Chapter 4
By the time Appa had landed on the island, not far from the village, they were greeted by some girls in poofy dresses and with paint all over their faces. Akira raised an eyebrow and started to turn to Sora, but was stopped by a look from her, which made Akira turn back around immediately.
"Suki!" Sokka cried, as he ran forward and gave the painted lady in front a hug.
"Sokka! It's great to see you again!" Suki said smiling. "Are they new," she asked, looking over his shoulder to Sora and Akira, neither of which were looking at the girls.
"Yah, we… picked up them up around a fire nation city," Sokka said hesitantly.
"Fire nation?" Suki asked, looking at Akira's red and gold outfit.
"Don't worry, as long as you're not Zuko, you're safe," Sokka said, and he just shrugged off the confused look from the girl.
"We'll escort you to the village, though I'm sure by now you're all familiar with it," Suki said, turning around with the Avatar Group and the rest of the female warriors behind her. Sora let out a little cough, Akira getting the point, but to all others it was simply a cough. As they entered the village, all the people swarmed out to meet Team Avatar, Sora and Akira just hanging back, bored.
"Aangy! Where have you been?" called a little voice from the crowd as a group of young Kyoshi crowded around Aang.
"Coco! We've just been traveling, but I'm sure we're going to be around here for a little while," Aang said, a giant smile and a blush on his face. Akira threw a hand over her mouth and contained laughter, Sora's able to be heard, but it was very faint. Sora glanced over to Katara and elbowed Akira, who let a smile fall onto her lips. Katara's face was pure red, and Sora whispered, "jealous…"
"Sokka, are you ready to get back to your training?" Suki asked, the other Kyoshi warriors now dispersed.
"Sure Suki! Are we… going to go now?" he asked, glancing around, making sure nobody had heard. But of course, Sora and Akira did hear, and they were quite interested. Sora now glanced at Zuko, pretending not to be listening to Sokka's conversation. Zuko looked so out of place, and uneasy. He was kicking the dust up and just looking around.
"Poor Zuko, let's go over there," Sora said, not even waiting for Akira's answer, who had no choice but to follow.
"Hey Zuko, you okay?" Sora asked, standing right in front of him.
Zuko just turned his head to the side, his hair falling in front of his face. He didn't find refuge, instead he found Akira. With a slight roll of his eyes that they couldn't see, he turned back towards Sora, "Not really," Zuko admitted.
"Aww, why not?" Akira said, pouting for him.
"Well, the last time I was here… I sort of burned down the place. If it weren't for Aang, it probably would've burned down." Zuko said.
"How could Aang do that?" Akira asked, when Sora added, "Oxygen fuels fire, even though the air is pretty powerful, I don't think it could've put the whole fire out."
"I was dragged away by my uncle afterwards, I really don't know." Zuko said.
"Ok… so, do we need to ask Aang then?" Akira asked.
"Aang, Sokka or Katara."
Akira let a soft breath escape between her lips and turned to Sora. She patted Zuko's shoulder and then started walking off in the direction of Katara, since Aang was busy, and Sokka had disappeared.
Sora beat Akira to Katara. "Katara, hey, I need to ask you a question," Sora said, making the red-faced Katara turn around.
"We," Akira corrected, crossing her arms.
"Fine, we. Anyway, when you were here a while ago, and Zuko still had a ponytail, how did Aang put the fires out?" Sora asked.
"Aang jumped off Appa and landed on the unagi. He pulled on it's whiskers and made it shower water all over the town. Good enough?" Katara snapped, making Akira glare at her.
"Yes, thank you," Sora said, this time, Akira getting dragged away.
"Did you hear how she talked to you Sora! Why didn't you snap back at her?" Akira whisper-yelled, an idea now forming in her mind.
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind," Sora answered.
"No it doesn't. It makes us all pirates!" Akira said, throwing her hand over one eye. With a sharp look from her friend, she put her hand down and instead said, "Alright, chill. Let's go have some fun while we're here." She started walking out of the village, Sora following right behind.
"So, what's your plan?" Sora asked.
"We're going to ride the unagi! Apparently Aang did it, so it sounds fun! Don't you think?" Akira asked, still walking.
"Uh, no. It sounds like a gigantic fish that's going to kill us." Sora answered.
"No… the Elephant Koi are gigantic fish, we can ride them first though, and here we are!"
The two had arrived at a beautiful beach with sparkling waters, and the orange and white fish were already jumping.
"C'mere fishies!" Akira yelled, wading into the water.
"Kira, wait for me!" Sora said as she too, waded into the water.
"The koi are all the way out there, how are we supposed to get to them, swim?" Sora asked sarcastically.
"Of course not! Now… turn into a koalotter!" Akira said, turning into a cute koalotter with shimmering silver fur. Sora did the same, except her fur had a red topcoat, and although it was unusual, it was a really pretty coat.
'Let's go!' Akira said, flipping onto her back and propelling herself out towards the leaping koi. Sora did the same, and soon pulled ahead of Akira, who was also looking into the clouds. Akira and Sora both changed into their human forms and waited a few moments before the koi started to leap again. Sora caught ahold of one that had an abundance of orange on it's body, and Akira got one that had speckles of black. The fish leapt up at the same time, Akira and Sora jumping off and switching fish quickly when they were in the air. Sora let out a scream as she closed to slipped, but had plenty of time to regain her hold on the fin as the fish dove under water once again. The next couple of times the two started doing tricks as they crossed from one fish to another, but then after a series of difficult tricks from both of them, a large creature rose out of the water, letting out a tremendous roar.
"UNAGI!" Akira shrieked, eyes lighting up as it towered above them.
