White Hot Flames (ZukoxOC)

23

        After a few days, the teens - minus The Duke and Pipsqueak - climb atop Appa and take off, Katara and Aang forming a cloud around them. They stayed close to the water until they reached land. "I think I see a cave below," Aang tells them.

"Shhush... keep quiet!" Sokka hisses as Aang disperses the cloud. "Great job with the cloud camo, but next time, let's disguise ourselves as the kind of cloud who knows how to keep its mouth shut."

Toph scoffs. "Yeah, we wouldn't want a bird to hear us chatting up there and turn us in."

"Hey!" Sokka exclaims. "We're in enemy territory. Those are enemy birds." Sokka points up to the birds that sat over his shoulder on the rock. Rezalia extends one hand to the birds.

"Sorry to burst your bubble, Sokka, but these birds don't speak," she murmurs as one of the birds hops onto her forearm, its sharpened claws drawing blood from Rezalia's skin. "Though they are quite loud."

Sokka grunts and walks toward the cave Aang had pointed out previously. "Well, this is it. This is how we'll be living until the invasion begins. Hiding in cave after cave...after cave...after cave..."

"Sokka, we don't need to become cave people. What we need is some new clothes," Katara tells her brother. Sokka slumps a bit, as if disappointed by the fact that he couldn't be a cave man. Rezalia didn't bother mentioning that she didn't need new clothes as she figured it wouldn't help any.

Aang nods in agreement with Katara's words. "Yeah, blending in is better than hiding out. If we get Fire Nation disguises, we'll be just as safe as we would be hiding in a cave."

"Plus...they have real food out there. Does anyone wanna sit in the dirt and eat cave-hoppers?" Toph asks as she punches the wall, disrupting several bugs. All of them recoil from the critters.

Sokka then sighs and turns to Momo who was eating one of the bugs Toph had sent running. "Looks like we got outvoted, sport. Let's get some new clothes."

Quietly, the teens slip out of the cave and sneak through the woods until they stumble upon a house. Rezalia travels with them out of sheer impulse rather than a conscious decision. Eventually, they wind up crouching in the bushes as they look into someone's yard where clothes were hung out to dry. Aang didn't seem content with their plan of action. "I don't know about this. These clothes belong to somebody."

"I call the silk robe!" Katara exclaims, running into the yard and snatching the item she had dubbed as hers.

Her excitement seemed to change Aang's mind to nobody's surprise. "But if it's essential to our survival...then I call the suit!"

Rezalia makes her way to Toph to help her find something she would like. "Something similar to what you already have?" she asks. Toph nods. "Here, it's a red one piece, a dark red and gold cape thing, and a brown wrap that ties around your waist to keep the cape thing in place."

Toph snickers a bit at the other girl's explanation of the clothes and voices her acceptance of them. Rezalia turns away for a moment as Toph changes. When she was done, Toph and Rezalia join the others who were now decked out in their own Fire Nation clothing. Aang was wearing an outfit that looked oddly familiar to Rezalia, with the belt to the ensemble tied around his head to hide his arrow.

"Ta-dah! Normal kid," Aang announces. Rezalia shoots him a thumbs up.

Toph frowns as she shifts her feet. "Hmm...I should probably wear shoes, but then I won't be able to see as well. Sorry shoes!" With that, Toph sits down and kicks the bottom of her shoes straight off of them. "Finally, a stylish shoe for the blind earthbender."