There are multiple changes in the text itself, and new paragraphs and pages are bound to show up now and again. (Like changing some cliché like parts that have now become common and unoriginal, such as Katara dumping water on Sokka to get him to wake up) There is also a little more insight on Jet's stay in prison and the setting out of his mission; so expect some flashbacks on Jet's part. I'd encourage you for a re-read, or a first time one too if you're new to this story.
Chapter One
The Ice Mountains
Wind rushed through the leaves and branches of tall forest pine trees as the sun peeked out from behind grey clouds. A red hawk alighted upon a high tree branch. Swaying in the breeze, he prepared to burst into song. Suddenly an enormous shadow fell over the bird, and before he had any time to react, the red hawk was knocked off the tree branch with a piercing squawk by the tail of a flying….buffalo?
"Sokka, there is absolutely no way you know where you're going!" Katara said, frowning while waiting expectantly for Sokka's predicable response. He scowled at her from over his shoulder, his expression not remotely intimidating.
"I don't need directions!" He said haughtily, watching her out of the corner of his eye while fidgeting with Appa's reins.
"Then why are we going around in circles?" Katara muttered, rolling her eyes. Sokka pretended not to hear her, lifting his chin while gazing defiantly at her.
"Look Katara, if we want to go to the North Pole, we have to go north." Sokka explained, emphasizing each word with a melodramatic flourish of his hand.
"How do you know we're going north then?" Katara asked, crossing her arms and raising her eye brows. Besides, that's got to be the most over-used phrase I've heard so far besides 'I'm hungry' from you. Katara added mentally to herself. He opened his mouth to reply, when he stopped, eyes narrowing as his expression soured.
"…Just let me steer and no backseat driving!" He finally snapped, turning back around with a huff. Katara turned her head as she heard someone trying futilely to not snicker. A young boy of twelve dressed in bright reds and yellows was sitting across from her, his grey eyes twinkling as he bit his lip. His glee was contagious and Katara couldn't resist smiling wryly at him.
"What's so funny Aang?" Sokka suddenly demanded, a warning underlining his words as he noticed the air bender's expression. Aang quickly schooled his face into his most innocent expression, which normally would have made Katara suspicious and apprehensive.
"Nothing," Aang said cheerfully, albeit a bit too cheerfully to be believable. Sokka didn't look impressed, and whatever he was about to say was cut off by Aang and Katara as their eyes abruptly widened in alarm.
"Cliff!"
"SOKKA LOOK OUT!"
Sokka whirled his head around in time to see a towering rock formation a couple feet away before Appa flew up into the sky at a sharp angle, not a dumb enough creature to crash into a rock because his driver wasn't paying attention.
Yelping in surprise, Sokka's grip on the reins slipped and he crashed back into the saddle on top of Aang while Appa continued to fly up at a nearly vertical angle. After another few heart racing seconds Appa returned to his regular flight pattern, completely unaffected by his upset passengers.
"Appa!" Sokka wailed, after untangling himself from Aang. He rubbed his arm, convinced that a bruise would show up after hitting it on Aang's hard head.
"Don't yell at him!" Aang scolded, his grey eyes flashing as he rubbed his forehead, wincing slightly.
"Yeah, its your fault he had to do that anyway Sokka," Katara said sourly after spitting out the mouthful of Momo's fur that had got stuck when the lemur had clung to her head. Sokka half-heartedly glared in Katara's direction as she fastened one of her hair loopies back into her bun.
"Whatever." Sokka grumbled, recognizing defeat as he climbed back onto Appa's head and grabbed the reins. Aang was busy getting Momo away from their limited supply of mangos when Katara caught a glimpse of what looked like a tall fortress in between two large mountain-like hills.
A Fire Nation banner was flapping in the wind.
Wordlessly she glanced at Aang and the boys face quickly turned serious as he crawled over to her side.
"What is it?" Aang asked quietly, watching her face cautiously.
"Look down there," Katara answered cryptically, pointing to the fortress that went in and out of view as the trees and hills blocked it from sight. Once the air bender saw what she was pointing at wariness instantly sprang into his eyes, and something else. To Katara, it reminded her of when she watched Aang's eyes as he told her his past.
"Sokka, we're close to a Fire Nation post," Aang said immediately, pointing to show the teenager where the tower was.
"Right…let's get out of here before we end up in another mess like we usually do," Sokka muttered wryly, tugging the reins to tell Appa that he wanted to go higher into the clouds.
"You know, we still don't know if we're going the right way," Katara said after a while, absently fiddling with the end of her braid. Sokka sighed heavily.
"This is why it's important to have a compass!" Sokka's eyes glared meaningfully at Aang while the air bender avoided his gaze by hanging upside down on the edge of Appa's saddle.
"We could just go into that village and ask around. Someone should know." Aang suggested, ignoring Sokka. He didn't want to have that argument again. Katara crawled beside Aang and looked over the saddle, narrowing her eyes until she could make it out.
"It seems safe enough," Katara remarked, "Looks just like a normal village."
Shrugging his shoulders, hoping that perhaps they could grab a bite to eat there, (he was a teenage boy why was everyone so incredulous of his eating habits?!) Sokka had Appa fly lower to the ground to get ready to land. The village itself was inside a traditional square shaped wall of earth, a large wooden gate standing open to let the steady stream of people in and out. The town was nestled at the foot of some intimidating mountains; their jagged tops gleamed white and snow covered most of the mountain sides. An icy cold wind blew towards them as they got closer.
Appa landed in a small meadow a safe distance from the town, having become used to staying out of sight. Once his passengers were off, he quickly walked off to go eat some nearby vegetation that looked appetizing.
"How much money do we have?" Sokka asked as they all three started walking towards town, Momo hanging on Katara's shoulder while playing with her pendant. Katara frowned at the question, not looking happy at all as she pulled Momo's paws away from her neck.
"Not much. We better save the money until we get desperate." Sokka's face abruptly changed into one of his blacker expressions, his navy blue eyes darkening at the thought of even less food to eat.
"Well, what if we did an odd job for someone in town in exchange for some food?" Aang suggested, not really wanting to eat nuts and berries for supper like they always did when Katara got paranoid about the food supplies.
"Great, not only are we being chased by the Fire Nation and Zuko—" Sokka glanced at the earth kingdom hat Aang wore over his tattoo—"and we're lost, but now we have to work for food."
"Be quiet Sokka." Katara said absently as they joined the people entering the town gate. "Aang just might be on to something." Aang beamed while Sokka glowered.
"Tell you what," Sokka drawled, "You can gut fish, and when you're done I can eat it." He glanced sidelong at the fish cart they passed in the maze of the surprisingly large market place this town had. Katara made a face and muttered a sarcastic "ha ha, very funny," under her breath as they continued walking farther into the town. People brushed by them, thin women with pale, worried faces clutching baskets of food, children chasing children or occasionally a stray chicken, and sometimes men with bags of feed in their arms, their faces grim or impassive.
"Who do you think would be most likely to hire a couple of kids?" Katara asked while glancing around at all the shops and merchandise carts they were passing. Hey, did she recognize that cabbage merchant…?
Suddenly Katara realized that nobody had responded to her question. Having become much more wary and suspicious after their many misadventures, Katara immediately turned around, looking frantically around her for a sight of the boys.
She couldn't see any sign of them.
"Aang! Sokka!" She called, some people glancing at her in surprise at the urgent undertone in her voice. Oh please don't be in trouble, I am so not in the mood to figure out how to save you if are…
Katara's face suddenly lost its anxious expression and was replaced with an annoyed glare as Katara spotted Aang and Sokka a short distance away, looking at the window of a bakery that had cakes and cookies set on display.
Stomping over to them, Katara ignored the delicious scents wafting from the shop and Sokka and Aang's dreamy, blank expressions as she grabbed the backs of their shirts and yanked them away from the window and started dragging them backwards down the street.
"Katara!" Sokka whined, "Let go!" He jerked free of her grip with more ease then Katara liked; at least Aang waited patiently until she let go of him.
"What do you think you were doing? You know we have to stay together!" Katara said angrily, jabbing her finger at Sokka as he held up his hands as if to ward off an attack. That brief scare had not put her in the best of moods.
"Katara, we were just—"
"Hey, where's Momo?"
Stopping their argument, both Sokka and Katara blinked in surprise at Aang, who looked worried. A brief moment of stunned silence between the three ensued as the two siblings finally noticed that the lemur was gone.
"What?! I thought you had him!" Sokka exclaimed, glaring accusingly at Katara.
"Me?" Katara nearly shouted, "I was too busy trying to keep track of you guys!" Aang, after spending so much time with the brother and sister, recognized the danger signs and quickly stepped between the two scowling teenagers.
"It's nobody's fault, I'm sure he didn't get too far!"
"Hey! Get away from that!"
"Get back here you thieving flying bat creature!"
Jumping in surprise Aang glanced over his shoulder and his grey eyes widened in shock as he took in the sight of Momo running down the street away from them, a gold chain around his neck and a moon peach gripped in his hand while a short, bald man chased after him, swearing and waving a long wooden pole. A taller man, better dressed than the other merchant, was running after them, his face bright red while he screamed that the flying bat had stolen his gold.
"Couldn't have said it better myself," Sokka said sarcastically while Aang and Katara stared speechlessly at the chaos Momo was causing as he tried to get away from the screaming men as fast as possible, knocking over vases, fruit stands, baskets and other expensive items in his hurry.
The lemurs shriek as he evaded the fruit merchant's pole jolted Aang out of his shock and he immediately whipped his staff around into his glider and shot into the air, yelling for Momo while Katara chased after him on foot.
Sokka stayed where he was for a moment, watching the difficulty Katara had at leaping over or avoiding the rolling barrels in the street or the spilled food and pottery and running people. Aang was barely managing to escape getting hit out of the sky by the many lanterns, canopies, banners, and wind chimes that overhung the street. People were starting to shout in panic and some of them were getting knocked over in the confusion.
"I suppose I should follow them," Sokka said with a heavy sigh, finally breaking into a run.
Quickly making the glider fly faster, Aang soared over the heads of the revenge-seeking merchants, trying to catch up to his pet before they—or someone else—did. Aang freed one hand to grab down at the lemur as Momo jumped off a display of hand-painted plates, sending them crashing them to the dirt ground.
"Momo!" Aang shouted as the lemur passed by him, just barely out of reach. His attention was so focused on the lemur Aang didn't see the ostrichhorse cart in front of him until it knocked into the end of his glider. As he struggled to regain control of his glider, Aang shouted "Sorry! Oops! Sorry!" as he knocked down two carts full of meat, a couple people and a sleeping cat.
Ahead of him, Aang saw Momo, still on the ground, bolting down the aisles, effortlessly evading the people trying to catch them and causing them to either trip over themselves, or crash into something.
"Igottagottagottagothim!" A five year old boy shouted, leaping off the edge of a shelf and tackling the lemur.
"Don't let him get away!" Aang and the two merchants shouted in unison, each trying to reach the small boy before the lemur's desperate struggles paid off. Squeezing with all his might, the chubby boy turned pink in the face with effort as the lemur hacked from the inability to breathe right; all this while the boy's mother screamed at him from a couple stalls down the street along with the chaos followed Aang, Katara, and the avenging merchants. Finally escaping, Momo became a white-and-black blur as he raced down the dirt street, leaving the boy staring in bafflement at the empty air his hands were clutching.
Flying over the boy and his irate mother, Aang refocused his attention on Momo. The lemur wasn't falling for that trick again, despite the many attempts by children and adult alike. A normal, boring day in the market just turned into one big chase that everyone on the street was suddenly apart of, a welcome distraction for most. (Well, except for the merchants whose goods were being destroyed.) Further down the avenue, ahead of all the destruction, Aang could see a strangely familiar cabbage merchant racing away, pushing his cart of cabbages as fast as he could.
"Look out!" Aang suddenly heard Katara shout just before fire works literally fired a couple feet in front of him after Momo damaged them. His eyes going wide, Aang yelped as he shot into the air, screaming as fireworks exploded close to his face to make everything he saw go white.
"Augghhh! I can't see!" Aang wailed, clutching at his eyes with one hand as his glider shot down to the ground, the shoppers and merchants alike dive bombing to the ground and covering their heads. Aang careened over them, hitting into banners so many times in a row that his glider became hopelessly tangled in them and Aang was suddenly free falling before a banner wrapped around his waist and arm jerked him to a standstill. Moaning, Aang squeezed his eyes shut as he heard the alarmed yells of the people below him, everyone shouting to get a ladder.
"Hey! That's the Avatar!"
Aang's eyes shot open, vainly trying to see all the blurry images below him. He couldn't see but he certainly could hear the uproar going on below him. Lifting the hand that tangled under him, Aang felt his head and his heart sank. His Earth Kingdom hat was gone, and now…
For the first time, Aang suddenly went beyond being annoyed at his pet to feeling angry at Momo. A little ways behind him, Katara finally caught up to Aang, breathing hard while taking in the whole situation with growing panic. Snatching up Aang's hat, Katara quickly undid the clasp on her water skin and shouted Aang's name over the noise of all the people trying to get up to the tangled Avatar.
A stream of water shot into the air, slicing through the banners holding Aang and his glider captive effortlessly. Suddenly free of his restraints, Aang flailed his arms wildly as he fell before remembering to air bend himself down. Once his feet touched the ground Aang stiffened; his sight had now returned enough to see the approaching crowd, a couple of the merchants shouting angrily for the Fire Nation guards.
Chuckling nervously, Aang backed away slowly, holding his hands palm out.
"Um…h-hi guys…" He stammered, trying discreetly to edge closer to his fallen glider while carefully watching the people approaching him, their expressions all ranging from rage to shock. "Um…sorry about the mess…I can fix that…" Moving so fast that the people watching him barely saw it Aang pounced on his staff and flipped it back into a glider, mentally noting the nicks in the woodwork with irritation.
"Aang!" Katara tried to shove pass the people in front of her but it was like pressing against a human wall. Soaring into the air Aang flew over the heads of the people just as they all rushed in to grab him. He saw Katara stumble, her blue dress and dark hair causing her to stand out and Aang immediately went lower, reaching down to grab her. "Hang on!" Aang shouted, holding her waist tightly with one arm as she screamed, throwing her arms around his neck and holding so tight that Aang nearly choked as he summoned more air to lift them into the air above the angry mob of people. Quickly fighting down his blush at how close Katara was and how tightly she was clinging to him, Aang focused on their currant situation.
"Where's Sokka?" Aang yelled, frantically searching the market streets for any sign of Sokka or Momo. Now that he knew Fire Nation was here, something that he really should have anticipated, it as impossible for them to be that lucky, it was all the more reason to leave.
"I don't know!" Katara managed to stop screaming to reply. "Last I checked he was right behind me!"
Meanwhile, a couple streets down, Sokka crouched in his hiding spot, waiting for Momo to creep closer to the pile of apples that had rolled off a shelf under his trap. After watching how far ahead Momo was and Aang and Katara's fruitless attempts to catch him, Sokka decided to cut the lemur off by going to the next street. After climbing over the wall, Sokka was in time to see the lemur bypass that street entirely, a mop of angry men and woman chasing him, waving anything from frying pans to loafs of pointy bread.
Grumbling, Sokka took off to the next street, watching as the lemur suddenly remembered he could fly and took to the air, hiding in a crack between a fish shack and a clothing store while the mob ran right by him.
Now, he was hiding himself while Momo crept right under his hiding spot, the gold chain and moon peach long gone. …closer…Sokka thought, waiting tensely as the lemur crept nearer.
"HA!" Sokka shouted, leaping down at Momo as he screeched in terror, hesitating enough for Sokka to put the water tribe bag he carried over the lemur's body. Quickly tying it shut Sokka watched as it bulged and bucked, Momo's angry hisses clearly conveying his displeasure. Smirking, Sokka simply shouldered the bag, and ignoring the weird looks he got from his moving bag he walked down the middle of the street to find Aang and Katara.
Suddenly Sokka stopped in his tracks, looking at the destroyed street ahead of him and at the sight of Aang crazily weaving through the air, his face contorted with the effort of air bending and holding Katara up at the same time. Sokka's eyes narrowed slightly as he saw the way Aang was supporting Katara before looking at the angry group of people running his way, chasing after Aang and Katara. His face paling, Sokka took a step backwards. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to show that he knew Aang and Katara right now…
And with that thought and one final glance behind him, Sokka took off at a dead run for the gates. Above him, high in the air, Aang saw where he was going, and decided that Sokka had a great idea. Katara yelped as what felt like an unseen hand propelled them high into the air, over the town, and then towards their camp site, leaving a chaotic mess in their wake.
*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*
Back at camp, things weren't as calm as they could have been…
"All that and we STILL don't have directions!" Sokka exclaimed in disgust, glaring at the still moving bag on the ground between the three friends.
"We can't just leave," Aang said slowly, rubbing the arm he had used to carry Katara. He might have pulled a muscle or four. She should take her own advice and eat less.
"Everyone in that town will think that the Avatar trashed their market place," Aang said glumly. "I shouldn't leave the situation like that."
"But you also can't walk back in there," Katara pointed out, crossing her arms and eyeing the town in the distance. "I doubt they'll even let you say two words before they throw you in prison for property damage and not being able to pay for it all."
"Nice going, Momo," Sokka said sarcastically, glaring at the now-still bag. For once, Aang didn't defend his pet. He was just as frustrated as Sokka.
"Well…if I couldn't go back maybe one of you could?" Aang said hopefully, making his eyes go big and pleading at Katara, knowing that she'd probably be the one to cave in. Just as he had hoped, Katara hesitated, looking as if she was debating it.
"…There's no way we could hope to pay back with all the damage that was done," Katara said firmly. "We'd be here too long. With all the uproar we caused, Zuko and Zhao will be able to find it out pretty fast. We need to leave tomorrow morning at the latest."
"But we still need directions," Aang reminded her. Sokka just glanced between the two of them, scratching the itch on his left wrist absently as he watched the argument play out.
"I can't go back either though," Katara replied. "They saw me with you; I'm sure they would recognize me."
Suddenly Sokka realized that they were all staring at him expectantly.
He shook his head vehemently. "No way."
"Sokka—"Aang began, a wheedling tone to his voice when he was interrupted by the bag lying in the middle of them suddenly bursting open, Momo's attempts of escape having finally worked.
Shaking his head, the lemur blinked in the bright sunlight for a moment before realizing that three very angry people were surrounding him, arms crossed and glares of doom written on their faces. Glares of doom directed at him.
His ears going down, Momo cowered for a moment, realizing that even his master was angry at him. Deciding that sticking around was a Very Bad and Foolish idea, Momo ran back into the bag, letting the flap fall over his tail as he huddled inside.
Turning away from the lemur Aang and Katara stared at Sokka, who stared back just as stubbornly. The impasse lasted for a minute or two before Sokka gave in with an exasperated sigh and dug out his cloak, tugging it on while muttering under his breath before stomping back to the town.
*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*
Sokka never did stop muttering until he reached the gate way, and then he stopped, nodding curtly to the Earth Kingdom sentry at the gate, who at first eyed him and then waved him on. Apparently, after the whole market place incident, the town had decided to post a sentry.
Sokka wandered past the two streets that had been totally demolished by Momo. The avenues were full of people cleaning up, many of them looking disgruntled and whispering about the Avatar to the people working next to them.
Suddenly one of his brilliant ideas struck him. Walking a little ways down the street, Sokka gave a low, impressed whistle.
"Whoa, what happened here?" Sokka asked the women cleaning next to him.
"The Avatar and his crazy pet, that's what." The woman said sourly.
"Really?" Sokka raised his eye brows. "Huh. What did the pet look like?" The woman stopped what she was doing and turned around; looking Sokka up and down as the teen plastered a smile on his face.
"We think it was a flying lemoobat." She said finally, as if deciding he was nothing more a curious bystander. Affecting a serious face, Sokka described Momo, asking if this was what the woman had seen.
"Yes, it was…" She said, suddenly looking apprehensive.
"The Avatar just saved your lives!" Sokka suddenly shouted, throwing his hands up and drawing everyone's attention to himself.
"That so-called flying lemoo is actually a very deadly animal; if the Avatar hadn't tried to capture it, it would have spread a disease to all your children and livestock if it had bitten them." Sokka watched with satisfaction as everyone's eyes widened and then they all began talking at once. Slipping away when no one was looking, Sokka strolled down the street, his chest puffed out. Well, that took care of that problem. Now he only had to find directions.
But behind him on the streets, the smug teenager was unaware that what he had just said was being embellished and changed so radically that Sokka wouldn't have been able to realize that it was his tale…
Sokka had to ask five people before a teenaged girl said she could give him directions.
"Myself and my companions are traveling to the North Pole," Sokka explained, even as he was mentally cringing at how ugly the girl was with her ash darkened dirty pale blonde scraggly hair and crooked lopsided nose. "And I was wondering if you could point me in the right direction." He smiled charmingly, trying to charm the girl in front of him.
She smiled back at him, her cloudy pea green eyes sparkling. "If you want to go north, the shortest route would be over the mountains—" She glanced behind her at the towering peaks before looking back at Sokka— "But they aren't safe at all. You'll have to detour."
Sokka shrugged. "Okay, how long is the detour?"
"Ten days at the least. Depends on how fast you travel."
Sokka stared at her incredulously. "Nope. Not gonna work. What's so bad about the mountains that we can't just go over them?"
The girl's demeanor completely changed. Her relaxed posture became tense, her green eyes became angry, and she gripped Sokka's arm so suddenly that he jumped.
"The temperatures have been known to kill people up there; dangerous storms in which people become so lost that they die of cold. There's no wood for fire, no shelter, only snow and ice! Ice storms cause the death of many things in the passes…if you go up there, you'll die."
During the entire monologue, Sokka had continued to lean backwards as the girl continued to lean in, suddenly doubting this girl's sanity and thinking she was even freakier than he had first thought.
"Uh, thanks," Sokka said quickly, shrugging off her grip and retreating a couple feet since she still had that harsh look in her eyes. "Um…right…mountains bad…won't go therethanksforyourhelpbye!"
Quickly retreating, Sokka thought over what she had said. She was probably just exaggerating, he decided. After all, those mountains couldn't have any more powerful snow storms then he had survived in the South Pole.
Convinced, Sokka nodded to himself as he passed out of the gates. He would tell Aang and Katara what direction they had to go and then just warn that it would be very cold and keep the blankets out and maybe bring with some bundles of wood for fire. Smiling to himself, Sokka felt like he had everything under control and hurried back to camp as the sun started to set.
*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*
He squinted in the early morning sunlight, thrusting his dagger into its scabbard as he stared out at the forest looming ahead of him. He was standing on the high metal wall of a Fire Nation fortress, gazing out at the land before him, drinking in the fresh air after spending so many days in prison.
Behind the impassive face he presented to the world, the young man was rapidly thinking, remembering as he waited for his "men" to join him at the fortress gate.
*0*0*0*
"Remember, you only have four weeks before I expect you back," Lazar turned from the window to give the teenager standing in front of him a pointed look. "If you've failed to return by that time, I'll not only send out search parties for you and renew the claim on your head, but I'll burn down that forest you once called home." The captain smirked, enjoying his sense of power as he watched the teen's hands twitch slightly as a flash of rage flickered in his eyes for a brief moment.
"I'll do my best to be back then." The words were cold and they had a faint mocking undertone to them that made the captain narrow his eyes suspiciously at the boy. Striding over to his desk, Captain Lazar picked up a parchment scroll that was lying there and handed it to the youth, returning the glare laid on him.
"These are the coordinates of where the Avatar was last sighted, and any travel patterns he has that might be useful," Lazar explained as the boy eyed the sealed scroll.
"My men will have to listen to you," the captain continued, turning away again from the boy and looking out the window at the Fire Nation soldiers milling about. "You will be able to do what you must in order for my plan to work, but you still will have to answer to my lieutenant." Lazar turned around, eyeing the teenager and his stiff posture, knowing that if he wasn't careful this one might escape. And that meant worse than bad news for him if he did.
"Do you understand me, wolf-eyes?"
Cold, charcoal black eyes narrowed until they were small slits.
"You already know my name is Jet, so stop calling me 'wolf eyes'." He ground out menacingly.
"You didn't answer my question, wolf eyes." Lazar leaned forward, putting enough force behind the words that it almost sounded like a bark. Leaning forward himself, challenge practically reeking from every poor, Jet smirked, undaunted by the angry fire bender.
"I understand."
Giving the youth a stunning back hand slap in reward for the show of defiance, Lazar grinned.
"Excellent."
*0*0*0*
Jet was abruptly shook out of his thoughts when his keen hearing picked up the sound of snarling komodo rhinos, and the heavy clamp of armor and rough voices coarsely bantering with one another.
Looking over his shoulder, Jet saw that the party of men had nearly reached the gate; Lazar was hanging near the back with a man who could only be the lieutenant he had spoken of. With one last glance at the snow capped mountains in the far distance, Jet jumped down to the gate where the captain was approaching with his men.
His sudden appearance nearly made the firebenders in front of the group flinch before their faces quickly gave way to disgust as they recognized the teen in front of them. Feelings mutual, Jet sneered at them as he fingered his sheathed T-Hook swords that had been returned to him, watching as the soldiers began to mount up. Captain Lazar approached with the man he had been talking to earlier, the reins to a komodo rhino in his hand.
"Here," Lazar said bluntly, shoving the reins into Jet's hands. Resisting the urge to recoil from the man, Jet simply mounted the beast as quick as he could, even though the creature seemed to be intent on unseating him.
The gates started to slowly open and Jet stared straight ahead, his heat beginning to pound harshly as he realized that his plan had actually worked and he was on his way.
"Remember what I said." Jet glanced at the captain out of the corner of his eyes just as the two gates had opened all the way. Jet nodded brusquely.
"We ride north!" Jet shouted, urging his rhino ahead as he and his company galloped out of the gateway and towards the lands ahead.
*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*
After an initial delay with Sokka, they began flying over the Ice Mountains. So far there had been no real trouble, but as the day progressed dark clouds suddenly began to gather over them. When they got near the high pass, one of those clouds seemed to descend behind them because the light immediately went dim and murky. The temperature started dropping so many degrees that Sokka and Katara had dug out their winter coats, shuddering. Snow started to fall, at first soft flurries that Momo jumped up to try and eat, and then later becoming little pellets that stung your face.
Aang was sitting on Appa's head, knowing that it would help the bison if he was there to navigate. He was paler then usual from the cold, and his special wind proof clothes kept out the freezing wind. Aang was quickly becoming worried with the situation. Momo was hiding in his arms, trembling violently. His fur, normally warm and soft, was cold to the touch and stiff with half frozen snow that clung to his coat. The snow seemed to become more frequent as the wind started to rise in pitch, echoing off the mountain side until it seemed like there were screaming hog monkeys all around them. In short, Aang was beginning to have trouble seeing anything that wasn't white snow and so was Appa, as was apparent by the near misses of colliding with the high stones surrounding them.
"How are you guys doing?" Aang shouted back to the huddled water tribe siblings, risking a quick glance over his shoulder before returning his gaze ahead.
"Okay." Katara grit out between her teeth, arms clamped over her chest tight trying to conserve as much body heat as possible.
"Horrible," Sokka wailed at nearly the same time. "Aang, I'm freezing. Can't you find a cave for us to rest in or something?"
"This storm is as bad as the ones in the South Pole," Katara added, and for some reason Sokka cringed when he heard that. Aang grimaced. With night the temperature would drop even more, and they had foolishly forgotten to bring any fire wood with them. Plus, Aang had absolutely no idea how he was supposed to find a cave in this storm…
"Look around you. Can you see anything except white?" Aang replied, his voice sharper then usual due to the deep uneasiness settling in his gut.
"Aang, this is a blizzard," Sokka yelled over the wind, "We need to find some sort of shelter before it gets even worse!" Aang's troubled face glanced back at the brother and sister again, noting the paleness of their normally brown skin, unaware of the corpse like whiteness of his own.
"Okay, start looking for a good spot!" Aang called back over his shoulder, shuddering as the wind found a way into his clothes. A fire really didn't sound too bad at all right now. Appa suddenly started weaving a little, groaning to himself.
"Appa?" Aang exclaimed his eyes widening in fear as Appa drifted a little lower to the ground. Leaning forward, blinking rapidly against the snow that clung to his eye lashes, Aang saw that all the snow clinging and freezing to the fur around Appa's eyes was making it even more difficult for the bison to see. What do I do? Aang thought franticly, his mind racing to find a solution, but it kept coming up with zilch.
"Appa can't see!" He screamed over the increased howling of the wind, the force of it whipping the snow around them up into the air like a sandstorm. By now he could barely make out Sokka and Katara's faces, except he could tell that they were quickly becoming rattled by what was happening.
Aang's fingers were painfully numb from the severe cold and slipped from Appa's reins as the bison wheeled sharply to the left to avoid a rock wall that had suddenly materialized out of seemingly now where. Suddenly the shivering ball of fur in Aang's arms went limp.
"Momo!" Aang yelled in panic, quickly looking down at the lemur to discover that the creature's eyes were half lidded with a glazed look in them that scared Aang.
"What's happening?!" Sokka asked, crawling forward when he saw Aang's frenzied attempts to get a reaction from his pet.
"I can't get Momo to wake up!" Aang answered his grey eyes huge as his attention was fixed on the small creature.
"Aang! The reins!"
His head snapping up, Aang quickly grabbed the reins with his right hand, jerking Appa right to avoid hitting a vague shadowy object, his left arm protectively wrapped around the still lemur.
The black clouds above them, the only thing that wasn't white, suddenly gave a thunder crack so loud that all three of the kids covered their ears, shouting in pain as Appa moaned at the loud noise. Momo stayed silent.
Before the ringing in his ears could even go away, Aang felt something hard and sharp slice his cheek. Starting in surprise, the Avatar felt hail begin to rain down on them, some pieces so painful that Aang was left breathless as he hunched over Momo, distantly hearing Sokka and Katara's shouts of pain through his cold and pain-induced foggy mind.
Instinct suddenly took over and almost before it even took conscious thought Aang summoned a large, protective air bubble around them, creating it thick enough that the ice bounced off it.
"Are you all right?" He heard Katara ask in a normal voice since the rush of the wind was muted by Aang's bubble. Aang nodded as he looked behind him, noticing with concern Sokka's expression of pain as he rolled off of his sisters back. He must have used his body as a shield for Katara, Aang thought fleetingly, impressed by his friend.
Aang's thoughts were abruptly interrupted as Appa crashed into the mountain side, the air bubble preventing anything from touching the bison or his passengers. But Aang, who hadn't been paying much attention, found his concentration shattered as his air bubble took the impact, bouncing them off the rocks just before it disappeared and the ice and wind came roaring in again.
Hearing someone screaming, and realizing with a strange detachment that it was him, Aang held onto Momo and the reins as hard as he could as Appa spiraled out of control. Leaving the relative safety of Appa's head, Aang found himself flung into the air, the only thing keeping him with the bison the reins.
Abruptly Aang was slammed into the surface of a rock, the rough uneven texture biting through his clothes and tearing his skin as his side and head impacted hard enough that Aang heard a sickening crack. Bright white and black spots flashed in front of his eyes as his hand lost its grip on the reins. Aang fell out of the sky and landed hard on the ground, the snow cushioning his fall somewhat but it still took his breath away. He started rolling wildly down the hill, snow flying everywhere as he thought he heard Sokka scream his name in panic.
Aang's ribs burned and his head was still making strange colors dance in front of his eyes when his out-of-control tumble was stopped by slamming into the back of another rock.
It was too much for his injured body.
Arching his back in pain, Aang managed to cry out once before his entire world turned black and he went limp in the snow, the motionless lemur still clutched tightly to his chest as snow rapidly began covering them.