch my shoulder warmly. "You have her look about you, what is your name?"

"My name is Kayo, Master Piandao."

"Since I was your mother's master, then that makes us family. 'A master for a day, a father for life'. Do not be so reserved, child. Be as you are." Beaming brilliantly, I let myself relax as Piandao invited me inside and to walk beside him as the others continued moving the meteorite towards the workshop. "How is your mother? I have not heard from her in over a year."

"I couldn't say Master Piandao, I was separated from my mother by a storm at sea and have been lost since last summer. I haven't been able to find her yet, but I hope to find her soon. When I do, I'll be sure to tell her to send word." I said to him as he looked at me in surprise.

"You were lost? That is terrible. Do you know where your mother was headed? Perhaps I might be able to locate her for you."

"We were heading to the Earth Kingdom colonies when the storm hit us. I don't know where exactly because I hadn't bothered asking, which I regret now. I only know the port where we left, but any attempt to contact the harbour master there has failed and other things have happened which have somewhat gotten in the way." I admitted whilst scratching my head bashfully. "If my mother does happen to contact you again and gives you a return address, would you…?"

"I will be sure to tell her that you are alive and well, young Kayo. You may be certain of it." Glad to hear it, I bowed in thanks to Piandao who touched my head lightly in act of well wishes and blessing before he went to supervise Sokka forging his sword. It was a fascinating process and I watched every bit of it, occasionally asking Piandao a question which he would answer patiently, even beginning to explain the process to me as Sokka worked away on tempering his sword. "Do you have an interest in sword making?"

"I have an interest in a lot of things. Ever since I was lost at sea, I've been able to learn and experience things I never would have if I'd stayed with my troupe. I never realised just how big the world was and how much there was to see. I'm glad I got the opportunity to open my eyes, so whenever I find something that interests me I like to learn everything I can about it." I explained as I continued to watch with fascination, Toph, Aang and Katara already asleep.

"It is good to be curious of things, and better that you wish to learn. There are endless wonders to be found in this world, and they will only be discovered if you go and seek them out." Piandao guided so I nodded my head in understanding before returning to watch. It took all night, but when the final stages were complete and Sokka had his celestial space sword, he couldn't look more thrilled if he tried. We all gathered to sit behind Sokka as Piandao held his sword in the scabbard that had been made to hold it. "Sokka, when you first arrived, you were so unsure. You even seemed down on yourself, but I saw 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. No, it certainly wasn't your skills." Sokka looked down in disappointment. "You showed something beyond that." With a flourish, Piandao unsheathed the sword to reveal a black blade unlike any other I'd ever seen before. Creativity, versatility, intelligence...these are the traits that define a great swordsman, and these are the traits that define you." Sheathing the sword again, Piandao then presented it 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."

For a moment Sokka just sat there, holding his sword. I could only see the back of his head so I didn't know what his expression was like, so I was surprised when Sokka lowered his head and disputed with Piandao. "I'm sorry, Master. You're wrong. I am not worthy. I'm not who you think I am." Oh boy, here we go. "I'm not from the Fire Nation. I'm from the Southern Water Tribe." The others beside me all gawked in shock that Sokka had just revealed who he was when he'd always been the one hassling us to keep our identities a secret. "I lied so that I could learn swordsmanship from you. I'm sorry." Sokka extended the sword back to Piandao in order to return it to him but the sword master turned away, voice heavily laden with disappointment.

"I'm sorry too." Turning around with a swift slice of his sword, Sokka yelped and fell back awkwardly as to avoid the blade before having to block Piandao with his own space sword. Here comes the violence, just typical. The others all leaped to their feet in order to help, moving to defend Sokka but he determinedly raised his hand to make them stop, shaking his head.

"No, this is my fight. Alone." As Sokka defended himself against his master's attacks, I watched very carefully and kept a grip on the younger kids to keep them from interfering with Sokka's fight, knowing that this was something he wanted to do alone. Sokka was actually doing pretty well, though most of his movements were clumsy and a little disorientated, he was strong in deflecting and held his ground, even using his superior agility and smaller size to his own advantage against Piandao. He used the bridge to leap and jump about around Piandao's sword, dodging and deflecting quickly as he began to gain confidence.

"Excellent! Using your superior agility against an older opponent...smart."

"He's testing him." I suddenly realised as we continued to watch with baited breath, the kids looking at me incredulously. "This is a lesson, not a battle. He's testing Sokka to see what he's learned."

"Are you sure? Because it doesn't look like he's holding back at all!" Katara worried, gripping onto my arm as Sokka narrowly avoided another strike from Piandao.

"Listen to what he's saying, he's telling Sokka what he's doing well, like fighting from the high ground and using the terrain. Besides, when it comes to true masters of the sword, it's seen as an insult to not go all out against your opponent. You're only a true master when you can fight with all of your strength yet control each and every movement of your sword, and pull back at the last moment when your opponent surrenders. My mother taught me this, because she learned it from Piandao herself when she was an apprentice. Although she learned not to be a warrior, the lessons were still the same." I explained to them all which settled them a little but they remained a little concerned as Sokka continued to fight against Piandao. We lost sight of them when they went into the bamboo forest, but eventually they came back still fighting, moving about freely as Sokka used everything he could to find an advantage.

Sokka fought very well, even managing to use dirt to take out Piandao's vision though it didn't do much good. Piandao was able to track Sokka through sound, and of course the goofball broke a twig when he tried to sneak away which gave away his position. Soon enough Piandao had disarmed Sokka and knocked him onto his back, thrusting out his sword so that the blade tip pointed at Sokka's head, which prompted everyone else to hurriedly rush to Sokka's side to defend him whilst I rolled my eyes. These kids were too quick on the draw.

Withdrawing and slicing his sword outwards, Toph, Katara and Aang all halted as I jumped down the castle wall to join them, swinging on anything I could grab hold of before dropping lightly onto the ground and sauntering casually over to the arena. "Excellent work, Sokka." Still unable to see, Piandao signalled to his assistant who threw the scabbard to Piandao's sword down to him and with exact precision, landed it on the sword as Piandao raised it, sheathing it rather impressively. "I think I'm a little old to be fighting the Avatar."

As the assistant walked over with a cloth and drink as the others dropped their bending stances in surprise. "How did you know?" Aang asked as Piandao wiped the dirt off his face.

"Oh, I've been around a while. You pick things up. 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." I jolted slightly at the name then quickly looked away, thinking of Zuko who had gone with the name Lee as a cover.

"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." Retrieving Sokka's sword from the ground, Piandao then walked back over to him with it. "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." Glad to see Sokka so happy, I gave a smile as I watched him bow to his master. We didn't stay long after all had been resolved since we still had a lot of flying to get done before we would reach our rendezvous point, but just after we left the castle, the assistant came running after us.

"Wait! The Master wanted you to have this, as something to remember him by." He handed a small pouch over to Sokka who looked at it curiously before bowing in thanks. Turning around, he then opened the pouch and tipped out a single tile into his hand.

"It's a Pai Sho tile." A tile? Looking at it, I immediately recognised the white lotus symbol, causing me to suddenly think back to the oasis and the Order of the White Lotus. No way! Turning around quickly, I realised that on the main gates to the castle, a lotus was painted on the front within the Fire Nation insignia, making my eyes widen in realisation. Was Piandao also a member like Iroh was? What a crazy coincidence, perhaps they knew each other.

"The white lotus. Hm…"

"What does it mean?"

"I have no idea." Sokka shrugged, not understanding just how important that tile was and instead, turned to Toph. "Oh, that reminds me. Toph, I thought you might like this since you've probably never had a chance to bend space earth before." Pulling out a chunk of leftover meteorite, he handed it over to Toph who grinned as she took it from him and started to bend it into shapes.

"Sweet. Check this out." Enjoying playing with her new space rock, we all continued on our way in order to return to camp and set off back into the skies.

"You know, I don't think there's such a thing as 'space earth'. If it's from space, then it's not really earth." Katara mused logically, much to her brother's chagrin.

"Must you ruin everything?"

"I can't believe I missed you." With everybody feeling better within themselves, especially Sokka, we left Piandao's castle and flew off into the sunset, continuing our western course without any reservations or regrets, Sokka admiring his space sword constantly as Appa carried us on his back into the fiery skies.