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Book One: The Rise of Shouri
Chapter Fourteen: Morning Mumbles
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The sun made its way slowly to the horizon. Aang's eyes twitched as the light hit him, he had been up all night. The rest of his team were all snuggled on the back of Appa. How they all fit back there was a mystery to Aang. Sokka and Suki were curled up with each other. Sokka had the biggest smile on his face. Kaliy fell asleep sitting up and was squeezed in between Elari, and the wall of Appa's back armor. Elari was sprawled across everyone.
Katara's eyes opened as the sun fully hit the sky, "Aa-Aang?" Aang turned around and gave Katara an uneasy smile. "Aang?! Did you pull an all-nighter?!" He shook his head in response. "Oh Aang!" She rushed over and sat next to him, rubbing his back. "Here Aang, let me take over for a while so you can go get some much needed sleep."
"No Katara..." Katara tilted her head and stared at Aang bewildered, "You don't know where you're going."
Katara stepped back, taking what he said offensively, "OH! So you think just because I'm a girl, I don't know where I'm going! Ok Mr.Airbender! Whatever, I was just trying to be nice!!"
"No, no, no Katara, it's not that..." Aang sighed, rubbing his temples with his index finger. "It's just... I don't even know where I'm going..."
"Oh..." Katara flopped herself down next to Aang and admired the reflection that came off his head. "I'm sorry, I guess it's just because I just woke up or something. I never meant to--"
"OH MY GOSH!!" Sokka cried out, jumping to his feet, then falling over some, realizing they were still flying. "WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?!" His index finger trembled as it fiercely stabbed the air in the direction of Kaliy.
Kaliy opened one eye and gave Sokka a vicious look. "What are you talking about?"
"No, No! Not you!" He continued to point, "THAT!"
Kaliy looked down at her lap where she saw a small little white puff ball. "Ohhhhh," Kaliy chuckled, scratching the side of her head, looking at all her friends nervously. "Well, ya see... I was kind of hoping no one would notice it..."
"I dunno if you've seen it, but 15,20,11,6,4. Then I was...and..yea..." Elari mumbled in her sleep. She was quite the sleep talker. Luckily for her, she was always the first one awake, so no one ever got to hear her mumbling rants to herself during her sleep, except this time...
"What did she say?" Suki asked, gripping Sokka's hand in fear he would be an idiot and fall off the flying bison.
"Hehehe, she's a sleep talker," Kaliy giggled, suddenly happy that everyone turned the attention off of her and would maybe forget about the little animal that rested on her lap.
"WHY WOULD THAT...ASSHOLE...What the hell? ...No no, bagels...God damn bitches!" Elari croaked, still sleeping.
Jet jumped up, his first thought was "Fire Nation". It seems he still hasn't overcame his biggest fear. "Whats going on?!"
Zuko rubbed his eyes, "Jet, keep it down some, ok? Geez, some people are trying to sleep..." Jet nearly fell on his face when he heard Zuko say that. After all the commotion Kaliy and Sokka made, and even after Elari's sleep talking, which he found extremely humorous and an advantage for later torture towards Elari, Zuko yelled at him for making noise?! But Zuko didn't give Jet a chance to flip out on him about it. He too jumped to his feet and glared down at Kaliy. "That...that...that THING!"
Kaliy nervously laughed. "Zuko...heh... up so early...?"
"What is going on back there?!" Katara demanded from the head of the bison.
The only two who were able to stay asleep throughout this whole mess was Toph and Elari. Toph, who was laying next to Elari, also sprawled out in between everyone, was dreaming about a talking badger mole who was telling her secrets of the universe. Secrets such as "The world is round only because it is made of clay, and God found it to difficult to square a mound of clay." and "Donuts have holes in them so people will buy more. The hole leaves an empty void, which causes people the need to fill this void...with another donut."
Elari's dream was a tad more exciting, but lacked meaning whatsoever. In her dream, she was being chased by a group of leprechauns because she owed the group a dozen bagels. "Screw you...I'm not making...bagels..." Elari muttered out load.
Zuko rubbed in between his eyes, "Seriously Kaliy, I can't believe you brought that THING onto Appa."
"Well I can't just throw it off!" Kaliy cried.
"What is going on?!" Aang roared. He was tired and grumpy and couldn't take any more of the team's bickering.
Sokka was the first to jump to the explanation, "Kaliy brought some weird animal creature onto Appa! I have no idea what it is! ITS CREEPY!"
"Kaliy...is that true?" Aang acted as a guidance counsellor, solving the problems of some peevish children.
"Well, yea. But! But! But! The thing is, it has been following me everywhere ever since I got to Ba Sing Se! It's sooo cute! C'mon Aang, please! Can I keep it! I think it's suppose to belong to me!"
Aang sighed, Lets deal with this quickly... "Well, sure you can keep it..."
"WHAT?!" Sokka roared, "That is absolutely no fair! What about my fish! And what about my hawk?! Huh?!"
"Sokka... Aang let you keep those animals, remember? You killed fishy, and we used hawky to send Toph's parents a message..." Suki chuckled as she shook her head.
"And besides Sokka, every avatar is suppose to have their own animal. Like I have my bison...Kaliy and Elari should have the right to have their own animal too..."
Zuko groaned as he found a nice spot to rest, "That's it, I'm going back to sleep," He pulled a blanket up to his neck and closed his eyes. The blankets were Elari's idea, she figured it got really cold up in the sky. Plus, neither her or Kaliy could go to sleep without a blanket covering them, no matter how hot it was. Everyone mumbled words of agreement and laid back down.
Katara continued to rub Aang's back, "Aang, maybe you should go back there to sleep too..."
"No, I'm fine..." He moaned, "We're almost there anyways."
"There? What do you mean 'there'?"
"Over those mountains," Aang pointed towards the mountain filled horizon, "Is a forest. We can rest there for the day, set up camp and everything."
"Aang, that's probably a half an hour, an hour away... Let me take over, ok?"
"Katara! I got it ok!" His eyes were red, and his face was grim.
"Ok ok...I'm sorry I asked..."
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Elari's eyes were blurry as she opened them. Katara and Aang sat on the head of Appa, whispering to each other, whille the rest of the group was sleeping. She looked over at Kaliy and smiled noticing the little puff ball. So she really did take it? Elari began chuckling, I remember last night it crawled up to her, and when no one was looking she hopped up onto Appa and kept it with her. Hahah, what a freaking idiot!
Kaliy felt something rub on her forehead, she broke through her R.E.M sleep and came into consinousness. Hmm, whats that? Probably just the puff ball thing... After a while of what she thought was the animal rubbing her forehead, she began reconizing finger like qualities. What the hell is that? She opened her eyes, but instead of seeing her puff ball animal like she thought she would see, she saw...a BIG ... FAT... FOOT! "AAHHHHHHHH!" Kaliy screamed pushing the foot away from her face, "GET THE HELL AWAY!"
Zuko leeped up from the feeling of someone grabbing his foot and glared at his first suspect, "KALIY WHAT THE HELL?!"
"Zuko...that was your foot...EWWW! That's just gross!" Kaliy huffed, brushing herself off, trying to regain her composure.
Elari busted out into laughter. It's not that Kaliy is afraid of feet, it's just not the most pleasurable thing to wake up to, especially when it had been rubbing on your face for about five minutes. Elari continued to laugh as everyone slowly began waking up. "Haha, wow, you guys just missed the funniest thing ever!"
Sokka groaned and rubbed his tummy, uninterested in 'the funniest thing ever'. "Uggggh, please tell me we brought some food."
"Yeahhh," Kaliy moved imediately next to Sokka, "I'm starving! The last thing I ate...was...OH MY GOSH! I CAN'T EVEN REMEMBER! You guys, this is a problem."
"Somebody call 911! Kaliy is going to explode from lack of food if she doesn't eat quick! Hurry! Somebody get a twinkie and feed the fatass!" Kaliy giggled, but everyone elses response wasn't as satisfying as Elari hoped it would be. She forgot they didn't know what "911" is or even a "twinkie" for heavens sake! "uh... somebody call the Dy Lee. Kaliy is going to explode from lack of food if she doesn't eat quick ...hurry...somebody get her a chocolate covered snail shell and feed her fat butt..heh...heh..."
Toph was the first to bellow out in laughter, followed by the rest of the gang, besides Zuko and Jet, who made it a mission to never laugh at either of the two "idiots". Kaliy probably laughed the hardest at Elari's witty attempt to make sense to these "avatarian" people.
"So I see you kept it Kaliy," Elari nudged her best friend and petted the head, or at least what Elari assumed was the head, of the fluff ball, "What did the rest of them think?"
"Aang said I could keep it," she stuck her tongue out at Zuko, who hated the creature the most. Kaliy wasn't sure why. She just figured he hated the creature because it belonged to her. "Aang said because he has a bison, we, as avatars should have an animal, too!"
"Hm, I want an animal then!" Elari pouted, "So... have you come up for a name for it?"
"Uhm... yuh, I think, I'll name it..." Kaliy picked up the animal and observed it for a while, "Kyto...Yup! Kyto..."
"Kyto, thats a stupid name!" Zuko snarled.
"You're a stupid name!" Kaliy barked.
"Settle down you two, now!" Katara commanded. "Aang is up here, and has been guiding Appa for 9 hours! In a half an hour we're going to make camp down in a forest, right on the outskirts of the earth kingdom, for the night! Got it?! You can do all the arguing there if you want. Just be sure to stay away from Aang!"
Zuko and Kaliy gulped staring at the fuming Katara, "Ye...ye...yes ma'am..."
Elari folded her arms still pouting. Kaliy has Kyto, Aang has Appa, and what do I have? Nothing! Thats right nothing! "Jet..." Elari tugged on his shirt slightly, "Jet... go find me an animal..."
Jet glared over at Elari and growled. "No way, find your own animal!"
"C'mon! C'mon! C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!! Pleaaase Jet! I just want to find a little animal!"
"Ugh! You're so annoying!" Elari stuck out her lip, and quivered, "Alright fine...when we land, we can search for an earth bending animal or something..."
Elari squeeled, and then became lifeless, "An earth bending animal...? I want an air bending animal..."
"Why? Earth bending is so much better..."
"UH! No, no it is not Jet!" Elari exclaimed, "I don't want you're help anyways if you're going to be an idiot about it!"
"Wait, you're seriously not going to argue with me about this...Earth bending is so much better then air bending. Right Toph?!"
"Oooooh no, don't drag me into this Jet..."
"...Kaliy, tell her; earth bending is better than air bending!" Kaliy put her hands up and shook her head, "Ugh, well look, just take it from me. Earth bending is so much better. Plus how would you know? You haven't even air bended once!"
"Yeah ok! Whatever! All I know is I've never seen you earth bend before, so how do I even know that you are an earth bender?!"
"Elari! Who cares! As an earth bender you can go underground!"
"Well Jet! As an air bender, you can fly! So ha! I win!"
"Fly, eh? Well then Ms.Airbender, lets see you fly!" Jet gave Elari a playful tug pushing her to the side. Elari's leg bumped into the side of Appa's sattle, and she began waving her arms frantically in the air, trying to grab ahold of something.
"Jet!" Kaliy cried out jumping foreward, trying to grab her best friend's hand, it was a failed attempt, "You idiot! She can't air bend!"
Elari went crashing down, off the side of Appa, "ELARI!" Jet exclaimed, and without thinking, he too jumped off the side of Appa to some how save her, even though, now it was hopeless for the both of them.
"OH MY GOSH! AANG! TURN APPA AROUND!" Sokka cried out, but Aang was half away asleep, and the only thing he could hear was his own voice in his head, telling himself not to completely fall asleep, as Katara's head rested on his shoulder, completely passed out.
Kaliy was the first to begin sobbing uncontrollably, "Elari...noooo! Oh my gosh. SOMEBODY HOLD ME BACK! I'M GONNA JUMP TOO!"
"No, Kaliy calm down, we don't need 3 suicides in one day..." Suki declared, grabbing a hold of Kaliy's shoulder, forcing her to sit down. "They'll be fine...I'm sure of it. An air bender, and a earth bender...falling..."
"What?! Suicides?! What happened! What happened!" Toph called out. Dammit, I can't see a thing up here! "What the hell is going on?!"
"Jet and Elari just fell off of Appa, Aang is too tired to pay attention, and Suki is being optismitic about it!" Kaliy sobbed, now getting angry at how cruel fate was. "How dare you wooooorld! I will kill you for killing my best frienddd!"
"Aw, you would do such a sweet thing for me," winked Elari.
"See," Suki smiled, "Everything is fine...wait, everything is fine...how?" Elari was floating next to Appa, with Jet holding onto her back, quivering. Underneath Elari was a white...animal, Suki couldn't make out what it was.
"Elari! You're alive!!...What the hell is that thing?!" Kaliy questioned, wiping the snot and tears off her face.
"Hm...I dunno, looks like a white panther doesn't it?" Elari smiled, slowly caressing the head of this 'panther'. Kaliy peered over the side of Appa noticing the size of the animal.
"Uh, Elari...don't you think it's too big to be a panther?"
"Nahhh, I mean, everythings either bigger or smaller in the avatar world, so, I'm sure this is a panther."
"Elari...there are clouds around the 'panther's' paws... I'm pretty sure thats not normal..." Kaliy announced, observing the creature closely. The clouds underneath each paw of the 'panther' was allowing it to fly.
"So what Kaliy? Like I said, everything is weird in the avatar world." Elari caustiously crawled over onto Appa, pulling Jet along with her, "See, this thing saved me once before, this one time when I was falling. And it did it a second time, and haha, I also saved this wimp here." she pointed at Jet, "He screamed like a girl all the way down until I caught him. This thing is like my guardian angel or something." Elari grinned and pet it one last time, "Alright, off with you. I'll see you next time I need saving."
"Uh, Elari, don'tcha think that might be your avatar animal?" Kaliy cut in.
"Seriously guys...What the hell is going on?!" Toph complained.
"Avatar animal?...Hmmm."
"Nah," Jet spoke up, "That can't be it because its an air bending animal. Her animal is going to be a cool earth bending animal."
Elari huffed and glared over at Jet, "Oh so you don't like it Jet?"
"Well, we're going to find you a way better one than that one..."
"Oh, well in that case, yes! I want to keep this as my avatar animal! Hehe!" Elari, leaned over and gave it a hug, but all the wind caused her to suddenly slip "AHH!" she went tumbling down.
"ELARI" Kaliy began sobbing again until the white panther came flying up next to Appa with Elari's arms wrapped around it's neck.
"Heh...heh...accident?"