Wind whisked by Toph's face. The air that had provided cool relief in the heat of the day now sent chills up her body as night began to fall.

The smell of smoke and sulfur grew with northwestern gusts, a reminder of where they were heading. She focused on Appa's fur, a grassy sort of smell, and Toph let her mind be filled with thoughts of the country and warmth and closeness. She petted his side, feeling the coarse hair run through her fingers.

Behind her, Aang remarked about the stars, those useless dots of light out of her reach. She tried to imagine them, the images and stories they illustrated in the dark sky. Darkness, that she could imagine.

"Everyone awake?" called Sokka, who was piloting Appa. "We're coming down."

They descended slowly, much too slowly for Toph's taste, but they eventually landed. First one off the bison, Toph landed feetfirst with enough of an impact to take inventory of their surroundings. It was surprisingly bare, with few trees or bushes, but that did not mean life did not reside there. Gophers and meadow voles moved underfoot, and countless mice rustled through the low grass. The land seemed to roll away into existence until there was only a steady hum of feedback too dim to make out.

They weren't near a body of water that she could tell, and there didn't seem to be anything of particular interest. "Why'd you land here?"

"Because…" Sokka drew out the word, and Toph could hear the anticipation behind his words, "I figured we needed some open space to see the falling stars."

"Yes! Thanks, Sokka!" Aang jumped up in celebration, causing Momo to leap off his friend's shoulder, chittering in annoyance.

Falling stars. Something else that belonged to the world of things she could never be a part of.

So what? she asked herself. What did the stars ever do to affect her? Why were they even something to bother with? "Can't wait," she remarked, but her comment was lost among the others' excited voices as they all dismounted Appa.

"Let's get camp ready first," instructed Katara, "then we can watch them."

Toph sensed the earth in front of her and balled her fists, packing dirt and stones together, then pulled her arms up like she was lifting something off the ground. Two slabs of hardened earth rose up and fell against each other to make the peak of her shelter. Another kick created a mound to seal off the back of it, leaving a single opening for her to enter and exit.

Aang paced excitably and helped Sokka get everything off Appa. She could sense the items in Sokka's hands while he was on top of Appa, but they disappeared when he tossed them down to Zuko or Katara or Aang below, only to appear again with a dull slap when it hit the intended target's arms. The four of them, Katara, Sokka, Aang, and Zuko, talked amongst themselves as they worked.

For once, Toph didn't feel like talking or being around them. Instead, she went into her stone tent, shut the entrance, propped her feet up, and closed her eyes.

It was only a minute or two before someone came and stood on the other side of the earthen tent. Toph set her feet down and felt for a heartbeat. Sokka. "What?" she called.

"Katara wanted me to get you. We're done unloading Appa."

"Great, I'll do my makeup," she said as she lowered the entrance wall. Shaking her head and feeling the dust come off, she asked, "How do I look?"

"Like an earthbender."

They headed toward the others. They lied on their backs, and their voices, carried by the air, mixed with the sound of the wind playing along the tops of dried grass.

"Wow!" exclaimed Aang just as Toph and Sokka joined them. Even Katara seemed to have her attention caught by something in the sky. "That one was so bright! Did you see it?"

Beside him, Katara nodded in agreement. "Did you?" she murmured to Zuko on her other side.

"Mh?" Zuko grunted in reply. His heartrate had been slow, but it sped up when he shook his head and mumbled, "Sorry. Eyes were closed."

Sokka left Toph's side and laid down beside Aang. "Yeah, that was pretty bright," he agreed.

The choice was to lay by Sokka or Zuko. Aang was the loudest but also in the middle of the group so there was no real protection against his comments, like asking everyone if, for the fifth time already, they had seen whatever it was he saw.

Triggered by some silent movement, there was another collective gasp—barring the sleepy Zuko.

Decision made. Toph went to Zuko's side and laid down.

Silence. Blessed silence.

A gasp from Aang. "That one looked almost blue; did you see that?"

"That one was pretty awesome," admitted Sokka.

And Katara added, "It almost crossed the entire sky. They're so pretty."

Shut up. Shut. Up. 'It's so pretty' this. 'It's so pretty' that. That and the sheer repetition of comments was enough to make anyone go crazy.

It didn't take long for another round of comments to sound off: "Wow!", "It's so pretty!", "That one was so bright!"

"That's it." Toph got to her feet and began walking back to camp.

"Everything okay?" called Katara.

"Peachy."

Katara shifted positions to face her better. "What is it?"

"I'm going back."

"Why?"

" 'Why?' "

"C'mon, Toph…" Aang started.

Sokka joined in as well: "It's nice out. Why do you want to—"

Toph pulled at her eyelids. "I'm blind!" The stench of embarrassment came off of them and drifted her way. Of course they forgot. Again.

"Sorry, I didn't think—" Aang started.

"Forget it."

"Toph, don't," said Katara. "Don't you want to be with us? We want to include you, even if you can't see the stars."

"Yeah!" joined in Sokka and Aang. Even Zuko joined in, nodding his agreement.

The frustration that had caused her to stand left her but didn't leave her apathetic. She waved them off. "I'll just head to camp."

Sokka scrambled to his feet. "Toph…"

"No, wait," said Aang.

"Don't go," Katara pleaded.

Zuko spoke up: "What if we described what they looked like?" Everyone's heads turned to him. "I mean, can't we describe what the falling stars look like?"

They looked back to Toph. She shrugged.

Sokka grinned. Gesturing for her to return with a wave of his hand, he said, "Let Zuko snooze; sit next to us."

She chose to obey him just this once and lied next to him in the grass. It was a minute before everyone's heads jerked in one direction at what was presumably a star. "Wow!" Aang remarked, but that was the limit to his comments.

"Okay, so that one was pretty small. It was white, I think, and passed by right above us." Sokka's commentary resumed when another star fell: "That one was pretty cool. It looked greenish. Much larger than the other one. Brighter too." Green, the color of grass. Whatever that looks like.

Toph bit her lip, then asked, "What do they look like?"

"What?"

"The stars."

"Oh. Well, they're like little lights, and falling stars are like long streaks of light like a…" He paused, watching her. "You don't know what…"

"Obviously," she said, making sure to keep anything but playful annoyance out of her tone. It doesn't bother me. It doesn't.

"Oh, okay." Sokka thought for a bit. "Think of how it feels when you get close to something too hot, or maybe when you hit the ground really hard so you can see everything around you—that kind of intensity." Toph followed. "Got that? Okay, so that's like a really bright light like the sun or a full moon." That was odd since the feeling she got from the sun was very different from that of the moon, but she nodded like she understood. "Now think of a weak heat like Smokey here trying to attack us that one time."

"Sokka," said Toph. She was trying to understand, not joke around.

"Right. Weak heat. Just enough to feel it. Or like if a pebble drops and you can't sense much of anything. That's like the stars. They're a bunch of weak lights."

"You can't see anything with them?"

"That's right!"

"And falling star is like a falling rock? It hits things as it falls down?"

"Not quite. It's, um…Aang?"

"Like it's rolling down a hill," Katara suggested.

"Yes! Like that. You can kinda see the trail a rock makes in the dirt when it's rolling down a hill and, for us, we see a trail in the sky. It doesn't last long, but it's there."

"Huh." She didn't know what to expect but certainly not thoughts of rocks floating in the sky.

Sokka's commentary continued for several minutes and for many falling stars. He attempted to explain color to her, but there were some things that could not be explained, especially if you just use other examples of color to help explain. Saying that the daytime sky was the same color as Katara's eyes was too strange to consider, and somewhat disheartening, so Toph was glad when the subject was changed by another falling star.

Except this star—another collective jerking of heads signaled its arrival—rather than generating the usual sounds of amazement and appreciation, brought with it gasps and thumping heartbeats. Katara, Aang, and Sokka jumped up, and a jumble of voices said with little variation, "Go!"

What was it? Fire Nation? But there was no one around them for as far as Toph could—

Sokka hauled Toph up by one arm. "Go!" he said again, pushing her ahead of him towards camp. The others, including Zuko after he started awake, ran behind.

As they did so, a rumbling like a rockslide or distant cave-in moved from far behind her to above, to in front. The noise and resulting vibrations overpowered her senses. Toph stumbled and fell to one knee.

"C'mon!" Aang took her by the arm and lifted her up.

"I—"

Zuko's arm hooked around her other arm. "It's okay," he said, and they continued running.

Then the ground and everything attached to it sent shockwaves out, inundating Toph with more information than she had ever come into contact before. The sound resonated in her entire body like an earthquake. Aang, Zuko, and she crouched, waiting for it to subside.

In that moment, the world showed itself to be much bigger than Toph had thought. It wasn't like she didn't know the world was big—she'd traveled enough of it to know that it was—but that there was so much freely available to experience without taking another step.

They see this all the time?

The shaking subsided. "Are you okay?" Zuko asked.

Aang was the first to reply: "Wow, that was…"

"I'm fine," she responded, now that she had found her legs again.

Sokka and Katara came up from behind. "Everyone okay?" she asked.

"Yeah," Zuko reported.

"The wind's shifted," Aang said suddenly. He pointed to the direction of the object, now still. "There's a light over there by the village…" It was muddied by the sheer magnitude of the impact, but Toph had been able to make out the town the next hill over, past the object that had landed in the middle of the plains. Though the wind was not blowing her direction, the strong scent of burning permeated the air.

"Fire," said Zuko.

"We need to help," Katara said.

"What are we waiting for, then?" retorted Toph.

-o-0-

The water splashed against Katara's face, cooling her hot skin. The blaze had been large and bright enough to mimic the heat of a noonday sun, but between Aang, Toph, Zuko, and herself, they had gotten it under control before it could reach the small farming town.

After slapping more water against her face, Katara looked down at her clothes. Even in the darkness, she could see how blackened and singed they were. It wasn't as if her spare change of clothes were any better: first, they were the distinctive Water Tribe blue, but, from a utilitarian perspective, they were just too worn down and had been patched too many times for them to be wearable as anything but underclothes.

She looked around. It wasn't like the rest of them were any better. Everyone but Sokka was covered to one degree or another in soot and sweat, and so were their clothes.

On Katara's right, her brother continued talking while everyone else cleaned their faces and clothes—as much as they could—along the bank: "…All I'm saying is you could have given me something more to do than watch Momo."

The lemur hopped from rock to rock dotting the water.

"Sorry!" replied Aang. He was floating in the small creek. "I was trying to airbend the wind away from the village."

Sokka threw a pebble into the water and let out a short, heavy sigh. "I know. And you," he gestured to Toph, "were trying smother the fire. And you," he turned to Katara, "you know…were watering it. And you, you're self-explanatory," he said, directing his last remark at Zuko before looking down at his empty hands. "You guys were amazing, actually. You know, flying around and making other things fly?"

He stood. Momo noticed this, jumped, and glided to Sokka's shoulder. With a dry chuckle, Sokka remarked as he stroked the lemur, "Even Momo and Appa can fly."

"Think of what you've done so far," she replied. "You've led us all this way to the Fire Nation without getting lost. No one can read a map like you can."

"I can't even read!" Toph added, cracking a smile.

Aang stood up in the water. "Yeah, and who keeps us laughing with sarcastic comments all the time?"

Sokka shrugged and kept his attention on Momo. "Look, I appreciate the effort, but the fact is each of you is so amazing and so special and I'm…not. I'm just the guy in the group who's regular," he glanced at them, "and that's okay, really—but I don't want to be just…you know." He stopped petting Momo. "I don't know. I think I'm just tired or something."

"Why don't you work with Zuko and train tomorrow?" Katara suggested. "And then you can figure out where we're going to next."

From behind Sokka, Zuko started, "I was going to train with Aang—" She gave him a pointed look and he continued, "But we can train instead."

"See?" she said. It wasn't much, but it would keep his mind busy for the time being. It wasn't like she hadn't ever felt different and useless, but…he was right in that he wasn't a bender; he never would be. There were disadvantages to that, yes, yet it didn't mean he was useless. Far from it.

Sokka shrugged again and turned back to Zuko. "Am I still worth teaching?" he asked, not sounding completely sarcastic.

To Zuko's credit, he took the question seriously and inclined his head. "I'd be honored to teach you."

Other than nodding once, Sokka didn't raise his eyes to any of them. "We'll be back at camp. Come on, Momo."

After they finished cleaning up, they returned to Appa. He was near where they first touched down earlier in the evening but had moved on the far side of the hill away from the fire. When he saw them, he welcomed them back with happy lowing.

Though they ended up camping at the bottom of a shallow valley among the rolling hills, they were still in the open and didn't dare light a fire except one created by Zuko to see by as they got ready for bed. The air was comfortable, and no one had the energy to do much more than set out their blankets except Toph who retreated to her makeshift shelter. Aang fell asleep quickly, and Zuko's quiet breathing came soon enough after that, but Sokka's twisting and turning remained until Katara asked finally, "Why is this bothering you now?" She said it in a quiet whisper, thankful they were lying next to each other to have this talk.

It was dark enough that only the shine of his eyes showed he was looking her way. "I know it shouldn't—nothing's changed, really—but…I don't know." Katara let him think before he continued: "Sometimes I see the things you can do, and I remember before when you could barely lift a fish out of the water—"

"You saw that?"

"Yeah, in the reflection—but I see what you can do now, and I think about what I can do and…." He let the thought trail off.

He can't be jealous, can he? Sokka had almost always considered bending as an unnecessary complication to the world, something weird, an annoyance, and only sometimes a useful tool. Yet now it seemed his thoughts had changed—quite significantly, too. "What?"

"Next to you, to everyone, I'm…I'm not anyone. Dad left me in charge, and," he said, the words coming out slow and weak, "now I watch Momo."

"Sokka," she gently chided him. "You can fight. You're training with Zuko. You have your boomerang…" Remembering what they said earlier in the day, she added, "And, like we said, you have other skills we don't have. Important ones, too."

His reply was quick and hot: "Like what? What's more important than saving the people you love? Reading a map couldn't save Yue. It won't save Toph or you or Aang if you get into trouble."

She drew a blank for a half-second. "Like bringing us to Dad on time for the invasion. Or helping Zuko train; you were the one who told him to change how he taught Aang."

There was a sniff, then he said, "I suppose." By his tone, he was only trying to placate her, but there was some desperate hope from Katara that he did believe her, or at least wanted to.

After a minute, Sokka turned over so his back was to her. You know I love you no matter what, right? she wanted to say, but the words were foreign on her tongue, and the hope that he knew without hearing them stilled any action. "'Night," she whispered softly. It was said more as an offering or perhaps a request for forgiveness rather than a valediction.

"Goodnight."

-o-0-

Morning came early, and Katara woke with a chill. Dew covered every surface, and the foggy air only aided in making her too cold to sleep. The sun wasn't quite out yet, but the muted blue of pre-dawn filled the sky. This, coupled with the fog and the quiet surroundings gave the world a ghostly, eerie feel. But as she listened, familiar sounds appeared and warmed her: her friends' breathing; Appa's deep, breathy growl-snore; and the tinny peeping of morning birds somewhere in the ether getting ready for another day.

Motionless next to her, Sokka was curled up in a ball with his blanket wrapped tight around his body. He was facing her, his wound expression made plain in the soft light.

Katara got up quietly, took her blanket, and covered Sokka.

Chir-ip. Chir. Momo glided out of the fog like a white wolfbat. He landed at her feet and looked up with faded jade-green eyes.

"Hello to you too," Katara whispered back.

There wasn't much food available that didn't need to be heated or cooked by a fire, but Katara handed him a few of the red-purple berries from their last campsite, and he launched himself into the air again to eat up his breakfast.

Well-known grunts sounded behind her, and she turned to find Sokka sitting up. "Hey," he said, rubbing his eyes.

"Hey."

"This is a first. I'm up before Zuko."

"It's pretty early."

"It is." They stayed silent like that, watching the sky brighten and feeling the air slowly warm. "How'd you sleep?" he prompted.

"Not great."

"Me too."

Again, the silence took over. It was its own blanket, covering everything, suffocating all.

"I'm sorry."

Katara blinked and looked at him for clarification.

He had his attention on his clasped hands. "I was tired, and I had just seen you guys doing cool stuff I could never do, and…" He lifted his eyes to hers. "You know, even before Dad left it was up to me to protect you, but now…now I guess it's the other way around, and I'm just…I need to get used to it, but—" he sighed, letting his shoulders drop and curve inward, "but then, I don't think I will, not completely, anyway. A lotta things have changed, but I don't think that will."

"I don't want it to." She knelt beside him. "You're my big brother; I'll always want your protection."

Sokka looked down at his hands again and nodded, smiling to himself ever so slightly.

"Even if you only swing that boomerang of yours around." Sokka's eyes shot up, only to be met with a mischievous grin.

"Ha ha. You're so funny," he replied, grinning, though his tone was subdued. "I'm going throw my map at you if you insult Boomerang again."

"Shhh!" But Katara couldn't help but say it amidst her quiet giggling.

-o-0-

Katara called across the field to Sokka: "Hey, you want to go shopping?" It was a rhetorical question; of course Sokka would want to go.

It was still morning, but the sun was already quite high. The next island they'd travel to was close by, and their journey tomorrow would take a longer than normal day. Given the prime ground they were on now, it had been decided by group vote to use most of the day to train or rest before taking off in the afternoon.

And though she had suggested it the night before, Katara decided against having Sokka train first thing in the morning with Zuko. What better way was there to treat her brother than going shopping?

"Uh, yeah!" Sokka replied, instantly leaving Zuko and Toph whom he had been talking to, and jogged to her.

"Awww!" Aang poked his head up from atop Appa where he had been sunning himself. "That sounds like so much fun!"

Next to Zuko, Toph stood with her arms crossed. "It's not like they're going to buy anything."

Katara nodded. "She's right; we'll just be looking."

"But I am curious why you're bringing the money," Toph added. There was some humor in her question, but her expression was inscrutable.

Sokka eyed the pocket where Katara usually kept the money and replied, "Just in case there's something we need."

"Uh huh. I'm glad someone with sense is holding the purse strings." Was that a compliment? "And before you faint from joy, Katara, I still remember what happened the last time you two went shopping together."

Sokka waved his hand dismissively. "That was so long ago."

"Was that after…?" started Zuko.

"Yes, after you joined us. So not so long ago," Toph answered with not a little satisfaction.

"But no one got hurt!" The pitch of Sokka's voice was creeping higher. Before anyone could reply, he added, "Well, none of us."

"It drew attention—it had to've," reasoned Zuko.

"Exactly, Smokey." The earthbender smiled triumphantly.

"You're telling me about drawing attention?" Sokka scoffed at Zuko. "You mean like blowing up a factory? Some people might consider—"

"That's enough," Katara interrupted. "What's past is past, right?" Sokka groaned but didn't argue. Directing her words to Toph, she continued, "We'll do our best to stay low. We still have some food so we shouldn't need to talk to many people, but like Sokka said, there might be something unexpected that we'll need to buy.

"And we shouldn't be too long, but it'll give you guys"—she gestured to Zuko and Aang—"some time to train like you wanted."

"And me?" Toph asked with false sweetness. "What are your orders?"

"Would you ever do anything I told you to do?" Katara replied.

"You know me so well."

-o-0-

Before too long, Katara and Sokka had set out toward the village. When they had landed the prior evening, the lights coming from the various houses and shops had seemed so small, but as Katara and Sokka drew closer, the village was actually closer to a medium-sized town. Most notably, though, rather than having the characteristic walls that seemed to always surround Earth Kingdom settlements no matter their size, this town only had two tall stone and metal watchtowers, one at the northern and southern ends.

They approached from the south. When the siblings reached the first tower, Katara asked, "Where do you want to check first?"

Sokka shrugged and pointed down a moderately crowded street. "Let's go here first."

They meandered past the shops and various stalls, sellers calling out their prices if Katara looked for too long. And while it did nothing for her, Sokka would begin asking questions if a travel pack caught his eye or a shiny spear. On more than one occasion, she had to drag Sokka away when she found him in the middle of haggling the difference of a handful of silver pieces. "It's a good deal, though!" he said in defense.

There was very little shade when the sun reached its zenith, and the hard-packed dirt radiated the heat back up. This didn't seem to slow down the locals, but it was much too hot for either of the siblings' liking. "Hey, let's go in here." Sokka pointed to a tall building, one of the tallest in town.

There was a certain level of opulence in its design—the slightly upward-curving roof and detailed brass doors depicting some violent scene with dragons—but at the same time, it was as if the wealth that had once occupied it had left or faded. The brass doors were marred to the point of unintelligibleness, and the paint covering the exterior walls had begun to peel years ago by the looks of them.

"I don't know," Katara said. "Maybe we can just stay in the shade."

"Nah, that's boring. Besides, there's a sign." He pointed. Cool Off Here! Said the sign, and above it in larger type: Shop Trade Sell. "Could be interesting."

"I guess." Anything would help the heat at this point.

"Let's find out." Stepping confidently forward, Sokka pushed open the entrance doors.

Cool air did not greet them, but their disappointment was immediately forgotten as they gazed at the building's interior: items of every shape, size, material, and condition were piled together on shelves reaching the ceiling, and the shelves near the entrance were so close together that a regular adult would have to squeeze by in order to enter fully. And while it wasn't cool, the lack of windows and lanterns kept the room at a noticeably lower temperature compared to outside.

"Hey!" A rough voice called from somewhere deeper in the labyrinth. Katara twisted around to find its owner. "Over here! Here!" A flash of movement drew her attention.

Through a gap in a shelf filled with rolled up rugs, the squinting, scrutinizing face of the shopkeeper peered at them. He was behind a short counter five paces away with no visible way of getting there. It wasn't the countless gold and silver necklaces weighing down his neck nor the similar number of rings and bracelets that were affixed to his hands and wrists that bothered Katara; rather, it was his sneer, confident and contemptuous, that put her off. "Hello?" she called back.

"Yeah, hey. You two scraps can turn around right now before I get my panterdog to help you find the exit." The weight of his ornaments didn't seem to slow down his arm as he raised it and twirled his finger around to illustrate his orders.

"What?" Sokka asked after being partially distracted finding the man he was trying to talk to.

The man rolled his eyes. "I said you can leave now or in five seconds when my pantherdog gets here. I don't want thieves in my store."

Sokka raised his eyebrows and blinked. "Oh-kay," and pivoted to leave.

Not taking a step, Katara crossed her arms. "Why? We could be paying customers."

"Give me a break, kid. You don't have a copper between you, and if you do it's probably stolen."

Heat rose to her cheeks, and she replied as coolly as she could, "We have a lot more than that and it's not stolen." Well, not a lot more. Three silvers pieces and ten copper was all that was left over from the ten silvers Dad gave them when they left parted.

"Ha! That's what you scraps always say—"

Katara fished the purse from her pocket and shook it hard enough to result in an audible jingle of coins. "There's no way to know we didn't steal it, but money is money, isn't it?" She left herself smile a little to match the shopkeeper's patronizing look.

Sokka elbowed her from behind. "Katara."

The man's smile broadened to show a gold tooth. "Well, my girl, you've got guts but seeing is believing, as they say." He gestured to the counter in front of him. Katara still couldn't see a clear path to reach him.

"Do you have all your customers show their money beforehand?"

"They don't look like you, and they have plans to buy something."

Blazing heat burned her face, hotter than before. "I don't know if we're going to buy something; we haven't seen any of your product."

"And you're welcome to look…if a scrap rat like yourself can prove you aren't wasting my time." It was said almost like a question, and paired with these words was a playful grin.

Scrap rat? Katara shared a look with Sokka, but he shrugged and jerked his head toward the door. "Come on. It's not worth it."

"No." She turned back to the shop owner. "Fine."

When his challenge to her assumed bluff was accepted, his brow raised in surprise, though he still squinted at them in the half-darkness. "You're not from around here, are you?"

Katara's heart skipped a beat, and a part of her urged to her leave. Hopefully it didn't show. She answered slowly: "And what if we weren't?"

After a moment's hesitation, he pointed. "Open the doors of that closet to the right and go through."

Next to a shelf full of fabrics was a short wardrobe about as tall as Katara. It stood to the side, slightly askew with half a dozen dusty metal pots and vases set on top. Sokka beat Katara to the doors and flung them open.

The interior was completely empty and there wasn't a back to the piece of furniture. Footprints from past customers led them through the passageway and onto a tight path that wound to the left. Stooping, they entered and walked through the wardrobe. When they reached the bend, a mirror lay propped up and angled such that they could see the man watching them as they approached. But in the mirror, Katara also caught her own eye.

There were few opportunities to see herself as she appeared to others and, if Katara was being honest, she probably wouldn't have let herself in had she been the shopkeeper. Her clothes were still dirty and singed from the night before. Her face was clean, which was a small blessing, but it looked different than she expected. She recalled being described as having a somewhat round face, but that had changed: her high cheekbones were revealing themselves further—but her eyes, her eyes are what scared her.

They stared back through the mirror, neither kind nor at ease; rather, they were wide and darting and alien-feeling. Certainly, they did not reflect her true feelings, did they? But as the siblings turned the corner, Katara was conscious of them glancing around, looking for danger as they had been trained to by experience.

"Nice secret doorway," remarked Sokka when they came to the shopkeeper, apparently forgetting the cold reception they had received moments ago. "And, hey, nice sword." He pointed at a case on the wall behind the counter that was filled with all kinds of weapons of every design. Spears, swords, knives, and other things Katara didn't know the names of.

"You have a good eye. That's an original from Piandao, the greatest swordmaster and sword maker in Fire Nation history. He lives in the castle up the road from here, in fact. But even if you brought with you fifty gold pieces, I would not sell it."

"It's worth that much?"

"Oh, yes. You could sell yourself as a slave and still not have enough."

"Oh," Sokka said, his surprise clear and matching Katara's own feelings at such an odd statement. "So…that's why you keep the entrance a secret."

"Not so secret to my customers," he replied. "Keeps out unwanted strangers, though."

"So we're wanted strangers, then?" Sokka joked, nervously cracking a smile.

"You're curiosities," the shopkeeper corrected without humor. "A great deal more valuable than strangers."

Something was off. The words the man was using were…wrong. Katara hesitated but pushed onward, "What's something a silver or two would buy?"

The shopkeeper squinted at her.

"Maybe we should go, Katara," Sokka's voice cracked. "We're just looking, remember?"

Back again was the man's smile, cold and not quite reaching his eyes. "Ah, so you cannot pay! I should have known."

"No," Katara replied sharply. They'd pay, even if it was to wipe that grin of his off his face. But as she looked closer at the smug look, she realized what it was about his smile that unnerved her. It wasn't condescending.

It was predatory.

Sokka was already pulling her away from the counter. "We have that thing we need to get to. Super important."

"We just changed our minds. Thank you," Katara said hurriedly as the two of them turned back where they came from.

"I can't let you go that easy, my children," he replied, but they walked on without looking back. "You're in such good condition."

Up ahead was the mirror, showing the way to the secret door they had entered through. Their own reflections were small but getting larger by the second.

There was a faint jingling of keys before the sharp squeal of a hinge sounded back behind them. An unhappy yowl followed. Sokka looked back and urged Katara forward: "Don't look now, but I don't think he was kidding about that pantherdog!"

The animal let out another call, louder and closer this time. They turned the corner and Katara glimpsed the dark shape pursuing and gaining on them.

"Come on! We're almost there!" Sokka sped forward and barely slowed down for the cabinet so that he crashed open the front set of doors and ripped the hinge off one.

Katara followed close behind, and the two of them flung open the entrance doors to the bright, eye-piercing sunlight that stunned them for a moment. That moment quickly passed when a crash sounded on the other side of the doors. Once again, they raced off, past the other shops and tents and people.

As they ran—and they ran until they reached the edge of town—Sokka said between gulping breaths, "We are not telling Toph about this!"