Open Your Mind

Chapter Forty-One

Xiaodan sighed and rubbed her neck as she leaned against the back wall of the Jasmine Dragon after emptyingF the basin of dirty water. It wasn't even noon and already she'd had to wash a pile of teacups and teapots. She straightened with a quiet groan and turned to reenter the teashop when something suddenly slammed into the back of her neck and she stumbled forward, just barely keeping herself from falling by putting a hand against the wall. Rapid chittering reached her ears and Xiaodan turned her head, her orange eyes meeting the large, frightened brown eyes of a familiar lemur.

"Momo?"

Momo chittered and jumped up, flapping his wings while tugging on the collar of her tunic. The white-haired girl turned and grabbed the lemur out of the air, holding him in front of her face with a confused expression.

"Momo, what's wrong?" She asked urgently, "What happened?"

Momo hissed and chittered again, struggling against her grasp until Xiaodan let him go again. She watched as he sat on the ground in front of her and he squeaked and chattered at her while waving his arms around urgently at her.

"Alright, alright!" Xiaodan exclaimed with wide-eyes, "I'll follow you, just give me a second, okay?"

Momo chittered again and climbed up her leg, diving into her tunic. Xiaodan cradled his little body to her, frowning when she felt him begin to tremble then she walked back into the teashop, heading towards the back.

"Iroh?" Xiaodan called out softly and the older man turned to look at her with a happy smile.

"What is it Xiaodan?"

"Um..." She faltered for a moment, "I have to go do something real quick. I'm sorry, I know you asked me to come with you and Zuko to help serve tea to the Earth King, but-"

She was suddenly cut off by Momo crawling out of her tunic and onto her shoulder, impatiently tugging on her hair. Iroh's eyes widened as he recognized the Avatar's pet lemur and he looked at Xiaodan in shock then understanding.

"Go," He instructed softly, "It will be fine."

Xiaodan gave him a grateful smile and she quickly grabbed her glider from where she had stashed it in a corner of the backroom then slipped out the back entrance of the shop, biting her lip at the slight guilt she felt at leaving Zuko, even if it was just temporary.

"Alright, Momo, what did you want to show me?" She asked and Momo instantly leapt out of tunic, taking flight a moment later.

Xiaodan snapped her glider open and jumped into the air, flying after the lemur as he headed towards the Earth King's palace. Her heart suddenly felt heavy in her chest and she frowned.

"So, what kind of trouble is Katara in?" Sokka asked as Appa flew back towards Ba Sing Se.

"I don't know." Aang replied with a helpless shrug, "In my vision, I just knew she needed help."

"It would be nice if your Avatar powers could be just a little more specific from time to time." Sokka sighed and he looked at the ground below them, frowning slightly when he saw a moving mound of earth passing nearby as it headed towards the Outer Wall, "What is that?"

Aang shrugged and directed Appa towards the mound of earth, lowering Appa until they were flying alongside the earth mound. The two boys blinked in surprise hwen they saw it was Toph using Earthbending to earth surf.

"Need a ride?" Sokka called out, startling the blind girl and causing her to fall backwards off the mound of earth with a surprised shout.

Aang and Sokka cringed and glanced at each other.