Spirit-Struck
::WaterMstr::
Chapter Two: Rough Sailings
Umi's family did not leave the Northern Water Tribe for about three years, surprisingly. The people there would understand, but the Fire Nation may not be as accepting, no matter how powerful Kenjin might be. His wife was the one who finally got them cruising back to the Fire Nation.
Their ship was not in as good shape as they left it, but it seemed fine. So they took a couple of days to carefully load all of their posessions onto the ship. Little did they know there was going to be a storm. But the skies seemed clear to the traveling Fire Nation family, so they just carried on with their business.
Kenjin really did not do much of the work. He lazed around, but every waking moment of that lazing around he was constantly thinking about his treasured reputation. This oh-so-important reputation could not be dented in the slightest bit or he would simply break down. So, to put it in everyone elses' perspective, he pointlessly concentrated on something that could not be helped. It was very selfish of him, after his daughter had her life saved, and now all he could think of was his reputation?!
After the lazy Fire Sage was finally able to get the subject off of his mind, they began their voyage to the northern Fire Nation mainland shore. For the first hour, they were all mainly trying to keep everything in place without falling over. The second hour, they tried to make lunch. But on that third hour, everything became totally hectic after a storm struck.
It began with what sound like a small crack and then little pittering sounds, entertaining Umi. Slowly, the pittering became what sounded like a march with, rather than small cracks, shards of lightning shattered the sky and hit the ship several times. Parts of the ship went up in flames scolding everything in its path because lightning struck a major machine. Smoke coming from all directions choked the small family inside of the ship. Finally, after what seemed forever, the last strike from the storm was the most dangerous. At that moment, everything went black.
A couple of hours later, the young Umi found her tiny body hopelessly lying on a large shard of metal from what used to be their ship. Being careful not to fall off, Umi bent over and swirled her finger in the water. The water glowed and followed her fingers direction obediently. She soon got bored and started splashing. She noticed that she could move the shard as well as herself if she thrusted the water behind her. So with a stronger thrust, she carried herself as well as her parents toward dry land. Occasionally she would look behind her and watch the highlighted water fly back. While she was doing this, she felt an exciting rush go thruohg her that she had never felt before.
It wasn't long before they arrived on land, with her parents slowly waking up.
"Umi? Where are we?", asked Kenjin.
Umi just shrugged. She didn't know and she couldn't lie, let alone talk that well.
Kenjin looked around slowly and then excitedly.
"We didn't even have to use the ship to get here! We're in the Fire Nation, and not too far from our palace!" he looked around to his wife excitedly, who apparently didn't seem as enthusiastic as he was judging by the sluggish "ok" coming from her direction.
Um, there it is. Quite a bit longer AND better than the first chapter in my opinion, but I suppose I'm not the one to be judging that.