"So what's the new plan?"
"Well, if you ask me, the new plan is the old plan! You just need to master all four elements and confront the Fire Lord before the comet comes."
It was all a dream, I tell myself, a crazy, insane dream…
"Oh, great, no problem, I'll just do that."
"Aang, no one said it's gonna be easy."
"Well it's not even going to be possible! Where am I supposed to get a Fire bending teacher?"
It's a dream, you're just hearing the remnants leaving your head, I firmly pound the thought into my brain.
"Well, we could always look for Jeong-Jeong."
"Yeah, right, as if we'll ever run into Jeong-Jeong again."
"Who's…? Never mind. If it's important, I'll find out."
Fire benders? Air temples? That's the stuff of stories for kids, not some weird reality I've been thrown into…
"Oh well, guess we can't come up with anybody. Why don't we just take a nice tour around the temple?"
The gust of wind on my face is not part of the dream, though. Reluctantly, I open my eyes to discover that it wasn't a dream after all. I was still surrounded by the same strange people.
"We could always get her to teach Aang Fire bending," Sokka waves a hand in my direction. Everyone glances over.
"Oh good," Katara says, "You're awake again."
"Get away from me," I scramble to my feet, ignoring the fuzzy blackness at the edge of my vision.
Katara looks confused, but keeps coming closer.
"I mean it!" I grab my backpack, prepared to make a run for it.
Still, Katara steps toward me, joined by Sokka and Toph. "Please, Starr," Katara pleads. "We want to help you."
A surge of energy wells up and releases itself through my fingertips. "Freeze!" I shout at them. The energy leaves my body, and the fatigue slows me down. I risk a glance at the crazy people; they're frozen in mid-step, with looks of concern on their faces.
I slowly straighten from my lunge, suddenly conscious of the stillness of the air around me. Even the huge flying animal is frozen. I glance out into the vast emptiness of the cliff and see the bald boy—Aang—frozen in mid-swoop of his hang-glider. I risk another glance at the three statues facing me. Then I listen to my gut and bolt.
I run down one of the halls built into the cliff, twisting and turning until I don't even know which tunnel I came from. When I finally stop for breath, I'm at a cross roads of sorts, with six tunnels facing me, and one at my back. I randomly pick the fifth one, which leads to a hall of what I think are bedrooms. I choose the one with no skeletons.
"Oh, my gosh," I collapse onto the mattress. "I have no idea where I am, I'm pretty sure I just froze those people forever but they were my only hope of getting out of here alive and I really want to go back to New York and I have no idea what's going on but I'm pretty sure I was in shock earlier since I was just kind of going along with what everyone says but now I'm who-knows-where in some god-forsaken tunnel and I just want to get out of here!" I sob into my empty backpack, alone.
After a few minutes—or hours since I have no way of keeping time here—I wipe away the tears and manage to sit up. Taking a huge breath, I decide to try and find my way back to the open area where everyone was. I step into the hall and pick the tunnels where the light is brightest. In doing so, I manage to find my way back.
The group of three is still frozen in their place, and the sun hadn't moved at all across the sky, even though I had been inside for a while. I move closer to the three stiffs.
They're frozen in time, I hear a voice say. It sounds like my mother's, which is ridiculous; she died in a fire three years ago. The whole world is stopped, my mother's voice continues. All you have to do is trust them, and everything will be released.
I don't know whether to trust the voice or not, but it's better than nothing. Taking a few deep breaths, I look into their faces and see nothing but kindness and worry. Worry for me, the crazy girl who runs from help and appears in clouds. I smirk at the thought, glad my sarcasm hasn't been lost in this crazy world. Strangely, I find it in myself to trust them; I feel the energy surge through my body again, but calmer now. The energy escaped through my outstretched fingers, a purple spiral scattering into the air, releasing everything from its frozen spell.
"Hey, where'd she go?" Sokka whirls around, drawing his sword. Katara and Toph follow his gaze to me, sitting on one of the stones they had vacated.
"How'd you get over there so fast?" Toph demands, stalking closer to me every second. "I didn't even feel you run!"
"You see this?" Sokka screams at his sister. "Fire bender! She just disappeared before our eyes and winds up behind us?"
"I don't think Starr's a Fire bender, Sokka," Katara moves next to me and inspects the bump on my head.
"Well then what is she?" Toph demands.
"I don't know," Katara consoles, "but I don't think she's dangerous." Katara opens a pouch at her side and water floats out into her outstretched palm. She carefully moves her hands around until they're encased in the beautiful floating water. Katara places one hand on my head bump, and then the water begins to glow. It hurts my eyes, but I keep them open. Sokka stares at his sister slack-jawed, as if she's one hundred percent crazy. The thought crossed my mind, but as soon as Katara removes her hand, the bump is gone.
"Better?" she asks.
"Yeah," I feel my forehead. "Um…thanks."
"No problem," she smiles. Aang swoops back into the courtyard we're all in.
"Come on guys," he smiles. "I want to show you the giant Pai-Sho table. And you're gonna love the all-day echo chamber!"
"I think that'll have to wait," Toph growls and points behind me, a murderous look on her face.
Everybody turns around to see what—or rather who—she's pointing at. He's a teenager, about my age, with shaggy black hair and a thin face. His left eye is scarred red, and he's dressed all in red. My mind flashes back to the figure I saw when I first rode into the temple. Up close, the guy is sort of hot. Like, Taylor Launter mixed with Alex Watson, with a dash of Ryan Reynolds.
But everyone else is looking at him like he's the enemy.
"Hello," He says with a small smile, raising his hand in a greeting. "Zuko here."