This would have been updated sooner, but I went to a sleepover and stayed up way too late to be creative.
"She's what!"
"Are there more of them?"
"How does she read minds?"
"Is she still here?"
"From the Water Tribe?"
"She's a bounty hunter?"
"After me?"
"Whoa! What are we going to do?"
The room quieted. Everyone turned to look at Zuko and me. Mouth slightly agape, I turned to him. He closed his eyes and pressed his hand against his scar, thinking.
"We have to search the surrounding area for any more bounty hunters. We should question her..."
"Well where is she?" Aang stepped forward.
"In the plaza, she's in a rock box, so she can't escape."
"We are holding her captive?" Aang asked with a rising anger.
"For your safety Aang, we don't want her to hurt you." I gently placed my hand on his shoulder. He shrugged it off.
"I can take care of myself! I'm not the same little boy in the iceberg! I've mastered three elements!"
"She can bloodbend Aang! Nothing you do can fight that! We don't want her bending you of the side of the cliff!" I yelled, exasperated.
"Aang, just listen." Sokka said kindly, trying to calm him down.
Aang narrowed his eyes at Zuko and I and walked back to the back of the room. Sighing, Zuko continued.
"Katara and I will go scouting," he said looking at me, "and Toph will stay here to guard the cell. Sokka, Suki, do you mind interrogating the visitor? She will dig into your past to try to anger you..."
"No problem."
"It's fine." They spoke at the same time.
"What about me?" Aang stepped forward.
"You train, same as always." Zuko said plainly.
"Why don't I ever get to do anything? I can handle a job! You guys baby me too much! Just let me do something!" Aang yelled, extremely frustrated.
Zuko crossed his arms, "You can prepare the prisoners food." he said, sarcasm dripping from every word.
Aang stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
"Zuko! You idiot!" I said as I pushed past him to find Aang.
I walked down the hall into the plaza where Aang stood, staring at the rock box. He had his staff in hand. He widened the tint slit of a window, looked at me and ran off the cliffside, flying into the night.
"Damnit Aang!" I yelled after him, completely fed up. Why couldn't he just accept that his job was to train and end the war, and that we needed him alive to do that. Why did he have to run away from all his problems? I slowly walked back to Zuko's room, and opened the door. Everyone had gone back to their rooms, and Zuko was taking his shirt off. Gasping, I started back trying to sneak out. He looked up at me and smiled;
"You can go back to bed now." he sat down on his bed, swinging his legs up.
"Yes, sorry, Aang, he flew away. He should be back tomorrow. I..." I began to feel flustered, Zuko has a nice six pack.
"I'll leave now."
"Goodnight." he said, closing his eyes.
"Goodnight." I closed the door, and felt my heart begin to beat again.
Aang came back when I was serving everyone a breakfast of Leeche nuts and some thinly sliced meat Sokka had caught. Toph was telling another story of Earthbending grandeur when he glided in. Closing his staff, he grabbed a bowl of nuts, and quietly sat down to eat them. Suki quietly made eye contact with me and looked back at her food. Toph sensed the awkwardness and began to retell her story.
"So this was my first fight against the Boulder. Now, being me, I was not afraid at all! They called me up on stage, "The Tiny But Powerful Bliiiiind Baaaandit!" and I rocketed up on stage. That first cheer is awesome! Then, they introduced my opponent... The Boulder. The ground shook under my feet, the crowd began to go crazy, and on walked this massive dude! With the first bell, we began fighting and were evenly matched. I've always been great, don't get me wrong, but I was new and was still learning my tricks. Everywhere he went, I had anticipated his attack. The fight seemed to last forever. Finally, by the 12th bell, I had him in a kill position. One large boulder to the stomach and I would win. Then, he spoke these magical words..." The Boulder thinks it's time the little girl was put in time out." I was so angry, that I launched him up into the highest row of seats, where the wimps sat. Apparently we got sued, or something... But after that, he decided to be my wrestling pal and we've been friends ever since!" Toph smiled at the slightly stretched version of the truth she just wove.
"Ha ha ha." Aang said, standing next to the prisoners box. "Have you fed her?" He asked.
"Geez Aang, no reason to be a party pooper." Toph said glumly.
"Sorry Toph, I guess I'm not as calm as I thought I was." he said, looking at him shoes. I walked over handing him the bowl of nuts and berries.
"Thank you" He said, almost indignantly. He slipped the bowl into the window. Suddenly, Akira grabbed his wrists through the window, letting the bowl scatter on the floor.
"Katara!" he yelled, "She's bending me!"
"You've had a rough life young Avatar, no family, lost love, destruction of all you know. Such beautiful tattoos..." She paused, "Boy, you were trapped in an iceberg? For 100 years? Dang boy... That's rough."
Toph bent away the cage, allowing us to see Akira in full. Still clutching Aang's wrists, she backed up. Aang seized this moment to kick her in the stomach and propel off of her.
Everyone in the camp had assumed fighting stance and slowly surrounded her.
"So much hostility!" She said, looking at all of us. She looked at me. "Fellow waterbender, please, tell me, when may I go free?"
In mind I thought, "Never" and she responded by laughing.
"Silly child, you are not as though as you think you are."
"And you are not as sly as you think you are." Sokka replied, nodding at Toph. Walls quickly went up around Akira, and this time, the window was put up high.
"Enjoy your meal." Toph growled dusting off her hands.
"The little Earthbending girl has a thing for the Water tribe boy!" Akira shouted from inside her cage.
Aang closed the tiny slit of a window.
"Sorry! Please! Some light!" Akira begged from inside. Aang looked at Toph with a questioning look on his face, and then remembered that she was blind. Sighing, he opened up a small slit.
"I'm done with this." he walked away, rubbing his wrists. I stared after him, wishing I could make him happier somehow. My wish was granted when Momo began to eat his nuts. Aang, suddenly amused, began to spin the nuts around in the air, just out of Momo's reach.
Distracted by Aang, I didn't notice Zuko come up behind me and place his hand on my shoulder.
"We should probably go patrol the woods now." he said quietly, as I whipped around to face him.
"Yes, you're right. Should we take Appa? Is this going to be a journey?" I glanced over at Aang.
"No, we will be doing small perimeter checks. Appa can stay." he replied, looking out at the architecture.
"Everybody!" I shouted, "Zuko and I are going out into the woods!"
Toph snorted, "Doing what?"
"Searching for bounty hunters." I replied, crossing my arms.
"Yeah yeah, have fun with that*" Toph said smiling.
"We will try!" I said taking Zuko's hand and dragging him away. I heard the group mumble their good-bye's. We used Appa to give us a ride up, and then sent him back. We began to look around the barren fields, seeing nothing.
"Why don't we check out that forest over there?" Zuko pointed across the field at a dense smattering of trees.
Shrugging, we began to walk towards the forest.
Entering the dense forest, I immediately got chills. Something was off, but I didn't know what.
"Zuko, something doesn't feel right." I said, looking around the dim forest. Animal squeals and cricket churps added to the ambiance. I jumped as a small flame-snake slid past my feet.
"Its a forest Katara, of course it's going to be creepy." He grumbled lighting a small fire in his hand.
"It's not just the forest! It's in the atmosphere... And I don't like it" I whispered harshly.
"Well maybe someone is here watching us." Zuko said looking over his shoulder. A loud rumbling sound could suddenly be heard. We looked at each other and ran, ducked and weaved our way to the source. The rumbling was menacing as we stepped into the clearing. I felt his hand on my stomach, pushing me back.
"It could be booby trapped." he said.
"Then be careful! Where is that sound coming from?" I said raising my voice over the rising *bzz* sound.
"There!" Zuko pointed "There's the source of the sound."
Phew, that was tough trying to leave it on a cliff hanger. Well, I'm sure you know what the buzzing sound is. But it will all be revealed next chapter!
Oh gawd, this chapter didn't turn out as well as planned. Please don't give up faith!