Path Ahead

Chapter 1

It seemed that Appa had scarcely landed at the Western Air Temple before Sokka began spreading out his maps and regarding them intensely and frantically. Katara finished helping the others unpack and set up a sort of camp in the ruins of the temple. Once the immediate work seemed to be done, she went over to her brother curiously.

"We have to figure out where she is and rescue her," he muttered, half to himself. Katara knew what he was talking about, but she had to find a way to snap him out of it. They needed him to be clear-headed.

"Sokka..." she began tentatively, reaching out a hand to touch his shoulder. He swatted it away.

"Don't talk to me unless you have ideas!" he snapped. "She's been waiting for me for weeks, maybe months. I'm not just going to leave her there!" Aang and Toph approached, but the three new additions to their group kept their distance, appearing to understand that there was nothing they could do.

"And where is there, exactly?" Aang asked softly. Sokka jerked his head up and looked around desperately at Aang, Katara, and Toph. The pain and loss in his expression made Katara's throat constrict, but she forced words out through it anyway.

"I'm sorry, Sokka, but we don't have the time or the resources to go after Suki now," she said gently. "She'll just have to wait with the others."

"Katara's right," Toph added. "She could still be held somewhere in the Earth Kingdom for all we know. Our best chance of freeing her and the rest is to finish Aang's training so that he can stop the war."

Sokka stared at her for a few, long moments. Finally, tears in his eyes, he tossed the scrolls aside and stalked off.

"He knows we're right," Katara sighed. "He just needs a few minutes to himself." Aang nodded, walked a few steps, and then turned back toward her.

"I have to learn firebending now," he said. "But how am I supposed to do that?" Before Katara could answer him, Teo's voice interrupted them.

"Um, guys?"

Katara and Aang both turned to look at him. Teo was pointing toward the sky. Following his finger, a red spot in the sky was just visible.

"Is that one of the Fire Nation balloons?" The Duke asked.

"It has to be," Haru decided.

"How could they have followed us? We were so far ahead!" Katara exclaimed in frustration. Couldn't they just be left alone for a little while?

"They might have just guessed," Toph pointed out. "I mean, we have the last airbender with us; it's not that hard to figure out we might head for the nearest temple."

"I'm sorry," Aang apologized. "I should have thought of that."

"Never mind," Katara cut him off. Sokka feeling desperate and hopeless was all she could handle right now, and she wasn't about to let Aang start in on his perceived failures. "You know this place, and Teo knows the balloons. I think you should both start working out a defense plan in case there are more behind this one."

"Should we get Sokka?" The Duke offered tentatively. "I mean, isn't he kind of the plan guy?" Katara looked in the direction her brother had gone, and then squinted back up at the sky.