Balance | Old Version

Chapter 58 (The Chase)

Third Person POV.

A young boy walks through the halls of a palace with his mother shortly behind him. He was looking at all the portraits that hang on the wall, but not really paying attention to all of them. But, they walk past one that catches the boy's attention and making him stop and stare at it.
"Who is that, Mom?" The boy asks his mother as he points to the portrait of a young woman with dark hair and grey/blueish eyes.
"That, Zuko, is a woman named Elua. She and your grandfather were going to marry, but she died before their wedding," His mother explains with a sad smile on her face.
"How did she die?" Young Zuko asks his mother curiously.

"She was killed," She answers her son's question, smiling at his curiosity. The young prince frowns in confusion as he looks back over to the portrait.
"Why would someone kill a future Fire Lady?" He asks in dismay.
"People who didn't want her to be," His mother states. Young Zuko stares at the portrait for a little while longer and sighs.
"Come along, let's go to the courtyard," His mother says as she takes his hand and they walk away, deciding to leave the past in the past.

Elua's POV.

We were unpacking our camping supplies from Appa, the seasons were changing so Appa had been shedding for a few days and when he sheds, it gets everywhere.
"Hey, you guys picked a great campsite. The grass is so soft," Toph says as she stands on the pile of Appa's fur on the ground.
"That's not grass. Appa's shedding," I tell her, I see Katara's face scrunch up in disgust.
"Oh, gross!" Katara says as she looks at the ground covered in fur.
"That's not gross," Aang says as a bird lands on his head and a butterfly flies by him.

"It's just a part of spring. You know, rebirth, flowers blooming, and Appa gets a new coat!" He tells her with a smile as the bird flies away.
"Ah, the beauty of spring," Katara says sarcastically. Suddenly, Appa sneezes and begins to shake, making fur go everywhere. "Stop, Appa, stop!" She shouts as she coughs.
"It's not that bad, Katara. It makes a great wig!" Sokka says as he puts the white fur on his head.
"And a great beard!" Aang says as he puts fur on his face. Katara stares at them unimpressed.
"I'm just glad we finally have another girl in the group because you two are disgusting," Katara says in disgust. I look over to her in as I throw my hand up in confusion. Do I count for nothing?

"You know I'm a girl, right?" I ask her, she looks over to me and shrugs.
"Yeah, but you're older than me," Katara states. "And you're basically Sokka's girlfriend," She adds with a smirk on her face, my eyes go wide and I stare at her in shock.
"What? I am not Sokka's girlfriend!" I shout in surprise, making her laugh.
"Excuse me, does anyone have a razor...because I've got some hairy pits!" Toph says as she raises her arms, where Appa's fur now resides. Everyone begins to laugh, Katara tries to keep a straight face, but she soon laughs with us.

That Night.

Everyone was sleeping peacefully, but we are all suddenly woken up as Toph starts shouting about something.
"There's something coming toward us!" Toph shouts.
"What is it?" I ask her worriedly as I sit up and rub the sleep out of my eyes.
"It feels like an avalanche...But also not like an avalanche," She says in confusion.
"Your powers of perception are frightening," Sokka says sarcastically.
"Should we leave?" Katara asks, unsure what to do.
"Better safe than sorry," I say as I nod.

We quickly pack everything up and hop on Appa, everyone still very sleepy. As we fly off we look behind us and see a trail of smoke moving closer to where we had just left.
"What is that thing?" Katara asks with a frown of confusion.
"I don't know," I say as I try to look closer, but it's no use. We fly for a little until we find a good spot to make camp again and Appa lands.
"Ahh, land, sweet land!" Toph exclaims as she flops on the dirt. "See you guys in the morning!" She says as she starts to walk off.
"Actually, can you help us unload?" Katara asks her kindly.
"Really? You need me to help unload Sokka's funky-smelling sleeping bag?" Toph asks.

"Well, yeah. That and everything else. You're a part of our team now and-" Katara starts to say, but she is quickly cut off.
"Look. I didn't ask you to help unload my stuff. I'm carrying my own weight," Toph tells her.
"That's not the point, Ever since joining us, you've been nothing but selfish and unhelpful," Katara tells her, obviously getting annoyed.
"What? Look here, sugar queen, I gave up everything I had so that I could teach Aang and Elua earthbending, so don't you talk to me about being selfish!" Toph shouts at her angrily.
"Sugar Queen!?" Katara shouts in fury as Toph makes an earth tent and blocks Katara from entering.

"D-Did you just slam the door in my face!?" Katara shouts again. "How can you be so infuriating!" She continues to shout.
"Should we...do something?" Aang asks as we watch Katara yell nonsense.
"Hey, I'm just enjoying the show," Sokka tells him smiling in amusement. I roll my eyes and I sigh as I walk over to Katara, deciding to try and calm her down.
"Okay, okay, you both need to calm down," I tell her simply.
"Both? I'm completely calm!" Katara shouts with a crazed look on her face. I stare at her for a moment, a little shocked with her outburst of rage.

"...I can see that," I say as I turn around and walk back over to the boys. We all lay down on the ground and try to get some more sleep, but Katara makes it difficult.
"The stars sure are beautiful tonight. Too bad you can't see them, Toph!" Katara shouts.
"That was just mean, Katara," I mumble with a sigh as I roll over and close my eyes but I quickly reopen them as I hear a thud. I turn back around and see that Toph has earth bent Katara onto Sokka, who now looks extremely frustrated.
"Hey, how is a guy supposed to sleep with all this yelling and earthquaking!" Sokka shouts angrily as he pushes Katara off him.

"That thing is back!" Toph shouts as she earthbends her tent away.
"Well, how far away is it? Maybe we can close our eyes just for a few minutes," Sokka says tiredly as he lifts his sleeping bag over his head. I look up at the trees and see smoke getting close and close to us by the second.
"I don't think so, Sokka," I tell him as I quickly stand up. He groans in annoyance but, gets up as well. We again quickly pack up everything then get back onto Appa and take off into the night sky, for the second time tonight.
"Seriously, what is that thing?" Katara asks as we look at the smoke below us.
"And how does it keep finding us?" Toph asks.

"I don't know, but this time I'm going to make sure we lose 'em," Aang says in determination as we fly over grassy lands and mountains until we find a flat area and Appa lands again.
"Okay, forget about setting up camp. I'm finding the softest pile of dirt and going to sleep," Sokka says sleepily as he lays down on the dirt.
"That's good because Toph wasn't going to help anyway," Katara says in annoyance. I roll my eyes and sigh as I hang my head. Here we go again.
"Oh, I didn't realize baby still needed someone to tuck her in bed," Toph mocks.
"Come on guys, there's something after us and we don't even know what or who it is," Aang says tiredly, obviously getting annoyed with all the bickering.

"It could be Zuko. We haven't seen him since the North Pole," I say as I lay down on the cold ground.
"Who's Zuko?" Toph asks in confusion.
"Oh, just some angry freak with a ponytail who's tracked us all over the world," Sokka says as he closes his eyes.
"What's wrong with ponytails, ponytail?" I ask him jokingly.
"This is a warrior's wolf tail," Sokka says pointing to his hair.
"Well, it certainly tells the other warriors that you're fun and perky!" Katara says.

"Anyway, whoever's chasing us, they couldn't have followed us here. So...now would everyone just shhh!" Sokka says as he starts to fall asleep, and so do the rest of us. It was peacefully again, but it doesn't last long as Momo starts to chatter as he looks over the cliffside. "Oh, don't tell me," Sokka groans.
"That's impossible. There's no way they could have tracked us," Aang says as we all stand up.
"I can feel it with my own two feet!" Toph states and we run over to the cliffside and see a metal machine coming over the rough ground below us.

"Let's get out of here!" Katara says as she walks over to Appa.
"Maybe we should face them. Find out who they are. Who knows, maybe they're friendly," Aang says with optimism.
"Always the optimist," Sokka says rolling his eyes. Suddenly, the machine stops and the door opens. We watch as three people on giant lizards get out of the metal machine, only to see that it was the three girls from Omashu.