Hey guys! So I decided to post my writing schedule up on my profile for you guys to check out, along with some notes about some things which can help with some questions you might possibly have. Also, I'm going to be heading into surgery soon which so please be patient with me as I heal. As always I don't own anything, Avatar belongs to Nick. Enjoy!
The Waterbending Scroll
Celina was in the driver's seat on top of Appa, flying through a cloudy sky, while Aang continuously paced back and forth in the saddle. He had been like that ever since they left the Fire Nation and Roku's island. Celina couldn't blame him. He did kinda have the world on his shoulders and only a small time to try and save it. The least she could do was take control of the reigns while he had a little freakout.
"Would you sit down? If we hit a bump you'll go flying off!" Sokka tried to joke with him. "What's bugging you anyway?"
"It's what Avatar Roku said. I'm supposed to master all four elements before that comet arrives," Aang explained.
"Well, let's see, you've pretty much mastered airbending and that only took you 112 years. I'm sure you can master three more elements by next summer," Sokka told him.
"You're not helping," Celina murmured to her brother.
"I haven't even started waterbending and we're still weeks away from the North Pole! What am I gonna do!?" Aang freaked out. Katara grabbed hold of Aang and pulled him into a hug, trying to comfort him.
"Calm down. It's going to be okay," she said to him.
"If you want, I can try and teach you some of the stuff I know," Celina offered. "That counts for you too Katara."
"You'd do that?" Aang asked.
"Of course, we'll just need to find a good source of water first," Celina told them, causing Aang and Katara to look over the edge of the saddle, searching for a good spot.
"Maybe we can find a puddle for you to splash in," Sokka commented.
o
They ended up finding a great place to practice waterbending. Celina landed Appa next to a huge waterfall that led into a river. The group stood on the bank of the river, looking over where they landed. Celina, Katara, and Aang were amazed by the waterfall while Sokka looked a bit sour, remembering his experiences with Katara's waterbending back home in the South Pole.
"Nice puddle," he deadpanned.
Celina couldn't help but laugh as Appa flew himself over the water before dropping himself into the basin of the waterfall. The sky bison happy relaxed in the water. Aang was about to strip off his clothes and join Appa for a fun swim when Katara stopped him.
"Remember the reason we're here," she said to him.
"Oh right, time to practice waterbending," Aang blushed slightly embarrassed before fixing his clothes.
"Great. So what am I supposed to do?" Sokka asked as Celina, Katara and Aang got ready to practice.
"You could… clean the gunk out of Appa's toes," Aang suggested. He picked up a leafy branch and held it out to Sokka.
"So while you guys are playing in the water, I'm supposed to be hard a work picking the mud out of a giant bison's feet?" Sokka asked unimpressed.
"Mud and bugs!" Aang smiled.
Sokka stared at the branch for a second before taking it from Aang. "Okay," he agreed and then stalked off to go clean out Appa's toes.
"Alright, now we can start the lesson," Celina declared causing large smiled to spread across Aang and Katara's faces. "The first thing I like to do is pushing and pulling the water. It's a nice warm up along with being pretty calming." She could see the bit of disappointment on their faces but was happy that Katara and Aang didn't complain. Taking a nice calming breath Celina got into position and began to bob gracefully back and forth like she had in the past. The water obediently moved back and forth.
"I've done this before. The key is getting the wrist movement right," Katara bragged a bit and then copied her sister's movements. The water in front of her moved like it moved in front of Celina. After studying the movement for a second Aang began.
"Like this?" Aang asked Celina, hoping that he was right.
"That's good, Aang," Celina smiled.
"Hey, I'm bending it already!" Aang exclaimed excited. Celina beamed proudly at Aang. She was afraid that she wouldn't be able to teach Aang or Katara waterbending, but with Aang's advancement so quickly that fear died. Sure, she chalked his quick learning to being the Avatar but she was still proud of him. Katara, however, looked taken aback a bit.
"Wow, I can't believe you got that so quickly. It took me two months to learn that move," Katara said.
"So what's next?" Aang asked excited.
Celina couldn't help but giggle at the enthusiasm in his voice. "The next thing is simply learning how to stream the water around," she answered. Celina turned her attention back to the river. Moving her hand Celina drew a stream of water out of the river and began to play with it, manipulating it around her body and looping it into different shapes.
Once again Katara was confident in this move. "I know this one too!" she stated before drawing the water the water and looping it around less gracefully than her sister had. "It's harder than it looks so don't be disappointed if…"
She was cut off however when she looked over to see that Aang had already mastered the move. He played with the water like Celina, adding more moves and flourishes in out of excitement. It continued on for a few minutes before Celina returned her water to the river, signaling that that lesson had ended. Katara and Aang followed after.
"Nice work, Aang," Celina complemented.
"Though the over-the-head flare was unnecessary," Katara muttered.
"Sorry," Aang apologized to Katara before turning back to Celina. "Don't stop now, keep 'em coming!"
"Alright, feel like trying something difficult for beginners?" Celina asked. Aang shook his head excitedly while Katara looked determined. "Okay, so the idea behind this one is to create a big, powerful wave." Celina turned back to the water and raised her hands. A large wave rose up out of the water and she sent it towards the waterfall, causing a nice crash. "It's okay if you can't get a wave that big, just try your best and keep practicing."
Celina watched as Katara tried first. Her sister had a look of extreme concentration on her face as she tried her best to raise some water. Katara managed to raise a blob of water out of the river and tried to turn it into a small wave but it ended up falling back into the river. Aang then got ready. He raised his hands and a huge wall of water shot up into the air. The three watched as the wave headed straight towards Sokka which ended up hitting him and Appa.
"Looks like I got the hang of it! What else you got?" Aang asked.
"That's enough practice for today," Celina said, seeing that her sister was getting annoyed. She knew better than to fuel that fire, but Katara would have to get over Aang advancing in waterbending better than she could. Sokka marched up to the three of them, dripping wet and angry.
"Aang! You just practiced our supplies down the river!" Sokka scolded. Everyone looked over to see their supplies floating down the river. Celina winced, seeing that they were too far gone for her to try and bend them back. Looks like they had to go shopping again.
"Sorry," Aang sheepishly apologized. "I'm sure we can find somewhere to replace all this stuff."
"Ugh, it was hard enough when you were just an airbender," Sokka groaned.
o
The group managed to find a marketplace in a port village where they could restock. They had managed to get some stuff, but not as much to Celina's liking. Walking out of a shop after getting some more food she headed over to her siblings and Aang who were waiting for her.
"Okay, we got exactly three copper pieces left," she informed them.
"Uhh, make that two copper pieces. I couldn't say no to this whistle," Aang admitted pulled out a white whistle in the shape of a bison. He took a deep breath and blew into it but no sound came out except the rushing of air.
"And this is why I don't trust you guys with the money," Celina facepalmed. Aang guilty apologized and the group continued down the port. Near one of the larger ships on the dock was a man soliciting customers.
"Earth Nation! Fire Nation! Water Nation! So long as bargains are your inclination, you're welcome here! Don't be shy, come on by!" he shouted. Celina wanted to keep walking but the man spotted them and ran up. "Oh! You there! I can see by your clothing that you're world traveling types. Perhaps I can interest you in some exotic curios?"
"Sure! What are curios?" Aang asked which made the man pause for a second.
"I'm not entirely sure, but we got'em!" he answered and then lead them into the large ship. Sokka, Katara, and Aang took instantly to looking around at the ship's wares while Celina stuck towards the entrance. They certainly had a lot of things but she couldn't shake the creepy feeling that hung in the air. That feeling increased when a man entered from a dark doorway with an iguana parrot perched on his shoulder. He was clearly the man in charge of everything on the ship.
"I've never seen such a fine specimen of lemur. That beast would fetch me a hefty sum if you'd be interested in bartering," the man said referring to Momo. His iguana parrot shrieked several times causing Momo to run to Celina, climbing up into her arms for protection.
"Momo's not for sale," Aang stated defensively. Celina scratched behind the creature's ear while she quietly hummed, trying to calm him down.
A gasp from Katara quickly brought Celina's attention to her sister who was holding a scroll. "Look at this! It's a waterbending scroll. Check out these crazy moves!" Katara gushed. Celina wandered over to see what her sister was talking about. The waterbending moves displayed in the scroll were things that she'd already figured out.
"Where did you get a waterbending scroll?" Aang questioned.
"Let's just say I got it up north at a most reasonable price. Free!" the man said, grabbing the scroll and placing it back amongst the other scrolls.
"Wait a minute. Sea-loving traders with suspiciously acquired merchandise and pet reptile birds. You guys are pirates!" Sokka figured out.
"We prefer to think of ourselves as high-risk traders," the probable Pirate Captain told him.
"So how much for the, uh, 'traded' scroll?" Katara asked, eyeing the waterbending scroll hungrily.
"I've already got a buyer, a nobleman in the Earth Kingdom. Unless, of course, you kids have 200 gold pieces on ya right now," he told her.
"Just let it go, Katara. We don't need it," Celina said.
"But maybe it can help me and Aang with learning waterbending. You're a great teacher, sis, but I think that Aang really needs it," Katara tried to argue with her. Celina quickly saw past the whole it's for Aang act. Katara just wanted the scroll for herself.
"I know how to deal with these guys, Katara, pirates love to haggle," Aang told Katara. Taking his offer Katara reached into Celina's pocket and snatched their last remaining copper pieces.
"Katara!" Celina protested but she'd already handed the money over to Aang who went off to try and haggle. Celina groaned, knowing that this wasn't going to go well.
"What say you to the price of one copper piece!" Aang asked putting on a pirate accent.
The Captain laughed at the ridiculous offer. "Hahaha! The price is 200 gold pieces. I don't haggle on items this rare."
"Okay, two copper pieces!" Aang tried again.
"It's not as amusing the second time, boy," the Captain glared.
Celina had had enough and stormed up to Aang, snatching the copper pieces back. "That's enough. We don't need the scroll so just drop it. Now come on, let's get out of here," Celina scolded both Aang and Katara. As she led the group out of the ship she couldn't help but notice that Katara was shifting a bit.
"Come one, Celina, I was just starting to browse through their boomerang collection," Sokka whined.
"I don't know guys. I think Celina was right about leaving. That place was starting to creep me out," Katara defended, which caused Celina to be suspicious. She was about to question her sister on the fast change of mind when the pirate who was soliciting them ran out across the deck.
"Hey you, get back here!" he demanded. Following him were several other pirates, all armed and angry, who began to chase the gang. Celina cursed under her breath before they took off running. The ran around the marker turning this way and that trying to avoid the pirates. Celina and Katara did their best to slow the pirates down by waterbending ice onto the ground. Aang even helped by airbending a cart of cabbages at the pursuing pirates. Celina heard the salesman cry out over his lost cabbages. The chase continued until the pirates lead them to a dead end.
"Now, who's gets to take the steel of my blade first?" the pirate barker asked sinisterly.
"No thanks!" Aang replied and then airbended the pirates down. Taking action Celina gathered as much water as she could from around them and froze the pirates to the ground. The ice was thin and she knew that they didn't have much time before the pirates broke out. So she grabbed her siblings and Aang and took off. The gang didn't stop running until they made it back to their campsite next to the waterfall.
"I used to kinda look up to pirates, but those guys are terrible," Aang admitted a bit out of breath.
"I know, that's why I took this," Katara smiled, pulling out the waterbending scroll from her pocket. "Isn't it great?"
"No wonder they were trying to hack us up. You stole their waterbending scroll," Sokka accused.
"I prefer to think of it as high-risk trading," Katara said, repeating the Captain's words. "Sokka, where do you think they got it? They stole it from a waterbender."
"It doesn't matter. You put all of us in danger when we're already on the run from the Fire Nation. All because you just needed to have a scroll of waterbending moves I could have taught you," Celina spoke up.
"But these are real waterbending scrolls, not just some moves you came up with when you were practicing back in the South Pole. You know how crucial it is for Aang to learn waterbending," Katara argued with her.
"I know how important it is. But I also know that's not why you took it," Celina told her. The two of them never really got into many arguments. Celina knew how her sister could get and didn't want to have Katara against her; Celina had plenty of people against her at the South Pole. But what Katara did was extremely selfish and she needed to call her sister out on it. Especially since that selfish mistake put more enemies on their tail.
"What's done is done. We have it. We might as well learn from it," Aang interrupted, trying to break up the fight. Celina saw the smile spread across Katara's face now that she had someone on her side and eagerly took the scroll over to the water.
"I just want to try this one move first and then it's all yours," Katara said. She handed it to Aang as she got into position. "'The single water whip'. Looks doable." Everyone watched as she raised a stream of water out of the river and tried to whip it around, only to hit herself in the forehead. Sokka burst into laughter.
"What's so funny?" Katara asked peeved.
"I'm sorry but you deserve that," Sokka said to her before turning to Aang. "You've been duped. She's only interested in teaching herself."
"Aang will get his turn once I figure out the water whip!" Katara shouted.
"You mean like this?" Celina suggested and then performed the move flawlessly without even a glance at the scroll. Aang was amazed while Katara looked even more pissed off. "It's all about shifting your weight through the stances. Your movements have to be as fluid as the water that you're trying to manipulate."
"Will you PLEASE just shut your mouth! Believe it or not, you're not that great of a teacher! So why don't you leave us alone so that we can finally learn something!" Katara shouted angrily at her sister.
"Katara!" Sokka scolded.
"What?" Katara asked before turned and looking at Celina. Katara was immediately ashamed when she saw Celina trying to keep herself together. Both her hands curled into fists as Celina tried to not cry.
"Omigosh, Celina, I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over me," Katara apologized.
Celina held her hand up, stopping her from saying anything else. "Just… just leave it alone, Katara. Leave it alone," Celina said and then walked over to Appa, just wanting to be alone for a while. The sky bison seeing his friend upset nuzzled his face into her side and let out a comforting rumble. Momo ran over and climbed up onto her shoulder, joining in on the cuddle fest Celina giggled as a tear or two accidentally leaked out.
o
Celina avoided Katara for the rest of the day and barely said a word to her when they did have to interact. When night fell Celina was having trouble falling asleep, so when Katara went and removed the waterbending scroll from Aang's bag she was the only one to notice. Celina waited until Katara was a good distance ahead before she decided to follow after her sister above in the trees. Her sister stopped by the river and began practicing. Celina sat up in the tree and watched as Katara continued to struggle to get the move, mainly because she was frustrated to begin with.
"Shoot! Come on water, work with me here! Okay, Katara, shift your weight through the stances… ugh!" Katara talked to herself frustrated. Celina was beginning to feel sorry for Katara seeing her struggle like that. She'd have to talk to her about strengthening her waterbending later. Celina's attention was drawn somewhere else when she heard the grinding of metal. She looked over and saw Zuko and a bunch of pirates had arrived on the beach.
"No, let go of me!" Katara shouted. Celina looked down and saw that her sister was being attacked by a pirate before successfully water whipping him off her. Unfortunately for Katara, she ran right into Zuko who held her wrists tight in his hands.
"I'll save you from the pirates," he said to her.
Celina just sat up in the tree and watched as Katara was tied up to a tree. There were too many people down there for her to successfully take out and save her sister. What she needed to do was just sit and wait for and Aang and Sokka to arrive to take them down. At least she'd have the element of surprise.
"Tell me where he is and I won't hurt you or your brother," Zuko threatened.
"Go jump in the river," Katara snapped back.
"Try to understand, I need to capture him in order to restore something I've lost. My honor. Perhaps in exchange, I can restore something you lost," Zuko said trying to be reasonable before pulling out Katara's necklace. Celina's breath hitched, seeing the blue silk ribbon and stone.
"My mother's necklace! How did you get that?" Katara exclaimed.
"I didn't steal it if that's what you're wondering. Tell me where he is," Zuko replied.
"No!" Katara responded.
"Enough of this necklace garbage. You promised the scroll!" the Pirate Captain walked forward angry.
Zuko produced the scroll and lit a flame in his hand beneath it, causing the pirates to gasp and back up. "I wonder how much money this is worth? A lot apparently. Now you help me find what I want, you'll get this back and everyone goes home happy. Search the woods for the boy and meet back here," Zuko instructed which the pirates sullenly agreed, heading into the woods.
"Spirits," Celina cursed under her breath, hoping that Aang and Sokka wouldn't get caught.
Her hopes were crushed almost a half hour later when the pirates returned with both Aang and Sokka, their hands tied up. The pirates stood opposite of Zuko and his man, closer towards the water. Celina took note of that for when she revealed herself and would go to attack.
"Nice work," Zuko complemented them.
"Aang, this is all my fault," Katara admitted.
"No, Katara it isn't," Aang tried to make her feel better.
"Yeah, it kind of is," Iroh said. Celina almost wanted to scold herself for agreeing with Zuko's uncle, but he was right and probably the nicest out of all the Fire Nation people that she's encountered.
"Where's our sister?" Sokka demanded, causing looks of confusion to cross the pirates and the Fire Nation's faces. Everyone looked over at the tied up Katara then back at him.
"What are you talking about? She's right there," Zuko pointed out.
"Actually now that I think about it, we are missing the other girl," Iroh figured out. Celina took this as the best time to reveal herself.
"Hiya!" she greeted from up in the tree. Everyone looked up, surprised to find her sitting in a tree. "You know you should really look up. Now, are you guys really planning on trading the Avatar for a silly little piece of paper?"
"How did you know about that?" Zuko demanded to know.
"I've been up in this tree since before you got here," Celina admitted.
"Wow… she's good," Iroh confessed.
"Wait, your friend is the Avatar?" the Pirate Captain asked looking over at Aang.
"Sure is," Sokka joined in, seeing where his sister was going. "And I bet he'll fetch a lot more on the black market then that fancy scroll."
"Shut your mouth, you Water Tribe peasants!" Zuko shouted.
"Keep the scroll! We can buy a hundred with the reward we will get for the kid," the Pirate Captain told him. The pirates began to walk away with them but Zuko and his guards unleashed a torrent of flames. An all-out fight broke out between the pirates and Zuko and his men. Celina dropped from the tree and crept over to Katara. Bending a small amount of water she used it to slice the rope that had Katara bound to the tree.
Katara turned around and smiled widely at her sister, enveloping her in a hug. "Celina! Thank you so much. I… I'm sorry for what I've said to you. You're an amazing waterbender," Katara apologized.
"Well, I had years to practice. It's not like I got the moves down all in one day," Celina replied.
"Maybe… maybe I can learn more. If you'd teach me?" Katara said. The fight going on behind them got louder, causing the girls to remember where they were.
"How about we get out of here and then focus on lessons," Celina suggested. Katara nodded and the sisters ran towards the boat that they saw the pirates arrive on. The pirates certainly beached the boat which was a problem. As Celina was figuring out what to do Aang and Sokka ran up to them.
"Katara! Celina! You're okay!" Aang smiled, slightly shouting over the noise of the fighting going on several feet away.
"We need to get this boat back into the water so that we can get out of here!" Katara told them.
"We need a team of rhinos to budge this ship," Sokka noted.
"Or, a couple waterbenders," Celina suggested looking at both Aang and Katara who smiled in response. The three of them got into position and pushed and pulled the river, slowing raising the water level until the ship began to float. "Everybody in!"
The gang quickly boarded the boat and sailed off away from the fighting pirates and Fire Nation soldiers. Sokka took control of the wheel as he steered them away. Unfortunately, they didn't get far before they saw the pirates on their tail with Zuko's boat.
"Sokka! Can't you make it go any faster?" Aang called out to him.
"I don't know how. This thing wasn't made by the Water Tribe," Sokka responded. Celina and Aang stood ready to fight as pirates began to board the ship. Both her and Aang bended a wave to wash several of the pirates overboard while Katara gained the confidence and water whipped another one off the boat.
"You're getting better," Celina smiled proudly.
"I couldn't have done it without your help!" Katara replied happily. That happiness ended when they noticed that the boat was heading straight towards a waterfall. Thinking fast Aang pulled out the whistle that he bought earlier and blew it for nothing to happen.
"Have you lost your mind? This is no time for flute practice!" Sokka yelled at him. Celina, Katara, and Aang looked over the railing that the approaching waterfall.
"We can stop the boat! We can push and pull the water!" Katara said to them. Aang nodded while Celina said she'd let them handle it while she stayed on defense for any other pirates that boarded them. Aang and Katara successfully bended the water causing the ship to turn a 90 degree angle at the lip of the waterfall. "It's working! It's slowing down!"
"That's great but we kinda have another problem," Celina told them. The other ship rammed into them, pushing their boat over the edge of the falls. Celina let out a scream as the four of them began to fall. She shed some tears of relief however when Appa swooped in and caught the four of them in his saddle, flying off just before the boat hit him.
"I never thought I'd say it but thank you for buying that bison whistle," Celina said to Aang, giving him a hug.
"Yeah, we owe ya one," Sokka added. Appa grunted at them for their thanks and flew off into the horizon.
"Aang, I already apologized to Celina but you deserve one as well. You were just so good at waterbending without really trying. I got so competitive that I put us all in danger. I'm sorry," Katara apologized to him.
"That's okay, Katara," Aang accepted.
"Besides, who needs that stupid scroll anyway when we have a great teacher like Celina," Katara said and then slung an arm around her sister.
"Aw, guys," Celina blushed. Katara and Aang enveloped her in a full on hug which she happily embraced. With Katara and Aang distracted Sokka showed her a glimpse of the waterbending scroll that was in his bag and held a finger up to her mouth, signaling for her to not tell them. Celina nodded. The moment was perfect already; she didn't need to ruin it by telling them that they had the scroll still. Besides, that just might encourage her sister to steal from pirates again and they didn't need any more of that.
Thanks for reading. Be sure to leave me a review and a crazy "So Tell Me About Yourself" answer.
"So Tell Me About Yourself" is an inside joke between me and my friends which started from my one friend's hatred for the typical getting-to-know-you question "So tell me about yourself". She, being so annoyed with the phrase, gave a silly answer that she murdered people in their sleep. When she brought it back to me and my other friend we both gave a silly answer. That is where the idea for my account name came from.
