The Tale of Amara

by faithy waithy

Amara... daughter of two nations. father: A Fire Nation Admiral. mother: an imprisoned waterbender from the South Pole. Her half-brother Zhao sees her as nothing but a mistake. Abused both physically and mentally for sixteen years, Amara begins to lose hope that she will ever know happiness... but then a tea loving man arrives and her life changes forever. Full summary inside

32. Her Choice Part 1

Authors note:

Hey readers,

First, this chapter was SO long. I am breaking it into two parts… will be posting both at once so you don't have to wait. I hope you all enjoy!

Second, I just want to let you know: if my updates don't come as quickly as they have been I'm not abandoning this story, I just won't have as much free time to work on it. I'm starting grad school August 26th. So just be patient with me, and I'll work on it when I can. I definitely want to finish this story.

Thanks,

Faith

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Chapter 32: Her Choice Part 1

Amara POV

We'd been traveling through the night and most of the day to get away from Toph's family. We knew that her father was probably sending someone to try and retrieve her, and we all felt better getting some distance between us and Gaoling.

We slept on Appa's saddle for a few hours in the early morning, dropping in a hidden grove. Then we flew when the sun came up again, heading east. After a whole day of stopping, flying, and stopping again, we finally decided to make camp as the sun was setting behind the mountains before us. We decided we were far and safe enough from Lao Beifong to get a good rest.

Appa landed us on an area of earth beside a creek that seemed to travel through the valley we were in. Once we were on the ground, Toph was quick to jump off the saddle and land below.

"Hey, you guys picked a great campsite. The grass is so soft," she commented.

I was confused. There wasn't grass around us. I peaked over the saddle as my cousins and Aang got off. White fur from Appa surrounded us. Yuna mewed as she was perched on the edge of the saddle beside me, looking down as well. I pet her as my oldest cousin responded to Toph.

"That's not grass," Sokka explained. "Appa's shedding."

Katara shrieked, quickly stumbling out of the furry pile she was in. "Oh, gross!"

Aang argued. "That's not gross; it's just a part of spring."

He jumped back on the saddle beside me to start unloading our bags for camp. A bluebird suddenly landed on his head, while a butterfly I knew was called a sooty copper fritillary flapped past him. Yuna suddenly charged at the bird, while Momo hopped up for the butterfly. I covered my eyes as they caught their meals. Thankfully, they both flew off with their catches to eat in private. I dropped my hand, glad I didn't have to watch the slaughter.

Aang seemed to shake off what just happened and continued. "You know: rebirth, flowers blooming, and Appa gets a new coat!"

Katara cringed again. She was over near the front of Appa now to avoid his shedding. "Ah, the beauty of spring." Appa stuck his tongue out, which had some fur on it. Then he sneezed and blew the fur towards Katara. She shrieked. "Stop, Appa, stop!"

I grabbed some bags and finally made my way down Appa's tail. Once I got on the ground, I could see the fur was indeed everywhere. I had noticed Yuna had been shedding a bit the last few days too, but thankfully she didn't have as much fur as Appa. Her fathers seemed to remain intact.

"It's not that bad, Katara," Sokka spoke. I came around Appa to see him kneeling on the ground. He stood and I couldn't help but laugh. He had taken some of the fur and bunched it on his head to make a fake towering hairstyle. "It makes a great wig!"

Katara grimaced.

Aang spoke from the saddle, saying, "And a great beard!"

I looked up to see he had bunched some fur on his face. I wasn't sure how he got it to stick. However, I laughed again at their ridiculous actions. They were being silly, and I enjoyed the innocent play.

Katara was not amused, brushing fur off her sleeve. "I'm just glad we finally have another girl in the group because you two are disgusting. Amara needs better examples."

"Excuse me," Toph spoke suddenly. We looked over at her. "Does anyone have a razor…" She lifted her arms to show she had stuffed fur in her shirt sleeves. "...because I've got some hairy pits!"

Sokka, Aang, and Toph laughed. Aang sneezed then, losing the fur on him and airbending himself off Appa. He crashed face-down in the fur pile below, and the laughter continued. I smiled slightly, glad to see Toph was having a good time. Katara scowled in disgust though and walked over to me.

She grabbed my hand, saying, "Don't be influenced by these children, Amara! Come help me get water for camp!"

I followed her, amused by her reaction. As we left camp, I said to her, "I know it's gross, but at least everyone's having fun. Toph deserves to get to goof off and be herself."

She sighed. She let my hand go and crossed her arms with frustration. "I know… I guess I'm just a bit disappointed. I never really had a lot of female friends my age growing up so I guess I was hoping Toph and I would have things in common."

I shrugged. "I think you do. You just haven't known her long enough to learn about her other traits. When I first met Zuko, I wasn't sure what to think about him. He had a temper sometimes, and I would get anxious... But the more I got to know him, the more I saw he was actually super sweet and caring… really protective… What I'm trying to say is you don't know someone or form a relationship overnight. It takes time. Just be patient."

She nodded. She put an arm around my own. "At least I have you to keep me sane."

I shrugged. "I'm sure I'm a horrible example of the girl you're looking for… I grew up alone most of my life. I don't know the first part about being girly. I'm literally just living each day one step at a time, and trying to learn as many new things as I can. I feel socially awkward most days… like a weirdo..."

She smirked. "Well clearly you did something right having the prince of the Fire Nation fall for you. Unless he just has a thing for weirdos."

I blushed and my heart fluttered. "I… I'm not sure why he fell for me so much… I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that I didn't care about his past, or the fact that he was a prince. I was just really happy to finally have a friend my age… to have a friend at all... He was too. Our friendship just kind of grew into something stronger the longer we were together… but… he wanted to capture Aang, so in the end we had to go our separate ways."

She sighed. "Well… As much as I despise him, I admit that we owe him for bringing you to us that day at the North Pole."

I nodded. "Yeah… I probably would've never met you if they hadn't saved me. Honestly… If Tu Lan didn't risk his life to tell Iroh about me, then I probably would've died… I was starting to lose hope and give up. I had tried to escape Zhao so many times, and every time I would be brought back and punished. I was close to just forgetting the promise I made to my mom and letting myself fade away."

Katara stopped walking. Her hold on my arm tightened as my words upset her. "I'm glad you didn't… You were so strong enduring all that for so many years. If we had known about you, I'm certain my father and Bato would've tried to save you… I feel like our family let you and Aunt Kala down… No one tried to get her back…"

I shook my head. "There was nothing any of the warriors could've done… Even if your dad, Bato, or someone else tried to break into the Fire Nation, they wouldn't have stood a chance against my father and his men. Plus… My mother's existence was hidden from everyone in the Fire Nation but a few soldiers and the staff at the estate, so the warriors wouldn't have known where to look for her." I turned towards Katara and placed a gentle hand on her arm. "I've learned that the past can't be changed… All that matters is that I finally was saved and found you… I'm trying my best to leave the darkness behind and focus on that fact."

She smiled and pulled me into a hug. "You are amazing, Amara… One of the strongest girls I know. Mom and Aunt Kala are so proud of you. I just know it."

A little while later we returned to camp with streams of water flowing beside us. Aang jumped down from Appa's saddle with two clay pots, and we dropped the water inside. Sokka had returned focus to setting up camp as well, walking off to go find some firewood. Momo went with him, while Yuna sat on my shoulder as I carried sleeping bags off of Appa. Katara and Aang started to work on setting up one of the tents we had, worried that it was going to rain.

Sokka came back with the firewood a few minutes later, and I quickly helped him make the pit and start the flames. Once the campfire was started, I looked over to see the two tents we had were set up and done.

As we all did our part, one person did not move much. I didn't really expect her to though. Toph probably didn't know what she should do to help. I was certain she had never set up a campsite before. My first time camping was a mess because I didn't know how to properly stack wood to make a fire, or how to do anything else. I had to learn from my cousins what the routine was.

Katara was not as understanding as me. She walked over to Toph who was sitting lazily against a boulder; her legs were out and crossed in front of her, and her hands rested behind her head.

"So, Toph... usually when setting up camp we try to divide up the work," Katara explained.

Toph shrugged. "Hey, don't worry about me. I'm good to go."

Katara was surprised by her response. She had hoped Toph would understand she wanted her to help. "Well, actually, what I'm trying to say is, uh, some of us might fetch water while someone else might set up the fire pit or put up the tent." Momo suddenly flew by me and landed on Katara's shoulder, dropping some nuts into her hand. "Even Momo does his fair share."

Toph shrugged. "Katara, I'm fine. I can carry my own weight. I don't need a fire, I've already collected my own food, and look…" She sat up and moved her arms up, bending a stone tent beside her. "My tent's all set up."

Katara put her hands on her hips, getting more frustrated. "Well, that's great for you, but we still need to finish…"

Toph cut her off. "I don't understand. What's the problem here?"

Katara let out a heavy breath. "Never mind." She turned on her heel and stomped away.

As we continued to set up camp, I spoke to Katara who had just carried the pot of water over to the campfire so we could start dinner. She huffed as she placed it in front of me, muttering incoherent words under her breath. I wasn't sure if I should get involved, but I wanted to calm my cousin down before she lost her temper. We needed everyone to get along…

"I know you're frustrated with Toph," I spoke softly to her from where I was sitting on the ground, chopping vegetables on a wooden plate with a dull knife. "But she doesn't really know how to interact with the group yet. She just joined us, so it will take time. It definitely was a big adjustment for me."

Katara let out a heavy breath as she stood beside me. She looked over at Toph who was still chilling, but inside her stone tent this time. "Yeah… I guess so… I should probably go make peace with her. Mind throwing in the vegetables? I'll be back to take over the rest."

I let her know I would. I proceeded to add the vegetables I'd just cut into the water. Then I started to heat the water with my combined bending. Everyone appreciated my ability: my hot water always helped speed up our cooking time.

As I worked on getting the water to boil so the vegetables would cook, I watched as Katara walked over to Toph. I could hear their conversation as I started to swirl the carrots and squash in the water that was bubbling and steaming.

"Hey Toph, I wanted to apologize for earlier. I think we're all just a little tired and getting on each others' nerves."

Toph nodded. "Yeah, you do seem pretty tired."

Katara's body went stiff. I sighed. I had a feeling this would not end peacefully like I had hoped. Toph was hitting my cousin's nerve, and I was certain Katara would lose her temper very soon.

"I meant all of us," Katara spoke with irritation.

Toph shrugged her off and laid down. "Well, goodnight."

Katara let out another heavy breath, and then muttered in defeat, "Goodnight."

She walked back over to me, and I could see she was doing all she could to not smack Toph with a water whip. She sat beside me with irritation as I continued to swirl the vegetables in the boiling water.

"Spoiled rich kid," Katara muttered.

I frowned. "She's probably just not used to interacting with others, Katara. Be patient."

"I only have so much patience," Katara mumbled. She then breathed deeply again and started to help me with dinner.

Once we ate with Aang and Sokka, we got ready for sleep. Katara and I went into one tent, with Yuna coming and curling between us. Sokka went into his own, and Aang slept on Appa's head with Momo. We were probably only asleep for an hour, when suddenly Toph sounded from outside.

"There's something coming toward us!"

We jolted awake and quickly scrambled out of the tent. Yuna was quick to get on my shoulder as we walked over to where Toph was kneeling on the ground with her palm against it.

Aang jumped down from Appa, wielding his staff in preparation to fight. "What is it?"

Toph concentrated for a moment on the vibrations. "It feels like an avalanche... But also not like an avalanche."

Sokka muttered, "Your powers of perception are frightening."

Katara asked, "Should we leave?"

Aang nodded, "Better safe than sorry."

We quickly tore down camp, put out the last few flames of our fire, and then boarded Appa to head out. We took flight a moment later, and as we got high enough to see over the mountains around us, we were shocked. There was a giant metal machine traveling towards us, powered by coal no doubt. It was too dark to see what the machine fully looked like, but from the light of the moon we could see it was long like a giant worm.

Katara was the first to voice her curiosity. "What is that thing?"

I stared over the back of the saddle with confusion as we flew away from the device. I had never seen anything like it, even in the time I was at Zhao's harbor. "A giant tank, maybe?"

"Whatever it is, we should probably get away from it as much as we can," Sokka urged. "It could be Fire Nation. I really don't feel like a battle tonight. I'm tired..."

We flew for a good hour. Finally, we could no longer see the machine or its smoke. We landed again on a flat spot at the bottom of a rocky hill. Toph was the first to jump off and land below. "Ah! Land! Sweet Land!" She started to walk a few meters from us, slinging her bag on her shoulder. "See you guys in the morning."

Katara quickly called after her, dropping from the saddle to become level with her. "Actually, can you help us unload?"

Toph stopped and turned her head towards us. "Really? You need me to help unload Sokka's funky-smelling sleeping bag?"

I glanced over at Sokka, who actually sniffed his sleeping back and cringed. I smiled slightly, trying not to laugh at his reaction.

Katara spoke again. "Well, yeah. That and everything else. You're a part of our team now and…"

Toph argued. "Look." She pointed at Katara. "I didn't ask you to help unload my stuff. I'm carrying my own weight."

Katara put her hands on her hips like she had earlier. "That's not the point!"

I sighed and covered my face. I knew the fight was about to start. Katara was tired and starting to lose her patience. I looked again to see Katara had followed Toph across the site to confront her.

"Ever since joining us you've been nothing but selfish and unhelpful!"

Toph spun on her heel to face Katara. "What?!" She pointed at her with her own rage. "Look here, Sugar-Queen! I gave up everything I had so that I could teach Aang earthbending, so don't you talk to me about being selfish!"

She turned again so her back was to Katara, sat down, and bent an earth tent around her. At this point, the rest of us had gotten off Appa, and we watched from a distance not sure what to do.

"Sugar-Queen!" Katara moved forward, but Toph brought a slab up at the front of her tent to close herself off from Katara. "Di-Did you just slam the door in my face!" She started to pound on the stone slab. "How can you be so infuriating! You're acting like a spoiled child! Come out and face me!"

I looked at Sokka and Aang with uncertainty. "Uh… what do we do?"

Aang was hesitant. "I don't know… should we do something?"

Sokka shrugged. "Hey, I'm just enjoying the show."

I sighed. "But… this tension might make Toph want to leave… Aang really needs her to teach him earthbending… I think we need to break this up… this won't end well if they keep at it like this..."

Aang nodded. "Yeah… You're right, Amara." He stepped over to Katara who was still pounding on the tent. "Okay, okay, you both need to calm down."

Katara turned to glare at him. "Both?! I'm completely calm!"

Aang backed a bit, wary of my cousin's heated state. "I... can see that… but why don't we all just get some sleep… we'll feel so much better in the morning."

Katara huffed. "Fine! But this conversation isn't over!" She stomped past Aang, and then past Sokka and I. We watched her go with bewilderment. I couldn't believe she was letting Toph get to her so much. Yuna whined on my shoulder, sensing the tension. I pet her to let her know it would be okay.

A few moments later, we had all set out our sleeping bags again. We decided to not worry about the tents, just wanting to lay down as fast as we could. As I started to drift on my sleeping bag, with Yuna curled up beside me, I jolted awake again when Katara spoke next to me.

"The stars sure are beautiful tonight. Too bad you can't see them, Toph!"

Sokka grunted on the other side of her, wishing she would give it a rest. I wished she would also at this point; We were losing sleep the longer they bickered. And Toph couldn't see… so that comment was a little harsh…

There was a sudden rumble of earth, and then suddenly Katara shrieked beside me. I sat up quickly to see what was going on. Toph had ejected Katara from her sleeping bag, and she had landed on Sokka.

Sokka shoved her off. "Hey! How is a guy supposed to sleep with all this yelling and earthquaking!"

Before anyone could respond, Toph suddenly emerged from her tent with panic. She placed her hand on the ground again. "That thing is back!"

I was shocked. What? Was it following us?

Sokka whined. "Well, how far away is it? Maybe we can close our eyes just for a few minutes."

My eyes caught the smoke in the moonlit sky. "Close," I muttered.

Aang agreed. "I don't think so, Sokka. We need to leave…"

We quickly packed up again and got on Appa. As we flew away from the machine once more, I could tell Appa was definitely getting tired because we were going much slower and a lot lower to the ground. I didn't blame the poor guy… I was exhausted too, and he was the one carrying us.

Katara asked with frustration as she stared back at the machine, "Seriously, what is that thing?

Toph asked with her own curiosity, "And how does it keep finding us?"

Aang spoke with determination. "I don't know, but this time I'm going to make sure we lose 'em."

Aang grabbed the reins tightly and started to take Appa on a course full of turns, over hills, around stalagmites, and over a large mountain. After going around and over many obstacles the machine would hopefully not be able to navigate, we landed on top of a mountain's cliff. Appa was exhausted, and he fell immediately on his side to sleep. We quickly scrambled off so we didn't land too hard from being forced out of the saddle. Once we were on land, we all decided to just lay down as quick as we could. None of us unrolled our sleeping bags, and instead used them as pillows.

Sokka muttered beside me, "Okay, forget about setting up camp. I'm finding the softest pile of dirt and going to sleep." He rolled away from me, and then stopped when he did find that nice spot.

Katara rested on the other side of me with her head on her rolled up sleeping bag, saying, "That's good, because Toph wasn't going to help anyway."

Toph was laying on her back and snapped, "Oh, I didn't realize baby still needed someone to tuck her in bed!"

"Please… stop… sleep," I begged, shutting my eyes with frustration. I just wanted everyone to be quiet so we could rest. Yuna, who was curled up beside me again, gave a small "mew-hoo" to agree with me.

Aang added from where he was on the other side of Katara, "Amara's right… Come on guys... there's something after us and we don't even know what or who it is."

Katara thought out loud. "Could it be Zuko? We haven't seen him since the North Pole. I doubt he would give up the chase just because Amara's with us now."

Toph asked, "Zuko… He's the one you told me helped Amara, right?"

Sokka answered, "Yeah. Angry freak with a ponytail who's tracked us all over the world. Makes sense."

I argued. "Zuko wouldn't have the resources for a machine like that… He was already having a hard time figuring out a new crew when Zhao took all his men before the North Pole. He doesn't have many allies in the Earth Kingdom... I don't think it's him."

Katara sighed. "Yeah… You're probably right, Amara…" She then asked, "And what's wrong with ponytails, ponytail?"

Sokka pointed at his hair. "This is a warrior's wolf-tail."

Katara stated with heavy sarcasm, "Well, it certainly tells the other warriors that you're fun and perky!"

I smiled and giggled a little.

Sokka brushed her comment aside. "Anyway, whoever's chasing us, they couldn't have followed us here. So... now would everyone just shhh!"

We all shut our eyes again. However, not even a minute passed when Momo suddenly chattered with angst. Yuna whined too, and I brushed my hand on her head to try and calm her down.

Sokka tried to calm Momo who was still restless. "No, Momo, ssh! Sleepy time."

Momo squeaked louder, and rushed to the edge of the cliff. He started to jump up and down, chattering frantically. We finally decided to listen to him. When I sat up, I saw what had him so anxious. I groaned and dropped my head on my sleeping bag again. "No… How?"

Sokka whined. "Aww… don't tell me…"

From the light of the moon we saw smoke rising.

Begrudgingly, we all got to our feet again and walked to the edge of the cliff. The machine was visible, traveling across the hills, easily navigating around the rocks and boulders. We had not been able to escape it.

Aang was shocked. "That's impossible! There's no way they could have tracked us!"

Toph exclaimed, "I can feel it with my own two feet!"

The machine got closer and closer as we stood watching it from our cliff above.

Katara urged, "Let's get out of here!"

Aang argued. "Maybe we should face them. Find out who they are. Who knows, maybe they're friendly."

Sokka sighed. "Always the optimist."

The machine came to a stop suddenly in the valley below. From the distance, we saw the front of the giant metal machine open in a similar fashion to how Zuko's ship had opened. Three shapes emerged from the ramp, and I was shocked as I recognized them in the distance. The three teenage Fire Nation girls were riding on strange four-legged lizard-like creatures.

"No way… It's Zuko's sister and her friends!" I backed up in horror. Yuna hissed on my shoulder. "They must be after Aang."

Sokka added, "And you! She's the reason the Rough Rhino's targeted us the other day!"

Toph pounded her fist in her other hand. "We can take 'em. Four on three."

Sokka was puzzled. "Um… Actually, Toph, there's five of us."

She laughed slightly in embarrassment. "Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't count you. You know, no bending and all."

Sokka gasped, swinging his boomerang in his hand. "I can still fight!"

Toph corrected herself. "Okay. Four on three plus Sokka."

Sokka growled, but he returned focus to the three girls headed our way. I grabbed the cap of my water moccasin, glad I hadn't taken it off the last time we packed up camp. Katara, Aang, and Toph prepared to fight too.

As the girls and their creatures got closer, Toph stomped her foot down and jabbed her arms and fists in the air three times. On the last jab, the ground lifted in the area below to create large rock formations in front of the three girls and their mounts. Their animals easily climbed over or darted around the walls of stone, not losing any speed.

Sokka was horrified. "Well, we wanted to find out who they were. We found out. Now let's get out of here! We have to get Amara and Aang to safety!"

We decided he was right. Fighting was too much a risk, especially since we were all exhausted. We ran back over to Appa, who was back on his feet again but even more tired than the last time. Toph had stayed behind though, and I looked back to see she formed another wall of earth to block us from them. A flash of blue light shot through the rocks, breaking it into pieces and creating sparks. I knew immediately what the electric sparks were from.

Lightning… Iroh had told me Azula could bend lightning, but seeing her actually conduct the element, I was horrified. Such an ability was both powerful and destructive.

We had grabbed our sleeping bags and were on Appa again, waiting for Toph to come so we could take off.

The girl named Mai suddenly raised her left arm and released four arrows towards Toph. Toph felt the gesture and bent a large wall of earth beneath her, propelling her up and backward onto Appa's saddle. The arrows hit her stone wall as she landed beside me. She shouted, "Let's get out of here!"

Aang agreed, jumping back to the front of Appa to grab the reins. "Appa, yip yip!"

We took off again just as the rock formation Toph had jumped from exploded from another lightning strike. I looked down to see Azula jump through the debris. The other two girls followed behind. Thankfully, we were too far for them to attack us again. Soon their figures faded as we gained distance.

We all dropped back against the saddle with relief and exhaustion. I shut my eyes. Yuna calmed from her own fright and went to sleep beside me again. Momo sat on the other side of me, calming and sleeping as well.

"I can't believe Princess Azula and her friends are following us so much," Katara muttered tiredly. "Don't they care about sleep too?"

Sokka was curled up with his sleeping bag. "Doubt it… she is related to Zuko… I guess persistence runs in the family."

Toph spoke with frustration. "I still think we could've taken them. Kitten could have shot boiling rain over them."

I opened my eyes slightly, and spoke with exhaustion, "I don't think I've learned that trick yet. Combining my bending isn't as easy as you think… even when I'm not tired."

Katara nodded. "And the last thing we need is Amara showing more of her abilities to those chicks. They'll only target her further if they see how strong she's become since our last meeting. Plus... there's no way we could possibly win… The crazy blue firebending and the flying daggers are bad enough, but last time we saw them one of those girls did something that took my bending away. That's scary."

"Yeah… I think Iroh told me a little about that ability," I spoke again. "He said there are different types of fighting techniques, even for non-benders. From what I remember, it's called…" I thought again, trying to recall my conversation. It finally came back. "Chi-blocking… It has something to do with stopping the flow of one's energy."

"Well whatever it's called, we can't allow her to do it again," Aang said.

We flew for a few more minutes. As we did, the sky started to lighten. Then gold rays decorated the clouds above as the sun started to peak over the mountains in the distance.

"Oh no, the sun is rising!" Sokka cried. "We've been up all night with no sleep."

Aang tried to calm him down. "Sokka, we'll be okay."

Sokka argued, shaking his head and arms dramatically. "Are you sure?! I've never not slept before! What if I fall asleep now and something happens? And something always happens!"

Katara sighed. "Every time we land, those girls are there, so we'll just have to keep flying."

Aang spoke tiredly, steering Appa who was lowering more from his endless flight. "We can't keep flying forever… Appa's not going to be able to go much longer..."

We flew for another thirty minutes. Sokka was asleep. Katara was slumping over in exhaustion. I was trying to stay awake the best I could.

Aang finally asked, "So, what's the plan?"

Toph had her eyes shut, slumped against the saddle. She spoke with exhaustion. "Don't know... too tired to think."

Katara spoke in a half awake state. "I'm sure we'll come up with something after a short nap."

The air suddenly grew faster, and then was blowing up at us. Yuna shrieked and flew off. Momo gripped my arm to hold on as I grabbed hold of the side of the saddle. I knew from the familiar feeling that we were falling.

I cried, "What's happening?!"

Katara and Sokka had jolted alert and were holding on to something as well to not fall out. Aang was pulling on the reins but nothing was happening.

Toph asked again, "What's going on!"

Aang yelled back at us, "Appa fell asleep!"

I shut my eyes. I had fallen from the sky before, but I had a feeling we wouldn't be landing in a swamp this time. We all screamed as we dropped, but Appa didn't wake up from our sounds. Momo finally took Yuna's advice and left my side to fly off the saddle. Traitor...

"Wake up, buddy!"

Aang cried out to Appa, and finally he woke up. Appa quickly tried to fly again, but he was so tired he only saved us from a painful crash. We headed straight forward towards the earth, hitting a few treetops as we went. Then we smashed into the dirt a moment later. Appa slid to a stop on his belly, while we all continued to hold on to his saddle from the terror of our almost fall. Yuna returned to my shoulder after I managed to pull myself together and get off of Appa. My legs were still shaking though from the terrifying landing. Aang landed beside me from Appa's head with relief that we were alive. Momo appeared on his shoulder a moment later.

Aang pet Appa who was snoring softly in the spot we had landed. "Appa's exhausted."

Sokka had his sleeping bag and walked a little ways from Appa. "Okay, we've put a lot of distance between us and them. The plan now is to follow Appa's lead and get some sleep."

Katara was off of Appa too, holding her own sleeping bag. She looked over at Toph who was already laying on her stomach on the ground. "Of course, we could have gotten some sleep earlier if Toph didn't have such issues."

Toph sprung up with fury. "What?!"

I groaned and begged, "Please! Don't fight anymore! The longer you do the less sleep we get."

Aang agreed, stepping between them as they were approaching one another. "Listen to Amara. Everyone's exhausted. Let's just get some rest."

Toph crossed her arms. "No! I want to hear what Katara has to say. You think I have issues?"

Katara crossed her own arms. "I'm just saying, maybe if you helped out earlier we could've set up our camp faster and gotten some sleep and then maybe we wouldn't be in this situation!"

I sighed, dropping my sleeping bag on the ground in front of me. Then I covered my face in disbelief. I knew nothing I said would help.

Toph snapped, "You're blaming me for this?!"

Aang interjected, trying to calm the girls down. "No, no! She's not blaming you!"

Katara argued, "No, I'm blaming her!"

Toph stomped over to Katara and jabbed her finger towards her face. She yelled, "Hey! I never asked you for diddly-doo-da. I carry my own weight!" She then stomped over to Appa and pointed her thumb back at him. "Besides, if there's anyone to blame, it's sheddy over here!"

Her accusation towards Appa made Aang outraged. "What? You're blaming Appa?!"

She walked closer to Appa and put a hand on his fur. "Yeah! You wanna know how they keep finding us?" She pulled a wad of fur off him and let it drift out of her hand. "He's leaving a trail everywhere we go!"

Aang stomped over to her. "How dare you blame Appa! He saved your life three times today! If there's anyone to blame, it's you! You're always talking about how you carry your own weight, but you're not! He is! Appa's carrying your weight! He never had a problem flying when it was just the four of us!"

Toph was stunned. I was horrified.

There was a moment of silence as Aang's accusation sunk in. Then Toph turned her back to him and started to walk away. She stomped her foot and made her bag fly up off the ground so she could catch it and put it on her shoulder.

She spoke with hurt as she left. I could hear she was trying not to cry. "I'm outta here."

Sokka had gotten up from where he'd been laying down, finally deciding he needed to do something. He tried to intercept her, knowing her leaving would be of no help to Aang. He held his arms out to stop her. "Wait!"

She used earthbending to push him aside, and then walked past him as he tried to catch himself from falling.

I quickly followed after her. "Toph! Wait! Please!"

She faltered in her step upon my call. Her body went stiff, and she tightened her grip on her bag strap. "Just let me go, Kitten. I don't belong here."

I stopped behind her. "Toph… everyone's just tired. Frustrated. We want you with us. It's just going to take some getting used to. Once we sleep, everyone will be in better moods. Don't go… none of this is your fault."

She let out a heavy breath. "You're a great person, Amara. You really are an amazing friend. If it wasn't for you, I would've never found the courage to stand up to my parents. Thanks… for everything."

She stepped forward again, speaking as she went.

"But I don't think teaching Aang is going to work out... Take care, Kitten. Good-bye."

She left then. I watched her go with great sadness. I hated the idea of her being alone, but I knew I couldn't follow her. She would stop me easily. She seemed determined to go, and was too upset to listen to reason. As she disappeared beyond the rocks and hills that surrounded us, I let out a heavy breath. My shoulders slumped. Yuna whined and her ears dropped. I knew there was nothing we could do but return to the others.