Hey guys, I'm back with a new chapter. This one's out a little later, but it's out none the less. Let's get on with it, shall we?
The ruins of Taku were quite the sight to behold. Long ago, this city was the major trade port for the northwestern Earth Kingdom. When the War began, the Fire Nation sacked the city, cutting off all supply routes in the area and causing the local war effort to collapse. Since then, this area has had some of the strongest occupation, and the city itself has remained abandoned.
I had my pick of buildings, and quickly set up a base camp from which to operate. By my count, I still had a few days until the group was suppose to meet up with me. I hoped nothing had gone seriously wrong. The first day was spent exploring the area, getting a layout of the ruins and surrounding mountains, as well as hunting in order to restock on my food supply.
Ever since the Great Divide had wiped out my food, I had been living meal to meal based on what I could hunt or scavenge. Sometimes I ate good with a cat deer or fox antelope, sometimes I went hungry with just a few berries. With my base camp set up, I could now focus more on hunting and restocking rather than just surviving.
I practiced some with my newfound waterbending abilities, but didn't make much progress. Sometimes I could control a large section of a stream, and sometimes I had trouble just getting a drop to float. Katara and Aang made it look easy. Still, if I wanted my new skill to grow, I'd have to practice and develop it, just like I had done with my bow.
On the third day I set out in search of the herbalist place I had been told about. From what I had been told, the institute was located on a mountain within sight of the city ruins. Using my binoculars, I scanned the nearby mountain tops. Finally, I located it on a peak not far to the east and set off.
The place looked like some kind of kung fu place out of a movie. Stairs leading up the mountainside, an archway at the top, the whole nine yards. It also looked a little worn down. Not totally abandoned, but not fully kept up either. My guess was that there was probably only one or two people who still lived here.
In a greenhouse to the back, I found an elderly woman tending to some of the plants. On a table nearby was a long haired white Persian cat, lazily lounging and eyeing over everything as if it was the all high ruler of the world. I cocked my head and eyed the cat curiously. Most of the animals I had come across since I'd gotten here were hybrids of some kind. But this cat wasn't. It was just a normal, everyday housecat. A sight which I was actually quite happy to see.
"Hello?" I called, making my presence known.
"Ah, hello young man. Please, come in," the woman said, gesturing for me to come closer. I walked up to the table and held out my hand. The cat sniffed my palm before batting it's forehead against it.
"What can I do for you today?" the woman asked as she came over to the table, bringing a few large leaves with her.
"I was hoping I could learn some recipes I could use out in the wild," I said.
"Hmm. Do you want to heal or poison?" she asked as she began to mash the leaves up in a small bowl.
"Uh, both, I guess? At the very least I'd like to make a tea and not poison myself," I said.
"I can teach you. Miyuki and I could use the company. But first, what is your name, young man?" she asked as the cat came over and began to rub against her hand.
"Merlin," I answered, choosing to stick to my chosen alias.
"Alright then, Merlin. Let's get started," she said as she scratched her cat behind the ears.
About a full week went by before I finally saw signs that my friends had arrived. In that time, I had learned as much as I could from the old woman. She insisted that I call her Su, and taught me various remedies that I could use while traveling. A mild poison or two was also thrown into the mix, but only to make someone ill, not flat out kill them.
Su seemed quite happy about having someone to teach, or talk to in general. I got the impression that she got quite lonely, despite the fact that her cat was a constant companion. We both knew that our working together was soon to draw to an end, so we made the most out of our lessons. It was nearing dusk when I saw Appa touch down on the far end of the city ruins.
With nightfall rapidly approaching, I decided to wait until the next day before I made my way toward them. The local landscape could be dangerous enough in the dark by itself without Sokka's paranoia being thrown in to the mix. As the sun began to rise, I packed up my meager camp that had been maintained for the past week and set off in the direction I had seen Appa land.
Storm clouds were boiling in the sky when I finally located their camp. Appa had taken shelter in a large pavilion of some sort. A fire was going, and Sokka and Katara were curled up in their sleeping bags, resting on the flying bison's side. Aang was no where to be found, but his staff was leaning against the wall, indicating that he was around and would probably be back soon.
"Morgan?" Katara asked weakly, raising her head when she saw me. I sat my gear down near the fire and made my way over to her and her brother. Sokka was shivering badly, had snot streaming from his nose, and sweat pouring down his face. Katara was in better shape, but not by much. I could tell by the sheen on her forehead that she had a fever.
"Figures. I take off for a little while and you go and get sick," I said as I knelt down and placed the back of my hand on her forehead. With how badly she was burning up, she defiantly had a fever.
"Water," she said, hoarsely as she weakly raised her had toward me. I pulled my canteen from my belt and held it to her lips for her to drink. She got a good mouthful down before she started coughing.
"Where is Aang?" I asked as I shifted over to Sokka and got some water into him as well.
"Went to find medicine," Katara replied. At that moment, lightning flashed through the sky and thunder rumbled.
"Of course he did," I said. Based on what I had seen, these two had an advanced case of the common flu. I could ease their symptoms, but the sickness would have to run its course. Pulling out a cup and digging through my pack, I came up with a small bottle of ibuprofen. I crushed a couple of the pills before mixing the resulting powder with water.
"Drink this. It won't taste great, but it'll help with the fever," I instructed as I lifted the cup to Katara's lips. She made a face, but otherwise did as she was told. As I took the cup back from her, Momo flew in and placed a crown on top of her head. I just stood there, blinking like an owl at the sight.
"Uh?"
"He's been bringing everything back but water," Katara explained. I glanced between her and the small pile of stuff laying a short distance away before shaking my head. Turning away, I set about refiling the cup for Sokka.
"Who's the wizard, your highness?" he asked his sister as I tried to get him to drink.
"Come on, drink up you delirious idiot."
"No Gran Gran, I don't want to," he said, flailing his arms in an attempt to push me back. I held the cup out so he didn't spill it's contents, while at the same time planting my free hand in the middle of his chest in an effort to keep him in place.
"Sokka, stop it!"
"No, I don't wanna." I growled in frustration before laying my body on top of his, pinning him down. My free hand clamped down on his nose while I forced the cup to his lips and made him drink. With this task done, I released him and stood upright, leaving him to cough.
"There, you overgrown child, was that so hard?" I asked as I wiped the snot on my hand off on him. He didn't answer, but rather went back to his own mutterings. With a roll of my eyes, I went to tend to the small fire. Time passed, and I eventually got board enough to make a small pot of tea. I practiced with my bending again, using it to stir up the mixture in the pot.
I still wasn't quite sure what to make of my newfound abilities. Sure I had ideas about what I could use them for, but at the end of the day my control was still relatively limited. Maybe I could get some advice from Katara when she fully recovered, or Aang when he got back. Control, as with all skills, would come with time and practice.
With the tea done, I began to put together some broth for the siblings to eat. Hopefully this flu of theirs wasn't messing with their stomachs. They were on their own if they threw up all over themselves. As I finished making the broth, I found that Sokka had fallen asleep, while Katara had a thousand yard stare, looking at the ceiling high overhead.
"Hey, you need to eat something," I said, nudging her and offering her a bowl. She slowly sat up and gave me a weak smile as she took the bowl and began to sip on the warm liquid.
"How are you feeling?"
"A little better. What was that you gave us?" she asked. Her voice sounded a little stronger, and she was no longer sweating bullets, so it seemed my little concoction was doing it's job.
"Something to help relieve the symptoms. It's not a cure, but it'll help as your body burns off the flu," I said.
"Is that something you learned in Montana?" she asked before taking another sip of broth. I cast a glance at my pack, where the pill bottle was hidden.
"Yeah, you could say that," I said.
'What's your people like? Tell me about the Montana Tribe," she said. Katara gave me a confused frown when I began to laugh.
"Montana is the name of the place I'm from. The tribe I came from are the Blackfoot," I explained.
"Well, tell me about Montana then, what's it like?" she asked. I sat in silence for a long time, staring into the dancing depths of the fire as I tried to find the right words.
"They call it Big Sky Country. Wide open prairies, snow capped mountains, thick forests full of game, and deep cool rivers filled with fish. It's the kind of place you can go and get lost in and never be found again if you want," I finally said, speaking of my home fondly.
"Sounds beautiful. Maybe we can go visit it, one day," she said. My face fell at her words.
"I…I don't think that's possible."
"Why not? Did the Fire Nation destroy it?" I shook my head, silently finding the idea of the Fire Nation being able to take on my gun crazy home state laughable.
"No. As…as crazy as it sounds, I don't know the way back," I said. Katara's frown of confusion returned, this time with enough force to make her set the bowl aside.
"What do you mean you don't know the way back?
"I mean I don't know where Montana is, alright? My home is out there, somewhere. But I have no idea where it is," I clarified, pointing out toward the dark storm cloud filled sky.
"But, I thought you said it was in the mountains in the east?"
"I don't know."
"How do you not know how to get home?"
"I don't know, okay!?" I said, frustrated as I jumped to my feet, "A place called Big Sky, and I have no idea where it is or how to get back to it." I clenched my fists as I turned away from her, only to unclench them before hunching my shoulders.
"I'm lost. I've been taught how to survive, track, and travel on my own all my life, and I can't do it. I'm on my own," I said, my voice softer now.
"You're not alone. You've got us," she said. I sighed again.
"Yeah, it's just frustrating, you know?"
"Maybe we can help you find your way back. Four pairs of eyes are better than two," she offered as I turned back to her. She had finished the broth and was offering the bowl back.
"Maybe. For right now, you should get some rest," I instructed as I took the bowl from her. Katara laid back down and soon drifted off, leaving me to sit by the fire and wait for something to happen. Nighttime came and went, and it was the gray of dawn when Aang finally came trudging up the stairs to our small camp.
"Suck on these," he said, going up to Sokka and than Katara, giving them something out of his shirt before he shambled his way to Appa's tale, where he collapsed tiredly.
"Aang, how was your trip? Did you make any new friends?" Sokka asked around his new treat.
"No, I don't think I did," he answered before rolling over and going to sleep. The poor kid looked like he'd been steamrolled by a swamp, so I left him alone to rest. As I stoked up the fire a little more, I heard the sucking sound increase from Sokka in particular.
"Mmm, this is tasty," he said. Ten seconds later, both he and Katara had sat up and were spitting out whatever they were sucking on. I watched as a pair of brown frogs hopped away from the siblings.
"Yep, that's Su's handiwork alright," I muttered, unsurprised that my medicine mentor had suggested sucking on frogs as a cure.
A day or so after the frog incident, we left Taku and continued to head north. Both Katara and Sokka made full recoveries, either thanks to my remedy or Su's bat shit crazy idea of amphibian sucking, I'll never know. When I finally told the others about my newfound waterbending abilities, both Aang and Katara practically went through the roof with excitement. Things were still a little rocky between Sokka and I, so he reacted with some indifference.
Almost instantly, my daily routine shifted. Now I was spending the morning practicing with Katara and Aang, while I spent the afternoon hunting and gathering. All of this was in between the long segments of traveling or sleeping.
It was around this time that the nightmares started. Well, I call them nightmares, but that's only cause I lack a proper way to describe them. They weren't dreams exactly, more like flashes, vivid images of events seemingly unrelated to each other taking place.
I saw flashes of giant metal airships setting huge swaths of land on fire. I saw the banner of the Fire Nation being draped over what was clearly an Earth Kingdom building. But perhaps what was the most disturbing, I saw Aang, bruised and battered, lying motionless in Katara's arms while the young woman wept.
These usually served to jerk me awake in the middle of the night. But rather than wake anyone else, I'd roll over and try to go back to sleep. After all, dreams are just dreams, they don't have any bearing on real life. Looking back now, in hindsight I probably shouldn't have kept them to myself.
About a week after we left Taku, we were camped along the bank of a river. Morning bending practice had finished, and we were packing up camp when Katara pointed out a large green fish that was leaping out of the water. The fish turned it's body so that it was looking at us with a rather smug look on it's face.
"He's taunting us," Sokka said before grabbing his fishing rod. He didn't get very far before he realized that the rod didn't have a line on it. As this was going on, I strung my bow.
"Hey, what happened to the fishing line?"
"Sorry, Sokka, I didn't think you'd need it. I wove this bracelet for Katara," Aang said as he held up a woven bracelet.
"Thanks, Aang," Katara said with a smile as she took it from him.
"Great, maybe instead of saving the world, you can go into making jewelry," Sokka said.
"I don't see why I can't do both," Aang replied, the former's sarcasm going right over his head. Before Sokka could come up with a response, the fish leapt out of the water again, prompting him to yank his knife from his belt and slosh into the river after it. I watched and waited patently with an arrow nocked, knowing that he was going to screw this whole thing up somehow.
"Well, how does it look?" Katara asked as she showed off her new bracelet.
"You mean your wrist, or all of you? Cause both look great," Aang replied, stumbling through his words. I rolled my eyes before I went back to watching Sokka. The kid really was helpless in some situations. To my surprise, Sokka had actually managed to catch the fish and was holding it up.
"Smoochy smoochy, someone's in love," he taunted before making a kissy face at the fish. Said fish managed to slip free of his grasp, make a full spin in mid air, slap him in the face with it's tail, before diving back into the river.
"Stop teasing him, Sokka. Aang's just a good friend, a sweet little guy, just like Momo," Katara said, patting Aang on the side of the cheek. Aang visibly deflated at that.
"Thanks," he said, dismayed, which went unnoticed by Katara.
"For those of us about to die in the friend zone, we salute you," I said muttered under my breath as I searched the water for the fish that Sokka had been after.
"Did you say something, Morgan?" Katara asked.
"Nothing important," I replied as Sokka came slogging out of the river. He sent a glare my way as he shoved his knife back into his belt.
"Thanks for the help," he muttered. I simply cocked my eyebrow at him.
"Would you have rather I shot the fish while you were trying to make out with it, or waited until it bitch slapped you with it's tail?" I asked.
"How about before, when it was jumping around, taunting us?" he countered. I rolled my eyes again.
"Get out of the river, you idiot. You get sick again, I'm shoving this arrow up your ass." A loud noise from down river caught all of our attention, prompting Aang to leap onto a rather large boulder to try and locate the source of the noise.
"Someone's being attacked by a platypus bear!" he yelled, pointing toward the source of the noise. A short distance down the river was a man wearing blue robes being swung at by the living nightmare that is a platypus bear. Out of all the creatures that exist in this new world, this one has to be one of the most unfortunate looking, and terrifying enough to induce piss running down your leg.
"Hello there, lovely day isn't it?" the man asked as if nothing was wrong, despite the fact that he had just narrowly ducked his head being taken off by a paw swipe.
"Make nose, it'll run away!" Aang yelled.
"No, play dead, he'll loose interest," Sokka countered.
"Run down hill and climb a tree," Katara added. As the man just barely dodged another swipe, I stepped forward and readied my bow. Pressing my lips together, I let loose a high pitched whistle. The hybrid turned toward me, investigating the source of the noise. Finding a new target, the bear reared up on it's hind legs and roared.
I didn't waste a moment, firing the arrow straight into the bear's mouth and right out the back. The bear made a choking nose as it reared back in pain and surprise. I didn't give it a chance to recover, as two more arrows quickly found their mark in the back of the bear's mouth. The bear's eyes rolled back into it's head before it collapsed fully onto its side. It's body gave one last shutter before an egg popped out of it's rear.
"Or…that works too, I guess," Katara said. Sokka wasted no time in collecting the egg and muttering about having found lunch. I rolled my eyes before drawing my knife and setting about skinning and harvesting what I could from the dead bear hybrid.
"Lucky for you we came along," Sokka said, turning to the man.
"What's this 'we' crap?" I asked as I yanked an arrow free from the bear, "I'm the one who killed the damn thing."
"Thank you, but everything was under control. Not to worry. Aunt Wu predicted I would have a safe journey," the man said.
"Aunt who?" Aang asked.
"No, Aunt Wu," the man corrected, "she's the fortuneteller from my village. Awful nice to know your future."
"That explains why you were so calm," Katara said in realization.
"But you didn't have a safe trip, you were almost killed!" Sokka pointed out.
"But I wasn't, have a good one! Oh, and Aunt Wu said if I met any travelers to give them this," the man said before handing Aang a package and heading off.
"Maybe we should go see Aunt Wu and learn our fortunes, it could be fun," Katara said.
"Oh come on, fortune telling is nonsense," Sokka said as Aang began to unwrap the package he had been held. He held it up and opened it, revealing an umbrella.
"What do you know, an umbrella." At that moment, it broke off and started to rain. Katara bent an arch of water over her head, while Sokka held the egg up and tried to hide under it. I growled in frustration as I yanked the last of my arrows free and began to finish up on my harvest. Raising my hand, I also created a shield for myself.
"Well, that proves it," Katara said.
"No it doesn't! You can't really predict the future!"
"I guess you're not really getting getting wet then," she replied smugly. I kept quiet as they conversed back and forth. I remembered this episode, not in it's entirety, but enough to recount the important details. In the next village there was a volcano that was going to erupt, and it'd be up to Aang and the others to insure it's survival.
"I say we go see this fortuneteller," I said, speaking up.
"Oh, Morgan not you too," Sokka said in defeat.
"What? We go, and if turns out to be nothing then your point will be proven. Either way, none of us stands to lose from it," I said. At that moment the egg slipped out of Sokka's grasp, flew into the air, before landing on his head and shattering. Yoke ran down his face, causing him to frown even harder then he had been before.
"Also we can get something legit to eat," I added.
The village we came to rested at the foot of a large snow capped mountain. It was a fairly normal village, nothing that really set it apart from any other one we had passed through so far. I gazed up at the mountain with a sense of distain. It was a ticking time bomb, and no one knew about it.
"Morgan, are you alright?" Katara asked.
"Yeah, just…a really bad feeling is all," I answered without taking my eyes off of the mountain. We came to a large building with a round door being overlooked by a single man standing outside.
"Aunt Wu has been expecting you," he said.
"Really?" Katara asked.
"You say that to everyone, don't you?" I asked as we walked in. He didn't answer, but rather gave a smile in response. Inside, we were greeted by a young girl in a pink robe with a ridiculous set of pigtails that stuck out of the sides of her head.
"I'm Meng, I'm Aunt Wu's assistant," she introduced herself. I set my pack down in a corner before plopping down next to it. Pulling my knife from my belt, I began to scrape the dirt from under my fingernails in boredom. I wasn't here for a palm reading, I was here to save a village from volcanic disaster.
When I finished picking at my fingers, I returned the knife to my belt before standing and heading off to look for a bathroom. Sokka was fighting Momo over a bowl of snacks, while Aang and Katara were nowhere to be found. I shrugged, and continued my search. In the back, I found Aang leaning near a screen, clearly eavesdropping on a conversation being held on the other side.
"Having fun?" I whispered. He jumped about a foot in the air.
"Just coming back from the bathroom," he said quickly.
"Which is where?"
"That way," he replied, motioning in the general direction behind him before heading back out to join Sokka. I rolled my eyes and started in the direction he had pointed, but paused when I heard Katara speak.
"So do you see anything interesting in my love line?" she asked.
"I see a great romance, the man you are going to marry," a woman, I'm guessing Wu replied.
"Tell me more."
"I can see he is a powerful bender, and he has traveled far. A simple man, a man of the wild," came the response. I shrugged before continuing my search for a bathroom. I would have said good on Katara, if I believed in fortunes. Speaking of fortunes, mine was finally looking up as I found a bathroom, did my business, and made my way back to the others.
"Who's next?" Wu asked. When I finally got a good look at the woman, my heart nearly stopped dead. She looked like someone you would look up to for advice, like a grandmother or an aunt. But I didn't just recognize her from the show, I knew her from my personal life. As she turned to see me, her own eyes grew large as well in shock and recognition.
"How about you, young man," she said, not letting her shock being displayed by the rest of her body. Although it was subtle, the tone of her voice made it clear she was telling, not suggesting.
"Sure, I'll go," I said. She led me back into the room I had passed by and closed the paper door behind us. As she turned back to face me, there were a series of emotions on her face.
"You have a lot of explaining to do, young man," she said with seriousness in her voice.
"Me, what about you? Huh?" I shot back. She placed her hands on her hips and gave me a stern look.
"Jacob Morgan Wood, I will have none of the back sass," she said. For the first time since I had set foot in this village, I actually smiled.
"It's good to see you too, Grandma Wendy."
And cut. New developments, don't you just love cliffhangers. Drop a review, leave a PM, let me know what you liked or didn't like about this chapter, and I'll see you all next time.