Chapter 79: Battling the Firebenders

The Bending Tower animals and the Water Tribe animals continued backing up, leading the Firebenders onto the rickety bridge. Ash flinched as the bridge creaked as he set his paw down.
Ash looked at Waterstreak, "Are you sure the bridge is safe?"
"Oh, it's fine!" Waterstreak shouted over the noise, "It's held all of us at once before, it can hold a lot, trust me!"
Ash still wasn't too sure, but he had to try. The Water Tribe needed their help.
A fire ball went over Ash's head, and he ducked. He couldn't tell who had thrown the fire at him, but it didn't matter. The Bending Tower and Water Tribe kept leading the Firebenders further and further away from the Water Tribe. They were now battling in the middle of the bridge.
Ash looked around wildly. It was very likely that someone could fall off the bridge and get killed. He was caught in a frenzy of fighting, and someone might hit him and throw him off.
There was a scream. Ash looked in the direction of it, and saw Slice tripping off the bridge. Yelling, she fell into the mist below.
"No!" Ash yowled. He ran to the side and looked into the mist. Slice was nowhere to be seen.
The Firebender who had thrown Slice over laughed. It was a lynx.
Stone growled and lunged at the lynx, "Nuewfoow! You killed Slice!"
Ash looked back at the mist below. He saw a shape moving there. Slice?
The fight was still going around Ash, but he kept his eyes locked on the shape. There, in the mist, Airia flew out of it, with Slice on her back.
"Slice!" Rusty cheered.
Ash was so happy to see his friend was alive. She smiled at Rusty and Ash, and then jumped off Airia. Stone got out of the way and Slice landed on the lynx, apparently named Nuewfoow. Ash watched as Slice bit down into Nuewfoow's neck, and the lynx screamed and ran away.
Rusty, Dust and Ash weaved between the fighters over to Slice.
"We thought we lost you!" Rusty gasped.
"I was fine," Slice smiled, "I couldn't believe it when Airia saved me."
"Me either," Ash laughed, feeling admiration for the winged she-wolf, "who knew that she'd save a former Firebender."
Something hit Ash on the back. Firetalon had sunk his talons into Ash's back. It was painful; it was like torture. Ash wailed in pain as Firetalon lifted him off the bridge, making it hurt even more.
"Ash!" came a voice, unmistakably belonging to Charlotte.
"Help!" Ash yowled.
"You'll never get help!" Firetalon laughed, "I'm going to drop you into the mist below!"
Suddenly, Ash saw something zooming for Firetalon. It hit him in the side, and Firetalon gasped. Ash looked to see who it was, Firetalon's talons still torturing him.
Ash gasped as he saw the outline of Cloudsky. Firetalon growled, "Cloudsky! That can't be you, you're dead!"
"Indeed I am," came a wise voice. Ash knew it was definitely Cloudsky. "Put Ash down, Firetalon."
At first, Firetalon looked scared; Ash could see the look of fear in his eyes. But it lasted less than a second, as Firetalon narrowed his eyes and dropped Ash. Yowling, Ash fell down and hit the bridge, his bones hurting with the impact.
The Water Tribe and the Firebenders were all on the other side. But Ash heard someone shout his name.
"Ash!"
Eclipse, Firefly and Nightgale all ran up to him; they had apparently still been inside the Water Tribe.
"Are you okay?" Eclipse asked, studying Ash.
"No, Firetalon just dropped me from the sky!" coughed Ash.
"I can't believe you landed on the bridge!" Firefly gasped. "Does anything hurt?"
"Everything does! But my paw hurts most of all!" Ash explained.
"Which paw?" Nightgale asked, worried.
"Front right."
Eclipse felt Ash's paw, and then gasped. "It's broken."
"It can't be...! I got to fight the Firebenders and get them to the riverbed," Ash protested.
Firefly sighed, "You can try, but it will hurt very bad."
"Anything to help the Water Tribe," Ash smiled weakly, and stumbled to his paws. He tried putting his front right paw down, and winced as it screamed in protest when he made contact with the bridge.
Ash limped over to the battle, closely followed by Eclipse, Firefly and Nightgale. The battle was now taking place at the top of a large hill.
On the way there, Eclipse found what Firefly called "comfrey". Eclipse picked it up and wrapped it on Ash's paw.
"Helps broken bones," Firefly had explained.
The group made it to the top of the hill. Now, the battle was taking place at the riverbed, which was below. Ash got down the hill as fast as he could; he could smell Eclipse, Firefly and Nightgale following him from behind.
The Water Tribe and the The Bending Tower patrol hopped to the other side of the riverbed. Ash leaped across, and his paw screamed as he made hard contact with the ground. To his surprise, Airia came and flew him over to the others. Eclipse, Firefly and Nightgale took rank with the Water Tribe and the The Bending Tower patrol.
Poisonfang slithered forward and laughed, "We chased you out of your own territory! Do you give up?"
Ash looked around. He noticed not every Water Tribe animal was with them; Creature wasn't either. He looked on the side where the Firebenders were, and saw Creature hiding in some toadstools, and many Water Tribe Waterbenders hiding as well.
Waterstreak stepped forward, "No."
Many laughs came from the Firebenders.
"No?" Poisonfang laughed, "You're all as weak as a squirrel-"
"Hey!" said a squeaky voice. Ash saw that there was a black squirrel standing behind her.
"Er, sorry Boneleg," Poisonfang rolled her eyes. She then turned to the Water Tribe and the The Bending Tower patrol, "If I were you, I would give up!"
"We'll show you what Bending is all about!" Waterstreak shouted.
Ash imagined a water ball coming into the riverbed. A water ball came, then another, then another, then another - all of the Waterbenders were Waterbending. They all stretched their water out, and, despite it hurt, Ash made his stretch out too.
The water filled the river, and from behind, most of the Water Tribe animals and Creature charged at the Firebenders. The Firebenders backed up, and Poisonfang fell into the water, screaming. Boneleg the squirrel fell in after her; after Boneleg came Fang and Firetalon, and more Firebenders plunged in, one after another. Then, they all swept downstream.
Dawn then came; they had been battling all night. Ash never felt there was a dawn as beautiful as this.

THE-END

Author's Note:
*water confetti drops from ceiling* THEY DID IT! And, I did it! LOL. I just finished the FIRST book of the FIRST series! Don't worry to those whose characters didn't make it - they'll come in A.S.A.P in the second book! I'll explain everything in the next post! Thanks for reading! What was YOUR favorite part of this book?