Freedom

Chapter 40: The Summertime Curls

Merry Christmas Eve!!

The crash jumped them apart. They looked up into the sky and saw a flaming meteor flying towards the earth. It struck the ground with a loud bang. The earth around it burst into flames, trees and plants incinerated within seconds.

The rest of the group woke with a start, running to the cliff edge.

"What was that?!" Sokka yelled. Katara stuttered for a moment, her heart racing, "That meteor just fell from the sky!!"

Toph glanced at the Waterbender and the firebender. She immediately noticed the way their hearts were beating out of their chests. She seemed to be the only one who saw the way the two looked each other, the way their hearts skipped a beat when they exchanged a glance. She rolled her eyes but only to herself. Sometimes she truly wondered if she was the blind one after all.

Aang jumped towards Appa landing at his head, "That fire is going to destroy that town!!" he cried out, jumping into action. Katara narrowed her eyes, following behind him, "Not if we can stop it!"

The rest of the group followed behind them before Appa flew into the sky. They took off towards the fire. Katara slid down, sitting next to Aang. She pointed towards the water, "There's a creek over here. I'll bend the water onto the fire!"

Aang and Toph jumped off Appa first, creating trenches in the ground to capture the fire. Zuko followed behind, grabbing ahold of the Fire and keeping it from flooding over the trenches.

Katara landed Appa, pulling the river water towards the fire. When Appa landed, Sokka jumped off, feeling incredibly helpless against the fire. He stood to the side, feeling dismayed that he could do nothing to help. Normally when they fought bad guys he could take a few down. He was very handy with his water tribe club and boomerang. But with situations like these, he couldn't help but feel helpless.

Katara continued to dowse the fire with water, by turning it almost into rain. Toph used a block of earth to squash the fire. Zuko continued to keep the fire contained so it wouldn't spread faster then they could put it out. Aang then finally used a mixture of air and water to turn the fire into a pile of ashy snow, covering Sokka with it in the process. With all of their combined effort, the fire was completely put out, resolved to nothing but ash.

"Good work everybody!" Aang cheered, dusting off his hands as if it was just all in a days work.

Zuko walked up to Katara, resting his hand on her arm, "Are you all right?" he asked her. She nodded slightly and smiled at him. Sokka eyed them suspiciously, but turned away, convincing himself that it was not what he thought it was.

The next day, the group walked into the small town. There was no evidence that showed they were almost killed the night before. People wandered about as they normally would. They didn't look over their shoulder to see if something was coming. They didn't scan the sky as they walked. The people talked and laughed, and went about their daily errands.

"These people have no idea how close they were to getting toasted anymore" Aang spoke, sitting down next to Katara at the table with a plate of rice and vegetables. Toph sighed, "The worst thing about being in disguise is that we don't get the hero worship anymore" she shoved some rice into her mouth angrily, "I miss the love..."

Nobody seemed to notice when Sokka sat below them on the steps, all engrossed in their conversation to notice how he exited himself from the group. That was until he spoke up, "Boo-Hoo. Poor Heroes" he mocked sarcastically. They all turned towards him, a look of confusion written on their faces. Katara spoke first, looking at her brother strangely, "What's your problem?" She asked him confused.

Sokka rolled his eyes glancing over his shoulder then looking back at his hands. Katara glanced at his plate, noticing how it was untouched. The food was pushed haphazardly around the plate but not a bite was taken, "You haven't touched your smoked sea slug?"