Author's note: haha! I lied! i'm updating now instead of sunday! mwa ha ha ha! Anway I was kinda disapointed in this chapter but it builds up for the next one. i hope you enjoy. And again constructive critisism is appreciated. Thanks guys: P

Chapter III:

"Do you know the way back to town? We're kind of in need of an inn." Aang said brightly.

It took me a moment to recollect my thoughts that were now screaming he just flew in the air! And earth bended! And water bended! Again, Jiro's usual calm and cool expression was now mirroring mine, mouth wide open in shock.

"Um…yeah I know the way." I said shakily.

"Oh great!" Aang said happily. "But before that we need to catch up with Appa, Toph and Sokka. They're over by that old shack!"

Numbly, I followed the young avatar to our hideout. Aang ran inside and gathered their supplies. A boy about me and Jiro's age came walking out, his nose buried in a map. He had the same black as raven black hair that Katara had and it was tied up in a wolf tail. He wore blue clothing too. He must be from the southern water tribe too!

"Hey Sokka!" Katara called.

Glancing up from his map he took one look at Jiro's fire nation clothes and arranged his features into fury.

"Katara?! May I talk to you for a second?!" his voice kept cracking.

Katara and Sokka stood by a huge white mound that I just noticed appeared by the shack. They whispered furiously for a while until I heard Katara say "water bender". Sokka immediately became calm and strode back over to us and appeared apologetic.

"So you're from the Southern tribe, right? Good to see there's another water bender out there!" again he glanced at Katara nervously as he mentioned this. Were they afraid of other water benders or something?

Katara, taking no notice of this, walked back over.

"Tara was going to show us the nearest inn." She said smiling.

"Actually," I replied, "there aren't any inns in town. But I could see if it's alright to stay in my house."

"That'd be great!" Aang said bounding back outside. "But maybe we should leave Appa here… He's already comfortable and the village isn't that far away."

Curious to see who Appa was, I peeked inside the shack. But there was no one there. Just then the huge white mound roared.

"What was that?!" Jiro asked.

"Oh that's just my flying bison, Appa!" Aang called as he jumped on top of the white mound.

Flying Bison?! I thought. You've got to be kidding me!

But he wasn't as I inched towards the mound it moved its great head and licked me with an enormous rough and slimy tongue.

"Ewww!" I yelled jumping, back laughing.

Smiling and holding out a hand, like he would to a cat, Jiro stood next to me and rubbed Appa's huge nose. Appa licked Jiro too and he too yelled. Soon both of us were covered in Appa's spit.

"C'mon Toph! Wake up!" I heard Aang yell from Appa's back.

I heard a loud crash and saw Aang falling face first into the ground next to Jiro.

"I'm COMING!" a little high pitched voice yelled back.

Katara rushed to go help Aang up. Then a girl jumped down and as she landed, she made the earth move a little. I stifled a gasp. An earth bender too?! She stretched a little and I could see that her eyes were cloudy, like a blind person. Then she suddenly whipped her head towards us.

"Who are these people?" She asked Sokka rudely.

"Oh the girl is Tara and the other is Jiro. They're going to get us a place to stay, until we find where we're supposed to go next." He said, not even looking up from his map.

"Hi…" I said not sure what I should say next.

Still staring at us weirdly, she was shifting her feet.

"They're both fire benders." She said ominously.

"No Toph. Tara's a water bender." Sokka replied distantly.

How did she know? Can she feel vibrations or something?

"I feel like there's three people there though. Two fire benders and a water bender." This girl was starting to give me the creeps.

"Maybe your vision's fuzzy." Sokka looked around though, just in case there was another fire bender.

"Yeah…maybe." Toph said while kicking a rock.

Aang was getting back up by the time the weird conversation was over.

"C'mon Tara! Show us the way!"

Jiro and I showed the strange group the fallen log and then the path. Sokka was busy marking the path on his map.

"Tara?" Katara walked next to me. "Are you sure it's ok? I mean we could just stay out here." She said watching Toph and Aang having a rock battle. Jiro laughed at this.

"Of course it'd be all right. Tara's house is the biggest in the whole village!" He said.

"Yeah I take in travelers all the time…" Again, Tara felt sadness that her father didn't care who was staying in his house.

When we got to the end of the path, Jiro stopped us.

"Wait, you all look like earth and water nation. Do you guys have other clothes? Or do we have to steal some?"

"No we got disguises." Aang answered excitedly holding out a bag for us to see.

Jiro dug through it and said, "Yep. Those'll work. We have to walk through town, so do you mind changing into them?"

"Ok!" Katara said brightly.

Jiro led them as far as the first house and led them inside. I had no clue that the Hongs didn't live there anymore. It was empty and the girls went in one room and the guys in another. Jiro and I shared excited looks.

"Hey Jiro?" I asked out of the blue.

"Yep?"

"Do you want to sleep over again?" I was grinning.

"Ha! I was wondering if I had to sneak in to catch all the action." He smiled at me so intensely, that my heart did a flip flop. I had to look away to keep from blushing. How many times was I going to do that today?

"Done!" Aang yelled as he and Sokka came out of the room. Sokka had a very waiter-looking suit on and had a sword in his hilt. Aang had an old fire nation academy uniform on and had a fashionable head scarf on with a fire nation insignia etched in to hide his arrows.

"Wow…you guys really look like fire nation now!" Jiro said giving Aang a high five.

"Are we all ready?" Katara asked while coming in the room with a red tank top and a dark red skirt. She even did her hair up like mine. I liked her in her old hair style though. Toph, following behind her, had short gold and black pants, a matching red, gold and black tank top completed with a gold headband.

"Let's go see the Long's glorious estate!" Jiro said excitedly to the rest.

Laughing I followed him and walked next to Katara. The market was deserted and dark.

"Where is everyone?" Sokka asked, looking around.

"Oh," I said, "its past curfew…shoot."

"You guys have curfew?!" Toph asked, shocked.

I looked at Jiro worriedly.

He smiled reassuringly at me. "Don't worry! Those thugs never come past here!"

Nothing ever fazes Jiro. But even as he said this, I noticed him walk a little faster. As we walked past the school, I saw some figures sleeping. Lazy drunks…

Suddenly I felt a hand grab me by the shirt and push me to the ground.

"So!" I smelled alcohol on the soldier's breath, "You have the nerve to sneak around even past curfew!" As he said this, I felt sharp metal on my neck.

"It was an accident, sir." I heard Jiro say. Oh boy I must be in trouble if he's bothering to suck up. "Honestly sir, my friend wasn't feeling well so we took him to the drug store but we couldn't figure out which medicine he needed. I'm so very sorry we took so long, sir." Even as Jiro said this without emotion, I could hear the tension in his voice.

"I've had just about enough with you punks!" The sword was pressed deeper on my neck and I gasped. "You're always skipping school and not treating the fire nation with respect!" To my right I saw Sokka step behind the soldier and very discreetly lift his club over the soldier's head.

"Ya know what I think? I think I should arrest you all for trea-," The sword was suddenly taken away from my neck and I heard a dull thud. Jiro helped me up and we were practically running to my house.