Hey guys! I had a little writers block on this chapter, cuz its a transition chapter, but it has some tension, so it had to be there. Hope you enjoy! Hopefully i'll get the rest of the chapters up every one or two days at a time.

Thank you to my beloved reviewers, you keep my fic going!

Disclaimer: I do not own avatar the last airbender, only in my dreams.

It would be an understatement to say that the gAang was surprised. It would be an understatement to say that they had no idea what to do when a mass of salamander-dragons and their violent riders came screeching into the camp.

Nonetheless, the teens still had to protect themselves.

Sokka was the first to react, extracting his sharpened boomerang. Soon enough, Katara, Aang, and Toph set off a whirlwind of bending, knocking many men off their animals. Aang flew above, shooting people with missiles of air. There had to be at least thirty tall, burly, hooded men riders atop salamander-dragons.

The twelve-year-old boy landed on the ground and found himself beside Toph. The petite girl earth bended a boulder at one of the riders, yet the shot was weak and hardly knocked the mysterious attacker to the ground.

"You ok Toph?" Aang cried over to his friend; both still fighting.

She nodded grimly, obviously lying.

Katara watched as the remaining ten or so riders fled the battle sight. The four teens, although thoroughly exhausted, rounded up the injured opponents. They had about eighteen men, bound by various forms of earth bending.

The water bender was fuming while she watched Sokka interrogate the conscious salamander-dragon riders. According to three of the men, they were an individual group who were hired to do various illegal tasks – such as find the avatar and bring him to the fire nation. The eldest – a cruel man named Jye – promised that the "Rough Riders," as they were called, never gave up on their assigned task.

Sokka turned away and walked back towards his friends, "I don't think its safe here anymore," Katara said softly and gravely to her brother. "They'll do anything to capture us."

"Seems to me that Ozai's running out of ideas," Sokka chided. Toph shook her head and pointed towards Appa, "voicing" her opinion that they should probably leave; personally, she didn't want to get into any more fights tonight. Toph felt weak enough as it was.

Katara glowered at her. "I hope you know that we wouldn't be this bad off if you hadn't been playing your stupid silence game. Had you just told us we were being attacked, we would have been ready to fight, those men who escaped would have been caught, and we wouldn't have to worry about the 'rough riders' anymore!" the elder girl ranted, getting into Toph's face. The blind girl scowled. Katara heaved in anger. Neither of them had been in such a fight since the first time they met.

Aang cut in between them, facing Katara; her face lightening up some with him standing in front of her, "I say we leave just to be safe," the avatar suggested, ending the argument of what to do next.

The Avatar turned around to address Toph only to find her climbing on top of Appa already. Sokka followed suit and soon the group was off…

But no one knew to where.

In case things weren't bad enough as it was for us, I think I made it worse. Appa flew for what seemed like forever. Every hour or so, someone would ask Aang where we were going, but he would only respond vaguely.

I sighed and closed my eyes – not that it really mattered – and curled up near Appa's head and next to Sokka. I think Katara sat across from me and Aang was somewhere on one of the sides of the saddle. But then again, I couldn't see when we were flying, so I didn't know what was happening.

But just because I was blind, didn't mean I couldn't feel when someone was boring holes into my head. The whole ride I could feel Sugar Queen's glare on my skin. I tried to ignore it, really I did – I'm not confrontational if I don't wanna be – but after half a day of it, I was near my breaking point.

Apparently, so was Katara.

"How do you lay there smug when you know you've uprooted us, once again?" Katara started. I would have snapped back, but this was one of the times where silence would have more of an impact.

It did.

"You are so selfish! Playing your stupid game while allowing us to get in trouble. You're not even sorry! What if Aang had died in that spiff, you would have allowed the last air bender and our last hope to be lost, all because of your stupid mute-ness. You're so immature and selfish! I don't know how Aang even learned earth bending from you!"

"Katara shut up!" Sokka snapped in. "Since when have you been this cruel? The sister I knew never picked fights with people who couldn't fight back."

Oh, what I would have done to see Sugar Queen's face that moment. I did hear a little sob from her direction, but what followed that was silence. I felt Snoozles shift some beside me, a slight moment when he squeezed my hand for reassurance, and then he swiftly let go, sharpening his boomerang in silence.

But even that couldn't quell my guilt.

The small group landed, in the rising moon, on a small patch of land in between two large lakes. Sokka had found it on the map; a small, twenty arm lengths or so, piece of land separating Lake Okai and Lake Omai. The tall grasses came up to Toph's waist, and the ground was soft.

The group trudged off Appa, trying to find a hard place to sleep. Aang found two half dead trees – their roots kept the ground hard. Sokka and Toph would sleep next to the smaller tree and Aang and Katara by the other. The water warrior turned to Toph to see where she wanted to sleep, only to find the girl missing.

"Toph? Toph?"

Katara bit her lip, still feeling bad about her spiff with the petite girl earlier in the day. "Go find her Sokka," she ordered her brother, her voice effectively hiding her guilt

Sokka looked across the mass of tall grasses, swaying in the same manner as the waves beside it. Off to save Toph. Off to protect her…not that he was complaining.

Well thats that chapter, Katara's being a meany, but she's prolly pms-ing o.O