Burning Chapter 19: Downpour

It was around noon the next day when the lava had finally cooled enough for the villagers to return to their homes.

Despite the thick layer of ash coating everything and a few scorch marks here and there, the village had almost been completely untouched. Seeing as it’d almost been completely swallowed by the volcano, that was saying something.

“And that should just about do it,” Sokka hummed as he finished tying everything down in Appa’s saddle. “I’d say that I was going to miss this place, but... Yeah.”

“Sokka!” Katara squawked.

“What? It’s the truth... Besides, we saved them from a volcano, it’s not like they can be mad at us after that.” Sitting down, he crossed his arms. “So are you guys going to take all day or what? We’re burning daylight.”

Right, I’m sure this was about leaving on time and not anything to do with him not liking the people here. Seeing how a few of the villagers looked at each other, the feeling was mutual.

“Sorry about him,” Aang apologized, rubbing the back of his head. “Sokka can be a little–“

Raising her hand, Aunt Wu smiled gently. “There’s no need to apologize, young Airbender. I understand perfectly well where he’s coming from. In fact, I’ve had a little parting gift prepared to ensure that there are no hard feelings as well as to offer thanks for your efforts in saving this village.”

Gesturing towards the villagers, a few of them came out carrying several bags loaded with supplies.

“What? But... I just finished packing the saddle,” Sokka murmured softly.

Covering her mouth, Aunt Wu let out a short laugh before moving on. “As for you, young Firebender, I believe we will be hearing a great deal more about you in the future. You have quite the role to play, both as the Avatar’s Firebending master, as well as a few other things.”

“Any idea what those other things might be?”

“You’ll see in time,” She hummed, patting my cheek. “I shouldn’t keep you for too long. A storm is coming and I don’t think you’ll want to be caught in the middle of it.”

Looking up at the sky, there were indeed thick black clouds rolling in, although they were pretty far away.

“I wish you luck on your journey. You’re going to need it.”

Well that was ominous.

Sharing a look with Aang, he shrugged and hopped onto Appa’s back, leaving me behind.

One day, I was going to figure out how to do the same thing with fire... Until then, however, I’d be stuck walking.

...Burning...

Gripping the railing of his ship, Zuko glared down at the ocean, barely paying any mind as his men worked tirelessly to keep them as wave after wave crashed against the hull.

After several days of marching through the wilderness and sailing on a ship that’d been captured by the Earth Kingdom, he’d finally made it back to his own... Only to be caught up in what was quickly becoming the worst storm of the decade, perhaps even the century.

Sometimes, it really felt like the world was out to get him.

“You know, if you spend any more time in this rain, you could end up ruining your health.”

Looking over at his uncle who stood a few feet behind him, Zuko turned back towards the ocean to continue his glare. “If you’ve come to tell me that I should go inside, I don’t want to hear it.”

The Avatar already had a substantial lead without him wasting any more time.

“I know things haven’t gone quite as planned. We’ve had setback after setback, but, with a little help along the way, we’ve managed to make it this far.” Placing a hand on Zuko’s shoulder, Iroh squeezed lightly. “Just like this storm, things will calm down, but until then, all we can do is keep our eyes open and wait.”

Sighing, Zuko closed his eyes. “Perhaps you’re right.”

“I am?” Iroh asked, before coughing to mask his surprise. “I mean, yes, of course. Now, if you could say what I was right about... Just so that we’re on the same page.”

Releasing the railing, Zuko turned towards his uncle, only to see one of his soldiers rushing over. “What is it?” With the way the storm was battering his ship, he wouldn’t be surprised to hear if something important broke.

“We found a man overboard. He appears to be a fisherman,” The soldier reported. “He’s been asking for you.”

That was substantially better than finding out something had broken down, but still, it was an odd request. “Take me to him.”

Nodding, the man led them down to the main deck where another pair of soldiers stood, guarding an older man with a large white beard.

Looking him up and down, he raised a brow. “You’re the one in charge?”

“I am,” Zuko said, eyeing the man suspiciously.

“Then I guess you’re the one to thank for saving me.” Reaching into his robes, the soldiers all tensed, ready for an attack, only for the man to pull out a slimy fish that he slapped into Zuko’s hands. “Here, as payment for getting me back to shore. I ain’t no freeloader.”

“What a handsome fish,” Iroh noted, looking over Zuko’s shoulder. “If you don’t want it, could I–“

“Take it,” Zuko muttered, shoving it into his uncle’s hands, getting a happy smile in return. “As for you,” he turned towards the man they’d fished out of the ocean. “The moment we make port, you’re getting off.”

“No complaints here.” the man shrugged. “Between being saved by the Fire Nation and seeing that flying buffalo the other day, I don’t know what’s weirder.”

Flying buffalo?

That might just be his best bet at finding the Avatar.

“Did you see which direction it was heading?”

...Burning...

Sitting on Appa’s back, I stared down at the clouds, watching as they lit up with lightning while we flew overhead. We’d been travelling for a number of hours now, looking for an edge to the storm.

You’d think that travelling above the clouds would somehow make it easier and it did in some way, we didn’t need to worry about the heavy rain just below, but there were other problems, namely, how we weren’t able to tell where we were.

If not for Aang making the occasional trip through the storm, we’d probably be completely lost.

Speaking of which, he’d been gone for a while now. Any longer and he might just find himself hopelessly lost. It wasn’t like we’d be able to find him either, because of the severe weather down below.

The best we could do was wait for him to return, at least that way he’d have a general idea of where we were.

“Watch out!”

Looking up as we hit a sudden updraft, we were immediately surrounded by a wall of thick white cloud that severely limited our vision, while at the same time muffling all sound, making it feel like we were passing through some kind of void in the sky

“Woah,” Ty Lee breathed, looking around. “I never thought the inside of a cloud would look like this. It’s all so... Foggy,” she chirped.

“It is pretty cool,” Katara hummed, pulling water from the clouds with a wave of her hand.

“Yeah, well as cool as this all is, we can’t stay here for long,” Sokka muttered. Looking over at his sister, he let out a soft snort. “I guess the weather up here doesn’t agree with your hair.”

Blinking, she looked up at her hair which was beginning to stand up on end and patted it down. It wasn’t just her either. Both Ty Lee and Sokka’s hair was a mess too. Even Appa’s fur was beginning to frizzle out.

There was a static charge in the air. Almost as if–

Jumping to my feet, I held my hand out as a bolt of lightning struck, drawing cries of surprise from the gang. Feeling the raw electricity coursing through my body, I held my other hand up, releasing the bolt straight up.

Exhaling slowly, I lowered my hands.

That was close.

If I’d been a second slower, Appa would have been hit.

“That’s it,” Sokka yelped, grabbing the reins. “We need to find a place to land, right now!”

“But what about Aang?” Katara asked. “If we leave, he might not be able to find us.”

“If we don’t, there might not be a ‘us’ left!” He said, steering us down. “Katara, I need you to bend as much water off us as possible, Honō, do whatever it was you did… Just, again. Ty Lee, make sure we don’t lose any of our stuff. Aang… Aang?”

Grinning sheepishly with his glider in hand, Aang stood at the back of the saddle, completely soaked. “Hey guys, sorry for taking so long. I got a little caught up in the storm, it’s nuts down there... Dark too. I only managed to find you guys because of the lightning.”

Taking a breath, he exhaled, creating a sphere of air that instantly dried his clothes, spraying the rest of us.

“Glad to have you back,” I hummed, wiping a hand over my face while Katara leeched the water from her clothes using Waterbending, before offering to do the same for Ty Lee.

“Thanks.” Beaming brightly, he dropped into a seated position on Appa’s saddle. “So, where’re the snacks at? All that flying can really work up an appetite.”

Reaching for the pack Aunt Wu made us, Appa suddenly let out a groan while lurching forward, dragging us down.

“Um guys,” Sokka called out. “While I’m super glad everything’s worked out and Aang’s back, did you forget that we’re kind of in the middle of something?!” Fighting against the gale force winds, Appa let out a loud groan, just barely resisting. “I don’t think he can take much more of this.”

“That’s fine.” Hopping onto Appa’s head, Aang took control. “I forgot to tell you guys, I found the perfect place for us to wait out this storm.”

Leading him down, we passed through the top layer of the storm and were immediately surrounded by brief flashes of light. The wind was hot and stuffy, but also quickly cooling the further we made our way down, forming little ice crystals that almost seemed to hang in the air.

It didn’t take long before we broke through the final layer and were able to see the ground. From below, the storm seemed far harsher.

The clouds churned angrily, the wind picked up, pelting us with ice cold raindrops and small hailstones, even the lightning seemed more violent, cracking across the sky every few seconds in brilliant white streaks

“Let’s see here,” Aang hummed, scanning the horizon. “It should be right about... Ahah.” Pulling on Appa’s reins, we made a hard left, flying over what seemed to be a mountain, before passing into a small valley with a river splitting it right down the middle. “There it is!” He said, pointing off into the distance.

Spotting something in the dark, a flash of lightning briefly illuminated the landscape, revealing a small rundown village. Nearly a dozen buildings looked to have collapsed, while several more didn’t have roofs. It didn’t look recent either... It’d been left like this for a long time.

“Um, Aang,” Katara murmured, unsure. “I know we don’t exactly have a lot of options right now, but this place seems a little...”

“Decrepit, broken-down, ruined, abandoned,” Sokka supplied, counting each off on his fingers. “It looks like no one’s been around for the past few decades.”

“But that’s what makes it perfect,” Aang replied, looking over his shoulder. “This way, we don’t have to ask anyone if it’s alright for us to stay, and look... That barn over there doesn’t seem so damaged.”

Squinting his eyes, Sokka hummed thoughtfully. “I really don’t think that–“ Flinching as lightning cracked loudly overhead, he gave the barn a second look. “Appa should have to spend the night in this rain when there’s a perfectly good barn for us to use.”

Grinning, Aang steered us over, landing a short distance away.

Up close, the barn appeared pretty run down. There was a large hole in one of the walls with the outside wood appearing to be rotting.

The doors seemed to be just about ready to fall off their hinges while the metal looked as if it’d been rusted through, but despite all that, it still managed to hold up against the harsh weather.

“Let’s see what we’re working with.” Hopping off Appa’s head, Aang landed on the ground just in front of the barn. Giving the doors a tug, they opened with a loud creak, letting out a wave of stale air as thunder crackled above.

Not waiting to be told what to do, Appa barged in. Ducking under the frame, he pushed the doors open, taking shelter in the dark barn.

Lighting up the barn with a small ball of fire. There were a few rusted tools lining the wall and what looked to be an old pile of hay lying on the floor in the corner, but that seemed to be about it.

Waiting for him to shake himself dry, I slid down Appa’s back, taking in our surroundings. The wooden floor was mostly dry, save for the water we’d tracked in, although there were several leaks.

Landing beside me with her pack in hand, Ty Lee seemed a little unnerved as she looked around. “Couldn’t we have just gone to a different village? This place is giving me the creeps.”

The problem was, there weren't exactly any other villages nearby... At least, not ones we could easily reach during the storm.

“Maybe when the storm dies down,” I hummed. “With the rate at which it’s going, it’ll probably be gone by tomorrow.”

“I was afraid you’d say that,” Ty Lee moaned, before perking up a little. “Well, I guess it’s better than being hit by lightning... And I still have these cuties by my side–” She gestured towards Appa and Momo. “So it can’t be all bad.”

“Only you, Ty Lee.”

Shaking my head, I reached up and grabbed some of my supplies from Appa’s saddle. Lighting a small lantern to better help illuminate the room.

Letting out a yawn as a flash of light shone in through the barn doors, I looked up as thunder boomed overhead, shaking the roof.

...Burning...

Breathing in a slow, controlled manner as she slowly cycled through several forms, Azula brought her hand up, lightning crackling around her form. Pointing towards a tree, there was a bright flash, before its base suddenly exploded, sending a shower of splinters spraying across the clearing.

Currently, we stood outside in a clearing far enough away so as to not attract attention. It was one of those days that Azula reserved for practicing advanced Firebending techniques, meaning that Ty Lee and Mai were nowhere to be seen.

Only, since I was a Firebender, I was excluded from being excluded.

“Somehow, I expected that to be more difficult.” Narrowing her eyes, she brushed a stray strand of hair out of the way. “Not good enough.”

“Are you sure about that?” I asked, making my way closer. “I’m pretty sure the tree wouldn’t argue, aside from it being a tree.”

“Of course. It took entirely too long to use. Anyone that would give me that much time would hardly be worth the lightning,” Azula said, not missing a beat. “It needs to be perfect, anything less would be unacceptable. Perhaps you should give it a try and see for yourself.”

I mean, I did want to. Learning how to generate lightning would definitely come in useful, even if it could get me in a lot of trouble just by knowing it, but, given everything I’d been up to, that would be the least of my troubles.

There was, however, one thing I wanted to test first.

“Do you mind demonstrating it one more time?”

“If I must.” Letting out a short sigh, Azula seemed oddly pleased with herself. “I expect you to pay close attention this time.”

Exhaling slowly, she brought her hands together. Moving them in a circular motion, electricity sparked to life at her fingertips, rapidly growing in intensity. Bringing them together once more, she aimed her fingers towards the already downed tree, intending on releasing the built up energy.

Latching onto her fingers, I breathed slowly, forcibly keeping myself calm as lightning coursed down my arm, filling my body with an almost nervous energy.

“So, this is lightning.”

I could see why a calm state of mind was necessary. All it would take was one spike in emotion... One little mistake to lose control entirely. As it stood, I could barely contain it.

Letting go of Azula, I stared at my hand, doing my best to memorize this feeling, before pointing my fingers towards the tree stump, shattering it. Taking a quick breath, I flexed my hand experimentally, before nodding.

I think I got it.

“What was that?”

Looking over at Azula, I found her staring at me with her arms crossed. A number of emotions on her face, shock, annoyance and a little bit of eagerness being at the forefront.

“Just testing something,” I hummed. “I wanted to know what to expect when using lightning for the first time, so I used some of yours.”

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Azula closed her eyes. “There is absolutely no mention of what you just did being possible, lightning is supposed to be the ultimate form of Firebending any you just... I don’t even know where to begin... How?”

“I just opened a pathway from my arm to my stomach and let the lightning flow there, before using it,” I explained. “Although, I had to make sure it stayed away from my heart. If it went through there, it probably would have ended up killing me. I could show you the movement if you like... Give you an idea of how it works.”

Eyes snapping open, Azula  had a calculative look on her face.

“No, I don’t believe that will be necessary. I’ve seen more than enough. It’s a cute trick, but ultimately pointless in application since you’ll never come across anyone other than myself capable of using lightning. You should focus on generating your own instead.”

Yeah, somehow, I doubted that, but seeing as I did want to try while the feeling of wielding lightning was still fresh, I pushed it to the side... For now at least.

“Alright, just give me a second,” I hummed, putting some distance between us.

Using the same stance Azula had applied only a few moments ago, I shot a quick glance towards her, before taking a quick breath.

During a storm, negative charge collected in the clouds while the ground was positively charged, creating a powerful electric field. The collapse of that field balanced the positive and negative charge, creating the phenomena known as lightning.

It should work the exact same way here.

Channelling positive energy to my right hand and negative energy to my left, I separated them. Moving my arms in wide circles, electricity sparked to life at my fingertips... Although, not as much as Azula’s.

Bringing my fingers together, the electric field collapsed, causing lightning to spark at my fingertips. Keeping my calm, I raised my hand, planning on releasing the bolt of raw energy harmlessly into the sky, only for Azula to suddenly grab a hold of my hand.

Having somewhat expected this, I placed my hand on top of her own in an attempt to reabsorb the burst of electricity, only for her to copy me once more by using her free hand, creating a closed loop of lightning bouncing back and forth between our bodies.

Feeling a sense of anxiety wash over me, I took a step back, harshly trying to break free, only for Azula to come along for the ride, knocking us both over.

Hitting the ground with a thud, I raised our arms, keeping them far away from our bodies as a burst of lightning shot forward, blowing a hole in a nearby tree.

Unfortunately, what I didn’t account for in that moment was gravity and how Azula was lying on top of me with nothing to support herself. The end result being that we were face to face with our lips firmly pressed against one another.

Blinking as Azula’s eyes widened significantly, we laid still for a few moments. Hearing a loud snapping come from above, we both looked up to see the tree that’d just been struck by our lightning leaning towards us as the trunk cracked.

Pulling her hand free from my own, Azula flicked it towards the tree, forming a thin whip of flame that shattered the trunk on its side, causing it to fall away from us.

Meeting her gaze once more, she slowly pushed herself up, facing away from me.

“Yes, well... I believe it best that we don’t try to bend lightning like that again,” Azula muttered.

“Yeah.” Getting up with a grunt I dusted myself off. “Redirecting lightning’s probably best done at a distance.” Definitely not the way we just did it. “Although, I did learn something pretty important from all of this.”

Unable to contain her curiosity, Azula looked over her shoulder. “And that would be?”

Tapping my lips, I struggled to contain my smile. “You apparently like mint flavoured tea.”

Twitching, Azula clenched her hand shut and marched towards me. “Here’s what’s going to happen,” she muttered, standing directly in front of me. “You’re going to wake up.”

“Sure, I won’t– wait, what did you just say?”

She was supposed to threaten to burn down my house if I ever told Mai and Ty Lee about the kiss, not, well...

“I said, you need to wake up,” Azula said urgently. “You’re in danger!”

What was going on?

Rubbing my eyes, I looked up to see Azula was gone and in her place was a large wall of flesh and bone with entirely too many limbs.

“TaKe My HaNd.” 

...Burning...

Sitting up with a jolt, fire burned to existence in my hand, illuminating the broken down barn we’d used to take shelter from the storm last night, although by the sounds of the rain softly hitting the roof, the weather seemed to have finally settled down.

Looking around, I found everyone still asleep. Sokka was snoring as he drooled on his pillow while Katara was facing away from him.

Aang was lying on his back with his arms tucked behind his head, sleeping restlessly. Ty Lee on the other hand had somehow rolled her sleeping bag over to Appa, pressing against his side while said flying bison slumbered soundly.

Hearing one of the floorboards creak softly in the dark, I took a breath and flared the fire in my hand, only to find Momo standing near one of the support beams, catching some of the rain that leaked in with his mouth.

Turning towards me with a purr, Momo blinked and immediately went back to drinking his water.

Letting out a sigh, I brushed a hand through my hair. “Just a nightmare.”

Not feeling like I’d be able to get to sleep anytime soon, I got up, relighting the lantern that’d burnt out sometime in the night, before extinguishing my flames. Looking over the group one last time, I made my way towards the main entrance, being careful to avoid any rotten floorboards in the process.

It’d obviously been abandoned for years, decades even, but at the same time, it almost didn’t feel abandoned. Normally, when a place is left abandoned for so long, Nature takes over, but that wasn’t the case here.

Everything was just how it’d been left, save for the buildings slowly rotting.

There was no life… Rather, there were no signs of anything having been living here in a while. Not even a stray spider web. I hadn’t realized it last night due to the storm, but it was quiet, almost eerily so.

Something about this place felt wrong.

Or maybe I was wrong and I was just working myself up after everything that’d happened these past couple of weeks.

Pushing the barn door open, I was greeted to the cool morning air as I slipped outside. While still covered in a layer of clouds, the sky was slowly beginning to light up as the sun slowly rose.

“Honō?” Yawning as he stepped through the barn door, Aang stretched his arms over his head. “What’re you doing out here?”

“I could probably ask you the same thing,” I hummed thoughtfully. “I thought I’d do some early morning training to clear my head, you’re welcome to join me if you want. So, what brings you out here?”

“Bad dream,” Aang murmured, rubbing his eyes.

“It didn’t end with someone telling you to wake up, did it?” I half joked.

“How’d you know?”

And just like that, I was immediately on edge. “Because I had the same one.”

“That’s weird, I–” Pausing, Aang looked off into the distance. “Hey, Honō, I’m just checking… You’re sure this village was abandoned when we got here, right?”

“...Yeah, why?” I asked slowly

Panning over to what Aang was looking at, I found myself staring down at the decaying village, only, it didn’t seem that way right now, seeing as the buildings had been mysteriously fixed while we slept.

“It’s just... It doesn’t seem abandoned anymore.”