Another chapter? I must be crazy…or sick.
Disclaimer: If I owned Avatar, there's no way I would have let them make "The Last Airbender." Just sayin'…
Book One: Water
Chapter II
Eight Years Later
"I'm so hungry I could eat a whole Armadillo Bear!"
Akira rolled her eyes. "You can't eat Armadillo Bear meat, Kun."
"Says you," he retorted. "If they don't feed me soon I might just go out and-"
"Catch one?" she interjected, "I don't know. If I remember correctly, didn't you get mauled by a Saber-Toothed Moose-Lion last time you went out on your own?"
"It wasn't even full grown. It was a cub," the short girl beside Kun laughed.
In the corner, a young man levitated two rocks a few inches above his palm. He let the rocks fall to the ground and sighed, "And it was teething."
"It was not that small!" Kun protested, "It was a least Ila's size…"
Ila shook her head, "I was at least three feet taller than it. 'S not saying much but…"
"Anyways, that's not the point," Akira said. "The point is; no matter what you do you seem to get into trouble. Which is why you're going to stay here until we get the command from General Qing."
"But if I don't get something to eat soon-Ow! Kuto!"
Kuto had just chucked a rock a the back of Kun's head, "We know, we know. You'll starve. And then you'll go Armadillo Bear hunting."
"Commander?" a skinny man, about twenty years old, entered the cave.
Akira stood up. The cave was low and her head brushed the ceiling. "What is it, Wei Yun?"
"Just got the order from headquarters. The general says to proceed, but the attack's gotta be done tonight."
"That won't give us much time to prepare," Ila said.
"Doesn't matter. We're still going to do it. Go and pass the word along to the troops." Ila, Kun, and Kuto stood up and filed out of the cave.
Wei Yun shuffled his feet nervously, "The general also says he can't give you that extra squad of Earthbenders. There was a skirmish outside Senlin Village Forest…"
"Then the four of us will have to be enough. Tell the general we'll get him those supplies," she replied briskly.
She reached Ba Sing Se almost two months after her father's death. The Fire Nation siege on the outer wall had already begun. Deathly calm hovered over the city like poison. It was the policy of the Earth King that the War not be discussed within the walls. It was for the sake of his young grandson, the heir to the throne after the death of his father.
And so the War was repressed in Ba Sing Se. Although it was never spoken of, it lay heavy on the minds of the people, especially the scores of refugees arriving in the city. Akira hated it. It was one thing to continue living in spite of the War. It was quite another to continue living as if there was no War. What of the sacrifice of those who died for the Earth Kingdom? People like her father. Her father died so that the Earth Prince could continue living in blissful ignorance. It wasn't right.
She found her family in the city, but she didn't stay long. You couldn't change anything about Ba Sing Se. She couldn't form a new life for herself in the city. At least not the life she wanted.
After her grandfather died she left. Joined up with the Earth Kingdom Resistance on the western borders of the kingdom.
She was sixteen now. There was more to the Earth Kingdom than just Ba Sing Se and Omashu, though that was where the strongest Earth Kingdom defenses were. Even the most isolated villages deserved protection. Their families had lived off the land for hundreds of years. That was why the Resistance was formed. Because the Earth Kingdom, all of it, was worth protecting.
In many ways, she was truly her father's daughter.
And now they waited. Huddled together in caves, or whatever shelter they could find, the Resistance waited for a chance to attack the Fire Nation. Small battles. Small victories. But they mattered. Underequipped and undersupplied. But Akira knew better than anyone that desperation was a warrior's greatest weapon.
"Commander? You ready yet?" Kun stuck his head inside.
She shook her head. If only memories could be shaken off like water. "What? Oh yeah, I'm ready. We'll wait until after sunset. Then we'll move out."
Notes:
Akira's name means "bright" or "clear" in Japanese. Took me forever to come up with a name I liked.
Senlin Village is the village where Aang first met Hei Bai.
Sorry, a lot of dialogue here. This is sort of a filler chapter for Chapter Three, which will begin to merge with the main storyline. Yay! Hopefully next chapter will come soon, I've pretty much got it written in my head. It's just getting it onto the screen that's the hard part. As always thank you for reading! Feel free to leave a review. Let me know what you think!