The one-eyed Avatars

Chapter 3

  The time had been over so fast and yet it had felt like eternity at the same time, at least for Romeo. For his brothers it just had been a long month, dealing with their fratellino soon not being there anymore. Lovino was often away to train, but when he was around his younger brothers he was lately a bit protective. No matter whether he wanted it or not, in the end he was a little worried about him.
  Weird when he was actually the one who would be around his brother when he went away.

  Because little did the monks and nuns know, Lovino would sneak onto the ship, just as he had planned it. He had scratched together all the money he had, which was admittably not too much, but it would be enough for a room for a few nights, it couldn't be too hard to get a job, right? He had reliable skills, like cooking and soon advanced firebending, possibly, or- hopefully.
  The teenager had also learned to improve his cooking with firebending, things like flame regulation were a lot easier with firebending.

  On the next day, the airship was finally there: It was a smaller ship, just right for a few escorts who made sure everything was safe and to take some more of Romeo's belongings. One of the people on the ship was that metalbender Ludwig, which bothered Lovino, especially because Feliciano seemed so focused on that musclehead. Adamou seemed to have stayed in the city, but Ludwig didn't say why, it was none of anyone's business anyway.
  Who else was there? The firebending nomad had to know how and where to hide, but that was the smallest of his problems.
  Two pilots, a few engineers, one of which had a shy girl with him for some reason, two police officers, Ludwig and someone who tried to be distant and didn't say much, and a beautiful woman to help with the luggage and to help Romeo in general, she seemed to be some kind of assistant at the Sato Academy.

  Everyone seemed distracted by something, Feliciano was trying to get Ludwig's attention, their father was trying to handle the overall situation and most of the few engineers were having a break. The pretty woman who was there to assist Romeo, Lovino believed her name was Manon De Vriese, was distracted by Stella, so he took his chance and snuck onto the ship when nobody was watching.
  He looked around, he had informed himself about the overall look of an airship and he had been in one one time before, but still, it was impressive and made him extremely nervous. Lovino quickly went to the place with Romeo's bigger pieces of luggage Stella couldn't possibly carry, she wasn't an adult bison yet.
  The firebender leant against some kind of wooden furniture, facing the wall. The ride from the Northern Air Temple to the New Republic Territory wasn't too long, just about two and a half hour, the airship technology was evolving rapidly.

  Outside, people were getting ready to start, Feliciano said goodbye to Ludwig and Romeo, Stella was already in the air, an excited Romeo soon following onto her back and childishly waving and doing tricks on his bison's back to do something with all the energy.
  The people from NRT finally got onto the ship and started the engines, Lovino woke up from the engine's loud noise.
  He went through his plan again: Go to Republic City, find a youth hostel, immediately go into the city to look for a job. It couldn't be that hard, could it? The firebender formed a small, bright flame in his hand and took out one of the two books he had with him: General Iroh's biography and a book about advanced firebending. He had stolen both from the temple's library, certain that no one would ever find out. He opened Iroh's biography, although he had read it countless times already and underlined and highlighted so many words and sentences. There was even a dark stain of a burn on the back Lovino had made by accident while cooking and reading simultaneously.

  The teenager got lost in the book, letting his guard down and noticing too late that someone else had entered the room. A girl, not older than Lovino and certainly not taller. The problem was not that she was there, the problem was that she was coming into his direction, getting slower when she came nearer. The teenage girl was quiet, not making a single noise, so how did Lovino know that in the first place? He wasn't sure, but he looked up to where she would appear next to where he was sitting moments later.