[X] Try to sneak up to warn Aang and Kakaze of the coming attack quietly.
Agni-Kai (AtLA Quest)
- Thread starter TheNine
- Start date
- IC Fantasy
- Location
- somewhere on this dying planet
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Try to sneak up to warn Aang and Kakaze of the coming attack quietly.
Solarstream
It's all in the cards
- Location
- Zombie World
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Try to sneak up to warn Aang and Kakaze of the coming attack quietly.
ElenaIsCool
Super Sipper
- Location
- Obscure Area
- Pronouns
- She/They
[X] Try to sneak up to warn Aang and Kakaze of the coming attack quietly
- Pronouns
- He
[X] Launch a flare from a hiding spot so that everyone in the vicinity can see it. Make sure the spot is far from Aang. Then run like hell.
Chapter 11: Ignite
TheNine
I’ll compromise with the skeletons
- Location
- The good ol' US of A
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Alright, it's obvious you only have one reasonable choice. Even with the element of surprise, beating the Dragon of the West and the Fire Prince at once is far beyond you. If you make a scene and try to escape, you'll probably be swiftly caught. As unfortunate as it would be to have to slowly and quietly sneak back up to Aang and Kakaze all while the attackers are making their way in the same direction, it's your only option that isn't doomed to violent failure.
Slowly, you rise to your feet and turn up towards the Air Temple, moving quietly, gripping on to rocks or roots whenever possible to ensure you don't slip. Normally, you think you'd be cripplingly terrified in this situation, but for some reason you feel really good. You can feel your whole body tingling with energy, probably as a result of the experimental workout you were doing a moment ago. You feel like you could jump three meters straight into the air, your muscles wound like springs.
Near-silently, you maneuver up the mountain. It's not so steep that you can't walk, but it's steep enough that if you didn't move low to the ground and use hiking techniques, you'd be liable to slip and tumble, like the loud grunts and thumps you can hear from the firebenders below. Carefully, you continue, feeling that constant tingling of your pooled chi under your skin. You'd be worried it was dangerous if it didn't feel so good, and besides, you can't safely firebend to release the energy right now anyway, you'd be spotted immediately.
You continue to move swiftly up the mountainside in the darkness, even the moonlight obscured by the mountain face. As you approach the base of the Air Temple, you even start thinking you're home free, and that you and the others can be long gone before the royals even reach the Temple.
Your overconfidence gets the better of you, and you poorly choose where to place your foot, nearly falling as you send a rock tumbling out from underneath you and rolling down the hill. But, you think as you turn towards the firebenders below you, they're far away, perhaps they didn't see you?
Sure enough, the majority of them appear to be preoccupied with climbing themselves, unused to hiking. However, as you scan over them, you realize one of them is facing you directly, the shortest among them, brown eyes shining up at you like a hawk's in the moonlight.
For a few silent moments, you stare at each other. Maybe he doesn't see you? The moonlight is shining at him, not you, perhaps he only looked because he heard the rock, but he can't actually see you. If you wait, silent and still, for a few moments, perhaps he'll look away.
He still stares, wordless and expressionless, even as his fellows continue to struggle to climb. Although it's hard to see, his stature, topknot, and distinctive beard remind you of a face you've seen many times in illustration or imitation. Iroh. The former Fire Prince, firstborn of Azulon, brother to Fire Lord Ozai. The Dragon of the West, disgraced, dishonored, but still feared by his enemies and respected by his fellows.
He still stares, even as you grin, sweating dripping down your face, adrenaline, fear, and your intense excitement mingling in a confusing bundle of emotions.
He still stares, even as the other firebenders begin to leave him behind, and you see one of them begin to turn, presumably to ask him if he's coming.
Well, consider your bluff called! Raising your fist, you throw a strike that you lean into with much of the chi pooled in your extremities, and you feel the flame emerge with intense force in the direction of the firebenders, but there's something wrong.
Sparks erupt along the length of your arm, expanding into bursts of flame that pop like firecrackers, all in the split-second before the attack bursts forth from your fist. When it does, rather than coming out smoothly like a flame typically does, it erupts like a gunpowder explosion, not making it even halfway to the firebenders and rather crashing you into the mountainside at your back, leaving you briefly sliding down it before you right yourself.
"Ah, man…"
You hear the voice that you gathered belonged to Prince Zuko cry out as he points to you. "There! That must be the Avatar's traitor lackey! Get him, quickly!"
With that, as you try to clear the ringing in your ears, you see the group begin to rush up toward you at a much greater speed. Some even throw fireballs which, at this range, either miss by meters or just evaporate in the air. Zuko is ahead of the pack, moving with impressive agility. Iroh, on the other hand, remains at a comfortable walking pace, finally breaking his unbearable eye contact with a shake of his head.
Unsteadily, you get to your feet, looking at the right arm you used to unleash the attack. Your sleeve was blasted off completely, and your arm and fist already look bruised and mildly burned. Guess that's why firebenders don't overfill their bodies with chi before firebending.
Ignoring the pain and the continued tinnitus, you turn and begin to rush up to the Air Temple, yelling as soon as your voice returns. "Aang! Kakaze! Get up and get ready to run, we're under attack!"
You spot your groggy companions all rising to their feet in the distance, as you sprint toward them.
Aang looks like he's yelling something at you, but you can't make it out over the pounding of your footfalls and the ringing in your ears. "Just get on Appa, we need to go!"
At least quick to react, you see Aang and Kakaze swiftly escape their sleeping bags and climb, or in Aang's case, leap onto Appa's saddle. You can make out a "yip yip" as Appa begins to ascend into the air. Before he can rise higher than a few meters and turn to pick you up, though, you watch all the shadows in the area violently spin as a tremendous fireball flies over your head, passing just barely over Appa, forcing him to the ground.
You turn and see Zuko has reached the base of the Temple first. He's gained on you, which means he somehow managed to hike faster than you did. Well, your skills are probably a bit hampered by your stunned brain, so you don't take the loss personally. He's about fifty meters behind you, and Appa is a bit further away on the other side. Immediately, he sprints at you with a terrifying vigor, and you recognize without hesitation that you can't outrun him, you'll have to hold him off while the others come to pick you up.
The two of you both thrust out your arms and your bursts of flame meet in the middle, growing in intensity as he rapidly approaches, fading before the blaze at the center can burst and ignite you both.
Your chi isn't as overwhelmingly overcharged as it was before, but you can still feel that your firebending is stronger than usual in spite of your injuries. He hurls fireballs at you that you're able to deflect off to either side with relative ease and only superficial burns. You counterattack, a single jab sending a burst of flame at center mass. Seemingly surprised, he barely reacts in time to block it.
The traded volley of long-range fireballs stops as he gets closer, both of you firing continuous waves of flame instead, as in the distance you can see the other Fire Nation soldiers reaching the base of the Air Temple.
You continue to deflect, block, or overpower Prince Zuko's attacks, countering when possible, and it's almost hard to believe, but you think you might be winning. Sure, you had one heck of a warmup, but you're injured too, so don't those cancel each other out? You might be getting ahead of yourself, but you think you're actually fighting the Fire Prince on even ground, if not higher ground. You can't be sure, but for each narrowly-evaded scorching blast that passes centimeters by your face, you swear your counterattack misses Zuko by an even smaller margin. You see sweat dripping down his face, his furious expression highlighted by his infamous scar. They make it look bigger in the illustrations.
"How did you get in contact with the Avatar! How long was he hiding in the Fire Nation!?"
You grin to hide that you're gritting your teeth in pain from burns that continue to pile on, the other soldiers coming ever closer even as some of them split their attention to try to suppress your friends.
"I never had contact with him till like a week ago! He wasn't hiding, he was frozen in ice!"
Zuko overextends to send his biggest fire wave at you yet, but you have to focus on dodging instead of counterattacking. "For 100 years!? As if I'd believe that!"
You scowl, not interested in trying to convince him of something that doesn't even matter, and respond in kind, resorting to the same trick you used on the soldiers back at home, exhaling a mighty gout of flame directly at him from a relatively close range. He raises his hands to try to deflect, but you're hopeful he'll fail- until your entire range of vision is enveloped in dragonfire.
It's as if someone had filled a bowl the size of a house with kerosene, ignited it, and then spilled the bowl in front of your face. Your attack is enveloped like a match tossed into a bonfire, the maelstrom of flame sending you stumbling back and raising your hands to shield your face and eyes from the heat. Squinting in pain, you turn to see Iroh, closer than you'd expect from his previous pace, his left hand smoking. That wasn't even conjured from his mouth!? Still, that flame would have reduced you to little more than a skeleton- why did he only aim it at your attack and not you? You're sure he could have saved Zuko and torched you, and yet here you stand.
You won't be standing for long, of course, as soldiers rush you with raised blades and burning palms. Your power is gone. This would be a really good time for Aang to show up.
On perfect cue, a forceful gust of wind erupts from above you as Appa flies by, sending Zuko and the nearby soldiers falling on their rears. Aang lands weightlessly beside you a split-second later, grabbing your waist and leaping up with you in an updraft to land gently on Appa as he flies higher into the air.
Exhausted, terrified, but exhilarated and self-satisfied, you lean off Appa's saddle and yell down at Zuko tauntingly. "If you can't beat just one firebender on your own, Fire Prince, I think you'll need a little more training before you take on the Avatar!"
It's as much a self-affirmation that the Fire Prince himself needed to be bailed out from a duel with you as it is an insult to him. It seems the Dragon's reputation is far from an exaggeration, but you can't feel bad for losing to a living legend that's said to be the second strongest firebender alive.
"What's going on? How did those guys find us?"
"That was Zuko and Iroh, the Fire Lord's son and brother, they've been searching for you for two years, ever since Zuko got dishonored. Their honor is riding on capturing you. I didn't hear much of it, but it sounds like people saw us flying this way and they just guessed where we were headed."
Aang gives an anxious look down at the firebenders, shrinking to ant size as the distance from them increases. "Man… things really have changed."
Kakaze gives you a strange look that you don't know how to interpret. "Why were you down the mountain, by the way?"
Weakly, you shrug. "I was training, I wanted to go somewhere where the air wasn't so thin so firebending would be easier. I heard them coming up the mountain before I was done, tried to sneak up to warn you quietly, but I got spotted, so I just yelled and ran. Thanks for the save, by the way, Aang."
He turns back at you and grins. "We're even now, ever since what you did in Ojima. If I have to save you again, you'll owe me."
You chuckle. "Well, I hope we don't have to make a habit of saving each other's lives. Maybe I can pay you back by buying lunch?"
Kakaze sighs. "Don't kid me. Neither of you idiots even brought any money, so lunch is gonna be on me for the foreseeable future."
"Speaking of the foreseeable future," says Aang, "where are we going now? I guess the Air Temples aren't an option anymore."
Both of them look at you. OK seriously this time, who died and made you the team leader?
[] The Earth Kingdom. Its shores aren't far North, so you'll be able to make it there quickly, and once you pass by the Fire Nation colonies, you'll be relatively safe. Plus, you can find Earthbending tutors if Aang doesn't want to continue firebending training right now.
[] The Southern Water Tribe. It's the closest location of all, and while you don't actually know anything about it, you're almost sure to find waterbenders there to teach Aang at least. You need to consider, though, that it's literally the only thing South of here. The Fire Nation will know where you're going, and they'll follow.
[] Circle back to the Fire Nation. Those buffoons will never see that coming.
[] The Northern Water Tribe. It's a long way, and will take at least a week of travel, but that's the beauty of it. Appa is spectacularly faster than any boat, by the time news arrives in the Fire Nation of your direction and likely destination, you'll already practically be there, and it could take weeks or even months for the Fire Nation to even show up, let alone breaking through the yet-impenetrable North's defenses to get to you.
[] Write in…
Slowly, you rise to your feet and turn up towards the Air Temple, moving quietly, gripping on to rocks or roots whenever possible to ensure you don't slip. Normally, you think you'd be cripplingly terrified in this situation, but for some reason you feel really good. You can feel your whole body tingling with energy, probably as a result of the experimental workout you were doing a moment ago. You feel like you could jump three meters straight into the air, your muscles wound like springs.
Near-silently, you maneuver up the mountain. It's not so steep that you can't walk, but it's steep enough that if you didn't move low to the ground and use hiking techniques, you'd be liable to slip and tumble, like the loud grunts and thumps you can hear from the firebenders below. Carefully, you continue, feeling that constant tingling of your pooled chi under your skin. You'd be worried it was dangerous if it didn't feel so good, and besides, you can't safely firebend to release the energy right now anyway, you'd be spotted immediately.
You continue to move swiftly up the mountainside in the darkness, even the moonlight obscured by the mountain face. As you approach the base of the Air Temple, you even start thinking you're home free, and that you and the others can be long gone before the royals even reach the Temple.
Your overconfidence gets the better of you, and you poorly choose where to place your foot, nearly falling as you send a rock tumbling out from underneath you and rolling down the hill. But, you think as you turn towards the firebenders below you, they're far away, perhaps they didn't see you?
Sure enough, the majority of them appear to be preoccupied with climbing themselves, unused to hiking. However, as you scan over them, you realize one of them is facing you directly, the shortest among them, brown eyes shining up at you like a hawk's in the moonlight.
For a few silent moments, you stare at each other. Maybe he doesn't see you? The moonlight is shining at him, not you, perhaps he only looked because he heard the rock, but he can't actually see you. If you wait, silent and still, for a few moments, perhaps he'll look away.
He still stares, wordless and expressionless, even as his fellows continue to struggle to climb. Although it's hard to see, his stature, topknot, and distinctive beard remind you of a face you've seen many times in illustration or imitation. Iroh. The former Fire Prince, firstborn of Azulon, brother to Fire Lord Ozai. The Dragon of the West, disgraced, dishonored, but still feared by his enemies and respected by his fellows.
He still stares, even as you grin, sweating dripping down your face, adrenaline, fear, and your intense excitement mingling in a confusing bundle of emotions.
He still stares, even as the other firebenders begin to leave him behind, and you see one of them begin to turn, presumably to ask him if he's coming.
Well, consider your bluff called! Raising your fist, you throw a strike that you lean into with much of the chi pooled in your extremities, and you feel the flame emerge with intense force in the direction of the firebenders, but there's something wrong.
Sparks erupt along the length of your arm, expanding into bursts of flame that pop like firecrackers, all in the split-second before the attack bursts forth from your fist. When it does, rather than coming out smoothly like a flame typically does, it erupts like a gunpowder explosion, not making it even halfway to the firebenders and rather crashing you into the mountainside at your back, leaving you briefly sliding down it before you right yourself.
"Ah, man…"
You hear the voice that you gathered belonged to Prince Zuko cry out as he points to you. "There! That must be the Avatar's traitor lackey! Get him, quickly!"
With that, as you try to clear the ringing in your ears, you see the group begin to rush up toward you at a much greater speed. Some even throw fireballs which, at this range, either miss by meters or just evaporate in the air. Zuko is ahead of the pack, moving with impressive agility. Iroh, on the other hand, remains at a comfortable walking pace, finally breaking his unbearable eye contact with a shake of his head.
Unsteadily, you get to your feet, looking at the right arm you used to unleash the attack. Your sleeve was blasted off completely, and your arm and fist already look bruised and mildly burned. Guess that's why firebenders don't overfill their bodies with chi before firebending.
Ignoring the pain and the continued tinnitus, you turn and begin to rush up to the Air Temple, yelling as soon as your voice returns. "Aang! Kakaze! Get up and get ready to run, we're under attack!"
You spot your groggy companions all rising to their feet in the distance, as you sprint toward them.
Aang looks like he's yelling something at you, but you can't make it out over the pounding of your footfalls and the ringing in your ears. "Just get on Appa, we need to go!"
At least quick to react, you see Aang and Kakaze swiftly escape their sleeping bags and climb, or in Aang's case, leap onto Appa's saddle. You can make out a "yip yip" as Appa begins to ascend into the air. Before he can rise higher than a few meters and turn to pick you up, though, you watch all the shadows in the area violently spin as a tremendous fireball flies over your head, passing just barely over Appa, forcing him to the ground.
You turn and see Zuko has reached the base of the Temple first. He's gained on you, which means he somehow managed to hike faster than you did. Well, your skills are probably a bit hampered by your stunned brain, so you don't take the loss personally. He's about fifty meters behind you, and Appa is a bit further away on the other side. Immediately, he sprints at you with a terrifying vigor, and you recognize without hesitation that you can't outrun him, you'll have to hold him off while the others come to pick you up.
The two of you both thrust out your arms and your bursts of flame meet in the middle, growing in intensity as he rapidly approaches, fading before the blaze at the center can burst and ignite you both.
Your chi isn't as overwhelmingly overcharged as it was before, but you can still feel that your firebending is stronger than usual in spite of your injuries. He hurls fireballs at you that you're able to deflect off to either side with relative ease and only superficial burns. You counterattack, a single jab sending a burst of flame at center mass. Seemingly surprised, he barely reacts in time to block it.
The traded volley of long-range fireballs stops as he gets closer, both of you firing continuous waves of flame instead, as in the distance you can see the other Fire Nation soldiers reaching the base of the Air Temple.
You continue to deflect, block, or overpower Prince Zuko's attacks, countering when possible, and it's almost hard to believe, but you think you might be winning. Sure, you had one heck of a warmup, but you're injured too, so don't those cancel each other out? You might be getting ahead of yourself, but you think you're actually fighting the Fire Prince on even ground, if not higher ground. You can't be sure, but for each narrowly-evaded scorching blast that passes centimeters by your face, you swear your counterattack misses Zuko by an even smaller margin. You see sweat dripping down his face, his furious expression highlighted by his infamous scar. They make it look bigger in the illustrations.
"How did you get in contact with the Avatar! How long was he hiding in the Fire Nation!?"
You grin to hide that you're gritting your teeth in pain from burns that continue to pile on, the other soldiers coming ever closer even as some of them split their attention to try to suppress your friends.
"I never had contact with him till like a week ago! He wasn't hiding, he was frozen in ice!"
Zuko overextends to send his biggest fire wave at you yet, but you have to focus on dodging instead of counterattacking. "For 100 years!? As if I'd believe that!"
You scowl, not interested in trying to convince him of something that doesn't even matter, and respond in kind, resorting to the same trick you used on the soldiers back at home, exhaling a mighty gout of flame directly at him from a relatively close range. He raises his hands to try to deflect, but you're hopeful he'll fail- until your entire range of vision is enveloped in dragonfire.
It's as if someone had filled a bowl the size of a house with kerosene, ignited it, and then spilled the bowl in front of your face. Your attack is enveloped like a match tossed into a bonfire, the maelstrom of flame sending you stumbling back and raising your hands to shield your face and eyes from the heat. Squinting in pain, you turn to see Iroh, closer than you'd expect from his previous pace, his left hand smoking. That wasn't even conjured from his mouth!? Still, that flame would have reduced you to little more than a skeleton- why did he only aim it at your attack and not you? You're sure he could have saved Zuko and torched you, and yet here you stand.
You won't be standing for long, of course, as soldiers rush you with raised blades and burning palms. Your power is gone. This would be a really good time for Aang to show up.
On perfect cue, a forceful gust of wind erupts from above you as Appa flies by, sending Zuko and the nearby soldiers falling on their rears. Aang lands weightlessly beside you a split-second later, grabbing your waist and leaping up with you in an updraft to land gently on Appa as he flies higher into the air.
Exhausted, terrified, but exhilarated and self-satisfied, you lean off Appa's saddle and yell down at Zuko tauntingly. "If you can't beat just one firebender on your own, Fire Prince, I think you'll need a little more training before you take on the Avatar!"
It's as much a self-affirmation that the Fire Prince himself needed to be bailed out from a duel with you as it is an insult to him. It seems the Dragon's reputation is far from an exaggeration, but you can't feel bad for losing to a living legend that's said to be the second strongest firebender alive.
"What's going on? How did those guys find us?"
"That was Zuko and Iroh, the Fire Lord's son and brother, they've been searching for you for two years, ever since Zuko got dishonored. Their honor is riding on capturing you. I didn't hear much of it, but it sounds like people saw us flying this way and they just guessed where we were headed."
Aang gives an anxious look down at the firebenders, shrinking to ant size as the distance from them increases. "Man… things really have changed."
Kakaze gives you a strange look that you don't know how to interpret. "Why were you down the mountain, by the way?"
Weakly, you shrug. "I was training, I wanted to go somewhere where the air wasn't so thin so firebending would be easier. I heard them coming up the mountain before I was done, tried to sneak up to warn you quietly, but I got spotted, so I just yelled and ran. Thanks for the save, by the way, Aang."
He turns back at you and grins. "We're even now, ever since what you did in Ojima. If I have to save you again, you'll owe me."
You chuckle. "Well, I hope we don't have to make a habit of saving each other's lives. Maybe I can pay you back by buying lunch?"
Kakaze sighs. "Don't kid me. Neither of you idiots even brought any money, so lunch is gonna be on me for the foreseeable future."
"Speaking of the foreseeable future," says Aang, "where are we going now? I guess the Air Temples aren't an option anymore."
Both of them look at you. OK seriously this time, who died and made you the team leader?
[] The Earth Kingdom. Its shores aren't far North, so you'll be able to make it there quickly, and once you pass by the Fire Nation colonies, you'll be relatively safe. Plus, you can find Earthbending tutors if Aang doesn't want to continue firebending training right now.
[] The Southern Water Tribe. It's the closest location of all, and while you don't actually know anything about it, you're almost sure to find waterbenders there to teach Aang at least. You need to consider, though, that it's literally the only thing South of here. The Fire Nation will know where you're going, and they'll follow.
[] Circle back to the Fire Nation. Those buffoons will never see that coming.
[] The Northern Water Tribe. It's a long way, and will take at least a week of travel, but that's the beauty of it. Appa is spectacularly faster than any boat, by the time news arrives in the Fire Nation of your direction and likely destination, you'll already practically be there, and it could take weeks or even months for the Fire Nation to even show up, let alone breaking through the yet-impenetrable North's defenses to get to you.
[] Write in…
[X] The Northern Water Tribe. It's a long way, and will take at least a week of travel, but that's the beauty of it. Appa is spectacularly faster than any boat, by the time news arrives in the Fire Nation of your direction and likely destination, you'll already practically be there, and it could take weeks or even months for the Fire Nation to even show up, let alone breaking through the yet-impenetrable North's defenses to get to you.
[X] The Northern Water Tribe. It's a long way, and will take at least a week of travel, but that's the beauty of it. Appa is spectacularly faster than any boat, by the time news arrives in the Fire Nation of your direction and likely destination, you'll already practically be there, and it could take weeks or even months for the Fire Nation to even show up, let alone breaking through the yet-impenetrable North's defenses to get to you.
- Location
- the point is of no return and you have reached it!
[] The Earth Kingdom. Its shores aren't far North, so you'll be able to make it there quickly, and once you pass by the Fire Nation colonies, you'll be relatively safe. Plus, you can find Earthbending tutors if Aang doesn't want to continue firebending training right now.
Long-term hideout option while we teach Aang firebending, potential to find an Earthbending teacher to take over once Aang has mastered firebending from us and somewhere we should be safe from competent Fire Bender forces for a while.
Long-term hideout option while we teach Aang firebending, potential to find an Earthbending teacher to take over once Aang has mastered firebending from us and somewhere we should be safe from competent Fire Bender forces for a while.
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ElenaIsCool
Super Sipper
- Location
- Obscure Area
- Pronouns
- She/They
[X] The Earth Kingdom. Its shores aren't far North, so you'll be able to make it there quickly, and once you pass by the Fire Nation colonies, you'll be relatively safe. Plus, you can find Earthbending tutors if Aang doesn't want to continue firebending training right now.
-[X] South-west in the Earth Kingdom, so we can hide in the swamp jungle. No one will be able to find us there.
-[X] South-west in the Earth Kingdom, so we can hide in the swamp jungle. No one will be able to find us there.
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- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her/They/Them
[x] The Earth Kingdom. Its shores aren't far North, so you'll be able to make it there quickly, and once you pass by the Fire Nation colonies, you'll be relatively safe. Plus, you can find Earthbending tutors if Aang doesn't want to continue firebending training right now.
- Location
- Lasha Tumbai
[x] The Earth Kingdom. Its shores aren't far North, so you'll be able to make it there quickly, and once you pass by the Fire Nation colonies, you'll be relatively safe. Plus, you can find Earthbending tutors if Aang doesn't want to continue firebending training right now.
[X] South-west in the Earth Kingdom, so we can hide in the swamp jungle. No one will be able to find us there.
[x] The Earth Kingdom. Its shores aren't far North, so you'll be able to make it there quickly, and once you pass by the Fire Nation colonies, you'll be relatively safe. Plus, you can find Earthbending tutors if Aang doesn't want to continue firebending training right now.
I wonder how Aang learning waterbending from the Swamp tribe would go.. Also vine bending, and the spiriual connection of the roots. We'll.be able to pop up into the Earth kingdom shortly to pick up Earth bending later too. Ice bending will be tabled this way though.
[x] The Earth Kingdom. Its shores aren't far North, so you'll be able to make it there quickly, and once you pass by the Fire Nation colonies, you'll be relatively safe. Plus, you can find Earthbending tutors if Aang doesn't want to continue firebending training right now.
I wonder how Aang learning waterbending from the Swamp tribe would go.. Also vine bending, and the spiriual connection of the roots. We'll.be able to pop up into the Earth kingdom shortly to pick up Earth bending later too. Ice bending will be tabled this way though.
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[X] The Southern Water Tribe. It's the closest location of all, and while you don't actually know anything about it, you're almost sure to find waterbenders there to teach Aang at least. You need to consider, though, that it's literally the only thing South of here. The Fire Nation will know where you're going, and they'll follow.
- Location
- the point is of no return and you have reached it!
[x] The Earth Kingdom. Its shores aren't far North, so you'll be able to make it there quickly, and once you pass by the Fire Nation colonies, you'll be relatively safe. Plus, you can find Earthbending tutors if Aang doesn't want to continue firebending training right now.
[x] South-west in the Earth Kingdom, so we can hide in the swamp jungle. No one will be able to find us there.
Added my approval vote to _brightwing's write-in (if that's allowed). That's an interesting hideout place.
[x] South-west in the Earth Kingdom, so we can hide in the swamp jungle. No one will be able to find us there.
Added my approval vote to _brightwing's write-in (if that's allowed). That's an interesting hideout place.
Solarstream
It's all in the cards
- Location
- Zombie World
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] South-west in the Earth Kingdom, so we can hide in the swamp jungle. No one will be able to find us there.
Quest
The Great One
- Location
- Everywhere
[X] The Southern Water Tribe. It's the closest location of all, and while you don't actually know anything about it, you're almost sure to find waterbenders there to teach Aang at least. You need to consider, though, that it's literally the only thing South of here. The Fire Nation will know where you're going, and they'll follow.
Chapter 12: The Swamp
TheNine
I’ll compromise with the skeletons
- Location
- The good ol' US of A
- Pronouns
- He/Him
You frown for a moment. Now that you know the Fire Nation is so directly on your tail, going just anywhere won't be enough- you need somewhere to serve as a long-term hideout.
"Kakaze, it's a long-shot, but you don't happen to have a map of the world, do you?"
He grins, raising a finger to ask you to wait a moment, before turning to his bags and rifling around inside for a while, eventually pulling out a rolled scroll that he passes to you. You unfurl it, and sure enough, it's a world map, and pretty professional quality, too, with all the nations in different colors, little bumps to represent mountains, and it even lists the position of all the Air Temples.
"This is great, thanks."
Aang pokes his head over your shoulder. "So… what're you looking for?"
"I heard there's a place in the Earth Kingdom, it's a huge forest, but it's also covered in water, like a, uh…"
"You might mean Foggy Swamp," Aang offers, pointing at a green mass on the map labeled as such. "I've never been there, but Appa and I flew over it once or twice. It really is huge."
You nod. "I was thinking we might be able to hide out there. If it's a huge forest, it's naturally hard to track us there, and if it's full of water, then firebenders will be weak too. Of course, that means teaching you will be harder, but it'll also be safer, since I think it'd be harder to light stuff on fire."
Kakaze nods, thinking on it. "I've never been to a place like that, maybe it'd be fun. You say it's a forest full of water, is it like a lake that trees grow out of? Would we need a boat to move around?"
You shrug, but Aang shakes his head. "I don't think most of the water is that deep, and you can find dry places. It's more like a whole lot of rivers and streams winding together around the trees."
"Well," you conclude, "it's close. In the worst case, if it's too wet, or there's some other reason we can't stay, we can just leave. Aang, can Appa swim?"
Aang giggles. "Sometimes I think better than he can fly."
"You, Kakaze?"
"A little."
"Me too. Guess it couldn't hurt to learn. Aang, do you think Appa is recovered enough to fly this far?"
Aang thinks for a moment. "Well, it's not very far. It's about midnight, so… Appa, do you think you can fly till sunrise?"
The beast makes an incomprehensible groan that sends a rumble through your bodies.
"Yeah, he's fine! We can get there in one trip unless something goes wrong."
You sigh. "Hopefully, nothing goes wrong this time. I don't know about you two, but I'm gonna get some sleep while I still can."
Kakaze gives you another odd look you can't quite parse. "Yeah. I guess you missed out on a lot of sleep tonight. Catching up would be good for me too."
You stare back at him for a moment, but eventually shrug and lay back, closing your eyes. It's shocking just how quickly you can get used to sleeping a kilometer in the air when you're sufficiently tired.
Aang wakes you up by shaking your shoulder, before doing the same to Kakaze. The sun has risen now, and is hanging low in the sky.
"What's up, Aang?"
He points off the side of Appa, down toward the ground. "We're here."
You sit up and peek off the saddle, looking down to see a field of dark brown and green that spreads out forever in every direction, like the ocean. There's a hint of a strange smell in the air, even from this height, and you get a weird vibe from the swamp that you can't fully place. Kakaze voices your feelings almost exactly.
"Weird place. It's pretty much exactly what I was expecting, but for some reason it's… weird."
"Well, it's about to get a little weirder," Aang says hesitantly, "because I think the swamp is calling to me."
You blink, raising an eyebrow. "Sorry, the swamp is? What do you mean?"
"As the Avatar, I have a closer connection to the spirit world than most people. It's never happened before, but Monk Gyatso said that sometimes, the world would speak to me in ways I might not fully understand, but I'd know when it happened. This… really feels like that."
Kakaze scratches his head. "I guess I have been wanting to commune with the spirits, so maybe this is our chance? Do you think it's a good idea, Aang?"
He nods firmly. "I think I should listen to what the earth wants."
With a movement of the reigns, he directs Appa to begin descending, slowly moving down toward the trees.
"Man… I know I'm the one who recommended this place, but I sure have a strange feeling about it."
Appa, too, grumbles, in a way you like to imagine is agreement.
Aang gives you an understanding look. "I know it's weird. But it's like you said, if there's a problem, we can just fly out."
You sigh, nodding. "Yeah. Let's move in."
A few moments later, Appa has fallen below the treeline, and you can see that the floor of this swamp is sure enough a crisscross of muddy puddles of indeterminate depth, relatively clean-looking rivers, and tremendously massive tree roots. You're so preoccupied by watching the ground fly by that you're caught completely off-guard by a sudden loud crashing sound, and even more off-guard when you're clotheslined by a vine, sending both you and Kakaze hurtling off Appa's back. As you fall, you consider trying to arrest the descent with firebending, but your concentration is repeatedly broken by falling into more vines at high speed, the snapping of which eventually slows your fall such that you're left suspended in them. A quick look around confirms that Kakaze is in your same predicament, a good ten meters off the ground.
Following the sound of the frustrated bellow, the distant shape of a hovering flying bison tells you that even the mighty Appa has been tied up spontaneously by the vines that cross randomly across the swamp's airspace. Groaning, you set the hottest fire you can between your fingers, using it to try to scorch the vines off of you and allow you to fall, but there's a problem. The vines are so full of water that trying to burn them causes them to boil, spraying scalding water in your face as they pop. Forced by such to stop, you instead haplessly struggle to escape by your own might.
A sudden splash alerts you that Kakaze has reached ground level, and you crane your neck to an uncomfortable extent to see that he's seemingly cut himself free with his swords, before falling into the muddy water below. You can't help but be slightly amused as you watch him sputter and fruitlessly try to get some of the muck out of his clothes.
Eventually, he gives up and just marches through the waist-high water until he's directly underneath you.
"This was a terrible idea, Shuji?"
"Hey, I can't help if the Earth itself agrees with me! You heard Aang, we were fated to come here!"
"You're reading into it! There's no reason the earth would always be right! Anyway, I wouldn't firebend much if I was you!"
You frown, struggling to try to look at him and failing. "Why not?"
"You know that smell?"
You blink, sniffing the air. There's a lot of weird smells here, but you can't really identify any of them. "Uh, no? What is it?"
"Smells like sulfur to me! It's a kind of gas or something, it comes up from the ground in some places! I hear it burns like paper!"
You'd wipe the sweat from your brow if you had a free hand. "Well I tried to firebend myself out of these vines and I didn't just combust!"
Kakaze is silent for a few moments. "Oh, wait, you can't see me. I just shrugged!"
You sigh, before being caught off-guard by Aang appearing in the vines above you. "Hey, are you OK?"
"Yeah, I'm good. Well and stuck, though. How's Appa?"
"He got stuck too, but I got him out. Want a hand?"
You nod. "Yes please."
Aang jumps backward off of the vines, swinging his hand to release a gust of air that slices them above your head, leaving the both of you falling together. He conjures an updraft that slows your fall, converting it into a whirling orb of wind that he sits down on, leaving him hovering just over the water. You, on the other hand, are not so lucky, splashing into the water. Thanks to Aang, the fall is gentle, but you still cough and choke as you struggle to find a hand and foothold to get your face out of the water.
Once you do, you scowl up at an obviously-entertained Kakaze. How dare he make light of your suffering.
Aang directs his little air sphere to hover him right up onto an enormous root that rises from the water, where he dismisses it and stands up normally. You and Kakaze miserably traipse through the water until you catch up with him, crawling onto the dry bark. Aang giggles, squatting next to you.
"Do you want me to try to use my firebending to dry you off?"
"NO! I mean, uh, no," you correct as you see Aang look a little hurt, obviously misunderstanding the reason for your refusal. "Apparently the air around here might have sulfur in it, which can catch on fire. This might actually be a bad place for firebending training."
Aang's eyes go wide. "The air could catch on fire? How does that work?"
You thumb at Kakaze, who shrugs. "Pretty close to my hometown there's a cave, and outside of it there's a smell just like this swamp, from all the sulfur that rises out of it. One of the old guys said he saw something like it before once, and when the sulfur in the cave started burning, it never stopped for all the years he knew about it. He also said no one should firebend near the cave, or there might be a big explosion.
Aang goes pale. "I sure am glad I didn't get wet myself… I might have tried to dry myself off right away."
You chuckle anxiously. "Well, it's OK, I firebent a little and nothing bad happened. Maybe I just got lucky, or maybe it's just something else that smells similar to sulfur. Either way, let's not push our luck."
Aang vigorously nods his enthusiastic agreement, and the three of you get to your feet to head in Appa's direction, who is now swimming leisurely toward you. As you walk, Aang does indeed dry off your clothes, albeit using airbending instead of firebending, sending gusts through your pants and shirts to dry them off and dislodge the larger clumps of mud from them.
"So, Aang," Kakaze begins, "did landing here help you figure out why the swamp was calling you?"
Aang looks around into the endless green of the swamp, but shakes his head. "Not really. I get the feeling that this whole place is alive somehow, more than most forests, but I don't hear it talking to me right now."
You frown. "Well, do we wanna stay? This sure isn't a pleasant place to stay, but if I was Fire Nation royalty, I sure wouldn't want to come searching for the Avatar here- and they have no way of knowing we're here anyway."
"Yeah," Kakaze says, "we should definitely be safe from the Fire Nation here, unless they somehow already knew where we were going, which is obviously impossible, since you only decided after we were in the air. But who knows if we'll be safe from whatever lives here, and if you can't teach Aang firebending, wouldn't we just kinda be waiting around?"
Aang expression sours as he thinks. "I don't know. I think it would be best to at least spend the day looking around and see if we can figure out why the swamp called us here. Plus, taking off with Appa will be kinda tricky with all those vines in the way."
Kakaze scoffs, looking at you. "Well that's inconvenient."
[] We should leave here after Aang has some time to explore. We're safe, but there's nothing to gain.
- [] To where?
[] We should stay until Aang finds a satisfactory answer for why the Earth was calling him, or determines no answer can be found. It can't have been nothing.
[] We should stay here for a while. Give the Fire Nation some time to look around, find some incorrect leads to follow, get distracted, lose interest in hunting the Avatar, or otherwise lose the trail. In the meantime, you can explore the swamp, stay encamped, do some training that doesn't involve firebending, or maybe some firebending training that doesn't involve fire. Plus, who knows what you'll find?
- [] Wait a few days
- [] A few weeks
- [] A few months
- [] Even longer??
[] This place is wack. Let's bounce immediately.
- [] Where to, boss?
[] Write in…
"Kakaze, it's a long-shot, but you don't happen to have a map of the world, do you?"
He grins, raising a finger to ask you to wait a moment, before turning to his bags and rifling around inside for a while, eventually pulling out a rolled scroll that he passes to you. You unfurl it, and sure enough, it's a world map, and pretty professional quality, too, with all the nations in different colors, little bumps to represent mountains, and it even lists the position of all the Air Temples.
"This is great, thanks."
Aang pokes his head over your shoulder. "So… what're you looking for?"
"I heard there's a place in the Earth Kingdom, it's a huge forest, but it's also covered in water, like a, uh…"
"You might mean Foggy Swamp," Aang offers, pointing at a green mass on the map labeled as such. "I've never been there, but Appa and I flew over it once or twice. It really is huge."
You nod. "I was thinking we might be able to hide out there. If it's a huge forest, it's naturally hard to track us there, and if it's full of water, then firebenders will be weak too. Of course, that means teaching you will be harder, but it'll also be safer, since I think it'd be harder to light stuff on fire."
Kakaze nods, thinking on it. "I've never been to a place like that, maybe it'd be fun. You say it's a forest full of water, is it like a lake that trees grow out of? Would we need a boat to move around?"
You shrug, but Aang shakes his head. "I don't think most of the water is that deep, and you can find dry places. It's more like a whole lot of rivers and streams winding together around the trees."
"Well," you conclude, "it's close. In the worst case, if it's too wet, or there's some other reason we can't stay, we can just leave. Aang, can Appa swim?"
Aang giggles. "Sometimes I think better than he can fly."
"You, Kakaze?"
"A little."
"Me too. Guess it couldn't hurt to learn. Aang, do you think Appa is recovered enough to fly this far?"
Aang thinks for a moment. "Well, it's not very far. It's about midnight, so… Appa, do you think you can fly till sunrise?"
The beast makes an incomprehensible groan that sends a rumble through your bodies.
"Yeah, he's fine! We can get there in one trip unless something goes wrong."
You sigh. "Hopefully, nothing goes wrong this time. I don't know about you two, but I'm gonna get some sleep while I still can."
Kakaze gives you another odd look you can't quite parse. "Yeah. I guess you missed out on a lot of sleep tonight. Catching up would be good for me too."
You stare back at him for a moment, but eventually shrug and lay back, closing your eyes. It's shocking just how quickly you can get used to sleeping a kilometer in the air when you're sufficiently tired.
Aang wakes you up by shaking your shoulder, before doing the same to Kakaze. The sun has risen now, and is hanging low in the sky.
"What's up, Aang?"
He points off the side of Appa, down toward the ground. "We're here."
You sit up and peek off the saddle, looking down to see a field of dark brown and green that spreads out forever in every direction, like the ocean. There's a hint of a strange smell in the air, even from this height, and you get a weird vibe from the swamp that you can't fully place. Kakaze voices your feelings almost exactly.
"Weird place. It's pretty much exactly what I was expecting, but for some reason it's… weird."
"Well, it's about to get a little weirder," Aang says hesitantly, "because I think the swamp is calling to me."
You blink, raising an eyebrow. "Sorry, the swamp is? What do you mean?"
"As the Avatar, I have a closer connection to the spirit world than most people. It's never happened before, but Monk Gyatso said that sometimes, the world would speak to me in ways I might not fully understand, but I'd know when it happened. This… really feels like that."
Kakaze scratches his head. "I guess I have been wanting to commune with the spirits, so maybe this is our chance? Do you think it's a good idea, Aang?"
He nods firmly. "I think I should listen to what the earth wants."
With a movement of the reigns, he directs Appa to begin descending, slowly moving down toward the trees.
"Man… I know I'm the one who recommended this place, but I sure have a strange feeling about it."
Appa, too, grumbles, in a way you like to imagine is agreement.
Aang gives you an understanding look. "I know it's weird. But it's like you said, if there's a problem, we can just fly out."
You sigh, nodding. "Yeah. Let's move in."
A few moments later, Appa has fallen below the treeline, and you can see that the floor of this swamp is sure enough a crisscross of muddy puddles of indeterminate depth, relatively clean-looking rivers, and tremendously massive tree roots. You're so preoccupied by watching the ground fly by that you're caught completely off-guard by a sudden loud crashing sound, and even more off-guard when you're clotheslined by a vine, sending both you and Kakaze hurtling off Appa's back. As you fall, you consider trying to arrest the descent with firebending, but your concentration is repeatedly broken by falling into more vines at high speed, the snapping of which eventually slows your fall such that you're left suspended in them. A quick look around confirms that Kakaze is in your same predicament, a good ten meters off the ground.
Following the sound of the frustrated bellow, the distant shape of a hovering flying bison tells you that even the mighty Appa has been tied up spontaneously by the vines that cross randomly across the swamp's airspace. Groaning, you set the hottest fire you can between your fingers, using it to try to scorch the vines off of you and allow you to fall, but there's a problem. The vines are so full of water that trying to burn them causes them to boil, spraying scalding water in your face as they pop. Forced by such to stop, you instead haplessly struggle to escape by your own might.
A sudden splash alerts you that Kakaze has reached ground level, and you crane your neck to an uncomfortable extent to see that he's seemingly cut himself free with his swords, before falling into the muddy water below. You can't help but be slightly amused as you watch him sputter and fruitlessly try to get some of the muck out of his clothes.
Eventually, he gives up and just marches through the waist-high water until he's directly underneath you.
"This was a terrible idea, Shuji?"
"Hey, I can't help if the Earth itself agrees with me! You heard Aang, we were fated to come here!"
"You're reading into it! There's no reason the earth would always be right! Anyway, I wouldn't firebend much if I was you!"
You frown, struggling to try to look at him and failing. "Why not?"
"You know that smell?"
You blink, sniffing the air. There's a lot of weird smells here, but you can't really identify any of them. "Uh, no? What is it?"
"Smells like sulfur to me! It's a kind of gas or something, it comes up from the ground in some places! I hear it burns like paper!"
You'd wipe the sweat from your brow if you had a free hand. "Well I tried to firebend myself out of these vines and I didn't just combust!"
Kakaze is silent for a few moments. "Oh, wait, you can't see me. I just shrugged!"
You sigh, before being caught off-guard by Aang appearing in the vines above you. "Hey, are you OK?"
"Yeah, I'm good. Well and stuck, though. How's Appa?"
"He got stuck too, but I got him out. Want a hand?"
You nod. "Yes please."
Aang jumps backward off of the vines, swinging his hand to release a gust of air that slices them above your head, leaving the both of you falling together. He conjures an updraft that slows your fall, converting it into a whirling orb of wind that he sits down on, leaving him hovering just over the water. You, on the other hand, are not so lucky, splashing into the water. Thanks to Aang, the fall is gentle, but you still cough and choke as you struggle to find a hand and foothold to get your face out of the water.
Once you do, you scowl up at an obviously-entertained Kakaze. How dare he make light of your suffering.
Aang directs his little air sphere to hover him right up onto an enormous root that rises from the water, where he dismisses it and stands up normally. You and Kakaze miserably traipse through the water until you catch up with him, crawling onto the dry bark. Aang giggles, squatting next to you.
"Do you want me to try to use my firebending to dry you off?"
"NO! I mean, uh, no," you correct as you see Aang look a little hurt, obviously misunderstanding the reason for your refusal. "Apparently the air around here might have sulfur in it, which can catch on fire. This might actually be a bad place for firebending training."
Aang's eyes go wide. "The air could catch on fire? How does that work?"
You thumb at Kakaze, who shrugs. "Pretty close to my hometown there's a cave, and outside of it there's a smell just like this swamp, from all the sulfur that rises out of it. One of the old guys said he saw something like it before once, and when the sulfur in the cave started burning, it never stopped for all the years he knew about it. He also said no one should firebend near the cave, or there might be a big explosion.
Aang goes pale. "I sure am glad I didn't get wet myself… I might have tried to dry myself off right away."
You chuckle anxiously. "Well, it's OK, I firebent a little and nothing bad happened. Maybe I just got lucky, or maybe it's just something else that smells similar to sulfur. Either way, let's not push our luck."
Aang vigorously nods his enthusiastic agreement, and the three of you get to your feet to head in Appa's direction, who is now swimming leisurely toward you. As you walk, Aang does indeed dry off your clothes, albeit using airbending instead of firebending, sending gusts through your pants and shirts to dry them off and dislodge the larger clumps of mud from them.
"So, Aang," Kakaze begins, "did landing here help you figure out why the swamp was calling you?"
Aang looks around into the endless green of the swamp, but shakes his head. "Not really. I get the feeling that this whole place is alive somehow, more than most forests, but I don't hear it talking to me right now."
You frown. "Well, do we wanna stay? This sure isn't a pleasant place to stay, but if I was Fire Nation royalty, I sure wouldn't want to come searching for the Avatar here- and they have no way of knowing we're here anyway."
"Yeah," Kakaze says, "we should definitely be safe from the Fire Nation here, unless they somehow already knew where we were going, which is obviously impossible, since you only decided after we were in the air. But who knows if we'll be safe from whatever lives here, and if you can't teach Aang firebending, wouldn't we just kinda be waiting around?"
Aang expression sours as he thinks. "I don't know. I think it would be best to at least spend the day looking around and see if we can figure out why the swamp called us here. Plus, taking off with Appa will be kinda tricky with all those vines in the way."
Kakaze scoffs, looking at you. "Well that's inconvenient."
[] We should leave here after Aang has some time to explore. We're safe, but there's nothing to gain.
- [] To where?
[] We should stay until Aang finds a satisfactory answer for why the Earth was calling him, or determines no answer can be found. It can't have been nothing.
[] We should stay here for a while. Give the Fire Nation some time to look around, find some incorrect leads to follow, get distracted, lose interest in hunting the Avatar, or otherwise lose the trail. In the meantime, you can explore the swamp, stay encamped, do some training that doesn't involve firebending, or maybe some firebending training that doesn't involve fire. Plus, who knows what you'll find?
- [] Wait a few days
- [] A few weeks
- [] A few months
- [] Even longer??
[] This place is wack. Let's bounce immediately.
- [] Where to, boss?
[] Write in…
[X] We should stay here for a while. Give the Fire Nation some time to look around, find some incorrect leads to follow, get distracted, lose interest in hunting the Avatar, or otherwise lose the trail. In the meantime, you can explore the swamp, stay encamped, do some training that doesn't involve firebending, or maybe some firebending training that doesn't involve fire. Plus, who knows what you'll find?
- [X] A few weeks
We went to the swamps! Yes! Love the idea of Aang picking up estoric watering bending from there.. And learning about the spiritual connection from the roots. Also exploring supercharged chi for our MC in an environment he's forced not to rely on direct fire sounds like an interesting way to master what he discovered in the air temples.
- [X] A few weeks
We went to the swamps! Yes! Love the idea of Aang picking up estoric watering bending from there.. And learning about the spiritual connection from the roots. Also exploring supercharged chi for our MC in an environment he's forced not to rely on direct fire sounds like an interesting way to master what he discovered in the air temples.
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[X] We should stay until Aang finds a satisfactory answer for why the Earth was calling him, or determines no answer can be found. It can't have been nothing.
- Location
- the point is of no return and you have reached it!
[x] We should stay until Aang finds a satisfactory answer for why the Earth was calling him, or determines no answer can be found. It can't have been nothing.
ElenaIsCool
Super Sipper
- Location
- Obscure Area
- Pronouns
- She/They
[X] We should stay until Aang finds a satisfactory answer for why the Earth was calling him, or determines no answer can be found. It can't have been nothing.