"Okay, that's everything." Dusting off his hands, Sokka straightened up as we finished packing up all our gear, now ready to take off and head for the Fire Nation capital to take on the Fire Lord. Take two.

"No, it's not. Where's Aang?" When Toph made the excellent point that the star of the day wasn't here, we all looked around to try and spot our little air bender whilst Appa ate hi hay without a care in the world. Seeing he wasn't outside, everybody head inside to go up to his rooms, thinking maybe he was still asleep, checking various other rooms along the way. "Come on lazy bones, let's go." Still seeing no sign of him, we all converged into Aang's room, totally perplexed and at a loss.

"He left his staff. That's so strange." Sokka frowned, picking up the staff which had been left behind. Aang never went anywhere far without it, maybe he's still around somewhere.

"Aang's not in the house. Let's check the beach." Although we didn't find Aang, we did find a set of footprints walking down from the house to the beach before they disappeared into the surf.

"Look! There's his footprints." Sokka yelled when he spotted them, pointing. "The trail ends here."

"How do we know those are Aang's footprints?" I questioned, thinking that they could be anyone's. Hoping they were anyone's except Aang's.

"So…he went for a midnight swim and never came back?" Suki frowned, everybody looking just as lost as ever.

"Maybe he was captured."

"I don't think so. There's no sign of a struggle." Sokka reasoned, having inspected the footprints after Katara suggested the captured idea.

"I bet he ran away again."

Uh-uh. He left behind his glider and Appa."

"Then what do you think happened to him oh sleuthy one?" All of us turned to Sokka expectantly since he seemed to have all the answers, and after thinking it over he finally responded.

"It's pretty obvious. Aang mysteriously disappears before an important battle? He's definitely on a Spirit World journey." That's a point, but at the same time, there was one major flaw in that one, which Zuko pointed out and made Sokka slump when he realised that he couldn't be right.

"But if he was, wouldn't his body still be here?"

"Oh yeah, forgot about that." Not wanting to give up, Katara reasoned that Aang had to still be somewhere on the island and that we should all split up and look for him in order to cover as much ground as possible.

"I'm going with Zuko!" Latching herself onto Zuko's arm in order to call out first, everyone looked at her curiously as Zuko blushed from surprise. "What? Everyone else went on a life changing fieldtrip with Zuko. Now it's my turn." She said before then looked at me. "Unless you want to call dibs Kayo? Too bad anyway, since I called first."

"No, no, he's all yours. I lived with Zuko for almost a year and that was more than enough for me." I waved off with a laugh, giving her a smile. "You have fun. Okay guys, let's find our little runaway." Everybody went their separate ways to scour different parts of the island, Sokka even flying overhead in the clouds to search the closest islets and coves whilst I searched the beaches and jungle, thinking maybe he'd hidden himself away somewhere but after fighting through the vegetation, I found no sign of him and had to go back empty handed, just like everyone else.

"Judging by the looks on your faces, I'm guessing you guys didn't find Aang either." Sokka said as he and Appa returned.

"No. It's like he just...disappeared." That's crazy, people don't just disappear off the face of the earth, right? Unless there's a spirit involved, which could be likely considering Aang had a tendancy to draw spirits towards him being the Avatar and all.

"Hey, wait a minute, has anyone noticed that Momo's missing too?"

"Oh no!" Going hysteric, Sokka fell to his knees and gripped his head in horror as he faced Appa. "I knew it was only a matter of time. Appa ate Momo!" Hurriedly forcing Appa's mouth open, Sokka started to climb inside whilst yelling, and I couldn't quite tell if he was only kidding or he was actually being serious. It was hard to tell with Sokka sometimes. "Momo, I'm coming for ya, buddy!"

"Sokka, Appa didn't eat Momo. He's probably with Aang."

"That's just what Appa wants you to think!" Flailing around as Appa dropped his mouth and trapped Sokka's top half inside, I rolled my eyes before clicking my tongue, scratching Appa in one of his sweet spots which made him growl with a happy yawn and I dragged Sokka out before dousing him with water to wash him off from all the saliva.

"We have a real problem here. Aang is nowhere to be found and the comet is only two days away."

"What should we do Zuko?" Everyone else was looking at Zuko whilst I dried Sokka off, giving him a look and telling him quietly not to mess around in Appa's mouth anymore otherwise next time I'd just let Appa eat him.

"I don't know." Seeing that everyone was still looking at him, Zuko turned around incredulously. "Why are you all looking at me?"

"Well, you are kind of the expert on tracking Aang." Katara reasoned bluntly, making me giggle.

"Yeah, if anyone's got experience hunting the Avatar it's you."

"Looks like things have finally turned on their head. Now we need Zuko to hunt down the Avatar for us, how crazy is this world?" I reasoned as I dropped Sokka from where I'd been berating him, letting him fall on the floor with a thud. "So Zuko, any bright ideas?" I asked as I leaned into my hip, seriously hoping that he had some kind of plan. He paced for a minute or so, thinking it over before he finally looked up.

"I have an idea. Everybody get on. I know how to find Aang." Choosing not to question him, we all got into Appa's saddle and sat down whilst Zuko took the reins, getting Appa up into the air before then turning east towards the Earth Kingdom, which was a curious choice of direction. Shouldn't we be starting with all the islands near to Ember Island then work our way out from there?

"Zuko, I don't want to tell you how to do your job but why are we heading towards the Earth Kingdom? There's no way Aang's there." Sokka asked him, leaning over the side of the saddle as Zuko continued to fly us east.

"Just trust me." Zuko's idea of finding Aang brought us to a washed up tavern in the Earth Kingdom which we all entered. Toph and I were nonplussed by the rowdy patrons inside, though Katara didn't seem very convinced and warily glanced around her as we started to receive obvious stares from rough looking travellers and mercenaries.

"And the reason you brought us to a seedy Earth Kingdom tavern is what now?" She asked Zuko, hurrying to keep up with the rest of us as Zuko looked forwards, pointing at a woman who was sitting casually and drinking some tea whilst fighting off a couple of ruffians like it was nothing.

"June."

"You mean that June?" I blinked, recognising the name and thinking back to when he'd told me how he'd used June and her shirshu to track down Katara using her necklace in order to get to the Avatar only to end up being paralysed by the creature's toxin. Haha, I had a good laugh over that one.

"Oh yeah that weird bounty hunter with the giant mole." Sokka recalled though Suki became confused.

"Mole? Her skin is flawless."

"No, she has this giant mole creature she rides around on." He clarified as we continued to linger in the doorway.

"Her shirshu." Zuko corrected calmly. "It's the only animal that can track Aang's scent anywhere in the world. It's the one shot we have of finding him." I have to say, that was some pretty good thinking Zuko. This June was even cooler than I imagined, able to take out anyone who tried messing with her all whilst never once spilling a single drop of tea, making me grin as Toph registered everything that was happening with her feet and grinning.

"I don't know who this June lady is but I like her." We went over to June's table in order to talk to her, where she recognised Zuko and teased him about finally working things out with his girlfriend before looking at Katara. That made them both quickly deny that they were together, making June laugh. She wasn't all that animated about helping us out, but the mention of the end of the world was just the little push she needed to decide to lend a hand so she brought us outside in order to meet her shirshu, Nyla.

"Nyla..." Cooing at the giant mole creature, June tossed some meat which the shirshu caught and ate up in one gulp. "Who's my little snuffly wuffly…?" June quickly dodged Nyla's tongue which shot out like a dart, making me grin. This thing was so cool! "Careful there. Okay, whose got something with the Avatar's scent on it." Katara went and got Aang's staff from the saddle, handing it over for Nyla to sniff. The shirshu walked around in circles, sniffing at the ground before she returned to June and lay down, rubbing her snout with her clawed paws.

"Well, what does that mean?" Zuko demanded, all of us a little disappointed that nothing had happened.

"It means your friend's gone."

"We know he's gone, that's why we're trying to find him." Toph drawled, getting a little agitated that things weren't going at all the way we planned.

"No, I mean he's gone gone. He doesn't exist." June clarified, making us all stare at her.

"He doesn't what now?" I repeated in disbelief, not exactly following what she meant. "What do you mean Aang doesn't exist? Of course he exists, we've all met him. We know he's a real person."

"Do you mean he's...you know, dead?" Sokka worried but June set our mind at ease at least on that point.

"Nope, we could find him if he were dead. It's a real head scratcher." She said to us with a wry smile before she turned away, intending to leave. "See ya." She mounted up as Toph scoffed, sardonically saying how helpful this June was.

"Wait, I have another idea." Zuko announced, making June pause as we all turned to him. "There's only one other person in this world who can help us face the Fire Lord. I'll be right back with a smell sample." Turning away Zuko went and rummaged through his things on the saddle before returning with a rather old and sour smelling sandal which I instantly recognised as Iroh's, so I pinched my nose together then pointed at it.

"Isn't that the one Iroh dropped when he got captured by earth benders?"

"Yeah." Zuko said, making me feel slightly nauseous from the smell but also rather touched at the same time. He can be so cute sometimes.

"You saved your uncle's sweaty sandal?" Sokka veered away in disbelief, just as grossed out by the smell which was so strong that we didn't need a nose like Nyla's to be able to pick it up.

"I think it's kind of sweet." Toph interjected before Zuko held out the sandal to Nyla, letting he sniff it to catch onto the scent. This time Nyla caught a trail, turning around and bounding away which forced us to yell and hurriedly run to Appa in order to take off and catch up. We ended up flying through the rest of the night, the others catching up on sleep and taking turns with the reins so that we could keep on target as Appa flew us over the Earth Kingdom chasing June and Nyla until eventually, in the early hours of the morning we began to approach upon a familiar sight.

"We're going to Ba Sing Se?" Hearing Zuko speak, everyone started to rouse themselves and looked to see the great outer wall which had a large abrasion in its surface, cutting all the way through. We landed as June and Nyla came to a halt, the shirshu scratching at the rubble as I jumped down with Zuko close behind.

"Your uncle's somewhere beyond the wall. " June informed Zuko as she pulled Nyla away. "Nyla's getting twitchy so he can't be too far. Good luck." She left us there, riding away on Nyla as we all looked at the wall but were too tired to really concentrate whilst knowing that behind the wall was a massive stretch of land in which Iroh could be anywhere.

"It's been a long day." Zuko finally said, placing his arm around me to draw me against him where I naturally put my head to rest as he could see me beginning to fade. "Let's camp and start our search again at dawn."

"Sounds good to me. Besides, Appa could do with the rest." Toph said, jerking her thumb at Appa who was already sound asleep and snoring, having flown all day and night just to get us here so fast. None of us bothered with tents or even sleeping bags, most of us just getting comfortable against Appa and falling asleep there and then, wanting to get a few more hours sleep in before dawn rose and our search would continue.