Disclaimer: Okay I'm gonna say this one more time, so lawyers could you please get off my back: I do not own the avatar. Though if I did...you should be afraid, very afraid (que evil laughter)
The Storm
I gasped, sitting bolt upright as ice cold water hit me in the face awakening me from my sleep. Disorientated I wiped the last of my nightmare from mind and eyes, opening them only to have more water spray into them. I could taste the salty sea water on my lips. I tried to get to my feet but the violent rocking of the boat caused me to stumble over and knock into something large and warm. I opened my stinging eyes to see Kari's large red ones staring back. Kari was my white sea panther, at three years old she still had a lot of growing to do before she reached her full size, despite that she was still big enough to carry about my small form without much trouble. Being a sea panther she was my one life line out here as I couldn't swim. If I fell into the water it would be up to her to save me. 'A lot of pressure to put on a cub' her eyes seemed to say.
Another large wave crashed over us, and the water tumbled me over and carried me across the deck. I heard Kari's snarl as I crashed to a halt against the low sides of the boat which stopped me from being washed overboard by the huge weight of water. My supplies had not been so lucky and I watched the last of my rations disappear over the edge into the raging sea. Up ahead a flash of lightning crossed the sky quickly followed by an extremely loud crack of thunder which shook me to the very core. The rain came down. Very hard.
I was numb, the supposedly waterproof fur coat I wore that increased my size considerably, did nothing to keep the cold water out. Looking down I saw my seal fur backpack at my feet. Inside were all my personal possessions; the tribal bracelet that had once belonged to my mother, my Fathers fang earring and the mask I had bought two years ago with Peche, as well as spare arrows to my bow, which I could not see anywhere. Just then the boat tipped back the other way and my backpack slid towards the ocean, I couldn't lose it. Reacting quickly, I twisted and flipped myself onto my stomach, so I was now sliding head first across the deck. I wrapped my legs around the mast and with one arm holding onto Kari's collar, the other lunged for the backpack. My fingers just managing to hook themselves into the straps before the bag vanished into the wild water.
It took a great amount of strength to stand up, my arms wrapped around the mast in my open-air-one-man-fishing-boat. The boat 'The Blue Gullfisher' had originally belonged to an old earth kingdom fisherman. In return for me healing his granddaughter of some nasty looking purple spots (turned out she was allergic to snapdragons) he had given me the boat as payment. I knew the deal was too good to be true I mean, come on, a boat in return for a couple of simple healing ointments. Sure enough the boat was old, small and, as I found out a couple of days ago (a couple of days too late mind you) leaked like a sieve. And to top it off, 'The Blue Gullfisher' wasn't even blue. When I had first seen her, she looked like one good storm would sink her for good. But she was the best offer I got, so I took her.
Right at that moment, however, as another bone-freezing wave washed over me, I was seriously regretting my decision. The boat's deck rocked violently from side to side and I clung to the mast for dear life while Kari was trying to get a grip using her claws trying not to fall into the icy water. The mast made a cracking sound and I knew it wasn't going to last long. Then I noticed the large wave towering above us. On the wave, was an iceberg the size of a house, showing how close we were to the South Pole.
To me there was no doubt in my mind that the boat would not survive and neither would I. Standing there, clinging to the rocking mast, I had a feeling of déjà vu. I remembered my nightmare, the same one I had since the night the fire nation had destroyed my home town three years ago. The last thing I remember from that night was when the burning building was falling towards me. This is when I always wake up. I learnt later I had passed out before the building hit me and was saved by Je-Sung. I guess the sense of déjà vu came from the fact that this was the second time I had to stand and watch something fall on top of me. The first time it had been a burning building that tried to kill me, this time it was freezing cold ice wave. 'I swear the elements are out to get me' I muttered as the wall of water came crashing down.
Just before the iceberg hit the boat something knocked into me from behind and I felt an uncomfortable pressure on the back of my neck. It was Kari, who had launched herself off the unstable deck towards me, her mouth closing round the back of my neck as she picked me up, not unlike a mother would do to her cubs. Next thing I knew I was flying through the air into the freezing water. I was already soaked through to the bone and frozen to the point of numbness with the onset of extreme frost bite. Despite this, nothing, I repeat nothing could have prepared me for the sheer coldness of the water. My entire body screamed in protest as it felt like the ice was literally burning my skin. All the breath had been knocked out my body and when I opened my mouth to breathe all I got a mouth full of sea water.
I hung on to Kari as she struggled to keep us both afloat. We were both dragged down by the swirling current, I swallowed water and my head became light headed and dizzy. My survival rested squarely on her shoulders, as she began to swim upwards towards the much needed air. Being a sea-panther, Kari has the ability to hold her breath for a very long time; her red eyes allow her to see through murky water, as well as through mist and in the dark. She is an excellent swimmer, her strong leg muscles enable her to swim against strong currents. As for the temperature of the water, her white fur takes in cold water and sort of recycles it into body heat. It was that feature alone that stopped me from freezing to death.
As we broke the surface I spat and coughed out as much water while at the same time trying to breath in as much of the cold South Pole air as I could. This I soon found was physically impossible, as I threw up the contents of my stomach in to the still raging water. While I had been momentarily submerged, nothing about the storm had stopped; as thunder still rolled across the sky and rain continued to try and beat the water flat, the only difference was that I now noticed the dark cloudy sky was getting lighter as dawn approached.
I had been right about the boat not surviving getting hit by the ice berg as the water around me was now filled with the floating chunks that were the remainder of 'The Blue Gullfisher'. Then I spotted it, my bow floating a couple meters away from us, half in half out of the fast moving water. As another wave crashed on top of us, it brought the pieces of driftwood and ice as well as my bow close to me. While under water I made a grab for the weapon. The bow floated towards us and got kicked by Kari's powerful moving limbs into my gloved hands. A piece of particularly sharp ice caught me on the side of the head, leaving me struggling to comprehend anything except pain, cold and Kari.
As the storm blew on we sort of fell into a pattern; Kari would swim a little, and then we'd get overtaken by wave, resurface, breath and repeat. All the while I lay across Kari's back, my arms wrapped tightly round her neck and my face buried in her fur as I tried to absorb as much of her body heat as possible. Whenever I could I would slide to the side a little and kick my legs in an attempt to help but fatigue would always wash over me and it was all I could do to remain conscious. I had slung my bow and backpack over my back; they were the only things I had managed to salvage from boat. From time to time I would notice spots of red blood on her fur. Whether it was her blood or mine I did not know.
We kept going, we had too. I had to survive and find the avatar, for only he could restore peace to my people. And out of all of us, only I could find him, because it's my destiny to help the avatar fulfil his. At least, that's what the elders had said and every gypsy learns from a young age that you must never question the elders. It has been a year since they told me of my destiny, a year since I stopped training with Master Peche, a year since I took off on my own to search for the avatar. And it had been three years since the massacre in Ga'mi, and the destruction of my home. So we kept going, struggling against the ocean's power, heading south to where the closest land was. But even then we were days away from the South Pole or the Earth Kingdom. Our only hope was to get picked up by a passing ship.
The rain had started to lighten up as the first streaks of sunlight broke across the sky. I raised my head looking at the dark shaped lump on the horizon a billow of smoke rising from the top. My vision blurred and blackened when I saw the ship, I no longer had the energy to stay awake. I felt Kari change direction and swim towards the boat, she must have been tired but she still managed to keep going. Despite the changes in the sky, the water below was still trying its best to drown us, and as we got nearer to the boat, I found my arms weakening and I slide off Kari's back and into the water. As the expression goes, I sank like a rock. In the murky darkness of the water I twisted and turned my body, my limbs kicked out furiously as I tried to rise to the surface. And I was screaming, screaming for Kari, screaming for my life and once again I swallowed ice cold water.
Rough hands grabbed me, pulling me upwards. I felt an arm wrap around my waist and I surrendered letting him struggle against my dead weight. I didn't move as the currents of the water tried to drag us down. To the stranger I was just an empty shell. When we broke through the surface my body didn't seem to register the fact. It was like I had forgotten how to breathe. The stranger slung the top half of my body over Kari's back, the moment I made contact with her, waves of heat washed over me though they still were not enough to wake me from my icy prison.
There shouts and yells, as ropes were thrown down to us and I felt myself hoisted into the air then dumped like a fish on to the rocking deck of the boat.
"Not breathing" someone said, their breath hot on my icy cheek. Hands moved my head from side to side. Then something struck me hard on the side of the cheek while a large booted foot came down heavily on my stomach. The pain seemed to knock my brain into functioning again, and I rolled over and coughed up the water I had swallowed, breathing in the sweet, sweet morning air. Kari's growl came from above me, and a loud thump told me she had landed on the deck.
"See," said a triumphant voice. "Now it's breathing." I blinked, barely registering the fact I had been called an 'it'as I rolled other again to face my rescuers... a bunch of fire nation soldiers.
My eyes widened in their sockets before rolling into the back of my head and I slumped onto the floor in a dead faint.
Duh Duh Durrrr! - Lets imagine that music was playing when you read those last couple lines, it makes the story seem a bit more dramatic. Okay so chapter 1, our heroine is stuck in storm, gets capsized and picked by fire nation soldiers. Also we are introduced to her animal companion; Kari. A white sea panther, a creature made up by moi. Okay so she looks basically like any ordinary panther except she has bright red eyes and white fur. I haven't stuck with the avatar-animal-rule-book here because she isn't a fusion between two animals, just an improved version of one. I needed our heroine to have an animal guide cause otherwise I had no idea how she would survive this scene, or life in general. Okay maybe that's an overstatement, but its always best to have someone watching your back if your in trouble. For Rin, that someone would be Kari.
Sea-panthers come in three colours; Black (rare) usually found across the earth kingdom, Light brown (not as rare but still rare) tend to be found in the outbacks of the fire nation, and white (rarest of them all), environmentalists have not quite pinpointed the region where these creatures are found but they have recently announced that white sea panthers do in fact exist and are not just the subject of legend like unihorns (though I have reason to believe they exist too.)
Also mentioned are Gullfishers, that are once again, a creation of moi. They are a cross between Kingfishers and seagull. They are the colour blue. Honestly I'm still not sure how to imagine them yet, maybe the size of a seagull but with a Kingfishers beak? Yeah, you know its bad when even the author doesn't know what she's writing.
Anywhoo no gypsy language used here so no dictionary today. Yeah I know this chapter isn't exactly long, and its been over a week since I last posted, probably two actually, so to the small group of you who favorited my story or put it on alerts, I am sorry. I am also really grateful to you for supporting me and I here by present to you virtual cookies. You can have one each except the kind sweet angel who reviewed (you know who you are) you can have two.
There was a lot of action in this scene, I hope it turned out okay. I spent alot of time re-writing this as the first couple of drafts were better off as virtual toilet paper than actual chapters. If I have miss spelled something or gotten grammar wrong please don't be afraid to tell me, and I would also like some constructive criticism because all I've got so far are one syllable answers and there not really the best foundation to improve upon.
Okay very long author comment, I'm gonna stop typing now. DarkWitchofNarnia signing out.