"HOLY SHIT!" I screech as I stumble backwards, clutching my chest.

My breath is coming out in rapid pants and clouding the air around me, and for the first time since I stepped into the first line of trees, my mind is on something other than the fact that I wish that I had a blanket or something.

How long has Lien been lying here?

I crawl over to her body again and place my hand a few centimeters from her mouth, and my body goes limp with relief when I can feel a slight warm breath on my palm. My hands go numb quickly as I begin shoveling aside the huge piles of snow to try and uncover the rest of her body.

"Come on," I plead as I hook my arms under her armpits and attempt to pull the bottom half of her body out of the drift. "Damn it Lien if you die on me I swear to god I'm going to kill you!"

My boots are soaked through and waterlogged by the time she's completely uncovered.

"No Mr. Platypus bear…I don't want any of your cabbages…"

I glance down at Lien, who's now got a stupid grin all over her face. Anger sparks through me and I drop her. She hits the grounded with a muffled thud and then rolls over and cuddles into the snow drift, almost as if it's a plush blanket instead of something that could possibly kill her.

But she's ok, and that's all I'm comprehending at the moment. Since I'm already soaked through anyways, I drop down next to her and smack the side of her head.

"Wake up you little shit!" I growl as shivers rack my body. "You scared me half to death!"

She mumbles something incoherent and rolls back over towards me, her eyes opening into little slits. When she finally recognizes me as a human being, her eyes shoot open and she sits up ramrod straight.

"Oh hey," she says cheerily.

"That's it?" I ask incredulously. "You nearly give me heart failure and all I get is an 'Oh hey?'"

Unable to restrain myself I jump back to my feet and smack the side of her head again, causing her to flinch.

"Owwww…" she whines as she rubs the tender spot. "I'm sorry."

When her eyes open again, she seems to finally realize where we are and something sparks in her eyes as she takes in the clearing.

"Did I fall asleep out here again?"

I sink to my knees again at her question. Snow crunches as my fists close around it, my jaw slack and hanging like a pendulum.

"A-again?" I stammer. "This happens often?"

"Every once in a while," Lien says with an indifferent shrug as she flips a clump of her wet hair over her shoulder.

"Is this…normal for this kind of world?"

She stops what she's doing and glances over at me with sharp blue eyes.

"What do you mean this kind of world?" she asks seriously.

"Oh…well uh…nothing really," I stammer. "I meant to say island."

There's a pause between us as Lien takes a moment to think. The cold begins to beat down on me as she takes her sweet time, scratching her dark hair in what seems to be deep thought.

"Uhhhhh…" she finally says. "As far as I know of…no."

"You ever see a doctor about that?"

"Why?" she asks. "Is that bad?"

I glance around the clearing, taking in the damage on the trees. The bark looks like it was shredded through effortlessly, like tissue paper.

"Well if you're responsible for all this then I'd say…yeah, looks like it."

"Oh," she muses as she takes in the trees. "That wasn't there earlier…weird."

I groan and slump forward. I'm obviously getting nowhere with this.

"I think you should see someone about this," I sigh as I clap her on the shoulder.

"Why? Cuz I fall asleep?" she asks. "I'm pretty sure that's normal."

"Never mind," I groan as I slap my forehead. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going back inside before I catch hypothermia."

I get up on frozen and tingling legs and begin to slop through the snowdrifts in my waterlogged boots. The chills that wrack my body are worse than the time I got sick for a week after getting stuck in the rain on my thirty-five minute walk home from my usual café.

"Oh wait a second!" Lien yells after me.

"What?" I grumble as I struggle to return warmth to my body.

"I'm coming with you!" she says as she stumbles to her feet.

"Well hurry up," I snap as I kneel down to wring some water from my sweats.

Though all that happens is the water that leaves the material just gets replaced by water that soaks into my knees. Frustration takes over and I give up, shooting back up to my feet. Lien just stands there watching me, looking unsure of what to make of my tantrum.

"You want some help with that?" she eventually asks.

She doesn't really wait for my answer and just sucks all the excess water from my being. I watch it freeze back into snow and fall delicately back onto the ground. And for a minute, I'm dry.

"Well I'll admit it…" I sigh as I rub my arms. "I'm beginning to wish that I was a water bender. Well, there must at least be a trick to make a warm air bubble to protect me."

"Or you could buy a coat."

Lien looks like she's struggling not to laugh as I make a weak attempt to cover my arms with my hair. Heat rises in my cheeks and I glance at my boots, which are beginning to soak up water again. But I'm miserable enough to swallow my pride and ask for her help.

"I don't suppose you know where I could get some clothes for cheap do you?"

"Sure!" she says with a wide smile.

Lien grabs my hands and drags me out of the clearing and through the dense trees. I wonder if she really knows where she's going, but I decide it's better not to ask questions like that when I should be asking questions like "how the hell am I gonna pay for new clothes?"

When we break through the trees we're on the main road to the village. Vendors are lined up on the sides, selling anything I could ever want. The lines are broken every once in a while by an actual shop. And Lien drags me into the most expensive looking one on the island.

I haven't even learned the currency system, but the figures on the tags look menacing all the same.

"Are you sure anything in this place is in my price range?" I ask this my fingers skim nervously over the thick, warm material.

"Oh don't worry!" Lien says happily as she pulls almost everything on the racks down into her arms. "I'll just put it on my tab!"

This doesn't make me stop worrying. Instead, I have a spike in heart rate as the figures keep increasing with everything she pulls off the shelves. I scan the shelves in front of me and pick something with the smallest number I see and hope it's my size.

"NO! Not those."

I flinch at the intensity of Lien's protest. She has a crazy intense look in her eye as she judges the cloth in my hands. Sure what I have is thinner and cheaper, but it will get the job done.

"What's wrong with this one?" I ask as I glance at the contents overflowing in her arms. "It doesn't matter what it looks like as long as it keeps me warm."

"That color won't look good on you," she insists. "Here, try this one."

She dumps the pile into my arms, leaving me to stumble under the weight of it all.

"But there's only one color…" I protest. "Everything in this store is blue!"

"Well does it look like the people of this island wear anything else?" she retorts.

"Well…no."

"Besides, there are different shades," she replies indifferently as she makes her way over to even more bundles of blue fabric. "This light one looks gross on practically everyone. Stick to the darker shades."

"Is it really that big a deal?" I grumble as I dump some of the pile in my arms on a nearby stool.

"Ya," she responds with an uncanny resemblance of a Valley Girl accent. "If you're going to hang out with me, ya gotta look good."

"…Did I in any way indicate that I wanted to hang out with you?"

She gasps dramatically and clutches her heart with one hand while bracing herself against the nearest wall with the other.

"Offended," she pouts.

"Why?" I ask as she tosses me a heap of medium to dark greyish blues. "I don't even know anything about you. for all I know you could be a small time serial killer looking for some practice target no one will miss."

"Well I'm not," she replies rather good-naturedly. "So what do you wanna know?"

"Well we could start with the obvious 'why the hell were you just lying alone in a clearing about to die from hypothermia?'" I snark as she tosses me something that resembles a par of drawstring pants.

"I'm actually not sure about that one myself," she says with a sheepish chuckle.

"It just happens?" I ask skeptically.

"Ya," she says with a smile. "I just kinda black out and wake up in random places.

"Well what happens if you have an episode? What am I supposed to do?"

"I dunno," she replies with a shrug. "I don't know what happens."

"And you think that I'll willingly stick around after hearing that?"

"Uhhh….yes?"

I study Lien a little closer. I'm about 89% sure she's completely batshit insane. But then again she has the goofy demeanor of a protagonist's sidekick. Ok that sounds really mean even in my own head but…

Anyways, there's a nagging in the back of my mind every time I look at her. Like I won't be able to sleep well at night until I find out exactly what these episodes are and what causes them.

I groan as I look up at her wide blue eyes.

"Well you're lucky," I sigh. "I kinda want to know what the hell is happening to you. So I'll stick around until I get some answers. Or we need to leave. Whichever comes first."

"Ok sweet," she says with a little happy bounce.

I sigh and try not to roll my eyes.

"Now will you please direct me to the nearest pair of boots?"

~Time Skip~

"So…just how many beads are you going to put in my hair?"

"That depends on how many beads you want in your hair," Lien responds as she digs through a small drawstring bag.

"Honestly I would have stopped at ten," I sigh. "But then you went and started with the feathers. Then there were more beads."

"You can never have enough beads."

I glance over at her, taking note of the single polished blue bead that is strung in her hair. Then I glance down at the headband she's braiding for me, complete with strings of gold beads and a few feathers that dangle from them. Then I put my fingers up to the strands of hair just below the braided buns Katara did for me yesterday. There are five strands of hair crisscrossing and weaving in an elegant pattern accented by small gold beads everywhere.

I glance over to the headband again. This along with that will be total overkill.

"Something tells me you're enjoying this way more than you should," I remark as she weaves a new bead segment into the headband. "What? No one ever let you play with their hair before?"

"Well…" she trails off. "The other girls don't let me come near them anymore."

"Anymore?" I question as I shift closer to her. "What made them change their mind? You're actually really good at this."

"Well…I may have accidently encased someone in ice."

"You what?"

"It's a long story," she replies as she clips some excess string off the headband.

"Well if you're going to continue playing with my hair then we have time," I say as she shifts over towards me.

"Honestly I don't even know how it happened myself," she says as she drapes the band across my forehead and hides the blank parts of it under locks of my hair. "One minute I'm playing with her hair and poof…human popsicle the next."

"What?" I prompt as I hold back some locks of hair as she ties the band in place. "Did you have an episode…or whatever you want to call it?"

Lien just shrugs as she drops the rest of my hair down the length of my back. She comes to sit beside me and looks over the rock face into the bright orange of the setting sun.

"I remember coming too, and my hands were incased in the ice, still weaving beads into her hair. I never even realized there was a time lapse. But ever since then, people don't come near me if they can avoid it. "

She looks so vulnerable as she hugs her knees to her chest, pressing her nose into her arms.

Honestly, Lien isn't a bad person. She's crazy, but I did spend the entire day with her without needing to threaten violence. I actually had fun. She walked me all over this island, showing me anything and everything there was to see.

The best part was stopping by the dojo to bully Sokka, only to see that Suki seemed to have thoroughly beaten the crap out of him already.

She's a good girl. Lien I mean…

Sure people didn't come around her, and now I recognize the thousands of tiny paper cut pains it must cause her having to live like this every day.

"Ok," I sigh as I elbow her in the ribs. "So we'll make a deal. For as long as I'm here on the island, I'll let you play with my hair if you promise not to freeze me."

"Deal," she agrees, offering me a half smile.

I return it and glance back at the gently rolling waves. The sun is sinking slowly behind them, and I've never felt quite this peaceful before.

"You've got a nice view here," I murmur.

"It's amazing even after almost fifteen years of it," Lien replies dreamily.

"No way you're older than me."

"What?!" Lien gasps as she turns towards me. "No way! There is no way you're so mature!"

"Good," I sigh as I roll my eyes. "We're both agreed that we'll never speak of this again?"

"Agreed."

A silence falls over us as we stare blankly at the sea. The waves crash rhythmically against the shore, filling the void and making the silence comfortable and calming. When I glance over to her again, Lien's eyes seemed to have glazed over slightly, her bright blue irises staring dreamily at nothing.

I follow her gaze and my own eyes settle on a grey smudge that's appeared among the white caps further out to sea.

"Hey…" I murmur, shaking Liens shoulder and pointing out to the growing smudge. "What's that out there?"

"Huh?" is the only thing I get out of her as she squints and leans forwards.

"Looks kinds like a…ship," I mumble as lean as far as I dare over the cliff face.

"Doesn't it kind of look like a Fire Navy ship?" Lien finally replies.

"I'm not sure," I admit as the smudge gets bigger and does in fact take the shape of a ship. "I've never seen one before."

"I've only seen them from really far away," Lien continues as she gets to her feet. "They never come too close to the island but when they do, people point them out and everyone kinda goes into a weird lockdown mode."

A heavy silence hangs over us as the ship docks. If I wasn't so terrified then I'd probably make a joke about how the bowsprit looks like a giant letter opener. But as it drops, and dark shapes start moving around the huge empty space that leads into the bowels of the ship.

"Wait…" I trial off as I strain my eyes to see what's going on. "What's getting out of the ship?"

The shapes step into the sunlight. And I stumble back a few feet, falling flat on my back.

"What the hell are those?!" I screech as small rocks dig into my hands.

"I don't know," Lien replies in an almost detached sort of way. "They're scary though."

"They're going towards the village," I say with a shaky voice as I watch them advance in a menacing formation up one of the worn footpaths. "This doesn't look good. What the hell are people even doing riding those?!"

"WHY DO YOU THINK I WOULD KNOW?!" Lien suddenly snaps at me.

I flinch and her eyes lose their harshness.

"Well what do you think we should do?" I spit back. "You think that maybe we should get down there and stop them or something?"

"Probably," she replies quietly.

"Well come on then," I command as I start the trek down the mountainside that seemed much easier to navigate earlier.

Lien keeps up with me and we slip, stumble, and slide down the mountain. Our rush uproots many small plants and sends the few birds sticking around flying off. Everything would have been silent if it wasn't for our labored breathing.

We slide to a stop on a part of the road that overlooks the town, breathing heavily as we scan the square. It's completely empty.

"Looks like they know something's wrong," I gasp as I take in the still and quiet of everything.

"I need to find Oyaji," Lien pants as she takes off down the road again.

"Where will he be?" I ask as we continue to stumble down the path. "I'll get you there but then I need to go find everyone-"

I stop short.

Why am I talking like I can actually put up a fight? When it comes to air bending, I'm a novice at best. The others can at least defend themselves. All I can do is run and duck…

I glance back down at the village, heart lifting as I take in the blurs of green and white flying over the rooftops like shadows. At least they could buy us time to get out.

I look back to see Lien still running down the side of the mountain, reaching the bottom quicker than I'd have thought her capable of, panic obvious in her body movements. I take a deep breath and do my best to close the gap between us. My run time has actually doubled with my newfound abilities.

Which is still pretty slow…but eh...I'm getting there.

When I reach her, she's huddled in the shadows at the edge of the village. Her knuckles are white as she holds aside some low hanging branches from the fir trees. I stumble up behind her, trying to keep my wheezing at a minimum.

"So," I gasp as I relay the information I gathered from farther up the mountain. "Four rhino things with two men riding each, save for whom I'm guessing is the leader. He has his own. Suki and the other warriors started out good, but are now getting their asses handed to them."

My stomach sinks at the realization.

"Uh," Lien chokes out. "Have you ever fought before?"

"Will you believe me if I say yes?" I scoff back at her.

"Probably not."

"Good choice."

We break out of the line of trees and dash into the shadow of a large hut. The snow crunches under our feet, not helping with our stealth factor. But then again, the fighting in the streets is.

"Where would Oyaji be?" I ask after we dart behind the cover of another house.

"Should be over by where we were when we tied you up," she says nonchalantly.

"You mean the big house in front of the statue of Kyoshi?" I huff.

"Yeah."

"Well lead on," I sigh as we make a break for the next house.

Lien gives me a curt nod and steps out briefly in a patch of sunlight between two of the houses. She pauses to watch something going on the street. Her fingers fidget by her sides and she winces periodically. I swallow hard as I step up beside her.

"So…" I trial off. "Are you any good in a fight?"

"Don't know," she says absentmindedly. "Never been in one."

It takes her a few seconds to blink away whatever is running through her head, and she gives me the universal 'are you stupid?' look.

"This is a very peaceful island you know."

"The rhino things aren't helping your argument," I snap at her.

"You know what?" she replies with a piercing glare. "I blame you 'cuz they weren't here before you showed up!"

"Sorry to break it to you," I spit back at her. "But lots of people want to blame me for things that go wrong, so if you're going to join them then you need to get in line."

"Nah," she says suddenly all cheery again. "It's most likely your Avatar friend's fault."

I'm momentarily dumb struck at her sudden 180 turn. This girl makes absolutely no sense. It's beginning to make my head spin. I look away from her for a split second and I am immediately glad that I chose to do so.

"Speaking of which-" I break off as I grab Lien and shove her down to the floor.

I crouch over her taller body as a Fire Navy officer goes flying over us. He slams straight into the trees behind us and then is promptly buried in a heap of snow. We come up to rest on our knees, watching as steam rises from where snow is sizzling on his armor.

"Yes?"

I glance up at Lien's expectant face.

"This would be a good time to run."

She nods and pulls me to my feet and takes off without giving me a chance to balance myself. She's dragging me along the backs of the houses, and my stumbling sends my shoulder into the wood framing of the house and a wave of pain shoots down my arm.

We make it a few houses closer to the statue, but our path is blocked by a sudden wall of fire that cuts through the sparse snow in front of us. Probably the backlash from an attack on the streets.

"Oh shit!" Lien exclaims as she skids to ha halt in front of the flames.

"Hey," I reply in awe as I slam into her back. "You've picked up my swearing habits!...And totally not that time for this."

"Ok where's the nearest source of water?" Lien asks, her voice starting to shake with the beginnings of panic.

"Well we're surrounded by snow…" I growl as irritation flashes through me. "So you tell me."

"R-right," she stammers as she liquefies the snow and puts out the flames almost instantly.

Then she takes off again towards the back of one of the larger houses in the village. This one is lucky, and managed to escape the battle so far. The farther into the village you look, the thicker the smoke and more intense the heat. The snow around us is turning grey with soot.

I almost crash into Lien for the umpteenth time today as she busies herself with attempting to pull herself up into the back window frame of the large house. The panic is obvious in her eyes despite how much she tries to suppress it. Her fingers frantically scrape at the wood framing, looking for something to hang onto that will support her weight.

I don't pause to roll my eyes as I give her a rather clumsy leg-up, but it does the job. She pushes the protective curtain aside and tumbles in, completely forgetting to come back for me.

Biting back a swear, I clumsily create an air current to ride up to the window. It dies down just as I'm pulling myself inside, and I tumble into a heap on the wood floor. I moan and clutch the back of my head, rolling onto my side.

"I need you to do this one thing for me Lien!" I hear a hushed voice command. "If you're ever going to listen to anything I say, make it this!"

"But I don't understand!" Lien protests as her eyes widen in distress. "Why do you want me to leave so badly? I don't want to leave! I promise I won't ever call this island drab, stuffy, boring, or platitudinous ever again!"

"This isn't about what you want Lien!"

My eyes open into slits I'm met with the sight of Oyaji's face coming alight with relief as he notices me curled up on the floor. He has Lien by the wrist in a viselike grip, pulling her over to the window and down to my level.

"I need you to do me a favor," he pleads as I pull myself into a sitting position. "I need you to get her out of here."

I glance up as Oyaji gives Lien a gentle shove in my direction. He pulls a drawstring bag from his robes and pushes it into my hands. It's heavy, and the soft clinking coming from it suggests that it's full of coins.

"She can't be found by the wrong people," Oyaji continues. "Please get her to another Grand Lotus and they can relocate her. Whatever you do, don't let any harm come to her. Despite all her trouble over the years, I love Lien like she was my own daughter."

Lien goes ridged.

"What?"

The question is clipped and chocked. Words that just barely escape a strangled throat. Oyaji grasps her shoulders tightly, his face just inches from her.

"Listen to me well Lien," he commands. "You must not let yourself get caught by them. Do you understand me?"

"B-but…" Lien stammers, tears carving harsh trials down her cheeks. "But you're not my father?"

"Biologically no…" Oyaji sighs as his hands fall from her shoulders.

He turns back to me, his face seeming to have aged a good ten years. I swallow hard and look down at the bag in my hands before looking back at Oyaji. He pleads with me silently.

"Just get her away from them," he repeats as he gets to his feet. "She's not just important to me."

I nod, not really knowing what I'm agreeing to. But I get back up and pull Lien to her feet. She allows me to lead her to the door, moving like a puppet with cut strings. She sees nothing and comprehends nothing. I glance back at Oyaji over my shoulder, hoping he'll offer her something...anything really.

But he doesn't. So with a solemn nod, I stick the bag of coins into my new coat and head for the door we could have just come through instead of climbing in through the fricken window like idiots.

Outside, the smoke is thicker than before and it burns my throat mercilessly.

I panic for a moment, not knowing where to go from here. How do I find everyone? They'll be in battle, but I can barely look after myself, much less the other life source I've acquired. I'm doomed.

I'm almost in full-fledged panic mode when a low grumble cuts through the sounds of crackling fire. I dash around the side of the house to see Aang pulling up Appa behind a house across the road from us. We just need to make a mad dash and it will all be over. We'll be out of here.

We're about to make a break towards Appa when another wall of fire roars to life in front of us.
At this point, Lien snaps out of her funk and just slams the Fire Nation soldier responsible into the nearest wall with a mound of half melted slush.

"Why are these guys everywhere?!" she screeches angrily.

"Ok…" I sigh. "I guess you're more capable then I thought. And there are only like five guys here."

She shoots me a withering look and I take the hint to shut up.

We run for Appa again, scrambling madly up the slope of his tail and ducking behind the rim of the saddle. Sokka joins us and we're off, the town falling away with the smoldering heat.

I glance over the edge, knuckles white on the rim of the saddle, watching the soldiers running back to their ship as they see us escaping.

"I've always wanted to leave this island…but not like this…"

I glance over to see Lien staring blankly down at her island, teas pushing themselves steadily over the wall of her lashes. Her fists are clenched in her lap, shoulders trembling with the force of her grief.

"I know it's hard, but you did the right thing," Katara voice carries from the other side of the saddle. "Zuko would have destroyed the whole place if we stayed. They're going to be ok Aang."

A silence falls over us for a few seconds. Then Katara's voice returns shot full of horror.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

Out of the corner of my eye I see Aang falling towards the surface of the sea. Bile rises in my throat. This is how it's ending? I thought he was…

I cringe and avert my eyes from the sight. My chest constricts as the splash reaches my ears. Then it thunders as a high pitched roar splits the horror filled silence around us.

Glancing back, Aang is on the back of some giant charcoal sea serpent. He yanks back its whiskers and forces its mouth open. Water sprays over the village, slowly but surely putting out the fires.

"Whoa…" Lien gasps. "You mean that thing actually exists?"

Her question is answered only by Appa's swooping down to catch Aang as the Unagi tosses him off. My stomach is in my throat for the entirety of it. My death grip on the saddle doesn't let up even when we return to our normal altitude, knuckles stark white and still clinging for dear life.

"Holy shit," I whisper as my hands gradually relax and I slip down onto my back in the middle of the saddle.

"I know, I know," I hear Aang sigh as he drags himself back into the saddle between Katara and Sokka. "That was stupid and dangerous."

"Yes," Katara replies rather calmly. "It was."

She engulfs him in a hug and his face lights up like a kid on Christmas. All's well that ends well I guess.

"So Rena…" Sokka's voice says, interrupting the happy moment. "What's she doing here?"