Away From Home
Chapter 1: Little Ms. Sunshine.
A girl ran down the icy sidewalk, carefully keeping her distance from the flowing rivers. Once a frozen arch came into view she shifted her weight and slide across the ice and halted to a stop at its entrance. Beyond the arch was a large boat; her one-way trip to Republic City. She tried her best to hide her feelings. She was terrified; but she had forced an optimistic look upon the whole situation.
"Wait up for me, Sis'," she said trying to catch her breath. "It won't be long now…"
Aboard the ship there were many different types of people of all shapes and sizes; of course, she knew most of them. The girl quickly found an unclaimed corner and set up camp. The trip was half across the world, after all. The girl looked down at her wrist and scratched at it repeatedly. Unfortunately, scratching alone didn't do the trick. Her big eyes darted left and right, and once she was sure no one was watching, she began unwrapping one of her wrist bands— revealing a scar.
He he he he he! Came the laughter of little girls.
"Big sis', look at the size of this one!" Said a little girl with two hair-loopies and a short ponytail.
"Wow! Where did you get that?" Her older sister, a girl with long black hair, asked.
"Caught it myself!"
"Whaaaaat? Get out! You did not," the elder sister replied.
"Did too, broke the fishing pole too," the younger sister stated. The older sister smiled and hit her forehead with her palm.
"Dad's going to kill you. That was his favorite pole. It'll take a miracle for him not to strangle you," she giggled.
"Not true! Dad would never!" The older sister remained quiet but kept a smug look. "Would he?" The older sister began laughing so hard that she fell over in their boat. "That's not funny, Akkari!"
"Sure it i—" But before Akkari could finish her sentence, a wolf's howling could be heard nearby. The younger sister gasped. "Oh no, it's the wolves!"
The girls began paddling the boat back home immediately but the second they reached the land, two wolves burst out of the bushes and landed on the little girl. She screamed in terror and the wolf bit her arm. Akkari grabbed the broken fishing pole and wacked the wolf as hard as she could, causing it to fall into the ice-cold water. The second wolf leaped up and pinned her down; but before the wolf could attack a large stream of water slammed the wolf right off her and into the lake. Akkari looked to her younger sibling in shock. Worry and shock was also spread across the little girl's face.
"Kotorri…" Akkari breathed. "You can waterbend!"
"I… I can!"
"Kotorri!" A high pitched shout grabbed Kotorri by the shirt and threw her back into reality.
"Huh?" She asked and then realized her scar was showing. Quickly she wrapped it in a hurry and looked up at the intruder of her precious flashback.
"You actually came on this time!" A girl who looked too happy for her own good shouted. "Congratulations! After all those months of trying and trying…"
"Yeah," Kotorri answered in an attempt to shut her up.
"And trying and try—"
"Ayaka. I get it," Kotorri chirped.
"Well, it's just great to see that you're on board!" The girl giggled. "I have to go back to work, but you go ahead and chill, okay? Maybe I can come back to see you?"
"Hah…yeah, maybe," the waterbender said distantly, staring at her wrist.
(Day 4)
Dear Journal-Thingy of Friendship,
I had hoped it wouldn't come down to this, but it has been three days since we left the Northern Water Tribe and I'm afraid I'm going to lose my mind. So, for the next two weeks I'm going to keep myself sane by writing out my feelings.
Well, first off, I guess I should explain why I'm putting myself threw this trip. You see, about nine months ago, my older sister, whom I love so very much, left to Republic City. She hasn't come back yet… Although, she has sent us a couple of letters about how she's doing fine and having the time of her life. Her letters made the city sound like a lot of fun! But the trip takes a little over two weeks. That's actually been the problem for the last four months. I've never been stuck in one place for so long. Ha! Ha! I mean, even at home I'd run around the ice streets until I passed out. Where was I?... Oh yeah! I was explaining why. I suppose the only thing I can say is I really miss her, and want to see her a lot! She's the best big sister in the whole wide world, after all! I think she's worth a sort-of longish boat trip to the city.
(Day 5)
Dear Dumby-Dumb-Dumb Journal,
Today was booooooriiiiiing! Boring with a capital B. I had nothing to do! Can you imagine? Nothing to do for an entire day? I just sat there. I sat and sat and sat. Not doing anything. Well, except braiding my hair. I braided my entire head; and then, for the fun of it, I undid my hair and re-braided it. I did it over and over and over and over again. I really love braiding. My sister? Not so much. That's actually one of the few things we don't have in common. She never puts up her hair in any way really. I, on the other foot, love to put my hair up in all sorts of styles! Oh, and loopies! I love loopies! 'Guess it comes with the culture or something. Hair loopies are kind of a big deal at home. Eeeeeverybody has them. They're all the rage. Well, maybe tomorrow I can practice my waterbending or something. That'll be fun!
(Day 6)
Dear Fantastic Journal,
Like I said, I started practicing my waterbending. Which, I came to realize, was a great idea. I mean, practice makes perfect, right? Maybe I'll be a much better bender by the time I get there! Oh well, who knows? Anywho, I was at the side of the boat making the water move this way and that when I happen to notice a guy staring at me. He was cute! So, I let him stare. He would go back to messing with things in his bags but every so often he would look up at me and have this funny look. Wow, I wonder what that means? Oh well, the world may never know. Simply moving the water got old, so, why not put on show? I can impress people. I impress people all the time. Everybody in the tribe loves my fantastic dance moves. I pulled a whip of water out of the ocean and began dancing around with it. It was like my very own, super awesome, dancing ribbon or something. I leaped and slid around showing off my best moves that I learned from the imported penguins my mom got me.
Waddle~ Waddle~ Waddle~ Yes! Waddle~ Waddle~ Waddle~ Yeah!
Then he really started giving me some funny looks. In fact, he couldn't take his eyes off me.
(Day 11)
Dear…whatever..
Ok so like… I thought today was going to be another awesome day, but unfortunately not. Like always I was just practicing my bending. But then people were yelling at me. They made me sad. So I did better bending to show them that I'm not bad. Then there got even madder. Next thing I know Ayaka was telling me that she was supposed to be taking me to the captain. She didn't seem happy to see me, so I wasn't happy to see her! But I went with her anyway. I mean…how could I say no to the captain? Turns out the captain was mad at me too. Something about my practice messing with the direction of the ship and shaking everyone up. The whole thing was dumb. I couldn't wait to get off this dumb ship and get on dumb land. I'm really sad. Now that guy will never like me!
(Day 16)
Der jay-jay
Whats the happs? I'm totaiiy flne. L dont kno why yew asks mi. Erbdy keps eyebalkin' mi funneh. Suuuuur…L kina furget tooo brake mi hare an' stufs. Buk L stifl luf' mi sizztr. I luf' 'er a jot.
(Day 17)
