the wind in my sails | aang x oc

twenty six

after getting their hands on some normal fire nation clothes, team avatar had invaded hira'a successfully.

to cover her arrows, liara had gone as far as to cut herself some long bangs to lay over her forehead.

it was crowded in the village, more crowded than any of them had expected.

"i thought this was a small town, why are there so many people?" Azula hissed as they pushed through the crowd to see what was going on on the stage. "oh! it's love amongst the dragons!" liara yipped, "aang, remember when ilah took me to go see it when it just came out?

aang smiled, remembering how the girl excitedly fangirled over the play after her fire nation friend took her to see it in the capitol.

"how could I forget? you forced me and kuzon to go watch it again with you and ilah. twice." he said.

Liara looked back at the stage with a bright grin.

she watched the dragon emperor and empress embrace each other after the fight with the blue spirit, "ohhhh," she grabbed aang's hand, "this is the best part!"

instead of looking at the stage, aang was staring at his girlfriend, seeing that familiar gleam in her eyes as she watched the actors confess their love for each other.

"encore!" she applauded with the rest of the crowd as the two actors mask-kissed.

she then took hold of aang's arm, "ahh, I haven't seen 'love amongst the dragons' in years! this makes me miss ilah and her tea." she sighed happily.

Zuko was asking around for his mother, and Liara nearly jumped when a masked actor came up behind her and aang.

"excuse me,"

Liara shrieked, almost airbending the actor away from her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," he said taking his mask off, turning to zuko. "I am noren, the head of the hira'a acting club. ursa used to be a member."

the man shook zuko's hand, and then he looked around, "let's go speak in private, we wouldn't want gossip to spread."

"you are all welcome to join me on my home," he said and zuko bowed to him, "it would be an honour, thank you."

the group followed noren to his house, aang and Liara sat down by the man's wife, noriko.

"thank you for inviting us into your beautiful home," liara smiled at the woman.

"how long have you been married?" aang asked curiously while sipping on his tea. "about five years now," the woman replied, liara looked at aang, "it must be nice."

"aren't you two a little young to be thinking about marriage?" the woman laughed and Liara smiled, "we are, but a girl can dream."

noren and sokka entered the house with some fruit snacks.

"mind if I join the conversation?" he asked, planting a kiss on his lady's cheek, "I'm just sharing love advice to the young lovers."

the man looked at aang, "remember, kid. happy wife, happy life." he joked.

"i wouldn't have it any other way." aang smiled.

noren drank his tea and as liara ate a piece of mango, he spoke. "I must admit, I was skeptical when you started asking around about ursa. but sokka tells me that you're drama historians."

Liara spat her mango out, and it landed on sokka's face. katara snickered, "nice cover."

sokka took the saliva-covered mango off of his face and threw it back at the airbender girl, the piece of sticky fruit landing in her hair.

she scowled at him, but listened as noren continued. "she wasn't famous on her acting, but one day she was taken to the capitol on official business."

"it is said that she married into the royal family." noriko speculated.

Zuko nodded, "and what about ikem?"

"ikem? wow, you really did your research." noren said, seeming surprised, but he went on nonetheless, "he disappeared shortly after ursa left."

noriko nodded, "folks say he went to the forgetful forest."

Liara placed her hand in his and he leaned closer to her. "it was the place this big spirits took me, I ended up in the spirit world." she said, only loud enough for aang to hear.

"i have a vague memory of ursa returning here and going after ikem into the forest." noriko stated. and noren sighed, "that's so tragic, no one who enters the forest ever leaves."

liara looked at them questioningly, she entered just fine, but only left with the help of kei and his siblings. as well as yao.

"that's so sad," katara said, feigning disappointment.

~
everyone was dressed back in the clothes that they usually wore.

leaving appa at the entrance of the forest, the group entered with their weapons in hand. this time, liara stayed weary of any dust of fog and she gripped onto her staff until her knuckles turned white.

this was definitely the same forest, with the same trees. just no fog this time. was it yao's doing.?

"it's not."

oh.

Liara looked around cautiously. listening for any out of the ordinary sounds. but all the sounds were out of the ordinary.

"um, guys, I'm sensing something again. and it makes my face go like," he turned around to face them "this!"

Liara yelped and jumped back dramatically. this time she was doing it on purpose just to tick aang off a little. "not the faces again!"

this time, aang had one eye wide open with the other closed, and his mouth in a frown. this was weird. there were faces all over the forest.

aang began chasing a bat that had 5he face he wasaking on his wings and Liara air surfed after him, to make sure that he wasn't randomly transported to the spirit world either.

when she finally caught up to him, he was standing by a pond in a clearing.

it was beautiful.

"you again!" Azula yelled and began attacking the water with lighting. the sleep stealer starts again.

Liara lifted her staff, aiming for the girl's neck as the other tried to apprehend her with their bending.

but just as liara began swinging, sharp flowers stabbed into her hand, causing her to let go of her staff and accidentally throw azula in the head with it.

the airbender hissed, ripping the flowers from her palm and scowling in the direction they came from.

aang and zuko blocked the flowers as katara and Liara analysed them, noting that there was water within them. "this might be someone's bending." the waterbender said, standing up and looking in the direction the stars came from.

they couldn't see anything.

vines and plants attacked the teenagers, and the all tried desperately to cut the plants before the plants cut them, until katara plantbended the plants

"you're not the only waterbender! show yourself..

she waterbended the plants.

two old people dressed in water tribe clothes emerged from the lush plants. they then bowed to the group, "we apologise, my brother and I aren't used to seeing other humans around here." the woman said.

they introduced themselves as rafa and misu. misu had told team avatar the entire story about how they ended up  in the forest, hoping to encounter ying lian.

liara looked at the two waterbenders."the mother of faces is difficult to find, you would need guidance from a spirit who is close with her."

misu looked at the airbender strangely, "where would we find one?"

sokka grinned at the woman. "you're in luck because we have the avatar and a spirit expert with us!"

Liara rolled her eyes. "I can ask yao the wise for guidance."