Chapter Twelve : A Small Redemption
Aang started at the man in disbelief. The Air Nomads, his people, have been alive all this time. He could not fathom it. "Are you an Airbender?"
Arawn looked at Aang. "Yes, to a degree. I am no where near as powerful as you, but I have had formal trainning. I can maniputate the wind to do my bidding, but I can not do what you do. I can not fly in the air by myself, or flatten things. I will never be a true master of air."
"How many are alive?"
"We live, but we do not thrive like we did when you were just a regular airbender. We have kept our numbers small, and when we finish our trainning, we move on to find a life and try to make new benders. For every ten airbenders that have children, only two are like us. Given time, our people will disappear entirely. We can not keep our numbers high enough." He watched Aang's face fall. "We will find a way to get the numbers back up, but we are loosing too many people to the other nations."
"Well, we will have to change that. I would like to meet them when our mission is done." Aang smiled at Arawn.
"The Elders would like that. I will probably be repromanded for revealing myself too early, but it had to be done. If not Jelisa would have surely finished off Katara. I could not let her do that."
Toph turned her head toward Aang and Arawn. "What is her deal anyway? All she wanted was to wipe us off the face of the earth? Has she always been this crazy?"
Looking over at the small box containning Jelisa, he shook his head. "I am sorry, but like I told Katara. Her story is not mind to tell. If you want to know what caused her to be this way, you have to get it out of her. Her pain may be mine as well, but I will not betray my trust to her."
Toph smiled. "It won't be much longer. She's starting to wake up. Let's see how she plans on getting out of there."
--
Jelisa woke up with pain in the head and back. Leave it to Arawn to blast me down. He never could stomach violence. She felt the rope that tied her hands and feet. Well, this shouldn't be too hard. She began to wiggle her bindings, and began to feel them give way. He was never good at tying knots. I don't know why he did it. Looking at the box she was in, she guessed the walls were at least a foot thick. Shaking her head, she pulled the small vial of blasting jelly out of her boot. Smearing it on the wall, she used enough to blast a small hole in the wall, but not kill her in the process.
Finding the starting rocks she kept on her, she struck them, sending sparks toward the blasting jelly. Just before the sparks hit, she felt herself sinking into the Earth. Great, stupid, stupid, Jelisa, you forgot about the Earthbender and the Avatar of all people. That was really intelligent. Master asassain, my ass!!
She watched the walls come down around her, and there stood the whole crew of the Avatar and Arawn. She glared up at Arawn. "So, do you enjoy watching me like this? You are such an ass. When I get out of here, I will kill you, you know that, right?"
The blind earthbender stomped her foot and she sank lower, until only her head was exposed. "Look here, Ice Queen, no one is going to kill anyone. I will leave you there til you rot if you do not tell us what we want to know."
Jelisa laughed at the young girl. "Then let Death collect me now, because I will never talk to you. You guys are nothing but prey." She spat at the girl's feet.
Her actions angered the Earthbender. "I should just push you down farther. You should die now."
The girl as spirit, I will give her that, but I will still kill her when I get a chance. Jelisa just turned her head the best she could, which wasn't far. "Leave me to my fate."
Shaking their heads, they turned away from her and walked back to the fire. Arwan was talking to the Avatar, most likely about the Air Nomads being alive, and the others were listening. How humiliating! I am stuck here til that girl desides to release me, or I die. Either way, I lose.
She stayed there stuck in the ground, until she felt herself rise just until her hands were free. The Earthbender walked over to her. "I don't like you, but I am not about to let you starve." She sat some food in front of her. "Eat, don't eat. Makes not difference to me, Ice Queen. I just won't let you completely out so you can hurt anyone else." With that she walked away.
Jelisa watched her leave. No one had ever stood up to her and lived. It both inpressed her that the girl would do it, but it also infuriated her to no end that she could not go after her and kill her. Sighing, she loked down at the food. It looked like a stew of some kind and a small piece of bread. Jelisa began to eat the stew and bread. It was rather good. She had not had a good meal in ages. She was always eating on the run, if she ate at all. When hunting, she would be so wrapped up in it, that she would forget about eating until her stomach would begin to hurt.
Polishing off the stew and bread, she looked up at the stars. Now I know why I hate being idle. It gives me time to think, and I hate thinking, unless it is about a mission. This really sucks.
"Beautiful night isn't it?"
Jelisa turned to the sound of the voice. It was Sokka, the Water Tribe Warrior. He walked up next to her, but not close enough for Jelisa to grab him. "What do you want? Are you here to gloat? Yeah, yeah, I slipped up and got caught. Big deal." She glared up at him, but he laughed.
"You know, you are not that mean looking when you are buried to your waist in the dirt and rocks. I think it's rather funny." Sokka sat down next to her
Rolling her eyes, she looked ahead. "You know, when I get out of this, that little Earthbender and and I are going to have words, like my hands around her neck, choking the life out of her."
Sokka smiled at her. "That's just Toph. Everyone here has thought about it once or twice. Me more than others, but that is a whole nother story."
Jelisa grunted , but did not say a word. Will he just go away? Doesn't he realize that I just want to be left alone.
"You know, they are talking about turning you over to the nearest athorities." He looked over at her. "They may let you go if you just tell them where Azula and Mai were heading."
Jelisa shook her head. "Let them turn me over. I have nothing to live for anyway. My life is circled around my revenge. I think I have lived with it long enough."
"Jelisa, I am sorry for what ever the North has done to you, but you can still turn it around." He began to get up. "Think about it. You can live and walk away from this, or you can be tried in the Earth Kingdom for helping those two. You were just a distraction to them. They don't care if you live or die, but none of us here would kill you unless you gave a really good reason. Well, except Toph and Zuko. Toph would do it because she can and Zuko will do it because you hurt Katara."
Shaking her head sadly, she finally looked at him. "They were looking for Azula's mother. She is going to use the woman as bait to kill the Fire Lord and take the throne. Azula is not as crazy as she lets on. She is very cunning and has everything planned out. I do not think the other girl, Mai, will live long either. Given the right time, she is as good as dead."
Sokka stared at her, wide eyed. "Zuko and Azula's mother is alive? Where were they heading to find her?"
"There is a town about a day's walk from here that they were going to check out. Azula said her father believes she is there. Don't ask me why I am tell you this, because I do not know. I guess in the light of things, you were the first in many years to show me any kind of compassion. Your girlfriend is a very lucky woman, Sokka." She pushed the stray locks out of her eyes.
Sokka leaned over and hugged her, which surprised the Waterbender. No one as ever been that brave as to attempt that. She stared at him in amazement. He let go, and ran to the camp.
--
Sokka slid to a stop next to Aang. "She told me."
Everyone looked at Sokka. "What did she tell you?" Aang looked up from his game with Momo, the lemur.
"Azula's plan. It's not Mai's plan. Jelisa believes that when Azula is done with her, Mai is dead, and so is everyone else." He sat down next to Suki. "They are heading towards an Earth Kingdom town that is about a day's walk from here." He looked over at Zuko. "She went to find your mother."
Silence ran through the small camp. No one said a word. Zuko looked at Sokka like he had turned into a hog monkey. "Are you sure?"
"Hey, I'm just the messsanger boy, but if what Jelisa said is true, they are already there by now." Sokka turned to Toph. "You need to let her out. I don't think she will go anywhere, or try anything. If she does, I will take her out personally."
"Fine, but I would not fall asleep around her." She stood up and walked over to Jelisa. "Hey, Ice Queen, I will let you out if you tell me the truth and I can tell if you are lying. Is Azula really going after their mother?"
"Yes, and that is the truth. I wold not lie about something like that. Despite what you think of me, I do not kill just because I want to. I have my own rules I follow, and one of those is to not hurt innocents. I attacked you guys because you are not innocents. You can defend yourselves and I had my personal vendetta against The Water Tribe."
Jelisa held her head high as she made her point.
Sokka turned to Toph. "Is she telling the truth?"
"She's not lying about any of it." She took a stance, and Earthbended the waterbender out of the ground. Jelisa laid there on her stomach for a moment."Come on, Ice Queen, let's get you over to the fire. The feeling will not return for awhile. When I earthbended you into the ground, I took the lessions I got off a girl named Ty Lee and blocked the chi to your legs." Toph grabbed one arm and Sokka grabbed another. They dragged her over to the fire.
Zuko was the first to speak."Tell me everything you know about Azula's plans."
I am sorry about not having a chapter written in a few days. Between my computer not wanting to connect to the net, and switching computers, I really haven't had time. Sorry! Hope you life the chapter. Azula is in the next chapter with her mother.
