CHAPTER 2: Through My Own Eyes
I'm looking at life through my own eyes
I'm searching for a hero to idolize
Feeling the pain as innocence dies
I'm looking at life through my own eyes
I'm hoping and praying for a brighter day
I listen to my heart and I obey
How can I see it any other way?
I'm looking at life through my own eyes
Thought #1: Am I in heaven?
Thought #2: Why is heaven so cold?
Thought #3: My senses are tingling… I am definitely alive.
Thought #4: Why the hell am I in Antarctica?
Then I had this major freak-out period when this tiger-seal hybrid waddled up to me. After screaming, that thing ran away.
And my question changed.
Thought #5: What WORLD am I in?
Because I know for a fact that that animal isn't on the endangered list. Or any list for that matter.
My above-the-knee skirt and black boots weren't helping me keep my legs warm, so I went searching around my martial arts bag for a warm blanket. After some moments of intense frustrations I remembered that I only carried face towels. And those hot face towels didn't seem to make a difference. The helpless feeling began to come back to me again. I couldn't attack someone properly, and now I would die in whatever this land was. And if I didn't die first, my legs would probably become immobilized or freeze over. Then maybe I would be eaten alive by those tigers… seals… thingies…
Then the sixth thing I thought of came into my head.
I must not die. I have already survived being run over. I must not die.
So with my heavy martial arts bag slung across my shoulders I jogged for what seem to be a mile, before I saw two figures not far from me. One was a girl a couple years younger than me, about 14. Another was a boy not much older than her, perhaps 15. Pausing at a good snow dune within hearing distance, I was able to hear and see their nice little conversation. The girl seemed to be moving water. I'm not kidding! She seemed to levitate it out of the ocean, and played around with it while the water was hanging in mid-air. Upon some careful observation, besides moving water she appeared to be doing some basic forms of Tai-Chi.
I moved my attention towards the girl herself, now. Her face suggested that she looked frustrated with something. I couldn't imagine why. Her form of "magic" was nothing I have ever seen before. She was also wearing what seemed to be fur clothing. I made a mental note to myself to ask her if she had any extra clothes. Then I thought of the possibility that she might not speak English. Also, I briefly studied the boy. He did nothing interesting to hold my attention, other than hacking away at the ice with what appeared to be a boomerang. What a weirdo.
Splash!
"I'm sorry. I'm SORRY! Hey, I'm SORRY. I'm SORRY, I'm SORRY, I'm SORRY! I'm SORRY! I'm SORRY! Hey! It worked better that time."
The girl dropped the water right on top of her brother! …Or supposed-brother. Haha!
"I thought about Mom. Isn't that strange?" "Yeah. I guess so."
Her mom? So they ARE brother and sister! The girl seems pleased to think about her, the boy seems kinda surprised.
"Just stop doing that stuff around me. I always get wet."
It's confirmed: They speak English. At this point, nothing will be able to stop my uncontrollable snickers. Well maybe except the fact that they started moving away. Anxious to keep up pace, I followed them, snow dune to snow dune. At one point the boy picked up his spear and turned 'round in a circle so dramatically, I thought he sensed me.
"Tiger seal." "Are you sure?"
Apparently the thing that I saw IS a "tiger seal." The brother and sister stopped in what seemed to be an endless sea of ice. The boy briefly shook his fist at the sky while the sister looked directly down at her moccasin boots. The brother, done with his rant towards the sky, also looked downward. Both started backing away.
"There's something under there…"
Wait what? Laying down his weapon, the boy grabs his boomerang and repeatedly hits the ice. Idiot. If something shoots up and bites his head off the blame is on him.
Boom!
"It's a cave-in! Move away from the cracks!"
What I tell you? As the siblings were running away, I ran in the same direction. From a comfortable distance of course. Meanwhile, what appeared to be coming out of the ice was a big, gigantic, ice-sphere. And the ice-sphere appeared to have a figure of a glowing boy on the inside. Can my day get any weirder?
"Katara, don't go near it. This is probably some Fire Nation trick."
Oh so that's her name… "Katara"… such a lovely name… What's a "Fire Nation?"
"Just back away really slow."
And the bright girl that Katara is, she grabs the boomerang, and starts to repeatedly hit the sphere.
"KATARA! DO NOT HIT THAT SPHERE!"
Dude. She's already hitting it. And it's too late anyway. The sphere opened up, and now there's this bright, white, light flashing up the sky. Some gas escaped from the sphere and propelled Katara backwards. You know what? I can't take not being part of the action. Dropping my bag, I plunged into the excitement.
"IS SHE ALRIGHT?" I yelled running over to the siblings. Here comes the interrogation, I thought to myself. By the time I reached them the gas cleared up to reveal the top part of the sphere to be blown up. But the brother was already on full guard and protection mode.
"Who are you? What's your name? Where you from? ARE YOU FIRE NATION?" he yelled at me, waving his hunting stick in my face. He had Katara stand behind him, and she peered out over his shoulders, looking at me curiously.
"Okay okay relax… No! Relax and DON'T put that thing near me!" I yelled, carefully pushing the pointy end away from my face. "My name is Anastasia, some call me 'Annie'. I'm from Los Angeles, California. You know… America?"
The boy lowered his stick, and asked Katara, who moved out from behind him and looked me in circles. "You've heard of America?"
"Nope, but it sounds like an Earth Kingdom village."
"She looks Fire Nation. Look at her! Her eyes are brown, only the Fire Nation can have brown eyes!"
And yet I was standing there. Feeling completely stupid and irritated. But at least I was learning about a new world and its cultures, figuring out the names of each country. "Hey, I inherited my eye color from my mom, okay?"
"SEE! She admits it! She's a descendant of one of those old Fire Nation families!"
"But see, her uniform-" Katara spoke over her brother while pointing at my school clothes, "They're dark blue and white. The colors of the Water Tribe." After a couple of even more intense scrutinizing by the girl, and more incredibly false accusations from her brother, she smiled and reached out her hand. "I am Katara, of the Southern Water Tribe. This is my brother, Sokka." She pointed. "I recognized you as the girl who followed us when I was waterbending." Nodding at Sokka she mouthed She's harmless…
And I accepted her friendliness while her brother stood holding my bag in the background. "I'm Anastasia. I'm sorry for stalking you (insert awkward laugh), but I was curious you see. No one can do… 'waterbending'… from where I come from…"
"And WHERE exactly are you from?" Sokka questioned.
"I already told you. Country of America, State-err-Province of California, and City of Los Angeles. And actually, I really don't think I'm from your world." I said, after some brief thinking.
"What do you mean by that?" Katara asked, with some gleam of curiosity in her eyes.
"Well when I first got here, I was supposed to be dead. I mean, like I got hit by a force that would usually have the person go out unconscious. But instead I ended up here in this…"
And for once, Sokka stopped interrogating me and smiled. "This barren wasteland?"
"You know I didn't mean it like that! And anyways, I followed you guys because you were the closest human beings in terms of distance." I turned to Katara, "There is nobody in my world that can float water. Nobody!" And I looked at myself, feeling like I stood out. "And the only reason I'm wearing a school uniform is because this is the only clothing I have that isn't all sweaty like the fighting uniform in my bag."
"What? In here?" Sokka asked, unzipping the bag and poking his head in.
"DON'T LOOK THROUGH IT!" I yelled, snatching the bag from his hands and rezipping it. "Hasn't anyone taught you about privacy?"
From next to me I could hear Katara whisper, "Don't mind him, he's always like that!"
"Besides," I continued, "don't we have a bigger problem?" pointing at the gigantic semi-sphere that was by now had started to melt in the sun. Sokka, fully into the idea of exploration, ran ahead of us. It only took a couple of seconds for Katara and I to catch up with him. Upon reaching the summit, we were surprised to discover a boy, looking like he'd been passed out, and a gigantic fluffy bison.
Oh yeah. I'm totally not in Antarctica.
"Is he breathing?" Sokka muttered, referring to the boy. Personally, I thought that it was hard too tell underneath the boy's cloak, but Katara nodded. I started wondering if the whole Southern Water Tribe encountered this type of thing often.
He started looking aimlessly at the sky. "Did you see that light shoot into the sky?" This time Katara and I both nodded quietly, for the boy and the furry beast have awakened. It was our time to become the interrogators.
"What's your name?"
"How did you get here?"
"How did you get in the ice?"
But all we could get from him was some whisperings about the monks from his temple. Katara, pronouncing him exhausted, proposed that we get him back to the village. I agreed, mostly for the sake of the kid and I because wanted to see Water Tribe culture, and we both turned around to Sokka to get his approval. Instead, we saw him covered in… something…
"EW EW! WHAT IS THIS? EW EW!" Sokka screamed, simultaneously rubbing himself against the inner wall of the semi-sphere and scratching himself. Katara and I looked at each other, and telepathically concluded that not seeing what happened would probably save Sokka some ridicule in the future (unfortunately), since we didn't know exactly which "end" the liquidy mass came from.
And the furry beast, apparently concerned and apologetic over his unhygienic blunder, started using his massive tail like a hair dryer. Sokka had managed to get most of the gunk off him, but his success soon failed after the force of the beast-made-wind drove him head-on into the remains that were left on the wall. I could have sworn I heard Sokka's muffled voice yelling "WHAT IS THAT THING?" over the high winds.
"C'mon Sokka we're using 'that thing' as a transport between here and the village, " I laughed.
Thankfully the beast took the hint to stop and kneeled low enough so that we could hop on. "We could use you as a navigator." I grunted, as Katara and I climbed up into the beast's saddle, me clutching the boy over my shoulder. "Or actually, maybe not. Katara," I turned towards her when I got to sit down, "don't you know the way?"
She shook her head and blushed. I thought of her as some one who wanted to know as much as possible about everything in the world. I do too, but we both knew that we had our limitations. I had never been to her village, and according to what she told me, she hasn't gone hunting as far from her home as today. Sokka meanwhile hesitantly and slowly got up onto the saddle. "It's easy, you just have to follow the coastline. Our village is just by the sea." Right when he got the reins, the furry creature started walking out of the sphere and up north.
"Are we going the right way?" I asked Sokka.
He nodded his head, "Yeah. See the ice glaciers and cliffs in the area create just one narrow pathway. Whether the beast wants to our not, we can't turn around because there isn't enough room for us to do that."
"Hmm… that's nice…" I said, lying down in the corner of the saddle, falling asleep. Hmm… maybe I'll wake up to a nice warm chocolate milk… and this hasn't even happened… like it was a dream… but I don't want to have dream-friends… it would be nice to know that they were real… and that I wasn't alive in one world while I was dead in the other …
"How'd you get all the way out here?"
Huh-what? What happened? I could feel myself turning 'round and 'round in what I think is a bed.
"I ran away from home. We got in a storm. We were forced under the water of the ocean."
God who are these people talking? Can't they see I'm sleeping? Oh wow. Nice hut… Nice hammock… Wait… A hut? A hammock? I'm still here. In this world.
"Oh… um… I see…"
Whose voice is that…? OHMIGOD it's Katara's! I slowly sat up and stretched while watching the conversation between Iceberg-Boy and Katara.
"I wasn't very smart. I was just upset. Thanks for saving me-"
"Here's your bag, Annie." Katara suddenly said, tossing my duffel bag across the room.
I grabbed my bag, unzippered it, and started rummaging around for a hairbrush and mirror. "Thanks for the wake-up call," I laughed.
"Actually," the young boy said, "thanks to the three of you. You two guys and your brother. I probably should get home. They'll all be worried."
"You're not so upset?"
"Not as much as I was."
Crash, crash!
All of a sudden I could feel my hammock swinging like crazy, and I saw the furniture in the hut teeter and totter. Katara clung unto a nearby stable chair while the boy struggled to find his balance. My hammock finally gave way and I plunged to the floor, which in itself was shaking as if there was an earthquake. "What's happening?" The boy yelled when he lost control of his body and fell too.
Crash, crash!
And the little savior that he was, Sokka emerged through the entrance of the hut with some youngsters. "The Fire Nation is here."
Crash, crash!
"WHAT?" Katara yelled over the loud crash of every falling object in the room.
Crash, crash!
Sokka seemed nearly immune to the rumbles as he said that the Fire Nation brought ships. He briefly counted all of the little ones, like he was doing roll call, and told them to stay put until he said it was safe.
Crash, crash!
The rumbling stopped. The last vases and plates to fall off fell, but otherwise, everything stayed put.
"Is something wrong?" The boy yelled again once he saw Katara move out of the entrance. Apparently the crashing was still going on in his head.
She looked back, "No. Just wait here. You too, Annie," she said, looking at me when I made a move to get up. I squatted, but after she left I tip-toed to the doorway. I wanted to know what was going on, why I was kept from my curiosity, and why it seemed so dangerous that the toddlers were sent to this one room. I mean, where were their parents? Can't they protect them? When was I demoted to babysitter?
"I NEED TO GO POTTY-"
"Shhh!" I turned to hush the child. "Let Auntie Annie listen to what is going on."
I peeked my head out the window, and saw Katara and Sokka not far off. Sokka apparently look disgruntled.
"It can't be coincidence that we find her stalking us, that we break him out of the ice, light shoots into the sky and now the Fire Nation is here."
Looks like I lost Sokka's trust. I didn't even do anything and he just assumes that I'm Fire Nation, again. Well, I did follow them…
…So THIS is the Fire Nation… Men in black and red were surrounding the perimeter, like the police after cornering their convict their hideout. The leader, wearing a more decorative parka than the others, took off his helmet. I need a freaking parka more than him. Sokka, realizing that at the moment he could use his boomerang to knock out the leader, readied himself. But Katara apparently thought of the consequences of getting the enemy angry. Suddenly I started thinking of how she belonged to the Southern Water Tribe, and was a waterbender. Putting two and two together, I figured that the invaders were firebenders, and that the Earth Kingdom Katara mentioned a while ago consisted of citizens who were earthbenders.
"I NEED TO POTTY-"
"Shhh!" This time it didn't come from me, but Iceberg-Boy, who found himself eavesdropping alongside me. He evidently found the leader's speech interesting.
"I am Prince Zuko…"
A prince, huh? From here he looks kind of cute… But then again, aren't all princes like that?
"… son of Fire Lord Ozai and heir to the throne!"
Yeah, erm, I kind of figured that out when you declared yourself "Prince."
"Bring me ALL your elderly!"
That sentence was unexpected. All of Prince Zuko's men barged into the huts each of them taking out the oldest of the village. One of the men started walking toward our hut, and the boy and I made a quick dash to the opposite side of the room to comfort the kids. The boy put his hood back on, hiding his tattoos. But then the man came into our hut. Immediately the kids stared him down, while Iceberg-Boy pushed his hood down lower and I looked away from the intruder. We thought he would leave, but then realizing how suspicious it was for a boy to keep a hoodie on indoors, removed it. He also looked at me hard enough to think that a dozen or so girls in this village were wearing parkas, while I was wearing a blazer and an above-the-knee skirt.
There was a brief struggle involving some loud screaming (the kids) and yelling (me). The man dragged both of us out, the boy by his hood, and I by the collar. As the helpless feeling came back to me, I started waiting for the guy's grip to loosen. It was the number one sign that he was either getting tired of lugging us around, or wasn't careful enough to realize that I might literally slip through his fingers. When it did, I grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back. Thankfully he let go of the boy and instead started yelling in agony. Unfortunately this captured the attention of the men posted at nearby huts. With more rushing toward me, I hastily let go and instead stuck my leg out in front to trip him and buy some time to escape. I heard a sickening crack, and knew that I must have broken one of the man's bones. Here comes that guilty feeling…
The Iceberg-Boy and I stood back-to-back, facing the circle of opponents that was slowly closing in on us. Looking at the situation, I realized that nothing in my martial arts career has trained me for this. I realized that my sensei has trained me to defend myself against my peers, not against those of higher authority. I don't think my instructor, or even myself, could have foreseen the predicament that I am in right now. And it soon dawned upon me, that staying in this world might mean even more scary, adrenaline-rushing, and near-death experiences. Given my downfall against Julian Garcia, I wasn't sure if I could handle anything.
Stupid Julian had to make me mad the night I "died"… Stupid Julian had me lost in my thoughts and run over by a bus the night I "died"… Stupid Julian had me stuck in this world the night I "died"… Stupid Julian was the reason I was going to die here, of all places…
"You know, I just realized we never had a proper introduction," the boy said, snapping me out of my revere.
"Actually, introducing each other now still wouldn't be proper, if that's what you're thinking."
And the boy, a mind-reader I suppose, laughed and said "I'm Aang, of the Southern Air Temple. You don't have to tell who you are, your friends Katara and Sokka already told me."
"So you're an airbender? Well, now that we know each other, I suppose we're going to die as acquaintances." I said, unusually unoptimistic. It's not my problem, it's the fact that the circle of Fire Nation soldiers were but five feet away from our necks.
"Die? No! You have a weapon, right?" Four feet away from our necks.
"No. It's in my duffel bag. Where's your staff?" Three feet away.
I could feel Aang remove himself from his formation, so I did too. And yet before even tuning around to face him, I could feel his tension vibrating off him. "It's in the hut…" Two feet away.
At one feet they unleashed their spears (does everyone in this world have 'em?) pointing them toward our necks. It was obvious that we were to go or die. Hesitantly and slowly, Aang and I rose up our hands in surrender. As soon as we made it clear, most of men went back to their posts, while two left behind. One made us walk in front of him towards Prince Zuko with our hands tied, the other stayed behind with my duffel bag and Aang's staff. Upon reaching the prince, Aang had already put back on his hood. Pushing us to kneel on our knees, the man gave a brief description of why we were brought forth.
ZUKO'S POV
Just standing there and watching everything take place, yes I did in fact feel a little guilty.
The girl who was fighting, the one without a parka, couldn't stand a chance against the six of my men who circled around her and the boy. She's a cutie, that's for sure. Tanned skin, black wavy hair, above-the-knee skirt… Yeah, a total cutie. And maybe it was because of her cuteness that I didn't want to look at her when the the soldiers pointed their spears at their throat. Or maybe I just didn't want to fall in love now, when I'm so close to finding the Avatar. But can't a girl be an Avatar? Anyone's capable. And not many girls I've seen so far can fight like that... Except maybe for Azula, nobody can beat her…
ANASTASIA'S POV
Ohmigod, Prince Zuko is cuter up close… I still don't like him because of his men arresting me, though…
"Prince Zuko, these two resisted arrest. The boy has tattoos that are obsolete in the Southern Water Tribe customs. The girl wears clothes that are nontraditional in any village I've seen. They both seem to exhibit superior fighting skills, with the girl exhibiting the most advanced ability and was able to break the ankle of Lieutenant Jing-"
Guiltiness… I could feel myself being overwhelmed over everything that has passed, and sense everyone's eyes fall on me as I cried out, "YOU'RE SCARING ALL THESE PEOPLE! YOU MONSTER!" And it must have been true, because next thing I knew I felt a slap on the side of my face, coming from what I believed to be the man who brought me here. I think he was supposed to knock me out but miscalculated and figured that a dainty little girl was supposed to get a tiny hit.
The prince, who was looking at Aang's hood the whole time, made him take it off. Upon revealing the tattoos, Prince Zuko seemed to do a double-take. His eyes looked rapidly from Aang's tattoos, to his clothes. Then from me he looked at what remained of the markings of the slap, to my clothes. He seemed furious has he yelled down at us, "Who are you two? WHAT ARE YOUR NAMES?"
"We don't need to tell you anything." After learning my last lesson in obedience to the authorities, I kept shut. Aang apparently didn't seem inclined to do such a thing.
"FIREBENDERS! I'm taking you and your little girlfriend to my ship-"
Woah what? I'm nobody's girlfriend! Yet…
"-If you don't come, I'll burn down this village."
Aang and I looked at each other, and since it may have been possible to tell I was afraid of getting a harder slap, Aang spoke as leader of our little duo. "We'll go with you. Just don't hurt anyone."
Prince Zuko relaxed a bit, but not totally. Leading the way, the men pushed us forward. So this is how it's going to be… Rotting in a dungeon cell, being tortured, interrogated, or hanged… I looked back on the Southern Water Tribe. At least it was a beautiful place to see…
Thought #7: For sure, I will die here.