Chapter II

Aang awoke with his head throbbing from ear to ear. The room was empty; Katara and the rest probably got annoyed with the mystery moaning… or went somewhere else at to not disturb him. Yeah, the first choice. Sunlight flittered in through the big window to his left and bounced off all the shiny metal stuff found in the room- an old mirror with polished wooden claws as legs, an array of gold and silver swords that were hung on the wall to his right, and little statuettes of dragons and bison and… flying monkey-lemurs? Momo would be offended.

Aang got stiffly out of bed and walked to one of the statues; this one had two dragons wrapped together to make a glistening spiral about the length of his forearm, where one was a rich bronze color, and the other a brilliant silver that looked nearly blue. He suddenly recognized the two figures as the ancient masters that gave him and Zuko the secret of fire. Seeing it had been so beautiful; watching the blue and red ribbons swirl around him had nearly entranced him and had given him new hope of peace.

This thought brought him back to his dream, which had not been a joyride, either- he kept shifting from places to places, traveling to the Air Temple, to the Water Tribe, the Earth Kingdom, then the Fire Nation. He had traveled alone, but constantly felt a presence of something, or someone, there with him-someone familiar and foreign together. In his dream, he witnessed people dying, just… dropping for nothing-even the Fire nation collapsed when he saw it. Was it him who had caused it? Did he have to do something to stop it? Maybe this dream was a sign- maybe he needed to take immediate action to secure the small bond that developed between the three nations- plus him- before it was too late.

This gave him energy, and he nearly bolted from the room. Before he did, he sent a blast of air intended to gracefully fix the bed that instead made them flip over and the pillows fly and nearly hit the expensive metals. Aang, however, didn't have time to be a house-keeper and went, rather defeated, to get dressed. After a minute's struggle with hurriedly pulling on his familiar shirt, he burst through the back doors of the house, leading him to a beautiful, lush green garden. It had dense, wile-shaped trees growing in a semi-circle, a stream bubbling through them, and some really antique-looking, hand- carved benches.

Now Aang saw everyone lounging around, staring at his sudden entrance. Katara was by the stream, of course, making ice figures out of the clear water. Sokka could be seen with Suki, carving what appeared to be a new boomerang. Toph was lazily throwing rocks for Momo to catch. Oppa took up about a third of the garden, and was shamelessly chewing on one of the trees' curly branches.

"Hey, Aang, have a good sleep?" Katara abandoned her fish-ice sculpture and came over.

"Oh, was it a good dream?" Sokka sniggered, looking at him behind a tree. Toph laughed and added, "Yah, we were jealous of how much fun you seemed to be having sleeping, so we decided to leave."

Again, his cheeks went red. "Yah, seeing everyone around me dye was tons of fun!" Aang said, new frustration bubbling inside him.

"Was that what the dream was about?" Katara's expression grew concerned, and everyone seemed to suddenly frown.

"Yah," his anger starting to leave, "I think we should order a councel meeting with the White Lotus." Aang rubbed his head, which still prickled slightly. "We can't wait around for things to get better. What if everyone starts fighting again?" He barely noticed his eyes enlarging.

"Oh, calm down, airhead, you just saved the world!" Toph seemed involved now, because she sat up and stopped throwing rocks. "We all deserve a break, what with you defeating the Loser Lord, me saving Sokka and Suki, Suki battling and kicking butt, Katara kicking Azula's butt, and Sokka… throwing his boomerang…"

"Hey!" said Sokka.

"You throw nicely, honey." Suki pacified him and gave a quick kiss.

"I think the world can be good while we're on vacation." Toph conclided.

"Yah, as much as she is annoying, she's right." Sokka came over to Aang with Suki. "Come on, we can prank Zuko and Mai! Doesn't that sound fun?" Aang just looked at everyone's confused and disapproving looks at Sokka, and let out a sigh.

"What if the world starts fighting without me? I mean- what if I need to do something to keep it balanced, cause you never know if there's another bad guy who wants me destroyed." He hung his head, feeling helpless and foolish. He was the Avatar! He could never just sit down and… chuck rocks for Momo, or craft boomerangs, or make ice sculptures.

"Aang, we are going to do something, but not now- not when you still need to rest." Katara put a hand on his arm, and this, sadly, was enough to persuade him. He nodded then, and everyone looked immediately releaved.

"Yeah, Avatar party! Let's go prank Zuko!" Sokka's enthusiasm was so inviting that Aang could not help but agree… to the party, not pranking. Avatars didn't prank.

"Yeah, Aang! Your birthday is days away!" Suki smiled at him, trying to calm Sokka. "We should celebrate. Then you can keep kicking butt."

"Let's go into town- I think they're still re-enacting our heroism!" Toph sounded like Sokka.

"Yah, cause the plays they put on are so realistic!" Katara sounded annoyed. "I don't talk about hope all the time!"

"Sure you don't, droplet, nut let's go anyway!" Toph got up, followed by Sokka and Suki. Aang let himself be nudged out of the garden and through the house until they were all standing in the middle of the town. Parades, laughter, monkeys dancing- what could ruin this day?