The Forgotten Princess (SokkaxOC)

ii. XVI

A/N; So funny thing. For any of you who follow my account and not just this story, you probably know that I tested positive around ten days ago now, so I've been living in my bedroom basically so I don't give it to my parents. You'd think the upside would be an increased motivation to write, right? 

NOPE LOL.

Imagine having the motivation to write and upload on a consistent schedule (couldn't possibly have been me a few months ago, no way).

Nah but fr sorry this one took way longer than expected. I've got a lot more ideas for the next one than I did for this, so hopefully I can get that out in under two weeks. Geez what happened to my weekly upload schedule, I just blew it to hell in the past month.

Anyways, as per fricken usual, hope y'all enjoy this one.

Sokka P.o.V.

"I missed you more than you'll ever know, buddy," Aang sighed into the bison's fur.

Appa responded happily by licking Aang from head to toe, the airbender just laughing the whole while. The last few hours had been intense, but after escaping the Dai Li's headquarters, they'd finally managed to reunite with the bison and kick Long Feng's ass. Or rather, Appa did - he'd bitten the man's leg pretty hard before skipping him like a stone across the surface of Lake Laogai.

If he recalled correctly, Appa had managed over seven bounces before the man had finally begun to sink.

In the meantime, Sokka's brain started working overtime as he thought over their possible courses of action. One obvious choice was to leave the city behind them, for good. Go back to traveling in the wilderness, so Aang could finally master earth and firebending and they could attack by themselves on the day of the solstice. It was risky, but to be fair it was their original plan - and between Katara, Toph and Azami, Aang had all the teachers he needed.

But they had a new opportunity. They'd only been kept quiet in the city so long as Appa could be used against them. Now... that wasn't a threat anymore. Long Feng had nothing to use against them. So in theory, there was nothing standing between them and the King - meaning a proper invasion was still a possibility.

And this was what he had now spent the past twenty minutes trying to convince the others of.

"Look, we escaped from the Dai Li," he explained for the dozenth time. "We got Appa back - I'm telling you, we should go to the Earth King now and tell him our plan. We're on a roll!"

Katara frowned at him, clearly unimpressed. "One good hour after weeks of travel isn't much of a roll."

"We can build on it!" he insisted. "If we want to invade the Fire Nation when the eclipse happens, we need the Earth King's support."

Toph sighed loudly from where she was brooding on the ground. "What makes you think we'll get it? I don't know if you've noticed, but things don't usually go that smoothly for our little gang."

"Guys, I'm with Sokka on this one," Azami announced as she walked up next to him. "Look, what's the worst case scenario? The King doesn't believe us and tries to have us thrown in jail? Realistically, I think we can get out of that pretty easily. No offense to his earthbenders or the Dai Li, but I think between the five of us and Appa, they're the ones who are outmatched."

Aang flew in next, a smile spreading across his face. "And now that we have Appa back, there's nothing stopping us from telling the Earth King the truth! About the conspiracy and the war!"

"See? Aang and Azami are with me," Sokka pointed out, grinning as he wrapped an arm around each of them to pull them into a group hug. "But seriously - it's why we came here in the first place. We have to try."