THE SECRET OF ANIMARU ISLAND
Chapter Five: Celebration
"As we were leaving the island on Appa, I looked back and saw the village engulfed in flames. I knew then that I couldn't just leave without helping the people living there," Aang revealed. It was late in the day, and Aang was entertaining the children around the fire pit by telling them about his many adventures.
"So, what did you do, Aang?" Shika asked curiously.
"I jumped into the water and took a ride on the Unagi. I used his powerful water cannon to put out the fire in the village. And that's how I helped the people of Kyoshi Island!" Aang admitted proudly. He was soon met with loud applause and cheers from the crowd of children.
"That was amazing!" Kameko openly admitted.
"Tell us another one, Aang!" Kitsune pleaded, followed by the clamoring of the others.
"All right, umm…" Aang muttered out loud as he thought about another story to tell the eager children. "You want to hear about my journey into the Spirit World?"
"Yes, Aang! Please tell us!" the children exclaimed excitedly.
"Okay…so we had just arrived at this village in the Earth Kingdom, which was suffering attacks from a very angry spirit…"
As Aang continued telling his story, Sokka gazed around and noticed that Tora was missing from the group. "Hey, Katara, I'm gonna go take a walk, okay?" he whispered to his younger sister.
"Okay, Sokka. Say hi to Tora for me," Katara replied just as Sokka was getting up, causing her older brother to freeze in place for a moment.
"If I see her, I will," Sokka stated firmly as he headed for the forest.
As Sokka walked further away from the village and the orange glow of its fire pit, his eyes slowly became adjusted to the subtle darkness of the forest. Suddenly, a loud crack broke the silence of the forest, causing Sokka to jump out of alarm.
"Geez! What was that?" Sokka wondered aloud as he looked around for the source of the sound.
Just then, Sokka heard the noise again, only it was closer this time. He took in a deep breath before walking through some tall bushes, concealing a small clearing surrounded by trees. In the middle of the clearing was Tora, brandishing her whip in one hand. Partially concealing himself behind a tree, Sokka watched as Tora swung her whip around in each and every direction, occasionally striking a tree with her whip.
"Wow! Tora's really good!" Sokka whispered to himself. Just then, a loud snap rang through the forest when Sokka accidentally stepped on a twig. He quickly ducked behind the tree so that Tora wouldn't see him.
I can't let Tora see me here. She'll probably think I was spying on her or something! Sokka thought nervously to himself as he stood as still as he could for a few agonizing moments. When Sokka cautiously peeked out from behind the tree, he was surprised to see that Tora was nowhere in sight.
"Hey, where did she go?" Sokka wondered aloud as he stepped out into the clearing where he had seen Tora earlier.
"Looking for someone?"
Sokka nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the voice from behind him. He turned around and saw Tora standing behind him, with her whip dangling around her neck and a sly little smirk across her lips.
"Oh…Tora!" Sokka stuttered as he quickly tried to compose himself. "I was just…taking a walk, ya know?"
"Mmm-hmm," Tora muttered out loud, nodding her head slightly.
"Umm…I noticed that you're pretty good with that whip of yours," Sokka commented.
"Yeah, it's the first weapon my father taught me how to use," Tora revealed. "I try to practice every now and then, so my skills don't get rusty. Have you ever used a whip before, Sokka?"
"No, I can't say I have," Sokka replied.
"Would you like to learn? I could teach you what I know," Tora offered as she removed the whip from around her neck.
"Sure, why not?" Sokka asked as he shrugged his shoulders, trying to act nonchalant about it…
Meanwhile, back on the cliff overlooking the bay, a coyote was sitting on the edge of the cliff, staring out at the water, which was reflecting many colors from the setting sun. The coyote had an elongated slender body covered in pale yellow fur, bright red eyes with black slants for pupils, long pointed ears with tufts of white fur on the tips, a fluffy white chest, and six long bushy tails with white on the tips of them.
"Everything seems quiet tonight, and there's no sign of the Fire Navy," the coyote muttered out loud. "What do you think, Rini?" There was a pause of silence that followed.
"Rini, didn't you hear me?" the coyote asked curiously as she looked over her shoulder. The coyote growled softly out of disappointment when she saw that the rabbit, who was supposed to be standing guard with her, was sprawled out on her stomach, fast asleep.
"Come on, Rini. We're supposed to be keeping an eye out for possible intruders, not sleeping," the coyote whispered as she gently nudged the sleeping rabbit with her nose. The rabbit barely stirred from the coyote's attempt to wake her up.
"Why do I even bother sometimes?" the coyote muttered out loud, shaking her head out of disappointment as she sat back down. Just then, something moving out in the water caught the coyote's eye.
"Huh?" the coyote gasped as she observed a small black object moving through the water of the massive bay. As the black object came closer to the island, the coyote realized that it was a much smaller version of the Fire Navy warship.
"Rini, wake up!" the coyote whispered loudly as she nudged the rabbit with her paw.
"Give me five more minutes, Mai…" the rabbit murmured groggily as she twitched her nose slightly, not bothering to open her eyes.
"Rini, this is important! The Fire Navy's back!" the coyote whispered as she nudged the rabbit again.
"What?" the rabbit gasped out loud as she quickly opened her eyes and sat up on her hind legs. "But, Tora said that she scared them off."
"They must have tricked her into thinking that or something. They're coming back here on a smaller ship, probably so they would be less noticeable," the coyote muttered out loud. "Rini, you're the fastest one out of the two of us. Run back to the village, find Tora, and let her know what's going on. I'll stay here and keep an eye on that ship."
"You got it, Mai," the rabbit agreed as she ran off into the brush, while the coyote kept her red eyes on the riverboat…
"Not bad for your first try, Sokka," Tora openly admitted after Sokka swung the whip for the first time.
"Yeah, but I couldn't make the whip crack," Sokka complained.
"Here, let me give you some advice," Tora offered as she approached Sokka from behind. She then placed her right hand over Sokka's right hand, which was holding the whip. "When you swing the whip in the air or at a target, be sure to keep your wrist stiff and rigid. That'll allow you to snap the whip properly, and the force will create that loud cracking sound you were talking about."
"Okay, Tora…stiff and rigid wrist. Got it," Sokka repeated as he turned his head to look at Tora. The two young teens blushed profusely when they realized that their faces were nearly touching.
"Umm, I'll…give you some space so you can try out the whip like I told you, okay?" Tora stuttered a bit nervously as she let go of Sokka's arm and backed away a few feet.
"Yeah…okay," Sokka stammered as he took a moment to compose himself before swinging the whip as Tora instructed him to. Sure enough, the whip produced a loud crack when the tip struck the ground.
"All right! I did it!" Sokka exclaimed.
"Yes, you most certainly did, Sokka," Tora openly admitted with a small smile. "Go ahead, give it another swing. Try aiming for one of the trees this time."
"Okay, sure," Sokka agreed as he swung the whip at the closest tree. When the tip of the whip struck the tree trunk, it stripped off a small portion of the tree bark in the process.
"Wow…did you see that, Tora?" Sokka asked curiously as he turned around to face Tora.
"Yeah, I saw it, Sokka," Tora replied as she approached Sokka. "I must say that you're a quick learner. It took me a while to learn how to handle a whip properly."
"Really? You could have fooled me, Tora," Sokka confessed.
"So, you were watching me, weren't you?" Tora asked teasingly, causing Sokka to turn red out of embarrassment.
"I wasn't spying on you or anything like that!" Sokka denied as he gave Tora back her whip.
"Anyway, I knew you were there the whole time," Tora openly admitted as she recoiled her whip and attached it to the cord around her waist.
"But, how?" Sokka asked curiously.
"It's gonna take a while to explain, so we might as well sit down," Tora suggested as she sat down on a nearby log and gestured for Sokka to sit down next to her. Sokka quickly complied as he sat down next to the animal bender.
"You see, when you're an animal bender, your own physical abilities and senses become much stronger than any normal person," Tora started to explain. "We're able to run faster, climb higher, see farther, and smell better than most people. We pick up these things from the animals we change into."
"Excuse me…smell better? What do you mean by that?" Sokka asked curiously.
"As I said before, our senses become stronger, like our sense of sight and smell. Most animals have a sensitive sense of smell that they use for a variety of things, such as locating food, a potential mate, or even finding their way around," Tora continued. "Like animals, all people have a unique scent to them. It's something you can't get rid of, no matter how often you wash yourself. Benders, especially, have a certain scent to them. Like, you can pick up the strong smell of the earth from earthbenders. Also, firebenders carry with them the strong odor of smoke from the fire they produce. Airbenders have the odor of the crisp, clean air on them, and waterbenders…well, it depends. If they normally use water from the ocean for waterbending, they'll have the smell of saltwater on them. If they use freshwater, like from a stream or a lake, the smell would be much cleaner, with some odor from the surrounding trees."
"Well, what about me? What's my scent like?" Sokka inquired curiously.
"Are you serious, Sokka?" Tora exclaimed as she giggled a bit.
"Well, umm…you're the one who brought it up in the first place, Tora! I was just curious!" Sokka claimed in his own defense.
"I can honestly say that you're the first person to ever ask me that!" Tora openly confessed. "Okay, if you really want to know, I'll tell you." Tora turned a little bit to face Sokka and took in a deep breath through her nose.
"Let's see…you have a lingering odor of cold crisp air, probably from living in the South Pole most of your life. And I'm picking up the scent of paint from your face. My guess is that you wore war paint on your face quite a few times," Tora revealed. "Us animal benders also use war paint before going into battle."
"Wow…you're good!" Sokka commented. To Sokka's surprise, Tora suddenly grabbed his right hand with both hands.
"And this is your throwing hand," Tora continued. "I can pick up the smell of metal from this hand. That tells me that, even though you have other weapons, your metal boomerang is your preferred weapon of choice."
"Uhh…Tora…" Sokka trailed off a bit nervously as he looked down at his right hand, which was still being grasped gently in Tora's hands.
"Oh, umm…sorry," Tora apologized as she quickly let go of Sokka's hand and turned her head so that he wouldn't see her face turning red.
"Tora! Tora!" a familiar voice shouted as a blur of white ran towards Tora and Sokka.
"Rini, what's wrong?" Tora asked curiously as the rabbit stopped in front of them and quickly took in deep breaths of air.
"The Fire Nation…they're back!" the rabbit gasped.
"What?" Sokka exclaimed as he and Tora stood up.
"It's true! Mai and I saw them! They're on their way here on a smaller ship!" the rabbit continued. "It's too small to carry any rhinos, so they're probably gonna search the island on foot!"
"So, Prince Zuko decided against my warning, huh? Well then, we'll have to take action this time," Tora stated as she stood up. "Rini, you go rejoin Mai and let her know we'll join her shortly. I'll gather the other animal benders and we'll work on a new strategy to scare the Fire Navy off of our island for good, this time."
"Okay, Tora," the rabbit agreed as she hopped back in the direction she came from as fast as she could.
"What about me? What should I do, Tora?" Sokka asked curiously.
"I want you to stay in the village with Aang, Katara, and the other children, Sokka," Tora replied. "So far, the Fire Nation doesn't suspect that the Avatar is on this island. I would prefer to keep it that way. If they see you, they will know the Avatar is here. That will make them even more determined to search the island and find out about us. We have been a closely guarded secret by the Earth Kingdom, and if the Fire Nation finds out about us…"
"It's okay, Tora. I get it," Sokka stated. "You have to do what you have to do to protect your people. I understand what you're going through. When my father and the men of my tribe left two years to aid the Earth Kingdom in this war, I was left in charge of everyone that was left behind."
"I had a feeling about you, Sokka, that a big responsibility fell on your shoulders at an early age," Tora muttered out loud. "We'll have to talk more about this later. We need to go back to the village right away and warn everyone."
"Yeah, of course," Sokka agreed as he and Tora ran back towards the village…
