Chapter 20
Tornado
"It's a pity that you don't have anything that can make you useful, all you have is knowing the future... and reading. Do you regret that choice now?" My heart stopped. My eyes widened in shock and I slowly turned to see a familiar spirit of air standing before me.
"Lung."
The deity of air smirked at me, his robes swirling into a white mist that spread around the clearing.
"It is a hard path you face," he stated, grey eyes shining, "knowing the future, your life will be full of so much pain."
"What do you want Lung?" I snapped. I wasn't in the mood to deal with the manipulative deity.
"I wish to give you a second chance, you don't understand how important bending is and you were trapped between three impossible choices. I don't blame you, but now you can choose what you really want" he paused and gave me a pitying look. It was the sort of look you give to a dying person, or a puppy who someone just kicked.
"I'll give you airbending."
"I thought the deal was a one time thing. Besides don't the other deities need to agree?" I pointed out. Despite the ache in my heart I clung to my logic. Lung snorted and swept up close to me.
"We never truly get along, it always come down a vote over the majority agreeing, well the minority deserves a say as well."
"I think for you to count as a true minority you need more then one person." I didn't flinch or move away, I wasn't going to back down. Lung shrugged in reply, not seeming to care.
"Yes, well, the truth is that my people are a minority, how am I supposed to repopulate an entire nation with one child? One who is destined to marry a waterbender? I need more than one person." I frowned. I may not have known a lot about Legend of Korra but hadn't there been two air benders born from Aang? Besides wasn't there a lot of airbenders later in the series. I couldn't remember.
"Give yourself a generation or two and you'll have a lot more." I stated as I turned away, "you don't need me to be an airbender, it's more trouble then you want." In a rush of air, Lung stood in front of me again.
"I need an Airbender who knows of my existence." He snarled. There was something feral in his eyes. My instincts shouted to run,, to escape. For once I listened and took off running in the opposite direction. Lung appeared in front of me again but I didn't stop. I right through him. For a brief second I blacked out.
I stood on a tall hill, my head lifted high. Pride pulsed through me, giving me strength and power, more than I had ever known. Below me an army of men stood shaking at my feet. I could flick my hand and they would be little more than dust. I smirked, using the sword was more fun, I would be able to feel their death coming.
"To me!" I shouted, my voice amplified so that everyone in the valley heard it ring, my heart raced, "to me! My empire!" Behind me my warriors screamed, already prepared for triumph. Energy and excitement rushed through me as we charged.
Battle was an expression of beauty I had never experienced before. To be living flesh and bone instead of spirit was thrilling and addicting. I never wished to stop breathing. Breath, what gave humans their life and without me, breath and life would cease. I was the sole reason life existed. My people were the only nation who deserved to live.
"Lung, this has gone far enough." I turned, a thrill of excitement coursed through me. The other elementals stood behind me, not one looked happy. Agni looked furious, her hair blazed brilliantly, heat radiated from her form. Tui and La even stopped their eternal love-hate relationship for one to send identical glares at me. I turned slightly. To my left was Prithvi. My brother was glaring at me, but there was also disappointment in his eyes.
"Come brother," he stated, his voice, gravely as a mountain, "you've had your fun, it is time to return to our world." My joy turned to anger as heat rushed over me, which only strengthened my determination. I would never return to the spirit world, never.
"No. Join me," I persuaded, "you do not know what it is like to live. To feel a heart, for food to taste, to breathe or feel the warmth of a fire! It is the most beautiful thing. Compared to the humans our lives are empty husks. I might as well have never felt anything before and you just want me to return to you? Just like that?" Both fear and anger were courting with me. Emotions, to feel emotions was the greatest blessing being human had brought me. Prithvi however looked wary.
"Brother, you do not know what you're saying. You can only be human for so long, once this form is dead that will be the end."
"Not if I become like Ravaa!" I cried excitedly, "Just think spirits and humans living as one!"
"He's gone insane," La muttered, "humans cannot live with spirits inside them." She turned to me, black eyes drawing all light to them, "And Raavaa was different Lung, she had no choice. If it were to happen again she would not have been so foolish." My fear had lost overpowering, infuriating anger was all I had left and I embraced the emotion letting it guide my body, take control of my being.
"I'll show you, I'll show you all!" I turned, to come face to face with a man. He was in his fifties and covered in wrinkles. My anger was still to great to be replaced by fear, even though I knew him. This man was the one whom Raavaa had joined, this man was the one called the avatar.
I gasped and stumbled away as my consciousness split away from Lung, leaving me dizzy and weak. Lung himself didn't look any better. We stared at each other in horror. I couldn't wrap my mind around what I had just seen. I decided that I didn't want to see Lung after he recovered. I ran in the direction of the abbey, my heart pounding.
The doors of the abbey were closed but I could care less at the moment. I pounded the door hard with my hand, not caring about how it smarted. I stopped. Why was I acting like I was a sacred little girl? I shook my head violently to knock some sense into myself.
"Calm down Maddi, you're acting like an idiot." I muttered to myself, breathing in deeply.
"An idiot and a coward." I added as an afterthought. So what if Lung had scared me? There were going to be a lot of scary things on this journey and my knowledge wouldn't cover them all. One day I would be scared but my friends would be depending on me. I needed to be able to do what needed to be done for them, no matter how scared I was.
I took a deep breath and stepped away from the door as it opened.
"Hello?" One of the nuns asked. When she saw me she smiled.
"Ah, you're back, where are your friends?" I didn't even have a chance to answer. As I opened my mouth there was a loud screech behind me and a huge, brown animal bounded over my head. It landed in the courtyard of the nunnery and snarled. My heart froze. On the animal's back was Zuko, Iroh and a girl dressed in dark clothes who had to be June, the shirshu's master.
The nuns went into a panic, running around and screaming. They were ignored, I wasn't. Zuko's yellow eyes lit upon me and a triumphant expression crossed his face. I groaned, I finally understood why the Chinese called it a curse to live in interesting times.
Shirshu venom was not pleasant, nor relaxing, no matter what people said. My entire body felt like it had been put under the same numbing agent dentists used so I felt fat and tingly. It wasn't a pleasant feeling and I never wanted to experience it again. Upon seeing me Zuko had demanded that I tell him where Aang was. I refused and now I was in this position.
"I hate you," I mumbled into Nyla's fur as the giant creature carelessly bounced over a log, jostling and almost knocking me off. I hated feeling useless and this about as useless as a person could feel in my opinion.
"Pala?" Crap, this day was just getting worse by the minute. I groaned against the animal's fur. There was more conversation but I ignored it. My face turned a rich crimson in embarrassment over my position. This was not my day.
I heard Sokka and Katara speaking, both sounding unsure and a little overwhelmed. I couldn't quite make out their words.
"Where's the Avatar?" That was Zuko. Anger leapt through me. I was angry about acting like a coward, I was angry at Zuko. I was angry with my situation. Most of all I was angry with Lung. I couldn't understand what had happened that had caused me to see that vision (which I suspected was some moment in his past) and I didn't understand how a spirit was supposed to have become human. If I could have moved I would have shaken my head in disgust.
"RUN!" I started in shock as Sokka shouted. Nayla spun around so quickly I nearly went flying off. It was only because of a hand that grabbed the back of my shirt that I didn't fall off.
"Are you alright there?" The soft voice of Iroh asked me. I grunted in reply. As angry and confused as I was I just couldn't be angry at Iroh, he was to good of a guy to get mad at.
Sokka and Katara were loaded on beside me and Nyla was given Aang's scent off the scroll. Just like that we were off again.
The nuns scattered like hens at the sight of Nyla. Not that I blamed them, three humans hanging off the back of some animal like rabbits on a hunters stick was guaranteed to be alarming. Nyla moved around in circles, pacing. I didn't blame the creature for being confused, Aang's scent was just circling around and around above it.
It happened suddenly. Nyla reared up, Sokka, Katara and I fell off her back, not that we noticed besides the sight, our bodies were completely numb. I was aware of nuns dragging the water tribe siblings and I out of the way to lean against a wall. I grimaced. I hated being useless. Watching Zuko fighting Aang was antagonizing. I wanted to leap to Aang's aid but for now there was only one thing I could do. When I had first been struck I hadn't been able to even move my tongue. After five minutes I could. Fifteen minutes later I could speak freely.
"I'm sorry."
"What for?" Sokka asked. I could see his face muscles twitching as he tried to fight off the venom.
"For not telling you guys about your dad and Bato. Its just..." I fell silent. I knew why I had kept quiet but I no longer knew if I had made the right choice.
"I can't decide what I can tell you and what I can't. I'm constantly second-guessing myself and I don't know if anything I say will make a big difference. And if it does, then what? I might ruin your lives because I made a mistake." There was silence from the water tribe siblings. Despite the loud explosions and activity going on around us the lack of sound was oppressing.
"Even if that did happen, we wouldn't blame you," Sokka stated after a moment of thought, "even if we all died."
"Don't say that!" Katara and I exclaimed in tandem. Katara with a slight lisp from the remainder of the venom in her body. Sokka gave a wry smile.
"Fine, despite the danger that we are in and how we are the main targets of the fire nation we're going to be just fine and nothing bad will happen to us."
"Yes." I agreed emphatically, before the sarcasm clued in. I felt a blush hit my face like a slap as Katara and Sokka both started at me.
"Sorry," I muttered.
"Then why are you here?" Katara asked. I looked at her in surprise.
"What do you mean?"
"If we are fine by the end of this journey and nothing bad happens, why are you here? Why do you want to change things?"
"Because... because everything isn't all fine and dandy." I admitted, "Yes they could have been a lot worse but in the end everything turns out okay. I can only think of one character we know who dies and he's minor. I... I just wanted to make things easier on you guys. There is a lot that was very hard, like people who appeared to die but didn't, or mistakes that caused someone to be hurt, or friends who are kidnapped for a short time. I just" I took a deep breath, "I just want you to have a better life, if I can help make your life better than I'll do it. The problem is, I don't know what choices will make your lives better or worse and it scares me that I have all this power in my hands." The Superior approached quickly and we fell silent. In seconds she held a sharp smelling perfume under our noses. My body was suddenly all pins and needles as it slowly woke. Sokka stretched.
"We'll talk later," he assured me before turning to Superior.
"That thing sees with its nose, lets give it something to see." Everyone understood what Sokka was suggesting. I didn't even pause, running over and grabbing one of the heavy barrels. Within seconds the nuns pushed over three barrels. I was struggling with the one I had. I hadn't considered just how heavy these things would be. To my surprise Katara came over and helped me teeter the metal container onto its edge. The perfume spilled out, soaking the paving stones. Katara began bending. A wave of perfume was sent everywhere, five or six different scents mixed together into an overwhelming wave of scent. Even I found it blinding as Katara washed the wave of scents over the poor animal and everyone else in the courtyard. The Shirshu went wild, it screamed in pain as it lost its sight and went on a rampage, hitting several nuns with its tongue along with Zuko and June before it scrabbled over the walls to escape. I would have felt bad for Nayla if I wasn't still angry about being attacked.
Sokka strode back to us with the biggest grin on his face. I chuckled but held myself back. Aang rushed over to Katara's side and quickly apologized to her before turning to Sokka and then to me.
"Maddi, I'm sorry. I was scared and confused and I took it out on you." I shook my head.
"I don't blame you, knowing someone else knows your future isn't as nice as Aunt Wu portrayed," I admitted, remembering our time among the fortuneteller. I took a deep breath before I added.
"Besides I think it's time that we decide together on what I should act one and what I shouldn't." I closed my eyes and shifted uncomfortably, "we need to trust each other inexplicably." My friends paused a moment to think it over before nodding.
"I agree, how about we all talk it over on Appa later? Okay?" Sokka suggested. I smiled. I could share my burden with my friends and I could trust them. No one was perfect and Aang's anger was understood, what mattered the most was that we would do anything for each other.
A/N: I am so sorry for this late update. I am applying for scholarships and colleges so my life is haywire. Add to that a Halloween party with my friends and then work the next day at eight and you get to see what I've been going through. Anyway I got my friend to draw Maddi. However she's a bit picky and decided that she was going to draw Maddi not in ATLA style but My Little Pet Shop Style which is similar to School Time Shipping. Still, I'll put the link up when she posts it. It may not be what some of you wanted but I'm happy that she drew her, even if it wasn't exactly what I wanted. Artists tend to take creative licence. Anyway once again I am so sorry, my updates are going to be crazy. Hopefully I can update more consistently later. I want to address two other things as well. I'm creating a TMNT fanfition which the name is still being worked on, currently I'm calling it Girl in the Sewer so for you who like TMNT (2003, not 2012) you can check that out once I post it. Once again the I have no idea when that's going to come out. Number 2 I'm writing my own story not based on anyone else's. I would love to be able to publish it by the time I'm out of college although that's probably unrealistic. Anyway enough rambling from me. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and that you will continue to do so as it goes on.
Princess Kassie Out.
