" Most adventures start with a single step, while others start with you falling headfirst into a situation you really don't want to be in."
Prologue
FALLING HEADFIRST
Why did I have to say what I said? I just couldn't keep my mouth shut could I? I sighed deeply and heavily, showing my despair at the situation I was in. At least I would have, had I not been chased by around seven thugs at the time. I thought they would take that little joke I told them better than this, but apparently some people don't like to be compared to a cow's backside.
I looked behind me to find that they were easily catching up with me. Looks like I'll have to twist up this escape! I ran into an alley, dodging the trash cans while simultaneously pushing them over for my chasers' enjoyment. I looked behind me once again to see two of the dumber looking ones tripping and falling over my impromptu trap.
Two down and out, five to go, I thought probably about time to wrap this up. I took another turn, straight into an intersection. Now most people would think this would be crazy, even suicidal. The thugs certainly thought so, seeing as how they stopped running after me. But I knew this was something I could do. I jumped over the hood of the first car, dodged a second, and just to show-off I back flipped across the third one (a Ferrari no less).
I looked across the road to see goons slack jawed at my performance. To add insult to injury I did a theatrical bow and yelled across to them "And that's how you do the automobile cha-cha, gentlemen!". I ran home before I could hear the foul language pointed at me.
Perhaps a recap is in order. I'm Falcon Crimson (spare the jokes, I've heard them all), just finished up being a sophomore in high school, and sixteen years old. My parents are average, my house is average, even I'm average
(in a way).
I looked at myself in a hall mirror when I got home. Plenty of red hair, eyes that switch from green to blue in different light, and pale skin wrapped around a slim body. I sighed deeply, heading to my room upstairs. I threw my brown leather bomber jacket on my bed leaving only a plain white shirt and blue jeans on. I fell back onto said bed closing my eyes and letting the sweet kiss of sleep take away the soreness that had come from my truly amazing escape. I distantly recognized the dark cloud outside my window before I fell asleep.
I woke up. And nearly fell back asleep. But I pushed aside my grogginess and stood up from my bed. I looked at the clock next to my TV. 8:45p.m.? Why didn't mom wake me up? I stepped out of my room looking for my parents. But they weren't home. I just guessed they decided to go to the store or something.
I grabbed my jacket and went outside, locking the front door as I left. For some reason my grogginess was getting worse. Maybe a walk around the nearby forest would help.
The dark cloud I had noticed before my rest had grown across the sky, stretching far beyond the horizon. But they for some reason didn't look like storm clouds. Perhaps they would get pushed to the next county by the strong winds before that happened.
I continued jogging till I reached the edge of the forest, stopping for a moment to catch my breath. That feeling I had just kept getting worse. I just need to relax that's all.
I walked trough the forest till I came into a clearing. Here the feeling seemed to be replaced by a sense of awareness, like something was coming. Then there was a flash of light. I fell to the ground, the lightning breaking my zen like calm. I took a deep breath to calm me. Then another lightning bolt struck. In the same spot. T…That's impossible! Then another lightning bolt hit a few feet from the last. And another in a different spot. And another. And another. It was like a cacophony combined with a light show, all meant to scare me senseless. Which was working. It continued gathering momentum until finally the world fell through the ground in one last flash of light. I distantly felt myself falling. Except this time it was a lot longer fall.
"When making new friends it's always important to be courteous, friendly, and to not act like you're completely crazy."
Chapter 2
Making Friends In Crazy Land
They had been flying for the past few hours straight and were looking for someplace to land and rest. And get some food for Sokka's 'starving' stomach. "Are we there yet?" Sokka moaned, again. "Sokka we'll land in just a few minutes all right." Katara told her older brother. "Are we there YET?" he said, trying to see how far he could push his sister. "NO Sokka!".
"…Are we there ye…" "FOR THE LAST TIME NO!".
Aang had to smile at this. Lately they had been very worried about the whole "save the world before Sozin's comet arrives" thing, so it was just nice to see them acting like a normal brother and sister would. They were traveling from Avatar Roku's temple in Fire Nation territory and it was nice there were finally in friendly waters. Well, if you could call an entire kingdom being stuck in a vicious hundred-year war 'friendly waters'.
But before he could finish this thought (and before Katara and Sokka could continue fighting) it was interrupted by a blinding flash of light, like somebody had just lightning-bended a thousand times in an instant. When Aang could see again he saw a tiny dot in the sky falling from above. He squinted to see what it was, which turned into an expression of shock and alarm when he realized what it was.
" Hang on guys!" He yelled to his friends before urging Appa forward to the dot. It was going to be close. The dot was less than a thousand feet away from the ground beneath it. Aang air bended himself off of Appa and to the figure in the sky hoping that he could catch it in time. Less than two hundred feet to go! He grabbed forward, holding on to the figure and pulled his staff from his back. One hundred feet! Aang activated the staff's kite-glider form at the last possible moment and airbended himself and the figure onto the ground with a 'whoosh' of air instead of a resounding crash. Aang took a deep breath in order to release the tension and adrenaline from himself. Appa landed in the clearing with an even bigger whoosh of air than Aang did, with Katara and Sokka jumping off his saddle less than a second later. " WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU AANG! WHY DID YOU JUST GO ALL CRAZY LIKE THAT!" Sokka screamed at Aang. " Sokka's right Aang, why did you do that?" Katara asked with more concern than confusion. " I had to. I just couldn't let him end up like scrambled platypus-bear eggs." Aang calmly said. "Who are you talking about?" Katara questioned, now with more confusion in her voice. "Him." Aang pointed to the figure on the ground that he had saved. It was a teenage boy with flame red hair.
"Who is he?" Katara asked mostly to herself. "Maybe he's Fire Nation?" Sokka suggested with his traditional paranoia. "How come everybody we meet you always think there the bad guys?" Katara queried her brother.
"Because they usually are." Sokka stated, still not letting his guard down in front of the unconscious boy. "He has a point." Aang agreed. "And look at his hair, it's RED!" "So? You have a ponytail!" Katara said, pointing a his odd haircut. "It's a WOLFTAIL!" Sokka was always easy to distract from the current situation.
"I think we should take him with us." Aang said suddenly. "WHAT!" Sokka said/screamed. "I think Sokka's right about this Aang. We don't know for certain who he really is." Katara gave Aang a concerned look. "You're right, but what if he's an airbender like me? He was falling a few thousand feet in the air after all." " True." Katara said with uncertainty.
"Anyway I'm the Avatar, if he is Fire Nation I can just knock him out and we'll be gone before he even wakes up." The other two had to nod their heads at this. " Okay, we'll take him with us for now." "I still have a bad feeling about this.". "Good, lets stay here for tonight." Aang said before everyone set to work preparing the camp. Aang looked back at the enigmatic redhead before he went to get firewood, wondering if what he said about him being an airbender was true.
I woke up to the smell of fish grilling. Not a half bad thing smell to wake up to actually. But my mom never makes fish for a meal. This thought prompted me to open up my eyes. I found myself in a tent. An old style tent too. No plastic of any kind, just heavy cloth and a few sticks. I felt confused at this; wasn't I just in the forest? Maybe I passed out and some campers found me. I tried to get up, which turned out to be a bad idea. I fell to the ground exhausted I don't understand why though. Was I hit by that lightning or something?
That's when someone walked in to the tent to check on me. I looked up to see the most blue eyes I have ever seen. I was so stunned I didn't even hear her talk for the first time. "Sorry, what?" I asked apologetically. " I said 'are you alright'." she asked. "Yeah just tired that's all." "That's good, we were worried you hurt yourself when you fell.".
Fell? Yeah, I remember falling after the first lightning strike. " Yeah that was pretty freaky with all that lightning" I said. "Yeah and on a cloudless day too.". Cloudless day? "Wasn't it really cloudy though?" I asked. She blinked a couple of times before saying "No.". Now I was confused.
I tried to stand again, this time with far better results. " You shouldn't be walking around like that!" the tanned girl said. To which I promptly ignored as I hobbled outside.
I was treated to the sight of an open campfire with some fish grilling above it. There were two people sitting next to the fire. One looked a lot like the girl from before, except with a really weird haircut. Brother and sister maybe? I looked at the other guy. Bald, short, and kinda pale. The kid looked only around eleven or twelve, but he had a tattoo going from the back of head to his forehead. Weirder.
I would have said something (probably sarcastic) but the smell of the fish drew me to the campfire in hope of dinner. "Hey, you're awake!" Tattoo said. "Glad you noticed." Alright you have to admit that he set himself up for that.
"I'm Aang, he's Sokka, and she's Katara." the one now known as Aang said. "Those are… interesting names." I said simply not knowing what else to say. "Yeah, well what's your name?" Sokka asked. "Falcon Crimson." I simply said. I saw a look of refrained laughter on his face. Sigh, here it comes. " So you're like some kind of fiery poultry!" he exclaimed, laughing afterwards. "SOKKA!" Katara yelled. "It's alright. I've heard it all before." I smirked "Besides, it's gotta be better than having a ponytail.". "WOLFTAIL!".
" Don't mind him he's always like that." Katara explained. Sokka mumbled something under his breath, then looked back at me with suspiciously. Now I'm no stranger to getting stared at (for various reasons) but the look he was giving me started to creep me out. " Hey what's with all the staring?". "Oh, we were just wanting to know if you're Fire Nation." Aang said casually. Sokka slapped his forehead at his friend's lack of tact.
I didn't know what Fire Nation was, so I said the thing that I always say in these situations. "Nope.". "See Sokka, he isn't Fire Nation!" Aang said.
"That doesn't prove a thing!" Sokka pretty much screamed. "Well I believe him." Aang said.
"You believe everybody." "I think he's telling the truth too." "Katara you're just as gullible as Aang!" "Hey!" "I'M gullible! Who thought that one of the village elders was a Fire Nation spy when they were ten!" "All the evidence pointed to old man Shu!" "You're evidence was nothing more than a four year old telling you that he was!"
"HEY!" I screamed. They all looked at me stunned. I sighed, glad to have prevented a sibling fistfight. "Listen, I don't even know what a Fire Nation is. So if you can tell me what it is maybe I'll be able to tell if I am one or not."
They looked at me for a few seconds with disbelief etched into their faces. "You don't know about the Fire Nation?" Katara asked carefully. "No".
"But how is that even possible". I shrugged. "You do realize that they have been waging war for the past hundred years, right?" Sokka asked giving me a look that was worse than the one before. "Doesn't ring a bell.". "Where are you from Falcon?" Aang asked. "United States of America. Florida to be exact.". Their blank faces told me they had never heard of it. "Never heard of it." Sokka said. One point for me. "Maybe we should just sit down and try to figure this out." Katara (who I now figured was the voice of reason) said, motioning for all of us to sit down around the fire. There has got to be logical explanation for this I thought. Never have I been more wrong.
The feeling around the ship and it's crew was tense, as if they were sailing through a blockade. Which they had done a short while ago. The reason for their wariness was because their leader was in a particularly bad mood. They had not only lost the Avatar again, but they had also fallen for General Zhao's trap. The fact that Zhao had lost the Avatar as well did not soften the blow. Zuko had pushed his crew as much as possible in hopes getting back on the Avatar's trail. But so far it wasn't successful.
Zuko was in his quarters looking over navigational charts as well as plotting out where the Avatar had been, hoping to find some sort of pattern to lead him to the Avatar. His musings were interrupted by a knocking on his door. "Come in." he replied.
The door opened to reveal his Uncle Iroh with a tray of food and tea for him. "Zuko" Iroh said "sooner or later you're going to need to eat.". He placed the tray next to Zuko hoping that his hunger would appeal to his mind. "Not now Uncle! Not until I find the Avatar!" Zuko said in anger. "But you won't find him if you starve yourself to death first." Iroh said with finality. Zuko stayed silent for a moment before moving the maps to the far side of the desk and placing the tray in front of him.
Iroh smiled a small smile, glad that his nephew was able to put aside his quest for the Avatar for just a while. Before he left the room though, Zuko asked him "Where do you think the Avatar is heading Uncle?". Zuko glanced at his Uncle hoping that his wisdom would help him. Iroh thought for a second and then replied "The Avatar needs to master water, earth, and fire. Perhaps he is looking for a teacher?". Iroh stepped through the doorway and closed the door, leaving Zuko to ponder on his observation.
I felt dizzy. And nauseous. And plenty of other things. But most of all I was… well a bit intrigued and curious.
What they told me about this place was amazing! Even though I, like any rational person, disbelieved them at first, I quickly reassessed my opinion when I saw Katara waterbend the stew that was broiling over the fire into our bowls for dinner. Then I started to hear what they had to say as truth. When they were finished they looked at me for my explanation. I sighed deeply. This is gonna take awhile.
The general looked out to sea. His steady gaze swept across the barren view as if calculating whether or not to attack an unforeseen enemy. His concentration was broken when a soldier walked up to him and saluted. The general looked the man in the eye before speaking.
"What is the report soldier.". "Not good sir. We've lost the Avatar's trail completely. Not only that but there appears to be no rumors of where he might be." "None?" the general asked with a raised eyebrow. "W…Well none that are very reputable, sir." the soldier answered hesitantly. "I suggest we follow the most 'reputable' of those rumors just in case. Don't you agree, SOLDIER?" he emphasized the last word, letting the underling know it was an order and not a suggestion. "Y…Yes sir." he said, knowing what would happen if he didn't.
The general smiled as the soldier scurried away. Soon, he thought very soon.
He looked back at the sea knowing the secret of the waterbender's, and how to defeat them because of it.
"Whoa.". Sokka's statement seemed to surmise everybody's opinion on my story. There was a stunned silence after I had finished. It didn't last long.
"Are you crazy?" "Sokka don't say that!" "But his story IS crazy!" "I was frozen in an iceberg for a hundred years!" "But you're the Avatar, crazy stuff happens to you A LOT!" "Yeah, and this is crazy. So I'm the best person to solve this." "You have a point.". They all quit talking and look at me for my input. To which I yawn to. "Hey, this is all really crazy and all, but I think we should just get some sleep.". They all nodded their agreement and stood up to head to their own tents. I laid down on the ground and stared up at the stars. "We have an extra tent if you want one?". I looked to my side to see Katara standing over me. "If it's all right with you I'd rather just stay out here tonight.". She nodded before heading to her own tent. I looked up to the moon as if it were home. Might actually be easier to get back to if it was I thought before closing my eyes and fell asleep underneath the nighttime sky.
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