𝑯𝑰𝑫𝑫𝑬𝑵 𝑫𝑹𝑨𝑮𝑶𝑵, 𝒂: 𝒕𝒍𝒂

➳ 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯: 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦

AFTER THE PAINTED LADY INCIDENT, SOKKA BECOMES MORE RELAXED ABOUT THE SCHEDULE. That gives the team the opportunity to stop outside a village for a night and watch a meteor shower.

"Wow, this is amazing to watch," Katara muses.

"Kind of makes you realize how insignificant we are," Sokka adds.

"Since when did you get all philosophical?" Kida teases.

"It's my specialty." Then, Sokka nudges closer to touch his arm to hers, and lowers his voice so that only Kida, laying down next to him, can hear. "Come on, you love it."

"Whatever, Wolftail," she replies with a breathless chuckle. Kida briefly tilts her head towards him, and, in the flashes of light emitting from the meteors, she can see the ghost of a smile. She bites her lip to keep herself from smiling, too.

"Eh, you've seen nothing once, you've seen it a thousand times," Toph, clearly bored, notes.

Suddenly, a huge meteor appears, much closer than the rest. It hurdles to the ground with a trail of fire.

"Spirits," Kida exhales. She stands up, and the rest of the team, minus Toph, follows.

"I don't think you've never not seen anything like this before," Sokka informs.

Running to the top of a hill, the team watches as the meteor crashes to the ground. Kida feels the heat emanating from the crash site, sensing that the night would take a very different turn than she had hoped for.

"The fire is going to destroy that town!" Katara shouts in a panic.

"Not if we can help it," Aang declares. He runs to Appa, and the rest of the team follows suit.

The fire grows bigger by the second, so the team needs to work fast. Like clockwork, everyone settles into their roles: Katara flies on Appa to a nearby creek, while Aang and Toph work on creating a trench around the fire with earthbending. Kida thinks to channel the heat away from the village, hoping that would keep the fire from spreading too much.

Taking a deep breath, Kida prepares her stance. She extends one arm out towards the fire. She uses her other arm to draw a line from the fire, across and out the other end, similar to the way Zuko taught her to redirect lightning. She feels the warmth flow through her body, the fire within her is exhilarating. With each second, she can feel the heat start to dissipate, but Kida knows that it won't be enough, even with Toph and Aang manipulating rock to put out the fire.

Thankfully, Katara flies in just in time, dumping a huge wave of water to extinguish the fire for good. The smoke starts to disappear, and instead is replaced with ash falling from the sky like snow.

"Good work, everybody," Aang says, casually as if they had prepared camp instead of stopping an entire village from being destroyed by a raging fire. Momo jumps on his shoulder and Aang scratches him between the ears. As the group walks back to Appa, Aang falls in next to Kida. "That was some awesome firebending back there!"

A smile spreads across her face and pride blooms in her chest. "Thanks, kid."

"Do you think you can teach me sometime?"

Kida pauses as they finally reach Appa. While the rest of the team climbs onto the saddle, Kida turns to Aang. "If you're not practicing waterbending or earthbending, and if there's a break in the schedule then, yes."

"Yes!" Aang exclaims, jumping in the air. He flies so high that he lands in Appa's saddle.

Kida laughs to herself before joining him and the rest of the team.