Avatar: The Fifth Element

12. I Can Show You the World

As Rumi waited, she fidgeted with her fingers, paced around, and eventually just stood there, hand on hip and tapping her foot. She was never the most patient.

Finally, a very tired Zuko returned, and he was smiling.

"Come with me," he grabbed her hand and led her to the side of the inn, where she was in awe of the big, fluffy sky bison.

"Holy! I've only heard about these guys!" she ran up to Appa. "Awe, you're so cute!"

"His name's Appa," said Zuko.

"Appa! You're amazing!" she exclaimed as she petted him, and Appa gave Rumi a big lick, earning a laugh from her.

Zuko swiftly got up onto Appa and reached out a hand to Rumi, "Come on."

"Wait, really?" she asked, unsure.

Zuko just nodded, and Rumi took his hand and he pulled her up.

"I don't know about this, sitting in trees and sledding down a hill is one thing, but flying? I've never flown before, and I kinda have a thing about really big heights," Rumi admitted, frantically looking around.

"It'll be okay, Appa's a good flier," Zuko reassured.

Rumi hitched in a breath, "Okay."

Then confidently, Zuko said: "Yip yip," and they took off into the sky.

Rumi let out a squeal as they got higher and higher, her eyes squeezed shut.

"This is terrifying!" she screeched, "What if I fall?! If you let me fall I'll kill you!"

Zuko's heart started racing as he was getting worried that this may have been a bad idea, but if she'd only open her eyes Rumi would see how beautiful the view was. Then, with her eyes still shut tightly, Rumi did something that caught Zuko off guard.

She wrapped her arms around his waist and dug her fingers right into him, pulling herself as close as possible. Zuko self-consciously sucked in a deep breath as he felt Rumi bury her face into his arm.

"Open your eyes," he urged softly, and Rumi complied, opening one eye first, and then the other, gasping in awe when she did.

"It's amazing! We're in the clouds," Rumi excitedly looked around, still clinging nervously to Zuko. The world around them was fluffy and pink, purple and orange as the sun was setting in the distance.

Suddenly, Rumi started feeling horrible about how she acted earlier. It wasn't his fault, I shouldn't have gotten mad at him, she thought.

Shifting her gaze from the scenery to Zuko, Rumi poked his cheek with her nose, "Zuko?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

For a little while, the two flew slowly in silence, watching the sunset, until something in the distance caught Rumi's attention.

"Hey, look over there," she pointed a finger in the direction of the forest, where it looked like a group of people was approaching the village.

"Let's fly a bit closer to get a better look."

As they got closer and closer, Rumi noticed who it was, and a chill ran up her spine, "Those are Earth Kingdom troops, from Ba Sing Se."

Zuko quickly turned Appa around and they zoomed towards the village. When they got back to the inn, Rumi hurriedly jumped off Appa, "Come on! We gotta go warn Osamu!"

Zuko followed urgently as Rumi slickly weaved her way through villagers and houses, eventually reaching Osamu's place. She banged on the door.

"What?" he was annoyed when he opened the door, but his expression immediately changed to concern when he saw who it was.

"Troops, from Ba Sing Se. It's the Dai Lee. They're coming here, I think they're going to attack!" Rumi explained.

"How close are they?" Osamu demanded.

"Close, I'd give them half an hour, maybe less," Zuko answered.

"Okay, get the children in the inn, there's a basement where they should be safe. I'll start gathering everyone else, everyone here can bend, so let's pray that this turns out in our favour."

Zuko and Rumi nodded as they took off.

"Zuko, go get your friends. I know where most of the kids live so I can deal with them," she commanded confidently, sounding like a real leader. The first place Rumi went was her best friends', knowing that she'd be able to help better with more people.

"Chou! Get out here!" Rumi banged on her friends door.

Chou and the waterbending girl she was holding hands with before opened up, "What's wrong?"

Rumi explained the situation as fast as possible, and Chou and the girl, Siku, took off to help.

Meanwhile, Zuko gathered his friends together and told them what was going on.

"I thought the people of Ba Sing Se wouldn't go off and start fights," Aang said, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Me too, something bad must have happened, and those troops looked ready to fight, so we need to be ready to fight," Zuko stressed.

Once all the younger citizens were safe with Nima in the inn, everyone else formed a barrier around the village, clumped into small groups at any and all entrance points.

By the river was where Rumi gathered with Aang, Siku and Toph. Zuko was grouped a little farther down with Kaito, Osamu, Sokka and Katara. The idea was to get as much variety of bending as possible within each group, to maximize abilities, though it couldn't be balanced perfectly.

Now, all they had to do was wait.

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A/N ~ ah finally, the beginning of some action! the next chapter will mainly be about this fight. i hope you enjoyed this part and are excited for the next one!
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—Blaise⚡️