Dawn covered the sky and lit the Pitola range starting from the peaks. At the limit of his endurance, Aang got Appa into the air and pointed to the right direction, east into the light, then crawled back and collapsed into the saddle. Katara knelt by his side with her bending-water already covering her hands. The skin across his chest resembled a coral watersnake and his right arm had a hand-sized red sear around his bicep, but as soon as the water touched the burned skin he felt a cool, soothing sensation and was at peace. Aang thought he could have fallen asleep under her touch. Meanwhile, Sokka crawled forward to take the reins. "How far can this bison fly?"

"Appa is injured, too. Katara, can you help him?"

"We'd have to land, and it's best to have a few mountains between us and them first," she said. "Sorry, but I need to concentrate. Sokka can handle it."

In two hours his injuries were tended as well as possible, though Aang still felt sore across his ribcage and back where he'd been slammed into the wall. Neither of the siblings were injured so, by Sokka's discretion, around noon they dropped into a bowl-shaped valley on the far side of the range. Appa all but collapsed as soon as they'd touched down and the three anxiously deboarded. He had burns across his paddle-like tail, belly, flank, legs, and neck, all red and pink and singed bare of fur. "This will take hours," said Katara. "There's no way we're flying again today." Aang couldn't even see the air temple anymore, only a cluster of unrelated peaks above the trees behind them.

Sokka, who had begun unloading so they could remove the saddle and lighten the bison's burden, said, "We have enough distance between us. I don't know how those ashmakers got up there but they sure didn't fly. They'll take a while to come back down. Aang, do you see now what the Fire Nation is like? We've had a century of this."

"I'm sorry," he replied, overwhelmed by guilt but unable to tell them why. Things had only gotten this bad because he, that night, had tried to run away from the air temple; he wasn't there when the Avatar was needed. To the siblings he was just a lone airbender—that was all he wanted to be. With that Fire Nation prince running loose it wasn't a good thing to be the Avatar at the moment.

Around the valley a breeze whipped through, channeled between the tall peaks into a howling turrent, and every leaf susserated wildly. Sokka turned his attention from the baggage to their surroundings, glanced at his sister who was tending the bison, and stood up. "I'm going to check out the surrounding area. Aang, finish unloading and make camp—we're going to be here a while. Katara gets too focused on her magic water and won't stop until she's passing out. She might be skilled but she still has limits." Checking that his weapon was secured on his hip, he hiked into the woods and was soon lost behind the foliage.

Aang looked over himself, at the freshly healed skin under the burnt, tattered fabric. He wondered if the Fire prince had seen what he'd done, had seen him turn the water into ice to trip him up, but wasn't sure, and felt unable to reveal it to the siblings. He had been running next to Katara at the time and hoped anyone observing would have assumed she, the known waterbender, had done it, but while it had seemed the right strategy at the time now he mulled it over and thought he'd been too reckless. Her waterbending was beautiful and inspiring, and the element had been right there, in position near the feet of the prince, perfectly set up and calling to him. At first he hadn't even known if it would work or not. In the moment Aang thought he'd been doing it to protect his friends, but then thought he may have, moreso, wanted to test his own limits, to perform another element than air. It had, however, saved Sokka from a large fire-bound attack that would have left him much more injured than either Aang or Appa had been and so, while he made camp in the silence, he debated himself back and forth in his mind whether he'd made the right choice. He hadn't thought he'd been making many right choices lately.

Sokka returned in an hour, reporting that he liked their location, which was ringed by cliffs of rock acting as a natural walled garden. He looked tired, and glanced at his sister who was still engaged with the bison, then said he was going to see if he could find any fish. In the valley there was only one stream, which was wide and shallow, and the water bubbled over rounded riverstones heading towards the far side of the enclosure, where Sokka said it disappeared into a narrow cave system. Aang recalled that caves were common through this range due to the stone composition being easily eroded by water, which Monk Gyatso had said was also the cause for their column-like appearance. Aang went to forage but came back with hardly anything, and by that time Sokka had yielded nothing, not even riversnails. "The creek here is just too shallow to have any fish. At most there were a few tadpoles, but they aren't even worth cooking." He went to his sister, who had hardly moved in the time since landing, and encouraged her to take a break. Appa's injuries were extensive—being far larger than a human, there was simply much more skin surface to tend to, but she'd finished the worst of it, including one particularly deep burn at his side which was currently fur-bare but smoothed over. She moved to sit nearby somewhat anemically and asked if there was anything to eat.

Out of chances from fishing and foraging alike, Sokka broke into their baggage to find dried provisions to hold them over, saying they could get to the coast the next day and get a better meal. He pulled out a rough-spun sack from inside his bag, then suddenly yelped and flung it to the ground. The three watched nervously, and a moment later the bag began moving on its own. Small white paws emerged under it feeling after the fruit, while a long black and white ringed tail popped out of the back waving leisurely. Sokka strode over and grabbed the tail, earning a high-pitched shriek, and lifted the culprit up. The thief, bag-covering and all, swung up and bit him hard just below the elbow. He started yelling, "Get it off me, get it off," while flailing the bag-creature around until it was finally shaken loose and thrown to the ground. The culprit chittered angrily and emerged from the sack, with two large ears popping up, and the animal began wiping its face as if it had tasted something foul. It and Sokka glared at each other in mutual loathing while nursing their injuries.

"Cute!" exclaimed Katara, and she knelt with a hand out to try and coax the animal towards her.

"That 'cute' just ate all our food," Sokka ranted. "I'm going to stew it for dinner. Maybe the stew will taste like fruit if we're fast enough."

"Wait, he can help us," said Aang quickly. "Air Nomads use these lemurs as foraging partners. They can help us find ripe fruit and edible roots when out in the wild." Curious, the three looked at the lemur, who was clutching its tail with its ears pulled back distrustfully. "Well, when they're hungry. We might have to wait a while. How much did he eat?"

"A lot," said Sokka, taking up the half-empty sack. "Your lemur better pull his weight. I was looking forward to a snack after all that spear-poking and fire-shooting and Avatar-this Avatar-that. The Avatar doesn't exist anymore; he's long gone and I don't blame him." The young man continued rummaging on the ground searching for remaining apricots to shove back into the fur-littered sack, then looked up and angrily snatched a partially eaten fruit from the clutches of the lemur, who bared its teeth at him in response.

"Well, we can leave the Pitola Mountains and head for the continent, then," said Katara. "We'll be safer in territory under Earth Kingdom occupation. I need to rest a bit, then I'll work on Appa again," she said even while reclining into the sleeping sack as if unable to hold her head up a moment longer. Sokka, seeing the lemur reach for an apricot that had gone unnoticed, swiped it from the animal and returned it to the pouch protectively. He as well laid down, though his eyes were open and he seemed lost in thought, while Appa and the lemur greeted each other uncertainly.

#

When Katara's eyes opened it was already late afternoon. Sokka was gone, and Aang was in the distance with the lemur examining a tree. Groggy, she sat up and stretched, then went to greet the bison, who was still in a sorry state, snacking on the apricots as she went. "I'll be right back to help you," she said, and went to the creek to wash and have a drink. The water was ice-cold and crystalline clear. Aang had noticed she was awake and came over. "Where is my brother?"

"Scouting."

"I'm going to tend to Appa for a while, then. Let me know when Sokka gets back." Feeling anxious for the still-close distance of the firebenders and how many hours she had been asleep, Katara couldn't do anything but tend to the bison while waiting, having paused only to sate her hunger on the dried fruit to give her enough energy for the task. However, in two hours she looked up for a break and he still hadn't returned. Aang was seated nearby looking troubled himself.

"Maybe he's lost?"

"My brother doesn't get lost."

They paused tensely for a few minutes to listen, thinking they might be able to hear him, but the forest was still, and with the mountains pressed around closely they had no line of sight. As she was about to stand, the lemur suddenly perked up its ears as if it could hear something. In a moment its fur stood on end.

Blasts of fire lit the canopy at the edge of their valley. On her feet, they looked to the baggage and found the saddle still lying on the ground, then Appa stood with a groan and looked warily to the fire, which was spreading across the trees. Katara drew a large quantity of water from the brook and held ready. Scrabbling hands tore for leverage at the top of the ledge, then a leg flung over and a wolf-tail bobbed at the top. Dodging backwards as a blast flew over where his face had been a second beforehand, Sokka lost balance and bounced off rocks ten feet to the ground, rolled up, and ran towards them. "In the air, now—" he began to say, then noticed the bison standing without saddle. In the next moment the span of rock closing off their valley blasted apart and a cloud of dust expanded through the air, complete with ash and burning leaves. A hand grabbed her arm and her brother was pulling her towards the bison. "Up, now, firebenders," he said and lifted her onto the bison's back. Aang assisted her brother and himself up afterwards. "Yip yip!" Straddling the bison and clutching bare fur, he lifted off the ground just as a large burst streaked through the air ahead of him, sending themselves and the bison crashing to the ground. Sokka threw himself over her as the bison whipped around and struck against the attackers with his tail, but it was ineffective when countered by the hefty komodo rhino. Half a dozen poised to intercept the bison. Her brother tugged her to her feet, but as she tried to regather water to fight the force off he pulled her away and sent them running across the valley. A second later a komodo rhino was at their heels having come around Appa, who was now criss-crossed in metal wires forming a net.

Aang, using his glider as a staff, swept a current of air against the rhino, which did nothing to stop its approach but did momentarily blind the rider. Katara whipped a line of water towards the attacker's head, snapping it hard against his helmet, and he fell to the side of the saddle but clung resiliantly on.

"Aang, dirt cloud!" yelled Sokka, and the airbender gouged a burst towards the soil, sending a large plume that covered half the valley. Fire shot around them, impacting the ground and singing the air. "Cave." Katara could barely see where they were going, but in another ten yards they splashed into the creek and Sokka pulled her down to crawling position. Ahead, Aang had already slipped through the crack, and it took only moments for the siblings to slide down and join him. Panting, they inched forward as the obscuring dust of the valley gave way to the darkness of the cave. By another twist of the pathway, which was hardly large enough to crawl through, they were out of sight of the entrance. "Keep going," whispered Sokka. "They'll find the entrance soon."

"What about Appa?" whispered Aang.

"If you want to go back for your bison, you go, but I'm not letting my sister get killed by firebenders."

Something splashed loudly and made for them—quickly. Katara prepared to strike, but stopped when she heard trilling. "It's the lemur." Terrified, the animal located them and leapt into her chest, clutching her shirt and trembling.

"Maybe the lemur can find another route out of here," Sokka whispered.

Aang said, too loudly, "I can't leave Appa, they're going to kill him!"

"Quiet! You're going to get us killed. We can't go back. The entire crew of that prince is back there and this time they're on komodo rhinos and aren't asking politely."

"Are you injured?" whispered Katara.

"A little bit, but there's no time now. I was on a cliff when I spotted them, and by that time I was already cornered. What I don't get is why they're so persistent. We already said we don't know where the Avatar is. Why would some young airbender and two Water Tribe members have any clue? It doesn't make any sense." Outside they could hear shouting and tremors resonating through the tunnels. "We have to keep going. Katara, get the lemur to go ahead of us. He can probably see better than we can."

"I'm going back for Appa," said Aang, but as he tried to squeeze through the passage Katara grabbed his arm and held him back.

Sokka roughly whispered, "Kid, listen, that prince is going insane out there. He wants this 'Avatar' badly enough to torture you to death for it. You can't take them all on and we have to get moving."

"But it's my fault," he cried. "I don't want Appa to get hurt because of me."

"What do you mean 'your fault?' Do you know something about this?"

He had settled onto his knees and no longer made to pull away from her towards the entrance. "Yes, I do. It's me, I'm the Avatar—and I think that Fire prince knows it. In the air temple I think he saw me waterbend."

"All this time, it was you?" said Katara. "You lied to us."

"I'm sorry."

"That crazy murderer has been chasing us for days," said Sokka, about to lose his own temper. "He blew up my home, harassed my sister, and all this time it was you he was looking for. You know what, go ahead and go back to your bison. I'm getting my sister out of here."

"Sokka, no, they'll kill him."

"He's a liar and he put us in danger."

"I know, I'm sorry, it's my fault and I did lie. I was scared," he confessed, and as he did so, he kept confessing, all of it, back to the night he left the temple, in a fervent pace and small voice. "I've made so many mistakes, and even after I knew I had, I kept making more."

By the end she thought he really would crawl back out and go into the arms of the firebenders, so she held his arm and made sure he stayed put. "Aang, I don't think you deserve to die, and if you go back there you will. Come with us."

"Katara, no. Send him back. He put us in danger and we'll stay in danger until that prince gets what he's looking for."

"We're all already in danger. If Aang is really the Avatar he's the only one who can save us from the war. We should take him to Dad."

"I don't want to even look at him, let alone take him to my family," replied Sokka coldly. However, by then sounds outside were growing closer and it was a matter of time before the firebenders found the cave entrance. "We need to get out of here. Make the lemur find us a way out. The kid can come along if he wants."

Aang shuffled to the front of the group, encouraging the lemur to crawl beside him, and at the front began pushing the animal forward. It sensed trouble behind them and, after sniffing and pawing the water a moment, began splashing forward. The water was still flowing under them along the same brook, but the mountain pressed into the cave around them tightly, and there was no telling if a path out was large enough to admit them. In complete darkness it seemed the lemur, with its large eyes, very well could see in the dark at least to some degree, and the trio proceeded down a run, at times level and at times sloping sharply. Their pace was painfully slow, but the firebenders were not yet pursuing them, perhaps waiting them out to return for the bison and their luggage. After half an hour in total darkness, a small glimmer reflected into the water. Gradually the lighting increased as the cave approached an exit.

The ocean was in front of them, with other islands in the distance to the north. The cave exited at the side of a cliff and the brook, which had guided them, plunged into a dramatic waterfall that crashed below them in white mist and jagged rocks. The coastline was harsh and unforgiving, but the firebenders were not in sight, and they heard none of the previous commotion over the roar of the tide. Waves crested against the stone of the mountains. Below, mussels clustered in tidepools in the rock among clumps of seagrass.

"There's no way back up. Look at the coast." Sokka squinted across the strip of sea. "I was planning to take the bison across but we don't have that option anymore. We can't stay in the Pitola Mountains; we have to get out of here before Prince Soot-head finds us. Katara, can you make us a raft?"

"Yes." After Aang helped ease the three down with airbending, she crafted a raft from ice large enough to accommodate them. "Are we okay to cross?"

"Yeah, I think so. No one can see us from here—that cave took us clear to the other side of the mountain." The sun was already low in the sky.

Aang, sniffling miserably, wouldn't let them see his face, and hugged his knees on the side of the raft turned away from them. Katara asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine. Sokka's right, it's my fault you're in danger and I can't risk you getting hurt to retrieve Appa. It's just, I've had him since we were both small."

"Maybe they won't kill him," she said optimistically. "A living air bison is a precious novelty. They might take him to a zoo or something."

"Yeah, maybe." The lemur, clinging to his shoulder, pawed at his face with his ears lowered sympathetic to his misery.

The water of the sea was turning, in the sunset, the same colors as the flames from their pursuers. Heavy red cast across the water and sky, and the islands were a long way off. The three of them, silent and sullen, sat on the ice raft as she propelled it forwards through low waves and a soft breeze. It was past midnight before they reached the closest shore, and the unlucky mountains were long lost to sight with the darkness.

#

"What the hell do you mean you can't find them? Look around—there's nowhere they could have gone!" Zuko shouted at the reporting man. Behind him, the bison was still snorting and struggling against the secures causing a headache-inducing uproar, and it was long since dark.

"We checked the surrounding mountains and valleys and we checked the cave system. It's pitch black in there and barely large enough to fit a man through. If they entered that, they're probably dead, but we flooded the run with fire to make sure and nothing screamed."

"We have their bison, they didn't fly out of here. They're somewhere in the area."

"Prince Zuko,"