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Chapter 7: The Chase
As Eira walked through the forestry surrounding their campfire, a bundle of twig and sticks in her hands in her attempt to collect firewood, she couldn't help but feeling homesick. If she closed her eyes, she'd feel like she was in Wales.
In a lot of ways, the Earth Kingdom reminded her of Wales... if she ignored the corrupt government in war, bending and general Chinese-esque setting... Basically it was just the natural feel that reminded her of Wales.
Eira reached down and collected some more twigs off the floor and then looked at the bundle in her arms. It looked like enough, not that Eira exactly knew what enough was.
Despite the fact she'd been living on the run and camping for at least four or so months now she still had little to no camping or survival skills except knowing how to run away from fire-throwing maniacs or knowing how to annoy those fire-throwing maniacs.
She almost wished that she'd gone on those hiking/camping trips with her grandpa and cousins.
Eira turned around and began to walk back to their campsites, absent-mindedly thinking about how she'd been missing months of her favourite TV shows and how if... no, when, she got back home she'd have to catch up but when she got back she stopped in her tracks for many reasons.
Firstly she saw Aang on the floor covered in Appa's fur with Katara, Sokka and Toph laughing at him and she couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity as Sokka was wearing a bad looking wig made of Appa's fur and Toph was in a similar situation with fur stuffed down her sleeves.
But then it hit her and her mind flashed forwards to the episode, "The Chase". Oh yay... this was going to be fun.
Azula, sleep-deprivation, high tension and arguing. She didn't want that to happen.
Eira then went onto prevention damage control. She had already managed to save Yue. She could and was going to help her friends. And, to be honest, she didn't want to go through all of the tired-induced stress and bickering.
Recomposing herself, she smiled and walked over to them and as Katara noticed her, she smiled and waved.
"Hey, Eira. Thanks for collecting the firewood." She said and Eira smiled.
"Croeso, Katara. I was thinking of cooking soon, so could you help get the tents up?" Eira suggested then a thought clicked in her head again as she looked at the carpet of Appa's fur around their feet.
"And, Aang?" Eira started. "Could you, maybe, wash Appa? I'm just a little worried about his shedding. Even though we haven't run into Zuko in a while, but anyone could track us if Appa's fur leaves a trail. You know, just in case. This peace won't last knowing our luck."
Aang looked puzzled at the fur blanketing the ground, then up at Appa before nodding in understanding.
"Sure," He said and then he smiled widely. "Come on buddy, time for a bath." Aang began to lead Appa into the forest and probably to the little stream close by that they were going to use so Katara and Aang could practice waterbending but if the night went like how Eira thought it would, they weren't going to be able to use it.
Eira turned to the small fire pit that they'd made and began to set up the firewood as Sokka and Katara began to set up the tents… and Toph had settled away from them, resting on a rock.
Eira frowned. It wasn't that she was annoyed that Toph wasn't doing any work, to be honest with the four of them they didn't exactly require Toph to do anything, but she was worried about how distant she was.
Sure, she was enjoying her newfound independence but Eira wasn't exactly sure she knew that independent didn't mean that she had to refuse to accept help or never give it.
As Eira got out the things for cooking, she realised that she didn't really know what Toph liked to eat. They didn't really go into much detail like that in the show except that Sokka was practically a carnivore and Aang was a vegetarian.
She didn't want to alienate her more by forcing her to eat something she hated or push her away because she wouldn't eat with them.
Eira got up from the fire pit and walked over to Toph, trying to put a welcoming smile on her face.
"Hi, Toph." She said, also trying to sound happy but Toph merely grunted in response. "Um, okay, so I was wondering, since I'm just about to start cooking, what you like to eat or if you really don't like certain things and stuff."
Toph waved her hand casually, brushing off Eira's concern.
"No need. I've got my own food."
"Well, yeah, but that won't last forever so I'd still like to know." Eira insisted.
"Why? I can get my own food. You don't need to help me." Toph said, puzzled and slightly defensive.
"Yes but it'd be nice for you to eat with us at least once during the time we're travelling together and I'd like to know, just in case." Eira repeated stubbornly.
"Is everything okay?" Eira turned around and saw Katara looking slightly annoyed at Toph and Eira's heartbeat raised slightly.
"Yeah, yeah. It's fine. I was just asking Toph what food she likes seeing as I'm just about to cook." Eira explained quickly but even she noticed it was a bit too quick.
Katara crossed her arms and looked between Eira and Toph.
"Are you sure?" She asked slowly, clearly suspicious.
"Yep. So, what do you like, Toph?" Eira asked again, looking over at Toph. The both had a silent battle of will but Toph relented, not bothered to continue on the topic.
"I'll eat anything as long as it's not your wussy vegetarian stuff." She mumbled lazily and despite the lack-lustre deli every, Eira chalked it up as a victory. Even if said victory took far longer than it really needed.
"Thank you, Toph." Eira said politely before turning back and heading over the fire pit and was relieved to see that Toph and Katara didn't really argue after she left from what it looked like.
o.O.o
As they all ate and talked, Eira tried not to worry about the quickly setting sun and tried not to worry about the little yawns from her teammates every once in a while... only to fail. She didn't worry as much about Toph just taking her plate over to her corner and not joining in on their conversation but Eira could tell that it was bothering Katara, which could be a problem.
"Come on everyone. I think we should get some sleep now." Eira said, somewhat cheerily.
Sokka looked at her weirdly then looked up at the sunset sky which was tinted red, purple and blue from the setting sun and the clouds looked like a mix of pink and yellow from the light. Red sky at night, Sheppard's delight. Eira thought, the memory of her father telling her that little rhyme triggering in her head. Let's hope it's also our delight too.
"Why now? Isn't it too early?" Sokka asked. Eira looked up at the sky as well and he was at least slightly right. They didn't really go to sleep usually until nightfall but...
"Well, I was just thinking that we should all get a little bit more rest than usual. We were up and flying quite early this morning." Eira explained, hoping they rolled with it.
"Yeah, you all do seem pretty tired." Toph added, rather unhelpfully from her corner of the campsite.
"I think she meant all of us." Katara corrected, her tone slightly annoyed.
"I think some extra sleep would be nice." Aang said, lying next to Appa, his voice sleepy as he yawned. "Good night everyone."
Toph taking no time to agree with Aang she erected an earth tent around herself and shut it around herself.
Katara looked irritated but she didn't say anything about it as they all retrieved their sleeping bags from Appa's saddle and quickly closed their eyes, appreciating the extra sleep.
Eira got to sleep a lot sooner than she thought she would and couldn't help but smile slightly as she adjusted her headscarf into an extra pillow. Maybe this could work and in the morning, she'd think of a plan to deal with Azula if she did show up in that crazy tank.
Eira's dreams were a bit confused, as usual, but after a couple of minutes of nonsense, Eira found herself becoming more self-aware in her dream.
She walked through a fuzzy white landscape with absolutely nothing in it until she saw a small window or something in the distance. It was filled with a moving image of something but she couldn't see it clearly.
"What...?" Eira whispered and in her curiosity, she began to walk up to it. As she got closer, the image became clearer and she almost gasped in shock as she saw her sister walking to school. Jenna was wearing her red school jumper, grey skirt and white polo shirt and her blonde hair was loose and down to her shoulder, almost identical to how she looked when Eira last saw her but she looked far too sad for someone her age with heavy shadows under her blue-ish grey eyes.
Eira felt guilty as she looked at her sister. She couldn't help but think about how her leaving had probably caused more pain for her family than even she felt. They had the extra burden of not even knowing what had happened.
"Mrs Davies is so mean to me lately. I can't believe she's setting us two sheets of homework for the weekend." Jenna said shaking her head in disbelief and Eira chuckled. It was weird to think of being set two pieces of homework in primary school used to be the height of being overworked.
"I know. Miss Brassington only set us one small sheet and those spellings. Mrs Davies is Soooo unfair." Her friend Kath said, sharing Jenna's tone of incredulousness.
Eira wasn't really thinking of how she was seeing this as it wasn't a memory or anything, she was just happy to see her sister again. Her mind had been becoming frustratingly fuzzy about her previous life lately.
"Hey Jenna." Eira whispered, smiling but what she hadn't been expecting is her sister to lift her head as if she had heard her.
Kath and Jenna both stopped.
"Jenna, what is it?" Kath asked but Jenna looked just as confused as her friend.
"I-I'm not sure..." Jenna admitted.
"Wait, Jenna? Can you hear me?" Eira asked and her sister's reaction was definite.
"Eira..." Her sister gasped. "Eira?"
"Jenna, it's..."
"There's something coming toward us!"
Eira shot up from her sleep and looked around, disorientated, and saw Toph bursting out of her tent. It was roughly the middle of the night as the moon was high in the dark night sky but Eira's mind felt confused and foggy.
"What is it?" Aang asked, running over to her. As Toph knelt to the ground, Sokka, Katara and Eira got up and surrounded her.
Toph's face screwed up in concentration as her hand was placed firmly on the ground.
"It feels like an avalanche, but also not an avalanche." She explained vaguely.
"Your powers of perception are frightening." Sokka commented sarcastically but Eira elbowed him.
"They're better than yours and also, if you've forgotten, she's blind," Eira crossed her arms, worried. "We should leave as soon as possible. I was thinking it was about time we ran into trouble and it appears that I was right."
They scooped up their things as Aang airbent Appa's saddle onto him and jumped on, flying off above the forest to see a giant steel tank of sorts spewing smoke into the air and charging through the trees, leaving a wake of destruction in its path.
"What is that thing?" Katara asked as they all, with the exception of Toph, leaned over the saddle to get a better look at the thing and it looked even worse in real life. There was a definite difference between watching a metal tank full of Fire Nation crazies and actually having it after you.
"Okay, Toph. There is a metal machine from the Fire Nation racing after us and it's most likely full of people trying to kill or capture us, in other words, welcome to an average day for us." Eira said, false-happiness in her voice as she described it.
Toph leaned against the bags on the saddle in the middle and while she looked obviously uncomfortable with flying, she took the joke.
"Wow, I really took the right choice with going with you guys." She retorted dryly.
They flew away in silence for a while, Eira just watching the clouds around them before she had a little idea.
"Aang?" She said quietly so she wouldn't disturb the others who were quietly resting. "Maybe that thing wouldn't be able to follow us if we went somewhere mountainous, could Appa fly us somewhere like that?"
Aang nodded.
"Good idea."
He flicked the reigns in a different direction and Appa began to sail towards a small mountain range and they finally landed on a high cliff after what felt like twenty or so minutes but to be honest Eira didn't really know. She had never had a great sense of time so she really missed her watch.
Again, I waste time thinking about trivial things. Eira thought, shaking her head in self-disbelief.
As Appa landed, everyone woke up and looked around groggily at their surroundings.
"Where are we?" Sokka groaned, jumping off Appa's saddle and almost landing on his face.
"Hopefully somewhere that tank won't follow us." Eira answered, throwing down Sokka's sleeping bag next to him. "But because it's late and we haven't got any sleep yet, I think we shouldn't bother with camp and just get our sleeping bags and, well, sleep."
Toph agreed heartily. She had got off Appa as soon as they had landed and began to lie on the floor. She thrust out her arms and her earth tent was erected.
"I'm done!" She announced before rolling on her side and closing her eyes.
Eira's eyes flickered to Katara as she carried her sleeping bag down. To her dismay, Katara's eyes stared at the earth tent in annoyance.
Eira frowned but she put on a reassuring smile as she looked at Katara.
"It's fine. Let's just get some rest. We can figure out what to do about our situation in the morning." Eira whispered, placing a hand on Katara's shoulder. Katara nodded but the look of annoyance on her face stayed.
They all began to lie down so they could get some sleep but if she strained her ears, she could hear Katara muttering under her breath in annoyance. Eira sighed as she flopped down onto the ground. She doubted this was going to be easy or pleasant.
Eira was back in the white landscape. As soon as she took in her surroundings she felt her heart rate increase. Yay! More emotional torment! She thought sarcastically. Last time, she remembered seeing her sister. This time they same thing was likely to happen due to the crappy nature of this world's dreams.
"Hello!?" She called out. "Where's the wake up button?!" There was no reply. Eira walked around the blank area, looking around... Then she saw the foggy windows.
Through them she saw her house, in the dining room. It looked like it was only six o'clock there. At the table, her family was eating dinner, chicken korma and rice, and she couldn't help but notice how tired they all looked. They looked just like parents with missing children who appeared on TV... and she knew the missing child was her.
Eira's muscles tensed and felt like they'd turned to steel.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no." She said shortly. This is obviously just my messed up imagination guilting me for things out of my control. She thought before punching herself in the arm forcefully and the scene turned to black...
Eira shot up, her eyes snapping open and she saw that the moon was low in the sky so it was either early morning or very late night.
"The thing is back!" Toph suddenly shouted, opening her tent and rushing out.
Everyone else quickly woke up and they all looked around for the tank. They saw nothing at first but then black smoke billowed from below the cliff.
"Oh no." Eira complained. "How did that thing even find us? We're on a cliff in the middle of nowhere, Appa's clean and it was dark so how would they even follow us?"
It's Azula, Eira. She thought. She's crazily determined and has a lot of resources. Of course she found us.
"It doesn't matter, we have to go. We can't risk that thing catching us." Aang said as he jumped up onto Appa's head.
Sokka sleepily wormed out of his sleeping bag and lazily threw it up as Eira and Katara folded their and climbed up onto the saddle. Toph vaulted up onto the saddle with her earthbending. When Aang was happy that everyone was ready he flicked the reigns and Appa sped off into the sky. Almost right into a stream of blue fire.
They all screamed as Aang tugged the reigns to try and swerve to avoid the fire, almost tipping them all off the back of the saddle.
"What was that?!" Toph screamed, clinging on the saddle. Appa recovered quickly and slammed his tail into the air, propelling them away from the range of the fire.
Eira looked over the edge of the saddle and she felt her face pale as she saw Azula below them shoot another stream of azure flames at them. Reacting without thinking, Eira swept her arms forcefully to the side and a large gust of wind shot out and dispersed it before they finally got out of her range.
They all looked back at the tank until it was a little speck in the distance. Appa finally began to slow down a bit when that happened.
"I can't believe those girls from Omashu followed us!" Sokka finally exclaimed, breaking the silence. "And in that, too. Where did they even find something like that?!" He asked, gesturing wildly with his hands.
Eira looked cautiously behind them, her hands resting on her crossed legs.
"They have a lot of resources." She said after a pause. "We know for a fact that one of them is rich, Mai, the governor's daughter." She paused again, thinking whether or not to reveal Azula's identity but in the end, she thought it would to safer to inform them. "Also, I think that the firebender is a part of the royal family, probably the princess."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Toph interrupted. "Who are you even talking about and how is a Fire Nation princess even here?"
"Also, how do you know who she is, Eira?" Katara added.
"I recognised the ornament she wore in her hair, and I remember Mai addressing her as 'princess Azula'." Eira explained.
"I'm never going to get an answer, am I?" Toph muttered.
"Basically, they're a trio of creepy girls who attacked us at Omashu and she's looking for Aang so I guess that's why she's here." Sokka answered.
"I want to know how they found us." Aang spoke up from behind them. "I mean, we travelled really far."
"Yeah." Eira mumbled under her breath. I want to know as well, Aang. Eira thought. I guess I underestimated Azula's craziness.
"Well, I'll just make sure they don't catch up with us again." Aang said with determination. "Appa, yip yip."
They again, with the exception of Eira and Aang, got some rest as they flew over the mountainous and rocky terrain. Aang and Eira didn't really talk as they didn't want to wake or disturb the others so Eira just spent the time leaning against the side of the saddle, thinking and gazing up at the sky.
A part of her thought about how grateful she was about the fact that she could go a long time without sleep, but then again, she felt like she'd managed to get them a lot more time to rest seeing as how it looked like they'd made it until 2 am or something without seeing the tank again.
Again, the lack of a watch was starting to pop up in Eira's mind. Great priorities, as always...
Aang found a flat-surfaced rock bed and Appa landed, somewhat clumsily. The jolt of the landing almost threw them all off the saddle.
In Sokka's case it didn't really matter though. He crawled off the saddle and landed face-first on the dirt. He let out a small moan of pain that turned into a yawn.
"I'm so tired." He complained. "I'm just going to crawl to the softest patch of dirt and sleep for weeks." He mumbled, rolling over and closing his eyes.
Katara's face was shadowed with tiredness and Eira instantly knew that the next thing she said wasn't going to be helpful to maintaining the peace.
"So you're just going to act like Toph." She muttered grumpily. Aaaaaand, I was right. Negative points to Eira.
"What was that?" Toph lifted her head up and looked indignantly where she felt Katara was.
"It's nothing." Eira reassured quickly. "Guys, come on. We need to just try and rest before that thing finds us again."
"Yeah, if this 'Azula' is anything like Zuko, she's going to find us when it's inconvenient." Sokka added, his eyes still closed as if he was sleeping.
"Who's Zuko?" Toph asked.
"Oh, just some angry ponytail freak who's hunted us all over the world." Sokka explained sleepily.
"What's wrong with ponytails, Ponytail?" Katara asked mockingly.
"This. Is. A. Warrior's. Wolf. Tail." He said slowly, pointing to his ponytail.
"Well, it certainly tells the other warrior's that you're fun and perky." She said jokingly.
"Come on, Katara. We still need to rest. She's probably already-" Eira began but she was cut off by Toph and the ground starting to rumble. Eira groaned in frustration. "Seriously?!"
"It's impossible. We out-flew them by a mile!" Aang said in disbelief.
"I can feel it with my own two feet!" Toph insisted. They all ran over to the side of the cliff and, as feared, the tank was barrelling towards them.
"We need to get out of here." Katara said nervously.
"I think we could take them on. Stop them from following us." Toph said. No-one moved. They all watched as the tank began to slow down until it stopped with a horrible screeching sound and a pneumatic hiss.
The front of the tank slowly opened, releasing a cloud of steam and as the mist cleared they saw the three girls on top of...uh, some sort of lizard. Eira couldn't identify what sort of combination of animal it could be. Partially because they didn't have time and partially because they shot out of the compartment and were racing towards them.
Everyone quickly assumed fighting stances. The two airbenders took up their staffs, Katara readied some water from her water skin, Sokka took his boomerang and Toph planted her feet even more firmly on the earth.
"It's four on three. Easy win." Toph said, determined.
"Toph, there are five of us." Sokka corrected. Toph looked sheepish.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't count you. You know, no bending and all." Sokka turned to her, his face bright red with indignation and rage.
"I can still fight!" He protested.
"And by that logic it's four on one. Two of them aren't benders." Eira added as Toph quickly earthbent three large pillars and shot them at the trio in an attempt to hinder them but their animals quickly scurried around and leapt over them.
"Um, I'm not so sure of this plan to take them." Aang admitted. "I think we should leave." Katara, Eira and Sokka nodded and began to retreat back to Appa.
Toph thrust up her arms and a huge wall of stone appeared in front of them, blocking the girls, giving them the time to get to Appa.
They didn't see anything for a couple of seconds but then the wall was completely shattered by lightning and the lizards ran through the debris.
Toph stared in shot, clearly not expecting her earthbent wall to have been broken so easily. Mai, who was on the left of Azula, took advantage of her stunned state and swung her arm in Toph's direction, releasing a flurry of her throwing knives.
Toph snapped back into action and launched herself off a pillar, landing on Appa as they knives struck the pillar.
"Appa, yip yip!" Aang said quickly and they sped away, Eira sending a large burst of air at them to stop Azula from sending another stream of fire at them.
After a couple of minutes of flying again, they were all slightly less tense.
"I can't believe it. You were right, Eira. It is those girls from Omashu!" Katara exclaimed.
Toph huffed. "We still could've taken them." Katara looked at her incredulously.
"Are you kidding me?" She asked. "The weird blue firebending and dagger-throwing girls are bad enough, but last time we saw them, one of those girls did something that took my bending away. That's scary."
Eira thought back to the fight at Omashu and frowned. It wasn't a fun memory. Trying to avoid Ty Lee's chi blocking whilst carrying a 'hostage' baby and trying to hold out until Appa arrived as well wasn't an experience she'd recommend. She hadn't been chi blocked last time and, while she was slightly curious to see how it'd be to be chi blocked, she didn't want to experience it.
They all sat around, not really bothering or wanting to do anything and as they saw the sun slowly peaking out of the horizon, Sokka jerked up to get a better look, his face looking horrified.
"Oh no, the sun is rising. We've been up that long?!" He complained.
"Sokka, it's fine." Eira said calmly.
Sokka's eyes darted around. "Are you sure?" He asked. "I've never not slept before!" he cried, holding his hands up to his head. "What if I begin to fall asleep now and something happens? And something always happens!"
"I said it's fine, Sokka. A human can survive up to two or so weeks with no sleep... though it's not exactly recommended."
Katara rested her chin on her hand as she looked down at the ground below Appa.
"Every time we land, those girls are there. So we'll just have to keep flying." Katara summed up.
"We can't keep flying forever." Aang protested.
"Then we're just going to have to think of a plan to stop them following us." Eira said. Might as well put that plan into motion. It's now or never.
o.O.o
They were still flying after Eira, somewhat, explained her plan. They still had to find an appropriate area with the river, close-ish ghost town, e.t.c.
Eira had kept what they had done from the show but... organised it. It wasn't going to be just random events and unforeseen benefits. It was going to be planned and methodical.
"How do you know this plan is going to work, Eira?" Sokka asked. "I mean, it seems pretty unlikely that this actually works. It's based on that they actually fall for the ruse and split up the way you predicted and that seems unreliable."
Eira nodded in agreement. "True. It is based on them being predictable, but I think that if we make it believable enough, it should work."
Toph yawned loudly and stretched. "But how is your 'master plan' going to work if we're so tired. Those girls, if you haven't forgotten, keep on chasing us so we can't get any rest," she asked cynically.
"Well, yes. But I know you guys and how strong you can be." Eira smiled reassuringly. "We can take them, even if we're a little tired."
Appa bellowed in complaint and he dipped a bit. Aang, leaning down from his head to look at him in the face, was clearly concerned.
"Guys, we need to land soon!" he announced loudly. "I don't think Appa can fly for much longe-ACK!" Aang yelped as Appa started to fall again, his energy clearly diminishing. They all screamed and grabbed onto the saddle or reins as Appa quickly began his descent.
"What's going on!?" Toph screamed frantically as she held onto the saddle for life.
"Appa fell asleep!" Eira yelled above the roaring wind in her ears and when she closed her eyes to protect them from the stinging wind, she appreciated how Toph must feel.
She couldn't 'see' like how she usually could when they flew so she was already uneasy but then, out of nowhere, boom! They're suddenly falling.
"Appa, buddy! Wake up!" Aang shouted and Appa jerked back awake but sadly he couldn't pick himself up in time to stop crashing to the ground so... they crashed to the ground. But not before splintering several trees and having their twigs scratching and scraping their skin painfully.
Appa skidded to the ground, throwing dirt up into the air as they held on before finally landing harshly into a nearby river, completely soaking them all as well as everything on the saddle.
Aang slid off Appa's head and stared at the sleepy face of his friend.
"Appa's exhausted. I'm not sure if he has the energy to do anything." Aang's grey eyes flickered with doubt and concern.
"Okay then," Sokka said as Eira, Katara and Toph all climbed off the saddle grumpily and uncomfortably. Eira quickly airbent the water off her as Katara waterbent herself, Sokka and even Toph dry. "I think, as we've but a lot of distance between us and the tank, we should all try and maybe get some rest before we have to put the plan in motion, or something."
Toph sighed in relief and collapsed to the ground.
"I like that plan." Katara huffed.
"What was that, princess?" Toph asked in an 'innocent' sounding voice and that seemed to annoy Katara even further.
"Princess?!" Eira groaned inwardly. Really, now?
"Katara, it's nothing. Can we just get some rest? We need to be able to fight those crazies if you've forgotten." Eira grumbled. In hindsight she should've realised that her tone wasn't the most helpful but at the time the interrupted sleep was slowly getting to her.
"I'm just saying that it would be better if Toph acted a bit more helpful," Katara explained defensively.
"Hey!" Toph exclaimed, jumping up to 'glare' at Katara as best as she could. "You're blaming me for this?!"
"No, she isn't." Eira said firmly, jumping between the two.
"No, I'm blaming her. She's been nothing but lazy all day." Katara said angrily, crossing her arms defensively.
"Katara, that's unfair."
"Yeah! I've been carrying my own weight, by myself. You should be blaming the crazy girls chasing us!" Toph protested.
"Toph," Eira attempted to stop them from arguing more but it was clearly not going to happen.
"Just because you're 'carrying your own weight' doesn't mean you have an excuse to just do whatever you want!"
"Just stop it!" Eira yelled. They became quiet. "Guys, this isn't going to help. Every second we waste, they get closer to us." She sighed in frustration. "We're all a team. We need to act like one. We can't do anything with them chasing us. We need to get this over with or things are just going to get worse."
There was silence as everyone stood still, Eira's words sinking in.
It was broken by Aang shifting nervously.
"She's right. If we can't all get along, we'll never be able to do anything," he said quietly. Katara's gaze fell to her feet.
"I-I'm sorry, Toph," she murmured. "I know you're adjusting, but… you have to understand that we want to help you, not because we think you're helpless."
"Yeah, you're strong and tough and stuff. We all know that!" Sokka added, gesturing with his hands as he spoke.
Toph didn't respond at first, but then she huffed and folded her arms.
"Fine. If you guys really need me to help out that much, I guess I'll allow it." She smirked. "So are we going to start with fairy feet's plan or aren't we?"
Eira raised an eyebrow. Fairy feet? She wasn't aware she had particularly light footsteps but the nickname didn't sound mean-spirited so she wouldn't really mind.
Aang and Sokka smiled enthusiastically and they all started to get ready. Aang, Katara and Eira all washed Appa to take some of his shedding fur to leave a trail as Sokka and Toph both looked out for the tank.
By Eira's judgement of time, which should never really be trusted, the tank shouldn't arrive for quite a while but better safe than sorry.
Aang collected the fur in a leather satchel and patted Appa's snout playfully as he finished.
"Thanks buddy."
"We're ready!" Eira called as they regrouped next to Appa. "To recap, we split up to split them up. Toph and Aang go the route I assume Azula will go, towards the ghost village nearby, and Katara, Sokka and I will head towards the river in the opposite direction. Once we stop each of the ones chasing our group, we regroup to the other location."
Katara nodded. "Understood, but will Appa be okay to fly?"
Eira looked at Aang for an answer, he was the decider for Appa's condition. Aang looked over at his sleepy companion confidently.
"He'll be fine as long as you don't have to travel too far."
"Great! The river's not too far away and it'll be a while before they manage to track us down," Sokka exclaimed cheerfully.
Agreed on the plan, Eira, Sokka and Katara climbed onto Appa's saddle. Sokka took the reins, with Eira and Katara on the saddle, ready to use their bending to leave a trail.
"Appa, yip yip!" he said quickly. Appa grunted and took flight and as he did, Katara and Eira airbent/waterbent the trees to look like Appa had flown over them. It was a bit easier as Appa was flying quite a bit lower than he usually would due to his tiredness.
They flew for a couple of minutes alongside a dirt path in the forest, the tone feeling strangely calm, as Eira heard a bird sqwark. It was strange. She felt like she'd heard something similar so she looked around for something.
It was just a red-ish bird of prey… Wait, what? Is that a-
"What is it Momo?"Sokka asked as Momo began to chitter nervously but then they all saw what he was acting so nervous about. "Oooooh, no! The crazies!" he yelled.
Katara and Eira looked pack to see Mai and Ty Lee following them in hot pursuit, riding those creepy lizards and Katara's eyes widened.
"How did they get here so quickly?!"
"Appa, come one, we need to go faster!" Sokka insited urgently but Eira was worried they wouldn't be able to outrun those weird lizards. They were stupidly fast and agile.
"Not good, not good! We need to get over there quickly!" Sokka yelled frantically. Appa grunted and Eira felt them speeding up as the river was coming up.
"Come on Appa, just a little further…" Katara muttered pleadingly as Eira braced herself for a rocky landing, her hand gripping her staff tightly.
Appa sped up across the forest, skimming some of the trees but one caught his leg and sent him spiralling across the water of the river, helping them dodge some knives thrown from Mai, before half-crashing, half-landing on the bank of the other side.
The trio jumped off the saddle as they stared across at Mai and Ty Lee.
"They... can't get across, can they?" Sokka asked haltingly as Eira tensed.
"They can." As if to prove her point, the lizards zipped across the surface of the water, their spindley green-scaled legs rotating at impossible speeds to run across. It looked unreal and impossible when little, tiny lizards did it on documentaries in her world, but Eira just couldn't believe it when she saw the massive creatures do the same.
It was things like that, that reminded her that she was in a different world with rules that she couldn't always follow.
Katara reacted quickly, stepping forward and spinning around, sending a slash of water from the river at them in an attempt to dismount the girls but as it went towards Ty Lee, she leaped off from the beast just in time to land near the treetops, gracefully dodging from tree to tree before landing on the ground next to Katara.
Eira, seeing that Katara would have difficulty fighting her off, jumped into the fight, using her staff as an extension of her arms. Ty Lee saw her and blocked the blows with her forearms but when she was distracted with the staff, Eira kicked a gust of air at her, sending her back. Ty Lee recovered quickly and back flipped before landing on her feet.
Eira couldn't see clearly what Katara and Sokka were doing so it made her jump when ice-covered stilettos shot out from the corner of her eye. Katara must've re-directed Mai's knives.
Mai had just jumped off her lizard and was currently fighting off Sokka and Katara so, again, Eira got distracted and didn't react quick enough to completely dodge her throwing knives.
They skimmed the surface of her arm, ripping her sleeve and cutting her skin slightly. Thankfully Eira moved out of the way or they would've most likely pierced her arm of at least thrown her back with the force.
Ty Lee began to target Katara as Mai also swapped targets to Eira and Sokka. Katara began a water whip in Ty Lee's direction but she jumped up and managed to chi block her shoulder, forcing her to drop the water. In retaliation, Sokka lashed out at the gymnast with his knife. Eira span her staff around, catching more of Mai's knives.
Doesn't she ever run out of these!? Eira thought desperately as she sent a slash of air at the gloomy teen. It struck her and sent her flying backwards into the water.
"Nice try, but no," Eira heard Sokka say and when she turned around she saw Ty Lee shaking her hand in pain and glaring at Sokka.
Katara was looking over to Appa but she was pinned to the floor by knives that Mai had at some point thrown. Wow, she was bad at keeping track at what happened in fights. It was a heck of a lot easier when she had the ever-so-helpful third person view of a tv show.
Then Sokka fell to the ground next to his sister and Eira realised that it was now a two-on-one battle. And she was sadly the one.
Eira tensed as she held her staff defensively at the two girls who had now regrouped and after a moment's pause, they charged. Hooray…
Mai flung her knives at Eira and with a swirling gust, they were blown back in her direction. Ty Lee tried to get in some punched while she was distracted but Eira jumped up using her airbending to avoid her. Eira used her momentum to forcefully swing her staff downwards at Mai and when the wood connected with her body, she was sent down into the dirt. Hopefully, down and out for the count.
Then she felt a cold stab in her arm as Ty Lee punched her. It made her muscles tense up, but not as much as Eira would've thought. This must be chi blocking. Odd, it doesn't feel as incapacitating as I thought it would be. She could still move freely, she couldn't airbend but other than that, she felt normal. Actually, she felt as normal as she had when she was before she'd arrived in his world.
Wait… I can't bend, but I can still fight! The idea flashed through her mind and she was happy that she'd actually learnt physical martial arts. She could still do this.
She blocked Ty Lee's next punch and tried one of her own but Ty Lee moved out of the way, trying to lash her leg out but Eira saw it and backed up.
Ty Lee was just about to strike her again. She was too agile for Eira if she didn't have her bending, but apparently, fate decided to actually like her for once as at that moment, Appa decided to come into the fight. He had recovered from his exhaustion and shaky landing and swept Ty Lee backwards into the river.
Eira turned to face Appa, a huge grin on her face. "Thanks Appa. You're the best."
Eira quickly helped/picked Katara and Sokka up from the ground and when they were all on Appa, Eira took the reins and they flew off, leaving Ty Lee and Mai behind them.
Eira snuck a quite glance behind them and was grateful to see Mai moving, Ty Lee talking with her. She was worried for a second that she'd really hurt her.
"So, are you guys alright. They didn't hurt you, did they?" Eira asked, after a few minutes of awkward silence.
Sokka groaned in annoyance. "Unless you count my head when she tried to chi block it, no, they didn't hurt me."
Katara flexed her hands experimentally. "I think my bending's coming back." She looked over at Eira, worried. "What about yours?"
Eira shrugged.
"I'm not sure," she admitted. She let go of the reins for a second and tried to airbend, punching the air. Nothing really happened except maybe a small punch of air, but she was probably being optimistic. "Nope, not back yet, but honestly, I don't think it really matters in my case. It's not like I'm good at airbending or anything."
"That's not true, you're a great airbender," Katara protested. Eira smiled in self-depreciation.
"Right. I'm the second greatest airbender you know, what a great achievement," she said sarcastically. Katara crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.
"Well, if you tried harder and trained more, you could master it. I believe you're a very talented airbender seeing as you apparently got your bending from the spirits themselves." Eira laughed loudly.
"Yeah, no. I'm pretty sure those spirits just gave me the power to jump high and punch air. They just sent me here so the world would have another airbender, I'm sure their last thought was to make me actually good at it."
"Hey, sorry to interrupt your bending talk, but how much longer until we reach the town that you sent Aang and Toph too?" Sokka asked, raising his voice to talk over the two girls.
Eira looked down at the landscape below. She saw nothing but green for a while but then she spotted the small empty group of buildings that she'd told them about.
"Not much longer," she announced. "We should be there is a few minutes, so be ready."
Appa flew down towards the town quickly and just before then, Eira tested and found that her bending had come back. Katara was the same, her bending having returned in full strength.
They saw sparks of blue and orange fire as well as blurs in the air and large rocks being thrown so they knew that Azula was fighting off Zuko, Aang and Toph and they were keen to join the fight.
It would be all of them versus Azula and no matter how talented she was, there was no way she'd get the better of them in this fight.
EIra jumped off Appa before they landed and she landed, using her airbending to cushion herself, right next to Toph.
She didn't say anything as she analysed what she'd just jumped into. Toph was throwing rocks with her earthbending at Azula as Aang fought her firebending with his airbending.
"Eira!" Aang exclaimed, thrilled to see his friends arriving.
Azula swiftly turned and fired a blast at Aang, but he dissipated it with a gust of air. Sokka, Katara and Eira ran in and Azula backed up, turning and sending a large fan of fire at them to stop them from advancing but she was being cornered.
Katara water whipped at her but Azula span out of the way, right into Aang and Eira's combined air attacks that caught her in the chest and pushed her back a bit before she lashed out with a stream of blue flames, stopping them.
She ran back but Toph sent a jagged spire of earth out of the ground that almost tripped the Fire Nation princess. Azula jumped up and landed in an offensive stance, prepared to attack. Iroh and Zuko joined them from who-knows-where. Eira wished she'd arrived a bit earlier so she could've understood the situation a bit better.
They all surrounded her as she backed up into a corner of broken building, Azula scowled at all of them.
"Well, well, look at this," she said coolly. "Enemies and traitors, all working together. I'm done." She raised her hands up in surrender and Eira tensed. "I know when I'm beaten. You got me. A princess surrenders with honour."
Eira shifted her weight slightly, ready to deflect any attack she made. Everyone's guards were up. No one wanted to move unless it caused Azula to make her move.
Eira's eyes slanted slightly towards her friends and Iroh and Zuko. She was worried about whether or not they were going to do anything. Azula was not someone to be trusted and-
Eira felt a flash of heat and in the corner of her eye, too fast for her to do anything, a blast of azure flames headed straight for her.
They struck her chest and she screamed in pain as she fell to the ground. Black spots danced around in her vision and unconsciousness was threatening. Damn it! She thought weakly. Now… now, she'll escape….. The black spots covered her eyesight, and she fell unconscious.
...Eira… …ak… …p, com…. …zula…. ….l her…. ….EIRA!
Eira's eyes shot open as she felt a warm feeling in her chest. It felt just like when Katara healed her hands, and she was right. She was no longer burnt. She felt no pain in it. She moved to sit up and she hissed. Okay, she felt some pain.
It was nightfall and she was sitting on Appa's saddle. Katara, Sokka and Toph were siting, worried expressions on their faces. She saw Aang sitting on Appa's head but she couldn't see his expression.
"Finally, you're awake. I was worried that crazy princess had done some actual damage to you." Sokka joked. Eira smiled but it quickly faded.
"What happened to Azula, and Zuko?" she asked. Katara frowned.
"They, got away. Azula ran off as soon as she struck you and Zuko left soon after," Katara explained. Eira groaned in frustration.
"Seriously? All of that trouble and we didn't even get her?" Eira complained. "Damn it, why am I so useless?" she muttered harshly under her breath. So far she wasn't really doing very well on her 'stop-Azula-quickly' plan. It was frustrating, to say the least.
"its fine, Eira," Sokka reassured. "She won't be following us now. There's no way she would after how we cornered her. Your plan worked."
Eira put on a small smile.
"Yay…"
Hope you liked it!
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