parallel lines

chapter xxvi

Word Count: 2,786 words

CHAPTER XXVI. 石の上にも三年

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It wouldn't be a big deal if a single cumulus cloud the size of a flying bison was moving across the ocean faster than any other clouds that were high up in the sky. Much faster than the clouds, much faster than the ships too.

Aang was putting a lot of effort to keep the camo-cloud while his fellow airbender was still asleep, a custom she had grown to admire after days of hard work. The days that had passed were just random at best, from Aang enrolling himself in a Fire Nation school and then hosting a dance party in a cold and wet cave they lived in. Sokka made a fool of himself again by enlisting for the Fire Nation army, earning the title Private Wang Fire for his stupidity; alright, sugarcoated courage; when he battled against waterbenders and earthbenders in a cave. The colony they just visited and stayed there for at least 4 days because of the Painted Lady not doing her job well and Katara had to pretend to be her. How could one forget about Sokka's tight schedule that was ditched after his thoughts of being a so called "swordbender" had acted up.

Not that they didn't deserve it, but life was energy depleting even during the days Sokka was training and everything was boring. At least the three girls of the Team Avatar had a rather interesting day out after Katara began picking a fight in one of the saloon's where they should've had steak in, having another day at the spa after instead.

And now, they were being transported through Appa to Roku's island, something about recalling Avatar Roku's history. If she knew that, she must've known as well that it would take at least a day which would be more than just an average day of lending Aang the strength. His body wasn't well enough to travel through the spirit realm, that was what she felt when he awoken earlier than she suspected and the fight she was having to come back when he restored the energy for himself was much more than just reappearing all the sudden.

"There it is!" Appa went down to land on a deserted island with two mountains with craters at the top, arguably volcanos that has been dormant since then, "That's Roku's home."

They quickly took off the camo-cloud, a lot more efficient than the last times they had. Looking around, they didn't see anything else but ground, more like soot. Toph jumped down from Appa, confirming that there was an entire village completely buried in ash. After settling down, the rest just kept on looking at Aang as he meditates, "What's taking so long?"

"The summer solstice hasn't occurred yet, boy." Natsuko walked to him and placed her hands on both sides of his head, before shaking her head and rather place her thumb to the center of his forehead, "You remember to stick with Roku all the time, okay?"

She sounded like she was doting on him, which made him stick his tongue out in retaliation. Natsuko gathered energy from the heat of the sun, a much more efficient way to plan on keeping Aang in his spiritual consciousness during a summer solstice. His eyes opened, glowing, and the rest of them were curious on how she wasn't feeling faint as per usual.

"Will he be okay?" Natsuko nodded at Katara, who asked the question. Sokka looked at her than asked another question, "What is he doing anyway?"

"He's talking to Roku about the war." they listened with intent and Katara had another question, "Well, since you always knew Avatar Roku. Would you tell us?"

"Well." she scratched the side of her head with a finger before shrugging and told them.

"It wasn't all smooth sailing with meeting the Avatars. There were those who found the abuse of that power very interesting, some were incessant and told that there has been a mistake. Roku was fine with the idea, but was just as hesitant with others."