Appa soared through the clear sky, occasionally growling softly as he flew past the clouds. On his back sat Katara and Sokka, while Aang sat on his head with the reins and Momo perched on his shoulder chirping happily at being able to join his human friends on a sky bison ride. In the saddle, Sokka had The Gaang's Companion open in his lap as he flipped through the pages in search of a good story.
The airbender sighed contentedly. "Aah, there's nothing better than the breeze in your face while flying in the sky and listening to a story. Pity Toph didn't want to come with us."
"Well, you know she doesn't like flying on Appa very much," Katara pointed out. "And Zuko's still asleep on the couch back in the Jasmine Dragon."
"He probably got tired of the last story and dozed off. I can't say I blame him, though." Sokka finally stopped at a certain page. "Hey, how does this sound? The title of the story's Animal Show, but they didn't list anyone as the main characters."
Katara looked towards her brother. "That's strange. What's the summary?"
"The animals of the Avatarverse get together to select the best of them all. Contains animal tricks, a few squabbles and a surprise winner in the end. R/R." Sokka furrowed his brow. "What's 'R/R'?"
"Not sure. Why don't you just go ahead with the story? This one doesn't sound too bad." Aang did a leap from his place on Appa's head to settle down beside Katara in the saddle as Sokka began the story.
The room was filled with the chirps, growls, howls, hoots and other sounds of the various animals gathered together. Suddenly the lights dimmed and the animals fell silent as they turned to the stage in the front of the room, where a spotlight shone on a flying lemur as he stood on his hind legs and spoke into his microphone. "Welcome to the Avatar: The Last Airbender Animal Show! My name is Momo, and I'll be your host for today's event!
"What's a 'microphone'?" Katara raised an eyebrow.
"Momo can talk?" Sokka wore a confused expression on his face.
"And what's 'Avatar: The Last Airbender'?" Aang titled his head slightly to the side in puzzlement.
"Maybe that's your title in their world," Sokka suggested. "It certainly sounds like your description. What I'd like to know is how Momo learned to speak?"
"Oh, well actually lemurs have their own language that they use," Aang explained. "Maybe Momo's speaking in the animal language, so the other animals can understand him."
"Or maybe Momo has magically learned the human language in this story," Katara said sarcastically. "Wouldn't be surprising, considering all we've seen so far."
We have a wide variety of animals competing here today, and our show will be broadcast live to our viewers, who will be voting for who they think is the best animal of us all! We'll total the live votes at the end of the show, and the winner will receive a prize sponsored by a contributor who wishes to remain unnamed: a whole bag of leechi nuts!"
"That's stupid. Why would anyone want to choose the best animal of all?" Sokka said. "They're just a bunch of dumb beasts."
He was immediately attacked by a screeching Momo, who flew right at his face and knocked him over. By the time Sokka had got Momo off him, his ponytail had been knocked askew and there were strands of hair covering his face.
"Still think they're dumb beasts?" Katara smirked.
"Ha ha," Sokka muttered as he continued with the story.
The animals all cheered at the prospect of leechi nuts. Momo quieted them with a wave of his paw. "Alright, everyone calm down. Now then, I'll explain how the show works. Every animal who wishes to compete will come up here to perform a short showcase of their abilities. At the end of the show, the animal with the most live votes wins! Yup, it's just that simple. So to start things off, I'll begin myself, and then the stage is free for all!" With that, Momo took off from the stage and soared over the animals' heads, doing a few fancy tricks and loop-the-loops in the air while the audience below oohed and aahed. He then flew back towards the stage and took a 90-degree sharp dive before performing a loop and landing on his feet on the stage. He then bowed towards the audience as they cheered and hooted (they couldn't applaud as they didn't have hands).
"Go Momo!" Aang cheered.
Suddenly a large shadow zipped skywards from right in front of the stage, surprising Momo and throwing him off-balance. As he steadied himself, the audience looked up to see Hawky executing a series of dives and spins in mid-air, while the colorful ribbons tied to his tail provided the extra special effect he intended. He finished off by spreading his wings and releasing a shower of confetti into the audience before gliding smoothly back to the stage to stand beside a grumpy Momo and take a bow.
"Yay Hawky! Atta boy!" Sokka grinned.
"Show off," the lemur muttered.
The messenger hawk straightened up. "Excuse me?"
"If it weren't for your pretty little paper shreds, your act would have been no better than mine. In fact, you could have very well been plagiarizing me!" Momo screeched in Hawky's face.
"Not fair, Momo! Just because Hawky's got more creativity than you doesn't mean he's a copycat!" Sokka chided the real Momo, who simply chirped in confusion, since he didn't know what was going on.
"Plagiarizing?! That's just your excuse for being a worse flyer than me! You've been like this ever since Sokka bought me, you green-eyed bat!"
"So you've been jealous of Hawky all this time?!" Sokka glared at a still-confused Momo. "No wonder he took off afterwards! You chased him away! HOW COULD YOU?!" he said as he fixed the unfortunate lemur with a stern expression.
"Sokka, I already told you why Hawky was gone. Toph was using him to deliver a message to her parents. It has nothing to do with Momo." Katara comforted the poor lemur by patting him affectionately on the head.
"No it isn't! This story's proof! Momo only bribed you and Toph to cover for him with – leechi nuts!" Sokka pointed an accusing finger at the startled Momo. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HAWKY?!"
"Shut up, Sokka. Aang, you continue the story." Katara snatched the book from a protesting Sokka and plopped it into Aang's lap, who dutifully started reading.
"BAT?! I'm a flying lemur! Learn it, bird-brain!"
The two were going to continue squabbling when they were suddenly both knocked over by a big gust of wind caused by Appa taking to the air as well. The sky bison tossed a few cabbages into the air and started juggling them while the animals below watched and cheered. He then deftly sent the cabbages flying towards the stage with a throw, which resulted in them missing Momo and Hawky by a few inches as the two scrambled to get out of the way and lining up in a neat row on the stage. The animals cheered louder as Appa landed in front of the audience (the stage was too small for him) and gave a customary nod of the head in place of a bow.
"Great job, buddy!" Aang said cheerfully to Appa, who simply growled softly in response even though he had no idea what his old friend was talking about.
After that the other animals showcased their talents one by one. The penguins slid in formation along the stage's smooth surface, the turtle-seals did a sort of barking choir, the badgermoles demonstrated their earthbending abilities on the ground while everyone else kept to the sides of the room to avoid getting hit by a stray boulder, and even Fang put on a spectacular fire display without setting fire to anything.
"Who's Fang?" Sokka asked as he took a break from trying (and failing) to wrestle Momo.
"That's Roku's pet dragon. But why would Fang be in the animal show?" Aang wondered as Momo settled on his shoulder, a spot he deemed was safe from the clutches of the evil Water Tribe carnivore.
"Well, it is an animal show involving all the animals of the 'Avatarverse', whatever that means," Sokka thought aloud. "So I suppose even a long-dead dragon can compete as well."
Finally it was time to announce the winner of the Avatar: The Last Airbender Animal Show. The animals all fell silent as a giant screen rolled down on the stage and an automated voice spoke. "The winner of the Avatar: The Last Airbender Animal Show is… Foo Foo Cuddlypoops!"
"The baby saber-tooth moose-lion?" Katara raised an eyebrow. "But the story didn't mention him performing, right?"
"Who cares? Hurray for Foo Foo!" Sokka cheered. "Pity Hawky didn't win though."
"WHAT?!" Momo and Hawky said together in confusion as the little saber-tooth moose-lion toddled onstage to claim the bag of leechi nuts waiting for him on the stage.
"But that's not possible! He didn't even perform at all!" Momo flew off backstage to check and came back five minutes later with a downcast face. "It's true; the majority of the viewers voted for Foo Foo because he was in the front of the audience every time an animal was performing and their attention was occupied by his cuteness!"
"Yup, Foo Foo can charm anyone with his cuddly cuteness!" Sokka said. "He even convinced me not to eat him."
"And considering the fact that you're a born meat-eater, I guess that is an incredible feat," Katara mused.
"That's not fair!" Hawky stepped towards Foo Foo, but he was blocked by a snarling Mama Foo Foo who kept glaring at everybody as she exited the room with her cub and his prize. After the two left, the other animals also started leaving gradually.
"Mama Foo Foo's the mother saber-tooth moose-lion, right?" Aang asked as he looked up from the book.
"I guess, although I don't want to remember her too much," Sokka replied, trembling slightly at the memory of the mother beast's great long saber teeth.
Momo turned to Hawky. "So, shall we do an act together next year?"
Hawky nodded enthusiastically. "Alright! We gotta show the viewers that cuteness will never be better than flying!"
"Excellent! So if we want to win this next time, we should add a few more special effects. Maybe we could juggle something like Appa, or maybe even try a fire display like Fang's…" And so the two former rivals walked off, plotting their next grand performance.
"Ooh, Hawky and Momo are definitely going to win if they work together," Sokka said gleefully. "I mean, Hawky was absolutely brilliant with his ribbons, and I guess Momo was pretty decent with the flying tricks, so they'd definitely score over the other animals."
"Unless if Foo Foo shows up again and occupies the voters' attention for the second time," Katara pointed out.
"Yeah, there's that too. Okay Momo, I've decided to forgive you for chasing away Hawky, since you too are going to work together next time around." Sokka grabbed a protesting Momo from Aang's shoulder and gave him a big hug, while the lemur simply chirped in confusion. This was turning out to be a very weird sky bison ride for him.
Don't worry Momo, you're not the only one who has been completely befuddled by Sokka before. So, how did I do for a first-timer in animal fanfics? I gotta admit, writing animals is tough work, even if they can speak. Reviews are much appreciated, and story prompts are welcome too! See you soon!