Bella [AANGXOC]

Chapter 37: The Reading

(Keep in mind Aang hears the entire thing).

She extended her arm, her palm facing upwards, "Give me your hand." She said. I did as I was told and put my hand in hers, palm facing up. Using her other hand with her long nails she traced the faint lines on my hand. She was mumbling at she did it. "You've had a troubled past." She said tracing the one closest to my bottom of my hand. I gulped. "But..." She started. "What?" I asked her a bit too eagerly. "You are hiding something." She said. I instantly tried to get my hand away in case she figured it out but her grip was strong and it was as if she knew I would pull away. "If you continue to hide it, it will send you down the wrong path..." She trailed off again. "What does that mean?" I squirmed. "Hush!" She said tracing what I recognized to be the love line now.

A smile grew across her face. "The man you are going to marry, I can see that he's a very powerful bender." She said.

Marry? I never imagined myself with anyone. It was always about war war war. It's still about war war war.

"You are strong but holding yourself back." She said, I had forgotten she was still reading my palm.

Then she let my hand go, "Is that it?" I asked her, my voice shaking. She nodded and I walked back into the waiting room. Sokka was sprawled out across the pillows looking as bored as you could look, Aang had a weird look on his face and Katara looked so eager she might actually explode. "You, come with me." The lady pointed to Katara. Katara jumped up from her pillow, practically flying, and followed the fortuneteller into the room. I sat down between Aang and Sokka.

Aang was staring into the side of my head, like he was trying to climb into my brain and figure something out. I turned to him and he instantly turned away and tried to act like he wasn't just staring into my soul.

What's gotten into him...

My mind wandered back to the reading and what she had said. How did she actually figure that out? What if she already knew I was an airbender? What if she told the others?

My mind was jumping from thought to thought, filling me with worry once again. We have to get out of here, before it's too late and the lady does something.

"Bella?" Aang broke me out of my thoughts. I turned to him, his eyes now showing curiosity. "What?" I replied to him. "What did she say?" He asked me. "Huh?" I asked him confused, not really listening that well. "The fortune teller?" He said again. "Oh yeah right, she didn't say anything." I mumbled a quick reply. "What do you mean?" He asked me, I turned back to him, "She didn't say anything important." I said back to him.

I don't know what I saw. I don't know what it meant but I one hundred percent saw complete disbelief in his eyes.

---TIME SKIP---

"Well now you got to see for yourself that fortunetelling is just a big hoax." Sokka said to all of us as we left the building. We were walking down the paved roads of the village, getting stares for the giant bison following behind us. "You're just saying that because you are going to make yourself unhappy your whole life." Katara said to Sokka referring to what the fortune teller had said about him.

"That woman is crazy!" Sokka yelled at us, "My life will be calm and happy and joyful!" He yelled again. A small rock flew at his head.

"That doesn't prove anything." He said referring to the small rock that laid by his feet now. "Well, my prediction was okay, certain things could turn out well though." Katara said, hope in her eyes. "What about you Bella?" Katara asked me now. "Great, prefect, couldn't be happier with them, splendid." I replied trying to walk faster to get out of this stupid place and its stupid predictions that stupidly explain your horrors into your stupid face.

"Umm Bella, where are you going?" I heard Katara asked me, I turned around to look at them and they were turning back into the village.

Obviously we weren't leaving yet then.

---TIME SKIP---

I found myself with Aang, Sokka and Katara, surrounded in a crowd of the village. The crowd was looking up at the sky in silence. "What's happening?" Katara asked not caring who was going to answer her. "We're waiting for Aunt Wu to come and read the clouds, to predict the fate of the whole village." A man next to us answered her.

"That could kinda looks like a fluffy bunny." Aang said looking up at the sky. "You'd better hope that's not a fluffy bunny, the fluffy bunny cloud forecasts doom and destruction." The man said again to us. "Do you even hear yourself?" Sokka asked the man.

"The could reading will tell us if mount mapaku will remain dormant for another year or if it will erupt." Another woman in front of us joined in. "We used to have a tradition once a year of going up to the volcano ourselves but since Aunt Wu got here now we have a tradition of not doing that." The man piped in again. "I can't believe--" Sokka tried to talk again but the man and woman hushed him up because Aunt Wu had walked onto the platform they were in front of. People cheered.

My feet hurt.

When Aunt Wu finally reached the platform Aang tapped my shoulder. "What?" I asked him, he pointed up to the sky. "Don't you think that cloud looks like a flower?" He said. I squinted my eyes and looked at the sky, the cloud he was pointing at barely looked like a flower, more like a boat but I gave it to him anyways. "Sure." I replied and turned back to the ceremony.

Aunt Wu bowed and looking up at the sky...

I lost interest pretty quickly. Not really caring about the future of some place we should be leaving, we need to get some flying done.

I stayed in my thoughts until everyone started cheering and I heard: "...not be destroyed by the volcano this year."

I can put two and two together.

We finally left that crowd and huddled together next to some building, "Can we leave now?" I asked any of them, desperate. "Not yet, we should get some food and then be on our way." Sokka said, I was going to agree to that until Katara piped in, "I want to stay." She said. "What? Why?" I asked her, already knowing the answer, she wants more readings.

"We'll stay a couple more hours, until nightfall, then we can get food and Katara can do what she likes." Aang proposed between the three of us, being the usual peace maker.

We all agreed to that plan. Katara ended up dragging me to the fortuneteller's place again, against my will might I add and Sokka and Aang went to look for food.

She knocked on the door and Aunt Wu opened it up, "Sorry to bother you, but..." I didn't get to hear the rest of what she said because she had already walked into the room and closing the door behind her. Leaving me alone.

"Gee thanks Katara." I said through the fragile door and I didn't get a reply. I let out an audible sigh and wandered around until I saw a sad bench against a wall. I sat down and relaxed for a bit. Why are we still here.