When Worlds Collide: Book Two, Earth

UNEDITED

/////SAM'S POV\\\\\

"How could you let them take Appa?" Aang shouted at us. "Why didn't you stop them?"

"I couldn't!" Toph defended herself. "The library was sinking! You guys were still inside, and-"

"You could've came and got us! I could've saved him!"

"I can hardly feel any vibrations out here," Toph said, turning to face Aang who was now in her face. "The sand benders snuck up me, and there wasn't any time for-"

"You just did'nt care!" Aang screamed. A tear slid down my cheek, but I still faced away from my friends. "You never like Appa, you wanted him gone!"

I jumped up at his words, pushing him away from Toph. "Yeah, well whats' my excuse then?" I shouted. "You know I love Appa, and Toph does too! If anyone's to blame for Appa being stolen, it's me, and you all know it!" I looked around at everyone, and Toph scooted closer to me.

"Sam, that's not true," Katara said, walking closer to us.

"No, it is true," Aang spat. "You can bend two elements, and still the sand benders beat you! You act like you can do everything, and that you know everything just because you're from another world! Well you don't, okay? You don't!"

I glared, and felt heat in my palms. From the corner of my eye, I knew my hands held fire, but I didn't care at the moment.

"Aang, stop it," Katara said, stepping into our argument. "You know they both did all they could. Toph saved our lives!"

"Who's gonna save our lives now?" Sokka asked, staring into the desert. "We'll never make it out of here."

"That's all any of you care about," Aang shouted, "yourselves! You don't care whether Appa's okay or not!" He plopped to the ground, facing away from us.

"We're all concerned," Katara assured him. "But we can't afford to be fighting now."

Aang ignored her, and stood back up. "I'm going after Appa," he declared, and flew away.

Katara called after him, but it was no use. "We better start walking. We're the only people who know about the Solar Eclipse. We have to get that information to Be Sing Se."

I silently followed the others, Aangs words stuck in my head. I was from another world, one where this entire adventure was a TV show. I should know everything that's going to happen, right?

Then why can't I remember?

When I first got here, I knew everyone in the show, and knew when what was going to happen. But now, I'm with Sokka.

Will we even survive the desert?

/////\\\\\

"Katara, can I have some more water?" Toph asked. She looked like she could drop any moment, and already had a small sunburn on her cheeks.

We all did. Who knew that only a few hours in the desert sun would be this horrid?

"Okay, but only a little," Katara sighed. "We need to conserve it." She divided some water from her pouch into four, and I happily drank.

Sokka swished the water around in his mouth before swallowing, then got a weird look on his face. "We're drinking your bending water?" he asked. He smacked his lips, and shuddered. "You used this on the swamp guy!"

"It does taste swampy," Toph said thoughtfully.

I shrugged, and continued walking.

Katara's eyes followed me, and I could feel her piercing gaze. "I'm sorry, guys," she said, turning back to the others. "But that's all we have."

"Not anymore!" Sokka exclaimed, pointing to a cactus. He sliced a part of it open, and gulped down the liquid that was inside.

"Sokka, wait!" Katara scolded. "You shouldn't be eating strange plants."

He ignored her, and continued drinking. "There's water trapped inside these," he explained, offering some to us.

I shook my head. "You've seen me loopy before," I recalled. "I don't want to do that again."

He shrugged, and just drank more. We watched as he went crazy, and I just sighed.

"Who set Toph on fire?" he asked, staring at the poor girl, who was clinging to both Katara and I. Momo started to fly in circles, and I groaned.

"Great," I muttered. "Now, we have to walk miles in the desert, and babysit an idiot."

"Can I get some of that cactus juice?" Toph asked, obviously not taking notice of Sokka's behavior.

"I really don't think that's a good idea," I advised, and dragged Sokka along, while Katara lead Toph.

"How did we get out here in the middle of the ocean?" Sokka asked, and I face-palmed.

"Just keep walking," I grumbled. However, I did let him fall behind, but kept glancing back to make sure he was with us.

"Sam?" Katara asked.

I glanced up at her, raising my eyebrows. "Yes, Katara?"

"Are you okay?" she asked. "You seem down."

I shrugged. "Just thinking about what Aang said," I admitted.

Katara sighed. "You know he didn't mean that, right?"

"But it's true. I do act like I know a lot, when in reality, I don't," I said. "I never told you guys this, but from my world, we have TVs, where a box shows pictures and sounds. One of the shows I would watch was this adventure. It was my favorite show of all time. And when I first came here, I knew every character - er, person - that was suppose to show up." Katara had stopped, staring at me. "But now... I don't remember anything from the show. And... I barely remember my old life."

A tear ran down my cheek, and Katara and Toph gave me a hug.

"You know... You act so tough, but it's times like these where we can see how vulnerable you really are," Katara observed, still hugging me.

I sniffled, and stepped back. "Right, well... We have a city to get to." I turned away from them, and continued walking, although much, much less slowly than before.

From behind us, came a gust of wind, and I turned with the others to see a giant mushroom cloud emerged.

"What is that?" Toph asked, unable to see.

"It's a giant... mushroom," Sokka said. "Maybe it's friendly!"

"Let's just keep moving," Katara urged. "I hope Aang's okay." I knew she didn't want to others to hear the last part, so I pretended that I didn't either.

We ignored Sokka's weird behavior, and kept walking.

/////\\\\\

It wasn't until later that night, when Aang finally reappeared. Katara rushed to greet him, but I shied away, hiding my face, and ignoring thier conversation.

"Sam," I heard. I looked up to see Katara standing over me. "Any ideas to find Be Sing Se?"

"The only thing I know what to do in a desert is how to collect water. But we don't exactly have the supplies, so... I got nothing for ya'."

I went back to ignoring her, until her pulling me up yanked me from my day dreams. "We're getting out of this desert, and we're doing it together," she ordered. "Sam, get up. Everybody hold hands. We can do this." She held my hand, and I held Aang's, who held Toph's, who held Sokka's, who was prancing with Momo. "We have to."

/////\\\\\

Katara dragged us all night, and only when the sun was rising, did she come to a halt.

"Is there anymore water?" Toph asked. "I think we should stop here for the night," she decided.

We groaned, and plopped to the ground.

"This is the last of it," Katara told us. "Everyone can have a little drink." She bended the water out of her canister, and held in the air.

Before anyone could stop him, Momo jumped through the water, making Katara drop it into the sand.

"No, Momo, you've killed us all!" Sokka screamed, clutching his head.

"No, he hasn't," Katara griped, bending the water from the sand.

"Oh, right," Sokka sighed, grinning lopsided. "Bending."

Once the water was back in the pouch, Katara gave it to Toph.

Deciding I was too tired, I crawled away from the group, and laid down, going to sleep.

Katara, I thought. How do you do it?

/////\\\\\

"Sam." Someone shook my shoulder. "It's time to get up. We need to go."

"No Mom," I complained. "Can't I skip school today?"

Mom chuckled, and shook my shoulder harder.

"Sam... Sam! You need to wake up!"

I sat straight up, looking around wildly. I relaxed when I found Katara bending over me, looking at me worriedly. "Sam? Are you okay?"

I nodded, rubbing my eyes, and yawning. "Just a dream."

"Aang got a little water from a cloud that passed by," she told me. "But we need to save it."

I nodded, standing up. I glanced at the young air bender, and saw how angry he looked. I decided to not stand by him for too long.

We walked for a while, when Toph suddenly tripped over something, and fell to the ground.

"Ow!" she yelped. "Crud! I'm so sick of not feeling where I'm going! And what idiot buried a boat in the middle of the desert?"

"A boat?" I asked, sharing a look with Katara. We both rushed to try to unburry it at the same time.

"Believe me, I kicked it hard enough to feel the vibrations."

While we were undigging, Aang walked over, and put his hand on my shoulder. We looked up him, saw the determined look in his eye, and stepped back. Using air bending, he had the boat uncovered in seconds.

"It's one of the gliders the sand benders used," Katara observed.

I hopped on the glider, and looked at the tools. "Look! It has some kind of compass on it!" I exclaimed. "It looks like one from Zuko's ship."

"I bet it could point us out of here," Katara said, smiling. "Aang, you can bend a breeze so we can sail it. We're gonna make it!"

We all smiled, and climbed aboard. "Sam, you seem to know about the most about it," Katara observed, tossing me the parchment with the stars. "I'll let you handle it."

I nodded, taking over.

Soon, we were traveling as fast as the glider would go, thanks to Aang. After a while, I noticed something odd.

"Katara, look at this," I called. "The compass doesn't seem to be pointing North, see?" I moved the paper so she could see, and she nodded.

"Take it easy, little lady," Sokka said from behind us. "I'm sure that the sand benders that built this know how to get around these parts."

I rolled my eyes, and Katara gasped. I looked where her eyes were trained, and saw a huge rock rising on the horizon.

"That's what the compass is pointing to," Katara said. "That giant rock. It could be the magnetic center of the desert."

"A rock?" Toph asked, excited. "Yes! Let's go!"

"Maybe we can find some water," I wished.

"Maybe we can find some sand benders," Aang muttered, and pushed the glider to go faster.

It wasn't until dawn that we actually made it to the top of the rock. But when we did, the view was amazing, and Toph was just excited to be able to see.

"Hey, look," I said, facing the rock. Tunnels lined the sides, so we decided to check them out.

Sokka breathed in, shaking his head. "I think my head is starting to clear out the cactus juice," he told us.

"Finally," I muttered.

"Look!" Sokka exclaimed, eating something dripping from the walls of the cave. He spit it out a second later, complaining about the taste. "Oh, I feel woozy."

"You've been illusinating on cactus juice all day, and then you just lick something you find stuck to the wall of a cave?!" Katara shouted at him.

"I'm natually curious," Sokka defended.

"So was George the monkey," I huffed, ignoring their odd stares.

"I don't think this is a normal cave," Toph said worriedly. "This was... carved by something.

"Yeah," Aang observed. "Look at the shaped."

"There's something buzzing in here," Toph told us. "Something that's coming for us!"

Soon, we were all able to hear the buzzing, so we took off, out of the caves, being chased by giant bee-like creatures. They surrouned us, and I shot fire at the ones flying around us.

One of the creatures grabbed Momo, and Aang shot off after him.

We started making our way down, aiming rocks and fire at the things as we went. Katara would aim for Toph, and then she would fire. Really, it was a great system.

Finally, when the nasty bugs cleared, we found ourselves facing the sand benders themselves.

"What are you doing in our land with a sand bender sailor?" one of the men asked. "From the looks of it, you stole it from the Hammi Tribe."

"We found the sailor, abandoned in the desert," Katara explained. "We're traveling with the Avatar. Our bison was stolen, and we have to get to Be Sing Se."

"You dare accuse our people of theft while you ride in a stolen sand sailor?" another man asked, this one much younger.

My eyes widened, as I recognized the voice. I glanced at Toph, and she too had her eyes narrowed.

"Quiet, Gash Wen!" the first man demanded. "No one accused our people of anything. If what they say is true, we must give them hospitality."

"I'm sorry, Father," the second man said again, and this time, I was sure.

"I recognize the sons voice," Toph said. "He's the one that stole Appa."

"You sure?" Katara asked, looking at the two of us.

"I never forget a voice," Toph said matter-of-factly.

"And I never forget a face," I said.

"You stole Appa," Aang seethed, shoving past us. "Where is he? What did you do to him?"

"They're lying!" the son protested. "They're the thieves!"

Aang shot a gust of air to one of the sand gliders. "Where is my bison?"

I took a step back from Aangs menacing face.

"You tell me where he is, now!" Another boat thing flew into the air.

"What did you do?" I heard the father ask, and his son panicked.

"It wasn't me!" he begged.

"You said to put a muzzle on him!" Toph accused.

"And you bound my hands together with rope!" I shouted.

"You attacked my friend?" Aang yelled. "And muzzled Appa?"

His tattoos and eyes began to glow, as he was now in the Avatar State.

The son apologized repeatedly, but Aang ignored him.

"Tell me where Appa is." It sounded like a hundred voices were coming from Aangs mouth - all of the past Avatars.

"I traded him!" the son rushed. "To some merchants! He's probably in Be Sing Se by now... they were going to sell him."

Aangs eyes narrowed, and the group of sand benders panicked again.

"Please!" the son begged. "We'll escort you out of the desert! We'll help anyway we can!"

But it was too late.

"Just get out of here!" Sokka yelled, grabbing Toph and me, and dragging us out of harms way.

Everyone but Katara ran, and I waited for her to calm him down, like I knew she would. For some reason, she was the only one could bring sense to him in times like these. When the dust cleared, she was holding the crying monk to her chest.