Brothers Avatar

The Legend of Two Avatars

Book 1 – Family

Chapter 9 – Team Avatar

"So are we doing it?!" Lozulia was bouncing up and down on her sleeping bag.

"It's really risky, Xulo." Taresc said.

"It seems wholeheartedly unnecessary and florid to me." Pio said.

"Can we collect money while we do it… I honestly need a new outfit." Ibera said, "I look like a bellboy." Ibera grimaced at his Flying Chakras outfit.

Minege laughed, "Honey, at least you don't look like Pio."

"Hey! You try and come out of the swamp looking like some kind of swanky peacock-swan!" Pio adjusted his dirty blue robes, "At least my hair doesn't look like a tongue-tied parrot-toad!"

"Don't say stuff like that while Woorq is here." Taresc covered Woorq's ears. Minege shot Taresc a dirty look, "Also Minege's braid is great… what are you talking about?" he said nervously.

"Goodness, Pio, you're so uptight!" Ibera said.

"Lozulia, I'm not sure we should do an Avatar announcement event." Xulo said.

"Come on, It's so necessary! We finally have a confident Team Avatar!" The team had finally gotten a distance away from Foggy Swamp and headed east on their way to the Eastern Air Temple. They found themselves camping on the outskirts of Cirkenad, a fairly robust township.

"Team Avatar?" Pio said in doubt.

Lozulia was eager to explain, "Every Avatar has one, a group of the Avatar's most trusted friends, totally inseparable. Each one holds something special that they can offer to the group on their quest to save the world from chaos."

"That's actually true, Avatar Rinley had Master Lygil and a host of other people who led him to victory." Ibera said.

"We have to do this, the world barely knows we exist! This is a good way to get the world onto Avatar Xulo's side." Lozulia begged, "Besides, this has to be the best place to do it, from what we know, this area is an anti-Stormbender haven!"

"That's true, I've never had a Stormbender from around this area come to The Flying Chakras."

"No Stormbenders have ever come through Foggy Swamp, my brethren and I made certain of that." Pio added.

Xulo looked into the flames of the campfire, "I'm still not certain." Xulo look around at the five other people he's brought along for his crusade. It'd be great for morale, he thought, but I need to keep low, I can't let another incident like Tycee Ro happen.

"Don't worry, I already sent a letter saying we'd be there, they even put together a stage for us." Lozulia gave a toothy smile.

"You did what now?" Taresc hit her arm.

"Yeah back in Jin," Lozulia rubbed her arm, "I threw couple letters in the mail, hoping that'd we be here by this time exactly."

"Well I'll give the girl some props, this is some far ahead thinking, I don't even think I was with you for this Jin place." Ibera ran his hands through his hair, "Must've been pretty boring…"

"I'm more impressed by the fact you were able to foresee the exact time we would be here." Pio said.

Lozulia winked, "I have a knack for those types of things," Lozulia waved her hands in the air, "Hey hey hey, Head Navigator in the house."

"Xulo?" Taresc poked Xulo, deep in thought.

Xulo clapped his hands together, "We're doing it, Team Avatar doesn't shirk on commitments."

"Come one, come all!" Minege paraded through the streets of Cirkenad throwing handmade flyers into shops and homes alike, "There's a very special presentation happening in the main square right now!"

The buzz traveled through town quickly and people came flooding to the center square, eager to see what was happening. Team Avatar hid behind the stage set up, nervously looking out at the waves of people there to see them.

"Good morning everyone!" Minege yelled out to the crowd, standing atop Tanton's head, "You may be wondering what's happening right now. Well, boys and girls, for the first time, we are debuting Avatar Xulo's Team Avatar!" This was met with a decent amount of applause.

"Our newest addition to the squad is Pio!" Pio stepped out from behind the stage, "Pio hails from Foggy Swamp, yes the cursed one, that Foggy Swamp." Pio took some water out of his bottle and played around with it, "Pio proclaims that he is the best swampbender from Foggy Swamp, which is a lot like saying you are the best firebender from the Southern Water Tribe." Pio looked angrily at Minege, "I kid, I kid. He's a good waterbender. He's proficient at using big words, yet doesn't even know what ice is." Pio sprayed the crowd with a mist of water, "Pio, everyone!"

Ibera then emerged from behind the stage, "Our other newly acquired teammate is Ibera. He hails from… an Airbending Nation." Minege shrugged. "Ibera worked as a card dealer for the Flying Chakras, the best place to spend every cent you've ever made in one simple night." Ibera began doing some flips and tricks with his airbending, "This teen heartthrob is capable at providing snarky comments about how uninspired he is by something." Ibera directed attention to the bucket at the front of the stage, "He would also like you all to know that if you want to see him wear something other than his" Minege opened a piece of paper from her pocket, "'Middle-Lower Class Couture,' you can put a few coins in the bucket at the front of the stage." Ibera finished by waving his bucket up and down. "There's Ibera!"

"Now for a frantic ball of fun and excitement, it's Lozulia!" Lozulia popped up from behind the stage. "Lozulia loves to yell, almost as much as she likes to randomly wake you up randomly in the middle of the night to tell you about how she is so certain that there is a Stormbender in the forest."

"It was one time, Minege!"

"Girl it was FIVE. TIMES." Lozulia dismissed it off. "Lozulia hails from the Crescent Island Fire Sage Tower. Despite being the daughter of the head Fire Sage, she is rather discontent with life as a whole, that's the youth nowadays." Lozulia did some fire tricks, making shapes in the sky with her firebending. "She's joined Team Avatar to provide her impeccable navigation and force the group to do things they very much should not do, such as: take up a mining job for one day, practice airbending in a Stormbender-infested valley, or this very presentation." Lozulia finished with a flourish. "Lozulia!"

"Second to last we got Taresc." Taresc meekly left his spot behind the stage. "Taresc here has been with us from the beginning." Taresc didn't have any fun skills he could really show off so he started to spin a couple rocks in his hands, "Taresc is the twin brother of Avatar Xulo, so consider this to be a fun preview of the real thing." Taresc started to juggle the rocks as the crowd stared at him blankly. "The cute little parrot-toad on Taresc's shoulder is Woorq, he also was found in Foggy Swamp with Pio. Unlike Taresc, Woorq doesn't complain ever or even grimace if you tell it stop complaining, which I'd like to reiterate never happens, good on you, Woorq." Woorq croaked and the crowd went wild, "Woorq and Taresc, everyone!"

"And lastly, the one you all have been waiting for, Avatar Xulo!" Xulo ran out onto the stage and the reception was mild at best, "Avatar Xulo has been leading a crusade on the Stormbenders ever since his hometown was burned down by the viscous clan looking for him. He's one mean bender, already gifted in earthbending and firebending skills, he's the people's champion and he's your Avatar!" All of Team Avatar simultaneously shot out their respective element into the air for one big explosion.

Silence, except for the muffled sound of someone complaining they got gravel in their eye. The whole crowd stared at the team and suddenly one older gentleman yelled out, "You're the Avatar right?"

Xulo was fazed by the informal attitude of the sir, "Yes, that's me."

"Why isn't he the Avatar, I like him!" The old man yelled as he pointed to Taresc.

Xulo started feeling humiliated, "Because he can't, I was born the Avatar."

"I don't see why not, I vote that I become the Avatar!" He rallied with his incomplete set of teeth.

"It doesn't work that way." Xulo rested his forehead in his palm.

"What's his family name?" A little girl asked, pointing at Pio.

"Oh, its—" Pio began to speak.

"No. I want him to answer." She pointed to Xulo.

"Pio Solomah?" Xulo was completely oblivious to what his last name.

Pio raised his hand, "It's actually Daikoon."

"No, what's his family's name?"

Pio started counting off on his fingers, "Well, my mother's name is Ulira and my father's name is—"

"NO! What's his family is name?"

Pio was wordless, "That- that doesn't make grammatical sense."

One by one people would shout out questions to Xulo about his team and one by one he'd get them wrong. "Okay that's all the time we have, "Minege here is going to take your questions and entertain you, thank you all!" Xulo quickly rushed off the stage and began running to where they set up camp in the woods.

"That was pretty rough, Lozulia." Taresc said, leaning against the trunk of the tree. Lozulia and Taresc decided to idle in the tops of the trees while, below Xulo, Ibera and Pio practiced bending.

"Well, I knew that some people were burnt out on Avatars, but I didn't think they'd all be. But, they really liked Woorq, so there's something we can always fall back on."

Taresc scratched Woorq's head as he looked down to see how the training was going, "There was one thing that I took from that presentation." Xulo said.

Pio was passing a ball of water between him and Xulo, "What would that be?"

"I don't know a lot about anyone on this team except for Taresc and Minege."

Ibera waited on the sidelines for his turn to spar with Xulo, "Are you suggesting a team bonding moment?" Ibera's brows sank deep into his eyes. "Please tell me that's not what you're suggesting."

"I have a question for the group!" Lozulia called out from above. "Tell the group about your last girlfriend."

"Never had one, never will." Ibera said, "Girls aren't really my type, if you pick up what I'm putting down." Lozulia face scrunched up as she looked towards Pio.

"I'm with Ibera, my attraction has always lied with gentlemen." Pio was continuing his bending as he spoke.

Lozulia's face was both actively frowning and red as a chili pepper, "Not interested in women." Xulo said.

Taresc saw a flame coming out of Lozulia's mouth, "Can I just make a comment." Lozulia held both of palms out, "This has got to be the gayest Team Avatar of all time!"

"Is that a problem?" Xulo raised an eyebrow.

"Well yeah! I only got one choice of man and that's this goober here!" Lozulia gestured to Taresc with one hand fanning herself, "To think that out of a group of six, only two people would be disinterested in men."

Ibera did the math in his head, "Taresc and Minege? Is Minege a lesbian?"

"The verdict is out on that girl, it's less of a homosexual thing and more an alligator-duck-sexual thing?" Xulo and Pio had to halt to look up at Lozulia, "What? The way she looks at that animal, it makes me wonder."

"Actually," Taresc timidly raised his hand, "I also like men."

"NOO YOU LIAR! You said you liked women before!"

"Well I do, I like them both." Taresc smiled.

Lozulia left her arms just dangle as she rolled her eyes with intensity, "I give up, I'm sure you guys will have a great time taking turns making love to one another as I sit alone in my tent at night."

The team snickered as Pio and Xulo continued their exercise, "Now, I was wondering what—" Xulo spoke but was suddenly blasted from behind by a blow of air.

Ibera was behind the attack and Pio just looked at him with bewilderment, "Why did you just do that!"

"We're sparring with each other right? In a real battle, you don't get to choose the terms of the battle. Pretend I'm a random Stormbender who decided he didn't feel like waiting for you two to finish playing pass the bubble."

"This isn't battle practice, I was training him on the basics of waterbending." Pio was baffled by Ibera's apparent rashness.

"It's alright Pio," Xulo picked himself from off the ground, "I get what he's trying to do." Xulo wiped dirt of his tunic, "to an extent, at least."

"Boom." Ibera pumped his chest, "Hit me with some water, Xulo!"

"No, stop this mockery!" Pio stood between the two, "Only learning through fighting will just create sloppy habits and chaotic technique, easily interpretable by the enemy."

Xulo was torn, "That's true, too."

"Regardless, I think I've earned my turn to teach Xulo a little airbending."

"I've just started teaching! You've been with the group longer, it's not fair." Pio stomped.

"Hence 'earned.' Seniority, kid." Ibera waved himself.

The boys continued to bicker on the ground as Taresc and Lozulia chatted up above, "What do you think of our two new teammates?" Lozulia asked.

"They're nice, Pio's a little condescending to me, I feel like he doesn't think I deserve to be on the team."

"Don't listen to him, Tare!… or yourself? Has he actually said anything?"

"No, not yet." Taresc looked guilty.

"Then don't listen to your internalized self-doubt, you're a beautiful addition to the team." Taresc wondered to himself if Lozulia was just being nice or did she actually mean it. "What about Ibera?"

"He worries me." Taresc said, looking down at the still-bickering airbender.

"Why?" Lozulia jumped forward on her branch, "Is he evil? Oh please no…"

"No, nothing like that." He rejected that statement, "I think he might be onto me…"

"Your Avatar thing?" Taresc fiercely shushed her, "sorry, your secret?" she whispered, "I wouldn't give him any mind, he's probably just coming onto you."

"Wouldn't that be nice." Taresc softly chuckled.

Lozulia shifted uncomfortably on her branch, looking at Ibera dolefully, "Yeah." She snapped out of it real quick and bopped her way down her branch and onto Taresc's, "How is that secret of yours going, learned anything from watching those two?"

"Well, admittingly, I've been practicing a bit." Taresc looked ashamed but Lozulia squealed, "Very slightly, what have you. Like bending the water in my cup, things like that. I've actually picked up a little airbending too."

"Show me, show me, show me, pleeeeaaaassee!" Lozulia begged.

Taresc begrudgingly obliged, he created a tiny little sphere of air in his palms, he dispersed it and suddenly there was a delightful breeze through the treetops. Lozulia clapped.

Taresc's heart dropped, "Wait, stop!" Taresc said, looking down at the scene unfolding below him.

"Good afternoon gentlemen." Three Stormbenders stood in front of the men, including a wagon, "You'd be Avatar Xulo, Pio and Ibera, correct?"

Taresc whispered to Lozulia, "You said there weren't any Stormbenders around here!"

"Not that we knew of." Lozulia said.

"That's correct and judging from your outfits, you're Stormbenders." Xulo cracked his knuckles.

"From all the stories I heard, I have a feeling you aren't here for tea." Pio smirked.

Ibera stretched his neck from side to side, "There's only three of you though," Ibera pouted his lips, "Was this the best you could muster to take on the Avatar?"

"We're not here to fight, gentlemen." The leader said.

"Are they actually here for tea?" Lozulia whispered. Taresc swiftly bopped her on the head.

Ibera seemed stunned, "Well, what's exactly your purpose for meeting us then?"

"We just want to take you men back to our camp." Ibera guffawed and was ready to vehemently decline when the leader said, "Oh, you'll want to come, unless you want" Two soldiers brought out Minege from behind a tree with sword to her throat, "this young lady to suffer."

Xulo's voice got edgy, "What do you want?"

"Easy, you and your friends just come along with us to—"

Before the leader could finish his sentence, Ibera charged at them with all of the speed he could handle. He was about to make contact on the startled captain when Pio anxiously took his water and grabbed Ibera's leg, tripping him to the ground. " What are you doing, Pio!" Ibera said with a sword now pointed at his back.

"Do you not see the sword at Minege's throat?!" Pio yelled back, "We are so sorry, Ibera does not represent our interests, we will gladly go along."

"Like hell we're glad!" Ibera thrashed, "I could've taken them all out before they could even gasp out of surprise."

"Oh really, well why don't you do it now." Pio mocked.

"There ain't no element of surprise now!"

"You just used a double negative. That means there is an element of surprise."

Xulo—in fact—everyone stood by completely unamused as the two continued to yip at one another. Even in the trees, Lozulia and Taresc sullenly shook their heads looking at each other. "Ahem!" The captain cleared his throat. "If you two are finished…"

"If you take us, you will let Minege go." Xulo asserted.

The captain smiled, "Of course."

Xulo motioned for Ibera to rise, "We'll go." The subordinate Stormbenders went behind each of the members and tied their hands. As the Stormbenders escorted them away and loaded them on the wagon, Xulo looked above and winked at Taresc. As soon as they were loaded, the Stormbender cut Minege's ties and pushed her out of his way. The wagon wheeled off and Taresc and Lozulia jumped from their hiding spot, with Woorq fluttering down behind.

Minege jumped with the thuds of their feet, "You guys were here this whole time?" She put her hands on her hips, "and you didn't do anything?"

"Says the one who got herself caught by three Stormbenders." Lozulia snapped back.

"Honey, I don't have any of your fun bending powers. Despite this I could still take down Taresc."

"Hey..." Taresc moped.

"What's your plan?" Minege asked.

Lozulia started fretfully stroking her hair, "Ummmm…" She shifted her eyes from one corner to another, "How should I know?"

"We have to do something!" Taresc pulled down on his face, "Who knows what they're going to do to them."

"Kill them? Ship them off to the Northern Air Temple so Regille can kill them?" Minege said.

Taresc was far beyond the verge of fainting, he was on the verge of a coronary, "I need to go after that wagon."

"I believe they went that way." Minege pointed to some tracks in the mud.

"Are you not coming?" Taresc asked.

"Sorry honey, I have some important things to attend to in the market." Lozulia twirled her hair and squinted her eyes, "Sweetie, don't do that. I would be much of a help anyways." Minege forced a hug on Lozulia, "Go get 'em for me Zuli, I'm going to need them later."

Taresc and Lozulia followed the wagons to where their team was being held captive. Considering they didn't even know the existence of this camp, Taresc and Lozulia imagined it'd be a small site, but they couldn't be any more wrong. The Stormbender camp in the woods spanned at the very least two acres, covered with tents, campfires and more Stormbenders than you could imagine.

They were able to catch up with the wagon enough to see it enter the grounds. The wagon made its way to the southeastern part of the camp, where they dropped Ibera and Pio into a tent. The wagon then continued to the center of the camp, where Xulo was placed in the tent with the most premium security. "I have an idea." Lozulia ducked behind the hill they hiding behind, "I burn all of their tents."

Taresc humored her as he surveyed the camp, "Care to expand?"

"I go hands ablazing, running through the camp and in the confusion Ibera, Xulo and Pio flee."

"I have my doubts. Like the fact that half of the people out there are waterbenders. So while the airbenders blow you down, they throw some water on your limited fire spread, you get thrown in with Pio and Ibera and all of a sudden I have to free all of you by myself."

There was little pause as Lozulia weighed her options, "I think I'm gonna go for it."

"Lozulia!"

"Kidding!"

"So bringing the fire storm to the Stormbenders is a dud. Do you have a different plan." Lozulia burned a bundle of leaves in her hand.

Taresc rubbed his temples, "I might." Taresc face was hesitant and pained, "But I'll need a little water and air." Taresc stared at the tent with Pio and Ibera.

"For shame we are a mere firebender and… Avatar." Lozulia mimed wiping a tear from her eyes, "Well I guess your brother is sort of only a couple feet away, so maybe testing the Avatar waters would be… unneeded."

"My thoughts exactly."

"Wait, screw your plan! What about your earthbending? Can't you bend us a tunnel and we can mole our way under the tents, steal everyone back and be on our way?" Lozulia asked.

Taresc dashed those thoughts, "I can't do that." Taresc frowned, "I'm not skilled enough, Xulo might be able to, but I'd probably just get us crushed under the weight of the earth."

"Nevermind, unscrew your plan." Lozulia said.

Taresc suddenly got an idea, "But I might be able to do it in short distances…" Taresc rubbed his chin in deep thought.

Lozulia got back to spying on the camp, "What's the plan, Tare?"

Taresc and Lozulia sneaked their way behind the tent holding Pio and Ibera, Taresc bended a hole to which Taresc and Lozulia jumped in. Once at the bottom, Taresc bent out a little hole in the wall and they started to crawl. Taresc kept bending his way forward until the weight of holding up the earth was too much, "This is as far as I can go."

"Then let's go up here, should be far enough." Taresc began swimming his way out of the earth, as he felt he was getting close, he used his bending to rocket Lozulia out of the dirt. The Stormbender in the tent was highly surprised to see a lady in red robes suddenly pop out the ground. Lozulia quickly pounced on and knocked out the stunned Stormbender woman, dropping to the floor without a word.

Pio and Ibera were bound, hands and legs, on the floor. Pio tried to speak through his gag but Taresc put a finger to his lips, shushing Pio. "Hey, there's something wrong with the captive, I need you to come in here." Lozulia said.

As the Stormbender walked in, Taresc dropped a rock onto his head, taking his down easily. Taresc checked out the two unconscious Stormbenders, he noticed their blue sleeves, "Two waterbenders… not preferable but it'll have to do."

Lozulia ripped out the cloth from around Ibera's mouth, "Ah, that feels better." Lozulia then took off Pio's too, "Aw come on now, did you have to ruin the moment?" Ibera scoffed.

"Oh shut up, you." Pio spit out the accumulated saliva in his mouth. "Where is Xulo?"

"He's in the center of the camp," Taresc said, "He's getting the special surveillance treatment."

"He wouldn't be there if you let me take care of business there in the woods." Ibera said.

Pio threw his arms in the air, "At what cost, Ibera? They kill Minege, they threaten to burn down that town?"

Ibera rolled his eyes and sneered, "What if they threaten to steal our pants? What if they peed on Minege? What if this, What if that!" Ibera stopped, "Where is Minege, by the way?"

"She said she had other stuff to attend to in town." Lozulia said.

"Wow, dick move, Minege." Ibera said.

"Whatever, she wouldn't have been worthwhile to the mission anyways." Pio said bluntly.

"Probably more worthwhile than you…" Ibera said under his breath.

Pio was about to retaliate when Taresc interjected, "Enough!" The two quarrelers looked at Taresc, "The reason you two are here is because neither of you can accept the others' philosophy. If we followed Ibera's lead we probably could have avoided this whole predicament." Ibera stuck his tongue out, "And if we followed Pio, they probably would have stored you with Xulo and you could have freed yourselves." Ibera retracted his tongue.

Pio graciously said, "Thank you."

Taresc tone was sharp like a disciplinary mother's, "But because neither of you took eithers' lead, we are left with an unhappy medium where I have to save us all." Both of the men looked anywhere else than Taresc's face, "Now, Xulo said that we should learn more about each other and that means the way each of us thinks. So once we're out of this predicament, you two have to promise to stop fighting with each other."

Pio reluctantly put out his hand, Ibera looked at it for a moment and shook it, "I guess I can try and figure out what's going on in that swampy brain of yours." Ibera then mumbled, "Even if it doesn't make sense."

"Good." Taresc smiled kindly, "Now I'm going to need you guys to fight." Pio and Ibera looked at Taresc puzzled. "Quick question, Pio, do you know what ice is now?"

Pio and Ibera walked side by side through the columns upon rows of tents, "You ready?" Ibera asked Pio, white bandana shadowing his eyes.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Pio shifted uncomfortably in his Stormbender uniform, "Why did I have to get the girl uniform."

"Because it fits your slender, womanly body better." Ibera laughed. Back in their imprisonment tent, there were two unconscious Stormbenders dressed as Pio and Ibera, "I think it's just the hair, people will just assume you're trying something different."

"We're here." Ibera looked as they were in front of the central tent. There were three Stormbenders guarding the front of the tent and it looked to be more guarding the other sides of the tent. They obviously didn't want to relinquish the Avatar without a fight, it seemed like they didn't even give clearance for regular soldiers to visit the Avatar, just in the case of Pio and Ibera. "Alright, I'll get to the other side."

Pio left him and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Taresc and Lozulia peeking out of the entrance of the tent directly across from the central tent and Ibera gave them a thumbs-up. They tunneled from one empty tent to another until they reached this certain one. This lane that contained the central tent was very busy, if they tried to tunnel into there, there'd certainly be some commotion. Ibera saw Pio on the side of the street and thus the operation began.

Pio began walking too and as they met in the middle, they bumped into eachother, "Hey!"

"What?!" Ibera said.

"Watch where you walking!"

"Actually it's you who should be watching where you're walking." They were starting to draw a crowd.

Pio beat his chest, "You got a problem, bro?"

Ibera changed his stance, "Yeah, dude, I think we're gonna have a real problem." Ibera lunged towards Pio.

The crowd cheered as Pio dodged and from a large pot of water nearby, took a large glob of water and started circling Ibera. Once Ibera was in front of a guard, he sprayed the water in Ibera's direction. Ibera dodged and Pio narrowly was able to turn it to ice, "Yes!" Pio said, "I mean, No! Sorry!" Pio drew more water from the pot.

"That's the wrong color uniform you're wearing, mate." Pio yelled at the blue-sleeved Ibera.

"They ran out!" Ibera got in front of another guard, "That's the wrong gendered uniform, sire."

Pio struck with ice once again, "Shut up, they ran out!" Once again Ibera dodged and another guard was encased in ice. They did the same thing for another the last guard to which Pio yelled, "How about you stop running and fight like a man!"

"Oh you want me to fight?" Ibera then started charging a powerful wind blast, to which required him to churn all of the air around him. Dust filled the area and everyone needed to cover their eyes, in that confusion Lozulia and Taresc ran from their tent and into the central tent.

In the tent, two guards awaited Taresc and Lozulia and in the middle of the tent, Xulo was tied to the center pole with hands and feet bound. They screamed for the guards out front for assistance, but with the cheering and frozen guards, no one heard. The two decided to take on their separate enemies, Lozulia took the waterbender and Taresc took the airbender. Lozulia went hand to hand combat with the waterbender, letting out little short blasts of fire to disrupt the water but also not to catch the tent on fire. Lozulia was fairly successful with her opponent but Taresc was having trouble with his. The airbender was relentless on Taresc, throwing punch after punch with no chances for reciprocation. The airbender was about to land a solid hit on Taresc when a rock came flying from behind. Even in constraints, Xulo was able to bend a boulder to protect his brother. Lozulia finished her rival and Taresc bent stone restraints onto his.

They flew to the aid of Xulo, as they untied the ropes, a shadowy figure appeared out of the dark backside of the tent. "You'll want to stop that." The captain showed his face. As he monologued, Xulo kicked up a stone, "In a matter of moments someone will come to check on your friend here and notice him free. At that point, every Stormbender in this camp will vie to take your head and get the attention of Cersiek. Do you thi—"

Before he could finish, Xulo sent the rock at light speeds to his throat. "Oh shut up, you."

Taresc and Lozulia went over to the coughing and hacking captain and threw rope around his hands, feet and mouth. Just then Ibera and Pio ran into the tent, "How's it going in here?" Ibera saw the captain, "Very well, I see."

"Don't you have Stormbenders to distract?" Lozulia asked.

Pio took off his sweaty head covering, "It's actually rather funny, I accidently splashed one of them with some water so they joined into the fight. Then Ibera hit another one with his gale and then one by one they all just joined into the fray, it's an absolute madhouse brawl out there."

"You can tunnel us out of here, right?" Lozulia asked Xulo.

"Yeah, easily. His gaze turned to the captain, "But I have something I want to do first."

In the midst of the central street brawl, they all stopped when the central tent suddenly burst into flames. The Stormbenders rushed in and saw that the Avatar was nowhere to be seen, they did however see their captain unconscious in the middle of the tent. They pulled him out and laid him out on the ground. They immediately noticed that he lacked clothing, excluding his undergarments, and on his body was written a little sentence with a crude drawing of a smiling face:

"Team Avatar says hi.

Xulo, Taresc, Lozulia, Ibera, Minege and Pio."

The woods that night were filled with joyous laughter and merriment as Tanton sped through to the next town, "Did you hear him when we were taking his clothes off?" Lozulia stopped everyone.

"He had that rope in his mouth, but I saw his eyes go wild and he was looking at me especially," Ibera tried to say between laughing, "and I'm pretty sure he said, 'please leave my underwear on, they can't see what's under there, I won't chase you, please leave the underwear on.'" The team erupted into more laughter.

"This is too much." Pio wiped a tear from his eye.

"I especially love that face you added, Lozulia." Xulo said.

"It was that or a heart, but a felt like a smiley face was more taunting." Lozulia winked, "I modeled it after you, Xulo."

"I guessed I never realized how much your head looked like a trembling potato, Xulo." Pio said and the team roared with laughter. Lozulia fell back with how hard she laughed, she almost dropped off of Tanton and into the muddy ground and she couldn't have cared less.

"Thanks." Xulo raised his canteen and took a swig from it, "I gotta say, that was the best Team Avatar announcement, presentation, proclamation, or whatever-you-want-to-call-it ever. Better than whatever that thing was in Cirkenad."

"Really?" Lozulia said, "I really liked that old guy, I voted my pants off for him to be Avatar." She took a swig of her own canteen, "I like the new garbs, by the way, guys." She pointed to Ibera and Pio.

"Thank you kindly," Ibera drank, "We got them in town, I bought for both us with the coins from our event this morning." Ibera wore a light blue vest with intricate gold embroidering, it also had a glamorous cape for the arm without tattoos. With it he had a pair of shorts and sandals. Pio had a navy shawl with a nicely-fitted forest green shirt with matching arm bands. On the bottom he had loosely fitted tan pants and brown boots. "I assumed that having Team Avatar wear Stormbender clothing wouldn't send the best message. I will admit those uniforms did help in bargaining down the price."

"It's a little flashy, but it'll do the trick." Pio said.

"Can I just take a moment," Ibera stopped the party, "and I want to thank our unsung hero, Taresc." Taresc blushed out of surprise, Lozulia took that a sign to glare at Ibera, "He came up with a brilliant plan and gave me the harshest talking to since I've been home to the Western Air Temple." Ibera raised his drink, "He saved the day and made us known. Cheers." Lozulia wrapped an arm around Taresc and they all said cheers. Taresc stared abashedly at Tanton's rocking body, Pio stared at Taresc like he was trying to figure the once-unimportant boy out.

Xulo slapped his brother on the back, "Any requests since you're the hero of the night?"

Taresc took a moment to think, "A day off tomorrow?" Taresc smiled.

Xulo laughed, "A day off? Sure, why not? Besides, I should probably brush up on fire, air and water before I take on Cersiek."

The team hurrahed in the darkness of the night, except for one: Lozulia. "Guys…" She said.

"What's up, Zuli?" Minege said from up front.

"Don't be mad at me, but… I may have… sort of… kind of…" She looked like a dog who had just torn up the floor boards.

"Spit it out!" Xulo said in seriousness.

"I sent a letter to the White Lotus saying that we defeated Cersiek and need them to come by to pick her up." The entire team went silent, "If my timing is right they should be there in three days."

Nothing but stunned and bitter looks wracked the air, until Pio took a mouthful of his drink and said somberly, "Cheers."