𝑴𝑶𝑼𝑵𝑻𝑨𝑰𝑵𝑺 || 𝑨𝒂𝒏𝒈 (𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒌 2)

The Desert

They stood spread out, staring around for any sight of the bison through the sand blowing in the wind. The more she looked, the more it dawned on Jade that all there was was sand. No sandbenders, no Appa, and no other living beings. They were stranded out here.

Angrily, Aang whirled on Toph. "How could you let them take Appa?! ‌Why didn't you stop them‌?!"

"I couldn't!" She defended. "The library was sinking! You guys were still inside and -- "

He stalked over to her. "You could've come to get us! I could've saved him!" 

"I can hardly feel any vibrations out here. The sandbenders snuck up on me and there wasn't time for -- " 

"You just didn't care!" He accused. "You never liked Appa! You wanted him gone!" 

Katara walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Aang, stop it. You know Toph did all she could. She saved our lives."

"Who's going to save our lives now?" Sokka was still staring out into the distance. "We'll never make it out of here."

Aang stomped away from them. "That's all any of you guys care about, yourselves! You don't care whether Appa is okay or not!" He dropped to sit down in the sand.

Cautious of Aang's fury, Jade hesitantly stepped forward. "Aang, that isn't true." She argued carefully. "Of course we care about Appa." 

"Jade's right. It's just that we can't afford to be fighting, now." Katara agreed.

Aang was silent for a moment. Then he shifted onto his knees and gripped his glider tightly.

"I'm going after Appa."

He took off on his glider without another word and flew away. 

"Aang!" Jade called, only to be ignored as he flew off. Her shoulders slumped dejectedly.

Katara walked up and placed a hand on her shoulder. "We'd better start walking." Jade looked down at the sand beneath her feet. "We're the only people who know about the solar eclipse. We have to get that information to Ba Sing Se."

Jade nodded silently. Together, the four of them continued to walk into the sandy desert. 

"You think if we dig out the giant owl, he'll give us a ride?" 

~

The sun was blazing brightly up above, and everywhere she looked, all Jade could see was sand. They couldn't have been walking for much longer than thirty minutes, but she could feel her feet dragging on weakly in the sand. She could also feel herself about to trip and earn a face full of sand about any second now. 

Behind her, Sokka stopped walking and moved Momo to drape over his head, only for Toph to bump into him from behind. Momo was knocked off of Sokka's head and right into Jade, who cried out as she fell forward. Miko fluttered up from her position on the girl's head to avoid falling with her.

And, yes, she did get a face full of sand, which stuck to her skin thanks to the layer of sweat.

Sokka turned to Toph. "Can't you watch where you're -- " He stopped.

"No." She replied flatly.

He rubbed the back of his neck in apology. "Right. Sorry."

Katara turned to them, walking over and bending down to help Jade stand back up. "Come on guys, we've got to stick together."

"If I sweat anymore, I don't think sticking together will be a problem." Sokka attempted to push Toph off of him. The duo were literally stuck together thanks to their sweaty clothes.