This is my second fanfiction, first Avatar fic, and hopefully my first long fic. I plan to write this throughout the summer and hopefully finish it by the end….hopefully. I plan to semi-follow the story line we all know so well, and this first chapter takes place around mid-book 2 (near episode 28 "The Chase"). Now I hate long Author's Notes as much as the next fanfiction lover, so I'll stop here before I start rambling. Now I present to you the story of Lanse!
Oh, by the way, I don't own Avatar!
"I know I'm no fan of flying and all, but why do we have to walk?" Toph whined from the back of the group.
"Yeah Sokka, why are we walking?" Katara snapped.
The group had been walking since early afternoon, after Sokka had suggested they rest at a river they had seen from the air. However, they had seen some Fire Nation soldiers in the area, so Sokka also suggested they land a little ways away from the river, promising he'd remember how to get to it once on the ground.
"Maybe I should fly up and see…" Aang suggested, but as he opened his glider Sokka put out a hand to stop him.
"It's too risky, they might see you!" he said, "I promise we're almost there."
"You said that an hour ago," one of the girls mumbled from the back. Sokka turned around and glared at Katara and Toph, who were now both intently studying the leaves on the trees while whistling non-chanlantly.
"Well if you think you can do better…!" Sokka began to yell, but was cut off by Toph:
"Shhh, listen!"
The group instantly fell silent, listening, trying to hear what Toph had heard.
"…I don't hear anything," Sokka said at last, breaking the silence.
Toph shifted her foot and made a small ridge of rocks rise below Sokka, setting him off balance with his arms pin wheeling.
"Shh! I hear running water the river must be that way," she said pointing, "but something seems…" Before she could finish the group went racing off in the direction she had been pointing. "….off," she sighed.
"Hey! Wait for me!" she yelled running after them.
The river was close now. The three kids rushing towards it now heard its roaring loud and clear, but right before they were about to break through the tree line they ran head first into a wall of stone that rose from the ground in front of them.
"I told you to wait for me!" Toph hissed angrily, trying to catch her breath.
The other gave her questioning looks as they picked themselves up off the ground, noticing that Toph had not lowered her rock wall.
"What's the matter Toph?" Aang asked, rubbing the back of his head.
"Before I thought I could sense something starnge by the river, but I couldn't tell what it was."
"Can you tell now?" Katara asked.
Toph crouched down and put her palm on the ground, "It's a person," she said.
"Fire Nation?" Sokka asked gravely.
"I can't tell, but I think they're hurt."
"Should we help them?" they all looked to Aang, waiting for an answer.
"If they're hurt we should help them," Aang replied, looking at the stone wall as if he was trying to see through it.
"But what if it's a trap?" Sokka asked.
"But what if it isn't?" Katara put her hands firmly on her hips, "If they really are hurt we can't just leave them there!"
"Fine!" Sokka said, throwing his hands in the air, "But when you get caught in some Fire Nation trap don't come crying to me!"
The others weren't listening to Sokka's complaining, Toph had already lowered her wall, and they were quietly sneaking through the tree line and into the open. As soon as Aang was clear of the tree line and saw the figure lying on the bank of the river he launched himself into the air, landing next to the figure and pointing his staff at them.
"Well?" Sokka called from the tree line when neither Aang or the figure moved.
"Are they Fire Nation?" Katara asked, ready to open her water pouch.
"I don't think so! I can't really tell!"
"What do you mean you can't tell, Twinkle Toes?" The other finally couldn't take it any longer and approached Aang and the girl.
Yes, girl. She was lying on her back on the river bank, the lower half of her body was still in the water and she was covered in scratches. As Katara bent down to examine some of the deeper scratches she realized why Aang was unable to tell whether she was Fire Nation or not. The girl wore a dark, dull, red, obviously Fire Nation, top that ended just below her chest, showing off most of her stomach. It had three quarter sleeves, but the one on her left ended just off her shoulder and had tattered edges; Katara could see an old, faint scar just below where the sleeve ended. However, she also wore an open, green, obviously Earth Kingdom, sleeveless vest with lighter green designs; as well as dark blue, baggy, Water Tribe pants very similar to Katara's own, but they were altered a bit, cut off and tightened at the knee so there was a small space of fair skin showing between the bottom of her pants and the top of her boots. She even had an orange sash, nearly the same exact orange that Aang wears, tied around her waist. She was wearing clothes from every bending nation.
"I don't think she's Fire Nation," Katara said after a quick look over. She used water from the river and began healing the mysterious girl's scratches, and as her hands passed over that girl's chest she thought she felt a little water there. She carefully extracted water from the girl's lungs and was rewarded with instant coughing; however, the girl did not wake up.
"What's wrong with her?" Sokka asked at last, still skeptical of this stranger.
"I'm not sure, she might just be exhausted, but we won't know until she sleeps for a while." Katara answered, sitting back on her heels and pushing a loose strand of hair back. "Aang, can you lay a couple blankets out on the ground over there? Toph, can you make a good sized earth tent around the blankets?"
"What about me?" Sokka whined, feeling useless and left out.
"Help me carry her into the tent," Katara directed, walking into the water and grabbing the girl's ankles.
Sokka shrugged and grabbed the girl under her arms; noticing that her light brown hair, which appeared to just barley touch her shoulders, was actually pretty long because of a braid that came to the middle of her back, strangely though, it started underneath her hair in the back, which was till only shoulder length.
When they had successfully carried the girl into the rock tent Katara shoed Sokka and Aang out of the tent, saying she had to get the girl out of her wet clothes.
"Wait Toph," Katara called as the blind girl began to leave as well, "aren't you going to help me?"
"Nah," the blind girl replied over her shoulder, "I think I'll unpack my stuff."
Katara narrowed her eyes, glaring after Toph, but decided it wasn't worth saying anything and went to work. Luckily the girl was wearing a black, sleeveless undershirt and black shorts that had stayed dry underneath her clothes. But, as Katara was removing that girl's sash and pants she saw a strange patch of skin just barely visible above her shorts on her left hip.
With the girl now only in her shorts, Katara gasped in shock, seeing that the strange patch of skin is actually a scar, and that scar continued down the side of her leg, ending mid-thigh.
"What's wrong?" Toph asked, surprising Katara and making her jump, quickly throwing a blanket over the girl.
"It's nothing. I thought you were helping unpack." Katara hoped it was too obvious that she was avoiding Toph's question.
"I did, I unpacked my own stuff." She answered, scratching her ear.
"Aren't you going to help with the rest of the stuff?"
The girl sat up suddenly, frantically looking around trying to figure out where she was. She was obviously in a small hut, but it was dark outside and she could hear the river in the background.
"There's something coming!" She heard someone shout. She tried to stand up quickly but was stiff beyond belief. She noticed he clothes, dry and folded on the ground and quickly threw them on. She attempted to hop towards the doorway while pulling on when her second boot, but when she leaned forward and grabbed the edge of the doorway to steady herself, she found her own eyes less than an inch away from large and unfamiliar grey ones.
When Toph woke them up, warning them about the coming machine, Aang quickly ran towards the stone tent to wake up their mysterious guest. But, just as he was about to run though the doorway, he found his own eyes less than an inch away from confused blue eyes.
The first person that entered his mind that would have blue eyes was Katara, and a slight blush started rising in his cheeks.
"Katara?" he asked, still confused because he was sure Katara had been back by Appa.
"What?" replied the very confused and very unfamiliar voice.
Aang jumped back and glimpsed the others were running towards them, but his eyes never left the strange girl in front of him. The girl who, with her brown hair and fair skin, could have easily been from the Fire Nation or the Earth Kingdom, except she was staring at him with wide confused blue eyes.
"Who are you?" he heard Sokka ask quietly behind him.
The question seemed to knock the girl out of her stupor because the confused and frightened look left her eyes and she lifted her chin, answering confidently:
"My name is Lanse."
Yay! I'm done with the first chapter! I hope you liked it!
Now, for some quick explanations: I realize the scene where Katara is *cough* removing Lanse clothes is a bit awkward and perhaps a tad suggestive, but remember! Lanse does have a tank top type thing and shorts underneath./ The name Lanse was taken from the Chinese word for blue Lán sè, but I took out the accents and mashed it together and got "Lanse" (if you go to Google translate and set it Chinese to English and type Lanse and listen to the result it'll pronounce it for you =D )/ I also plan to put more humor in it once the story gets going a bit more, so do not fear!
Please review and feel free to ask any questions!
And, as my fanfiction Mommy, IrkenRuler13 (She writes AMAZING Kingdom Hearts stuff!) would say: Flames will be used to bake cookies for my lovely reviewers!
