Gyatso and Kara: Prodigies of an Avatar

By:Leelee488512

Chapter 38- Thick

Topaz' body hit the ground with a smack. She let out a loud grunt and winced, looking up at the dirt surrounding her. Gritting her teeth, she tried to get back up, but a sharp pain ran up her back. It felt as though someone was stabbing her with a two foot knife in the spine.

Her striking green eyes wandered as far as they could go, trying to locate anybody that she knew. She bit her lip to keep quiet, knowing that any sound could distract her group or lead Fong to her injured body. I can't wait for somebody to find me here forever, she thought, feeling the dirt of the training area. It was comforting to have the sand and grain on her arms even though it burned her skin. She moved her arms back and forth and braced herself for the pain that was about to receive in a short moment. Sliding her knees up, Topaz wrapped her arms around her legs and pulled up. Tears welled up in her eyes, but she dared not let them fall. Planting her fingers on the dirt, Topaz pushed herself back, moving backwards despite the pain.

Repeatedly she did this until her back hit tall structure. She looked over, through her now messed up long, dark hair, to see a, what she thought, door. Seeing a chance to escape, Topaz began to push the door with all of the strength that God had given her to no avail. Looking forward, she saw all of the fighting in front of her with a small frown. Never in her entire life had her lip quivered, but that soon changed. The usually stoic girl had the strongest desire to cry, to sob. She closed her eyes and bit the inside of her lip until it burst with thick, red blood.

Suddenly, a warm hand landed on her shoulder and she spun her head over, her body tensing. When she saw Iroh's golden eyes, her body relaxed. His cheek was bleeding a bit right under his eye and there was dirt all over his face and chest.

"Topaz. . ." He whispered looking her over. His already frantic expression turned worried as he bent down to speak to her face to face.

"What is it?" She said, her voice cracking. All of the pain that she held inside was oozing out as she spoke. That was the real reason why she hadn't spoken before-she was not only afraid of getting caught, but afraid of showing her fear.

Iroh bent down and took her hands softly in his and turned them over, palms up, licking his lips. His index finger traced every outline of them, looking up at his friend as she winced softly.

"Your hands . . . they're cut, bleeding . . . hurt." He sighed, looking at the blood that had gotten on his fingers. He brought her hands up to his face and started blowing on them tenderly.

"Iroh, that hurts!" She mumbled, shuffling in her place. The hot air coming out of Iroh's mouth wasn't very comfortable in more ways than one.

"I'm trying to blow the glass out of your cuts."

"Glass?"

"Yes, glass. Some idiot shattered a few windows with their stupid rocks-"

"Rocks aren't stupid." Topaz interrupted with a small smile.

"Fine. Some idiot shattered a few windows with their slow rocks and the shards got all over the battlefield. I'm guessing that. . ." He started to blow again. By then, the air was comforting on her wounds and she relaxed her hands.

"You're guessing what?"

"Topaz, did you slide over to this spot?"

"Yes." She didn't want to tell Iroh that it hurt to try and get up.

"Why is that?"

Iroh and his stupid questions, darn it, Topaz thought rolling her light green eyes at him. Can't you shut up and keep blowing?

"I can't get up." She mumbled, looking down at the ground.

"So you pushed yourself down here, your hands planted on the dirt?"

"Yes I did."

"Well, I'm guessing that you didn't notice the pain from the glass stabbing your hands or mistook it for the pain that you were getting from moving."

"Congratulations, Iroh, you cracked a case!" Topaz smiled, sarcastically. That earned her fierce blowing from Iroh.

"Ouch!" She whispered sharply. "You didn't have to do that, you know!"

"Oh I know that." Iroh smirked, looking up at Topaz with a mischievous gleam in his golden eyes. "I just thought that you deserved that for giving me attitude."

"Shut up and pick me up already." Topaz joked, feeling a little bit airy again.

Iroh moved back, letting go of her hands and wrapping one of his around her waist and the other under her knees to hoist her up. She gasped when he picked her up, not even thinking twice about it; she had forgotten how strong he was. Surprisingly, her back didn't hurt when he picked her up. She placed her hands lightly on the back of his neck. He looked over, down her shoulders to her hands. Blood dripped down his neck, attaching to the hairs on the back of his neck. The blood was warm and had small pieces of glass running down it, pinching him on the neck.

"Topaz, squeeze your hands." Iroh mumbled walking over to the corner of the arena.

"What? Why?"

"You're bleeding-you need to squeeze your hands to make the blood clot and stop-"

"I know what a blood clot is, Iroh." She sighed, squeezing her hands. It was painful, but worth it, for the blood didn't drip any longer.

Well, this was supposed to be longer, but I thought "hey, just this part is fine". I'm in the process of writing the chapter with this one, so expect more than just two characters in that one. Did you like the Topaz/Iroh tag-team thing? I had no idea what to write about for the battle, and then I was like "why include fighting at first? That's what everybody expects me to do!"so I did the opposite. I felt that the characters were kind of getting lost, and I needed to pull their personalities back. A story, metaphor coming, is like New York City-either a melting pot or a salad bowl. The good ones are salad bowls because the plot and characters are different, but fit in perfectly together. The bland ones are melting pots because it's a good book, but nobody stands out in the big picture. I was kinda afraid that this is becoming a melting pot, so I brought out its salad bowl features. . . Nerd vomit. Sorry.

God Bless,

Leelee488512