THE OTHER AIRBENDER (Book 2)

(XIII) Earth

"What's out here?" Sokka asks, as he stares blankly at the horizon.

"A lot, actually. There's hundreds of little..." Toph begins, as she kneels on the ground and uses her seismic sense, but Aang cuts her off.

"Shh! I know you can see underground, but don't ruin the surprise. Just watch," Aang says, as he starts playing the little grass flute he made a while ago. All of a sudden, a groundhog pops from one of the holes on the ground, attempting to mimic the key the flute chimed in. "Yeah! I'm putting an orchestra together."

Honestly, even though Aang's idea sounds fun, I can't help but wonder why we would be wasting so much time here when he should be training. The more he plays, the more groundhogs join in the song and the more annoyed Sokka gets.

Finally, Sokka snatches the flute from his grasp. "This is great and all, but don't we have more important things to worry about? We should be making plans."

"For once, I agree with Sokka," I reply with a heavy sigh. "We've only got a few months before we need to defeat the Fire Nation, and you still have a lot of training to do, Aang."

"So do you, Alya," Aang retorts, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, yes, but I'm not the Avatar, so it's not as urgent," I reply, clearing my throat.

"We did make plans. We're all picking mini-vacations," Toph notes with a grin.

"There's no time for vacations," Sokka retorts.

"I'm learning the elements as fast as I can. I practice hard every day with Toph and Katara. I've been training my arrow off!"

"Yeah, what's wrong with having a little fun in our down time?" Katara says, surprisingly agreeing with this.

"Even if you do master all of the elements, then what? It's not like we have a map of the Fire Nation. Should we just head west until we reach the Fire Lord's house?" Sokka says sarcastically. "Knock, knock. Hello, Fire Lord? Anybody home? I don't think so. We need some intelligence if we're going to win this war."

"All right, we'll finish our vacations and then we'll look for Sokka's intelligence. After that we can help Alya get that stick out of her mud," Katara retorts, making the others laugh.

"Very funny. Look, someone's got to act mature when you aren't, Katara," I reply, rolling my eyes.

"That reminds me. It's your turn, Katara," Aang says, unfolding a map in front of her. "Where would you like to go on your mini-vacation?"

"How about the Misty Palms Oasis? That sounds refreshing," Katara observes.

"Oh, yeah, I've been there. It's a pristine natural ice spring. And I usually don't use the word 'pristine'," Aang replies. "It's one of nature's wonders."

"We really shouldn't be wasting our time like this," I say, once again.

"Fine, Alya. We'll go to the oasis, and after that, it'll be your turn to decide where we go, even if that means we go somewhere to keep training," Aang offers, making me sigh.

"Alright."

***

Boy, does the Misty Palms Oasis disappoint. If we were going to waste our time like this, I was at least hoping I'd get a relaxing spa day out of it. But there isn't even an oasis in this place, just a small spring in the center. Everything else pretty much matches the sandy desert around it.

"Must've changed ownership since I was here," Aang laughs sheepishly.

"How old is that map you're carrying?!" I ask, raising an eyebrow.