Balance | Old Version

Chapter 65

Elua's POV.

We had been walking for hours now, but we still hadn't found our way out of the desert and everyone was exhausted.
"I think we should stop for the night," Katara says and everyone flops onto the ground.
"Is there any more water?" Toph asks.
"This is the last of it. Everyone can have a little drink," Katara says as she opens her water skin and bends the water out, but Momo leaps at the water and tries to drink it, causing it to fall in the sand.
"Momo, no! You've killed us all!" Sokka shouts dramatically.

"No, he hasn't," I tell him as Katara bends the water out of the sand.
"Oh, right. Bending," Sokka says smiling, obviously still high on cactus juice.
"Sokka, let me see the things you got from the library," Katara tells him.
"What! I didn't steal anything!" Sokka shouts as he hugs all the papers they took and backs away from us. "Who told you that?!" He shouts. "It was you! You ratted me out!" He yells as he points to Momo, who looks at him sadly.
"Sokka, I was there," Katara says as she takes the bag of papers from him.
"It doesn't matter. None of those will tell us where Appa is," Aang says sadly.

"No, but we can find out which way Ba-Sing-Se is," Katara states as she unrolls a piece of paper and looks down at it. "We can use the stars to guide us. That way we can travel at night when it's cool and rest during the day," She says as she looks at everyone, I'm sure we all looked half dead. "Just, try to get some sleep. We'll start again in a few hours," She sighs as everyone lays down and tries to sleep.
"You're doing great," I tell her, trying to encourage her.
"What?" She asks in confusion.
"You're leading us through this. I'm in no state to, Sokka is delusional, Toph is disappointed in herself, and Aang is worried about Appa, You're leading us and you are doing great," I tell her with a kind smile.

"Thank you, Elua," Katara says with a grateful smile. "How are you feeling?" She asks me as she looks at my wound.
"I'm alright. In a lot of pain, but I'll live," I tell her.
"You should get some rest," She tells me. I sigh and nod as I lay down and slowly start to drift off to sleep. After a while, Katara wakes all of us up. It was the middle of the night and dark, but we could see the stars much more then we could.
"Come on, get up. We need to go," Katara says as she wakes Sokka up.
"Yesterday my mouth tasted like mud. Now it just tastes like sand. I never thought I'd miss the taste of mud so much," Toph says as she sits up.

"I'm awake. I couldn't sleep," Aang says before Katara gets a chance to shake his shoulder.
"Well, we need to get moving if we want to get out of this sandpit," Katara tells him.
"Appa!" Aang suddenly shouts, I follow his gaze and see a cloud that looks like Appa flying through the night sky.
"Appa? But, why would Princess Yue need him? She's the moon! She flies by herself!" Sokka says, still acting crazy.
"It's just a cloud," Katara says in disappointment. "Wait! A cloud!" She exclaims. "Fly up and bend the water from that cloud into my pouch," She tells Aang as she hands him her waterskin.

He takes the pouch angrily and flies up to the cloud, quickly collecting the water and then flying back down and giving Katara the pouch.
"Wow...there's hardly any in here," Katara says as she looks in the pouch and sighs.
"I'm sorry, okay! It's a desert cloud, I did all I could! What's anyone else doing! What are you doing?" Aang shouts angrily as he points his staff at her almost threateningly.
"She's trying to keep everyone together," I tell him calmly. I knew this was hard to deal with, but we had to stay calm or we all would go crazy.
"Let's just get moving. We need to head in this direction," Katara says as she begins to walk, following the star map. Suddenly, Toph kicks something and falls to the ground.

"Ow! Crud! I am so sick of not feeling where I'm going!" Toph shouts in anger and pain. "And what idiot buried a boat in the middle of the desert?!" She shouts again.
"A boat?" Katara asks confused.
"Believe me, I kicked it hard enough to feel plenty of vibrations," Toph says as she rubs her foot in pain. Aang walks over and airbends the sand, revealing a wooden boat.
"It's one of the gliders the sandbenders use!" Katara says with a smile. "And look! It's got some kind of compass on it! I bet it can point us out of here! Aang, you can bend a breeze so we can sail it. We're going to make it!" She tells us as we all get on and Aang starts to airbend a breeze into the sail, making us start to move. I look at the compass and the map we're following.

"The needle on this compass doesn't seem to be pointing north according to this map," I tell Katara as I look between the map and compass.
"Take it, easy little lady. I'm sure the sand folks who built this baby know how to get around here," Sokka tells me dreamily as he sits on the edge of the boat, holding onto Momo's tail.
"That's what the compass is pointing to!" Katara says as she points to a giant rock in the middle of the desert. "That giant rock! It must be the magnetic center of the desert," She states.
"A rock? Yes! Let's go!" Toph says happily.
"Maybe we can find some water there!" Katara says in hope.
"Maybe we can find some sandbenders," Aang says angrily as he speeds up the winds.

It takes us some time, but we eventually get to the giant rock and climb to the top to get a better view of where we are.
"Ahhh...Finally! Solid ground!" Toph says as she falls on her back happily. We all walk into a cave-like hole in the rock with yellow stuff on the wall.
"I think my head is starting to clear out the cactus juice. And look!" Sokka says as he grabs some of the sticky substance from the wall and he and Momo eat it. But, he quickly spits it out and gages at the taste. 
"This tastes like rotten penguin meat! Awww I feel woozy," Sokka says as he holds onto his stomach.

"You've been hallucinating on cactus juice all day and then you just lick something you find stuck to the wall of a cave?!" I shout as I lean on the wall, starting to feeling dizzy again.
"I have a natural curiosity," Sokka tells me proudly.
"You're an idiot," I tell him shaking my head.
"I don't think this is a normal cave. This was carved by something," Toph says.
"Yeah...look at the shape," Aang says pointing to the rippled look the walls have.
"There's something buzzing in here,' Toph says in confusion, but her eyes quickly go wide with realization. "Something that's coming for us!" She shouts just as a giant wasp-like bug starts to fly towards us.