Accidental Avatar

Back to the Gaang...

After a few minutes of quick packing, the giant haystack with legs is ready to fly across the ditch, and we are ready to jump into the hole except... "Okay, now comes the bad news," the guide called out. "No food allowed in the canyon. It attracts dangerous predators." He made motions with his hands to illustrate the skittery monsters that might lurk in the canyon.

The tribes' dissatisfied cacophony rose again at the interdiction against food.
"No food! This is ridiculous!" the Gandalf man exclaimed.
"Aww, you babies can go a day without food. Would you rather be hungry...or dead?" The fat fryer is really working that sass. At this, the Guide raised a pillar of stone underneath him. He towered ten feet or more over the rest. He continued, cupping his hands to his mouth to amplify his voice. "Now, we're headin' down in 10 minutes. All food better be in your gut or the garbage!"

I pull a small parcel of food from a pocket and start to eat, seeing as I won't be eating again for another day... The Zhangs were tearing into some meat, devouring it like there was no mañana. The Gan Jins...well, ain't they the textbook definition of classy. Once the time limit was up, Appa took off. Sokka and I stood and watched our fluffy ride fly away. "Aww, man..." We both whined together.

♍

We trudge down into the canyon, and the earthbender dude creates bridges and walkways right in front of us. Now that is some serious bending. When we reached the bottom of the canyon, he catapulted a bunch of boulders up at his little paths and blasted them back into the wall. Quick fix, no following. These guys are refugees, after all. But honestly, this guy was still crazy. He had just been talking about sacrifices... Sacrifices? Really?

HOLY SMOKES, ITS A SPIDER. An uh... massive one. In fact, it's huge. And swinging our guide around like a doll.
"We gotta help him!" Sokka yelled, throwing his boomerang. It got the things attention, causing it to throw the earthbender aside and chase him, and he turned and ran. "OK! Now we gotta help me!"
Doing the only thing that made sense, I picked up a handful of stones and started pelting them at the spider thing. It shook the stones off and turned to face me. It lowered its snout and charged. If it could just throw a mighty earthbender like that, what could it do to me?

Katara attacks it, cracking her water whip across its nose and drawing its attention from me. It screeched at her, but before it could make a move, Aang blasted it and trapped it in a tornado before throwing it halfway across the canyon.
I let out a low whistle. "Damn kid, that was nice."
"What was that thing!?" Aang demanded, staring at the old man in horror. I have to admit, even I had the heebie-jeebies from that thing.
"Canyon Crawler...ow.." The old guide groans where he lies in Katara's lap as she inspects his arms lying at a weird angle. "And there's sure to be more...."
"Your arms!" Katara gasped. "They're broken!"
"Without my arms, I got no bending..." He moans. "In other words...."
"We're trapped in this canyon..." Aang finished, his eyes growing wide.

"Awww, crap." I pull some bandages from the bag I'm carrying and handed them to Katara, who set to work setting his arm and putting it in a splint.
"I thought the whole point of ditching our food was so that we wouldn't have to deal with things like 'Canyon Crawlers'?" Sokka questioned, frowning at the old man.
"It's the Zhangs!" Gandalf suddenly insisted, pointing at them and frowning in his typical self-righteous way. "They took food down here, even though the guide told them not to." Damn, but he sounds like a little kid tattle talking on his siblings. I don't like him.

"WHAT!?" She-male roared. So that's what happens when you offend her... Good to know. "If there's anyone who can't go without food for a day, it's you pampered Gan Jins!"
"I hope you're happy!" Gandalf retorted, switching from little whiny kid to scolding grandpa in 2.5 seconds. A new record, I think. "Now we're stuck in this canyon, and there's no way out!"
"Why don't you thank yourself? Food-hider!" And now we've resorted to name-calling. Road Trip, anyone?
"Look!" Aang butted in. Bad move, little man. When kids fight, you don't argue; you let 'em do their thing. "Sticking together is the only way to..."
"I'M NOT WALKING ANOTHER STEP WITH THE LIKES OF THEM!" She-male thundered, pointing at Gandalf angrily.
"Now there's something we can agree on," Gandalf responded in a patronising tone. I think I've got a headache coming on from these two... Get a room already, you crazy people, geez.