After resting and getting ready, everyone prepared to set out in search of the library.
But after leaving camp, they discovered a group of people wrapped up like mummies surrounding Appa with ill intent. Appa faced off against them warily.
Sokka realized they were the same people who had provoked him when he entered the camp earlier.
"What do you think you're doing?!"
Aang shouted at the sight and hurried to stand protectively in front of Appa, watching them warily.
"What do we think we're doing?"
Seeing that Aang and Kahn's group, who hurried over right behind him, were just a bunch of children who hadn't even grown their first whiskers, the men exchanged looks and snickered in unison.
Then their leader looked Appa over and said with ill intent:
"This beast looks pretty valuable. Hand it over quietly, and you might make it out of the desert alive."
So they were a band of desert bandits.
"Don't talk about Appa like that! I'm not handing him over, either. Stay away from us!"
Aang rebuked them sternly. When it came to Appa, his stance was firm and unyielding.
"Looks like we'll have to teach you little brats a lesson!"
At the first disagreement, the bandits prepared to attack. Only then did Aang and the others discover that they were also members of Earth Rumble, though they called themselves Sandbenders.
Seeing this, Kahn asked Toph:
"Speaking of which, how's your Sandbending?"
Toph spread her hands helplessly.
"Not great. The sand on the ground is too soft. Everything I 'see' is really blurry right now."
"But fighting won't be a problem."
As they spoke, several desert bandits charged at them. Toph stomped hard, sending them straight underground.
However, she had used so much force that half her own foot sank into the