Avatar Rose: Dusk

Ch.24: Nathan

The girl I once knew clasps her forehead with both hands, then falls into the ground like a falling leaf as she lets out a tiny moan of anguish.

I'm transfixed to the ground as she hits the floor, so of all people, Evan, places her in a bloodbending grip and lowers her gently to the ground. And you always bug me about fainting. I look at Gwen. "How can we help her?" I ask.

"Evan," she ignores me, turning to my brother. "How can we attend to this poor girl?"

Evan shrugs. "I don't know, don't ask me. I'm not even a healer."

I gape at him. "Really? Wowwwwww."

Evan shoots me a look, annoyed. Gwen smiles. "Well, first I think we should make sure she's actually fainted," she says kindly.

In a flash of lightning, Evan loads the sleep-dart gun, and a -click-click- later he fires it right into Rose's thigh.

Gwen and I gawk at him. "What..."

"Definitely fainted," Evan announces proudly with a grin.

I blow up at him. "WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!?"

Evan raises his hands. "I just did what the healer told me to do," he explains calmly with a shrug.

"That was STUPID!"

"I'm sorry but-"

He doesn't get a chance to speak. Squeezing my fists into circles, I put him in a body grip.

Evan trembles for a second, wiggles out and forces a grip onto me,

I slip out of the grip and shove another one on him, and he wiggles out.

Slip, wiggle, slip wiggle. If you didn't know what was happening, you would presume my brother and I were constipated.

Gwen eyes us oddly. "What's going on here?"

Evan and I snap up. "Nothing much," he says.

"Nothing much?" I yell at him. I gesture my hands toward Rose. "You just sleep-darted my girlfriend!"

"Now now," Gwen says. "It's been done, no changing the past. Evan, do you want to carry her?"

Evan scoffs. "Get Nathan to do it."

I immediately move in and scoop up Rose's still figure. Oddly enough, she's more relaxed than usual.

A voice from behind me stops me in my tracks. "HEY YOU!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH ROSEMONDE?!?"

I turn around. It's that girl, Rose's new friend.

"We're her friends. We've come to take her home," Gwen quips.

"How do I know you're not here to kidnap her?"

"Uhhh... Well, good question. Did Rose ever mention someone in the Water Tribe?" I ask awkwardly.

"No. She doesn't talk much, except in her sleep. Keeps murmuring the name 'Nathan,' while grimacing and thrashing. She also keeps saying 'I'm sorry,'" the girl explains skeptically.

I glance at Rose for a moment. She's always had nightmares and has talked in her sleep, ever since I met her. That was really the only way I could tell if she was hiding something.

I clear my throat. "Well, my name is Nathan. Nathan Li. I'm honestly trying to help her, even though she doesn't seem to really want it. Please understand. I wouldn't do a thing to hurt her."

The girl studies me for a long time, making my shuffle my feet uncomfortably. Then she let's out a sigh. "Fine. I don't know who she is, but there's something different about her that you guys only know. Just be patient, she's still weak and out of sorts after her coma and head injury."

Gwen smiles. "Of course. Thanks for taking car of her for this long. She'd be dead on that beach if you hadn't found her."

The girl gives one last glance of Rose before walking away. Evan, Gwen and I rush to our rented apartment, hopefully before she wakes up. It's the perfect time for a healing session.