"…She can come," Sokka announced, in a mumbling voice.

Aang spit out his peach tea in surprise. The other's jaws dropped in amazement. It was weird enough that the young firebender got Sokka to laugh, but to actually talk him into letting her come…?

A pessimist would look at this kind of situation and claim that the world was coming to an end. A realist would say that everyone has the right to act out of character every once in a while. An optimist would say that it signified the end of the long war. Why? The spirits were intervening, and when they intervened, then that was a sign that times would change for the better.

"What, y'all trying to catch flies?" Makayla smirked.

"Huh?" Katara spoke for everyone.

"Well, your mouths are open wide enough to do so…"

Both Sokka and Makayla burst out laughing as the others hurryingly shut their mouths and blushed.

"So, where are we going?" Makayla asked Katara.

"Well, we need to find another secluded place for Aang to master earthbending," she replied.

"What's wrong with this one? They didn't run out of rocks…"

"How can you run out of rocks in a canyon!" Sokka asked, baffled.

"You can't," Toph and Makayla said simultaneously.

"There's nothing wrong with this canyon, Makayla, it's just that…" Katara sighed and stared at her cup (which Toph earthbended for her, as well as the rest of them). "We can't stay in the same place for too long, or else the fire nation will find us."

"Oh…" Makayla said, quietly. "When do we leave?"

"As soon as we back up," replied Katara.

"Okay. Here, Aang, have the rest of my tea," Makayla insisted. "You need it more."

Aang nodded and swallowed the rest of it, whipping his mouth with his sleeve.

Then they all started packing up. Katara took care of the cooking supplies. Aang handled Appa's saddle. Sokka took the liberty of handling the food, which in retrospect wasn't a very good idea. Makayla and Toph helped out wherever they could, though Makayla ended up doing most of Sokka's job. He wouldn't stop eating everything…

"Everyone ready?" Sokka finally asked after they were all loaded up onto Appa.

"Uh…" Makayla looked slightly nervous, and was clutching the saddle as though her life depended on it, which Sokka noted, and an evil thought popped into his head.

"Five…" He started counting down.

"NO! Not ready!" Makayla shouted.

"Four…"

"I said I'm not ready yet!"

"Three…"

"Seventeen!"

"Two…"

"Twenty-eight!"

"One…"

"Forty-two!"

"Yip-yip," Sokka said calmly.

As Appa shot off of the ground, Makayla shrieked and buried her face into Katara's right arm, whimpering.

"Sokka!" both Katara and Toph shouted at the top of their lungs. Since Aang couldn't, he scowled and whacked Sokka in the head with his staff.

"Hey! I'm trying to steer here!" Sokka protested, earning a slight giggle from Makayla.

"Oh, think that's funny, do you?" he muttered.

Makayla responded by sticking out her tongue at the water warrior.

"Ignore him, Makayla," Katara said in a comforting voice. "He can be like this sometimes. The best way to deal with it is to ignore."

"I can't do that," she said sadly.

"Why not?" croaked Aang.

"You shouldn't be talking, Avatar Aang," Makayla said sweetly. "Not at least for a few more days."

"Just answer his question, please," Katara said.

"Just because you ignore something, that doesn't mean it isn't there…" Her eyes got a faraway look to them as she gazed at the clouds that they passed.

"Mommy…" she whispered.

-Flashback-

"Mommy, men are looking at us funny…" a young redheaded girl latched onto the sleeves of a brunette woman in nervousness.

"Don't worry about it, Makayla. Just ignore them and they'll go away," the woman, her mother, replied in a calm voice.

"Okay…" she said, a little uncertain.

A few minutes later, she looked back again.

"Mommy… they're following us." she whispered.

"Ignore them, Mac," the woman said again, a little more firmly.

This time, the redhead waited even longer before looking back. She gasped out of fear.

"I said ignore them," the woman seethed.

"I can't," she whispered. "They're getting closer, they're big, they look like they've been spinning in circles, and they smell funny!"

The woman stole a glance behind her. Her eyes widened in realization and she uttered curses under her breath.

"What is it, Mommy? What's wrong with them?"

"Everything's wrong with them, Mac," the woman muttered.

"What's that supposed to mean?" the child asked, confused.

"Makayla, listen to me, and listen well," the woman said in a low and dangerous sounding tone, keeping her eyes straight ahead. "When I say so, I want you to run for the city's exit as fast as you can. Do not scream. Do not look back. And above all, do not stop running until you are sure that the men are long gone. Understood?"

The she-child nodded, if only so slightly, and tensed up, ready to run.

After a few mere moments, both woman and child could hear the gruff voice of the said men, and could smell the sake in their breaths. "Hey there, beautiful. How's about a little fun?"

The young woman's eyes visibly flashed gold, and out of nowhere she summoned a jet stream of water and shot it at the drunk.

"Now, Mac!" She shouted, freezing the man.

Without a second thought, the girl darted for the exit of the city.

She felt sharp objects impale her. She wanted to scream out in pain, but she remembered what her mother said, so she kept on running. More sharp objects flew past her, and the fact that those were rocks registered in her mind. Those men were earthbenders.

A loud scream of agony pierced through the pleasant atmosphere of the bazaar, and she knew that it belonged to her mother. But she didn't stop, she just kept on running…

And running…

…and running…

-End flashback-

"Makayla?" Katara shook her shoulder, bringing her out of the not-so-pleasant memory.

"Huh?" she turned to face her.

"Are you okay? You weren't entirely present, for a minute there…"

"I'm fine, really," Makayla insisted. "I'm just lightheaded, being up so high is all…"

"Oh, okay. Why don't you lie down and rest?" Katara suggested. The others nodded in agreement.

She shrugged and lay down near the back of the saddle.

After debating which position to lie in, which was on her back, she closed her eyes tightly, as though commanding herself to go to sleep. Thankfully, her dreams were peaceful, and had no reflection on the past few days.

'Thank the Great One,' she thought in the duration of her dreams. 'No Sake.'