ATLA: Book Three: Fire [Makki]

Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight: Four Sleepless Days

Makki |~|

"This is it," Sokka said as we all walked through some bushes to see a large field scattered with koala sheep. "The official rendezvous point for the invasion force."

"How did you pick this place?" Toph asked.

"Before we split up, my dad and I found this island on a map," Sokka explained. "It's uninhabited, and the harbor surrounded by cliffs seemed like the perfect secluded place."

"Nice choice, Sokka," said Katara as we began to unpack our camp. "And we're here four days ahead of schedule."

"Yeah, kinda shows that you worried for nothing," I said.

"Wait, four days!" Aang exclaimed. "The invasion's in four days?"

"Whatever, that's like four days from now," Sokka yawned. "Let's just calm down and..."

Sokka passed out right on his sleeping bag.

"Sokka's got the right idea, Aang," said Katara. "We're here, we're ready. The best thing we can do now is get plenty of rest."

"...I guess," Aang shrugged.

Soon, everything went quiet as we all lied down and slowly drifted off to sleep... Well, I slowly tossed and turned for a bit, as usual, until I heard mumbling and then rustling. I sat up and looked behind me to see Aang kicking a bush.

Did I actually fall asleep? Is this a dream?

"Aang, what're you doing?" I asked.

"Training. The invasion's in four days, I've got to be ready," Aang explained without turning away from the bush.

"Aang, I think you are ready," I said. "You should sleep."

"Nah, I'm good."

I watched him kick the bush for a few more seconds before I lightly shrugged and lied back down to try and get some sleep.

[~][~][~]

The next morning, we all awoke to this loud thudding noise. As we arose from our sleeping bags, we saw Aang repeatedly punching a nearby tree. Tiredly, we all glanced at each other before Katara got up.

I can't believe he's still at it...

"Hey, how long have you been up?" Katara asked Aang.

"A couple hours," Aang responded without stopping. "I got a lot more skills to refine if I'm gonna fight Ozai."

"You know, there is such a thing as overtraining," said Katara.

Aang paused before hitting the tree one last time, which made him shiver and collapse. There was a small moment of silence before the tree lightly shook and lost all of its leaves.

"...You don't get it, do you?" Aang shot up. "My form is bad, I'm sloppy, and I still don't know any fire bending. Not even the basics."

Aang slightly twitched as Katara pushed his hand down.

"That's okay, Aang, the eclipse will block all fire bending anyway. You don't need to know any... Plus, it's a stupid element," Sokka said, matter-of-factly.

"Okay, well, I still have to work on everything else," said Aang. "I better spend the whole day training."

Aang quickly bowed to everyone before creating a ball of air and speeding away. We all looked at each other with worry.