Havi of the Earth Kingdom

Chapter 35: The Desert

Havi's pov

So... Appa's gone...

Apparently, while the library started to sink, someone came and just took him! On the orders of Aang, we've spread out to see if we can spot anyone running away with our furry beast but with no luck he explodes, "How could you let them take Appa!? Why didn't you stop them?"

Toph defends herself, "I couldn't! The library was sinking, you guys were still inside and-"

"You could've come to get us! I could've saved him!"

"I can hardly feel any vibrations out here. The sandbenders snuck up on me and there wasn't time for-"

"You just didn't care!" Aang snaps, "you never liked Appa, you wanted him gone!"

Katara tries to calm him down, "Aang, stop it. You know Toph did all she could. She saved our lives."

"Who's gonna save our lives now?" Sokka asks, "we'll never make it out of here."

"Sokka," I snap at his bluntness.

"That's all any of you guys care about, yourselves. You don't care whether Appa is okay or not!" Aang scolds.

"We're all concerned," I tell him, "but we need to figure out what our next step is gonna be."

He grabs his glider roughly, the annoyance blatant through his actions, "I'm going after Appa."

Katara shouts, "Aang, wait!" But he had already flown away on his glider. She visibly deflated before saying, "we better start walking. We're the only people who know about the solar eclipse. We have to get that information to Ba Sing Se." She lead us onward.

"You think if we dig out the giant owl, he'll give us a ride?" Sokka asked and I shake my head.

• • •

The heat from the sun beat down on us and after a long period of walking, it got quite annoying. I was hot, dehydrated and just wanted a break.

Toph accidentally walks into Sokka and he snaps, "can't you watch where you're-" but freezes after realizing..

"No," She glooms.

"Right, sorry." He apologized sheepishly.

Katara tells us, "Come on, guys. We've gotta stick together."

"If I sweat anymore, I don't think sticking together will be a problem." I scrunch my noise at Sokka's confession.

"Katara, can I have some water?" Toph asked.

"Okay but we've gotta try to conserve it," Katara bends small amounts into our mouths.

"We're drinking your bending water?" Sokka grumbled, "you used this on the swamp guy! Ehh"

"Ew. I could've gone my whole life without knowing how sir nudist tasted," I agree.

"Who's sir nudist?"

I stare off into the distance, "OH, no one."

"I'm sorry, it's all we have."

"Not anymore, look!"  Sokka points to a cactus before cutting a piece off. Inside, a liquid swished around. With big eyes, he quickly slurped it up and finished with a refreshing sigh.

"Sokka, wait!" I run over to him, "I've got a strong feeling you shouldn't be eating strange plants. This won't turn out well."

"There's water trapped inside these," he explains.

Katara backs away, "I don't know."

"Suit yourself. It's very thirst-quenching though," suddenly his eyes get all dilated and his head shakes, "drank cactus juice, it'll quench ya. Nothings quenchier. It's the quenchiest!"