𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘢𝘦𝘵𝘩

Fight to The Nap

"I've got walking for days... wait." Whatever I just said made absolutely no sense. I believe that to be a clear sign I need a nap. Since the secret village, I've been travelling on edge. Towns are no good at night, that makes me more suspicious, but going into them for too long is dangerous too. I can't sleep in local establishments, that's sure.

I don't even have the energy to sit down. I just lean against my staff I've been carrying with me the whole time. In the very uncomfortable position, I dose off. Then only a few seconds later am I woken up, because I fall onto a hard rock. Too lazy to attempt to sleep again, I just lie on the rock, inviting the cool surface. I pull out a book, 'bending for dummies' placing it over my face and begin to skim the pages pointlessly.

"Hey! You! Is that you, Xiao-Lan?!" I hear a familiar voice.

I turn my back on the direction it's coming from. "No," I call back. "Get out of my book, I want the happy ending. You know, Happy Xiao, Cool Zuko, avatar... something. Destiny... oOoOoo."

"What...?" I can feel the ground move as he walks towards me, then picks me up by the back of my shirt. "Xiao-Lan, what are you doing here? More importantly, have you seen a vehicle go past here?"

"Hello to you too," I reply. More importantly my a--

"I don't have time for this."

"I don't have time for your sorry attitude. I ran off to escape you, remember? So I could have my alone time, okay? So, go hunt your little sister and the avatar and leave me," I point to myself, being very dry in my humour towards him, "to be alone. I'm reading a great book right now."

He grabs my book, which wasn't really that great, and throws it off into the sky. Didn't know he had such an arm.

"You knew it was her! Ha!" He points at my face. "You were subconsciously tracking them too."

"No..." I look away annoyedly, tapping my foot, trying to not look caught in the act. "I have the tingly little avatar sense, remember? I can't help it if in my delirium I gravitate towards a mediocre destiny."

"C'mon," he pulls me up by his monster strength. "Let's go find her."

"What a genius idea!" I say as he drops me. "You want to go face to face with the very person out hunting for you." I want to smack him upside the head with the book he threw away-- maybe it will take the dummy out of him.

"She'll lead me to the avatar, and I can't let her have him." He turns and heads towards his ostrich-horse.

"Still after him?" I sigh, shaking my head as I stand. "Prince Zuko, I seriously worry about you."

"Why don't you stop me then?" He grabs the reigns, still expectantly looking back at me. "I know you don't care about any of that destiny stuff. If you did, you'd have already betrayed me and gone after him"

"Betrayed is a very strong word, Prince Zuko. I don't get paid to do this anymore! What is the joy in that?"

"Good company?"

"Huh?!" I raise my shoulders, pointing at him as I end up being gravitated further and further to the ostrich-horse by temptation. An itch. "You?! I can only help you make less dumb decisions... hey! Was that a joke?" He hoists me up ontop of the ostrich-horse, because he can't stand me moving any slower and I would have needed his help anyways. My arms are folded annoyedly as he saddles up in front of me. "The best thing I can do in this situation... is go with you and I'll stop you from making stupid decisions while you fight Azula."