A/N: Read this with the song Peace if you want to. (Search up "Avatar The Last Airbender Peace" on YouTube.) Hope you enjoy!
"No, Appa!" Aang screamed and a shiver ran down his spine as he saw his beloved companion plummet to the earth. The whole cliff rumbled as the sky bison crashed to the ground.
"No, no." He muttered softly as he sprinted towards the sky bison.
"Appa! Come on boy! You have to wake up! Please," Tears streamed down Aang's face.
He repeated the motion over and over. Starting position, bring hands back, control your chi, and push. Nothing happened.
"Rocks! Just move!" The last airbender screamed.
Again and again. Starting position, bring hands back, control your chi, and push. Again and again.
Appa's pained face was so close and Aang couldn't seem to do anything.
"Toph! Toph! I need you! Toph! Please come!" Aang roared towards the sky. But it was no use; Toph and the others were at the air temple.
Over and over Aang repeated the earthbending motion. Starting position, bring hands back, control your chi, and push.
"Get off my sky bison, rocks!" Aang stamped his foot and tried to will the boulders to move.
But soon, there was nothing else to do but use brute force. He pushed and shoved and pulled at the rocks until the skin on his hands were torn and bloody.
The Avatar breathed heavily and all of his pain and anger coursed through his veins, and with that he discovered newfound strength.
"No!" Aang wouldn't let his best friend die. Not now, not ever.
The air turned cold.
Aang's feet began to rise off the ground and the tattoos on his skin and his eyes began to glow. The light intensified and all the air around him started to spin. The Avatar State was a powerful thing, and possibly the only way Aang could help his friend.
With deep concentration, Aang got into an earth bending stance. Starting position, bring hands back, control your chi, and push.
Boulder after boulder dropped off the side of the cliff, until he and Appa were the only things on the small ledge, a thousand feet above the ocean below.
Aang's hard face softened and the strong winds died down. The glow faded and Aang collapsed on the ground, beads of sweat forming on his forehead.
Only a few feet away from the last sky bison, Aang looked up and met the eye of the only thing connecting him to his past life.
Appa was alive.
Aang sighed and cried tears of relief.
He inched forward put a hand on Appa's nose, smiled, and drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
Aang awoke to the bright rays of light shining in his face. He blinked his eyes open and yawned.
"Appa? You okay, buddy?" Aang sat up and turned to face the massive sky bison.
Appa stayed motionless.
"Appa?" Aang knit his eyebrows together and patted his cheek gently.
"Oh no."
His sky bison's breath was ragged and uneven, Appa was still in pain.
Aang stood up and slowly walked around Appa while soothing him with gentle words, checking for any external injuries. But there were none. The avalanche had crushed Appa on the inside.
Aang recalled the monks' words he had heard a life time ago . . .
"Choose wisely. A sky bison is a companion for life."
A sea of memories crashed over the last airbender and Aang remembered all that he and Appa had went through.
Aang's first time riding Appa was exhilarating, amazing. It was the first time Aang had flown.
"Appa, you're going to be my best friend!" A tattoo-less, five-year-old Aang had said.
Then when Aang ran away after he found out he was the Avatar. Appa had come with no complaint, even though it was in the middle of the night.
"Come on, buddy, we're going for a trip. Yip, yip." Appa just grunted.
The sky bison had always been there for him, had always been the one that comforted Aang during troubling times.
Aang would stay with him until the very end.
Then the ten-ton sky bison mustered up all his remaining strength and gave a low, comforting grunt. The familiar, heart warming grunt that always managed to make him feel better. The thing Aang had loved from the moment he had given that apple to Appa so many years ago.
Aang walked slowly towards Appa's face, as if he were scared of what Appa might look like.
The last airbender looked straight into his sky bison's eyes and they met a mutual understanding. Although he knew it wouldn't be long now, Aang wouldn't, couldn't accept it.
"I won't leave you, Appa." He felt tears stinging his eyes again, but instead of wiping them away, Aang buried his face into Appa's soft, warm coat.
Aang choked back tears and it pained him to feel Appa's life slipping away.
"I loved you first, Appa. I still do. And I always will."
The sky bison took one last, heavy breath and closed his eyes. The warmth was gone.
"Fly free. Yip, yip."