[Earth on Fire] Zuko x OC

Chapter 19: The Chase (Part 1)

"Can we land yet?" Sokka whined, hanging over the edge of the saddle. "I'm tired."

"We're looking for a landing spot, Sokka," Katara replied through gritted teeth.

"I'm hungry!"

"What a surprise," I muttered sarcastically. We'd flown through the night and most of the next day once we'd left Gaoling, not finding any other towns to land at, and after nearly eighteen hours of flying, we were all anxious to find some ground.

"There's a clearing!" Aang said, pointing down below, and we all heaved a sigh of relief as Aang maneuvered Appa into the clearing. As Appa landed, a cloud of white flew upwards, causing us all to cough and wave our hands around to dispel the bits of fur flying around.

"Hey, you guys picked a great campsite!" Toph commented after she slid down, wiggling her her toes in Appa's fur. "The grass is so soft!"

"That's not grass," I deadpanned as I slid down, taking my sleeping bag with me. "Appa's shedding."

"Oh, gross!" Katara cried as bits of white fur flew into her hair.

"That's not gross," Aang said, smiling placatingly. "It's just a part of spring. You know, rebirth, flowers blooming, and Appa gets a new coat."

"Ah, the beauty of spring," Katara added sarcastically. Appa let out a grumble as he sneezed loudly, and we cried out as fur exploded and started to rain down around us.

"Ack! Appa, no!" I complained, brushing fur out of my hair.

"Hey, it's not that bad," Sokka said, turning around with a giant column of hair stuck on his head. "It makes a great wig!"

"And a great beard!" Aang added, jumping down next to Sokka with a giant beard covering the bottom half of his face and most of his torso. I bit my lip to hide a smile as Katara stared at them, unimpressed.

"I'm just glad we have another girl in the group," she said, brushing herself off. "Now that we outnumber you, maybe we'll finally have an advantage, because you two are disgusting."

"Excuse me," Sokka and Aang parted to make way for Toph, who walked forward with her arms behind her back. "Does anyone have a razor? Because I got some hairy pits!" She lifted her arms up to show the massive hair under them, causing all three to burst into hysterical giggles.

Aang let out a massive sneeze and flew backwards into Appa's leg and then fell face flat on the ground, which only made them laugh harder. I let out a laugh, shrugging my shoulders sheepishly when Katara shot me a glare.

"Fur fight!" Sokka yelled, scooping up a clump of fur with his hands. Before I could protest, he ran over and dumped it on my head, causing me to let out a loud shriek.

"Oh, you'll pay for that," I threatened, trying to keep my face serious. I grabbed two fistfuls of fur and ran at him, laughing as he dashed away, screaming.

We dissolved into fits of laughter and throwing fur, running around the clearing as we attacked each other. It started off as me and Katara versus Aang, Sokka and Toph, but quickly turned into everybody-versus-Sokka, and then girls-versus-boys as Aang took pity on Sokka.

"Hey, no fair!" I cried as Aang began to bend the air around the pieces and form a gigantic ball of fur that hung suspended in the air. "No fur bending! Aang's cheating!"

"All's fair in love and war!" Sokka cackled maniacally as Aang grinned and thrust the ball towards us.

"Everybody duck!" Toph yelled and we hit the ground as she created an earth tent that shielded us as the ball collided, spraying the air with fur.