Chapter 5: Welcome to the Happy Cultural Values Exchange (Buy One Conflict, Get One Free!)

This chapter was… not supposed to be this late (weak grin). It also wasn't supposed to be this long. I was going to shorten the chapter lengths so they were more manageable and I could get them out faster, but this chapter just didn't like that. Oh well. I also broke my wrist in early June, which made typing hard. So that made this later than I wanted as well. Enjoy, I guess.

Also, sorry about the ending.

Flying was horrible and not horrible.

Toph hated not being connected to her element at all. Truly blind. And after those metal cells, after awful hours imprisoned, shouting insults because she was afraid she would scream otherwise, only yo spend more hours away from the ground… yeah, Toph wasn't overly fond of this mode of transportation.

But despite being cut off from her earthsense, Toph could still use her other senses. She could feel the saddle under her, canvas and wood, surprisingly sturdy. She could feel Zhi sitting next to her, his leg pressing against hers, one arm around her shoulders; and Jiao asleep against her, rising and falling with steady breaths. She could hear the Water Tribe siblings; the boy snoring softly, the girl taking a turn at Appa's head. She could hear Aang reading something, paper rustling every so often. And Appa himself, large and sturdy, rocking the saddle gently as he flew.

It was oddly soothing.

Toph fell asleep.

;=;=;=;=;

"We shouldn't camp there."

Sokka threw his hands in the air. "And why not?" the Water Tribe boy demanded. "Is it not cushy enough for your royal backside?"

"We're nobility, not royalty," Zhi said with an air of annoyance. "And it has nothing to do with cushiness. I think we should sleep farther back from the road."

"It's not a road!" Sokka shouted, apparently too exasperated to throw his hands up again. "It's a little trail, for Ynarag's sake! Nobody will come near it!"

"It is a road. And we still shouldn't," Zhi said stubbornly.

"Is it a big deal?" the Avatar asked, still sitting on Appa's head. "It's the Earth Kingdom, Zhi. It's not occupied territory or anything. We'll be fine."

Toph smirked, from where she sat in the dirt – ah, sweet earth – to the side of Appa. Zhi and Sokka hadn't gotten along very well the whole morning. They'd argued over how long to fly, where to land, even potential bathroom spots. Toph was content to let them bicker it out while she did whatever she liked.

"The Fire Nation is everywhere!" Zhi said. "And ever since Omashu was taken, they've had an excuse to ship even more troops this direction! It is absolutely essential that we take every precaution we can, to safeguard everyone in the group."

"Look, I've been doing this whole camping-and-running-from-the-Fire-Nation lark for a while now-"

"And it's a miracle that you aren't all kneeling in front of the Fire Lord right now, if this is how you camped."

"-and I think that I have a little more experience than you, Mr. Fancypants," Sokka continued. "Besides, I'm a full warrior of my Tribe. I'm in charge."

"Ha," Zhi said succinctly.

"Boys," Katara said tiredly. "Can you just… get along for a bit?"

"I won't let him endanger us through his idiotic, misplaced pride," Zhi snapped.

"Idiot yourself, you walrus-sloth," Sokka retored. "You'd have to be blind to – uh."

"Excuse me?" Zhi said dangerously.

Toph sighed. "Relax, Sunshine," she called. "If I feel insulted I can beat him to a bloody pulp myself, thanks."

"Sunshine?" Sokka repeated.

"Yeah, because he's such a big happy bright ray of warmth and cheer," Jiao said in a rare display of sarcasm. Toph couldn't have been prouder. "Come on, guys, can't we agree already? I'm tired." He slumped against Appa's leg.

"Fine," Zhi snapped. "Come on, Jiao, Toph. We're moving to somewhere safer. These suicidal guys can stay here."

"Hold on," Katara said, standing. "I don't want us to split up. Sokka, Zhi makes a good point. It can't hurt to be on the safe side."

"Yeah!" Aang said. "I think there's a good place over there. It's more sheltered, anyway, so if it rains we won't get wet."

"Sure," Sokka growled. "Side with my sister. Not like you actually think it's a good idea."

"Sokka," Katara said, an edge to her voice. "Stop being a pain in the blubber."

Sokka stomped toward Appa, muttering angrily. Katara shook her head. "It's getting dark. We need to camp."

"Aang, can you take us over to the spot you saw?" Zhi asked, swinging up onto the saddle and out of Toph's earthsense. She sighed and straightened up, walking over to the bison. Wouldn't do to get left behind.

Once everyone had piled back onto Appa, Aang took him up. Zhi crawled over to Appa's head and shot down a couple of potential campsites before agreeing to one, and a moment later the sky bison started to descend again. Toph was glad they were heading down again – she had had enough flying to last her a while.

Zhi, Toph, and Jiao grabbed their things and slid down from the saddle. The world came back into view as Toph landed, soil and stone communicating to her. It was a smaller clearing than the last one, butting up against a tall cliffside on one side and surrounded by trees the rest of the way.

The Water Tribe boy jumped down as well, and his sister tossed packs down to him.

"Hey," Katara said, as Toph and her siblings started to move away. "Are you guys going to help unload Appa?"

"We got our stuff," Toph said.

"There's more than just your stuff, though," Katara said in irritatingly sweet tones. "There's the food, and waterskins, and brushes for Appa, and-"

"None of our business," Toph said. She knew she was being rude, but she didn't really care. Katara wasn't her boss, and Toph was going to make sure that everyone knew right off that she couldn't be pushed around -

"Toph, be nice," Zhi sighed. "Yes, we'll help. If Sokka wants to get the sleeping blankets out, I can get a fire going, and you can get some food, Katara. Jiao, will you help Aang with Appa? And Toph, can you make us some shelter? I don't like the looks of those clouds."

Well, fine. But only Zhi could push her around. And only to a point. Toph blew her bangs out of her face and headed for the cliff face, feeling the stability of the rock and… ooo, was that a cave there? She kicked the cliffside, wanting a clearer picture of the rock inside, and grinned. It was. It had probably opened to the outside at some point, but the entrance collapsed in. She could fix that easily enough, though. A few quick blows, and she created a new entrance that joined the main cave.

Toph loved caves. The lack of light wasn't a problem to her like it was to everyone else, and there was something comforting about being cradled in the heart of the earth, stone on every side. She'd live in a cave, if she could.

This one had a sandy floor – used to be a river or streambed, maybe? - and jagged walls. The air was stale and unpleasant, but they had an airbender. He could just wave his arms and create a She punched a little more room out and sealed off a couple of other tunnels opening to the main cave. Nobody liked wild wolfbats attacking them in their sleep.

That done, Toph headed back outside, breathing the fresh air. Sokka and Zhi were at it again, it sounded like. "Who put you in charge?" Sokka yelled.

"I put myself in charge," Zhi said. "You weren't exactly cutting it. How did you survive this long?"

"We survived just fine without you!"

"Pipe down, Shoutypants," Toph said as she walked past. Over the sounds of his spluttering she said to Zhi, "Found a cave, big enough for all of us. Not the bison, though. He'll have to sleep outside."

"That's okay," Zhi said. "He can survive getting wet. We should bring the saddle in, though -"

"And there you go again!" Sokka interjected. "You can't just order everyone around!"

"Fine," Zhi said. "You can sleep out here, and let the saddle and everything else get soaked. Jiao, Toph, and I will be in the cave. Enjoy your downpour."

Toph shook her head, and wiggled her toes in the grass. It was softer than she'd ever felt. "Nice campsite this is, guys. The grass is so soft."

Sokka snorted. "That isn't grass," he said. "Appa's shedding."

Katara shifted her weight, seeming unhappy. "Gross," she said. "But it is soft. This would make some warm clothing, that's for sure."

Aang was unbuckling Appa's saddle, or so Toph thought from the sounds. "It isn't gross, Katara. It's just part of spring! You know, rebirth, flowers blooming and Appa gets a new coat."

Katara sighed. "Ah, the beauty of spring," she said sarcastically.

"But you're right," Aang added. "We used to make yarn out of bison fur. It made great clothes for when it got super cold. I was never as good at knitting as Gyatso, though," he added wistfully.

"You knit?" Sokka said incredulously.

"Yeah," Aang said. "Most of us did. It was fun." He was interrupted by Appa sneezing, making the ground shake. Toph brushed at the fur that drifted down over her. There was sure a lot of it.

Katara was doing some hilariously entertaining sort of dance, waving her arms around. "Ugh!" she squealed. "Stop! Appa! Stop!"

Sokka bent over, scooping up fur from the ground. "It makes a great wig, Katara!" he said cheerfully, turning back to face her.

"And a great beard!" Aang chimed in, scooping up his own fur.

"And a great costume!" Jiao added. "Look – I'm a baby Appa!"

They all burst out laughing. Zhi facepalmed with an audible smack. Katara groaned.

"I'm just glad we have another girl in the group," she said, "because you boys are disgusting."

Toph couldn't let that go. She grabbed some fur and shoved it in the armpits of her tunic, then sauntered over to the group. "'Scuse me, does anyone have a razor? Because I've got some hair-ee pits!" she drawled, raising her arms to reveal the fur.

They all laughed. Aang doubled over, clutching his sides, and suddenly sneezed, flying back into Appa. Even Katara and Zhi snickered slightly. Jiao threw a handful of fur back at Aang, but it missed and hit Sokka.

"Oh, it is so on!" the Water Tribe boy vowed, and threw fur back.

Toph laughed aloud and joined the fray.

;=;=;=;=;

"Hey, Zhi. It still isn't raining."

"I said I didn't like the looks of those clouds, Sokka. I didn't say it would rain."

"Close enough. You made us pull that saddle in here for nothing."

"It wasn't nothing. This way Appa can actually sleep, without that thing crushing him."

"He could sleep fine with it on!"

"Right."

"Right!"

"Do you want to sleep outside?"

"...no."

"It's warmer in this cave, and it's quieter, and easier to defend, and there's less danger of being spotted-"

"Fine. You were right. Shut up."

"As you wish."

"And stop doing that!"

"Stop doing what?"

"Being so polite and proper! It's rude!"

"Please take a moment to realize why that was a statement of exceptional stupidity, even for you."

"Hey!"

"Good night."

"Grrrmph."

;=;=;=;=;

"There's something coming toward us!"

Katara jolted out of a dreamless sleep at Toph's cry. She fumbled for her waterskin, unable to see anything in the darkness of the cave. Can't feel the water, nothing nearby, no river, nothing, can't see, helpless-

Green light flared into view, and Katara let out her panicked breath, calming down. Zhi was revealed, holding something that gave off a steady emerald light. "What is it?"

Toph sat up, from where she'd been laying on the bare stone – isn't that uncomfortable? - and scowled. "It feels like an avalanche, but… not?"

"Helpful, really helpful," Sokka grumbled. "Your powers of perception are frightening." Despite his sleepy appearance, he was already upright, his boomerang clutched in one hand. Katara raised an eyebrow – did he sleep with the thing?

"Should we leave?" she ventured after a moment.

"Better safe than sorry," Aang yawned.

"What's going on?" The littlest Beifong boy, Jiao, appeared, hair rumpled from sleep. Really, he was too young to be traveling like this, in this sort of danger. Then again, weren't they all?

"Some weird not-avalanche-y thing is coming," Sokka said, waving a hand.

"It just left the main path," Toph said, an edge to her voice. "It's definitely coming this way."

"We need to go," Zhi said decisively, dropping the glowing green light. It bounced against his chest, on some sort of lanyard.

"Oh, great!" Sokka yelled, throwing his hands in the air. "And how do we do that, with Appa unsaddled?"

Zhi took a quick breath and glanced away. "We need to get the saddle on, and get out of here."

Toph slammed down the wall over the cave entrance, and weak moonlight spilled inside. Aang grabbed one side of the saddle. "Sokka, can you help me?"

As Sokka and Zhi both grabbed the side of the saddle, and then glared daggers at each other, Katara hurriedly started packing their things up. "Toph, can you help me?"

"Deal with your own smelly bags," Toph snapped, her face tight. "It's getting close, guys. Coming right for us. That can't be a coincidence."

"I can hear it," Sokka said, breaking off from his glaring contest as they heaved the saddle onto Appa and started tightening it down.

Katara scowled at the younger girl. "If you helped, we could get out faster-"

"It's almost here!" Toph said.

Aang tightened the last buckle on the saddle. "Get on, guys!"

Katara growled and grabbed up the whole messy bundle of furs and bags, dragging it over and heaving it up into the saddle. She dusted her hands off and climbed up, swinging over the saddle's wooden side and onto the thinly padded interior. Toph launched herself up on an earth pillar, nearly squishing Sokka, who lunged out of the way just in time. The others scrambled up as well.

As a droning rumble approached, Aang grabbed Appa's reins. "Yip yip!" he shouted, and the bison pushed into the air, leaving the ground behind.

Katara leaned over the edge of the saddle, along with Sokka, Zhi, and Jiao. Behind them, dimly visible in the moonlight, a long metal contraption emerged from the trees. It looked menacing, dust billowing up behind it, strange joints creaking. "What is that thing?" she asked, puzzled.

"I've never seen anything like it before, but it's definitely Fire Nation," Zhi said. "They have been making more and more ingenious war machines. It's kind of worrying." He fell back into the saddle as the forest faded into a fuzzy black mass below them, distance and darkness making it too hard to see. "No, make that a lot worrying."

"Hey, Mr. Smarty," Sokka said after a moment. "Guess what? Not a single one of your "contributions" helped us at all! Do you notice that? It didn't rain – it's not even cloudy! Taking Appa's saddle off just made us way slower getting out, and that thing almost caught us! Moving camp was pointless, because that thing found us anyway! What was the whole fit about camping too close to the road about, if anyone and their pet rabbit-skunk can just waltz up and find us, anyway? Huh? Huh?"

He has a point, Katara thought, eyeing Zhi. She couldn't be sure in the dark, but it looked like he was scowling.

"You are probably correct about the saddle," the older boy admitted grudgingly. "We shouldn't have taken it off. But the camp should have been much more secure than it was. Toph, didn't you say the metal thing came right toward us?" That was redirection worthy of a master waterbender. Katara smirked.

"In a straight line," Toph confirmed, yawning widely. "It was like it knew exactly where we were."

"But how?" Zhi said. Jiao leaned against his side, eyes sliding shut. "It had to have been tracking us somehow."

"We're in the air!" Sokka said. "How in all the moon-blasted skies did that thing track us through the air?"

"We have to be leaving some sort of a trail… The fur! Of course! We're idiots!" Zhi smacked his forehead. "Appa's shedding like crazy, and we're leaving a trail that the tank can probably follow in its sleep!"

"But what can we do about it?" Aang asked from Appa's head. "What if I blow it off?" He picked up his staff and spun it around a few times, wafting chilly air over the saddle.

"I don't think that would get it all off," Katara said.

"We should wash him off," Jiao said. "Like Cook used to do to the cat when she shedded."

"In what?" Aang asked, peering over the edge of the saddle. "Also, I should warn you that Appa doesn't really… like being scrubbed. It tickles him."

"I think the bison's ticklishness is the least of our concerns right now," Zhi said wearily.

Sokka rubbed his face. "Why don't we fly over some mountains or something and lose the tank?"

"That's not a terrible idea," Zhi said reluctantly. "Take us over some rough terrain."

Aang steered Appa a little more north, and they flew on.

;=;=;=;=;

"Land, sweet land," Toph said, her voice way too perky for how late it was. "See you guys in the morning."

Katara bit back her irritation. They were all tired, and she should give Toph some slack. "Actually, can you help us unload?" she asked as the girl made to walk off.

Toph snorted. "Look, I don't think you really need me to help unload Sokka's funky-smelling sleeping bag. I pull my own weight, thanks."

"Toph, we all-" Zhi began tiredly, but Katara interrupted him. She could handle Toph herself, thanks. "Toph, you're a part of our team now," she snapped. "That means you need to help with-"

"I didn't ask you to deal with my stuff, did I?" Toph said sharply, turning and holding her bag up. "I told you I carry my own weight! Deal with your own things!"

"That's not the point!" Katara said, feeling anger surging inside. How dare this spoiled little girl snub her like this? Everyone back home knew that people helped each other out, and refusing was past rudeness. "Ever since you joined us, you've been nothing but selfish and unhelpful!"

"What!" Toph and Zhi both shouted. Zhi shot up from where he'd been sitting on a rock, but Toph was already yelling. "Look here, Sugar ueen, I gave up everything I had so I could teach Aang earthbending! So don't you talk to me about being selfish!"

"What did you give up, exactly?" Katara snarled. "You wanted to come with us! You wanted freedom! You wanted to get away from your parents! You hated the stuffy noble lifestyle you had, or why else would you have wanted to get away from it? And – and you have your siblings right here!" She took a step forward, ignoring the movement out of the corner of her eye, of Zhi moving forward and Sokka catching his arm. "We helped you get away, and all you can do is storm around and throw temper tantrums because I'm asking you to help out?" Katara threw her hands in the air. "Just another stuffy noble girl, too good to do anything, too good to - to work, to help other people unless there's something in it for you and someone to peel your kiwigrapes and hold a parasol over your head!" She whirled and stormed away, because she was starting to choke up and didn't want to start crying in the middle of the campsite.

How many fancy palaces had she seen in the North? How many young women, wearing rich robes and fancy jewelry, who hadn't had to watch their fathers sail away, their mothers die in front of them, their tribe shrink every year? How was it fair that the rich could hole up and be fine, and those with a little less just kept getting hit worse and worse? In the North, no one helped each other. It was all about cutthroat politics, and uneasy alliances, and tension and resentment that seemed higher among the Tribesmen than towards the Fire Nation. Was that what being well off did to people?

The Southern Water Tribe didn't do fanciness and riches. The South had always been harsher than the North, as far back as legends reached. Hostile spirits, deadly weather, and terrifying predators made it a harsh life. People had to stick together if they wanted to survive. Everyone in the tribe would trust everyone else with their lives without hesitation, because they did day in and day out. You had to work together, or you died. It was all about sharing and supporting, about eking out survival in the howling blizzards and half-year darkness.

She found that she had stalked away from the main group, to the edge of the rocky clearing. Below her the ground sloped down and away, disappearing into blackness that the moonlight couldn't quite penetrate.

Katara sank down on the rough ground, and stared at her clenched fists, and tried not to cry.

After a while, soft footsteps came towards her. Too light to be Sokka, too springy to be Jiao.

"Hey," Aang said after a moment, sitting down next to her. "You okay?"

Katara snorted. "No."

"You want to talk about it?"

"...Not really," Katara said, although there was a part of her that kind of did.

Aang didn't push her, though. He just sat next to her, watching the stars with tired eyes as she stole a sideways glance at him before looking back at her hands. Behind them, she could hear the soft sounds of the others, probably getting to bed.

"You know, there was this really old monk named Ebsan," Aang finally said, with no preface. "I didn't like him when I was younger. He was weird, and he said a lot of stuff that I didn't understand or didn't like. Or both. There was this one time that he told me, 'Don't be indifferent, boy.'" Aang imitated a creaky old voice. "'There is no room for indifference in this world. Hate everyone, and they won't let you down when they inevitably fail.'"

Katara was surprised into looking at him. He was still staring out at the sky. "That's horrible. Why would he tell you that?"

Aang smiled. "You see why I didn't like him? Gyatso always said he was full of much wisdom, and I should listen to him, but I didn't agree with him at all. And I still don't agree with what he said, at least not the way that most people would interpret it. But I think he was actually on to something."

Aang leaned back, stars reflecting faintly in his eyes. "There isn't room for indifference," he said. "That goes for a lot of things, actually, but in regards to people, he's saying that you shouldn't be indifferent to anyone. Indifference is dangerous."

"Dangerous?" Katara said skeptically.

"It's like sloth and apathy. Gyatso said that apathy has accounted for more lives and disasters than probably anything else. But anyway, if I'm indifferent about all the people in the world, why would I fight to help them? Why would I risk my life, and the lives of the people I do care about, to save people that I don't care what happens to? That's why indifference is dangerous, because if I don't care, it puts all those people in more danger since I won't try to protect them."

Katara slowly nodded. "Okay… I see your point. Indifference is bad. But isn't hating the entire world much worse?"

"Guru Hikahl said that love and hate are sisters, intertwined inseparably, and when you feel one it isn't a far reach to the other."

"So if you hate the world, you will find yourself loving it soon?"

"No, that didn't actually have anything to do with my point. I just happened to remember it." Aang gave her a grin. "My point is, what was the important part in Ebsan's saying? The part he didn't say."

"Yep, the world makes complete sense now," Katara said flatly.

He chuckled. "I mean, he said that indifference is bad, and he said to hate. But you can love, too. I think that I would add onto that saying, 'Love everyone, and when they inevitably fail and let you down, you can forgive them.'"

"It's a very nice saying," Katara said, not completely sincerely, "but why did you feel the need to bring it up? Was this supposed to make me feel better?"

Aang shrugged. "I guess I'm trying to tell you to give Toph a chance. Everyone fails and makes mistakes, but you're judging her without really having a good reason."

"Then what was all that blubber about indifference?"

Aang's grin was somehow dazzling, even in starlight. "First thing that popped into my head besides sleep, actually. I just didn't want you out here brooding by yourself."

Katara tried to glare at him, but it didn't work very well, melting into an eye roll and lips tugging upward. "Thanks," she said. She intended it to be sarcastic, but it came out more sincerely than she'd intended.

Aang glanced down, and it almost looked like he was blushing, for some reason. Probably just Katara's sleep-addled eyes. "Um, you're welcome."

"I guess we'd better head back and get some sleep," she said.

"Yeah." Aang scratched the back of his head. "We'd better. Spirits know we need more sleep."

That, of course, was when Toph started yelling about the metal thing approaching. Because the Spirits had a) a nasty sense of humor, and b) impeccable timing.

;=;=;=;=;

"Selfish and unhelpful," Toph breathed, her hands literally shaking with the force of her anger. "How dare she!" She clenched and unclenched her fists, wishing that she could squish that bossy, arrogant, horrible girl with a boulder. What gave her the right to accuse Toph of… of anything?

"I carry my own weight!" Toph hissed at the edge of the clearing, where she was sitting. She could feel Sokka, Jiao, and Zhi over near Appa. Katara was sitting as far away from Toph as possible, and Twinkletoes was heading over there to kiss it all better, no doubt. Although Toph had no idea where the girl got off being offended, not when she had no problem hurtling a whole pack of sludge at Toph with no reason. "What's your problem? I'm not exactly a burden! Why do you want me to start doing all your stuff now! Do you think I'm your shanking servant?" She kicked at a rock, launching it way out over the cliff. It landed almost too far away for her to hear it, distant rattling as the fist-sized stone impacted loose scree.

Now Zhi was coming this way, and Toph really didn't want to talk to him. Didn't want to talk to anyone, in fact. But Zhi was… well, Zhi. Toph could do a lot of things, but she couldn't shut him out. Not when he'd been her biggest supporter, and kept all her secrets, and wrapped her arm when she crunched it between two boulders, and defended her from everyone (even if she didn't need defending), and… everything.

He plunked down not too far away. Enough that she had her space, because he knew how much she needed her personal space when she was prickly. Close, so that they could talk quietly, and she could stretch over and punch him if she needed to. It all worked out.

Toph crossed her arms and made her most terrifying scowl as she stared out over the valley, just to keep up appearances. She had made grown men whimper with this face before. It had to be scary. Zhi just sat there, though, heartbeat and breathing indicating slow anger, but not a whole lot else. She'd never been able to scare him.

He shifted his weight, leaning to his right, propped up on one hand. "Do you remember that time that you and Meilin and I hid in the servant's closet after sneaking sweet bean puffs from the kitchen?"

Toph bit back a traitorous smile at the memory. She hadn't been more than five at the time. "You mean when you fell in the flour and Haoli thought you were a spirit, and then Meilin stepped on the rabbit-mousetrap and screamed like she'd been stabbed, and everyone thought it was Haoli? Yeah, I remember it. Why?"

Zhi shrugged. "I just thought it would cheer you up a little."

Toph forced her face back into a scowl and glared pointedly out over the edge, trying to ignore the bubble of laughter that formed under her ribs. It wasn't funny.

"Listen, baby badgermole, that Water Tribe girl was way wrong," Zhi said. "Don't take it personally, okay?"

She didn't answer. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, but she couldn't stop fuming over Katara's accusations. Just another stuffy noble girl, too good to do anything, too good to work, to help other people unless there's something in it for you and someone to peel your kiwigrapes and hold a parasol over your head…

I am not like that! she wanted to scream. Instead, she bit her lip, and dug her fingers into the rock she was sitting on, crushing it smaller and smaller until dust floated away.

Zhi scooted a cautious half a foot closer, reaching out to lay his hand on her shoulder. Firmly, solidly, grounding her. "Toph. She was wrong. You aren't like that. She doesn't know anything."

Toph dragged in one breath after another, and finally pulled her legs into a meditative position, calming herself forcefully. "I just… how could she say I didn't leave anything behind? Maybe I didn't always love my growing up, but it was still my home! And my family!" You didn't leave home. Land was land, solid and stable. It would feed you, provide for you. Even traveling people always came back to their roots. Leaving where she was born and raised..

"We'll be back," Zhi promised, like he could read her thoughts (was mindbending a thing?). "We aren't leaving our home forever, Toph. We're just traveling for a while. Don't worry about it." There was a strong, solid assuredness in his heartbeat that told her he believed it, and it helped calm her.

"She thinks I'm lazy and selfish," Toph said after a long moment. She didn't know why this bothered her so much – Spirits knew she'd had plenty of practice brushing off much worse. Why did some random Water Tribe girl's opinion matter at all?

"Listen, we're all tired," Zhi said, punctuating his statement with a jaw-cracking yawn. "I'm not saying that she was at all in line, or that it was no big deal, but maybe we should just let it go for now and deal with it when we aren't so exhausted. We all-"

"Shhh," Toph hissed, holding up a hand as something tickled the edge of her earthsense. She frowned in concentration, focusing on it, as Zhi shifted into a more ready stance. It got clearer, and she groaned aloud. "No way. How did it get up here?"

"No," Zhi said in disbelief, leaning forward and presumably peering over the steep cliffs that marked this jagged mountain.

"Yeah," Toph said, standing. She shouted across to the rest of the group. "Guys! That ugly metal train sucker is on its way here right now! We've got five minutes tops, with how fast it's going!"

"What!" Sokka screeched, jolting upright from his sleeping bag. "I haven't even gotten to sleep yet!"

"Sleep on Appa," Toph shouted back, running over. "We need to leave."

Jiao was sound asleep in his bag, his deep breathing unchanged even with the commotion as Katara and Aang came running back. Toph sighed. She hated to wake him-

"Here, I can get him on Appa," Aang offered, and scooped Jiao's sleeping form up, bag and all, with a light grunt. He twisted around and leaped up onto Appa's back, wind gusting out.

Appa himself wasn't too happy about this. He grumbled out of sleep, and Toph didn't like the way he wobbled as he pushed to his feet. Did she really want to trust her life to a exhausted, half-asleep animal?

Oh, well. Not like she had much of a choice.

"We don't have to leave," Aang said, and Toph smacked her forehead. "We should see who it is, at least. Maybe they're friendly."

"Friendly? Are you kidding?" Sokka said in disbelief. "If that thing's friendly, I'm a twelve-headed vulture-fox."

"How could that possibly be anything approaching friendly?" Zhi said, seemingly too tired to notice or care that he was agreeing with Sokka. "It's a metal tank-train. It's clearly Fire Nation!"

"We don't know that," Aang argued.

"Maybe it's Zuko," Katara said, covering a yawn. "We haven't seen him since the North Pole."

"Prince Zuko?" Zhi wiped a hand across his face. "It would be just our luck. If we have to go up against royal firebenders…"

"Please," Katara said as the thing rumbled closer, probably in sight-range for seeing people by now. "He's not a problem. I can handle Zuko."

"You can-" Zhi began, but Toph cut him off. "It's stopping."

;=;=;=;=;

Sokka held his breath as steam billowed and the door to the metal thing (and what he wouldn't give for a good look at that, he hadn't seen anything so beautifully put together since the Mechanist at the Northern Air Temple, and was it actually steam powered?) hissed open. Everyone dropped into ready stances as three bizarre figures appeared in the mist, and resolved into three figures that were less bizarre looking but suddenly a lot more terrifying.

"It's those girls from Omashu!" Katara gasped, and Sokka suddenly felt a lot less confident as he watched Crazy Blue, Knifey, and Pink appear, mounted on giant lizardy things that looked terrifyingly fast and toothy. He unsheathed his club and Boomerang, feeling a pit yawning in his stomach. Could they possibly win this?

"We can take them," Toph said, in a bending stance. "We outnumber them."

Zhi drew his sword with a slithering hiss that Sokka instantly pegged as the coolest sound on the face of the planet, where could he get a sword as soon as possible please and thank you very much. "But we're all tired," the noble pointed out far too reasonably. "Who are they?"

"Just some crazy girls from Omashu that chased us around for a bit," Sokka said, much more offhandedly than he felt. "No idea who they are."

"Well, they aren't coming any farther," Toph said, slamming her feet forward. Pillars of stone shot up to block the three, and Sokka was amazed again at the sheer power in this fragile-looking little girl – hey, the lizards were just climbing over, how was that fair?

He let out a breath. They needed to get out of here. And, of course, Zhi beat him to the punch. "We need to leave," he said. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"We found out who they are," Sokka said, definitely not agreeing with Zhi, merely stating something that wasn't directly contradictory. "I think we're good now, don't you?"

Toph bent up a massive stone wall, blocking the girls, and they all turned and ran towards Appa. Behind them, there was a massive explosion, and Sokka glanced back to see a gaping hole in the side of the wall. Knifey threw a handful of steel, but Toph blocked it and launched herself into the saddle. "Let's go, people!"

"Appa, yip yip!" Aang shouted, and the bison launched himself into the air with less grace than usual, not that "grace" was normally a word that Sokka would associate with Appa. A blast of brilliant azure flames shot up, but Aang yanked on the leads and Appa swerved, and then they were leaving the girls behind. If only.

"Well," Sokka finally said, "that was interesting."

"What did she do?" Toph asked, looking bewildered. "She just waved her arms around, and her heart did weird things, and then there was a giant hole in the wall!"

"Lightning," Zhi said hollowly. He looked terrible (not that any of them looked good). "That has to be Princess Azula."

"Who?" Katara asked. Sokka was still stuck on the whole lightning thing. How in all the oceans was that at all fair? How come firebenders got a super lethal bending ability in addition to shooting fire out their fists, and no one else had anything like that?

"Ozai's daughter," Toph spoke up. "Apparently some sort of a prodigy."

"Blue fire, lightning, and a crown thing in her hair," Zhi said. "Couldn't really be anyone else." He groaned and slumped back against the side of the rail, next to the still-sound-asleep Jiao. "Figures."

Sokka didn't really have anything to say to that. He just leaned against his part of the rail and watched the land slip away under them, deceptively peaceful and safe.

Life really liked to whack them in the blubber when they needed it the least.

;=;=;=;=;

It was morning when the bison decided to crash.

Zhi gripped the side of the saddle and tried not to scream as shrilly as his brain was telling him to. "Avatar, do something!" he yelled as their furry ride plunged toward the forest below. The forest that must have heard about them and wanted to meet them, because it was rushing toward them with alarming speed.

"Wake up, Appa!" Aang cried, hanging off the bison's head. "Wake up!"

"AAAAAAAHHH!" Toph, Zhi, Jiao, and the Water Tribe siblings added.

It finally jolted awake just shy of the trees, and managed to slow down to a not-deadly speed before it plowed into the ground with enough force to leave a furrow twenty feet long in a clearing near a river. That done, the creature closed its eyes and fell back asleep, clearly spent.

The Tribesman slid off the bison, pulling his sleeping bag behind him. "Okay, Appa's exhausted, and so are we. No one's going any farther, crazy ladies or no. We really should follow Appa's example and get some sleep."

Katara muttered something darkly, but grabbed her sleeping bag and hoisted it over the side. Toph, in the middle of grabbing her bag, stopped and turned around sharply. "What did you say?"

Katara slid off the bison, scowling. "I said, we could have gotten sleep a lot earlier if Toph didn't have such issues!" she snapped loudly.

"What?!" Toph shrieked, following rapidly. "If I didn't have issues!"

"All right, all right," Aang said, sliding between the girls as the others dismounted as well (except for Jiao, still sound asleep against the side of the saddle). "Everyone's exhausted. Let's just get some rest-"

"No, I want to hear what Katara has to say," Toph said angrily, earthbending the Avatar to the side. "You think I have issues?"

"What is it with you?" Zhi demanded, taking a stalking stride forward. "Why are you picking on her with no reason? Do you enjoy tormenting kids?"

Katara drew in angry breath to answer, but Toph pushed Zhi aside. "I can handle this, Zhi! Stay out of it! What's your problem, Sugar Queen?" she snapped at Katara.

"I'm just saying, maybe if you hadn't thrown a fit about helping out at all, we might have gotten camp set up faster! And then we all would have gotten more sleep!"

"You seriously think that me tossing the sleeping bags to you would have made us get more sleep?" Toph said. "News flash: it wouldn't have! And you're blaming me for this?"

Aang put a hand on Katara's shoulder, trying to pull her away. "No!" he said. "No, she's not blaming you-"

"No, I'm blaming her!" Katara yelled. Zhi had to exert a great deal of mental control to not draw his sword at the arrogant waterbender accusing his little sister.

"Katara!" Aang tugged at her. "Remember what we talked about last night-"

"Yeah, I remember you spouting a lot of utter rubbish that didn't help at all!" she said, shoving him away.

"Listen here, I never asked you for diddly-doo-dah," Toph snapped. "I carry my own weight, pack my own stuff! If you're going to blame someone, why don't you blame Sheddy over there?" She jerked a thump over her shoulder at Appa.

"You're blaming Appa?" Aang said incredulously.

"Yeah! He's the one who keeps leaving a trail clear as day, for anyone to follow!"

"How dare you blame Appa!" Aang shouted. "He already saved your life twice today! If there's anyone to blame, it's you!" The Avatar gesticulated at Appa. "You're always talking about how you carry your own weight, but that isn't true at all! Appa's the one carrying your weight! He never had a problem flying when it was Sokka and Katara and I!"

Zhi had to admit that Aang had a point. But he couldn't let everyone just keep standing around and yelling at Toph, no matter how much she wanted him to stay out of it. "So what, you're just not going to have an earthbending teacher?" he demanded.

"That's exactly it," Toph snapped. "Tough luck, Avatar. I'm out of here." She stomped away.

"Wait!" Sokka said, stepping in front of her. She earthbent him to the side, leaving him flailing, and stormed away.

Everyone stared after her openmouthed for a few moments, before Aang collapsed and held his head in his hands. "What did I just do!" he cried. "I can't believe I yelled at my earthbending teacher! Now she's gone!"

"At least we still have Jiao, if you two jerks don't run him off, too," Sokka said from across the clearing.

Zhi felt a snarl rumble in his chest, and he took a menacing step forward, glaring at Katara and Aang. "I cannot believe you just did that," he growled, "and are happy to just turn around and forget about it. That was my little sister you just yelled at, accused, and chased off! What is wrong with you? Why do you have such a problem with her!"

Katara moaned and rubbed her face. "I – I didn't mean to chase her off, I just got mad that she wasn't helping -"

"Helping with your stuff? Why would she do that!" Zhi took a step closer.

"Why couldn't she do something like help with camp chores?" Katara said, heat creeping into her voice. "We're all in this together! People have to work together, you know!"

Zhi rubbed his face, the sleepless night catching up to him. "Is this some sort of Water Tribe thing? Because in my experience, if someone doesn't jump to get everyone's stuff and do all their chores, nobody yells at them and calls them horrible things for it!"

"It's not a Water Tribe thing, it's… common sense!" Katara said. "We have to work together! Unity is important!"

"So, to unify us, you made Toph feel horrible and then yelled false accusations at her until she left? Really, really helpful! We're so unified now!" Zhi scowled at her. "Now, there is no way in Koh that we are just going to leave her. But we also have Princess Azula on our trail, so we can't stay. A fine tangle you've gotten us into."

"Why are you blaming me for her stubbornness-" Katara began.

"Don't even start," Zhi snapped. "I am helping you now, isn't that what you wanted? So shut up and work with me!" He turned to the bison. "We need to keep him from leaving a trail, so we can get away from the royals and find Toph once she's cooled down."

"So we what, give him a bath?" Sokka snorted, still across the clearing. Everyone looked at him. He tilted his head, and repeated more slowly, "So we're… giving him a bath?"

Zhi shrugged. "Sounds good."

;=;=;=;=;

Katara bent a stream of cool water up, rinsing the loose fur off of Appa. It was easy, mindless work that gave her far too much time to stew over what she'd said to Toph.

Yeah, she was a little justified. But not much. And how could she justify yelling at the younger girl like she had, even if Toph had deserved it? Older people were supposed to watch out for and protect younger people, not chase them off. That was just the way things went, and she'd completely ignored that.

Her mind kept circling back to what Zhi had said. Is this some sort of Water Tribe thing? Katara had thought that was ridiculous, because obviously everyone knew that teams had to work together. But what if not everyone did know that? What if their cultural differences were wide enough to spark serious conflict?

She swallowed, and looked over at where Zhi was scrubbing at Appa's flanks with a long-handled brush. Jiao was next to him, combing through the bison's fur with his fingers. "Hey, Zhi?"

He looked up with a neutral grunt, and she bit her lip. "Zhi, do Earth Kingdom people not work together?"

He looked taken aback for a minute, then thoughtful as he processed her question. He seemed to have cooled off after their earlier confrontation. "Not really, not in the way you're thinking, at least I don't think." He dunked the brush in the current to rinse off the fur clogging it. "Earth… we're about trades and deals. Give and take. If you do something for someone else, you expect them to pay it back. Earth has long memories, and doesn't like doing something for nothing."

Katara waved her arms and rinsed down Appa's head where Momo had been scrubbing (and wasn't that a silly sight, the little lemur intently working away with a brush). "It's… not that way in the Water Tribe," she said slowly, trying to piece together her thoughts.

"In the South, you have to work together or you're dead," Sokka said bluntly, coming around Appa's tail. "There isn't any room for keeping track of favors or paying for everything. You just assume that everyone around you will help out, and they assume the same about you. When someone in the tribe is struggling, it means everyone is struggling, so we have to support everyone. It's like one big family. You don't owe debts to family, or help them because you want to be paid for it. You help them because they're family. And when you're traveling together with someone, it's much the same. You're depending on each other, trusting and helping each other so everyone makes it safely."

Zhi nodded slowly, brush going up and down. "That makes sense," he said finally. "And it makes everything that happened make a lot more sense too. I couldn't figure out why you were so worked up over us not dealing with your stuff, but I think I get it now. There's another part to that, too." He gestured to the riverbank, where Appa's saddle sat with all their stuff. "In the Earth Kingdom, if something belongs to you, it belongs to you. You take care of it, you protect it, you use it. When you expected us to help out with your things, it was weird because it was yours, and Toph didn't see why in the world you were expecting other people to handle it. Even things like camp chores don't normally get shared unless you are in a tightly knit group." He frowned, thinking. "For us, helping out like that isn't a normal way of doing things. It's a way of saying, 'I trust you completely and think you are like family to me'. Which was a little weird, because we just met you. That sort of trust takes time."

Katara twirled her arms in bigger motions than necessary, to try and hide her reddening face. She'd blown up at Toph like that when the girl hadn't even meant to snub her at all? She always tried to be caring and considerate, but she was beginning to see how much she didn't know about other cultures. "I… didn't realize that."

He nodded. "I didn't realize that stuff about your tribe, either. I think that once we explain to Toph, she'll cool down pretty quickly. Maybe."

"The monks always said that you should treat perfect strangers like you do your closest friends," Aang piped up, leaping over Appa. "And your closest friends like they are perfect strangers. We were supposed to help everyone. There wasn't any family, or deals, or anything. We just, you know, helped everyone."

"Maybe that's the way everyone should be," Katara said.

"And yet the only group with that philosophy is now extinct," Sokka said, then winced. "Aang, I didn't mean-"

"No, it's okay," Aang said, though he looked a little sad. "Maybe Sokka has a point. But the Air Nomads were traditionally the peacekeepers and mediators between the other nations, because everyone trusted us to help everyone equally. Or they used to trust us, anyway."

"I think Appa's pretty good," Zhi said critically, eyeing the shaggy wet lump in the river. "We should probably go find Toph before the royals catch up with us again."

"Lets," Katara said, and they all trudged out of the river, water puddling behind them.

"Is he going to be able to fly, though?" Jiao asked as they gathered. Aang shook his head.

"Not with the saddle and stuff on him. We should leave them here and try to lose those girls."

"Leave all our stuff?" Sokka repeated in disbelief.

"Just for a little while," Aang said. "Just until we're sure it's safe to come back."

"I don't know if I like that plan," Sokka said glumly. "I hate flying on Appa when he doesn't have a saddle."

"I'd take it over dying or being captured by the Fire Nation," Katara said, which no one argued with.

;=;=;=;=;

"Appa's going down!"

Zhi clenched thick wads of fur in his fists, and tried to relax his body. His body stubbornly refused to be relaxed, and remained on high tension setting. The bison plummeted down with alarming speed.

At least they were out of the trees. On the other hand, the trees would have cushioned the landing more. All that they could see was a deserted town that Appa was trying to embed himself into as quickly as possible.

"Hang on!" Aang screamed, and then the world was a mass of banging and jolting and desperately clutching and dust. Finally everything was still, and Zhi raised his head.

Appa laid on his side, just past the last half-ruined building, dust billowing around his crash site. Sokka had been thrown off and was picking himself up, groaning. Aang had had to leap aside or be squished by Appa's bulk. Besides that, they were all fine.

Jiao wormed down from Appa's side, landing with a puff of, yay, more dust. Zhi joined him, and they stared at the derelict town.

"Where is this?" Katara asked, coming up next to them.

Sokka threw his hands in the air. "I could tell you for sure if I had my maps," he grumbled. "I think we're probably in either Tu Zin, Faihong, or some unmarked town, which is likely. Unless we flew farther than I thought, and this might be Ba Sing Se. It's smaller than I pictured."

Zhi shook his head and took a few steps forward, eyeing the terrain. "I guess this is where we wait?" he said. "Hopefully the royals can't pick up our trail again now that Appa is washed."

"Royals," Sokka repeated. "Wow, you're really hung up on the royal thing, aren't you?"

"How could I not be? The third most dangerous firebender in the world is on our tail."

"Third most dangerous firebender in the world?" Katara said in disbelief. "But she's so young!"

Zhi shrugged. "If that is Princess Azula, she's only behind the Dragon of the West and the Fire Lord in firebending. And her companions would be nothing less than the best. That's… not a good thing for us."

"No kidding," Sokka said sarcastically.

Zhi turned away, pushing a hand through his short hair. Where was Toph? They'd gone in the direction she had, but hadn't seen her. He desperately hoped that he hadn't led the royals to her. What if she returned to the old campsite and stumbled across the Fire Nation girls?

Toph can take care of herself, he thought. Hoped. Because if not, he wasn't going to be able to live with himself.

"Hey!" Aang yelled from the roof of one of the less damaged buildings, from where he'd been surveying the land. "There's something coming!"

"Seriously?" Zhi exclaimed, already running to where he could see the direction that Aang was pointing. Sure enough, dust billowed towards them, kicked up by three figures mounted on mongoose-lizards.

"Oma and Shu, how did they find us?" Zhi yelled aloud, unsheathing his sword with the hissing of good steel against leather. "This isn't fair!"

The Tribesman, not too far away, pulled out his own carved bone machete, and his boomerang in the the other hand. Light glinted off of the blued steel, and Zhi was distracted for a second because he really wanted to know if Tribal steel was different than Earth steel, and how the boomerang came back, what made it curve, could anyone use one? But then he wrenched his eyes back to the danger bearing down on them. Aang and Katara joined the line.

Jiao stood next to Zhi, jaw firm. Zhi glanced down. "Jiao!" he hissed. "Get back to Appa!"

"I'm not leaving! I can fight!"

Zhi would not let the little boy be caught in this. "I need you to protect Appa. If they get too close, fly him away, okay?"

Jiao looked like he wanted to argue, but the look on Zhi's face must have been enough to stop him. The nine-year-old turned and ran back to Appa, still lying on his side (could the bison fly away if it needed to?)

At the other edge of the town, their three pursuers reined to a stop. Dismounted in another swirl of dust, because nothing in this Koh-forsaken place could be done without raising more choking dust. Stepped forward, one in front, flanked by the other two.

"Well, well, well," Princess Azula said, blue fire sparking to life in her fingers. "How nice of you to throw us a welcome party, Avatar."