Brothers Avatar

The Legend of Two Avatars

Book 1 – Family

Chapter 18 – The Storms of Order

"Here's the thing that I've been waiting for!" Ibera said, "How in the hell do you think we're getting past the Northern Air Temple?"

Team Avatar reached the port of Kuzhou, directly north of the White Lotus Capital, right before where the Northern Air Mountain Range began. Xulo led Team Avatar, as well as a battalion of seven White Lotus soldiers; Hintrichi tried to send them off with more soldiers, but they felt that any more would be more cumbersome than helpful.

Xulo set his soldiers aside, so he could talk to his team, "That's the big question isn't it?"

"You said we'd handle it when we get here," Ibera said, "There ain't more time for running away, Xu-Xu."

"Oh desist yourself," Pio said, "I don't see any of you concocting profound plans." Everyone turned to Taresc.

"Oh, I'm clueless." Taresc admitted.

Xulo said, "Wonderful, I finally get to decide how we go." Xulo smiled, "I do have a plan, thank you Ibera." He took them closer to where all the ships were, "We are going to split up and go different ways to the Northern Water Tribe. Minege, Taresc, Lozulia and Pio and the soldiers are going to take a boat to the destination while Ibera and I are going go through the mountains."

Ibera slumped over, "Why do I have to be the one who walks." He grumbled loudly.

Lozulia laughed, "Ibera's got to walk! Ibera's got to walk!" Lozulia mocked and Ibera glared, "Wait, what boat are we taking?"

Xulo squirmed, "Erm, Not quite certain, we'll just have to ask around."

"Right, because last time we tried to get some fishermen to take us to a Stormbender stronghold, they were lining up for miles." Ibera said, "If only we could find someone like that captain lady, whatever happened to old tubby?"

Just as he said that, they heard the clanging of a bell and voice calling out, "Fishing trips! Fishing trips!" She rang her bell, "Most fun trip in all of Kuzhou!"

"Captain Kreffti!" Lozulia yelled and started running at their large friend, she jumped on the surprised woman's back, "Have you lost weight?"

"Get off of me!" Kreffti yelled.

"Aww…" Lozulia said as she disembarked Kreffti.

Kreffti turned around and saw all of Team Avatar, "Oh no, oh no no no." She began collecting her things, "Not again, no way, you're not claiming my boat this time."

"Kreffti please…" Pio put a hand on her shoulder, "We're not here for accommodations… we're not here for any of that." Pio said slyly, "We just wanted to catch up."

She looked at their cynically sweet faces and put down her coin bucket, "Well okay then, A lot has happened since I last saw you people. After that General girl destroyed my boat, I washed up north on this peninsula." Xulo faintly remembered being told that he sent half of the crew north while he sent his team south to the island, "I had to walk a fair distance just to get to a boat that would take me to Mudide."

Lozulia interrupted, "That explains the weight loss."

Everyone looked to Kreffti and saw no difference, "Thanks doll, I appreciate it." She continued her story, "Well, luckily I had a good amount of gold saved up at my residence in Mudide—Gold I had planned to spend on retirement, THANK YOU!" She lightly blew up, "I had heard that there was a lot wealth being spread around here so I made my way up and bought another vessel. That's been my life."

Ibera looked into her barren bucket, "And look at that, you're just as successful here as you were back in Hainan!" Pio quickly elbowed him.

"Ay, that I am!" She laughed, "So what's been happening with my favorite Avatar team?"

"Well, we liberated the Eastern Air Temple." Xulo said.

Kreffti nodded, "Heard about that, congrats."

"We had a run-in with Hintrichi that almost got me killed, but it got worked out and now we have some of his soldiers." Xulo gestured to the group casually talking over by a shop, "And that's about all that's happened."

Kreffti smiled, "That's great! But why are you here?"

Taresc danced around the explanation, "Well… we're planning on… maybe… taking down Aurut in the Northern Water Tribe?"

"Good, good and how are you getting there? Going through the mountains?"

"Um…" Taresc bit his lip, "Boat… and mountains. Both."

Kreffti did not like where this was going, "And you have a boat, right?" She looked to Pio, "You said you weren't going to ask me to do anything."

Taresc hesitated, "Well…"

"We need you take us to the Northern Water Tribe, Kreffti." Xulo said.

"No! I refuse!" She said.

"But Kreffti…" Lozulia said, "The children…"

"I surely believe in the children, but that doesn't mean that I have to sacrifice my boat and take them past Regille's Mountain Range!"

Team Avatar began passionately fighting and pleading with Kreffti, trying every angle they could to get her to take them. One of the White Lotus soldiers noticed and walked over, "Is there a problem?"

"Yeah! She's not going to risk her boat for the sake of vague Avatar business!" Lozulia yelled.

"Oh, I see." He turned to Kreffti, "How do you do, General Vaskon of The White Lotus Executive Oligarchy Militia, Special Infiltration Sector." He held out his hand.

She accepted the handshake, "Captain Kreffti… of Captain Kreffti's boat tours… boat tour sector."

Vaskon continued, "Apparently you aren't willing to take us to the Northern Water Tribe?"

"Yessir that is correct!" She pouted, "I've already lost a boat to these kids, I'm not losing a second."

He looked to Team Avatar and they guiltily shrugged, "I'm very sorry to hear that," He responded, "However…" Kreffti squinted at his tone, "The White Lotus is prepared to offer you a grand total of 100 gold coins if you would oblige in taking us on."

Her eyes widened, "Well then!" She rubbed her hands together, "Nothing would bring me more pleasure than to bring these wonderful kids to the Northern Water Tribe, oh boy!"

Xulo turned to Vaskon, "General, are you sure you're allowed to do that?"

Vaskon laughed, "Please, Avatar, that's not even one thousandth of the amount of gold we have."

"Alright, kids and adults who are coming with me, my boat is this way, follow me!" Kreffti yelled.

Vaskon gestured for his soldiers to come and they started following Kreffti, Xulo motioned for his team to have a group huddle, "Lozulia, the map." Lozulia handed over the map, "Once we both get to the North, we're going to meet here." He pointed to a spot slightly north-eastern to the Northern Water Tribe, "Apparently a meteorite fell there a long time ago and now it's a tourist attraction and a place of prayer, it also overlooks a road to the Water Tribe." He closed the map, "I guess that's all I have to say, we'll see you on the other side." Taresc quickly went in for a hug and the boat team headed off to Kreffti's direction.

All except for Pio, "Why aren't I going with you?" He said firmly. Ibera quickly realized that this was going to be a fight and backed away.

"I need airbenders with me that can keep up."

"I can keep up! I'm not some dawdler, Xulo!"

"Pio…" Xulo said softly, going over to embrace him.

He reluctantly accepted the hug, "What?! I'm hurt, that's all. No big deal!"

"Do you want to know the real reason?" He said.

"Yes… please…"

"I need someone to look out for my brother—really, everyone on that boat." He chuckled, "If danger comes, there's only so much a firebender and an earthbender can do on a boat."

"Fine… I understand…" He mumbled, "It'd just be nice being there… knowing you're safe."

"I'm going to be more than fine, Pio!" Xulo yelled, "I'm gonna be great, don't ya hear!"

Pio laughed and a landed a kiss, "You better be or I'm sending this boat to the bottom of the ocean, you hear?" He said walking off.

"I hear you, loud and clear!" Xulo said,

Ibera walked back into the conversation, "Ugh, love makes me sick."

Xulo chuckled lightly, "Are you ready to go, partner?"

"As ready as I'll ever be…" Ibera ran his fingers through his hair, "I can't help but feel like I was supposed to inform you about something…"

"Will I not knowing get us killed?"

"Probably, most likely."

Xulo sighed, "Let's hope some hiking will jog your memory."

Taresc stared off at the passing mountains, in the distance he saw Xulo and Ibera jumping into action. He waved in the off-chance that they were watching, but like he thought, they weren't. He sighed and scratched Woorq under the chin while it calmly looked off in the distance.

"Tare-oorq!" Taresc heard Lozulia charging in from behind, he turned around but she had already jumped on his back.

"Deja vu, huh?"

She got off, "You're right!" She said amazed, "On Kreffti's boat off to a general. Let's hope it ends better than last time."

"It should." Taresc said, "I mean, this time we won't be landing right at their front door like last time, instead a little village to the east. This time we have a distraction, too, Xulo and Ibera."

She leaned over the edge, "You've been thinking about it, I guess?"

"You can tell?" Taresc said to Lozulia's nod, "I think too much, I think."

"Well don't think, say it."

"Say what? What's on my mind?" He pondered it and decided to oblige, "Well yesterday my brother tried to kill someone and today he's trying to get himself killed. I'm on a boat with my brother's lover, who I'm sure hates me, for one reason or another. We're all pretending like a few soldiers is going to make that much of a difference in trying to take down the intellectual prodigy that is Aurut. And worse of all, the closer I get to Xulo the more I think it's going to hurt him when he kills me!" He hung his head, "Well… second to worse of all… I'm also really worried that Woorq won't be able to handle the cold temperatures…"

"Aww, Tare." She wrapped an arm around, "Don't worry, Pio hates everyone."

"The worst of my fears is now relinquished," He laughed, "Thank you, Loz."

She grabbed for his cheek, "That's why I'm here!" She let go of his cheek, "Right now, he's just sitting below deck staring angrily at a wall." Taresc laughed, "Seriously! We could go see."

"That's fine, the visual in my head is probably better than what it actually is." He relaxed his shoulders, "What's happening, Loz?"

"Rumor is that the Avatar is going to try and take on the Northern Water Tribe."

"Well I know that." He laughed softly, "What I mean is, when did this team become so negatively charged?" He looked to Lozulia, "Do remember after we saved Xulo from that camp near Cirkenad? I don't have too many fond memories of all of this, but when we were all just shooting the shit… it was nice."

"We were a family then." Lozulia said, "Xulo was the disapproving and cold dad with a heart of gold and you were the emotional but dependable mother. Ibera was the rebellious son who was just trying to teach the family about the newest and raddest things while Pio was the prodigal son who never got along with the other son because he liked to do things the old fashioned way. Minege was the grandmother who always looks like she hates the family but you know deep down she loves them all. And I was the best."

"The best? That's your position in the family?"

"Is there any other way of describing my purpose?" She boasted.

"I think so…" He said, "I'd say you're the littlest of the family. You cheer everyone on and make silly mistakes time after time, but that's what makes you, you. Sure, maybe people can't hear your suggestions while everyone is fighting, but in the end she always comes through."

Lozulia started blushing, "Well I… I wouldn't say I make that many mistakes… but," She smiled widely and socked Taresc on the arm, "I'll take it!" She then got glum, "Things had to go downhill from there… first the dad starts screwing around with one of the sons, then the mother runs away in a fit of misery and finally papa Xulo tries to go all matricide on the family."

"Looks like the Avatar thing really threw a wrench into the family dynamic." Taresc rested his head on his arms on the railing of the boat.

"Yep."

"Honestly, I think we were screwed from the second twin brothers gave birth to three children." Taresc chuckled.

"Families break, Taresc." Lozulia said, "Yours was broken for a while, right?" Taresc nodded thinking about Lido, "No family honeymoons forever, but once this is all over, it can all come back together and fix itself."

"All I can do is hope…" He rested his hands on the railing and Lozulia laid her hand on top of his, when he looked over she grasped his hand and smiled, "Lozulia?"

"Uh-huh?"

Taresc held the words in his mouth for dear life, but at last, he released them, "When we were going to the Eastern Air Temple, do remember when I was telling you about Lido and you started falling asleep?" She nodded, "Well, while you were drifting into sleep you said that you thought you loved me."

"Mhm?" Her voice escalated.

"Do we have something?" He stared awkwardly out into the ocean.

Lozulia laughed, "Well, that's not really my call! You already know how I feel, it's your choice, Mr. Taresc."

"Well if it weren't for you, I really don't know if I would've survived this long without trying to run away…" Lozulia looked at him funny, "Oh, like really far away and never come back. You're the only light in my life right now, the only one that doesn't have some glaring problem that only brings me further down."

Lozulia stared out nervously, "Oh Taresc."

"Maybe what I'm saying is that there are no words to describe how much you mean to me, but I guess, 'I think I love you too,' will have to do."

As Taresc looked up and turned to Lozulia, she jumped into a kiss. She held his face and they just stood there as Regille's Mountain Range passed by. Eventually they stopped and pulled away from each other. They stared into each other's eyes and then began to giggle.

A voice cried out, "Get a room you two!"

Lozulia looked over her shoulder, "Thank you Minege!"

"No problem, Zuli!" Minege yelled from the front of the ship.

"So where do we go from here?" Taresc said, turning brighter shades of red by the minute.

Lozulia put a hand on her cheek and thought, "A-ha I got it!" She yelled, "Let's go fight each other!"

"What?" Taresc said. "Is that what couples do?"

"It's what we're gonna do!" She made her voice deep and gravely, "Taresc versus Lozulia, below deck for one day only, ultimate wrestling TO THE DEATH!"

"Ohh…." Taresc pouted, "Never mind, can we just be friends, I don't like wrestling…"

"HAHA, NOPE!" She grabbed his unwilling hand and started dragging him off to the brig, "You're stuck with me now!"

Taresc whimpered as he was taken away but deep down he felt a certain kind of warmth that he hadn't felt before, he felt love. Even as his world is falling apart, at least he could depend on Lozulia.

"Keep up!" Xulo said as they jumped from one mountain to another, jumping all the distance with his airbending.

Ibera lagged a little behind, "Remember when you couldn't even blow air without accidently creating a crater in the earth?" He huffed, "I miss those days."

"I can't help that I'm a fast learner." He said.

Suddenly Xulo stopped dead in tracks, Ibera stopped right next to him, "This isn't the Northern Water Tribe, just so you know." Ibera said.

"I heard something." Xulo said.

Ibera looked around trying to get a bearing on their location, "I'd say we are about the area that the Stormbenders patrol." Ibera rubbed forehead, "We're gonna have to slow down and be cautious around here."

They began walking without airbending, hoping it would draw less attention. Hours seemed to pass without them seeing a single Stormbender, "I must admit, I thought there'd be more Stormbenders patrolling their main base of operation." Xulo said.

Ibera shrugged, "I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth."

"It's weird, I swore I saw one and he saw me, but he just went on his way."

"Wait, WHAT!?" Ibera freaked, "A Stormbender saw us and you said nothing?"

Xulo was confused, "Well, he didn't do anything."

"That's because the foot soldiers aren't in charge of disposing of intruders, they probably went to get—" A huge blast of air suddenly whizzed right past Ibera's head and scattered gravel everywhere, "Regille's Disciples." Looking at where the blast came from, a boy and a girl stood atop a cliff. "Run!"

They began running for their lives, barely letting a toe touch the ground before blasting off. Ibera's panic was heavily portrayed in his bulging eyes, Xulo was far from calm, but not quite to Ibera's extent, "Who are those people?" He yelled.

"I meant to tell you about them, those two are Regille's disciples." Ibera yelled back, "I didn't think we'd ever be daring enough to try and face Regille's Mountain Range, so it kind of slipped my mind."

Xulo jumped a boulder in his way, "Well we're really here now, Ibera!"

"Don't get sassy with me, Xulo, I'm the only one who has the right to be sassy!" Ibera ducked a blast that came from behind, "The boy is named Gitsur and the girl is Ie-Sara, they train under Regille for airbending."

Just then, Ie-Sara was able to jump ahead with one giant gust of air and sent a giant slice of air at Xulo and Ibera. Ibera quickly ran forward and clashed with the air before it was too strong and Xulo narrowly was able to slide underneath, "She taught them well."

Ibera and Xulo were running at the bottom on the mountain while Ie-Sara and Gitsur were hopping from above, one mountain to another. Xulo noticed while they were running that they suddenly stopped shooting off shots at them. When he looked back he saw that they were switching sides of the mountain rapidly and then realized what they were doing.

With the circular movement they were doing, they were creating a traveling cyclone. Xulo and Ibera could already feel it tugging them back. Xulo quickly turned around and bent a landslide from the mountain to hopefully dissipate the cyclone. It worked, but not without a large amount of boulders getting thrown every which way. This caused problems for Xulo and Ibera as they had to constantly be looking backwards to see if they were about to be crushed, therefor slowing them down.

Gitsur then flung himself from his cliff as team avatar slowed down. He threw himself onto Xulo's shoulders, tugging at his hair, "Get off of me!" Xulo yelled as he lit his hands on fire to burn him. Gitsur then jumped off of his shoulders and onto the cliffs ahead of them. Running ahead while, Ie-Sara ran from behind.

No longer was the onslaught just from the back, it was also from the front. They had to deal with Ie-Sara shooting blasts of air from behind while Gitsur knocked rocks from the cliffs to impede on their journey.

After almost simultaneously getting tripped and getting blasted, Xulo said, "I've had enough of this!" Xulo used his earthbending to create a giant landslide right in front of them that neither Gitsur nor Ie-Sara would be able to jump over.

"Uh, Xulo?" Ibera said as they approached the wall of gravel.

"I got it!" He bent a small passageway through the mountain that they could run through. As soon as they got through, he closed off the passageway and the disciples were stuck on the other side.

They found their ways to a small clearing in the mountains where a lake sat. They skated across the lake and onto a small barren island in the middle. They reached the island and saw that Ie-Sara and Gitsur were nowhere to be seen. "Did they give up?" Xulo laughed, "Let's get going, the Water Tribe shouldn't be too far from here."

"I have a feeling we're not going anywhere." Ibera said cracking his neck, "Our battle's just begun."

Xulo was about to question why, when suddenly a girl and a boy began rising out of the water on either side of the island. "Xulo, meet Capico and Aruquis, Regille's other disciples."

"Don't worry, Tanton, we're almost there." Minege cooed. Tanton was getting restless on the boat, wanting to be able to run. Minege and Tanton sat towards the front of the boat, Minege staring off mindlessly as she brushed Tanton's scaly feathers. She couldn't help but feel like a stranger to the team after the stunt she pulled to free her father and after the harsh words Pio said, she felt like a tag-along.

She thought about going below and apologizing to Pio, but the idea made a sour taste in her mouth. Maybe his implications were well-intentioned, but she couldn't help but despise him. All she could do is try her best to make it up to Xulo with her actions.

She laid her head of Tanton and sighed, then she saw something move in the water. It barely piqued her attention, until she saw multiple little blips in the water. She leaned over and noticed the things in the water had feathers, suddenly she recalled something a person said offhandedly during her investigations, 'A friend of mine's daughter was actually trying to get up north and catch some really rare fish so she could get rich,' she said, 'poor thing, her boat capsized and she got eaten by vulture-sharks.'

She gasped and realized the terrible mistake they made coming out here, she took a biscuit that she had saved for later and threw it into the water. Before it could even touch the water, a giant shark with the hunched wings of a vulture flew out of the water and snagged it, "Vulture-sharks!" Minege screamed. "We're in vulture-shark territory!"

"You said what, now?" Kreffti came running down, "Nobody told me about any vulture-sharks!"

"VULTURE-SHARKS!" Lozulia screamed as she, Taresc and Pio and most of the soldiers came up from below deck, "Not the vulture-sharks!" She laughed, "Don't worry guys, I know all about vulture-sharks, there's always a migration around the Fire Islands once a year. They're incredibly docile creatures who only prey on deceased animals, hence the vulture."

Kreffti let out a giant sigh of relief, "That's a load off my back."

"Good thing we're not in the east, those vulture-sharks are VISCOUS!" Suddenly there was a huge thud and the boat rocked, "Oh wait… man, I sure hate directions."

"Get more coal in the engine, Lin!" One of the cabin boys ran below deck and another shark hit the boat. "All of the coal, Lin!"

"What do we do?" Taresc said to Lozulia.

"Scare them away?" Lozulia went over to the side of the boat where the last hit came from and started shooting off fire into the water. The sharks began to scatter, "Success?" From the other side of the boat, they took another big hit and the boat began to rock even harder.

The sharks hit the boat again and it seemed like they were about to capsize "Pio, stabilize the boat." Taresc said. Pio quickly bent a wave to counter the sharks. The whole crew had fallen to the floor, gripping to whatever they could cling to. There seemed to be an eerie silence, "Did they give up?"

Suddenly out of the water, the sharks launched themselves high in the air and started circling the boat from above. They began swooping in on the boat from all different directions, everyone did their best to try and defend themselves from this onslaught.

Lozulia sprinted around the boat trying her best to protect everyone. Seeing a shark trying to swoop in and eat a passenger, she ran in close and sprayed fire at the shark in an attempt to burn their wings. The sight of fire was enough to deter most of the sharks, but they came from every angle and it was hard to manage the whole entire boat.

Pio was having a decent time with his flock of vulture-sharks; just as they tried to dive in for the kill he'd bend an arc of water from the sea and throw them right back in. Captain Vaskon, being an airbender, was able to keep the vultures at bay as well. He used his airbending to redirect them as they tried to pounce on the passengers. He redirected them back at one another and as they clashed they'd fall right back into the water.

Things were manageable up until the vulture-sharks switched tactics. They still were attacking from above but then they started rocking the boat in addition to their air raids. Pio had to stop what he was doing and attempt to stabilize the boat. The sharks weren't making it easy for him, they were bumping both sides now, Pio had to use all of his strength to try and get the boat under control.

Lozulia and Vaskon were slipping and sliding all across the top deck trying to fare with the vultures that were preying on the people aboard. They struggled and it wasn't until one soldier was stricken off the boat and into the water did they realize that they needed help. "Eura!" Vaskon yelled, mourning the soldier being eaten alive in the water.

Lozulia began to panic as she saw five vulture-sharks ready to swoop in and take another batch of soldiers. She fought with her mind, trying to come up with something. She looked to Taresc, who was clinging onto the side of the boat in terror. Seeing what she wanted to protect, she miraculously came up with a brilliant idea. She jumped up to the highest point on the boat, atop the captain's quarters. She threw her hands in the air and erupted out a fountain of sparks.

Surrounding the boat was a coat of sparks that the vulture-sharks were deathly afraid of. They all immediately retreated to the ocean and even sharks that were rocking the boat seemed to stop. Lozulia relented as it seemed the vulture-sharks retreated. "Brilliant move, Lozulia, I must concede." Pio said walking over.

It was obvious that it took a lot out of her, "Good thing they finally gave up, I don't know how much longer I could have done that."

"Well, let's hope that—" Taresc began saying, until they heard a crunch, "What was that?"

Kreffti ran up from the brig, "They puncturing holes in us!" She yelled shrilly, "We're sinking!"

Taresc fell to the ground, "Ohhh goodness…"

"You know, I wonder how Xulo and Ibera are doing." Minege said.

The battle was in full force with Regille's waterbending disciples. "Are there any other disciples you'd like to tell me about?"

"No, unless if Regille got to recruiting while we've been on our journey."

Capico and Aruquis were circling the island, ensuring that Xulo and Ibera had no choice but to fight.

Xulo decided to take Aruquis on in the water. He started skating on the water and circling the boy. Aruquis joined in and started bending a pathway of ice out of the water into the air for him to skate on. Xulo joined him in skating on the increasingly complex structure. Aruquis went higher and higher with his ice sculpture and Xulo had stolen some water from the pathway to launch at him. As Xulo was ready to pounce, Aruquis turned part of Xulo's pathway to water and Xulo went tumbling towards the lake. He landed directly on his back and sunk into the water.

Ibera took Capico on the land, seeing as he couldn't waterbend. Capico was aggressive in her approach to fighting, she summon tentacles out of the water and started slamming them towards Ibera. Ibera dodged, but as they hit the ground, they created a humongous thud almost as if she was bending the earth herself. She got a hold of his foot with her tentacle and before Ibera could blow it to mist, she turned it to ice. She began slamming him on the ground over and over. Eventually he got a good gust of air in and blew her over, releasing her grip on him.

Xulo crawled out of the water, "Does it freak you out as much as it freaks me out that they don't talk at all?" Xulo said, "Feels a little cult-ish to me."

"Regille practically bred them from birth to be cold-hearted warriors," Ibera said and held out a hand for Xulo to take, "So, I suppose you could call them victims of a cult." Xulo got to his feet and clutched his stomach, "How's your injury?" Ibera recalled how Xulo was injured in Minege's stunt.

"Really adding another dimension to this fight." He panted, "They wouldn't be so hard if it weren't for his cut."

Xulo and Ibera were back to back, watching the disciples watch them. Eventually the disciples made their move and started raising the water all around the island; eventually it became a whole dome of water. Xulo and Ibera prepped for the worst as needles began raining down on them. Ibera was able to whip up a sphere of wind around them that shattered all of the ice. Within the sphere, Xulo bent a giant rock and shot it through the dome at Capico.

Capico easily sliced the boulder in half, but also had to release her side of the dome to do so. Xulo took this chance to charge at her, but as he got close Aruquis trapped him a bubble of water. Ibera dropped his airbending and ran to free Xulo. He charged through the bubble and grabbed Xulo, dropping them both on the ground.

As things got only worse and worse for Ibera and Xulo, Ie-Sara and Gitsur appeared from over the mountain. From the looks of their entrance, they had been watching and could have fought with Capico and Aruquis, but it was if they were playing with Team Avatar; letting them drag out the fight for their enjoyment. "It's the end of the line, Xulo." Ibera said panting on the ground.

"We can fight, Ibera!" Xulo screamed through his teeth.

"Xulo…" Ibera said, looking at the four disciples, "We can't even take two of them and now there's four… we're done for." Ibera put his hands in the air and knelt to the ground.

"Damnit," Xulo grunted and resentfully did the same, "We could have taken them."

The disciples approached and Aruquis swiftly bent a wave of water that froze Xulo's and Ibera's bodies solid. "What do we do with them?" Aruquis said monotone.

Ie-Sara said, "We're too far from the Temple to take them there."

"Aurut will take them," Gitsur droned, "Tribe's not too far from here."

Capico said, "We can then ask Regille what she wants to do after that."

They all nodded in agreement and Capico and Aruquis began sliding Ibera and Xulo off. "Hmm… they're even creepier when they talk." Ibera whispered to Xulo.

Pio ran down the stairs and saw the brig was filling up with water from three different holes made by the vulture-sharks. Using brunt force, he was able to force the water back through the holes. He tried to freeze the holes shut, but the pressure broke the ice every time. It was a huge strain on his body, trying to keep the water out but he held it back.

Above him, things weren't going so well. The vulture-sharks went back to gliding around the boat and Vaskon and Lozulia went back to deflecting them. The soldiers tried to help, but being mostly comprised of earthbenders didn't help them out.

Kreffti immediately realized something as she ran around the front deck trying to avoid flying sharks, "Why aren't we moving? LIN!?" She yelled and then said to herself, "Wait, he did get eaten by those vulture-sharks didn't he?" She looked over and saw that Taresc was cowering in the corner, "Taresc!"

"Yes?" He whimpered.

"I need you to go below deck and start bending coal into the furnace, pronto!"

He indulged, "Alright!" He got up and flew down the stairs to the brig; he went through a door and found the engine room. The only problem was that the fire was completely out, not even embers remained. At some point, water must have gotten into the room and put it out. He shoveled some coal into the furnace and nervously looked around and only saw Woorq on his shoulder. Realizing he had no other choice he started spewing flames into the furnace, "Come on…" It was a little damp in furnace and refused to light up. He was so worried that someone would catch him that the flames got hotter and finally the furnace lit up, "Thank goodness." As it lit up, suddenly the boat began to rock again.

"Not this again!" Vaskon said up above, having been thrown to the ground. This time they couldn't depend on Pio as he was stuck below deck keeping the boat afloat. Vaskon had to stop trying to deflect the vulture-sharks and ran to the side of the boat that was dipping into the ocean. He went over and starting blowing air out of hands trying to equalize the ship. Once that was done, the other side started to tip, so he had to run over there and do the same thing.

Minege stood back and watched Team Avatar trying their best to keep afloat. Taresc was shoveling coal, Pio was plugging holes, Vaskon was stabilizing the boat and Lozulia was singlehandedly controlling the flying vulture-sharks. She saw the cracks forming, however, and realized that they weren't going to be able to make it to the Northern Water Tribe under their current circumstances.

Never did she quite feel so useless to the team, but somehow she realized that she was the only one who could save the team, but how? She desperately tried to think back to the conversation that she had with man about the vulture-sharks, trying to remember if he said anything useful. 'poor thing, her boat capsized and she got eaten by vulture-sharks' she remembered a little more. 'If she only listened to her mother, she had actually survived a vulture-shark attack.' She urgently began hitting herself in the head trying to remember the next part and then it came to her, 'If you ever get attacked by vulture-sharks hit them on the snout, it's extremely sensitive and they'll back off for good.'

She summoned her inner-Baikal warrior and ripped off a plank of wood from the side of the boat, "Hey! The vulture-sharks are doing well enough trying to rip my boat apart; they don't need your help, missy!" Kreffti scolded.

She baited a vulture-shark to come for her as Lozulia was looking away. The shark got close and Lozulia turned around and saw the scene, "Minege NOOO!" But as it plummeted to Minege with mouth agape, Minege took a ferocious swing at the beast. As contact was made the beast yelped and swerved off of the ship.

Everyone stared on in amazement and then went to get a plank of their own. One by one people began swatting at the dive-bombing sharks and every time it would flee to the ocean, another vulture-shark would give up rocking the boat to fill its place. They kept doing this until there were only two vulture-sharks in the sky and once they'd seen their compatriots flee, they decided to do the same.

Once it was all said and done, everyone on the boat cheered, amazed that they were still alive. Pio was able to freeze the holes shut properly now that commotion had settled and came up, "What transpired while I was under?" He asked Lozulia.

"Minege happened, she figured out their weakness and smacked the shit out of it with a wooden plank!" She cheerfully said.

Pio looked onwards at the people crowded around her, "Is that so?" Pio hated the idea of giving congratulations to the girl he thought so little of, but a thanks was in order, he walked over and put a hand on her shoulder, "Good work." He looked her dead in the eyes and raised the corner of his lip.

"Not a problem, hun." She said abashed, "Can we consider us even?"

Pio sighed and rolled his eyes, "If we must… I suppose saving all of our lives is enough to redeem you from almost getting us killed…" He let out a slight chuckle, "Welcome back to the team, Minege."

"Are we sure they're gone?" Taresc said, "At this point, I'm expecting them to come out of the ocean and start firebending the ship to ashes…"

Minege said, "I have it under good word that they won't come back because we hit them on the snout." She looked to Pio, "I learned that on my investigation."

"So we can relax?" Lozulia said as she collapsed to the floor, "Yes!"

Pio dashed the good spirits, "Don't forget that we have to meet Xulo and Ibera at the designated spot."

Taresc felt differently, "Unless if they got captured…" He bummed everyone out.

"Sweetie, come on!" Minege boasted, "If we can take on a school of vulture-sharks, I think Xulo and Ibera can take on a couple of Stormbenders, I mean come on."

"I'm with Minege." Pio said, "Everybody, go tend to your injuries and rest up, we'll be there soon." Everyone began to scatter and Pio led Minege his way, "You know Minege, I feel like I know nothing about you, let's remedy that…" and they were gone.

Taresc sat at the front of the boat and watched as Kreffti muttered to herself, "Every time I go anywhere with these kids… never again, I tell you… that 100 coins better be real… or I swear…" She then began sobbing hysterically, "My booooaaaaattttt!"

Lozulia came around and sat next to him, "Hey Tare-oorq!" Taresc responded with a little wave, "How are you two doing?"

"A little shaken, for obvious reasons." He laughed.

"Poor Woorq looks absolutely traumatized!" Lozulia she said looking at Woorq's cold and unconcerned eyes, "Poor baby."

"We made it, though, and I'm sure that Woorq is incredibly happy about that. Aren't you, Woorq?" Woorq let out a bored croak. "I think that was a yes."

"I guess we had our first date today?" Lozulia said.

Taresc chuckled, "Is that what you called this?" He laid his head on her shoulder, "Well, I can't say I've had any better that this."

"You know, Tare…" Lozulia began stroking his hair, "You keep me sane, Taresc, you say you don't know how you would've made it this far without me, but honestly I don't know how I would've made it this far without you."

"Wait…" Taresc looked up, "You're sane?" They both laughed and Lozulia bopped him on the noggin, "Sorry, I saw a chance and I took it."

"I don't mind…" Lozulia said, going back to stroking Taresc's hair, "I'm just happy to be here, with you." She looked out into the distance where she could see the sun setting on the village they were heading to. "I love you, Tare."

"I love you too, Loz."