Avatar: The Last Airbender: Reemergence

7

"So remind me why we're listening to a guy we hardly know and going out of our way to follow his direction to avoid some storm that he could have just made up," Sokka stated as he and Suki finished setting up their tent. After a day's worth of flying, the group decided to land in a small clearing in the middle of the forest and make camp for the night as it was already very late. After all, they weren't in a hurry to get down to the Southern Watertribe. There weren't any deadlines, they could take their time and enjoy the last few days of travelling. That was exactly the point that Aang brought up to counter Sokka's comment.

"Why not?" he asked as he helped Katara set up their own tent, with Appa watching a few feet away, "We don't have to rush and I'd rather take his advice and not get caught in a storm then fly straight into it. Besides, why would he lie to us about that?"

"I don't know," Sokka shrugged, "I'm a skeptic and we don't know Tetsu well enough yet."

"Well he seemed nice," Katara added, backing Aang up in the mild argument, "You need to be a little more trusting of people Sokka."

"Hey," Sokka countered back, crossing his arms, "Just so you know, my skepticism has saved our group dozens of times...need I remind you of Jet?"

That shut Aang and Katara up. They had realized long ago that trusting Jet back when they had first met him all those years ago was not one of their best moments. There was really nothing they could say to turn the argument in their favor once Sokka brought that up.

"Well what are you suggesting Sokka," Suki butted in, throwing her and Sokka's sleeping bags into their tent, "Do you want us to just ignore the Earth King's advice and risk flying straight into that storm he was talking about?"

"No," Sokka answered, "I'm just saying that from now on, we need to be a little more independent. We rely on other people's help to much. Our group follows what everyone else asks of us and frankly, I think that is part of the reason why Tau was able to lead us on so easily."

"Lead us on?" Suki raised an eyebrow, taking notice that Aang and Katara seemed to have lost interest in the conversation and were now throwing a bunch of blankets into the tent. She also noticed that Aang seemed to be blushing at whatever the couple was now talking about.

"Please Suki," Sokka sighed, bringing her attention back to her boyfriend, "I didn't even interact with Tau all that much and by the end of that whole fiasco...it was pretty obvious that we had followed his every move exactly how he wanted us to. Besides, Tetsu may appear nice but the Council of Five isn't exactly being the most welcoming bunch at the moment so it would probably be better for us to just do our own thing for now."

Suki thought back and the past several months and truth be told, Sokka had a point.

"Okay, so you're right," Suki said, "But that has nothing to do with us doing whatever someone asks of us. It's called being helpful Sokka. If people ask us for help, we help them."

"Yeah, and that's good and all," Sokka waved his hands dismissively, "but it also makes us predictable. I mean, when we were chasing Tau all over the Earth Kingdom we did nearly exactly what the Council of Five requested of us. Tau took advantage of that and Katara and Aang almost died because of it...twice."

"Okay, so from now on we'll be more open to your own expertise," Suki gave him a smile, "Does that make you feel better?"

"Once I get past the fact that you're just saying that to shut me up...yeah it makes me feel better," Sokka smiled back.

"Good," Suki laughed, "Now can we finally turn in for the night and get some sleep. It's getting late."

Sokka nodded and pulled open the flap on their tent, motioning her to go inside, "Lead the way."