The Golden Phoenix
By Stor-E-Phool
Chapter One: Something's Missing
"Do you know…" Sokka began as we journeyed through the maze of people in the market. "…what people are saying around here, Aang?"I tried to ignore the boys' on-coming conversation and took in the stagnant smell of fish, soy sauce, and the salty sea. I gazed toward the bay of the small village port. It was sprinkled with what had to be nearly a hundred fishing vessels and the sun reflected off of the ocean spray that blew across the sails.
The sails which were covered in reds and golds.
"That this place smells bad?" Aang half answered and half asked, and I laughed as my brother's face got all red.
"Be serious, guys!" he whined, and then lowered his voice to a near whisper. "They say that there are rumors about your staff floating around, Aang! Rumors about it having magical powers?" I rolled my eyes and glanced at him.
"Why are you whispering?" I asked, lowering my voice to match his, and Aang laughed. He straightened up and continued leading us through the crowds of people.
"Whatever, guys. Who'd believe some dumb rumor like that? Lets just get that fire bending scroll and get out of here."
"Yeah," I agreed, hurrying to catch up, "before Zuko catches on that we're so close to 'home'."
"Are you kidding, Katara? That moron hasn't been on our trail in almost a month." Sokka grinned, wrapping his forearms behind his head as if he were proud of himself for some spectacular achievement, "Its been pretty refreshing not to have a constant column of smoke on our rear ends."
"Maybe he gave up on us?" Aang suggested, stopping at a stand filled to the top of the tent with scrolls and thumbing through a few. After about a minute he looked up at the merchant. "Do you have any good fire bending scrolls?" He asked, and the man seemed to smile from underneath his dark hood. It occurred to me that you wouldn't want to meet this guy in a musty tavern. His shoulders were broad, reaching far past his ears, and seemed to ripple with energy and power, even from under his thick burlap cloak.
"I can help you with that," he answered with a thick North Earth Kingdom accent and stood, beckoning us to follow him. I found it strange that he was leaving all of his merchandise unattended, but thought maybe the adjacent stalls would watch it for him. Sokka and I followed as he and Aang lead in front, the merchant bragging on and on about how special and rare this scroll was, and how even Rokku had learned from a copy of it, which made Aang's hopes skyrocket.
Finally, the scroll seller lead us down a long, dark side street and stopped. He turned and smiled at us, sweeping his hood away from his face. His hair was black as tar and slicked back into an oily ponytail, and his yellow fire bender eyes seemed to glow with the last drops of golden sunlight. A shiver as cold as ice shot down my spine as he began to speak in his silvery slick voice and stroke his ebony goatee.
"Now as for the price of this precious scroll…" he murmered, snapping his fingers, "…how about your heads?" A rush of movement and clanking armour sounded all around us, and I uncapped my water jug in preparation for what was about to happen. Surrounding the alley, above and below, were fire nation soldiers with arrows cocked and swords at hip and in hand.
The "merchant" removed his peasant cloak and threw it to the ground with a single swoop of his muscular arm, smirking at us. He made an odd gesture, then the air was thick with a volley of arrows from the soldiers haloing the roof tops of the alley.
Without thought, I felt my arms pull the water from my canteen and into the air. I hastily tensed the water into a thin shield of ice, which the soldiers' arrows shattered through on contact. A mixture of arrows and ice clattered noisily onto the cobble around us like a very deadly bout of rain, and yet another wall of them were cocked and let loose before I could call the icy shards of water back into the air.
A sudden gust of wind whipped my hair into my cheeks and I squinted as I watched Aang work his magic hands, summoning a gale to blow the soldiers from the rooftops and onto the street. Men flew through the air and onto the ground with grunts and howls of pain and sickening cracking sounds, and I winced for them until I realized we were surrounded yet again.
"Stupid Fire Nation!" Sokka yelled as he kamikazied himself through the mob of soldiers, but was soon bashed in the head with the butt of a spear. He fell to the ground with a heavy 'thump!' and was knocked out.
"Sokka!" I cried, and tried to run and see if he was alright, but I felt heavy metal-clad hands around my shoulders holding me back. I glared up at my captors, but at the threat of a dagger against my throat, I was still.
Aang glanced from my brother, to me, and finally to the newly undesquised merchant.
"Who are you!" Aang called out, staff poised for a thourough wacking. The tall man laughed, greasy head thrown back and chest swelling with the pride of victory.
"My name is Hoo. The Fire Lord's most trusted General."
"General Hoo." Aang repeated, and glared at him more intensly. "If its me you want, let my friends go free and I'll go with you without complaint."
"Aang, no!" I cried earnestly, struggling against my captors, "You have to get awa—" I was cut off by a violent shaking from the soldiers keeping me in check. A warning.
General Hoo's narrowed, gleeful yellow eyes looked from me to Aang, then he laughed, knocking Aangs raised staff out of his hands and knocking him to the ground with a strong, fire-consumed foot. Aang struggled back to his feet, glaring at the General.
"Believe it or not, Avatar, I'm not here to fight with you." General Hoo snarled with a crooked smirk. Aang's eyebrows shot up in surprise, and he glanced at me and the soldiers holding a knife to my neck. He glanced at all of the soldiers surrounding us.
"Boy," Aang said, "You sure have a funny way of showing it!"
Suddenly a sound like a massive gong rang through the air, and before I knew it my brother was standing over an unconscious General Hoo, clutching a frying pan in his hands.
My guards stood beside me dumbly, trying to register what had happened, and I nailed them both in the chins with a sort of double-fisted, backwards uppercut. They were down instantly, and I pulled some water up from a pitcher in the window sill behind me. I willed it into glass-like shards of ice and sent them into the first crowd of soldiers, causing many to turn tail and run and others to develop some very sudden, painful new ulcers.
"Come on, guys!" called Sokka's voice from somewhere to my right, and I slowly worked my way toward him, fighting all the way. I found both him and Aang in a sort of clearing of soldiers, and ran for them. I saw our escape, and pointed.
"Guys! This way!" I called, and bounded toward an idle vegetable cart. Behind it was a clear path to the woods where we could get to Appa, our getaway bison. I leaped up onto the wagon, ignoring the fact I was ruining someone's cabbages and carrots, and jumped off of the back of it. But as I turned around, I realized that Aang wasn't following. He was glaring at the unconcious body of General Hoo. "Aang!"
"The scroll!" he yelled, and lunged to the General's side, dodging through enemy legs, and shoved his hand into the man's tunic. With that, Aang made a massive wind blow the oncoming soldiers to timbuctu and was suddenly running alongside Sokka and me, toward the big rock in the forrest where we had left our flying bison friend.
We ran and ran, only occasionally having to dive out of shooting range of an archer, until our feet grew tired and our throats began to dry up with thirst. I only vaguely remembered the small glade we had touched down in, but Sokka and Aang seemed to know where we were headed, so I trusted their judgements. We soon ducked under a low-hanging limb, and the large black and beige beast came into view.
"Appa! Buddy!" Aang laughed and leaped and twirled through the air with his bending skills, landing snugly onto his bison's saddle.
"Boy are you a sight for sore eyes!" Sokka said, patting Appa's thick matts of fur and receiving a large, soppy kiss in return.
"We've gotta split, Appa," I said, then took a fistful of his fur into my hands to heft myself up onto the wooden platform strapped to the beast's back. I positioned myself correctly, then turned to help my brother heft himself next to me.
"Yip-yip!" I heard Aang call and like that we were off, making a clean get a way from General Hoo. I smiled as the familiar sensation of air travel whipped up butterflies in my stomach, and I examined the bald monk in the saddle before me. Out of his pocket poked the head of a small red cylinder no more thick or long than my middle finger. It was capped with intricate golden metal work and the glint shining off of it from the dull twilight reminded me of a flame. It almost looked like…
"The fire bending scroll!" I cried, and made a grab at it but Aang swiftly leaped high into the air above me before I could get my hands on it. He drifted back to Appa's back with a silly grin plastered across his face.
"Yep!" he laughed, waving his prize above his head, "I saw it sticking out of General Hoo's armour and grabbed it. I figure he owes it to us for trying to take our heads off!" I grinned up at him and nodded.
"We've got to read it." Sokka said, and Aang held it reverantly out in front of him.
"You know, if this scroll really did belong to Avatar Roku… I've done this before." The monk whispered, and he broke the seal on the scroll with his left thumb. I heard the crinkle of old paper as my friend slowly rolled the scroll open. It occurred to me that this scroll would probably make Aang the most powerful person on earth.
Aang just sat in shock for a moment, staring at the paper's contents in awe. What inscription could hold him so transfixed as he was? Sokka waved his hand in front of Aang's face, and then ripped the scroll out of his hands, staring at it.
"What the-?" he yelled, then crumpled the old scroll up in his hands and threw it to the floor of Appa's saddle. The paper landed face-down in front of me, and my curiousity reared. Slowly, carefully, I flipped the scroll right-side-up, and my mouth flew open. There was an illustration of a finely-crafted walking stick with little levers and metal attatchments hanging off of it, and an inscription below the picture read in silky, silver writing: You win some, you lose some.
"Aang," I whispered, letting the scroll fall to the floor in front of me, "I think your staff is missing."
A/N: And here... is a fic filled with boundless action! :D More and more romance is about to build in this world of Katara's, I just have to set it all up before I delve into the good stuff! XD
Alright, so let me tell you a story about my awesome new Fusha dell computer: it has windows 7 on it. Great, right? Right.
On my Windows 7 there was a predownloaded Microsoft Word which I have used non-stop. Suddenly, the other day, I couldn't edit my documents because my "trial offer" had expired!
Normally this wouldn't phase me and I would simply copy and paste my stuff into a different program and get on with my life, but here's the catch: I couldn't! It would not let me drag and drop, copy and paste, nothing!
Here's my question: Is the document mine or microsoft's? Just because I used their program to create something does that give them the right to take my stuff?
But, hey. I found out that I can still upload my documents from the program and onto the net, so I don't have to copy and paste anymore! :D
Anywho, whether you loved or hated this chap, review! Its the only way to make both the story and my day better!