"Aang?" Katara calls out, noticing Aang's attention suddenly being brought to the ground of the island. She tries to convince herself that he is just trying to focus on making a safe and quiet landing but the way he snapped his eyes to the direction so suddenly...It worries her. Never leaving past the mountain of ice and into lands filled with grass and trees, who knows what could happen and what could be out there. Despite what Sokka said earlier, having her older brother and the Avatar by her side really does gives her some comfort.

Aang seems to be in too much of a dazed to speak, his only answer was to move the reigns on Appa and get ready for a landing, his eyes fixed on the far away ground.

Katara follows his eyes and Sokka follows their example, finding whatever that is unknown to them.

But Aang know what he is chasing. Kind of. A calling, one could say.

Remember when I had to choose order or calling? When I had to choose to obey my mother or my curiosity?

Yeah.

Complete regret. An earthbender couldn't have sunk this rock in my stomach any lower if they could.

Counting the stars under the soft moonlight does not make up a single piece of dirt of this messy situation that I have gotten myself into.

That solid looking cloud is no cloud. Cloud don't just suddenly change directions and lower itself closer to the ground. Danger does.

I quickly rise myself from the ground.

Even before my fingers could leave the ground, my feet are already kicking yet I can't leave my spot as my feet keeps slipping on the earth's surface. My feet is kicking too wildly and quickly, just like my heart, panicking, like my mind. None of me could just get a grip and let me leave! My hair blocked my already limited view because of the night. It did not help either that the wind is resilient on keeping my hair in my face.

The universe just wants me to get caught.

And that just annoys me greatly.

I grit my teeth and beg for mercy. I dig my fingers into the ground and just pull myself from that spot. I didn't care that dirt are settling under my fingernails as I stumble to regain my balance, I manage to do so after a few steps and skedaddled on out of there! Running for my life that not until now I realize how valuable it is to me.

I am NOT gonna get caught or killed or capture by a...a...a stupid cloud!

"Hey! I see someone running!" Sokka's sharp eyes points out a small figure running from a small open field and into a small forest.

"I think he's heading for the village. Maybe we shouldn't bother him and just camp somewhere further for the night." Katara suggests as she calmly watch the figure disappear into the trees.

"But what if he's an angry villager that will chase us out! I mean, it's not everyday ANYONE sees a flying animal descend from the sky." Sokka argues while gesturing to Appa with his arms wide open.

"Well, I think he's just scared. If we leave him alone, then maybe he'll leave us alone." Katara inserts her opinion confidently while crossing her arms.

"Or...we could just go and reason with him? You know, talk so there's no angry mobs and we might even get to sleep in a place with a roof over our heads?" Aang suggests. He has been feeling like there is a string in his chest that was getting tighter and tighter as time goes by. As that figure runs further and further. He really tried to push this feeling away but there's this spark of hope that he might find another Air Nomad. Someone he would recognize and reinforce the belief that his people are not dead. That they are still trying to survive and will welcome him back with open arms.

Appa lands on the ground and Aang immediately starts to give chase the moment Appa's feet touches the ground.

"Stay here and take care of Appa! Let me deal with him!"

Despite his friends' protests, Aang has already ran into the forest with a gust of wing exploding from beneath his foot.

Although the forest is dark and there is no sign of the figure, Aang could feel where he is. Just ahead, a little to the left. He soon reaches the end of the forest and sees the figure ahead of him.

He is surprised that the figure is small, just like a child's size should be,

Hearing unnatural sounds erupting from behind, the figure turns to see Aang, charging with the speed of the wind. The sight results a fearful squeal and an extra effort to run faster to the village that is already in sight.

He is further surprised but slightly suspicious if it was just a boy squealing like a girl but that's unlikely as he can see her hair fluttering in the wind.

Realizing that the display of his bending is what causing her to run in fear, he stops bending and run at his normal speed which is already quite fast thanks to his training.

He is disappointed that he wasn't chasing someone he thought he was but he can't just let her run off like that. He doesn't want another kid to run from him. From fear especially.

"Wait! I'm friendly!" Aang calls out, trying to stop this unnecessary chase.

The girl turns around once more but didn't stop running as she only wants to check the distance between them. She didn't even say anything and continue to run towards a tall fence that easily reaches above their heights. Tall grass growing on this side of the fence while it is short on the other side. Aang figures that she would have to climb over which would be enough time for him to catch up.

But...

He didn't expect for the girl to suddenly fall onto her knees, slide into and pass the grass. Aang's speed deteriorates slightly from the shock but it quickly left as soon as it came when he sees the girl continuing to run deeper into the village.

Aang is tempted to slide on his knees as well but he decides to airbend himself over the fence instead. The wind attracts the girl's attention and turn around in curiosity. What she has seen just scared her even more, seeing a silhouette with the moon shining brightly behind him as if encouraging him to catch her. It is terrifying to see a human do something to inhuman that she is convinced that the person chasing her is not human so he must be a danger.

Tears are starting to blur her vision but she roughly wipes them away with her sleeves. She can't have tears blurring her vision right now. She needs her sight more than ever as she hear footsteps catching up behind her.

Aand reaches out his hand, just a few inches away from her shoulder. He is so close that he could feel her hair tingling his fingers. Then suddenly, she disappear from sight and the next thing he feels is a rock that reaches to his knees,

"Whoa!" Aang blurts as he feels the stone twitch, as if bracing itself.

Then he feels the wind as he fly ungracefully in the air due to his running momentum, and then earth burying his face.

Aang's groan of hurt is muffled by the earth that are threatening to break through his lips and invade his mouth. Pursing his lips as tightly as he could, he sits up from the ground and tries to blow the dirt from his lips but that only gives the dirt an opportunity to sneak in. He was so occupied on spitting, blowing, and wiping the dirt from his mouth, he almost forgot about the chase.

Almost.

He still feels the presence behind him.

Quickly spinning around with air bending, he finally got a front look of her. She looks pretty average. Dark brown hair with dark brown eyes and skin that is just lightly tanned. Her face slightly chubby and a small button nose. She could have been considered cute to Aang if she wasn't looking at him so fearfully.

When their eyes meet, they both feel an electrical surge of energy. Yet, both react differently. The shock stuns Aang as he lands on the ground while the girl feels the electricity pump extra energy into her muscles, urging her to run away again. Aang just stands there and watches her run into an alley between two houses and turn a corner to run behind them.

Despite being out of sight, he can still sense her, running and turning, probably thinking he was still chasing her. Feeling a shift in the air and a weight on his shoulder, Aang turns his head to find Momo. Aang looks pleased to see him but grimace when Momo holds a bug that was on his head and eats it. The crunching sound of the bug's exoskeleton is just a little less than pleasant. Aang can only pat Momo as a thank you for getting the bug off his head.

"Aang! Why did you suddenly ran off like that?" Katara calls out as Sokka and her run towards him after climbing over the fence. They must have sent Momo to find Aang, worried for his sudden eagerness to run after a stranger.

"Did you get him?" Sokka questions as he enthusiastically brandish his boomerang. Eye's squinting into the darkness for the target or any angry mob.

"No, no no!" Aang alerts at the sign of the boomerang, hands waving in front of him as he eyes the weapon. "It was just a girl!"

Sokka has to pause to process the information and tuck his prized weapon away. Shrugging, "Eh, if it was a girl then there's not much to worry about."

Katara glares at his sexist brother and elbows him in the side for revenge. "So where is she now?"

"Somewhere over there." Aang says nonchalantly as he points south west of his position. His friends follow his finger to only see a house in the direction he is pointing at.

"In that house?" Sokka asks for confirmation but when he turns to Aang, he finds that his bald friend has already started to run where he pointed to but passes the house.

"No! It's somewhere further! Follow me!"

Katara follows first before Sokka had to follow begrudgingly as not to get left behind.

"Why are we even chasing this girl!?" Sokka yells out to Aang only to be hushed by Katara.

"Shush! Are you trying to wake up this entire village? You might get that angry mob you wanted!" Katara hiss. Aang, hearing Katara's warning, slows down to get closer to them.

"I just felt a connection. Like, when I first saw her, it felt like I found an old friend. Even now I can still tell where she is. She has stopped running and is probably resting from the chase before." The Water Tribe siblings could only give Aang a stare of disbelief and discomfort from the amount of information.

"But...didn't you say this was a girl? If she's an old friend shouldn't be like...over a 100 years old?"

"I don't know, Katara. That's why I'm chasing her. To find out."

"Yeah, as much as I like a good chase, I'm not all the comfortable chasing a little girl in the middle of the night." Sokka reasons as he stops running.

Hearing how her brother had phrased it, Katara too stops in her tracks. When Aang notices his friends are no longer behind him, he stops to turn to them, eyes silently pleading for them to just follow him again. Panting lightly, Katara breaths in before pushing her voice out of her dry throat, "He's right, Aang. We would just end up scaring her. Even more if we hadn't already."

"We?" Sokka parrots. Katara refuses to correct herself.

"B-but...!" Aang tries to argue but when he remembers how scared she looked when he turned to look at her, he realizes that they are right. His shoulders slump in disappointment at not being able to find some answers and guilty for making a complete stranger afraid him. Not even as a powerful Avatar but as a person. That hurts.

Looking at his disheartened posture, Katara goes up and puts a hand on his shoulder. "Look Aang, if you want, we can come back tomorrow when the sun is up. We'll search for this girl, alright?"

Sokka opens his mouth to retort that this search is dumb and who would care about some girl that Aang seems to be attracted to but he froze. The memory of Aang losing himself into the Avatar state after learning his people are dead made him think. Looking over at Aang being hugged by his sister made him remember that this oh so powerful Avatar is like...12? Younger than him. And Sokka's eyes glazes over into the past of when his father and the rest of the warriors of the tribe had to leave.

They still haven't return.

If Aang says he needs to find this girl because he feels like she is an old friend, Sokka decides takes a moment to reconsider his words. Sokka is not like his sister but he still has some optimism too!

"Yeah! I mean, we still need to stock up on things like food so we might be here for a while tomorrow." Sokka suggests as he scratches the back of his head. Just saying this made his brain feel itchy.

Katara is shocked, to say the least, at the words coming out of her brother's mouth. "Sokka...That's sort of unlike you to be..."

Sokka grins and move his hand away from his head to rub a finger below his nose. "Nice? Yup, that's me! Sokka the nice guy!"

Getting his fill of ego stroking, he turns and make his way back to Appa. "Come on! We still have to make camp. It looks like it's too late to ask anyone for a room to sleep in."

I make my way back home, still trembling from what just happened. Even as I replay the sequence of events that had happened again and again in a loop in my mind, It is still hard to swallow. I tighten the muscles in my throat, as if it'll help me accept it but I still couldn't digest it. I finally reach home and weakly crawl over my window after a shaky pat on the sleeping reindeer-alpaca.

My small room have never felt so safe and my bed has never looked so soft and welcoming. Taking small, tired steps toward it, I lose the will to climb under the cover and just fall on the bed. Feeling the cold, cruel wind that lured me to the outside and into that...MESS...I grab my cover and just roll it on.

Falling asleep is an easy task compared to the rest of what I had to do today.

I breathe the warm morning air, welcoming it greatly as I can feel it burn yesterday night's adventure.

Never doing that again.

"Be quick and try to get home safely, Wan." My mother reminds me from behind as she watches me run towards the market with great concern.

She wouldn't let me out at first so I had to argue that she can't just keep me in my room forever. Eventually, my mother allowed me go outside to gather some items on a list. Again.

I sigh at how boring this is getting. A small part of me even wished for the thrill of being chased again.

But it's only a very, very, small part of me.

And it is a very, very, small joke to myself.

I look down at the list one more time to read the first thing on it and start looking left and right for the stalls that sells them.

"Soap...soap...soap..."

"Hey, little girl. Shouldn't be at school right now?"

I turn my head towards the familiar voice. It's a friendly fruit vendor.

"I came down with an illness so I got sent home. I can't go to school for a few days." I explain myself before looking at today's variety of fruits, all arranged by colour. It's nice but not on the list.

"If you're sick shouldn't you be inside?"

I just smiled politely and answer with the best half-lie I could come up with, "Sunlight and fresh air are the best medicine, aren't they?"

The fruit vendor laughs heartily at my answer, "Well then, stay safe, Wan!"

I gave a small bow and a wave as I walk away. The practiced polite smile I had had been replaced by a genuine one. How could a person not smile from a laugh like that? Laughter automatically makes anyone smile!

Unless it's the evil mocking one.

"Welcome, children! Which fruit has succeeded in attracting your eyes today?"

I hear the fruit vendor attempt to attract customers.

I didn't pay anymore attention as I continue searching for soap until a familiar voice explode from behind me.

"That's her!"

The voice send shivers down my spine as yesterday night's memory came to invade the inner peace I had just not so long ago. It's almost not fair.

I turn to see same kid from yesterday. Oh how could I forget him. Bald with blue tattoos on his skin, wearing the clothes that reminds me of the bright sun and the same brightness can be seen showing on his face. Mine, on the other hand, dread.

I turn and ran.

"Hey, wait! Guys, help me!"

GUYS!? There's more than one of him!? Oh great. Ooooohhh...great..!

I maneuver through the crowd with minor difficulty. I have to spin on the balls of my feet and duck to narrowly dodge baskets from hitting me, shift my footing to easily slip through the gaps between tall adults, forced my hand in front of people about to get in my way to stop them in their tracks to let me pass.

I turn around to see how far they are but I find no one.

That's when I noticed. Other shoppers had stopped what they were doing to awe at something. Fingers pointing a little behind and far above the ground. Shifting my view, I could only gape in disbelief as I watch the boy dressed with the colour of the sun chase after me...

from the bloody roof.

This confirms that this kid is the same kid from yesterday and I scowl at him.

"Wait! I just want to talk!" I hear him yell from above.

"No!" I forcefully reject.

I find myself nearing the end of the market street. There's nothing but open space and my instincts are telling me to turn around. I can't lose someone who can fly to the roof in an open area!

Shoving the paper my mom gave to me into my pocket, I bend the knees of my left leg to the ground and my right leg was straight in front of me. All of my weight was all on my left leg as I try to stop my momentum while my hands are on the ground, fingers digging into the earth for balance. Once I feel my momentum is low enough, I use my fingers to pull myself and run back deeper into the market street.

"Please! We want to apologize for our friend for scaring you yesterday!"

I hear a female voice coming from an alley that I just passed. Turning around, I freeze as I looked into the blue eyes I swear I saw once before.

"Ah! You're the girl of my dreams!" I accidentally project.

After gaining some self control, my face goes red from embarrassment.

FROM my dreams, Wan.

FROM my dreams, you stupid idiot!

"Psyche!" I continue and turn to run away from the girl.

Smooth recovery. No one would suspect a thing.

The girl is a little too stunned from my sudden accidental confession to chase after me but as soon as the flying kid of the sun brings her back to reality, she continues to chase after me.

Her eyes are clearly confused and projected the perfection of complete confusion.

I can't run in the market street forever. They'll catch me for sure! I don't know how many people are this kid's 'guys' but I'm bound to get caught soon. I need to run to somewhere else.

I need to run home!

I need my mom!

Turning to a corner, I am surprised momentarily from suddenly seeing a teenage boy turning into the same alley as me from the other end. I suspect that he's one of the 'guys' because of his odd clothing. He also looks kinda like that girl.

"Ahah! Found you!"

Yup. One of the guys.

He have his hands raise above him, ready to grab me but I continue running. I got a trick up my sleeves for people taller than me. I charge head on aggressively, even faster than before, causing the surprised teen to stop in his tracks. With great worry, he brought his hands up to shield his face and torso.

But I wasn't aiming for an attack as I slide onto my knees and slide between his legs. Once I pass him, I got back onto my feet and ran.

"'Found you!?' Could you make us sound any more like crooks!?" I hear the girl yell at the taller male before they continue to chase after me. But by then, I have turned another corner and they lost sight of me.

Two down, one to go.

Leaping from the roof tops, I heard the sound of someone landing behind me.

I don't even need to look behind me to know who it is. I can sense it.

"Leave me alone!"

"Wait! I'm trying to apologize for yesterday!"

"Well, apology accepted!" Not really. "Now go away!"

"Can we stop running just for a moment? I just want to talk!"

"I'll stop if you stop chasing me!"

"Really?"

"Yes!"

I heard the earth grinding as he uses his strength to stop running without falling over.

I let him watch me turn another corner and continue running.

Nope.

"HEY!"

I can't help but grin mischievously at my achievement. But the glory was short lived.

I can feel a breeze brushing my back. It fewls like the breath of a spirit opening its mouth, about to take a bite of me. It feels like he's already behind me when in truth he has just turned into the corner, looking nothing like the demon that I always end up imagining.

"Why didn't you stopped?" I hear him whine from behind me.

The fear that the wind blew my way didn't fade just like the memory of yesterday. My need to turn corners becomes stronger as I turn every corner that comes my way.

I use to think that the construction placement of the buildings are just ridiculous. No, I don't care that the citizens came from the village of Chin had moved to Whale Tail Island when they got tired of the War between Chin and Avatar Kyoshi and because there were so few people back then they just randomly built houses wherever they liked that slowly grew cluttered as the years go by.

But now I'm grateful for these ridiculous corners.

"Well, what did you expect from the person you chased in the middle of the night!? I have every right to run away from you!"

"I thought you forgave me for that!"

"I lied! Again!"

Aang, sensing that this conversation is going no where, leaps from the alley and into the sky. He sees the girl running towards a house, presumably her home and land just a little ahead of her, right in front of the door.

"Please, I'm sorry and-"

Apparently, he underestimated the strength she has been using to run and she collides into him. He swear he feels something on his face break as he is pushed backwards into the door of the house. Even the door couldn't handle the momentum and breaks down into the house. Aang feels the girl continue rolling off of him and stopping just above his head as his back lay flat on the ground. Only after a few seconds, did his legs join the rest of his body on the ground after being in the air for a while.

Both children groan from the collision as they try to upright themselves.

"Wan!"

"Mom!" Aang can hear her getting up from the ground and running towards her mother.

"Who's that?"

Silence.

The girl named Wan watch as the boy raise his back from the ground. Still seated on the fallen door, he turns to her.

"Oh goodnes, you're bleeding!" The mother leeaves her daughter's side and kneels next to Aang as blood drips down from his nose.

Aang barely feels a thing when the mother reaches for a cloth to wipe the blood from his nose. Not even when the mother chides in his ear and force his hand to hold the cloth onto his nose himself. Or even when the woman had to go outside the calm the crowd gathering and tries to shoo them away.

Aang just stares at her. The light allowing him more detail of the girl compared to yesterday's dark night.

Everything felt familiar.

She feels like an old memory. And old friend. That had died a long, long time ago. Something he didn't know he missed until now.

It feels like someone has opened the door to home that has been locked away and welcoming him with open arms.

He watches as she slowly walk up to him, eyes brimming with tears and saying something repeatedly but he is too deep drowning in nostalgia to hear her properly.

"I...ry...'m...or..."

He wraps his arms around the welcoming arms of home.

I am so confused.

Just yesterday this kid was the reason that I cried.

Now today, he's crying.

And because he ended up crying, from what I think was because of the nosebleed, I cried from guilt.

I went up to say I'm sorry but he didn't seem to respond. So I tried again and again, trying to get a response. But nothing.

I was so worried that I had broken him from when I accidentally ran into him.

I really did try to stop running but I couldn't stop in time.

And the way he looked at me. How it was shining from tears and broken hope but still has its radiance. He looks even more out of place that he usually does with his weird clothes.

Now everyone in the village, anyone close by actually, is trying to look over and around my mother, catching sight of the crying boy raining tears onto my shoulders, sobbing. Not even bothering to hold up the cloth to his bloody nose anymore, letting the bloody cloth onto drop on my knees and fresh blood from his nose dripping onto my chest.

I have no idea what to do.

He is hugging me so strongly, a little too strongly, that I feel like I am loosing air.

I feel so bad because I'm the reason that made him cry. Don't understand the hug but oh well.

My arms that had went limp from the numbing shock of the hug have risen to his back.

One hand patting on one of his shoulder blades, and the other just rested on the other shoulder blade.

Feeling that this wasn't enough, seeing the boy didn't react to it at all, I wrap him into a hug equally as enveloping. One hand gently rubbing his back.

"Aang!"

"Please let us in! He's our friend!"

Hearing two familiar voices, I look up to find the same dark-skinned sibling dressed in blue trying to pass my mother.

My mother turns to me and I nod eagerly.

They are allowed to pass my mother and kneel down to the side of their friend.

The girl tries to remove him from me but he only held on tighter. Her eyes absorbs the sight with sympathy and look into my confused and overwhelmed eyes, silently requesting my permission to hold onto him a little longer. My reaction to her silent request is to hold onto the quivering body of the boy as he tries to wilk himself to calm down.

"Sokka, help the lady."

The boy named Sokka nods and rise from the ground, his voice booming a lie that there is nothing to see here as he walks up to my mother's side.

Today is just...a mess.

Author's note: If you had managed to reach this far, I must applause you. I really did not expect anyone to even reach this far. So really, thank you for your time and precious attention.

Have a good day, readers.