Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
behold, the avatar ততততত
THEY WERE ALMOST back before the sunset. Given that traveling time— the ranch was a grueling fifteen minutes or so from the more busy roads of their village—Hika found herself shocked with the confirmation that she wasn't as wowed by the avatar as she thought she'd be.
The boy was a peculiar child and that of the Air Nomads, a nation she thought had fallen one hundred years ago, only fifteen of which she could confirm their lack of existence. The idea of him made her feel more pity for him than praise. She spent a good three minutes just looking at him, almost displeased. He was nowhere as old as her— he was three years younger, it wasn't much, yet Hika felt she was a whole generation older than him— mainly because he hasn't actually been alive for a century. That's what made him so bizarre, that he obtained this positive naiveness from such a devastating past, and that he had been so open to some strangers meeting him to talk about chunking rocks.
Really, Hoji clung to his air bison and told the three they could stay in the twins' family's barn. Except Hika had chimed in and demanded some introductions prior. Hoji was always welcoming and never assumed poorly of anyone. The Fire Lord could walk straight up to Hoji, and he'd offer the manic man some of Hika's tea. Hika was wary. She'd overthink and overanalyze even the space between someone's brows before even thinking about leaving them more than an ounce of her time. She'd let the Avatar stay in her barn when he earned her respect. His being the Avatar meant Hika had quite the high standards previously set.
Yet Aang takes light steps behind Hika as they pass through a path that just barely gives way to the pet air bison that thumps behind the two blue-clad freaks he travels with. Hoji's complete and utter infatuation with the thing still leaves Hika at a loss for words. Appa, as its name turns out to be, grunts every time he slips off into the lowered farmland, and every time Hika hears the stumble, she winces.
My crops! That massive thing is crushing them!
Hika thwacks her hand to her face with the next misplaced paw. After the stinging cringe passes, she brushes her bangs back from her eyes. They had grown rather long, yet whether the overgrowth is due for a cut soon is beyond her limited knowledge. She shakes the thought out of her head. Though cut sloppily, her almond hair was thick enough to hide much of her attributes, and the length that stopped just above her shoulders meant it wasn't long enough to worry about yet.
That, and if she cut her hair again Sying would be more fearsome than a Fire Nation general.
Hika's hands slip around her triceps, grabbing her elbows as she thinks of the time when she had longer hair. Simply beautiful. Healthy, glossy, and the styles that Sying and Fen could pin it up in would make a red tinge stain Hika's cheeks when she saw the finished result, but now she has quite the list of physically demanding chores. Long hair isn't suited for that kind of work.
