Hot Sands and Hard Rocks

Library Meet-Cute

"How about you prove your worth and head outside! Go and find our lost sailer!"

I hate when my father yells like this. He's always on my case over such small things. It's worse when it's not even my fault.

I storm out of our home, and see the rest of the tribe standing outside. Seeing as my dad's the chief, I suppose they believe what he told me is just an order, and not a father yelling at his child.

"Good luck Y/N.." A woman says. "I hope you can find my sailer!" Says a man.

I leave through the gates and head off into the unknown.

"I can't believe they had to send me. Out of everyone, they had to send me.." I complain to myself as I walk away from the village.

I never get to leave the village much, I don't even know where I'm going, but at least I get the alone time from everyone back home. I know they all mean well, and are all very kind, but I just can't stand staying around there day in and day out.

The sound of a loud struggle draws my attention, and I quickly speed up my pace to reach the source of the commotion.

I arrive at the scene, a tall tower, and a small girl seemingly holding it up. In the distance, I see a lot of sand being sent flying.. I think it might be another tribe out here..

3 people emerge from the tower, along with a small fuzzy animal, and the small girl drops the tower, letting it sink under the dunes.

I had the feeling I wasn't ready to be spotted, so I used my bending and covered myself with sand.

The small girl seems to acknowledge this for a second before a boy, seemingly around my age, with deep blue clothing and a ponytail jumps forward. He doesn't seem to be from the Earth Kingdom, let alone here.

"We got it! There's a solar eclipse coming! The Fire Nation's in trouble now!" He yells.

The Fire Nation... I've only heard stories of them. Bad people, but this group seems to be against them.

Another boy, seemingly younger, with a bald head and strange arrow shaped markings on his hand and head speaks up.

"Where's Appa?"

The girl in green only shakes her head, and the boy lets loose a stream of tears. This sadness quickly turns to rage.

"How could you let them take Appa!? Why didn't you stop them!?" He yells at the girl.

I have no choice but to empathize, even with how late I arrived, she had her hands full, and didn't look in much of a position to even move. But from what I can tell, they must have lost a member of their group.

The girl speaks up for the first time, saying "I couldn't! The library was sinking, you guys were still inside-"

A library? Is it the one I hear stories about..

"You could've come to get us- I could've saved him!" The younger boy yells back.

He moves closer to the girl, and it almost seems like he might shove her, but he just scolds her. It reminds me of how my father gets sometimes with me.

"I can hardly feel any vibrations out here. The sandbenders snuck up on me, and there wasn't time to-" The girl gets cut off again. "You just didn't care! You never liked Appa! You just wanted him gone!" The boy interrupts.

Sandbenders? But I was the only one who left.. So it has to have been a different tribe. She also said something about 'vibrations'..

"Calm down Aang, Toph tried her best, and without her we would be buried under tons of sand." Said the final member, a girl who seems very familiar to the other boy.

Aang and Toph.. it's probably good to remember these names.

"Yeah well who's gonna save our lives now? We'll never make it out of here." The ponytail boy says.

The boy- Aang, turns from the group. "That's all any of you guys care about, yourselves! You don't care if Appa is ok or not!"

Aang seems to really care for this Appa fellow..

"We're all concerned, but we can't afford to be fighting right now." Said the girl who isn't Toph.

"I'm going after Appa." Aang states, then his staff opens and reveals small sails, and he suddenly leaves the sands and takes to the skies. "Aang wait!" The girl yells, to no avail.

What!? How- wait.. Was that bending? But the way he's flying.. He would have to be an Airbender!

The girl again speaks; "We'd better start walking, we're the only people who know about the solar eclipse. We have to get this information to Ba Sing Se."

"Katara wait! There's someone here!" Exclaims Toph.

Did she see me? I thought my cover was good.. Anyway, I think it would be better if I reveal myself.

Using my bending, I remove myself from the sands as the group readies their weapons.

The leader, Katara, bends a small amount of water in front of her, while the still anonymous boy readies a boomerang. Toph stands her ground, but it doesn't seem as if she has any weapon to use.

"Hey hey! Take it easy I'm not here to fight!" I tell them.

"A sandbender! Toph, is this one of the people who took Appa?" Asks Katara, not dropping her guard for a second.

"I don't think so, I'm pretty sure they all left already." Replies Toph.

"I heard your problem about your friend Appa! I can assure you I didn't have any part of it! I only showed up right before you all left that tower." I reassure them.

Toph walks up to me, and places a hand on my arm. The two others tense their defensive stances.

"He's not lying." Toph states.

I don't understand how she knows, but I'm grateful she does. Maybe she just guessed?

The group lower their weapons, and Toph steps back to them.

"So what are you doing out here then, if you weren't with the other sandbenders?" The boy asks.

"My father kicked me out of our village, and I was wandering the desert."

Not an entire lie, but still not completely truthful.

"I can try to help you! My sandbending is valuable in a place like this!" I continue.

"Well we are down two benders. No offense Toph." Says the boy.

So she is a bender.

"Thanks Sokka." Toph replies, clearly taking offense.

Sokka, now I know their names. Maybe I should introduce myself come to think of it.

"My name's Y/N, by the way. Probably should've said that earlier.." I say.

"Well then welcome aboard Y/N!" Exclaims Sokka. He puts an arm around my shoulder, and we lead the trek into the desert.