Alright my dears! I know there isn't a lot of you, but THANK YOU SO VERY VERY MUCH FOR READING MY STORY!! I feel like I need to give out some awards here or something! *giggles* A special thank you to Will Williamson who told me on Pinterest that I should publish my story on Wattpad. Thank you to Kim Bennett who gave me plenty of ideas to incorporate in my story. And thank you to all my readers. It doesn't let me see who the readers are so I can't call you out. But thank you. Hope you enjoy this next chapter!!!
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I wake up to screaming. My senses jarred from sleep, I stumble up from the floor and step into a stance. "Who's there?!" I call out. I blink a few times so everything isn't so fuzzy. When my sight is clear, I see Khanu on the ground with Zenith on top, licking his face.
I start to laugh, not only because of the scene in front of me, but because Khanu screamed like one of the girliest-girl ever. By the time Khanu manages to get Zenith off of him, I'm laughing so hard feel like I have developed a six-pack in a matter of seconds. I'm on the floor, weak from laughing.
"Oh, sure," Khanu grumbles. "Laugh all you want. Can't you find a different place for him to sleep?" Last night, Khanu and Katara found Zenith and I conked out in front of the lake. When they woke me up, I told them what had happened. Since I didn't want to leave him alone, Zenith slept on the floor next to me. Khanu was occupying my bed.
When I could breath again, I answer, "If you'd just been beaten up, would you want to be left alone?" Khanu shrugs. Yawning, he stretches his arms high above his head.
Straightening out my crumpled night shirt and pants, I stand to leave. I hear Zenith leap over to the side of the room. In a split second, I'm almost knocked to the ground. Zenith has pushed Khanu into me. Making sure I don't fall, Khanu has his arms around my waist.
We stand. We are close enough that his nose is 2 centimeters away from mine. We gaze into each others eyes. I'd never realized how his dark, cobalt blue eyes gleamed. They were quite lovely, sparkling in the sunlight from the window... I snap my eyes from his gaze and wiggle out of his arms.
Before he could say anything, I was out the door and down the hall. What just happened there? I ask myself. Shaking my head, I step onto the balcony to find Katara sitting there, gazing out upon the lake, a bowl of brown rice with soy sauce sitting next to her. Chopsticks were sticking out of the bowl.
I plucked them out and set them on a silk cloth next to her bowl. "It's bad manners to have your chopsticks sticking out of the bowl," I say, sounding like my grandmother.
"Hmm?" Katara asks, coming out of her trance. "Why's that?"
"It looks like the sticks for burning incense at a grave." Katara just frowns and returns to her vacant stare at the lake. I turn around hoping to find more rice, and I do, but sitting next to the tray is the girl I saw in the storage room. I freeze, the memories of what she said coming back to me in one fluid motion.
A terrible fate! A choice that will end his chord! Well, that was the gist without all the sobbing.
She is wearing a plain purple dress that comes down to her knees, with brown boots laced up to her knees. Her white jacket jacket ripples in the wind.
The girl smiles at me and gets up. I notice immediately that her eyes aren't glowing. Huh. "Hello!" she says cheerfully. "I'm Morada (pronounced More-uh-duh)!"
"Er, I'm Luna," I reply. "Um, uh, well, have we met?" Morada frowns, then shakes her head.
"No, I don't think so." I sigh then pick up a bowl of white rice and chopsticks. "You know," she almost a whispers, "I saw you rescue that eel-hound. That was brave of you."
"Oh, why thank you!" I start to blush. Just as I sit down next Katara, Morada launches into a very interesting conversation about eel-hounds. I'm not even kidding. This girl could teach the most boring piece of history and make it sound interesting.
And that's how I spent my morning. Talking about eel-hounds. It's not until the funny little man who'd shown us to our rooms clears his throat very loudly that I finally look away from Morada.
"The chief, his sister, and his son would like to see you four in the meeting room," he squeaks. I look apround and see that Khanu and Zenith have joined us. I raise my hand.
"May Zenith come with us?" I ask. The man frowns.
"Who is Zenith?" I point to the eel-hound lying at my feet. The man gulps.
"I'm not entirely sure," he squeaks, "but I am sure they would permit it." I nod. Khanu gathers all our bowls and sets them back on the tray. I made sure I walk by Zenith's head to avoid getting whacked by his long tail.
Once we got to the street, Khanu suggests that we ride Zenith, claiming it would give him some exercise.
"Because we all have 2 perfectly fine feet that we can walk on," Katara replies. Then Morada's face lights up.
"But eel-hounds love 'being of service' as one might call it!" she exclaimes. Khanu points at her, looking pointedly at Katara.
"You see?" Katara sighs then nods. Khanu pumps his fist in the air. Since I was closest, I leaned over by Zenith's ear and whisper, "Do you think we can ride you?" Zenith lowers himself closer to the ground, so I took that as a yes. I climb on first, Khanu behind me, the funny little man behind him, Morada behind him, and Katara on last.
I was afraid that Zenith wasn't going to be able to hold 5 people, but he made it. When we stopped in front of the building, Zenith let us off, then followed us through the door.
The door led straight into the meeting room, with a table towards the back. Seated at the table was Prince Zura, a man I presumed to be the chief for he looked like an older version of Zura, and a woman who looked like the chief but had longer hair, eye makeup, and her features more feminine.
Prince Zura waves us over. Once we were all seated, the funny little man bowed and shuffled out the door without turning his back to us.
"You are probably wondering what you are doing here," the woman asks in a bored voice. Katara lets out a tiny laugh.
"You've always gotten straight to the point, haven't you Eska?" Katara replies. The Chief waves her retort aside.
"It doesn't matter," he says in an equally bored voice. "They'll still be wondering." Katara rolls her eyes.
"Luna, this is is Eska and Desna, my mother's cousins. Eska, Desna; this is Khanu and Luna- the Avatar."
"And who is that?" Eska asks, pointing to the eel-hound.
"That's Zenith," I reply. Right now Zenith was asleep, drooling on the floor. Not a very good first impression.
"So why are we here?" Khanu asks, trying to get to the point.
"Well how much do you two know about the conflict," Prince Zura asks, "between the North and a northeastern Earth Kingdom city called Wu Li Shong?" I shake my head.
"Just that they're warring with each other," I reply. "But we don't know why."
"The reason you're here at all," Eska begins, "is because my brother wanted somebody-who-is-neutral's opinion. You're that somebody, Avatar."
"What do you want my opinion on?" Desna passes a map to me. Circling his finger around the area the map covered, Desna replies, "This is what some would call a Lake Laogai: a place where people are forced to believe information. The officials of Wu Li Shong are always making sure it's people believe everything the leader says."
"So the people there are getting brainwashed?" Khanu asks. Prince Zura nods.
"And what's even crazier," he says, "is that, from what our spies tell us, they're actually trying to recreate Lake Laogai right here." He points to the Lane Laogai. "They really are brainwashing people. We have reason to believe that they're not innocent citizens of the city."
"They're not just anybody," I say, realization hitting me cold. "They're brainwashing Waterbenders from the North." Prince Zura nods grimly.
"That is why we are at war. We want out people back, and they're not relenting."
"So why do you want my opinion?"
"We want your opinion," Desna says, "on how we should continue with this. War is getting us no where. What so you think we should do?"
I bite my lip. "Why don't we-" I am cut off by a blood curdling scream from outside. The door bangs open. The funny little man rushes in. As the door closes, I can see people running all around.
"What is going on out there?!" Desna asks, rising out of his seat. The little man's face is full of fear. His skin is chalky and beaded with sweat.
"Tsunami," he manages to say before he passes put cold.
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AAAAHHHHHH!!!! CLIFFHANGER!!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!! Don't, worry you'll get the next chapter soon. (Promise)
AAAAAHHHHH!!!! EVEN AS I WRITE THIS MY EXCITEMENT IS OVERWHELMING!!! For those of you who don't know why, DIVERGENT IS COMING OUT TONIGHT!!!! Since the publishing date of this chapter is March 20, 2014, the movie doesn't technically come out until midnight tomorrow, but whatever. And I'm going to see it tomorrow!!!! Oh and thanks for reading!
Ciao!-Lauren