***PLEASE READ THIS FIRST***
I just wanted to give you guys a heads up and let you know that I've started school, which unfortunately means that updates will be coming in a bit slower than they have been (which quite frankly have been pretty decent for this story- so far). My goal is to update every Saturday OR Sunday, more than likely it will never be both. BUT I should be graduating in December, so this busy business won't last forever.
Thank you for reading! Please leave a review and recommend this story to your friends!
Chapter Five
The Warriors of Kyoshi
"You have no idea where you're going do you?"
Lian turned to look towards Sokka, who was seated next to her on the saddle- but a safe distance of two or three feet away- and then looked towards Aang, who was currently holding Appa's reigns with Momo sitting on his shoulder. Katara was busy sewing Sokka's pants, and didn't look up from her work.
Aang turned his head back to look at Sokka, and sent his friends and gave a small, slow shrug of his shoulders that made Lian raise an eyebrow at him.
"Weelll, I know it's near water…" Aang said as Lian cast a look over the side of the saddle, and smirked.
"Well. We must be getting close then." Lian laughed as her blonde hair flew about in the wind. Sokka sent Lian and Aang a dry look, and then looked back down at the map with a huff as Lian turned back around in her spot, and crossed her legs so that she was sitting Indian style, and began to play with a little ball of fire on the tip of her pointer finger. When she saw Katara pull her needle back from the corner of her eye, she glanced up at the water bender, and watched as she sewed with interest.
After a few moments of watching, Aang spoke, and Lian looked towards him to discover that he had been watching Katara as well.
"Momo, marbles please." Aang asked the lemur politely as he smiled at Momo, who chattered in response, and then dove into Aang's robe, causing Lian to watch with a slightly surprised look on her face as Momo popped back out a moment later with a tiny, shining, gray marble, which Aang takes with a thank you, and then turns to look back at Katara.
Lian began to smirk as she watched Aang smile at Katara, and then chirp happily.
"Hey Katara! Check out this airbending trick!" Aang spoke with glee as he suspended the marble between his hands in mid-air, and then made it whirl around so quickly that it became a blur. Lian watches with interest, but Katara does not look up from her work, and Aang's expression falls.
"That's great Aang." Katara replied absentmindedly as she continued to sew. Lian noticed Aang's face fall at her response, and he stopped spinning the marble as Lian looked towards Katara.
"You didn't even look." Aang said, the crushed tone was evident to Lian, and she turned back to Aang as Katara finally looked up, and sent Aang a small smile.
"That's great!" Katara chirped.
"But I'm not doing it now." Aang frowned as Lian reached out, and smiled at him.
"I thought it was pretty cool, Aang." Lian smiled, causing Aang's expression to brighten slightly, although, Lian could still tell that he was upset that Katara hadn't paid attention to him.
Sokka made a sound from his spot next to Lian, and Aang and Lian looked towards him. He was laying back with his hands behind his head and his feet propped up on a sleeping bag, but then waved a hand at Katara, who was back to fixing Sokka's pants.
"Stop bugging her, airhead." Sokka spoke as he gazed up at the clouds with a flippant expression. "You need to give girls space when they do their sewing." He finished.
Lian and Katara's expressions changed on a silver piece, and both of them glared at him with a warning of danger in their eyes.
"What does being a girl have to do with sewing?" Lian spat as she glared at Sokka, who only turned a lazy eye towards Lian, and then waved a hand at her dismissively, causing Lian's eyebrows to shoot up at his gesture.
"Simple: girls are better at fixing pants than guys, and guys are better at hunting and fighting and stuff like that." Sokka replied nonchalantly. Lian could feel her anger rising as Katara and she continued to glare at him. "It's just the natural order of things." He shrugged as Katara bundled the pants up in her hands angrily.
"Really?" Lian spat with an obviously false sweetness to her voice that caused Sokka to turn his head towards her. "Because I've never sewn a day in my life, and I've always been able to hunt and fight."
Sokka scoffed, and looked back towards the clouds.
"Yeah, right." He practically laughed. Lian growled, and small bursts of fire spouted from her hands as she turned her back to Sokka, and leaned on the side of the saddle. Aang watched her for a moment with raised eyebrows, and then looked back towards Katara and Sokka when he saw Sokka's pants land on the water tribe boy's head.
"All done with your pants!" Katara snapped with exaggerated happiness, just as Lian had. "And look what a great job I did!"
Lian cast a glance at Sokka at Katara's words, and gave a quiet snigger as she watched Sokka yank the pants off of his head, and stick his hand through the giant hole in the seat of the pants.
"Wait! I was kidding! I can't wear these!" He cried out as he shook the pants with his hand still through the hole.
"Don't worry Sokka, where we're going, you won't need any pants!" Aang chirped from Appa's reigns as he guided the troop down towards an crescent shaped island with snowcapped mountains. Lian watched curiously as they came closer and closer, until finally Appa landed on the beach, and she practically rolled about on the ground in glee.
"Did I mention I hate flying?" Lian chirped from her spot in the sand as she made a sand angel, and smiled up at the sun. Sokka looked down at her with a deadpan expression, and Katara just gave a small chuckle as Aang jumped off of Appa's head, and landed gently nearby and pet Appa's nose.
Momo chattered, ran to Lian, and laid out next to her and began making his own sand angel.
"Have fun getting all of that sand off of you." Katara chuckled as she watched Lian roll off of her current sand angel just to make another. Lian just shrugged, and continued merrily without a care in the world.
Finally Sokka looked away from Lian, and looked towards Aang, who was beyond excited about riding the elephant koi.
"We just made a pit stop yesterday. Shouldn't we get more flying done before we camp out?" He questioned, causing Lian to sit up abruptly with a frown on her face, and sand flying everywhere.
"He's right. At this rate we won't get to the North Pole until spring." Katara added, causing Lian to fold her arms, and glare at the two.
"What's wrong with being on land for a little bit?" Lian almost whined as Sokka looked back at her with a raised eyebrow. The girl was coated in sand from head to toe.
"But Appa's tired already." Aang lied as he leaned over towards Appa, and elbowed him as Lian plopped back into the sand with a content sigh. "Aren't you, boy?"
When Appa didn't comply with Aang's less than discreet nudge, Aang elbowed him again.
"I said aren't you, boy?" Aang emphasized as Appa turned his large head slightly towards Aang, and then gave a less than convincing yawn that Lian chuckled at from her place in the sand.
Sokka sent the two a look, and then shrugged.
"Yep, that was real convincing. Still, hard to argue with a ten ton magical monster." Sokka sighed as he watched Aang move towards the bay, and then glanced at Lian, who was still coated with sand.
"Aren't you going to get that off of you?" Sokka suddenly asked Lian, causing her to open an eye at him, and then close it as she allowed to sun to warm her.
Lian shook her head, causing more sand to collect in her hair.
"Nope." She replied, popping the 'p' with a smirk on her face. Sokka just frowned, and then moved towards the bay with Aang.
Lian finally sat up when Katara and Sokka moved away, and then stood to shake the sand off of her clothes, taking the time to shake out her shirt, then her pants, and then take off her shoes and let the sand flow out as she heard Aang splash about in the water.
Lian glanced up, and saw Aang swimming towards the elephant koi swimming in the bay, and then returned to shaking the sand out of her shoes. She then moved onto her hair as Katara cheered Aang on, and leaned over to shake it out with her hands.
A whole sandcastle might has well of fallen out of her hair as Momo began to shake out next to her.
"Maybe that wasn't such a good idea…" Lian pondered quietly as she continued to shake sand out of her golden locks. Momo chirped next to her in agreement, and she chuckled.
Lian looked down at the lemur, and watched as he reached into his massive ear with is paw and began to scoop out a ridiculous amount of sand.
"Regretting it now too, huh?" She asked Momo with a smirk, who looked up at the Princess with his wide green eyes that showed no sign of understanding.
Lian was about to begin plaiting her when Sokka shouted in alarm, and Katara came running back.
"There's something in the water!" Sokka shouted as Lian began to run towards them, her hair bouncing and occasionally releasing more sand as she approached, and stopped next to Sokka.
Katara stood next to her brother, and watched the water where Aang was riding on the elephant koi with wide eyes. Lian scanned the water around Aang, and her eyes landed on a shadow quickly approaching the elephant koi behind Aang.
"What's wrong?" She asked with a slightly alarmed tone to her voice.
"Aang's in trouble." Sokka replied as the three moved closer to the bay.
Lian's feet plopped into the water, and she began to shout towards Aang with her hands cupped around her mouth.
"Get out of there!" Lian shouted at the top of her lungs as Sokka and Katara began to join in.
Aang saw them, but he waved and smiled, obviously misinterpreting their frantic gestures.
The elephant koi suddenly bucked, and Lian cringed as Aang went flying off of the giant creature, and flew headlong into the bay.
For a moment, he stayed underwater, and then, to Lian, Katara, and Sokka's relief, he popped back up, spat out some water, and continued to gasp for air.
But just as the trio on the beach began to believe that Aang was finally safe- an enormous fin began to emerge out of the water.
Lian moved further into the water, which was now up to her knees, and shouted at Aang in alarm along with Sokka and Katara, whom were practically screaming and jumping up in down.
"AANG MOVE!" Lian screamed as she frantically waved her arms.
Aang finally turned around and saw the fin, and almost comically- if his life hadn't been in danger- he leapt to the surface of the water, and with his airbender, ran on the surface full speed, and even once he was free of danger and the creature retreated, he continued to run, causing him to run full speed into Sokka, and catapult the two into the tree line with a loud grunt.
Lian splashed her way out of the water, and moved towards the two boys as their heads spun.
"You okay?" Lian asked as she held out a hand to Aang, and Katara to Sokka. Aang did a quick check of his limbs, and then held up a thumbs up to Lian, who sighed in relief.
"What was that thing?" Katara asked as she looked towards Aang and Lian. Both shrugged, and then Aang spoke.
"I don't know." He said as he looked out into the water. Lian didn't look, but instead walked over to Appa where Aang's clothes had been strewn all over the beach, and gathered them up for him in her arms.
"Well let's not stick around to find out," Sokka spoke as he wiped his hands together, and moved towards Appa as Lian walked towards Aang, and handed him his clothes. "Let's hit the road."
Aang began to dress as the troop began to walk towards Appa to prepare for their departure, but just as soon as Lian began to move forwards, she stops, causing Aang- who had been pulling his shirt on and was blind at the moment- to slam into her back, and then fall to the ground.
Lian, on the other hand, remained unfazed, and held up a hand to Katara and Sokka, whom were also behind her, and helping Aang up .
"What are you doing?" Sokka snapped. Lian quickly shushed him, and pushed her hand over his mouth to silence him. Aang finally yanked his shirt over his head, and looked up at Lian with a childish stare.
Lian's expression darkened as she concentrated on what she thought she heard, and then calmly pointed towards a branch above her, and glowered at it.
"I know you're there." Lian snarled as her pointed hand turned into a fist, and a fire dagger appeared in a burst of flame.
Sokka pushed Lian's hand away, and glared.
"There is no one-" But before the water tribe boy could finish, a green clad warrior appeared from the trees, and took him down with one swift move. Aang was snatched away by his shirt, and Katara had her own hood pulled over her eyes, and then was dragged away. Momo was even caught inside of a burlap bag, leaving Lian by herself, fire at the ready, and her nerves livewire.
Suddenly, a green clad warrior dove out behind her, thinking that she could take down Lian by surprise, but Lian spun around, and with a well executed spinning kick, pushing the warrior back when the arc of fire nearly burned her, and then took a swipe at the warrior with a fire dagger- successfully burning the warrior's uniform across the chest.
The warrior's comrades must have realized that the warrior was outmatched, and four more leapt out of the trees.
The first to attack was one with short brown hair, and a look of determination on her face that Lian had not seen on the other.
She took several swipes at Lian with her fan and her feet, but Lian dodged each attack with ease, and then caught the girl's foot with one hand, and roughly pushed her back, just to grimace as the girl flipped over expertly, and planted her feet back on the ground as her fellow warriors stepped in.
Lian quickly swung herself around low to the ground, attempting to stun the warriors by throwing a large arc of fire at their ankles, which three of them jumped over, but the other failed to notice, and fell back when her ankle was burned.
Lian dove between the warriors when they tried to converge on her, and once she was behind on of the warriors with long black hair held up in chopsticks, she jabbed the girl in the back with a quick succession of hits, and then pulled her out of the way by her shoulder, causing her to tumble back away from the fight, limp and useless.
"I don't want to hurt you!" Lian shouted as the brown haired warrior lunged at Lian again, and Lian continued to dodge her attacks. The girl was fast- Lian gave her that, but she wasn't fast enough.
Lian flipped backwards away from the girl, and successfully kicked the girl's fan out of her hand, causing it to fly off into the trees, leaving the girl with only her hands to fight with.
Lian stood in her ready position, her fists held out to them prepared to hit them with fire if she needed to, and sure enough, the warriors sprinted towards her.
"But I will if I have to." Lian said to herself more than the girls a she moved towards them, and in a quick succession, she moved herself between the girls without a single one of them touching her, and then fired off several shots of fire that formed into arcs that were sharp as swords at them, which all of them where lucky enough to dodge.
But just as Lian was about to attack again, someone shouted from above her, and when she looked up, she was greeted with a heavy stream of water, and blinded long enough for the warriors to throw a sack over her head, and bind her hands.
"I knew they were spies." One of the warriors spoke as Lian was roughly pulled to her feet, and practically dragged since her feet were bound.
Lian grumbled under the sack, and in a last ditch effort to break free, she raised her internal body heat to the point where her skin was radiating heat, and the warriors holding her by her arms yelped loudly as their hands were burned by her skin through their gloves. Lian fell to the ground with a grunt, and then tried to undo her bindings before the warriors recovered.
But just a moment later, Lian was hit over the head with a fan, and her vision swimmed. She groaned, and continued to squirm effortlessly as the warriors watched her.
Stay awake. She told herself as she felt her eyes drooping. Stay… awake. Stay… awake…
Lian finally went out, and she was dragged away by the Warriors in green.
-0-
When Lian finally opened her eyes, she was surprised to see that she was no longer blind folded- but was even more surprised when she turned her head slightly, and noticed a window, and that the sun had gone down a long time ago. Her head ached, and her eyes felt heavy from sleep, although she didn't remember falling asleep.
She experimentally moved her hands, and then quickly brought them around in surprise. She wasn't blindfolded, nor kept in a cell, or bound. So what exactly was going on?
"Lian?" A drowsy voice asked from nearby behind Lian. She spun around on what she discovered to be a bed, not a slab of rock in a prison cell, and spotted none other than Sokka sitting up in a bed just like Lian's, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Lian looked around, and noticed Katara and Aang laying in two other beds, both sound asleep, Momo was even curled up over Aang's eyes. A small fire was in the middle of the room with stones surrounding it to keep it contained.
"Where are we? What happened?" Lian asked quickly as she reached up to rub her achy head, and pulled up the blanked that had been over her with the other.
Sokka yawned, and smacked his lips a few times before staring at Lian with droopy eyes, and then finally answering.
"We were captured by the Kyoshi Warriors. A bunch of girls." Sokka would have spat if he wasn't so tired from just waking up. "They brought us back here and tied us up against this statue of Avatar Kyoshi, and then accused us of being fire nation spies."
Lian sighed, and looked down at her feet, which were uncovered. She wondered where her shoes where for a moment before he mind came back to the accusation the warriors had thrown at Katara, Aang, and Sokka.
"And they wouldn't listen to you because I let them see me fire bend." Lian sighed as she placed her face in her hands, and rested her elbows on her knees. "I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking. My first reaction was to fight back." She sounded so small at the moment, and it stunned Sokka, whose tired eyes widened significantly at the fire bender before him.
Sokka sat up in his own bed, and allowed his legs to hang over the side.
"Lian, they listened to us. Or, really, they listened to Mr. Avatar over there." Sokka explained as he pointed a thumb at Aang, who was now snoring rather loudly with a comical spit bubble inflating and deflating as he breathed.
Lian looked up, and her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets in shock.
"Really? How did you explain me?" She asked as she pushed back a strand of hair that had been hanging in her face. Sokka seemed to freeze for a moment, but then looked away from Lian, and cleared his throat.
"We, uh, we explained your situation. Aang vouched for you. Katara vouched for you… and um…" He muttered something that Lian couldn't understand, and she leaned forwards from her spot on her bed.
"And what?" She asked as she watched Sokka scratch the back of his head. From what she had come to learn over the past three days, based off of how he acted towards her, this wasn't like him. He was usually so cross with Lian it drove her insane.
"…Nothing. Basically, we're okay. But try to avoid any firebending around the villagers, alright?" Sokka asked of her as Lian looked back down at her hands with a frown.
She sighed, but nodded.
"No bending." She sighed as she lowered her hands, and then looked down at her legs. "Got it."
It was then that she realized that she was in a set of earth kingdom clothes, and snatched a piece of the green garment she was now wearing. She made a small sound of surprise as Sokka watched with a confused expression, and then looked up at Sokka with wide eyes.
"Who changed me?" Lian asked with alarm as she shook the loose earth kingdom clothing in her hand. Sokka just nodded towards the sleeping Katara, whose back was towards them, and Lian gave a sigh of relief, and began to inspect the Earth kingdom clothing again. It was soft, just like her royal fire nation clothes, but it was such a strange color to Lian that it threw her off terribly.
"Katara didn't want you sleeping in wet clothes." He motioned towards the fire pit, where Lian now realized her clothes were laid out in front of on top of the stones. "She didn't want you to get sick, and, you'll probably need a new set of clothes anyway."
Lian looked up with her eyebrow cocked, and frowned at Sokka.
"What's wrong with my clothes?" She asked as she released the loose fabric in her hands, and motioned towards her scarlet and gold garments. Sokka just rolled his eyes, and pointed at the clothes she was wearing now.
"Those will help you blend in, and those-"he pointed at the fire nation clothes drying next to the fire. "Will make you stick out like a sore thumb- more than you already do." Lian's expression of confusion was replaced with a glare at the subtle mention of her abnormal hair, and she reached up to pull up her hood- just to realize that the clothes she was wearing didn't have one. Lian patted her shoulders a bit awkwardly, and then placed them back in her lap with an irritated huff.
"What was that for?" Sokka asked before he even realized he wanted to. He sunk back a bit when Lian looked at him with a look of distaste. The Princess was obviously bothered that she didn't have her comforting hood like she did on every single one of her Fire Nation clothes, and crossed her arms.
"I've always had a hood on my clothes." She grumbled as she fiddled with the Earth Kingdom clothes- which she suddenly despised.
Sokka looked perplexed, and even though he knew it was probably not the best idea, he asked her another question anyway.
"Why?" Sokka turned his head slightly as Aang rolled over in his sleep, causing Momo to tumble off of his face, and fall onto the floor with a thud. Lian and Sokka didn't look towards the lemur, or acknowledge that he had fallen.
Lian just pointed up towards her hair, and then grabbed a piece of it with a grimace on her face. Sokka just watched as his expression softened a little, and the firebender's eyes seemed to glaze over at a memory.
"My father was ashamed of my hair. Whenever we went in public, or I was in his presence, I wasn't allowed to go without my hood." She answered quietly. So quietly, in fact, that Sokka had to lean over slightly to hear her.
"He went so far as to have the servants wash my hair with ink when we visited my grandfather once." She closed her eyes, and pursed her lips as she turned her face slightly away from Sokka, and dropped the long strand of hair in her hand as if it had burned her. "I remember because the first and last time they did, it burned, and I nearly ripped all of my hair out and burned the bath house down."
Sokka didn't say a word, but his expression said it all.
How could a father be so ashamed by his own daughter?
"I don't want to talk anymore, Sokka." She sighed as she turned away from him, and began to settle herself into the bed by pulling the blankets over her all the way up to her ears. Sokka assumed it was because she didn't have her hood to comfort her. He remained sitting up for a moment, and reached over to the bucket next to the fire, and just as he was about to pour it, the fire suddenly began to die, just as Lian closed her eyes, and buried her face into her pillow.
Sokka watched the fire slowly burn out in surprise, and then looked towards Lian, whose back was still turned to him.
"Thanks." Sokka said quietly as he put the bucket down, and then moved back onto his bed to lie down, and go to sleep himself.
"Don't mention it." Lian replied quietly as the room seemed to darken around them.
There were a few moments of silence between the two, and Katara and Aang's steady breathing, and snoring.
"I think your hair is …nice-looking." Sokka said quietly, but also stiffly. He didn't mean to sound fatuous, but it certainly sounded that way since Sokka wasn't used to speaking to Lian, let alone giving her a compliment in an attempt to make her feel a little less like she didn't belong.
"Yeah… right." Lian just said in reply as she pulled the blankets over her head, and desperately wished for a hood.
-0-
I hope you guys liked it! Please leave a review and follow!