Open Your Mind

Chapter Twelve

Katara walked back into the camp with an armload of firewood in her arms, a frown appearing on her face when she noticed Sokka climbing out of the now set up tent.

"Um, aren't you forgetting the tarp?" She asked, quirking an eyebrow at her brother.

"Right, got it." Sokka stated and tossed the rolled up tarp into the tent.

"Sokka, you're supposed to put the tarp on top of the tent." Katara explained exasperatedly, then looked up at the sky, "You know so we don't get rained on?"

"Ordinarily, you'd be right," Sokka agreed then gestured to the clear sky where the sun was beginning to set, "But seeing as how it's the dry season, you're not. Besides that tarp makes a pretty warm blanket."

"But what if it does rain?" Katara persisted as her faced scrunched up in irritation.

"What it doesn't?" Sokka retorted and kneeled down to fix one of the ties holding the tent to the ground, "Then I would have put the tarp up for nothing."

Katara growled and stomped her foot in frustration, "You're infuriating!"

"Katara, why don't you worry about gathering firewood," Sokka snapped, turning to glare at his sister then he looked at the small pile of wood in her arms condescendingly, "because that kindling is looking pretty sorry."

"We'll if you don't like my firewood-" Katara shouted, not bothering to finish as tossed the kindling at Sokka who cringed back then jumped to his feet.

"Fine by me, if you're not gonna do you job-" Sokka yelled right back, not bothering to finish his sentence either as he tore the tent down.

The two siblings glared heatedly at each other as Aang approached, some berries in his arms.

"Okay, I got the grub if you guys got the-" Aang broke off when he saw the two siblings glaring at each other in front of the flattened tent before they both turned their backs on one another and crossed their arms, "Hey, where's the campfire? And what happened to the tent?"

"Why don't you ask Miss Know-It-All, Queen of the Twigs." Sokka snarked and Katara whirled around angrily.

"Oh yeah? Well, you're Mister Lazy Bum, King of the-" She paused in the middle of her insult to grab a stick from the ground and throw it at Sokka, hitting him in the back of the head, "Tens!"

Sokka spun around and glared at his sister furiously and Aang laughed slightly and shook his head in amusement, suddenly feeling glad he and Xia had never really acted like Katara and Sokka did.

"Okay, listen guys," Aang stated calmly as he placed the berries on the ground and looked between the siblings, "Harsh words won't solve problems, action will. Why don't you just switch jobs?"

"Sounds good." Katara agreed at the same time Sokka muttered, "Whatever."

"You see that?" Aang asked proudly as Katara bent to fix the tent and Sokka began picking up the sticks from the ground, "Settling feuds and making peace, all in a day's work for the Avatar."

The young Airbender turned his head slightly when he heard his lemur chattering loudly and he saw Momo and Appa fighting over a watermelon. Momo continuously tried to fly away with it, but Appa kept it pinned to the ground with one toe until Momo walked away with his shoulders slumped in defeat and Appa released the melon, about to eat it when the conniving lemur snatched it off his tongue and darted away, only to run into Aang. Smiling slightly, Aang picked up the melon and tossed it into the air, using Airbending to slice it.

Momo chattered annoyance at Aang when he got the smile piece while up quickly ate the larger slice.

"Come on, Momo, that's fair." Aang chided gently, looking down at the petulant lemur with his hands on his hips, "Appa's got five stomachs."