ANYTHING BUT; avatar the last airbender

chapter 2

[act two; chapter two     -     a dirtied river or dirtied soul?]

    Lian was familiar with the styles and life of the Fire Nation. She had lived within it, surrounded by it, for a brief time. She remembers the red clothing that had been gifted to her by Fire Lord Ozai, how he had said she must dress the part as she was meant to someday be the wife of the future Fire Lord. He had invited her to his hall, watching as she knelt before his throne. He had told her, then, with Iroh standing in the corner of the room, Zuko oblivious in his own chambers. He had looked at her, with his son's eyes, and said, "You will be the future of this Nation, Lian. You must act the part, now, or you will have no future at all."

    She had acted the part, surely. She had done it quite well. Too well. Because suddenly her heart did not beat from anxiety or fear that she did not, could not, pretend well enough. No, her heart, suddenly, began to beat out of necessity. Necessity to be around Zuko, to hear his laughter and see that smile. Suddenly his eyes and his smile were not his fathers. They were simply his, and only his. But then it was wiped away and destroyed, and Lian had fled, still wearing the clothes that had been gifted to her, fleeing to her nation in the colors of the enemy.

    Perhaps that had made leaving her home nation so much easier.

    She had helped them all—Katara, Sokka, Aang, and Toph—to dress the part, to appear as though they were citizens of the Fire Nation, rather than something else entirely.

    After the chaos of the hidden cave, they had found themselves maneuvering slowly along a secluded river.

    Beside Appa, slowly drifting, was Aang, swimming and playing with Momo, teasing the flying lemur as he swooped up and down, nearing the murky water.

    With a spin of his arms, Aang landed in the large saddle on Appa's back, covered in whatever substance contaminated the river. He looked down at them, then, his arms held away from his side. "Hey, guys, I think the river's polluted." And then, without warning at all, the mud no longer covered him, but the rest of the group.

    Lian groaned, grumbling under her breath. She wiped it away from her face with a grimace, looking up at Aang, shaking her head. "You're horrible."

    He smiled before he cleared all of the mud away with a great gust of wind.

    Sokka, from where he sat opposite of them with a fishing pole in hand, said, "Well, that explains why I can't catch a fish around here. Because normally my fishing skills are...off the hook! Get it, like a fishing hook?"