Avatar the last airbender : The Dual bender

Chapter 17

'Aang…guys..please be okay..'Liling thought standing at the front of the ship, her eyes at the storm clouds.

Bitter memories flashed by her mind seeing the nasty storm clouds, she tighten her fist and a crestfallen look on her face turning away.

"It was a day like this that I last saw them…."She whispered softly.

"That was a long trip…"Lee said exhaustedly

"I still can't get used to riding that flying byson.."Ai said

LIling couldn't help but giggle as she quickly covered her mouth as a few soft chuckles escaped her lips.

"I'll go find Aang! I bet he'll be surprised to see me!"Liling said excitedly

"We'll go and talk to one of the monks, if we can have a place to stay for the next few days." Lee said

Liling nodded. "Okay. I'll be back with Aang in a little bit."

"Please try to stay out of trouble." Her mother said

"I'll try…it's just trouble seems to find me."She replied

"And it's true."Her father agreed

"Gee, I wonder who she gets it from?" Ai chuckled lightly staring at her husband who was waving at his daughter.

Liling ran smiling anxiously to give Aang a surprise but stopped seeing him with a look of sorrow on his face.

"Aang, what's wrong?" Liling asked softly.

"The monks...they told me that I'm the Avatar…"He said in disbelief

"The Avatar?! Really?!"Liling said completely flabbergasted.

More memories flew by.

'Mom, I can't just leave Aang like this!' Liling replied

'Liling, I know you want to help Aang, he's going through a tough time but-'

'But?! But what! He's miserable! He needs my help! He needs my support! The other kids don't want to play with him!' Liling replied angrily crossing her arms over her chest. 'He's going through the same thing as me when I learned about my bending…I don't want to leave him.'

'I know you want to help him my little jasmine flower…but things like this takes a little time for people to get used to it, he is the Avatar so he'll need a good friend like you to help him.' Her father replied.

"Liling!" Iroh said Liling jumped up snapping out of her thoughts. "Are you alright?"

"I..i was just thinking." Liling said quietly. "Storms like this are always…painful to see."

Lilling turned and walked away from Iroh. The retired general let out a sigh, first his nephew giving attitude from earlier and now Liling being a bit distance. He didn't know what to do now.

More painful memories flash by Liling's head. "Mom…dad…" She whispered softly.

"I'm sick of taking his orders! I'm tired of chasing his Avatar! He doesn't respect us or anyone on this ship! Heck even that Liling girl knows how to give respect to us! And she's our prisoner!" Lieutenant Jee ranted angrily as he and a couple of the other crewmen had a drink around a small barrel-fire in the boiler room of the ship, "I mean, who does Zuko think he is?!"

"Do you really want to know?"

The men stood and Jee looked at the stairs that lead down into the boiler room.