Avatar Rose: Dusk

Ch.60: Nathan

"Nathan?"

"Yeah?"

Rowan's voice diverts my eyes from my notebook. He's jotting things down on his own, but a thought crosses his mind and he folds the lid over.

"I just thought of something," he says. "How are we going to defeat the Fire Lord?"

This again?

"It's possible," I reply. "The Fire Nation refused to teach it in it's curriculum, but have you ever heard about Avatar Aang?"

"Yeah," he replies, "he's the one who founded Republic City- right? In a way, he was the cause of the war..."

I sighed. "Do you know what he did before that, though?"

Rowan hesitates. "No?"

"Took down an evil Fire Lord and single-handedly stopped a war and saved the Earth Kingdom from burning down."

At this, Liesel and Xander look up.

I can tell they're surprised, so I continue. "He was still a kid- 11 or 12 years old. He had a gang of friends with him, notably the famous waterbender Katara and the inventor of metalbending, Toph. Later on, Fire Lord Zuko joined them, and Aang took down Zuko's father while he was trying to annihilate Earth Kingdom, consequently stopping the 100-year-war."

Liesel squinted. "But... Avatar Aang's always been the antagonist in history. He was the founder of the United Nations- the organization that had major internal conflict that eventually bred the war. The War of Betrayal- the airbenders are calling it."

"He never intended for the war to start- and that's not the point anyway. The point is- he stopped the war by killing the Fire Lord. So, that's what we're going to do."

"He actually didn't kill 'em," a voice says smugly. "He was a pussy and let the Fire Lord go. Supposedly put some life-altering curse on him though." Evan walks into the living room, and leans slightly against the wall. "So here's where you all were."

Rowan scowls. "Where else would we be? None of us can leave the house without disguises or we'll be jumped."

Evan shrugs. "Point to you."

Xander's eyes concentrate back on the TV.

"Hello, Evan," Liesel says a little too brightly.

My brother seems to go a little uneasy. "Oh I didn't see you, Liesel!" He says a little outlandishly.

The airbender peeps her head from off of her brother's shoulder. She's so short, she disappears behind Xander's tall frame.

"So, where were you?"

"Umm," Evan murmurs. He takes a pen out of his jacket pocket. "Just reprogramming this thing," he says, a little mumbled. "It looks like a pen, but it can actually function as an animal whistle of sorts. It has 20 different settings. The one for dogs was just got out-of-tune, so I had to fix it..." He brings it to his mouth and feeds it a large woof of air.

Xander blinks. "Nothing happened..."

Liesel swats him. "It's a dog whistle, you dimwit," she giggles, laughing.

And then the living room window shatters into a million pieces. Some dark silhouette comes crashing through the glass.

And then Gwen is suddenly here. You can't even see her move as she summons at least a hundred pointy-tipped icicles flying at the intruder...

And then a big gust of fire blasts away the ice, and it's so quiet, one can hear a pin drop. And then Rose's voice sings out a strangled cry, "LUNA?!?"

Huh? What?

"Omigosh it's you!! Ohh Luna, sweetheart I knew you'd make your way here!" Rose falls to her knees, her arms (er...arm) wrapped protectively around her grizzly-dog's neck.

Luna lets out a little howl. It seems she's happy too.

Slowly, my eyes adjust to the situation. Evan has tackled Gwen to the ground, and pinned her arms to the floor above her. Liesel has this expression of disbelief, and she's slightly cowering behind her brother, who's got his battle ax raised in the air above his head. His mouth is half-open, like he was halfway through preparing to let out some viking-like battlecry. Rowan's pulled out a dagger, and Rose embraces Luna.

"What's going on here?" a voice shouts.

Here we go again...

"Teacher!" Rose says, a little uncomfortably. "Have you met my dog yet?"

Teacher crinkles his nose. "Pets go outdoors!" he snaps. "You know the consequences!"

Rowan sighs, Rose wrings her head.

"Well," he says. "What did I teach you?"

"Pets belong outside, humans seek shelter. If you bring a pet inside, you're treating it like a human. In turn, you will be treated as a pet and thrown outside."

"Recited perfectly, Rose!"

She grins.

"Get out! You're sleeping outside for tonight!"

Rose turns red. "Yessir!" She says a little trembly.