The Dragon (Avatar the last airbender story)

Chapter 4: The Spirit World

I was sitting, quietly meditating when I heard a loud and enraged " WHAT?!" come from the room next to mine. I jumped a landed on my side, I looked to see Mushu laughing at me. "Your brother has anger issues doesn't he?" He said spreading out on my bed with his arm hanging off the side. I look at him," I wonder what Uncle told him?" I got up and go to his room, as I open it I hear uncle say "There have been multiple sightings of the Avatar, but he is impossible to track down." I walk in and close the door, they turn to look at me. I just wave and say "hi" Zuko turned back to the map on the table "How am I going find him, Uncle?" I walk up beside him to see a map marked with circled Xs and dotted lines connecting the reported Avatar sightings. The lines zigzag all over the landmass drawings. "He is clearly a master of evasive maneuvering." Or He has no idea where he's going I thought as I listened to Zuko and Uncle talk about how to find the avatar. "Psst Hey!" I look down to see Mushu dangling from the side of the table. I pick him up and set him on the table, "Ah! Kaida! What is your pet doing on the map?" I rolled my eyes, "One, his name is Mushu and Two he's my animal guide not my pet.""So your animal guide is a talking lizard." Mushu climbed up onto my shoulder,"Hey! Dragon. *Dra-gon*, not lizard. I don't do that tongue thing." he said as he hissed. "I'm so sorry all mighty 'dragon', but seriously your tiny." Zuko sassed as he crossed his arms. "Of course. I'm travel-size for her convenience. If I was my real size, you would die of fright." He said as Zuko let out a growl. "Down, Ponytail." I let out a giggle as zuko glared at me. I coughed and smiled innocently at him. After a while, I decided to go on deck to practice my bending. As I set Mushu down I heard two voices say," Hey don't leave me here with hothead."" Hey were are you going i don't wanna be stuck with the lizard." I hear them come out the door as I wait at the door to go onto deck I see Mushu walking, more like running, to keep up with zuko as they reach me. Mushu climbs up onto my shoulder as zuko follows behind, I see mushu stick his tongue out at zuko from the corner of my eye. "Stupid dragon." I heard zuko mumble behind me. "Stupid Dragon? Say that to my face, you limp noodle!" I just laughed and headed out onto the deck for my training with uncle. Zuko and mushu keep yelling at each other the whole time though, I finally couldn't take it any more because they were arguing about who I favored more. "OKAY THAT'S ENOUGH, I favor you both equally ok. Just Shut Up Already." I said as lighting sparking from my fingers. They both looked scared, Mushu pointed toward zuko and said "He started it." Zuko looked at him with a glare, "WHAT! I did not you started it." I looked at them with a don't-you-dare-start-again Look, and they both shut up and sat there quietly.

Later

We were all sitting down getting ready to eat when the cook came in. He knelt down to place the dish on the table. When suddenly zuko stands up, "The Avatar's on Kyoshi Island?!?!" He exclaimed as he got up and started talking to uncle. "Uncle, ready the rhinos. He's not getting away from me this time." Then I see uncle looking at zuko's plate of fish as zuko starts to walk off uncle asks him as he points to the plate of fish,"Are you going to finish that?" Zuko walks angrily back to the dinner table and grabs the fish off of the table. "I was going to save it for later!"He storms off screen with his meal. Uncle crosses his arms in annoyance and pouts at not getting to eat the fish. I just sit there and eat some more of my food until i'm full then I give the rest to uncle. I sit in my room meditating until zuko comes in and tells me we are almost to Kyoshi island. Then I get up and grab mushu, then head to were zuko and some of the soldiers on rhinoceros. "You'll ride with me kaida." Zuko says as I walk up to where he and his rhino is. He helps me up and makes sure I'm seated on right. Zuko gets on as the prow is let down and rides out of the hull on the back of his rhino. We are accompanied by many men also on on rhino mounts. "I want the Avatar alive." Zuko says as he takes off, I didn't expect the sudden jerk so I wrap my arms around his waist and hang on tightly. "Are you okay kaida?" I hear zuko ask me, I just say " A little more warning next time would be nice" I say as we head towards the village as we go pass some rock I thought I heard someone say "Wake up Aang" but I just shook it off as my imagination. We enter the town to see the streets deserted. "Come out, Avatar! You can't hide from me forever!"Zuko yells out, he turns to the men "Find him." They start to look around the town for aang. But some girls with fans attack the soldiers. A girl heads directly for Zuko. As she is about to land on him, he turns his rhinoceros and she is swatted out of the air by its tail. As she hits the ground, Zuko aims a fire blast at her. Sokka steps in between the girl and the fire ball, deflecting it. Zuko falls off the rhino, leaving me alone. I grab hold of the reins and try to control the rhino as the girl, Sokka, and another warrior cautiously approach Zuko. Zuko spins around on his hands shooting fire bolts out of his feet at the approaching warriors. He knocks them all to the ground and pulls himself to his feet. Zuko leaps to the middle of the street. I finally get the rhino under control and get down to hear zuko say "Nice try, Avatar! But these little girls can't save you." "Hey! Over here!" I turn to see aang at the end of the street. "Finally!" zuko says, 'I have a really bad feeling about this' I think to myself as Zuko and Aang face each other. Zuko lets loose three consecutive fire balls from his hands. Aang dodges them and, using his staff as a helicopter, flies toward Zuko. Zuko shoots another blast of fire, which knocks Aang's staff out of his hands. Aang leaps away and picks up two discarded fans. Zuko runs full force at Aang. Aang uses the fans to throw an enormous gust of air at Zuko. The air knocks Zuko through the wall of a building. Aang drops the fans and picks up his staff. He throws it into the air and flies over the now burning town. He looks behind him to see the statue of Avatar Kyoshi engulfed in flames. I try to dismiss some of the flames that are burning the town."Ya know, I could use a bit of help Mushu.....Mushu?"I asked, after a few minutes I realize that mushu isn't anywhere near me. I could have sworn he was-Oh no! I get off of the rhino as I start to panic. I race toward the beach, I start looking around when I hear a voice say" Hello! Giant Fish trying to eat me." I looked to barely see mushu out in the water being chased by something in the water. I leave my jacket on the beach and dive into the water. When I finally reach him, he clings to my shirt. "Mushu are you okay? How did you get all the way out here?" I ask but mushu ignores me and points to something behind me. I look behind me to see a giant koi fish a few feet behind me, I freeze not knowing what to do. "What are you just sitting here for?!?! I don't know about you, but I don't want to be fish food." Mushu yells I start to head towards the shore. I collapse as I finally reach it, "Well that intense." I let out a chuckle as I hear Mushu. "Let's not do tha-Ahh!!" I scream as I get dragged into the water by something. "KAIDA!" I try to swim to the top. "HELP!" I scream before I get pulled under the water again, I try to fight my way back up. I make it to the top just long enough to see Zuko and scream." HELP!!" I scream again as I get pulled back under. I panic as water starts to fill my lungs. Someone....Help I think as I hear a splash above my head, I slowly fall into blackness as I see a figure swim towards me.

"Hello Kaida." I gasp as I open my eyes. I sit up and look around me, I was in a forest of sorts. It was different from any forest I've ever seen. "I believe you are wondering why you are here." I looked in front of me to see a man dressed in water tribe clothes and girl dressed in earth nation clothes. "W-Where am I? Who are you people?" "You're in the spirit world. My name is Mulan, and this Avatar Kuruk. Kuruk, I can handle things from here. Thank you." Avatar Kuruk nodded and left us. "Why am I here?" She ignored me and started walking, "Come with me." I sighed and got up. I caught up with her and fell into step with her. "So are you going to tell me-" "You brought yourself here." "I did? How? More importantly how do I get back?" "You will go back in time, like the avatar you have a connection to the spirit world. However, you are also the connection between the avatar and the spirit world." "I know that, but what does that have to do with-" "When the avatar goes into their avatar state, you do also. But, you came to the spirit world because you were either in extreme danger or close to death." I thought about what happened before I came here. "I remember now, I was drowning." "Your time here is almost over with. I just have one thing to say to you, follow your heart. It knows what's best." She told me as we stopped walking. "Wait what does that mean?" I turned to ask her, but she was already gone. I sighed and closed my eyes as I felt a kind of tug on my body.

I gasped and shot up from where I was laying down, I tried to calm my breathing as my heart pounded in my chest. "Are you okay?" I looked up to see.....