I skipped another few chapters with this one; we pick up at "The Blue Spirit"
Just assume that everything in the series happened as normal unless otherwise stated.
As usual please review! Your input is always appreciated!
Chapter 8: Friends
The group had take refuge in an old, abandoned mountain city in order to avoid the crappy weather that was threatening to break. Of course, almost as soon as settled in Sokka got sick.
"Well," said Shio as he helped Katara take care of Sokka, "I think I've actually had this sickness before; he's got all the symptoms: a bad cough, high fever, and hallucinations,"
"Hallucinations?" asked Katara, "What hallucinations?"
"Katara, he thinks Appa is telling jokes; if that's not hallucinating, then I don't know what is."
"Hey," said Aang walking up, "I couldn't find any of the ingredients for the tea; but I did find this map," he said rolling it out, "There's an herbalist institute on that mountain," he said pointing it out, "Maybe they'll have something that'll help."
"I don't know Aang…" Katara said and almost immediately broke into a coughing fit.
"Oh no!" cried Aang, "You've got it too! Now I definitely have to go!"
"I'd better go with you," said Shio, "just to make sure nothing happens. Last thing we need right now is for you to get captured."
"Ok," said Aang, "But what if you get sick?"
"I won't, I've already had this so I'm immune to it."
"Alright," said Aang agreeably, "But my glider is only for one person, how are you going to travel?"
"I don't think either of us is going to be flying tonight," Shio said as lightning flashed across the sky, "Looks like we're running."
"Well, come back soon," croaked Katara from her sleeping bag.
"You sure you'll be ok by yourself?" asked Shio worriedly.
"I'll be fine, just hurry back,"
As the two prepared to leave Aang looked at Shio quizzically, "You know, I'm an airbender; you think you can keep up with me?"
"Sure!" said the older boy, "Without my swords and jacket I'll be almost as fast as you!" he said dropping said items to the floor, "My jacket is weighted so that I can move really fast when I'm not wearing it."
"Aren't you going to be cold?" asked Aang indicating Shio's sleeveless, black shirt.
"Nah, I'm good."
"Alright then, Katara: take care of your self; Shio: eat my dust!" he exclaimed as he dove over the edge of the building.
"Right behind you, Airhead!" Shio shouted following suit.
As the two swiftly covered the ground between their campsite and the institution, Aang was more than a little surprised that Shio was actually able to keep up with him. Aang only had to slow down a little bit from his top speed; Shio made good use of the slipstream Aang left in his wake in order to achieve greater speed than he could unaided. Soon they arrived at the institution and met with the crazy old lady who was the only inhabitant. She wasted a good amount of their time making her cat's dinner; but she advised them to get some frozen frogs for Sokka and Katara to suck on. The two left the building talking about how unusual the old lady was; suddenly there was a high-pitched whistling as four arrows imbedded themselves into the boy's boots, pinning them to the ground.
"Shit!" cursed Shio as he pulled the two arrows out of his boots, "Run!!" he shouted as Aang freed himself. They ran as fast as they could, avoiding the barrage of arrows by mere inches. As they ran, Shio snatched up two sticks from the ground and started batting arrows out of the air. They ended up diving off a cliff into the forest below, and were still pursued by their mysterious assailants.
"Damn it!" said Shio as they fell through the trees.
"What?" asked Aang, "Who are these guys?"
"Yu Yan Archers; they're the best shots in the Fire Nation."
"How can you tell?"
"I got a glimpse of one of them; they have tattoos over their eyes."
"How good are these guys?" asked Aang.
"I heard a rumor once, that these guys can shoot the wings off a fly."
"Wow…"
"Without killing it…"
"We're screwed aren't we…" sighed Aang.
"Yeah, pretty much."
They landed n the swamp below and started slogging through it trying to lose their pursuers. Aang found several frozen frogs and tucked them into his shirt. Eventually, they were cornered and captured by the archers with nets. Obviously they recognized Shio, because they took and broke his glasses rendering him effectively useless without the use of his eyes. They were tied up and thrown into the back of a wagon. Hours later, they arrived at their destination: a massive fortress with a multi story central tower. They were taken to a room in the tower and both were chained to the wall; soon after, someone entered the room.
"Well, well…" said a cold almost monotone voice, "It must be my lucky day: I've caught the Avatar and the Fire Nation's most famous traitor!"
"Zhao…" said Shio, venom all but dripping from his voice.
"That's Admiral Zhao to you."
"Hell no! I don't work for you freaks anymore!"
"Well I suppose it doesn't matter what you call me; you're still my prisoners and no one is coming to save you!"
Zhao threw several more insults at them, and then left.
The two struggled against their chains for a while but eventually gave up on it.
"Hey," said Aang after a few minutes, "You're awfully quiet, you ok?"
"Well. Aside from being unable to open my eyes without blinding myself, I'm fine." replied Shio, "I'm just worried about Katara, she's going to really need those frogs soon."
"Yeah," replied Aang, "I hope she's ok…" they lapsed into silence for a few minutes, then: "Hey…What do you think about Katara?" he asked cautiously.
Caught off guard by the unexpected question, the swordsman balked, "Um, uh, what do you mean?"
"Just what I asked, what do you think of her?"
"Well…She's a good friend to me…Why do you ask?"
"Nothing…I just noticed that you've been spending a lot of time around her lately and I thought there might be something going on."
"Oh, definitely not," said Shio, "She's just a friend; but why are you so interested in what Katara's doing?"
"Oh nothing just wondering," said Aang.
"Uh-huh…" said the older boy disbelievingly, "Come on Aang, you can tell me."
"Tell you what?" said Aang blushing.
He sighed, "If I could open my eyes, I'd be rolling them; it's more than a little obvious that you like her."
Aang looked the other direction blushing a little harder, "Maybe," he responded, "but you haven't exactly been a master of subtly either," he retorted.
"True," conceded Shio, "But in my defense she is quite attractive,"
"Yeah…I just hope she's ok…I don't think I could stand to lose her…"
As Aang said this Shio could sense the truth in his words; Shio thought back to his adventures with the group so far: how Aang had fussed over Katara after he had broken them out of the Fire Nation Capital, how Aang was constantly showing off and trying to get her attention, and how ecstatic he was when he received the least little attention from her. Shio realized that Aang loved her, even though he probably wouldn't admit it; Katara was Aang's anchor: she kept him going. Shio knew that he could never make a move on Katara without crushing Aang and reducing his effectiveness as the Avatar; and since Aang actually loved her and Shio was just attracted to her, the younger boy obviously had dibs.
He was about to tell Aang that he wouldn't make any advances on Katara when all the frogs started climbing out of Aang's shirt.
"Oh no! Come back! I need you for my friends!" yelled Aang.
Suddenly they heard a commotion from the hallway and a figure dressed all in black, carrying twin broad swords, and wearing a blue mask kicked the door in. He ran to them and severed their chains.
"You're rescuing us?" asked Aang rubbing his wrists; the figure gestured for them to follow, "I'll take that as a yes; but we're going to have to go a little slower, my friend here can't see right now."
"I can fix that," said Shio stooping down; he pulled a small roll of gauze from his boot and tied a length of it around his eyes, "This has enough holes so I can see out of it; it'll work until we get outside, then I won't need it: it's night time and i have a spare pair of glasses back at camp."
"Let's go!" said Aang and they were off.
The three quickly sprinted through the halls of the base, avoiding all the guards until they reached the outside. They were climbing the mysterious stranger's rope when the alarm sounded; a soldier cut the rope and sent them tumbling to the ground. They were quickly surrounded by more guards and were forced to fight their way out.
"Hey!" Aang shouted, "The gate's closing! We gotta go!"
"We'll never make it in time!" shouted Shio as he ripped off his eye covering and roundhouse kicked a soldier in the face, "We'll have to find another way around!"
They cleared a space and Aang blasted them up onto the wall. They fought the troops on top of the wall and Shio managed to acquire a couple of swords. They dropped down and repeated the process on the other wall. Now only one wall stood between them and freedom; Aang tried to pole vault across to the other wall using some of the ladders the troops were putting up; but their ladder was burnt right out form under them. They all landed in a heap in front of the main gate.
Some Fire Benders surrounded them and started to blast them with fire, which Aang deflected with air bending.
"Cease fire!" Zhao yelled over the din, "I need the Avatar alive…"
Acting as one Shio and the mysterious stranger each put a sword under Aang's neck. Realizing his predicament, Zhao had the gate opened and the three slowly backed out.
They were almost in the tree line when there was a loud clang and the masked one dropped to the ground; Shio ducked just in time in time to avoid what would have been fatal arrow through his forehead. Aang quickly threw up a dust storm to block the view and looked over at their rescuer; his mask had been knocked clean off, revealing the face of their long time enemy: Prince Zuko.
"Let's go!" said Shio snapping Aang out of it.
"We can't just leave him!"
"Yes we can! Now let's go!"
"I'm not leaving without him…"
"Ugh! Fine…"
They each grabbed Zuko and ran into the forest.
Hours later Zuko woke up and Aang tried to convince him to become allies with them to no avail and the two boys ran back the swamp for more frogs.
"Hey," said Shio as they ran back to camp, "I wasn't really going to decapitate you back there; i was bluffing."
"Yeah I know," replied Aang.
They arrived back at camp, gave Katara and Sokka the frogs and almost promptly lay down. Shio was soon fast asleep; but Aang lay awake wondering if he really could get Zuko to join them some day.
Well another chapter down! Next one will probably feature their arrival at the N. Pole!
Sorry it took so long to get this one up… I got lazy.
As usual please review!
Happy Easter everyone!
Until next time!