Daughter of the Moon - Book 1: Water

Chapter 17: Hei-Bai

- Elara -

Since our encounter with the earthbenders, we had been flying non-stop towards the North Pole. As a result, we were running short on activities and past-times, so Katara and I had to find respite in watching the clouds.

"Those clouds look so soft, don't they?" Katara asked dreamily. "Like you could just jump down and you'd land in a big, soft, cottony heap."

I heard Sokka snort from behind us, and we turned to face him. "Maybe you should give it a try," he teased us.

"Ha ha. You're hilarious," I replied sarcastically.

I knew that clouds weren't actually solid—jumping onto one would simply mean falling to your death. I mean, seriously—we weren't that stupid. At least, that was what I had thought. Apparently, Aang was not as educated on the state of clouds as the rest of us (even though he was an Airbender...who could fly...).

"I'll try it!" he said excitedly as he hopped off Appa's head with a shout of glee, hurtling straight through the clouds as he tried to give them a squishy hug. He disappeared for a moment, then used his glider to fly back onto Appa's saddle. He was soaking wet, so he used his airbending to dry himself off. "Turns out clouds are made of water!" he said with one of his signature toothy grins.

I laughed at the boy's enthusiasm. "I could've told you that, genius."

Our joyful encounter was cut off by Katara as she pointed at the land ahead of us. "Hey, what is that?"

The rest of us turned to see what she was pointing at and were shocked to see a rather desolate scene. There was a large, ashen-looking stripe down the middle of the forest we were flying over that reeked of death. At first, I thought it could've been caused by a forest fire, but there was no way something like that would only burn the middle section of the trees in such a manner.

"It's like a scar," I heard Sokka mumble beside me, and I couldn't agree with him more. Someone or something had marked this land.

Aang steered Appa so that we landed right in the middle of the ruin. The ground was covered in burnt tree stumps and ash, and there wasn't a sign of life for miles.

"Listen," Sokka told the group, his voice dissipating into the expanse. "It's so quiet. There's no life anywhere."

I started to scan the area for some kind of explanation as to what had caused this, and it didn't take long before I found the footprints of Komodo Rhinos and soldiers. I knew immediately what had caused them.

"Hey Sokka, come look at this," I said as I beckoned him over to where I was standing.

The moment Sokka walked over and saw the footprints, he exploded. "Fire Nation! Those evil savages make me sick! they have no respect for—"

"SHH!" Katara cut him off angrily, like he had caused a scene at a funeral, or something.

I turned to look over at Aang to see what he had to say about all this, but I noticed he was kneeling in the dust in a state of distress. I guess seeing the forest in this condition was hard for him.

"What? I'm not allowed to be angry?" Sokka asked her, clearly missing the moping boy ahead of him. I elbowed him in the ribs (which resulted in a little bit of manly whining, as Sokka put it) and pointed at Aang as he ran his hands through the burnt earth.

"Why would anyone do this?" Aang asked, his voice quivering. "How could I let this happen?"

"Aang, this has nothing to do with you," I reassured him as I walked over to comfort him.