A/N: Hi everyone! Thank you so much for all the reviews, favorites, and support you've given this story! It really means a lot to me.

There was a little bit of miscommunication on my part during the last chapter, so I wanted to jump in and clarify for anyone who was confused: no, Iroh didn't kill the crew at the end of the last scene. He made sure they were all off the ship earlier in the day, before Aang got there. I'm sorry I didn't make that clearer. I edited the ending to hopefully make it more obvious for future readers, but don't worry about rereading if you read the chapter before I did that; it's all the exact same except for the second to last paragraph.

Again, thank you so much for all the support! One of my goals with this project is to improve my writing skills, so if you run into any other mistakes like that, please don't hesitate to let me know. 3


Katara woke to the sound of a crash and groan just outside the camp. Instantly, she was on her feet, her hand moving to the water pouch she always kept at her side.

With her other hand, she reached for Sokka, who slept in his own bedroll on the ground next to her, but he was already awake, alerted by the sound as well.

What was that? he mouthed. Katara shook her head.

Sokka got to his feet quietly and, motioning for her to stay back, crept in the direction of the sound. Katara, however, did not stay back. She followed right behind him, her hand still on the cap of her water pouch.

"You could have landed a little softer," a voice was saying. It was low and gravelly and a little monotone, definitely an old man's voice. Strangely, it sounded familiar to Katara, though she couldn't place exactly where she had heard it before.

"Sorry," another voice said—and this one Katara recognized immediately as Aang's. "These things aren't really made to carry more than one person at a time."

In front of her, Sokka stopped and looked back at her, a question in his eyes.

After a split second of hesitation, Katara called out, "Aang? Is that you?"

She glanced around the clearing where they had set up camp and realized that yes, Aang was nowhere to be seen. He'd been there when she went to sleep, she was certain, but in the panic of her sudden awakening, she hadn't noticed he was gone.

A few seconds later, Aang, followed by a very familiar old man, emerged on the outskirts of the clearing. He wore a sheepish smile and held his glider (now in staff form) in one hand. "Yeah, sorry, we didn't mean to wake you up."

Sokka, who had been reaching for his weapon, relaxed slightly, though he still eyed the man warily. "What's this about?" he asked, waving in Aang and the old man's general direction.

Katara, meanwhile, was staring at the man, trying to piece together why he seemed so familiar. Then, suddenly, it hit her. She had seen this man once before, on the day she and the others found out Zuko was the Avatar. This was the man Zuko had referred to as his uncle.

This revelation immediately put her on the defensive again. "What's he doing here?" she asked, her hand reaching for her water pouch once again.

"This is Iroh," Aang said, seemingly oblivious to the tension in the group. "He's Zuko's uncle, and he needs our help."

"I thought you'd already figured out everything with Zuko," Sokka said. "You were doing training sessions with him, right?"

Aang hesitated. "I thought I had, but I guess there were some things he didn't tell me."

"What happened?" Sokka asked.

Iroh crossed his arms over his chest and looked at Sokka gravely. "My nephew has run away. I suspect that he is intending to make his way to the Fire Nation to turn himself in to his father."

Katara couldn't help it—she scoffed audibly, and everyone looked at her. This was the Avatar that she'd spent her whole life dreaming about? "You're kidding, right? Is he that stupid?"

Iroh studied her, contemplative. "He is not stupid, simply misguided. You have to understand how difficult this revelation is for him. It goes against everything he has been taught his whole life."

"Oh, I'm sure." Katara couldn't stop the sarcasm from bleeding into her voice. "So he decided to completely ignore any of the responsibilities that come with being the Avatar and run away home?"

Iroh shook his head. "We cannot allow him to make it to the Fire Nation. He may not want it yet, but he has a destiny that he cannot ignore. That's why I came to you. I need you to help me find him and talk some sense into him before it's too late."

"Well, we were following after him anyway, I guess," Sokka said, though his gaze was fixed on Katara. "A little detour shouldn't be too big of a deal, right?"

Katara looked away from the group, feeling her heart sink a little further in her chest as she watched her dream of getting to the North Pole extend further into the distance.

"Katara?" Sokka prompted.

Katara's gaze snapped back to him. "Sure," she murmured. "A little longer."

Iroh nodded. "I think for now we should all go to sleep. It's late. Tomorrow, we should discuss where to go next."


A few days later

"Hey, there's a town down there," Katara said. She was leaning over the edge of Appa's saddle, surveying the land below. She pulled back and looked over toward Aang, who was in his usual spot atop Appa's head. "It looks big enough, it'll probably have a decent market. Maybe we should find somewhere to land, Aang. We're getting low on food."

Aang barely glanced at the buildings down below before shaking his head."I don't think we have time to stop in town. I don't want to lose Zuko's tail."

It was the same thing he'd said anytime someone had suggested going into a town since they first set out from the Southern Water Tribe. Katara opened her mouth to argue, but Sokka beat her to it.

"What tail?" he asked. "We've been looking for days and gotten no real leads. I don't think we're gonna be able to find him ourselves. We need to go to a town, ask around. Surely someone will have noticed if a half-bald guy with a giant scar on his face came by. It can't be easy to hide something like that."

"Oh, you would be surprised," Iroh said, from where he sat a few feet away on Appa's back. "My nephew can be very resourceful." He turned to Aang. "Still, I believe Sokka is right. I am always reminding Zuko how important food is for the mind and body. Maybe while we're in the market, we'll find some clues about his whereabouts."

Aang sighed. He was turned away, so Katara couldn't read his expression, but there was reluctance in his posture and his voice as he leaned to the side and patted Appa's head. "Okay, buddy, are you ready for a little break? Bring us down."

Appa grunted, flapped his tail, and Katara's stomach lurched as they began to descend. They'd been doing this for a while now, and she still wasn't used to the feeling.

Aang guided Appa down to a clearing about half a mile outside the town Katara had spotted. As they were gathering their things to head toward the town, Aang walked around to Appa's head and began running his fingers through the fur.

"You should probably stay here, okay, buddy? We're trying to keep a low profile, and you're kind of noticeable. But don't worry, we're just going over to that town to get some supplies and coming right back. We'll be back in an hour, maybe two, tops."

Appa grunted and gently nuzzled his giant head against Aang's body.

Katana was still amazed with the creature. He was so big, she was sure he could crush her in an instant if he wanted to, but he was also easily the most docile animal she'd ever seen. And there was that strange intelligence to him, the one she'd noticed from their very first meeting, like he truly knew what was happening around him. On several occasions, she had noticed his eyes tracking conversations, looking at each person as they spoke as if he understood, and of course he responded when spoken to, in his own way. He was far more than simply a well-trained animal.

"Come on, Aang," Sokka called, and, clearly reluctant, Aang stepped away from Appa with one final pat on his massive fluffy head.

Appa made a sound that was almost like a whine, clearly as unhappy with the parting as Aang was, but as soon as they left the clearing, he laid down in the grass to wait for their return.

As they walked, Katara fell into step next to Aang. Sokka was several feet ahead, briskly leading them toward their destination, and Iroh was in between them. Aang had fallen toward the back and seemed to be lost in thought.

"Hey." Katara bumped him lightly on the shoulder. "You okay?"

"Me? Oh yeah, I'm fine. Just a little nervous, I guess."

"Nervous?"

"Yeah. I don't like leaving Appa, and… I've never actually been to a town before. Besides yours, anyway. Not that yours is a town, I guess."

Katara blinked. She, of course, had never been to a settlement larger than her little Water Tribe village, either, but for some reason the fact that Aang hadn't was surprising to her. "You've never been to a town before? Didn't you grow up in the Earth Kingdom?"

"Er—yes. But I didn't…travel much."

Clearly, he was uncomfortable with this line of conversation. Katara knew she should probably just drop the topic, but her curiosity got the best of her. "Where exactly are you from, anyway? I don't think you ever told us."

"Oh, it's just a tiny little place. It's nothing special. Pretty isolated. We didn't leave much. Or—" He cut himself off, but Katara thought she could guess what he was going to say. Or ever.

For some reason, she'd assumed that he had been all over the world. Maybe it was because that's what she'd heard about the old Air Nomads. They'd been travelers, never putting down roots, always moving. Now she realized how ridiculous that assumption had been. Surely if there were still airbenders traveling the world freely all these years later, someone would have heard about them, and the Fire Nation would be actively pursuing them. But no one had. Any that still existed must've hidden themselves very well.

Aang wasn't a seasoned traveler. He was just as sheltered as Katara, if not more so.

"And your talents. How did you find out about them? Are there others like you in your village?"

"No. No, I'm the only one." Aang wasn't looking at her at all, his eyes fixed on the road in front of him. He had plucked a leaf from a tree they'd passed and set it swirling in a sphere of air, which he passed back and forth between his hands like a ball. He didn't even seem to realize he was doing it.

"But I guess you're not used to having to hide your bending, are you?" She looked pointedly at his hands.

"I—no. I mean, everyone there knew about me. I never needed to—oh." He'd finally noticed what she was staring at, and quickly released the sphere of air, letting the leaf float gently to the ground. "Yeah, I…guess I need to work on that, don't I? If we're gonna be going into more towns."

She understood now, why Aang had been so reluctant to land earlier, and why he'd avoided taking them to any towns or villages the whole time they'd been traveling together, instead preferring to camp in the woods and gather food from the forest. She didn't know why she hadn't found it strange before.

"Probably. Just try to stick to the back, don't talk to too many people."

Aang nodded, though he seemed apprehensive. For that matter, Katara was apprehensive, too.

Aang used airbending like another limb. It was a natural part of almost everything he did. If he didn't know how to turn that off, maybe it was better that they didn't go into towns with him.

She started walking a little faster, breaking away from Aang and increasing her pace to catch up with Sokka as they approached the village walls.

"Sokka," Katara said. "I need to talk to you about something. It's important. Aa—"

"Hang on, Katara," Sokka said, waving at her dismissively in that way of his that always made her blood boil.

"But Sokka, I don't think Aang—"

"I said later, Katara." He waved her off once again, and gave a big smile to the guard at the gate, who was studying them curiously as they got closer.

"Welcome, travelers," the guard said, and Katara made herself back down. She noticed with unease that he wore the red and black armor of the Fire Nation military. "What brings you here?"

She could feel the man eyeing them both, and didn't miss the way his eyes scanned over Iroh and Aang, who were coming up behind them. He seemed initially distrustful, seeing Katara and Sokka's obviously foreign appearances, but seemed to relax slightly when he saw Iroh.

"Hello, sir," Sokka said, bowing slightly and pulling Katara down into a bow next to him. "We're just passing through, hoping to pick up some supplies in your town, and then we'll be on our way."

The guard nodded and, with no further questioning, allowed their group to enter.

Once they were past the guard, Katara yanked her arm out of Sokka's grasp and hissed at him, "We have to be fast. Keep an eye on Aang." Then, ignoring his confused expression, she fell back to walk next to Aang.

Aang moved stiffly, keeping his hands pressed against his sides and looking around nervously. Katara elbowed him.

"Relax," she whispered. "You're going to make people think we're up to no good."

"Right, right." Aang took a deep breath and released his grip on his clothes. Katara reached out, slid her hand into his, and gave it a squeeze.

Aang jumped (Katara couldn't help but notice how the dirt at his feet kicked up a little more than it would for a normal person), and his cheeks reddened as he glanced down at their hands.

"Thanks," he mumbled.

"Just stay calm. We'll be out of here soon."

"I hope so."

Katara didn't let go of Aang's hand as the group continued forward, making their way to a small market square in the center of town.


In spite of her nerves, Katara couldn't help but get a little lost in the splendor of being in a town. She knew, logically, that this place was unremarkable. They had flown over much larger towns and cities in the weeks since they'd left the South Pole. But this was the first time she had seen one up close.

This town was certainly far larger than the glorified circle of igloos and tents that had been her home for the first fourteen years of her life. There were buildings made of wood and stone dotting either side of the streets they walked down as they made their way into the central square. And there were multiple streets. It took maybe a minute or two to walk from one end of her village to the other, but they were walking for several minutes before they got to the market.

Katara realized with sudden excitement that some of these buildings might have been made by earthbenders, and she wondered if she would see any here.

But then she couldn't think about that anymore because they entered the square, and she was accosted by sounds and scents and sights she'd never experienced before.

The square was about a hundred feet across, and consisted of a handful of carts and stalls from which merchants were selling their wares. It wasn't particularly large, but to Katara, it seemed colossal.

She almost forgot herself and let go of Aang's hand to begin exploring, but then she remembered what they were here to do. Gather information and supplies. Get in and out quickly.

Just before they stepped into the market proper, Sokka stopped and turned to the group of them. "We should split up. We'll cover more ground that way. Here"—he reached into his pouch and produced a small collection of blue Water Tribe coins, then handed them to Katara—"you and Aang head to the other side of the market. Get some supplies, but try to talk to people while you're there. See if maybe anyone's seen someone like Zuko around. Iroh and I will do the same on this side."

Katara nodded, a little nervous, and was about to head off with Aang when Iroh spoke up. "What exactly is that you gave to her?"

"What, money?" Sokka frowned and held up another blue coin.

Iroh shook his head and began reaching for his own pouch. "I doubt you'll be able to buy anything with those here. Take these." He passed a few brownish metal coins to Katara. They were rectangular and embossed with the Fire Nation symbol on both sides. "Ban, from the Fire Nation. They'll be more likely to accept those than Water Tribe money."

"Oh, okay," Katara said, pocketing the coins. "Thank you."

"I didn't even know there was any other kind of money," Sokka said.

Iroh smiled slightly, looking almost nostalgic, and patted Sokka on the shoulder. "Well, then, I think perhaps you should let me handle the haggling. Come on, let's go." He led Sokka away to a nearby fruit stand, leaving Katara and Aang alone at the edge of the market.

The two of them just stood there for a solid thirty seconds, looking at each other, before Aang said, "I guess we should go?"

Katara nodded, so they walked off to the other end of the market and got in line at a stall that appeared to be selling some kind of sweet buns.

Katara looked around, trying to determine if any of the nearby people seemed like they would know anything about Zuko—and figure out how to even broach the subject in a way that wouldn't be too obvious.

Before she could figure it out, they were at the front of the line.

The man running the stall looked to be mixed heritage, with the trademark golden eyes of the Fire Nation, but darker skin that was more typical of the Earth Kingdom. He looked up with a smile as Katara and Aang approached. "Hello, kids. How can I help you?"

"Hello, sir," Katara said, a little uncertainly. "We'd like, uh, four of those." And she pointed haphazardly at something for sale.

"Alrighty, little miss, that'll be three copper pieces. Would you like 'em wrapped up or as they are?"

Katara didn't answer right away. She shot a glance at Aang and made a show of digging through her bag to look for the coins Iroh had given her. She assumed those were the copper pieces the man was referring to.

Aang, thankfully, took the hint. "Wrapped up, please, sir," he answered. Then he took a step forward to bring himself a little closer to the man. "Seen anyone unusual around lately?"

The merchant blinked in confusion. "I'm not sure I understand what you mean."

"We're looking for one of our friends," Aang said, "and we thought maybe someone here could have seen him. He's pretty distinct, you'd probably recognize him if you'd seen him. Kinda tall, skinny, mostly bald except for a black ponytail, big burn scar around his left eye?"

The man frowned. "No, I haven't seen anyone like that around here. May I ask why you're looking for him?"

"Oh, he ran away," Katara said, finally pulling out a few of the coins Iroh had given her. "We need to find him before he gets himself in trouble." She handed the three copper to the merchant and accepted the wrapped sweet buns he offered. "Thank you."

"Well, I'll keep an eye out, I guess. I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help."

"Thank you, sir," Katara said. She and Aang bowed as they walked away from the stall.

"If he didn't see Zuko," Aang said, "I doubt any of the merchants here saw him. The place isn't that big. If Zuko was here, surely everyone would have noticed him."

"Maybe," Katara said. "Let's ask around anyway. Maybe some of the patrons have seen him."

As they walked toward the next stall, Katara nervously glanced back over her shoulder toward the man at the last stall. He, thankfully, did not appear to be watching them—he was helping another customer. Maybe they hadn't aroused too much suspicion. Katara hoped not, anyway.

Katara turned her attention back to the front, but not in time to avoid the person who ran across her path suddenly.

"Katara, watch—" Aang began, hand outstretched to grab Katara's arm. But it was too late. Katara collided with the person—it was an Earth Kingdom woman in a simple brown and green dress.

There was a blast of wind all around them as she and the woman fell, and the next thing Katara knew she was on the ground in the center of the market square. The sweet buns she'd had in her hand and the woman's bag of vegetables had been flung out of their hands, their contents strewn about on the grounf.

"Excuse you, young lady!" the woman said indignantly. "You should watch where you're going!"

"I'm so sorry, ma'am." Katara got to her feet and held out a hand to the woman.

As the woman accepted Katara's hand and got to her feet, her eyes drifted away from Katara, over her shoulder. They went wide with something that seemed very much like shock, and Katara felt a spike of concern. After making sure the woman was safely on her feet, Katara followed her gaze.

Only then did she notice that the blast of wind she'd felt had not gone away. It still blew around her ankles, less intense than before but still there. Aang was scrambling around collecting the fallen vegetables the woman had dropped. He looked a little frantic.

Moving her gaze to the vegetables themselves, Katara realized why. The wind that nipped at her ankles was also holding the items aloft, keeping them hovering just a few centimeters above the dirt floor. Aang's work, clearly.

Immediately, Katara moved to help Aang, while at the same time her eyes shot around the square. In addition to the woman, who was staring wide-eyed at the floating vegetables and glancing between them and Aang, there were at least five others in the area who seemed to have stopped their shopping to stare.

Katara shot Aang a glare as she helped him pick up the last of the items, but she wasn't sure if he saw it, and she couldn't risk saying anything incriminating in front of all these people.

Having collected everything, Aang handed the sweet buns back to Katara, then gathered up the woman's bag and approached her with it.

"We're really sorry, ma'am," he said with a smile. "Here you go."

"Th-thank you," the woman said, taking the bag from Aang as the last of the wind died down. "For…everything you did."

Aang's smile remained, but Katara could see a little panic beginning to enter his eyes. She came forward quickly and grabbed onto his arm.

"Yes, we're very sorry. I'll definitely pay better attention next time. Let's go." She pulled Aang away before the woman could say anything else.

The eyes of the onlookers burned into her back the whole way, but once they'd made it around a corner into a nearby alley, Katara relaxed a little bit. Then she spun Aang around to face her and leveled him with a glare.

"What was that?" she hissed.

"What?" Aang said.

"I told you to be more careful about using your bending while we were here. What were you thinking?"

"I—I wasn't. I didn't mean to do it. I just reacted without thinking, and then I didn't want to let it drop because the food would get dirty, so I just started grabbing everything as fast as I could so maybe no one would notice?"

"Well, I think people noticed."

Aang winced. "I did try to warn you that I don't have much experience with this."

Katara sighed. "I know, you're right. We probably shouldn't have come here." She took a deep breath. "Let's just go find Sokka and General Iroh. Maybe they've found something out, and we can go."

As the two of them made their way back into the market, making sure to loop around and come out of a different alley, Katara glanced around to see if anyone seemed to be paying attention as she and Aang re-entered the square.

Though no one seemed to note them directly, there were definitely a few people who were looking in the direction of the alley they'd disappeared into. And in fact, she could see the woman she'd run into standing at the edge of the square, talking to a man in Fire Nation armor. She was pointing toward that alley.

"Let's go quickly," Katara said, grabbing Aang's hand and pulling him toward the other side of the market.

It didn't take very long to find Sokka and Iroh. Ir seemed they'd done well on the mission to acquire supplies, since they were loaded down with bags filled with food and other knickknacks.

"Hey guys, you're done so fast?" Sokka said when he saw them. "It doesn't look like you bought much."

"We need to go," Katara said, keeping her voice low. "Quickly."

Sokka's expression darkened. "What happened?"

Katara raised her eyebrows at Aang.

"That's not really important right now," Aang said. "I may have, uh… done something. Tell you about it when we're on our way. Which we should be. Now."

Sokka exchanged a look with Iroh. "Okay, let's go. We've got plenty of supplies."

The four of them began to make their way out of the marketplace together. Katara kept her head on a swivel, trying to see if anyone around was paying attention as they left the square.

No one appeared to be following them, but as soon as they got out of the market square, a voice to the side said, "Excuse me, young man?"

Next to her, Katara felt Aang freeze and start to turn, so, reluctantly, she waved for Sokka and Iroh to stop and turned around, too.

Standing there before them, his eyes fixed on Aang, was an older Earth Kingdom man. He wore simple peasant's clothes and looked a little worn down, his gray hair a scraggly mess that hung down to his shoulders, his skin weathered and wrinkled.

Katara recognized him as one of the market goers who had noticed Aang's stunt earlier.

"Yes?" Aang said, taking a (possibly unintentional) step back toward the rest of the group.

"I'm sorry to disturb you," the man said. "But I couldn't help but ask… I saw you do something strange in the market. Are you, perchance… an airbender?" His eyes were shining with so much hope that it broke Katara's heart. She recognized that hope. It was the same one she'd held only a few weeks before, when she'd met Aang. The hope that she was so desperately trying to build back up.

Aang stared at the man for a few seconds too long. Katara couldn't even begin to imagine what kind of things must've been going through his head.

"I… I… Yes. I am."

Whatever Katara had expected Aang to say, it was not that. She couldn't help it—she gasped. Was Aang going crazy?

Sokka's reaction was a little bit more aggressive than hers. He lunged forward and put himself between Aang and the man, pushing Aang to the side roughly and nearly knocking him into Katara.

"Of course he's not," he said, with a laugh that was obviously forced and a horribly concealed glare in Aang's direction. "Such a jokester, this one. The airbenders were all wiped out a long time ago, sir, you must know that. Maybe you just thought you saw something."

But it was clear that the man was not listening to a word Sokka said. He was still staring at Aang, though he now had to do so by looking past Sokka's shoulder.

"I can't believe it," the man was muttering, almost to himself. "The Avatar has returned—and in my lifetime!"

"Wait, hold on," Aang said, trying to push past Sokka again. "I think you misunderstood, sir. I'm not the Avatar. I'm just—"

Whatever he'd been about to say was cut off as Sokka put his hand over Aang's mouth and began to pull him backward.

"Good talk, sir," he was saying. "We gotta go."

They all left as quickly as they could, but Katara could feel the man staring at them until they were out of sight.

Luckily, no one else stopped them on the way out of town. Even so, the tense silence between them held all the way until they were safely on Appa's back in the sky.

Then Sokka said, "What did you do?"

Aang was sitting in his usual spot on top of Appa's head, while the rest of them were in the saddle. He sighed, and didn't look back at the rest of them.

"I'm sorry, okay?"

"Great," Sokka said. "Then maybe you could explain exactly what you're sorry for?"

"Aang." Katara leaned over the saddle and put a hand on his shoulder. "I think you should come back here. We need to talk about this."

Aang glanced at her, seeming to relax a little at her touch. Then, clearly reluctant, he climbed into the saddle to face the rest of them.

"Well?" Sokka said, when Aang didn't immediately begin speaking.

"Give him a moment to collect his thoughts," Iroh said. He was the only one who didn't seem to be rattled. He regarded the rest of them with the same eternally calm expression he wore most of the time.

Sokka grunted, but did as Iroh suggested. He leaned back against the side of the saddle and crossed his arms impatiently.

After a few more seconds, Aang finally spoke. "Katara and I were walking in the market, and she and this woman ran into each other. Everything they were carrying flew out of their hands, and I reacted without thinking and sort of…caught it all… with airbending. I collected everything as fast as I could so maybe no one would notice, but I guess some people saw anyway." He shook his head, his eyes cast down at his hands in his lap. "I didn't mean to, I swear."

"And then when that man questioned you," Katara said. "Why did you say yes?"

"I… the man just looked so hopeful. I couldn't bring myself to lie."

Sokka opened his mouth like he wanted to say something—he looked annoyed—but Aang wasn't done talking.

"I didn't expect him to jump to me being the Avatar, though. I mean, seriously, what is it with people? Zuko assumed I was the Avatar, too. Just because I'm an airbender doesn't mean I'm the Avatar."

"Well, yes, we know that," Iroh said. As usual, when he spoke, all three of them turned to give him their full attention. "Because we know who the real Avatar is. But think about it from another perspective. Everyone believes that the airbenders were all killed one hundred years ago, and no one has seen one since then. In addition, the last known Avatar was from the Fire Nation, which means the next Avatar would have been an Air Nomad. Is it so illogical to assume that the only way an airbender could have survived was by being the Avatar?"

"I… guess not," Aang said uncertainly. "But then shouldn't I be over a hundred years old?"

Iroh just shrugged.

"That's beside the point," Sokka said, when it was clear Iroh was finished talking. "Even just people finding out you're an airbender is dangerous, Aang. I don't know how you've managed to go so long without being caught, but if the Fire Nation finds out there's an airbender left in the world, they'll start hunting us, and that's the last thing we need. It's even worse if they think you're the Avatar. You have to be more careful. Can't you, I don't know… shut down the airbending for a while?"

"Not really," Aang admitted. "I was telling this to Katara on the way into the town, but I've never really had to hide my bending before."

Sokka stared at him for a moment, then shook his head. "You just get stranger and stranger by the day, you know that? Where are you from that an airbender didn't have to hide their bending?"

Aang shifted uncomfortably. "Where I'm from isn't important."

"It seems pretty important to me," Sokka said.

Katara agreed—she was curious about Aang's history, too. There must be quite a story there. But she could also see that this line of questioning was making Aang uncomfortable.

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to, Aang," she said. "But can you promise to try harder to hide your bending in the next town? I know it isn't easy. Airbending is a part of who you are, the same way waterbending is for me. Suppressing that part of yourself can't be easy—but I'll try to help you out. I'll do my best not to run into anyone next time." She smiled a little.

"We have to go into town again?" Aang asked. "I was thinking maybe we should, you know… avoid that?"

"We can't," Sokka said. "Unless you two found out some important lead about Zuko that you haven't told us yet, we're gonna have to go into another town to ask about him. Because General Iroh and I didn't find anything. We barely had enough time to buy provisions before you guys came to get us."

"Well, maybe next time I can hang out with Appa and you guys can go into town without me."

"Or you could learn to control yourself," Sokka said. "Though it may not matter, if that man managed to spread what he saw around. We could have rumors following us now."

"I think we already do," Katara said. "The woman I ran into definitely noticed, too, and I saw her talking to a guard in the square before we left. Plus a few other people were looking too."

"Well, that's just great." Sokka shook his head and took a deep breath. "It's fine, we'll figure it out."

Katara didn't know how they were going to do that, but the conversation died after that as Sokka seemed to get lost in thought and Aang hopped back down onto Appa's head. Katara returned to staring at the clouds.