Fire | Distorted Reality [ 1 ] | ATLA

13

"The carnival"

Her jumps were surprisingly almost as high as his, almost as fast, and her movements just as dexterous. The Avatar quickly realized that only airbending would work in the fight against her, since it was the only one out of the four elements fast enough. Waterbending was too heavy and graceful; Earth too staunch and solid; Fire too aggressive. Besides, the girl spent lots of time around a very skilled firebender—she was bound to know how to get past that element.

Aang dropped his staff to the ground, staring at his enemy with a fierce gaze. Gone was the lighthearted, innocent Aang. In his place was a thirteen-year old who had seen too much war and violence and pain.

The staff was too cumbersome for this fight—his hands offered faster, but weaker airbending. She attacked first, running at him from the side, jumping against a tree and kicking off it, flying at him with her fists. He ducked under the attack and swiped at her with air, but she cartwheeled out of the way. She was under him again in moments, crouching low and trying to strike him with her fists. He had just enough time to gather his hands together and blow her back with a blast of wind in a counterattack.

The girl recovered in the air and back-flipped, landing on her feet. She stood straight and stared at him quizzically, as if she was a curious child. Well, Aang thought, she certainly had the nature of one.

"What's wrong?" Ty Lee asked, her head tilted to the side. "I noticed that you've been acting different." Aang didn't answer.

Zuko, Sokka, and Katara all warned him of Ty Lee's fighting ability—they revealed the pressure points that they knew and taught him to keep those parts of his body safe from the pink acrobat. She was an extremely dangerous fighter and she was not to be underestimated. This was his first time actually fighting one-on-one against her. Somehow, the two of them got separated from the others, and Zuko, Katara, and Toph were all fighting Azula, while Sokka and Suki fended off Mai. Aang itched to finish the fight with the Dim-Mak master and help his friends.

Aang fell into firebending motions and unleashed an uncharacteristically aggressive blast of air that swept all the way to Ty Lee, but the acrobat sprung high into the trees surrounding them, landing agilely on a branch. She peered down at the figure below her.

"You really have changed," she said sadly. "You used to be so happy. I thought we could have been friends."

She was forced to jump away from Aang's following air blast.

  🌊  🌳  🔥  🌪

Aang's eyes flickered open abruptly, having woken up from his dream. However, another surprise was quick to greet him.

"Whoa!" Aang shouted out, once he realized what was in front of him. It was quite odd waking up to Azula's amber eyes staring at him. Both of the benders jumped back and sat up. "Why were you... staring at me?"