I wanted to write a scenario where Appa was in charge of the sick bay, or rather in charge of Zuko's welfare when he's really feeling sick. As I had not implied any such scene in the main story, I had to make up a scenario. It's set somewhen during travel after Zuko's identity is found out and only going to towns when they need to resupply, traveling through wild nature otherwise…

Chapter 3 An Accidental Field Trip

Appa was hungry, and the Gaangs choices in break-spots lacking, too bad for the unsuspecting passenger still sleeping in the saddle. Momo had not foreseen the hectic it resulted in at camp.

The herd was in a frenzy. Pony-Tail was talking agitatedly with Blue-Girl, and Bald was flying around. Even Green-Girl seemed distressed, though she was the only one not looking around. She shooed Momo away when he tried to land on her shoulder.

They hadn't unpacked a lot, the sun was high in the sky and usually they would continue flying later on, only that Sky-Bison had been hungry and flown off by himself for a bit. Momo couldn't understand how that would be a problem, he'd come back to the herd as soon as he'd filled his belly after all.

Hadn't they seen that their landing spot had literally nothing to eat for his big friend at all? There weren't even many insects, no nuts, no nothing, just rocks, some moss and short grass, and little trinkets the wind had stolen and collected up here.

In the momentary chaos, the humans had forgotten about the one pack of food they'd taken from the saddle, which was just fine with Momo, he'd get his belly filled before they would think to stop him.

Momo kept an eye out for the two-legs present, particularly Pony-Tail, since he seemed to be in a foul mood. He had stopped being loud towards Blue-Girl and was approaching Green-Girl. She just shook her head and Pony-Tail frowned before going into another round of curses.

Momo munched on his treats, already grabbing on to a few more in case he'd have to leave the bag behind to flee from Pony-Tail.

00000

Appa had indeed flown down the valley and into the next forest. He hadn't had much to eat at the last place they'd been either, after all. He'd politely waited until everyone who wanted to get off of the saddle had slid down, and then took off, sky bison had to eat too…

There weren't a lot of plains here with long grass that he could bite, but there were trees with nice juicy leaves farther down the mountain side. He'd already grabbed a few bites at the shrubs, but he preferred those of the taller trees in lower altitude.

That was what he was doing now. Flying along the branches and taking bites. At least, that was what he was doing until he heard a groan, then a shriek and panicked stumbling to feet on his back. Soon, a very distressed Fire-Spreader tumbled over the saddle border, falling into some branches.

Were Appa any less used to this, he might have displaced himself a few feet from the sudden scare, but he was in fact used to this, so he stayed calm and tried to assess the situation.

This screamed trouble, he knew Fire-Spreader didn't fly, probably couldn't. Not many people seemed to be able to nowadays. Fire-Spreader had only slipped a bit before grabbing onto some branches and was now hanging on for dear life. Appa quickly flew over, positioned his head below Fire-Spreaders feet and floated upwards.

Fire-Spreader was breathing hard and Appa could feel the slight tug of him grabbing tightly onto two bushels of fur. Fire-Spreader mumbled something, still clawing at his head fur, but as Appa knew from experience, he was generally safe. The Sky Bison decided to take some more bites.

The boy worriedly uttered sounds, the grip on his fur loosened as a keening sound penetrated the air before the boy broke out in coughs. The noises were awful. Appa was just about to land when the coughing finally died down, and the boy curled up on his head.

Appa weighed his options, he was still quite hungry, but Fire-Spreader sounded sick. He seemed alright again for the moment though, so surely it couldn't hurt to eat some more first, his body really needed it.

Appa flew and took more bites off branches, and he could do so for quite a while without disturbing the boy on his head. What Appa hadn't counted on was the backlash of a branch going all the way along his head and hitting horn as well as some small bare feet, successively making it a rude awakening for the boy.

The two-leg in question near-jumped in reaction, then, upon noticing where he was, how high he was, grabbed bushels of fur once more and made himself small. The boy stayed like that for a little while, before he started turning around and crawling from Appa's head to the neck, towards the saddle.

He didn't get very far, stopping every few seconds, wobbling in place.

It was probably safer to get down on the ground, Appa thought at this point and groaned as soon as they had landed. By that time, another round of coughing had passed. The boy must have been startled at Appa's groan, because he scrambled his limbs and almost slipped.

"Yip yip." he croaked.

Appa disagreed for safety reasons, this boy was not fit enough to sit on his head and lead him. Appa grumbled again and Fire-Spreader repeated the order. Appa groaned, then lay flat on the ground to make it easier for the boy to get around. Fire-Spreader groaned back in disappointment.

Fire-Spreader did give up on getting Appa to fly fairly quickly, he didn't however give up on going elsewhere. Instead, he soon slipped off Appa's head to stumble and flail before nearly face planting into the shrubs and undergrowth.

Appa gently nabbed him by his fake fur at the neck, and helped him to stand. The boy struggled against it at first, but then reluctantly tried to take a step forward. Maybe he wanted some water? There was a stream not far away, Appa could bring him there.

After a few minutes of Fire-Spreader's undirected struggling against Appa's care and random plants on the ground, Appa decided that he'd just take him to the stream, Appa was kind of thirsty, too, anyway.

He adjusted his lips to get a tighter grip on the fake fur between his teeth, then lifted his head. The boy yelled out, and renewed his flailing as his feet left the ground, but Appa was quick in transporting them to the water source and once it was in sight, the boy definitely started out towards it in a beeline, without much success. Once Appa had released him, Fire-Spreader started crawling towards it. The undergrowth was less dense here, so he did get to the creek. It all went well until the boy crouched down at the edge of it and started slipping on the wet moss side-lining it.

Appa was quick to grab him by the neck fur again, the boy seemed to have understood by now that Appa was only trying to help and just reached out with his hands again to scoop up some water, bringing it to his mouth, then later, to his face and hair, wetting them in the process.

Maybe the boy wanted a good lick now? Appa could totally provide that.

He'd pulled back the boy and laid him down a safe tumbling-distance away from the stream, then first took a few gulps of water on his own, before going with the intent of licking.

The boy did not like it any more than the first time he had tried and Appa was perplexed. The boy was not making any sense, he smelled weird too, unwell. Appa knew the smell signaled sickness. Soon, Fire-Spreader seemed to have fallen into a fitful sleep. Appa decided to get him between two legs. The boy was soaked from his splashing, and the attempted lick, Appa had to keep him warm.

00000

Momo startled as Green-Girl jumped up, shouting something, after that, the whole group quickly got moving. Green-Girl stomped the earth and part of the hill evened out, everyone hopped onto it, it started moving straight down immediately when Green-Girl moved her hands and stomped.

The descent was quick, but then came the trees and Bald and Green had a quick but loud discussion before everyone got off her structure. They continued onwards on foot. Momo flew from tree to tree, Pony-Tail was loudly complaining, the others replying now and then, increasingly annoyed, and in Baldy's case a bit desperate. Eventually Momo got a whiff of Appa. Chirping, he jumped ahead.

The rest of the group followed Green, which he'd already left behind, but when Bald saw Appa, he surged ahead and was immediately greeted by Appa's giant tongue.

The blue siblings were looking around, then Bald was voicing something and Appa moved. Momo recognized the fake fur on the curled up form at the side of the stream. The bit of skin that showed was pale and Momo could smell the sweat and sickness. Momo heard the moan, the body twitched and shivered.

Blue-Girl went into action, kneeling down besides Fire-Spreader, propping him up and touching his forehead. Pony-Tail, for once, said nothing more. Fire-Spreader's responses were sluggish, and he sighed when Blue-Girl drew fresh water from the screen and immediately made it glow. Fire-Spreader didn't seem all there the whole time. Eventually Blue-Girl let her hands sink and the boy in her lap fell into a calmer sleep, though he still shivered. Blue-Girl absentmindedly ran her hands through his short hair for a little while before someone brought Fire-Spreader's blanket and she moved him to the ground.

They slept there that night, near the stream, while they let Appa go off to search for more food too, and didn't panic again. In the morning, Fire-Spreader seemed a little better, though he still coughed and shivered in the morning dew. Soon they were on their way, and Momo told Appa about the panic that had ensued through him being gone. Bald had been nervous, and for some reason Pony-Tail had been angry. It hadn't been the first time Appa had flown off. What was different now to cause such outbursts?

Was it because of that giant metal worm chasing them some time ago? Were they afraid that it was coming back? Or was it because Fire-Spreader had still been in the saddle?

Appa told Momo that he hadn't been aware that Fire-Spreader had still been in the saddle, so that may indeed be it. Ever since the two-legs had started to create an earth room for Fire-Spreader, they'd been different around him.

Appa had smelt all kinds of intense emotions around the members of their group, in the beginning it had been mostly worry, which wasn't surprising seeing the state the boy had been in. Lanky, as Appa referred to him, had been a bit angry too initially, then that had died down for a while, only to flare back up right before he'd hit Fire-Spreader that night before they'd started with their earth prisons. There had been an undertone of fear in how both Lanky, Blue-Girl and Bald felt ever since.

Appa told all of this to Momo, who quietly chirped his agreement, he'd noticed that too, and added that he now smelled fear all the time around Fire-Spreader. There hadn't been much fear at all back in the day when Fire-Spreader had hunted them. So it seemed the fear had turned mutual at some point. And he wasn't chasing them anymore, nothing he did implied that he was still on it.

Momo pointed out that he'd also been sick-ish, though he'd seemed to get better for a while before this…

That brought them back to the subject of how Appa had worried, when nothing that he did helped Fire-Spreader during the past few hours. Momo could relate, thinking back to those times when Fire-Spreader had been locked up in the room, freaking out.

It probably would happen again in some form, they could do nothing to prevent that, but they agreed that they'd do their best to help until the two-legs could take over again, it was the least they could do for their newest member.

A/N:

Well, here you have it, a little unmentioned side-story that would have been a ton of fun to write from both Zuko's and the Gaangs perspective as well, had I thought of it earlier, but then again, the limited animal POV made me have to think way different, especially on how they interpret what's happening around them, which was a very interesting exercise.

On Appa and food. You may have seen the grassy plains on that pic and are saying to yourself, but there is food closeby out there… Well, I always wondered how he'd eat grass, grass can be tall, but it isn't always, and when it is, the tips turn yellow and generally cows don't find that part interesting anymore, as it probably doesn't contain much nourishment anymore... and how would Appa be able to bite off any of it when it's too short. Cows use their tongue a lot to grab and sort through what they want to eat, also they only have lower teeth, Appa's tongue is huge and I doubt it's very easy to grab bushels of grass with it to bite off.

Zuko's sudden bout of sickness: Two theories I came up with to justify this side story from that point of view.
1. Zuko did have a lot of little wounds, it would have been easy for one to have gone overlooked, or dirt getting back into it after Katara went over it. You can get blood poisoning from the smallest, most insignificant seeming injuries... even with a good immune system.

2. Zuko, at this point has settled in, yeh, he's kind of afraid due to trauma, but he knows deep down that the Gaang will not harm him overly much, they made him prisoner, so the issue on where he stands with the group has cleared up as well. He knows what is happening, he starts feeling safe(ish)... with that, I can imagine his weakened, hypervigilant body, finally taking a bout of relaxing too, which may lead to his immune system taking a break as well… oops, luckily Katara's there to save the day.

On a personal note, our yaks have run off four times in the last week (though not because we deprived them of food, they just suddenly felt like going off through woods and onto neighbor pastures was the thing to do :/ ) so this chapter feels oddly appropriate to post.

Also, I don't have any immediate follow up ideas, so feel free to suggest if you want to read something in Appa's and Momo's perspective.