"I am Avatar Yangchen, young Air bender," says a cool female voice in the mist.

This is so not my normal dream. Everything's all weirdly misty, like I should know where I am, but I don't. it kind of reminds me of the last Harry Potter movie when they're in King's Cross, but I'm pretty sure I'm in a forest of some kind. I start running towards the voices.

"Avatar Yangchen," I hear Aang, "the monks always taught me that all life was sacred, even the life of the tiniest spider-fly caught in its own web."

"Yes, all life is sacred."

"I know, I'm even a vegetarian! I've always tried to solve my problems by being quick or clever, and I've only had to use violence for necessary defense, and I've certainly never used it to take a life."

The voices are getting closer, but I can tell I'm still far away. But how can I hear them if I'm so far?

"Avatar Aang, I know that you're a gentle spirit and the monks have taught you well, but this isn't about you." Wow, talk about tough love. Yangchen continues, "This is about the world."

"But the monks taught me that I had to detach myself from the world so my spirit could be free."

"Many great and wise Air Nomads have detached themselves and achieved spiritual enlightenment. But the Avatar can never do it, because your sole duty is to the world. Here is my wisdom for you: Selfless duty calls you to sacrifice your own spiritual needs and do whatever it takes to protect the world."

I emerge into a hexagonal clearing in enough time to see the glowing female monk vanish in a breeze. Aang hangs his head.

"I guess I don't have a choice, Momo," he says to the lemur. "I have to kill the Fire Lord."

I reach out for Aang to comfort him, but just as I brush his skin, the dream drags itself away. I can't move, but Aang, the trees, the cursed brambles that caught on my pants, even the sky and sea pull backwards to reveal the same creepy hooded figure I met before. The only difference in our meeting now is the nothingness that surrounds us. I'm talking completely empty space. The blackness pushes itself onto my eyes, except for the glowing disk under the person's hood.

"Your time is running out, young Time bender," the hooded figure hisses before twisting in on itself and vanishing. It's a strange voice, neither male nor female, but a weird rasping mixture of the two.

Then I awaken to my own screaming.

"Starr, wake up!" Zuko shouts gleefully in my ear. He immediately squeezes me into a huge hug. "You were right, he was never mad, and my uncle forgave me!"

It takes me a second to get oriented, but what he's saying sinks in.

"Zuko that's great!"

"We're going to have a war meeting over breakfast right now, come on!" he bounds away towards Iroh's tent.

I roll my eyes with a smile. For my own breakfast, my backpack (I'm amazed that it's lasted so long without getting lost) provides a steaming travel mug of coffee. Black, no sugar.

"Really? Not even a cappuccino?" I shout into its depths. A single sugar packet appears at the bottom. Can magic links to your own time go bad?