Responses to Reviews:
Zigzagdoublezee: Yes, they're my own original characters. I didn't want every single person in this story to just be from the original show, although many of them will be. I did think about having him run into Jin at this point but decided against it.
RonaldM40196867: Alright, calm down Fire Lord Azulon. I liked ATLA Book 3 the best and my least favourite is, obviously, LoK Book 2.
As Always, Please Review!
Rinzen did not dare land the bison for an entire day after the run-in with the pirates, and when he did eventually touch down the next evening in a forest clearing, Gembul collapsed and refused to move.
"Sorry buddy," he said apologetically. "We needed to be out of there."
Gembul simply grunted in response.
Katara dismounted the bison first. She hadn't said anything the entire time Gembul had been in the air, indeed they had all grabbed the opportunity to sleep, and now she walked to the edge of the clearing and pulled something out of her bag, staring at it intently.
As Yue followed her, she saw it was the waterbending scroll.
"Hey," she said as she approached the other waterbender. "Are you alright?"
"I nearly got us killed," Katara whispered.
"No you didn't," Yue shook her head.
"Yes I did," Katara insisted. "For this! For a piece of paper."
"A piece of paper that's a part of our heritage," Yue added. "And one that can help us fight! Isn't that what you wanted?"
"It was," Katara said. "I mean it still is! More than anything. But I got us into that mess and when it came down to it, I... I didn't actually do anything to get us out of there. It was all you three."
She looked down at the scroll again sadly.
"But now we have that," Yue told her firmly. "We can train with it, so the next time something like this happens..."
She trailed off. There would be a next time, she was certain. And they needed to be ready for it.
Katara nodded.
"I'm sorry though," she said. "What happened there was my fault."
"No it wasn't!" Yue challenged her.
"Yeah, it kind of was," Rinzen pointed out.
Yue glared at him, but he shrugged.
"What? It's true."
"That's not the point!" Yue hissed. But Rinzen just pointed at her.
"Aha! Even you admit it!"
Yue turned and walked away in an effort to avoid getting angry and maintain her stoic image. Then she turned back.
"The past is the past," she said. "We've got the scroll now, so all that matters is what we do next."
"It's obvious," Sokka said. "We carry on going south. Home."
Yue nodded.
"I agree," she said. "We still need to find a master. That scroll cannot teach us everything."
Rinzen went back over to his bison and caressed Gembul's nose.
"That may have to wait," he said. "Gembul doesn't look like he's going anywhere soon."
"Great," Yue looked around. "What do we do in the meantime? Where even are we?"
"We could practice," Katara suggested.
But, as it turned out, there were no bodies of water anywhere nearby. The forest stood around them until it gave way to wide, rolling plains which stretched off into the far distance. A road ran nearby, and the occasional walker or ostrich-horse was visible travelling to and fro along it. The edge of the forest was situated on a ridge which was elevated slightly compared to the surrounding grassland, giving Yue a great view of not much in particular.
She sighed and leaned against a tree, sliding her back down it until she was sitting down.
It hadn't been that long ago that she had been a Princess, who had never left her home. Now she was travelling the world, with friends, and learning to fight. Her life had changed so much in such a short time. But the ghosts of her old life had not gone away.
She thought of her father, and of Master Pakku, and of Sokka and Katara's father, Hakoda. She thought everyone she had known in the North Pole. She had no idea where they were, or even whether they were still alive.
She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the tree, sighing wistfully. She had never felt very comfortable in her old life, but she suddenly kind of missed it. She wished he could do something more concrete to help them, but all she could do, she knew, was what she was doing already. Go south, learn the elements, defeat the Fire Nation.
Easy.
There was a rustling noise as Sokka joined her, stepping gingerly over roots. Yue patted the ground next to her, inviting him to sit down.
"What's the South Pole like?" She asked.
Sokka turned to look at her.
"What?"
"You've seen my home," Yue pointed out. "What can I expect from yours?"
"Oh," Sokka nodded.
"Our city isn't as... grand as yours," he said carefully. "We don't have canals, for a start. But it's, well, it's home, isn't it?"
Yue smiled at the non-answer.
"Specifically," she said. "Do you have family there?"
Sokka didn't say anything for a while, and Yue knew he was thinking about Hakoda.
"I do," he said eventually. "My gran-gran and my mother are there. They must be worried sick!"
Yue supposed that they wouldn't have heard any news other than the fall of the North Pole.
"Tui and La, I should have got the Nomads to take a message south when we were at the temple!" Sokka groaned. "I knew I forgot something!"
"Don't worry, in a few days you can tell them yourself," Yue said. "We are headed that way."
"That's true," Sokka agreed, calming down a bit. "Still, I wish that bison would hurry-"
He stopped.
"Can you hear that?"
"What now?" Yue asked irritably, this being the second time that this had happened. But she listened all the same, and what she heard was what sounded like a low rumbling sound, as something, or lots of somethings, came over the horizon towards them, in single file along the road. They were small, and grey, and sat low to the ground on tracks making mechanical clanking noises as they went. The lead machine had a hatch open and the top half of a man was visible standing in it, wearing a red uniform. Behind him was a flagpole, with a small red banner flying from it.
Yue scowled as she watched the commander of the lead vehicle point at her. He must have seen her white clothes. The Fire Nation had found them again.