A groan that reverberated through Leia's very being then shook her from her thoughts. She looked upwards and was greeted by the sun's rays being blocked by a huge figure that flew right above her. A grin settled on her face and her eyes twinkled with wondrous delight as she realizes what it was. She should know by now due to her repeatedly stating that books and pictures never do the real thing any justice, but she still cannot get over the magnificence of sky bison. The bison she knew very well to be named Appa landed in front of them, producing a gust of wind that relieved Leia momentarily of the hot summer air.
Avatar Aang spoke up and motioned to his bison, "This is Appa. I figured that you'd be carrying quite a lot of stuff and you'd rather not carry them all the way to the ferry just to get to the island, so I brought him here instead."
The fluffy giant had its eyes on Leia and walked towards her, its footsteps causing the wooden flooring below you to shake with each step. Normally, people's reaction to the current situation would be of fear due to two things:
a.) You are in an environment you are not familiar with. Sure books help but navigating through something is different from memorizing a map.
b.) There is a creature that roams this environment freely and is most likely more aware of this environment than you are.
Leia was in this animal's domain and she was clearly at a disadvantage if she were to put up a fight with it. So, it begs the question, why in the world is Leia oggling at the beast with twinkling eyes and the urge to simply touch it?
She could only smile despite the nerves she was feeling as Appa proceeded to sniff her face. Then, a giant tongue comes in contact with the majority of her face and licks it up. Another groan comes from the animal and she looks at it with utter shock before cringing and attempting to wipe her face. Since it was quite viscous, Leia took the liberty to draw water from the bay and cleaned her face with it before letting the water return.
The bison's owner chuckles, "Well what do you know? Appa likes you."
Appa nuzzles his face to Leia's side and her expression of wonder comes back, ignoring the utter disgust she felt at having its saliva all over her face the moment prior. She wastes no time to touch the beast's fur and pet him endearingly.
"Say, Telepyleia-"
"Leia."
Avatar Aang stops for a while, surprised at her interruption.
"I mean, call me Leia, sir. Telepyleia's a mouthful," she explains, trying to raise a bit of humor to cover up the fact that she was upset with herself for interrupting the Avatar.
"Oh, well then, call me Aang. I can imagine how saying 'Avatar Aang' all the time is just as much of a mouthful. Also, "Sir" is too formal since we're going to live under the same roof."
Leia smiled and nodded, glad she didn't upset the Avatar.
"Say, Leia, have you ever flown a sky bison?"
"I'm from the South Pole, sir, I mean-, Aang. There aren't many sky bison to ride down there."
Aang smiled at her humor. "Ah, right. Well, I hope you aren't afraid of heights."
Leia isn't one bit afraid of heights, but she's terrified at the prospect of falling. However, riding a saddled sky bison wasn't too bad. She just didn't factor in potential motion sickness seeing as flying wasn't the same as sailing.
"Spirits," she whispered under her breath as remnants of her breakfast rose to her throat, "Aang?"
The grown man looked at Leia with a questioning face.
YOU ARE READING
spark || lin beifong
Fanfiction"Well, if you're so smart, why don't you read me like I'm some lab rat of yours and be done with it, hmm?" "Geez, you act as if I didn't know who you were for the past 20 years. All you need to know is that I think you aren't some old bitter woman...
Chapter II - Introduction Part 2
Start from the beginning
