51 Chapter 50

After our escape from Crescent Island Aang told us what he learned from Roku. Sozin's comet would be returning this summer and if Aang didn't stop Fire Lord Ozai by the time it came, Fire Lord Ozai would use the comet to win the war. Aang was feeling the pressure from this time constraint of having to master 3 elements and win the war in roughly 6 months. Not that anyone took this bit of prophecy particularly well. We tried to get Shyu to stay and teach Aang fire bending, but he felt he wasn't meant to or capable of teaching Aang. We dropped him off near a fire nation colony, where he gave us a method of contacting him. He marked several locations on the map that had special tea shops. If we went to one of those shops and told them a couple of Pai Sho related phrase they could help us find him. If we couldn't find Aang a master we could search for him, but for now, he had things to prepare. Before leaving we had heard rumors of a fire nation deserter, but given recent company, we weren't particularly interested so we left.

Our next bit of travel was ravaged by storms. Katara and I kept the storm at bay with water bending while Aang flew us through the storm. We had to set down for a few days where Aang opened up about his reservations about being the avatar. Katara and Sokka talked about their mother. I talked about some of my time in the streets from when I was in Japan. Parents killed in the crossfire between two firebenders, I spent years in an orphanage before getting kicked out, I then had to get creative for money, and then I left to travel. It was kind of a downer of a conversation, but storm ended and no one got sick. The next time we landed we happened to run into Hakoda and Bato, Katara and Sokka's father and family friend. We had a nice family reunion dinner. The next day Hakoda and Bato take Sokka on a coming of age trial called ice dodging. They were going to just use rocks instead of ice but me, Katara, and Aang intervened and filled the area with icebergs. Sokka passed the trial, but we then had to go our separate ways.

We stopped in a town where the leader was a fortune teller. It annoyed Sokka to no end and Katara and Aang got obsessed with their potential future love lives. In the end, we had to save the town from an erupting volcano. From there we ended up in a forest run by freedom fighters. The lead freedom fighter Jet was flirting a bit too much with Katara which pissed off Sokka and Aang. Well, the flirting and the extremism. Jet was trying to blow up a dam to destroy a town and we were trying to stop him. The whole thing got interrupted when the fire nation attacked. Prince Zuko caught up to us and led the local garrison in attacking the freedom fighters. Jet's attack was scrapped as we helped evacuate the freedom fighters from the fire nation soldiers burning down their forest base.

Then we had our final stop before arriving at the north pole. The northern air temple was surprisingly occupied. A group of refugees had started living there. The leader of the refugees was an inventor who had made a variety of gliders. Some of which were to help his paralyzed son, Teo, regain some mobility. Aang was not happy that these people moved in and were 'renovating' but Teo is a pretty likable guy and got Aang to change his mind. I thought about offering to heal him, but I did a pre-evaluation without anyone noticing and the damage was significant and old. Water bending is best with fresh wounds and Teo's back is full of scar tissue. While exploring it was discovered the Inventor was selling his work to the fire nation as weapons. His son and Aang guilt-tripped him into stopping. "These are the people who killed mom" is a fairly persuasive argument. The fire nation sent troops, but trying to attack up a mountain is suicide. The fire nation lucked out with the Air benders generally being pacifists. Even with Sozen's Comet, anyone else with that geographic advantage would have been trading troops with the fire nation at 100:1 minimum. Fire nation low-key probably lost a shit ton of troops wiping out the air nomads. All of this is to say that we handled the 'invasion' and then we're on our way to the northern water tribe.

It was smooth flying all the way north. We had made good time less than two weeks after the winter solstice and we would soon be reaching our first major destination. Getting this far north did remind me of how much I missed proper cold weather. 10 years as a frost giant and all of a sudden these temperate temperatures start to grate on you. I thought I got over it in Japan, but really whenever I got to choose what I wore I wore shorts and a tank top whatever the weather. My inner thoughts were cut short as the water beneath us rose up trying to grapple and freeze Appa. I had to intervene pushing the water away before it hit us. It was a few more close calls but with me Katara, and Aang deflecting the attacks we were able to avoid any damage. However, we did end up landing in the water once we realized that this was just our welcoming committee.