Sorry for the delay on this chapter, I was really busy after my latest update. I had to get ready for State testing and joined Stage Crew for my highschool's play. It ended a while ago but I had to recharge. Anyway, hope you enjoy the chapter~


((Rebecca's P.O.V))

"We're lost aren't we," I asked annoyed as we continued to walk down the paved forest path. The area was covered in the orange light from the sunset and Brianna was fast asleep on Appa.

"We are not lost!" Sokka shouted. "We're just stopping to take a break."

"So? We don't know where we're going which is pretty much the definition of being lost." I could tell Sokka was trying to ignore me and focus on more important matters to him, which was always his stomach. We came to a small clearing where there were three paths laid out before us. There stood a notice board in the center where the paths met, covered with several papers and fliers on it.

"This should give us a good idea of what's around here," Katara said, walking up to the board to read the fliers.

"See if you can find a menu," Sokka said as he shook the remaining crumbs from his pouch into his mouth. "I'm starving."

"I bet we'll find something to eat here!" Aang shouted and rushed over to the board. He pointed to the centered poster and began reading aloud "The Fire Days Festival. Fire Nation cultural exhibits...jugglers, benders, magicians. This'd be a great place for me to study some real fire benders!"

"You might want to rethink that, look at this," I heard Sokka say from the other side of the notice board. The three of us walked over to where Sokka was to see what he was talking about. The entire side of the board was covered with wanted posters who had high bounties on their heads. The largest poster was a painting of Aang which was placed centered covering the others.

"Hey, a poster of me" Aang said rather too cheerfully and pulled it off the board.

"A wanted poster" Sokka said in dismay, "this is bad." I walked over and patted Aang on the back.

"Good job Aang, you are now officially a threat to the Fire Nation" I congratulated him.

"And so are you apparently," I heard Katara say. I glanced back at Katara and saw her pull down a poster from the wall and handed it to me. There was a full body painting of Brianna and I standing beside one another with writing on the sides.

"So Aang, Rebecca, and Brianna have wanted posters" Sokka said, peeking over my shoulder. "Well that's great, it went from bad to worse."

"You're just jealous because you don't have one," I teased.

"I think we better keep moving" Katara said, before Sokka could say anything.

"I have to learn fire bending at some point," Aang disagreed. "And this could be my only chance to watch a master up close." His words seemed sink in as Katara thought about it.

"I guess we could check it out," she said but sounded unsure of her choice. Aang smiled as he grabbed my arm, ready to sprint to the festival.

"What," Sokka screamed out. "You want to walk into a Fire Nation town where they're all fired up with all their…you know, fire?"

"We'll wear disguises and if it looks like trouble, we'll leave" Katara assured him, trying to calm her brother.

"Yeah because we always leave before we get into trouble," Sokka said sarcastically to himself while Aang and Katara walked back to where Appa and Brianna where. He eventually walked after them, leaving me alone by the notice board holding the two posters. I looked back at the left over bounties, but only one stood out to me. I couldn't take my eyes off of the painting of the blue masked. I reached out and brushed my fingers across the mask's surface.

I recalled the day when he saved me. It was something I don't think I could ever forget. It was so strange, and it still feels like a dream to me. It had been days since I last spoken to him, it felt so weird seeing him that night. I hoped that he didn't notice my hands were sweaty when I tied him. I honestly wished Zuko hadn't saved me that day. The air around us was just too unbearable. I almost don't want to meet up with him again. I couldn't remember him doing anything so selfless. Unless it would benefit him on his quest to capture the Avatar he wouldn't have bothered. So why was it that he decided to help me? I pulled the sign off the board and stared down at the painting before dropping it to the ground. I watched it float down onto the dirt beside my foot. I heard the wind rustle through the trees when I pulled my eyes away from the picture. I turned and made my way toward Appa, leaving the poster behind. I pushed the thought of the Blue Spirit from my mind, because thinking back made me confused and wonder what kind of person Zuko is.

((OOOO))

"I think we need new disguises," Katara whispered to us. The town was covered in lanterns that lit up the path and complemented the night sky. There were many markets and stands all over the place selling food, items, and clothing. Crowds of villagers walked the streets all wearing red robes and unique looking masks that hid their faces.

"What gave you that idea?" I asked sarcastically, through the cloth that covered the bottom of my face.

"Where are we gonna get masks like that?" Sokka asked frustrated. I looked around and saw a stand selling different masks.

"Get your genuine Fire Festival masks here!" shouted out the merchant. Katara and Aang wasted no time and ran over to buy their own mask.

"That was surprisingly easy" Sokka said shocked at our stroke of luck.

"Don't worry this kind of luck won't last us long," I said and pushed him toward the stand. When looked through the stand at all the variety of masks and tried to find one that appealed to us. Katara picked a female mask using the art style seen in old Chinese Art pieces. Sokka picked a blue and white mask framed with large feathers. It resembled a sun with an abnormally large smile that was a bit scary looking. Aang picked a black, red, and yellow mask that had a huge frown on its face. The three of them placed the masks on then looked the others over. Katara looked at the boys' masks then went to switch them. I could tell Sokka was not happy with the switch even without having to look at his face, but tried to just focus on looking for my own mask. From the corner of my eye I spotted a mask that resembled the moon. I turned and picked it up to get a better look at it. From the design and frame work it was feminine mask. The overall color was pale blue but had small streaks of white that came down from the eyes that ran down the cheeks. In the corner of the mask's eyes were two white clear beads that had a faint blue thread dangling off of them. On forehead a half moon shaped crown was constructed, that covered most of the forehead of the mask. In the middle of the crown was a round black crest with a golden crescent moon painted on it. I untied the cloth around my neck and put the mask over my face.

"Looks good," Katara complemented me through her mask and handed the merchant the money. I nodded my head and handed her the cloth I had borrowed from her. After giving him the money, the four of us went around the town looking at the festivities.

"Hey, there's some food" Aang shouted out as he pointed to stand.

"Finally," Sokka said revived before running over there. "What do you have?" he asked the merchant, his stomach growling.

"Flaming fire flakes" the man answered and grabbed a bag, "best in town." Without hesitation Sokka grabbed into his hand and quickly paid the man.

"I'll take'em." Before I could stop him, Sokka had already stuffing his face with the spicy foods through the mask's mouth hole. It took no time for the spice to kick in, causing smoke to fly though the openings of the masks. Sokka screamed in pain and took off his mask, waving his hand over his tongue in order to cool it.

"Flaming fire flakes, hot? What do you know" Katara said, not surprised with her brother's idiotic move. While Sokka tried easing his burning tongue, I noticed three children run past us toward what looked like a puppet show.

"Hey, look at this" Aang shouted and dragged me over to the kid's show. There was a mini stage and several benched filled with children and several parents watching at the side. The curtains opened and a small puppet, that I was guessing was the Fire Lord, stood and greeted the audience.

"Don't worry loyal citizens" said the man holding the Fire Lord puppet, "no one can surprise the Fire Lord!" An Earth Kingdom solider appeared onto the stage holding a large boulder in its hand. All the children cried to warn the Fire Lord of the attack. It turned around at the last second and sent out a flam from its mouth, burning the attacker to a crisp. All the children cheered from their seats while the adults at the side lines applauded. A bit disturbed by the whole show and we decided to move on and find anything else that might look interesting. Aang suddenly starting running toward a platform stage surrounded with a large crowd of people.

"Aang, hold on! Where are we going?" Katara called out to the running monk and we chased after him.

"I don't know, but there's a big crowd so it must be good" Aang said with a shrug.

"Knowing the Fire Nation, it's probably an execution," Sokka said as we made it through the crowd.

"You make it sound like their heartless monsters," I whispered to him under my breath as I squeezed through the tight crowd.

"No, that would make it a complement" Sokka whispered back. I stepped on his foot causing him to scream in pain only to be hushed by the crowd. Ignoring Sokka, I looked up at the stage and saw a male fire bender performing a trick. He bended four large fire balls and made them move into a triangular formation. After several seconds he brought them all together above his head causing a small explosion. Out of that small explosion it formed a circle of flames where four white doves flew out from the fire and soared into the night sky.

"I gotta learn that trick!" Aang shouted, pulling his mask off while the crowd cheered and applauded.

"Thank you," the fire bender performer said and bowed to the crowd of excited villagers. "For my next trick I need a volunteer from the audience!" I saw Aang's hand shoot up after placing the mask back on.

"Oh! Oh! Me! Me!" Aang shouted, waving his hand around.

"What do you think you're doing?" Sokka asked, forcing his hand down.

"I want to get a closer look," Aang told him.

"It's better that we don't attract any attention to ourselves," Katara advised.

"How about you, little lady?" the performer said, offering a hand to Katara. She shook her head and backed away, feeling awkward being put on the spot. "Aw, she's shy. Let's give her some encouragement folks!" he shouted out, making the audience cheer. Before Katara could protest, a random person pushed her forward and she was forcefully pulled up to the stage.

"Aw that could have been me," Aang pouted, crossing his arms.

"This next trick is called Taming the Dragon," the performer said and placed a chair behind Katara, forcing her to sit down. "You will be my captured princess!" he explained and tied her up with a thick maroon ribbon before walking back toward the spot light. He bended flames on four podiums over his head, circling them around until it formed a dragon figure.

"Don't worry, young maiden! I will tame this fiery beast!" he said forming a flame lasso from his right hand strung it around the dragon's neck. He swung the dragon around in circles, pretending that he couldn't control the flame creature. "It's too strong, I can't hold it!"

"We gotta help her!" Aang shouted, falling for the man's poor performance.

"No, we don't want to make a scene!" Sokka said and restrained him.

"The rope, it's breaking!" the man said just as the string of flame disappeared around the dragon's neck. The flame dragon continued to move in the circular motion and aimed straight for Katara. Just as it was about to strike her, Aang jumped onto the stage and formed a tornado from his hands, stopping the flames from coming any closer to the princess. The flames were quickly extinguished, only to reveal confetti falling from the fire. I felt someone grabbed my shoulder and forced me to turn around. The figure wore a cape with a hood that covered his eyes and he had a cloth over his mouth. Before I could say or do anything Sokka grabbed my arm and forced me up to the stage. I got free from Sokka's grip and helped untied Katara while Aang tried entertaining the crowd with strange dance, but they continued to boo.

"Hey that kid's the Avatar!" a random man in the audience shouted, causing Aang to freeze up in the middle of his dance. I was able to untie the knot and freed Katara just as a group of soldiers were running toward us.

"I think it's time to go," Sokka said, slowly started to back away.

"Couldn't agree with you more," I said, tossing the ribbon to the ground and was ready to make a run for it.


Just to be random, today is my beloved brother's birthday. He's fourteen now. Sigh, they grow up so fast!

Celebration~