THE OTHER AIRBENDER (Book 2)

(XI) Air

"Hey, Alya, you feeling okay?" Aang asks, while I try to help the others get all our supplies necessary to set up camp.

"Yeah. I just had the strangest dream last night..."

"About what?"

"Well... My mother used to tell me this old Fire Nation legend. It's about three dragons. You see, the father dragon had two sons. The eldest son was kind and gentle, while the younger son was ruthless and conniving. He knew, one day, he would have to pass everything he had on to his eldest son, which the younger one didn't like at all. The younger one then decided to kill his father and... Well, it's just a story."

"That's one heck of a story."

I shake my head. "Maybe I'm just sleep deprived. Toph snores a lot, you know."

"Hey! You guys picked a great campsite. The grass is so soft," Toph says, stepping onto a puddle of white bison fur.

"That's not grass. Appa's shedding," Sokka replies.

"Oh, gross!" Katara complains.

"That's not gross, it's just a part of spring! You know, rebirth, flowers blooming and Appa gets a new coat," Aang replies with a smile.

"Spring? Oh... That much time has passed already?" I raise an eyebrow, weirdly surprised to hear that I've been spending more time than I thought with them.

No one really answers because everyone else is busy discussing Appa's furry situation. Katara seems to be annoyed by the boys' messing around.

"I'm just glad we have another girl in the group, because you two are disgusting."

"Hey, what about me?"

"Oh, Alya, I just meant that we finally outnumber them."

"Excuse me, does anyone have a razor?" Toph asks, before lifting her arms and showing all the fur stashed in her arm pits. "Because I've got some hairy pits!"

We can't help but all laugh in unison, before we start getting camp ready. Well, at least most of us start with the work. Toph's been lying on the ground, minding her business the entire time. I know Katara well enough to recognize her annoyance with the earthbender, and honestly... I'm not really looking forward to this confrontation.

"So Toph, usually when setting up camp, we try to divide up the work," Katara begins.

"Hey, don't worry about me. I'm good to go," Toph replies casually.

"Well, actually what I'm trying to say is, some of us might fetch water, while someone else might set up the fire pit, or put up the tent," Katara continues, as Momo lands on her shoulder and hands her some berries he collected. "Even Momo does his fair share."

"Katara, I'm fine. I can carry my own weight. I don't need a fire, I've already collected my own food and look," Toph then earthbends a tent for herself. "My tent's all set up."

"Well, that's great for you, but we still need to finish--"

"I don't understand what's the problem here!" Toph finally retorts angrily.

"Never mind," Katara replies, sighing heavily, clearly annoyed.

"Hey, I think we're all just tired," I say, trying to stop whatever may have happened otherwise between them.

"Yeah, Katara does seem pretty tired."

"She meant all of us," Katara snaps back bitterly.

"Oh-kay... Good night everyone!" I say, as I push Katara away from Toph's tent before she can get herself into a bigger mess with her.

This is going to be a long night.