αιι Μθτλεr

ᵗʷᵒ

ᵗʰᵉ ᵃᵛᵃᵗᵃʳ ʳᵉᵗᵘʳⁿˢ

˳༄꠶

          𝑹𝒉𝒆𝒂 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑨𝒂𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒔𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒗𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒅𝒖𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝑨𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒏𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒍𝒂𝒓𝒆, 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒗𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒃𝒚 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒆 𝒏𝒂𝒗𝒚. Rhea was a little sad to leave what she thought could be her first nonforced friendship with Sokka. Father Thad of the Northern Air temple had always been her platonic parenting partner, but that was out of duty. She didn't meet him on her own. She wasn't given the luxury of leaving her temple often; if she did, it was to another temple. The Eastern and Western temples' parents were in their 40s back then, so they were more mentors than friends. 

She knew Aang was also sulking about losing Katara as a friend—even if he had an obvious crush on the nice girl. But unlike Rhea, he had friends from every nation. He had friends like Bumi and Kuzon, whom she had only heard stories of. The outside world was just not something she knew much of or had experience in.

Being so deep in her thoughts, she didn't notice Aang jumping up and leaving to help the village after seeing the fire navy ship. Appa had nudged her so hard she fell off her block of ice and frantically started looking around for her son. Only when she heard an angered yell coming from the village did the realization that he went back without her did she jump up and fly to him.

Not having an earthly attachment like Appa or her own familiar, she could fly without the glider easily. Another person didn't count as an earthly attachment, it animals such as sky bison who were the original air benders.

After five seconds of flight to the village, she found Sokka angrily standing up and Katara pacing.

"Where's Aang?"

They both turned towards her with guilty expressions. Sokka walked towards her, only for her to meet him in the distance and grab his shirt. Her glare terrified the teen, but he knew it was well deserved.

"Where is my son Sokka? Katara?" She said through clenched teeth.

"Rhea," Katara started, flinching with the look she gave her, "Aang gave himself up to protect our village. But! We're helping you to get him back! Right, Sokka?" She said it with a sugary, sweet tone that gave him no room to object.

"Katara. . . do you not see the bags behind me?"

"Oh," Katara said, shocked he had already agreed. Rhea knocked her out of shock, releasing his shirt and whistling, bending the sound vibrations through the air to reach Appa. The siblings had to cover their ears from the whistle ringing. Gran Gran had now reached them and gave them more supplies for their journey. 

"Katara, I know you'll become a powerful bender, and I'm so proud of you. Rhea, I hope you and your son have good travels and health. Sokka. . . be nice to your sister."

As the old woman walked away, Appa landed behind Rhea, and she immediately jumped onto his neck and grabbed the reigns. As Katara got on, Sokka threw all their supplies onto the saddle and climbed on as well. 

"Let's go get my son. Appa, yip yip!"

˳༄꠶

On a fire nation boat, a young Airbender regretted not snapping his mom out of her thoughts earlier to come and help him. Now, he has to put in the effort to escape, find his glider, and find his mom. To his twelve-year-old mind, that was a lot. 

"So, I guess you guys never fought an airbender before, huh?"

The guards paid no mind to him and kept walking to his cell. 

"Well. . . alright." 

He escaped. Now, he just needed to find his glider. The problem is he has no idea where to look or where to start. He tried asking a guard, but they just charged at him. Thus, they were knocked out. Aha! He found his glider hung in what seemed to be a bedrooms wall. Not noticing the prince behind the door, he skipped to his prized possession and turned to leave once he had it. Only the door was closed and prince anger issues was the one who did it.

After the fun deal of throwing him via mattress, he ran to the top deck with hot head close behind him. They were in the midst of fighting when Appas' roar distracted them both.

"What the heck is that?!"

Aang just gave him a smug smirk. "My mom's gonna kick your butt! I feel bad for you! Truly."

Zuko was confused until a girl his age jumped in front of Aang.

"Who was the one to take Aang captive?"

Hot head scowled, "Move aside peasant and I'll leave you out of this. I only need the avatar!" He blasted Aang, only for it to be redirected by a change in the wind.

"Did you just throw fire at my son?" The glare of a thousand mothers laid its eyes on the banished prince.

"How- AH!"

He was blown across the deck via air as Sokka and Katara jumped behind her in fighting stances. They moved on to fight the soldiers while Aang and Rhea took Zuko.

At one point, Zuko had gotten the upper hand and blasted Aang right off the ship. The effect of this awful move was an even angrier mama polar bear dog that got him pinned to the wall with just her breath.

Walking closer to him while still bending him onto the wall, she pinned him by his wrists with her knee dangerously close to his royal jewels.

"You better pray to Agni that Aang comes out of that water. Or you'll join him with another scar added to your small collection. It'll be a hole in your chest."

Zuko tried not to break his glare, but he knew from his own mother how protective they were when their child was put in harm's way.

Suddenly, a jet of water shoots up front of the sea, and Aang, who is in the Avatar state, controls it. Rhea smirked as she tossed Zuko off the side of the ship and went to help the others.

Katara had completely missed the soldiers with her ice and instead trapped Sokka's feet. He was making his complaints known, so Rhea walked over and sliced through the middle of the ice, willed the air around it to become compressed so it would shatter the ice, and finally hit her target. Most of the soldiers were encased in ice.

Aang successfully damaged the ship and once they were all on Appa, he dropped a glacier on them. Calming down, he collapsed into Rheas' arms and smiled tiredly at her.

"How'd I do mom?"

She looked at him before sitting him up and lightly slapping the back of his head with a worried frown.

"What in spirits name were you thinking, Aang?? Don't ever do that again!" After yelling at the downcast boy, she grabbed his head once again, this time to cover his eyes and kiss where she slapped. Aang turned around and moved further on her lap so they could hug. "I'm sorry, Mom, really. I just wanted to help, and I wasn't thinking clearly, if at all."

"So you guys are coming with us?" He now addressed the water tribe siblings.

Katara beamed at him, saying yes and that they could learn from the northern masters together.

"Ok but first we have some business to attend to here, here and here."

Rhea raised an eyebrow and asked what those places were beside the first stop, The Southern Air Temple.

Of course, he wanted to ride elephant koi...

   ˳༄꠶

Fully edited and put through Grammarly:)

(1296 words)