Hello all my Lovelies!
So I'm going to just jump right into this one. Not too long of an intro other than this chapter is going to pick up where the other left off, and sorry I'm not sorry about that cliff hanger!
But anyways, Happy Reading!
ALICE'S POV – Flash Back
"My name is Chan, my lady," He sat down on the floor of his cell. I sat on the bench next to the cell.
"Well, Chan, there is something I want to talk to you about." I crossed my arms and tried to look as serious as possible.
He nodded, "Ask me anything, my lady, I promised Lady Felicity to help you," He smiled kindly to me. It was like he knew me, which was kinda weird, but then again he was traveling with Felicity all this time.
"You're friends with my sister, right?"
He smiled again and nodded, "Yes, my lady."
"You don't have to call me that," I wish he would stop smiling and being so sweet I'm trying to get some serious answers, but when he smiles with those big goldish brown eyes and dimples I can't concentrate.
Why did the Fire nation have to have such beautiful people? Zuko is gorgeous, Ty Lee, Mai, and Azula are strong and beautiful, even the Fire Lord is hot, evil but hot. Then there's this guy with his long black hair braided in a thin braid over his shoulder. He was built like a firebender, tall, fair-skinned like Zuko, but his eyes were happy and they seemed to smile by themselves.
"My name is…."
"Alice, yes, I know. Lady Felicity talked a lot about you. I knew who you were the moment I saw you in the Oasis. You are just like Lady Felicity described, but far more beautiful," Chan just smiled up at me.
"Wait, what," My face turned bright red. I looked away from his smiling gaze. That was the last thing I thought he would say.
Suddenly his face became serious, "How are you healing? Are you feeling ok?" He sat up on his knees and leaned against the bars, "I've been praying for you to recover. I'm glad to see my prayers have reached you."
"I…." I looked down at my hands they were wrapped in bandages, and Chan had reached through the bars and laid his hand over mine, "I need to talk to someone, honestly. I don't think my friends would really understand, but you… you were with Felicity and you know her better than they do."
"What do you need to talk about?" He squeezed my hand gently, "Is it about the night at the Oasis, and how Lady Felicity told them where to find the Spirits?"
"Yes" I stared down at our hands, "I'm still so angry, so angry it hurts."
"I know you said you wouldn't forgive your sister, but you don't know how much she suffered when she thought she would never see you again," Chan let go of my hand, and clenched his hand into a fist around the bars. "She had these horrible dreams, you see. Lady Felicity, would scream out in the night in terror. One night it was so bad I could hear her all the way in the barrack quarters where I slept. She was screaming out your name."
I didn't know what to think of what I was hearing. Felicity isn't afraid of anything. Our oldest brother, Jayden, hates clowns, Michael is afraid of heights just like me, Jordan and I are terrified of spiders, and Liam doesn't like the sight of blood or snakes, but Felicity…she was never scared of any of that stuff. Why would she have nightmares? Then again she would always get so angry when I was bullied or when our grandmother showed favoritism. She never let me down, and I knew she, unlike everyone else, would never let me down.
The idea of her scared makes me scared, "Why was she having nightmares, and why was she screaming of me?" I wrapped my hand around the bar just above his hand.
"She was having nightmares over and over about never seeing you again and of you dying," He looked up at me with this sad hurt look in his eyes. "She thinks she's so strong, but at the mere thought of losing you…she falls apart into a thousand pieces so don't be mad at her. I know that night in the Oasis you said you wouldn't forgive her, but you have to because the two of you can't be without each other. You make each other stronger…."
"How do you know that?" I jerked up and snapped at him, "You don't know anything about us. Felicity is Loud and hyper, stubborn, messy, lazy, and she can overdo it with her teasing and be really annoying. She knows I hate to be tickled or having my toes popped, but she does it anyway and she knows just what to say to hurt me sometimes. I can only imagine what she does to Zuko." I jumped up and yelled at him. He just sat there on the floor and smiled up at me, the jerk. "She never lets me speak for myself, and she always interrupts. And…. What are you smiling for?"
"People who love each other always know the best and the worst things about each other," Chan stood up, dang he's so tall, he turned his back to me and leaned against the bars. "I bet she won't let anyone with negative intentions near you."
"She is the strong one, she always has been," I sled back down to the bench. I felt a wave of self-pity wash over me. I couldn't do anything.
"So, you forgive Lady Felicity?" Chan turned back around and sat on his knees next to me.
"Don't you get it? I'm not mad at her!" I let my head drop in my hands, "I'm mad at myself."
"What do you mean?" Chan reached out and put his hand on my knee.
I pushed his hand away, "She has always been so strong for me, and now that I finally have the power to protect myself but I'm still too weak to do anything. I couldn't do anything against Zhao. He walked right through me, and if Felicity hadn't stepped in I'd be dead. I trained with Pakku and Katara, even with Aang, but I couldn't stop Zhao."
"You can't blame yourself for that. Zhao is a firebending master. He's cruel and heartless. He would have killed you and me and anyone else that got in his way." Chan pressed his forehead to the bars. "He was even using me and the rest of the Prince's crew to keep Lady Felicity in line. He told her if she didn't do as he said he would kill us just like he killed Prince Zuko. He killed our Prince, the Fire Nation's Crown Prince, just because he was in the way." Chan looked like he could cry, he didn't know.
"Chan," I reached through the bars and tucked my fingers under his chin and lifted his face up to look at me. I did my best to smile and look happy it was hard to push the self-pity that I was choking on. "Zuko isn't dead."
"What?! How…"
"Zhao did try to kill Zuko, yes, but Zuko got out in time. He pretended to be dead so he could sneak in the Water Tribe, and kidnap the Avatar," I told him the whole story and he slowly began to smile more and more.
"I swear, my lady Alice, if these bars were not between us, I could kiss you," Chan reached through the bars and touched my cheek.
"What," I backed up and blushed. "Why would you want to do something like that?"
"You are in pain, but you put it aside to tell me about, Prince Zuko, my friend, still being alive," he grinned at me for a moment. "You're kind-hearted and very beautiful."
"M..Me b. ..beautiful?" I backed up farther and tripped over the edge of the bench and fell back on my butt. "Ouch!" Perfect, I fall over and land on my butt in front of him, and other than Zuko and Sokka he's one of the hottest guys, and he thinks I'm beautiful. I mean he really said it out loud and to my face. "Well, this is awkward."
"Are you alright?" Chan was standing in his cell looking over at me.
I jumped up, "I mean me awkward! You're not awkward, you're gorgeous…." I face palmed myself…. Did I really just pull an Ana?
Chan laughed for a moment, "Well, I'm glad you're alright." He sat back down.
"Answer something for me," I sat back down, "Why did you surrender? You could have dropped me and ran, but you took me all the way to the guarded healers and surrendered. Why?"
"Because," He sat down and crossed his legs again, "I promised Lady Felicity I would get you to safety. You are her sister, so you will always have me as an ally."
This guy, no one is this sweet. He is so kind and handsome and he wants to do what's best for his friends. "Well, I…um is it okay if I come see you again? If I need to talk again?"
"Of course," Chan stood up and reached out through the bars and took my hand, "I'll be here whenever you need me."
ALICE'S POV – Normal Time
"Alice are you listening to me?" Katara called as she reached out and touched my shoulder.
I jerked back to the real world. I don't know why I started thinking about him? Okay, I'm not going to lie I do know why I started thinking about him, but why now all of a sudden. I must have talked to him a dozen times, but all of a sudden Chan just popped into my head and I couldn't get him out.
"Sorry about that guys," I laughed as I rubbed the back of my head, "I have a lot on my mind."
"By a lot on your mind do you mean that cute firebender back in the Water Tribe?" Katara teased.
Sokka stared to steam over as soon as Katara brought up Chan, "How can you two think a guy like that is cute? He is a firebender from the Fire Nation."
Katara pushed Sokka to the side, "You are just mad that Alice…."
"Hey look there is the town!" Aang called from Appa's head. "Is that the one?"
"Yeah, that's the one. You don't recognize the wall of rock from the volcano and the clouds?" Sokka pulled his map from his bag and studied it closely.
"How could he recognize the clouds?" I gave him a confused look.
He just waved his arms in a weird 'fake bending' motion, "You know, because he and Katara bent them to make the shapes, remember."
"Oh, I remember!" I looked down at the buildings, "I can never forget, unfortunately."
Aang landed Appa near the market of the Katara and Sokka both hopped down, and I passed things down to them.
"We don't need to unload everything. After we get supplies we'll head out." Sokka called up to me. "Come on and hop down. Don't worry, I'll catch you."
Katara crossed her arms again, "We have to meet up with them first. They said in their message it was very important, Sokka. Don't forget that."
"Right, right, I don't know why we have to come back to this place again. They could've just told us in their message. I don't get these people, and they think fortunetelling will solve everything," Sokka huffed.
"I'm coming down now, guys," I warned.
"All right," Sokka reached up to help me climb down. When I felt his hand brush the back of my leg I jumped. I lost my grip on the saddle and came sliding down Appa side. Luckily, Sokka managed to catch me. "You alright, Alice?"
"I'm fine," I jumped up and brushed myself off, "I'm fine. I'm cool, I'm fine!"
They all laughed at me for a while before we headed into the market. We really did need to resupply, but I was growing more and more curious to why Aunt Wu sent for us. Sokka was right, they really could have just explained in their message.
So, we made our why through the market gathering supplies as we went. The people here remembered us, and we were able to get our supplies without charge.
"Alice! You guys!" Someone called for us down the street. Meng was up from Aunt Wu's house. She looked excited to see us, "Finally, you're here! Aunt Wu has so much to tell you, Alice!"
"Me," I was completely confused. I looked over my shoulder at Katara and she looked just as confused as me. "Why does Aunt Wu want to see me?"
"No time to explain, let's go," Meng grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the shop. "It's very important, nothing like this has ever happened before."
"Wait, Meng!" Katara yelled after us.
"What are you talking about, Meng, this is really confusing," I tried to pull away, but she wasn't letting go of my arm. She pulled me all the way into the shop and made me sit down.
"You wait right here! I'll go get Aunt Wu," As Meng ran off her hair bounced up and down. I rubbed my wrist. Katara, Aang, and Sokka finally caught up and sat down with me in the shop. She held onto it pretty hard. This was really weird, what could be so important that Meng nearly squeezed my hand off to get me to the shop? All of this is starting to freak me out a bit.
Just then a young couple left the back room with Aunt Wu.
"Oh, thank you, Aunt Wu," The young woman glowed.
The young man looked happy yet had a protective air to him, "And you are sure it's a boy, and he is going to be healthy?"
"Yes, the picture of health," Aunt Wu smiled and opened the door for them.
"Congratulations," Aang waved goodbye to the couple.
When she saw me sitting there she looked really nervous of a sudden. "Ah, hello, Alice. It's good to see you again." She hurried back to her fortunetelling room, and waved at me to follow her.
I stood up, and let her lead me, "Hello, Aunt Wu, so what is this all about?" I looked back at the Gaang, "Don't leave me alone!" I whispered to them.
Katara jumped up and back handed Sokka when he didn't stand up.
"Well you see, Alice," Aunt Wu reached down and picked up a bowl, "It's about your bone…."
"My bone? You called us here for my bone?" I looked down in the bowl. There was a bone in the bowl, but it was in three piece.
"Why is it broken?" Aang asked looking over at the bone pieces.
Aunt Wu handed me the bowl and offered me a sheet, "Why don't you sit down? I have a lot to explain." She sat down next to me then picked up one of the pieces of bone, "A few weeks ago while I was cleaning, I found your bone. When I reached down to pick it up, before I even touched it, it broke into these three pieces."
"So, it's the old bone that we threw in a fire." I rolled the pieces around in the bowl.
Aunt Wu put the third piece back in the bowl, "When I tried to line the pieces back together they would not line up the way they should."
"Ok? So, what does that mean?" I picked up the pieces one at a time and put them together. "They go together just fine, to me. Look."
"Yes, but that is the problem. The only way I can get it to go back together is completely different from before." Aunt Wu turned the broken bone around in her hand. "It's very strange, I've never seen anything like this…it's never happened before, but then again you are a special case."
"Thanks, I guess," I don't know how I like being called special by the "not so sure" fortuneteller.
Sokka rubbed his chin, "Again, what does all of this mean?"
"It means Alice's bone is telling a different story now," Aunt Wu held up the bone with a seriously shadowed look.
"Huh?" I lifted my eye brow.
"I'm not sure if your original fortune is the same," Aunt Wu seemed to shirk.
"So you're telling me that your bones that "never tell a lie" lied!" I jumped up and began to pace the floor. "I just came to terms with the fact that I was stuck here until I meet my earthbender, but now you are telling me things have changed?"
"A lot more than that," Aunt Wu added. "Where it once said earthbender it just says bender. I'm not sure what kind. It could even say non-bender, but I'm not completely sure. It is quite unclear."
"WHAT?!" I felt my blood pressure rise.
Katara put her hand on my shoulder, "Its ok, Alice, just breath."
"So you're telling me that not only does it not say earthbender, you don't know what kind of bender it says at all, and it could even be a non-bender?" I was ready to pull my own hair out, "That just narrows it down to, oh, anyone in the world. What about my bender children?"
"That is unclear, too. The bone still says four children and there will be waterbending twins, but I'm unsure about the other two." Aunt Wu stood up and took my hands, "How about a fresh, new bone reading?"
I jumped back, "No, no more lying bones! I just came to grips with this last bone. My fragile sanity can't take another one. I'm going to be like Aang!" I pointed over at Aang.
"Me? What about me?" Aang backed up a step.
I turned back to Aunt Wu, "You told Aang he could shape his future like that clouds. So I'm going to shape my own clouds…future, like the clouds, that can be shaped. I turned down a sweet guy because of this super lying bone because I thought it was reliable. You told me it never lies. I believed in you, Aunt Wu. I'm leaving….in a huff." I turned on my heels to go, but quickly turned back around. I took my bone from Aunt Wu, "Just in case you get anymore funny ideas about this bone."
"Thank you for having us," Katara bowed before running out to follow me. "Alice, slow down. It's going to be ok. I know it's hard to take it in, but it's not a bad thing. You didn't really want to deal with looking for an earthbender right? Now it could be anyone. You can chose."
"Yeah, it could be anybody," Aang smiled. "You don't have to worry about hunting for an earthbender to fall in love with you. Just let love come to you."
Sokka smirked, "I think it's funny, actually. It just really does go to show that you can't trust fortunetellers. Science wins!"
"Shut up, Sokka, you're not helping," Katara hit him again before she caught up to me. "Look at it this way, Alice, now that it could be anyone that you'll fall in love with it could be Chan."
I stopped in my tracks, "You think so?"
"No, Alice is not going to fall for some firebender!" Sokka protested.
"Why not?" Katara and I asked together.
"Because firebenders are evil and Alice, she is…" He rubbed the back of his head, awkwardly, "She kind and funny and…..not evil."
"Sounds to me like you're jealous, Sokka," Aang teased.
"No…." Sokka started.
"Yeah, Alice, it could be anyone, even Sokka," Aang laughed.
Sokka and I looked at each other and blushed hard, "Well this is awkward." I stepped away.
"Who do you think it will be, Katara?" Aang and Katara continued towards Appa, "I'm willing to bet it will be Sokka."
"No way," Katara laughed, "You don't know what I know about Alice and Chan. It's so going to be him."
Sokka looked over at me again, "We…um….we should get going."
"Right," I ran on up ahead. What am I going to do now?
FELICITY'S POV
"Do you really think these will fit him? The last two outfits we took him didn't fit," Zuko complained.
"Thank you, again for the clothes," I bowed to the shop owner. I turned to Zuko, "Yeah, I'm sure about these." It was hard finding something for Uncle Iroh, but luckily the sweet old lady had some of her husband's old clothes she was willing to part with.
"You said that about the last ones," He huffed as he followed me.
I just shook my head at him, "Calm down, now let's get some food." I folded everything and packed them away, and counted what money we had left.
"Ah man, that's not good." We only had two copper pieces left. That was not enough to get food for the three of us.
"What's wrong?" He jumped and I held my hand with the coins over for him to see. "Is that all we have?"
I just nodded as we walked around the market. I saw lots of street performers doing magic or bending tricks.
It gave me a really good idea. "That's it, come on," I grabbed Zuko's hand and ran around the corner.
"Felicity, what are you doing? Let me go, where are we going?"
"I'm pretty good at karaoke. I don't know if it will get us much but it's worth a shot. We have to eat somehow." I pulled my phone out of my bag.
"You're going to sing?" Zuko looked surprised. "Why?"
"For money, fussy pants."
We ran around until I found a nice spot with plenty of shops and shoppers. There were a few mothers with children that made me feel a little more comfortable. So I took a deep breath and put an earbud into my ear.
"What to sing, what to sing?" I started scrolling through my songs. "What do you think I should sing?" I looked over at him.
He crossed his arms, "I don't care."
"Oh, whatever," I put my tea cup on the ground and put the two copper pieces in it.
I found one that seemed like a good choice. I turned up the volume and let myself get lost in the slow melody.
Celtic Women -"When You Believe" – The Prince of Egypt
"Many nights we prayed, with no proof anyone could hear
In our hearts a hopeful song, we barely understood
Now we are not afraid, although we know there's much to fear
We were moving mountains long, before we knew we could"
A few people began to gather around. I hoped since we were in the Earth Kingdom, a hopeful sound would really reach people. Not only them, but maybe it will help Senior Fussy Pants to my left, here.
"There can be miracles when you believe
Though hope is frail, it's hard to kill
Who knows what miracles you can achieve
When you believe, somehow you will
You will when you believe"
Zuko tried his best to act like he wasn't listening, and he was doing a pretty good job. More people circled us and some of them started to smile and sway with the tune. Everything looked to be going well.
"They don't always happen when you ask
And it's easy to give in to your fears
But when you're blinded by your pain
Can't see the way, get through the rain
A small but still, resilient voice
Says hope is very near, oh
There can be miracles when you believe
Though hope is frail, it's hard to kill
Who knows what miracles you can achieve
When you believe, somehow you will
You will when you believe
You will when you
You will when you believe
Just believe...in your heart
Just believe
You will when you believe"
The response was much better than I could have hoped. Many of the older women listening were close to tears. Many of the people clapped and cheered.
"That was lovely, my dear girl," one sweet old lady shook my hand.
"Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it," I bowed to her.
"I did," She turned to the man behind her, "Bojing, give me something for this young lady."
The tea cup was soon jiggling. It sounded better then Christmas if you asked me because it meant we were going to be able to eat tonight.
"Sing another one," a little girl jumped up and down.
"Yes, another," a little boy joined her.
I just laughed, "Just one, okay?"
"Yay!" the crowd clapped.
"Another one?" Zuko complained.
"Shh…." I smiled back at the crowd.
When we finally made it back to the camp and Uncle Iroh we had enough food for the next week. Plus we still had some money left. Looks like this singing thing will be able to help bring in a little cash. Knowing the fishing, hunting, and gathering skills of Zuko and Uncle Iroh we were going to need all the help we could get.
Zuko sat back against a tree eating his dinner all the while glaring over at me.
"What's wrong?" I finally broke the silence.
Zuko set down his bread, "I'm stuck out here in the woods with you, and we are all fugitives. You had to sing for money so we could eat."
"I don't mind singing for money," I looked down at my tea cup and smiled before I took a sip of tea. "There are people where I'm from that get paid a lot of money to sing. Who knows I might have a shining new career for my future."
"You mean you are going to sing for us more, Felicity?" Uncle Iroh smiled and cut his eye over at Zuko, "I think that is a wonderful idea."
"I will if I have to," I smiled into my tea cup.
Zuko glared at the two of us, "Do what you want, but try not to make things hard for us. If you attract too much attention we could get into trouble. Azula might hear about you, and she will come looking for us."
"Yeah, yeah," I ignored the rest of what Zuko was saying. "How would she know who I am if I sing?"
"Just don't draw to much attention," He snapped and stormed off. 'I hate it when she does that. She smiles and laughs and sings like nothing in the world is wrong, and why does she still have that tea cup. She did look happy when she was singing, though. I haven't seen her smile, really smile, since the day we fought.'
"What did you just?" I looked up at him, but his back was to me and he was pretty far away. I didn't mean to hear, but if just kind of happened. 'What am I going to do with you, fussy pants?'