Character C: Desna
The Police Chief
Task: Character A gets lost and Characters B and C search for them. Character D finds Character A helps him/her find his/her friends. This is the story of Character C.
Prompts: Desna, fear (emotion), "I guess that's one way to look at it", Water
Words: 1249
"Tell me again why my cousin suggested you instead of coming herself?" Desna looked over at his traveling companion still unconvinced after three hours that she was the best candidate for this important mission. He wasn't the type to show emotion but on the inside he was wracked with fear. Fear for himself, fear for his sister, and fear for his country should he and Eska not return. He felt all this fear and yet not a single gesture or spoken word to betray him and tell the world that he was afraid.
Police Chief Lin Beifong growled and looked over at Desna. She was clearly fed up with his constant questions. "Because your sister tried to kill the Avatar. Does that satisfy your question?"
Desna frowned, taking in the Alice in Wonderland-like scenery. "Not really. My father used to tell us that the spirit world was no place for mere mortals." He watched a bird spirit flying backward on it's own accord.
"It's not."
He raised an eyebrow. "Then what makes you so qualified?"
"One, I'm a detective. Two, I grew up being cared for by Avatar Aang. And three, I dated Tenzin. I spent years listening to both of them go on and on about the Spirit World and how it works."
"I've listened to my sister go on about dressing like a girl, that doesn't make me an expert on dressing like a girl." He put a hand on each hip to emphasize his point.
"You sure?" The Police smirked before becoming distracted by something shiny in a tree. "I think we just found our spirit guide, kid. Excuse me!"
Desna watched as a lemur-like creature hung from a tree branch. The thing had twinkling lights in its ears and fur. Desna sighed, "That's one way to look at it, but frankly form this point of view I only see trouble." He said this more to himself while Lin argued with the spirit that had identified itself as 'the spirit or Twinkling Lights' and then proceeded in annoying Chief Beifong more than he had.
She rubbed her temples. "I'm looking for the other Chief."
"The other Chief? There are two of them?" The Spirit looked confused, tilting its head almost 180 degrees.
"Yes, we are looking for my sister." Densa's eye twitched. Please stop doing that.
The spirit's eyes lit up. "Oh, does she have black hair, dark skin, purple stuff on her eyes, looks like she is desperate to kill something?"
Lin nodded. "That's the one. So I take it you saw her?"
"Maybe I have, maybe I haven't." The spirit tilted its head this way and that as it spoke.
Desna glared the spirit. "But you just described her, surely you've seen her." How the monkey feathers can you perfectly describe someone and not have seen them?! Desna was getting angry but none of that cracked his icy demeanor.
The spirit sighed. "I might have seen her, yes."
"Enough of this!" Chief Beifong roared making a pillar of earth so that she was eye level with the spirit. "Yes or no, have you seen the Chief?"
The spirit seemed to shrink under the earthbender's gaze. "She went to the valley of the shadow of death, and realized there's nothing left, cause I've been blasting and laughing so long, that that I forget which way she went."
Desna saw the Chief's left eye twitch. "You know what, bye."
"Wait! I'm sorry." The spirit reached out to her. "I was rude and not very helpful. You see, my mama thinks that my mind is gone but I never crossed a human who didn't deserve it-"
The earthbender didn't pay the spirit any mind, walking away. Desna looked back at the now sad spirit before fallowing.
"Well, she was unhelpful." She looked over as Desna. "What do we do now?" The police chief stood still for a moment deep in thought before looking at a spirit butterfly hovering overhead. She smiled. "Same plan as before kid, spirit guide. Let's go."
Desna watched as the metalbender took off into a light run stopping quickly to look back at him. She tilted her head and made a gesture.
"I don't run." He said flatly.
"I don't care." She retorted, shooting out a metal cable that wrapped around his waist and pulled his unwilling body with it.
"Let me go!" he demanded as she sped up her pace to catch up to the butterfly.
"Are you going to run?!" she yelled back.
"Yes!" he answered and upon being released from the cable waterbended an ice path and gracefully overtook the Chief.
"What the?"
Desna smirked looking over his shoulder. "You underestimate me, Chief."
"That little-"
.o.
"She must be in there." Desna noted, looking into the fog-filled canyon the spirit had led them to. He leaned over further to get a better look at the canyon.
"Wait, we need a pl-"
The ground beneath them crumbled and sent them plummeting into the fog below.
.o.
Desna fell to his knees clutching his hands over his ears while the corpses of his father and sister loomed over him. They taunted him, pointing out every failure, every character flaw, and every mistake. It was like knives being slipped into his ribcage before being twisted just that extra turn. He lashed out at the figures with his water bending showing more outward emotion then he had ever before. Suddenly he was standing completely surrounded by mist, he could hear other people but couldn't see them. He could even hear the sound of the Police Chief nearby but just couldn't place it. Suddenly a woman in pink tapped on his arm.
"Hi." She smiled, "Glad to see you're in control of your faculties, now if you wouldn't mind keeping this bad old mist away, that would be wonderful."
Desna didn't bother to ask questions and turned his attention to the ever-encroaching fog. From somewhere behind him he heard the police Chief yelling. "Desna! We're leaving!"
Not wanting to stay there any longer he threw himself on to her. They shot up through the mist almost being dragged down by misty tendrils trying to snare them. To his great relief they were soon sitting on the back of a flying bison where Eska sat calmly looking no worse for wear.
"Go, go, go!" Lin yelled at the woman in pink.
"The fog is holding us back!" the woman yelled.
Desna opened his water pouch and looked at his sister. "Would you like some ice to fix that?"
"Yes, please," Eska replied giving her sibling a smile before using their combined bending cutting many of the tendrils trying to pull them down. The bison began to rise as a metal cable shot passed Desna's head, severing the last remaining tendril.
"You missed one," the Police Chief said, smirking.
Desna looked shocked for a moment but then gave a smile of gratitude.
.o.
They landed near the spirit portal, Desna got off the beast on his own accord but his sister needed help from Chief Beifong. Desna tried to hide his amusement as after Eska had been handed off to him the Police Chief was licked by the flying bison. The woman in pink giggled.
"He likes you."
The Policewoman wiped some of the spit off her face. "I'm not sure it's mutual."
"He must remember you from when you were little."
"Appa?" Chief Beifong was licked again. "That's impossible…an air bison's life span…"
"I met him in the Spirit World, when I crossed over," said the woman in pink. "Uncle Iroh said he needed the exercise. I should have seen it sooner. Your aura is just as grumpy as your mother's."
"Gee, thanks, Aunt Ty Lee." The earthbender rolled her eyes.
Eska gripped his shoulder and tried to move closer. "Sorry to interrupt the veteran's reunion…"
"…but who's Aunt Ty Lee?" Desna finished.
Chief Beifong bowed her head pointing to the woman in pink. "The inventor of chi-blocking, among other things. Thank you for the rescue."
"I should thank you," the woman said smiling. "It was starting to get dull around here. Be sure to visit!"
Supporting Eska between the two of them, they walked through the portal and back into the real world.
.o.
Desna looked over at Yue bay leaning on the back of Eska's wheelchair. Apparently she had hurt herself in such a way she'd be confined to a wheelchair for the next week. Desna could feel his sister's agitation even now.
"You know, the Spirit World wasn't that bad," he noted, looking up at a spirit that was flying by. "It might be fun to visit it again one day."
Eska shook her head. "I believe how good or bad the Spirit World is is just a matter of perspective. Clearly we have different ones in this case."
"You did not like the Spirit World?"
"No, now let's drop the subject before someone realizes we're two different people with different points of view."
Desna smirked. "As you wish."
A/N: Thanks for reading! if you want to see the other character's sides of the story check out, DavidAlstrada, PTDF, and Avatarfanlin