32 Meeting Aang

While Xiao was contemplating his possible blindness, Zuko, who was heading to the Southern Water Tribe per Iroh's instructions saw the large beam of light.

"Uncle, look!" He yelled excitedly, pointing at the large beam of light that seemed to stab through the very sky.

Iroh, who was sitting in front of a small wooden table, sipping tea and eating turtle duck, glanced at the sky and smiled slightly.

"After all this time! That must be the Avatar! Nothin else could utilize this much energy!" Zuko shouted, completely forgetting why he originally came here.

Iroh just continued calmly sipping tea.

"I can finally go home!" Zuko said, smiling.

Iroh smiled sadly. 'I don't know whether to be happy for you or sad, nephew…' he thought.

While traveling with Zuko, he watched his previously joyful and kind nephew become more and more angry by the day. The constant humiliation of the past, the men laughing at him behind his back, and the scar on his face serving as a constant reminder of his failure.

He became obsessed with the thought of capturing the Avatar. He believed that was the only way for him to regain his 'honor.' Although even his idea of what honor is, is warped.

Zuko has convinced himself that upon capturing the Avatar, everything will go back to normal. He will return to the Fire Nation and life will return to what he coincidentally the 'good times.' No one will disrespect him and he will be happy.

It is because of this naive dream that Zuko has become so fixated on capturing someone that may or may not exist!

Although he would never say it out loud, Iroh heals some resentment for his brother. Giving his thirteen year old son the mission of capturing the Avatar, who has evaded the Fire Nation for a century, is basically just giving him false hope at succeeding.

However, Ozai is still his brother, and he still loves him. Iroh simply believes that his little brother has made a few… questionable choices.

"Zuko. We have searched for years to find the Avatar and have already combed the globe. This in itself is our second time patrolling the Southern Water Tribe. Why would he be here? Besides, our main objective is to reunite with Xiao. I wonder how much he's grown during his time away." Iroh said calmly.

This statement briefly pulled Zuko from his thoughts over the Avatar, although not in the way Iroh had hoped.

"Yes! Xiao has always been strong! With his help I have no doubt that the Avatar's capture will be assured! Men! Full speed for the Southern Water Tribe!" And with that last order Zuko walked back into the ship, done with his training for the day.

Iroh sighed sadly.

——————

(We're back with Xiao)

"Oh my god my eyes!" Xiao screamed, rolling around on the ground and clawing at his face. He opened his eyes briefly but quickly closed them due to the pain.

Katara and Sokka completely ignored him, instead focusing on the cause of the large beam of light.

"Katara! Get back!" Sokka shouted from beside Xiao. When Katara had decided to free the boy in the ice, he had backed up due to fear.

"No! We have to help him!" Katara called back. Sokka groaned. And looked over at Xiao, who had calmed somewhat.

"You okay?" He asked. Xiao nodded, blinking his eyes until they adjusted to the light.

"What's going on? What was that light?" He asked Sokka as he looked around. Katara seemed to be… inspecting the ground? No wait, there's a body under her.

"We found a weird kid inside an iceberg and Katara decided to free him. When she opened it up the thing exploded into that light pillar." Sokka replied, narrating the prior events.

"Ah." Xiao said simply.

Sokka looked at him like he was crazy. "Is that seriously all you have to say? Isn't that weird?" He asked incredulously. Xiao shrugged. "I've seen weirder things." He said bluntly.

Sokka sighed and decided to ignore him. Xiao got up and went over to Katara.

"Is that the kid?" He asked, leaning down and looking over her shoulder. Katara looked up and nodded.

"I hope he's alright…" she murmured as she checked if he was breathing.

Xiao scanned the child. His head was shaved and he wore robes that were the typical garb of the air nomads. His head had a large blue arrow tattooed to it, and he had two similar arrows on the back of his hands.

'An air bender.' Xiao thought, remembering. Book he read on the subject. In the air temple, everyone would wear robes similar to the boy's, but only those who had mastered air bending could have the tattoos that lined the child's body.

The fact that the child was an air bender, paired with the inexplicable amount of energy released upon the ice berg he was trapped in being split open, got Xiao thinking.

'Could it be…?' He thought to himself.

'I'll ask Tom about it later…' he added in his head.

The kid groaned, his eyes slowly fluttering open.

Xiao's watched as the kid completely ignored him and instead stared at Katara weakly. His lips moved slightly.

"What? What is it?" Katara asked, leaning in closer so she could here what the boy was trying to say.

"Will you go penguin sledding with me?" The boy asked, startling both Xiao and Katara as his loud voice sounded.

"Uh… Sure?" Katara was now really confused.

The boy smiled happily and sat up. Katara backed off.

"Who are you?" He asked, just now realizing that Xiao was standing right next to him, causing the fire bender's eye to twitch slightly in annoyance. However, despite being frustrated with the kid, Xiao put on a patient smile.

"Hello. My name is Xiao, what is yours?" He asked.

The kid smiled back, seemingly in response to Xiao's own grin. "I'm… I'm… ACHOO!" He was about to introduce himself when he sneezed, the force from the sneeze made him fly high into the air.

Xiao watched as he fell back down and slid along a nearby wall of ice, skidding to a stop in front of Xiao, standing where he did previously.

"I'm Aang!" He said, rubbing his nose.

"You're an air bender!" Katara exclaimed excitedly, while Sokka finally worked up the nerves to run up to them.

"Katara! Get back! He might be dangerous!" He shouted, pulling Katara behind him and taking out an oddly shaped bone with a spherical blue rock embedded inside it.

"Does he LOOK dangerous to you, Sokka?" Katara asked her brother exasperatedly.

Xiao chuckled from the side.

Suddenly a load groan could be heard from behind a wall of ice.

"What was that?!" Sokka asked fearfully.

"Appa!" Aang yelled, zipping around a corner at a speed that surprised Xiao. 'He's almost as fast as me…' he mused as he walked after him. Katara followed while Sokka took up the rear.

When Xiao turned the corner, his calm demeanor to a complete one-eighty.

"IS THAT AN AIR BISON?!" He shouted, as he stared at Appa with stars in his eyes.

"Yep! He's also my best friend!" Aang said proudly.

Xiao sprinted up to the bison and hugged one of it's legs. "So soft!" He exclaimed, before jumping up and scratching him behind one of his small ears. Appa seemed to enjoy that as his eyes rolled back and he let out a groan.

"You seem excited." Katara pointed out as Xiao continued to pet Appa.

"Of course I'm excited! I've always dreamed of seeing an air bison since I read about them!" Xiao explained happily.

"Oh, I see." Katara said, before skipping over and joking in on petting Appa. Aang laughed.

Sokka on the other hand…

He crept up slowly to the beast and started poking it with his club. Appa, in response to Sokka's prodding, sneezed, drenching the boy in mucus.

Xiao laughed align with Aang and Katara as Sokka leapt around, trying desperately to clean it off.

"He likes you!" Aang said with a smile., but Sokka was having none of it.

"Gross…" he whined, wiping off even more mucus.

"I have a feeling that isn't going to come out." Xiao added from his perch on top of the bison, causing Sokka to groan load my out of frustration.

"Hey! Since our boat was destroyed when we crashed, we can ride Appa to the village!" Xiao yelled to Katara and Sokka.

"Great idea Xiao!" Aang said with a smile.

"Yeah! Let's do that!" Katara said happily.

She climbed up Appa's tail and sat next to Aang. Xiao hauled up a grumbling Sokka and sat next to him in the back, leaning against the side of the saddle.

'I can't wait for it to fly!' Xiao thought. He was so excited that small popping sounds could be heard from his hands which were caused by small explosions.

"Alright Appa! Yip-yip!" Aang shouted.

The bison lifted its tail and slammed it against the ice, causing cracks to form as it was lifted into the air, however, it's ascent was short lived because soon he came crashing right back down into the water, splashing all his passengers in the process.

"Wow. This is SO amazing…" Sokka said sarcastically.

Xiao was crying silently.

——————

Yay. Aang.

Anyway.

I needed to get this chapter over with. It was probably one of the hardest chapters I had to write so far, and I don't know why. I just didn't have any ideas on how to write it.

So sorry if the writing is slightly sub-par when compared to other chapters.

With that being said,

*Vansihes Dramatically*