It took me a few more hours before I could recover enough of my strength that I was confident that I would be able to get back to the village before it got too late. While I did want to go over the old lady's teachings again, I didn't want to tire myself out and give Suki reason to think that I got lost in the woods like she suggested I would.

So after eating a bit more of the old lady's food, I headed back towards the village.

While I knew the exact path that we had taken to get to and from the Kyoshi Warriors' village, Suki hadn't been lying when she suggested that it would be easy to get lost in the forest. It turned out that despite my boasting, the skillset that I'd developed after living on a mountain for a couple of months didn't exactly translate over to navigating a forest, and I was left with walking through the forest, trusting nothing but my memory to lead me back. While I was confident that I would be able to make it without any issue as long as I stayed the course, my ears perked up when I heard a strange roar.

I wasn't familiar enough with the fauna on Kyoshi Island to be startled by an unidentified animal sound, I did have enough general knowledge to know that the roar sounded like it came from a cow, or at the very least a large mammal that was closely related to it. While that alone might not have surprised me, despite me being in the middle of the forest, the direction that I'd heard it from was definitely enough to spark my curiosity.

Why did I hear a cow mooing from the sky?

Though the image of Suki taunting me for getting lost on the way back to the village annoyed me somewhat, I headed towards the sound, unable to resist my curiosity. As I got further and further from the path, I felt myself getting more and more disoriented by the dense foliage I walked through, but while the sounds of the sky cow died down, the loud chatter of a trio of voices directed me better than any path could. I couldn't hear them too clearly, catching only glimpses of a conversation about making too many pitstops, but as I got closer, I heard one voice, a young boy from the sounds of it, yelling at his companions to look at something.

I managed to get to the clearing that they were standing at right just in time to watch a bald kid strip naked and jump into the water, yelping about how cold it was. With it being at the tail end of winter, I believed him, but the kid continued to swim further into the open waters regardless.

There were two older kids standing at the shore, both of them water tribe from the looks of their outfits, the boy turning to the girl to make a circular motion with his fingers next to his head but despite how close I was to them, it seemed like they hadn't noticed me.

I was about to announce my presence to them, but before I could, I heard a deep grunt and turned to the side to see...

I'm not actually sure what it was I was looking at. It was a huge creature with white and brown fur that looked like no animal that I'd ever seen before. If I had to pick something close, I might've described it as a big fluffy six-legged yak with a huge head and a flat tail that was almost as wide as its body. The pattern of its fur made it seem like there was an arrow pointing down on its head, which made me think it seemed somehow familiar for some reason, but when I couldn't think of anything off the top of my head, I gave up on identifying it.

"What are you?" I asked the creature instead. "I'm confident when I say I've never seen anything like you before."

The creature blinked at me and gave me a disinterested grunt. Though I was about to dismiss it in a similar manner and introduce myself to the two people on the shore, but before I turned away, I caught a spark of intelligence in the creature's eyes, and I couldn't help but think that the creature was somehow mocking me.

"You got a problem with me?" I asked. "You must think I'm stupid because I can't identify your ugly mug, huh? Well that seems like a you problem. Maybe if you were something important, I might've recognized you."

The creature blinked slowly, but made a soft noise that sounded like a chuff. My eyes narrowed as I slowly became more and more confident that this thing, whatever it was, was laughing at me.

"While I usually don't condone animal cruelty when it's pointless, I do think it's justified when said animal is acting like a little shit," I said, walking towards the creature with my hand raised threateningly.

I'm not sure if I would've actually punched the creature if I reached it, I wasn't given a choice in the matter. I saw it open its mouth, and in the next moment, a great blast of air hit me square in the chest, sending me flying back into the foliage behind me.

I blinked a few times, more in shock than in pain, before I glanced at the creature. I heard the two people making some sort of commotion in response to the creature's attack, but as the gears in my head turned and finally clicked into place, I found my jaw hanging loosely open.

If the fact that I had been knocked on my ass by a sentient ball of fluff wasn't enough of a clue, I finally realized why the creature's appearance had nagged at me for so long. Though the creature looked nothing like the drawings that had been in my childhood textbooks, I could clearly remember the defined arrow pattern on the head on that retrospectively abysmal attempt at the textbook writers drawing of a Flying Bison.

"Holy shit," I said, feeling a surge of excitement well up within me at the sight. With the genocide of the air nomads almost a hundred years ago, and with the avatar supposedly dead, I had given up on the idea of fighting an airbender a long time ago, but with one of the original airbenders in front of me, I was starting to feel a spark of hope reignite within me.

"Oh man, there's a guy here in the bushes! I think Appa attacked him!"

"Oh no! Is he okay? Bad Appa!"

I glanced up at the water tribe boy that was staring down at me from only a few feet away. I was a little surprised how close he had gotten to me without me noticing, but I supposed I could forgive myself given the circumstances. I quickly stood up and flashed him a smile.

"Oh, I think he's fine," the boy shouted backwards. "You are fine, right?"

"Never been better," I said before patting myself off. "That is a flying bison over there, right?"

"Yeah, it is," the boy said. He seemed a little confused by the sudden shift in topic, but I got everything I needed out of him, so I walked forward, giving him a pat on the shoulder as I passed by. "Thanks."

"You're welcome?" the boy asked. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm perfect," I said, before I entered the clearing once more.

I walked back out to see the Flying Bison being yelled by the water nation girl, and while it did seem somewhat chastised, when it noticed my return is let out a huff of annoyance and pointedly turned away from me.

Though it was tempting to interpret the Flying Bison's reaction towards me as a fussy animal being a fussy animal, I felt my eyebrow twitch in annoyance. In the stories I'd read about the great beasts, originators of bending, they had described them as having the capacity for intelligence and true wisdom. Apparently that also gave them the capacity for casual disrespect as well.

I started to see how I would have to approach this.

"Hey," I said. "Sky cow. Fight me."

Though the sky cow looked away from me, I saw its eyes narrow slightly and I knew I could work with this, but before I could say anything else, the water tribe girl rushed forward towards me.

"I'm so sorry that Appa attacked you," she said. "He's not usually like this. I'll make sure to let his owner know so he can properly scold him."

"Don't worry about that," I said. "I can scold him myself. Fight me, sky cow."

"Umm... you want to fight him?"

"I do," I said.

The girl stared at me, like she couldn't possibly fathom what I was saying. With how unfamiliar she seemed with the concept of a fight, I quickly confirmed my suspicions that my textbooks descriptions of the water tribe's general barbarism and customs of sadistically beating baby seals to death before harvesting their meat had just been fire nation propaganda, but it wasn't a significant revelation so I kept my attention focused on the sky cow.

"I won't accept no for an answer," I told it. "I will have my fight."

The sky cow gave me a skeptical glance, but narrowed its eyes as it seemed to recognize that I was being serious. It opened its mouth wide and I grinned, lowering my stance in preparation for a fight, but I realized it was yawning, I frowned and momentarily let my guard down.

Unfortunately for me, that quick moment of hesitation was enough for the sky cow to do something that would seal its victory against me. Before I could react, the sky cow slapped its tail down against the ground, creating a large explosion of wind, launching it upwards.

I braced myself for the incoming attack, lowering myself even closer to the ground, ready to dive and dodge to the side, but nothing came as it simply floated gently in the air. It was high enough that it seemed almost possible for me to reach it if I gave myself a running start, but the height that it was floating at seemed intentionally designed to give me that exact impression. I just knew that if I tried to reach it, the fat bastard would just barely dodge me to taunt me.

I grimaced up at the sky cow, and it gave me the smuggest grin that I'd ever seen on an animal before, knowing that I wouldn't be able to smack the expression off its face no matter how badly I wanted to.

"You can come down, sky cow," I said. "I won't hit you."

The sky cow mooed in response, understandably skeptical of my intentions.

I sighed and shook my head.

"You may not have beaten me down, but I know when I've been bested," I said. "I promise I will find some way to take you down from the sky, but for now, I will let you claim this victory from me. Be proud, sky cow."

The sky cow gave me another skeptical glare, but let out a chuff before cautiously floating down to the ground. I sat down cross-legged on the ground, to try and give it a sense of security, and when it slowly approached me, sniffing my head cautiously, I didn't move.

When the sky cow licked my face, I winced at the smell and warmth of its breath and spit, but I stayed unmoving.

"Hey man," the water tribe boy said. "Are you sure you didn't hit your head when Appa blew you away?"

I didn't respond immediately, not wanting to get any saliva in my mouth, but when the sky cow lost interest in my face I felt secure enough to answer him back.

"I'm positive," I said.

"You know he's grazing on your hair, right?" he asked.

"Of course, I do," I said, wincing in pain as the sky cow's teeth tugged at my hair, pulling just hard enough that it caused me pain without completely scalping me. "It's my hair."

"And you're okay with it?"

"I'm not happy about it," I said. "But to the victor goes the spoils."

The boy seemed confused by the concept, and turned to the water tribe girl, spinning his finger around his temple as if I wasn't staring directly at him. The girl glared at him in response and turned to me quickly, giving me a polite, if confused smile.

"Well, as long as you're happy, I'm glad that this all turned out fine. Appa seems happy too, at the very least," she said. "It's a little late, but I'm Katara, and this is my brother, Sokka. Believe it or not, this isn't actually the weirdest way that we've met someone before."

"My name is Ty Lung," I said, wincing when the sky cow pulled particularly hard at my hair. "I'm the man who will become the strongest being in the mortal realm."

Katara's smile turned stiff at my proclamation, but she managed to hold it together, despite her obvious disbelief.

"Hey, guys. Why did everyone stop watching me? And why is Appa eating some random guy's hair?"

I glanced at the newcomer, the mostly naked kid that had jumped into the freezing winter waters, jogging over with a bundle of clothes under his arms, looking both hurt and confused.

"Oh, Aang," Sokka said, turning to the younger boy. "Well, you see... I'm actually still trying to figure it out myself."

Sokka turned to me, as if he expected me to give a proper explanation for what was going on, and I might've indulged him if it weren't for how my mind was preoccupied with trying to decipher what exactly I was seeing.

Though I hadn't been able to notice it from far away, I couldn't help but stare at the large blue tattoo on the bald kid's head. Once I got over my initial moment of curiosity on what kind of person would tattoo a child's head in such a way, I felt my eyes widen and my jaw drop when I realized that the kid had a huge arrow tattooed on his head, a mark of the air nomads.

The kid blushed and covered his body as he seemed to realize that he was mostly naked in front of a stranger.

If I had any doubt that I was staring at an airbender, he quickly dispelled it by throwing his clothes up in the air and spinning his hands to create a small vortex of wind that quickly dried his clothes.

But while the realization that I was staring at someone who was from a civilization that was thought to have been wiped out was a shocking one, a small part of my mind screamed at me, yelling at me that this wasn't all I needed to realize. As the gears continued to turn in my mind, it took a few more seconds for me to realize who exactly I was staring at.

"You're the avatar?" I asked, not daring to hope.

The bald kid blinked a few times, before his mouth widened into a proud grin.

"Yep!" he said, pointing his thumb to his chest. "That's me!"

My heart pounded in my chest in excitement. Like a majority of the fire nation, I had been raised in an environment that taught me that the avatar was dead and that he would never return, eradicated by Fire Lord Sozin with such ferocity that the cycle of Avatars had perished in his reign. While I didn't buy the Fire Nation propaganda completely, the matter of the fact was that the avatar had been inactive since the beginning of the hundred year war, and I had always been disappointed by the idea that I would probably never be able to fight a master of bending that could control all four elements.

But now that I was staring at the supposed legend in the face, I knew that there was only one thing that I could do.

I threw my head back and laughed, too elated to care about the way that the motion almost yanked out a mouthful of my hairs, as the sky cow continued to graze on it.

"What a joyous day this is!" I shouted. "To think that I could fight an air nomad, let alone the avatar himself! I had thought you had died by Sozin's hand, but I suppose the fates have chosen to ensure that you could die by mine!"

Aang's eyebrows shot up, and I was pleased to see him sinking into a fighting stance, but he seemed confused when neither Sokka, Katara, or the sky cow seemed to alarmed by my proclamation. I might've been annoyed by their lack of reactions if I weren't so giddy with excitement, but no matter. I would get my fight, and nobody was going to stop me.

"Fight-" I tried to stand up, and found myself being cut off when my head was violently yanked backwards. Using my moment of imbalance, the sky cow lunged forward and engulf my entire head, letting out a low grumble that vibrated my entire body.

I flailed around and punched the sky cow square in the nose, but though it grunted in pain, it refused to let go of me. I tensed my muscles in preparation for the sky cow's teeth to squeeze my body and break my bones, but though it bit down hard enough to stop me from escaping its grasp immediately, it didn't apply any pressure beyond that. I could hear the muffled sounds of panicked screaming coming from outside of the sky cow's mouth, but for some reason the screaming stopped abruptly and a few seconds later, I felt many hands grabbing my legs and trying to pull me away from the sky cow's grip.

Though the people pulling at my legs weren't nearly strong enough to beat the strength of the sky cow, it grumbled and slowly opened its mouth, letting my benefactors drag me out without any resistance.

Once I wiped the slimy saliva from my eyes, I blinked a few times before I started to realize that a group of Kyoshi Warriors had dragged me from the sky cow's mouth.

"Back! Back!" I heard some of the Kyoshi Warriors shouting at the sky cow, brandishing their katanas against it.

The sky cow let out a low grumble of annoyance at the weapons, but it let out a low whine and lowered its head in submission.

"I told you you'd get lost," I heard from behind me. When I turned my head, I saw Suki dressed in her uniform, giving me a cheeky grin and an outstretched hand.

I blinked up at her, and though it took me a moment to understand what had just happened, I was able to figure it out when I saw the avatar, as well as his two companions, tied up and blindfolded on the ground, as well as a winged lemur that I hadn't noticed until now, shoved halfway into a canvas bag. I glared up at Suki, who flinched back in surprise at the sudden hostility, but didn't react fast enough to stop me from slapping her hand aside and grabbing the collar of her uniform. I dragged her down until I almost touched foreheads with her.

"Why the fuck did you do that?" I asked.

"Because I wanted to save you?" she asked, seeming to confused to process my reaction entirely. "One of the Warriors noticed a strange looking airship land on the island, and when we came to investigate we saw you being eaten by that... thing. A thank you would be appreciated."

"That thing is a flying bison," I growled. "One of the original airbenders. That kid over there, the bald one that you have tied up and blindfolded on the ground, is an airbender. The last fucking airbender. Do you understand what that means?"

With how sudden the information was, I didn't blame her for taking a few seconds to process it and figure out what I was implying. Though I held her close enough that she could barely turn her head to look at Aang, I saw the gears turning in her head as she stared at him blankly, until an expression that was both hopeful and horrified appeared on her face.

"Is that really the avatar?" she asked, her voice in barely a whisper.

"So he says," I said. "At the very least he's an airbender."

"He's really alive?"

"Yes," I said impatiently. "Do you realize what you did now?"

"Oh shit," Suki said, uttering a rare curse under her breath. "I just attacked the avatar."

When she seemed to end her train of thought there, I gripped her collar tight and pulled her closer. She let out a yelp of surprise as I pulled her off balance and smashed my forehead against hers. Even if I was certain that I'd sustained more damage from that attack than she had, given the fact that the headress she wore was more protective than its decorative surface might've implied, but I was too annoyed to care.

"Who the hell cares about that?" I shouted. "You stole my fight!"

Suki blinked a few times, rubbing her forehead in pain before sighing. She grabbed my collar smashed her forehead into mine again.

"Idiot," she mumbled, low enough that I could only barely hear her despite how close we were. "Why the hell did I even bother worrying about you?"

"That's exactly what I'm asking," I grumbled back.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Suki sighed, her breath tickling my face with how close her mouth was to me, before standing up, dragging me up to my feet in the process.

"Come on and stop pouting," she said. "You can ask for a proper fight after I free the avatar and apologize."

"I'm not pouting," I said, in a very manly way.

"Sure, sure," Suki said, before turning away and shouting. "Warriors. Weapons down and untie our guests. It seems that they are guests of honour, not our enemies."

The Warriors seemed confused by the decision, but were too disciplined to question it. The Warriors moved quickly, lowering their weapons against the sky cow who grunted appreciatively, and undoing the blindfolds of the avatar's party.

"Hey, what's going on?" Sokka asked once his blindfold was off. "What happened to the men that just attacked us?"

"Men?" Suki asked, before shaking her head and bowing towards Aang. "There was no other group involved. We attacked you, and for that, I apologize."

"Wait a second," Sokka said, with a laugh barely contained on the edge of his tongue. "There's no way that a bunch of girls took us down."

Though Suki didn't react to what he said, I couldn't help but notice the edge of her eye twitching in anger. My eyebrow shot up at the realization that I could've probably goaded her into fighting me by just being sexist, but there were more important matters at hand so I filed away the information for later.

"My friend says that you are the Avatar, but while I trust in him, it's hard to believe without seeing it for myself. Would you be able to show us some proof that you are what you claim to be?"

The Kyoshi Warrior that was currently in the middle of untying him froze for a moment as she seemed to finally realize who she was untying, but quickly fumbled against the knots that bound Aang's hands together. The boy in question also seemed to be a little stunned by the question, but after a few seconds, he beamed up at Suki.

"I'd be glad to!" he said, before reaching into his back pocket and grabbing what looked like three small marbles. "Why don't you check this out!"

Using his airbending, Aang created a small circular vortex of wind that spun the three marbles in between his hands, and I knew exactly how disciplined they were, I heard several of the Kyoshi Warriors gasping in shock and muttering at the revelation that we were all staring at the avatar.

But unlike the rest of the spectators, I had seen him use his airbending already, and I wasn't quite as entranced by the little trick as the rest of them. Even as I noticed Suki's eyes widen as she was transfixed by possibly the first public sighting of an airbender in a hundred years, I felt my eyes being drawn to something else.

Though his casual display of skill was probably impressive, I couldn't help but glare at the dopey grin that Aang was wearing on his face. It was an innocent expression, like a puppy drunk off of attention. It wasn't the expression of a warrior, let alone a hundred year old master of the elements.

"Wait," I said, my voice cutting through the excited murmurs. "That doesn't prove that you're the avatar."

"Huh?" Aang said, his expression dropping slightly as he continued to spin his marbles. "What do you mean? Aren't you seeing this amazing airbending trick?"

"I've read that the avatar is the master of all four elements, not just one," I said, crossing my arms and frowning. "Who's to say that you're not just the offspring of some random airbender that survived the genocide?"

The question didn't quite draw out the reaction that I expected. Aang stopped spinning his marbles abruptly, and without the force of the vortex to control them, they ended up spinning out of control, launching themselves away from his hands and clattering lifelessly to the floor. Aang stared down at his hands silently for a few seconds before lifting his head back up with a stiff smile.

"I guess that could be true, couldn't it?" he said with a quiet laugh, rubbing the back of his head before nodding to himself. "Yeah, that's right! A lot more airbenders could still be out there, not just me! You're absolutely right! It really doesn't make sense for anyone to believe that I'm the avatar if they don't show anything else off, doesn't it?"

I wasn't sure if any any of the Kyoshi Warriors noticed how pained he sounded behind his stiff laughter with how awestuck they still seemed, but from the pitying expressions that Sokka and Katara were wearing, I could only assume that there was a story behind it.

"Well no need to worry," Aang said, jogging over to the ocean. "I'll show you that I can do more than just air bending. Watch this!"

I watched with interest as Aang clenched his fists over the ocean and tugged in the air. I wasn't sure if I imagined the small pillar of water that rose from the ocean, quickly falling as Aang released his grip over the elements, but he shook his head and rubbed the back of his head again.

"Wait, that one didn't count," he said. "Let me try again."

My heart started to sink when he strained against the ocean again, and though he was successful in bending the element to his will, making a pillar rise from the ocean that was as tall as he was, lifting it into the air over his head, his control quickly waned and the water fell over his head, drenching him entirely.

"I meant to do that," Aang said quickly, giving a thumbs up despite the shiver in his voice. "Boy, that's refreshing."

This was the avatar? Supposed master of all four elements?

This kid was what I had been so excited to fight?

The sounds of cheering around me from the Kyoshi Warriors did nothing to break me out of the shock I felt. Any and all sense of decorum broke among the Kyoshi Warriors as they all approached Aang, asking him a torrent of questions, with Suki doing nothing to stop them. I watched as Aang blushed and grinned at the female attention like a pubescent boy, which made me realize that that's exactly what he was.

I don't really quite recall what happened after that. I remember falling into something similar to a catatonic state, letting Suki lead me around as the Kyoshi Warriors brought Aang to the village, introducing him to the villagers. Though the reaction that the Warriors had to Aang's reveal could have been described as respectful curiosity and awe, the reaction that the villagers had to the idea that they were in the presence of the avatar was downright rabid, with one guy literally foaming at the mouth when Aang showed off his marble trick.

Though I didn't care about what the faceless masses thought, when it came to matters of strength, Aang certainly did.

More than once, I was forced to reconsider my opinion of him as I debated whether he was simply a master of psychological warfare. With how effectively he was crushing my hopes and dreams of fighting an opponent of legend, I could only imagine that he was simply acting like a pubescent boy, carefully designing this persona with the malicious intent to melt my brain from the inside.

As I battled with this idea that Aang was simply a master of manipulating the fifth element of hopes and dreams, an entire day passed before I was knocked out of my funk.

"Sorry ladies," a familiar voice said as I mindlessly flowed through my katas with the rest of the Kyoshi Warriors that were currently training. "I didn't mean to interrupt your little dance lesson. I was just looking for somewhere to get a little workout?"

I stopped my kata to stare blearily at Sokka, who was stretching and flexing at the end of the dojo. Though I'd made it a point to not underestimate anyone based on their appearance, after meeting Suki and the old lady, it was difficult for me to not curl my lip in disappointment at Sokka's lack of muscle and substance, especially with his association to Aang.

"Well, you're in the right place," Suki said. "Sorry about yesterday. I didn't know that you were friends with the Avatar."

"It's all right," Sokka replied. "I mean, normally I'd hold a grudge, but seeing as you guys are a bunch of girls, I'll make an exception."

"I should hope so. A big strong man like you? We wouldn't stand a chance."

Even with the other Warriors giggling at Suki's sarcasm, Sokka didn't seem to notice it.

"True. But don't feel bad. After all, I'm the best warrior in my village."

I barely paid attention as Suki goaded Sokka into a fight that he promptly lost in a humiliating manner, with him not even getting a single hit in, while Suki managed to send him to the ground without even touching him.

I don't know if I was more or less disappointed to see that the Avatar's companions were just as incompetent as he seemed, but regardless, I knew I couldn't stay in this funk forever.

Though half of the avatar's companions had already disappointed me heavily, I had to remind myself that not all was lost. Despite my disappointment in the avatar himself, there was at least one mountain in that team that I could work on surpassing.

"I'm leaving," I announced, as Sokka flailed helplessly on the ground. "I'll see you all later."

"Wait, is that Ty Lung?" Sokka asked. "What's he doing here?"

I didn't spare him a single glance as I walked past him. Suki raised her eyebrow at me but didn't do anything to stop me.

"Don't antagonize the avatar," she called out. "He's an important guest."

"Don't worry," I said. "I won't."

A few minutes later, I found myself sitting outside of the Avatar's temporary housing. He had apparently left a while ago, according to a villager who excitedly told me that he was in the main square even though I hadn't asked, but I wasn't there for him. The sky cow was the only member of the Avatar's group that had proven that they could be a formidable challenge to me so far, but as I sat cross legged, watching him lying on his side and groaning in lazy bliss after having a handful of villagers groom and feed him, I couldn't help but be a little annoyed.

"I know that I'm the one who calls you sky cow, but that doesn't mean you have to act like one," I said.

The sky cow grumbled, and I watched as a glob of spit hung from its lips, the viscosity of it making it so it could hang down almost a foot from his mouth without falling to the floor. I stared at it, wondering if it had any sort of hidden importance that I could discover. I knew that there were some species of alpaca in the earth kingdom that used their spit as a deterrent against their natural predators. Maybe there was something similar going on here? I hadn't ever considered using my spit as a part of my offensive arsenal. Maybe there was potential there.

Before I could lie to myself any further I gently placed my face in my hands and let out a heavy sigh.

I could see why Suki did it so often. For a second, I could pretend that I was dreaming, that Suki's constant chokeholds had done too much collective damage to my brain and that the lazy sky cow in front of me and its rider had just been a long-lasting hallucination of some kind.

Giving myself a few more seconds in the safe haven of my own palms, I looked up, only to see the sky cow, still lazing around. It let out a small coughing sound as it choked on its own spit, but I refrained from hiding my face again.

Though I might've been able to figure something out from watching the sky cow, the matter of the fact was that under these circumstances, there wasn't anything to observe. When I had learned from the snow leopards, it had been in the wild, not in a small village where they had their every need catered to them. The snow leopards had hunted and killed to survive, while the sky cow's biggest threat to its survival was muscle atrophy.

I considered goading the sky cow into a fight, but the idea left a sour taste in my mouth. It made me seem like a sore loser, like the fire nation nobles who complained that I only won because I "cheated" somehow. While I knew that fights didn't typically have rules to them, trying to fight the sky cow while it was bloated from food and addled from sleep felt like I was admitting I would lose to it without an advantage.

I frowned as I stayed there, cross legged. While I didn't think I would get anything from the sky cow as it was now, I couldn't exactly think of a better thing to do with my time. I didn't feel like going back to the Kyoshi Warriors after announcing so proudly that I was leaving, and I owed too much from the old lady already to risk incurring a deeper debt by visiting her.

I glared at Appa, hoping that my annoyance would somehow incite him into violence, but the sky cow continued to float between sleep and consciousness peacefully.

"Ty Lung? What are you doing?"

I turned around to see Katara staring at me. She had a basket of vegetables in her hands and a slight furrow in her brow, but her annoyance didn't seem directed towards me.

I eyed Katara skeptically, seeing as she was a part of the same group that contained Aang and Sokka, but even if she was weak by association, I didn't see any reason for me to be unnecessarily rude towards her. If it was a sin to be weaker than me, then this world would be burning with the flames of purgatory.

"I was trying to get the sky cow to fight me," I said. "But it doesn't seem to be working. Do you have any tips on how I can annoy him into wanting to fight me?"

Katara stared blankly at me for a few seconds before giving me that same polite smile that I'd already seen her wear so many times already, like she didn't know how to respond to me but didn't want to be rude.

"I'm not too sure," she said. "I've only known Appa for about a week. Why do you want to fight him, anyways?"

"The sky cow is, without a doubt, the strongest member of your group," I responded.

When Katara stared at me for a couple of long seconds, it felt like she expected me to continue, but I didn't have anything to add beyond that. It took her a while to realize that I was done.

"Appa?" she asked.

"Yes," I said.

"I see..." she said, trailing off as her eyes darted around, as if searching for an exit from the conversation. I didn't quite understand why, since I wasn't stopping her from leaving, but when I raised my eyebrow at her, she gave me that same polite smile. "You know, Aang's pretty strong too. He fought off a whole team of firebenders when we first met."

"Did he now?" I asked, though quelled the interest that rose within me. Fighting off a team of firebenders wasn't that impressive of a feat, after all. "Then does that mean that he's putting on some sort of act right now?"

"What do you mean?" Katara asked.

I shrugged. "I just can't imagine him fighting off a group of soldiers," I said. "Wasn't the avatar supposed to be the one who brings balance to the world? I never expected a person like that to be such an attention whore."

"Such a what?"

I raised an eyebrow at Katara as she stared down at me in confusion, like she had no idea what I was talking about.

"An attention whore," I clarified, in case she hadn't heard me properly. "He seems more interested in showing off to the ignorant masses than in being the avatar."

"Oh," Katara said, her expression immediately darkening. "Yeah, it sure does seem that way, doesn't it?"

There was a story brewing there, and though I didn't really care for the backstory behind it, I also didn't really care enough to leave.

"You know, we weren't even supposed to land on this stupid island. We were supposed to be on course to reach the North Pole to get Aang a waterbending teacher within a month, but we keep making these random detours, and it's always because he just wanted to ride on random animals. First it was the penguins, then it was some giant pelican gulls, now it's the elephant koi. I mean, I get that he's just a kid and that he wants to have fun, but I would hope that he would have at least some sense of urgency about these things. It's like he doesn't even realize that we're actively being chased by a platoon of elite fire nation soldiers."

If I could control my ears, they would've perked up at that.

"You're being chased by elite fire nation soldiers?" I asked.

"Yeah," Katara said, with a huff. "We haven't seen them since we left the South Pole, but I know they're still following us. If it weren't for Appa, I could only imagine how often we would have to fight them."

"Every day, maybe," I said.

"Maybe," Katara agreed.

"Being pursued by elites, the best of the best," I said. "Bringing the fight to you even if you don't do anything to initiate it."

"Yeah," Katara said. "Can you imagine? Appa's been great, but if we keep stopping like this, it's only a matter of time before we get stuck in an endless loop of fighting."

Katara walked past me to bend down and pat Appa's belly, and he seemed to wake up enough to try and steal the vegetables from her basket with his tongue. Though she managed to pull the basket away quickly, she didn't act fast enough to rescue most of the vegetables from his spit, and surrendered the soiled food to him.

"Dang it, Appa," she said.

"Weren't you just praising him?" I said, standing up with a smile on my face. "I'd say he's earned the snack."

"That was supposed to be our rations for the next few days," Katara said, wiping her hands on her coat. "As nice as the villagers are treating us here, I can't wait to get out of this place. No offence."

"None taken," I said. "I don't even see why I would be offended in the first place."

"Aren't you a local?"

"Not at all. What makes you think that?"

"You wear the same clothes as the villagers around here," Katara said. "That and they seem to treat you like one of their own."

"The old lady I was staying with burned my old clothes. Said it made me look like a homeless vagrant," I said.

Katara seemed surprised by the claim, and furrowed her brow like she was trying to decide if I was joking or not. I didn't care enough to clarify to her that I wasn't. The old lady had been strangely fussy about my appearance, even if I didn't find any problem with it. Homeless vagrant was a pretty accurate description for me, after all.

"I'd say that you don't need to worry about leaving quickly," I said, cutting through the awkward pause. "If the fire nation soldiers catch up to you, I'll gladly take care of them on your behalf."

Katara glanced up at me with a confused look in her eyes.

"Thank you?" she said, obviously a little confused, though I had no idea why. "You shouldn't worry about that too much though. I'm sure Aang will see sense soon and we can leave before they have the chance to show up."

"Unless you leave immediately, I don't see that happening," I admitted. "And with how the avatar is acting, I can only assume he'll want to stick around for a few days."

"Isn't a few days fine?" Katara asked. "I mean it's not like the Fire Nation can track where we are, right?"

I shrugged. "Got nothing to do with the Fire Nation's abilities," I said. "I may not be a local, but I do know how fast the rumour mills turn around here. The news has definitely travelled to the mainland at least, and I wouldn't be surprised if half the Earth Kingdom's already heard about the Avatar's return."

Katara stared at me for a few long seconds before she gently set the basket down where she stood. Appa's tongue snaked out of his mouth to inspect the empty basket for more hidden food and he let out a disappointed groan when it proved to be empty.

"Excuse me for a moment," Katara said, before walking away at a brisk pace.