Chapter 30??!!! Are we really so far along???

The day after Toph had destroyed one of the walls of our house we all went out to hang up lost and found posters.

"We'll split up to cover more area." Sokka said "Toph, I guess you should just come with me."

"Why? Because you think I can't put up posters on my own?!" Toph then angrily takes the paintbrush of glue from Sokka and throws glue on the wall. She puts up a poster, but it is backward. The picture facing the wall. "It's upside-down, isn't it?" She asks and I try to hold back my giggles. "I'll just go with Sokka."

We all go our separate ways, with Toph following Sokka while the rest of us split up. About an hour later I can feel Katara nearby in a bending stance. Something must have happened I realized. I ran as fast as I could to where I could feel her. When I got there I could see Katara in a defensive stance and a guy with spiky hair pinned to the wall by some ice spikes. The rest of the team came not too long later.

"Katara, what is it?" Sokka asked.

"Jet's back." Katara answers.

"Who?" Toph and I ask in unison.

"He's... a guy we ran into a while back." Sokka explains "We'll tell you the full story later."

"We can't trust anything Jet says." Katara adds.

"But we don't even know why he's here!" Sokka says.

"I don't care why he's here," Katara says "whatever the reason is, it can't be good!"

"I'm here to help you find Appa!" Jet opens his hand and shows us one of the missing Appa posters.

Aang looks at the leaflet for a moment before turning back to Katara. "Katara, we have to give him a chance."

"I swear, I've changed!" Jet insists "I was a troubled person and I let my anger get out of control, but I don't even have the gang now! I've put all that behind me!"

"You're lying!" Katara yells.

Toph walks up to Jet and feels the wall he is pinned to. "He's not lying." She tells us.

"How can you tell?" Sokka asks and I explain.

"Toph can feel his breathing and heartbeat. When people lie, there's a physical reaction. He's telling the truth."

"Can you do that too?" Aang asks and I shake my head.

"No, it's really hard to master and I like to focus more on my hearing."

"Katara, we don't have any leads." Sokka points out "if Jet says he can take us to Appa, we have to check it out."

"All right." Katara glares at Jet "but we're not letting you out of our sight." She stabs her finger at Jet, eyes narrowed.

-------

Jet leads us to a dimly lit warehouse, which is empty except for a cloth few sacks and a pile of canvas and rope. "This is the place I heard about."

"There's nothing here" Aang says.

Karata, preparing to waterbend says "if this is a trap–" but she's cut off before she can finish.

"I told you, I work nearby!" Jet says looking panicked "two guys were talking about some giant furry creature they had, I figured it must be Appa!"

"He was here!" We look over to Toph and she shows us a clump of Appa's fur.

"We missed him." Aang said sadly. An old white haired man with a push-broom crosses behind Aang.

"They took that big thing yesterday." The old man said and Aang straightened with a shocked look. "Shipped him out to some island. About time, I've been cleaning up fur, and various, uhhh ... leaves all day."

"What island?" Aang asked him "where's Appa?"

"Foreman said some rich royal type on Whale Tail Island bought him up. Guess for a zoo or such. Though, could be the meat that'd be good."

"We've got to get to Whaletail Island!" Aang declares before pausing "where's Whaletail Island?"

"Far, very far." Sokka says looking at the map he puts the map on the ground so we can all see "here it is." He points to an island on the map "it's near the South Pole, almost all the way back home."

"Aang," Katara said gently "it will take us weeks just to get to the tip of the Earth Kingdom. And then we'll need to find a boat to get to the island."

"I don't care. We have a chance to find Appa! We have to try!" The old man makes some comment but I don't bother to pay attention.

"You're right Aang," I said "right now the first thing we should do is to find Appa. We can come back when we have him."

"All right, let's get moving." Sokka said.

"I'll come with you." Jet offers.

Katara looks offended "we don't need your help!"

We started to walk back to the main part of the city with Jet following, trying to get Katara to agree and Toph teasing her for lying about him not being her boyfriend. 

------

A/N: Hey guys, sorry this is so late! I recently got a new job so that has been taking up a lot of my time. I hoped you enjoyed this chapter, please let me know what you thought. 

Also, how was Pride Month for all of you? I didn't do anything cause of the pandemic but if any of you did please tell! I would love to hear. 

Please stay safe everyone. 

Please Add, Vote, and Comment!

-Isabel