Hey all! I'm back with another chapter! I know it took me a little while to get this one out, but I've been pretty busy as of late. I thought this chapter was pretty good, only a little while to the North Pole now! Read and Review: Reviewers replies are at the bottom so if you reviewed, find yours!
Aang and Toph:
After convincing Jeong Jeong to teach him fire bending, Aang's spirits had been lifted greatly. When he made it back to his and Toph's tent, she even noticed his mood change. "What's up with you Twinkletoes? Did the talk with Jeong Jeong turn out alright or something?"
Aang's smile only grew wider: "He's agreed to teach me fire bending!"
"Before you just start flinging fire from your fingertips, maybe you should try and learn a little more of your waterbending first." Toph replied, effectively quelling Aang's good mood.
"But I have a fire bending teacher now, why would I pass up on this opportunity?" Aang said, confusion clearly written on his face.
Toph sighed: "I don't know, it just doesn't feel right that you learn fire bending first, it's pretty dangerous and uncontrollable."
Aang rolled his eyes: "So in other words, you don't think I have what it takes to be a fire bender yet."
Toph was now growing slightly frustrated: "I'm not saying that! What I'm trying to say is that you should learn the other bending styles first before you tackle fire bending!"
"Toph, Jeong Jeong is here to train me now. If I pass up on this opportunity, who knows when I'll get the chance again." Aang said, slightly lowering his voice in the process.
Toph didn't say anything at first, but after a few minutes of silence, she spoke again: "I know I'm gonna regret this, but go learn your fire bending."
Aang smiled again: "I won't make you regret this Toph." Aang turned and left the tent, clearly going to talk to Jeong Jeong about his first lesson.
"I think I already have." Toph whispered.
As Aang walked over to Jeong Jeong, he noticed that he appeared to be just standing by the small river's shore. When Aang stood beside him, he noticed that Jeong Jeong's eyes were also closed. I guess this is his form of meditation. It was at this point that Aang also joined him, just quietly enjoying the peace of the warm day. Though Aang was trained to do this for long periods of time by the monks, he quickly grew impatient because he was eager to learn fire bending. It was at this time, that Aang spoke: "So when do I learn fire bending?"
Jeong Jeong did not answer immediately, but when he did, he appeared to remain calm: "Have you no restraint Avatar? Can you not just enjoy the beauty of the nature around you?"
Aang rolled his eyes: "Yah. Yah. I know about the beauty of nature! But I really want to start my training."
With a resignated sigh, Jeong Jeong conceded: "Very well, let us begin."
Jeong Jeong walked Aang into the middle of the shallow river: "The first part of your training is to learn the proper stance." It was at this point that Jeong Jeong took a basic fire bender's stance. His knees were bent, shoulders squared, and core unbreakable. Aang tried to copy the stance, but it was all wrong.
His instructor snapped at him: "No! Your feet are not far apart, bend your knees further, and stop slouching so much!" By the time Aang had corrected all of this, he was in a very aquard position.
Jeong Jeong smiled: "Very good, now fire breathes, it grows and shrinks. It feeds off of your will, your emotions, and most importantly, it feeds off of the sun. Can you feel the heat on your back?" Aang nodded at this and Jeong Jeong continued: "Good, now take deep breaths in through your noes.
Aang quickly replied, taking deep breaths in, he knew it was hot out, but he pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind.
Jeong Jeong nodded at his progress: "Good. Good." At this, he began to walk back to his tent without telling Aang what to do next.
Aang immediately dropped out of his stance: "Wait, what am I supposed to do next?"
"Did I tell you to stop breathing?!" Jeong Jeong snapped.
Aang quickly looked down: "No."
"Then continue until I tell you otherwise."
The next few days were the same way for Aang, though he was usually a patient spirit, his patience was quickly dwindling as the days passed. The first day was filled with Aang standing in the small river, just breathing. The next day was spent on top of a mountain doing the same thing. By the time the third day came around, Aang was really ready to fire bend, his impatience was easily showing by then, and Jeong Jeong knew this.
"So are you going to teach me some real fire bending today?" Aang said, almost knowing the answer already.
"Yes. We are." Jeong Jeong calmly replied.
Aang had to double take: "Wait, what?"
Jeong Jeong requested that Aang move into his fire bending stance, which he automatically followed. Many leaves were falling around them, Jeong Jeong simply snatched one and burned it slightly. He then spoke: "Try to prevent this leaf from burning up, focus on it."
"Wait, how is this fire bending?" Aang said, while losing focus on the leaf. It quickly burned up.
Jeong Jeong just rolled his eyes and plucked another leaf for Aang's training. This time though, Aang paid more attention to the leaf. When Jeong Jeong left, Aang began to stair intently at the leaf, until Toph interrupted him: "So what are you stuck doing now?" She asked.
Aang rolled his eyes: "He's making me stare at a leaf and try to prevent it from burning through."
Toph laughed at his misfortune: "Oh. That's grand! You have to stare at a leaf? I bet you won't ever complain about earth bending ever again."
Aang sighed in defeat: "Definitely."
In the short moment, Aang lost his focus again, but this time, the leaf burst into a small flame: "Toph! Look! I'm fire bending!"
"Why is it so hard to understand that I'm blind!" Toph said.
Aang began to play with the small ball of fire: "This is so cool!"
Toph, for the first time in a long time, attempted to air on the cautious side: "That's great and all Aang, but maybe you should wait till Jeong Jeong teaches you a little more before you start to play with it."
Toph's words fell on deaf ears though, Aang quickly began to experiment with the flame, making it larger and smaller. He began to truly feel the fire's breath and life. "I wonder how that performer did that trick." Aang wondered aloud. He began to copy the performer's form, spreading his hands out in a motion. Before he could finish the move, it exploded in front of him, causing searing pain to move up his hands and arms, this was also accompanied by a loud scream from Toph.
Jeong Jeong quickly ran out of his tent, hearing the commotion, but once he saw the damage, he looked down. "You burned my feet!" Toph screamed as she began to crawl away.
Aang quickly faught through his own pain, trying to fully grasp what had actually happened: I burned Toph! I burned myself! I'm such and idiot! I knew I wasn't ready to fire bend! Why didn't I listen to myself! Idiot. Idiot.
As he attempted to follow Toph, he was immediately stopped by Jeong Jeong: "No, I will talk to her, you stay here. I will deal with you later." Aang sadly obeyed Jeong Jeong's command and went to the shore, cradling his injured arms.
He gently placed his hands in the water, but something amazing happened. The water around his hands and arms began to glow and bright blue. When the glowing faded, so did he pain. This completely shocked Aang. What happened to me? What did I do?
"You are a healer." Chey began: "I haven't seen one of those in years. It's a rare ability among water benders. It allows you to control the flow of the chi path ways, allowing the regenerative processes to move quicker than they usually would."
Aang smiled at this: "That means I can heal Toph!" Aang said as he began to get up, but Chey stopped him. He clearly wanted to talk.
"I would like to say a few things before you go, if you don't mind." Chey said in a serious note, when Aang nodded his agreement, Chey continued: "Do you realize what you did wrong?"
Aang frowned slightly: "I was brash and impatient. I was foolish with my skills. I should have waited to learn fire bending until I mastered the other elements. Due to my impatient attitude, I hurt a friend as well as myself. I can't forgive myself for that." Aang finished by looking down.
"You are wrong Aang, you learned the perfect lesson from you training: You needed to understand restraint and I think this situation taught you it. Learn the other bending arts, than begin your fire bending training."
Aang nodded at this, still frowning at his stupidity.
Chey immediately snapped into attention when he remembered his real reason for coming to Jeong Jeong's tent: "Do you know where Jeong Jeong is?" Chey quickly asked.
"I think his is down by the river, looking for Toph probably, why?" Aang asked.
Chey look down: "Some of our men attacked what appeared to be Fire Nation vessels, the leader is Zhao. He is likely coming for either Jeong Jeong or you."
Aang quickly got up, running towards the direction Chey pointed in, he hoped he could get there in time to warn them.
Toph:
Hey burned me! My feet! How will I be able to bend or see?! These thoughts and many others were swirling through her mind. She heard water off in the distance and thought that it would be best to make it to the shore and try to cool of the burns so they wouldn't hurt as much as they did.
When she placed her feet in the water, instant relief flowed through he burned feet. She sighed in temporary relief. It was during these few moments that she thought about her situation a little more, she knew her feet were burned pretty badly, though that was only a guess based on the level of pain she was feeling. It was during these times that she wished that she wasn't blind.
"He burned you pretty badly" Jeong Jeong observed.
Toph turned around: "This is all yours and Aang's fault. If you would have been a little more careful and Aang wouldn't have been so excited to learn fire bending, this wouldn't have happened!"
Jeong Jeong shook his head in disagreement: "You believe that this was what I wanted? Aang's desire to learn fire bending quickly blinded him to the dangers of the element. This situation has taught him restraint, a valuable tool when fire bending."
This only made Toph even more angry: "Maybe Aang can share some of that restraint and make my feet better."
"Actually, I can make your feet better Toph" Aang cautiously interjected.
"Get away from me!" Toph said, but Aang pressed forward until he was touching her feet with the healing technique he had just learned.
Jeong Jeong's eyes widened in amazement: "You can heal."
Once Aang was finished with Toph's feet, they held none of the previous burn damage. Soon after Aang turned to Jeong Jeong and bowed to him: "Thank you for training me, but I must respectably end my fire bending training."
When Jeong Jeong raised an eyebrow in confusion Aang continued: "I have to focus on the other elements before I move onto firebending, like you said, it takes restraint and knowledge of the other bending arts to safely fire bend as the Avatar."
Jeong Jeong nodded in agreement: "It was an honor during the time I did train you, I believe you will become an exceptionally powerful firebender one day."
Aang just smiled, but that smile quickly turned to a frown when he noticed the black smoke rising from down the river: "Fire Nation soldiers, we should probably get out of here." Aang said.
"No, that is likely my old student, he has finally come to face me, I will stay and fight him." Jeong Jeong calmly replied.
Aang shook his head in disagreement: "If you're staying, then I will too. Toph, Chey, go get Appa and bring him here. We'll likely have to make a quick escape after this fight."
Toph began to argue with him, but Chey quickly started pulling her towards where he knew Appa would be. Deep down, Toph even knew that she would be useless against something that stayed in the water, but she didn't want to admit it.
When the boats came into view, Aang quickly noticed that there was only five of them, and that Zhao was leading them: "Zhao was your old student?" Aang asked in shock.
Jeong Jeong frowned: "He was my final student, he did not know restraint like you know do, it makes him a weak fire bender, exploit that." With that, Jeong Jeong quickly ran into the woods, Aang was now alone, but he did take what Jeong Jeong said to heart. As Aang faced Zhao, he noticed that the older man was smiling towards him, he found this rather unsettling: "I've been chasing you all over the world, and fate has it that you come to me."
With this, Zhao jumped onto the shore and sent large blasts of fire at Aang. He used his airbending to dodge many of them, the ones he couldn't dodge, he just blew away.
"Stop dodging me and fight!" Zhao said while punching his fist out yet again. He was getting tired and Aang saw right threw his tough façade, he had bad form and was sloppy. I only have to egg him on more so I can exploit a weak spot. With his new battle plan, Aang went into action. He jumped onto Zhao's first ship, mocking him as he went. By the end of his tirade, Zhao had unknowingly destroyed all of his ships, once he did that, Aang finally faced him in an offensive stance. He shot his hands forward and sand shot out of the ground towards Zhao. He tried to avoid it but was swallowed up by the sheer force of the attack. When Zhao attempted to get back up, he found he was being held down by a strong gust of wind. Aang walked up to him and spoke: "You need to learn more restraint, it will be your downfall if you do not check yourself."
Zhao only laughed: "Why would I take advice from a child!"
"Because that "child" is correct Zhao." Jeong Jeong calmly stated.
Zhao smiled: "Ah. My old master, you finally decide to show up. You finally decide to face your tresson charges?"
"Not quite yet Zhao" Jeong Jeong said: "Aang, keep your training up."
With this, Appa landed close to where Aang was. Chey got off Appa and left with his master. Aang quickly hopped onto Appa and took off towards the North Pole again. When he got the directions straight, he made his way to the saddle where a very quiet Toph was at.
Aang took an uneasy breath: "So…"
Toph quickly held up her hand: "Yah, Yah, I know, you're sorry for burning me. I get it. But I told you so."
Aang was genuinely confused at Toph's attitude towards him: "So you're not mad?"
Toph rolled her eyes: "Just wait till I get off of Appa and onto solid ground, I'll get my payback. Other than that, I'm just gonna work you harder during earth bending practice."
Aang groaned at this, much to Toph's pleasure: "So were to next Twinkletoes?"
Glad that they were getting off of Toph inflicting pain on him, he brought out his map again: "Probably somewhere close to the Northern Airtemple. There are plenty of smaller, out of the way villages there. Plus, there are plenty of natural resources for us to scavenge through."
"As long as there is earth under my feet, I don't really care." Toph said.
Aang smiled at this, glad that she had decided to come along for his journey: "Thanks for not leaving Toph."
Toph look genuinely confused at this: "Why would a leave?"
Aang began to stammer at her question: "Well, I thought that since I burned you, you would have wanted to leave me."
Toph laughed: "It's gonna take a lot more than a few burns to get rid of me Aang, just don't do it again though."
"Don't worry, I won't" Aang said as he hoped back onto Appa's head and guided him further towards the setting sun.
Katara and Sokka:
When Sokka finally gained control of himself, he began to notice that his sister was talking to him: "What IS that!" Katara asked, almost afraid to know the answer.
Sokka's voice took a solemn tone: "It looks like just about the largest Fire Nation fleet that I've ever seen."
"Where do you think they are headed?" Katara asked.
"From the looks of it, they are probably coming from the Fire Nation. They probably need to refuel at a station before they head out again." Bato added.
"It looks like they are heading Northward though" Sokka mused.
"Oh no.." Katara began.
"What is it Katara?" Both Sokka and Bato said, worry clear in their voices. But before they got an answer, Katara was bolting onward towards their direction. Bato and Sokka quickly followed her.
"They're heading to the North Pole, they must have figured out that Aang is going there!" Katara nearly screamed.
Sokka immediately understood what she was assuming: "You don't thing that they would try to attack the North Pole? Do you? I mean it is a fortress up there.. Right Bato?"
Bato merely looked down: "I don't think the Fire Nation cares how large the Northern Water Tribe is, the Avatar will be there, they have the troops and ships to invade, and they don't plan on failing from the looks of it."
Most of the rest of the day was traveled in silence. No one worried about Aang more than Katara though: At least I have a reason to go to the North Pole that Dad will believe now. It was then that she came to the realization that her father would now not want to go anywhere near the North Pole. If the North was over run, then her tribe would lose all of its men as well.
The day went by uneventfully and they made it through the Serpents pass completely. Needless to say, everyone was glad that they could finally be done with the Serpant's Pass for good.
When they camped for the night, just about a day's walk from Hakoda, Sokka decided it was about time to talk to Katara: "So you ready to see Dad again?"
"I guess, I just am really nervous is all." Katara replied.
"Why are you nervous, he's just our Dad."
"It's not so much him, it's the conversation I have to have with him." Katara said.
"Listen, Katara. Do you think it's best to go to the North Pole while the Fire Nation is attacking it?" When Katara was about to protest, Sokka raised his hands for her to let him continue: "What I'm trying to say is: is it a good idea for YOU to go to the North Pole."
Katara was completely shocked at his question: "Why wouldn't I go to the North Pole! Someone needs to warn them of the attack, if we leave soon, we can get there a few days before the Fire Navy does! Plus Aang will be there and I need to see him!"
"That's exactly what I'm talking about Katara, your need to see Aang could endanger you Katara." Sokka firmly said.
"How could you say that?" Katara shot back.
Sokka just looked down: "I just am looking out for you is all."
Katara was about to yell at him more, but she was stopped by Bato: "Maybe we should let Hakoda be the decision maker. Okay guys?"
Sokka sighed: "Yah, let's all get some rest, we aren't camping again until we reach Dad."
Katara couldn't sleep that night though, she was saddened by the idea that she might not be able to travel to the North Pole. She needed to see Aang again. If her Dad didn't let her come, she would find another way to get to him. I think I'm finally ready to face you Dad. Katara thought, before she drifted off to sleep.
I really hope you guys liked this chapter, I put tons of work into it. I am pretty drained from long days of college and lots of work, so getting this chapter out was a bit hard, so sorry for the time it took to get it out. I'll try to get another one out by the weekend though.
Onto the review responses!
P.S. I had a lot of guests that reviewed this time, so I will be going in order of the reviews, so if you were a guest who reviewed, just find out what numbered guest you were in reference to the reviews page. Or just read all of them cause you all are amazing!
AvatarCat13: I do read and love your story Kataang Island Adventure. I think I even have it favorited on my page, but if I don't I sure will very soon! Lol. As for the review on ch. 7, I really questioned on whether or not I should make Aang burn Toph or himself or both. But I thought it came out alright this chapter, though I'll let you make that determination for yourself. As for the Serpent, I really was tempted to bring it into the chapter, but I decided to save it for later Thanks for the compliments and I will do my best.
Gamlover41592: I don't really know what to say as I did not understand your review, if you could clear it up for my that would be great. But thanks for reviewing the chapter!
InfernoLeo9: Thanks for your opinion on the Authors Note, I was really shocked at how many of you reviewed on it. (People usually never actually read the A/N) But I will try to incorporate your ideas into the story. We will see if Katara makes it to the North Pole, but knowing her, it's almost a shoe-in. Thanks for the review again!
Guest 1 ch.5: Awh thanks! I love replying to all of my reviewers, it keeps me more intouch with them. Like I've said before, I would not be as motivated to write each of these chapters if it was not for you guys. And I don't take anything my reviewers say offensively, these reviews make me smile so don't worry about it. It just takes me a few days to get to push out another chapter. I love what I do so don't worry about offending me! I love you guys!
Guest 2 ch.5: I think you are the same person as the one above but I could be totally wrong. If so thanks for liking Toph. She is harder to write on than I thought she would be, but I think I'm getting the hang of her more and more each chapter. As for Katara, what do you like about her? Maybe I could do it some more?
FlameoInstantNoodles: You are an amazing reviewer! Haha, you always find a way to make me laugh more and more! I really do appreciate the compliment, but I don't think I'm that good at this writing thing. But I appreciate the amazing compliment regardless!
Guest Ch. 6: Assuming you are the same review? Could be wrong? But regardless, I LOVED YOUR REVIEW. You are awesome and so nice. I appreciate all the compliments, your review made me smile when I read it. I will be sure to add some of your ideas into the continuation of this story, I don't really like being constricted either, so I will be going a little outside of the cannon of the story, though I will include some parts of it cause it is good to have the ascense of the story still there. I will see what I can think of though, who knows, Aang might still be "alone"
Guest Ch. 6 #2: I just love cliff hangers, it keeps people wanting more! I really don't know if you are the same person or not lol. These guest reviews confuse me, yet I absolutely love them! Keep it coming!
Ok guys, so I'll get another chapter out probably this weekend, we are almost at the North Pole!