Avatar Rose: Dusk

Ch.40: Nathan

I practically drag Rose all the way back to the hotel. It's not a particularly enjoyable experience. After all- Rose stinks. Like, actually. The rotten smell of heavy alcohol has soaked into her clothes, and her hair is greasy-wet, probably doused with alcohol. I can smell her scalp from 10 feet away, and Rowan seems to agree.

Our hands pinching desperately at our noses, each man hauling one arm over their shoulder, Rowan and I slowly but surely make our way back to the hotel, on the other side of town. Evan follows rather aimlessly about 50 feet behind us, his eyes glazed over. Rose has since stopped struggling, I think she passed out halfway in to our trek home. Gwen is waiting for us by the door, and her eyes go wide at the mere sight of us, and then her nose wrinkles. "Get her up," she says, rushed. "I'll prepare a hot bath and towels-" her eyes catch sight of a stumbling Evan, and the lit cigarette half-hanging out of his mouth. "I'll get stuff for him too," she stutters, and then quickly creates a water whip as she draws water out of satchel. She hurls it at a tree, freezes it at her wrist, and then swings full circles around the tree and then, tucking herself into a ball, gracefully spirals into the window opening of our room.

Please note that our room is on the seventh floor.

"That hottie sure is a ninja...." a slurred voice drawls.

Evan.

Honestly, it'll be better for everyone if he's knocked out. Who knows what crazy things Evan might do to Gwen now.

I quickly grip his arms and legs, then his pulmonary valve and Evan collapses.

"Can you take her from here?" I ask Rowan.

He nods.

It's odd. He hasn't murmured a word the entire trek. I don't know him very well, but you just know that's not his character. He's very muscular and tough, with a strong frame. His green eyes look a little sad against his brown skin. He proceeds to the seventh floor silently.

It had rained this morning while I was out weeding the owner of the hotel's garden, so there is a lot of the moisture in the air. I manage to pull a little bit from the air, and then grip Evan as I make a little tunnel of water, scooping me and Evan up and then planting us on the windowsill. I tunnel the water back into the ground. Gwen takes Evan, stinky mess and all, rips the cigarette from his mouth, and then drops him in the bathtub. Unfortunately, there's no way for a healer to get the stink out of a patient's body except for the usual methods; a bar of soap, a tub of water, and a lot of patience. She gestures for me to go in there, and so I strip Evan's shirt off and begin scrubbing.

Rowan comes in with Rose a little while later. I haul Evan out, and stick Rose in. Gwen pushes past me, and ushers me out so she can clean her.

It's about 22 o'clock now, by the time. We should leave this hotel tomorrow. Check-out's at 11. With Rose's memory back, we have no need to stay here any longer. Gosh, I hope she's not mad. Whatever. I'll deal with the fire when it comes. Surprisingly, I'm not all that disappointed that Rose didn't tell us about her memory recall. Our crew, Evan, Gwen and I did in fact need a break.

Our next plan should be to get a spiritual expert. After all, Rose's most ultimate power is the Avatar State. It's not much help if she can't even use it. She'll need a day to recover too. So in two days we should be on the road. We also have to inform that Rowan guy. I know I was rude to him at first, but he seems like a good addition to the team. As childhood friends, Rose and him should be able to bend in similar patterns, which is great for combat. We just need to get him to agree.

Rowan walks past me, heading to the kitchen. He eats an awful lot. Wendy must be pleased.