"Where's appa?"

Zuko set a hand on the blind girls shoulder, making sure she wasn't hurt, she used him to stand back up while sand blew around them when the wind picked up.

"The sand benders, it all happened to fast..." she gulped and explained to everyone how the bison was stolen from her. Aang felt hot tears of anger run down his face.

"How could you let them take appa!?" Aang yelled at her.

"Why didn't you stop them?!" He barked.

"I couldn't! The library was sinking!  You guys are still inside and-" "you couldve come to get us, I could've saved him!" Aang got in tophs face but Zuko stepped in front of her with a glare.

"Yelling isn't going to do anyone good, back off," Zuko looked down at the avatar.

"She already said she couldn't see well in the sand, what the fuck was she suppose to do!?" He raised his voice making Katara now walk over to the argument. Aang flinched at the tone still afraid of the firebenders rage but the avatars own anger still boiled.

"They snuck up on me and there wasn't time to go get you," Toph tried to explain but the avatar only saw red.

"You just didn't care! You never liked appa! You wanted him gone!" Aang screamed but Katara pulled him back now.

"Aang stop it," Katara mothered him seeing it was to heated now.

"Toph did all she could and you know that, she saved our lives," she tried to reason with him.

"Who's going to save our lives now? We'll never make it out of here," Sokka tsked irritated as well.

"That's all any of you guys care about, yourselves," Aang stormed off a little.

"You don't care if appa is okay or not," he threw his hands up.

"We're all concerned but we can't afford to be fighting like this," Katara tried again.

"I'm going after appa," Aang announced and left without another word.

"Aang wait!" Katara yelled as he took off on his glider.

"I'm sorry," Toph rasped with her head down.

"Don't apologize kid, we need to start moving though," Zuko patted the top of her head and looked at the sky trying to tell what time it is.

"Let's follow East," he pointed.

"Why?" Sokka frowned.

"If we follow where the sun rises we have a better chance to not get any more lost, East has to go somewhere," Zuko pulled Toph along so she didn't get left behind.

"He's right, we're the only people who know about the solar eclipse, we have to start walking," Katara followed them and a moment later her brother did too.

"Do you think if we dig out the giant owl he'll give us ride?" Sokka whined.

-

They walked for hours mostly in silence as Katara took the lead following East. They all had flushed cheeks and were sweating in the heat, exhausted from walking.

Sokka used momo to block the sun from his head and Toph accident bumped into him.

"Hey can't You see where-" he stopped himself as they all stopped in the sand.

"No, I can't," Toph huffed.

"Come on you guys, let's stick together and keep going," Katara wiped sweat from her forehead waiting for her brother.

"If I sweat anymore I don't think sticking together will be a problem," Sokka was trying to pull Toph off of him.

"Katara, can I have some water?" Toph asked in a small voice.

"Okay.. but we got to try to conserve it," Katara sighed softly and unbuckled her water pouch to bend the water out.

"Me too me too!" Sokka gasped.

"Zuko?" Katara asked.

"Save it for later, I'm fine now," Zuko shook his head.

Katara was to tired to understand why but she bended the water into three ways for Sokka, Toph and momo to drink.

"We're drinking your bending water?" Sokka made a face and smacked his lips a few times. "You used this on the swamp guy!"

"It does taste swampy," Toph agreed. Momo gagged a little.

"I'm sorry it's all we have," Katara closed the lid.

"Not anymore, look!" Sokka pointed to a cactus and went to slice it open. Only to immediately drink it.

"He did not," zukos jaw dropped.

"Sokka don't drink from straight plants!" Katara cried out baffled.

"There's water trapped inside these things," Sokka cut another one in half to offer to the three.

"I don't know," Katara shook her head.

"No," Zuko crossed his arms knowing better.

"Suit yourself," Sokka drank it anyways. "It's very thirst quenching though,"

Sokka got quiet and started mumbling to himself while his eye twitched and shook his head.

"It's the quenchiest," he squealed.

"Okay, I think you had enough," Katara poured the cactus juice out.

"Who lit Toph on fire?" Sokka focused on the small girl.

Zuko and Katara looked up seeing momo flying in small circles and crash landed in the dirt, Katara sighed picking up the lemur.

"Can I get some of that cactus juice?" Toph asked.

"No," Zuko and Katara said.

"Come on we need to find Aang and get out of this desert," Katara sighed tiredly as Toph had a hand on zukos sleeve while they kept walking. Sokka stood in the back staring at the sky with drool down his chin. Katara had to run back and drag him along.

"How did we get here in the middle of the ocean?"

—

There was a harsh gust of wind behind the four of them making everyone but Toph turn around to see a dust mushroom.

"What is that?" Katara whispered confused.

"It's.. a.. giant mushroom!" Sokka gasped as he danced a little in excitement. "Maybe it's friendly!"

"Let's keep moving," Zuko reminded them.

"I hope aangs okay," Katara told him quietly.

Zuko didn't seem to care much for the avatars well being, he didn't have much emotion to express to them but Katara could see his soft spot for Toph for some reason. He kept her close and kept her moving.

Katara almost was relieved someone else was carrying some responsibility with her, at least then she can take care of her brother at this time and didn't have to worry if Toph was falling behind either.

"My head hurts," Toph leaned closer to Zuko as she stumbled over her own feet once in a while.

"We can't keep drinking the water in one day," Zuko told her calmly.

Toph nodded understanding but tripped again only to run into zukos side making them both stumble a little. Zuko didn't say anything but he kept low to the ground.

"Get on my back, your feet are probably burning," he sighed and brought her hands to his shoulder. Toph didn't argue and laid on his back, arms wrapped around his neck loosely, Zuko shifted to get his arms under her knees and stood tall again.

He didn't say anything else as he kept walking and didn't look at Katara, he didn't want to hear any comments about his actions.

Soon the sun started to finally fall while the sky turned orange to a deep red, night was soon to follow finally. Toph kept her head on zukos shoulder as he carried her and Katara had a hand around her brothers wrist while he hallucinated.

Katara looked up surprised seeing Aang returning but there was no appa. She knew this was going to be hard on him.

"Youre back," she sighed relieved as they all stopped to wait for the air bender.

Aang was crouched on the ground and a scowl on his face.

"I know it's hard for you right now but we need to focus on getting out of here, we're not doing to good," Katara set a hand on his shoulder to comfort him.

"What's the difference? We won't survive without appa, we all know it," aangs voice sounded like he was giving up, he was still upset but the rage was less, it was sad and giving up now.

"We'll make it if we work together, right Toph?" Katara turned back to the blind girl and the soldier.

"As far as I could feel we're trapped in a giant bowl of sand pudding," Toph raised her hand but kept her head down.

"Sokka any ideas on how to get to the earth king?" She tsked looking at her brother that was laying on the ground.

"Why don't we ask the circle birds?" Sokka hummed on the ground. The others looked up seeing vulture hornets.

Katara looked at her little team of misfits, Aang kept his back to her as he grieves for his lost companion, Sokka and momo were laying in the sand making sounds together, Zuko was helping Toph down as she stumbled and he caught the youngest.

"We're getting out of this desert and going to do it together," Katara told them determined.

"Aang get up, everyone hold hands, Zuko I need you to make sure no one gets left behind, can I rely on you?" She looked at him sternly.

"Yes ma'am," Zuko quirked a brow impressed. He grabbed the scruff of sokkas shirt and forced him up as Katara got Aang to stand and grabbed his staff, Toph held onto aangs hand and sokkas behind her. Zuko held onto monos tail to let the lemur fly around and stayed in the back while Katara took the lead.