fire & lightning

chapter seven

       A part of me wanted to go home. By home, i mean my childhood home in the Fire Nation, where i was raised and where my family continues to live. I miss them, even though they're not exactly good people. My dad follows the Fire Lord and does everything he's told to do, my mom cares a lot about popularity and wants all the fame she could get, so she hopes she'll be talked about very often once my dad helps the Fire Lord win the war. Mai is more of a follower than a leader, she'll do whatever Azula or our father instructs her to do, and she's on it. Tom-Tom is still innocent, he's just a little baby. They've always been good to me, even though i left to help a 'traitor'. I'm sure they wouldn't take that personally. Mom probably misses me the most.

"Where's Momo?" Aang did a double take, noticing his pet wasn't with us.

A screech was heard from the distance, Aang recognizing it straight away. "Oh?"

Aang, Sokka, Katara and I followed the sound, walking into an area with traps placed onto the ground and some already triggered in the trees. Momo was captured in one of them, as well as some other animals.

"Hang on, Momo!" Aand leaped onto the branches step by step, attempting to free Momo, who was right above us.

"Stay calm, Momo!" I cupped my hands and used them as a megaphone, calling out to the flying lemur.

Aang grabbed onto the chain that held the trap in the tree, lowering it slowly as Sokka and Katara reached for it, pulling it apart and freeing Momo in the process.

Momo looked up at the other imprisoned animals with a sad look in his eyes.

"Alright, you too." Aang jumped onto the tree again, climbing it.

"This is going to take forever." I groaned, grabbing Sokka's boomerang from the holster on his back and throwing it through the ropes that held the traps, freeing Momo's new friends.

"I could've done that." Sokka suggested, probably annoyed by what i did.

"Well, that worked." Aang shrugged, getting down from the tree, the boomerang returning to Sokka.

"Are these Fire Nation traps, Mo?" Sokka asked as he bent down to feel the metal.

"Yeah, they are." I confirmed, taking a closer look. "We'd better pack up camp and keep moving."

We returned to our camp, where Appa was waiting for us. Katara and I rolled up our sleeping bags and passed them over to Aang, so he could place them on Appa's saddle.

"Wait, no flying this time." Sokka demanded, taking back the roll up beds.

"What? Why wouldn't we fly?" Aang questioned, not understanding Sokka.

"Think about it; somehow Prince Zuko and the Fire Nation keep finding us. It's because they spot Appa, he's just too noticeable."

"What? Appa is not too noticeable!" Katara argued back.

"He's a gigantic fluffy monster with an arrow on his head!"

"Hey, don't call Appa a monster!" I smacked the back of Sokka's head.

"Sokka is just jealous because he doesn't have an arrow." Aang joked, cheering up Appa from the comment.

"I know you guys want to fly, but my instincts tell me that we should play it safe and walk this time."

"Sokka, who made you the boss?" Katara sassed, hands on her hips.

"I'm not the boss, I'm the leader." Sokka claimed.

"Ha! You're the leader?" Katara snorted. "But your voice still cracks!"

"I'm the oldest, I'm a warrior!" Sokka's pitched changed, his voice cracking. "So, I'm the leader."