I've renewed this chapter, along with the story. I gave it a much better title, redid the first chapter, tried to do a better job with the character, and whatever I had to do to make the story more intriguing. The next one's on its way, but I need a couple of days. But I doubt anyone is even paying attention to this FanFic whatsoever.
Chapter I: Faulty Deceptions
Crickets chirped their sweet soft melody from the nearby meadows with the wind blowing over the silent Earth Kingdom. The full moon that shone cut a path through the darkness for the weary traveller who seeked shelter from the cold night. He walked for many hours on the same dirt path since his leave from a small Earth Kingdom village, but all he saw since then was grassland and forests, as well as mountains off in the distance. The wind soon became much stronger from its gentle breeze, blowing his green, short-sleeved hooded cloak to the side to expose his well-toned physique. His brown pants were covered in a lot of dirt from the travel, and his boots became worn out from the same cause. He needed to find a place to stay for the night before he fell flat on the ground from exhaustion, as well as maybe find some new footwear the next day.
A faint jolt of energy soon shot through him like an arrow made from the gentle wind that blew, telling him of something up ahead. He stopped to feel it more, to understand what it was that he felt so suddenly; footsteps on hardwood floors, the voices of many cheerful people, all gathered together in a room somewhere. They seemed to be eating food and drinking wine, but most importantly this meant a village was nearby, which in turn meant a place to eat and stay for the night.
He took a long branch from the side of the road, underneath the fallen leaves from the small wood nearby, and took a single-edged hunting knife out of its sheath from his belt. The traveller quickly smoothened the branch out and made a walking stick out of it, cutting all the small branches and rough patches of bark on the branch. When he was satisfied with the makeshift walking stick, he put his hunting knife away and headed to the nearby village with the stick in his hand.
The streets were deserted, as it would make sense during the late night, but there was a lot of noise coming from the inn further on. No one else could hear the sounds from the building as the villagers were all sound asleep, but the traveller could hear them as loud as thunder.
The traveller opened the door to the large inn. He walked in to see many people sitting around at tables and enjoying themselves with some wine and discussion, as the traveller had assumed. It appeared to be a party of some sort, possibly to celebrate a person's birthday or a couple's anniversary. Possibly it was a belated celebration of the war's end, now that the Earth Kingdom was safe from the power of Sozin's Comet and the wrath of the Fire Nation. He didn't care so much for it. All the traveller wanted to do was get some rest to head off once again tomorrow.
He walked to a desk of the innkeeper and threw down a pouch full of gold pieces. The innkeeper, a bald, chubby old man with a small gray beard, showed a startled expression when noticing the money on the counter.
"Give me any room you have to spare," the stranger demanded from the innkeeper. "I don't care if it's cheap or poorly built. If it has a bed, I'll take it."
The old innkeeper looked at the young, hooded traveller, who he could tell was still a teenager no older than sixteen. He saw that the boy was desperate for a room since he was paying a large sum of money, but he nodded his head in disappointment.
"Sorry, boy, but the inn's all full tonight," he replied with his low, raspy voice. "All these people here bought out the whole place for the night, even if they might still party like this for the entire night."
The young traveller heard all the people having fun and drinking wine with their friends, and it didn't seem that they would go to sleep anytime soon. He let out a small sigh of disappointment.
"Why are they even partying? Is it some guy's birthday or something?"
"Nah, not even kid," the innkeeper replied. "Seems to be a party for the Avatar."
"The Avatar?" the traveller asked incredulously. "Is he truly here?"
"Yep, he's sure here all right," the old man said as he stroked his small beard. "I guess now all we have to wait for is for him to fight off those darn Fire Nation soldiers and we can finally live in peace."
"I guess," he replied under his breath, taking back the pouch of gold from the counter. He pulled back his hood to uncover his face, shocking the innkeeper with a striking feature on his face. It wasn't the strange dark blue hair, nor the very disturbing scar that ran across his entire face, but his eyes. The boy's purple, faded eyes that looked as if it could pierce through one's thoughts, see everything in one's mind. Even if he couldn't see what was in front of him, the boy could undoubtedly see beyond that.
The young traveller took his walking stick and started swinging it gently across the floor in front of him. He walked to the crowd of people by the tables, where everyone surrounded the Avatar. He excused himself when he accidentally hit someone with the stick, asking for a way through to see the Avatar. Out of courtesy, they complied with the teenager's seemingly dire demand as they believed in the boy's disability.
"Yeah, so I took out a hundred Fire Nation ships just a couple o' days ago," a gruff voice spoke out loudly and boastfully. The teenager, hearing the man speak, felt a strangeness emanating from the man, something that threw him off from the old innkeeper's explanation.
"Ooh, that sounds so brave," a woman sitting next to the Avatar replied seductively, stroking her finger in circles on the man's chest.
"You are so strong, Master Avatar," another woman replied, sitting on the man's other side.
"Please, ladies, call me Tong," he told them. "So how about you two escort 'Master Avatar' to his bedroom for some time alo-"
A stick hit the Avatar's leg, disturbing him from his time with the ladies. He looked up to see the weary traveller standing nearby with the stick in his hand.
"Do you mind, kid?" the Avatar asked, irritated.
"Oh, Master Avatar, please forgive me" the boy apologetically replied. "It's just that I wanted to eagerly see you."
"Well, as you can see, kid, I'm a bit busy, so how about you come back tomorrow?"
"I'm sorry, Master Avatar, but as you can see I am blind," the teenager explained. The man looked at the boy more closely, soon realizing the truth.
"Well, sucks to be you," he replied in a gruff voice. He was in his early forties, wearing the typical green clothing of the Earth Kingdom's citizens, but his greatly toned body suggested that he was a strictly and highly trained Earth Bender. The only problem was the man's striking feature of a blue arrow on his forehead, as well as hands and feet. He could have been an Airbender, but the man's muscular body did not help to prove that.
"That is very true," the teenager agreed. "But may I please make a request?"
"It depends on how much it's worth spending time for," Avatar Tong explained.
"Oh, very much worth your time, Master Avatar. " The boy took out a very old and decrepid scroll, so fragile it was possible to break it with a gentle touch.
"This scroll is one of the very few of the written teachings of the monks' philosophies, dating back to before the attack on the Air Nomads. My grandfather gave it to me as a gift for my birthday. It's written in a text that the Air Nomads used in their own writing, so i was hoping if you could read it for me?"
The man looked surprised, frightened moreso, when the teenager asked for the favour. A lot of the people who heard the conversation eyed Avatar Tong, waiting for his response.
"You see, I'd love to kid, but I'm a bit busy tonight," he replied calmly. "Maybe if you come tommorow, I could do it for you then."
"Oh, come on, Avatar Tong, please show us," one of the women sitting next to him pleaded.
"Yeah, show us, Avatar!" several people exclaimed from the crowds, begging him to read from the scroll.
However, the Avatar apologized and excused himself from the table with the two women walking beside him. The blind traveller cursed under his breath at the failed attempt, but suddenly noticed a young woman carrying a platter with several cups of wine on top. Smiling with satisfaction, he knew what was to be done.
Pretending to trip, he threw the walking stick between the girl's feet, tripping her and forcing her to drop the platter. The drinks were all spilled on the Avatar, staining his clothes and soaking him in wine. The blue arrows that appeared on the Avatar's forehead was washed away with the falling droplets of wine that fell down his head.
Recovering from the fake trip as fast as an arrow in flight, the blind traveller flipped in the air like an acrobat and landed a couple of inches in front of the fake Avatar, with a katana drawn out at the man's neck. Everyone gasped as some started to scream and panic at the sight. The fake Avatar watched the boy as he began to silently pray for mercy.
"How did you know?" Tong asked, frightened by the sight of steel at his throat. "I thought you were blind."
"I am, but anyone with any common sense could tell you were a fake," the blind boy explained. "However, anyone who actually knew about the Air Nomads would know that they never wrote their teachings on paper, nor did they have their own style of calligraphy."
"Wow, so you know your history," Tong commented sarcastically. "What do you want with me, anyway?"
"I want you to tell me where the Avatar is," the boy asked demandingly with his piercing gaze. "Or at least where he might be soon."
"I don't know anything about that, I swear. Please leave me alone!" Tong pleaded.
Knowing that he was telling the truth, the blind traveller sheathed his sword back in its resting place. He couldn't do much about the man's lack of knowledge about the true Avatar's whereabouts. IHowever, he could prove useful./I
The boy grabbed Tong by the collar of his tunic, and pinned him to the wall.
"You wouldn't mind giving me the keys to your room, would you?"
Being given the keys without difficulty, he let go of the man and went to the room upstairs. After watching the boy go to the room number specified on the tag, the old innkeeper sighed with relief as nothing was done to hrut anyone or damage anything.
"Well," he thought in optimism, "That's one way to get a room."