Word Count: 2,397 words
Chapter XV: 欲速则不达
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"Natsuko!"
She bolted from her hammock and saw Aang's worried expression that rivaled hers in her dreams, or in her case, visit to the Spirit World. Her eyes widen at the terrible headache it was to wake up so unexpectedly as if she fell from a great height, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." she looked at Aang who was still looking at her as if he could sense the lies that she wasn't telling him, "I said I'm fine, boy."
Aang backed away and laughed her snarl away before pointing at the top with his thumb, "We're about to leave."
When he left her alone, she put her hands to her face and after a long debate whether or not to sleep it off, she swung her legs to the side and gone down her hammock. She was talking to Wan about the series of problems that suddenly occurred to her when Aang woke her up. It wasn't ideal to wake up without her mind and soul in balance, especially if she left the place she had in mind, quite literally, unintentionally. Grabbing her glider, she went to the deck of the sailship and the first thing that hit her was the wind wiping her hair to her face. The sea breeze was a smell she didn't realize she missed during her stay, neither was the breeze and how it differs from the cold tundra settings up north.
Pakku was in front of them with a sack in hand which she presumed to be farewell gifts from the Water Tribe before parting ways with one another. After giving Katara an amulet that contains water from the Spirit Oasis, Aang and Natsuko forwarded, "These scrolls will help you master waterbending."
He gave them a box of scrolls and by the looks of it was enough for Aang, although Natsuko was already ahead from him in terms of lessons and practice. Her place of origin differed from the Water Tribes element of bending, as well as their practice and motion, but by no time she would also master it.
If anything, she felt slightly guilty for not practicing the elements even though she knew she had them, unlike Aang who mastered all four elements in more than a hundred years. She never bothered until ten millenniums had passed and the Avatar was missing because of her negligence.
"Natsuko." Pakku called to her, making her be suspicious of what other else he had to say. She was then handed something else, "Nice, a box."
"You do not like it?" the way Pakku's eyebrows were raised made her panic, "I did not mean it like that."
"That belonged to Princess Yue." she wanted to open it but Pakku stopped her from doing so. He mentioned that she'll open it when she felt the time was right, so she did what she was asked and bowed to him one last time before letting Sokka have his time with Pakku. A hard thing to say especially when all Sokka got from him was a pat to the shoulder.
"Fly straight to the Earth Kingdom base to the East of here, General Fong will provide you an escort to Omashu. There you'll be safe to begin your Earthbending training with King Bumi."
And so they did, flying towards the base Pakku told them about, and was met by the general and his men, going overboard when they lit up fireworks to commemorate their arrival. Natsuko didn't like it one bit, being called immortal or winsome to top it off as well, sure she has been complimented most of the time for being eternal but she wasn't fine with the idea of her being thought of as a person with an immortal iron fist or whatever.
It was as if he was trying to win them over with words she has dealt with a thousand times.
But still, they were brought to the insides of the base, talking about the attack in the Northern Water Tribe but mainly focusing on the power Aang showed when he was in his Avatar State, claiming it to be an awesome responsibility. It didn't seem right to his vocabulary as it rolled off his tongue quite forcefully, too.
"I try not to think about it too much."
And he shouldn't. Being the Avatar was already a risk he was taking, moreover if he had tried to be in an Avatar State without her to balance him and especially if he is overcome with emotions that triggered it. He is not ready to face the Fire Nation just yet with only his masters degree in airbending and skills in waterbending too.
"You are ready to face the Fire Lord now."
Sokka placed a hand on Natsuko's shoulder, seeing that she was uncomfortable with the ideas the General was proposing to them. She would like to leave for Omashu and be on their way instead of him planning his attack to the Fire Nation with Aang as their weapon.
"To be frank, sir." Natsuko voiced out what she had to say, "Aang is not a weapon, he may be the Avatar and his powers are not something to toy with. If you'll excuse us, we have to go to Omashu and continue training with King Bumi."
"That's true, sir, I also do not know how to get in and out of the Avatar state, much less what to do when I'm there." Aang added to Natsuko's defense.
"So it's decided then." the general turned around to the four of them, "I'll help you figure out how to get in the Avatar State and then you'll face your destiny."
"Didn't you hear what I just said?" they all stood up to retort and Katara spoke out, "No, nothing's decided. We already have a plan, Aang's pursuing his destiny his way."
Unhappy with the decision, the general showed Aang the soldiers who barely escaped the wrath of the Fire Nation soldiers, manipulating the mind of a kid who also wanted this war to end and knowing he was the key and having a pure heart, he was second guessing the general's offer. Natsuko tried to talk some sense to him but it mostly turned to an argument.
"Aang, you know that depending on the Avatar state isn't enough to defeat the Fire Lord."
"But people are dying every time I stay still." Aang retorted at Natsuko who was trying to persuade him to not go through with his urge to help, "I was already gone for a hundred years, if I get to the Avatar state, I would be able to defeat the Fire Lord."
"He promised you to be able to get into that state, not master it. Every time you use an element else other than what you had learned was only by luck, you don't know how to use it."
Aang stopped for a second before replying, "I'm still doing this and I'm not going to force you to help me."
It wasn't much of a fight but it was a heated conversation in the sense of arguments of global issues. This happened countless times before, the misuse of another power the Avatar has over everyone else, all of them leading to permanent damage. If there was one thing, she wasn't stocked to see them the next day still in the base, trying on a lot of nonsensical things to trigger something in him.
For starters, there is no such thing as a rare chi enhancing tea, it is just a myth by all the people who were victim to the stimulating ingredients it has. Another myth was Sokka's theory of shocking the Avatar to a state, neither does it work on hiccups. The most absurd of it all was the ritual with a costume to use and drums and it's own ritual. If her mind still recalls, mixing all elements would create, "This is just mud."
Even with Katara reasoning with him, he still managed to stand by his decision. Now, she didn't mean to impose that there might be any kind of blossoming romantic auras and flowers whenever Aang has seen Katara, which was everyday, but she had seen a smitten Avatar many times and seeing Aang was already in another level than just being smitten.
At least her thoughts were proven wrong when the next day arrived and Aang finally made the choice of learning the elements before unlocking the Avatar state. But by the looks of it, after seeing him throw his desk towards Aang and out of the window, General Fong took to heart his promise and tried to put him in distress which made Natsuko in distress. She took out the soldiers holding her, as well as Sokka taking out his before she went running towards the window, stopping when a hand grabbed onto her clothes.
"Don't leave me with the stairs."
Natsuko groaned when Sokka kept on holding her tunic, "Then don't use them."
She bonked him in the head with his own weapon and dived headfirst from the window, following the general and her other half. The general just looked at her without any hints of concern for her and her damsel persona, "Stay out of this, Natsuko, the training field is no place for a nonbender."
"Excuse me?" she muttered to herself in disbelief before she airbending another of his soldiers who tried to attack her which caught his attention. What he had heard of her was only a nonbender from the Fire Nation with no specialization with weapons as well, as she had was a mouth and an attitude, with enough wisdom to take her in as his advisor. He was in awe when winsome Natsuko dodged the two earthbenders coming her way with a leap in the air and a kick that gave off air to blow them away from her.
"You can also airbend?"
"Use your eyes good and your mind better, doofus." she formed another airball and attacked him, blowing him off of his feet while the two Water Tribe siblings went down the stairs of the building. In her distracted state, earthbenders came to wedge her to the ground and cuff her hands behind her back, possibly the third time in her five years of staying in the mortal world.
"Let me go." they earthbended a muzzle on her mouth, a new addition to the things she was put in. Sokka even tried to pull it off her while he was riding on bird-horse thing but decided to leave her when he saw Katara being bit by bit sinking to the soil as well.
"I don't see glowing."
Katara was sinking, Aang was crying, Sokka was out of commission, as well as Natsuko. Usually, this was a considered win of the opposing side but come to think of it, they were being tested by an Earth Kingdom's general so he should know when to stop himself from doing what he was trying to achieve. His mocking tone ticked her nerves off but she fell to the ground in a state of shock and hurt when she felt Aang force himself.
"I'm awake!"
Natsuko rubbed her eyes and felt as if she had been asleep for the most part of the fight, she could feel the air passing through her left ear. After announcing it, she felt a hug from Aang and Katara while Sokka looked at her as if she was someone who did a very big mistake, "I'm sorry."
She was confused by Aang's apology and put a hand on his shoulder as a thank you, "What for?"
Katara and Aang looked at each other before looking back at you and Sokka nonchalantly told you, "You've been asleep for many days."
They told her what she had missed the past days. After a little detour to a cave of lovers, which Natsuko understood to be Oma and Shu's cave, they finally got to the city where they were supposed to meet King Bumi. It might not be intentional or not but they might have forgotten to mention that the city was overrun by the Fire Nation as the tapestry with the Fire Nation symbol is proudly draped over the stone walls of Omashu and smoke was coming from the whole place. Now, they were entering the city through a hidden entrance, which was filled with green liquid that no one wanted to know what it contained.
They retired for the night and maintained the quiet state the place was in. Natsuko appreciated it, after pulling an all nighter the night before, the peace that surrounded the area. But she couldn't feel peace within her after the incident with General Fong and a conversation that made her be in deep sleep for two days.
She remembered opening her eyes and seeing the world she was in, no she was in the Spirit World. Actually, she was somewhere else, dark and starry, a trail of an aurora borealis led her somewhere she didn't know. Her human instincts kicked in so she followed the path and came to the end, seeing the large being in front of her after a long time.
"Hello again, Natsuko."
Her eyes blinked in case it wasn't a trick of the general to her or for some reason she also ingested some sort of stimulant that made her hallucinate but her eyes and her ears did tell her the truth.
"Raava."
The spirit of light and peace appeared before her in her natural enormous state. With enough rest around inside her host's body, she was finally her original form and thriving with her white glow, "It's been awhile since we saw each other."
"It has." Natsuko didn't know that they would be able to even see each other, but maybe the incident also was the case, "Is this about forcing Aang to the Avatar State? I told him not to."
"Desire speed but not attain." Raava agreed with her and Natsuko felt better than ever before another wave of silence filled the room- er place, rather.
"Your charm has become too strong, Natsuko." now even Raava had jokes with her, "But this is a matter of importance."
Natsuko didn't want to believe the next words she heard from Raava, "Your life is in danger, summer child, not of the Avatar but your own."
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Dun dun dun(?)
Sorry for not updating over the weekend, at least where I am from, I decided to let my laptop rest during weekends because between the two of us, she definitely deserves a weekend off and stuff.
Second season starting off with a punch to guts.
General Fong wasn't the best of people, but honestly can you blame the guy? He just wanted to end the war by actually repeating what the Fire Nation did to the Air Nomads but it's fine with him because it would be the Avatar to do that so it would be considered "vengeance". If anything, that is what most people would think of because it wouldn't be in their conscience and if it would lead them to the results the want.
So, that's it.
Enjoy and read responsibly, but most of all, STAY SAFE!
- Amboo