decided to post something during the day for once...
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Jay stared out over the water. Orange and pinks meshed with the crystal clear blue, a perfect reflection of the setting sun. Jay closed her eyes and saw her last conscious moments in front of her once again.
Running out onto deck far past midnight, seeing the rain hitting the ship in sheets. Her people, rummaging around like fruit flies attacking peaches on a hot summer day. She remembered gripping the edge of the railing, and staring out onto the wild sea. She saw a bright streak of white lightning hitting the deck just behind her, throwing her into the ocean, and being pushed deeper and deeper into the deaths until her last breath left her, as did her consciousness.
"'Scuse me miss?" Jay snapped out of her hypnotic trance and stared into the face of an elderly man, his face ran raw from the sea breeze. Jay blinked a few times until everything came into focus.
"Um, yeah?" Jay asked.
"I need to see my crab catch," the fisherman said.
"Right," Jay muttered standing with support on a wooden beam. She watched intently as the fisherman hoisted the slimy rope out of the water with the crab cage attached to the end. Small blue crabs scuttled inside, and on the sides. But one thing was off.
"That's some crab!" Sokka's always ravenous hunger smiled. He stepped up beside Jay with his sister in tow. Aang and Toph had gone off to practice some bending skills. Jay scrutinized the sea-weed covered thing snagged on the edge of the cage. The fisherman pulled the thing off, removing the sea-weed as he did so.
"That looks like…"
"My bag!" Jay smiled happily, cutting into Katara.
"You're bag?" The fisherman chortled. "If I had one copper piece for everything people said was theirs that I found, I could retire to the country with my wife!"
"No, seriously, that's my bag. All the stuff from the storm must be drifting this way," Jay muttered.
Katara and Sokka looked off into the distance, expecting to see another body floating down the sea.
"Oh really?" the fisherman smirked, dropping the crabs rather hastily in the water. "I found it so it's mine, unless you can tell me what's in it!"
Jay groaned, while the fisherman looked rather smug.
"Ok, that bag should have roughly three very sodden and useless scrolls, two sketch books, about ten or so maps, a very overused pair of sandals, an accumulation of about one silver and five bronze pieces, a quill, some clothes, a hairbrush, a telescope, and some wanted posters," Jay rattled off in one breath. The fisherman looked baffled. "Oh and two gold clips my mother gave to me."
"I, um, well," the fisherman stuttered. He abruptly handed the soggy bag to Jay and turned off to retrieve his other catches.
"How'd you remember all that?" Sokka asked as the three traveled off the dock.
"That wasn't even all of it, only the things I knew I put in there," Jay answered taking out two glittering beads from a pouch. She pulled out two strands of hair from her ponytail and clipped the beads around them. Jay smiled and placed the wet bag over her shoulder.
Sokka looked warily between his sister and the newcomer and recounted on how much they looked like one another. He laughed to himself before staring down at the black bag beside Jay's side and compared it to his.
"Hey, yours is bigger then mine! How do you find all the stuff to put in it?" Sokka asked. Jay thought about it for a minute before answering.
"Dunno, I just put in whatever I find, or want," Jay shrugged.
The three meandered through the town as the sun sank lower and lower in the early spring sky. Soon, the sun was down and the moon rose. Sokka felt a slight pang of remorse as he saw the white ball of earth rise higher and higher into the blackened sky. He closed his eyes to rid himself of those thoughts, but it was to no use. Pictures of the time he spent with the water princess before her death flashed over and over. He moaned and turned his attention back towards the girls.
Katara sensed her brother's pain. She sensed it every time the moon rose and sank in the sky. She knew it every time Sokka whimpered, or whispered in his sleep. She felt it in that sort of sibling bond she regrettably shared with him. Though sometimes, she felt that Aang knew it too.
Jay looked off into the sky and felt as the sun disappeared far beyond view and muttered something to herself and looked off to the town shops as one by one they lit candles to fight the darkness away. She also saw a rather smug Toph and a weathered Aang coming towards them.
Aang couldn't have looked worse. His robes were torn, and his skin was battered and cut.
"Hi Aang," Katara smiled cheerfully. Aang moaned and slumped against a tree.
"He's getting somewhere," Toph muttered crossing her arms and studying her student.
Jay looked up at the night sky and sighed. "Pretty moon," she breathed. Katara and Aang tensed up and looked over at Sokka. He looked up and nodded.
"Yep, fascinating," Toph muttered sarcastically, making herself a seat out of stone.
"Oh, right," Jay sighed forgetting Toph's blindness. She returned her gaze to the moon. "Its like it's smiling," Jay continued. Sokka nodded again.
"The moon smiling," Sokka muttered with a laugh. He pictured Yue sitting up in the spirit world, smiling down on them.
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Toph awoke the next morning with a yawn. She was still tired, but rested all the same. These beds were no goose down. She 'saw' Katara sitting up as well picking up her water pouch from the base of the bed. Toph noticed that Jay was absent from her bed once again.
"She's down with the sun and up with the sun," Katara smirked.
"That's kinda weird if you ask me," Toph added. "I think she's got something to hide."
"You and my brother are two in the same," the water master smiled. "Everyone's got something to hide."
"Some people more then others," the earth master added. Katara nodded slightly. "C'mon let's go find her and the guys. I bet Sokka's found some food."
There was no need to find Jay. She was sitting under the girl's open window listening. No one would ever trust her. Not a single soul. Closing her eyes with slight remorse she stood on her bandaged foot and headed to where she last saw Sokka.
She found the water warrior where she had left him, sitting beside a breakfast wagon, biting off more then he could chew, literally.
"Hi Sokka, Hey Aang," Jay smiled as cheerfully as she could sitting beside the boys and grapping some pastries from the empting cart.
"Hi Jay," Aang smiled as Momo jumped off his shoulder.
"Herro Ray," Sokka smiled, his face too stuffed to talk. He swallowed his mouthful and went to go take another bite to his fruit pie, but Momo beat him too it. The flying lemur grabbed the pastry and fled, not before Sokka came after the animal with his club.
"What's with Sokka?" Toph asked as she and Katara came out of their lodge.
"Momo has his pie," Aang explained.
"How'd I know it'd involve food?" Toph smirked stepping out onto the street. She shrieked and jumped up very animatedly before alighting onto the safety of the grass.
"Toph?" Sokka asked snatching half his food back from Momo. "What's with the flying earthbender?"
"The ground!" Toph shrieked. "It's hollow!"
"Oh it's not hollow young blind girl!" a man said walking up beside the group. Toph didn't look amused at her newly owned title.
Why must everyone eavesdrop? She thought bitterly.
"There is a network of tunnels under this town! They were said to be used in times of attack for refugees to hide in! Good thing that those times are over for now!" the traveler smiled whimsically and continued on his way.
"Tunnels?" Katara asked confused.
Toph ventured back onto the street. "Yeah, tunnels, a whole stream of them. Sure be easy to get lost in one of these," Toph muttered. She looked back over at Aang. "C'mon twinkle toes; we got more lessons for today."
"Oh come on Toph!" Aang moaned. "I practiced hard all day yesterday! Can't I take a break?"
"Nope," Toph answered simply. "You're getting a break all during this boat ride and you're practicing hard up until then." Aang moaned as his earthbending teacher took him out for another brutal practice.
"Oh right, you guys are leaving tonight. I guess I better be getting my stuff together," Jay added. "I want to get a head start on walking about three hours before dusk. I'll be seeing you guys around!" Jay smiled walking off to gather her things.
"So Sokka, I guess it's just you and me again," Katara smiled sitting down beside her brother.
"Yeah, I've got stuff to do," Sokka answered getting up and walking off into town, but not before grabbing several more stick of bread and pastries.
Katara rolled her eyes and looked over at Momo beside her. The little lemur brought out a peach from under his wing and offered it to Katara. The waterbender smiled and took the peach from Momo and continued eating, enjoying even the little animal's company.
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Jay smiled a deep sigh of relief. She liked having the company of Aang and the others, but Jay needed to be with her own people. Just to think, that she could be seeing his old friends after two years made her want to jump for joy. She did in fact.
Traveling down the dirt pathway, she just had to observe all that was around her. She still loved the sense of freedom. The sense that everything around you had life. Jay smiled while looking up into the darkening sky and sat down under a large dogwood tree. She opened her bag and felt each of the items she had. Getting this bag back was the one spot of good luck in a long time. And even when she had washed up on the beach, she found people who could at least remotely understand her. She looked up as the last bit of the sun disappeared and the moon began to rise.
Her mother used to tell her that before the war, you could see the moon and sun up at the same time. That was before even the spirits began to fight. Jay sighed and closed her eyes. Just for a second…
Suddenly a deep rumbling woke her up. The moon was now up high above the world staring down. Jay stood up and got into a fighting stance as the rumbling got louder. Staring through her sleep-ridden eyes she caught a glimpse of something off in the distance.
It was a smoke trail, drifting lazily into the sky. Something was coming. It was something fast and deadly. And it was fire nation. Jay gulped. The Avatar was what the fire nation was after. If they had something this big come to get them, Aang and the others might need help. Jay looked around fast. She was the only one here, and the only one who could warn the town. Jay grabbed her bag hastily and began running as fast as she could on her bad foot towards town. She knew what she had to do.
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alrighty...some action coming into play next chapter it seems! I might not post another chapter for a few days to build suspence! haha. keep r&ring and I'll keep posting!
