"Hey there," Aang tried to soothe the enraged moose-lioness as little Foo-Foo hopped over to his mother. "We found your cub! See, we have no problem with you! We're friendly!"
"Aang, this is bad. You've got to get me out of here!" Sokka wiggled, trying desperately to get out.
The moose-lion charged at Sokka, but Aang sent it over his head with airbending.
"Jin, we have to help!" I whispered fervently.
"We won't be any good," she said, glancing around quickly. "We should find Toph!"
"This is really bad! Please, Aang, you have to earthbend me out. There's no other way!" Sokka yelled again.
Aang tried, but all his attempts produced nothing.
"Oh no!" Aang got on top of a rock to try and distract the sabre-tooth moose-lion. "Woo-hoo, look at me!"
It wasn't impressed, and we jumped to our feet to quickly find Toph, while the moose-lion charged again but was again held off.
"Please, don't leave me again," Sokka whimpered.
"I won't," Aang resolutely stood his ground.
Jin grabbed my sleeve and pointed at the scene.
At the last second, he stood his ground and threw the moose-lion back with a blast of air. The beast left then, growling with annoyance as it stalked off. Suddenly, we could hear a slight clapping. We turned our attention to see Toph sitting on a rock nearby.
"What are you doing here?" Aang questioned.
"Just enjoying the show," Toph answered nonchalantly.
"What? You were there the whole time?"
"Pretty much."
"Why didn't you do something? Sokka was in trouble! I was in trouble! You could have gotten him out and helped us getaway!" Aang yelled.
"Guess it just didn't occur to me," Toph threw down a nut and lifted Aang's staff.
The little airbender snatched hold of it and growled at the girl. "Enough! I want my staff back!" He pulled the staff out of her hands.
"Do it now!" Toph commanded.
"What?" confused Aang is confused.
"Earthbend, Twinkle Toes," Toph teased. "You just stood your ground against a crazy beast. And even more impressive, you stood your ground against me. You've got the stuff."
"But–"
"Do it!"
Aang slammed the ground and sent a rock into the canyon wall.
"You did it!" the little lady praised her student. "You're an earthbender."
"Woo! Aang! You ROCK!" I punned. "Geddit? Rock? 'Cause he's an earthbender now."
Jin facepalmed, and Sokka chuckled.
"I can't believe it!" Aang turned to me. "You were there too?!"
"Yeah, but Jin wouldn't let me come help you cause you needed to learn to stand your ground."
"Oh, okay. I guess it did help."
"To be honest, I did get a little worried, and we were about to go find Toph," Jin chuckled.
"Awww, this is a really wonderful, touching moment," Captain Sokkasm was back. "So could you get me out of here so I can give you all a big, snuggly hug?"
"No problem, Sokka!" Aang merrily skipped over to Sokka and began to take a stance
"Actually, you should probably let me do that," the tiny girl cautioned. "You're still a little new to this. You might accidentally crush him."
"Yeah, no crushing, please," Sokka said in a strained voice.
Toph stomped the ground, knocking Sokka out the hole, and she yanked him out rather ungracefully. Jin chuckled as she helped Sokka to his feet, and we all made our way back to the camp as nightfall arrived, meeting up with Katara and Muteki.
"You found him!" Katara cried, embracing her brother.
"The whole time, I was in that hole," Sokka said, his voice kinda far away and thoughtful. "Not knowing if I was going to live or die. It makes a man think about what's really important. I realized-"
"Hey Katara, look what I can do!" Aang cuts in, bending a rock then slamming it into the ground.
"You did it!" she cheered. "I knew you would!"
She then leaned over and whispered something to Toph, who smiled and responded with a tone that sounded almost sarcastic.
"Hey, Katara!" I yelled suddenly. "Look what I can do!"
I turned and threw a punch at Muteki, who responded with a rock jab to my gut. Not my finest moment, but the shining smile that came over her face was totally worth it—the laughter...less so.
"Yeah, rock beats firebender," I groaned before I felt someone patting my shoulder.
I looked over to see Jin grinning.
"No, rock beats amatuer firebender."
"Appa, Appa!" Aang bounced over to the big haystack. "I can earthbend now! The key is being completely rooted. Physically and mentally unmovable!"
Appa licked the little Avatar and sent him flying a few feet. We all started laughing hysterically at the sight. Aang joined in, clearly catching on to the irony of what he had said.
Once we had all caught our breath, Muteki chuckled and looked over at us all.
"So, while this was all happening," he said slowly. "No one thought that maybe - just maybe! - fetching the other earthbender was an idea?"
Jin and I shared a look before facepalming. "Duh!" we said in unison.