AUTHOR'S NOTES—Long delay, I know. This chapter will go down a bit different than in the show as well. Also, to those who worry about the likes of Kyla or Xilingshi taking over the limelight of the main characters need not worry. They (as well as their earthbending friend, named Hatu, who has not been introduced yet) are all minor-ish characters, but significant enough that they appear in multiple episodes and chapters. As for what happened to Azula in the last chapter, that will be explained later.

I jump through parts of this quickly, because there are other added parts that are necessary to disclose soon in this episode.

AVATAR: THE LAST FIREBENDER

BOOK 1: WATER

CHAPTER 7-1: WINTER SOLSTICE 1—THE SPIRIT WORLD, PART 1

Forest outside of Senlin Village; a few days later

Sokka, Aang, Toph, and Zuko wound up dropping Kyla off at the next village they came across as they promised her they would, and then continued on their way. Their next stop took them to a small village on the borders of a huge forest. The forest itself looked like it had been a part of some sort of Air Warrior raid, as the landscape looked like a tornado had hit it.

"Are we going to go examine it or something?" Toph raised an eyebrow, "'coz there's not much we can do other than wait for the seeds and stuff to grow again."

"We can at least take a look to see how long ago this attack was," Aang replied, "and that way we'll know how far away these Air Warriors might be by now."

"Unless they're still here," Toph argued.

"Toph," Zuko argued, "if they were still here we'd be in a brawl right now."

"So what's the point of this stop? So a few airbenders blew some trees down. Big friggin' whoop."

"What would you know of it?" Aang snapped, "you're just some random earthbender. You don't understand what it's like to know that these are your people doing this damage."

"You don't think the Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation and Water Tribes have done something bad like this before?" Toph countered.

"Was it in your lifetime?" Zuko nodded at Toph, and she fell silent for a moment.

"I'll shut up now." She frowned, "if you need me I'll be sulking in this corner sharpening my swords so I can start blasting faces up and down the continent."

"Is that really how you think about all of this," Zuko raised an eyebrow, "killing by any means necessary? You might be more of a Kyoshi Warrior than we thought."

"Hey," Toph snapped, "these are the only clothes I have, since those jerks at Kyoshi jacked my other ones. Also, give me 25 good reasons why I shouldn't be armed when I don't have fancy waterbending like you or airbending like Aang."

"You've got earthbending." Aang replied.

"Do I?" Toph replied, "because I thought I was just a non-bender considering that you've… you know, never seen me earthbend? I don't carry swords around because I look sexy with them; I carry them so I can slice people's throats out in self-defense."

"Does she always have this kind of attitude?" Sokka wondered aloud,

"She's always been the snarky one," Zuko noted, "but she's gotten a lot worse lately."

"You two act like that's such a bad thing. Forget I said anything though. Let's shut up, take a look at the twisted forest of doom, and then stop at that village and get some supplies."

Appa growled once their argument stopped. Even he seemed pleased that it was over. Momo chirped and leapt over to Toph's lap, where she held him and fell silent. Aang flew off of Appa and dove to investigate the twisted remains of the forest. He found little of interest there other than a few acorns, which he brought back with him.

"So what was your amazing discovery down there, mister Avatar?" Toph rolled her eyes.

"really now," Sokka shook his head, "Toph, that wasn't necessary."

"Whatever," Toph shrugged, and she closed her eyes.

"Those Kyoshi Warriors are quite cynical, aren't they?" he chuckled.

"You don't know the half of what we went through down there," Zuko laughed, "I think she's just tired or something. She's normally not this bad."

Eventually, the group landed at the nearby village of Senlin, which they were surprised to find partially destroyed. This struck them as odd because the forest was intact around this area, and none of them thought that the Air Warriors would take much regard for simply smashing the city and not the forest that surrounded it. There was other work going on here.

A little bit of asking around from Sokka and Zuko gave them the information they needed, which they brought back to Aang.

"For one thing," Zuko reported, "there don't seem to be Air Warriors here. The other good news is that they seem to be looking for you. There's a spirit on the loose here."

"Oh," Toph looked up, "this should be good."

"I… am somewhat surprised that that was not a snarky remark, Toph."

"Well, if you want it to be, just ask, you know." Toph grinned.

"No thanks," Aang shook his head, turning back to Zuko, "so what's the problem?"

"Apparently every night this thing comes in, smashes parts of the village, and takes any villagers that are outside at the time." Zuko replied, "you're the Avatar, and so maybe you can do some sort of mediation, since you're the link between the two worlds and everything."

"I could probably do that," Aang agreed, "after all, that's what the avatar does. I'm supposed to help people, right?"

"Sounds reasonable enough for me," Sokka nodded, "but I'm staying inside when night falls, if you don't mind. I'm no bender, and definitely no link to the spirit world, mister Avatar."

"You don't think we can just…"

"No, Toph."

"Damn it." Toph swore, and put her swords away.

Eventually, the group agreed to stay the night at the village, with Aang seeing what he could to to help calm the raging spirit that ravaged the city every evening.

Same village, nightfall

The villagers of Senlin were all cooped up in the main town center, waiting the rampage of the spirit, which was affectionately known as Hei Bei. Aang stood outside, a few meters from the door, waiting for something to happen. Toph, Zuko, and Sokka were watching from the windows.

It was a few minutes before anything else happened, and Aang was almost caught off guard when the spirit monster smashed through the gates and started ravaging things. Aang tried getting its attention, even to the point where he was about to start fighting it. To Toph, this was as good a sign as any to draw her swords and run out there. She used a large piece of debris to boost the air she got from a jump, and lunged at the beast, blades drawn.

Unfortunately for Toph, Hei Bei was not about to fall form this type of an attack. Instead it spun around and with one of its massive arms, swiped Toph out of the air. Once it had her in its grasp, it took off back into the forest, leaving Aang and the villagers who had seen the event form the window all speechless.

"Well," Zuko shrugged once Aang came back defeatedly to the town center, "I'm not sure if I should be sad about this or if I should keep laughing."

"Regardless of how much of a jerk she's been lately," Aang sighed, "we need to rescue her, and all the other villagers who have been captured. The spirit is not going to stop attacking just because it had Toph, is it?"

"You've got a point," Zuko grunted. "so what is your plan?"

"I've gotta follow its trail," Aang declared, and without another word, he sped out of the building and into the woods with the speed of an airbender."

"He's a fast little guy," Sokka commented, "No wonder the airbenders have an advantage. Speed and sky? What more do you need?"

"Let's just hope Aang can get Toph and the others back to safety. I know what it's like to lose close friends and comrades—it happened to me a lot in the south."

"Hey," Sokka shrugged, "I'm just saying—those airbenders are smart ladies. Still, I'm sorry about your losses. Let's hope your friend Aang gets back soon, eh?"

"Definitely," Zuko agreed. "He'll come back. The hero never dies."