a/n: Okay, I got requests from my effervescent Probending team, I'm going to continue this fic! We left off with a lady reading in a cave. Enjoy!


Weak, pale light washed across the face of a sleeping girl. The watery sun rose over Republic City, filtering through the smoggy remnants of last nights rain. But in the cave, it was cool and damp.

Cewong was still dreaming, hugging the scroll she'd been reading last night like it was a teddy bear. This time, her dreams were of a man with a wide brimmed cap and boyish smile, gazing pensively over rolling dunes of sand. They were in the air, riding on the current of bone dry winds, harsh yellow sunlight streaking across the desert sky. But soon they started to descend, towards a tiny tower between the arid waves. Like a toy lighthouse for weary travellers in a lonely sea of sand.

She leaned over, trying to see closer, but the sand was rising upon her like a tidal wave, like a predator waiting to swallow her whole. She leapt away, and felt herself fly, right up to the crest of the wave. She was almost over, when the sand crashed into her middle, washing her back to the earth. Everything was darkening again, while the waves continued to nudge her stomach. She curled up tighter, but they continued to prod into her, as if it were in search of something...

Snuffle...

Sniff...

Sniff...


"Nuh!" gasped Cewong as she started awake. Immediately, she was aware that she was clammy, stiff, and touching something wet and furry. She snapped her head up dizzyingly fast, and scrambled backwards until she smacked into the wall of the cave. To her surprise, there was a large, handsome, sandy haired fox sitting right where she'd fallen asleep last night, staring into her eyes, and not running away in fear, for one reason or another.

"Erm...nice, fox thingy?" she said, reaching out a dubious hand in greeting.

The fox went up and sniffed her fingertips before whining at her and nudging her bag open with its furry snout and snuffled around until her two apples tumbled out.

"Aww...are you hungry?" murmured Cewong, reaching out to pet the fox.

The fox stared at her for a moment while she rand his fingers though its pelt. Its fur was soft as silk, smooth and fine to the point that it was almost vaporous. The fox stared at her with dark, wise eyes, almost like it held the lost secrets of thousands of years in its depths. Cewong stared into the mesmerizing chocolate pits, feeling the oddest sense of familiarity. She could've sworn that she'd seen it before.

If only I could remember where...

Suddenly, the fox lurched forwards and snapped at her torso. Cewong gasped and leapt back in fear as the large fox barrelled into her, knocking her onto her back. She rolled over and curled up timidly, but to her surprise, she wasn't remotely injured.

She glanced up, and realized that the fox was holding the scroll in it's mouth.

What would a fox want a scroll for?

Cewong leapt up and tried to go after the it, but unfortunately, it chose to run away from her this time, large paws darting soundlessly over to the mouth of the cave. Then, the fox broke into a gallop, gathering speed as its legs began to blur against the damp, yellowing grass on the hillside. Then, the it took flight!

Cewong rubbed her eyes incredulously, not sure whether she was still in her dreams.

Foxes do not fly...foxes do not fly, right?

But this one did; it wheeled through the sky, becoming fainter and fainter. The fox's sandy pelt turned translucent against the foggy skies, until the last ghost-like vapours evaporated into the clouds.

For a solid minute after it disappeared, Cewong stood at the mouth of the cave, staring numbly towards the exact spot in the sky where the fox had vanished. Suddenly, she pinched herself on the wrist, and yelped when she felt a prick of pain.

Why did it hurt? Am I not dreaming still?

She slowly wandered back into the cave, meticulously picking through every square inch of the dingy interior to confirm that the scroll was indeed missing. She scratched her head in confusion. Physical creatures couldn't just disappear, right? And she still could not, for the life of her, figure out why in the world a fox would want a measly roll of etched bamboo.

Well...it actually wasn't that measly. In fact, the scroll was beautifully narrated, even though it was only the personal journal of a twenty-something-year-old. Cewong could sense great maturity from each carefully carved character. And the tales it told were so surreal that is was almost like her dreams.

It spoke of a girl who was an Avatar, a "reincarnation" of the narrator's, (Jinora, was it?) grandfather. Apparently, she had been defeated by Amon, the savior of the world.

But that couldn't be right. First of all, the Avatar was just a legend; her teachers and parents had all told her so. Second of all, the narrator seemed to be speaking in sympathy towards the Avatar, and against Amon, which meant she was evil. And third of all, Amon had no siblings, or bending, or anything! He was a poor, scarred, lonesome child who eradicated a sickness from the world, right? He was given a gift from...somewhere. Nobody knew where he'd learned purification skills, but with such advancements in medicine within the past few centuries, there was no need to do it with his method anymore. Who would want to tell lies about that?

However, the woman who wrote this said that Amon was a...a...a bloodbender. A person who could control another person's body fluids.

Cewong shuddered at the very thought of it. It couldn't be possible. This girl must be lying. This Jinora person must be trying to poison the minds of the future generations with evil stories.

And yet, Cewong still couldn't believe that the narrator of the scroll had virulent intentions. The way she wrote seemed almost penseive: eloquent, but with strong undertones of melancholy. It was like she'd lost hope already, and was simply emptying herself as a coping mechanism.

Cewong sighed, running her hands through her pale brown bobcut in confusion.

Suddenly, her stomach growled. All that thinking must have sparked her appetite. After all, she had not eaten since the left her house yesterday...

Wait...

Her house...

Her parents...

Monkeyfeathers.

With a sinking feeling of dread, Cewong realized that she'd been out the entire night.

Ohhhhh...my parents are going to kill me.

Hastily, Cewong snatched up her bag and sprinted down the dew-speckled mountainside, back to her house in the suburbs of Republic City, putting the morning's supernatural events behind her.


a/n: What does the fox say!? (ringdingdingdingding...)

JK. I dedicate this chapter to Ms. K216 and karanathefirebender.

Reviewies plz!