Daughter of the Moon - Book Three: Fire

Chapter 10.3: The Day of Black Sun

- Katara -

I knew something had gone terribly wrong the moment I had caught a glimpse of Appa soaring back towards our group on the silent battleground, and the grim expression on Aang's face immediately following the bison's landing did nothing to settle the feeling. The eclipse was over, and after a brief moment of questionable victory on our part, we had found ourselves face-to-face with an entire armada of war balloons. It was clear that our plan had failed and that the Fire Lord was still at large, and I could only hope that things weren't about to get worse.

"It was all a trap!" Sokka hollered as soon as I was close enough to hear him. "Azula knew we were coming, and she's plotted out every move. We just got to get to the beach as fast as we can. If we can make it to the submarines, maybe we can get away safely."

"They've got air power, but so do I!" Aang said as he opened his glider to leave. "I'm going to do what I can to slow them down."

Before I could even offer a word in protest, the airbender was soaring away towards the heart of the danger all on his own. For a moment, I considered taking Appa and following after him, but I was quickly distracted as Toph jumped down from the bison's saddle only to bend a section of earth upwards to help Sokka down. At first, I was afraid Sokka had been injured in the crossfire of whatever battle that trio had gotten themselves into, but as Toph helped him carry a figure onto the platform, I knew that I was faced with something far more horrifying.

"Oh my gosh..." I muttered as I ran over to where the group had gently made their way to the ground. "Is that..."

It was. Laying on the ground at my feet was Elara—at least, the ruined remains of her. My stomach clenched instinctively as I smelled the pungent sent of blood that seemed to plague the air around her, and it took everything in my power to hold back the contents of my stomach as they tried to force their way out of my system. She looked bad. She looked really, really bad.

"Can you save her?" Sokka asked as he hovered over me, his voice just barely reaching above a whisper.

I opened my water skin with a weak hand and used the water inside to assess the damage, and what I found terrified me. It seemed like every inch of her had been harmed, leaving behind broken or torn remains of bones, muscles, and ligaments, not to mention the fact that I could faintly feel what I could only assume to be internal and external bleeding. The only reason I knew she was even alive was the light flutter of her heartbeat and her shallow breathing as the air trembled its way out of her body.

"This isn't good," I reported to the gathering onlookers. "I can stabilize her for now, but I'm going to need more water if I'm going to..."

I paused for a moment before I spoke the unthinkable. Saying it out loud—that would only make it real. And I couldn't do it. I couldn't let Elara slip away from us again. Not now. Not ever.

I didn't dare remove my hand from the girl's body lest Elara slipped away for good, but I was able to return to the situation at hand. "What happened?" I asked as I turned my attention back to Sokka. "How did you—"

"We can talk about that later," Sokka cut in as he looked nervously towards the sky. "We need to get out of here first. Everyone to the subs!"

Sokka helped me to carry Elara back into Appa's saddle before jumping forward to lead the charge back to the beach. Unfortunately, no matter how quickly we seemed to retreat, there was no way we could outrun those war machines, and we quickly found ourselves under siege by wave after wave of bombs as they were dropped by the zeppelins. The earthbenders were able to provide some cover from the attacks, but we learned that those attacks would be the least of our worries. The Fire Nation didn't stop, and they were headed right towards our only means of escape.