Chapter 9: Dramatic Departure
"SOKKA, LAND THIS FREAKING BISON OR I'LL GRAB YOU AND THROW YOU OFF!" Toph screamed into Sokka's left ear. He felt his ear drums practically burst at the impact her voice had.
"But-...I don't want..." (Toph glowered)"ok, FINE!" Sokka muttered. He hated it when people pushed him around, but Toph could control him better than Katara controlled water. Sokka anxiously steered Appa downwards, looking at Zuko with anger and hate. The shallow teenager was in front of Aang and Katara, looking peeved.
When they finally landed smoothly on the ground, Toph hopped up and bended a large amount of earth out of the ground and pointed it at Zuko.
"Toph!" Katara cried out in surprise. Zuko shrunk behind her cowardly.
"P-please don't kill me!" he begged. Katara rolled her eyes. Aang glared at Zuko.
"We were going to ditch the creep after we found you guys," Aang explained grudgingly. "He arrived with almost a whole army, but Katara took care of them." Toph slowly nodded her understanding. Sokka crept off Appa after her, looking depressed.
"Can we leave now?" he muttered, still quite shaken by the sight of his sister and best friend following Zuko.
"Sure...I just want to get out of here before the cannibals find us, and ask me to mother one of their children again," Toph answered darkly. Aang and Katara looked at them with confusion.
"Cannibals?" Aang said.
"Mother their children?" Katara said.
"Ooh, they eat people right?" Zuko greedily smirked. "They'd be the perfect weapon to use on-" The Gaang all shot him death glares. "Sorry, sorry..."
"We ran into Cannibals in the northern part of this island," Toph laughed. "Sokka made friends with them, right Sokka?"
"Whatever," Sokka crossed his arms bitterly. "So what did you guys do?" Aang and Katara looked at each other, red spots blossoming on their cheeks. They quickly looked away.
"We- practiced waterbending..." Katara lied. Toph smiled merrily, looking proud of herself.
"That was a LIE," she sang. "You guys get together or something? Aang, is Katara your giiiirrrrlllllfriend?" Noticing the identical blushes, Sokka glowered.
"You guys aren't..." he whispered in astonishment.
"Oh, they are," Toph retorted wisely.
"You couldn't be!" Sokka added.
"Sooooooo obvious," Toph finished.
"I KNEW SHE WAS CHEATING ON ME!" Zuko shrieked with anger. Katara and Aang looked at him with hate in their eyes.
"Go fuck yourself asshole," Sokka and Toph muttered to him in unison. Zuko jumped; he was not use to be spoken to like that. Everyone went silent. A breeze past over them, cool and comforting as if it were soothing the group of kids and telling them to calm themselves. They obeyed, and finally started talking.
"Let's just leave, this is getting annoying," Aang muttered. Before Sokka or Zuko could open their mouths, he added, "yes, Katara is my girlfriend." Toph gave Katara a mocking high five but didn't say anything. Sokka and Toph clambered up onto Appa, who'd been tailing them earlier, and looked at Katara and Aang expectantly.
"Here, let me help..." Aang astonished Katara by lifting her up gently and airbending them onto Appa. Katara kissed his cheek happily.
"Thanks, Aang," she whispered in his ear. Aang shivered and let her down, just as a sudden burst of flames shot right past his head, before Toph could even comment. It flew out to the shores, the sand turning light gray and embers appearing.
"Think this is over?" Zuko whispered, pulling his balled fist up to his mouth and blowing the rising smoke.
"YIP YIP, YIP YIP!" shrieked Sokka, tugging on Appa's ropes. They'd just gotten into the sky when a second ball of fire came up, this one larger. A small passing fly ripped apart as it sped towards Aang, but just barely did it miss his chest, and instead hit his arm.
"OH MY GOD!" Aang yelled, falling over and clutching his arm. A huge burn appeared, looking dead and ugly, like Zuko's face.
"AANG!" the three friend screamed in unison, but Katara the loudest. She turned toward Zuko, and did something the Avatars before Aang would have even found difficult. From their incredible height in the air, Katara bended a large wave of water. Zuko's amber eyes shone with fear as Katara flooded the shore in which he stood on, sending everything into the oceans in which Katara loved. The gaang didn't hear what Zuko said from their many feet above, and probably no one had, but it was spoken anyway.
"I will be back for you," he hissed, before his head disappeared into the water, sending his hair in all directions, like an octopus and its wild arms. He reached a pale, wet hand upward as if to try and catch the air to preserve it, but failed to.
"Aang, are you all right?" Katara whispered, crawling over to him and pressing a hand to his burned shoulder. This hand had already been soaked in water, and was glowing faintly. Aang winced as the burn faded away, and the blood dissolving. The comforting salty air came again, this time more harsh and upset.
"Now I am," Aang murmured weakly, smiling tiredly at Katara. She smiled back, tears already flowing from her deep azure orbs.
"I thought I'd lost you, when he shot... it seemed so close..."
"Don't," Aang managed to mutter, the pain from his shoulder slowing descending from his eyes. Of course, Katara wasn't going to let this moment past. Softly, gently...Katara pulled him into a kiss. Sokka and Toph looked at each other, Sokka looking horrified and Toph looking excited.
"Of course, you do know what this means?" Toph whispered darkly, her pale green eyes gleaming. Sokka gulped, looking frightened.
Author's Note
Last chapter coming soon!!! I thank you for the few people that reviewed Chapter 8. I'm almost ready to write the sequal to Tears of Fire and Love... This story is getting me guilty though, cause I need to finish it. So here you go, and I do except healthy flames now. I need opinions, cuz if this story sucks I must know.
-Poizon
