Avatar's Protector

Chapter 19: Avatar Day

Aang, Sokka and Katara were so excited to see me, and so busy telling me there adventures that they completely forgot to ask me how I left the North Pole and how I "escaped" from Zuko. Which I am very grateful about. I didn't have enough time to come up with a story about that. Or how to even explain that I actually went willingly with Zuko. That is a conversation I'm not looking forward to.

Anyway, we left the Earth Kingdom village, and traveled until sunset. We landed in the woods and made camp. Sokka was making campfire, Katara was getting their sleeping bags ready, Aang was feeding all of the animals, and I was making dinner. I made a meal with meat for Katara, Sokka and I, and a vegetarian meal for Aang. While we ate, I noticed Kai wasn't eating. He was just laying there.

This made me sighed softly in sadness. Kai was really depress right now. Not only does he miss his ostrich horse friend, Mirai, but he misses his tea loving friend, Iroh as well. Momo must have realized that Kai was sad, because he chirped softly, along with a chitter and moved over to him. The flying lemur then softly petted the fire ferret on the head, comforting him. I awed at the scene and smiled. That was the cutest thing I have ever seen.

The others continued telling me a few more stories during dinner and after, before we all went to sleep. Katara and Sokka were sleeping in their sleeping bags, each one on their own tree trunk. Aang was sleeping on Appa's forearm. Because Appa's fur is so softly, and fluffy, Aang didn't need a blanket for heat. I was laying on Appa's head, also not using a blanket. Momo was sleeping on Sokka's stomach, and Kai was sleeping next to me.

Before going to bed, I got dressed back into my Air Nomads clothes. It's been so long since I last wore them... I almost forgot how they felt. Before I got to deep in thought, I shook my head and laid down on Appa's head. Unfortunately, and not surprisingly, I had trouble falling asleep. After sleeping with and also using Zuko as a pillow for some time period, it is going to take me a while to get use to sleeping alone again.

No matter how soft and comfortable Appa's fur is, I just couldn't fall asleep. I even took out my turtleduck teddy Zuko gave me and tried to sleep with it in my arms. It didn't help because I wanted to fall asleep in Zuko's embrace. Luckily, I eventually fell asleep, but that doesn't mean I slept well. So you can just imagine my frustration when I woke up way to early from Sokka's loud voice when he snapped at Momo.

"What are you doing in my mouth?" I glared down at Sokka for waking me up, but he didn't notice me. He was busy glaring at Momo, who was laying upside down on Sokka's stomach. Momo chitters at him before eating something from his hand. "Momo, you need to be a little more sensitive to my boundaries." Sokka said, making me roll my eyes.

I tried to go to sleep again, when Momo suddenly chittered in warning and jumped on top of Sokka's head. Momo's chitter woke Kai, and before I knew it, both lemur and ferret were standing on their hind legs, searching for something. Both Kai and Momo were chittering and yipping warnings, which woke Katara up. I frowned at their behavior and was about to get up and look for whatever is freaking them out when the ground started shaking.

Feeling the shake, Aang woke up with a small gasp. Sensing the danger, I jumped up onto my feet and took my war fans out of my boots. From the bushes, a Fire Nation soldier on a komodo rhino jumped out. I glared down at the man from Appa's head. I was about to get in battle stance and warn the soldier to back off when Katara gasped. Turning slightly, I saw two more rhinos with soldiers emerging from the bushes. Not even a second later, another came out and join the other three.

Momo chittered in fear at the komodo rhinos and flew to Appa's saddle to hide. I quickly put Kai in Appa's saddle, next to Momo, before opening my fans as I readied myself for battle. "Give up!" I looked up when I heard a man's voice and saw a Fire Nation soldier sitting on a komodo rhino. He was on a hill above us, and he was looking down at us with a glare as his fellow soldiers circled us with their rhinos. "You're completely surrounded!" He added, making me death glare at him.