"Sokka?"
"Yes Toph?"
"Is my nose lying to me? Because it's telling me that there's no meat being served at these tables." Sokka and Toph were standing underneath an archway at the edge of a large plaza. There were hundreds of chairs and tables neatly lined up, and food was being set out by the townspeople.
"Unfortunately, your nose is not lying Toph. There is, in fact, no meat being served at these tables..." The plaza was surrounded on three sides by a two story building. The fourth side faced out to the ocean, which crashed constantly, but quietly, onto the cliffside a hundred feet below.
"Awww. You told me that there was going to be good food." She pouted and lightly stomped her right foot, which sent up a little cloud of dust.
"The food is good, Toph," said Katara as she walked by, holding two large bowls of rice above the low hanging dust cloud and moving towards the tables.
"Actually, she's not wrong." Sokka pointed to a few dishes that had already been set out on the table. "I tried those three dishes earlier with some catlionfish and some mammoth shrimp. They're actually really good."
"Fish? I didn't smell the fish." Toph leaned her head toward the kitchens, where the last of the dishes were being prepared in large bowls and serving platters. She couldn't make out what the dishes were, but she tried looking for a grill or a spit or some sign that meat was being cooked. But there weren't any signs anywhere in the kitchens.
"Well, the seafood was only in the morning. We tried to wake you up..." Sokka looked up and saw Momo circling above them.
"Yeah well, long Appa rides really take it out of me now." Toph stopped scanning the kitchens and turned her ears towards Katara and Sokka. "I'm not used to it anymore. But why is there no meat if we're in the Fire Nation?"
"We already told you when we picked you up." Katara said, rolling her eyes, but also smiling. She and Sokka had predicted that Toph would tune them out when they tried explaining the purpose of the ceremony that the Gaang was reuniting for.
"All I heard was 'blah blah Holiday' and 'Good Food blah blah.' And I needed the break from my students anyway." She frowned. "I thought that good food on a Fire Nation island meant that there would be meat."
"Yeah, well that second 'Blah Blah' was probably where we explained that the lunch and dinner are traditional Airbender dishes, meaning they are completely vegetarian. They do it to honor some old Air Nomads…" Sokka stopped explaining and leaned closer to the food to catch a good whiff of it. He sighed.
"Those 'Old Air Nomads' saved the ancestors of this village when their old Island was destroyed by a volcano. The Villagers were left without food, so the Nomads fed them, and then helped them settle on this island. So every year after that, the villagers would hold a ceremony and feast in honor of those Air Nomads, as a way to thank them for their kindness and generous spirit. These buildings were built hundreds of years ago so the Air Nomads would always have a place to stay on the island.
"They revived the tradition a few years ago, but they're supposed to have Airbenders and Bison as guests, so now that Aang and Appa are here, they're saying it's the first year that they really bring it back," Katara said with a soft smile. Events like this always reminded Aang of his old Fire Nation friends, like Kuzon, and that brought him happy memories.
"Hey, where is Twinkle Toes? I felt him walking around earlier but then he disappeared. I haven't had the chance to talk to him yet."
Sokka responded, "Well, he was there in the morning. He had to fly the village leaders up here as part of the ceremony."
"I think I'm gonna go look for him," said Katara, with a hint of worry slipping into her voice. Thinking of Kuzon brought Aang good memories, but it could also remind him of everything he lost in the Hundred-Year War. She walked across the plaza to the other side of the building, thinking that maybe he had gone back up to the bedroom that the villagers had prepared for him.
"What's her problem? He seemed fine earlier. He's probably just exploring their little Airbender museum." Sokka leaned in to smell the food again.
Toph grunted in agreement, then the two stood there quietly for a few seconds. Across the plaza, Momo landed softly next to the table that was closest to the cliffside. He slowly inched toward the bowl of fruit salad sitting at the edge of the table. Toph's stomach growled quietly. "So when can we start eating? I'm starving."
"I hear you Toph," Sokka said, as his stomach let out a small grumble. Momo and the fruit salad disappeared beneath the table cloth. "I hear you."