White Hot Flames (ZukoxOC)

38

        As it turns out, lugging around eight grown people, a flying lemur-monkey thing, and a body full of armor is increadibly tiring. Who would've thought. The point being, that they were now walking to the air temple and if Teo made one more joke about not having the use of his legs, Rezalia was going to push both him and Toph off of a cliff. They truly never should have met. The jokes were awful.

"This is humiliating," Katara sighs, lips pulling down at the corners.

Sokka huffs a bit as he kicks at a rock in front of him. "You mean getting thoroughly spanked by the Fire Nation or having to walk all the way to the Western Air Temple?"

"Both."

"I wonder how the rest of the troops are," Teo murmurs and Rezalia decides that that may not be an answer they want to hear right now.

Haru answered, "They're probably on their way to a prison. Seems like my dad just got out and now he's going back in."

Moments later, Toph slams her foot into the ground with a grin. "Hey, we're here! I can feel it!"

Rezalia takes a moment to gaze out at the barren cliff top around them before looking back at Toph. Katara seemed to share the sentiment. "Uhhh ... I think your feet need their eyes checked."

Toph did not look impressed with her opinion but Aang spoke before she could say as much. "No, she's right. We are here!"

Aang evidently did not feel the need to elaborate, simply running toward the cliff's edge and jumping like the lunatic he so clearly was. "I really need to write to my therapist," Rezalia mutters as she jogs to the edge along with the others. Multiple people side eye her.

Being an air bender, nobody was too worried about Aang jumping off of clliffs aside from the general consensus that it wasn't a very healthy practice to be involved in. "Any chance you could go see if he died or something?" Sokka asks idly, staring down at the foggy nothing below.

Rezalia doesn't hesitate to jump off the edge. This, however, does warrant some panic before she ignites flames under her feet and shoots back skyward to reassure the Duke that she wasn't dead. "You've got to stop doing that to people." The smile on Katara's face directly contradicted her words but Rezalia wasn't going to point that out.

Rather, she gives a two fingered salut and extingushes the flame, allowing herself to fall freely. As she fell, she could see what it was that Toph had felt. Nestled quite literally into the side of the cliff there was the Western Air Temple. It was dirty and overgrown after all these years but nonetheless it was beautiful. "AANG!"

The avatar comes when called, flying in pace with Rezalia's falling. "Yes?"

"We should get everyone down here before exploring."

"Makes sense."

Katara would doubt it forever but she was hiding a grin when the two of them returned.

Out of everyone, it was Teo who was the most fasinated with the ancient architecture. "Didn't you live in an air temple?" Sokka asks.

"I did," Teo confirms. "But the air temples are all different."

Aang nods. "The practices of the monks were pretty much the same everywhere but the temples themselves were super different. I mean, the one I'm from is on a mountain and has a different feel. Mine was more like a small village and this one looks like an ancient royal castle or something."

Call what you will, it was old. Beautiful, but old. And Rezalia wasn't fond of the idea of falling into the ground or something while she slept so she recruited Toph and Haru to reinforce the ground in all the areas they'd be frequenting. "I can't believe I'm letting you boss me around like this," Toph huffs playfully. Rezalia snorts a bit and gently flicks her on the back of the head.