Hey guys! I'm on Christmas Vacation! I decided to get things rolling. With the lack of help with the story, I will be attempting to actually do this by myself. I remember having a little help with this story once upon a time because the Avatar adventure is sooooo long! Enjoy this extra long chapter for all you guys who have sticked with the story! I love you all! And happy early Christmas!
PS: I was wondering how I can get a cover for this story... maybe if anyone has any ideas, just message me on deviantart or here at fanfiction!
Disclaimer: Oops I forgot any disclaimers recently, so I say I will never own these two wonderful shows that exist to be epic!
Danny
I looked down from Appa and watched the thick forest pass below his massive feet. Yesterday when everyone was asleep I tried to fly around and search for enemies, but came up empty handed.
After a while, I just sat in a tree and looked up at the sky. It was different from the dull stars in my world; probably because they don't have cars here. I started to miss my friends, but shook my head and flew back to camp with a smile. Sam and Tucker would want me to help everyone in this world, I was sure of it.
A tap on my shoulder snapped me out of my daydream, making me swivel from my sitting place to face to face Aang.
"We're going to stop here for a while okay?"
"That's cool," I sighed.
XXX
Once we landed, Sokka started pullin off all the luggage from Appa and started to make camp. Everyone else followed after him and sat around the river. Sokka soon announces that he's going forraging for food, which makes everyone pale. I wondered what's so bad with him getting food. I soon found out that he's not the best hunter.
Sokka reappeared through the trees ten minutes later with a sack that seemed full of 'something.'
"Great! Your back! What's for dinner?" Aang asked Sokka with enthusiasm.
Sokka opened the bag and viewed the contents. "We've got a few options. First, round nuts and some kind of oval shaped nuts, and some rock shaped nuts that... might just be rocks. Dig in!"
I didn't want to even attempt to eat anything he found. It seemed worse than Sam's ultrorecycle vegetarian diet. Memories of my first fight with the lunch lady back at school made me smile a little.
"Seriously, what else ya got?" Katara asked with a sour face.
I heard Momo chattering nearby trying to eat a 'nut' that Sokka threw to him. Food? Nut? Food? Momo questioned as he slammed the mysterious nut stone against a rock.
All of a sudden, a huge slamming noise echoed around us. Momo looked at his nut stone in shock and blinked. Nut make noise? He asked as he hessitantly dropped the stone on the rock, only to have the loud noise coincidently sound off again, startling him.
"What is that?" I asked everyone in confusion.
I was sure I didn't see any enemies following us. Aang seemd to pinpoint the noises location. We all traveled a short way along side the river withSokka calling after us. I didn't listen to what he was saying and my eyes narrowed as we got closer, only to widden as I realized that is was only a boy. What surprised me the most was that he was moving giant boulders with his bending technique.
Maybe I was curious if I could bend elements like everyone in this world. Who wouldn't want to use your finger like a flamethrower... oh wait, Vlad does that.
"An earth bender!" Katara exclaimed with excitement as soon as she caught up to me.
Aang followed close behind her and put on his signature grin. "Lets go meet him."
"He looks dangerous, so we better approach him cautiously," Sokka warned in a forced leadership voice.
"He's just a kid... what harm could he do?" I asked.
Everyone gave me a funny look before walking up to the boy. I grumbled out loud for saying something so stupid before following after them. Katara reached him first and waved her hand in greeting.
"Hi, I'm Katara! What's your name?"
Apparently that was the wrong thing to say. The kid suddenly slammed a bunch of boulders in our path and took off into the woods. Katara pouted, thinking she messed up in greeting him, so I put a hand on her shoulder and gave a sympathetic look.
"We just wanted to say hi..." she sighed.
Aang quickly came in to cheer his friend up. "Hey, that guy's gotta be running somewhere, maybe we're near a village and I bet that village has a market!"
Katara instantly perked up with excitement. "Which means no nuts for dinner!"
Both benders took off in the kids direction, leaving me with Sokka who seems hurt.
"Hey! I worked hard to get those nuts!" He called to the runaways. Momo flew up ahead and chattered Hate rock nut! before flying away with the others.
Sokka looked at the ground and gave a small sigh. "Yeh, I hate'em too."
For a second, I thought he could understand what Momo was saying, but I quickly shook it off as a coincidence. People can't understand animals... and I don't really count as people.
XXX
As soon as we reached the village, we all decided to fool around before buying supplies. While Aang and the gang tried on some hats, I decided to go invisible and look for the boy. As I walked around, I noticed everyone seemed depressed.
Suddenly I heard Katara shout out. She must of found the kid first. Not wanting to turn visible in a crowd of citizens, I followed them to a small house. Once they all went inside, I turned visible and opened the door.
"No she doesn't, we saw you earth bending." Aang was saying as I entered.
I could only guess that the kid was denying what he did. Why was he trying to hide that he could earth bending? The kids mother looked at her son with dread. The kid shook his long brown hair to say no, then pointed to us.
"They're crazy, mom, I mean, look at how they're dressed!"
All of us looked down at our attire, trying to understand what was so weird about them. Even though I looked fairly normal, I guess there aren't many people who have seen blue outfits in this town, since everyone seemed to be wearing brown clothes here. The mother didn't look like she was buying his son's excuse.
"You know how dangerous that is! You know what would happen if they caught you earthbending!"
I was about to ask what she was talking about, when suddenly a knock came from the door. Sokka goes to investigate the strangers.
"Open up!" a deep voice commanded.
Sokka turned to us with panic. "Fire nation! Act natural!"
We all took fairly natural poses just as two big soldiers came in. My ghost sense suddenly went off, startling me for a second. I looked around for the ghost or if someone saw my breath, but it seemed that no one did.
The mother of the boy walked up to the first clad soldier. "What do you want? I've already paid you this week."
The soldier glared at her and everyone else in the room. What was creepy though was that the second soldier was staring at me with expressionless eyes. I almost thought my ghost sense went off... his stare was that cold.
"The tax just doubled. Wouldn't want an accident, would we?"
After saying that, He conjured a ball of fire in his hand that seemed to flare up larger with each second. Everyone except the stalker fire bender was looking at the flame.
"Fire is sometimes so hard to control."
I didn't know what was worse, a fire bender or Vlad.
The mother of the secret earth bender left the room and returned later with a chest. She opened it up and pulled some coins to give to the fire bender. Once he had the coins, he dumped the copper coins on the ground and pocketed the silver ones. Beside me, Aang tenses and Sokka grit his teeth.
"You can keep the copper ones."
Before they left, I heard the second soldier whisper something to the elder one. All he received was a smack to his helmet as an answer. I would have to investigate later. I looked back to the family to see the mother picking up the copper coins.
"Nice guy. How long has the Fire Nation been here?" Sokka asked as soon as the mother stood up.
"Five years. Fire Lord Ozai uses our town's coal mines to fuel his ships."
"They're thugs; they steal from us, and everyone here is too much of a coward to do anything about it," the kid growled with anger in his eyes.
I understood what it was like to feel helpless even with some power.
"Quiet, Haru. Don't talk like that," his mother scolded.
The teen, who was finally named Haru, looked down again and trembled with bottled rage. Katara moved towards the mother and gave a reassuring smile.
"But, Haru's an earthbender, he can help."
That seemed to harden the mother even more. "Earth bending is forbidden. It's caused nothing but misery for this village. He must never use his abilities."
"How can you say that? Haru has a gift. Asking him not to earthbend is like asking me not to waterbend. It's a part of who we are." Katara tried to persuade her, only to be snapped at.
"You don't understand."
"I understand that Haru can help you fight back."
I decided to finally step in and ask something. "What can the Fire Nation do to you that they haven't done already?"
"They could take Haru away! Like they took his father."
Everyone froze as the mother screamed her rage. I shuffled in place while I looked at everyone's emotions. Things were just getting worse.
XXX
I left everyone after Haru's mother let us stay the night. I told everyone I was going out to clear my head. That was sort of true. I really wanted to investigate the other fire bender that visited the house and didn't speak a word.
I arrived at a camp with red tents and a flag over the tallest tent. Soon enough, I saw Mr. Helmet go through the flaps. I changed into Phantom and flew in undetected to eavesdrop on the man. Inside, the man was facing another fire bender, who was more heavily decorated. The man had a scar on his right eye, and his bald head gleamed in the torch lights.
"Tell me why you have come back Tomu?"
The man named Tomu took off his helmet to reveal a mop of grey curly hair and brown eyes that stayed fixed on the other guy.
"Well sir, I would like if you would actually listen to me."
"Then talk," the superior said bluntly, never moving his body.
'Man... these guys are really good at staying still...' I thought to myself as I floated above them.
For some reason, Tomu shivered as I got closer.
"Sir... me and my partner were interrogating a woman for her money... but there was something weird about the people who were visiting the family."
"Weird how?" The commander asked with an eye brow raised.
I gulped as I guessed what the man was going to say.
"Well sir, it seemed that this boy... something... came out of his mouth."
I froze over him, almost losing my invisibility. He saw me!
"Excuse me?" the superior asked in confused rage.
"Pire, please listen to me. It looked like smoke. He just opened his mouth and blue smoke flew out of his mouth like it would in a cold climate. It wasn't even cold in the village."
This Tomu guy was already having me sweat as I floated closer to him. He seemed about twenty, and if he wasn't an evil fire bender trying to kill all of us and enslave everyone in this world, he would of been a good guy.
"You need to leave and cool your head off. If I catch you spreading this story about strange people around, I will personally send you back to the fire nation with your tail between your legs. Do you understand?"
Tomu's mouth tightened, but he bowed low and left the tent. I decided to form a plan. This guy didn't know I was part of the avatar team. If I could get some information from him, I might be able to help everyone in the village. It was worth a shot. I decided to find him before heading back.
As he walked toward the woods I suddenly turned visible upside down, causing him to fall backwards into the grass in shock.
"Ahhhh!" he screamed before I could stop him. That scream didn't sound like a brave evil soldier...
I turned right side up and floated closer to him. With wide eyes, Tomu sat up and stared at me with wide brown eyes reflecting my ghostly image.
"Are... are you a s-spirit?" He asked with awe.
I scratched my head and gave him a sideways questioning glance. "No, I'm a ghost. I came to you because you saw... me... um... contacting a friend using... cold signals?"
He actually seemed to buy my lame excuse. The man stood up completely and inched closer.
"Oh... well what are you doing here?"
I settled to the ground and crossed my legs. For some reason he joined me on the ground. "I'm not really sure. I'm just here to help someone. Are you evil?"
Tomu seemed taken back by this question. He looked off into the distance and straitened his back.
"I really didn't choose to come here. I wanted to serve my nation. I know we have done bad things, but it's for the good of the future.
" I had to role my eyes at his reply. "Oh sure, enslaving everyone and killing nations to have peace. It's your decision to choose what's right or wrong."
Tomu's eyes softened a little, letting his tension slide a little. "Your not going to tell me what's right or wrong?"
I folded my arms and sighed. How was this man brought up?
"What would the point be? You could just ignore what I say."
"But your powerful..." He retorted.
I winced a little. My power didn't make me lord of everyone in Amity Park, but he had a point. If I let my power rule me, I would be another fruitloop in a cereal box.
"Just think of me as a regular person and just think! Do you really want to harm people?"
Tomu seemed like he was about to answer, but suddenly the wind picked up. Tomu and I looked up to see something like the portal appear, spit something out, and then vanish. I looked down to see a green glowing blob.
"What is that?" Tomu asked as he backed up in fear. I was starting to wonder how Tomu even got into a fearful army like this.
I inched closer and poked it with my finger. The blob grumbled and sat up, showing me that it had a very familiar face.
"Skulker?"
Ah! I am leaving you all hanging! I will get the next chapter up when I can! Until next time,
Chow! : )
