Eye of the Storm

Page Eighteen

The gang all sat on a hillside and watched a brilliant meteor shower lighting up the sky overhead. "Wow, this is amazing to watch." Katara said in awe. "It really is."

"It's so beautiful."

"Kind of makes you realize how insignificant we are."

"Eh, you've nothing once, you've seen it a thousand times."

One of the meteors shone brighter than the others, and it came towards the Earth. "Oh man, you've never not-seen anything like this!" It soared above them and landed a ways off, burning up and causing a fire. They all hopped on Appa and flew to the cite where they saw the meteor land, and saw the fire growing, and noticed the village down below. "This fire'll burn down that town!" Gopan realized. "Not if we can stop it!" Aang said, leaping to action. "There's a creek over there! Katara and I can bend the water!"

"Toph, let's make a tench to keep the fire from getting closer." Aang and Toph ran to the fire. "What do we do?" Sokka asked, he and Gopan standing off to the side. "Keep on eye on Momo." Aang suggested, Momo landing on Sokka's head. "So what, we're just lemur-sitters."

Quila ran down to the creek with Katara and helped her lift the water in a huge wave, they morphed it into an orb and let the water shower down onto the fire. Aang then took some water and released it onto the fire, along with a chilly gust of wind, turning it to ice and snow. Effectively putting out the fire, but cloaking Sokka and Gopan in snow.

The next day they were in the town, eating lunch at an outdoor restaurant. They all sat around a table while Sokka sat on a staircase. "These people have no idea how close they were to getting toasted last night." Aang said as he sat down. "Yeah. The worst thing about being in disguise is we don't get the hero worship anymore. I miss the love." Toph said, popping a dumpling in her mouth. "Boo-hoo. Poor heroes." Sokka said sarcastically. They all looked over to him. "What's your problem? You haven't even touched your smoked sea slug."

"It's just... you benders can do this awesome thing and do stuff like putting out fires, and flying around, and making other stuff fly around. I can't fly around, okay. I can't do anything." Gopan turned his eyes from Sokka to his tray of food, using a chopstick to stir his rice around. "That's not true. No one can read a map like you." Katara said, trying to cheer him up. "I can't read at all."

"And you're the one who stepped up to defend our tribe when we were kids."

"Yeah, and who keeps us all laughing with sarcastic comments all the time, I mean, look at Katara's hair, right?" He grabbed a lock of her hair and pointed to it. "What's up with that?"

"What? What's wrong with my hair?" Katara asked, suddenly self-conscious. "Nothing! I was trying to..."

"Look, I appreciate the effort, but the fact is you benders is so amazing and so special, and I'm not." Katara stood up and went to sit next to her brother. "I'm sorry you're feeling so down, but I hope you know none of us see you that way." She placed a hand on her shoulder. "I know something that's gonna make you feel better."

"You do?" Katara nodded and stood, pulling Sokka up with her. They all quickly finished and followed Katara to a weapon shop in town. Sokka's eyes immediately lit up and he rushed in to start looking around. "Quila! Look at this!" Gopan ran over to a wall covered in bows and arrows. "Check out this one! The balance is perfect!" He picked an ornate one off the wall. It was brown with green and gold decorations along the staff. "This is much better than the one I have now!" He shifted through his pockets. "And! I have enough pieces to buy it!" Without waiting for his friend's input, he rushed to the counter to buy his new weapon, and ammo for it. She gazed around the shop, and she stopped when she saw a set of duo swords hanging on the wall. She reached up and touched the handle of one of them gently, feeling the grip. As soon as she felt them she was taken back to Ba Sing Se with the Blue Spirit saving her. And the kiss she shared with Zuko. She snapped herself out of the memory and looked over when Sokka found something he especially liked. She walked over to see him examining an especially well-crafted sword. "You have a good eye. That's an original Piandao, the greatest sword master and sword maker in Fire Nation history. He lives in the big castle up the road from here." The shop keeper informed them before walking off. "That's it. That's what you've needed all along, Sokka." Aang said, excitedly. "A sword?"