Wandering Firebender

Sixty Four: Sky Bison

For some odd reason, there was a stir being raised up in the Northern Water Tribe.

Cindra noticed it while she was eating lunch, taking a break from her training. She saw a number of people starting to run or walk in a hurry towards the docks. She looked around oddly, wondering what was going on. She was about to get up and investigate herself...

But then her best friend, Tara, suddenly ran up to her, yanking her arm and urging her to get to her feet.

"Cindra! Cindra, you gotta come now! Get up!" Tara said emphatically. Cindra almost dropped her food as she slid out of her chair and stood up.

"What's going on, Tara? Everybody's running." She asked.

"It's the Avatar! He's here! He just arrived on his sky bison! We gotta come see!" She said. Cindra's eyes widened.

"The Avatar?! Here?! Sky bison?!" Cindra started running to follow the crowd, "We gotta go see!"

"That's what I said!" Tara said with a laugh, rushing to stay next to Cindra.

"The Avatar? Here? Why?" Cindra wondered to herself as she made her way towards the dock nearest to the front wall. Unlike Elio, she'd never had the privilege of even seeing the Avatar before. She briefly imagined herself bringing him up to see if the Avatar would remember him, but then again, it's not like she would even get the chance to speak to the Avatar himself.

When she got to the dock, a crowd was already gathering all around the Avatar's large sky bison. Cindra's eyes widened in awe at the sight of the animal. It was like 2-3 times her size! She and Tara shuffled through the crowd as much as they could to try and get a good view.

"That's the Avatar, right? Yeah, I see him!"

"I don't remember seeing that thing last time! That bison is huge!"

"Aang! Katara! Do you remember me?!"

Cindra could hear people in the crowd talking amongst themselves while others were calling out to the Avatar. Finally, Cindra was able to get to the front, just in time for the Avatar to stand up on the head of his sky bison and address the crowd.

"Hey, everyone! It's good to see you all again!" He said with a smile, waving to everyone. After that, a Water Tribe girl stood up; she was standing on the bison's back on top of its saddle.

"It's good to see you all, but we won't be able to stay very long! We're looking for Cindra! Does anyone know where Cindra is?" She asked.

The crowd fell silent. Cindra's face went pale and she froze in place. That was her name that they'd just called, right? She wasn't hearing things, right?

They were looking for her?

Cindra felt Tara's hand on her back pushing her forward until she'd stepped out from the crowd. Still clutching her food in her hand, Cindra stood there dumbfounded. The Avatar quickly picked her out and approached her.

"Hey! Are you Cindra?" He asked.

"U-Uh...yeah. Are you...the Avatar?" She asked slowly.

"Yep! My name's Aang! And this is my, uh...this is Katara!" He introduced both himself and the Water Tribe girl with him. Both names sounded familiar to Cindra, but she was still processing the fact that the Avatar was standing right in front of her.

"You're so young." Cindra said in surprise. Aang just chuckled at this.

"We came here to pick you up. Elio asked for you." Katara spoke up.

"Elio! He asked you to come and get me?!" She exclaimed.

"Yep! We're supposed to meet up with him in Ba Sing Se." Aang said.