Higosha ~ Guardian

Chapter 29 ~ Vacation

The sound of birds greeted me as I opened my eyes. A faint smile played on my lips at the thought of a beautiful day, but that was ruined as an explosion rocked the area we were in. I jumped up and ran to Aang's side as I saw three Fire Nation ships descending on us. 

I pulled water out of the fountain and shot it at the incoming bombs, only buying us a little bit of time. Aang swung his staff forward and closed the doors, protecting us further. "How did they find us?" I demanded as I grabbed my things and tossed them into my sleeping bag and started doing the same to Katara's things before tossing them onto Appa's saddle. 

"Emi!" Sokka warned as pebbles rained down from the ceiling, I jumped to the side just as a boulder came down at the same time, another fell towards Katara.

"Watch out!" Zuko shouted, pushing Katara out of the way. 

"What are you doing?!" Katara demanded.

"Keeping rocks from crushing you," Zuko said. 

"Okay, I'm not crushed. You can get off me now," Katara snapped as I tossed more things onto Appa's saddle as Hakoda helped others grab their things. 

"I'll take that as a thank you," Zuko muttered. 

"Come on, we can get out through here!" Toph said as she and Haru made a tunnel. Aang tried to pull Appa to it, but he wouldn't budge. I grabbed the onto the reins and pulled, but Appa really did not want to go in. 

"What are you doing?" I asked Zuko as he stood in front of the panels as the room slowly began to fall apart. 

"Go ahead, I'll hold them off. I think this is a family visit," Zuko said as a panel fell off and he ran towards the air ships.

"Zuko, no!" Aang shouted.

"You idiot!" I shouted after him as I ran to where he went and looked out. 

"Emiko, don't!" Aang shouted, but I had already made up my mind. I took a deep breath before gathering as much water as I could and running out.I extended the water past my arms and grabbed onto the ship to see Azula standing on an observation rise. 

"What are you doing here?" Zuko demanded of her as my water arms grabbed onto one of the ropes of the airship. 

"You mean it's not obvious yet," Azula said spreading her arms. "I'm about to celebrate becoming an only child!"

"Not yet!" I shouted at her as I swung around and knocked her off the deck. As she fell, she took the opportunity to blast fire at Zuko. "Zuko!" I shouted in alarm as he fell and grabbed onto the ship to try not to plummet to his death. 

I went to jump after him when my path was blocked by flames, "not so fast, Emi."

"Azula, you don't want to kill your brother," I warned as I glanced at Zuko.

"I do, and you're not going to stop me," Azula seethed as she blasted lighting at me. 

I gasped as I held out my hand and began to redirect the lighting, but as I sent it flying out, the force of it pushed me back towards where I came from. I covered my face as I was about to meet a pillar only for a ball of air to surround me, "you okay?" Sokka asked me.

I nodded as I saw the others getting on Appa, "where are the others."

"We had to split up," Sokka said darkly.

"Sokka, Emiko, let's go!" Katara shouted at us.

I ran towards Appa and jumped on. I huddled myself into a corner and held on tight as Toph began to make us a way out. "Umm, there's an awful lot of fire in that general direction," Suki said as we looked out.  

"We'll get through, let's go," Aang said as Toph formed a shield around of made of earth and we went flying out. Fire began to get tossed at us, but Katara and I stood on Appa and blocked it with water. We flew right at Azula and she had to duck to not get hit by Appa. "Hold on!" Aang said as Appa avoided the flames. I felt myself go airborne for a moment before Toph grabbed my leg and pulled me down.