Okay, so I know I haven't posted in forever but it was my first week back at school and I had to go through three mock exams... and I also have to have my real exam on wednesday and I was revising for that as well as trying to write this.
So, enough with the excuses and I hope you enjoy the chapter.
Please review! :D
Chapter 3: I'm Not Good With Kids
It felt weird, the sky was bright blue, the sun was shining and the clouds were fluffy and white as they floated past but beneath it and its beauty, Omashu was an abomination. It was covered in ash and smoke was spewing out of the many new steel buildings.
Aang looked down at the city with disgust and shock and Eira understood the feeling. When did this happen in the show? Damn it! It was probably in one of the episodes I'm unfamiliar with.
"I can't believe it. I know the War has spread far, but Omashu always seemed…untouchable." Aang said, his voice soft, barely above a whisper.
Sokka crossed his arms angrily and glared at the Fire Nation flags.
"Up until now, it was. Now Ba Sing Se is the only great Earth Kingdom stronghold left." Sokka muttered. Eira shivered slightly.
Ba Sing Se was incredibly creepy in her memory, so that being the only great Earth Kingdom stronghold left was pretty sad for the Earth Kingdom.
Eira looked down at the city as Katara approached Aang sadly.
"This is horrible, but we have to move on." Katara said and Aang and Eira looked at her in shock.
"What? But this is Aang's friend we're talking about." Eira exclaimed.
"We're finding Bumi." Aang agreed. As Aang began to flick open his glider, Sokka reached out to grab his arm.
"Aang, stop. We don't even know i-if Bumi's still…" Sokka said, trailing off at the end.
Aang glared at him.
"What?! If he's still what?" He asked angrily. Sokka looked taken back.
"A-around…" He said unsurely.
"Sokka, King Bumi is an incredible earthbender. Probably the best in this world, how would he… be taken by the Fire Nation?" Eira said, trying to avoid saying that he was killed.
Katara looked nervously at the two airbenders, obviously trying to figure out how to get her point across.
"Aang, I know you had your heart set on Bumi, but there are plenty of other people that can teach you earthbending." She said but Aang continued to look determinedly at Omashu.
"This isn't about finding a teacher. This is about finding a friend." He said, taking his glider.
"Eira, you take Katara, there's a passage down there." Aang instructed, pointing down at the base of the city.
Eira nodded and flicked her own glider open. Aang jumped off and grabbed Sokka as he did and Eira followed suit but with Katara holding on instead.
It was surprisingly hard to lift both herself and Katara down to the base but, thankfully, she managed to do it without plummeting down into the abyss with the cabbages from the last time they were here.
Aang walked them around the city to a large circular steel plate.
"A secret passage?" Sokka said quizzically and slightly frustrated. "Why didn't we just use this last time?"
Aang pulled on the plate and with one final pull, he opened it and a wave of sewage poured out and everyone stepped back to avoid it.
"Eww." Eira complained.
"That answer your question, Sokka?" Aang asked.
Aang jumped inside and began to walk up, and after a moment of hesitation, they all followed him. Katara using her waterbending to avoid being hit with the sewage and Eira and Aang used their airbending to move it out of the way and, at Eira's suggestion, Sokka stayed behind Katara to avoid it as well but there were still moments where he slipped and fell down into the sewage and… Eira thought that Katara was sometimes a bit too lucky when it would hit him right in the face when she was waterbending it away.
It was a surprisingly steep climb to the top but it was thankfully short. Aang reached a small manhole and motioned for them all to stop as he opened it.
He pushed up on it put when it didn't move, he slammed up on it with his airbending and it popped out.
Aang leaped out and helped pull Sokka and Katara out as Eira jumped out after them.
Katara brushed herself off and inspected her clothing with a smile on her face.
"Hey, that wasn't as bad as I thought." She said and Eira was relieved to find that true. For once, her airbending was actually helpful outside of fighting.
Eira looked around and saw Sokka, almost completely covered in the sewage, and she groaned.
"Katara, you were supposed to help Sokka stay clean."
Katara shrugged, trying to hide her mischievous smile.
"Oops." She quickly waterbent a barrel of water at Sokka and the slime was completely thrown off him and Aang followed up by blasting him with a gust of air.
It was then revealed that he had three pink/purple octopus-like things on his face.
"Uh, Sokka. You have some, uh…" Eira began, unsure of what to say so she just gave up and pointed to his cheeks.
His eyes twitched to see them and he completely freaked out. He tugged at them and screamed but they just wouldn't let go. He was causing a lot of noise and Eira looked around nervously.
Sokka continued to tug at the octopi and and yell but Aang suddenly tackled him, stopping him from yelling.
"Shh! Stop making so much noise." Aang whispered in a somewhat cheerful tone. "It's just a purple pentapus."
Eira laughed slightly as Sokka looked in fear at the creatures as Aang reached out to tickle one on the head. It quickly released itself from Sokka's face and it left a pentagon shaped mass of sucker marks.
Sokka quickly got rid of the other two pentapai and they also left the same marks and Sokka rubbed them in irritation.
"Well, we best be going now." Eira muttered and they all nodded.
As they were about to turn around and walk off, several Fire Nation guards walked up to them and Aang quickly ducked behind them to try and cover his tattoo as Eira, Sokka and Katara made a human wall.
"Hey! What are you kids doing out past curfew?" One guard asked and Katara cast a nervous glance at Eira before answering.
"Sorry. We were just on our way home." Katara excused and they began to walk off, Eira seeing that Aang had wrapped some fabric around his head to cover his head tattoo.
They walked quickly and were about to leave the guards' lines of sight.
"Wait!" They all stopped in their tracks and turned around to face the guards again. "What's wrong with him?" The guard asked, thankfully pointing to Sokka instead of Aang.
Eira looked at the red sucker marks from the pentapai on Sokka's face and neck and an idea sparked in her mind.
"He has pentapox, sir. We were just taking him out for his final breath of fresh air." Eira said, pretending to get choked up. "Pentapox is incredibly contagious… and, and fatal… He hasn't got a lot of time left… We're getting him back inside so he doesn't infect anyone else." Eira explained, lying smoothly and Sokka caught on quickly.
His face began to droop as if he had lost all feeling in it and he began to cough and splutter.
"Oh, it's so awful. I'm dying." He said, his acting still awful as he was over-exaggerating his illness but the guards seemed to buy it.
The guard next to the one in the middle looked nervously as he stared at Sokka's dying face.
"Hey, I think I heard of pentapox! Didn't your cousin Chang die of it?" He asked, obviously terrified. Thanks for the power of suggestion! Eira thought gratefully.
"We'd better go wash our hands, and burn our clothes!" The other guard said urgently as they all began to run away in fear.
Aang smiled and looked down at the pentapus in his hand.
"Thank you, sewer friend." He said, rubbing the head of the pentapus as he talked.
"Come on, let's find Bumi." Eira said quickly, looking up at the large pyramid shape of the city. It was going to take a long time to find him, and it was already dark considering how it was evening when they first saw Omashu.
They began to sneak around, running up the various construction projects and hiding behind a pile of metal girders.
"Let's try and find him quickly and just get out of here." Katara muttered, looking around for a place that could hold Bumi.
"Where are they keeping him?" Sokka asked.
"Somewhere he couldn't earthbend." Eira said. "Somewhere metal and probably suspended in the air."
Eira jumped over the pile and they all began to walk further up the city.
Bumi would most likely be inside somewhere but it never hurt to check. Eira looked up and she saw a small group of shadows rustling and when she looked down, she saw a group of people below it.
Eira stared at the group of people and noticed that they were all Fire Nation with a posh-looking man and woman holding a toddler and next to them was a teenage girl with sharp looking features and long black hair in buns. Wait… was that, Mai?
It's Mai! That… means. Oh crap! Azula was coming soon. Eira thought, panicking. Why didn't she remember this episode? If Azula was going to get involved, it was best to know what to do fifty steps ahead.
Then as she stared at Mai and, presumably, her family she saw movement in the corner of her vision.
Eira turned her head quickly and saw a giant boulder rolling down, ready to crush the Fire Nation family below. She and Aang both reacted immediately, sending blasts of air at it and sending it off course, protecting them.
It crashed into a pile of construction equipment and the Fire Nation people all looked up, clearly alarmed and as Eira looked down at them with Aang, she saw Mai squinting her eyes at them.
"The resistance!" The man cried, pointing up at them,
Mai looked up at them with a surprising hint of a smile, or it could've just been a trick of the light, and spread her arms out, causing dozens of little arrows at them and Eira and Aang quickly jumped out of the way and Eira was incredulous.
She kept arrows in her sleeves… FREAKING ARROWS!
The arrows in question embedded themselves into the construction equipment behind them and, without waiting to see what happened next, Eira, Aang, Sokka and Katara quickly ran away as they saw two Fire Nation soldiers run up to them.
As they ran, Katara quickly twirled around and waterbent a whip of water into the soldiers and sent them flying down the stairs.
Mai began to run up to Katara and threw some more arrows at them but Eira quickly sent a slash of air at it, knocking them away from Katara as they ran.
Katara created a large wall of ice but Mai simply jumped over it. As Katara and Eira ran over to Aang, he let them pass as he stared down Mai but as Katara ran past, Eira stopped to see if she could help.
With a sweeping movement, Aang sent the scaffolding down and as it began to collapse a throwing knife glinted in the light as it was thrown towards them and Aang instinctively held up his staff and saw the knife stuck in it.
He looked at it, confused, but Eira looked up as Mai stood on the side of the pile of collapsed scaffolding, readying her next attack.
As she was about to throw more knives or arrows at them, Eira swung her glider around in her direction to knock her off with airbending but then the floor collapsed under her, causing some unwanted memories of General Fong's base, but this time she quickly saw some more light as they were all dumped onto the floor of some sort of underground cave or something.
Eira lifted her head as she looked around at where they were and she saw a damp, green-lit room with the green sewage occasionally dripping from the ceiling.
The room wasn't very well built so Eira guessed that it was just put together at the last second by some earthbenders just wanting a way to get out of Omashu and not a proper base they'd be staying in.
Eira looked around and saw Aang and Sokka rubbing their heads in pain and Katara looked incredibly disoriented. Eira's knees were hurting a lot seeing as she landed on them so when she tried to get up, she found it incredibly difficult.
A middle-aged man was staring at the group, flanked by two men. He had a large dark beard and a stern face. He wore one of those weird Earth Kingdom helmets that was basically a large dish over his head and he was also wearing a typical green Earth Kingdom soldier uniform.
As Eira straightened up, trying to ignore the stiffness of her knees and the exhaustion of running away from Mai, she looked around and saw a large group of Earth Kingdom citizens gathered together below them and Eira appeared to be next to the mouth of a large cave.
"So… who are you people?" Eira asked unsurely, looking around. "And, where are we?"
The man in front of them narrowed his eyes.
"My name is Yung, and we are the resistance. And you are in our secret base." He explained.
Aang, Sokka and Katara slowly staggered up to their feet and they looked around curiously.
"So, is King Bumi with you guys? Is he leading the resistance?" Aang asked excitedly. Yung looked away, angrily clenching his fists.
"Of course not!" He hissed through gritted teeth. "The day of the invasion, we readied ourselves for battle. We were prepared to fight for our lives, for our freedom. But before we even had a chance, King Bumi surrendered."
Aang looked dismayed at the news and incredulous. It was obvious he never imagined Bumi ever surrendering and Katara and Eira looked concerned at Aang.
"The day of the invasion, I asked King Bumi what he wanted to do. He looked me in the eye and said: I'm going to do…nothing." Yung said with distaste. "It doesn't even matter now." He admitted as Aang lowered his gaze, obviously disappointed.
"Fighting the Fire Nation is the only path to freedom. And freedom is worth dying for."
"But, there are many things worth living for. If you retreat now, you can live another day." Eira said. It was a common thing she ran into.
She heard so many people talking about all of the things worth dying for, but they never thought about the things worth living for.
"You don't understand. They've taken our home, and we have to fight them at any cost!" Yung persisted, making some quite violent hand gestures to the point where Eira had to step back a bit to avoid being hit by them.
"But you're outnumbered. You can't win. Now's the time to retreat, so you can live to fight another day." Aang said, motioning to the tunnel entrance as if to symbolise leaving.
The two men looked at Yung unsurely.
"Living to fight another day is startin' to sound pretty good to me."
"Yeah, Yung. I've got a wife and kid, I don't wanna die, I'm with the kid."
Yung looked around hopelessly at the refugees gathered below them and he turned back to Aang..
"Fine." He said in defeat. "But there's thousands of citizens that need to leave. How're we going to get them all out?" He asked firmly.
Sokka rested his chin on his hand and he looked like he was thinking of a plan and, knowing Sokka, it was either the way out or something ridiculous… or both.
"Suckers!" He announced and everyone's faces fell, except for Eira. Katara raised an eyebrow at her brother but Eira realised what he meant. He was talking about pentapox!
"I get it." Eira said. "Pentapox. If we can trick the Fire Nation into believing you're all fatally ill and contagious, they'll just let you all leave."
There were murmurs of agreement through the crowd and as Sokka and Aang took a small group to collect the pentapai, Eira was organising them all into lines so when the barrels came, they could all queue in front of them and get pentapox in an orderly fashion.
The boys came back with five barrels full of pentapai and after a quick demonstration of how to remove the pentapai, everyone got to work on making themselves look sick, including Eira and she had to admit, despite how useful it was and how necessary it was, it felt awful.
The pentapai were slimy and where they left the sucker marks, your skin was left sore and itchy. Thankfully, Eira didn't need to apply many of the marks as she didn't have a lot of exposed skin due to her headscarf and sleeves, but it still wasn't a pleasant experience.
They all moved out to the city and began to explain the plan and help the other citizens and after an hour or so they were all done and Sokka was addressing them all.
"Okay, the marks make ya look sick, but you've gotta really sell it! You've got to act sick too." He explained and Eira rolled her eyes. I'm not sure we should be getting acting lessons from you. She thought, crossing her arms.
As he was about to explain how to act sick, an old man hobbled across the area, groaning and moaning in pain and coughing as he did. He clutched his back as he leaned heavily of his cane and his face was twisted into an expression of "I-don't-have-much-time-left on-this-earth".
Sokka grabbed the man next to him and pointed happily at the old man.
"Now that's what I'm talking about!" He said cheerfully. The old man turned his head and smiled at them, tapping on his wooden cane on his wooden leg.
"Many years of practice." He explained, walking back into the crowd.
Sokka looked around at the crowd and gestured urgently with his hands.
"Okay everyone! Into sick formation." He instructed and as the crowd began to hobble towards the Omashu gates. Eira began to act along with them and walk slowly towards the gates but she saw Katara and Aang hanging back.
"Hey, aren't you joining them?" Eira asked curiously.
Katara looked at Aang expectantly.
"I was asking the same thing." She said but Aang shook his head and turned around to face the main building.
"No. I'm not leaving until I find Bumi." He said solemnly.
Momo jumped up on Aang's shoulders and nipped at him, chittering but Aang picked him up and dropped him back onto the floor.
"Sorry Momo, I'll feed you later." He explained impatiently, then using his airbending to propel himself up into the air and jumping across the roofs until he was out of sight.
Eira was staring for a while until she felt Katara tap her shoulder.
"We should be going." She said and they both quickly re-joined the crowd, coughing and stumbling along with the others. As Eira pretended to be sick, overacting with the rest of them, she tried to refrain from rolling her eyes.
In her world, this type of acting would result in people thinking you were crazy or a flash mob but here… they believed it! Eira didn't know how they did, but the soldiers believed it.
"Plague! Plague!" A soldier yelled and as the group of "sick" shuffled forwards, the soldiers began to run away in fear, trying to get away from them and as they ran, one began to bang on a gong and call an alert.
Eira stole a glance at a balcony and saw Mai and her family looking down in horror at the crowd. Even from far away, Eira could see their little toddler crawling around on the floor and moving away from them. Seriously, one practically emotionless daughter and one wondering son. They were really bad parents.
In front of them, the gates began to open and they all began to walk past and out of Omashu. Eira was almost dumbfounded with the Fire Nation's stupidity but, hey, when life gives you lemons you don't complain… especially if their stupid lemons.
They walked across the narrow pathway and down into the forests, out of the view of the Fire Nation soldiers and they all began to gather in a clearing.
Eira saw Yung apparently counting people but when she looked back, she saw the toddler. Oh it's that toddler. Eira thought casually, then it clicked in her head. WHY IS HE HERE? ARE HIS PARENTS THAT BAD TO LET HIM WANDER OFF INTO A CROWD OF "DISEASED" PEOPLE?!
Eira ran up to him and she saw Katara and Sokka see her and run over as well.
"Eira, what's going o- What is that!?" Sokka asked, raising his voice unnecessarily at the end.
"I-I think he's the son of the Fire Nation family now running Omashu." Eira stuttered.
"But… why is he here?" Katara asked, picking him up. Eira couldn't understand how she could just… pick him up like that. Toddlers were Eira's kryptonite. If you gave her a baby to hold, Eira felt like she was going to drop it or somehow manage to break something.
"I think he…uh, followed us or something." Eira suggested unsurely. She saw Momo walk curiously up to them but when he saw the child, he squawked in fear and ran away. "Momo seems pretty distressed. Maybe he followed Momo."
Sokka was looking at the toddler in Katara's arms with absolute fear, confusion and annoyance. As Katara was looking at him like he was the cutest thing in the world. She was definitely and baby-person, unlike her brother and Eira.
"Aww, aren't you an adorable thing." She cooed, tickling his belly as she did.
"No, it isn't! It's, it's, Fire Nation!" Sokka said, struggling to articulate his thoughts. Eira raised her hands defensively and took a step back.
"It should be fine. As long as they don't come looking for him… and you keep him faaar away from me."
Yung walked up behind the group and they all jumped as he started to speak.
"What's going on he-" He said and then as Katara turned around he saw the toddler.
"Why is the child of Ukano here?!" He asked angrily.
"Ukano? Who's that?" Eira asked, trying to avoid his question.
"He's the man who is now in charge of Omashu, now answer my question!" Yung answered impatiently. Oh, so that's Mai's father's name.
Eira rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.
"Uh, we think he followed our flying lemur." Eira said, gesturing to Momo.
"What should we do?" Katara said but before Yung answered they saw Aang walking with… a big weird white animal with big floppy rabbit ears, a dark face with horns and giant tusks. Its arms were like a gorilla but its back legs were goat legs. Was that…Flopsie?
But while Flopsie was an odd sight, Aang was what caught Eira's attention. He looked sad as he trudged into the clearing and he looked so disappointed.
"Aang, what's wrong?" Eira asked.
"We looked all around Omashu. We didn't find Bumi." He explained.
"Really, we managed to find someone." Sokka said, a fake-joy tone added to his voice as he pointed to the toddler. Aang's face lit up but then it became confused.
"Who's that?" He asked curiously.
"This is the son of the Fire Nation governor." Eira explained. "So far, I don't think we know what to do with him." She admitted sadly.
Yung sighed in annoyance.
"We don't have time for this. We need to set up camp, it's getting dark." He turned around and started calling out orders to the refugees.
o.O.o
They were all sitting around a campfire in the dark and Katara was enjoying looking after the baby… Sokka not so much. When… uh, Tom or something, tried to take Sokka's boomerang and suck on it, Sokka instantly snatched it away and scowled at him.
"No! Bad evil Fire Nation baby." Tom looked up at Sokka and began to cry. A baby's cry was awful to listen too. They were whiny and screechy and awful. Eira was definitely never going to have kids.
Katara glared at Sokka and hit him across the face before placing her hands on her hips, looking incredibly motherly.
Sokka tried to stare her down but he gave up, unable to manage it.
"Oh…all right." He muttered, defeated as he handed it back to Tom. He immediately stopped crying and began to play with it again.
Katara got down from her seat and hugged Tom affectionately.
"Oooh, you're just so cute." Katara cooed, absolutely taken with Tom.
Yung stared angrily at Tom from the other side of the fireplace.
"He may be cute now, but when he's older, he'll be enlisted in the Fire Nation army." Yung turned his gaze away and stared into the darkness. "You won't think he's so cute when he's trying to kill you."
Katara was completely unfazed, she just stared at Tom and picked him up, happily playing with him and showed him to Yung.
"Does this look like the face of a killer to you?" She asked innocently but Yung's face remained completely indifferent at the sight of the cute baby. He'd probably seen too many of the killers he said Tom would grow up into.
There was silence for a while but then the screech of a bird interrupted it. Everyone turned their head and they saw a hawk with bright red plumage and a small cylinder was attached to its back.
Eira got up slowly and walked over to it, expecting it to go and peck her but instead, it calmly presented the cylinder to her. Eira gingerly picked it up and opened it. A small scroll slid out and Eira carefully read it.
"It's from the Fire Nation governor." She announced. "He says that he wants to make a trade for his son. He thinks we kidnapped him. He's offering… King Bumi!"
Aang immediately jumped up in excitement.
"Bumi!" He exclaimed. "This is perfect! We can just drop off their son and we'll get Bumi back!" Sokka and Eira exchanged nervous glances. It was them. It was never as simple as it should be, especially if it involved Azula's friends.
"It says the exchange will be at sunrise… so I guess we should get some sleep before then and make sure that he doesn't crawl away or something." Eira suggested, looking up at the high moon. Why can't I remember this bloody episode!? Eira thought angrily, silently scolding herself and her memory. If we run into Azula unknowingly, or I manage to screw everything up I'd never forgive myself.
o.O.o
The next morning, Aang woke them all up, impossibly excited to see his old friend again and return someone's child to them… even if the parents weren't exactly the best.
As they walked up the dirt path, the sun gleaming behind the mountains and against the fluffy clouds, Eira had never felt so worried.
"This is almost defiantly a trap." Eira commented as they walked. She looked over at Aang, who was holding Tom next to his chest as he slept. He looked so peaceful.
"I don't think so." Aang said, looking down at the sleeping toddler. "I'm sure the governor wants his son back as much as we want Bumi. It's a new day, I have a good feeling about this."
"Maybe, but if I know the Fire Nation, they'll probably take his son back, then arrest us or something without returning Bumi." She replied bitterly. That's probably what will happen if I know our luck.
As they walked past the beautiful forest, they were greeted with the sight of the still smoking city. Soot was now starting to cover large areas of the city and Eira saw that the scaffolding they almost destroyed the other day was holding a large stone statue of the Fire Lord.
Very tasteful. She thought sarcastically. She never understood why people loved to build statues of themselves. She'd have to hate a statue of her.
They walked up to the scaffolding and looked around to see Mai and two other girls. They looked around Eira's age and she narrowed her eyes suspiciously at them. Azula and Ty Lee.
Like everyone she'd met so far, they looked weird in real life. Ty Lee was very cute with a slim gymnast figure and impossibly big, innocent grey eyes. Her long brown hair was in a high plait and she wore a pink outfit that exposed her navel.
Azula looked terrifying. Her eyes were a dull gold and surprisingly cold for a supposedly warm colour. She wore a lot of lipstick and what looked like an expensive Fire Nation outfit. Her black hair was tied up in a top-knot and despite the fact she was off to the side of Mai, she looked like she was the one in charge.
Eira kept an eye on Azula as Aang and the others stared up at Mai and the large metal box being lowered down with the mad King, happily inside. He looked a bit too happy considering the fact that his entire body was in a metal crate, with the exception of his face. Then again, he was mad.
Aang smiled as he saw Bumi and as the metal box landed behind the trio of girls, Mai looked back at Aang.
"You brought my brother?" She asked and Eira fought to not roll her eyes. No, this is just some random Fire Nation 2 year old we found. She thought sarcastically.
"He's here. We're ready to trade." Aang responded confidently, looking behind Mai and at Bumi.
As Mai began to move, she was stopped by Azula, who decided to add her opinion, which could only be helpful for them.
"I'm sorry, but a thought just occurred to me." She mused, looking up at Bumi then back at Mai. "Do you mind?" She asked, despite the fact her tone made it clear she was going to speak no matter what. It was a typical spoilt rich child thing that Eira had run into before.
Mai turned to Azula and bowed her head slightly in approval.
"Of course not, Princess Azula." Mai said respectfully.
"We're trading a two year old for a king." Azula looked up at King Bumi, who was still chuckling madly. "A powerful, earthbending king?"
Then, annoyingly, Bumi actually nodded in agreement. What is he doing? Eira thought incredulously. We're about to peacefully get him out. Damn it! I wish I remembered the episode.
"It doesn't seem like a fair trade, does it?" Azula said, her voice cold and ruthless.
Mai's grey eyes shifted to Azula, then to her brother. Her face didn't reveal any emotion but her body language certainly did. She was debating whether or not to obey Azula and whether or not to get her brother back.
Sadly, she chose the "obey Azula" option. Crud.
"You're right." Mai said, stepping forwards. "The deal's off." She announced, gesturing to the soldiers to pull King Bumi back up, still chuckling and snorting.
"But this is your brother!" Eira exclaimed, thoroughly puzzled. "It's a simple trade. You're brother for our friend."
"But your friend is a powerful earthbender." Azula said, smiling slyly. "He's just a child." How is Mai going along with this?
Aang looked up at Bumi as he was being pulled up and tightened his grip on his staff.
He pushed Tom into Eira's hands without consulting her and jumped up to Bumi, using his airbending for extra lift.
Azula tried to stop him and sent a jet of azure-coloured flames at him and Eira quickly jumped to the side to avoid them as they missed.
Aang leaped off some scaffolding and clicked open his glider, but as he did, the fabric covering his head tattoo was pushed off and his bald head and electric blue arrow shone clearly.
Eira would've face palmed if she wasn't holding a toddler in her arms and on that note, SHE COULDN'T HOLD A BABY! WHAT WAS AANG THINKING?!
Azula gasped as she looked at Aang.
"The Avatar!" She said in surprise as Aang circled around on his glider as he flew up to Bumi. Then she smiled cruelly. "My lucky day."
Azula ran over to a rope pulley and as she held onto one side of the rope, she burnt off the other, sending her and the rope flying up into the air as the winch span rapidly.
Eira wanted to run forward and stop her but the squirming infant in her arms prevented her. I'm going to drop him, oh my gosh, I'm going to drop him! Eira thought in a panic.
"Guys! We have to get the baby out of here!" Eira yelled. And out of my arms!
Eira backed up slightly as Mai and Ty Lee took offensive positions, Mai grabbing her throwing knifes and Ty Lee assuming a gymnast-like pose.
Katara and Sokka took defensive positions in front of Eira, then Sokka apparently had an idea and pulled out the bison whistle and blew on it.
"Way ahead of ya!" He said as he ran towards the edge of the platform and Eira and Katara followed his lead.
Eira looked back slightly and saw that Ty Lee was missing and as she thought on that, she barely had time to notice the fist punching out of the wooden planks of the platform.
Eira tried to jump over it but she accidently stamped her big feet on it and began to trip.
She tried to regain her balance as she clutched Tom in her arms, desperately trying to stop him from flying out and thankfully she stopped wobbling just before she fell off the platform.
Eira turned around quickly, trying not to crush Tom as she held onto him and her arms stiffened in fear because now Ty Lee jumped out of the hole she made and began to charge towards Eira.
Eira tried to run out of her way as Katara began to bend water at Ty Lee but as Mai began to move, she created a wall of ice to block the four knives being thrown at her.
Sokka began to run towards Ty Lee to fight her as Eira looked around for Appa, feeling absolutely helpless and her bending mainly needed a lot of movement and she couldn't really do that with a toddler in her arms.
Sokka slashed at Ty Lee with his club as Katara used her water whip to dislodge a wooden plank and threw it up in the air to block the knives and she then continued to whip it towards Mai.
Ty Lee managed to get away from Sokka and she was now heading towards Eira and the baby.
Panicking, Eira dropped as she lashed her leg out in a circle, creating a slash of air and causing Ty Lee to trip up or in her case, go from walking on her legs to walking on her hands, seriously, she was insane.
Ty Lee flipped back onto her feet and Eira jumped up, using her airbending to go ten or so feet in the air and manage to land back next to Katara and Sokka who were trying to stop Mai from constantly trying to stab them with her throwing knives.
Ty Lee turned around and ran over to Eira again so she had to get away again. It was really hard to avoid being hit by an expert gymnast and chi blocker and trying to hold a toddler at the same time. Again, WHY DID AANG GIVE HIM TO HER?!
Eira ducked another blow and as her eyes darted around to see a ladder going down to the ground, perfect. Eira faked that she was going in the opposite direction to the ladder and as Ty Lee followed her direction, Eira jumped over her head and fell down the ladder and used her airbending to soften the landing.
Eira looked around for Appa again, feeling the soft footsteps of Ty Lee quickly running above her and then as she looked out at Omashu, she saw a pink flash and she was sent flying backwards.
Tom began to cry in Eira's arms but she didn't have the time to deal with it as Ty Lee was now jabbing her fists at her and it was becoming increasingly hard to dodge them as Eira was becoming incredibly tired.
"You could've of just given us back our friend, then we wouldn't have to do all of this." Eira muttered in annoyance as she jumped back to the edge of the wooden platform.
Ty Lee flashed a wide, innocent smile.
"But he was a reaaaaaaally powerful earthbender." She said, stopping for a second. Eira slowly backed up until she was almost teetering off the edge.
"And this is your friend's baby brother." Eira stated, trying to add a cruel smile to make her bluff more believable. "I could easily just jump off right now. Mai would never see her brother again." I really hope she buys it but I'm not sure if I'm being very believable right now.
If Eira did jump, there is the possibility that she could use her airbending to make her landing non-lethal or open her glider that was strapped to her back. But she had no idea how Tom would fare in that. Toddlers were fragile.
Ty Lee seemed to be hesitant and Eira took her chance, she sprinted back across the platform and jumped off, managing to get a couple of extra feet out of her jump and she landed on another piece of scaffolding. For once, I thank you airbending. Eira thought, breathing heavily.
She heard a bellow and Appa was flying towards them. Eira smiled gratefully.
"Sokka! Katara! Appa's here!" She yelled as she leaped onto Appa's saddle and then Sokka and Katara did the same, leaving Mai and Ty Lee confused on the platforms.
Eira thankfully let Tom down on the saddle and she stretched out her arms as she looked around for Aang.
"There's Aang!" Katara said, pointing to the chutes and as Eira looked she saw Azula skidding down the delivery system, closely following Aang who was riding on Bumi's metal box.
"We can catch him!" Sokka said, walking across to the reigns and directing Appa towards Aang.
Azula was constantly sending jets of blue flames at Aang and as Appa pulled up next to them Eira heard Aang yell reassuringly to Bumi.
"Hang on, Bumi! Our ride's here!"
As Azula saw them, she sent a stream of blue flame at them so Appa had to swerve to avoid it but as he pulled closer to Aang and Bumi again, Aang used his staff to send the box, Bumi and himself flying up into the air above Appa but as Sokka, Katara and Eira tried to catch it, it sailed above their heads.
Aang and Bumi screamed as they fell and as Eira held onto the edge of the saddle and looked overboard in panic, she was relieved when she saw Aang moving the box into a horizontal position mid-air and their fall was broken as they landed on another chute and as Azula jumped across to it and sent a spiral of fire at them, Bumi earthbent a large block, protecting them.
Azula jumped up, noticing her path was blocked and as she had to stop, she looked incredible displeased, letting Aang and Bumi get away.
Eira looked over at Azula and by the venomous look she was giving them, Aang and Bumi, Eira was glad that Aang put her in a position where she couldn't follow Azula because, knowing Eira's luck and her personality she'd get a shot of lightning in the face.
Then again, being shot at with throwing knives and being punched, kicked and chased while having to hold a crying toddler wasn't much better.
Appa began to fly down to where Aang and Bumi landed but when they landed, Bumi was gone and shooting up the delivery system.
"Ooookay." Eira said blankly as she listened to Bumi's mad laughs as he moved even further away. "I guess Bumi won't be teaching you, then." She said. So that's why he didn't learn from Bumi.
Aang nodded sadly.
"Now I have to find a new teacher." He concluded. "Bumi said I need to find a teacher that listens to the earth, and that's probably going to take a long time." He sighed heavily.
Eira turned around to see Tom starting to crawl around as Katara played with him and he giggled happily..
"We should get him home. I bet his parents are getting worried when their daughter didn't get back with him." Katara said, concerned.
Aang nodded and jumped up onto Appa, taking the reins away from Sokka and directing Appa to fly up to the balcony of the main building.
Aang gently took Tom from the saddle and jumped up on the roof before dropping down and placing Tom on the floor to crawl back to his parents.
"Tom-Tom!" Eira heard his mother cry out and then Eira finally remembered. His name was Tom-Tom. Now Eira felt like an idiot.
I'm sorry that I didn't include Eira pissing off Azula but in the context of the episode I couldn't fit it in properly. I also thought that it would be funnier if I just gave Eira Tom-Tom. (Children are her kryponite and they are mine as well)
I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter and please review.