CHANGE | CHAPTER SIX
𝐀s soon as they got to their temporary house, Cloud disappeared from her friends and went to find a decent room that satisfied her needs. It didn't take long for her to find the perfect one and once she was done settling in the decent space, she barged out of the room, almost bumping into a certain firebender but she continued to walk out of the house without a care in the world.
Mako watched the female airbender bouncing along the halls with a big smile on her face. It caused him to smile too, but when his brother found him, it quickly disappeared from his face, returning back to his usual stoic expression.
"Let's go to the backyard, fellas," Cloud said as she airbends herself on top of Oogi, winking at the polar bear dog beside them. Naga seemed to understand what she said and stood up from the ground, her tongue hanging out of her mouth from delight. "Yip yip!"
Not even a few moments later, she heard her friends and family calling out the new airbender's name from inside the house. Cloud stood up from the grass, patting the two animals before entering the house. Her loud footsteps took the attention of those who were inside.
"Kai's not here?" Cloud asked, glancing at each of them with confusion laced on her features.
"I don't think I've seen him since we landed," Asami said with a small frown, standing beside the firebender.
"I knew that kid was no good," Mako said gruffly, briefly placing his hands over his waist. "He was just waiting for an opportunity to run away again."
"Maybe he just wandered off and got lost." Cloud shrugged, giving the little kid the benefit of the doubt.
"We have to find him," Jinora said worriedly, approaching the two of them with her father on her side.
"What's the point? He obviously doesn't care about us," Mako scoffed. At his words, someone suddenly smacked the back of his head, his eyes twitching in annoyance as he looked around to see the culprit.
"Mako!" Cloud frowned. "That's not very nice."
One moment, Cloud was standing far from him, and the next thing he knew, she was now standing beside him with a hard expression on her face. It was nice having Kai around. He reminded her of her little cousins. Even though he had a bad habit of taking things he wasn't supposed to take, Cloud believed he was a good kid. Besides, Jinora would be sad if he left. She could tell that the two kind of adores each other. Ah. The smell of young love.
"But he's my new little brother," Bolin pouted. "He's probably lost, and scared."
"He is just a little boy, and he's our responsibility," Tenzin said, his only niece nodding in agreement. "Besides, he's the only airbender we've recruited so far, we can't lose him."
Mako sighed and nodded. "Fine. Bolin and I will find him."
"Can I come with?" Cloud asked, smiling sweetly to hide her mischievous intentions.
The firebender narrowed his eyes, slightly scrutinizing her shady expressions, and immediately shook his head when he noticed the look in her eyes. She faced him with a small pout. Mako cursed himself in his mind when a random thought appeared in his mind. She looked adorable.
"Uh-uh, nope," Mako said, pursing his lips at the look on her face. "We've got this. You're more needed here anyway."
Cloud eventually went back to her furry friends after that, deciding to continue messing around the backyard. However, after a few minutes, she eventually got tired and decided to stare at the sky for no apparent reason.
"Cloudy!"
"Huh." Cloud blinked a few times and sat up from the grass, looking behind her to see her two gorgeous friends. A grin appeared on her face and she airbends herself up then jogged towards them. "What's up?"
"You wanna come with us?" Korra asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, sure!"
"You're not even gonna ask where?"
"I'll figure it out." Cloud shrugged. "Come on!"
The airbender lounged around the living room of the huge Future Industries airship, sipping on her fruit smoothie while sitting on a couch, her legs spread out. Asami piloted the airship with the Avatar's company, talking about something that she didn't bother to know. Korra had told her earlier that they would be collecting some tax money from people. Ugh. The queen probably just takes the money and uses it for her own stupid expenses.
The airship landed somewhere in a village in the middle of a desert. The trio exited the vehicle and approached a building where the tax money was being stored. Cloud looked around aimlessly, her glider in her left hand, constantly tapping her thumb on the wooden staff. She noticed some villagers, hiding their faces away. It made her frown. She knew it wasn't an ideal place to live, and the thing was, the world wasn't to blame but the rotten people around them who didn't know how to use their power.
"I don't like the looks of this. Let's hurry up and get out of here."
"Yeah, let's do that."
A Royal Earth Kingdom guard opened the door of the building. "You here to pick up the tax shipment?"
"Go ahead and load it on the airship."
Cloud was picking on her nails while the ladies beside her watched the four Earth Kingdom guards bring the tax money to the airship. When suddenly, a red light appeared in the sky. Her grip on her glider tightened as she became cautious, glancing at her friends to see the same expression she held, confusion and vigilance.
Four motorcycles jumped up a ramp, two motorcycles accompanied the truck to the airship. The Royal Earth Kingdom guards ran away in fear, dropping one sack of gold, and making a certain airbender sigh in disbelief.
"So much for our escorts," Asami retorted.
"Maybe we should have brought everybody else," Korra said as all the motorcycles and the truck headed towards them.
"Don't worry." Cloud shook her head although there was that usual visible grin on her face. "You got me."
The two girls smirked back at her, feeling a little relieved that the older girl was with them. No matter how silly Cloud seemed sometimes, her skills were over the top and she was a good fighter. Her training was the best after all. Besides, she wasn't too worried since she knew the women could take care of themselves as much as these men could. Maybe even better.
Cloud looked at the barbarians circling around them, the three women were standing close to each other with vigilance. The group held spears, clubs, and various other weapons. All of them were hollering and shouting and she scowled at them. She pursed her lips and glanced at her friends.
She was prepared to fight. All she needed was for them to start it. That was always her rule.
"Step away from the gold ladies and you won't get hurt," One of them threatened as he stepped forward. His face was covered with a mask of some sort, and he had a green streak of hair in the middle that went along his beard.
"Sorry to disappoint you, but we're taking this gold back to Ba Sing Se," Korra said firmly.
"Aww, we love gals with spirit, suit yourself."
Gombo, the leader attacked her, but Korra evaded all the attacks and earthbends him to her left. She subsequently earthbends two motorcyclists, throwing them up in the air. Other motorcyclists tried to retreat but Korra earthbends all the motorcycles, throwing them up in the air. A few of them slipped past the Avatar and went to attack the two other women who were taking their sweet time.
Cloud almost missed one of them if she hadn't heard the sound of a motorcycle. The barbarian came up to her left, and she quickly airbends herself up the air. The man halted his vehicle and looked up in surprise━what he saw was a certain brunette with a devilish smile on her face, floating above him like the devil in disguise.
"Hey." The airbender waved at him and when he thought she was about to fall on him━the girl sent an air blast at his face, causing him to be thrown away from his motorcycle.
She descended to the ground and looked around her, just in time another one of them with a spear came up behind her in his motorcycle. But before he could get near her, Cloud hastily crouched and stretched her leg out, sending an air swipe towards him. His motorcycle skidded on the ground and he fell off it with a loud painful groan.
When she thought it was over, someone had slipped on her left and hit her with the end of his spear. She was lucky that it only grazed her above her jawline. Cloud ducked down and kicked in the direction of their motorcycle, an air blast coming from her foot, making them topple over the ground along with their motorcycle.
"Retreat, retreat!" The leader exclaimed, taking her attention back to them and watching as they started to drive away. "You're on the wrong side of this fight, Avatar. That gold belongs to the people, not the Queen."
Cloud trudged towards her two friends as the barbarians disappeared from their sight.
"Why do I get the feeling he's right?" Korra frowned, and the expression on the airbender's face hardened because she knew the bandit was right.