Avatar: The Earthbending Revolution

Chapter 12: Places and Spaces

"Oh, yeah." I rifle through some more drawers. There are some extra undergarments, hair necessities, and pelts. I walk over to walk-in closet. They're are shoes in racks, 2 bathrobes (one white, one blue, both with floral patterns), pants, shirts, whole outfits, and some kimonos. And they were in all sorts of colors.

I was itching to try one on. Pointing to the door, I say to Khanu, "Out." He raises his eyebrows.

"Oh, I don't care if you change in front of me. My cousin does it all the time." My face turns fire red.

"Well I do, so out!" he raises his arms lazily in mock surrender, and walks out the door. I close it behind him, lock it, and look through the crack just for good measure. Yup, he's waiting outside the door. I shake my head, knowing there was nothing I could do.

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I was sitting on the balcony at the end of the hallway drinking green tea, relaxing in the sun when I heard the sounds of a scuffle. The balcony faced a beautiful lake of which we could swim in in the summer. But that also gave me a perfect view of the fight.

At first, I thought that they were fighting a really tall, really skinny guy dressed in black. As I watched longer, I realized it was an eel hound on its hind legs. The animal looked scared, not viscous. I had to do something.

Hopping over the fence, I debated whether it not I should try what I had been trying to do on the way here: waterbending with my mind. It couldn't be all that different from waterbending. I'd managed to do it once, but with a measly amount of water.

"HEY!" I yell to the boys surrounding the eel hound. "LEAVE HIM ALONE!!" The boys took one look at me and laughed. I then remembered that I was still in the purple kimono I'd picked out. Shoot.

"Aw, is the little girl gonna do a little bending trick?" one of them cooed. I gathered some water from the lake, and doused the boys with it.

"I said LEAVE. HIM. ALONE!!" Now, I thought. You need to scare them away. I concentrated hard and pulled at the water in the lake with my brain. Straining with all my might, I managed to get about a kickball size blob of water out of the lake.

The boys immediately stopped laughing, and stared at me in horror. I managed a small smug expression before I let the water fall on them. That's when they decided to run. I bent pellets with my hands at them, but with their backs turned, they wouldn't know the difference.

"Yeah! Run away, cowards! And don't come back!" I turned towards the eel hound and saw that it was cut deeply in several places. Unfortunately, I didn't know the art of healing. But if I didn't do something right now, the eel hound wouldn't make it 10 more minutes. I stepped up to it, my arms held out in front of me.

The hound squealed and tried to move away from me. "Don't worry," I whispered. "I'm not going to hurt you." I whispered several more soothing words to help calm him down. He finally slowly lowered his head.

I racked my brains, trying to think of something that might help. I thought back to all the remedies my mom had told me about. Dry soap for mosquito bites, minced aloe for burns....

I suddenly remember my mom's remedy for cuts. Mud and rich soil have lots of antioxidants. But that was for minor cuts. Maybe if I mixed them together....

I quickly plunge my hand into the icy water, and dig around for the squishy feeling if mud. Feeling it, I seize it, slopping water on myself is I thrust out. I lay it on the ground and dig underneath the part of the lawn that wasn't covered in snow. Finding the soil below, I scoop it out, and hear the eel hound moan.

I squish the soil and mud together, mixing as best I can. Once I feel it's thoroughly mixed, I hurry over to slather it on the eel hound's cuts. At first, nothing happened. Then the eel hound begins writher in pain. I knew why. It always burns when it heals.

After a few moments, the eel hound stops writhing and just sits there, breathing. I inch closer to the hound, and slowly began to stroke his silky skin. His eyes look at me with curiosity. I smile reassuringly. He moves his head towards me, and nuzzles me.

I scratch behind his ears. "Why would those boys want to hurt you?" I ask the hound. It just looked at me with big brown eyes. "You're so sweet. I don't think you could hurt a flea." The eel hound laid its head down in my lap.

"You need a name," I say while scratching his neck. "How about.... Zenith?" The eel hound lifted his head when I said it. I took that as a 'yes-that-will-be-my-name'.

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Hey guys!! Sorry about not updating for a while. Statewide testing is this well so I've been trying to sleep. Plus, weekends are also crazy! Feel free to comment any suggestions about things you want to see or happen. Or point out my mistakes! This helps me tremendously! Thanks!

Ciao!-Lauren