Aang slowly opened his eyes and sighed sadly. He looked up and saw Sokka polishing his boomerang.
"Hey Aang, welcome back to the world of the living. Did you get your answers?" Sokka remarked, putting away his boomerang. Aang nodded.
"Yeah. I did. But I need to go to the village. That spirit needs to be appeased or she'll destroy the village after sundown," Aang informed the non-bender. Sokka's eyes widened.
"I completely forgot about that!" he exclaimed and jumped to his feet. He looked up to the sky.
"Sundown isn't for two maybe three hours. Do you know what you're going to do? Danny… well, he never got to tell us his idea," Sokka announced worriedly, faltering at mentioning Danny. Aang nodded.
"Yeah, I know exactly what I'm going to do. We need to start collecting firewood. As much as possible. Sokka, get everyone involved and I'll go to the village and tell them all the plan," Aang decided.
Sokka nodded and ran off to their camp and Aang began to walk to the village. After twenty minutes of walking, Aang arrived to the village. The villagers had refused to evacuate. This was their home and they weren't going to abandon it. Aang ran over to a group of important looking men, chatting beside a shop front. He explained what they needed to do and the word was spread.
Within the hour a large bonfire was constructed in the centre of the village. The sun was starting to set and everyone was gathered around the impressive mound of sticks and logs. Aang cleared his throat.
"After consulting with the spirits, I have come up with a solution for your spirit problem. The spirit that attacked is the spirit of passion. She was upset that there wasn't enough passion in this village to keep her and her spiritual fire going. So, starting today, I decree that every year, on this day, this village will light a bonfire in her honour. And so without any further ado, let the first bonfire begin!" Aang explained in a loud, confident voice. He then fire-bended a spout of hot, powerful fire from a torch one of his friends held for light. The wood caught fire and everyone watched the bonfire light up the dark night sky.
After ten minutes watching the blinding flames engulfing the stack of wood, people began to talk and children began to play. Aang and his friends split up and explored the village. Aang spotted Sam sitting sadly alone in a dark corner. He smiled sadly at her and walked over to her.
"Hey Sam. Are you okay?" Aang asked gently. Sam looked up and hastily wiped away the tears on her face. She sniffled and nodded.
"Yeah. I'm fine," she answered in a falsely bright voice. Aang sat down beside her.
"It's alright if you're not, you know. I just want to help," Aang whispered. Sam sniffled again and turned to the bonfire.
"It's just… Danny's usually back by now. I guess I'm starting to think that… that maybe he's not coming back," Sam muttered, tears welling up in her eyes again. Aang bit his lip. Should he tell her that he'd spoken with Danny in the spirit world? Aang opened his mouth to tell her but she buried her face in her knees and began to sob softly. Aang put a comforting hand on her shoulder and shook his head. It wasn't fair to Sam to tell her that Danny was out there in a sense but she'd never get to talk to him since she couldn't enter the spirit world.
"It's alright Sam," Aang muttered and pulled her into a hug.
"Let it out. I'm right here for you. We all are," Aang whispered. Sam wept into his shoulder.
"I never got to tell him that Tuck was right," Sam mumbled quietly. Aang knew that he shouldn't have heard that but he held the grieving girl nonetheless. He rubbed her back in a soothing manner and breathed words of comfort into her ear. He was going to keep his word to Danny. He'd help Sam and Tucker through this.
One more chapter to go. More an epilogue really.
Let me know what you guys thought of the story so far.
Until the next chapter.