Avatar: The Parallels

Chapter 22: Scars

Tikaani's POV:

The sun glittered on the horizon as it began to set. Appa had just landed in a small clearing, where we would be setting our camp for the night. I slid down his tail, landing in a large pile of dirty white hairs that seemed to cling to everything. Appa was shedding heavily, but it didn't really bother me all that much. Maybe I could gather some hair and put it in a sack to make some comfy pillows.

"Tikaani, catch!" Before I could even turn around, a sleeping bag hit me in the back of the head. I looked up and glared at Red, who was flying above the campsite in circles on Walt's back. She snickered mischievously as she lighted down next to Appa. Walt was shedding too, but not nearly as much as the ten ton beast.

"Hey. You guys picked a great campsite. The grass is so soft." Toph mused in amazement as she wiggled her toes through the fluffy white hair.

"That's not grass. Appa's shedding." Sokka announced in annoyance.

"Oh, gross!" Katara whined.

"That's not gross! It's just a part of spring. You know, rebirth, flowers blooming, and Appa gets a new coat!" Aang explained. Birds and butterflies fluttered around him peacefully. He smiled a corny, childish smile.

"Ah, the beauty of spring." Katara grumbled sarcastically as she rolled her eyes. Beside her, Appa was itching his front foot. He suddenly stopped and lifted his head to let out a ground-shattering sneeze. Hair flew through the air like a snow cloud, then it rained down on us. As if that wasn't bad enough, Appa started shaking his entire body, sending more clouds of hair into the air. "Stop, Appa, stop!" Katara complained, spitting hair out of her mouth. "ACKH!!!" She grumbled.

"It's not that bad, Katara!" Sokka soothed as he shuffled through the loose hair. He soon emerged with a large mound of it on top of his head. "It makes a great wig!"

"And a great beard!" Aang announced. I sprouted an idea and joined the two of them.

"Not to mention an absolutely fabulous scarf!" I posed like a model as I wrapped the Appa-hair scarf around my neck.

"And a terrible replacement for my arm blades." I looked over at Red, who had wrapped the hair around her arms just like her arm blades. At first, I thought she was serious, but then she started laughing, and we all laughed with her.

"I'm just glad we finally have another girl in the group, because you four are disgusting." Katara confessed as she tried to pick some of the hair off of her.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Red and I chorused.

"No offense, but you two aren't exactly the most lady-like."

"Excuse me." Toph interrupted the conversation before it could turn into an argument. "Does anyone have a razor? 'Cause I've got some hairy pits!" Toph cheered, lifting her arms to let white hair pour out from beneath her sleeves. The four of us absolutely lost it, causing Aang to sneeze and slam into Appa. He fell face first into a pile of hair, then emerged laughing wildly. Even Katara started laughing with us. But soon enough, her fun side disappeared back into its hole and she was ordering us to help set up camp.

Sokka and Red always gathered the firewood. Red brought back more than him every single time, which never made Sokka too happy. Aang airbended the tents into place while Katara and I prepared dinner, which was more often than not some kind of soup. While we busted our buts to make the clearing home for the night, Toph lounged by a pile of rocks. Katara looked up at her and narrowed her eyes. She made to walk towards Toph, but I held up my hand to stop her.

"Let me handle this." I stood to my feet and walked over to her. "Hey, Toph. How's it going?"

"Better than it was a few days ago, that's for sure." She replied with a wide smile on her face. There was a weed sticking it out of her mouth that she was moving from one side to the other. It reminded me of Jet.