the wind in my sails | aang x oc

six

aang and zuko returned near sunrise two days after setting off. liara was a little stressed about what iroh had told her, but nonetheless, she meditated more and tried to resonate with what she had done that day.

arguing with herself inwardly, she told herself that there was a lot of things she could do to live it down, but for now, she was admiring her avatar friend as he and zuko did some fancy dance.

she could feel the warmth of the fire he bended on her face and it made her heartrate elevate ever so slightly.

she couldn't tell if it was from excitement or terror.

the fire bending reminded her of that day. the heat. the sound of the blaze. the powerful movements.

it almost made her want to get on diki and fly far, far away.

but she remained seated and clapped once aang and zuko finished their dance.

"I like your dance," liara commented politely, grinning at the air-and firebender. "it's not a dance. it's an ancient firebending form." Zuko countered quickly, huffing hot air through his nose.

liara quickly raised her hands in surrender, to show the boy that she meant no harm, but sokka and katara decided to bug zuko further.

"yeah, we'll just boogie our way to the firelord." sokka grinned, shimmying his shoulders.

"it's a sacred form!"

katara grinned teasingly, "yeah? what's your little form called?" she taunted.

zuko paused and his shoulders fell. he let out a sigh and then said, "the dancing dragon."

~

liara was dressed in her usual robes and her hair was in a half-up braid. her usual rosy cheeks were more flushed as she let out powerful slashes and puffs of air in the field near the air temple.

it was almost sunset and she had been training since noon. diki was not too far away, feeding on some grass and leaves.

liara's muscles were tired, but she persisted. technically, she hadn't trained in a century and it was time to start again.

especially if she wanted to help her friends win this war.

"liara!"

yelping, the girl sent a gust of wind in the direction of the voice she heard calling her. she turned around to see aang hanging from a tree, upside-down.

cringing, she ran up to him and helped him off with a shy grin. "sorry, aang," she mumbled. "I didn't expect someone to call for me.."

"it's okay!" the boy replied quickly, holding his glider in his left hand. "did you need something?" the tattooed girl asked her friend, brushing a strand of hair out of her face.

"yeah. we should head back to the temple. zuko's making tea tonight." he grinned.

the two began making their way to Lisha, but they both shivered when an ominous, animal-like call was heard.

"what was that?" aang questioned, his eyes darting through the field.

liara looked at the horizon, noticing that it was twilight. "hyena bats. they're supposed to come out right about now."

another call sent shivers down liara's spine and she looked to see a spotted hyena bat coming out of the forest.

it was big, and hairy and two large wings sat folded on it's back.

liara wasn't keen on having a run-in with one of those, not after the history  they had with the people of the western air temple.

thinking of all the warnings the monks had given her, she grabbed aang's hand firmly and propelled them both onto diki, yelling for the bison to fly as fast as she can.