Falling For You ✰༄ ѕσkkα

Water || Fire Days Festival

"Guess we should be moving on..." Aang mumbles.
Mother Superior agrees, "That would be best."
I climb onto Appa's saddle, nestling into the well worn material. A saddening feeling ebbs away at my sincere goodbyes to Katara and Sokka that digs in at my stomach. I wish we didn't have to leave them. I am slightly upset at Aang, yet his distraught and erratic thought process is not without reason. His fear of being left alone again lingers as I'm sure what we saw at the Southern Air Temple has left a lasting impression. I know it has for me.
I see Aang look at the opposite side of the path, the retreating figures of friends getting smaller and smaller. "I'm an idiot Momo," I hear him mumble at the lemur poised on Appa's horn.
I remain silent as we approach the beach.

We check over the Water Tribe boat, picking over what supplies was left behind. I find a blank journal, ink stone, and a brush, reminding me of two specific people. My long gone friend Feshen, an artist who I was a muse for many times, and Sokka. He's offhandedly mentioned drawing before, but I've yet to actually see anything he's created. I tuck the objects away on the odd chance we do actually met again. I fully intend to follow through on that promise.
I recall an image of the card of me I was gifted, remembering how I thought the halo above my head was water. Now that I have the new knowledge that I can bend metal, that could possibly be what it looks like when I fully master it. Could this possibly mean I would fall into the category of being an earthbender? Technically metals come from the earth, yet I have never been taught any semblance of earthbending in my life. Maybe when Aang masters the element of water, his next master could teach me too!
I decide not to bring it up now due to his rather guilty and sour mood.

Once we've scavenged everything we could I prepare myself for flight. Aang is tightening Appa's reigns when Mother Superior quickly runs up to us. I peek over the side of the saddle, attentive to her alarmed state.
"Avatar, you must leave!"
"Okay I get it! Everyone wants me gone."
"A group of people came to the abbey looking for you."
"Who?" I ask.
"A fierce-looking woman with a horrible monster and a young man with a scar."
Aang and I make eye contact as he speaks, "Zuko."
"The beast was using the scent of a necklace to follow you," she informs.
"Katara's necklace! We have to go back now!"

We devise a plan to have Aang circling above the abbey, me hiding in one of the hallways to have the upper hand. The nuns continue to go about their business, having quiet conversations to fill the deafening silence. Even though we already know that danger is approaching the anticipation is what truly scares me.
Suddenly the heavy wooden doors explode into splinters from the force of a massive shirshu barging through. It's guided by a beautiful woman with long dark hair and an intimidating whip. Her presence is commanding, fiercer than a fleet of Fire Nation ships. They venture in further, revealing Prince Zuko and an old man in royal Fire Nation clothes to me. How did they even follow us here?

I shift my position from a window to one of the doors. I lightly push it open so I can hear what they're saying.
"What's it doing?" Zuko complains. "It's just going in a circle!"
The shirshu pants, it's head rising to smell the air with a massive pink nose. Aang knows he's been spotted, swooping down just out of reach. The animal raises onto it's hind legs, darting out it's serpentine tongue. It bucks off the riders, backing up of it's hind legs till it fall onto its side. I fully step out from my hiding spot noticing Sokka and Katara laying motionless besides the Fire Nation Royals.
The woman's reflexes instantly bring her back onto her feet, cracking the long whip in her hand. "Up!" she commands.
Her pet rolls back onto its paws, she seamlessly remounts the saddle, charging towards the Avatar. I run to aid the pair of siblings, Zuko and the old man distracted by Appa ramming into the shirshu. I grab them by their ties, yanking them over to a wall.
"What happened?" I question while undoing their restraints.
"Zuko was the one who had my necklace," Katara explains. "That's how he was able to track us."
"Yeah! And her pet has some kind of paralysis effect too. So we're stuck this way" Sokka adds.
"Okay, uhm, I'll see if the sisters have anything that can help!"