So I started drawing out character designs. If you guys want to check out what Celina looks like and what she wears then head over to my profile, I have links to them there. Anyway, I don't own anything, Avatar the Last Airbender belongs to Nick. Enjoy!
The Deserter
The gang stood in front of a circular notice board, inspecting all the posters on it. It was Katara's idea, hoping that they could find out some information on a village or something. Especially since Sokka had pretty much depleted their food supply.
"This should give us a good idea of what's around here," Katara said to herself.
"See if you can find a menu, I'm starving," Sokka complained. Aang walked up to the girls to search the board himself. He pointed out a colorful flyer.
"I bet we'll find something to eat here! The Fire Days Festival," Aang said and then began to read the flyer out loud. "Fire Nation cultural exhibits, jugglers, benders, magicians. This'd be a great place for me to study some real firebenders!"
"You might want to rethink that. Look at this," Sokka called out concerned. Celina, Katara, and Aang walked over to where Sokka was on the other side of the notice board. This side happened to be filled with all sorts of wanted posters and it was clear seeing a familiar blue arrow what he was concerned about.
"Hey, a poster of me!" Aang smiled.
"A wanted poster. This is bad," Celina told him. She ripped the poster off the board and then handed it to Aang.
Katara peered at it. "I think we better keep moving," Katara said.
"I have to learn firebending at some point, and this could be my only chance to watch a master up close," Aang whined.
"I guess we could check it out," Katara submitted.
"What!? You want to walk into a Fire Nation town where they're all fired up with all their, you know, fire?" Sokka exclaimed, astonished by their decision.
"Yeah, I'm not so sure about this guys," Celina said, agreed with her brother.
"We'll wear disguises and if it looks like trouble, we'll leave," Katara explained and then walked over to Appa with Aang.
"Yeah, because we always leave before we get into trouble," Sokka replied sarcastically before walking over to them.
Celina went to join them as well but a wanted poster caught her attention. It was one of the mystery man she met in the forest back when Sokka and Katara were sick. Apparently, he was called the Blue Spirit. She reached up and pulled the poster down before stuffing it into her pocket. He helped free Aang from Zhao so this Blue Spirit was a good guy in her book, she might as well help him out by taking down his wanted poster.
o
The gang got into their disguises; Celina, Sokka, and Katara putting on cloaks while Aang merely pulled the back of his shirt over his head. It took Celina a bit not to facepalm seeing Aang's "disguise". Sokka even made a sarcastic comment about Aang was "a whole different person". But despite the bad feeling in Celina and Sokka's gut, the gang made their way to the Fire Nation town. Once they got there they realized the major flaw in their disguises as people walked around wearing masks or in costume.
"I think we need some new disguises," Katara stated.
"Where are we gonna get masks like that?" Sokka asked skeptical and annoyed.
"Get your genuine Fire Festival masks here!" a merchant shouted from behind them. The gang turned around and saw a cart full of different masks.
"That was easy," Celina muttered and then ran over to the cart. Celina and Katara were quick to find feminine masks for themselves before turning to Sokka and Aang who were browsing through the selections. When she saw Sokka reaching for a mask with a large smile and Aang reached for a mask with a large frown Celina swatted their hands away and then handed the boy the opposite masks they were reaching for. They put them on, Aang's smile being hidden by an exaggerated on while Sokka's frown was hidden by a scowl. "That's much better."
With their masks on the gang made their way through the festival, checking out the sights along the way. "Hey, there's some food," Aang pointed out. Sokka instantly ran ahead to the merchant.
"What do you have?" he asked.
"Flaming fire flakes! Best in town," the merchant answered, showing him the small bag of flakes.
"I'll take 'em!" Sokka smiled and grabbed the bag from the merchant's hands. Sokka began to stuff them into his mouth but then started screaming and blowing steam from his mouth. "Aaahhh! Hot! Hot!"
"Flaming fire flakes hot? What do you know?" Celina sassed and then tossed some flakes into her mouth. She had to admit that they were spicy but it wasn't as bad as Sokka was making them out to be.
"How are you able to eat those?" Sokka asked, fanning his tongue.
"What can I say? I can handle the heat," Celina shrugged and continued snacking on the fire flakes.
"Hey, look at this," Aang piped in, pointing at a puppet show.
The audience mainly consisted of young children but Aang dragged the others towards the show. The puppet stage's curtains opened and a puppet of the Fire Lord appeared. The kids cheered.
"Don't worry loyal citizens! No one can surprise the Fire Lord!" the puppet said. Behind the puppet Fire Lord, an earthbending puppet showed up with a rock. Before the earthbending puppet had time to through the rock the Fire Lord puppet turned around and torched the earthbender. The children cheered while it made the gang uneasy.
They moved on towards another stage that held a single performer. The performer was a firebender who was manipulating fire for the crowd. He was currently doing a juggling trick which he ended by extinguishing the fire. In doing this he produced a flock of small white birds that flew off the stage and above the crowd. It was obvious to Celina that this guy was simply a magician.
"I gotta learn that trick!" Aang said excited.
"Thank you! For my next trick, I need a volunteer from the audience!" the magician asked.
"Oh! Oh! Me! Me!" Aang volunteered, waving his hand about. Sokka grabbed Aang's arm and yanked it down.
"What do you think you're doing?" Sokka whispered angry.
"I want to get a closer look," Aang answered.
"Is better that we don't attract any attention to ourselves," Katara told him.
"Besides, he's just a magician. Not like you'd learn any real firebending from him," Celina pointed out.
"How about you, miss?" the magician asked pointing to Celina.
"Uh… alright," Celina submitted a bit nervous.
"Awww! That could've been me," Aang whined.
"What are you doing?" Sokka whispered, catching her arm before she got up onto the stage.
"It would only look more suspicious if I didn't agree to the trick. Besides, even if I did get unmasked I look more Fire Nation than the rest of you," Celina whispered back before stepping up onto the stage next to the magician. The audience applauded and the magician ushered her over to a chair, seating her there.
"This next trick is called 'Taming the Dragon'. You will be my captured princess!" he informed the crowd. The magician pulled out a rope and tied Celina up to the chair. He began to firebend a huge comet from the top of pillars set on the stage. The magician looped the fire around Celina, controlled by a flame rope. "Don't worry, young maiden! I will tame this fiery beast!" He continued to play with the fire a bit more before going into the next bit. "It's too strong, I can't hold it!"
Celina tensed. She knew that this was just a trick and that the magician had everything under control, that the fire breaking free was all part of the act. But she really hoped that the others knew that. Celina noticed that Sokka was trying to talk Aang out of something and she got a bad feeling.
"The rope, it's breaking!" the magician shouted. The rope indeed broke and the comet of fire charged at Celina. She bit her lip, trying not to cry out in fear.
"It's just a trick. It's just a trick. It's just a trick," Celina repeated over and over again in her head. Aang did not think that this was the case however and airbended himself up onto the stage. He stood in front of Celina and created a whirlwind that dissipated the comment only to reveal a shower of confetti.
"Hey, you trying to upstage me kid?" the magician asked peeved off. The crowd booed at Aang as he tried to amuse them with a little dance. Katara and Sokka got up on stage to untie Celina. When she was free someone from the audience spoke up.
"Hey! That kid's the Avatar!"
Aang froze as they recognized him and three Fire Nation guards began to approach the stage, trying to move through the crowd of people. The gang all removed their masks, seeing how they were found out.
"I think it's time to go," Sokka said.
"Follow me! I can get ya outta here!" a mysterious man in a mask called to them from off stage.
The gang looked at each other and nodded before following the man through a broken wall. He threw a smoke bomb at the approaching guards, obscuring the view. The gang and the man ran through the town square and alley. Guards were quick to find them again, however.
"I'm calling Appa!" Aang told the group.
"I hope he can really hear that bison whistle!" Sokka said after Aang blew into the bison whistle.
"This way!" the man said and then led them into a dead end. "Okay! Not this way!"
They turned to leave but the exit was blocked by guards. The masked man threw another smoke bomb at them and then the group ran into another alley that happened to be another dead end blocked off by a high wall. Luckily for the group, Appa arrived just in time, landing between the kids and the guards. Appa flapped his tail and blew the guards out of the alley. The group got on board Appa and flew up into the air before the guards could get them. As they were flying away the masked man threw a bomb down into a supply of fireworks, blowing them up in an amazing display of colors.
"Nice touch setting off the fireworks," Aang complimented.
"You seem to really know your explosives," Sokka noticed.
"I'm familiar," the man told them as he took off his mask.
"You're a Fire Nation soldier!" Sokka exclaimed surprised.
"Was. My name's Chey," the man clarified.
o
Night had fallen as the gang gathered around a campfire. Celina sat close to Appa, running her fingers through his fur while he dozed. They all paid attention while Chey explained his story.
"I serve a man. More than a man really, he's a myth, but he's real, a living legend, Jeong Jeong the Deserter. He was a Fire Nation general… or wait, was he an admiral?" Chey tried to explain.
"He was a very highly ranked, we get it," Sokka said impatient.
"Yeah! Way up there! But he couldn't take the madness anymore. He's the first person ever to leave the army and live. I'm the second but you don't get a legend for that. That's okay though. Jeong Jeong's a firebending genius. Some say he's mad but he's not. He's enlightened," Chey continued.
"You mean there's a firebender out here who's not with the Fire Lord? We've gotta go see him! He can train me!" Aang exclaimed excited.
"We're not going to find some crazy firebender!" Sokka protested.
"He's not crazy! He's a genius! And he's the perfect person to train the Avatar! That's why I followed you into the festival," Chey told them.
"Look, thanks for the help, but we're leaving for the North Pole in the morning," Sokka decided.
"Sokka, this could be my only chance to meet a firebending master who would actually be willing to teach me," Aang said hurt.
"It can't hurt just to talk to him," Katara added.
"That's what you said about going to the festival! Why doesn't anyone ever listen to me!" Sokka complained and went to leave the campfire, almost to run into a spear that was pointed at him. The everyone gasped when they discovered that they were surrounded, spears pointing at them.
o
The men ended up leading them through the forest. "Jeong Jeong told you not to look for the Avatar!" one of the men growled at Chey.
"You know these guys?" Celina asked.
"Oh yeah! Lin Yi's an old buddy!" Chey answered. "Right Lin Yi?"
"Shut up! Keep moving!" Lin Yi told Chey.
"Some old buddy," Celina muttered to herself as they kept moving. They continued on through the forest and down a hill to where a small shack was located.
"Go on. He sees you only," Lin Yi told Chey.
"Oh that's okay, we can chat later," Chey replied, trying to get out of it
"Is that where Jeong Jeong is?" Aang asked. "I need to talk to him right away." Aang went to move forward but was stopped by Lin Yi's spear.
"No! You wait there," he told Aang and then pushed Chey forward. "Go now!"
"Don't worry! Everything'll be fine. He's a great man, great man!" Chey told the gang and walked towards the shack. He stalled for a minute before walking inside.
Sokka and Katara fell asleep while they waited for Chey to come back from talking with Jeong Jeong. Celina simply went back to working on her Hei Bei carving she started back at the abbey. It was coming along pretty well, soon she'd need to get some ash to define the features. Aang was on the verge of falling asleep when Chey finally came out of the shack. The others woke up as Chey approached them.
"What happened? Can I see Jeong Jeong now?" Aang asked.
"He won't see you," Chey told him glumly. "He's very angry that I brought you here. He wants you to leave immediately."
"Finally! Let's hit the road," Sokka stretched.
"Why won't he see me?" Aang asked.
"He says you're not ready. Says you haven't mastered waterbending and earthbending yet." Chey explained.
"Wait, how does he know that?" Aang questioned.
"He saw the way you walked into camp. He can tell," Chey explained.
"Aang, it's not that big a deal. We can just come back when you're ready," Celina tried to assure him but Aang wasn't having it.
"I'm going in any way!" Aang huffed and marched his way over to Jeong Jeong's hut. He took a deep breath and then walked inside.
"This can't go good," Sokka commented.
Everyone waited while Aang talked to Jeong Jeong. Celina took in a shaking breath as she felt a familiar presence fill the air. Roku was near. It made her just as uneasy as when he made an appearance back in the Fire Nation temple. Once the feeling of his presence disappeared Aang walked out of the shack with a large smile on his face.
"He said he'll teach me!" Aang informed them excited.
"Really?" Katara asked amazed.
"Yeah, he must have changed his mind," Aang said and sat down.
"I think that was more Roku's doing," Celina commented. Everyone turned and looked at her. "I felt his presence when Aang was talking to Jeong Jeong. It was the same feeling when Roku took over your body to destroy the temple back in the Fire Nation. It disappeared before you came out."
"Thanks, Roku," Aang looked up at the sky and smiled. Celina couldn't help but frown, she had a feeling that things wouldn't go well.
o
Celina and Katara stood on the edge of the river practicing their water bending. She had just taught Katara a new move and was working with her to improve it. Sokka sat on a boulder trying to fish while Aang stood on a flat stone in the river, waiting for Jeong Jeong to instruct him on what to do.
"Widen your stance," Jeong Jeong said and Aang complied. "Wider! Bend your knees. Now, concentrate. Good, good." Jeong Jeong began to walk away.
"Wait! What do I do now?" Aang asked.
"Silence! Talking is not concentrating! Look at your friends, are they talking?" Jeong Jeong said pointing at Celina and Katara and then pointed at Sokka. "Even that oaf knows to concentrate on what he's doing!"
"Hey!" Sokka exclaimed offended.
"But what am I concentrating on?" Aang asked.
"Feel the heat of the sun. It is the greatest source of fire. Yet, it is in complete balance with nature," Jeong Jeong explained.
"So when do I get to make some fire?" Aang asked.
"Concentrate!" he shouted at him. Sokka and Celina laughed at Aang but stopped when he looked at them.
"Come on, Katara, once again. Your water was a bit shaky that time. Remember to treat it as an extension of your arm, it will help make your movements smoother," Celina instructed. She showed Katara the move once more and then watched as she tried to replicate it.
Jeong Jeong walked up to Celina curious. "Your instructions are quite good. Are you a master?" he asked her.
"Me a master? No, we're heading to the North Pole for that. I'm just the most practiced with waterbending out of all of us," Celina answered.
"Who taught you?" he asked.
"Myself," she replied.
"Hmm. It would be interesting to see how you fair against a master," Jeong Jeong commented and walked away.
"Um… thank you?" Celina said, not knowing if that was a compliment or not.
o
The day progressed. Jeong Jeong took Aang up to a mountain, they had a fight about training, Aang apologized to Jeong Jeong, and then they were back where they began that morning, training once again. Celina and Katara stood off to the side and watched. Jeong Jeong caught a leaf and burnt a tiny hole in the middle of it.
"Concentrate on the fire. I want you to keep this flame from reaching the edges of the leaf for as long as you can," Jeong Jeong told Aang, handing Aang the leaf. He got into the stance from earlier and concentrated on the leaf in his hands. A guard appeared interrupting the lesson.
"Master! There is trouble," he informed Jeong Jeong.
"What's going on?" Aang asked worried.
"Concentrate on your leaf," Jeong Jeong told him as he left with the guard.
"This is the worst firebending instruction ever. All he does is leave me along for hours to concentrate or breathe," Aang complained.
"I'm sure there's a good reason," Katara said, trying to calm Aang down.
"It's important to have the basics down," Celina told him.
"But I'm ready to do so much more," Aang groaned. Suddenly his face lit up and he widened his stance. Aang concentrated as the leaf began to smoke before bursting into flame.
Aang stood there holding a fireball, ecstatic. "I did it! I made fire!"
"Aang, that's great, but you should take it slow," Katara told him. Aang was annoyed by Katara's comment and the flame became bigger. "Careful!" He was quick to gain control of the flame again and reduce its size.
"Now that's firebending!" Aang smiled
"That's reckless," Celina commented but Aang ignored her. He shot a whip of flame and then began to try and juggle it.
"Aang, you'll hurt yourself!" Katara cried out worried.
"I wonder how that juggler did it?" Aang wondered to himself, continuing to play with his flame. He looped the ball around him, causing it to form a circle around him that pushed out. A lick of flame shot towards Katara who raised her hands to try and protect her face. She let out a cry as it burnt her hands.
"Katara!" Celina shouted. She was quick to rush over to her sister, taking her in her arms. Katara held her hands close to her as tears of pain fell down her face.
"Katara, I'm so sorry!" Aang apologized.
The cries brought the attention of Sokka who came rushing over to everyone. "Katara what's wrong?" he asked before turning to Aang angry. "What did you do?"
"It… it was an accident! I was… Katara, I'm so…" Aang tried to explain and tried to apologize again. Sokka cut him off however as he tackled the airbender to the ground when he went to reach for Katara.
"I told you we shouldn't mess around with this! Look what you did! You burned my sister!" Sokka shouted at Aang.
Celina noticed that the yelling was only upsetting Katara more and lead her away. "Come on, Katara, let's go heal those burns," Celina said gently and lead her down the river where they could be alone.
Once they got a certain distance away Celina brought Katara down on the edge of the river. "Put your hands in the water, Katara. It will help," Celina instructed. Katara did as she said as the young girl continued to cry. She winced at first but then relaxed as she felt some relief. Celina could help but smile when she noticed a familiar blue glow appear around Katara's hands. Katara's eyes widened in surprise when the glowing stopped and she pulled out her hands to discover that her burns were healed. "I was wondering if you'd be able to heal when I found out that I could."
"The great benders of the Water Tribe sometimes have healing abilities." The girls jumped and turned to see the Jeong Jeong had approached them. "I've always wished I were blessed like you… free from this burning curse."
"But you're a great master. You have powers I'll never know," Katara replied confused.
"Water brings healing and life. But fire brings only destruction and pain. It forces those of us burdened with its care to walk a razor's edge between humanity and savagery. Eventually, we are torn apart," Jeong Jeong explained.
The conversation was interrupted when the water in front of them was blasted with gouts of flames. Jeong Jeong and Celina were quick to get into a defensive stance in front of Katara. Jeong Jeong used his firebending to break the flames while Celina bended a wall of water to stop a second wave that was sent at them. They looked up to see Zhao standing on a riverboat.
"You two go get your friends and flee! Do not come back here or you will all be destroyed. Hurry!" Jeong Jeong told them. Celina grabbed hold of Katara's arm and dragged her away to go find Sokka and Aang. There was no way that she wanted to fight Zhao. They ran back to where they set up camp and saw Sokka preparing Appa to leave. He was surprised to see his sisters.
"Katara! Are you all right?" he asked, still worried about her burns.
"I'm fine, we've got to get out of here. Where's Aang?" she replied. Sokka pointed down in the direction of Jeong Jeong's hut and Katara took off to go get him.
"Celina, what's going on?" Sokka asked confused.
"Zhao's here and I'm pretty sure that he and his men captured Jeong Jeong. He told us to get out of here before he got captured," Celina explained.
"Well then let's go," Sokka said and tossed the remained bag up into Appa's saddle. He was climbing up into the saddle when Katara came running back to them without Aang.
"What's going on? Where's Aang?" Celina asked her sister.
"He went to go help Jeong Jeong," Katara told them.
"That kid just loves danger," Sokka groaned. "Come one, we gotta go get him."
"I call driving!" Celina shouted and climbed up into the driver's position on Appa.
"Why do you get to drive?" Sokka whined.
"Because Appa likes me better," Celina smirked and received a grumble from Appa, confirming her statement. Once her siblings got on she took control of the reins. "Yip yip!"
Appa took off into the air and the three of them began to search for Aang. They flew up and down the river since Celina and Katara last saw Zhao on his riverboat. The flames coming up here and there made it easy for the three to locate Aang. The Water Tribe siblings got there to see Aang jump into the water while Zhao stood on a flaming boat. Celina landed Appa on the river bank so that he'd be able to climb on.
"Have a nice walk home!" Aang taunted Zhao.
"Aang, come on!" Sokka shouted to him. Seeing them there Aang got out of the river and hoped into Appa's saddle. Celina was quick to take off before Zhao could try anything.
"Wait! Where's Jeong Jeong?" Aang asked worried.
"He disappeared. They all did," Sokka answered him. It was true, while they were searching for Aang they noticed that the guards from before had disappeared, leaving their encampment eerily silent.
"Aang, you're burned," Celina noticed. "Katara, can you take care of him for me? I'm kinda busy at the moment." Katara nodded and pulled water from her skin. Katara placed it over Aang's burned area and breathed. Concentrating she healed Aang's wounds much to Sokka and Aang's surprise.
"When did you learn how to do that?" Sokka asked.
"Celina helped me learn when I got burned," Katara answered looking admiringly at her older sister.
"I knew you had it in you. Now we're the ultimate waterbending sisters. Good at fighting and healing," Celina smiled at her.
"Oh, well thanks for all the first aid over the years. Like when I fell into the grease briar bramble and that time I had two fish hook in my thumb!" Sokka complained.
"Two?" Aang laughed.
"He tried to get the first fish hook out with another fish hook," Katara told him.
"Took me a good hour or so getting those out," Celina murmured remembering the incident.
"Oh, and the time that big snake bit me! Thanks for healing that up. That was great. Really helpful," he continued. Celina just rolled her eyes and focused on flying through afternoon sky.
Check out my profile for the link to Celina's character design or go to DeviantArt and look up "BOWB: Fire Festival Disguise" by DrawMeLikeYourOC.
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.
