I know I have no excuse not to be updating constantly now because it's summer, but I still kinda have a somewhat busy schedule lol! But since I'm not in school I have way more time and I promise I'll be using it to keep writing this story and any others that I'm currently working on. Sorry for all the long waits! Enjoy!
~th3rdhale~

It was close to dawn and I was still awake. Though my eyelids were slowly drooping, I had not yet drifted off to sleep. The sun had begun to peak out over the horizon, and the skyline was a faint orange and purple. The only noise I had heard in the last few hours was the whistling wind as we soared onward on Appa; this was why I became a little surprised when Sokka's voice cut through the long silence.

"Is this your first time leaving home?" The Water Tribe boy asked a little ways to my right. Toph and Katara had fallen asleep and were further up in the saddle; we could only see the back of Aang and I guessed he was fighting off sleep as well as I was.

"Actually no." I responded, turning my head to face him. Sokka was studying the sunrise and it appeared as if he had been awake for a while. "I've been away from home a few times."

"Where you scared at first?" He smiled warmly. I paused for a brief moment before answering.

"Yeah, I was." I admitted. "I didn't really know what to expect." Sokka nodded his head in agreement. He laughed quietly and then looked down at his hands for a moment.

"It's kind of funny," he began. "five months ago, the only place I had ever known was the South Pole. And now, I'm trying to think of a place I've never been!" The boy grinned broadly. His enthusiasm was great for being awake in the wee hours of morning.

"Wow, you guys must have some great stories then." I shifted my position so that I was sitting up straight in the saddle. The smile upon Sokka's grew larger than before.

"Oh yea!" He exclaimed loudly. Then, he noticed my mellow and relaxed persona; that and it was very early in the morning. Sokka slouched down against the side of the bison's saddle. "I mean, yea we've got a couple." He tried again, more smoothly. I laughed as discreetly as I could. That boy was such a card. The goofy smile returned to his face moments later. "Remind me to tell you em some time." I nodded my head; it was a deal. I let my gaze shift over to Aang. The young avatar's back was still to us as he gripped Appa's reins. Kid must be tired, I thought. He was trying to make sure we arrived at our next destination safely, and for a twelve year-old that's a big responsibility; but Aang wasn't just any twelve year-old. My mind began to wander.

"Do you think we can do it?" Sokka tore his gaze away from the slowly rising sun.

"Hmm?"

"Do we have a chance to end this war?" I asked more clearly that time. I kept my voice just loud enough for him to hear, I didn't want Aang to feel offended in any way. "Will Aang finish his training by the end of summer?" Simultaneously, Sokka and I both focused our attention on the Air Nomad who sat stationed on Appa's head.

"Well, we've come this far, haven't we?" The Water Tribe boy asked rhetorically. "I guess we'll just have to see how things play out." I nodded my head slowly to concur with him. "You know, we should probably get some sleep." Sokka suggested, changing the subject. "I'm not sure how far we're going or what Aang has in mind." He stretched out on his side of the saddle and curled up in the fetal position. Short minutes later, the boy was snoring quietly. I shook my head, a small smile on my face as I did so.

"Night Sokka." I glanced at him one more time before turning over onto my side.

"Think we have enough firewood?" I followed Sokka out of the little forest by our campsite. The two of us held about five logs each. The Water Tribe boy nodded his head in front of me.

"Yeah, these'll be good." We could barely see the tent Aang was attempting to set up when we heard some arguing.

"Katara, I can carry my own weight." My cousin's defiant voice came from the center of our campsite. Moments later, the water-bender's response was heard.

"That's not exactly what I meant." She tried to explain her point. "What I was saying is that we all need to do our part when traveling together." Sokka and I approached the two, who were only a few feet away from one another. Katara turned to see her brother and I, still holding the wood. "Karuna's got the right idea." The dark skinned girl continued. "She helped Sokka carry the firewood." Toph still shrugged her off like the hard-headed kid she really was. Though Katara's vision of everyone helping out was a decent idea, I knew my cousin wouldn't go along with it; especially the way Katara was pitching it out.

"I don't know what the problem is. I carry my own weight." Toph repeated, dragging her napsack with her as she stormed off past us to the other side of the campsite. The girl sat down cross-legged, and then struck her elbow against the ground. Two thin, rectangular blocks of earth rose up to form a triangle above her. Toph stomped her foot and smaller, triangular pieces closed off both entrances, creating an earth-tent.

I sighed and shook my head, feeling slightly embarrassed at my cousin's actions. Katara wasn't very mad; if anything, she was simply frustrated.

"No offense, but how are you two related?" She asked in a jokingly manner. I laughed dryly as well.

"She's a pretty stubborn kid." I informed Katara, my eyes never leaving Toph's earth-tent. "But she'll turn around, I swear." I apologized on my cousin's behalf. Our conversation had to be put on hold though because Aang called out to us from underneath a tarp.

"Ah! Little help guys!"

We never did finish setting up the tent. There were no directions to be found, which Katara could've sworn there were earlier; and of course, she blamed Sokka for the misplacement since he did most of the unloading. Aang and I didn't mind much because we were nature people and preferred to sleep under the stars. The gang had an extra sleeping bag for me and I was grateful.

The four of us set up our sleeping arrangements right before the campfire died down. I hopped into my sleeping bag, which was to the right of Sokka and left of Katara; Aang picked a spot on the other side of Sokka.

"Everyone sleep well tonight." Katara urged in a motherly tone.

"Hey, sugar queen!" Toph's voice was heard for the first time in hours. And what was funnier, it was an insult I swore I had used sometime in my life as well. "Pipe down will ya?" I could see Katara glaring over where Toph lay in the dim light of the embers on the fire pits ash. It was evident that she was annoyed.

"I was just saying good night to everyone, Toph." The Water Tribe girl replied as coolly as possible, Katara zipped up the side of her sleeping bag and put her head down. I followed suit.

"Good. I don't have to hear you talk anymore." My cousin retorted. In an instant, Katara's large, blue eyes opened and she sat up quickly.

"What was that?" The water-bender demanded. When there was no response, she grew even more irritable. "If you have something to say, come out here and say it to my face!" Katara slid back into her sleeping bag, thinking that the little charade was over.

"Boy do I feel sorry for you guys." Toph continued to taunt. "She must be really loud out there." For a split second, I was convinced that Katara was an undercover fire-bender, because I could have sworn there was steam coming out of her ears. I thought the girl was going to tear down Toph's earth-tent chunk by chunk, but she didn't leave her resting place. All of a sudden, and evil grin replaced Katara's scowl as she looked up into the night sky.

"Wow, the stars look beautiful tonight, Karuna," She began. I nearly flew up in the air, remembering my last deja vu half a year ago. No more stars, people! I hollered in my head. "Too bad your bratty-ass cousin can't see them." I calmed down once I realized what she was doing. Oh damn.

"Someone's gonna need some ice for that burn." Sokka wittily remarked under his breath. From inside Toph's earth-tent, a loud 'THUD' was heard. The ground shook for a moment, and then all of a sudden, Katara was launched into the air-sleeping bag and all. The Water Tribe girl shrieked as she landed on top of Sokka and I. And let me put it this way, she wasn't exactly a bag of feathers.

"Katara, I'm all for getting to know you," I started. "But this is a little much. Kindly remove your head from-"

"I'm trying! It's harder than it looks!" She bit back. The left side of her face was pressed up against the bottom of my ribcage and I could literally feel each word she spoke. The edge of Katara's sleeping bag got caught in the zipper on Sokka's and the more she squirmed, the worse it got.

"Nice going Katara." Sokka snorted at his sister.

Aang sent a gust of wind our way, knocking Katara, who had just begun to untangle herself, back onto me. "Can you guys please stop fighting so we can go to sleep?" Agitation lined the young avatar's speech.

"Sorry, I hope this isn't awkward." Katara whispered, looking up at me from her current position. I answered honestly and truthfully.

"Compared to last year, this is nothing."

I chased him throughout the mountains. The boy with the white headband. His spiky brown hair spilled out over it, nearly covering the yellow sun on its front. I had no clue where he had come from; he just suddenly appeared. One moment, I was staring at my own troubled reflection in a desolate pond, and then the water was disturbed by thrown pebbles. I turned around to see a guy with messy hair, torn up pants, and wearing a sleeveless shirt. Moments upon gaining my attention, he turned on his heels and ran up the side of the slope. I took off after him, wondering who he could possibly be; I had never seen him before in my lifetime.

I could feel the blood pounding in my ears as I followed him up the dirt path. Everything in my surroundings appeared to be a blur. I was running at an extremely fast pace, but so was he. The ends of his headband flew behind him in the wind as he sprinted. In a flash, we were nearing the top of the peak. The earth beneath my feet began to rumble and stir. The boy, who I was in pursuit, stopped abruptly at the edge and turned to face me. He held his fist out in a palm-heel strike. His stormy, gray eyes were the last things I saw before the ground sent me far up into the air. Then I was falling fast.

"Guys! Something's coming!" Toph's voice awakened me from my slumber. I bolted up straight in my sleeping bag to find my cousin crouched down next to us with her palm to the ground. "Something big!" She concluded. The others awoke as well, shaking the sleep from their eyes. Aang pointed to a large cloud of smoke in the distance behind the Pine Trees.

"Whatever that is, we should leave." He decided.

The gang and I hurriedly threw our equipment into Appa's saddle. We barely had everything packed when the five of us took off. "Yip-yip!" Appa didn't need to be told twice. Katara glanced uneasily behind us as we soared away.

"What is that?" She wondered, as we watched the smoke cloud which continue to follow us onward.

"Don't worry guys, whatever it is will go away, and if not, we can outrun it." Aang reassured everyone from up front.

"Seriously?" Sokka whined as Toph alerted everyone for the third time that we were still being followed. I couldn't believe it either. Aang had taken us far out of the path of whatever was coming after us. We were atop a tall peak, very similar to the one in my dream.

"No!" Aang cried, noticing the smog cloud once again. "I thought we lost them!" From inside his sleeping bag, Sokka kept complaining about loss of sleep; by that point, all of us were very tired and pretty crabby.

"Well maybe we wouldn't have this problem if Toph would have just helped out earlier." The water-bender finally snapped. My cousin whirled around to confront her, eyebrows narrowed.

"How is this my fault?" She hollered back at Katara. I held the small girl back before she started to take some swings out at the other girl. We all needed sleep desperately, but we couldn't go anywhere without being tracked down, yet again. Aang did his best to try to calm the girls down.

"It's no one's fault." He declared. "We just need to figure out what keeps following us." The smoke drew closer and closer, and the loud sound of an engine could be heard for miles.

"Should we face it? See who it is?" Toph questioned, striking a battle pose. Aang didn't response, he simply gripped his staff firmly in defense. The chugging sound increased, then at the base of the peak, we saw it.

It was a black machine, ugly, made of iron and steel; it looked like a tank yet also a train. The enormous vehicle came to a halt and the smog clouds began to cease. A hatch on one of the machine's cars unlocked, and out crawled three lizard-like creatures with riders on their back's.

Katara gasped as she recognized our pursuers. "It's those girls from Omashu!" She exclaimed. I couldn't see as well as her, especially because of my one eye. But as the three figures began to draw nearer, I could recall them as well.

On the far left, a pale-faced girl with raven-black hair held throwing stars with her dominant hand. My palms began to tingle. All the way on the right, a girl with long, braided hair had an unusually serious expression cast upon her childish face. I gulped, feeling a lump form in my throat. And dead center, the girl I hoped never to see again, the princess, glared at us with shimmering, golden eyes, never blinking; like prey.

As if on cue, Momo screeched and dived into Appa's saddle. I wanted to do just as the lemur had, yet I couldn't bring myself to move. My knees shook violently. "Ah shit, count me out of this one!" I nervously announced. Sokka peered out from behind my shoulder, still half in his sleeping bag.

"I know," he whimpered. "They're so scary." I wanted to agree with Sokka, but his description barely scratched the surface on what those three ladies truly were.