Avatar: the Last Airbender

Book I: Water ~ Lost Chapter 21: The Unknown Animalbender

"Have you ever gotten that feeling when someone yells at you, you just want to rip their head off, kill yourself, or just run away from all the people, events, and everything that keeps you in an awkward, overprotected position?

"You know nothing compared to me.

"I was born knowing my destiny; I hated it. I hated everything that I was destined to do. I was highly expected to fulfill every single thing that my ancestors did.

"That's why I'm here now, telling you this story.

"The day I was born, October 24th, I was given a medallion and a lemur. The medallion is made of pure silver and bronze and is engraved with a cougar on one side and a lemur on the other. My lemur's name is Saala. She is the same breed of lemur as Momo.

"So what is my destiny, you ask? I am supposed to marry someone I don't know and have children with him and pass down my royal blood to future generations. I used to be a princess in my kingdom. The thing is, I HATE that custom! I HATED being a royal, overprotected princess! And it wasn't someone I didn't know; it was someone I HATED from my early childhood!"

I calmed down and sighed, "I am a princess in my hometown, Chaatala. It is probably a place you never heard of or ever been to." Appa mooed in agree.

"I know, boy; you haven't been there. Anyway, I was expected to marry him. But… I…" I smiled faintly; well that was abrupt. There was a long pause after Katara gasped and Aang and Sokka sat stunned, but I carried on, "I murdered him because he didn't want me, he just wanted to be king of everything and everyone. He was a poor slob when we were six, and he stayed the same up until he died. Two words: good riddance.

"After I killed him, I washed off his dirty blood and ran. I ran far. The only thing I took with me was Saala." As I said that, Saala popped out of my messenger bag and acted way too cute. "I taught her how to write and communicate with humans and other animals; she's a prodigy." Momo instantly turned around and saw Saala, with her emerald-studded gold collar shining in the light and her pink-pointed tail wrapping around her pink-pointed paws (imagine Momo with that, soft pink wings, and sky-blue eyes; I like to tell apart my Saala from other lemurs. PS- Momo has green eyes), and he suddenly had hearts fluting around his head (metaphorically). Saala's a real pretty lemur.

"I guess I went far enough to actually run into the Avatar! I never thought I'd meet you."

Here's the full story: I'm in the forest, I see a monkey out in front of me. I'm hiding behind a bush waiting for it to get close enough to me so I could catch it. Then, as I'm going to sprint, Aang comes and Airbends in my face, knocking me backwards and letting my food run away. I almost let him have a piece of my mind, but I think those arrows look familiar, that's the Avatar!

I tell him sternly that was my next meal, and he invites me with Katara, Sokka, Momo, and Appa to fly together. I love flying, so I went.

So far, Katara's nice and kind, Aang is funny, Sokka's sarcastic in a funny way, and Appa and Momo are cute (they're animals, most animals are cute).

"Yeah, I get that a lot," replied Aang. We were flying over a forest. This is after Aang defeated the whole freaking Fire Nation fleet at the North Pole, but before he starts looking for an Earthbending teacher.

Sokka's stomach growled. "Why'd you kill the guy? He mustn't have been that bad,"

I scratched Sokka's face. That pissed him off, "What the heck was that for?"

I was more pissed than him; I morphed my hands into tiger claws and grabbed his shirt, "If you met the guy and you were me, you would have hated his guts, too! He was the most self-centered, prideful, know-it-all Neanderthal to ever walk the face of this poor, forsaken world!" I admit I was kind of mean.

Sokka looked scared, "Sorry!" I let him go, "Didn't mean to upset you!" He hid behind Katara, still freaking out. "But it doesn't give you a right to harm people."

I ignored that comment. "Dude, did you wet your pants or somethin'?" I laughed a little, "I haven't seen that since I accidentally clawed my sister's finger!" I didn't morph my hands into human form until I finished that sentence. "By the way, my name is Darian, nice to meet you." I held my hand for someone to shake.

Katara must have seen my paws, "Who… What… Are you?" She sounded frightened.

I shrugged and put down my hand, "You may call me a shapeshifter, or a changeling, or even an animal transformer, but I refer to myself as an Animalbender. I can turn into anything; from a turtle-duck to a saber-tooth moose-lion!" I laid down and faced the sky; the clouds were beautiful in a cloudy way.

"Wow," awed Sokka, "It's amazing; I never knew anyone like you existed,"

"It's passed down generation to generation; to my people, it's common in royalty." Sokka whistled in awe and stopped hiding behind his sister.

"I hope you don't mind me asking, but how wealthy were you?" Katara asked me.

I looked up, my face showed no expression but looked serious ant the same time. "I would have inherited billions." Tears welled in my eyes.

"What did you do to the guy you were gonna marry?" Aang couldn't help it; he had to ask. He was driving.

"Like this," I yanked Aang from the seat and shoved him on the ground. I got on top of him. I PRETENDED to bite his neck, "That a good example?"

Aang nodded.

I can be kind of scary when I want to be.

"Uhh, who's driving!" exclaimed Sokka. We all looked over to see Saala holding the reins like an expert bison driver. Momo was watching her with love.

"That's my girl!" I said.

It was late at night, we set up camp. I crashed between bushels of some kind of (non-poisonous) fruit.

"Are you sure you don't wanna sleeping bag?" asked Katara.

I'm used to sleeping on the dirt. "No, I'm fine." But then, I jolted out of bed.

I scented something. My eyes grew wide. My pupils pinpointed.

I only managed to murmur, "Fire Nation,"