Brothers Avatar
The Legend of Two Avatars
Book 1 – Family
Chapter 12 – The Zaniest General
"We're here?" Taresc said with the whole team looking up through the clouds, he could see the blurry outline of buildings and temples on the mountaintop. "That's the Eastern Air Temple?"
"It sure is, it'll actually begin to resemble a temple when we ascend this mountain." Pio said.
Taresc stared at the steep and dim mountain, "How are we going to do that?"
Xulo tapped him, "With our help." Xulo then cut a chunk out of the ground they were standing on and with his earthbending the piece of earth began to climb the mountainside. Once Taresc understood what Xulo was doing, he joined in and the team began speeding towards Cersiek's lair. As they passed through the fog, Taresc got a better look at the Eastern Air Temple despite the night sky. It was comprised of three different temples on three neighboring mountaintops. Taresc marveled at the architecture, it was some of the finest he had ever seen, it was like a bunch of puzzle pieces, the way they all fit on the mountain.
Before they could get particularly close to the top, Xulo stopped the elevator. "Taresc can you hold this?" Xulo indicated the earth they were standing on.
"Yeah!" Once Taresc got a hold on the platform, Xulo started bending into the side of the mountain. The team admired Xulo's strength at being able to dig quite a large cave all by himself.
"Everybody in." The team stepped into the cave and Taresc let the platform fall to the bottom of the crag. "Do you have those twigs I had you pick up?" Minege nodded, she dropped a bundle of sticks she picked up on Yinshi Dao. Xulo lit them on fire and bent a couple stones around it.
"Getting cozy are we, Xulo?" Ibera said.
"Hardly." Xulo closed the mouth of the cave off, "We just need light and I wanted to give Lozulia a break." Xulo joined the group huddled around the fire.
Pio snapped at the group, "No slumbering, any of you," He grinned widely, "We're attacking tonight." Minege quickly raised her hand, "Excluding you, Minege, you and the beasts get to sleep here." Minege proudly nodded and lowered her hand.
"We take Cersiek's head tonight?" Taresc jumped when he heard Lozulia say that, "It's an expression, silly-poop." Taresc sighed in relief, "An expression of murder that is!"
"Stop teasing the boy, Lozulia." Xulo said and Lozulia pulled Taresc in for a noogie, "And to answer your question, yes, tonight's the night."
Lozulia wondered while Taresc tried to escape her grasp, "It feels like we're rushing things…"
Ibera closed his eyes, "And why would we rush things, Lozulia?"
Lozulia released Taresc, "I feel like you're referencing something…" It dawned on her, "It's me, right, I'm the rush."
Ibera reopened his eyes, "Yes Postman Lozulia, it is you." Ibera chuckled at her hopelessly guilt-ridden eyes, "But we made it, so congrats to us on that."
"We haven't quite made it yet," Pio chimed, "General Cersiek is a capable antagonist for us, there isn't a guarantee of winning."
"Lordy, always with the optimism, swampy." Ibera said loudly under his breath. Ibera coughed, "So what's the plan of action?" he said looking at Taresc.
"I've got a plan." Xulo said. "Although some reconnaissance would've been nice," Xulo gave a knowing look at Lozulia, "luckily I asked around a bit and I have a general idea of what the whole temple seems like. We're fortunate we got here at night, because most of the troops will be asleep right now, if it was daytime, it'd be practically impossible to infiltrate."
"Well, let's hear it, Xulo." Lozulia said, "This is the first time we get to hear a bonafide Avatar plan."
Xulo leaned in, "So here it is…"
The team jumped through the window of the empty meditation room. They had scoped numerous other places on the temple, but each one held Stormbenders or captive monks who could compromise the mission. This room was only the first step as it was near the bottom the temple-complex and Cersiek's room would likely be at the top.
They listened outside the door, trying to see if anyone was roaming the hallways. Once they'd confirmed the silence they ran into the hallway. From the hallway they ran to the outside courtyard. The two Stormbenders in the courtyard didn't pay them any mind, as they sat along the edge looking at the full moon. "Awww." Lozulia said. Ibera hit her and they continued on their way.
There was a flight of stairs in their sights but they could see the shadows on the wall, showing them the three Stormbenders waiting at the top of the stairs. Pio knocked on Xulo's shoulder and pointed up, above the stairs there was a tree hanging. The team jumped into it and once fully secure, Xulo made the floor rumble around the bottom of the stairs. The three Stormbenders ran towards the noise and once they were out of the way they ran up the stairs.
They were once again presented with another set of stairs with four Stormbenders now, but no tree to try their trick again. To their left they found a house that was full of partying Stormbenders. Instead of trying to make their way through the festivities they made their way onto the roof. While the sounds of feet stomping would usually tip off any Stormbender, in this clamorous party the footfalls fit in with all the noise.
From the roof they could jump onto what seemed like a sparring circle. From there it was an easy walk to the base of Cersiek's tower. They climbed the main stairway and in front of them was the top of the Eastern Air Temple. They quickly got to one side of the main doorway, they peered in and saw countless high-level officers discussing Stormbender matters. The team walked around to the back of the tower. One brick at a time, Xulo bent out footholds in the tower so they could climb. They went up the tower with Taresc only almost-falling twice.
They got onto the top of the wooden roof, Xulo gave Ibera a nod and they were ready. Ibera sucked a great deal of air and with one clean punch, a hole appeared in the roof. The team gave one last look at each other and with the hopes that their guess of the Cersiek being in her room, they jumped.
With a splash, Team Avatar stood in Cersiek's room. The first thing they realized about her room was that the floor was covered in an ankle-deep amount of water. Cersiek stood on the other side of the room asleep in her bed. Cersiek rose slowly to the clatter of the group, she threw off her nightmask and stepped into the lake that was her room, "Hello?" She said.
"General Cersiek, I am Avatar Xulo."
She stood near the foot of her bed, "I remember you! I splashy-splashied your dingy." She jumped in her spot.
"Splashy-splashied? You mean sent a giant wave?" Ibera said.
"That's the phrase." She pointed at him, "Why aren't you done for?"
They looked at each other in confusion of her appallingly calm demeanor, "That is not of importance, far from the reason why we stand before you." Cersiek slowly lost her vibrant attitude as Pio talked.
"We've come to take you down, Cersiek." Said Xulo.
"Oh…" Cersiek stared down at her feet, "Is that so?" The team suddenly felt the water around their feet pulling away from them, "It's been so long since I've fought anybody," The water in the room began to pool in a giant orb behind her, "Take it easy on me, kay?"
She began an all-out attack on the team. From the bubble behind her she showered the team in ice spikes, they dodged and scattered around the room. Pio attempted to catch a spike and throw it back at her but it only ended up feeding her water glob. Xulo bent a bunch of small walls out of the ground to hide from Cersiek's rounds. As soon as Xulo felt an opening in her strikes, Xulo took a large chunk out of the wall and kicked it at Cersiek.
Cersiek responded in kind by throwing the water in front of her as a wall of ice, catching the boulder in time. She turned the wall back into water, walked through and continued her rampage. "She's insane and that's coming from me." Lozulia said to Taresc from behind the wall.
Cersiek never moved from her spot but she was an incredible force of power. Every shot taken against her just got caught by a tentacle of water and thrown aside.
Hearing the commotion from above, countless Stormbenders rushed up the stairs into Cersiek's room. "This isn't good, Xulo, you said we were going to take her out quickly." Ibera said.
Xulo had to make a sudden decision, "We have to run."
In a flurry of air and earth they freefalled from the temple and shot themselves into the cave. The team panted as Xulo rapidly sealed the cave.
"So that was embarrassing." Ibera said winded.
Xulo shushed him, "Keep your voice down." From outside the sealed cave wall they could hear Stormbenders scurrying around and barking orders at one another.
Lozulia lit the fire, "I'd place that as one of our lesser moments."
"We managed to outrun and escape a Stormbender stronghold, that's pretty impressive." Taresc pitched in.
"Did you hear that Lozulia?" Ibera barked as we went for his canteen in his knapsack, "Write that in your history scrolls, Avatar Xulo's Team Avatar was well-versed in the art running away from people." Ibera took a sip.
Lozulia went for her scrolls, "Noted…" she glumly said.
"No, Lozulia…" Ibera said.
Realizing it was a joke, "Oh… sarcasm…"
"Well what did you want Xulo to do? It was a very phenomenal strategy." Pio said sternly.
"How phenomenal can a plan be and also fail?" Ibera said. Xulo stood listening by the cave wall, motionless.
Pio snapped back, "How was he supposed to know that Cersiek's room would also double as some kind of personal pond."
"It's okay, Pio." Xulo walked towards the fire and put a hand on his shoulder, "I wasn't as prepared as I should've been. It's alright, because it's over."
"What's over?" Taresc said.
"Everything, Taresc," Xulo voice was decimated with emotion, "Everything is over. We had one chance to do this, one chance. Now my run as Avatar is over, King Hintrichi is going to learn that Cersiek is not taken care of and there's going to death warrant put out on me!"
"But, Xulo," Lozulia said, "My intuition is telling me that the Lotus soldiers won't be here til late tomorrow."
"And?" Xulo was yelling now, "What will that do? We have to wait until tomorrow morning for things to calm down and then we can miraculously take down Cersiek?" Lozulia stuttered trying to answer, "Exactly. No one is going to let Cersiek take a breath alone tomorrow with our failed assassination." Xulo dropped to the ground and stared into the flickering flames, "It's done."
The team fell silent with only the crackling flames to fill the void. Minege's groaning broke the silence, in the dark part of the cave Minege rose. "Hi darlings," she rubbed her eyes, "did we take out Cersiek?"
"No." Pio said.
"And you made it out alive?" Minege tried to lift the spirits, "Congrats for that."
No one responded, Minege gave up and went back to stroke Tanton's head, "Xulo, I'm sorry I sent those letters." Lozulia said.
"Mhm." Xulo responded, "It's fine. It's fine. This isn't your fault, it's mine. It was a pretty silly idea, right?" Xulo gave a pained laugh, "That five of us could just storm in and take out a Stormbender General. Rinley warned me not to rush into things…" Xulo sighed, "I failed us."
"You didn't fail us." Pio rubbed Xulo's back, "And it's not over, I don't know anything about this Hintrichi but we can just say that some random person sent those letters."
Lozulia and Ibera looked at each other and laughed, "You should have just left it at, 'I don't know anything about Hintrichi.'" Ibera said.
"My two favorite words to describe Hintrichi are irrational and will-execute-you-for-no-good-reason." Lozulia added.
Taresc's mood got gloomier and gloomier as the conversation moved forward, he wanted nothing else but for his brother to achieve his dreams. He wanted to think of some amazing plan of them taking down Cersiek, but his mind was running blank. Every little detail that he picked up on their first attempt sparked some kind of idea but quickly died as they became infeasible. He was ready to give up when a weight plopped onto his head. "Hey Woorq." He said. An idea popped into his head, he look behind and saw Tanton and Minege, more ideas popped into his head. He kept think and thinking until suddenly he came up with the plan. "Hey guys?"
"Yeah, Taresc?" Xulo said.
"I think I might have an idea."
The morning of day three arrived on the Eastern Air Temple and Team Avatar was ready for their final chance of taking Cersiek down. Taresc, Xulo, Lozulia and Ibera scouted for their landing point, but the meditation room was now full of Stormbenders. Fortunately, they were able to find a little wooded area they were unable to see in the previous night's darkness. Taresc realized with the previous night's happenings, most of their old tricks weren't going to work this time—especially with flyers of Xulo's face being strewn about the temple—but Taresc had some tricks up his sleeve; five to be precise.
The first of tricks had to happen immediately. There was a line of tree, poking their way out of the walls. It would make for a great way of climbing half of the way up the temple structure, but the sound of them rushing through the tree would easily attract the attention of passing-by Stormbenders. "Do it, Ibera." Taresc said. Ibera began waving his arms in very broad strokes. Suddenly a moderate breeze began blowing through all of the Eastern Air Temple, it was convenient that they were in such an airy place or otherwise Ibera wouldn't have been able to pull it off. With the leaves rustling on their own, Taresc, Xulo and Lozulia were able to climb the trees without anyone noticing.
Having gotten up to another platform, Woorq croaked on Taresc's shoulder and had to be silenced, for their second challenge was to get past the large group of chatting Stormbender in the way of the main stairway. Taresc's second trick would have to be implemented: Lozulia. "Go do it, Lozulia." Xulo gently bent a hole in the wall they were beside; it led through the mountain to the other side of a nearby housing unit. Lozulia followed through the tunnel and once she reached the other side she went to town on the house. She sprayed the house down in a volley of firebending techniques. As the house caught on fire, the chatting Stormbenders ran to see what was going on. Xulo and Taresc ran by while they were leaving.
"Wait." One of the Stormbenders stopped another, "You should stay here, this could be a ploy by one of those Avatar fiends." The Stormbender nodded and decided to stay at the square they were chatting at. When Lozulia ran back to join with Xulo and Taresc, she was devastated to see that Stormbender standing there.
They got to the base of the main stairs to Cersiek's tower. Taresc and Xulo would have to climb up the stairs from the side due to the increased security. Taresc and Xulo used their earthbending to grapple onto the stones that made up the stairway. They got to tower-side of the stairs and began to climb towards the top of the stairs when the Stormbender stationed at the tower's entrance heard the suspicious noise of earthbending. He was about to investigate when a man appeared before him, "Excuse me, sir?" Taresc's third trick came just in time: Pio. "I was wondering if you could show me to the dining hall?"
"I'm sorry, I really can't, I'm on very strict orders to not leave this spot."
Pio was dressed in the Stormbender garb they acquired at the camp near Cirkenad, "Oh, I am so sorry, I'm new here," Pio extended his hand, "I'm Pio, Regille's nephew."
The guard immediately lost his nerves, "You're Regille's nephew?"
"Yeah…" Pio looked disenfranchised, "I told the captain not to give me any special treatment, but you are the fifth person to reject me. I can't wait to tell Regille about this…" Pio began walking away.
"No, no, no!" The guard threw his hands on Pio's shoulders, "No need for that, I'll take you there myself."
Pio wiped a tear from his eye, "Thank you, sir."
Xulo and Taresc continued their advance up the wall and finally reached the top. They went around the back again, but this time not to climb into Cersiek's chamber of defeat. "You know what to do, Woorq." While the fourth trick flew up the tower and into Cersiek's room, Xulo and Taresc ran down the backside of the mountain where they saw a meditation circle.
Cersiek was too busy looking at scrolls at her desk to notice Woorq, but Woorq was persistent and flew right on top of her desk. Once Cersiek noticed the parrot-toad her eyes widened to extreme amounts, "Who are you creature?" She yelled in giddy fervor, "I don't care, I want you, exotic thing!" As she reached for Woorq, it flew down the stairs, "Wait, bird thing!" and she followed behind.
Cersiek was a whirlwind of furious proportions; she chased Woorq savagely down the stairs of the tower, never stopping to breathe. They got to the base of the tower and Cersiek chased Woorq down the long stairway to the meditation circle.
A female Stormbender sighed, "I suppose I should follow her." She ran down the stairs behind Cersiek.
"Wait up!" Another Stormbender decided that he should also accompany Cersiek. He ran down the stairs too but eventually he reached a dead end, that wall was Taresc's doing.
Cersiek chased Woorq into the center of the meditation circle. Woorq flew to the top one of the many stone slabs that surrounded the meditation circle. "No fair, I can't fly… yet. Come down froggy thing!" she yelled.
"Actually, Woorq is part toad." Xulo appeared from behind one of the stone slabs.
Cersiek was shocked, "Ack, you know this animal, is it yours?" She got on her knees, "Please sell it to me! I'll even let you have my left slipper, it's very valuable."
Xulo got into a fighting stance, "You'll never understand why I come for you, will you?"
"Oh." Cersiek got off her knees, "This again." She opened the cap to her jug full of water and adjusted her elegant blue vestments, "I may not have too much water, but there's only one of you now."
Xulo grinned, "That's all I'm going to need." He opened the fight with jumping onto a stone slab and started chucking it at Cersiek in portions. She was able to dodge out the way for each one. She countered by grabbing his ankle with her water, she pulled him to the ground and went to jump on him. Xulo rolled out of the way and left a crevice in his place for her to fall in. It worked and as she climbed out, Xulo went in to punch her straight in the face, she blocked it with ice-covered forearms. The shield shattered and Cersiek sent those pieces to impale Xulo. Xulo was able to create enough distance so that he could bend a barrier in time to shatter the ice spikes.
The fight continued on for a good deal of time, after a while the battlegrounds looked ravaged and nothing like a meditation circle. Only one slab stood where once there were nine. Cersiek and Xulo stood apart from each other, looking into the other's eyes, completely breathless. "Do you surrender, Cersiek?"
Cersiek saw the final slab shifting, "I don't think so, mister." Before Xulo could react the stone slab fell on Xulo. Under the slab, Xulo blacked out; Cersiek had won.
The female Stormbender ran from the tunnel, "Madam Cersiek, are you alright?" She ran into the meditation circle and kneeled before Cersiek.
Cersiek turned around and looked at Xulo lying unconscious underneath the slab, "I'm fine, grab the others and imprison earthy-face here."
"Yes, ma'am!" The Stormbender said. Cersiek panted as she looked down on her worthy foe. She could barely catch her breath with how winded the battle made her, she got to her knee trying to move the slab. Before she could even touch it, a hard elbow struck her in the back of her head, immediately knocking her out.
"Sorry, sweetie." Minege said standing over Cersiek. Taresc's final trick came into place, Minege dressed in Stormbender clothing, as a failsafe if Xulo were to fail. "Wake up, Xulo!" She slapped Xulo's face. Xulo awoke with a start and threw the slab off of his back.
Xulo saw the knocked-out Cersiek, "Nice work."
"The Baikal Elbow Conk is a noggin-destroyer, what can I say."
"How long until they break down Taresc's wall?" Before Minege could answer, the sound of crumbling earth was heard in the distance, "Not long at all, I guess." He quickly grabbed for Cersiek.
A swarm of Stormbenders came running towards the meditation circle, "Wait!" Xulo yelled. A green flame appeared out of Xulo's fingertip and he held it to Cersiek's throat. "Now, I'm sure you don't want anything to happen to your precious general, do you?"
The crowd gave cautious but dirty looks, "What do you want?" The leader said.
"All of you out of the Eastern Air Temple, now!" The gang looked at him suspiciously, "Did I stutter?"
"And what then?" The leader said.
"I turn her into the authorities where she will be imprisoned, but alive." The mob didn't seem to like the bargain. "Hm?" Xulo held the flame closer to Cersiek's throat.
"Fine!" The Stormbender yelled orders to his group, "We leave!"
The Stormbenders began walking back to their tower, "You have thirty minutes or I begin to burn off fingers." The Stormbenders began to run.
Once they were gone, Xulo collapsed to the ground, "We did it." He turned to Minege and began to yell, "We did it, Minege!" Xulo almost began to cry tears of joy.
"Okay, Honey, whatever makes you happy." Xulo dropped Cersiek and jumped to his feet to hug Minege. "Alright now, it's not that exciting." Minege wrapped her arms around Xulo and couldn't help but smile.
Dusk began to fall on day three, the team sat on the main steps of the main temple. They surrounded the bound Cersiek, ensuring that she had to no way of escaping. They sat there exhausted and emotionally worn, waiting for the White Lotus to come and pick up their captured General.
"We made it." Xulo said in disbelief, "I cannot believe we made it."
"I guess my intuition was correct." Lozulia said with a smirk.
Pio laughed, "Lozulia, what in the world did sending those letters accomplish?"
"Well, can you imagine defeating Cersiek and then having to transport her to Hintrichi ourselves? Taking this chick on a boat ride would be suicide and a half."
Cersiek couldn't help but shrug in agreement, "We could have just waited here for them to pick her up." Taresc said.
"But… waiting." Lozulia spoke that word in such disgust and the group laughed. "I'll keep Lozulia's Preemptive Letter Service on hold from now on…"
"You people sure got that smart thing going for you…" The bound General said, "If you want to let me go…" she brought her voice down low, "I got this candy in my top drawer and maybe I can get you humans a nice soldier position."
"A soldier position, the lowest position?" Ibera said.
"I can't do any better, I'm super sorry." She said sincerely.
Ibera couldn't even comprehend her logic, "You are a General, one of the two biggest, there is so much more you could do."
"It doesn't matter, we're turning you in." Xulo said. In the distance Xulo saw an air bison with soldiers in White Lotus armor riding. "There's your ride."
Cersiek got to her feet, "Speaking of Generals, you're going to go after Aurut next?" Xulo nodded, "Bring forth your smartest person!"
The team looked at each other in confusion, mostly wondering if this girl in front of them was real, "This one right here," Ibera pushed Taresc in front, "he's the one who brought you down."
"Well this dummy here is a… a DUMMY compared to Aurut." The bison landed, "You better be prepared to fail. Once, me and Aurut were playing Pai Sho against each other and he won really fast!"
Pio smirked, "That's not all that astonishing."
"Plot twist: I'm amazing at Pai Sho!" She gasped.
"Sure." Xulo escorted Cersiek over towards the Lotus Soldiers, "Hello!"
"Are you Avatar Xulo?" The soldier read from a piece of paper, "We got a letter saying that you defeated General Cersiek?"
Xulo presented Cersiek, "This'd be her."
The soldier looked at Xulo in amazement, "I can't believe it." The soldier got off his bison and grabbed Cersiek, "Can you believe it, Timble? He actually captured the Daughter of the Storm."
"Daughter of the Storm?" Xulo realized how close that was to Regille's title, Queen of the Storm, "Is she Regille's daughter?"
"Adoptive daughter, thank you!" Cersiek yelled as she got pushed onto the bison.
That explains why everyone was so willing to comply with our demands, Xulo thought.
The soldier gave Xulo a slap on the back, "Thank you, Avatar."
"It's my job."
The soldier laughed, "Well, King Hintrichi is going to want to see you. Thank you for your service, Avatar." With those parting words, the bison flew off.
Xulo turned around and saw the gleaming faces of Team Avatar. As he walked back they cheered, "Avatar Xulo is on the map, people!" .
Xulo held up his palm, "Wait. Taresc," Taresc looked surprised, "since you saved the day once again, do you have any words you want to say?"
Taresc thought for a moment and fumbled with some words but he spoke, "I can't believe that we're here, in the Eastern Air Temple. A month, maybe even weeks ago, my biggest concern was whether I would get my chores done by nightfall, now it's whether I'll defeat a general… by nightfall." Something didn't ring right with Taresc, but he continued, "Liberating temples, meeting with kings: This is insane, plain insanity. But I'll do it for you, Xulo."
"Onto Aurut." Xulo held out his hand.
Each member placed their hands onto Xulo's and together they yelled, "Onto Aurut!"
As they boarded Tanton to head out to Mudide, Lozulia jumped off and ran into the temple, "Where are you going, Lozulia?" Taresc yelled.
"I'm grabbing that candy Cersiek was talking about. She's not going to need it." She yelled back.
Taresc chuckled to himself. He looked out across the countless mountain peaks that made up Eastern Air Temple Island. The sun was finally setting on day three and Taresc could feel a giant weight lifting off of his back. He looked around at the courtyard they were in, seeing all the joyous faces they brought to the Air Nomads. The pain of being the second Avatar felt light for a moment, maybe everything would be alright. Maybe, just maybe, he'd make it after all. "Onto Aurut."