Thanks for the encouraging reviews and favorites, guys.

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Aang's Narrative

Lately I've been thinking that perhaps Horonka wasn't so wrong in his
contentious stance that our little team was a magnet for trouble. It
seemed that no matter where our peregrinations took us, peril was
never slack to make its appearance. We'd been flying over the
south-western lands of the Earth Kingdom for several hours before the
first symptom of its mischief materialized.

"Aang, I think we'd better find shelter fast," shouted Horonka, whose
voice was bandied about upon the escalating, vacillating force of the
wind. "There's no way we can make it through this storm tonight."

I'd been pondering the same thing for some time now, but was
constrained by a lingering feeling of guilt for disappointing Toph for
a second time. In the rapidly shortening distance, the dark, ominous
clouds that mantled the eastern sky were momentarily brightened by a
fierce, terrific, crackling series of lightning bolts. Almost
instantly upon their heels was a violent, deafening, rumbling clap of
thunder which seemed to reverberate even to the remotest corners of
the sky. Momo, who was affrighted by the belligerent ferocity of this
looming storm, sprang impetuously unto my leg and buried his face
within the sanctuary of my robes. "Its okay, Momo," I gently coaxed as
I caressed the soft fur on his back. "We'll be fine." In answer to
Horonka's urging, I told him that I'd defer to Toph. "It's her call,"
I cried, as I tightened my grip on the leathern straps of Appa's
reigns. As we began to draw into the apathetic clutches of the storm,
large, sporadic drops of rain began to smack us.

"Well, Toph, what will it be?" I heard Horonka ask her from where I
sat straddled upon Appa's head. "There's a bad storm brewing in the
East. Not to be a cynic, but if you ask me, considering our luck these
past few weeks, we'd better not risk it."

"Okay," said Toph, a tad bit nettled. "But, as soon as the storm
breaks, Twinkle-toes," she added emphatically in an imperious tenor,
"we must leave. No sticking around to clean anybody's wells…no
sticking around to fix their houses…no sticking around to meddle in
anybody's business…no sticking around for anything…period. Got that?"

"You have my word," I agreed, smiling subtly as I turned to face her
where she knelt in the saddle, glaring forward in my general
direction, with a glum look of determination settled upon her face.

"Why does this tournament mean so much to you anyway?" I heard Horonka
ask her. "It's not like you haven't already proven yourself. Everyone
that I've met who knows anything of you has openly acknowledged that
your skill in earth-bending is rivaled by no other."

"You wouldn't understand," I heard Toph rejoin in a soft, solemn
timbre that greatly conflicted with her usual, blithe temperament.

"Oh, I see, is this a girl thing, Toph?" was Horonka's derisive
retort. Seriously, he seemed positively offended by Toph's ready
dismissal of his inquiry, which I assumed was ventured in an effort to
get inside of her head; in the past, he had once or twice confided to
me that no one could really know Toph because she buries her emotions,
when things concerned her very nearly, under an inscrutable air of
insouciance. To a certain extent, I agree with him. At times there
were bursts of revelation in which I was able to see a shadow of a
softer side that she kept guarded against the world, and enshrouded
beneath her habitual, impenetrable veneer. Yet, she was forthright in
her opinions and never hesitated to tell Horonka or me what she truly
thought of us and our actions. I found this paradox in her character a
bit eccentric.

Then again, maybe that's just the way girls were. Heaven knows that my
own judgment where they were concerned had fallen short several times
too many; my biggest consummate failure, in this respect, being that
of my misinterpretation of Katara's feelings. Yes, I'll admit it here
and now, that through the years I've examined it to death. In my quest
to comprehend where exactly my understanding had failed, I'd been
forced to revisit memories that were both thrilling and painful to me.
Before that fateful night on Ember Island, I had earnestly believed
that her romantic favor had rested upon me. Ah, what a fool I had been
then! In my naivety, I did not fully understand that unique
benevolence that governed her character, and therefore her actions.
I'd been veritably mistaken; I'd confused her kindness for love. After
all, hadn't I seen the same strain of compassion towards Haru, Jet,
Zuko and countless others? It was a bitter lesson learned, and one
that I hope I'd never forget.

"Aang, what're doing?" Toph bellowed, jolting me from my somber
reverie. I hadn't noticed that I was veering off our course. "Didn't
you hear that noise?"

"What…!" exclaimed Horonka; the rest of his voice was smothered by a
vehement, crashing uproar from below that we realized at once could
only augur ill. I pulled gently upon Appa's reigns to guide him around
for a closer look from our elevated vantage. "Aang! Down there!" I
followed Horonka's outstretched hand to a steep hill where the earth
was violently rushing towards a green valley that separated it from a
large, and at the moment, dimly lit, village. If it weren't for the
feeble rays of the partly obscured moonlight, everything would be
pitch-black to our sight. "This is bad! Didn't I tell you that trouble
courts us wherever we go?"

The wind's gales whipped vexingly about us as I brought Appa down with
some difficulty unto the green, tangled turf of the small valley.
"Horonka, quick, take Appa and Momo with you and warn the villagers,"
I yelled above the turbulent gusts of wind that sorely pressed us
backward and seemed wickedly intent upon divesting us of the very
clothes upon our backs. "Bring as many earth-benders as you can gather
in a hurry; we'll need their help." I swiftly swept our surroundings.
"We'll also need a light source; anything that could withstand these
strong winds will do fine." By degrees, my eyes began to adjust to the
perforated darkness. "Toph, come with me. We need to dig a wide trench
around the base of the hill to stop the mudflow." I looked up warily
at the overwhelming rush of earth that, by a miraculous stroke of
luck, had been obstructed by a peculiar jut in the hill. "Quick! We
must hurry before it begins to rain again." It was likely that when
the storm had passed through earlier, it had forced the loose earth on
the hillside, and this was the aftermath.

"Right," said Toph as we separated. "I'll start working my way from
over this side."

"Be careful, Toph," I cautioned. "We're working blindly here." The
words were out of my mouth before I'd realized my fatuous blunder.
"Eh, sorry, Toph," I quickly apologized. "I didn't mean..."

"I know, I know," she said dismissively and hurriedly. "But, you're
forgetting your earth-bending basics, Twinkle-toes; all we need to do
is wait, listen and bend." I conceded her point. Even without closing
my eyes, I could clearly perceive the earth's vibrations. Still, I was
persuaded that I'd be more confident if we had a little light to
ensure us against any undesirable surprises.

When we were twenty minutes into digging the trenches, and compressing
the sludge and flow that had already descended, a faint drizzle began
to fall. By now Toph and I were steadily growing closer as we bent in
more rapid, powerful strokes.

"Aang, are you sure this won't overflow?" called Horonka, who was
skeptically gazing up at several large boulders that were precariously
inclined on the hill's slope. He had just returned on foot with
several earth-benders, who carried a few poled-lanterns, which, by the
way, couldn't serve us much. Earlier we had heard a few faint peels of
the village's bell, which had, from time to time, swelled above the
sonorous howling of the capricious, blustering winds.

Truthfully, I couldn't be sure if the trench would hold the avalanche;
if this second onslaught of showers was as heavy as the first, I knew
that we'd definitely be in trouble.

"Uh, I don't know about you guys, but I'd feel much better if we
weren't standing in the direct reach of those awfully huge boulders,"
Horonka warned as he pointed them out.

"You and Toph take the others and go," I urged him. "I'll stay here to
bend the earth deeper if it threatens to overflow."

"Whoa! Hold on there, buddy," resisted Toph. "I'm staying put. You'll
need all the help that you can get from us."

While the other earthbenders took refuge some distance away, we stood
around waiting anxiously as the formidable heavens expelled its fury.
About ten minutes into this downpour, the calamitous rush of earth
resumed and plunged into the wide trenches before quickly rising
again. Immediately, Toph and I began, simultaneously, to bend the
earth deeper to compact the debris downward.

"Ugh! The rain only makes this worse," Horonka groaned.

"I wish we had more time to dig a deeper, wider trench," said Toph,
wistfully.

"I don't know," said Horonka, in a slow, contemplative voice. "Perhaps
we can…"

His whole manner grew deeply reflective. "What?" Toph asked impatiently.

"I've never attempted this before, but, what if we could stop the rain
to give you and the other Earthbenders enough time to dig the earth
deeper?"

"Are you out of your mind?" Toph ridiculed.

"No…no…he does have a point, Toph," I said, directly seizing upon
Horonka's idea; my mind had suddenly been illuminated with the
possibility. "I don't know why I've never thought of this before."

"Eh, are you both out of your minds then?" asked Toph, in her sardonic
glory.

"This just might work," Horonka exulted with an uncharacteristic grin
upon his tanned face. "Toph, while Aang and I bend the rain, you and
the other earthbenders begin bending as quickly as you can. I don't
know how long we'll be able to prevent this rain."

Together, Horonka and I began to bend a redoubtable circle around the
hill. This was an incredible feat indeed for the hill was almost as
tall as Mount Makapu back in Aunt Wu's village. "Wait! Wait, you guys
actually did it!" said Toph in an incredible show of disbelief.

"As Bumi says, Toph, we've got to keep our minds open to the
possibilities," I heard Horonka tell her.

About fifteen minutes after this, Horonka was growing exhausted from
sustaining his hold on our defense, and Toph and the other
Earthbenders were still bending the earth deeper as the trench took in
new mounds of dirt from the slide. "Take a break, Horonka," I
encouraged. "I'll take it from here."

"No way!" said he, doubtfully.

I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply as I harnessed that dormant,
prodigious power within me and I knew that my eyes and tattoos glowed
for a moment before fading again. I asked everyone to step back before
driving two powerful strokes into the pit to expand its width and
depth on either side; after this, I surrendered the remnant of that
work to Toph, and, with a circular motion of my extended arms, took
hold of the water-girdle that Horonka and I had created.

Relieved, Horonka dropped his hands and began to stretch and rotate
them in their sockets. "How's it coming, Toph?"

"I'll be done in a few minutes," said she exasperatedly as she forced
the stubborn earth, debris and boulders further into the ditch. "Let's
hope this'll work like a charm." When she had finished covering the
distance of the trench, she defiantly said, "Okay, let's put this to
the test." I released my hold on the water and it came splashing down
upon us with a thud. "Ugh, thanks a lot, Twinkle-toes," she quipped as
she spat water from her mouth.

"Sorry." It took a while for the landslide to begin again, and when it
did, much to our chagrin, the trenches began to fill rapidly.

"Ugh," said Toph, throwing up her hands in acknowledged defeat. "Are
we to do this all night?" With her fists clenched, her arms
outstretched and raised to the sky, she frustratingly cried, as if to
the Universe, "Would you give us a break just this once?"

"She's right, Aang," Horonka seconded. "We can't keep this up all
night and hope to make it to her house before tomorrow evening."

"We can't abandon these people either," I solemnly entreated. "Have
you forgotten what it's been like for these people? They've been
through so much already, and have lost so much; if…"

"Alright, alright," Toph grumbled. "We get it. Don't get all preachy
like Katara."

"I'll take that as a compliment," I rejoined good-naturedly.

"Whatever!"

All of that night, we worked until the first glimpse of light peeped
over the jagged hillsides and the rain, which seemed to take some kind
of cruel, willful pleasure in thwarting us, finally ceased. As a
precaution against another rainy day, when we went to the village, I
advised its chieftain to consider building a temporary dam to
safeguard their town until they were able to correct the problematic
soil on the slope. We'd learned then that they had uprooted trees from
the hill to rebuild homes, which had most probably left the soil
vulnerable to erosion.

"Look at us," said Horonka, who was surveying the full length of his
person in disgust. "We're wet, filthy, battered, tired, and hungry,
among other things."

"Speak for yourself," said Toph, who carelessly plopped herself down
upon the rim of a stone fountain, which was situated in the center of
the town's square. "I'm just tired."

"Seriously, Toph, we need to get cleaned up," Horonka insisted. "We
can't show up at your parents' place looking, and smelling, like
vagabonds."

"Don't worry," I interjected, looking down at my robes, which were
splattered with a healthy coating of mud, "we'll find some place to
wash up."

"Ah, guys, about my parents, there's something that I forgot to
mention," Toph slyly noted.

"Why do I already hate the sound of this?" asked Horonka, who folded
his arms across his chest as he regarded Toph with a narrowed,
suspicious glance.

I didn't like the sound of it either and where it might lead. "What is
it Toph?" I hesitantly asked.

"Well, about Earthrumble Eleven, my parents don't actually know
anything about it and I'd like to keep it that way," she sheepishly
explained.

Horonka and I exchanged a cautious glance. "Toph, we've been down this
road before," I reasoned. "I don't want to go there again."

"You don't understand," said she testily. "If my parents knew about
it, they'd never let me enter the tournament."

"Don't look at me," said Horonka, when I glanced at him, silently
appealing for his help. "I never wanted to leave Ember Island, remember."

"I don't know Toph," I honestly admitted. "I dislike the idea of
deceiving your parents. We have a really good team here and I'd hate
to see it break up." Here, the village chieftain had returned to offer
us a place to clean up and rest before continuing our journey. "We'll
talk about this later," I whispered to Toph before falling into step
with the chieftain.

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Next chapter: Katara, and the rest of the gAang (including Ty Lee and
Kyoshi Warriors); Aang, Toph and Horonka have a chat with the Bei
Fongs and eventually returns to Ember Island.