Here's the next chapter! Oh and I also got a another editor also known as "Queen of All Things Groovy", since my first one didn't do such a hot job and just zoomed through my work without making any real changes.
((Rebecca's P.O.V))
I was awakened from my sleep that morning by Brianna, trying to get me up by shaking my shoulders.
"Becky, wake up sleepy head." I heard her shout into my ear but she continued to shake my body, making my head bob. I slapped her hands away in order to get her to stop because it was starting to hurt my neck. I groaned as the sun's light blinded me making have to shield my eyes in order to see. "Good morning Sunshine!" Brianna exclaimed with a happy smile from ear to ear. I gave her a death glare, scaring both her and the other three in the saddle. I let out another groan as I got up from my spot, grabbed a water canteen, and splashed it over my face. I put the water away then sat down at the edge of Appa's neck.
We had been traveling for days now but each one seemed as tiring as the next. The past nights I found myself on constant patrol in order to take out any Fire Nation ships that happened to have spotted Appa. It didn't happen too often so I really had nothing to worry about, but my paranoid mind would never let me rest at ease.
"Rebecca, are you ok?" Aang asked as he floated down beside me. I nodded my head but let out a small yawn. I rubbed my eyes, trying to wipe off the gifts the Sandman had left me, before I turned to the concerned boy.
"It's nothing you need to worry about Avatar Aang." I saw his face suddenly sadden. I knew right away the reason was because he didn't like it when I addressed with his title. Although I did feel bad for upsetting him, I ignored his reaction since I didn't see anything wrong with addressing him properly. I put my hands behind my head and leaned against Appa's fur as I stared up at the sky, while trying not to fall asleep again. "Brianna," I called out to her.
"Yeah," I heard her call back with her mouth full. I glanced over and saw that she was sharing an apple with Momo. "Aren't you supposed to be doing something?" She automatically knew that I was referring to keeping watch of any signs of the Fire Nations. She nodded her head then called Nyoko out of the charm before jumping off Appa and landed on the flying panther's back. "Sorry," I heard her apologize as they flew beside us then she waved a quick goodbye. I heard the sound of rustling paper making me glance over to the sound.
"You have no idea where we're going, do you?" I saw Sokka holding a map while he glanced over it at Aang, who was on Appa's head holding the reins. He looked back at Sokka with innocent eyes.
"Well, I know it's near water." He said honestly. I heard Brianna laughing across from us, clearly hearing what the two had said. Normally I would have laughed with her but her loud voice was giving me a headache. We had been getting nowhere ever since the day we left the Southern Air Temple. From what I remember in this current episode, Aang had been flying us in zigzags. I slapped myself on the forehead realizing how much trouble that Brianna and I would have to face. It made me think that things would have been better for the both of us if our memories of the series were erased. I looked over at Aang and saw that he was trying to get the attention of the attractive water nation girl by spinning a bunch of marbles in the air at high speed. I felt my right eye twitch and glanced over at Brianna who had her mouth opened wide, shocked at how pathetic the air bending move was. I heard a familiar masculine laugh and recognized it as Gin.
"You certainly have your hands full," he said in a somewhat amused tone. I rolled my eyes as I looked down towards the water at Appa's shadow.
"Thanks, like I didn't already know that" I whispered into the yin charm. I glanced back at Aang who was pouting at the fact that he was unable to impress Katara. "He tries too hard," I said to Gin while slightly chuckling. I could hear Gin laughing amused at how foolish the Avatar looked when trying to woo the young water bender, who currently was focusing on sewing Sokka's pants. I then realized that Sokka had no pants on and quickly turned my head forward, not wanting to see him in that state of disarray.
"Stop bugging her, airhead. You need to give girls space when they do their sewing," Sokka said as he tried to force Aang back to steering us on the right track. I saw Katara's hand stop, the needle in mid-air, looking rather unhappy. While I caught a glimpse of Brianna as she whirled her head around and glared at Sokka, looking like she was ready to beat him half to death.
"What does me being a girl have to do with sewing?" Katara asked her brother angrily.
"Simple, girls are better at fixing pants than guys, and guys are better at hunting and fighting and stuff like that. It's just the natural order of things" he answered trying to sound cool and aloof. I snickered to myself knowing that later on Sokka was going to get his butt kicked by the very sex that he was putting down at this moment. Not only that but I also knew that I had a much better form than the current Sokka had, since I am pretty strong for a female. Even Brianna who is the same age as him would more likely win a fight if the two should ever face. I turned back to the scene and saw Katara throw the ripped pants toward Sokka, still not completely fixed.
"Sokka, if Rebecca wasn't there to stop me, I would have beaten you to a pulp! How dare you say that about girls!" I glanced over to Brianna and could have sworn I saw steam coming out of her ears, but I couldn't be sure because I was near sighted. I extended my hand, without turning my head, toward Sokka causing everyone to turn their attention to me.
"Sokka, give me your pants. I'll fix them." I could hear Brianna protest in the background but my sudden glare shut her up. "Okay, then why don't you do it Brianna? After all Nyoko was the one who caused this hole in the first place," I shouted out as I glared over at the oversized panther. Nyoko avoided eye contact with me and tried to act as innocent as possible. "Brianna unless you want Sokka to stay like that until Katara feels like forgiving him for being a sexist bastard, which is highly unlikely" I said as I pointed to Sokka still in his underwear. I heard Brianna let out a scream and looked away from Sokka, acting as if she had gone blind. I shook my head before catching the pants that were thrown to me. I quickly undid all of Katara's stitching, which surprisingly sucked, and easily sewed up the hole. When I finished I threw the pair of pants back over to Sokka and he quickly slipped them back on, after somewhat admiring my work.
"Thanks," he said below a whisper.
"No problem," I said dully.
"Well it's not like you needed pants to where were going anyway" Aang exclaimed with a wide smile. I knew exactly what he was thinking when I saw a small island up ahead of us, that I recognized as Kyoshi Island. Appa and Nyoko, led by Aang, flew down and landed on a sandy beach. Nyoko darted toward a shaded spot under a tree, obviously a little tired from all the flying. I walked over to her and called Gin out, who laid down under a different tree with me leaning against him.
I could hear Katara and Sokka protest to Aang, about making yet another pit stop despite the fact that they probably wouldn't be able to make it to the North Pole by the end of winter. Brianna and I decided to be bystanders and just watched the three of them fight, almost as if we were at home watching this episode on TV.
"But Appa's tired already, aren't you boy?" Appa didn't respond making Aang have to nudge him. "I said, aren't you boy?" Aang said repeating his question making it obvious that he wanted the bison to play along. Appa then gave out a fake yawn causing Brianna to laugh at how pathetic their lie was. I rolled my eyes and looked over to the two winged creatures who looked quite amused with the scene.
"Look," Aang shouted just as a school of giant koi appeared out of the water. "That's why we're here: elephant koi and I'm going to ride it. Katara you've gotta watch me!" Aang exclaimed as he stripped off his clothes until there was nothing left but his underwear.
"Aang, I'm coming too!" I heard Brianna squeal then run into the water, not caring that her clothes were getting soaked.
"Great," Aang exclaimed as he turned and looked over at me. "Rebecca, aren't you coming?" he asked expecting me to behave just as Brianna did. I shook my head and brushed back my bangs.
"Forgive me Avatar Aang, but I'm not good in the mornings. I'll pass on this one." Once again Aang looked at me, disappointed that I had added the title 'Avatar' when addressing him. Aang just stood there and stared at me unhappy, until Brianna pushed him into the water, making him shoot out because the water was so cold. Brianna laughed as she made her way into the water, but shivered not knowing how cold the water really was until she got in. They both started to swim towards the koi until they eventually were each riding on one.
They grasped onto the dorsal fin as the fish dove up and down the water. Aang waved towards us while Brianna just laughed enjoying the ride. I watched them, smiling, glad that they were both having fun, even though we were in a middle of a war. I glanced over at Katara who seemed engrossed with how cool Aang looked out in the water. I smirked knowing that they would eventually be together, but I still hadn't decided whether I wanted that to happen or not. Eventually I just decided not to stress too much about it and just wait for the answer. Just then I heard Appa munching down on what seemed like a small tree making Katara run over to try and stop him.
Several seconds later I heard Sokka yell out from his spot, "there's something in the water!" I looked out into the ocean and saw one of the fish in the middle of its jump, suddenly get pulled back into the water.
"Shit," I whispered to myself as I started to run towards the shore not even bothering with Katara and Sokka. As I rushed towards the water I realized that my feet didn't seem to sink. It caused me to look down and realize that I was walking on water! Not only that but it seemed that I was unable to make any ripples appear from under me. I felt a strong wind against my face making me realize that I was running at super speed, similar as to how Aang would run. I decide to push away all means of trying to figure anything out and just concentrate on saving Aang and Brianna. I ran towards Brianna first, knowing that she wouldn't be able to swim away from the sea serpent that inhabits the shores of the island called the Unagi in time. Just as I was about to catch up to her the unagi pulled her koi under the water. The oversized fish struggled so much that Brianna lost her grip on the fin and was sent flying, making me have to rotate my body around and dart after her. I was able to catch Brianna in my arms just before she hit the surface of the water.
I shifted her over so that she would be on my back as I ran towards the shore, while looking around for Aang. I spotted him, in front of us, running frantically towards the shore with the Unagi close behind him. I crouched down to make me run faster as I ran towards him and the sea beast. I could feel a strong rush of wind hitting us making Brianna tighten her grip on my neck, afraid that she would fly off. I quickly caught up to Aang as I grabbed him with my right hand, holding him up like a sack. I had to curve around because I didn't have enough time to stop, which confused the Unagi. Just as we were five feet away from the shore I braked against the water, trying to stop myself, but I just continued to slide across the water as if it were a sheet of ice. When I felt the tip of my shoe touch the sand I pushed off the ground and jumped fifteen feet into the air. Temptation came over me as it caused me to do three black flips before landing on the sandy shore. I placed Aang on the ground and got Brianna off my back, before I fell on my knees, breathing heavily.
Gin ran over to my side and bumped into Sokka making him fall face first into the sand. I was holding onto my stomach while trying to catch my breath as Brianna was talking about how amazing I was out there. I ignored her and continued gasping for breath rather than listen to her endlessly praising me. I suddenly began coughing so hard I had to hold onto my neck, hoping it would stop it. Aang quickly bent down beside me as Brianna patted my back, both concerned about my condition.
"Rebecca, are you okay?" Aang asked looking worried. I nodded my head and continued coughing. I tightened my grip on my neck hating how weak I was being. "Brianna, is Rebecca really okay?" Aang asked not trusting me.
"She'll be okay; she's always had problems like this because she gets dehydrated easily." I could tell the two of them felt guilty and blamed themselves, from the way they were looking at me. Katara threw a water canteen towards me which Brianna caught. She opened the cap, handed it to me and I chugged down all the water hoping that it would be enough to satisfy my body. I then got up from the ground and stood up straight. I placed a hand on top of Gin's head telling him not to worry about me, before glancing over at the two I had just saved from being fish food.
"I'm fine; you guys don't have to feel guilty about it. Getting dehydrated is nothing," I said as I looked toward the ocean searching for any signs of the Unagi "compared to what you guys were about to go through anyway." Aang walked back to Katara and Sokka to slip on his clothes when Sokka suggested that we leave. I heard the rustle of leaves come from above them. I jumped a couple of yards back and spotted a group of girls with thick makeup and green robes. I automatically recognized them as the Kyoshi Warriors, who jumped down and easily captured Katara, Aang, Sokka, and Momo. The Kyoshi Warriors bound their hands behind the three of them, blindfolded them, then threw them to the ground. Half of them then came toward Brianna and I, and the other half charged towards Nyoko and Gin.
I easily dodged their attacks with my speed and high jumps while Brianna was able to dodge most of their attacks. I saw Brianna about to call out her weapons when one of the warriors threw a chain toward her wrist that wrapped around her hand. Another warrior did the same thing but to her other hand, while a third warrior went behind her and blindfolded her before she could break loose. I looked toward Nyoko who noticed Brianna had been captured, making her eyes flash red with rage. I had put my guard down for a mere second giving one of the warriors a chance to lash a chain toward me. I felt the cold metal slide against my skin as it tightened its grip around my wrist. I pulled the chain towards me causing the warrior to collide into the ground. Just as I was about to get that hand free, my other one was caught by a different warrior, which gave the other one enough time to recover from her fall and grab the chain I was about to undo. I tried pulling the chains toward me but couldn't, because I had a warrior on each end. I didn't have enough strength to pull them both as they quickly bound my chains behind me. I saw one of the warriors, who looked much different than the rest, step forward. When I saw the short brown hair it gave her identity away. Suki, the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors. Suki held up a green cloth and tied it over my eyes before I heard her walk over toward where Aang and the rest were.
"Rebecca!" I heard Gin's voice enter my head. I could hear low growls coming from both Gin and Nyoko as they were both ready to attack the warriors.
"No, don't hurt them. Just get inside the charms!" I shouted out to them. They stopped growling and obeyed my command. I could tell that the warriors were in fear and shock at what just happened from the tense atmosphere, but they quickly recovered and dragged us towards their village. I felt myself be lifted up from the ground by the chain behind my back. I hit something against my left side and realized that it was Brianna, by her unique way of breathing when she is stressed. "Brianna, you okay?"
"Rebecca?" Brianna asked surprised.
"Hold still," I told her as I tried to feel my way to the back of Brianna's head with my face. My actions obviously freaked Brianna out, but she held perfectly still like stone. I felt the knot from the blindfold and bit into it, and managed to untie the blindfold with my teeth. I felt the cloth fall from my lips and heard the sound of Brianna screaming beside me. "Hey Brianna, yeah I hate to interrupt your screams of terror but can you untie this blindfold?" I asked her in a mellow voice.
"Oh yeah, sorry Becky, I was just so freaked out when I saw how high up we are." I turned my head to the right allowing the back of my head to face her. It took her a while to untie the blindfold, but she managed to do it in the end. When the cloth had been removed I blinked several times and then realized why it was that Brianna freaked out. We were at the very top of the poll where the Kyoshi statue was placed. Her statue was literally right above us making me wonder how they were able to get us up so high. I then spotted Aang, Katara, and Sokka several feet below us, with Momo, in a bag on the ground. I had never realized how tall the Kyoshi statue was until now. I glanced over to Brianna, who was still panicking about the height.
"Brianna, try breathing." I instructed her. She made a sour face, but started inhaling and exhaling deeply. I jumped when I saw a flare come out of her mouth. "Brianna inhale deeply and then exhale slowly," I told her. She raised an eyebrow wondering why I would ask her to do something like that, but she just shrugged her shoulder and did as I asked. I watched her lips carefully as she took a deep breath and then slowly let it back out, not realizing that it was a breath of fire. Both Brianna and I just stared as the flames slowly died out in the air. I looked down toward the village and saw that no one had noticed Brianna's little scene.
I saw the Kyoshi Warriors below us keeping an eye on our three friends and quickly glance to us, but never noticing that we had our blindfolds off. I then spotted the crowd of people start to part as, what I assumed was the chief of the village, come towards the Kyoshi statue.
"You all have some explaining to do," he said.
"And if you don't answer all of our questions, we're throwing you back in the waters with the Unagi," Suki threatened us. Knowing that I was unlikely to drown now that I discovered my new found ability to walk on water, I didn't feel threatened.
"Show yourselves cowards!" Sokka yelled towards them still blindfolded and clueless to the fact that he was defeated by a group of female warriors. Suki stepped forward and removed their blindfolds. She looked up at us and was the first to realize that we had already taken ours off. Sokka then looked around in rather confused but asked the group of warriors angrily "Who are you? Where are the men who ambushed us?"
"There were no men. We ambushed you. Now tell us, who are you and what you are doing here?" Suki ordered having ignored all of Sokka's questions and asked her own.
"Wait a second, there is no way that a bunch of girls took us down," Sokka said also ignoring Suki's questions and denying the fact that he was defeated by females. Suki stepped forward and took Sokka by his collar as she shook him slightly.
"A bunch of girls, huh? The Unagi's gonna eat well tonight." Sokka just ignored her, obviously not threatened by what she had just said.
"No, don't hurt him! He didn't mean it. My brother is just an idiot sometimes," Katara said trying to save her brother's skin.
"It's my fault. I'm sorry we came here. I wanted to ride the elephant koi," Aang said pinning the blame to himself, which was very Avatar like. I would have clapped for him but my hands were a bit preoccupied at the moment. The chief then pointed at Aang still not satisfied with his answer.
"How do we know you're not Fire Nation spies? Kyoshi stayed out of the war so far. And we intend to keep it that way!"
"This island's named after Kyoshi? I know Kyoshi!" Aang said surprised. I sighed, just realizing that Aang was worse at geography than I was.
"Ha, how could you possibly know her? Avatar Kyoshi was born here four hundred years ago. She's been dead for centuries." The chief said still not taking in anything Aang said.
"I know because I am the Avatar," Aang said seriously. The whole village looked towards him with disbelief.
"That's impossible! The last Avatar was an air bender who disappeared a hundred years ago," Suki said obviously not believing what he had said.
"That's me!" Aang said rather cheerfully.
"Throw the imposters to the Unagi!" the chief ordered the warriors. Brianna turned towards me and I nodded giving her the signal to escape. She inhaled deeply and breathed out fire onto the chains behind us. I could feel my skin burning but ignored the pain as I broke off the metal. I jumped into the air and floated to the ground while Brianna dropped down, beating me to the landing. While this was happening Aang shot himself up into the air slicing the ropes using the fans held by the Kyoshi statue. He floated to the ground just as Brianna and I summoned our partners and weapons. I spun my staff around behind me with one hand and pointed it towards the chief and his villagers.
"I do not take insults about Avatar Aang lightly," I glared at the chief who just stood there frightened while Brianna watched me shocked. Aang then walked a couple of paces toward me.
"Rebecca, put your weapon down," he ordered me. I slowly brought my staff down before walking back beside Aang, to where Gin sat waiting for me. The chief quickly glanced at us before giving full attention to Aang.
"It's true…..you are the Avatar!" he said amazed with all he had seen. I saw Aang put on a goofy smile before reaching into his clothes and pulling something out.
"Now, check this out!" He began doing his pathetic air bending on the marbles again. I felt one of my eyes twitch as I just stood there shaking my head at his immaturity. Brianna on the other hand just stared at Aang and his admirers, who were in awe of his performance, then rolled her eyes. I looked up at Gin, who just stared blankly at Aang, probably unimpressed with his work like the rest of us. I heard Nyoko let out a yawn as she lay down on the floor looking bored. I looked over at the crowd and saw a guy's mouth suddenly foam up before passing out. I felt my eye twitch again as I heard Brianna laughing beside me, recalling the familiar scene. While the warriors untied Katara and Sokka I remembered something else that happened in this episode. I walked over to Brianna and whispered to her as I passed by.
"I'm going to search for the girl who started the game of telephone that helped Zuko find Aang's location here. You stay and guard them. After all you're better at handling Aang than I am since he seems to like you more." Before she could protest to anything I had just said I ran towards the village with Gin by my side. I swiftly grabbed his neck then jumped over him so that I landed on his back. We both started to race around the edges of the village hoping to find the young girl before she told the fisherman the news about Aang. I could only remember that she was on a dock, but because it was only a TV series it didn't give us an exact location. Gin ran all around the edge of the island, since we both knew that I wouldn't be able to spot the girl from the air. Eventually Gin started to slow down from exhaustion because it was still day time. I forced him into my charm to get rest as I continued the search.
After what seemed like hours I found the familiar dock. I looked around for the little girl hoping I wasn't too late. I spotted her with the fisherman just as he dropped his bag of fish onto the dock. I realized that I had come too late because she had already told him. I panicked a bit then dashed over toward them, but by the time I got there the fisherman had already started sailing to another town. I groaned and started walking toward the water, ready to chase after him with my ability, but felt my foot sink into the water.
"Damn it!" I said under my breath. "Why won't it work?"
"You don't have enough energy. You need to rest." I heard Gin tell me from the charm. I kicked the dock with my foot, clearly upset that the fisherman got away. I let out a sigh before lugging my heavy legs back towards the village angry with myself.
I walked into the inn that a village girl had told me we were staying at. I spotted Aang and the rest admiring the rooms, realizing how long it had been since they had spent a night with a roof over their heads. I ignored them and quietly walked toward a window and waited patiently for Brianna to make an appearance. I spotted her as she came out of a room, squealing when she saw me, causing everyone else to jump and making me feel awkward.
"When did you get here?" Brianna practically screamed. The rest of the group then turned towards me and jumped when they realized that I was in the room.
"Just now," I said as I stared out the window.
"Uh, well did you stop…..umm the thing?" Brianna asked me trying to calm down. I focused my eyes to a nearby tree hoping no one could see that I was angry.
"I failed," I said just above a whisper but kept an emotionless voice. I could feel the confused stares coming from the others, as Brianna was surprised to hear those words come from my mouth. I ignored their stares and walked into the room that Brianna had exited from. Inside were two beds, making it clear to me that I was going to be staying in a room with Brianna. I walked towards the bed closest to the side window and I sat down. Brianna entered with Nyoko by her side.
"What happened? And where's Gin?" Brianna asked still confused. I sighed wondering why she always wanted to get an answer right away, instead of just waiting until the person was ready to talk. I crossed my legs onto the bed as I placed my right thumb under the yin charm.
"Gin got tired from running around so much so he's in here," I said as I lifted the charm slightly. "After that I had to search on foot for that brat, but by the time I found her she had already told the fisherman and he was on his way to another town. I couldn't chase after him because I had used so much energy I didn't have enough to stand on the water. I feel like I'm going to pass out." I felt Brianna's hand on my forehead then she gently pushed it making my body fall onto the bed.
"Then sleep!" I plopped my head onto the pillow not even bothering to go against Brianna's wishes. I watched Brianna as she left the room then closed the door behind her. I stared up at the ceiling and tried to think of a plan to get Aang off the island in one piece. I couldn't come up with anything because half way through my thoughts I felt my eyes drop as my mind started to fade away. My body was beginning to enter a deep sleep.
When editing this part of the chapter, her Majesty Queen Groovy, was having a moment of hysteria when writing about all things Suki. This caused us to lose our concentration from our hiysterical laughter which is why it took us so long to finish fixing up this part. Although I will say that it's always a blast when getting help from her Highness because of her free spirit and unique sense of humor.
