Avatar Rose: Dusk

Ch.46: Nathan

I try to hold my laughter in. It's been some time since I've laughed like this. It feels good. I should do this more often. I dunno, I guess I'm just not the comedic type.

Evan, however is literally rolling on the rug, seemingly trying to keep his insides in. Gwen glares at him, and Rose's eyes shoot up a glare that can kill, aiming right between Evan's pupils.

Evan cracks up even more. It's true, he's always seemed like the comedic type at heart.

Rose runs to the bathroom to wash the soap off, and the atmosphere steadily eases back to normal, Rowan goes outside for earthbending practice, Evan plays pi-sho against himself, I fiddle around with my water, and Gwen does something to her nails. All around, everything seems tranquil.

With the help of Rose's teacher, I find some newspapers with information on the war. It seems he's been collecting clippings for a couple weeks now.

Earthly News- Information from the Core

My eyes sweep the top. It seems he's created an index of stuff. It's an awful lot...

I go hunting for some paper and a pen and quickly start to take notes.

Ganshan:
•38% presumed dead or captured
•Only south-western side completely demolished
•Support from donations
-Not enough money to sustain, villagers are being relocated
•Earth=two prisoners
-9 others have committed seppuku

Inter-nation activity:
•Air allied with Earth
•Water declared neutral
•Earth is allowing___ into territory
-interrogated Fire rebels
-Half Earth/ Half Fire families
-Half Air/ Half Fire families

Earth Militia:
•Old General assassinated,
-new leader elected by civilians
•Volunteers have been enough, no need for compulsory military participation
-benders and nonbenders being trained as elite soldiers

Evan reads over my shoulder. His eyes widen at the news of the old general being assasinated. His eyebrows furrow. "Does it say who did it?" He hushes.

I shake my head. "Nope, sadly not."

He curls his lip. "For 9 to go out seppuku, they've had to have been hiding something." He turns to me. "Have you heard of the Earth Kingdom elite forces? The Dai Lee?"

"Yeah," I say, rolling out my shoulder. "I've met one before too."

"It's rumoured they have a special kind of interrogation. One that hypnotizes you, and forces you to tell them everything with no resistance."

I gulp. "No mistaking it, that's a good reason to commit seppuku."

Rose comes back finally. Stepping into the doorway, her eyes quickly scan the room before resting on ms, and then flit to the side. She walks over to us.

"Evan," she hisses.

"What?"

"You're paying for the mechanic," she says, "when we finally get around to seeing one."

My eyes focus in on her leg. Somehow, the leg looks like it's in worse condition than before.

I see Evan's noticed it too. "Rose," he muses, "what did you do?"

Rose goes red. "Well..." she starts.

Evan chuckles. Annoyed, she takes me to the side and whispers in my ear the situation.

"... and even though I tripped into that bathtub and smashed my leg against the tap, it could've been much worse. I almost smashed my head against the thing that holds the bar of soap."

I chuckle. "Ironic, isn't it? That you'll fall into a bathtub due to soap being in both your mouth and eyes and then almost get a concussion to the thing that holds it?"

Rose swats my arm playfully. "Shut up."

Gwen stands up. "My nails are finally dry," she says. "Rowan's out doing bending practice. We should all do the same. Four waterbenders practicing at once- sounds fun, does it not?"

Evan yawns.

"Fine," Rose mumbles.

"Gwen's right," I say. "We need some practice. A month down the road, it's possible that we're fighting battles every day."

She smiles. "Good," she says. "I know the perfect place."

Rowan tags along as Gwen leads us into a forest. There's no clearly marked path, but Gwen seems to know the route be heart. After walking through lush ferns, dense bushes and colourful wildflowers, we come to an overhang. Rocks form a miniature mountain about 30 meters up, then stoop over.

Gwen shoots me a look. "I know Nathan can make it up by himself and I know Rowan can't. There is a fragile structure of this overhang, so no earth bending yet." She directs her attention to Rose. "Can you make it up?" She asks.

Rose squints. "I think so..." she says slowly.

"Good," she says. "Evan?"

"Nope."

"Okay, I'll only have to carry two people up. Nathan, go first."

"Evan, can you get me some water?"

"Whatever." He pulls some from the air. I quickly accept it. I wrap it around my arms and quickly climb up a tree using my new water arms, and I catapult myself to the cliff.

I see Rose following soon after, jetting up gusts of fire through her palms. Gwen begins. Stealing water through Evan, she creates a mini vortex in her palms. She says something to Rowan, who nods and she lowers her hands to ground level. He jumps onto the vortex and Gwen launches him over the cliff. I catch him in a bed of water. Evan does the same thing and I catch him as well. Before I can blink, Gwen is on the overhang with us.

She smiles cheekily. "5 more minutes to go," she says, and we start off once more.

We soon arrive at a little cave. Rowan frowns. "I've never seen this place before," he muses.

"Just through here," Gwen calls from ahead of us.

25 paces later, we can't believe our eyes.