And so, the Avatar's plan to end the relentless chase began. Appa raised from the ground and into the air, snapping branches off the tops of trees as he did so. Myself, Sokka, Katara and Momo kept an eye down on the surface of the forest, looking for Toph.
"Toph couldn't have made it too far," Sokka said optimistically as we peered off of Appa's bare back, scanning the ground below with our eyes. However it was rapidly becoming clear that we hadn't given Appa enough time to rest. He was flying closer to the ground than usual and at a much slower pace. We could only hope that Aang's trail of fur would lead the trio of girls in the opposite direction. However, luck didn't appear to be on our side, as Momo's screeching could be heard from the back of Appa. Sokka crawled over to see what the commotion was about, only to shout out loud. I peeked over the back of Appa to see what they were reacting to, only to see the girls riding the lizards again! However, I noticed that the powerful firebender girl wasn't present anymore; just the other two, whose names I believe were Mai and Ty Lee.
"How did they find us?" Katara shouted in shock, whipping the two leads that went to Appa's horns. Usually this would speed up Appa, but his lack of sufficient sleep meant that he was quickly drifting towards the ground. For a second time today, it seemed as if we were going to have another crash landing, but this time into a river!
"We just need to make it across that river!" Sokka cried desperately, though it looked as if Appa's trajectory was going straight into the middle of the fast-flowing body of water. Deciding I wasn't going to sit around and do nothing, I jumped to my feet. After stumbling from the turbulence that the rapid decline was causing, I recovered and stood in a strong stance. "(Y/N) what the hell are you doing??" Sokka shouted at me, confused. I focused on the river below us that we were moments from making impact with. I raised my arms from my waist to above my head, creating a large wave within the river. I had timed it well; Appa made contact with the peak of the wave, which then pushed the ten ton beast to the opposite side of the river, separating us from the two girls. I gave a sigh of relief, proud that my quick thinking had worked, as we all hopped off of the resting bison. "We made it! We're safe," Sokka sighed.
"You did it, Appa!" Katara praised the bison, much to my demise.
"Yep, that was definitely all Appa..." I muttered sarcastically to myself as the two siblings gleefully exchanged a hug. The joy didn't last long, though, as we heard a splashing noise from the river. I turned my head to look at the water, to see the lizards carrying the girls effortlessly over the water! Immediately, both myself and Katara sent a wave of water in the direction of the two girls, hoping to knock them off of the giant water-walking lizards and into the water. However the girls just simply leapt from the lizards towards our side of the riverbank. The girl in pink, Ty Lee, landed on the trunk of a nearby tree, and expertly flipped from branch to branch, closing in closer to the three of us. The other girl, Mai, threw a handful of throwing knives at us as she leapt through the air onto the earth. She threw the knives with great accuracy and, in an act of selflessness, I threw the water I had in my waterbending pouch to block the blades that were heading straight towards Sokka and Katara. However, this meant that the knives directed at me hit exactly where they were aimed, which in this case was my clothes. The knives had pinned me to a nearby tree, though luckily one of my arms remained unpinned. Considering myself fortunate that they had missed my body, I tugged at one of the knives that pinned me, only to find that it wasn't budging! While I watched Katara and Sokka fight the two girls, I was essentially rendered useless for the moment. After a few minutes using all my strength, I had managed to remove the many wedged knives that trapped my clothes. However, when I glanced back up at the action, I saw Sokka laying helplessly on the floor, and Katara seemed to have suffered a similar fate to me, but both her arms were trapped, meaning she couldn't free herself.
Immediately Mai and Ty Lee turned towards me, and I realised that I would have to fight the both of them at the same time. Mai quickly threw some more blades at me from a distance, which I athletically dodged. While I weaved around the knives, it gave Ty Lee enough time to run over to me. She didn't fight with any weapons, instead just trying to jab at my body. She took a jab at my left arm, which I quickly slapped out of the way. She then followed that up with many more attempts, which I also dodged. Luckily for me, Mai wasn't throwing any more knives, probably due to the fear of accidentally hitting her friend, so at least I didn't have to worry about her for the moment. I controlled some water from the river and sent a powerful stream of it at Ty Lee, who expertly flipped out of the way. She then ran back towards me, so I turned the ground, which was now wet, into ice, hoping that she would slip. She didn't slip on the ice, though, instead gliding on it towards me even faster than before. Thinking hastily, I dove at her feet legs-first, sending her flying over my body and onto the floor. For the moment Mai had decided that it was now safe to send another onslaught of blades in my direction, so I rapidly bent a large cube of ice around her, trapping her. I laughed to myself when I saw her grumpy expression as she realised that she couldn't get out.
Having temporarily removed the threat of one girl, I looked back over to Ty Lee, who was now back on her feet and ready to continue our fight. She flipped back over to me, jumping over a wave of water that I sent at her, and began to send multiple jabs and punches at me with great precision. I was able to defend all her swings, but she was sending me backwards, into the forest. Eventually my back hit a tree so that I couldn't retreat any further. The girl sent a quick jab for my shoulder, but I just about managed to catch her right wrist before she made impact. Instantly, she tried to hit my side with her left hand, but I caught that wrist as well. I spun around so that now it was her that was pinned to the tree, and I held her wrists against the tree up above her head. Although I had removed use of her hands, she smiled and even blushed at the situation I had put her in.
"Hello again, (Y/N)!" she blushed as I held her still. "Good to see you!" she added politely, which took me aback. I was slightly confused; both because she somehow remembered my name, plus she was being strangely nice for somebody that was supposed to be my enemy. I wasn't sure if her nicety was a ploy to distract me, though, as she quickly raised one of her legs and kicked me in the jaw, sending me backwards onto the floor. I rubbed my sore jaw as I got up angrily from the floor, and I saw her cover her mouth with her hands. "Sorry! I meant to kick your chest!" she apologized to me. Ignoring her, I sent a stream of water from my waterbending pouch, which she ducked under. Realising the fight was back on, she got back close to me and threw some more punches. I let her get as close to me as possible, before I strategically controlled a whip of water from my pouch to wrap around both of her arms. Now that I had her bound, I spun around, causing her to fly around me, before I threw her into a nearby bush.
Ty Lee now defeated, I ran out of the forestry and towards the ice cube that I had created to separate myself from Mai. Through the clear ice, I could see the grumpy girl waiting, sending me an annoyed glare. In an act of sheer power, that even I was surprised that I was capable of, I turned the large ice cube into a huge wave of water, sweeping Mai off of her feet and into the nearby river. Proud of myself, I was about to jog over to Sokka and Katara, until I felt multiple rapid impacts on my back and arms. Suddenly, every part of my upper body felt numb, and I was promptly pushed to the floor. I tried to get back up, but my arms were almost completely paralysed, only being able to flop around helplessly. I used my legs to flip myself over on the floor so that I looked up; straight into the brown eyes of Ty Lee. She had evidently caught up to me and completely disabled my upper body. I knew that there was no use in trying to waterbend; this must be what Katara referenced when she said one of the girls could take away one's bending. Ty Lee gave me an apologetic look before there was a loud, booming growl from behind her, and a huge gust of air blew her through the air and into the river next to Mai. Appa stood triumphantly next to me.
"Thanks, Appa. I owe you one," I said to the airbending bison as I used my legs to clumsily get up off of the floor. Sokka seemed to have suffered a similar fate to me, and together we quickly tied our very best to free Katara from her entrapment within the knives. After a minute, when we began getting some feeling and control of our hands back, we were finally successful.
"Come on, we need to get out of here before those girls get out of the river," Sokka said to us, and we swiftly agreed. Climbing onto the now rested Appa, we quickly took off, hoping to find Aang.
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[3rd person POV]
Ty Lee and Mai stumbled out of the river, sopping wet from having been forcefully thrown in by the Avatar's giant bison. They knelt at the riverbank; Ty Lee was writhing her long braid to remove water from it, while Mai just sat with a scowl on her face.
"Was it just me, or was that (Y/N) guy kind of cute?" Ty Lee asked Mai, who simply frowned.
"You said this a few days ago," Mai told her unhappily. "He's our enemy, Ty Lee. You can't have a crush on our enemy,".
"Fine," the energetic acrobat pouted, before quietly adding "I'll try," which luckily wasn't heard by her friend
____________________________________________________________
We had been searching for any sign of Aang for the last few minutes, and I was starting to get bored.
"Ugh, we're never going to find him," I complained as we continued to fly over the forestry. "All that we can see is just trees,". As if on command, a streak of blue flames erupted into the air in the distance, alerting all three of us. Aang must have been found by the scary girl, and the fact that we were now going to go directly to her sent a shiver down by spine.
"What was that you were saying?" Sokka unhelpfully asked me rhetorically, causing me to release a long groan. Katara, who was steering Appa, pulled on the ropes so that we veered towards where the flames had come from. We landed in what appeared to be a small, deserted village, with buildings that we falling apart. The grass of the forest was no longer present, instead replaced by dry, arid land. There were no trees, either, meaning that the sun shone down freely. We landed on the outskirts of the village so as to not make our presence known. As the three of us ran into the village, we could hear the sounds of fighting in the distance, and we saw a tall building crumble to the floor. We all began sprinting towards the collapsed building, and as we approached it I noted that it was lit ablaze by scorching fire. Arriving at the doorway, we could see Aang trapped under many planks of wood that had collapsed on him, and he was facing off against the violent, intimidating girl. I could see that the girl was about to make a lethal strike at Aang, so I controlled some of the water from my waterbending pouch into a whip, which I sent at the girl's right hand. Katara seemed to have the exact same idea, and she sent a whip to wrap around the girl's left hand. Both of our streams of water made impact, wrapping around both the girl's wrists.
"Katara!" Aang exclaimed gleefully as Katara now used her waterbending to move the planks of wood that trapped him.
"Yeah, you're welcome," I muttered quietly to myself, slightly annoyed that my efforts had gone unappreciated twice today. I was given little time to think about it, though, as the girl we were fighting sent a wave of burning blue fire at me, which I only just managed to evade by throwing myself to the floor and rolling away. I quickly got back onto my feet and ran out the doorway of the building, where Sokka waited, while the girl followed. As the girl also exited the building, Sokka cut her off, swinging at her with his boomerang. I sent a powerful stream of water at the girl, which she jumped over, making my stream hit Sokka directly in the face.
"(Y/N)! What the hell!" he shouted angrily at me, though I just shrugged at him. After all the grief he had given me, he sort of deserved it in my opinion. We both quickly switched our attentions back to the enemy, who was now fighting Aang and Katara at the same time. We quickly joined them so that she was completely surrounded and outnumbered. Even though she was a great firebender, there was littler possibility that she could defeat four of us. At least, there was for of us, before suddenly the girl was thrown to the floor due to the earth beneath her moving. This revealed Toph, who evidently had caused the ordeal.
"I though you guys could use a little help," Toph smirked, and we all smiled when we saw her.
"Thanks," Katara said to her genuinely, and then we all united to the face off against the enemy girl. She shot a few blue flames at us, all of which we were able to block or avoid, before realising that she was now truly outnumbered. She quicky turned on her heels and began sprinting in the opposite direction to us. That is, until she ran into a large body that threw her to the floor. I couldn't believe my eyes: it was Uncle Iroh! And next to him was a grouchy looking teenager with a scar over his left eye. I had never met him before, but I recognised it from pictures I had seen in the newspapers that it was Prince Zuko of the fire nation, though he had much shorter hair now. Our gang seemed to have a mutual agreement to all team up on the enemy girl, and since she was now stood with her back against a wall, we completely closed in on her, cornering her completely.
"Well, look at this," she said bitterly, in her tense, intimidating voice. "Enemies and traitors all working together." Then, in an unexpected move, she raised her arms in surrender, taking all by surprise. "I'm done. I know when I'm beaten. You got me. A princess surrenders with honour." 'A firebending princess?' I thought to myself. That could only mean one thing: she's princess Azula of the fire nation! Of course, I had always thought that her face looked familiar to me. Just like with Zuko, I had seen her face in newspapers growing up. And that would explain her blue flames; I had always heard that he was a firebending prodigy, and one of the greatest firebenders in the world. And yet, her surrender didn't make sense. From the few articles that I had read about her, Azula always came across as relentless and cocky, as if she truly believed she could beat anyone. And then it all sunk in. Azula wasn't surrendering, she was lulling us all into a sense of false security so she could make an attacking move! I opened my mouth to say something, but it was too late. Azula must have seen the realisation in my face, as she rapidly sent a bullet of fire in the direction of Uncle Iroh. She was too fast, and there was nothing we could do. Uncle Iroh fell to the ground with a scream. Instinctively, the rest of us all sent a wave of our respected elements at Azula, who created a ball of fire around her body to protect herself. By the time the dust and smoke left by all the combining elements went away, Azula was nowhere to be seen. While I was frustrated that she had gotten away, I was more afraid for Uncle Iroh, who laid unconscious on the ground with a large burn on his side. Our gang of five all rushed next to Zuko, who was tending to Iroh with frustration.
"Get away from us!" he shouted with rage, though none of us moved.
"Zuko, I can help," Katara said to him, referring to her healing abilities. I had never learnt much about using waterbending to heal, but I knew the basics and I wanted to help as well, So I also chimed in.
"I can help, too," I hastily added, though Zuko still seemed filled with hatred before he snapped at all of us.
"Leave!" he bellowed as he sent a small warning of fire at our heads, which we easily ducked under. Still, the message he sent was clear, so we depressingly walked away from the injured Iroh. I dragged my feet along the ground as I walked away, fearing for Uncle Iroh. I had only met him once a few days ago, but already I had a lot of care for him, and I wanted to make sure he was okay. However I knew it would be stupid to try to get anywhere near his nephew right now, so I begrudgingly trudged away.
As we paced out of the small village, there was a vibe of sadness and confusion. There was also still tiredness, as none of us had gotten any sleep for the last two days. Still, there was one burning question on everyone's mind.
"So what now?" Sokka finally asked as we arrived at where we had left Appa just outside the village entrance.
"I guess it's time for me to learn earthbending," Aang said excitedly as he air-jumped onto the top of Appa. The rest of us lazily climbed onto Appa's back and lay down as it started to become dark outside.
"But first, can we please get some sleep? I'm shattered," I just about managed to say to the gang.
"I can get behind that idea," Sokka agreed as he closed his eyes. Everyone else mumbled in agreeance. Tomorrow, we would find somewhere for Aang to learn earthbending. But for now, we were all going to get some much needed sleep. We landed at the first safe place we could find- a beautiful but dry, natural, mountainous region- and we all lay down and closed our eyes. Finally, after two whole days of no rest, we were able to get some quality sleep.
Word Count: 3385
(A/N: Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed this longer chapter! I can't believe this story has only been out for a month so far, and yet it's already received so much support! I truly appreciate all of your views, votes and comments! As you guys probably know by now, I like to make sure I'm a few chapters ahead of what's published, so I might need a bit of time just to make sure that I'm ahead, as these longer chapters are taking more time to write. But don't worry, you'll only have to wait a week; the next chapter will be published next Friday. Thanks for your support and understanding, and I'll see you guys next Friday! Have a good one! -JetDragon09)