AN: I'm so sorry about this chapter and how lacking it will be! I lost my flash drive with every single fanfiction story I have ever worked on in it (so The Gaang and the Gang is now gone forever.) and it took a while for me to get over the loss. Like I said, this chapter will lack detail because I don't want to work on it since I lost the original. Later chapters will be better. Hopefully.
Oh and one last thing: I don't think I made this clear in the first chapter, but Riley is a boy. I don't think I clarified that so just throwin that out there.
"Uuugh, my head." I rub the temple of mín noggin as my vision returns. I instinctively look down and see Candice slumped beside me.
Praise God for her safety. I say to myself. She slowly begins to move and rise, but still sits.
"Where are we?" She asks. "And why is it so cold? Hunter, the floor is cold and wet!"
"Yes, I guess you could say it's cold and wet!" I respond.
"Hunter, what are we sitting in?"
I look down and see that the floor is white. Snow? Are we sitting in a pile of snow?
"Looks like snow." I say. "Maybe, um, errr, the.. door opened… and it… snowed… inside?" I squeak.
"Not exactly," Candice says, grabbing my shirt at the chest. "Look at where we are!"
I scan the area. "Well, it's um… somewhere."
Somewhere is rather small, about the size of a house bathroom. Somewhere also has a fireplace, due to the snow. Somewhere appears to be cone shaped, like teepees used by Native Americans in the Midwestern United States. On Somewhere's walls, there appear to be furs and animal skins.
"Where the frick are we?" I ask.
"I'm telling you, I heard voices in there!" Someone outside says. The voice is that of a girl, maybe around our age? Said girl walks in moments later. She has brown skin, brown hair and ocean blue eyes with a large coat, almost like a parka. She has a basket in her hands that she drops upon seeing us. Her eyes fill with fear as she screams at the top of her lungs.
In response to the girl's screams, me and Candice grab each other and start screaming. This goes on for a few minutes until we all run out of breath. Gulping up more oxygen, we all resume screaming.
"Katara?! What's going on in there?" Another person rushes in; a boy around our age as well with skin similar to the girl's, eyes just like hers, and hair the same color as hers. But his hair is shaved on the sides, tied in the back.
The girl rushes behind the boy, intent on using him as a human shield.
"Who are these people?" He asks to the girl.
"I-I don't know!" The girl answers. "I just went to get some water for the socks and when I came back, these two were here!"
Panting from all the screaming we did, I take a whiff of the air. It smells like rotten cabbages that sat next to rotting eggs for a few weeks, got sprayed on by a skunk, fell into a sewage pipe and nestled in next to a large carcass for about a decade. I plug my nose, keep myself from gagging and say, "You might want to wash those."
The boy's face scrunches, then he pulls out a spear and points it as Candice's throat.
"Who are you two?" He demands. "Why are you here?"
"Well for starters, where are we?" I ask. "The narrator has been making me call this place 'Somewhere' for like ten minutes now." I look up to the sky and frown. The narrator, Snugglesthefluffykitten, with his epic cowboy hat, biker mustache and minigun that shoots laser and fire grins at me and mouths 'Sorry'. He then goes back to firing said minigun at something.
"Narrator?" The boy asks.
"My apologies," Candice croaks, spear still at her throat. "The boy can be a little crazy at times."
"Hey!"
The boy starts getting impatient. "If you don't tell me why you're here, I push my spear through the girl's throat!"
"Help me…" Candice whispers.
"We don't know where we are or why we're here!" I say. "Honest!"
"Uh-huh," The boy says. "Another person said that about a year ago. HE WAS FIRE NATION!"
"Fire Nation?" Candice asks, pushing the spear from her throat with no effort whatsoever.
"See?!" The boy goes on. "Only a Fire National girl could be that strong!"
"We're not from the Fire Nation!" I snap.
The boy smirks. "I like your act. Too bad I'm not buying it. I'm hanging you all at the gallows for being Fire Nation spies!"
I look up at Snugglesthefluffykitten and say, "Really? Gallows?"
"THAT'S THE BEST EXECUTION METHOD I COULD COME UP WITH!" The mighty warrior/author yells.
"WELL DO SOMETHING TO GET US OUT OF THIS SITUATION!" Everyone stares at me like I've gone insane.
"Sokka, you can't just hang them because you think they MIGHT be spies. We need proof and to give them a fair chance. Besides, we don't even have any gallows."
Did she just call the boy Sokka?
YES SHE DID! Snuggles booms in my head.
SHUT UP! I WANT TO TELL THE STORY! I WANT TO BE THE NARRATOR! YOU JUST WRITE IT!
"Fine.." The boy sighs. "We'll take them to the village elder and their fate will be determined there."
"Village elder?" The girl says, folding her arms. "Don't you mean Gran-Gran?"
"SSSSSSHHHHHHHHH!" The boy says, putting a finger over the girl's lips. "Don't say her name, they might be taking mental notes!"
"Let's go, crazy boy." Candice says. We push past the boy and step outside of somewhere.
Darn it, Snuggles! Why did you make me call it somewhere again?
Because it's funny.
You know what else is funny?
What?
SLOWLY PULLING A DAGGER OUT OF YOUR THROAT! That shut him up.
Outside of the erm, teepee, we notice our new surroundings. It's a small village, maybe the size of a soccer field. There are a few other teepees dotted randomly in the area, women and small children bustling around. All of them wear large coats, because the ground is snowy. The sun is slowly rising, the sky is the color of a rubber duck or something like that. Some of the snow is yellow, but I dare not ask if it's reflecting the light from the rubber ducky sky. The villagers sometimes pause what they're doing to stare at us as we're escorted by the boy and a rather large spear.
We arrive at a teepee larger than the others in the area.
"This is where the Village Elder lives," The boy says. "Go inside and she will judge you. Then we will determine whether you can stay or not." The boy shoves all three of us inside. In the teepee is nothing but a large fire, a table and a small bowl.
"So, is the elder even here?" Iwhisper.
"I have no idea." Candice answers.
"No, but she just walked in." We turn behind us to see the Village Elder. She's a very old woman with gray hair and wrinkled skin that could fold over itself over and over again. Her skin and eye colors are the same as the teens we met earlier.
"My name is Kanna," She says. "I apologize for my grandson's behavior. Sokka has had little trust for outsiders since his mother was killed."
"Sokka?" I ask in disbelief.
"Yes, Sokka." Kanna answers. "His sister's name is Katara."
"Katara?..." Candice says.
"Yes. Those are the names of my two grandchildren." Kanna says. She walks towards us and says, "You will now be judged by the spirits! They determine your fate; I only carry out their will. Give me a strand of your hair, both of you." We do as we're told and give Kanna some of our hair. She takes each strand and holds them very gently. She then slowly begins walking over to the large fire. Instinctively, we follow her.
"The hair has always been on your head, and has records of every deed you have ever done. The spirits will read those deeds and judge you." She first tosses my hair into the fire.
Even though I doubt any of this is even real, I can still feel the lump in my throat. I watch the fire slowly eat away at my hair, and my palms get sweaty and begin to burn. Breathing starts to get harder and I feel like I will faint when the unthinkable happens.
A small ball of light floats up from the fire. It hovers for a few seconds, then explodes in a large aurora of colors. The auroras race through the entire teepee, lighting it up like Rockefeller Plaza at on New Year's Eve. After a few moments, shapes start appearing- shapes that eventually take on the shape of animals; animals I have never seen before. There are dragons, six legged mammals, reptiles with tusks, and other things. The animals approach me. Cringing with fear, I put my hands in front of my face, worried that the animals will attack.
But they do not. They simply come towards me and fly around, like I'm some kind of racecar track. The animals soon return to the fire.
"Hm," Kanna says. "Nothing." She looks at me. "The spirits have seen nothing of your past. The deeds of old have been lost." She then puts Candice's hair in the fire. The exact same thing happens, from the ball of light to the aurora to the animals racing around her.
"Once again, the deeds of old have been lost." Kanna says. "How strange." She looks at me and Candice. "The spirits have not mentioned anything good or bad, so I will trust you two. If you betray my trust, you will be punished. Do you understand?"
"Yes, ma'am." Me and Candice say in sync. I look at her and whisper, "Jinx. That's another Root Beer." Candice just glares at me.
"Good." Kanna says. "Come on, let's introduce you to the village." She leads us outside, where all the women and children have gathered.
Knowing that the Village Elder trusts us, I feel much more relaxed. My heart no longer beats in my throat, I don't have a worried look in my eye.
At least that's what Candice says. Whether or not it's true I don't know.
"This is all a joke, right?" Candice says. "There's no way we could actually be here."
"Yeah yeah!" I say. "Someone must've moved us to a set while we were unconscious. This must be someone's idea of a sick practical joke!"
"But who would go through the time and effort to pull this off?" Candice asks. "This must've taken a very long time, setting up an animated stage, finding people who look and sound just like the characters."
"But it has to be a prank." I say.
"Candice is right," Candice agrees. "Besides, if we were in a cartoon, wouldn't we be cartoons too? Look at us- we're exactly the same!"
"What about the 'spirits'?" I say, jabbing my oldest friend in the shoulder.
"Special effects." She answers.
"Good people of the village," Kanna says. "As some of you may know, we have recently had a visit from twostrange people," Kanna gestures to us.
"Yep." I say, crossing my arms. "Very flattered."
"My grandchildren found them inside one of our tents. They looked confused and injured by the cold. I have brought them to be judged by the spirits, who found no evil or darkness in their pasts. They will be staying with us until they can leave." No one says anything, an awkward silence just lingers in the air.
Candice steps forward. "Thank you all, for hosting us. We really appreciate this."
"Now I shall give them names." Kanna says. "The girl with pale skin and long fingernails shall be Snow White Talon."
"Long fingernails?" I whisper to Candice. "When's the last time you cut those things?"
"I dunno." Candice says. She looks at her nails, which are at least three inches long.
"You might wanna cut those things." I say, then step forward. "I don't mean to be rude, but we already have names."
"Then please, share them." Kanna says.
"Alright," I say, huddling with Candice like we're on a football team. "I don't want to ruin their joke yet, so let's just play along. I'll share our names." My best friend nods, and our little meeting disperses.
"Okay," I say. "Her name is Jiang." I say. Jiang is Chinese for ginger. At least, I think it is.
"And my name is Jin." For blond.
"Welcome, Jiangand Jin to our village." Kanna says. "I trust you all will treat our visitors respectfully. They are our guests." The crowd of villagers disperses, leaving only "Katara"and "Sokka". They approach us.
"Welcome to our tribe!" "Katara" says. "I'll do everything in my power to help you guys with whatever you need."
"Yeah, power." Her brother snorts. "She has some freaky powers all right?"
"Powers?" I say, playing dumb. "What kind of powers?"
"Well, I can control water." Katara says. She looks at us strangely and says "You've never heard of bending?"
"We've heard about it, but never really seen it." I answer.
"You want to see a demonstration?" Katara asks.
"We'd love to see one!" Candice says, grinning. "Go ahead, show us your power!" Of course I knew exactly why she was grinning; once Katara couldn't bend, they'd have to reveal the prank, then we could laugh in their faces because we knew about this for a while.
"I'll do my best, but I've never had a master to teach me, so I'm learning rather slow." Katara says. She takes a deep breath and does a few motions with her arms. After about twenty seconds, nothing happens, and we begin to crack up.
"What's so funny?" The Water Tribe girl asks.
"Oh nothing." I say, giggling.
"WHOAAAAH!" Candice yells, falling flat on her face.
"Now that, was funny." Katara says. "Let's try again…" She does the same arm motions, and a large heap of snow rises from the ground and sends her flying. I stand there with mymouth gaping.
"Oh my gosh…" I say.
Candice quickly rushes back to my aide. "Are we really?" She asks. I open my mouth to give an answer, when a figure appears in front of me., It's a woman that appears almost digital, but I can only see her head and collarbone. She's whiter than any snow or ice I've ever seen with eyes as blue as mine and black hair.
"I was going to tell you later, but I guess now's as good a time as any." She says, not moving her mouth. "Welcome to the world of Avatar."
AN: There. Next chappy. Not very impressive, is it? Yeah, I didn't think so either. Took me what, two, three months to put together? I dunno… But I learned my lesson: Don't leave a USB in your pocket. Put in a pocket of your bookbag, zip that sucker shut and you're a-okay.
Candice: Who are you talking to?
Me: Oh, no one.
Candice: You're lying.
Me: Okay, fine. It's the audience. If there is any audience.
Candice: Listen here you punks; you best review so (what did you call yourself again?)
Me: Snugglesthefluffykitten.
Candice: Right. So Snugglesthefluffykitten here can update the story and get us out of this forsaken wasteland.
Me: Darn right I'll keep her here until I update. And the more people review, the faster I'll update (more than likely. Probably not)! Until I have to really buckle down on Algebra II. I hate math… Anywho, REVIEW!
