Chapter Five: Xlo
Li's eyes slowly opened. The cat's whiskers twitched quickly as she caught a smell. Her eyes widened and a figure in front of her came into view. She jumped immediately into the air in surprise and hissed at the stranger. It turned back to Li in an instant.
"Who are you?" Li demanded at the figure. She only now realized that it was a girl.
The girl had long dirty-blonde hair that hung messily over her shoulders and her cheeks. Two locks of white hair curled on her forehead. She had clothes of a nation that Li did not know, and a small cat held onto her head tightly. The girl looked to be at least eleven.
"I'm Xlo" the girl said, reaching out to help her up. Li took the hand and sat up properly and looked the girl over.
"What are you doing here?" Li asked her.
"I wanted to look at you. Everybody's been talking about you. You're a shape shifter." Xlo said to Li.
Li's face went red. Everybody knows? This is going to turn out for the worst, Li thought. "What's so special about that?" Li said; trying to act like it was no big deal.
"Well, there haven't been any dark benders around for a long time. Not for a couple hundred years." Xlo explained.
Li bit her lip. She didn't like it when people said that. She didn't ask to be the last one existing to her knowledge. It made her feel… alone.
Li stood up and reached to open the door. When she turned the knob, it was locked. She started to pull on it hard. She cursed under her breathe. "Jet… I knew I couldn't trust him! Why I outta-" Li started to rant. Jet had tricked her and she was very angry. Wind blew around her in her anger until she realized she was getting too worked up. She took a deep breath and turned back to Xlo.
"Do you have a key?" Li asked her. Xlo reached into a pocket and pulled out a set of keys. She held them in her hand.
"On one condition" Xlo said with a smirk.
"What?" Li asked. She wanted to get out of this tiny room as soon as possible. She had a bit of a claustrophobic problem.
"Teach me some dark bending." Xlo said, dangling the keys from her hand.
"Deal." Li said, rolling her eyes. She doubted that this Xlo girl could learn any dark bending. If the avatar couldn't, how could she?
Xlo tossed Li the keys and Li opened the door. She looked around for any signs of Jet, and she saw him. He was on a completely different level then her. She wanted to figure out a way to get up there without bringing attention to herself.
As if reading her mind, Xlo pointed at another zip line. She grabbed it and looked back at Li. "We use these to go from each level of the base." She explained. Xlo gave it a tug and shot upward. Li looked at it when it came back down and gave it a tug and was pulled upward. She almost let go. She didn't make much of a smooth landing.
"You need more practice." Xlo said with a laugh.
"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up." Li said, picking herself up. She looked around and saw Jet. His back was turned to her. Perfect.
In the blink of an eye Li was gone; a jaguar was bounding toward him angrily. It roared and he turned around and fell when it pounced on him. It turned back to Li who was clutching his shirt, her eyes tightened into slits. "You locked me in there!" she said, giving him a nasty slap on the face.
Jet pushed her off and stood up. "Well, this sure shows your ability to escape from almost anywhere. What'd you do; turn into a woodpecker and peck your way out?" he said with a smirk.
Li tightened a hand into a fist before grabbing him and pulling him close to her face. "I wouldn't get me angry if I were you. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry." She said before pushing him away. Li then walked off, angry yet satisfied. She was going to explore this place some more before facing him again.
How can I express my vanity anymore than putting myself in my story? I'm such a little stinker. Angst has been removed since I've decided to make this humor instead.
