Storm

Chapter 16

“Nephew, you should let this go.”

“No, Uncle! I am the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation! I can’t let that peasant get away with this. We’ll keep following their ship; I know they’ll lead us to the Avatar!”

Iroh sighed, sadness in his amber eyes. Zuko had been even more unreasonable than usual ever since they’d run into that Earth Kingdom ship.

Not that Iroh himself wasn’t curious--that girl hadn’t acted like most of the people they encountered. She hadn’t been afraid of them at all; he couldn’t help but wonder who she was. If Zuko stayed on this path, he was certain he’d find out.

Still, he hoped his nephew wouldn’t do anything too stupid. The girl called Storm was dangerous, that much was obvious. Despite Zuko’s anger issues and rebellious attitude, Iroh thought of him as a son, and he didn’t want him to get hurt.

“Come, Nephew. Let’s have some tea.”

“I don’t want any tea, Uncle.”

“It will help you calm down.”

“I don’t need to calm down, Uncle!” Zuko shoved away from the railing of the ship and stalked inside, leaving Iroh alone on the deck. The older man sighed, shaking his head to himself. “How could he not want tea?”

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“I don’t get it. This is the right island, isn’t it Kinu?” Dhatri frowned, looking around. They stood on a small beach, and in front of them a forest led up onto a mountain. 

There was no sign of the Air Temple they were looking for.

“Yeah, this is the right one. Maybe we just can’t see it from here.”

“But it’s supposed to be in the sky, right?”

“Let’s just go look for it. Come on, it’ll be fun.” Storm grinned, practically bouncing with excitement. Now that they were so close to the Air Temple, she couldn’t hold herself still.

“Hold on, Storm.” Kai’s serious voice put a damper on her joy, and she pouted at him. “We don’t know how long that could take or even where to look. I don’t know about everyone else, but I don’t want to climb all over this mountain looking for something that might not even exist anymore. For all we know the Fire Nation completely destroyed this temple a hundred years ago.”

“I hate to agree with him, but the captain’s right, Stormy.” Rat put a hand on her shoulder, as if that was supposed to make things better. 

“Then I’ll go by myself. You guys can stay here and I’ll come get you when I find it.”

“That could take days, Storm!”

“There’s no point to wasting time. The temple is probably gone anyway.” Ryuu spoke for the first time since their argument the night before, and Storm risked a glance his way. He was glaring at her, his arms folded across his chest. “Why do you want to see it so bad anyway? Think it’ll help you find your friend?” Storm wasn’t good at reading people, but even she could hear the sarcasm in Ryuu’s voice when he said the word ‘friend’. 

She frowned at him. “What if I do?” She shook her head, clenching her fists. She needed to see the Air Temple. It was all that was left of her heritage, her people. She would never be allowed to return to the Spirit World now that Mother had banished her, so this was all she had left of her family. It was all she had in the world, and she couldn’t leave without seeing it, not after coming this far. So she squared her shoulders and looked Kai in the eyes, letting him see the determination in her gaze.

“You guys can come or stay here, and you can even leave me if you want to, but I’m going to find the Air Temple. I won’t leave without seeing it; I don’t expect you to understand, but it’s really important to me.”

Kai looked at her for a long minute, then sighed. “Listen, Storm. I don’t know what’s going on and I’m not gonna pretend to understand. I don’t even know if we can trust you, honestly; half the things you say don’t make any sense at all, and we all know you’re Fire Nation. But I knew that going into this, and I still said you could come with us. Whether we like it or not, you’re a part of our crew, and that means what you want is important. So we’ll wait for you to come back. Just try not to take too long, okay?”

Storm blinked, and she felt tears threatening the backs of her eyes. She smiled, biting her lip. “Thanks Kai. I promise I’ll explain everything to you someday.” After I’ve found the Avatar, she thought, promising herself that’s what she would do.

Kai nodded, and Rat reached out to ruffle her hair. “Don’t get lost, Stormy.”

She laughed and hugged him, and then she took off running. She couldn’t keep her excitement in check anymore--nothing was going to stop her now. She would finally see what a real Air Temple looked like! She was finally going to see what her birth mother had fought so hard to protect. 

She was finally going home--well, sort of.

With a grin, Storm ran faster, faster, faster, racing the wind itself as she shot up the mountainside.