This one has a lot better action. You might like it! Now read! Mwahaha!
Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar or any of it characters! Only the stories I write. I guess we have to do this on all of these..
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the road again, or should we say, in the sky again, the new group looked for a spot secret enough to land to begin Aang's training. Katara and Zuko were in their own little world, Iroh and Sokka were talking (he liked Iroh, he still wasn't completely sure about Zuko though), and Aang was on Appa's head looking for a good spot to land that hopefully Azula wouldn't find. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, there was a warm breeze floating about, and everyone was getting along. The only thing they had to worry about now was Zuko's evil sister.
Iroh and Sokka were sitting right behind Aang. Iroh turned around a little to talk to him so he didn't feel so alone. "Have you done any firebending yet?"
"Yeah, I made a fireball once, but I was too impatient with my teacher and it got out of control. Katara ended up getting burnt but luckily that was when she discovered she could use her waterbending to heal."
"Ah, so we don't have to start completely from scratch," he said with a smile. "Maybe I can teach you and Zuko at the same time. He's still learning too, you know."
"Maybe when I get better, we can practice with each other," Aang replied enthusiastically. "We'll have to make sure there's nothing that can get burnt around us though, I saw how destructive Zhao was when he used it the day I learned. He ended up burning and sinking his own ships!" he giggled.
Iroh laughed with him, "Yeah, I think Zhao had a bigger temper than my dear nephew sometimes. Well, actually I don't think we have to worry about his temper much more now." He pointed over to where Zuko and Katara were sitting on the other side of Appa's saddle.
Aang looked down for a second, still a little sad, then he nodded in agreement. "Yeah, that's a good thing."
"Don't worry, you have the little earthbender girl. What was her name again? Toph?"
"Yeah, how do you know her?"
"She had traveled with me for a while. Zuko had decided we should go our seperate ways but I continued to follow him, just in case. Then I found her and we traveled together for a little ways. I had no idea she was with you until that day that we all teamed up against Azula, the day I got hit by her lightening bolt because she caught my attention."
"Wow, I had no idea. Besides you getting hit, that day was pretty cool. Water, Earth, Fire, and Air teaming up against a royal firebender even though we were enemies at the time. I think Azula was confused." Aang laughed a little at that.
Sokka finally spoke up, "Yeah. I just wish we didn't have to leave Toph behind. I was just starting to get used to her pushiness. Hopefully now her dad will let her earthbend without freaking out about his 'precious baby blind girl' that he thinks is only a beginner. Maybe one day he'll stop blaming us for her leaving."
"I just can't believe that the greatest earthbender I've ever met was a 12-year old blind girl," Iroh chuckled. Sokka couldn't help but think about how much he laughs for a firebender. Iroh was probably his favorite of the few firebenders they've met up close. "Hey you two!" Iroh yelled at the couple at the other end. "You want to come join us over here? We have to find a good place to stop for the Avatar's first lesson.. well, from me anyway."
Zuko and Katara stopped their conversation, looked at Iroh, then back at each other, then crawled over to the others to help look. It was a good thirty minutes before anyone said anything, then Zuko yelled, "I see a cave down there, would that work?" Everyone looked at him. "What, I'm trying to help."
"That'll work, thanks Zuko!" Aang yelled from Appa's head as he brought him down to the cave. "I hope Azula doesn't find us here, it's pretty well hidden in these mountains. And since the caves are moist, the fire can't get out of control. It's perfect!"
Katara looked at Zuko. "Thanks for helping out."
"That's what I'm here for, right?"
"You're mainly here for your uncle's safety, but yeah." She smiled at him. He jokingly pushed her head aside and laughed.
Appa landed in front of the cave and everyone climbed off. Aang rushed up into the cave to check it out, Iroh followed as quickly as an old man can. Sokka and Zuko started to unpack and Katara explored the area beyond the cave. It was beautiful. There were big green trees everywhere and a big lake right in the middle of everything. Perhaps while Aang was training with Iroh, she could practice her waterbending there. She turned to go back and saw Appa walking towards her, probably going to the lake. He hadn't been in the water in a while and he smelled. She headed back to where her brother and her new boyfriend were working.. together? Wow, she thought, that's something I never thought I'd see in a million years.
"Hey, look at that. See, Sokka? He's not that bad. Thanks for not fighting with him." She walked up to him and hugged him.
"Yeah, well, I was talking to Iroh on the way here. He's the complete opposite of what I expected from you firebenders. He helped me out a little." Sokka smiled for his sister, then looked over at Zuko, who was still setting up camp. He was trying. Maybe one day they'll have an actual conversation.
"Where'd Aang and Iroh go?" Katara asked as she wondered around the campsite.
"They went into the cave to start training," Zuko finally spoke up. He had finished setting up and joined Katara to make sure there was nothing else left to do. "I'm supposed to be joining them soon for my next lesson. Aang and I are supposed to be training together. I hear he's a quick learner, we'll be practicing with each other in no time." A small friendly smile appeared on his face before he left Katara and went into the cave to join his uncle and Aang.
"I hope Aang is getting it this time. I'm glad he has a teacher that's actually on the run with us so we don't have to stay in one place too long." Katara looked over at Sokka, who was looking for his boomerang.
"I'm going to explore a little, see if we can find some more food other than that stuff we got at the market earlier."
"Okay, I'll be at the lake over there with Appa practicing my waterbending.. and giving him a long overdue bath." She giggled as they walked away. She reached the lake to find Appa and Momo playing in the water. "Okay, you two. Time for your baths!" Momo's ears perked up at the mention of the word 'bath' and cocked his head sideways. Appa grunted and flipped over in the water. She giggled and jumped on his belly and used her waterbending to wash him up. Momo flew to a tree beside the lake and watched. Katara noticed and sent a stream of water at him to help wash him up too. He shook his fist at her and flew back to watch Aang practice. "Wow, Appa, you're filthy," she continued. "I bet you'll feel better after this, huh boy?" Appa grunted in response as weeks of muk were washed away.
"I can't believe you let them get away!" Azula yelled, shooting flames towards the ground. "Was it just me or were there more than just three of them on that thing?"
Ty Lee and Mai just looked at her trying to think of what to say, but were out of words. Finally Azula yelled at them to move on. "We have to catch up to them!"
"How? We don't have a boat and they went over the ocean. How are we going to find them?" Mai spoke up.
"We'll have to take one. We are Fire Nation, it's expected of us," Azula said with an evil grin on her face.
Ty Lee walked over to Azula. "Was that Zuko and Iroh with them? Are they seriously joining forces?"
"What else would you expect out of traitors?" Azula snapped. "They're weak, of course they're joining together. They'll need all the help they can get to beat us."
Mai was over at the edge of the cliff where Katara had almost fallen. "Look at this. I think some of the earth from this edge fell off here. Someone had to have been here to make it fall."
"I hope it was that stupid water girl that my brother is so obsessed with. She may be a simple waterbender peasant, but she's a pain in my side."
"Come on, let's go. We have to get a boat and follow them before we lose them completely." Ty Lee headed for the woods they had just come from and the other two followed. They walked back to the village they passed on their way and they stole a boat from an old earthbender man. They made a pretty convincing arguement, walking up with flames in their hands and all. They sailed the boat to the cliff they had just come from so they could determine the right direction to go in, and soon enough they caught a glimpse of the huge flying bison they were chasing. It was still a long way ahead of them and they were moving pretty fast, but Azula chased anyway.
"Can we make this stupid boat go any faster!" She yelled. "We're losing them again! How does that thing fly so fast with all that weight?" She growled and stormed back inside the boat.
Ty Lee and Mai watched her until she disappeared behind the door, then Ty Lee walked to the front of the ship to look for the bison, who had once more disappeared behind the clouds. "I hope this chase is over soon. I know it's the Avatar, but I'm kind of tired of running after them all the time."
"I know what you mean, but it gives me something to do. You have no idea how sick of Omashu I was. That stupid Earth city was irritating, so was the king. He was so.. old. He was friends with the Avatar when they were young, I'm surprised he hasn't died yet."
"Help me watch for that weird flying watchamacallit."
"I thought you were tired of this."
"Yeah, well if I don't, Azula would have my head." They giggled at that.
"Where do you think they're heading?" Mai wondered, joining Ty Lee at the front of the ship.
"I really don't know.. wait, there's land up ahead. I'll run and tell Azula before she burns everything up in her frustration." She giggled a little. "You keep an eye on them." Ty Lee ran inside, Mai looked up in the clouds for the bison. Ugh, I hate this, she thought. I wish she would just give up her search. Her brother may be a traitor but he's too cute to harm! Why does she have to be the way she is?
Azula and Ty Lee ran out to see what the next move is. "Look, they're landing! They must've found a village or something. Hopefully they'll be there long enough for us to catch them," Azule snared. "We have to hurry, they could be gone before we even get to dock. We'll have to find rides once we leave this rickety old boat. Be prepared to steal something, girls."
When they docked, they couldn't find anything to ride so they had to start off on foot until they did. Azula lead, obviously. They walked for what seemed like forever until they finally found some ostrich horses tied to a post near a farm. They jumped up and continued, going much faster now.
"I'm sure we've lost them now, it's been too long." Azula had a bit of frustration in her voice.
"Look, there's a village down there! We should stop and ask around about the Avatar, surely that's the one they stopped at." Mai sounded almost excited despite the fact she didn't like the trip. "We can find out how long ago they left!"
"And get a few supplies while we're there," Ty Lee didn't sound as enthusiastic. She was bored already.
When they got there, the shops looked like they were ready to close but stopped when they saw the Fire Nation girls. They looked almost afraid. They knew Azula's face as the princess of the Fire Nation. "Don't worry, if you answer my questions no one will be hurt. Got it?" Some of the people nodded, the others just stared. "We need supplies as well."
An elderly woman stepped forward. "My shop is still open, you may get your supplies there."
"Thank you. Now what do you know of the Avatar?"
"I know nothing."
"He wasn't here earlier today?"
"No, but we did have three travelers that stopped here today. Two were quite young in Water Tribe clothes, and the other was older and in some raggedy clothes that almost looked like Earth Kingdom."
"Thank you. Did they say where they were going?"
"No, they didn't say anything to anyone. They just came out of the woods there-" the older woman pointed towards the woods where they had come, "-and got supplies, then left. Not a word said."
The three girls traveled further into the village towards the shop the woman mentioned, people staring and moving out of the way. They got supplies and started out the other way when Azula's ears stopped her.
"Mommy! Did you see it? Did you see the big doggy in the sky?"
Azula turned towards the little girl. "What did you say?"
"The doggy! There was a big white doggy in the sky today and people were riding him! I wanna riiiiide!"
"Which was did the doggy go?"
"That way!" the little girl pointed a little east of the direction they were already headed.
"Thank you." Azula turned back and the girls headed the way the little girl pointed.
"Mommy," the little girl whispered, "did I do good?"
Her mother watched the girls leave. "Yes, sweetie. You may have just saved the world."
Katara saw flames shooting out of the cave that the boys were in as she bended the water out of Appa's fur. He shook off in spite of that and soaked her, but she giggled anyway. "Okay, Appa. You're clean." She walked over to the cave and sat at the mouth to watch her boys practice. Aang was actually doing it. What had Iroh done that was different from Aang's last teacher? Katara sat and watched as Aang and Zuko practiced. They both looked like they were having fun.
"I guess you do learn fast," Zuko complimented. Wait, Zuko complimented? That almost confused Katara, but he has been a lot different since the night before. "You'll be able to beat Azula in no time, if she ever catches us again."
"I don't think she will," Katara interupted, almost scaring all three of them. Iroh started laughing. He knew what she was talking about.
"How do you know?" Aang wondered.
"Because back in that village that we got supplies at, I made sure she would head in the opposite direction."
"Yes, let's just hope that little girl remembered her lines well," Iroh laughed. Zuko and Aang just looked at them confused. "We told a little girl in that village about Azula and her friends coming, then we told her to watch for a big furry animal in the sky and point them in the opposite direction that we went. She seemed excited to help."
Aang laughed at that, Zuko smiled a little at both the brilliance of the idea and Aang's laughter. "That's perfect! Now, let's keep practicing since we have nothing to worry about now.. wait, where'd Sokka go?"
"He went to find something to go with the food we got in the market. You know Sokka, that food's not going to last him." Katara laughed a little, "I'll go see if I can find him. We don't know this area very well, something might've happened." Katara jumped down out of the cave and headed out the way Sokka had gone.
"Should I go with her, Uncle? What if something did happen to Sokka and it happens to her too?" Zuko sounded worried.
"Go ahead, Aang and I will keep training here. Keep an eye on her."
Zuko jumped down and chased after her, calling for her to wait up.
"I hope they're okay," Aang said quietly.
"Don't worry about them, Katara will find Sokka and if anything happens, Zuko can take care of them. Right now we need to focus on your training. You are progressing quite quickly."
"Yeah, somehow you're easier to learn from than Jeong-Jeong was. You just make everything.. easier." Aang sighed. "I'm still a little worried, though."
"You're coming with me?" Katara asked surprised.
"Yeah, my uncle thought it best. You know, just in case your brother is in trouble I can protect you." Zuko blushed a little. Katara just smiled at him and kept walking. They only had to walk another hundred yards before they heard a noise that Katara thought sounded like Sokka. She started to run towards it, but Zuko grabbed her shoulder. "If there's something there, you don't want to grab it's attention just yet. Sneak up quietly." They kept walking, but a little more quietly now. They saw a small clearing just up ahead and Katara hid behind a tree while Zuko hid a few feet closer. He whispered back to her, "It looks like he's just sitting there talking to himself."
Katara walked up to join him. "Why is he talking to himself? That sort of sounds like Sokka, but not really." They walked up to the edge of the clearing and hid as soon as they saw someone else. He hadn't been talking to himself, but a girl that must live out here. "Yeah, I should've guessed," Katara said as she walked out of the woods. Zuko tried to grab for her to pull her back, but it was too late. Sokka looked up surprised, the girl looked a little scared. "I thought you were getting something to go with your food tonight," she said smugly. "Who's your new friend?"
Zuko walked out finally and joined Katara. Sokka looked at him, then finally responded, "This is Sar.." He trailed off as he realized she wasn't there anymore. "Um, I guess she got scared."
"This is where you've been? Everyone was getting worried, we thought something happened to you."
"No, I was just talking to Saree." He watched Zuko as he walked around a little, looking around. "She lives in a village on the other side of these mountains and was out here trying to practice earthbending, but she's only a beginner. She couldn't do much. I guess she's shyer than I thought though."
"Well, let's get back. Uncle and Aang are worried and I don't want them to worry about us too," Zuko said, regarding Katara. Sokka dropped his head, but followed anyway. On their way back, they heard a noise off to their left and stopped.
"What was that?" Katara whispered. She looked at Sokka with his boomerang ready, then at Zuko with a fireball ready. He walked that way a little and stopped when they heard it again. It sounded closer this time. Katara pulled the water out of her canteen and got ready herself. She walked closer to Zuko, towards the noise, when another noise sounded behind them. Sokka jumped around, boomerang up in the air. "Whatever it is, they're trying to surround us," she whispered again.
"Shhh," Zuko whispered as kindly as he could. The fireball in his hand grew bigger, his face went blank, just like it does when he's about to battle. That's the old Zuko she knew. Now they were hearing noises all around them. Katara looked scared, but she tried to hide it. Zuko saw it and half-smiled before returning his face to blank. Then, from all around them, rocks came floating out to them followed by their benders. There were probably ten of them.
"What are you doing here?" asked one of them. The leader, Katara assumed.
"Are you Saree's tribe?" Sokka asked without thinking, lowering his boomerang.
Their rocks lowered a bit and the leader stepped forward, putting his rock down. "We are. Who are you?"
"Well, I'm Sokka and-"
Katara cut him off, putting her water back in her canteen. "We're friends of the Avatar. We stopped near here so he could train without being discovered by the people that are after us."
He looked us over, his eyes stopping on Zuko who still had his fireball ready. Without his scar, he couldn't be recognized but he still looked familiar. "And what of this firebender? Isn't he Fire Nation? Why would he be traveling with the Avatar?"
Zuko extinguished his fireball and looked at him, then took a step closer to Katara and grabbed her hand. They understood. They put their rocks down and stepped closer, all intrigued by the mention of the Avatar.
"Where is he? Your friend, the Avatar?" one asked.
Sokka pointed the direction they were heading. "We landed in that clearing up ahead."
Another piped up, "Can we meet him? We've heard rumors of his return but would like to see for ourselves."
The leader stepped in again, "Would you mind?"
Katara smiled at them. "Why not? I'm sure Aang would be happy to see you." They all started walking that way, Katara and Zuko leading, still holding hands. When they entered the clearing, Aang was over at the lake and Iroh standing over him talking. Sokka sat down next to Appa and the rest went to where Aang sat. "Why aren't you practicing? What happened?"
Aang turned around, happy to see her, then showed her his hands. "I burnt myself firebending. It's not big, but it kinda hurts."
Katara smiled and drew water from the lake to heal his hands. Aang looked around at all the people that had joined him at the lake.
"Katara, who are all these people?"
"These are earthbenders from the village on the other side of the mountain. Sokka was talking to one of them when we found him and she must've run off to tell the others. They asked who we were and I told them we were traveling with you. They wanted to meet you." She giggled a little.
Saree, who had come out of nowhere, walked up to Aang. She was slowly followed by a drooling Sokka. "It's a great pleasure to meet you, Avatar."
"Please, just call me Aang."
"We've been waiting for your arrival. We knew you would come here. I'm very sorry about this."
Aang looked confused, then understood when the ground slid up to form points around his throat. Suddenly, the other earthbenders started attacking and, even though they were clearly outnumbered, Aang's friends fought. Since Toph had taught Aang well, he was able to get out of his earth prison. He knew all 4 elements pretty well now so they had an advantage. The avatar, two firebenders, a waterbender, and a Water Tribe warrior fighting the now eleven earthbenders. Two of them went down almost instantly when Zuko and Iroh hit them with fireballs. Katara had the whole lake to work with and bended the water so that it dragged one of them into the lake, but they got back out and threw a rock at her. Aang jumped in and used his airbending to spit the rock in half around them, then used his own earthbending skills and threw two big rocks at the attacker, burying him underneath.
Zuko was in an intense fight with Saree. He threw fireballs, she blocked with an earthwall. She lifted the ground under him, he jumped out of the way. Finally Katara noticed and froze Saree's feet to the ground with very thick ice so she couldn't move. Sokka threw his boomerang and hit one guy in the head, knocking him unconcious. That took care of five. Iroh was in no battle at all. He dodged everything his attacker threw his way with no probelm at all. He may be an old man, but he was agile. He finally formed a big flame wall around the man and watched as the man jumped around trying to escape. Appa had joined them and crushed the flame with his tail and knocked out the man in it. Six. Another man attacked Aang, tackling him to the ground, but Aang used the waterwhip to get him off and airbending to knock him down, then a fireblast to knock him out. He had practiced that one a lot, it was his favorite. Seven. The other four saw that they were being defeated and tried to run, but Zuko and Iroh formed a firewall in front of the woods so they couldn't escape and Aang used earthbending to handcuff them and they surrendered.
"Why did you attack us!" Zuko yelled at them furiously once they had gotten everyone bound together inside the cave. The earth was surrounding them, covering their hands and holding their feet down so they couldn't move.
"Orders of the Fire Nation!" Saree yelled back.
"But you're earthbenders, why are you taking orders from the Fire Nation?" Katara butted in.
"They overtook our village a few months ago, they said anyone who disobeyed their orders would die a slow, painful death. They let us use our earthbending, but only to help them. They saw you land here and ordered me to check it out. That's how I met Sokka. He told me all about your odd group, told me you had the Avatar and the banished prince of the Fire Nation. I went back and told my people and we were ordered to capture both the Avatar and the prince. I figured that's you, but the scar.." She looked at Zuko.
Zuko glared at Sokka, but he just looked down embarassed.
"We didn't want to do this, when we found out the Avatar had returned we were overjoyed! It's just that the Fire Nation-"
"I understand," Aang cut in. Everyone looked at him as he stood in the mouth of the cave, head down. "So here's what's going to happen. You are going back to the village. You came here and we were already gone again. They didn't see Appa taking off because you saw him flying too low for them to see. You know nothing of my abilities or Zuko's scar. Your people can still have hope, just don't let the Fire Nation know it or see it. I'm almost ready to take down Firelord Ozai, then Zuko will take over the throne and order all Fire Nation troops to back out and the world will be at peace again. They'll never know what went on here today and you won't be killed, got it?"
They all stared at him with hope in their eyes again and nodded silently. Sokka jumped in, "How do we know that once we free them, they won't attack us again?"
"Because we've already beaten them once." Zuko glared at them, then joined his Katara leaning against the cave wall, crossing his arms. "Surely they're not stupid enough to try it again."
Their eyes got wide and shook their heads, assuring him that they wouldn't. Aang trusted them and brought the rock back down into the cave floor. They all stood up and stretched a little before walking out, right past Aang. Saree stopped next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her and they smiled. Then they were gone.
"Now we need to find a new place to go. I'm sure the Fire Nation will want to see for themselves." Zuko grabbed Katara's hand and everyone left the cave. They packed up everything that had taken them a while to unpack and climbed on Appa.
"Appa, yip yip!" Appa took off, making sure to fly low as Aang had asked.
"Do you feel like we've been going on like this for too long?" asked Ty Lee. "Shouldn't we have seen that oversized furball by now?"
"I don't know where they're going, but we have to keep in this direction. They have to stop sooner or later and then we'll get our chance," Mai said quietly.
"How do we know we're even going in the right direction? We listened to a little girl, she may have gotten confused and accidently pointed in the wrong direction."
Azula was getting furious just thinking about it. She looked around and noticed they were coming out of the woods. She looked up at the mountains way off in the distance beside them and something sparked in her head. She pointed up to the mountains. "They're up there, I know it. Head that way, maybe they've stopped already."
Mai looked that way. "Hey, there's a small village over there at the bottom of the mountains. Let's stop and ask if they've seen them, maybe we'll be in luck."
"Yeah, like that luck we had in the last village?" Azula glared.
"We can stop anyway, there are red flags in there, Fire Nation probably . They wouldn't lie to you Zula," Ty Lee pointed out.
"Yeah, I guess," she sighed. "By the time we get to that village, it'll be dark out, so we'll sleep there tonight. I'm tired anyway." They turned to head that way. Luckily Aang was headed the same direction, away from them.
Appa was almost low enough to hit the trees. He was tired. Aang was steering him through the mountains, his now clean white and gray fur brushing back behind him with the wind. Sokka was sitting up against the side of Appa's saddle, falling asleep. Katara was laying on Zuko's chest asleep and Zuko himself was starting to fall asleep. Iroh was the only one that was really awake. He was sitting behind Aang talking to him when he realized that Aang was falling asleep too.
"Do you want me to drive for a little while?" he offered.
"Do you even know where we're going?"
"Any place the Fire Nation isn't, I'd suspect. We're trying to stay hidden so we have to find a secret place."
"Okay," Aang yawned, "you can take over if you know what you're doing." He climbed back to Appa's saddle and let Iroh up on his head to steer. Appa wasn't used to that much weight on his head and grunted, but kept going. "It's okay boy," he yawned again. "Hopefully we'll be stopping soon for the night. It's getting close to dark, Iroh. Keep an eye out for a good spot to stop." He laid down next to Sokka and fell asleep almost instantly.
It didn't take long for Iroh to find a spot to land, but the sun was setting fast. He wasn't sure if he could land Appa, but when he pointed it out Appa knew what to do. They landed next to a river way on the other side of the mountains. Everyone was so sleepy they couldn't wake up enough to climb down, so Zuko and Sokka (the only ones who were still semi-awake) got the blankets out. Zuko covered up him and Katara and kissed her on the head, and Sokka covered up him and Aang. Iroh got his own blanket and curled up in the middle and Momo slept under the blanket with him. Appa was exhausted and passed out soon after landing. They all slept like that all night.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This one was better, right? Right? Thought so.. XD Review, please! I might even start putting up Next Chapter previews for you.. :P
Jenn, the waterbending master of the south