Ablaze || Aang x Reader

We stopped on a miniscule islet midway through Lake Laogai. We were out of immediate danger so we thought we'd take some time to appreciate Appa more and plan the next course of action. My hearing was beginning to return and my vision was steadying, thankfully.

Aang was just happy to have his bison back and was playing with him while the rest of us discussed what we planned to do now. Sokka wanted to go straight to the Earth King to get his support in our plan to invade the Fire Nation during a solar eclipse. Katara, however, wanted to just leave Ba Sing Se and never return now that we finally had Appa back. This somehow meant that Toph was on Katara's side for once.

Aang counter-argued that that's the reason why we SHOULD go to the Earth King. It made sense, too. Now that Appa was back, there was nothing tying us down to the rules of Ba Sing Se. it was decided we would go with the Sokka/Aang plan. Plus, once we explained our proposition to the king, there's no way we'd be in trouble.

We would, however, be in mortal-peril-type trouble if we didn't get a new saddle for Appa soon. After we all hopped on his back, most of us had to grip onto the bison's back fur for dear life as we flew hundreds of feet in the air. I say "most of us" because Aang was perfectly accustomed to sitting on Appa's neck as the person usually in control of the reins.

Now that there were no reins at all, Aang had to guide Appa with a combination of his voice and tugging at the animal guide's head. He had to use his hands and his feet to push and pull enough that Appa would clearly feel it through his thick skin and fur, which put him in a very unbalanced position. Appa's horns are more sensitive but it would require being able to reach both horns at the same time — something neither of us as children had the ability to do. I doubt even the average adult could comfortably accomplish that.

Now, where was I during all this? Right behind Aang. Not on Appa's back like the rest of us, but rather, between Aang and Appa's back hunch. The other Avatar needed all his limbs to guide us to our destination, but that meant he couldn't keep a secure grip on his glider. That's where I came in. I was living my best life in that MVP seat: all I had to do was hold a glider and I didn't have to grip Appa's fur to stay aboard. I was perfectly secure with my legs on either side of the bison's neck, with Appa's soft fur cushioning my back, and with Aang's lower back pressed against my abdomen.

His glider rested just above his hips, lightly pressing against his lap. I held onto the wood with a hand on each of his sides, almost like a seatbelt. My chin rested comfortably on his shoulder to look over and see where we were going. Despite having grown up with a bison of my own, a small part of me was petrified with the speeds we were flying at, bareback and reinless and such.

Sokka was quick to spot the Earth King's palace up ahead. He speculated that the Earth King's chambers would be in the center. We'd have to be careful to get all the way in there, especially since there was always a chance that Long Feng fed misinformation to the King to turn him against us.

Once we flew close enough to the palace, we became subject to a surface-to-air rock attack. Aang was quick to steer Appa away from harm, but not without getting several shrieks from Sokka for every sharp turn we took. The boulders kept coming flying at us in increasing amounts as we descended.

"On our right." Aang told me, voice not at all wavering and with a determined expression.

I looked to the right and instinctively managed to smash the boulder that had been flying towards us with the back of my wrist. Another came straight towards our faces. Since I hadn't caught back onto Aang's glider, Aang made the decision to leap up into mid air and split it straight down the middle with an easy-looking knife-hand chop.