As the sun dipped below the horizon and day faded into dusk, I unraveled the large sack I'd been carrying and began laying out our supplies.
Cooking utensils first, followed by the ingredients. Tonight's dinner would be as simple as it could get: rice with chicken soup. It was the best I could come up with given the limited supplies available.
After that came the camping necessities—oil lamps, extra fuel for the fireplace to keep it burning through the night, and anything else we might need.
Problem was that all of this had practically drained my wallet dry.
I sighed internally.
I'd have to find some way to make money once we reached Ba Sing Se. Otherwise, we might have a bigger problem than just finding Appa.
One by one, I passed around towels, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and everything else we'd need before bed.
Eventually, I reached Suki.
She accepted her share... albeit with a noticeable hint of suspicion.
... That was pretty much how everyone in the group had looked at me after learning I was a Fire Bender.
Good times.
Actually, it had already been almost a month since I joined Avatar Aang and the gang on his journey.
Time really did fly.
While dicing the vegetables I'd managed to buy from what remained of the cabbage merchant's stock, I heard Toph slowly approach.
She lightly tapped her foot against the ground.
A moment later, I felt the earth beneath me shift.
"Just making it sturdier," she said casually as she sat down beside me.
The two of us settled into a comfortable silence.
I focused on preparing dinner while she quietly sat beside me.
Well...
It was less that we were enjoying the silence and more that we were both listening to everyone else's conversations.
Sokka and Suki were busy sorting out whatever awkwardness existed between them. Sokka was being overly protective, much to Suki's annoyance. Once their conversation drifted into more private territory, I politely stopped eavesdropping.
Meanwhile, Katara was trying to have a heart-to-heart with Aang. He kept pushing her away.
I tossed the chopped vegetables into the small pot I'd managed to buy and glanced over at Toph.
She had curled into herself, her arms wrapped around her knees.
"So..."
I stirred the pot, noticing the unusual silence coming from the loud-mouthed little lady I knew so well.
"Coin for your thoughts?"
She didn't answer.
Her cloudy eyes remained fixed on the dancing flames.
"... I never really apologized to Aang about Appa."
Her voice was barely above a whisper.
"I've been training really hard to learn Sand Bending lately. After all that's happened."
She lowered her head.
"Turns out, it was easier than I thought to be. And that got me thinking... maybe if I'd worked on it back then instead of just goofing around..."
"You can't blame yourself, Toph."
I cut off that train of thought before it could go any further.
"It was literally our first time hearing about Sand Bending when we reached Misty Palms Oasis. Logically speaking, there was no way you could've learned an entirely new style of Earth Bending in less than a day."
"... I know."
She hugged her knees a little tighter.
"I just... I can't stop thinking about it."
Silence settled between us.
After a few moments, I spoke.
"I don't really know how I'm supposed to feel about all that's happened."
I resumed chopping the meat for dinner.
"On one hand, I feel bad that Appa was taken."
"On the other... I'm not as emotionally affected as everyone else is, no offense."
I let out a quiet sigh.
"Still... if I'm trying to find one good thing that's come out of all this..."
I gestured toward Than's family. The dutiful husband was helping his wife massage her sore feet while his sister was busy with making sure that her sister-in-law was comfortable for the night.
"We're helping Than and his family, aren't we? If we'd still had Appa, we would've flown straight to Ba Sing Se. We never would've come through Full Moon Bay, and we probably never would've met Than and his family. They would've been stranded after losing everything."
"It doesn't make what happened to Appa any less awful. But... that's just how life is sometimes."
I strengthened the fire beneath the pot, watching the flames dance.
"The world doesn't care if you're ready. Sometimes it just takes something from you when it feels like it, throws you into the dirt, and leaves you wondering what you did to deserve all of the bad things that happened."
"But you can't stay stuck in that thought forever."
"You have to accept that you can't always choose what happens to you. All you can do is stand back up, shrug off the pain, and keep walking with whatever you have left."
I paused, my gaze drifting toward the sky.
"And if you can still choose to do something good along the way despite the pain and suffering... then someday, when you finally look back, you'll realize the pain wasn't the only thing that followed you."
Once again, there was silence between us.
For a moment, I was lost in my own thoughts.
Then I suddenly realized what I had just done.
"Um... yeah."
I scratched the back of my head. "Sorry for dumping all of that on you out of nowhere. I just got carried away."
I looked back at her.
"Anyway, about your problem, I recommend—"
Before I could finish, Toph raised a hand near my face.
She had been staring at the wall ahead, but now she turned toward me.
"It's fine."
She smiled.
"I know what to do now. Thanks, Ren. I knew I could come to you about this stuff."
Before I could respond, she leaned forward and gave me a quick hug.
Then she immediately pulled away, jumping back to her feet and walking toward where Aang was brooding.
...
I stared after her.
Slowly, I raised my hand and covered my face.
"What was that?" I let out a quiet breath, staring at my palm.
When did I start thinking like that?
I stared into the flames for a moment longer.
Then I shook my head, pushing the thought aside.
Whatever it was, it could wait. Dinner was almost ready.
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A/N: I'm... Just not going to put a date on next chapters anymore. Just know that it'll be two plus-ish chapters a week (if I even have the time to turn my PC on!)
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