ATLA - Soaring - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Sora flew under his own power next to Appa while the others rode on the bison's back. He found it was more comfortable for him to fly using his own bending most of the time while also lowering the weight that Appa had to carry, not that Sora weighed a ton or anything. It was also how he did the majority of his moving meditation. Flying freed not just his body, but his mind as well.

At the moment he was meditating over something that had been discussed between Bumi and Aang back in Omashu. After Aang's little fit during their duel, Bumi had informed Aang that he needed to learn how to consciously control the Avatar State. He'd even mentioned Guru Pathik as being the one Aang needed to find for that, but only after Aang learned to at least bend the other three elements. He didn't need to master them, but at least a basic understanding of them was necessary.

Sora had no trouble believing that Bumi knew Guru Pathik, they were both fossils. Though he was pretty certain Guru Pathik was older than Bumi, possibly by decades. The way Guru Pathik spoke of Monk Gyatso as a friend implied an adult friendship. Sora figured Guru Pathik had to be at least one hundred and twenty years old, probably older. Which was impressive, but not why he was spending so much time thinking about the Guru.

No, he was trying to remember all of the Chakras that Guru Pathik taught Aang to open. Opening the Chakras had given Aang full control over the Avatar State, an impressive feat. It might also have something to do with the longevity of Guru Pathik. Mostly though, Sora was curious about what opening all of his own chakras would do for himself.

Provided he could remember them all, which was proving very difficult. He could clearly remember the last one, the Thought Chakra. It dealt with pure cosmic energy and was blocked by earthly attachments. He also remembered that the Fire Chakra was in the stomach, mostly because of the burp gag in the show. He didn't, currently, remember much else about it. He wasn't even sure where in the order that one was. Which was a problem if he wanted to unlock them all.

To solve the problem, he was meditating on the issue any chance he got, hoping the calming of his mind would let him dig further into his memories and find the answers he was seeking. It would likely be a long process, but one he felt would be worth it, especially if it improved his bending in any way. Of course, a potential life span of over a hundred years would be pretty nifty as well!

Well, there was nothing for it but to keep trying to remember the details he needed.

-----Line Break-----

Sora moved swiftly, his arms punching forward repeatedly to launch little blasts of air in the shape of balls. Aang watched him from the side, frowning a bit. When Sora finally stopped, Aang shook his head, “I don't get it. The way you learned Airbending is so completely different from the way the monks taught me that I would have thought what you do is impossible.”

It'd been two weeks since they left Omashu, they'd had a few adventures, such as saving some Earth Kingdom prisoners from an oil rig-like prison and meeting a literal Spirit for the first time. That had been a little scary as Sora hadn't been any more effective against the Spirit than Sokka. Oh sure, he could push it around with Airbending, but it hadn't been slowed by him in the least.

They were currently on their way to the Firenation, Aang had an appointment with Avatar Roku. The date of the Summer Solstice was still two days away allowing them time for Appa to rest. Their plan was to head into Fire Nation waters the following day and make their way directly to the Fire Temple, have the meeting, and then flee. For that, Appa needed to be at full strength.

Coming down from his stance, Sora turned to face Aang, “It's less... flowy than what you've taught me for sure, but it also seems less... efficient? Performing the moves you taught me is more effort and takes a little longer, but it also seems a bit more powerful and less energy intensive. I suppose it's a good trade off with mine being faster, slightly weaker, and more energy intensive. It fits me better than your style does.”

Aang sighed but nodded. He personally felt that Sora's Airbending was...not brutal but... more feral? He wouldn't be able to describe it if asked, but he definitely didn't like it. On the bright side, he knelt down and picked up the pair of Kyoshi War Fans that Sora had collected back on Kyoshi Island, thanks to Sora having no training with using tools to help Airbend, he could teach that from scratch. Sora caught the folded fan when Aang tossed it to him.

Sora gazed at the fan after catching it and smiled. Kyoshi island was good memories. With a flick of his wrist the metal fan completely opened. He moved to match the pose Aang had taken and went through the motions Aang was showing him. Sora was honestly impressed with how much stronger his bending was when used with a proper tool to help channel and focus his power. Aang had let him try out the glider staff and he'd found he didn't like it all that much, too big. The fans though? Oh he liked the fans.

The pair of Airbenders practiced using the fans for a while longer before calling it a night. Sora was getting stronger and more competent in his use of Airbending. He was still slightly embarrassed and ashamed about his performance during the jail break to free the Earthbenders. As they settled in for the night, Sora couldn't help thinking back to the battle once again and berating himself for his performance.

-----Line Break-----

Sora stood near Aang and Sokka looking up at Katara as she stood on a pile of coal. She had just given an impassioned speech to the imprisoned Earthbenders and had her arm raised in the air holding a chunk of the black earthen material. There was silence from the Earthbenders and watching Firebenders. Some of the Earthbenders even looked down at the ground in shame at their inaction.

A derisive laugh came from the warden of the prison, “Nice try little girl but you're wasting your breath on these people. They've long been broken.”

He gestured to one of his minions while turning around to leave, “Capture and interrogate them. I want to know who they are and how they got here.”

He'd only gotten a few steps away when a chunk of coal sailed through the air and nailed him in the back of his head. He quickly spun around, clearly furious, to see Haru, a young Earthbender Katara had 'befriended', standing near the pile of coal twirling a few more pieces above his hand using Earthbending.

Haru was the entire reason for this mess. They'd encountered him while taking a lunch break and letting Appa get some rest. Thanks to Sora they had plenty of food to eat while they relaxed. At least until they heard some booming sounds and went to investigate. From there Katara met and stalked a young Earthbender. One thing led to another and Haru ended up arrested for being an Earthbender after saving a traitorous old man from certain death using his skills at Katara's insistence.

The warden, clearly pissed off at the sign of defiance from Haru, spit out, “Fine! Have it your way!” 

He put actions to words by sending out a powerful blast of fire toward Haru, which was blocked by Haru's father Earthbending a pile of coal into a shield. The older man shouted, “FOR FREEDOM!”

Apparently that's all that was needed as the other Earthbenders began grabbing onto the coal with their bending and fighting the Firebenders. Sora almost felt a little bad for Katara. Here she'd given this big impassioned speech and they did nothing, then this guy says two words and suddenly everyone is fighting tooth and nail to get free.

Poor girl.

Sora was quickly pulled out of his musing when a blast of flames came roaring toward him. He quickly swiped his hand through the air and sent the blast of fire off on a different course into the air. Right, now wasn't the time to feel sorry for Katara being shown up by two words.

Sora whipped out his Kyoshi War Fans and swiped the right one through the air to send a powerful wave of wind at a pair of Firebenders sticking close together. His eyes widened in shock when the powerful wave of air came out significantly bigger than he expected and caught not only his targets, but an Earthbender who was nearby fighting a third prison guard. All three people were sent flying to slam into the metal walls of the prison.

Normally, he would have been pretty happy to hear the sound of metal striking metal as the Firebenders slammed into the metal walls of the prison with their armor clad bodies. Any chance of him feeling proud of that moment was instantly and irrevocably destroyed by the sound of the much softer body of the Earthbender slamming into the same wall.

Sora instantly moved, his feet blurring and his body blasting out air as he pushed his speed from zero to maximum in an instant. He quickly arrived at the downed body of the Earthbender, a man, and began checking him for injuries. The man let out a groan but it didn't look like he was hurt more than a good large bruise.

-----Line Break-----

Sora was still disturbed by that moment and felt shame for it. He'd spent the time since then practicing diligently so that he wouldn't make the same mistake twice. He knew the battles they would fight weren't a game and people would die. Some would likely die by his own hands. In that battle though, he'd only meant to knock some Firebenders around, give them a few bruises. Not send a friendly smashing into a wall.

Thankfully Aang was still willing to help him out. They might have different philosophies about Airbending, but they were the only two in existence so they stuck together.

-----Line Break-----

The whole group, all sitting atop Appa, looked down at the Fire Nation ships forming the blockade to protect the islands of their nation. Everyone was feeling nervous as they approached the large ships. Seeing them really brought home the massive technological difference between the Fire Nation and the others. It was that difference that allowed the much smaller Fire Nation to conquer so much of the world. Truly, the Fire Nation naval blockade was an awe inspiring sight.

It didn't help that they could also see Prince Zuko's ship following right behind them. Seriously, Sora had to give props to Zuko for his tenacity. The guy just never, ever, gave up once he had his mind set on a goal. It was as impressive as it was annoying.

Sokka's shout of, “Incoming!” alerted Sora to the situation behind them.

“I got this one Aang!”

Aang's only response was a nod as he focused on the upcoming blockade. Sora jumped to his feet and whipped out his Kyoshi War Fans. He was just in time as a massive flaming boulder came flying at them from behind. Sora swung both of his arms in the same direction sending out a massively enhanced blast of air that slammed into the flaming boulder killing the flames and sending the rock careening off into the distance.

Despite having more time to meet Roku in the temple, heading in another direction to avoid the blockade would still have taken far too long. This left them in the unenviable position of having to try to run the blockade.

As they approached, a huge number of catapults, or were they trebuchets? Either way, they launched a massive number of flaming rocks in their direction. Sora quickly joined Aang on Appa's head, “You focus on trying to dodge, I'll defend!”

The majority of the projectiles were destined to miss, the Fire Nation soldiers clearly had zero experience firing at flying targets. Unsurprising. Still, due to the sheer number of them, some were on target. Sora constantly whipped his fans back and forth launching wave after wave of air at the ones that got too close for comfort.

As they got closer and more of the flying flaming rocks became a danger, Aang joined Sora in defending Appa. The flying bison flew straight through without much fanfare with two powerful Airbenders protecting him. Zuko, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky as several of the boulders slammed into his ship and heavily damaged it.

Sora watched, rather surprised, when he saw Zuko's ship crawl to a stop before it could reach the ships of the blockade. Sora was far from an expert, but from the looks of it, Zuko's ship seemed to have taken an even bigger beating this time around than it did in the show. Smoke wasn't only coming from the back of his ship, but from several areas. He wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he learned that Zuko's ship was taking on water as well.

Interesting. It made him wonder if they would see Zuko and Zhao at the temple. Well, even if it looked like Zuko was boned, he'd still keep an eye out. You could never tell with Zhao. Sometimes the guy was just a straight up evil villain, but other times he showed a fair bit of cunning. He'd actually managed to capture Aang long before Zuko even came close.

They only relaxed when the blockade was no longer within sight becoming nothing but a smudge of black on the horizon. They rode Appa in silence for the next few hours as Aang guided them to the proper island on nothing but instincts and a rather unclear vision. It's not like he had vision GPS guiding him to his destination. Probably just remnants of Roku subconsciously guiding Aang on where to go.

Aang clearly got excited as they approached an island after nearly half a day of flight, “There it is! That's the island from my vision!”

While the water siblings moved to the front of Appa's saddle for a better look, Sora took to the air and began to fly right next to Appa. He scanned the crescent moon shaped island sporting a large complex of Chinese looking Pagoda-like buildings. Sora glanced at the building for a bit, before hopping off of Appa and floating into the air. When the others noticed him, he explained, “I'll stick around outside and keep an eye out for uninvited guests. We weren't exactly inconspicuous in where we were going.”

Sora was slightly disappointed at the looks of surprise on their faces. It's like the moment the blockade was out of sight they forgot they were in Fire Nation territory and likely to be followed. Aang nodded, “Alright, I don't think this will take too long. If you get bored you should come inside! I bet the sages have lots of cool stories!”

Sora waved goodbye to the others as they flew down to the temple's entrance. He watched them dismount Appa and make their way inside. Once out of sight, he flew to the top of the pagoda and made himself comfortable in a spot he could continue to watch the small smudge of smoke coming toward the island. It was still a significant distance away making it impossible for him to identify what was making the smoke. That being the case, he lay back on the sloped roof, placed his hands behind his head, and enjoyed a bit of cloud watching.

He smiled a little when the faint sounds of Aang and the others yelling reached him on the wind. It sounded like the fire sages were acting the way he'd expected. He had no worry about the Gaang not being able to handle the situation. Frankly, he didn't feel like he would have much to really contribute until they made it to the north pole and for everything that happened after that.

On the other hand, he was having a bit of fun messing with Firebenders.

It was a short time later that he heard several explosions in rapid succession, “Looks like they're trying to open the door.” Shortly after that he felt the whole building reverberate beneath him, “And Aang's inside.”

He looked down at the ship, which had landed at the harbor of the island a few minutes ago and begun unloading a party of Fire Nation soldiers riding on Lizard-Rhino's. They were still a short distance away but covering ground quickly. When they got close enough, Sora hopped off of the ledge he was sitting on and glided to the ground directly in front of the lead rhino.

The animal let out a weird roaring sound as it's rider pulled on the reins. Once it settled down, Sora got his first look at... Commander? He was pretty sure it was still Commander Zhao, in person. Say what you want about the man, he did have a glorious set of mutton chops.

Zhao glared down at Sora from his mount, “Arrest him! He must be with the Avatar!”

After making his statement, Sora watched, surprised, as Zhao immediately ignored him, as if he didn't matter at all, and try to resume his trek to the temple. At the same time, two riders peeled off and made directly for Sora as if he was going to just sit there and let them arrest him.

Sora rolled his eyes and decided to disabuse Zhao of his assumptions. Sora clenched his hands into fists, bent his legs, and jumped straight up into the air. There were gasps of surprise as Sora easily cleared twenty feet straight up. With all the soldiers staring in awe, he had plenty of time to free fall directly to the ground. As he landed he absorbed the drop with his legs, bending them and simultaneously bringing both of his fists down toward the ground. His fists never hit the ground, but a massively powerful blast of wind did.

The explosion of wind kicked up a voluminous cloud of dust and dirt that washed over all of the soldiers blocking their vision and sending them into confusion. Zhao, remarkably, shouted out, “He's and Airbender!”

Sora smirked and moved into the cloud using his bending to keep the air around himself clear so he could breath easily. He came upon his first soldier in moments. He couldn't see the mans face thanks to the face plate on his helmet, but it's easy to tell that the guy was surprised by his body language. Not giving the guy a moment to react, Sora punched forward sending a blast of air to slam into the soldiers chest and blast him off of the mount. The guy let out a strangled yelp as he flew through the air in a parabolic arc.

Sora repeated the process to blast every member of Zhao's party off of their mounts. By the time he finished and cleared the cloud away, he was surprised to see that Zhao was nowhere in sight. He looked around just to make sure and finally gave up when he saw a massive wall of flames rip through the temple up on the hill, “Ah, guess he made it to the temple...”

Sora shook his head and floated into the air. He still wasn't worried. Zhao... well, Zhao sucked at fighting. He couldn't recall a single time Zhao won. Hell, he even lost to the Loser Prince before Zuko actually became a decent fighter. That's just sad.

He floated around for a bit until he saw the large form of Appa flying into the air. Sora quickly flew over to join his friends. Sokka was at the reins while Katara was hovering over a weak looking Aang. He came in for a gently landing. Without taking his eyes off of Aang he asked, “What happened?”

Katara glanced away from Aang to answer him. According to her things went as he expected until just after they tricked the sages into opening the door. Once Aang made his way inside and the doors slammed shut, a few more sages appeared and they were taken captive. While Aang was still inside, Zhao had shown up to take over the situation. After that it returned to canon as Sora knew it. Aang came out of the room as Roku, wiped the floor with Zhao and the sages, freed the siblings, and they all escaped.

From there we took our time leaving Fire Nation waters. Over his time with them, Sora had noticed an odd quality of Appa's flight. Simply put, the higher Appa flew, the slower the flight. It finally explained why Appa was always flying low enough to be easily spotted or attacked. If he flew too high he had very little speed. They weren't usually in a rush to get anywhere, but it still made more sense to fly lower so they could get two to three times further along in their journey.

Once Aang awoke, he explained what Roku had told him about the coming of the comet and the danger it represented. Though after that, Aang focused on Sora, “Ruku told me that the Spirits are watching you.”

Sora froze. That... did not sound good. The Spirits were... well, they weren't friends to humanity. In fact, many that he was aware of were just plain assholes. Then there were the flat out evil ones. Wasn't there also an evil spirit that was opposite of the Avatar Spirit? He was certain he'd heard something like that happened in The Legend of Kora. He'd watched the first couple of episodes of the series but dropped it fast. He hated that series for trivializing all the amazing progress and hard effort that characters like Toph put into learning things.

Fucking random Firebenders working in plants to produce lightning for electricity? Fucking really?! In the original only the Royal Family was ever shown to bend Lightning. It's supposed to be a difficult skill to use! Not something any Tom, Dick, or Harry could use! He'd never been happier that he didn't watch it when a friend told him about that one bad guy, Amon. Bloodbending is supposed to be a super specialized art that even a sheer genius like Katara required a full moon and movement to use. But that guy? Fucking 'Psychic Bloodbending'?!

Clearly the writers for the show lost their fucking minds.

Sora was pulled out of his thoughts by Aang, “Roku said you shouldn't be able to Airbend. I'm supposed to be the last.”

Sora wanted to find a way into the Spirit Realm to teach Roku the benefits of keeping his yap shut. Instead he just addressed Aang by shrugging his shoulders, “Not sure what to tell you. Clearly, he's wrong since I'm right here. I don't know anything about spirits, but unless they're all-knowing they can probably make mistakes or miss things. I've told you everything I know about myself.”

Aang didn't quite look convinced while the siblings just looked confused. It's not like Sora had done a single bad thing or anything to hurt the group. He'd, in fact, been rather helpful. There was the incident with Zuko, but neither Katara nor Sokka had much issue with it. Sora hadn't killed the evil firebending prince after all.

There was an awkward silence until Aang sighed and nodded his head, “You're right, spirits aren't all knowing. They are wise though and you present a mystery that even they do not understand. It is... concerning.”

Sora nodded in understanding, “I get that. But I honestly can't tell you more than I already have. I just woke up at that temple as who I am.”

That wasn't even technically a lie. Though Sora was definitely annoyed with the spirits at the moment. He'd have to find a way to prank the crap out of them some day.

-----Line Break-----

The next morning the group awoke to Aang pacing around looking nervous. Katara was the one to ask, “Aang, what's wrong?”

Aang looked over his three companions and they could all see the weight on his shoulders, “It's what Roku said. I have to defeat the Fire Lord before the comet comes and to do that I need to master all four elements! I've only mastered Air so far!”

Sokka chimed in, “Well, we're half way to the north pole, you can learn waterbending there.”

Katara followed that by adding, “It's not much, but I can show you what I've learned about Waterbending.”

Sora, meanwhile, was remembering about this particular series of events in the show. He couldn't help smiling as he knew exactly what to do to help out in this scenario. He didn't say anything when they took off and flew until they found a river that could be used for Waterbending practice. Sokka looked around, “So what are me and Sora supposed to do while you two splash around?”

Aang looked around and spotted what he wanted. Grabbing a stick with some leaves still on it, “You two can wash Appa!”

“Let me get this straight. While you're playing around with magic water, we're supposed to scrub Appa's feet?”

“That's right!”

Sokka grabbed the stick with a small sigh, “Alright.”

Sora decided to but in at that moment, “Actually, you can handle that on your own Sokka. While we were up there I saw a town not too far away. I'll fly over and top up our supplies while you all do what you want here.”

Sokka nodded along, “That's not a bad idea. With your ability to fly we can split up a bit and save some time. Nice thinking!”

Sora didn't take off right away though. Instead he helped Sokka get their belongings and the saddle off of Appa first. Removing the saddle took Airbending, after all, so it was either Sora or Aang that would need to lift it off of the flying bison. Once the saddle was secured, Sora grabbed their supplies and used some rope to try their bags together and hang them from a tree. Sokka watched for a bit before asking, “Why are you doing that?”

Without looking down Sora replied, “Those two are about the play with water doing who knows what. The last thing we want is Aang getting over excited, messing up, or any of a hundred other things that might lead to our supplies being coverd in mud or washed down river.”

“Good thinking! Wish I'd thought of that.”

Sora just shrugged. He liked to think he'd have done the same thing even without future knowledge. It just seemed like common sense to keep the supplies off of the ground that could potentially be turned into torrents of mud by two amateur Waterbenders who didn't know what they were doing.

With the supplies secured, Sora waved goodbye to everyone and rocketed up into the air with a laugh. There was seriously nothing better then feeling the wind rippling across his body as he flew free of everything. Every kid ever to exist wanted to fly at one point or another. It was likely they even had dreams of flight. Sora knew he had. It was a deep visceral thing that filled his entire being with joy. If it came down to it, he'd choose flight over letting the entire world burn. It meant that much to him.

Sadly, he had to come in for a landing far too soon for his tastes. He hadn't even had enough time to push his speed to the limit. He honestly couldn't wait to get to the north pole. All that open space with no one for miles? He'd be spending the days in the air pushing his speed to the limit if he had any say in the matter. Which he did.

He landed a short walk away from the port town and covered the remaining distance on foot. They were still keeping his ability for flight as much of a secret as they could. That didn't mean people outside the group didn't know, it's just not something he was being completely blatant about by landing in the middle of a town.

As he walked toward the main square, near the water, he saw the ship he had hoped to see. There was no telling if anything he'd done had butterflied enough to change things yet. He was glad this hadn't changed. He was looking at several ships that looked similar to Junks. The Chinese ship, not garbage. Several of them had callers out front, but only one had a man in Earth Kingdom colors with long hair a thin mustache, and a big golden hoop earring. The man practically screamed pirate.

Sora made note of which ship he was in front of then made his way to the warehouses and stalls nearby. He hadn't lied when he said he would top off their supplies. Thanks to Bumi he had a fair amount of Earth Kingdom currency and was keeping it away from the other three. Their irresponsibility with money was a concern, but not one he felt like delving into. Trying to teach kids financial responsibility was not in his wheelhouse.

Supplies mattered, but the ship was the really important thing. So, after grabbing some fruits and veggies for Aang, some meat for the rest of them, and some bait for fishing to supplement their supplies, he was done shopping. He made his way back toward the ship, his small bag filled to the brim with supplies and casually drew the attention of the man he'd spotted earlier.

The pirate weaseled his way over toward Sora while calling out, “You there! I can see from your clothing that you're the world traveling type!”

Sora stopped and blinked at that. Didn't he say something similar to the Gaang in the show? Damn but did the guy have his sales pitch lines memorized good! It even sounded like it was off the cuff. The pirate continued, “Perhaps I can interest you in some exotic curios?”

Sora allowed himself to be stopped and looked at the man, he was actually kind of curious about what else was on the ship. The item he was after was the most important, but there might be other interesting things to look at. Seeing he had Sora's curiosity, the pirate draped an arm over his shoulders and led him toward the gangplank leading onto the ship.

Once inside, Sora was left pretty much on his own to browse the goods within. As he looked at the, frankly interesting, selection of goods, he spotted the Waterbending scroll in a cubicle near other scrolls. It was the blue wavy patterned cap at the end that gave it away. Before he did anything, another pirate came out from the back. This one much older and probably the captain, if the lizard-parrot on his shoulder was anything to go by. With a deep voice the pirate asked, “Can I help you?”

Sora nodded and turned away from the Ruby encrusted monkey he'd been looking at to make his way over to the counter where the pirate had moved to, “I hope so. This stuff is great an' all, but I'm looking for a good knife.” He gestured at once with a golden handle and emeralds inlaid in it, “Not a wall hanger like that. Got any Fire Nation steel? Those dickbags might be murderous pieces of shit, but they're at least good for their steel.”

The pirate looked at him in surprise for a moment beofre throwing his head back and laughing boistrously, “Good one kid!” When he finished laughing he wiped a affected wiping a tear from the corner of his eye, “I haven't had a good laugh in a while. I got what you want though.”

He turned and collected a leather roll and opened it up with a flouring to reveal and array of knives and daggers sitting inside, “Take a look.”

Sora did so. He wasn't actually bluffing the guy, he really did want a good knife. Not so much as a weapon, thought it could be, but as a tool. Sokka had his weapons and tools like his boomerang and club, no reason Sora couldn't as well. He spent a few minutes inspecting the knives, ignoring the daggers as being less useful in the wilds, and eventually selected one that reminded him of a Bowie Knife.

Almost every weapon he'd seen had been something he would expect to see in China, such as Dao Swords. Seeing something that looked even vaguely like the American classic was extremely interesting to him. The pirate looked interested at his selection as well, “A good choice. That was an experimental design by the great Piandao. He's best known for his swords but he has, on occasion, made smaller blades to experiment with different designs and techniques.”

Sora nodded, “I'm guessing this one was considered a failure?”

The pirate snorted, “It's made by a great master and is excellent quality.” Sora just stared at him with a bland expression causing the pirate to sigh, “Though the design never caught on.”

Sora smirked, “Price?”

“Twenty gold pieces.”

Sora snorted and set ten gold pieces on the counter, “Ten. While it's nice that it's made by Piandao, clearly he considered it a failure. I like the design and shape, so I'm willing to buy it, but I don't want it that badly.”

The pirate captain stared him down before sighing, “Fifteen gold pieces.”

Sora, still with a bland, even bored look replied, “Nine.” while taking one of the gold pieces off the counter.

“That's not how negotiation works!”

Sora just snorted, “It's a nice knife and all but I don't need it that badly. The prestige of Piandao is the only reason I'm even willing to pay so much for a knife.”

The pirate grumbled but capitulated, “Fine. Ten gold pieces.”

Sora returned the piece he took off the counter and collected the knife and a sheath offered by the pirate, “Pleasure doing business with you!”

The pirate just grunted while scooping up the coins and pocketing them. Sora slipped the knife into his belt and made his way toward the exit of the ship. About a quarter of the way from the exit he made his move. With a flick of his wrists he used Airbending to surreptitiously and silently cause two things to happen at once. First, he gently nudged a spear causing to fall over and take the other pole arms nearby to the ground with it causing a cacophony of noise. While he jumped in 'surprise' at the noise, it did it's job of drawing the pirate captain's attention.

At the same time he pulled the scroll of Waterbending out of its cubby and into his sleeve with his other bit of Airbending. All without going within ten feet of the scroll at any point during his visit. With the scroll secured he glanced back as the quietly curing pirate captain. The captain just waved him out while shouting, “JIN! Get in here and secure the polearms like I told you two you lazy...!”

The sound cut off as Sora walked out and down the gangplank with a smile on his face. He highly doubted anyone would notice the scroll missing for quite some time. He hadn't drawn any attention to it at all through his visit so there was no reason for anyone to check if it was still there. Still, he didn't plan to stick around to find out if he was wrong. He quickly disappeared into the crowd of shoppers, only stopping once to pick up something that caught his eye.

-----Line Break-----

Sora touched down and looked at what had become of the area they'd landed in. The ground was completely soaked and had transformed into mud. He looked at Sokka, who was still scrubbing Appa. Catching his look, Sokka turned to stare at Aang, who was sitting off to the side. Then glanced at Katara who was sitting away from Aang and very clearly sulking.

Sora's long drawn out sigh drew Katara's attention, “Sora! Finally! Now we can leave.”

Sora looked at Sokka still washing a soaking wet Appa, then moved his gaze to the safely out of the way saddle, and lastly to their supplies still nice and safe tied up in a tree, “Riiiiight, because we're clearly ready to leave.”

He barely caught a hint of blush leaking into Katara's cheeks before she spun her head around to not look at the three boys anymore. She didn't say anything but they could all tell she was a bit embarassed about that little outburst. Sora rolled his eyes and floated over to the tree to add his small satchel to the rest of their supplies. Once it was secured, he floated over to Appa, “Sokka, get some space, I think I can speed up washing Appa a bit.”

Sokka shrugged and dragged himself out of the river to dry off. Sora started waving his hands in small circles to generate rotating gusts of wind. Within moments he had small, weak, water spouts coming out of the water and moving around Appa. The water splashed onto Appa from the mini-twisters while the air helped dislodge shed hair.

Aang, inspired by what he was seeing, joined Sora in conjuring waterspouts. Soon Appa was getting one of the most thorough scrubbings of his life. When the scrubbing was done, the pair of Airbenders used their skills to blow dry him leaving Appa with a clean, dry, exceptionally soft coat. It was only a short time after that, that they took to the air to continue their journey for a while. The pit stop to practice Waterbending, wash Appa, and top off supplies (plus a smidge of larceny), only took a couple of hours. There was still plenty of daylight for them to cover more ground.

-----Line Break-----

The group of teens sat around a campfire grilling some fresh caught fish and vegetables for dinner when Sora broke the silence, “Oh! I almost forgot.” He hadn't, “When I was in town I found something interesting.”

He had everyone's attention on him so he dug around in his top and pulled out the Waterbending scroll. Everyone's eyes widened when the recognized the water symbols at the ends of the scroll, “I found this. Figured it would help you and Aang out, Katara.”

The moment he held the scroll out to her, Katara ripped it from his grasp and quickly opened it up. She gasped as she looked over the drawings contained within, “It's a Waterbending scroll! With this I,” Sora cleared his throat, “I, I mean we, can learn some real Waterbending!” she looked at the first move, “The water whip... I want to try this!”

Katara quickly scrambled to the river's edge to try the move out, Aang following closely. They'd followed the river on Sora's suggestion 'so they could have fresh fish' was the excuse he gave. The reality is that this is why he did it.

Katara held the scroll up to Aang, “Hold this so I can see it!”

Everyone could see that Katara was clearly excited but only Sokka and Sora seemed to see the desire she had to prove herself. Sora hadn't been there to witness it, but he knew Aang's natural gift at bending had gotten to her. Things Katara had to work so hard to learn all on her own, he mastered in moments. Sora could sort of relate to her. Despite his own natural talents and power, he'd had some struggles learning to bend due to poor communication. Unsurprising given his mentor. Still, he'd learned and was still learning from Aang even now to sharpen his skills and expand his repertoire. It might be his more mature mindset, but he didn't feel the need to prove he was better than a twelve-year-old boy.

He was definitely different from said boy though.

They all watched Katara fail to perform the water whip, her frustration not helped by Sokka's laughter. It came to a head when Aang so easily performed the move on his first attempt while giving Katara advice, “You just have to move through the stances smoothly.” there was a crack from the whip, “See?”

Katara's frustration and jealousy came to a boil in that instant. She rounded on Aang screaming like a banshee, “WOULD YOU PLEASE SHUT YOUR AIRHOLE! BELIEVE IT OR NOT YOUR INFINITE WISDOM GETS A LITTLE OLD SOMETIMES!” Her tone became aggressive and sarcastic, “Why don't we just throw the scroll away since you're so naturally gifted?!”

After venting her spleen at Aang, she turned o find Sora and Sokka giving her disappointed looks. Sora was extremely disappointed. He knew she blew up at Aang in the show but he'd hoped that getting the scroll himself would have lowered the chances of the blow up happening. Mostly because it meant Katara hadn't resorted to thievery in her desperate hope to remain 'relevant' as if her bending was why she was a part of the group. It wasn't. She could barely be called a bender when the journey started and she was barely better now.

Seeing the disappointed looks on the older boys faces, she acerbically asked, “What?”

Her sharp gaze shifted from the boys to look back at Aang where it immediately softened at what she saw. Regardless of his personal power, Aang was only a twelve-year-old child whose friend had just viciously ripped him a new one, it was only natural that he looked distressed and on the verge of tears.

Katara's anger immediately fled at the sight of her friend, “Oh Aang, I'm so sorry.”

Sora sighed and made his way over to the pair, Sokka following behind him, “Listen, Katara, I can sympathize with your frustration. Believe me, learning how to Airbend from a flying bison wasn't exactly a walk in the park. It took me a long time to perform even the most basic bending.” He gestured to Aang, “I think what you need to remember is that Aang, as the Avatar, has over a thousand lifetimes of mastering the four elements. Everything is going to come to him easier.”

Katara was starting to look a little annoyed so Sora cut her off quickly, “I think you two should work and practice together. Aang might pick it up quicker but he can then help you master the move. You can push each other to work harder.” His lips curled into a playful grin, “I know Aang is still trying to figure out how to fly like I do and failing miserably, if that makes you feel better.”

“HEY!”

Everyone laughed at Aang's outburst. From there afternoon transitioned into evening and another day was finished without friendships being ruined over minor things.

-----Line Break-----

Evening was coming when the group decided to make camp. They'd traveled over a forest covered in beautifully red autumn leaves for a couple of days and were now at the edges where the landscape was transitioning to a much sparser area filled with towering rock pillars and a massive canyon not too far away.

It had been over a week since the group had gotten their hands on the Waterbending scroll and both Katara and Aang were getting significantly better at the art. Far more important than that though was Sora's recent remembrance. Every night he spent some time meditating on his memories of the series, trying to remember as much as he can. It wasn't perfect. For instance, he knew there was something about the forest they'd flown over, but he couldn't remember what and nothing had happened. So, he brushed it off.

No, the important thing was that he remembered the first chakra! He'd been meditating on it every night for weeks and finally recalled it! The first chakra was the Earth Chakra. It deals with survival and is blocked by fear. To unlock it he merely had to let his fears go.

That was a problem.

Sora didn't have many fears. He was not only a powerful Airbender, but he could fly and leave all his worries behind any time he wished. He was the living embodiment of freedom. But... Ever since joining the Gaang on their journey, a single fear had been slowly growing in the background. Now, meditating as he floated freely in the clouds, he was forced to face that fear.

Was he doing the right thing? Was his presence with the Gaang making things better? Was he helping? Or, as he feared, was he going to somehow make things worse? His shit memory of the story only highlighted his fear of making things worse. The forest of large red trees. He knew it meant something, just not what. Something happened there in the story he knew, but they just flew over the whole thing, only spending a single night beneath the red leaves.

Something happened there in the world he knew. Did that something matter? Was it important to the overall story? Or was it, hopefully, one of the many things that didn't matter in the end? Would he ever know?

Sora didn't know and that filled him with fear.

He let out a sigh and opened his eyes from his meditative state. He wouldn't be letting go of his fears as easily as Aang had. But, at least he had something he could work toward now that he remembered the first step on the path. A journey of a thousand steps began with one and all that jazz.

-----Line Break-----

This chapter fought me a bit since I'd lost the original inspiration that had me pounding out this story due to events you all know about. On the bright side it's written now! Slightly shorter than I would have liked but it spans several episodes and gets closer to the North Pole where things will really begin to spiral.

For those who can't figure out what episode Sora was worried he skipped, it was Jet. But, I figure odds are it won't have a huge impact. Without Katara and Aang to pull out tons of water with their bending, their wont be any to wipe out the town. Not anytime soon anyway. Consequences? Minimal. But Sora doesn't know that!

Also I'm not trying to bash the other members of the Gaang about their financial irresponsibility, but I think Katara is the most responsible person in the original group, and even then they were out of money and supplies at the very beginning of the episode after they left Omashu. Sokka and his nuts, amiright? Anyway. After that episode, the next episode has them asking for supplies yet again! There's no telling exactly how long it is between most episodes, but they seem to run out of supplies constantly throughout the show. With Sora, on the other hand, he'd be able to restrain them a bit so they would arrive at the village a bit sooner and Aang would get the message to meet Roku a bit earlier making it less of a rush to get to the Fire Temple.

By the way, I really do hate Legend of Korra. That show so full of so much shit it pissed me off in two episodes and I NEVER tried to watch it again. Anything I know from it is from the wiki.

I'm slowly, but surely, messing with the timeline of events. Muahahahaaa!

Hope you all liked it.