Yay ! My course is finally over... Thank God...
Sorry if you didn't like the last chapter... I re-read it and it seemed a bit wack to me... Oh well...
One of my lovely reviewers, Moose by pen name, suggested that I make the chapters longer... I totally agree with you, Moose... So I've decided after a very long and boring board meeting (with only myself and my P.A in attendance) that I'm going to make sure each chapter is at least 2,000 words long...
One more thing... Some of you might have noticed the haphazard and undefined way my chapters are spaced and paragraphed... I apologize... That's my phone... I don't know what's wrong with it...
Disclaimer: I don't own ATLA. Duh.
Chapter 11 (Day 4)
Fever
Under normal circumstances, Ty Lee would be very angry. But these weren't exactly normal circumstances. Or were they?
It was the thought or rather question that kept Ty Lee's right hand on her stinging cheek.
Aang had slapped her. On the face.
The first ten seconds after the airbender's hand had made contact with the right side of her face, the acrobat's anger had shot up like lightning. But her rage had simmered down and eventually died when Aang had begun to whine and groan with pain.
Ty Lee's eyes began to water and she was moved to tears of pity and deep commiseration as she watched the airbender writhe on the bed in agony. His cries of pain intensified. Without warning, Aang let out a roar and his body shook convulsively. Ty Lee whimpered. She could feel the tears tearing at her eyes viciously, threatening to fall.
Ty Lee slowly advanced to the bed, making sure she wasn't within range of Aang's erratically flailing limbs again. From the right side of the bed, she stood and looked at him. He was turning and tossing on the bed like a beached shark-cat.
She moved a little closer to the bed and bent from the waist down to observe the thrashing airbender.
Bad idea.
Very bad idea.
Quick as a flash, his foot shot towards her's face and she barely registered the surging foot before it hit her.
On the left side of her face.
Bright stars and fireballs blazed and exploded before Ty Lee's eyes. Her head jerked sharply to the right and she staggered backwards.
'Wow, even in pain, he's still very strong', she thought fleetingly. Her head hurt. And the brain inside it hurt even more. Ty Lee groaned and put her hand to the side of her head. Her vision began to sway slightly and she was pretty sure there were bees buzzing around in her brain.
From the end of her undulating vision, Ty Lee could see Xen and Lin holding the thrashing airbender down, preventing him from causing further damage to anyone.
Ty Lee thought she heard a sound behind her, but she wasn't quite sure. It could very well be a product of her spinning and buzzing head.
Ty Lee fell to her knees and groaned again. That kick really hurt. A lot.
Ty Lee felt a weight on her shoulder. With a small groan, she turned her head slowly and saw Zaru kneeling behind her, his hand on her shoulder. She saw Karai stride past them to the bed, to help restrain a still thrashing Aang.
Zaru's hand felt very warm on her shoulder and Ty Lee revelled greedily in the feel of the earthbender's warm hand on her shoulder. She dropped her eyelids and relaxed her shoulders. "Your hand feels very warm. And strong", she moaned.
As soon as the last word left Ty Lee's mouth, the warm hand jerked off her shoulder. Ty Lee jerked her eyes open and made a sound of protest, like a little girl that had been deprived of her favourite doll.
She looked at Zaru with a pleading look in her eyes. The earthbender had a strange expression on his face. His crystal green eyes carried an expression akin to bewilderment. Before Ty Lee's eyes, the expression vaporised and Zaru smiled. It was a small smile, but it conveyed a lot to the acrobat.
Zaru squeezed Ty Lee's shoulder in an affectionate gesture and rose to his feet, raising the petite acrobat to her feet as he did.
"Thank you", Ty Lee squeaked out.
Zaru replied warmly, "You're welcome."
Ty Lee nodded and turned her head to look at Aang. His thrashing had stopped but his body was now covered in a light sheen of sweat.
For no particular reason, Ty Lee's eyes drifted from Aang to Karai, and her drifting eyes stopped abruptly. The firebender was glaring at her. Ty Lee blinked when she saw Karai staring right at her with the most vicious look a living person could ever give another living person.
Ty Lee blushed lightly, and had the distinct feeling that Karai had seen what had just happened between her and Zaru.
And she did not like it.
One.
Damn.
Bit.
Lin's motherly voice floated over the tensely charged air, "We need to cool him down. He's getting too hot."
Karai nodded at Lin but continued to glare at Ty Lee. Zaru was inadvertently making matters worse by standing behind her.
He, unaware of Karai's angry expression, made sure the petite acrobat was well on her feet before he left her and walked over to the bed.
Ty Lee was a bit surprised at what happened next. Karai stood by the right side of the bed near Aang's head. Xen stood on the other side and Lin strode over to the end of the bed by Aang's feet.
Zaru caught the idea and stepped back a few metres, far enough that he was out of their way, and yet close enough in case he was needed.
Xen and Karai both put their hands, palms facing downwards, on Aang's sweating body. One hand on one side of his forehead and the other on his upturned palm.
Lin however kept her hands in the air at chest level. Then she began to rotate them slowly and before Ty Lee's eyes, water materialised and began to follow the woman's hands.
Ty Lee's mouth opened a bit. She did not know where the water had come from, but she could see it as it flew calmly through the air following Lin's twirling hands.
After Lin had acquired a sizable stream of water, she brought her hands down to waist level and once again, the water followed it. Lin settled the water on Aang's body and began to make slow, hypnotic cyclic movements with her hands.
Ty Lee watched, mouth agape as the water slowly began to embalm Aang's quivering body. Eventually it covered his entire body, save his head and palms.
At first nothing happened. Then after a while, Ty Lee began to feel it.
The room began to get warmer.
It quickly became humid in the small room and Ty Lee began to sweat lightly. She looked over at Aang but she couldn't see much. Most of his body was still covered in water and Lin was blocking her view of Aang.
It began to get uncomfortable and stuffy in the room and Ty Lee began to really feel the heat.
Just when she thought she was going to pass out from the heat, Karai and Xen lifted their hands off Aang's body.
A few moments later, Lin raised the water off Aang's body. She turned and faced Ty Lee. "He's made it through the worst of the pain. All that's left is the fever."
"F-F Fever?", Ty Lee stuttered.
"Yes, dear, FEVER." The matronly waterbender put extra emphasis on the fever' and Ty Lee felt like an idiot for a moment. But the ensuing smile the waterbender gave her banished the feelings almost immediately.
"Is it b-bad?", she asked.
"Not necessarily... Like the name suggests, it's a... fever. It'll last the night, and it'll be gone by morning."
"So he'll be okay?"
"Yes he will. He'll be physically weak for a day or two but he'll be fine."
Karai spoke up. "We will go make dinner... Or supper." She corrected as she looked around the dark room.
She glared at Ty Lee. Again. Then she walked out without a word.
Zaru walked over to Ty Lee and squeezed her shoulder in the same affectionate way she had done earlier before he walked out too.
An uncomfortable silence took Karai's place in the room. Xen gave the room, Ty Lee and Aang one last, lingering look before he spoke, "I think I should go too."
Uncomfortable silence boomed.
He nodded at Ty Lee and left the room.
Lin walked over to the table and pulled out a short stool from under it. Then she put a large bowl on it. The whole time she was doing this, the water she had covered Aang's body in a few minutes earlier continued to spin lazily in the air.
"Ho- How are you doing that?"
"How am I doing what?", Lin asked.
"That", Ty Lee pointed at the floating glob of water like it was the most obvious thing in the room... Which it was.
"I can bend without my body...just like my husband."
Ty Lee stood there. Quiet.
"I thought he told you."
At first Ty Lee did not register what Lin was saying to her. Her mind buried in deep ponderings. The older woman had to snap her fingers twice before Ty Lee came back to reality.
"Wh- what?"
Lin smiled, "I said I thought my husband told you that he could bend without his body."
"He did. But I-
"Thought he was the only one who could bend with his mind", Lin finished. Ty Lee nodded slowly.
Lin looked at the floating water and it suddenly divided into three smaller globs. "I can bend with my mind." The first glob flew into the bowl in her hands.
"Zaru can bend with his mind." The second glob flew into the bowl. "Karai can bend with her mind too." The third glob flew after it's companions into the bowl with a small splash. Lin smirked confidently and walked over to the bed.
"But that's beside the point. Let's get your friend's fever down."
Ty Lee nodded and walked over to the bed. Lin put the stool beside the bed near Aang's head and put the bowl on the stool. Then she walked over to the table.
Ty Lee knelt by the bed near Aang's head and put the back of her hand on his forehead. It was hot. She turned it over and cleaned the sweat of his face. Lin returned with a small cloth which she put in the bowl. Then she got up and started to walk towards the door. She was leaving.
"Are you leav-
"I'm going to get a torch. It's getting too dark for me to see", Lin called over her shoulder without stopping or looking back.
"Oh- Okay."
Ty Lee rested back on her haunches and fiddled with her hands impatiently while she awaited Lin's return. She looked around her and saw a second bed a few feet behind her, empty and smooth. She turned her gaze back to Aang and fiddled with her hands anew. A few seconds later, Lin reappeared, blazing torch in hand.
"Let's begin."
*Meanwhile in Aang's very feverish head*
Aang was confused.
He was somewhere around-
That was the problem! He didn't even know where he was.
As far as his eye could see, there was- nothing for his eye to see. It was all white and misty. Like a very steamy bathroom.
The thought of bathrooms made Aang think of clean which made him look down at his body. His clothes were clean. So was the rest of his body. Aang frowned. He looked sparkling clean. He didn't know why but he couldn't help but think he wasn't supposed to be clean.
A very loud crash interrupted his musing and Aang jerked his head up immediately to look around.
Nothing.
There was literally nothing in sight.
Aang was literally surrounded by nothing.
'Maybe I'm in the spirit world," he thought.
Yes! He was in the spirit world. Aang grinned at his brilliant theory. Then he frowned, 'I can't be in the spirit world.'
He had been to the spirit world a few times before and this-this looked nothing like the spirit world. Then again, it could be the spirit world. Maybe he had just never been to this part of it before. Confusion began to creep in.
"I wish I had Roku," he whined. A few seconds passed before he beamed, "I do have Roku." Aang plopped to the ground and arranged his legs in the full lotus position. He closed his eyes and focused intently on the avatar before him. Nothing happened. Aang cracked one eye open and looked around.
No Roku.
Just misty nothingness as far as his open eye could see.
Aang closed his eye and tried again. His eyebrows furrowed in concentration and small droplets of sweat began to form above his eyebrows.
Again his eye popped open, and again there was no Roku. Aang gave up and rested his jaw in his right hand. He sighed frustratedly, "I guess I don't have Roku."
He started to get up but was stopped by the most excruciating pain he had ever felt before in his life. It felt like he was in a bath of boiling water, and he was getting stabbed with a thousand knives, and a thousand Agni Kai's were being fought inside his body, all at the same time.
'What's happening?', he thought frantically. Against his will, his body began rise into the air but Aang barely noticed. It was like every cell in his body was on fire.
Without warning, his body suddenly stiffened. His arms and legs shot straight out and the pain shot through his body with the uncontrolled movement. For a fleeting second, Aang thought someone had set him on fire.
Aang tried to endure the pain and not cry, but with the increasing pain he was feeling, it was becoming increasingly difficult not to.
He tried to open his eyes, but the small movement only made the pain worse. His body stiffened again. And the pain redoubled. This time he couldn't help himself, he cried out in pain and began to whine pitifully. He writhed in the fiery torture, willing with all his heart that it would stop.
But the pain didn't stop. In fact, it seemed to increase exponentially with each passing second. It was like he was being burnt alive. And it was extremely uncomfortable. And painful.
Aang managed to, with a small grunt, tear his eyes open. But as he did, a new wave of pain, a thousand times more intense than before hit and washed over the entirety of his body. He roared in pain and his body convulsed from the redoubled torturous fire washing through his veins.
After what seemed like a thousand years, the pain gradually began to stop. First, it drifted out of his head, then his hands, then the rest of his body. The pain seemed to be migrating. It seemed to be moving out of his body and into his head and his hands. And from there it seemed like something was sucking the pain right out of his body.
Aang closed his eyes in relief as the pain began to seep out of his body. A chilly sensation started to cover his entire body, save his head and and hands, and Aang welcomed it wholeheartedly. As the chill intensified, the fiery pain dissipated until there was nothing left. A few moments after, the chilly sensation disappeared and immediately, Aang felt better. Just like that.
Aang dropped to his feet and opened his eyes. He was taken aback by what he saw. The leaves had never looked so green, the ground more brown, the sky so… blue. And everything was so much more detailed than it used to be. Aang could see the little veins in the leaves from a hundred feet away. He could see every little insect moving on every tree. He could practically see the wind.
Aang stretched his limbs, expecting them to be sore from the fiery pain, but they felt stronger than they ever had before. Aang took a few steps forward, and was surprised that it took absolutely no effort at all. Aang looked around once more. Then he stopped moving. Two things were very wrong here.
First, he was no longer surrounded by a white and misty void. As far as he could see, there were lush and tall trees. He was in the middle of a large forest.
But that didn't seem to bother him. Because standing in front of him, no more than a few feet away, was Ty Lee with a bowl in her small hands.
But that was still not what bothered Aang.
No. That was not what bothered Aang.
It was her eyes.
It was her eyes that bothered Aang.
Those eyes.
They were blue.
Ty Lee's eyes were blue.
Strangely, that didn't sound right in Aang's head. He couldn't help but feel as if there was something not right about what was going on. He swallowed silently before he spoke in a somewhat shaky voice, "T-Ty Lee?"
And just like that, she evaporated. Into thin air. Aang barely had time to question the acrobat's disappearance because standing in her place was someone Aang was somewhat happy to see.
Katara.
And that's it... For now... Anyway...
I've started on chapter 12 but I can't say for certain when I'll finish it... Oh well...
Review... If you want to...
Till next chapter...
- Tha Drac Lord