Violent Delights, ATLA

chapter thirty, stolen dance

30
STOLEN DANCE

"MAYBE THE REASON I CAN'T firebend is because I lost Tai Yang," San explained in further detail as they travelled through the skies on Appa. "He was the reason why I could firebend at first."

"But we knew this girl, Yue, who had part of the moon spirit before she became the moon spirit and she wasn't a waterbender?" Katara questioned. At the mention of Yue, Sokka appeared saddened.

"You answered your own question. She had a small part of Tui but Tai Yang gave me his heart." San sighed, placing her hand over where her heart was. "Still, it doesn't really add up. If my source of firebending came from the sun spirit, and considering that I'm the sun spirit now, I should be able to firebend."

"But if you're the sun spirit now, how come you're not in the Spirit World permanently?"

"Because Tai Yang revived me in my mortal body. You could say it's like Tui and La being present here on earth as they have mortal bodies too."

"Just great!" Aang cried out, slumping his shoulders. "I finally get the firebending teacher I wanted and she can't even firebend anymore."

'Finally get the firebending teacher he wanted?' She puzzled to herself and blinked, flattered to a certain extent. 'He had always wanted me to teach him how to firebend?'

"Wait! But just because she can't firebend now doesn't mean she's forgotten all her firebending moves!" Sokka interrupted with the exact grin he'd have whenever he thought himself a genius. There was no trace of the saddened look he had before. "So you can still teach him!"

"That's a valid option. But with the sun looking like a dry meatball in the sky, do you think Aang would be able to produce fire at all?" San voiced out her concerns.

"If that's a problem, couldn't you just... um, make it so that the sun is back to normal again?" Katara asked. San stared. She knew the waterbender didn't mean to phrase it bluntly with an unsure tone but, well, never mind.

"If I knew how to and if it were so easy, I'd obviously have done it by now." San, also, didn't mean to speak with a snarky undertone but maybe it was because she wasn't used to being the sun spirit now and despised the idea of replacing Tai Yang. Though reality was what it was. "I'll find a way to do that first then do my best to teach Aang how to firebend. If I somehow don't manage to get my spark back by then, it'll be about the same as him learning from a firebending scroll since I won't be able to demonstrate it properly."

"That's fine." Aang shrugged and smiled. He seemed awfully too content not to learn firebending, she noted in her head with a tinge of suspicion.

Eventually, they found a clear coast with a giant empty cave large enough to fit Appa. The white clouds Aang and Katara manipulated were released as soon as they labelled the cave as their new hideout and Toph was the first to jump off, exclaiming something about being joyful to finally be back on land.

"We can't hide in this cave forever." Katara pointed out.

"Yeah, the best way to keep our profiles low is to bend in." San agreed. "We're in Fire Nation territory, right? There should be a house with laundry lines nearby where we could steal clothes."

"Steal?" Aang parroted. San was right, the group found rows of Fire Nation clothes hanging out to dry with no one around. "But don't these belong to someone?"

"Yeah, but they probably won't mind if a couple of their clothes went missing."

"I call the robe!" Katara declared, jumping over the bushes. Everyone else followed suit.