The forest was calm. Tranquil, even. But this was not the case for one young man who thought lightning never struck the same place, or person, twice. Until now, that is.
"Oh, come ON. Seriously, what are the odds?" whined Sokka. Directly in front of his eyes was a scene he had strong, and not too pleasant, memories of. A tiny moose lion cub perched on a rock not 3 feet away from him and, where baby goes, mama follows. The cub yipped at him and 2 seconds dragged by before the full-grown female slinked out from behind a copse of trees.
Okay, you're okay, you've handled this before, he thought, conveniently forgetting that it had actually been Aang who'd saved him that first time. Taking a firm stance, he whipped out his brand new boomerang, carved by his own hands, and prepared to fling it to the beast's left, in an attempt to simply distract it long enough so he could….well, run away. No one will blame me, Sokka rationalized to himself. Why would they expect him to take on a fully grown moose lion by himself? Even if I am STILL the strongest warrior in my tribe….er, town. Besides, if I get away, who's to know, anyway?
Satisfied with his thinking, he pitched the boomerang with all his might and watched as the creature's head turned to follow its path. Taking his chance, Sokka turned tail and fled, all the while thinking, I'm not running away, I'm living to fight another day. As he ran, however, he heard a giant sniff. His natural curiosity got the best of him and he turned his head to peek behind him, just long enough to trip over a half-buried root. He lay face-down in the dirt for a second, bemoaning his personal misfortune, before he heard the giant footfalls of the beast running full-tilt towards his dirt pile. He flipped over but he could not get purchase in the loose dirt fast enough to pull himself to his feet and, before he knew it, the moose lion's breath washed over him, its tongue lolling out of its mouth. Actually…it didn't look threatening, so much as…
Before he could finish the thought, the creature leaned down and dragged its tongue from Sokka's feet to his head. It's….LICKING me? Now, Sokka had seen, and been drenched in, his fair share of animal spittle but that didn't make the experience more pleasant, especially when the moose lion's enormous canines stared him right in the face. But the animal sat back after licking him, as if it were a pet and not a dangerous wild animal, and looked expectantly at him.
"Uh…do I know you?" he questioned the creature. In response, it reared up on its hind legs high enough to pull an apple from the fruit tree directly above him. Placing it on the ground, it nudged the fruit towards where Sokka lay in the dirt. Comprehension dawned on his face and he said, with incredulity, "Foo Foo Cuddly Poops??"
The creature leaned down and licked him full-body again before nuzzling him so hard the wind was knocked out of him.
"Oof," he gasped. "Yeah, it's great to see you, too." A beat passed. Then "Yeah, so about that whole 'no meat and sarcasm' thing…."
END