Changing Tides

Chapter 25; "My name is Zira,"

        I awoke with a stretch. I needed to check off my to-do list: pack up, pack food, leave no trace of us being here, find my spirit twin, and count my enemies. I began packing and soon finished without waking the others; however I haven't done the no trace and spirit twin. My enemies include the fire nation, General Zhao and now Jet and his little friends. Whatever.

        "Wake up." I sang to my fellow travelers. They slowly woke up and all looked at me, annoyed from Zahara, a death glare from Haku, and from Gansu a are you kidding me look. I giggled softly and they slowly got up. Gansu was the first one up he greeted me with a peck on the cheek while he cleaned up and got ready. Haku and Zahara just ignored me as if angered that I woke them late. After sunrise!

         While Zahara and Haku got ready, very slowly, Gansu and I went and picked berries. We finished pick almost the rest of the bush and headed back to see Haku and Zahara stand there waiting. We climbed on Kakuro and then we were off.

        We rode to Ba Sing Se in complete silence, sometimes Kakuro walked and sometimes he ran. We made it to the edge of the desert just after the vegetation thinned. I looked forward to see a large circular wall that reached at least over a hundred feet tall and I couldn't even say how thick it was yet. I examined everything around before Kakuro took off in a walk.

        Suddenly a shadow traveled over us. I saw a black bird like animal circling us; suddenly, it dive bombed us. Kakuro began running, but I felt like we shouldn't. I stopped Kakuro and turned him around and made him wait. As the creature got nearer I saw it was a kitten hawk and the girl from my vision!

        "Hello!" I called to her as I hopped off of Kakuro. My brother tried to pull me back but didn't reach me in time.

        "Hello!" she called back happily. She jumped off of her kitten hawk  and ran over to me, but we didn't touch yet, knowing we would both receive a new element to control. She tried touching me but I avoided it so she stopped.

        "My name is Tsukiko," I greeted.

        "My name is Zira, I had a vision about you, but I am severely confused." she said with a furrowed brow.

        "I can explain." I said simply. So there we sat, Zira, Haku, Gansu, Zahara, and I in a circle, and I told her about the Wan Shi Tong Library. I told her about everything I read in the book. By time I finished she nodded and accepted it.

        "That is spectacular." she said with a small smile.

        "It is, we were picked by the spirits of warmth and coldness. The spirit of coldness lives in you." I said taking it in like it was brand new to me.

        "The spirit of warmth live in you." she said to me.

        "Yes," I said as she got it.

        "So we need to touch to get a third element. Either air or earth?" she asked me.

        "Yup," I said.

        "So lets touch then." she finally said.

        "Wait, I want to get to know you before we do. I feel like we are just going to seperate the second we get our third element." I said quickly.

        "I understand, but I promise we will get through this together." she said holding out her hand as she stood. I nodded and grabbed her hand. As we touched our hands felt like they were glued together. Our other hands linked together without our commands.

        "Get back!" I heard Haku yell. I saw out of the corner of my eye Kakuro, the kitten hawk, Zahara, and Gansu run away. My vision was blocked by a bright light and I couldn't see anywhere. Finally, after a long, exhausting fight, I gave in. I let the light shine and burn through my skin in little needle pricks. It cascaded up my body and attacked my organs.

        I felt a ringing pain scratch through my body. I couldn't feel tears escape because I couldn't feel at all. My body was numb. Completely numb. Then everything went black.

                                                                           THE END!