Weeping Willows, Sokka

III. two worlds colliding to form one

NOW THAT TOPH WAS GONE, IT SEEMED TO HAVE FINALLY CLICKED for katara and aang that they were both in the wrong this whole time.

"yeah, you two were pretty much jerks." sokka said as katara and aang had both finished making their statements about how much they messed up.

"thanks, sokka." katara said sarcastically.

"no problem."

shayra sighed from her spot next to sokka—him being the only reasonable person in the group to talk to at the moment—and turned around to katara and aang, saying, "you two need to go find toph and apologize. because if she's out there—alone—that thing that's chasing us could get to her."

aang turned to shay. "you're right. we have to do something about those evil ladies chasing us—" he turned to appa and grabbed some of his fur, letting it blow away in the wind. "—and i have a plan."

aang's plan was pretty simple. wash appa in the river, and let his fur flow down the stream, creating a trail for the sickos chasing them to follow after, leading them in the wrong direction. shayra had hope that this would work, but still she felt a small, bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, and had a feeling that this situation wasn't going to end well.

"toph was right," aang started. "appa's fur was leaving a trail right to us. but now that he's clean, no more trail."

"are you sure he's okay to fly?" katara asked unsurely.

aang pet his head. "he'll be fine as long as long as we leave his saddle and all our stuff here."

aang started walking over to the pile of fur beside appa's feet, collecting it into his hands. "i'm gonna use appa's fur to make a fake trail and lead the tank off course."

with that, shay, sokka and katara all mounted upon appa, flying away in one direction, as aang flew the other way on his glider, dropping fur as he went.

AS THEY FLEW, THE SILENCE THAT GREW AMONGST THE GROUP was awfully inviting, shay's eyes threatening to drop.

she was about half asleep when sokka spoke up saying, "so, shay, can you talk to flowers?"

shayra opened one eye, looking at him with a look that said are you being serious? sokka just stared at her blankly, still thinking it was a valid question.

"no, i can't talk to flowers, dumbass." shayra said irritatedly, sitting up to look at sokka, who was sitting directly in front of her, legs crossed.

"geez, sorry for living." sokka said sarcastically, raising his hands.

shayra rolled her eyes, but felt a little bad for lashing out out him. "it would be cool, though." she said after a few minutes of awkward silence.

sokka snapped his head towards her at the sound of her voice cutting through the silence. "what?"

shay shrugged. "to talk to flowers, that would a pretty awesome power to have."

"oh." sokka let out a small laugh. "yeah, that would be kinda cool."

as they flew over a small lake, katara spoke up from the front saying, "toph couldn't have gotten too far."

right after she said that, momo started squealing controllably, shaking wildly.

"what is it, momo?!" sokka yelped, and then his eyes widened. "oh. . . no! katara!"

right below them, once again, were ty lee and mai riding on their huge lizards, trailing them.