Disclaimer: No matter how much I wish I was, I'm not; Meaning that I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Rating: RT (Teens)
Prologue: A girl from the Earth Kingdom follow the Prince of the Fire Nation and soon joins the Prince and his uncle on their journey. What do you think will happen?
"This is it, the official rendezvous point for the invasion force," Sokka says looking at a map. They where at a place with mountains and fields of Koala-Sheep.
"How did you pick this place?" Toph asks
"Before we split up, my dad and I found this island on a map. It's uninhabited, and the harbor surrounded by cliffs seemed like the perfect secluded place,"
"Nice choice Sokka. And we're here four days ahead of schedule," Ama says
"Wait," a shocked Aang shoots out of bed and high into the air, "four days! The invasion's in four days!"
Sokka yawns, "Whatever. That's like…four days from now," he lays back onto his mat, "Let's just calm down, and…." Sokka fell asleep before he could finish, snoring uncontrollably.
"Sokka's got the right idea Aang. We're here, we're ready…" Katara lays on her mat, "the best thing we can do now is get plenty of rest,"
"Uh…" Aang looks around frantically but everyone seems to be asleep, "I guess,"
Aang curls up on the grass.
Aang's Dream
The scene fade back in with a close shot of a large ornate Fire Nation symbol. It appears to be a large, ornate and intimidating door. The door busts open, revealing a boy with large hair, a head band and a yellow/orange jump suit with his back away from the entrance. He enters the room with a series of dramatic gestures. It is actually Aang who is in this strange garb. Aang takes an intense jump on to a rock tower.
Continually making a series of comically fast and dramatic ninja-like moves during this speech, "Your days of tyranny are over Fire Lord. I'm bringing you down!"
In front of him is an elaborately dressed Fire Lord with Kabuki-like facial features. He is about to take a bite of a bundle of grapes, but stops and looks down at who ever is disturbing him. He is a giant compared to Aang.
"Really," he bends his giant face close to Aang's, "How do you plan on doing that, when you're not even wearing pants?"
Aang looks down to discover this is true and screams. He quickly covers himself with a fuzzy white water tribe shield pulled out of thin air. Aang is shaking with embarrassment. Suddenly, giant eyes begin to appear all around him. The eye's close and disappear back into the walls. The Fire Lord is laughing as Aang slowly backs out the door. The Fire Lord raises his arms to the ceiling, while surrounded by flames, laughing heartily.
End of Aang's Dream
Aang woke up startled. "Aah!" Aang feels all around to make sure he is wearing pants, and then sighs with relief. Momo approaches him,
"It was just a dream Momo, I still have my pants. Well, I better keep training," Aang walks up to a bush with an extremely intense look on his face. He started kicking the bush. Momo is looking on at Aang kicking the bush. Momo's ears go down in a gesture of displeasure and he curls up for sleep.
In the morning Aang is still up. He is now punching a tree. He looks extremely intense and concentrated on this task. The others are slowly waking up from the sound of the punching. Katara, looking drowsy, turns toward Sokka. Sokka shrugs and Katara gets up. She approaches a very fierce looking Aang from behind.
"Hey, how long have you been up?" She asks Aang
"A couple hours," Aang circles the tree, doing, some fancy footwork and varying the type of punches, "I got a lot more skills to refine if I'm going to fight Ozai,"
"You know there is such a thing as over-training," Katara says to him
Aang gives a final extremely hard punch, which reverberates through his body in a comedic fashion. He falls backward, stuck in his punching position. After a pause, all the leaves fall from the tree at once. Katara looks on in disbelieve. Aang, eyes wide, with gray bags under them, holds up his hands in a defensive pose. Leaves fly from his body.
"You don't get it, do you?" Aang circles Katara, who looks half frightened, half amused, as Aang does a variety of air punches and defensive maneuvers, "My form is bad. I'm sloppy. And I still don't know any firebending, not even the basics," Aang's eye twitches. Katara moves Aang's hand away from her face with a worried smile. Sokka relaxing on the grass looks up from his map.
"That's okay Aang. The eclipse will block all firebending anyway, you don't need to know any. Plus it's a stupid element," Sokka says
Zuko glared at him
"Kidding kidding,"
"Okay," Aang raises his arms and then begins a series of comic and sloppy attempts at chops, punches and kicks, "Well, I still have to work on everything else. I'd better spend the whole day training,"
Aang bows quickly toward everyone and then creates an air ball and rides away on it. Sokka looking worried and then hiding his face behind the map. Toph sits bored in the background with Zuko, both totally unaffected by everything that has gone on that morning. Ama gets up with her bedding and walked somewhere else to finish her nap, grumbling and cursing under her breath on the way.
"Told you," Zuko says to Toph
At the end of the day Aang slinks back to camp in a zombie like fashion. He gives a long yawn and falls back onto the ground.
"Good night Katara. Good night Sokka. Good night Ama. Good night Zuko. Good night Toph. Good night Appa. Good night Momo. Good night Appa and Momo,"
"GO TO SLEEP ALREADY!" Ama and Toph yells angrily.
Aang cringed, and then laid back relaxed. His eyes slowly close. He has yet another dream similar to the last. Aang gets up and walks away. Aang circles some sleeping Koala-Sheep, practicing various defensive moves. Katara approaches.
"Aang, it's the middle of the night. You need to go back to sleep,"
"But I forgot my pants and my math test," He says
Katara sighs, and then breathes in deeply, she moves forward and grabs Aang's shoulders. Aang's very bloodshot eyes turn toward her.
"Aang, sleep. Please…for me,"
Aang looks confused and rubbed his eyes. Katara leads him back toward their camp. A koala-sheep bleats after them.
In the morning Aang wakes up in a panic. He turns to Sokka who is still sound asleep and shakes him vigorously.
"Sokka get up! I need to know what day it is!" Aang pulls on Sokka's eyelids and lips in a comedic fashion.
"What?! Who's talking?!" Sokka thrust forward with his sword, but hits a rock head-on before he can complete his swing. He falls back on to his sleeping mat, his body stiff, frozen in the swinging position.
"Relax, it's still two days before the invasion," Toph says waking up
Aang is hopping around the sleepy Sokka, tugging on various limbs, "Sokka, you've go to get up and drill your rock climbing exercises,"
"What?"
"In one of my dreams, you were running from fire nation soldiers, trying to climb this cliff, but you were too slow and they got you,"
"But that was just a dream, I'm a great climber,"
"Then climb that cliff. Climb it fast!"
Sokka looks up at the cliff summit, looking back at Aang and then pointing to himself. Aang nods and Sokka slinks off toward the cliff.
"Stupid Avatar. Stupid Cliff. Stupid dream! I can climb fast!" Sokka says to himself annoyed
Aang looks pleased and relieved at Sokka's climbing. Suddenly he turns around to Katara and Toph. Toph has just put her lips to a satchel of water. Aang yells, causing Sokka to startle and slip down the cliff face.
"Don't drink that!"
Toph throws away the satchel and spits the water all over Katara, who is disgusted.
Perturbed, "Why, is it poisoned?"
An annoyed Katara water bends the water off herself.
Aang's eyes are crossed.
"In my dream, we were right in the middle of the invasion, and you had to stop to use the bathroom. We died because of your tiny bladder," Aang mimics holding his bladder, "And you need to start wearing your hair up Katara. In my dream, your hair got caught in a train, and then we died, and Ama, you need to work on your running. You were going as slow as a cat-tortoise…"
Ama gets up with her sheet and pillow, walks over to Aang, and gives him the deadliest glare she has ever done, which frightened him a little, since he never seen Ama angry before. Satisfied with his reaction, she walked off silently towards Appa, and drifted off to sleep in the saddle.
"I know you're just trying to help. But you really need to get a grip. You're unraveling," Katara says to Aang
Aang looks around unsettled. He looks extremely tired and has dark circles under his eyes. Aang lets out a sigh.
"You're right. I'm losing my mind," Aang says
Sokka who is nearly to the top of the cliff, suddenly slides down.
"It's like every time I think about how stressed I am, I just end up more stressed. I'm like a big, growing snowball of nerves," Aang says
"Of course you are. That's 'cause you've got to fight the Fire Lore, the baddest man on the planet. And you better win, or we're all done for," Sokka says which didn't help the situation at all.
"Sokka, you're not helping!" Katara says angrily
"What? It's true. That's the deal, he knows it,"
"You know what? I've got just the thing. Get ready to be de-stress-i-fied," Katara says
Everyone took turns on trying to "de-stress-i-fie" Aang. Katara took Aang to a hot spring to do some yoga, but Aang felt like he was in the Fire Lords Palace and the whole world is being engulfed in flames. Sokka decided to act like a psychiatrist, which just made Aang a little more frustrated. Toph gave him a massage, or more like a 'back pounding' because it put Aang in a world of hurt. Zuko just tied him up so that he was forced to sleep, but it just freaked the living spirits out of Aang. And Ama tried to sing him a lullaby, which started to work but due to lack of sleep, she was grouchy, so the lullaby went from sweet to really scary.
"Thanks for everything guys," Aang says
Everybody but Ama smiled at him. Ama would have smiled as well but she had already fallen asleep. She was snoring louder than Sokka does.
"So do you feel less stressed? Ready for a good night sleep?" Katara asks
"Uhh….I kinda think I sorta might….slightly feel a little better…..maybe,"
"Then our work here is done," Sokka yawns, stretches and falls back onto his sleeping mat. The others do the same. Aang is the only one left awake and alone. Aang lays back and closes his eyes.
Yet again, Aang has another nightmare. Aang wakes up screaming. He continues to scream. Everyone is waking up, except for Ama who remains too tired to even care. Appa jumps with fright, causing Momo to fall off his back.
"What happened Aang?" Katara asks
Aang turns away from his friends and slumps over, bowing his head to the ground, "It's the nightmares. They just get worse and worst,"
"Looks like it's time for…. Another therapy session," Sokka says as he spins around and now dons the 'Wang Fire' beard.
Aang looks up at him, disgusted and then turns around and speaks angrily, "No, that won't help. Nothing helps. There's only one thing I can do. I'm going to stay awake straight through to the invasion," Aang twitches and Katara looks shocked and Sokka's beard fell off. Toph seems to find this amusing, And Zuko just doesn't seem to care at the moment.
"Invasion. All aboard for the invasion," Aang says in a zombie like trance and nearly stumbles
"You don't look so good. You sure you can't just lie down for a little nap?" Katara asks
"I told you, I can't go back to sleep,"
"Aang, staying up can't be good for you,"
"Actually staying up all night has given me some time to think. And I've realized some big things Katara,"
"What big things?"
Aang then starts to daydream and makes a weird position; which confused Katara greatly.
"Aang?"
"Huh?"
"I was just saying you should take a nap,"
"Oh, I guess I kinda drifted off into a day-dream,"
"What was your dream about?"
"Uh living under water?" He looks embarrassed
"Sounds great,"
A long and loud yawn was heard behind them.
"Man I slept like I was dead" Ama was stretching the sleep out of her body.
Aang decided that he needed more training.
He was hiding in the bushes. He jumps out, does a somersault and hides against a rock. He pops out from behind the rock.
"Put 'em up, Fire Lord,"
Aang shoots a kick of Air at, a picture of Ozai made out of noodles, and misses it; knocking Sokka to the ground.
"Hey, I'm trying to build Appa some armor here so he doesn't have to go into the invasion naked. He's your bison…" Sokka says
Aang's arm is reached out in front of him at some imaginary enemy.
"Ozai's defense is impeccable. I'll have to try a different approach," Aang jumps up into the air with a yell and begins to shoot balls of air down at the noodle Ozai. All 4 shots miss.
"You think you're untouchable, don't you Mr. Fire Lord?"
Aang then turns, looking at Momo in disbelief for some reason. He backs away and shakes his head vigorously. He covers his eyes and the peeks through them. And Momo chirps at him.
"That's more like it," Aang pets Momo, "I'm so tired, that for a second there I imagined you were talking to me," Momo moves his head to one side as if he is confused, "Oh, Momo….. let me explain,"
Aang is attempting to speak Momo's animal language. Everyone else watches, confused and worried. Momo and Aang seem to be carrying on their conversation. Aang even laughs a few times, as if Momo told a joke.
"Aang," Aang and Momo look up in surprise, and they see Ama, "We're all starting to get a little worried about you,"
"You've been awake too long," Sokka says
"And you're acting downright weird," Zuko says
Aang started to freak out again, staring away from everyone else.
"Guys…come on,"
Aang ran up to Ama, "Ama, what should we do?" Aang asks scared for some reason.
"About what?" Ama asks
"About that!" Aang points behind him, only to reveal nothing but the forest,
"Uh…" Ama looks to everyone else confused
They just shrugged, equally confused
"Come on guys, we're all on the same side," Aang says
Aang started to look all around him scared of what ever is going on in his head.
"Huh? Huh!" He says to himself
"Um Aang?" Katara asks
"I just need a jump in a cold waterfall!" Aang screams and runs into the forest like a lunatic
"What just happened?" Zuko asks
"I have no idea," Sokka says
"I have a plan," Katara says
Aang is walking, suddenly he is engulfed in a cloud of mist. In the middle of the mist is a large fluffy, white, pad of wool on the wood pillars Toph used for Aang's 'back massage' earlier. Aang approaches it. He comically pops around all sides of the wool, feeling and inspecting it's fluffiness. He has his cheek pressed to the fluffy pad. He looks at it very skeptically.
"Oh look, another hallucination. An imaginary bed, made out of clouds," He says
"Hey! It's real! We spent hours working on it," Toph says. Everybody approached him.
"We made it for you. A good night sleep will probably take the crazy away….. we hope," Sokka says
"Look, you guys keep telling me I need to sleep, but I can't, the invasion's tomorrow," Aang says
"Aang…" Katara says imploringly
"No Katara, there's still so much I haven't learned. I don't need sleep. What I need is practice. Quick, hit me," Aang raises his fists in a feeble attempt
"I'm not going to hit you,"
"You want me to do it?" Zuko asks
"Listen to me, you've been training for this since the day we've met. I've seen your progress. You're smart, brave, and strong enough," Katara says to Aang
"You really think so?"
"We all do," Ama says
"You can do this. You're ready," Sokka says
"You're the man Twinkle-toes," Toph says
"Thanks guys," Aang yawns and Katara helps him onto the fluffy Koala-Sheep wool bed, "you know what? I think I am ready,"
Ama then starts to sing a lullaby,
Where I live, there are rainbows
With life in the laughter of morning
and starry nights
Where I live, there are rainbows
And flowers full of colors and birds
Filled with song
I can smile when it's raining
And touch the warmth of the sun
I hear children laughing in this place
That I love
Where I live, there are rainbows
With life and the laughter of morning and starry nights
During the song everybody slowly went to sleep; some tried to stay up till the end of the song, but it was too soothing, that it just slapped sleep into them.
Hoped you guys liked this chapter! Leave any reviews about it; anything that helps me improve my writing skills will make me very happy! Stay tuned for the next chapter! ^-^