Oh boy, and the drama begins. Not only am I mixing in the drama that comes with the episode but I'm also mixing in a bit of spirit drama. For all of those who want to see revenge taken on Bitten for what was revealed in the last chapter, you'll be happy to see a bit of that here. But anyway, let's get onto the story. I don't own anything. Avatar the Last Airbender belongs to Nick. Enjoy!
The Desert
Katara was relieved when she found that besides her sister being unconscious all her other vitals were fine. She began to panic however once she realized that they were stuck in the desert and that Celina being unconscious was a dangerous thing. Katara began to shake Celina's shoulders hoping to wake her up that way.
"Celina! Celina! You gotta wake up!" she begged to no avail, her sister still remaining unconscious. "Spirits, what can I do? We can't just wait for her to wake up on her own. Not in this place."
"Why don't you try using the spirit water that Master Pakku gave you?" Sokka suggested, equally as concerned.
"The spirit water? But Master Pakku said that I should use it for something important," Katara said uncertainly.
"I think this is something important. We're gonna die if we don't get Celina up and moving. I'm sure Master Pakku will understand," he told her bluntly.
Katara paused before nodded in agreement. She pulled the necklace of water out from underneath her robes and opened it. A small amount of water came out, which Katara separated into two smaller orbs. She held the orbs next to Celina's temples and concentrated. The water glowed it healing blue glow before disappearing. Celina let out a groan before slowly sitting up.
"Ugh, what happened?" Celina questioned, wincing a bit. She had a pounding headache and even the softness of her voice didn't help.
"You passed out after using your spirit powers. I had to use my spirit water to wake you back up," Katara explained.
"Why would you waste your spirit water on me? I would've woken up after some rest? You should have saved that for something more important," Celina scolded her sister.
"This was important. We can't have you passed out while we're stuck in the desert," Sokka said.
"Stuck in the desert? Why would we be stuck in the desert when we have…" Celina instantly became confused when she looked around and didn't see their giant furry friend. "Where's Appa?"
Hearing his bison's name being spoken the extreme sadness on Aang's face transformed into rage as he turned to Toph. "How could you let them take Appa? Why didn't you stop them?!" he demanded enraged. Celina winced, letting out a small groan as his shouting only made her headache more painful.
"I couldn't! The library was sinking! You guys were still inside and…" Toph tried to explain to him.
"You could have come to get us! I could have saved him!" Aang yelled at her.
"I can hardly feel any vibrations out here. The sandbenders snuck up on me and there wasn't time for…"
"You just didn't care! You never liked Appa! You wanted him gone!" Aang accused.
"Aang, stop it," Katara asked, trying to play peacekeeper between her friends.
"Or at least stop shouting," Celina groaned, covering her ears to try and block out any excessive sound.
"You know Toph did all she could. She saved our lives," Katara continued on.
"Since we're stuck the important thing to focus on is trying to get out of this desert," Celina figured out, although it was a bit more difficult with her raging headache. "Then we can concentrate on find…"
"That's all any of you guys care about: yourselves! You don't care whether Appa is okay or not!" Aang shouted and stalked off angrily.
"Where the hell are you going?" Celina questioned, getting pissed off by Aang's attitude.
She understood why he'd be upset. Appa was the only one Aang had from his old life, he was his spirit guide. But that didn't excuse him treating the rest of them like it was all their fault like Toph didn't try to help but had to make the difficult choice to save them instead.
"I'm going after Appa," he answered, not bothering to turn and look at her. Instead, he opened his glider and began flying away.
"Aang, wait!" Katara cried out. But he didn't stop, he kept flying. She paused and watched him go off before walking over to Celina and helping her up to her feet.
"We'd better start walking. We're the only people who know about the solar eclipse. We have to get that information to Ba Sing Se," Katara said.
Celina and Sokka shot each other a look. They could tell how deeply upset Katara was about leaving Aang after all the two had been developing a cute relationship ever since their kiss in the secret tunnels of Oma and Shu. But the severity of their situation beat out her feelings for Aang. They'd just have to work that out later. The two siblings nodded in agreement. Celina grabbed hold of Toph's hand to help her through the desert and the four of them began walking, Momo flying from Katara's shoulder onto Celina's as they began their journey out.
"You think if we did out the giant owl, he'll give us a ride?" Sokka pondered.
"Not a good idea bro, not after what I did to him," Celina answered for him. "I'm sure my parents are gonna be excited when I tell them I started a feud with a spirit." That would make two now: one with the past Avatars and one with the murder owl. The list of people who had a grudge against her and her family was increasing at a pace that Celina didn't like.
"Do you really feel like it's my fault that Appa's gone?" Toph asked Celina, the guilt feeling heavier and heavier.
"No, of course not. You did all you could and by getting us out it lets us live another day to find Appa. Who knows what would have happened if you let go of the library. You might have lost not only Appa but us as well," she assured her.
"Aang doesn't seem to think so," Toph muttered.
"Aang's just upset and while it's for a good reason he's totally in the wrong for treating us the way he has. If that boy wants to accomplish his goal of finding Appa and keep his friends then he's gonna need to calm down," Celina said, becoming a bit more annoyed with Aang as she spoke. "He'll see how wrong he was for treating you on his own or I'll make sure he will."
"Thanks, Celina," Toph smiled.
Celina smiled back and pulled Toph into a side hug, giving the younger girl a nice squeeze. Toph normally wasn't a fan of hugs, she was more of a nice punch in the arm to show affection type, but with Celina, the one who believed in her from the very beginning, it felt nice. Part of her knew that even though they were trapped in the desert, that as long as Toph had Celina they would make it out just fine.
o
They'd been walking for hours, trudging through sand as best they could. The increasing heat from the beating sun didn't help though. It only made them more exhausted and in Celina's case, it caused her headache only to get worse. With the sun beating down on them Sokka tried to grab Momo to use him as a hat but the lemur refused. The animal had sensed Celina's discomfort and decided to use his oversized ears to help shield her eyes from the sun, something Celina was grateful for. Unfortunately, as that issue got settled another one arose as the first signs of thirst popped up.
"Celina, can I have some water?" Toph asked, the first one to vocalize what the others had been feeling for a while.
"Okay, I guess everyone can use a drink. But we've gotta try to conserve it," Celina agreed.
She nodded to Katara, signaling her to help Celina provide enough water for everyone to which the younger girl quickly picked up on. The two opened their water pouches and bent small orbs of water out. Celina took care of herself, Toph, and Momo while Katara took care of herself and Sokka.
"We're drinking your guys bending water?" he questioned before accepting the water Katara offered him. His eyes widened tasting it but drank it anyway. "You used this on the swamp guy!"
"Mine didn't taste swampy," Toph noted.
"That's because Celina didn't use hers in the swamp. She used the water provided and the vines. I wish I had some of her," he explained.
"Sorry but you're gonna have to deal with what we have, and that includes swampy tasting water," Celina broke it to him.
"Not anymore! Look!" Sokka said excited, pointing to a large cactus.
He instantly ran over to the plant and pulled out his knife, using it to slice a piece of cactus off. Momo went to go follow him, curious about the plant, but remembered the job he was doing for Celina and stayed where he was. After all, he got Celina's bending water and didn't have the need to get the swampy taste out of his mouth like Sokka did. So instead the lemur watched as Sokka ingested the water inside the cactus.
"Sokka, wait! You shouldn't be eating strange plants!" Katara protested, running over to him. Celina followed close behind her, pulling Toph with her to make sure they stayed together.
"There's water trapped inside these!" Sokka informed them, excited and then offered up the cactus juice.
"I don't know…" Katara said hesitantly.
"My head's killing me enough already, I don't need a mysterious substance screwing with it," Celina declined.
"Suit yourself. It's very thirst-quenching, though," Sokka shrugged and continued drinking the juice.
After a couple more swigs of cactus juice, Celina and Katara watched as their brother's body stiffened before relaxing. He instantly looked off, especially seeing that his pupils had dilated so quickly. And with that came extra Sokka weirdness.
"Drink cactus juice. It'll quench ya! Nothing's quenchier! It's the quenchiest!" Sokka spewed in a ridiculous voice. His sisters looked at him worried, Katara going so far as to take the cactus in Sokka's hand and dump it out onto the sand.
"I think you've had enough," Katara commented.
"Who lit Toph on fire?" Sokka questioned.
"Wow, I'm really happy I decided not to drink that stuff," Celina muttered.
"Come on, we need to keep moving. Hopefully, we'll find Aang," Katara said and began walking. Celina and Toph followed after her with Sokka stumbling along with them.
"How did we get out here in the middle of the ocean?" he questioned, causing both of his sisters to groan, seeing how annoying their drugged-up brother was going to be.
o
They continued to walk, Toph sticking close to Celina so that she wouldn't get lost, Celina dealing with her headache and her high off his ass brother, Sokka who was spouting off nonsense, and Katara taking charge and deciding where they were going through the endless dunes of sand. But all of them tried to keep the same pace, not too fast so that they exhausted themselves, but not to slow so they weren't making any process. The four of them stopped just as they climbed over a dune to see a giant mushroom cloud in the distance.
"What is that?" Katara asked.
"What? What is what?" Toph asked confused.
"It's a giant mushroom. Maybe it's friendly!" Sokka exclaimed.
"That doesn't look friendly to me. That looks like the result of Aang's anguish," Celina observed.
Thinking about it, Aang was the only person she could think of that would cause a giant mushroom cloud of sand. Sure, the sandbenders could probably also accomplish that but with what happened with Appa, Aang made the most sense. Celina herself saddened thinking about their missing friend. She was the second closest person to the bison, the first one being Aang of course. But her heart ached almost as badly as her head as she thought about his kidnapping. All her life, Celina found herself drawn closer towards animals when it came to opening up. Traveling with Aang, she was quickly drawn towards Appa and the two developed a fast relationship. Celina would go to Appa whenever she needed comforting and she would hum her calming songs and run her fingers through his fur when the bison needed calming himself. How she'd like to run her fingers through his fur now. Instead, she merely reached up and stroked Momo's ears. The lemur, in turn, purred at the affection he was receiving. At least she still had Momo. Celina was brought out of her thoughts as Katara spoke up, still being the one to be in control of the group.
"Let's just keep moving. I hope Aang will be alright," Katara said and motioned for the others to follow her. Celina and Toph nodded while Sokka stood where he was, waving his arms back and forth.
"Friendly mushroom! Mushy giant friend!" he sang, his voice taking on the same strange tone as before.
Celina rolled her eyes and then grabbed Sokka by the arm, making sure that he stayed with the group.
o
The sun was setting over the dunes, creating a golden color to wash over them, when Aang finally rejoined the group, kicking up sand as he landed next to them. Katara was quick to go to him when the young airbender fell to his knees in grief. She wrapped her arms around him which he didn't bother responding to, too numb with the pain he was feeling.
"I'm sorry, Aang. I know it's hard for you right now, but we need to focus on getting out of here," she apologized.
"What's the difference? We won't survive without Appa. We all know it," Aang replied hopelessly.
"Come on, Aang! We can do this if we work together," Katara encouraged. "Right, Toph?"
"As far as I can feel, we're trapped in a giant bowl of sand pudding. I got nothin'," Toph admitted.
"Sokka? Any ideas how to find Ba Sing Se?" Katara asked her brother.
The others looked over to find Sokka lying down on the sand, looking up at the sky. "Why don't we ask the circle birds?" he suggested blissfully. Everyone looked up to see that there were indeed buzzard wasps circling above them, just waiting for them to drop dead so that they would feast upon their bodies.
"We can think of ideas after we get out of this desert," Celina pipped in, heading over to Sokka and pulling him up off the ground. "The important thing is to keep moving for the moment. As long as we keep moving we have a chance of getting out of here."
Katara looked over at her sister, eyes wide, grateful that she didn't have to carry everyone by herself. She had Celina on her side, her big sister that always did her best to help her through anything. Besides Sokka, Celina was the one who thought up their strategies, and while she didn't have an exact one now, she had the determination to keep moving until a plan was thought up. As long as Katara had her sister helping them, they had a good chance of making it out of the desert.
"Alright. Everybody up and hold hands. We're getting out of this desert together," Katara said determined.
And that's what they did. Katara helped Aang up and altogether they held hands and moved further through the desert.
o
The sun disappeared, allowing for stars to take over the sky. With the disappearance of the sun came the cooling of the desert, giving the gang a little bit of relief. Unfortunately, that didn't lessen their exhaustion.
"I think we should stop for the night," Katara suggested, much to everyone's relief as they fell to the ground.
"Is there any more water?" Toph asked.
"Katara, it's your turn," Celina said. While they were walking Celina and Katara decided to switch on and off between their water skins when the need for water came about. The younger waterbender nodded and uncorked her water skin.
"This is the last of mine," Katara informed everyone as she bent the water out.
Celina grabbed hold of half of what Katara brought out and focused on taking care of herself, Toph, and Momo while Katara took care of herself, Sokka, and Aang. Everyone frowned at the swampy taste but they had stopped complaining about it a while ago. After everyone had their drink, Katara went back to focusing on figuring out a plan.
"Sokka, let me see the things you got from the library," Katara asked. He immediately reeled back at her request.
"What! I didn't steal anything! Who told you that!?" Sokka asked offended and then turned to Momo who had slid off Celina's head since he no longer had to shield Celina's eyes. "It was you! You ratted me out!"
As the lemur began to cry Celina pulled the creature into her lap and began to try and console him. "Sokka, there's no need to yell at Momo," she scolded her brother before going to hum her soft song while stroking his fur.
"Besides, Sokka, I was there," Katara pointed out and then took Sokka's bag.
"It doesn't matter. None of those will tell us where Appa is," Aang commented, hopelessness still laced in his voice. Katara shot Aang a worried look before turning back to Sokka's bag and pulled out one of the scrolls that contained a star map.
"No, but we can find out which way Ba Sing Se is. We can use the stars to guide us. That way we can travel at night when it's cool and rest during the day," Katara figured out.
Unfortunately, her information fell on mostly deaf ears as most of the group had already fallen asleep, leaving Celina and Katara being the only two up. Katara let out a sigh of frustration before turning back to look at the map and then up at the sky, trying to get a read on where they might be.
"You need any help?" Celina asked.
"No, just get some sleep. I know how exhausted you were after unlocking your spirit powers and my waking you up early didn't exactly help," Katara told her.
"Alright then, but first," Celina said and then pulled out her vial of spirit water. She held it out to Katara, wanting her to take it. "Here, I want you to have this."
"But this is the spirit water that Master Pakku gave you. I can't take this," Katara protested.
"I insist. You ended up wasting yours on waking me up, so at least let me pay you back by giving you mine. Besides, with me being a spirit and all I'm sure all my healing water would be spirit water if I concentrated," Celina insisted, going so far as to put the necklace over Katara's head.
"Well… alright then," Katara gave in. "Thank you, Celina."
"You're welcome. Now I'm gonna get some sleep while I can. I have some business to take care of when I get to the Spirit World," Celina said, her voice turning into a growl as she mentioned the last part. Katara looked at her sister a bit confused but just nodded. Having got the go-ahead from her sister Celina laid down and allowed herself to get some sleep.
o
When Celina arrived in the Spirit World she set herself on a mission to find Bitten and bite his head off. The spirit didn't make it difficult however as from behind her, Celina heard Bitten calling her name. Turning around she saw Bitten a bit of a distance back in the gardens, waving at her with a delighted smile on her face. Celina's eyes lit up with righteous, spiritual anger with a scowl accompanying it.
"You," she growled, gathering up energy in her hands.
Bitten stared at her confused at first but once he recognized that she had unlocked her spirit powers and that they were going to be directed at him, he began to back up. Finally, able to let out her anger Celina shot the built up energy at Bitten, sending him flying back. Followers of Ai and Bishamon that were close by instantly ran, not wanting to stick around in case Celina turned her wrath onto one of them. Ai and Bishamon were powerful spirits who were scary when angry, they expected the same from their daughter. Bitten groaned in pain as Celina stormed over, not even close to being done with him. Once there she picked Bitten up by his caped sash, holding him up to her face.
"How dare, you!" she snarled.
Celina blasted some more energy at him, sending him flying back further into the gardens. Bitten rolled as he landed, his caped sash being torn off in the process. He was quick to recover though, knowing full well that if he didn't he would never have the chance to ask Celina where this was coming from. So, he got himself up to his feet and turned to Celina who was striding over, charging up another blast.
"What are you talking about? What have I done to make you so upset?" he asked. He was once again shot at before receiving an answer, this attack only grazing him.
"You lied to me! You lied to me and you… you used me," she exclaimed.
"What? No, I haven't. What would I ever lie to you about?" Bitten questioned confused.
"Oh, I don't know, maybe something about soulmates?" Celina said and took aim. Bitten grunted and groaned as the blast hit him in the stomach, but he still stood having braced for it. "I learned all about them in Wan Shi Tong's library. And a good thing I did as well, let me know that you decided to use my ignorance as an advantage and try to raise your own status. Date the leader's daughter, what a brilliant plan. Well let me tell you now, it's no longer gonna work."
This time she just flat out punched him in the face, not bothering with an energy blast. Bitten stumbled back, holding his aching jaw.
"Celina, I swear to you that I wasn't taking advantage of your status," Bitten told her, hoping she'd believe his explanation. Another punch, this time to his already bruised chest.
"Yeah right, why else would you date me knowing full well that we aren't soulmates, huh?" Celina interrogated. She kicked him in the shin, sending Bitten to the ground.
"Because that's what we do," Bitten groaned in pain. "So many spirits don't wait for their soulmate to form relationships. Especially those of us who follow your parents."
"Yeah right," she rolled her eyes.
"I swear! Just ask your mother. If you don't want to believe me right now that's fine, but I know you'll trust her," he begged before getting hit once again.
Celina couldn't help but scoff and readied another energy attack, pissed off that he was trying to drag her mother into his. She was interrupted however as her body began to flicker, signaling that she was waking up. Celina cursed and her eyes blinked back to their normal color. It looked like she was out of time for tonight. She scowled one more time at Bitten before finally waking up in the real world.
o
Katara was kneeling next to her, having softly shaken Celina awake. She was the first person Katara decided to wake up, knowing well that her sister would help her wake the others up who she figured would be the more difficult ones. Celina let out a quiet moan but didn't protest. The fact that Katara let her get some sleep to begin with was good enough, especially since Celina was used to staying up all night thanks to past insomnia problems.
"How are you feeling?" Katara asked.
"Better," Celina answered. "My head's no longer pounding which is a very good sign. I also got out some aggression when I was in the Spirit World so that also helped."
Her sister looked at her, clearly wanting to know more about that last portion but decided against asking her about it. That would be a conversation for later. They had other things to worry about now. So Katara just nodded and headed over to wake a slightly buried Sokka up. Celina helped take charge and went over to wake Toph up as well.
"Come on, get up. We need to go," Katara told Sokka, still annoyed with his drugged-up antics. He drowsily sat up, drool still coming from his mouth.
"Yesterday my mouth tasted like mud. Now it just tastes like sand. I never thought I'd miss the taste of mud so much," Toph commented after Celina got her up.
With Aang the only one to wake up, Katara walked over to him but the airbender surprised everyone when he spoke before Katara could even try to wake him up. "I'm awake. I couldn't sleep," he informed them.
"Well, we need to get moving if we want to get out of the sand pit," Katara said, pulling him up to his feet.
Before they could start walking, however, the group (minus the still drugged Sokka) noticed something up in the sky. Something bison shaped moving across the full moon.
"Appa!" Aang shouted joyfully, small tears coming to the corners of his eyes.
"Appa? But why would Princess Yue need him? She's the moon! She flies by herself!" Sokka asked.
Celina looked over at her brother. That was the first time he talked about Yue without sadness or guilt in his eyes. It was his biggest failure, losing Yue. Sokka would only talk about it to her, and even then, it would take a lot for him to do so. Most times he'd only open up about it when Celina caught him waking up from a bad dream, tears in his eyes. How their roles were reversed, it was Sokka who used to comfort her about her bad dreams and now she was doing it for him. Those thoughts were pushed aside when Katara spoke up.
"It's just a cloud," she said sadly.
"Wait, a cloud. That means we can get water," Celina figured out. Katara quickly caught on and turned to Aang, holding out her empty water skin.
"Here, fly up and bend the water from that cloud into my pouch," she told him.
Aang glared at Katara before snatching Katara's water skin and took off on his glider. It took him two passes through the cloud to collect all the moisture, causing the cloud to completely disappear. He tossed the water skin down to Katara as be began to land. She picked it up and peeked into the skin.
"Wow… there's hardly any in here," she observed.
"I'm sorry, okay! It's a desert cloud, I did all I could! What's anyone else doing! What are you doing?!" Aang shouted angrily, pointing his glider at Katara accusingly. She looked at the ground, disheartened.
"Don't you dare yell at her," Celina scolded. "Katara has been doing the most out of everyone here. She's been keeping us all together the best she can so that we can get out of this desert and go find Appa. So, if you wanna be angry, fine. But don't take it out on the person who's trying to help you."
This time, it was Aang who looked away ashamed while Katara looked at her sister with a small smile on her face, happy that she stuck up for her. The smile only increased as Aang mumble a soft sorry to Katara. With that taken care of the group started walking once again. It didn't take long before someone became frustrated again. Though this time it was Toph, who suddenly tripped and fell, rubbing her toe in pain.
"Are you alright?" Celina asked concerned, bending down to examine how bad Toph hurt herself.
"Ow! Crud! I am so sick of not feeling where I'm going! And what idiot buried a boat in the middle of the desert!" Toph exclaimed frustrated.
"A boat?" Katara questioned.
"Believe me, I kicked it hard enough to feel plenty of vibrations," Toph said, pointing at the thing that caused her to trip.
Aang was the first on to react, using his glider to clear the sand away with his airbending. When he did that it confirmed that a boat was hidden underneath, one that looked like the boats the sandbenders used. Katara instantly jumped aboard to examine things.
"It's one of the gliders the sandbenders use! And look! It's got some kind of compass on it! I bet it can point us out of here! Aang, you can bend a breeze so we can sail it. We're going to make it!" she exclaimed.
"Let's get on it then, hopefully, we can make it out of here by dinner time," Celina smiled.
The gang boarded the glider, Celina, Katara, and Aang took position. Aang stood by the sail, using his bending to make the glider go while Katara took over the navigator position at the compass so that she could use that and the star map. Celina made took over making sure that Toph and Sokka stayed on the glider. Momo took his place on the front of the glider, enjoying feeling the air on his face. With everybody ready, they took off through the desert.
o
The group had been making a good distance, even though they still weren't sure exactly how far they'd made it through the desert. They certainly traveled for a while though as the sun had started creeping up a while ago.
"The needle on this compass doesn't seem to be pointing north according to my charts," Katara mentioned.
"Take it easy, little lady. I'm sure the sand folks who built this baby know how to get around here," Sokka said dreamily.
"You know, while the cactus juice certainly has died down, I'm sitting waiting for the heightened weirdness that is Sokka to die down," Celina commented.
Katara let out a gasp when she spotted what the compass was leading them to. "That's what the compass it pointing to! That giant rock! It must be the magnetic center of the desert," she discovered.
"A rock? Yes! Let's go!" Toph said excited.
"Maybe we can find some water there," Celina pondered.
"Maybe we can find some sandbenders," Aang muttered darkly.
With Aang's new motivation the gang managed to reach the giant rock. Toph was the first one to jump off the sand glider however. As soon as her feet hit the ground she let out a delighted sigh and fell back onto the rock, creating a rock angel by using her bending. Celina couldn't help but let out a chuckle seeing her friend back on solid ground.
"Ahh… Finally! Solid ground!" Toph smiled.
"That's great. But maybe we should explore a bit more before taking time to relax," Celina suggested.
Toph groaned, wanting to stay where she was but got up anyway, at least they were staying on the giant rock where she could see. So, the gang explored the rock, coming upon several caves. Curious they entered in one of them. Looking around the team noticed that the walls were covered in a gooey, yellow substance that looked like honey.
"I think my head is starting to clear out the cactus juice," Sokka breathed deeply and then turned to the yellow substance. "And look!" Still not thinking straight Sokka scooped some of the goop off the wall and stuck it in his mouth. He instantly spit it out and started making gagging noises. "This tastes like rotten penguin meat! Aww, I feel woozy."
"You've been hallucinating on cactus juice since yesterday and then you just lick something you find stuck to the wall of the cave?!" Celina said to him irritated.
"I have a natural curiosity," Sokka shrugged.
"What you have is a head still full of cactus juice," Celina replied.
"I don't think this is a normal cave. This was carved by something," Toph pointed out.
"Yeah… look at the shape," Aang agreed.
"There's something buzzing in here. Something that's coming for us!" Toph felt out.
The group instantly ran out, not wanting to meet the mystery attacker head on. When they were out in the open the gang turned towards the entrance of the cave. A scream came out of all their mouths as buzzard wasps came out of the saves and lunged at them. Aang was the first one to react, sending a gust of air to blow them back. The next one was Toph, sensing a buzzard wasp that fell next to her. She sent a pillar of rock up from beneath it and sent it flying. From there on though she was shooting blind as the buzzard wasps remained up in the air where she couldn't see them. This caused some problems with almost hitting friends.
"What are you doing?! That rock almost crushed me!" Sokka protested.
"Sorry, I can't tell where they are in the air!" she explained.
"I got this one," Sokka assured her and took out his machete and started wildly swinging it in the air.
"Sokka's there's nothing there," Celina pointed out.
"I guess my head's not as clear as I thought," Sokka figured out.
"We have to get out of here! Celina and I can't waste any more of our water," Katara said.
As they went to run however a buzzard wasp snatched Momo in its claws and flew away. Aang didn't wait long to go after him. "Momo! I'm not losing anyone else out there," he said and glided after them.
The others couldn't wait for him however and headed down the giant rock back towards the sand glider. The buzzard wasps followed them though which wasn't helping as they headed down a narrow ledge. Figuring out how to aid their situation Celina took hold of Toph's shoulders and turned her to face the buzzard wasps.
"Toph, shoot a rock right there. Fire!" she told the younger girl. Listening, Toph shot out a cluster of rocks at a buzzard wasp, making a direct hit.
"Yeah! You got it! She got it, right?" Sokka celebrated but asked for confirmation from his sisters.
"Yes. Now let's move," Katara confirmed.
This continued on for a while, Celina directing where Toph should earthbend while buzzard wasps continued to attack them. It was getting more and more difficult to fend them off but once they reached the bottom of the rock pillars of sand burst upwards, scaring the buzzard wasps back into their hive. The group shielded their eyes at first but when the sand cleared they saw that several sandbenders were surrounding them with three of their gliders behind them. Aang landed between his group and the sandbenders and angry look on his face, ready to kick some sandbender butt.
"What are you doing in our land with a sandbender sailer? From the looks of it, you stole it from the Hami tribe," the lead sandbender accused.
"We found the sailer abandoned in the desert. We're traveling with the Avatar. Our bison was stolen and we have to get to Ba Sing Se," Katara tried to explain to them.
"You dare accuse our people of theft while you ride on a stolen sand sailer?" a young sandbender spoke up.
"Quiet, Gashin. No one accused our people of anything. If what they say is true, we must give them hospitality," the older sandbender shot down.
"Sorry, father," the younger sandbender, Gashin apologized.
"I recognize the son's voice. He's the one that stole Appa," Toph whispered to the gang.
"Are you sure?" Celina asked.
"I never forgot a voice," Toph assured them.
Hearing this Aang took several steps towards the sandbenders and pointed his staff at Gashin threateningly. "You stole Appa! Where is he? What did you do to him?" Aang demanded.
"They're they're lying! They're the thieves!" Gashin lied himself. That only made Aang angrier which he took out on one of their sandbenders sand sailers, obliterating it with his airbending.
"Where is my bison?!" Aang demanded once again. "You tell me where he is now!" The sandbenders didn't get a word out as Aang destroyed another one of their sand sailers.
"What did you do?" the older sandbender shouted at his son.
"I… It's wasn't me!" Gashin sputtered.
"You said to put a muzzle on him!" Toph exclaimed.
"You muzzled Appa?!" Aang said completely enraged.
Aang's eyes and arrow began to glow as he entered the Avatar State. With another twirl of his staff, he demolished another sand sailer, scaring all the surrounding sandbenders.
"I'm sorry! I didn't know that it belonged to the Avatar!" Gashin back peddled.
"Oh, that's complete and utter crap. Everyone knows that with the reappearance of the Avatar also came his sky bison. The last airbender and the last sky bison. Of course, Appa belonged to the Avatar," Celina spoke up, getting angry herself.
Sokka looked over and saw his sister's eyes flash for a second, her spirit powers trying to break through, and placed his hand on her arm, trying to ground her. They didn't need another person going crazy. Celina glanced over at his hand and instantly figured out where he was coming from. She took a few deep breathes to try and calm herself down.
"Tell me where Appa is!" Aang demanded, the past Avatars echoing in his voice.
"I traded him! To some merchants! He's probably in Ba Sing Se by now. They were going to sell him there. Please! We'll escort you out of the desert. We'll help however we can," Gashin explained, practically begging for his life.
At this statement air began to gather around Aang and start to pick him up, creating a small tornado in the process. Even Celina's glowing eyes reappeared. Sokka grabbed hold of not only his sister but also Toph, pulling them away from the danger. The sandbenders got the message as well and began to flee for their lives. While many people ran scared, the Water Tribe siblings focused on calming down their selected people. While Katara took the more dangerous route to calm Aang down Sokka took care of Celina, pulling his sister into a hug. He muttered calming things in her ear, trying to stop her spirit powers from doing anything. Slowly Celina's eyes flickered back to her normal blue irises. She grabbed hold of Sokka's arms, anchoring herself. Her head began to ache. She might not have used an of her energybending but her spirit powers were accessed multiple times which took more out of her than she thought it would. Gaining her bearings Celina glanced over at Toph to see that she looked scared seeing Aang's Avatar State for the first time. Celina looked over at Aang herself. Katara had grabbed hold of Aang and pulled him down into a hug. She was wincing as the sand hit her face but kept her hold and somehow it worked. The glow of the Avatar State slowly went away leaving a crying Aang slumped in Katara's arms.
Thanks for reading. Be sure to leave me a review and a crazy "So Tell Me About Yourself" answer. And be sure to check out my profile for character designs and my writing schedule.
"So Tell Me About Yourself" is an inside joke between me and my friends which started from my one friend's hatred for the typical getting-to-know-you question "So tell me about yourself". She, being so annoyed with the phrase, gave a silly answer that she murdered people in their sleep. When she brought it back to me and my other friend we both gave a silly answer. That is where the idea for my account name came from.