The Last Airbender
Looking out over the Fire Navy boat, Aang held his dæmon closer to his chest. He’d woken up to find her Settled and scarred, and he didn’t want to let her go.
‘We failed Aang.’
He stroked the top of the puppy’s head, smoothing out her golden fur. Kuki used a paw to push him away, turning around in his lap to place her paws on his shoulders.
‘Did you hear? We failed.’
‘I know, Kuki.’ He could still feel the pain from the lightening strike, still feel the power of the Avatar State bunched up and blocked along his chakra. ‘But what can we do now?’
She whined and he smiled sadly down at her, slowly taking her paws off. It would be much harder to fly now, he’d been certain she’d Settle as a bird.
‘We can fight. We can show and show the Fire Lord the true power of the Avatar.’
‘We don’t have the true power of the Avatar. Not anymore.’
Kuki nodded sadly, looking around the boat. Katara waved at them, Mizu raising a wing.
‘No. But we can still take the fight away from our friends.’
Aang nodded and went to find his glider.
‘Mizu! You shouldn’t be doing that!’
Mizu looked up, the water dropping back onto the snow. His girl scooped him up, looking around nervously.
‘Aww, come on Katara, you sound like Sokka!’
The kingfisher hopped onto her shoulder, pecking at her ear. She just scowled. ‘That’s just the point! If he catches us out here, waterbending-‘
‘Oh, us? We were both bending, were we?’
Katara’s scowl depended. She sometimes wondered if she’d somehow swapped dæmons with her brother, considering how silly hers liked to be.
‘No, I wasn’t, because I know better than to practice waterbending when no one else is around!’
Mizu laughed, flying off and circling around her head. ‘Come on Katara, we both know that’s not true. You’re just jealous of my control.’
‘Oh yeah?’ Katara said, fighting a smile. ‘I think I have perfectly fine control.’
She flicked her wrist and the water next to her rose, reaching about a foot under Mizu.
‘Yeah, Katara, the best control.’
She scowled, stomping her foot. The water rose again, snagging his foot this time and he yelped.
Katara giggled. ‘Come on, Sokka wants to go fishing.’
‘Don’t see why we have to go. We never find anything interesting.’
Senryaku flew around Sokka, almost landing on his shoulder several times but then flapping nervously away. He glanced back at her and she spiralled out of his eye line, nervously muttering to herself.
‘Look.’ Sokka said, turning back to his map. ‘If you’re going to keep stressing out, maybe you should fly over to Takakai’s tent.’
Senryaku landed on his knee, wings fluttering. ‘No, no, I want to help. I just-‘
‘You’re nervous, I know, I am too. But we’ll never win this war if we don’t plan. Ozai’s airships could be going in any direction, we need to figure out how to intercept them.’
The hawk looked back down at the map and pecked at it slightly. Sock tried to push her away but she ignored him, continuing to make marks. ‘Does that work?’
He opened his mouth to yell at her, then spotted the lines she had made, the suggestions she’d laid out. ‘Yeah. Yeah! That’s excellent Sen!’
She chuckled, hopping back and forth on his leg. ‘So, maybe now we can relax a bit? Keep ourselves calm before the storm.’
Sokka smiled, raising an eyebrow. ‘Race you to the food tent?’
Senryaku was already out the door.
‘Come on, metal. Budge.’
Toph hit her hands against the door, bracing herself against the back of the cage. Her honey badger dæmon was snarling, ramming himself against the metal. He couldn’t see, could barely move inside their cage and was feeling her terror mixed in with his own.
‘Chikyu, calm down.’ Toph snapped. ‘We need to focus.’
He slammed himself against the metal again. ‘I am focused. Pay attention to the metal, what do you feel?’
Toph pressed her hands against the metal again, breathing deeply. Without earth below her, she couldn’t see, didn’t know how far away it was, only that it was there. It hurt to hit the cage but she needed to. As she did, she heard the vibrations across the metal, small parts of it lighting up at the edge of her senses.
‘Wait. Chikyu, there’s earth in the metal!’
He snarled again, hitting himself against it. ‘Impurities. Toph, we can use this.’
‘Yes. We can.’
She snarled, matching her dæmon and reached outt, grabbing hold of the door and squeezing. The metal groaned and then squeezed with her, crumpling under Toph’s fingers. Chikyu grinned, shoving the door away.
They were the best Earthbenders ever.
Zuko paced back and forth, parallel to the door. Every so often he would stop, glancing across at it before shaking his head and pacing again. Kasai looked at him from the bed, head tilted slightly.
‘Stop looking at me like that, I’m completely calm.’
Kasai blinked, slowly tilting her head to the other side.
‘I said I’m calm!’ He yelled, spinning to face her properly.
The iguana chuckled, a low raspy sound. Zuko scooped her up, placing her on his shoulder. She nuzzled her nose against his cheek, rasping slightly. He nodded, understanding her meaning even if he couldn’t hear her words.
‘I know Aang will be there but so will everyone else. How can I face them after everything I’ve done?’
Kasai bit his ear slightly and he sighed. That was why he had to face them. He scratched under her chin and moved to the door. He breathed deeply again before opening it, spotting Aang at the end of the corridor.
‘What if they don’t want me as Fire Lord?’ He muttered to his dæmon.
She laughed, her little broken laugh, and bit his ear again. He chuckled, smiling at her, and moved on towards their coronation.
‘I hate doing that.’
Ocha peeled herself away from the corner, her joints clicking as she stretched them out. Each time a guard entered the cell, she squashed herself against the nearest, darkest wall to make them think she was weak. It helped that the shadows also covered up her claws.
‘I’m not too much of a fan myself.’ Iroh said, with a slight smile at his dæmon. Then he jumped up and started pulling himself up on the ceiling bars.
Ocha paced the cell, unfurling properly. Normally, she hid her long body and serpentine tail in Iroh’s robes but his rags left no way for her to find her form. When she had Settled, their father had been delighted but after Lu Ten’s death and their removal from succession, she had to hide. Ozai couldn’t accept his older brother having a dragon-snake for a dæmon.
‘Are you going to think all day or prepare?’
Ocha shook her head, scuttling up the wall and wrapping her tail around a bar. She let herself dangle for a second, then starting pulling herself up. She needed to be strong, every part of her. Needed to be strong for what was coming.
Raitoningu bit down on Azula’s wrist. Azula threw fire at Raitoningu’s tail.
They had never gotten on, the girl and her dæmon. From birth, they’d been at each other, throwing insults and lightning whenever they could. Their mother had hated it, had tried to teach them to care for each other but they had both held themselves in too high regard for such frivolities. Azula knew her firebending was better, stronger and Raitoningu knew his wolf form gave him fierceness and danger she could never achieve. They hated each moment the other gained anything.
And now they were going to be Fire Lord.
Azula stared into the mirror, chuckling to herself. Raitoningu paced her, snarling as he got ready to attack her. Azula laughed more, flicking her fingers to form flames along them. If he went for her again, she’d be ready.
‘You’re not my dæmon.’ She muttered, smirking at her genius in figuring it out. ‘They must have taken my perfect dæmon away and left me with you.’
Raitoningu laughed, a horrid, grating sound. ‘You’ve got it wrong. My true human would be a true, glorious Fire Lord. Unlike you.’
They lunged at each other at the same time.
‘They’re cutting the line.’
Mai tilted her head slightly as Buredo landed on her shoulder. The crow had been perched on the railing, keeping an eye on the fight on the gondola. Mai had been stood nearby, but facing away from the chasm. If she watched, someone might begin to think she cared.
‘Mai-’
‘I heard.’ She said, sharply. Buredo always struggled with staying stoic and calm, occasionally ruining Mai’s perfect presentation of herself to her parents. Especially when the Royals were around.
‘The gondola is going to drop.’ He muttered, a small hint of panic in his voice. No one else would have heard it, only her and she sighed, as she often did at her dæmon’s antics.
‘So?’ Mai said, struggling to keep a note of anger out of her voice. Buredo was going to ruin everything. ‘They’re prisoners and criminals, it’s what should happen.’
‘But, Mai,’ Buredo said and she turned her head. He looked at her pleading. ‘Kasai is up there.’
Mai said nothing but nodded, wrist flicking out. The stilettos flew, perfectly aimed to pin the guards to the wall.
‘What are you doing?’ One yelled.
‘Saving the jerk who dumped me.’ Mai almost smiled.
Ty Lee looked up just as her dæmon came fluttering in, speeding at her face. She flipped up, spinning above the hummingbird and landing in a handstand on the tightrope. Atsuryoku arced around the tent to hover by her face.
‘Azula is here.’
Ty Lee gritted her teeth, swinging around to perch on the rope, on knee in the air. Atsuryoku landed on the knee and she smiled at her.
‘Well, she might just swinging by to say hi!”
Atsuryoku tilted her head at Ty Lee. ‘I don’t think so Ty. It’s Azula. I could tell from her aura, she’s here for something serious.’
Ty Lee giggled. ‘It’s Azula, she’s always serious.’
Giving Atsuryoku a moment to fly away, she tumbled off the rope, landing softly and cartwheeling away.
‘I mean it Ty. She’s probably here to take us away.’
Ty Lee smiled, shaking her head at her dæmon’s attitude. It was going to make her feathers discolour. ‘If she is, we’ll say no. This is our home, we’re happy here.’
She wandered outside on her hands, coming to rest on her fingers, smiling to herself. Atsuryoku landing on her feet. It wasn’t long until Azula’s shoes came into view.
The others crowded Sokka, complaining about how he’d painted them. Toph and Chikyu were occasionally throwing in snide comments to keep them riled up. Senryaku was on Sokka’s shoulder but, as Zuko pushed slightly too close, she flew off and landed on Takakai’s back. Suki smiled at Sokka before following their dæmons to the side of the room, sitting down next to them. She ran her fingers through the leopard’s fur, watching his tail flick to run down Senryaku’s back as the bird began to drift off.
The three of them sat like that a while, just relaxing in each other’s company. Suki saw Katara head out after Aang but thought little of it. They would be fine.
‘Should we join Sokka?’ Takakai muttered, slowly turning his head to look at where Zuko was trying to grab the brush. ‘Maybe he needs backup.’
‘He can handle it.’ Senryaku said, before going back to sleep.
Suki grinned to herself, scratching behind Takakai’s ears. After a few minutes, the arguing died down, and Sokka ended up sitting next to Suki, head on her shoulder.
‘They’re mean to me.’ He said, yawning.
‘It’s okay.’ Suki said, smiling at her dæmon. ‘It’s all okay.’