"Hmm..." Sokka surveyed the Companion's pages critically - well, as critically as you can get when you're surveying a book full of crazy stories about yourself and your friends - until he found something. "New chapter for The Origins of Pro-Bending, guys? What do you say?"

Toph raised an eyebrow. "Wait, isn't that the one where you fall in love with Azula?"

A look of comprehension dawned on Sokka's face. "Oh, right. Something else then."

"Too late, Snoozles." Toph sent a pebble flying at Sokka's hand as it was about to turn the page, giving him a good rap on the knuckles.

Sokka rubbed his sore knuckle. "Ow, that hurt! Why are you all so adamant about knowing how Azula and I are in love anyway?"

"I'm not," Zuko interjected. "I just try to forego those parts."

"But it's fun watching Sokka fall for a crazy lightning-striking princess!" Toph insisted. "Plus, I might get to kick some butt along the way!"

"And there you have it, Sokka," Katara told her brother, "the main reason she's actually listening to this story is because she might get to kick butt."

Toph nodded. "Of course! Isn't that why anyone reads at all?"

Aang chuckled. "Actually Toph, I've read quite a few books that don't involve kicking butt of any sort."

"Then that must be dull," Toph responded. "Now start the story, Snoozles."

Steering a War Balloon wasn't easy even for regular soldiers, but it was really confusing for Ty Lee. Mai wasn't as helpful as she could have been, since she felt that she'd cause more damage than help he she were to get involved in getting the infamous transportation to move in the right direction. They had been traveling for 3 days already, and they should have reached Haru's village by now, but the amount of trouble they'd dealt with while trying to keep themselves airborne had caused several delays in their schedule.

Aang blinked. "Wait, why are Mai and Ty Lee looking for Haru again?"

"Oh, it's because Azula needed his help or something with the test," Sokka explained. "It was mentioned in the last chapter - you know, the half I read before you guys joined me."

Katara frowned thoughtfully. "Why would Azula need Haru's help? I'd say she's actually got something sinister planned for him, except since they don't really know each other anyway there's no basis for that theory, unless she was trying to use him to get to us..."

"Which would be strange, since if she really wanted to attack us she could've just done so without using Haru, seeing as we're in such close proximity," Zuko added. "In short, we don't know why she needs him."

"I guess it's safe to assume she won't fry him alive the moment she sees him though," Toph mused, then a grin broke out of her face. "Hey, maybe he's actually her other boyfriend and she's cheating on Sokka!"

"No! Nobody cheats on me!" Sokka protested.

Toph sent a sly (albeit sightless) glance at the Water Tribe teen. "Oh, so you do like her, huh? Otherwise, why would you want her to stay faithful to you?"

"No, it's not - I mean, it's just - Urgh!" Sokka threw his hands up into the air in exasperation. "I just don't like people who are supposed to be with me to actually not be with me and with someone else, so since Azula's supposed to be with me here I'd like it to stay that way, even if I hate the idea! There, does that make things clearer?"

There was a pause, and then Aang summed up everyone's reactions accurately: "Uh, no."

The ponytailed warrior sighed. "Never mind."

"Well, that's that!" said Ty Lee right after setting the War Balloon on a course "We are a little too high, but I'll deal with that later…" and she sat on the floor of the balloon

"Where are we, exactly?" asked Mai, staring at the map Azula had given Ty Lee "I can't read maps very well"

"W-well… let me try!" said Ty Lee, taking the scroll and staring at it intently "Y-you know, I think we must be close by now, but… this is a little confusing…"

"You know, I'm surprised Azula sent Mai and Ty Lee of all people to look for someone in the Earth Kingdom on a war balloon," Zuko remarked. "I mean, I know they're her most loyal friends, but they probably don't have much experience steering a war balloon, and frankly..." he trailed off.

"Frankly, you think Ty Lee would probably crash the whole thing in less than ten minutes from the time they got it airborne," Sokka finished for him.

The scarred teen sent him a grateful look, and the boomerang wielder simply shrugged. "I was thinking the same. I like Ty Lee and all, but I don't think she's exactly the smartest of people, and it doesn't seem like aircraft are her sort of thing."

"Never judge people on appearances, Snoozles," Toph reminded him. "You just might end up getting it totally wrong. Trust me, I know."

Sokka raised an eyebrow. "How? You don't even know what people's appearances are like; you're blind!"

"I mean it because I've been on the other end of the stick. You know, when Earth Rumble Six competitors think they're facing easy prey because the opponent's a little blind girl?"

"Of course, you set that misconception right in no time, right Toph?" Katara grinned.

"Right you are, Sugar Queen, right you are."

Mai sighed and looked at the sky without much interest, feeling as bored and irritated as she always did. In all truthfulness, she was starting to understand why they had needed to travel with Azula before: the Princess could read maps properly, unlike her and Ty Lee. But of course, she wasn't going to voice her opinion, despite knowing that the same thoughts were probably coursing through Ty Lee's mind by now.

Sokka grinned amusedly. "So I guess just because you've got some mean attack skills doesn't mean you're good at directions, huh?"

"Course not; I've met many a strong earthbender and I'm not sure all of them can hold a map the right way up," Toph responded with a cheeky grin. "Of course, seeing as I can't either, I'm not one to talk."

"Yup," Aang agreed. "Personally, I don't think I'm any better with maps - I do get confused sometimes."

"Yeah, otherwise you wouldn't have wound up in the middle of the South Pole to get frozen in an iceberg for a hundred years," Sokka teased.

Katara put an arm around her boyfriend. "Well, I don't think Aang getting frozen in that iceberg was a bad thing," she said as she smiled warmly at him.

Her brother groaned. "Please don't make me regret us ever busting him out of there."

"Well? Any clue yet?" asked Mai, her bored tone couldn't mask out her impatience completely

"I think we're almost there" said Ty Lee "But maybe we've gone too far… I think we should go down to the nearest village and ask them if that's the mining village, or if someone called Haru lives there"

"Imagine what that would be like," Zuko mused. " 'Hey there, Earth Kingdom villagers, you don't happen to know anyone named Haru, do you? We're Princess Azula's friends and we're looking for him!"

Katara grinned while the others burst out laughing. "I don't think even Ty Lee would simply announce that she was sent by Azula in the middle of the Earth Kingdom. Azula isn't exactly a popular figure there after all."

"I'll say," Toph agreed. "Carrying out a coup on the country's capital isn't exactly a great way to earn the people's favor."

"And I don't think any villager would dare to tell anything to a couple of complete strangers who probably don't look Earth Kingdom at all," Aang added.

Sokka shrugged. "Oh, I'm sure Ty Lee's cheerful smile and chirpy braid would win over quite a few."

Toph turned on him. "And here you were all up set about people cheating on you, when you're no better yourself! Shame on you, Snoozles!"

"Hey, I'm not - " Sokka started to protest, but he stopped when he saw Toph's smirk. "Oh, why do I bother anyway?" he huffed exasperatedly before returning to the story.

"Whatever you say" replied Mai "How do we stop this thing?"

"Uh… I think we have to lower it and turn off the fire when we're close to the ground…" muttered Ty Lee

"Something tells me what Ty Lee 'thinks' is probably gonna result in a crash landing," Toph remarked.

"Yup, that's pretty much it," Sokka agreed.

"We'll wreck havoc in a village if we descend on one" said Mai "Let's try to spot one and go down a couple of miles away"

"Why?" asked Ty Lee, staring at her friend in confusion

"From what I know about the earthbender we're looking for, the Fire Nation had taken control of his village and enslaved all the earthbenders who lived there. If a war balloon like this one were to land in the middle of town, the villagers might believe we're attacking them or something like that"

"Really? But the war's been over for years now!" said Ty Lee "Why would they still have a problem with the Fire Nation?"

"Hmm, let's see..." Sokka pretended to be thinking deeply. "The Fire Nation marched into the village, took away all the earthbenders and separated quite a few families in the process, heavily taxed the remaining villagers, and on top of that, they don't really seem bright enough to run a village properly if they can actually believe that lemurs can bend earth."

Zuko raised an eyebrow. "Where did that last part come from?"

"Long story, Zuko. But in short, I'd say the villagers probably wouldn't be too welcome to a war balloon that lands right smack among them."

"And that's to say the least," Katara added.

"People don't forget oppression as quickly as you do, Ty Lee" muttered Mai

Ty Lee stared at her in disbelief, without entirely digesting her words

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, but Mai didn't answer

"Let's descend now, I can see a village up ahead"

Ty Lee sighed and got back to dealing with controlling the War Balloon. She struggled against the air currents and had them lose height gradually, but it was hard to handle all the multiple variables at the same time. She turned the fire off too soon, and they ended up crashing against some trees at the edge of a forest, to Mai's irritation and Ty Lee's frustration.

"S-sorry…" she said, as they got off the Balloon

"Told you it was gonna crash land," Toph quipped.

"Well, at least we're alive" grunted Mai "Is the Balloon alright? Can we get on it again after we get Haru?"

"I think so… it's not broken or anything" said Ty Lee while checking the Balloon's status "Yup, we can carry on after we've checked out if that's the village where he lives"

Zuko looked rather impressed. "Wow, I'd say that was quite an achievement, Ty Lee crashing a war balloon without any serious damage."

"Of course, she could've missed something while checking the balloon," Sokka pointed out.

"And besides, we're known to do stuff we normally can't or wouldn't do in these stories," Katara added. "So I suppose this shouldn't be too surprising after all."

Aang shrugged. "Well, at least I have Appa."

"Let's go, then" said Mai, and both of them left the forest side by side.

The village they entered was pretty colorless, most of was either brown or faded green, which seemed to work perfectly well with Mai's aura, or so Ty Lee thought.

Zuko smiled slightly. "I thought Ty Lee considered Mai's aura to be a dull grey?"

Sokka turned to look at the scarred teen. "And since when have you been so well-informed on auras?"

The Fire Lord shrugged. "Nothing, just something I heard in passing."

"So… we should ask someone if this is the mining village, right?" said Ty Lee

"Yeah, it's the best thing we can do right now" replied Mai.

Without further ado, Mai walked up to the first villager she saw and posed her question immediately, without any delicacy at all

"Does a man named Haru live here?"

Toph winced. "Ouch, that can't be pretty."

"Let's just hope it's not an earthbender that would probably crush Mai without further thought," Sokka said.

"I think Mai can handle earthbenders rather well," Zuko said. "She's held her own against a whole platoon of them before."

"Oh yeah, General Sung's troops," Aang recalled.

"Still, she could be a little more subtle," Katara pointed out.

Zuko gave a casual shake of the head. "Subtle isn't really her thing."

Ty Lee stared at her in horror and ran towards her, trying to salvage the situation somehow, since the said villager was staring at her friend with evident fright spread across his features.

"W-what…?"

"I feel for you, poor frightened villager," Sokka told the book solemnly.

"Well, it's not every day some regular Earth Kingdom peasant going about his business gets stopped by a strange girl to get interrogated about some other guy he might or might not know," Toph pointed out. "Of course he'd be frightened."

"The way Mai was going on, you'd think she was from a gangster triad or something," Aang said with a chuckle.

"Mai in a gangster triad..." Zuko paused as an image of his girlfriend at the head of a group of tough guys with swords and scary scowls on their faces filled his mind. "Strangely enough, that doesn't seem too out of place."

"It's the book that's giving you ideas," Katara told him.

"No need to worry!" said Ty Lee, smiling as kindly as she could "We're… old friends of his, yes. We got lost in our way to his village, and we have no idea if we're at the right place!"

The man frowned but nodded slowly

"He lives in that house over there…" he muttered, pointing at a small shack on the next street "Are you really his friends? You look very… Fire Nation, if I may say so myself"

Sokka frowned slightly. "How can two teenage girls, one dressed in pink and a long braid and the other with her hair in two parts and probably a bored expression, look like they're Fire Nation?"

"To be honest, that description doesn't make them sound like they're from anywhere in particular," Katara added.

"Except maybe teenage weirdo land," Toph smirked.

Aang looked around at his friends. "Actually, considering we're one chronologically-112-year-old Avatar, one blind earthbender who sees with her feet, one ponytail-wearing Water Tribe warrior with a boomerang and a space sword, one waterbender who can bend blood and one young Fire Lord with half his face burned, I'd say we could belong there as well."

There was a pause, and then Zuko said after a bit of hesitation, "Come to think of it, you just might be right."

"Fire Nation? Us?" repeated Ty Lee, staring at the man with fake disbelief, which was quite evident since a couple of sweat drops were rolling down her nervous face "You're so funny! How can you say something like that? We're Earth Kingdom girls, that's a given! I'm even a member of the Kyoshi Warriors!"

"If you say so…" muttered the man, who still didn't seem to swallow their story at all, despite the fact that Ty Lee wasn't actually lying… or at least, not all her claims had been lies.

Sokka nodded in agreement. "Yup, the halfway mark between truth and lies is always the safest place."

"Way to go, Ty Lee" said Mai, right after the villager walked away from them

"I was trying to be nicer to him! Acting so coldly will give us away immediately! You were the one who said that the people here won't take kindly to any Fire Nation visitors, so you can't act Fire Nation!"

"So Fire Nation people usually act coldly?" Aang wondered.

Sokka waved a hand dismissively. "Nah, they just go around yelling 'I'm going to burn everything to the ground!' and shoot lightning everywhere and... sorry, Zuko."

Katara sighed. "Please do ignore my idiotic brother," she told a frowning Zuko.

"And what on earth am I supposed to act like?" asked Mai, staring at Ty Lee with absolute confusion "What do you want from me?"

"Smile and talk nicely to people, that's what you should do" said Ty Lee, walking towards the house the man had pointed at

"Somehow I don't think smiling and talking nicely to others is Mai's strong point," Zuko said with a smile.

Sokka shrugged. "Well, she's your girlfriend, so we'll just have to take your word for it."

"But hey, at least we know we're at the right place, right?"

"If that man wasn't lying then I guess we are" said Mai, shrugging

"Why would he have lied to us?" asked Ty Lee

"I'm sorry to break this to you, but you weren't too convincing in your role as 'Earth Kingdom girl'"

"I'll say," Toph nodded. "Sweatdropping is never a good thing when you're trying to be something you're not."

"It's a dead giveaway," Aang agreed.

"You'd definitely know a lot about it," Sokka grinned, "right, 'Kuzon'?"

"Right back at you, 'Wang Fire'," Aang responded before the two laughed.

Katara sighed. "As long as I never have to wear a pillow under my shirt ever again, I think I can live with the memory of being 'Sapphire Fire'."

"I guess pretending to be your brother's wife was a rather unpleasant experience, huh?" her blind friend guessed.

"You said it, Toph. Never again."

"W-well, neither were you!"

"Probably because I wasn't even trying to act like something I'm not" stated Mai

"Oh… can you try to be reasonable for once, Mai?" asked Ty Lee "We're about to meet the guy we were sent to find, so please act nicely! Don't be as gloomy and depressing as you always are!"

Mai sighed and rolled her eyes, clearly exasperated by her friends insistence

"Fine, I'll try to be as jolly and silly as you always are. But if he gets freaked out because of this, it'll be your fault, got it?"

Sokka looked shocked. "Mai's trying to act jolly and silly? Wow, that'll definitely freak anyone out."

"I'd like to see that happening," Zuko grinned. "Who knew a story about Sokka and my sister in love wouldn't be so bad after all?"

Toph shrugged. "Meh, my guess is we just got lucky with this chapter that's mostly about Mai and Ty Lee. I bet we'll be back with Sokka and Azula in love soon enough."

"Not that I'm looking forward to that," Sokka groaned.

"Nothing will go wrong, stop being so negative" said Ty Lee

"I've just noticed that these stories have quite a number of understatements, usually involving a wrongly estimated level of danger," Sokka spoke up. "Does anyone find that surprising?"

"It's just a fact," Toph answered. "Now get on with the story, Snoozles."

They reached the door of the house they'd been signaled towards, and Ty Lee knocked it gently. Inside, a young man with long hair set down on a table the razor he was about to shave his mustache with and he stared at the door with confused eyes.

"Haru shaves his mustache?" Sokka wondered. "Huh, I thought he just left it to grow, so that he ends up lookign like he's got a bush growing under his nose."

"Oh shut up Sokka, we all know you're just jealous because the only facial hair you've ever got was a fake stick-on," his sister told him.

Sokka simply scowled.

Who could be out there? Haru approached the entrance of his home and opened it with a little caution… but when he saw both the girls standing on the other side of the threshold he realized he probably hadn't been cautious enough.

"Woah!" said Ty Lee, staring at him in awe "Y-you're Haru?"

And what happened with being nice and all that nonsense? She's almost drooling over him thought Mai,

Sokka looked amused. "So now Ty Lee's hitting on Haru? That's interesting."

"At least we won't be entirely devoid of weird romances in this chapter," Toph remarked. "Oh, joy."

and she figured that the only one who could salvage the situation was her… so she cracked up the most awkward smile she'd ever cracked up, showing her teeth to Haru, who stared at both of them with disbelief

"A… a nice day, isn't it?" asked Mai "So… are you Haru?"

"I… I am, but… aren't you two…?" said Haru, feeling somewhat frightened at the sight. One girl was staring at him with reverential eyes; the other one was giving him the creepiest smile he'd seen in his life. What on earth was going on here?

Sokka shook his head in disbelief. "Man, now I really pity Haru. No one should ever have such a traumatic experience in their life."

Zuko looked dissatisfied. "Mai's smile isn't creepy."

"That's probably because she only smiles properly when she's with you," Toph told him, "while the rest of us less fortunate mortals get her cackling-witch grin."

"Well, you won't be able to see it anyway," Katara reminded her.

"Not like I'm complaining about that."

"You know who we are?!" asked Ty Lee

"Well… I think I heard something about some Fire Nation girls who… but… wait, why are you here in the first place? Do you have some business with my father?" asked Haru

"Your father?" repeated Mai "No, we came here for you. You see… Uh…" she muttered, slightly troubled. The boy was an acquaintance of the Avatar and his gang, and therefore he surely hadn't heard too many nice things about her and Ty Lee, according to the look in his face he surely believed them to be Azula's agents "F-Fire Lord Zuko sent us here"

Katara crinkled her brows in thought. "Well yes, I suppose we didn't really give Haru a good impression of Mai and Ty Lee when we were talking with him before, so I suppose it's only natural he would be wary of them."

"Plus, the creepy smile doesn't help," Sokka added.

"But Haru did meet Ty Lee after Zuko's coronation ceremony, remember?" Aang recalled. "He seemed to get along fine with her then."

"And she was totally fawning over him," Toph agreed. "Maybe them being paired up isn't so ridiculous after all."

"I still think it doesn't sound probable," Sokka said.

"That's just because you still want Ty Lee to keep flirting with you."

"Shut up, Toph."

"Fire…?" said Ty Lee, suddenly coming to her senses after hearing such random lie coming from Mai

"Well, at least it was a decent cover story," Sokka commented. "Better than the Earth Kingdom colonials story we used when we were in the Fire Nation anyway."

Katara raised an eyebrow at her brother. "And who was it who started that in the first place?"

Sokka shrugged. "Hey, I had to work up something on short notice, and besides, it worked anyway. Everything's fine then."

"Really?" said Haru, staring at both of them with absolute disbelief "And… why does he need me?"

"He didn't say, actually" replied Ty Lee, smiling at him "He just told us to come take you to the Capital"

Sokka snorted. "And you think Haru would be dense enough to believe that? These two sure are amateurs."

"Guess they didn't find themselves in the need of a good cover often," Toph speculated.

"Or maybe it was always Azula who thought up the cover for them," Zuko mused.

"Well, if she's managed to never get the three of them caught before, then I guess she really must have some talent," Sokka admitted.

"Which is why you're in love with her, Snoozles," Toph smirked, ignoring the Water Tribe teen's glare.

Haru stared at them again, and his eyes drifted towards Mai. According to what he knew, this girl was actually Zuko's girlfriend, wasn't she? Maybe all the stories he'd heard about the three female demons from the Fire Nation were folk's tale… but he didn't need Toph's prodigious earthbending skills to tell the two girls were mixing up a lie within the truth.

"Bravo to Haru for figuring that out," Sokka remarked.

"'Three female demons', huh?" Toph observed. "At least they got a fancy title."

"You mean like 'Ozai's Angels'?" Aang asked.

Everyone stared at him in disbelief before Katara finally addressed her boyfriend. "What 'Ozai's Angels'?"

The Avatar blinked twice. "I... don't know. The thought just appeared in my head."

Toph shook her head sadly. "You've been infected by the book, Twinkletoes."

"Uhm… fine, I guess…" he muttered "But I'll go ask my dad first. He might need my help in some work related things, and I want to check if I can leave or not…"

"Oh, sure! Take your time!" said Ty Lee, still smiling happily

Haru walked back inside and Mai stared at her infatuated friend with disappointment

"You're unbelievable" she muttered, while shaking her head. Ty Lee, as lost as she was on her new dreamy crush, failed to hear what Mai had said.

"You know what, maybe this story isn't a total loss after all," Katara commented. "I mean, the idea of Ty Lee and Haru together does sound rather intriguing."

"I'm sure Suki would appreciate that," Toph grinned.

Sokka stared at her. "And what's Suki going to do with this?"

"Oh, you wouldn't understand Snoozles. Now are you going to continue or not?"

Sorry for the late update, guys - end of term exams are this week and I've been spending the last few days cramming like mad! I even had to cut Seyary-Minamoto's chapter short so I can finish this chapter earlier, and now you probably won't be hearing from me for quite some time until my exams finish. While you're waiting, you can tell me whether I should continue with today's chapter or move on to the next story in your review, which will be very much appreciated! See you all next time!