Hah, sweet motivation! I feel I'm on a roll! Let's hope it doesn't end here, though.

I doubt I got the exact account, the story Sokka tells me has holes so big Appa could fly straight through them. But I guess the point is that Aang is indeed not responsible for sinking the Fire Navy. Well, most of it anyway. The biggest part of the fleet was destroyed by the Ocean Spirit, who just so happened to need an Avatar as a medium to channel his power. And Admiral Zhao killed the Moon Spirit, which is why we had a lunar eclipse back in the day. My family didn't even notice, they were all fast asleep, while I had one of my regular cases of insomnia. I ended up watching the lunar eclipse through my roof window. It was pretty crazy, I was so excited about what I had seen that I didn't sleep all night. I was so dozy the next day that even Hide couldn't bother me. Blissful semi-sleep...

The Moon Spirit was revived. That's one of the holes on which Sokka wouldn't elaborate upon. It's just alive. But, oh well, spirits just work differently than humans do, so why not?

Long story short: Aang can't control the Avatar State. It controls him, and that's actually pretty scary if you think about it. I can't imagine carrying such an enormous power around which is out for the blood of everyone who threatens me or my friends. (Friends... I still can't believe it. Friendship is such a strange concept to me...) Awful huge responsibility. If I were the Avatar, I suppose the first victim would be Hide. And while I loathe his presence down to the last fiber of my being, I don't wish death upon him. Maybe a broken bone or two, but I'm not bloodthirsty enough for more. And Aang is a freaking pacifist, if his statement about violence not being the answer is anything to go by.

"Sounds like something straight out of an adventure story..." I ponder, more to myself rather than Sokka. "I might even enjoy it if my nation wasn't on the losing side..." I shake that depressing notion off and direct my attention back at the Water Tribe boy. I bow. "Thank you, Sokka. It clarifies a lot." I'm yet to see whether it helps me solve this puzzle or scrambles it up even more, however.

There is a slight hesitation, but then Sokka replies, "No problem."

I wonder whether he accepts me as a friend by now, but I don't ask. If I'm honest with myself, I don't really wanna know. I'd rather remain uncertain about it than knowing the answer and disliking it.

I'm snapped out of my thoughts when the ground suddenly starts shaking. Sokka immediately slides into a more solid stance and stays on his feet, while yours truly with her insubstantial earthquake experience promptly loses balance. Of course, now that I could actually use it for once, my wild airbending decides to stab me in the back and forgoes the activation. And my tailbone weeps.

"Toph!" Sokka barks, identifying the culprit as the tiny girl who strolls into view like she has all the rights in the world to jolt us like that.

"If you two are done snuggling, can we get a move on?" she rants, voice dripping with sarcasm. "There is a forest up ahead and I really need a break from this heat. So whatever you were doing, do it there!"

My first reaction is bewilderment, the second... not so much. A hatred I didn't know I'm capable of floods through my veins. Now that I'm finally rid of Hide, I refuse to be pushed around by a dirty Earth Kingdom preteen. (And Agni, dirty she is. Does she ever take a bath?)

I grit my teeth and climb to my feet, ready to stomp into Toph's direction and give her an earful of I-don't-know-yet-it'll-surely-come-to-me, but I barely get past Sokka – a hand clasps around my wrist, causing me to look over my shoulder where the Water Tribe boy slowly shakes his head. I can almost hear him say, Leave it. It's not worth the effort.

Okay, let's take this incident like a mature and civil person. I breathe deeply and relax my shoulders, signaling that it's safe to let me go now. I'm totally calm while walking over to Toph.

"You know, it's not very nice to bend the earth away from people's feet."

"Oh, sorry." She cups her face in her hands and I know I've made a mistake. "I didn't know that our delicate Fireflake can't handle some dirt."

I admit it, I'm lacking an adequate retort. To tell the truth, I'm lacking the anger. Toph calling me a fire flake throws me so artfully off track that the insult just fails to match up.

My subsequent "What..." is probably the flattest What in the history of flat Whats. All the rage has drained away and another emotion is yet to fill the void.

I don't know if people are born with the innate knowledge of facial expressions and able to invoke them even when blind, but from the way Toph knits her brows and places a hand on her hip, I'd claim she's been caught off-guard and doesn't like the feeling.

"Okay, now what was that?" she asks warily, causing me to run a hand through my hair.

"Uuuuh..." I drawl with about the eloquence of a drunken komodo rhino. How do I explain that? "You know, you sort of reminded me of that one guy I really can't stand, and by that I mean I'd happily push him over the edge of a cliff if I got the chance, just so you can fathom the dimensions of my hatred just now, but then you called me a fire flake, what he wouldn't even dream of doing because that would mean admitting that we're actually the same people, so he usually calls me airhead, which I wouldn't recommend to you unless you want me to hate your guts and provide Katara with another comforting job..."

"Get to the point!" Toph interrupts testily, and only then I notice that I've been rambling on without even completing one sentence. Great, now I'm abusing multi-clauses already. What's next?

"Alright, sorry. I guess what I'm trying to say is... I won't push you off a cliff if you keep calling me Fireflake." I'd actually sort of like it, but I'm not sure if it would be healthy to say that out loud.

"Ha!" Toph cackles. "It wouldn't do you any good anyway!"

"I suppose..." Pushing earthbenders off a cliff is probably futile, seeing how they can use the cliff itself for catching and everything...

I can't help a small smile. Katara said I have to take Toph's antics with humor. Well, I can't tell where we'll be going from here, that one certainly was about to blow up big time. Except that it didn't. Hmm... Complicated.

"Alright ladies, let's get going before the next waterworks open up," Sokka ushers Toph and me back to Katara and Aang's side of the bison.

I roll my eyes. Way to remind me of my outburst. "You're hilarious," I deadpan, but Sokka can't be bothered.

"Yeah, it's a gift," he comments with a smugness which should be outlawed, but I find myself grinning nonetheless. That is the sort of antics I can take with humor no prob!

Then I catch sight of Aang, and before I can decide whether I want to talk to him or not, my evil evil feet are already running up to him.

"Are you alright? Look, I didn't mean to..." I launch into another monologue. That is, until the ground shifts beneath my feet. "Whoa!" I exclaim and windmill my arms to keep balance. Aang helpfully creates a funnel of air to stabilize my foothold and I can glare at Toph, who of course doesn't even notice. However, Katara stomps over to her in my stead ("Would you control yourself for once? That was kind of important!" "Come on, Katara, we all know she's sorry, and we don't need a lengthy speech about it!"), so I'm free to shake my head and direct my gaze back at Aang, sighing. "Awful nice if you'd teach me in the near future."

He grins broadly at that. "Sure! Actually, let's start right away!"

"Yeah, let's do that."

I find myself a lot less enthusiastic about learning to airbend than I expected, but now that I think about it... Actually, it shouldn't come as a surprise. When have I ever been enthusiastic about airbending?

"Alright!" Aang begins as soon as we are walking once more. And then, he babbles away in a manner which totally fails to get anything to stick around my mind. Something about circles and spirits and avoiding fights, not necessarily in that order. Now I understand why Toph is so bothered by people to whom punctuation is a foreign concept.

But because I'm civilized, I don't interrupt or blast Aang over. I do try to listen, but I catch myself zoning out more often than not. Luckily, the forest Toph has been talking about isn't far away and about a mile and a half in, a glittering surface is parting the trees.

Katara spots it first. "A river!" she calls out, elation evident in her voice.

Aang instantly joins in, "A river? That's great!"

I breathe a sigh of relief as the boy runs ahead and... promptly starts undressing?!

Alright, that's not so bad, I've seen Mimi before. Can't be that different. Aang doesn't seem old enough to have anything worth ogling.

Yeah, right.

Turns out, Aang is worth ogling indeed, though not in the guttermind sense of the word. By the time he's peeled off his school uniform, the rest of us has caught up, and I can admire the little Avatar in all his arrowed glory. Air Nomad kid...

"Nice tattoos," I state before anyone can get the wrong idea as to why I feel the need to stare at a boy in his underwear. "Do those have any significant meaning?"

Aang frowns. "I just explained that. Weren't you listening?"

Oh... Now that's embarrassing. "Uh..." I mumble with burning face. "Sorry..."

"Frankly, Twinkletoes," Toph chips in. I didn't even notice her stepping up to us... but wait, Twinkletoes? I suppress a snicker. That's actually pretty funny. "You may want to tone down on that bubbliness. I get that you're all excited and over the moon because you're not the last airbender anymore, but seeing how eagerly you assault Fireflaky over here with information, I really can't blame her for losing focus."

Aang seems totally flustered by the revelation. He turns his widened eyes from Toph to me and asks incredulously, "Why didn't you say anything?"

I chuckle. That may sound weird, but Aang is adorable when he's being a dork. "Because you seemed so happy talking about your bending that I didn't have the heart to interrupt you."

Loud whooping saves Aang from responding. "Waterbending bomb!" sounds Katara's voice (Did she just jump out of a tree?!) and a splash higher than nature allows soaks us innocent bystanders to the bones. I want to share a morose look with Toph, only that the Earth Kingdom girl isn't exactly big on sharing looks. And I don't even have to try Aang.

"Hey, don't start without me!" the little Avatar protests and turns around to jump after Katara, giving me a clear view of his back. And what I see is staggering.

Burned red flesh covers the center of the little Avatar's back with a nasty-looking scar. It's shocking to behold. It doesn't look like a superficial wound, either, in fact, it looks a lot more like a deep and very much fatal injury. After all, we're talking about the spine here, how is the rest of him undamaged?!

Oh Agni, that must have hurt...

The daze is broken when Appa lows, and I cringe in sympathy. I should have seen it coming. After all, Aang is the Avatar and pretty much every Fire Nation citizen is out to kill him. He's bound to have burn scars, but... a kid? How atrocious is that?

Aang fails to notice my dismay. He is about to take off when he freezes in mid-movement, then proceeds by turning to his sky bison companion. "Sorry buddy." He rubs the back of his neck sheepishly, then he scurries to Appa's side and bends the saddle off the animal. Momo (I remember the name, yes!), who's been napping in said saddle the last hour or so, chitters resentfully at being woken and goes right back to sleep as soon as the saddle comes to rest on the ground. The bison, on the other hand, plunges into the river with a joyful bellow. Good thing I'm drenched already...

I pull myself together. I suppose it won't hurt to follow their example. Considering the heat, the river actually looks pretty tempting, and I could use the distraction. So I extract myself from my wet clothes and hang them over a tree branch to dry. Sokka has disappeared somewhere, perhaps hitting the bush?

Alright, never mind. Jumping in a wide arc, I dive headfirst into the current – and it's awesome. The water clears my head in the soothing way only water does. It feels like I'm cleansed right down to the soul; the doubts, the burning questions cooled down and washed away. Which idiot was it again who claimed that fire is the superior element? Water is amazing!

My head breaks through the surface, and I'm already feeling guilty for the sentiment. Like I betrayed the Fire Nation. Like I betrayed a part of my own self.

But I don't get the time to mope. Aang waves to me and calls out, "Whoever dives farther wins!"

"Hey!" I protest, but the little Avatar has already disappeared beneath the surface. Ambition takes over, I suck in as much air as I can handle and submerge, kicking the water with all my strength.

I recognize a blurry Aang pelting through the clear water up ahead, but try as I might, I can't catch up. Well, I don't need to. I only have to swim further before going up for air.

My oxygen supply lasts me about nine minutes, but Aang doesn't show any signs of resurfacing. My chest starts to hurt. Dark spots are dancing in front of my eyes, things are getting hairy now, but it only serves to spark the real competitiveness. Now more than ever!

It takes me another three minutes and dimming vision to admit my defeat. I shoot up and gasp for air, my aching lungs refilling in at least a dozen shuddering breaths, which soon enough overlap with the panting of someone else. Aang's head pokes out of the water about twenty feet away.

"No fair!" I wail as soon as my lungs permit. "You're the Avatar!"

Aang paddles over to me, grinning smugly. "I didn't use waterbending."

"But you're a trained airbender!"

Aang just keeps grinning from ear to ear. "That's right, and you put up an amazing fight! I wanted to see what you can do. You've been practicing, don't you?"

I shift my gaze away, treading absentmindedly on the spot to stay above the water. "It was sort of the easiest, you know?" I mumble, feeling ashamed that I can't offer anything beyond that. "Just breathing... Nobody notices when I just dunk my head into the bathtub for a while."

"I see..." Aang replies sympathetically, grin melting into a pained expression. "Must have been agonizing to hide your bending all these years."

I shrug indifferently. "You get used to it. Besides, my family doesn't really mind. They don't like it, of course, but my parents would just ground me if they caught me practicing. Which isn't much of a punishment since I spend most of my time at home anyway."

I only notice that I lost the little Avatar halfway when he starts sputtering, "Punishment?!"

I direct my gaze back at him, meeting eyes which are widened with horror. His mouth is agape, too.

I narrow my eyes, slightly annoyed now. Why won't he get that I don't care? "You may want to haul in your jaw," I comment sarcastically. "And I told you it wasn't much of a punishment anyway."

Aang visibly calms down, finally closing his mouth. "But it's still wrong," he maintains his viewpoint. "You shouldn't be punished for doing something you were born to do!"

I raise a hand out of the water and flick the airbender's arrowed forehead. He grunts an "Ow!" and rubs the offended skin.

"Welcome to reality, little Avatar."

"You know, sometimes I really hate reality," he replies surly and I shrug again.

"You're not alone with that sentiment. Come on, let's return to the others! I'm sure they're wondering what's taking us so long, and seeing how we're ten minutes downriver, swimming back will take a while."

I twist and kick in my place until I'm facing upriver, where Appa is nothing more than a dot at the horizon. My arms hurt at the mere thought of challenging the current.

"Alright," Aang agrees behind me. I shriek with surprise when I suddenly find myself on all fours atop a translucent platform. While I've never seen ice before (well, I did, when Aang built that rice cooler, but it was dark and I couldn't really appreciate it), it's not hard to identify it as such. It looks just the way I imagined!

A joyful chuckle escapes me and I run a hand over the smooth, cold surface. Seems like I don't have to swim back after all!

"Hang on, Kamina!" Aang shouts. Before I can finish admiring the ice, the little Avatar sweeps back his arms and we zoom across the river. The jolt throws me off-balance and I flop to my belly, but Aang is too busy laughing to notice me clinging to the floe's edge for dear life. And I have to admit, once I get used to the speed, I can't stop myself from whooping along with him.

This isn't so bad, actually...

Not that angsty this time... I figured I should grant Kami and the rest of the Gaang a little break. ^-^

Besides, I want to write Aang teaching. I think he's the overzealous kind of teacher, excited to share the knowledge of his people to the point that he needs to be knocked down a peg or two. Too bad Kami isn't exactly receptive, poor Aang pretty much ran into a brick wall with her...

Anyway, I'm officially out now. Good day!