Happy Vyshyvanka Day to all of my Ukrainian readers!

Responses to Reviews:

RonaldM40196867: Dance can be turned into a martial art, isn't that what Capoeira is in Brazil?

Zigzagdoublezee: Jeong Jeong probably met Aang as a younger man, and he's a professional sailor as opposed to an ideologue of Ozai and Sozin's world conquest plans.

Pan2000: Thank you for all your comments on the first few chapters! I hope you enjoyed them and the rest! And yeah, at least Aang had one of the elements down in episode one of Canon, Yue didn't even have that.

As Always, Please Review!

"Yue!" Sokka saw her first and came dashing up to her. "You're alright! What happened?"

He threw himself at her and embraced her fiercely. Yue tensed, and then relaxed into the hug, before they both sprang apart at the sound of Jeong Jeong's voice.

"There's nothing quite like young love," the Admiral said.

"You- shut it!" Sokka pointed at him. "This doesn't involve you!"

Jeong Jeong shrugged and resumed his silence as Katara jogged up behind them, having fallen behind her brother in his eagerness.

"Katara!" Yue greeted her happily. "Where's Rinzen?"

"He's fine, he's with Gembul where we left him. I didn't know bison were so protective."

"That's good," Yue nodded.

"What about you?" Katara asked. "What did that spirit do with you?"

"We got taken to the spirit world," Yue told them.

"The Spirit World? What was it like?" Katara asked. Then her eyes narrowed. "And who's we?"

Her gaze travelled past her to where Jeong Jeong was stood, leaning against a tree. He stared back, not giving away any emotion.

"You were with him?" She demanded.

"Don't worry, he didn't do anything," Yue told her. "I met Aang."

That got their interest. Avatar Aang was a legendary figure, and while they were both too young to have met him, for many older people Aang's era was very much still within living memory.

"What did he say?" Katara demanded. "That's good? Right? Did he help you?"

"Did he give you advice?"

"Tell you what you need to do?"

"Yes," Yue nodded. She turned to Jeong Jeong.

"Please leave us," she said, and the Admiral straightened up.

For a moment, she thought there was going to be another fight, and was just looking around for the nearest water source when Jeong Jeong nodded.

"Very well. As payback for not leaving me in the spirit world, I'll just go. This one time, Avatar."

He jabbed a finger at her and then walked off into the forest.

"What was that about?" Sokka asked.

"Aang didn't want to leave him behind so he came too."

"Why? Surely he just overheard everything he said to you then?"

"No!" Yue said happily. "Aang did some fancy airbending move that meant he couldn't hear us."

Katara relaxed.

"Alright, that seems fair enough," she said. "But it' a bit unusual for a Fire Nation officer to give up so easily."

"Maybe he's just had a fright," Sokka suggested. "He was just sent to the Spirit World."

"Maybe he's having second thoughts."

"Did he seem like it?"

"Maybe? A little. He just got angry at my questions eventually."

Katara grinned.

"Hopefully we can make a few more of their soldiers angry then," she said. Then she looked at the Avatar seriously.

"So, what did he say? Aang, I mean, not that admiral."

"He said he wants to speak to me."

Sokka frowned.

"He did speak to you."

"No, I mean again!" Yue told them. "It's big, apparently, but he couldn't tell me what because if I stayed in the spirit world too long I would have been trapped there."

"That can happen?"

"Apparently. But he said I need to go somewhere to do it. The Southern Air Temple."

"Oh great, that's on our way anyway!"

"I know, that's what I said!" Yue told them happily. "Apparently if I knew how I could do it anywhere, but for now Aang said to just do it when it's easier to connect."

By now they were walking back, and Yue could see the shaggy form of Gembul the sky bison through the trees. He was grunting and licking something on the ground.

"Rinzen!" Yue called, and saw a yellow-clad hand raise in response.

"Hi Avatar," the Nomad replied, his voice carrying through the trees. "Did I miss anything?"

Yue entered the clearing and saw Rinzen propped up against a tree, Gembul standing protectively over him. He was very pale, and was covered with a blanket.

"I tell you what, I had better get those tattoos for this," he said. "I'm earning them in blood at the moment."

Yue smirked.

"Well, I'm just glad you're alright," she said. "It was a nasty hit you took."

"You missed a spirit!" Sokka told him.

"And I spoke to Aang," Yue added.

Rinzen frowned, a strange look on his face at the mention of Aang.

"I miss all the fun," he said ruefully. "What did he say?"

"We're going to the Southern Air Temple."

"I see," Rinzen said. "Alright, we can do that. I should warn you though, they're bad losers at airball. I'm sure they would be bad winners too, if they ever won."

He said this matter-of-factly. Yue nodded.

"Apart from sports rivalries, what is it like?" Katara asked. "Plenty of them have been to the South Pole but not the other way around."

"You've seen the Northern Temple," Rinzen said. "It's not too different in the south, although it is slightly worse. They have a big hall full of statues of all the past Avatars though, that's pretty cool."

"I guess that's where I need to go then," Yue nodded. "But I don't know how far we are away now."

Sokka got the tourist map out again and conferred with it.

"We're still not far from the rock pools," he said. "So yeah, we're still a while away."

Rinzen began to struggle to his feet.

"Well then," he said. "I suppose we had better get moving."

Suddenly there was a roar behind them, and Yue spun around to find the spirit advancing back into the clearing, screaming its rage. Gembul immediately spun around and put himself between Rinzen and the vengeful creature, roaring his defiance back.

Yue was impressed, but it was a fight she did not want to see.

"Wait!" She ran forwards, past the sky-bison. She heard the others shouting her name, Gembul grunted disapprovingly at her as she passed him, patting him gratefully on the snout as she went, and then she was planting herself between the bison and the spirit.

"Wait!" She threw her hands up. The spirit stopped.

"Great Spirit, we are sorry that your forest was harmed," she said. "But the people who did it are gone, and we are leaving too. We will leave you to your own devices if you give us about two minutes."

The creature roared again, but did not move. Yue realised it wasn't looking at her. Instead, the glowing red eyes were fixed on a spot behind her. She spun around and saw that some of the trees were still smouldering.

She saw the question in the glowing eyes, and suddenly realised what she had to do.

"It wants us to put out the fires!" She said.

"Do we have enough water for that?" Katara asked, checking her water-skins.

"Those rock-pools aren't far away, I can get a bucket..." Sokka offered.

"The spirit will grab you before you get there," Yue said. "I'm going to have to try something. Firebending."

"Do you know how to do that?" Rinzen asked.

"No," Yue grinned at him. "Shall we find out?"

"What if you make it worse?" Sokka demanded.

"Then we get ready to run," Yue shrugged. "Have some faith, please."

Sokka held his hands up and took a step backwards, making a show of not saying anything else.

Yue closed her eyes and tried to remember Zhao and Jeong Jeong's firebending moves. She raised her arms, pointed them towards the fire, and envisioned the flames in her mind's eye. Then she closed her fists and brought her hands back down again.

She opened her eyes again.

"Did it work?"

Sokka pointed behind her silently.

She turned and found the monstrous form of the spirit was gone. Instead, a small brown bear blinked up at her.

She bowed at it again, and then the creature turned and ambled off into the forest.

"Huh, I guess it did," Rinzen observed.

"We need to get moving," Katara said. "We have a rendezvous with Avatar Aang to get to."