Chapter Three: There's a Bison in the Sky

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For a while the only sound in the sky was Appa's occasional grunts as he flew. Bumi had asked his dad for permission to take him for a ride, and Aang had quickly obliged, seemingly more flustered than usual. 

Despite him not being an Airbender, Bumi could steer the sky bison relatively well, and by that he meant "flying without ramming into something or falling out of the saddle". Yet, for the most part, per se a few bumps, the ride was fairly peaceful. 

Kya sat with her head tipped back and stared up at the light blue sky, while Izumi had her pale knees pulled close to her chest and her head ducked, as if she wanted to disappear. Bumi didn't know why she would want to, though; she was so pretty...

He shook his head to clear the thought. There was no way someone like the Princess would like someone like him—him, Bumi, eldest son of Avatar Aang... a nonbender.

The seventeen-, eighteen-, and nineteen-year-old continued to let Appa's heavy breaths fill the gap between them. With just Kya, Bumi would have been talking, but with the Princess there, neither knew what to say, as they hadn't interacted with each other for over a year. 

"So, Princess, how have you been," Bumi finally said after the silence stretched on for another few minutes. 

She lifted her head, startled at his voice, and adjusted her glasses. "Oh... um... well... I've been reading, a lot," she replied quietly.

"About what?" he asked. "Spy novels, action, science-fiction—"

"Fire Nation history and law books..."

"Ah. I don't even think my dad would let me near the books about Air Nation traditions, because,  well, I'm  not an Airbender."

"Oh!" This seemed to jog something in Kya's memory, and she straightened, turning to Izumi with eager blue eyes. "I meant to ask you: did you ever manage to find your Firebending?"

The girl's amber eyes widened and she looked to her hands. "Um..." She swallowed. "Not exactly."

Kya and Bumi looked at her quizzically. "But you have such strong Firebenders in your family," the nonbender said. "Your dad, your great-uncle, your grandpa..." He noticed her lips curving into a frown and hurried to correct himself. "But it's fine if you're not, I mean you would still be a good leader either way."

Kya smirked at her brother. "Oh..." Her voice became singsong-y. "You think Izumi would make a good leader, hm?"

"Yep."

"That's so sweet, don't you think, Izumi?" she continued. 

Bumi glared at her as the Princess turned pink. "Oh, be quiet," he muttered to his sister. She was the epitome of the stereotypical  annoying younger sister, at least when Tenzin wasn't around. When he was, the the older siblings would tease him instead, but when he was absent, Kya's insistent derision fell on her older brother.

"Hey, why don't we stop down there, so you can do your... water bending stuff?" Bumi suggested, gesturing down to a fairly large pond with a small waterfall running into it that they were approaching. Appa's shadow was soon to cross it. 

"'Waterbending stuff?'" Kya replied, rolling her eyes.

Bumi smirked. "It fits, doesn't it? You do a bunch of fancy, over-complicated hand gestures and then summon a wave or something. Nothing specific, just stuff."

"Only a nonbender would think that," she retorted, tightening her ponytail of long, wavy brown hair.

"You're not denying it, though..." The two bickered back and forth like this sometimes, and even though Bumi knew his sister didn't mean much by her comment except as a way to ride his nerves, it still stung a little more than he would have liked. 

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