Chapter Twelve: Appa Out of Commission

Katara glanced behind her. "Where's Aang?"

"I thought he was right behind us," Sokka said, glancing back, himself.

Katara turned around and began to run back.

"Katara, no!" Sokka called after her. "Aang can take care of himself!" Sokka yelled as he ran after her.

"Time for some butt-kickin'!" Toph said with a smirk as she followed them back.

---

Vissie noticed something near the place he and his friends ran into Sokka and the others. Some type of sound. He stared at the area for a few seconds.

"What is it?" his friend asked.

"I donno... But somethin's goin' on," Vissie said. He turned toward his sister as he said, " 'Scotch, you stay here."

"But Vissie...!" Scotch pouted.

"No, 'Scotch. This could be dangerous," he said, then turned to the other boy. "Watch her for me."

The younger boy took 'Scotch's hand and the two watched as Vissie ran off, the boy calling out, "Good luck!"

---

"You're mine..." Zuko said sinisterly. Aang widened his eyes as Zuko threw large a ball of fire at him. Aang narrowly jumped out of the way with the help of his glider. Zuko sneered and then yelled, "Hu-augh!" as he again attacked full force. Aang dived to the ground to dodge, sweat beginning to bead on his forehead. "Heh. You can't keep this up for long," Zuko said with a smirk. Aang knew he was right. He was too tired from the fighting he's been doing recently. "...And if you attack me, you can be sure it will draw attention to yourself..." Aang glanced around, remembering that it was shear luck that soldiers weren't there at the moment.

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"Hold it right there!" Vissie yelled.

The two soldiers turned to look his way. "This is none of your concern, boy," one said.

Vissie examined the situation. The two men were tying a large white beast to the ground. Ropes surrounded his furry body, and the ropes were knotted to steaks that were hammered into the hard ground of a cave. The beast moaned as it struggled to free itself. 'This must be what I saw flyin' through the sky!' he realized. He glared at the soldiers as he said, with a smirk, "I'm makin' it my concern."

---

"Aang!" Katara gasped when she saw Zuko and Aang. Zuko turned his head toward her for a second, before shooting fire at her. She dodged as Sokka and Toph arrived.

"Are you trying to get me killed?!" Sokka demanded of his sister. "That fireball almost got me! - And it's getting dark already! Shouldn't we find a way to get out of here?!"

Suddenly, Katara smirked. "Zuko... Guess what? The sun's sitting... and it's a full moon."

Surprised, Zuko glanced behind him, toward the horizon opposite the sunset, where a moon was beginning to rise. "Not only that... We're right beside the shore."

A wide, and grateful, smile spread across Aang's face. Zuko noticed it and sneered.

---

The soldiers attacked again, but again Vissie dodged. "Hey, idiots! Don't ya know that fire's easy ta see at night?" he said with a grin. He then used one of his invisible attacks, which caught the soldiers totally off guard. He decided to try sneaking around to where Appa was, which was pretty easy to do, since it was getting too dark for the soldiers to see him very well. And, on the other hand, Vissie was able to keep track of the two soldiers by seeing where their bright, haphazard attacks originated. Unfortunately, just before he made it into the cave Appa was trapped in, the soldiers had an idea. They noticed that one of their attacks had set a little bush on fire, giving light to the small area. They spread fire out over the ground, which gave the desired results. The whole area lit up, and the soldiers noticed the teen right beside them, cutting through one of their ropes with a pocketknife. Vissie cursed under his breath, looking toward the smirking soldiers.

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Took me awhile to actually start working much on this chapter. I was originally going to have Appa arrive at the beginning, just before Zuko attacked, but then I thought that it might be a little more interesting if something happened to him. So... I hope you guys feel the same way. (by the way, is more than one person still reading this? It still shows that a few people have it on story alert, but I donno if they've left the site since then and just not deleted their accounts or something, or not.)