Pro-Bending Circuit | Round 5
Team + Position: Laogai Lion Vultures, airbender
Main Character: Suki
Prompts Used: cheese (word) | "Looks like it's gonna be a great brawl" (dialogue) | Kyoshi Island (location) | One canon animal in human form (AU)
Bonus: Use of my element (air)
Word Count: 3,497
The summer solstice dawns hot and heavy: a perfect day for a hike across Kyoshi Island.
"Where are you taking me?" Suki wonders aloud for the fourth time as she follows Sokka down the mountain pass.
Arching one eyebrow, Sokka repeats, "You'll see" as he hefts the picnic basket dangling from his arms. The aura of mystery surrounding her boyfriend only increases Suki's excitement.
"You've been planning this date forever! I can't help it if I'm dying to know what you've cooked up." Plus, she's dying for a rest. Sweat pools under her shirt collar, making Suki squirm. At least Sokka's focused on the path ahead instead of watching her morph into a puddle.
Thank Kyoshi, a gust of wind snakes through the hill, providing relief from the rising sun. It urges the couple onward as Suki's mind runs wild trying to guess what Sokka's prepared this time. Another cactus juice tasting? A romantic sky bison ride over the Earth Kingdom?
He leads her around one more ridge, then they're standing on the shore of the South Sea bay.
"You know we could've saved the walk and just laid in bed all day, right?"
Stripping off his tunic, Sokka considers her brightly. "Tempting… but where's the surprise in that?"
Sokka leads her to a flimsy craft that Suki suspects might not be seaworthy. She folds her arms as Sokka guides her into the rowboat. "You know what lurks under the water, right?"
"Relax, Suki," he says. "We're going fishing!" Disguising his panting with a poorly-timed cough, the Water Tribe warrior pushes the dinghy towards the waves. He runs waist deep into the surf before leaping in gracelessly and grabbing a paddle.
Suki tries concealing her disappointment. "Fishing?" Whenever she fishes for dinner with the Kyoshi Warriors, her line tangles in seaweed. Or the unagi bites through it. Or she falls asleep waiting for a catch. This isn't exactly the grand adventure she'd imagined.
"Dad and I used to do this before he left for war," explains Sokka, his strokes cutting deftly through the waves. "We'd head out in a canoe and spend the whole day fishing. Then we'd haul our catch back to the tribe and spend the next week drying jerky."
The way his voice softens shores up Suki's resolve: she's going to fish with Sokka, and she's going to love it.
Sokka's nervous; sweat drips off of his palms when he pulls her in for a kiss. "Don't remember fishing being this fun with Dad," he winks.
Elephant koi dart above the surface, scales glistening under the sun. "Aren't they beautiful?" Suki exclaims.
"You know," Sokka brags, "I rode one of those back in the day."
"Really." Disbelief stretches across Suki's face.
"Well… I watched Aang ride one. The fish was doing all the work anyway!"
Once Suki's laughter subsides, awkwardness settles to the bottom of the boat, sloshing around their ankles. As sun beats down on their necks, an insistent breeze provides respite. Waves lap against wood, daring Suki to fall asleep until the wind nips at her ears. Stay awake, it urges. So she fumbles for bait and casts her line into the ocean.
A few hours pass. No fish bite, so the couple rows back to shore and devour the picnic basket Sokka packed: cheese buns and moon peaches. Although not as delicious as fresh fish, the meal is good, yet Suki's bored out of her mind. It's not that there's nothing to talk about— Sokka's retold every story in his repertoire. It's just the mugginess floating in the air that sucks the movement from her limbs and words from her lips. Luckily, the gentle winds keep her from overheating. They lift the hair clinging to the nape of her neck, rustle under her sarashi wraps, and push her softly towards the cool earth.
Then, once the last cheesy bun disappears, Sokka clears his throat as he draws a scroll from the basket. "In Ba Sing Se, I'm renowned for my poetry. Their schools couldn't handle my creativity, though. Counting syllables— who needs that?"
When Suki rolls her eyes, Sokka cuts his babbling short. "Anyway… well, I wrote you a poem. Because I like you."
Suki has to admit she didn't see this coming. She settles back on her elbows as he begins reading: "My father said, 'That's some girl' and I realized you're my world…"
Sokka's rhymes need work, but he grins bashfully so Suki just smiles when he asks her if she likes it. "You talk too much," she whispers, interrupting him with a kiss.
When Sokka breaks away, he proclaims, "Time to watch clouds!"
"Watch clouds?" Suddenly fishing sounds enjoyable to Suki.
"Come on! We used to do this all the time flying with Aang. What do you see?"
She hesitates. A bunch of white clouds. "That one kind of looks like a fluffy bunny."
"Yeah! The one next to it— totally Appa."
"No way."
"Yes way! Turn your head to the right. Then you'll see it."
The wind carries the clouds across the sky and lays the sun to rest below the horizon. As an evening chill sets in, Sokka and Suki trek back to the village where they reunite with the Kyoshi Warriors for dinner.
Around the fire, Ty Lee settles next to Suki. "How was your date?" she asks and is met with a sigh. "That exciting, huh?"
"What did you do today?"
"Ooh!" Ty Lee squeals. "Girls, what did we do today?"
"Fight the unagi!" the Kyoshi Warriors chorus. Suki's stomach sinks. How did she miss that fight when she was on the bay the whole time?
"It was scorching outside," the acrobat explains, "so we went to the tavern for drinks."
"Gotta stay cool!" teases Avani, the youngest warrior, and the other girls laugh.
"We're sitting around the bar when this thin man barges in," Ty Lee continues. "The tavern's packed with summer solstice revelers, and this guy starts attacking the group by the bar! So I somersault over to break things up and he gets in my face. Says he's not about to be bossed around by a Kyoshi Warrior after we've been interrupting his existence for the last century. Turns out it's the unagi, transformed into a human."
Suki's sure her friend is teasing, but Ty Lee remains serious. "Free to roam beyond water, he's terrorizing the village! I took out my fans—" So begins the account of the battle. The warriors managed to drive the unagi away from the village, but couldn't end him once and for all.
As Suki slumps into bed that night— Sokka's snores echoing through their room— she hopes she won't miss the next fight. Much more interesting than melting in a skiff under the clouds.
The day dawns hot and heavy. "A perfect day for a hike across Kyoshi Island!" Sokka exclaims as he shakes Suki awake. Without opening her eyes, she tosses her pillow at his head.
"We did that yesterday," she mumbles. "Today, we're sleeping."
Sokka chuckles affectionately, flinging the pillow back at her. "You'd do anything to avoid waking up early, wouldn't you?"
Maybe she dreamed up the fishing. Sokka wouldn't really plan such a dull date. He covers her with kisses before she drags her eyelids open. The same picnic basket from her dream sits besides their bed.
"Where are you taking me?" Suki wonders aloud as she follows Sokka through the mountain pass. It's the wrong question to ask. She knows where they're going; it's why they're going to the bay again that baffles her.
Arching one eyebrow, Sokka says, "You'll see" as he hefts the picnic basket dangling from his arms.
Not easily startled, Suki simply frowns. It's impossible she dreamed up the same date she's reliving right now. This walk, their conversation, the bay coming into view is exactly the same. The only thing different is the stillness in the atmosphere. There's no wind to cool them off.
"We should've saved the walk and just laid in bed all day!"
"We did that yesterday… Where's the surprise in that? Today we're getting out of town, then tonight we can get back to our regularly scheduled activities." With a wink, Sokka continues down the path, looping his hand in hers. The sweat between their palms chafes as Suki panics.
Review the facts, she tells herself, trying to quell her rising confusion. This isn't a dream. She knows she's lived this day before. On the contrary, Sokka seems oblivious— more so than normal. Minus a few variations in their conversation because of Suki, nothing differs from yesterday.
This day must be repeating itself.
She's heard rumors of spirits meddling with human conceptions of time. When the barriers between the human and spirit worlds are thin, Ty Lee swears that the spirits' power grows stronger in the human realm. She's told stories around the campfire of solstices that extend for weeks and spirits who roam the earth, taking human forms so they can partake in the revelries. What mischief they cause disappears when time straightens back to normal. Suki's always written it off Ty Lee's ramblings as Fire Nation legends, not reality. But here she is, the day of the summer solstice beginning again, and nothing to prove she isn't going crazy besides a fireside tale.
If she's stuck repeating a day, why can't it be the day where Sokka helped her wrestle the catgators? Or the evening when they finally slipped into bed together, past Katara's watchful gaze and Zuko's late night wanderings through camp? Why is Suki stuck repeating the hottest day of the year? She curses the spirits as she climbs aboard Sokka's rowboat heading out to sea.
The afternoon drags on, even more uncomfortable than the first time around. Today— Suki doesn't know if she can call this today or yesterday— the heat isn't tempered by a breeze. Instead, the air is thick and wet. It presses against her throat, slowing their conversation.
Again, they catch no fish. Again, the sunshine drives Suki to a dazed silence. If she has to sit one more minute on this rough plank during the peak of the day, Suki might scream. Even Sokka's fallen victim to the heat, his well of jokes run dry. "I haven't seen the unagi fin in the distance," Suki says. "Wanna swim?"
Sokka's pole clatters to the bottom of the craft. "Does a polar bear dog love the snow?" Before Suki can reel in her line, Sokka's shirt joins his pole as he dives in the surf.
They splash until their legs turn to noodles and their arms ache from trying to dunk each other. Once they row back to shore, they spread out the same blanket, dine on the same cheesy buns, and suffer through the same bad poetry.
Their interactions are still sluggish, stilted by the heat and Suki's preoccupation with the absurdity of this day. Sokka half-heartedly snakes an arm around her, but it's too sweltering for skin contact, and Suki's in no mood to cuddle. Lying on her back, wrapped up in her thoughts, she almost doesn't notice the clouds hanging thick in the sky. Yesterday, they drifted into different shapes that she and Sokka named. Today, they're stagnant. No wind moves them through the air.
No wind, no change, she thinks, and it's almost like the clouds above darken just a shade.
Over the fire that evening, the Kyoshi Warriors recount the same tale of fighting the unagi, breaking barstools but letting him slip away. Their laughter mingles with the smoke; Suki coughs as it enters her lungs. Jealousy and woodsmoke: a potent combination. She stands, preparing to slip away for fresh air and a moment of peace just as the evening starts to cool.
Sokka sees her striding away from the group. He follows her to the red bridge curling over the creek. "You're acting strange tonight."
"Just tired," she responds. "Do you… ever feel like your life is stuck? Like time isn't moving forward and that you're just repeating the same day and that no matter what you do, nothing will change?"
"Whoa there!" Sokka says. "You lost me at time loop. Are you sure the sun hasn't gotten to you?"
Suki shrugs. When Sokka hugs her, his warm breath hits the back of her neck.
"Sorry about such a long date," he murmurs in her hair. "Maybe laying in bed all day was a good idea."
"It's alright." Suki cracks a smile as she leans into his embrace, warm air and all. "It was way too hot, but I did get to spend dinner with the cutest person ever."
Sokka wrinkles his nose. "Wait… what?" For a moment, Suki believes he's genuinely confused. "Are you talking about Ty Lee? Just because she looks better in that warrior outfit than I do—"
The giggle escaping Suki's throat is the first genuine laugh she makes all day. "It is you, stupid." She pulls him in for a kiss under the first freckling of stars, and prays to the spirits that the solstice ends at midnight.
The next day dawns hot and heavy: "A perfect day for—"
"A hike across Kyoshi Island?" Suki's flat response does nothing to sway Sokka's enthusiasm.
"How did you guess?" he grins as he hefts the picnic basket dangling from his arms. When he's met with a mysterious smile, he declares, "My girlfriend's a genius."
Suki follows Sokka down the mountain pass for the third time. She does not wonder, "Where are you taking me?" for she already knows, and she's already dreading another day of stilted small talk and oppressive warmth. They boat, swim, eat. The wind is nowhere to be found.
When Sokka breaks out his poem again, Suki snaps. "It feels like we've been doing this forever!" she exclaims. Immediately, she bites her lip, wishing she could capture her words and stuff them back into her mouth. She can already picture Sokka's disappointment.
So she's surprised to see him nod along. "This is boring! I should've never taken Katara's advice!"
"This date is Katara's fault?"
"She said a romantic date by the water would win you over."
"Maybe if I was a waterbender."
Sokka shakes his head ruefully. "That's the last time I listen to her. Well, now we've got the rest of the afternoon to fill. What do you want to do?"
"Head back to town and fight the unagi!" He stares at her like she's sprouted Momo's ears. Suki remembers that he doesn't recall anything from the past two iterations of this day, so she fumbles for an excuse. "Ty Lee mentioned something about a fight over breakfast."
At this, Sokka lights up. Suki hasn't seen this much enthusiasm since their date began. "Me and my trusty boomerang are so in! I'd be honored to fight alongside you."
"Also, you should stick to haikus."
He groans in agreement. "I should've stuck with haikus."
They sweat the whole way back to town, but Suki insists she gear up in her full Kyoshi Warrior armor before they join her sisters. When Sokka just stands there, admiring her figure as she undresses, Suki giggles. "Why aren't you suiting up? Kyoshi tradition dictates that all warriors dress in her honor."
She tosses him a spare green robe. Sokka sighs, but unwinds his tunic. After allowing Suki to break out the rouge, Sokka examines his reflection in their bedroom mirror. "You know, I kind of missed the facepaint."
"It suits you," she winks.
Seated in the small, thatch-roofed tavern, a group of Kyoshi Warriors chatter over their mugs. No one suspects they're waiting for battle. No one suspects that one of them is male. Suki has to admit Sokka's makeup job is top-notch. One hand on her fan, she watches the door slam open.
In slinks a tall man with green eyes that chill Suki from several paces away. It's like a frosty gust of air pierces through Suki's silk tunic, although the day is muggy as ever. His pink hair stands on end, and when he turns to the bartender and bares his unnaturally sharp teeth, the shrieks of several patrons echo throughout the hall. The bartender forfeits the bottle of whiskey in his hands, which the intruder drains in one gulp before smashing the bottle on the counter.
"The unagi!" Ty Lee whispers.
"His mustache is worse than Haru's!" Sokka mutters. Indeed, the man's stringy mustache dangles past his shoulders, in need of a good wash. The unagi swivels in Sokka's direction, beelining towards the warriors.
"What did you say, Miss?" he hisses.
"Uh… I said… your mustache looks very…"
The unagi's sharp teeth gleam as he spits on the floor, missing Sokka's feet by a breath. "You don't like my mustache?"
Sokka rubs his neck nervously. "Well, it's hard to argue with a magical monster-turned-human, but…"
"For Kyoshi!" shouts Ty Lee, flipping onto the unagi's shoulders and delivering a series of swift blows to his neck. Before she can complete the sequence, claws sink into her chest and fling her at the bar. The wood fractures as she collapses in a splintering of glass and groans.
Sokka launches his boomerang at the attacker's pink mohawk, hollering, "Looks like it's gonna be a great brawl!" Behind him, Suki's fans connect with the eel's stomach. A punch to her jaw, and Suki's staring at the thatched roof.
Stealthy attacks to his head, but the unagi shakes them off. Fans to the ribs, but he tears through the metal as if it were rice paper. Out of the water, the unagi hasn't lost his speed. His long limbs dominate the small space, preventing the Kyoshi Warriors from regrouping and attacking as one. His attacks manage to take the seasoned fighters off-guard; even without a tail, his limbs thrash and batter them until they tire out.
"He's got the advantage here," Suki whispers to Sokka. "Let's smoke him out."
Fear creeps into Sokka's voice. "Uh, Suki? Leave the planning to me…"
But the torch from the wall has already left Suki's hands. Flames engulf the bar, spreading towards the bottles behind the counter. As if the day needed to get any hotter. What she wouldn't do for an ocean breeze.
The unagi's mustache twitches, as if it has a life of its own. His eyes dart between the encroaching blaze and the door. Just as he pivots, ready to run, whimpers waft up from an overturned table near the bar. A blue cap peeks up. "Help!" cries Koko, too scared to run past the unagi to safety.
Suki doesn't even have time to glance at Sokka, yet she knows what he'll do. It's her job to distract the unagi. While she lunges at the monster, scraping its thighs bloody with her fan, Sokka grabs Koko, tossing her out the door.
"Thanks, Sokky," she giggles before dashing away. "Nice dress."
Before the whole tavern goes up in flames, the Kyoshi Warriors flee the building on the unagi's heels. From the safety of their huts, the villagers watch the brawl unfold. The Kyoshi Warriors form a line that stretches down the center of town.
When the unagi advances, he's set upon by a ring of warriors. Gold fans flash in the sunlight. A boomerang hurtles towards the sky.
Seeing Sokka throw away his weapon, the unagi barks, flinging himself at the painted fighter. Suki breaks the circle, diving towards the eel man. She punches him. Hard. Unbalanced, the unagi falls to the ground, where Sokka's boomerang connects with his head. His mustache twitches no more.
"I see you managed to light our town on fire!" one citizen huffs, but his complaints are blown away by cheers as the villagers form a brigade to dump well-water on the blazing tavern.
It takes Suki a moment to recognize Sokka— his makeup job is too good— but she picks him out of the crowd and hugs him.
A voice from behind yelps, "You mean you don't recognize me?"
The figure under Suki's arm wriggles away from her grasp. "Avani!" Suki hopes her makeup conceals her blush.
Sokka's cackling. "You did not just mistake a girl for me!"
Suki knows she won't live this down. "I just looked for the skinniest warrior here." That shuts him up quickly.
The day dawns with a swift breeze sneaking through Suki's open windows, mingling with Sokka's snores. Her sheets flutter in the air as she jolts awake, examining her surroundings. Wind, a noticeable drop in temperature, no picnic basket in sight?
"It's a new day!" she squeals. Her aching arms protest as she pushes herself up, so she falls back onto the pillows. After yesterday's brawl, she could use a day on the lake as a break, especially now that there's no threat of the unagi lurking under the surface. But as Sokka stirs awake, he murmurs, "We're staying in bed today, right?"
Suki can't argue with that.
This is my final submission for the Pro-Bending Circuit's regular rounds. Semifinals are coming up in two weeks, so check out this awesome competition for some great Avatar stories (and cheer on the Lion Vultures if you feel so inclined)!