After taking care of Katara, I'd cried alone where no one could see me, though Momo found me and kept me company, purring against me as I hugged him until I felt a little better and refreshed from crying everything out. Katara didn't want to talk about the whole blood bending thing, so I made her some calming tea and sat down in front of her. "Hama was wrong you know." I said to her, making her look up at me dejectedly but curiously. "You are not a blood bender, Katara, and neither am I. Just because we have the capability to do or be something, does not mean that is what we are. It's like Aang said, everybody has the potential of great good and evil inside them. That doesn't mean we're one thing or the other."
"But what I did…what we did…"
"Was to save our friends, and nothing more." I cut her off quickly, reaching up to hold her face in my hands so that she would look me in the eye. "We know now what our bending can do, so instead of feeling guilty and sad for what has already past, we should focus on what comes next. We'll try to understand it, see if there can be any benefits to this kind of bending, such as staunching blood from an injury, and if there is too much risk in allowing others to practice this art, then we'll find a way to ban it. Don't lose hope over this, Katara, you're stronger than that." Giving her a smile I then rubbed away a tear before encouraging her to drink the tea and get some rest.
She seemed better after that, a little more like herself and she only improved the further we got away from that town. In four days we would be heading to the Fire Nation capital in order to invade, so when we reached the rendezvous point, we all dismounted off Appa and followed Sokka who took to inspecting the island carefully before finally nodding his head approvingly. "This is it, the official rendezvous point for the invasion force." He affirmed for us all.
"Glad to know you got the right island Sokka, it would have sucked if you'd landed us on the wrong island and missed the invasion." I said to him, making Toph and Katara giggle, though I soon became distracted by koala-sheep and their super fluffy wool coats, running to catch one for myself though they scattered, I eventually caught one and hugged it like a pillow happily.
"How did you pick this place?" Toph asked, feeling out the island with her feet.
"Before we split up, my dad and I found this island on a map. It's uninhabited, and the harbour surrounded by cliffs seemed like the perfect secluded place." He explained, pointing down to the arching cove where the ships could pull in.
"Nice choice Sokka, and we're here four days ahead of schedule." Katara noted as we all started to make camp, me still hugging my new friend the koala-sheep who had stopped bleating finally and resigned itself to its fate of being my new snuggle buddy.
"Wait, four days?! The invasion's in four days?!" Aang cried out incredulously, having completely lost track of time since we'd been flying around the Fire Nation.
"Whatever, that's like...four days from now." Yawning nonchalantly Sokka laid down his mat before crashing on it, everyone else getting their own beds ready. "Let's just calm down, and…" Sokka didn't even finish his sentence before he was fast asleep and snoring away, leaving Aang looking panicked about the quickly advancing invasion.
"Sokka's got the right idea Aang. We're here, we're ready. The best thing we can do now is get plenty of rest." Not entirely convinced, Aang at least did settle down at Katara's suggestion to do so. It was a peaceful night for me, especially hugging such a soft koala-sheep, but come morning I was woken up along with the others to this rhythmic thudding, making me groan and turn over, almost crushing my woolly pillow which bleated before wriggling away.
"Toph…stop with the earth bending already…"
"It's not me. It's twinkle-toes." Toph answered, yawning as I groaned again. Please no. Too noisy. Getting up reluctantly, I followed Sokka and Toph over to Katara as Aang fell to the floor after punching the tree too hard and making it shed all its leaves. All at once Aang bounced back up, dark circles hanging under his eyes from where he hadn't slept properly in the night.
"You don't get it, do you?" He asked as he started to circle Katara with his hands raised to shadow strike at the air. "My form is bad, I'm sloppy, and I still don't know any fire bending, not even the basics."
"That's okay Aang. The eclipse will block all fire bending anyway, you don't need to know any." Sokka called out helpfully before adding a dumb comment on the end just for good measure. "Plus it's a stupid element."
"Hey!" Scowling at him indignantly, he raised his hands in a shrug.
"What? You're a water bender not a fire bender, why are you complaining?"
"My mother is a fire bender and I know plenty of people who are also fire benders who are awesome and totally cool. I resent your comment and would like for you to take it back." I requested, folding my arms and looking at Sokka with an expectant expression so he sighed.
"Fine, fine. I take it back." Now, back to Aang who was blinking and twitching uncontrollably, circling back to Sokka's point about not needing fire bending.
"Okay well, I still have to work on everything else. I'd better spend the whole day training." Bowing quickly to everyone Aang then spun around onto an air ball and sped away to train by himself somewhere on the island as I flopped down onto the grass, wanting to take a nap already.
"He's going to burn himself out before the invasion, isn't he?"
"Probably."
"Great…just great." That was exactly what we needed. A burnt out, overtired Avatar on Invasion Day. Aang only returned briefly once or twice for food before carrying on training, coming and going so fast that no one could get a word in sideways to him before he was gone again. At the very least I hope he tired himself out enough that he would at least sleep well that night. The poor kid dragged himself back to camp like he was half dead, yawning loudly before falling face first into the ground.
"Goodnight Katara. Goodnight Sokka. Goodnight Toph. Goodnight Kayo. Goodnight Appa. Goodnight Momo. Goodnight Appa and Momo…"
"Go to sleep already!" Yelling at Aang out of annoyance for carrying on too long, the camp was finally filled with blissful silence, allowing the rest of us to sleep only to be woken up by Aang yelling. At first I thought we were under attack so I yelled and flung out my hand instinctively, thinking I had water to bend since I'd been dreaming about fishing these giant rainbow fish but when nothing happened, I scowled unhappily over at Aang who's yelling had woken us all up.
"Sokka get up! I need to know what day it is!"
"What?! Who's talking?!" Jumping up with his sword out of instinct, Sokka then hit a rock rather hard and fell back onto his mat, making me wince in pain for him as Toph answered for him.
"Relax, it's still two days before the invasion." Alarmed, Aang started bounding around Sokka who was still recovering from being slapped awake by a rock.
"Sokka, you've got to get up and drill your rock climbing exercises!" Waving his arms as Sokka questioned what the heck Aang was talking about, we all saw just how tired and out of whack Aang seemed. "In one of my dreams, you were running from fire nation soldiers, trying to climb this cliff, but you were too slow and they got you."
"But that was just a dream, I'm a great climber!" Sokka protested but Aang just pointed at a steep cliff next to our campsite.
"Then climb that cliff. Climb it fast!" Really? We're going there now? Wow, Aang must really be close to breaking if he's reached this point. Rubbing my face I then splashed it with some fresh water to wake myself up some more before whipping my hair back, tossing it over my head so that it fell loose and free so I could comb it. To his credit, Sokka complied with Aang's request to satisfy him though he grumbled about it all the way. "Don't drink that!" Toph spat out the water at Aang's yell, confused as to what's going on.
"Why, is it poisoned?"
"In my dream, we were right in the middle of the invasion, and you had to stop to use the bathroom. We died because of your tiny bladder." Aang danced around like he was the one who needed the bathroom before he turned to Katara. "And you need to start wearing your hair up. In my dream, your hair got caught in a train, and..."
"Aang, I know you're just trying to help, but you really need to get a grip. You're unravelling." Katara said to him softly, holding his cheek though Aang was unable to focus on anything for very long.
"Hey don't stop now, did anything happen to me?" I asked, earning a look from Katara as Aang scratched his head.
"Well, in my dream, I'm pretty sure you got squashed by a Fire Nation hippo-cow, so you should stay away from those during the invasion." I arched an eyebrow before snorting, amused at such a ridiculous way to die in a dream. As everybody got on with their own chores, Aang started to tell us what was going on with him, explaining that he was having nightmares and couldn't sleep, and that he was getting more and more stressed with every second that passed. "It's like every time I think about how stressed I am, I just end up more stressed. I'm like a big, growing snowball of nerves."
"Of course you are. That's 'cause you've got to fight the Fire Lord, the baddest man on the planet, and you better win, or we're all done for." Sokka supplied unhelpfully, making Aang all the more terrified.
"Sokka, you're not helping!"
"What?" Sokka stood up and looked at his sister who'd admonished him. "It's true. That's the deal, he knows it." Pushing him back down, Katara suggested taking some time to try and de-stress somewhere in order to try and help Aang feel better. They went off into the hot spring cave which was also full of steam, a place which I had grown rather fond of. Heck, if I ever had the money, I might just build myself a house here and live quite happily for the rest of my life.
Katara and Aang returned with no success, so then it was Sokka's turn to give it a go, encouraging Aang to try and talk out his problems. Sokka even got into character for it, gluing a beard onto his face as he took on the role of a therapist. It didn't end too successfully, even after Aang screamed into the wool of a koala-sheep, so Toph volunteered herself next. She earth bended a bunch of rounded poles and I watched curiously from a rock as Aang lay down on the flat bed she'd made.
"Alright, what you need is a good old fashioned back poundin' to relieve your stress." Stomping her feet into the ground, Toph pummelled the pillars into Aang's back, making him yelp in pain as he bounced all over the place, yelling that he was getting bruised so Toph stopped. "Sorry, I forgot you have baby skin." She said, dropping the rock pillars. "Well, there's one other thing we can try." Stomping the ground, a porcupine flew out from the bushes behind her and right into her hand, her mouth spreading into a grin. "Acupuncture!" Staring in fear, Aang threw up his hands and yelled, trying to run away.
"Okay, okay, I guess it's my turn now." I sighed, reaching out and grabbing him by the scruff of his neck as he ran past me and cut him off from his escape as I walked back to camp. "Come on kid, let's have some tea." Aang patiently waited for me to brew the best relaxing tea I could possibly make, following everything Iroh had taught me to the letter before pouring us both a cup. "Here, drink that slowly, savour the flavour and fragrance. Inhale it deeply." Aang inhaled a little too much, the fragrance making him sneeze and the blast of air that followed caused him to spill the entire contents of the cup. Unimpressed, I poured him a fresh one then picked up my own and took a sip.
"Hey, this is pretty good. Who taught you how to make tea?"
"Iroh did. Tea was one of his favourite things. He also taught me how to play Pai Sho. Here. Play a game with me." Opening up a board I set out the tiles and Aang instantly tried to focus. He was twitchy and jumping, but after his second or third cup of tea he was able to concentrate better on the game, focusing on it so intently that he became distracted by everything else. "Pai Sho is great for learning strategy. Iroh taught me how to play as well. It felt like there was nothing in the world he didn't know. No matter what question I asked him, he seemed to always have an answer." I said as I moved a tile on the board.
"Yeah that's true, he seemed very wise when I talked to him before." Aang agreed, thinking over his response to my move carefully. "But how is this game supposed to help me defeat the Fire Lord?" He asked me as I casually took a sip of my tea.
"It's not." He balked.
"What?! I thought you were going to tell me some kind of secret strategy or something, why am I wasting time here when I should be training?!" He leaped up in alarm, panicking so I made him sit back down again.
"It is considered the height of rudeness to abandon a game before it is over. Stay and finish what you have begun, Aang." I instructed him. "Besides, I'm kicking your butt so you better start paying attention." Racking his head in frustration, Aang kicked out with his feet as he struggled to keep still.
"But there's still so much I need to do and learn! I'm supposed to beat the Fire Lord after mastering all four elements, but with this invasion in two days…everything seems to be happening so fast. I feel like it's too soon." Aang said to me, finally making a move as I poured him more tea.
"It's okay to feel scared Aang, only a fool would go up against their enemy without some degree of fear. Fear can give you an edge, a little extra push you might need to win, because being afraid means you have a lot to lose." I said to him calmly as I moved another tile. "You know, the Fire Lord himself isn't actually that scary." Intrigued, Aang sat up to listen curiously.
"He's not? Have you met him?"
"No, but Iroh talked about him from time to time when I asked about him, and Zuko is also his son. I know you don't want to believe it, and I know he's done bad things, but Zuko isn't all bad." I said to him as I lowered my cup to rest it in my hands as I smiled. "He was always good to me. Caring and sometimes even affectionate. Of course sometimes I drove him crazy and he wanted to strangle me, but most of the time we had quite a good relationship."
"You must care about him a great deal. Do you regret leaving his side to join us?" Aang continued to ask me questions, both of us forgetting our game momentarily.
"No, I have no regrets about that because I know it was the right thing to do. I felt that my place was meant to be here, and everything in my life has pushed and guided me towards that one decision in the catacombs of Ba Sing Se, same as Zuko, but whereas I made the right decision, Zuko made the wrong one. Anyway, back to the Fire Lord. If you like, I can tell you his embarrassing baby stories." Aang's eyes widened at me as I smiled, everyone else suddenly appearing behind him in order to listen. "Iroh is his older brother after all, and I know them all."
"Tell us!" Laughing, I began with the earliest stories, telling them about the fearsome Fire Lord Ozai who struck terror into the hearts of men who wore diapers on his head as a baby for fun and used to collect seashells from Ember Island's beaches. They all enjoyed those stories, laughing freely at the ridiculousness they came to, though by the end Aang was still stressed about everything.
"He may have been a funny kid, but he's a powerful Fire Lord now…I gotta go train!" And then he was off, leaving us all in the dust so I sighed and simply finished my tea in peace.
