Reborn as Katara (OC)

23. Dead Forests

~With the Gaang~

It was an early and peaceful morning which was a nice change from their other ones. They were flying above a beautiful green land while resting on Appa's back.

Sokka was checking his boomerang and making sure that there was nothing wrong with it. Aang was lying on the back of Appa's neck with his arms behind his head and his eyes closed just taking in the peaceful wind and air around them.

Luna sat in Appa's saddle and gazed at the beautiful fluffy clouds that they passed. She had started wearing a different outfit now that her other one had been mostly burnt in their last fight.

"Those clouds look so soft, don't they? Like you could just jump down and you'd land in a big, soft, cottony heap." Luna said thinking out loud as she imagined it like it was a big cushion.

"Maybe you should give it a try." Sokka joked.

"I'll try it! Hahaha!" Aang said jumping up from where he was lying and moving off Appa so he was now falling into the sky as he laughed with no care in the world.

They watched over the edge of Appa's saddle and saw him fall right through a cloud. Then a moment later they turned around as they heard him still laughing as he used his air glider to fly over the other side of Appa's saddle.

"Turns out clouds are made of water," Aang said with a bright smile as he was now sopping wet from the cloud. Aang took a deep breath and then put his hands together as he bent the air around him so that it pushed the water off of him.

"What's that?" Luna asked as a big dark spot in the wide beautiful green landscape. It stood out like a big scar.

With troubled looks, they had Appa land on the big dark land so that they could further investigate the land.

"Listen, it's so quiet. There's no life anywhere." Sokka noted as they listened but no sound came. Usually in a spot like this, there wouldn't be silence. The noise of the wilderness and the animals that lived there would always make noise and there would never be complete silence.

"Aang, are you okay? Luna questioned laying a gentle hand on his arm.

"Fire Nation! Those evil savages make me sick. They have no respect for-" Sokka started ranting angrily as he found the footsteps of fire nation soldiers.

"Shh." Luna shushed him.

"What? I'm not allowed to be angry?" Sokka questioned but Luna just pointed at Aang who let his legs collapse from under him so that he was now kneeling on the floor.

"Why would anyone do this? How could I let this happen." Aang asked sadly as his hands picked up some of the ashes.

"Aang, you didn't let this happen. It has nothing to do with you." Luna tried reassuring him as she took a seat next to him grabbed his hand and intertwined their fingers together.

"Yes, it does. It's the Avatar's job to protect nature, but I don't know how to do my job." Aang told her lowering his head in sadness.

"That's why we're going to the North Pole, to find you a teacher," Luna explained softly trying to lift his spirits.

"Yeah. A water bending teacher. But there's no one who can teach me how to be the avatar. Monk Gyatso said that Avatar Roku would help me." he said still dejected.

"The Avatar before you? He died over a hundred years ago. How are you supposed to talk to him?" Sokka asked confused about how an Avatar that's been dead for over a century was supposed to help him.

"I don't know," Aang admitted sadly. Momo who had been looking around the burned land came over and made himself comfortable on Aang's lap since he felt that he was sad and in need of comfort.