"Hey! You guys picked a great campsite." This directs everyone's attention to Toph. She wriggles her toes in the thick mat of fur covering the ground around the bison. "The grass is so soft."
"That's not grass." Sokka says, somewhat displeased. "Appa's shedding."
Katara raises her foot warily. "Oh, gross!"
"That's not gross," Aang cheerfully says. "It's just a part of spring! You know, rebirth, flowers blooming and Appa gets a new coat."
"Ah, the beauty of spring," Katara sarcastically sighs.
Appa, who had currently been grooming himself, sneezes, releasing a thick cloud of fur.
Katara waves her arms about, now coated in fur. "Stop! Appa, stop! Ugh!" She coughs.
Bending over, Sokka's back is turned to her. "It's not that bad, Katara." He turns to reveal a wig made of fur, done up in a towering beehive. "It makes a great wig!"
Aang is wearing a beard of fur. "And a great beard!"Aang and Sokka laugh while pointing at each other.
Katara wipes fur off her clothing with her eyes closed. "I'm just glad we have another girl in the group to overrule you two, because you guys are disgusting."
Toph walks up from behind the two boys. "Excuse me, does anyone have a razor? Because I've got some hairy pits!"
She raises her arms, revealing that she had stuffed fur in her sleeves.
I let out a little laugh as Katara scolds me with her eyes.
The four of us laugh; Aang sneezes, sending himself flying backward.
The big sneeze causes him to crash against Appa's leg and for fur to blow off us and himself. The impact leaves some fur on his back.
We continue to laugh joyfully, causing Katara to chuckle slightly.
Later in the evening, we were all setting up camp. Aang and I were setting up the tent while Sokka throws down a pile of firewood he collected.
Katara, who spends her time stirring around water in a pot, notices Toph slumped lazily against a rock, chewing a piece of wheat. She approaches her.
Standing on top of Appa, Aang uses airbending to lift the saddle. He mistakenly causes it to land directly on top of Sokka, who had been standing on the ground beside the bison.
Aang lands onto the ground to aid Sokka. "Sorry!"
I couldn't help but giggle.
"This is funny to you?" Sokka asks as he rubs his side. "My pain is funny to you?"
His eyes watered as his voice began to crack. Why did he always make me feel so sorry for him?
I walked up to Sokka, embracing him in a hug. "I'm sorry. Do you want me to kiss your boo boo?"
Sokka eagerly shook his head.
I playfully rolled my eyes, but kissed his cheek anyways. "Better?"
"Actually, my lips feel a little-"
Putting out my hand and laughing, I push his lips away from me.
Later at night, Sokka, Katara and I shared a tent while Aang slept on Appa and Toph had made her own tent.
"Ppst, Venus. Are you awake?" I heard Sokka murmur.
My eyes were closed, but I hadn't fully fell asleep yet. "No."
To get closer to me, Sokka got out of his sleeping bag and crawled over to me. He peered his head over my face.
I opened my eyes seeing the water tribe boy above me. "Yes. Sokka, I'm awake."
"I want to talk to you."
"Sokka." I murmur. "It's late, can't this wait for tomorrow?"
"Can I see your legs?"
I quickly sat up from my sleeping position. "Wha- wha- why do you want to see my legs?"
Sokka shrugged. "Well. I remember you saying you got bruised badly back at the swamp, but you never asked Katara to heal it, and everytime I touch you, you wince. I just want to make sure, you're okay."
I let out a deep breath. "So what you are asking of me is to pull down my pants and show you my bruises?"
"Yes." Sokka answered, directly looking me in my eyes. "Because I feel like they aren't bruises...I feel like they are something else."
"Like what?" I scuff.
"I don't know," Sokka murmurs. "Maybe- maybe your-"
I shake my head waiting for him to spit out his sentence. "Maybe what?"
"It's fine," he waves a hand. "Maybe I'm just-"
Suddenly, I break into tears.
"Venus?"
"You're right. Something is wrong."
Sokka grabs my head, leaning it into his chest. "V, what's wrong?"
"I saw my mother back at the swamp," I silently cried. "Everything...was going so well for me, and all of a sudden... I see her and she's apologizing and she's begging me to forgive her...I just couldn't do it anymore."
"You couldn't do what?" Sokka questions, wrapping his arm tighter around my body.
"I just wanted to kill myself."
I could feel Sokka's heart skip a few beats.
"But..but I couldn't do it. I thought about you." I paused. "And uh..Katara and Aang, of course. And I thought about Suki, so I didn't want to..you know."
"So..you wanted to harm yourself instead?" Sokka sighed out.
"Yeah. I just sliced my thighs."
"Venus," Sokka pulled me out of his chest so he could look me in the eyes. "Please, if you are feeling down, talk to me. Don't ever hurt yourself again. Ever."
It was hard for me to maintain eye contact with him, but I could tell he was serious. I slowly nodded my head agreeing.
Sokka nodded his head as well, taking my head and placing it back in his chest. "You know, I care about you, right?"
"Mhm," I murmured against his warm chest. "I care about you too."
I don't know when, but Sokka and I had fallen asleep against each other.
After a bit, Katara had shook Sokka and I awake. "We have to go. Toph says there's an avalanche coming towards us."
Sokka steers awake as he slurs on his words. "Ava-who?"
We all packed up camp and headed on Appa as we sore though the still dark sky.
From below we could see a cloud of smoke billowing towards us in the clear distance.
"What is that thing?" Katara asks.
Sokka and I leaned against each other on the saddle as we yawned in each others faces.
"I'm tired."
"I'm equally tired." I murmured back as I took Sokka's hands and started playing with his fingers.
Appa flies over mountainous terrain and lands on a smooth, rocky surface.
Toph immediately leaps off Appa and lays on the ground, relieved. "Ah, land sweet land! See you guys in the morning!"
"Actually, can you help us unload?" Katara asks.
"Really?" Toph sarcastically says. "You need me to help unload Sokka's funky-smelling sleeping bag?"
Aang hands Sokka his sleeping bag which he proceeds to smell. Sokka turns away, his disgusted face growing red.
I snatch the bag away from him as I take a whiff myself. "Sokka, gross." I throw the bag far into the forest.
"Venus!"
"Sokka!" I mimic. "That bag is gross. You can just sleep in mine."
"Really?" The boy perked.
I rose an eyebrow. "Hey, don't get any ideas."
I turn to Toph and Katara, who were bickering. Every since Toph joined the group all those two ever do is bicker.
Katara tenses her muscles in frustration and raises her hand in an attempt to speak. After finished speaking, Toph sits down on the ground and earthbends an earth tent over her.
Toph uses earthbending to close the door of the tent. "D-did you just slam the door in my face?! How can you be so infuriating?!"
Sokka, Aang and I are standing several feet away. Katara angrily bangs her fists against the door of the wall and kicks the tent's walls with her feet.
"Should we do something?" Aang asks.
"Hey," Sokka seems amused. "I'm just enjoying the show."
Aang approached Katara. "Okay, okay, you both need to calm down."
"Both?!" Katara rapidly turns to face Aang, her expression crazed and her eyes bloodshot. "I'm completely calm!!"
My eyes widen in fear. "My spirits." I turn up to look at Sokka. "This is what you had to deal with in your years of living?"
Sokka let out a loud sigh. "Pretty much."
After a while, the fighting seemed to settle down. Sokka made his way over to my sleeping bag, wiggling his way in.
I slightly blushed when he turned around and our faces met. "Hey."
"Hi." I replied.
"You can..come closer if you want." Sokka stutters. "I don't bite."
Is it weird, that I want him to bite me?
Katara who is laying beside us in her sleeping bag begins to loudly talk. "The stars sure are beautiful tonight. Too bad you can't see them, Toph!"
Toph uses earthbending to release a fissure that channels underground and sends Katara flying into the air. She lands on top of Sokka and I, startling us.
Sokka pushes Katara off to the side. "Hey, how's a guy supposed to sleep with all this yelling?" He turns to Toph. "and earthquaking?"
Toph reopens her tent. "That thing is back!"
"Well, how far away is it?" Sokka lies down and pulling the covers over our head. "Maybe we can close our eyes just for a few minutes." He muffles.
"I don't think so, Sokka."
We all tiredly boarded Appa as we sore into the sky again, finding a new place to rest.
Sokka immediately had fell on top of me, falling fast asleep. Snoring loudly in my ear.
"Aw," Katara teased. "Look at them!"
"What?" Toph asked.
"Oh, yeah." Katara mumbled. "You're blind,"
I rolled my eyes as the two went back in the forth.
Appa flies past a mountain. The bison lands on his side on a flat-surfaced rock bed, throwing everyone onto the ground along with our belongings.
Sokka lands onto the ground. "Okay, forget about setting up camp." He crawls along the ground in my sleeping bag. "I'm finding the softest pile of dirt and going to sleep."
Sokka slithers his way towards me as he rests his head on my stomach.
Angrily, Katara pulls her sleeping bag under her head as a pillow. "That's good because Toph wasn't going to help anyway!"
Toph is equally irritated; lying on her bag. "Oh, I didn't realize baby still needed someone to tuck her in bed."
"Come on guys, there's something after us and we don't even know what." Aang pulls the top part of his shirt over his head; says in a muffled voice. "or who it is."
"It could be Zuko." Katara rolls over on her side. "We haven't seen him since the North Pole."
"Scar face?" I question.
"Who's Zuko?" Toph asks.
Sokka lays his chin on my stomach. "Oh, just some angry freak with a ponytail who's tracked us all over the world."
"What's wrong with ponytails, Ponytail?" Katara mocks.
Sokka points to his top-knot. "This is a warrior's wolf tail."
"Well, it certainly tells the other warriors that you're fun and perky." Katara jokes.
I run my fingers through the end of Sokka's pony tail. "I like your ponytail."
Sokka gives me a satisfied smile. "Anyway, whoever's chasing us couldn't have followed us here, so, now would everyone just shhh?"
Momo hops onto his sleeping bag and chitters excitedly. Momo hops off Sokka and over to the ledge of the rock. He continues to chitter and raises his ears up in alert. Aang rises, followed by Toph, Katara and I.
Sokka buries his face in his hands. "Oh, don't tell me..."
"That's impossible." Aang says. "There's no way they could have tracked us."
"I can feel it with my own two feet!"
Aang runs to the edge of the cliff next to Momo and notices smoke rising from the far end of the rocky pathway. A tank train rumbles up a slope and onto level ground.
"Let's get out of here." Katara nervously says.
"Maybe we should face them." Aang calmly says. "Find out who they are. Who knows, maybe they're friendly."
"Always the optimist," Sokka hopelessly sighs.
The tank train as it slows to a halt. The door to one compartment opens, releasing a burst of steam. From the mist emerges three Mongoose Lizards. Ty Lee appears, followed by Mai and Azula.
Katara and I look on in shock. The three girls stand atop their Lizards. Azula, a determined look on her face. The three begin racing toward us.
"It's those three girls from Omashu," Katara screams alarmed. Everyone jumps into a fighting stance.
"We can take them," Toph says determined. "Four on three."
"Actually Toph, there's five of us." Sokka corrects.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't count you." Toph sheepishly says. "You know, no bending and all."
Turning to her, Sokka's face distorted with rage. "I can still fight! Plus Venus can't bend either!"
"Yeah," Toph waves off, "but isn't she some trained warrior or assassin?"
Assassin?
Sokka growls at Toph.
"Okay, four on three, plus Sokka."
Toph earthbends three columns in an attempt to hinder the girls, however, the Mongoose Lizards merely leap over the pillars and continues on their way.
"Well, we wanted to find out who they were and we found out." Sokka puts boomerang away; Aang and Katara begin running. "Now let's get out of here."
Toph earthbends a huge rock wall in front of the trio. Suddenly the wall, blow up with lightning, making a huge hole in it. The lizards climb through the hole. Toph is clearly shocked at this.
Mai swings her arm, releasing a flurry of stilettos. But I grab Sokka's machete and deflect all the stilettos, even grabbing one with my hand and spinning it towards Mai. She grimaces in pain as the stiletto slits her cheek.
Sokka grabs me as we all jump on Appa, managing to escape.
"I can't believe those girls followed us all the way from Omashu." Katara breathes out shocked.
"I still think we could have taken them." Toph grumpily murmurs.
"Are you kidding me?" Katara points her fingers upward repeatedly in gesture. "The crazy blue firebending and the flying daggers are bad enough, but last time we saw them, one of those girls did something that took my bending away. That's scary."
The landscape, a prairie below, mountains in the distance. The sun is rising over the horizon as Appa soars past.
"Oh no, the sun is rising." Sokka complains. "We've been up all night with no sleep!"
"Sokka, we'll be okay." I calmly reassure.
"Are you sure?" He nervously asks. "I've never not slept before!" He holds his hands up to his head. "What if I fall asleep now and something happens?And something always happens!"
I grab Sokka's hand and pull him into my embrace. "Just relax and sleep onto me for now."
Sokka leans his body into my chest as I wrap my arms around his shoulder, securing him tight. "What about you?" He asks.
"I'm fine, just sleep."
After a moment of silence, everyone was beginning to slowly drift into slumber until it felt like my body was being levitated. I open my eyes to see that were we falling.
"What's going on?" I shout as I hold onto the saddle with one hand and hug Sokka's body with my other hand.
"Appa fell asleep!" Aang shouts. "Wake up, buddy!"
Having awakened, Appa resumes his normal flight, soaring just above the treetops. Toph, Sokka, Katara and I sway to the side still tightly gripping the saddle.
Appa soars through the trees, colliding into and snapping several branches. Sokka and I squeeze each other in our arms embracing the impact.
Appa sleeping once more; as we hit the ground. Aang slides off his head and onto the ground. "Appa's exhausted."
Sokka trudges across the ground, carrying my sleeping bag. "Okay, we've put in a lot of distance between us and them. The plan right now is to follow Appa's lead and get some sleep."
"Of course, we could've gotten some sleep earlier,"
Katara glares at Toph who is lying on the ground sleepily. "If Toph didn't have such issues."
Toph wakes up and slams the ground; screaming furiously. "What!?"
"All right, all right," Aang says trying to clear all the tension. "everyone's exhausted! Let's just get some rest."
Toph rises and faces Katara. "No, I want to hear what Katara has to say. You think I have issues?"
"I'm just saying." Katara puffs. "Maybe if you helped out earlier, we could have set up our camp faster and gotten some sleep," she begins to shout, "and then maybe we wouldn't be in this situation!"
"You're blaming me for this?"
Katara tosses aside her sleeping bag and gestures with her hands, challenging Toph to move closer.
"Aren't you going to do something," Aang murmurs to me.
I tiredly look at him. "I'm not getting involved in this."
Aang jumps in between the girls. "No! No," he desperately says, "she's not blaming you."
"No, I'm blaming her!" Katara shouts.
"Hey," Toph shoves Aang out of the way. "I never asked you for diddly-doo-dah." She points her thumb at herself. "I carry my own weight. Besides, if there's anyone to blame, it's Sheddy over here!"
Aang is sitting on Appa's tail. "What? You're blaming Appa?"
"Yeah, you want to know how they keep finding us? Toph grabs a handful of Appa's fur and lets the sheddings blow away in the wind. "He's leaving a trail everywhere we go!"
Aang jumps down to face her. "How dare you blame Appa! He saved your life three times today! If there's anyone to blame it's you! You're always talking about how you carry your own weight, but you're not. He is! Appa's carrying your weight. He never had a problem flying when it was just the four of us!"
I gasped. "Oh no, he just called her fat." I murmur as Sokka lightly chuckles, but stopped once Toph began to grab her belongings.
"I'm out of here."
Sokka moves in front of Toph, his arms outstretched to halt her. "Wait!"
Toph uses earthbending to shift Sokka off to the side, leaving him surprised.
Aang raises his arms up, his eyes sorrowful. "What did I just do? I can't believe I yelled at my earthbending teacher. Now she's gone."
"I know. We're all just trying to get used to each other. And I was so mean to her."
Sokka drinking from a cup. "Yeah, you two were pretty much jerks."
"Thanks, Sokka." Katara sarcastically replies.
"No problem."
Aang grabs a handful of fur and watches as it blows away in the wind. "I have a plan."
We all scrubbed Appa clean of his shedding.
All his fur came off and floated down the river we were cleaning him in.
"Toph was right. The fur was leaving a trail right to us. But now that he's clean, no more trail."
"Are you sure he's okay to fly?" Katara asks Aang.
"He'll be fine as long as we leave his saddle and all our stuff here." Aang kneels down and places pieces of Appa's fur into his satchel. "I'm going to use Appa's fur to make a fake trail to lead the tank off-course."
The siblings and I hop on Appa as he immediately soars into the sky.
"I'm so exhausted," I groan.
"Oh," Sokka jokes. "I could barley tell, you have baggy under eyes all the time."
I scuff in response.
Momo begins to chitter and rears up defensively.
"What is it, Momo?" Sokka turns his head to see Mai and Ty Lee following the bison in hot pursuit, mounted on mongoose lizards. "Ooooh, no! Katara!"
Katara is shocked; urging Appa forward. "How did they find us?"
Appa flies dangerously close to the tree line, growing more and more tired.
"Appa, come on, we need to go faster!" Sokka urgently says.
"He's too tired!" I exclaim.
"Not good! Not good!" Sokka frantically chants.
"We just need to make it across that river!"
"Come on Appa," Katara pleads. "just a little further..."
Appa skims the surface of the Nan Shan River before crashing into the ground on the opposite side of the river.
"We made it!" Sokka cheers hugging me. "We're safe!"
"You did it Appa!" Katara smiles joining in on the hug.
Katara opens her eyes and gasps. Sokka and I turn around and become horrified. The mongoose lizards are paddling the water rapidly, allowing for them to walk over the surface of the river.
Katara steps forward and spins around, sending a wave of water crashing into Ty Lee's mongoose lizard.
Ty Lee leaps off the beast just in time and emerges from the water. She lands near the treetops where she gracefully dodges from tree trunk to tree trunk in pursuit of Katara, who opens her water skin.
Ty Lee somersaults onto the ground. Katara attempts to lash a water whip in her direction, however, is forced to quickly dodge several of the acrobat's blows.
Mai still mounted on her lizard. She turns around and fires several stilettos from uploaded holsters in her sleeves.
I knock the stilettos off-target with my fans. "I'm not a big fan of you."
"Mhm, that's too bad."
From behind, Ty Lee had jabbed her fingers into my back bone, making my limbs feel numb. I collapsed on the ground.
"Sorry." Ty Lee giggled as she flips her way over to Sokka.
The girls had quickly captured us. Katara was pinned to the tree as Sokka had fallen beside me from Ty Lee's paralyzing ability.
Damn, she's gotta teach me that.
"I thought when Ty Lee and I finally caught you guys, it would be more exciting." Mai dryly says. "Oh well, victory is boring."
The two are suddenly swept off their feet by a powerful gust of wind conjured by Appa's tail. They incidentally somersault into the air and land several yards away in the water.
"Thanks Appa, I don't know what we'd do without you."
Appa sweeps his large tongue over Sokka's face, covering him in drool. Sokka expresses irritation at this, his eyebrow twitching.
We all hopped on Appa and began to search for Toph, but it was unsuccessful. We then saw an abandoned town that was burning down in blue and red flames.
I looked down as we flew over the town. "It's Aang!" He was fighting of Azula and Zuko. Wait, Zuko?!
We flew down and ran to Aang's aid. I flung my fans directly towards Azula's face, I spin kicked her stomach, slamming her into the walls.
When she tried to arise again, she falls over to the side.
Toph appears from an alleyway, having just shifted the ground beneath her feet. "I thought you guys could use a little help."
"Thanks." Katara smiles.
Azula rises to her feet and begins running away. She leaps over some crates and tries to escape, however, Zuko's uncle intervenes, using his rotund belly to knock her off her feet.
Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, Zuko, his uncle and I all cornered Azula against the ruins of a stone wall.
Azula coolly, backs up as her enemies surround her. "Well, look at this. Enemies and traitors, all working together. I'm done." She raises her hands in surrender. "I know when I'm beaten. You got me. A princess surrenders with honor."
Azula, who smiles and takes a step forward, firing a blast at Zuko's uncle, who gets hit. He screams in pain and falls to the ground.
The remaining of us turn to face Azula, four of them bending their respective elements and Sokka throwing his boomerang straight for her.
The impact of the elements creates a minor explosion, sending a thick cloud of smoke everywhere.
The town now set alight, burning embers falling from the sky as the smoke clears. The smoke clears to reveal Azula having vanished from the scene without a trace.
Zuko kneels before his uncle, dismayed at the turn of events.
I place a hand to my mouth as I watch Zuko hug is uncle's body from afar, not daring to step any closer to them much as like my friends.
Zuko turns to glare at us. "Ughh! Get away from us."
Katara approached him. "Zuko...I can help."
Zuko blast an arc of fire above my friends heads. "Leave!"
We all hoped on Appa and found a nice place to rest for the next few days.