Rainbow's Gift (Avatar The Last Airbender Fanfic)

50. Lake Laogai

Jet led us to an old warehouse in the more industrial part of the lower ring. "This is the place I heard about." He said as we followed him inside. I wanted to scream,' we should not trust him ' but I kept my mouth shut. Toph and I decided to wait and see how this would turn out. I just stood still and glared at him.

" There's nothing here." Aang said as the rest looked around.

"If this is a trap......." Katara started.

"I work nearby....." Jet started but I interrupted him.

"No you don't." I retorted.Sokka who was now very watchful of me, walked towards me and put his arm around my shoulder. Normally I would be blushing and butterflies would be fluttering in my stomach but now I just wanted to shrug his arm off. I knew we were desperate to see Appa and a whole month had passed without any sign of him but did we really need Jet's help? I mean he lied to them once and it's not like he wouldn't be able to do it again. I wasn't buying his whole innocent act.

" Well, I heard two guys were talking about some giant furry creature that they had. I figured it must be Appa." Jet defended, ignoring what I had said.

"Don't worry, I've got my eyes on him." Katara said, as she came to stand by us, her voice laced with so much poison, I thought it would have poisoned herself. But with feeling little relief, I nodded. At least Katara wasn't like the boys. I knew it must hurt to see Jet, the first boy she liked. He betrayed her.

"I found something!" Toph shouted and we all ran to find her holding a clump of Appa's fur. I rubbed my eyes. I couldn't believe it. Was Appa actually here? Aang quickly took the fur and held it close to him.

"We missed him." He said softly.

"They took that big thing yesterday." An old man said as he came to sweep the warehouse. Aang gasped. "Shipped him off to some island. About time. I've  been sweeping up fur and..... various droppings all week." He complained.

"What island?" Aang asked excitedly as he ran quickly to the man. " Where's Appa?"I sneezed as he caused little dust to float up. Did he really need his super speed in here? I sneezed again.

"Owner said some rich royal type on Whale tail island bought him up. I guess for a zoo or such. Though it could be for the meat." He said. I watched as Sokka took out his map and looked for Whale tail island.

"We gotta get to Whale tail island. Where is Whale tail island?" Aang asked as he turned to us.

"Far, very far." Sokka said as he placed the map on the ground and we all huddled around it. "Here it is." He said pointing to an island near the South Pole." It's near the South Pole almost all the way back home."

"Aang it would take us weeks to get to the tip of the Earth Kingdom and then we would need to find a boat to get to the island." Katara said, trying to reason with Aang. To me, none of this was making sense. I thought we all thought that Long Feng was the one with Appa. I guess it was only me who thought like this.

"I don't care. We have a chance to find Appa. We have to try." Aang said.

"But this doesn't make sense. If Appa was actually here in this warehouse, I would have heard it from Haruto. He knows all the shady stuff that happens in this city. And Jet is lying, he doesn't work nearby." I said as I stood up glaring at Jet.

"I do work nearby." Jet shouted. Was it just me or Jet really believed that he worked nearby?

"How do you know he doesn't work nearby?" Sokka asked but before I could answer the janitor talked.

"It must be nice to visit an island. I haven't had a vacation in years."

"Don't you have so more fur to clean up?" Katara demanded and the man frowned.