Yo everybody! Just wanted to thank everyone once again for the reviews :D Apparently "nearing the end of the school year" means "load the kids up with as much homework as possible," so I haven't had a lot of time to type lately! :3 Although this is going to be around where one of the last climaxes occur, I feel like this story can go on for quite a bit longer.... I'm thinking of ending it around chapter 30? Tell me what you think; I have quite a few options, so either take the poll on my profile or shoot meh a review XD So here we go!
Disclaimer: I seriously don't get why the heck the guy who wrote the movie Avatar decided to call it Avatar. Didn't he know how much that would piss all the Avatar: the Last Airbender fans off? I mean, before we didn't have to distinguish what we meant in conversations, like "Hey did you see that Avatar episode last night?" Now people that are eavsdropping are gonna be like, "OMG they came out with a TV series?" and we get all pissed off and are like, "No. Avatar: the Last Airbender. Idiot." And then an argument breaks out and everyone is punching and kicking each other. I have honestly encountered this situation at least twice.Why couldn't the writer have just named the movie something a bit more creative than ripping it off a Nickelodeon TV series? That would have made all our lives easier. Haha this was more of a rant than it was a disclaimer... well anyways the guy who wrote Avatar doesn't own Avatar: the Last Airbender and neither do I. :3
-0-0-0-0-0-
THUD
The guards unmercifully tossed her into the dark room, charcoal eyes glinting as the sudden shard of light breached the darkness through the door. The sun was setting outside, and Katara's meeting with Zhao occured nearly 4 hours beforehand.
She had woken up within 10 minutes after beginning transit to the deserted shop, and after putting up a struggle, the transportation had taken two hours longer than Zhao had expected. Upon arrival Katara had made one final attempt to escape, but it was all in vain as they bound her hands with three different kinds of materials to keep all water away from her hands.
Katara skidded across the dirt floor of the shop. The guard tossed a hunk of bread into the middle of the room. He set a candle down in the corner of the room for light, and then closed the door behind him, boarding it and bolting it shut.
Spitting out the dirt that had accumulated in her mouth, Katara struggled with her bindings, and finally wove her hands out of one of the layers. Sadly, that would be the easiest of the three layers of material, and when she finally ripped her hands out of the second layer, she gave up and sank back to the floor, blood dripping through the burns on her fingers.
That was when she finally noticed the other person in the room.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Sokka took a long swig from his cup on the table. The coarsely ground tea in the cup was supposed to clear his throbbing headache, but the pulsing pain in his head endured the steaming cup of the aromatic tea. He tried hard to relax and recline in his chair and get comfortable, but his aching temples killed off any help he might have received from a comfortable position. He sighed, annoyed.
Knock Knock Knock...
Sokka sighed and stood up from the table, walked to the door, and unlatched the wooden plank.
"Who's there?"
He looked around outside, noting that the sun had just set; pink outlined the horizon, fading from a bright salmon color to a purple, and then to the dark navy that was already beginning to encompass the sky right above him.
Sokka was heartily socked in the stomach.
"Down here, Snoozles," said an annoyed voice. Sokka looked down, clutching his stomach in pain. He glanced down at Toph, who was standing with her arms crossed. "Not everyone in the world is six feet tall, you know."
"Sorry," he grunted, and stepped over to the right so she could step inside. She tromped through the door and kicked aside a chair, and promptly sat down and lifted her bare feet onto the table.
"Why are you here?" he asked, still rubbing his aching stomach. Toph had punched him pretty hard.
"I came to let you know something," she said. "You should have been able to sense it, Snoozles."
He blinked in confusion. "What?"
"You didn't know?" Toph pounded her fists angrily on the table. "How could you not know your sister has been kidnapped?"
"WHAT THE HELL? BY WHO?" He stood up so quickly his chair clattered to the side, his cup's contents splattering all over the table and the floor.
"I couldn't tell. I haven't been formally introduced to him, so I wouldn't be able to recognize who it is. I can tell Katara's as well as your footsteps from almost anywhere. His... I can't tell who it is. It's more than a mile away, and by then it gets kind of fuzzy..."
Sokka rubbed his temples furiously, trying to get the traces of anger, confusion, and a headache out of his system so he could think clearly. Minutes passed awkwardly, and before long Toph began to fiddle with the ripped lace at the edge of her shirt
"What should we do, then?" he asked, obviously shaken and at his wit's end.
"Well, we could break directly into the prison that they're held in. It might be difficult, though, because her kidnapper may have guards stationed around the place where she's contained. Another option could be that we find who-"
"We could dig a tunnel all the way to the place where she's located, and then we could come up through the floor! Then we could all escape while you block off the hole so they wouldn't be able to follow us!" Sokka suggested brightly.
With half-lidded eyes and a very wide, smug smile, Toph said slowly, "I like the way you think." She cracked her knuckles, pushed her chair aside (which again clattered to the floor) and made a punching motion towards the floor. The ground sank immediately in a perfect circle, and Toph hopped in. Sokka looked down the hole, and stepped back a few steps.
"How will I be able to see?" Sokka sounded nervous, reaching for the lantern on his side table. Suddenly a soft, medium-sized hand sprung up, grabbed him by the ankle, and yanked him down into the tunnel.
"As long as you don't walk into my ass then you don't need any light. I'm making the tunnel as we go," Toph told him. "I don't happen to need light anyways."
Sokka shrugged and followed closely behind Toph, keeping his hands on her shoulders.
She thanked the heavens that he couldn't see the hot, creeping blush spreading across her cheeks.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
He watched her hands fall limp after struggling for quite some time; through his sensitive nose, he could pick up a salty, rusty scent. His eyes widened in the dimness; she was bleeding. The glittering of a liquid seeping down her fingers in the candlelight confirmed that. She coughed quite a few times and spat twice, taking a few wheezing breaths before turning completely silent. After a few seconds, her head lifted up and searched around the room, and in the darkness he assumed she had noticed him.
"Hello, your Highness," he said softly, hoping she would respond.
His words shook her system; the man's voice resonated in her stomach, masculine yet tender with the slightest concern. His voice washed over her like a blanket of relief, a blanket of comfort, and yet, something that she couldn't quite put her finger on. Friendliness? Familiarity?
She decided not to respond. She hadn't talked in years, why should she talk now? The corners of her eyes threatened tears; they burned her eyes like hot coals in a furnace. Although this man had a very appealing voice, he might not be a friendly thief; her delusional mind told her that maybe Zhao had protected her from a horrible thief that really was hostile. She could never ever trust anyone, they always turned on her like this. Tears ran down her face. That's why he's handcuffed to the wall, a good ten feet away from me in this small room.
He waited for a response, the silence growing more and more awkward as the seconds ticked by. The candlelight flickered, and with that small flick it crossed shining droplets en route to her chin.
Immediately upon seeing her tears, he flicked his wrists downward, and the handcuffs clattered to the floor. He hurried over to her, kneeling immediately as he reached her shocked face.
In the slightest of whispers, Katara breathed.
"It's you."
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Yes, I'm sorry I ended it there, but I just had to! I couldn't continue the conversation effectively and convey the things I wanted to happen, but I do promise that I'll do my best to update quickly. :)
-Momo