Aang stared at the smoldering village, a profound, suffocating ache crushing his heart as the reality of his presence hit home.
Before the young Avatar could spiral into guilt, Sora moved.
Channeling a localized vortex beneath his boots, he launched himself vertically into the sky, the wind catching his cloak as he streaked toward the open coastline.
He was purposefully hunting for the leviathan.
Within a few seconds, the massive, dark form of the Unagi breached the surf, its golden eyes locked onto the airborne intruder as it aggressively pursued him.
Sora calculated the beast’s trajectory perfectly.
Executing a sharp mid-air twist, he blindsided the sea serpent, dropping straight down from the sky to land squarely atop its massive, scaled skull!
Grabbing hold of its short, protruding horns like a pair of reigns, Sora brutally wrenched the serpent’s head, forcing its gaping maw to align with the burning sectors of the village.
The Unagi roared in irritation, unhinging its jaws to unleash a colossal, pressurized geyser of water.
The torrential stream arced high over the coastline, descending upon the settlement like a localized, heavy downpour that instantly saturated the thatched roofs and snuffed out the remaining fires.
Ensuring the perimeter was fully extinguished, Sora casually tapped the beast’s armored hide.
“Thanks for the assist, my friend.” The Unagi, thoroughly enraged at being utilized as a glorified fire extinguisher by a human sitting on its head, thrashed violently.
Sora didn’t press his luck.
He leaped cleanly off the bucking serpent, deploying a micro-draft to cushion his descent as he drifted effortlessly back toward the village square.
By now, Prince Zuko’s ironclad warship was already charting a hasty retreat into the deep mist of the ocean.
”Sokka, Katara, Aang—let’s pack it up and move out.
I’m completely done with this tedious island,” Sora called out, his voice laced with absolute boredom.
He was thoroughly sick of this lifeless rock; there was nothing here but a bunch of girls caked in nauseating, theatrical cosmetics.
”What did you just say?!” Suki exploded, her face contorting in pure rage at Sora’s utter disrespect.
“Do you have any idea that Avatar Kyoshi herself was born on this sacred ground four hundred years ago?!
This island belongs to the elite—” Suki and her surrounding warriors glared at him with homicidal intensity.
Sora didn’t give them a single glance.
He walked right past their formation toward Inma, methodically checking the leather straps and ensuring their high-density food and water rations were securely fastened to the saddle.
The Kyoshi Warriors looked ready to commit murder; the airbender’s absolute, deadpan indifference—ignoring their very existence—was a profound insult.
”Haha…
he didn’t mean it like that, ladies!
I promise!” Aang intervened frantically, waving his hands in a desperate, bowing apology.
The warriors didn’t buy the damage control for a second; it was blindingly obvious Sora meant every single syllable.
The more they processed his words, the angrier they became.
Over the past four days, Sora had routinely marched into their communal pantries, aggressively requisitioning massive quantities of luxury preserved meats and grains to hoard aboard Inma.
Whenever they questioned his greed, he would look at them with a look of profound, patronizing warmth, stating: ”You aren’t merely donating food to a few travelers; you are actively fueling the salvation of the free world.
What do you think will happen if Avatar Aang collapses from starvation or dehydration during our global transit?
When you eventually pass on to the spirit world and meet Avatar Kyoshi face-to-face, what will you tell her?
Will you tell her that the Avatar begged for sustenance, and you turned him away?
She will never forgive your negligence.
She will utilize a forbidden spiritual technique to damn your souls for failing to assist her reincarnation.
I am only telling you this out of profound affection for your well-being; I simply wish to safeguard you from Avatar Kyoshi’s eternal wrath.” His delivery had been so laced with faux-empathy and absolute conviction that the simpler country folk had completely swallowed the lie out of sheer existential terror.
The sharper, younger warriors had suspected a con, but they hadn’t been able to stop the village elders from practically forcing their finest delicacies into his storage scrolls.
Sora looked back at the glaring warriors and sighed internally.
Do these girls not realize that I am systematically destroying Avatar Kyoshi’s pristine historical reputation right in front of them?
It’s a miracle their brains haven’t caught on yet.
I need to vacate this perimeter before their cognitive functions actually start working.
Hahaha!
Watching the interactions from the sidelines, Aang, Sokka, and Katara finally fully realized just how terrifyingly manipulative and hypocritical Sora could be.
Leveraging the Avatar’s holy title to aggressively extort free groceries from innocent civilians was a downright diabolical strategy.
”Man…
Sora is a literal genius,” Sokka whispered, his eyes gleaming with greedy enlightenment.
“In the future, all I have to do is tell the merchants that ‘The Avatar requires these goods for his sacred mission,’ and people will just hand over whatever we want!
Hahaha!
Aang, you are a walking gold mine!
If it weren’t for Sora, I would have never realized your true capitalistic value!” ”Sokka!
Shut your mouth!
I don’t ever want to hear that unprincipled garbage coming out of your face again!” Katara shrieked, her maternal morality flaring instantly.
She spun on her heel, marching aggressively toward Inma.
“Sora!
This behavior is completely unacceptable.
This is extortion.
You are going to unload every single ration and return them to these people right now!” Sora paused his packing, turning his head down from the saddle to look at Katara.
“You know…
you make a valid ethical point.
I should absolutely return this food to them.” Katara’s angry expression instantly melted into a relieved, victorious smile.
“Good, Sora.
I knew you’d understand that exploiting people’s spiritual anxieties is wrong.
Come on, let me climb up and help you unload the heavy sacks to make it faster.” She stepped closer to Inma’s flank, reaching up to grab the stirrup.
”Inma, yip-yip,” Sora said, his tone entirely casual and conversational.
In the next microsecond, Inma launched into the sky, a massive blast of displaced air sending Katara’s hair flying as the giant beast soared vertically into the clouds!
”SORAAA!” Katara screamed from the ground, a deeply ominous, dark aura instantly erupting from her frame.
“Didn’t you just tell me to my face that you were going to return what you stole?!” ”Did I?!” Sora’s voice drifted down from the sky, sounding completely detached.
“Ah, it must have slipped my mind.
I’ll make a mental note to remember next time.
Let’s move out, we’ve already wasted far too much tactical time on this boring island.” ”SORAAA!
ARE YOU UTTERLY JOKING WITH ME RIGHT NOW?!” Katara’s face contorted in sheer, unadulterated fury.
The prominent veins on her forehead and around her eyes throbbed so violently with rage that she looked exactly like a member of the elite Hyuga Clan deploying the Byakugan from Naruto.
”Sora!
Drop a rope!
I want to ride up there with you on Inma!” Sokka yelled out, waving his arms frantically up at the drifting beast.
Katara slowly turned her neck, locking a glacial, bone-chilling stare directly onto her brother’s soul.
Sokka froze, a cold sweat breaking across his spine as the primal fear of his older sister completely paralyzed his ambitions.
“Uh…
actually, you know what, Sora?!
Forget it!
Go fly by your lonely self!
I’m going to sit right here with my beloved sister on Appa!
Enjoy your isolation, that’s your official punishment for being a liar!” Sokka yelled at the sky rapidly, desperate to secure his own physical survival from Katara’s wrath.
Peering down from the heavens, Sora witnessed the comedic sibling dynamic play out on the beach and chuckled quietly to himself.
Seeing this live-action comedy unfold in raw reality is infinitely superior to watching it on a television screen.
Aang, Sokka, and Katara—along with Momo, the small winged-lemur they had adopted—finally boarded Appa and ascended into the sky, trailing behind Sora’s vanguard position.
The Single Path After maintaining a steady, five-hour flight trajectory across the changing terrain, the ocean entirely vanished, replaced by a massive landmass choked with jagged, towering tectonic spires and deep rocky canyons.
”We’re dropping altitude here,” Sora signaled, guiding Inma down toward a secluded mountain pass.
“We need to continue our approach on foot.
Traveling via giant flying sky beasts from this point onward will draw far too much imperial and military surveillance.” The group touched down within a hidden ravine, securing their mounts safely within the rocky camouflage.
Sora adjusted his gear, his eyes locking onto a massive, singular architectural marvel spanning the abyss ahead.
They had reached the solitary, heavily fortified stone bridge—the only accessible entry point leading directly into the legendary, mountain-carved metropolis of Omashu.