Searching for the Avatar (Plot Thread) [Private]

Rika was gasping on the ground. Her face was comical like she was a fish out of water. That arrow was painful. She hated being hurt and not being able to help Rozu or the Avatar. Why was she so weak? Couldn't she fight back? No she had to get herself shot at and wounded, gaping like a fish.

Rika stared at the boy in horror. He was in the Avatar state. it was a powerful state but the legends said that you couldn't control it. There had been a few Avatars in the past who weren't good guys. They wouldn't allow him to protect people unless he was strong enough to stop the avatar state in time.

The avatar state was hard to control. He was vicious and scary. She watched and despite how she wanted to, she couldn't take her eyes away from the scene. One man had been crushed it seemed. The boy had seemed so kind and confused. So... innocent. He'd just turned into a monster, seemingly to protect her.

It was quiet and Rika was ready to go crawl over to the Avatar. But a flying bison landed in front of them. It wasn't alone. There was a rider as well. Was this someone from the air temples to come get the avatar?

"Are you alright?" She wanted to shout in his face that she certainly wasn't. There was a fucking arrow in her! But she calmed down quickly. He was only trying to help after all. "I'll be fine when you give me a kiss," she told him weakly.

"Let me help you, I'll take you back to the Northern Air Temple where we can get you and your friend patched up, 'k?"

Rika shook her head. "We gotta get Rozu..." she murmured.

(OOC: Ken is passed out, so not much to do, so just continue on xD)

Saleh was surprised by the girl's reaction. A kiss.....? Saleh appeared to ignore her comment, although he was quite dumfounded. He wasn't a prince charming, and she wasn't in a coma, so why she would procure a thought like that was beyond Saleh's thought process. She then did something else that surprised Saleh. She refused to go and wanted 'Rozu'. Saleh had no idea who 'Rozu' was, nor did he have any idea who the unconscious kid was, so he figured he'd put the two together, and walked over to the unconscious child, almost dragging the girl with him. "Rozu's fine, see?" Saleh believed the child was Rozu, and he didn't realize that Rozu had been left behind to hold off troops. In the distance through the bramble, Saleh could see a small troop approaching- only about 5 men. However, they were dressed slightly differently than the dad men who littered the immediate area, which worried Saleh. "Come now, we must leave. You can tell me everything once we're back at the temple." Saleh would say to the girl, dragging her if he had to on to Ubuge and hoisting the unconscious child onto the bison as well, before they would take off.

With his usual command "Ay Ay!", the bison would take off with the two wounded and Saleh, who was holding the girl back in case she planned on jumping off. It would be suicide for her to face the approaching troop alone, and Saleh had no intention of fighting- it was against his pacifist nature, the nature of the Air Monks. As they ascended above the canopy, Saleh spotted the airship lifting off the ground. It was odd to see it ascending.... it was as if it were going to go somewhere, and without their target, whoever it was. Saleh grew a bit unnerved, and commanded Ubuge to fly as fast as possible back to the temple, the lithe Shirshu easily keeping up on the ground, despite the cumbersome debris and bodies. Saleh prayed that everything could be explained at the temple, and they would make it without having to fight.

Husain who was still running and creating poles on the ground to launch him, saw the Bison take off into the air. He only made a guess, that the avatar was on that bison. He faced stilll twisted with rage, he stomped on the ground making cracks. He was about to fail again, something he promised Dao-ming wouldnt happen. He caught up to the five troops, when they saw his face none of them said a word. "Head to the other ship, we will follow them I will not fail today." Husain spoke to them instantly they were heading to the other docked ships there was two more that never landed.

Once the pilots saw them they headed down.

Rozu was able to get the ship in the air, but he still was having trouble controlling it. It was getting annoying for Rozu. "OH god why cant this thing just go!" Rozu yelled in frustation he pulled a lever that had the ship go forward. "Whheewww ok." he said with a grin. From the front window he saw Husain and five of his soldiers and grinned at them.

Rozu saw the bison hit the air, and thought for a moment that Rika and the Avatar could be on it. But he had to be sure, he had the ship fly low to get a good sight of the ground. Trees burnt and destroyed, something happened here but there was no sign of Rika or the avatar. He looked and saw the flying bison again, then caught a glimpse of Nuka running.

Rozu had the air ship follow the bison, and there was open terrain he landed right in front Nukka. Nukka stopped and growled then smelt out Rozu, his growling stopped and went to whimpering. Rozu hoped out the ship, and placed his hands on Nukka. "Relax, relax I know you don't like me but we both want Rika back right?" he asked Nukka he didn't answer.

Rozu guided Nukka to the ship it was big enough for him to sit on the front part. Rozu went into the piloting section, and followed the flying Bison.

Rika was about to protest that the boy wasn't Rozu but the guy spoke again. "Come now, we must leave. You can tell me everything once we're back at the temple." She didn't have time to go back for Rozu. She had a duty to save the Avatar. She couldn't do anything in the state she was in anyway. The young woman was practically dragged onto the bison with the Avatar.

Rika felt a terrible guilt for leaving Rozu behind but once they got to the air temple she watched the young boy closely. She wasn't sure who would know the avatar here. She hoped that he looked different and more scraggly in his six months of being missing and wouldn't be noticed. A man who was an airbender walked up to the Bison. "Bring the injured off the Bison. We can take care of the girl. She needs immediate treatment. The boy seems to be unconcious. We'll have someone watch over him," the airbender said.

Rika was then split up from the Avatar. She promised herself she would go find him. For now she needed to be healed. Luckily for them, there was a visiting water bender from the northern water tribe. She was a kind looking woman and quickly took the arrow out of Rika and healed her. "What a wound. You were lucky that it was a clean hit though." she said as she healed Rika.

Rika was amazed by her healing ability. The woman was amazing! Rika was excited to learn how to heal. Maybe after all this she could travel to the northern water tribe to learn the healing arts. Once Rika was healed she set off in search of the Avatar. She was pointed to his room and finally she entered. He was still asleep but he could wake up at any moment.

Saleh "docked" Ubuge at the very edge of the cliff that held the temple. He was quickly rushed by another airbender who he recognized immediately. It was Merric, his long time tutor and friend- it wasn't that Saleh was surprised to see him, so much that he was giving out orders like he was in charge. "It's been a while Merric, how've you been?" Merric was must've been about 40 in age, although he still looked like he was younger than Saleh. He was about 5'11'', just shorter than Saleh himself, and had jade green hair that was covered with a large rectangular head piece that was navy blue like the rest of his garb- it was as though he had just walked out of a council meeting, although Saleh knew he was not a member of the Sacred Four. Everything was so hectic, Merric must not've even noticed Saleh. "Saleh.... is that you? In the chaos of everything I didn't even realize that you were the aviator! You haven't changed at all! What happened?" Merric's cheery and upbeat tone heavily contrasted with the situation that was unfolding. [color=green]"I don't really know the details, but their was a flash of fire, followed by light smoke dappling the air above the canopy of the forest. I found these two as I present them- the girl injured by an arrow and the boy unconscious. The ground around them was littered with the dead, however. The uniforms that were worn were rather unique- I'd never quite seen anything like them. Their uniform was black and had gold "bling". It was also hooded, but appeared rather light and easy to move in. Have you seen anything similar?"[/color=green] Saleh liked to be thorough and not to miss any details. He had to be 100% sure that these "mercenaries" were new threats. "Nope, never seen anything like that! But it's not like they can reach us out here, it'd be impossible to send a fleet to take us on considering how spaced apart our temples are, not to mention the mountains that form a natural graveyard for airships traveling in groups."

However, Saleh knew that Merric's words were just an utterance of false-confidence. Saleh could tell that they both knew the danger they could be in, despite the natural boundaries. Merric appeared to be staring out into space before darting towards the council-building without a word- his tacit actions already allowed Saleh to expect what he was about to see when he turned around. A lone Airship was headed towards the temple. The deck seemed empty, but that didn't mean that an ambush wasn't lurking beneath the deck. Wasn't an airship recently stolen from the harbor....? Saleh thought, trying to revoke his memories of the daily news.Suddenly Saleh remembered the article that was on the front page. That's right! It was allegedly stolen from the Western Air Temple by a group of Earth mercenaries. However, the guys that I saw definitely didn't APPEAR to be Earth Nation mercenaries, they appeared to be working for a cult of some sort. Nevertheless, Saleh prepared himself for combat, awaiting the ship's arrival at the empty harbor. Not many ships were housed in the Northern Air Temple, which is what made the approach of an airship so intriguing.

[at this time I think we should start a new topic in the Northern Air Temple]

1372 words total -- 2 Rank-Up Points