A/N: Happy Tuesday, everyone! I'm happy to say that after today, I will be on Thanksgiving break, which means I can work on Book 2 more. Progress is going amazing, I'm already over 10 chapters ahead! This chapter was a fun one to write. Also, on Monday, my Science teacher told me I'm a good writer :DD As always, enjoy!!!
Responses from chapter 13:
Vapor23: Thank you for your review! Yes, I tried to make it seem like storms were a trigger for Akira, but more when they're actually happening rather than just the thought of them, like how it seems for Aang. I'm glad that you thought Akira comforting Aang was sweet, as that was my favorite part :) Yes, Akira thinking she was going to die in the storm was definitely heartbreaking, especially considering that she's only 10. I can confirm her issues will come up more as the story progresses, but I won't reveal how ;) Thank you for your compliment on my writing, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!!
michaela.s14: Hello, Michaela! Thank you for your review! Aang and Akira's bond is so sweet and pure, I love it as well. I'm glad I was able to write Katara and Aang's conversation well, as it was kind of challenging to write a flashback in diolauge form. Thanks for the "Happy Anniversary", loll, I can't believe it's been seven months since I first watched ATLA, it feels like just yesterday :)) Thanks for the support, happy reading c:
Kataangshipper3033: I know your review is for chapter 3, but I still wanted to include it for when you get to this chapter :) I'm glad you love my story, thanks for reviewing!
We were camping out in the ruins of an abandoned town. Sokka had contracted a nasty flu from being out in the storm, and Katara was taking care of him. Aang was out trying to find ginger root for the tea that would hopefully cure Sokka. He coughed loudly, grabbing my attention.
"This should bring your fever down," Katara stated, putting a rag on her brother's head.
"You know what I love about Appa most?" Sokka asked dreamily, "His sense of humor,"
"That's nice," Katara replied, "I'll tell him," Appa groaned, making Sokka laugh.
"Classic Appa," He said.
"How's Sokka doing?" Aang asked, walking into the room and up to the siblings.
"Not so good," Katara replied, "Being out in that storm really did a number on him," I looked over to Sokka, who was now shivering aggressively.
"I could find any ginger root for the tea, but I found a map," Aang explained. I stood up from where I was sitting and walked over to my brother. He pulled out a map from his pocket and crouched down, opening it. I crouched down next to him.
"There's a herbalist institute on the top of that mountain," Aang explained, looking up toward the mountain far away from us, "We could probably find a cure for Sokka there,"
"Aang, he's in no condition to travel," Katara stated, "Sokka just needs more rest, I'm sure he'll be better by tomorrow," Just then, she began coughing.
"Oh,no," I said worriedly.
"Not you,too," Aang sighed.
"Relax, it was just a little cough," Katara stated, "I'm fin-" She was interrupted by another fit of coughing.
"That's how Sokka started yesterday," I said, "Now look at him, he thinks he's an earthbender!"
"Take that, you rock!" Sokka exclaimed dazedly. I looked over to Aang, whose expression was a mixture of concern and confusion.
"A few more hours, and you'll be talking nonsense too," I explained.
"I'm going to find some medicine," Aang stated, picking up the map and standing up.
"I'll come with you," I said, standing up as well.
"No, Kiri, you have to stay behind," My brother sighed, "Take care of Sokka and Katara for me,"
"Aang, I can take care of mys-" Katara began before being interrupted by yet another coughing fit.
"Seriously?" I mouthed. Aang nodded, causing me to groan. He walked away, unfurling his glider at the exit of the room. Suddenly, a strike of lightning came down, indicating that maybe it wasn't the safest time for gliding.
"Uh, maybe it's safer if I go on foot," Aang stated, "Keep an eye on them, Akira," I nodded curtly and watched as my brother leaped away.
Later…
I groaned. It had been a while since Aang left for the herbalist, and I was beginning to get restless. I sighed and picked some overgrown grass from cracks of the rock floor. I ripped them apart and watched in boredom as the shreds dropped to the ground.
"What is taking Aang so long?" I thought, worry swirling through my mind. I decided that I would go after my brother to see what was taking him so long. I stood up, looking at the sick Sokka and Katara as I did. Katara had recently joined Sokka in the sleeping bag club, assisted by me, of course, and was now having similar symptoms to him.
"Guys, I'm gonna go after Aang," I announced.
"Okay, but can you bring us back some water?" Katara asked, her voice hoarse.
"Sure," I said, walking up to her. She broke out into a cough, causing me to step back. Once she was done coughing, she handed me her water skin, and I took it.
"Appa and Momo are in charge," I stated before walking out. I knew I wanted to get to the herbalist's place fast, so I used airbending to assist my journey. Once I got to the herbalist's place, I raced up the stairs as quickly as possible, hoping that they would know where Aang went. I walked inside of the greenhouse, seeing an elderly woman inside.
"Excuse me," I said, making her turn around, "I'm sorry to kind of barge in like this, but there's someone I need to find,"
"My, you look like that boy that came in here a few hours ago," The old lady marveled, "Same clothes, similar demeanor,"
"Yeah, he's my brother," I explained, "He was supposed to come back from here with the cure to our friend's sickness, but he hasn't,"
"Do you have any idea where he went?" I asked.
"Well, I told him to get some frozen wood frogs, so I'd say he's probably at the pond nearby here," She replied.
"What would he need the frogs for?" I asked, a puzzled look on my face.
"For your friends to suck on them, of course!" The old lady exclaimed. I made a disgusted face.
"Are you insane?" I asked blankly.
"Yep!" The herbalist replied. I sighed and began to run out of the greenhouse, forgetting to even thank the crazy old lady.
When I came down to the pond by the mountain, I noticed there were arrows everywhere. This confused me. I waded around in the water, searching for Aang. Suddenly, I saw some yellow fabric, the same yellow as my sleeves. I noticed that there were even more arrows as I came closer. I picked up the yellow fabric and held it up to my sleeve. Yep, perfect match. It seemed like Aang had gotten captured. Worry washed over me as I began to frantically call out my older brother's name. Suddenly, an arrow identical to the ones all over the pond came racing by me, and I narrowly dodged it. Another one quickly came, and I didn't dodge it. It caught onto my sleeve, pinning me against a tree. As I struggled to pull the arrow off of me, another one swooped in and pinned my other arm to the tree, leaving me in an uncomfortable position. Suddenly, two men with strange looking markings on their faces jumped down from the trees.
"Who is this?" One asked the other. The other guy shrugged, then looked at me.
"Who are you, little girl?" He asked me, his tone full of venom.
"I'll never tell you," I responded coldly.
"Oh really, now?" The guy asked, readying his bow and arrow straight at my chest. Fear and panic overtook me, and I found myself blurting.
"My name is Akira, I come from the Southern Air Temple and my brother is Avatar Aang," I said, fear evident in my tone.
"The avatar's sister, eh?" The first guy asked, "Tell us, Akira, are you an airbender?" I swallowed hard, looking down before answering.
"Y-Yes, I am," I replied.
"I bet Zhao would pay us extra if we brought back the last airbender as well as the avatar," One of the guys said.
"Zhao," I thought bitterly, "That nasty, horrid, stupid admiral!" My thoughts were interrupted by a realization I came to.
"You guys have my brother?" I asked, the strength in my voice wavering.
"Uh-huh," One of the guys said, getting up in my face, "And now, we're going to have you, too," I gritted my teeth angrily as I stared at him.
Later…
I was chained up. I hated it so much. I wanted to smack Zhao, smack those archer guys, smack myself for even going after Aang. Suddenly, the door to my cell opened. It was Zhao. I narrowed my eyes as I looked at him, hatred evident in my expression.
"What do you want, Zhao?" I asked coldly, spitting out his name like a slur.
"Oh, nothing," The stupid hog monkey began, "I was just thinking about giving you and the avatar some sibling bonding time," My eyes widened upon hearing him speak of Aang.
"Where is he?" I asked.
"Oh, just in the other room," Zhao said calmly, "Would you like to go visit him?"
"Y-yes," I replied, looking at the ground. Zhao smiled his devilish smile, and snapped his fingers. The archer guys reappeared, and I was realeased from my chains. I was still being held though, each arm by a different archer. Eventually, we made it to another prisoner room. Zhao opened the door and I was pushed inside by the archers.
"Kiri!" Aang exclaimed, his face brightening.
"Aang!" I exclaimed. Suddenly, we heard slow clapping, and my anger rose as I saw Zhao walk near us.
"What a sweet family reunion," He said, "Too bad the little one's going to die," My eyes widened, figuring that by 'the little one' he meant me.
"What do you mean?!" Aang yelled, unmistakable rage in his tone.
"Well, since you're the avatar, the world still has need for you," Zhao explained, "But since your sister's just an airbender, there is no need for her on this Earth," Fear washed over my past emotions as I watched the archers get closer and closer to me.
"Any final words, wind walker?" Zhao asked. I looked up at him with the most hatred I had ever looked at anyone with. The archers were getting closer.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, pushing them all away from me with a powerful airbending blast. They all crashed into the wall behind them, the archers loosing consciousness. Zhao growled and stood.
"Blow all the air you want at me, wind walker," He spat, "I'll get you," I narrowed my eyes and watched hatefully as he walked away. I heard straining behind me, and turned around to see that Aang was trying to break out of his chains, an enraged look on his face. Honestly, I was surprised his eyes and tattoos hadn't started glowing during that whole interaction, but I figured it was harder to achieve in tight spaces.
"Aang, stop, you're gonna hurt yourself," I said calmly, although I was shaking.
"The pain I'll feel will be nothing compared to what Admiral Hog Monkey's gonna feel," He replied venomously. My eyes widened at hearing my brother curse, or speak so hatefully in general. He strained more, still attempting to break out of the chains.
"It's not gonna work," I sighed, sitting down against a wall. Aang quit trying to break out and took deep, uneven breaths.
A few minutes later…
I was pacing around the room, wondering what to do.
"Maybe if I make a powerful enough air slice, I can set you free!" I said to Aang, who was still struggling to break out of the chains.
"I don't think an air slice is going to do anything," He sighed through ragged breaths. I looked down sadly, then continued thinking of ideas. My thinking was stopped by the sound of frogs, and I looked over to see that frogs were escaping from Aang's shirt.
"What? No!" He exclaimed., "Don't leave, frogs, my friends are sick and they need you,"
"Please go back to being frozen," Aang begged. I quickly ran over and grabbed a few frogs, but some of them got away. I grimaced at their slimy feeling in my hands, accidentally dropping one. It hopped away, sliding under the door as its exit. I groaned when the other frog jumped out of my hand, and quickly began to chase it. I didn't want to go out into the open though , for fear of getting killed by Zhao, so I had to let that one go too. Suddenly, we heard the door open. Expecting it to be Zhao, I quickly looked for a place to hide. It was too late. The door had already opened and I was going to die. I hid behind Aang, my heart pounding in my chest. I heard my brother gasp, and looked up to see that who had walked in was not in fact Zhao, but some creepy guy in a mask. I saw him pull out dual swords from behind him, and I backed up with a gasp. He ran towards Aang, swords in hand. My brother was screaming as he came closer and closer. Masked guy ended up just cutting off the chains, though.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"What's going on?" Aang added, "Are you here to rescue us?" Masked guy opened the door and beckoned us to follow him.
"I'll take that as a yes," Aang stated. "Come on, Kiri," I started walking with my brother and masked guy. As we walked through the hallway, we saw many soldiers that had been disarmed and bound up. Suddenly, I heard a ribbit behind me, and turned around to see Aang's frogs.
"The frogs!" Aang gasped, "Come back! And stop thawing out!" Masked guy grabbed us both by our shawls and dragged us away.
"Wait!" Aang exclaimed, "My friends need to suck on those frogs!"
We were in the sewers under whatever weird prison place we were in. We carefully and quietly walked along the wall. When we came to a stop, masked guy beckoned for us to go upward. Aang hopped out of the sewer before helping me out. We ran over to a rope and quickly began climbing it. As we were climbing up, a loud chime rang, catching me off guard.
"There, on the wall!" A soldier exclaimed. I gasped and began to climb the rope faster. My climbing was suddenly stopped by someone at the top of the wall cutting the rope. I screamed as I fell, but made a peaceful descent due to Aang making an air bubble to cushion our fall. There was smoke. Once it cleared, masked guy pointed one of his swords toward the other wall across from us. Aang and I quickly began following him as he ran.
"The avatar and the last airbender have escaped!" I heard Zhao's annoying voice announce, "Close all the gates immediately!" Suddenly, I felt Aang's hand grab mine, and he pulled me along as we ran closer to masked guy.
"Stay close to me," My brother told masked guy. He then began running faster, it was getting a little harder for me to keep up and not be dragged along. Soldiers began to run towards the closing gates, blocking them off. Aang let go of my hand and blasted the soldiers away with a powerful wind blast. He then grabbed my hand again and started racing toward the gate. We were just about to go through the gate when it closed all the way.
"So much for that plan," I thought. Suddenly, two soldiers with spears attempted to impale Aang and I. I grabbed the soldiers weapon and used it as a staff, pushing him away. Aang also grabbed the soldier who was trying to hurt him's spear, but pushed him away with an airbending kick. My brother then broke off the sharp part of the spear, and I did the same. We saw the masked guy was having a hard time fending off tons of soldiers, but they were suddenly all gone when Aang and I pushed them away. Aang then lifted masked guy into the air with airbending, and he landed on top of the wall across from us.
"Kiri, get on my back," My brother commanded. I nodded and dropped my spear-staff thing, then hopped onto his back. Aang used his spear-staff thing as a way for him to fly, and we went over to masked guy. Aang caught him with his legs. As we flew away, Aang was struggling to support the weight of both masked guy and me, almost falling several times. The soldiers suddenly started throwing their spears at us. Luckily, masked guy warded the spears off by kicking them away. Aang couldn't take holding the weight of masked guy and I anymore, and we fell to the ground. I looked up to see there were more soldiers coming through a trap door and toward us. These soldiers had swords. I quickly got up. Aang ran to grab the spear-staff thing, but a soldier came quicker and kicked it away. One started coming toward me. I quickly dodged each strike of his sword before kicking it out of his hand. I had apparently caught him off guard, so I then used airbending to push him away, making him fall back into the trap door from which he came. I turned around to see that my brother and masked guy had warded off all of the soldiers there, and let out a sigh of relief. Suddenly, more soldiers began climbing up these green ladder things, and I quickly raced over to the edge of the wall to fend them off. Once they would get a little close to the top, I would blast them right back down the ladder with a powerful gust of wind. Aang began grabbing the ladders, then proceeding to hand one of them to masked guy.
"Take this," he said, handing masked guy a ladder. Masked guy took the ladder and Aang hopped onto the ladder that was still on the wall.
"Jump on my back!" My brother commanded. Masked guy hopped onto Aang's back and I hopped onto his. The ladders were basically like giant legs, helping us walk across the way. One ladder fell, meaning that we were going to need another leg.
"Give me the next one!" Aang exclaimed. Masked guy handed him the ladder he was holding, and my brother hopped onto it. The other ladder fell, leaving us with only one leg. One of the soldiers set the ladder on fire. I was honestly glad I was at the top of this weird huddle thing so I wouldn't get burnt, but also scared for Aang since he was at the bottom. Aang lifted us into the air, and I almost fell off of masked guys's back. We all tried to grab onto the top of the gate, but ended up's falling due to none of our fingers being strong enough to hold the weight of three people. We dropped to the ground, and I looked up to see that there were tons of soldiers surrounding us, more than I thought we could handle. Suddenly, fire blasted out of their fingertips, and Aang pushed masked guy and I behind him, blocking the fire with air.
"Hold your fire!" Zhao yelled, causing the soldiers to stop blasting fire at us.
"The avatar must be captured alive," The annoying stupid ugly sad man said. Suddenly, masked guy put his swords up to Aang's neck, causing me to gasp. Zhao and masked guy made eye contact for a while. I was just standing there, looking back and forth between the two.
"Open the gate," Zhao grumbled.
"Admiral, what are you doing?" One of the soldiers asked.
"Let them out," Zhao said, "Now!" The gate opened, and I slowly walked out of it. I watched masked guy intently, as he still had his swords around my brother's neck. Once the gate had closed again and we were far away, I figured that masked guy would let Aang go, but he didn't. I watched cautiously as we walked away from the gate. Suddenly, an arrow struck masked guy right in the head. Aang and I looked back, seeing that the mask had slightly fallen off. Underneath it, I could see what looked like a scar. A scar very similar to Zuko's. Aang summoned some smoke, giving us cover. He took the mask off of masked guy's face, revealing Zuko. I back away as my brother gasped and fell back. He grabbed me by the arm and pulled me up, beginning to run. I was worried about what would happen to Zuko if we left him there.
"Wait," I said, "We can't just leave him here," Aang looked back at Zuko, fear prominent in his expression.
"Fine," he sighed before grabbing burnface and hoisting him onto his back. We then started to run away.
The next morning…
My eyes were heavy and my body was aching. Aang and I had agreed to watch over Zuko together that night, and to wait until he awoke. We had made him a bed out of leaves, and he was still asleep. I yawned and looked over to Aang, who sitting next to me. Suddenly, we heard a groan. I turned to see Zuko, his eyes slightly open.
"You know what the worst part about being born over one hundred years ago is?" Aang asked, not even looking at me or Zuko, "I miss all the friends I used to hang out with,"
"Before the war started, I used to always visit my friend, Kuzon," He began. I remembered Kuzon. He and Aang were really close.
"The two of us, we'd get in and out of so much trouble together," Aang said, "He was one of the best friends I ever had…and he was from the Fire Nation, just like you,"
"If we knew each other back then, do you think we could have been friends, too?" He asked Zuko. Scarface responded by blasting fire at us. Aang grabbed me by my hand and lifted us up into the sky. We hopped from tree to tree, making our way back to the pond so Aang could get more frozen frogs.
When we finally arrived back to our camp, Katara and Sokka were laying exactly how they were when I left. I was tired and sore, so I just dropped to the ground. I watched as Aang handed the frogs to Katara and Sokka.
"Suck on these," He said, "It'll make you feel better," He groaned and flopped onto Appa's tail.
"Aang, Akira, how was your trip?" Sokka asked as he sucked on his frog, "Did you make any new friends?"
"No," Aang responded, his tone a mixture of weariness and sadness, "I don't think we did,"
A/N: Thanks for reading, don't forget to review :))
