And now...A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR!
Hi Zach here! I usually start off with a word from the author, but tonight I'm really tired, so i'll just say hello, and let the story speak for itself. Hello!
The Switching
Team Avatar thought they had seen the last of the crazy old lady with her Blood Bending, they thought they had escaped and would be through with her forever. They were wrong.
"Yip-yip!" Aang yelled happily as Appa took off with Sokka holding on for dear life.
"Thought you woulda been used to it by now..." Toph said picking her toes casually. Sokka scrambled over to Katara looking extremely distressed.
"I lost the maps!!! The maps that we had, they fell off back onto the island! We can't get the invasion going without them! Everyone is going to meet us there and we're going to get yelled at for not having them! We're complete failures! What are we going to do! Dad is gonna be there and Pipsqueak and Th-." Sokka was stopped short by a small slap to the back of the head by Toph.
"All this whining is making it REALLY hard to concentrate!" she yelled at him. "Lets just go down there and get the damn maps." Katara stepped in on Sokka's behalf.
"Don't act so nonchalant! Sokka's actually right for once, we do need those, and Sokka, Toph is right, we will just go down and get them. Please be more careful next time though..." Aang giggled, and commanded Appa to take them down to the ground.
"Uh-oh..." Aang said looking at the sky, "it looks as if there's gonna be another storm, look at how black the clouds are. We better find those maps soon or we're gonna be in for some serious trouble...the water will make the ink run."
'Well, then lets just split up, we'll find them faster" Sokka said.
The four split up to look under every tree and rock they could find. They looked beneath rocks, behind trees, inside bushes, and even inside a Platypus Bear's cave. Toph wandered over to look by the cliffside.
"Be careful!" Katara yelled after her, "You can't see! You might slip and fall!" Toph shrugged her off and sensed that the maps were on a rock jettisoning out of the cliffside. "It feels different in that spot...like something is weighing it down, but is too light to be doing anything." Sokka walked over and looked over the cliffside. He tried to reach down and grab them, but it was about a 15 foot drop.
"Stand aside peons, I, Sokka the Great, shall retrieve your maps!" he said as he put down his things and jumped down.
"Sokka! Don't those rocks aren't sturdy!" Toph yelled, but it was too late. He had only been standing on the rocks for about 10 seconds when they began to give way. "I got the ma-" he started to say, but the rocks fell from under his feet. He shot out a hand to grab onto the cliffside, with the other hand holding onto the rocks. "Aang! Fly down there and get him!" Katara yelled, forgetting that Aang no longer had his glider.
"I can't! My glider was destroyed and if I jump down, we'll be down two team members, and Team Avatar will just be Team Toph and Katara, and that's not nearly as catchy!" he said distressed. "Toph, can't you just bend the earth to bring him back up?" he asked.
"Of couse I can!", but the second she said that, it started to rain. The rain made the earth watery and extremely hard to work with.
'What I meant to say was...of course I can't...With this mud, it wouldn't do any good, this rain is coming down too hard to do anything with, and I can barely see as it is." Katara sighed and looked down at her brother who's grasp seemed to be slipping.
"Guess there's only one option left...she said, just as Sokka fell. But as he did, he went nowhere, there was just an extreme pain in his arm.
"I never actually though Blood Bending would work..." he said amazed. Aang and Toph ran over to help him up, each one grabbing one of his hands. But in the sky, Sokka saw something they didn't.
"Oh sh-" was all he could say before a bolt of lightning struck him, and travelled to both Toph and Aang with a small shock latching onto Katara. Aang looked at Katara's limp body unconscious on the ground before everything went black.
Aang's eyes fluttered open and he sat up quickly. None of his friends were awake yet, Toph, Sokka, Aang...all breathing deeply, probably still in shock, but certainly alive. Wait, did he just see himself asleep on the ground? In horror, he took a look down at his clothes, gazing upon a pretty red skirt. He looked in a puddle, and saw Katara's reflection looking back at him, with a look of horor on his...erm...her face.
And that children, is where we will stop for today.