OMG I LOVE HOW MANY NEW READERS LIKE...ACTUALLY READ THIS. I'm totally astounded. LIKE TOTALLY. LIEK OMGWTFBBQ. Next update, and I totally remember how much I love writing this. And I seriously actually for reals, have a plan for where I'm going with this for at least for little while. So I'm kinda glad about that.
MOAR AT THE BOTTOM. FOR NOW, ENJOY.
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"This is exhausting. I have no idea how you continue to do this." Katara wrapped her arms around Aang resting her head against his shoulder. Currently they were waiting for the cabbages to be loaded up to be taken to the docks, after confronting Bumi about what had happened to the trade ship and the cabbages. The king had stroked his chin and nodded saying something along the lines of, 'these things happen'.
"We also promised to escort the next trade ship that is sent to the Fire Nation to avoid any thing else that might go wrong," Aang had explained. Bumi nodded and immediately ordered for another shipment to be prepared. Though they had to wait until the next day while the merchant recovered from his ordeal. So they were once again given a lavish meal before being shown to the same room they stayed the night before. The next day they were on their way, this time to the Fire Nation with a trade ship.
They arrived at the docks with the cabbages hauled by ostrich-horses with the help of Appa. The merchant accompanied the two and he seemed to be mostly recovered after being hydrated and well fed. He still seemed to be bitter about previous encounters they had, but he was for the most part glad to be alive. The docks had only gotten busier since they had visited that the day before. The woman in charge wasn't too thrilled to see them back either.
"Oh, look. It's everyone's favorite Avatar," she rolled her eyes as she hurried along the docks.
"We're here on business!" Aang tried to keep up with her. Katara hurried ahead and placed herself in front of the woman.
"Look, you don't have to like Aang, but he has business to do, so cooperate!" Katara demanded. The dock woman rolled her eyes.
"What do you two want?" the woman asked irritably.
"We have a new shipment of cabbage to load onto a trade ship." Aang explained. He motioned to Appa and the ostrich-horses that had pulled the load to the docks.
"Why can't I be told of these things in advance?" she sighed. "It's not like I just have spare trade ships laying around!"
"Where is the damn merchant? He should be taking care of this!" Katara turned to Aang. Aang rubbed his temples as Katara stormed off in the direction of the cabbages. Aang stood in front of the woman in charge of the docks, unsure of what to do. Katara seemed capable of finding the merchant by herself. So Aang stood there feeling awkward at the woman glared at him with her arms crossed.
"You know I'm a busy woman, I can't take all day to be with you…" she threatened to leave.
"The Avatar, the King of Omashu and the Fire Lord are all depending on you. Can you take another…half an hour to sort this out?" Aang pleaded. For what seemed the millionth time the woman rolled her eyes.
"You deal with her!" Katara dragged the merchant back. The merchant looked fearful, Aang wasn't sure if it was of Katara or the dock woman.
"King Bumi has commanded that we take the cabbages to the Fire Nation today," the merchant explained.
"I know, what every King and Avatar said, but I don't have a trade ship available!" the woman screeched.
"This woman is unbelievable! If it all just fit on Appa, I'd say we just take the cabbages ourselves…but seeing as there are so many of them…" Katara muttered. Aang scratched his head as the woman continued to be disagreeable.
"Katara! That's it!" Aang exclaimed. "Excuse me," Aang turned towards the merchant and dock woman's conversation. "Do you happen to have a smaller boat that is not in use today? Maybe something that could fit half of the cabbages or even a fourth?" Aang asked.
"Maybe…" the woman sighed. "If so, what? You going to take a several trips? It's not just a free ride to sail back and forth all day, Mister Avatar."
"No, no. I understand that very well. You see part of the cabbage shipment will be able to fit on my bison, Appa. We could carry part of the load." Aang suggested. The woman raised her eyebrow.
"Finally a good idea…" the woman shrugged. Katara curled her hands into fists, as she grinded her teeth. Aang sensed her becoming upset and laid a hand on her arm. "Let's see, I have a passenger boat and it's off duty today. You could fit most of the cargo in the passenger area if need be."
"That's great!" Aang grinned. "Isn't that great Katara?" Aang clutched her hand.
"Great." Katara rolled her eyes. They were shown to the ship as a couple of the dockworkers tried to bring the cargo to the ship. But because the ship was not docked where the trade ships were usually docked, it was an ordeal trying to load the cabbage. The merchant wasn't helping either lingering over everyone exclaiming, "Don't drop my cabbages!"
Aang had definitely thought the ship she described as a larger ship. When she said passenger, he imagined a large ferry at least. This was a small passenger ship! The most people it could hold were twenty or twenty-five passengers at the most, with people inside the cabin or outside on deck. There was no way a whole shipment of cabbage would fit. Well, that wasn't the point, but not nearly enough cabbage would fit to make this plan work. Aang nervously glanced at Appa, afraid that his bison would be sensing where the plan was going. Appa was gazing at him, and Aang hoped he had only imagined the intent of the glance from his bison.
"Well, I think that's as much cabbage as we're going to pack into this thing." One of the dockworkers dusted his hands off. In the cabin, where passengers usually sat, the heads of cabbages filled the entire space. A couple of groups of cabbage lined the deck but it hardly looked like they made a dent in the cabbage that sat in the port. "You said you wanted to load the rest of this onto your bison?" the dockworker asked.
"Yeah…though I'm not sure how we're going to…" Aang started.
"Allow us," the worker bowed to Aang.
"You really think this is going to work?" Katara asked.
"I imagined a bigger boat and less cabbage that Appa would have to carry but, other than that, hopefully…?" Aang shrugged. The cabbage was loaded onto the saddle and strapped down. It was a magnificent amount of cabbage, but it all managed to fit. Aang raised his eyebrows, impressed with the job.
"Wow, thanks!" Aang grinned.
"We still don't like the whole trading with the Fire Nation. But have a safe trip," a dockworker waved them off.
"HE ONLY SAVED YOUR ASSES, AS IF ANY OF THAT MATTERS." Katara shook her fist angrily at the dockworkers.
"Hahaha…Katara, please calm down. They wished us a safe journey!" Aang waved with a grin to the dockworkers that looked back with mortified expressions.
"It was filled with malcontent!" Katara exclaimed.
"Katara…" Aang muttered, "It's time to go…"
"Ugh, okay…" Katara sighed. Katara jumped up onto Appa as Aang checked with the boat to make sure the crew was ready to go. The crew on the passenger ship was made up of some of the dockworkers that were also skilled sailors. Once he was done Aang jumped up onto Appa next to Katara.
"We're ready to go!" Aang smiled. The ship moved out of the harbor as Appa took off. He let out a groan and splashed into the water next to the ship, lightly rocking it.
"What's wrong with Appa?" Katara asked, stroking Appa's head.
"It must be the weight of the cabbages." Aang scratched his head.
"Will he be okay?" Katara furrowed her brows.
"I'm slightly worried…I think I'll head over to the ship. You take care of Appa." Aang opened his glider. "Try to bring Appa alongside the ship!" Aang called as he jumped off of Appa and used the glider to propel him to the ship.
"Aang!" Katara exclaimed. "So much for spending time together…" Katara gripped Appa's reins to steer him closer to the ship. "It's his Avatar duty…his duty to the world. The world comes before our relationship." Katara grumbled to herself. She was afraid it was going to become her mantra over the next couple years. She knew he cared about her, but he had an important job to do. Katara pulled Appa up alongside the boat with the cabbages. Aang ran out of the cabin after Katara presumed he was talking to the captain. He laughed and waved at Katara. She rolled her eyes and waved back.
"Hey!" Aang ran up to edge of the boat, "Hey, there's a little bit more room on the ship here. I'm going to move enough cabbages to try to displace my weight. That way I can sit on Appa without feeling so bad." Aang jumped onto the railing and then over to Appa's saddle and gathered as many cabbages as he could and hopped back. He did this for several minutes before settling down on Appa.
"That should be enough…" Aang grinned.
"I thought you were just going to stay on the ship the entire time." Katara rolled her eyes.
"No way! What would I do on the ship for the entire way to the Fire Nation?" Aang laughed.
"I don't know. You make friends so easily…" Katara shrugged.
"I wouldn't leave you alone on Appa for the entire two days!" Aang exclaimed.
"Spirits, this is going to take two days?" Katara gasped.
"That's what the captain said. It's a lot faster on Appa isn't it?" Aang laughed. Katara sighed, laying her head on Aang's shoulder.
"I can't wait to be home…when we can just relax…it's been a while since we've just been at home and we've done nothing." Katara sighed.
"Yeah, we should have enjoyed that calm before the storm. I'm going to have a ton of work to do now that things are picking up after the war. Especially after Zuko's wedding. All these political figureheads are going to be there and want to request my presence and some meeting or conference to help decide something." Aang reminded her.
"I forgot you said that Zuko was getting married…that's so funny to think about. Zuko and Mai…and married life…" Katara giggled.
"When are we getting married?" Aang asked Katara, teasingly.
"You're asking me?" Katara laughed. "You're the one who's going to be busy for the next couple years, fixing the world. We should wait until you've finished with that."
"I am a nomad, you know." Aang laughed. "You expect me to settle down for that?" Katara smiled at him.
"You will have to settle down sometime, you know." Katara raised her eyebrows at him.
"What do you mean? After all these years traveling, we can't just stop go—" Aang looked at her with a confused look.
"What happens when we have a family?" Katara smirked.
"Oh, well—I didn't…when are you…planning on…a—what?" Aang looked startled. Katara started to giggle insanely at Aang's response.
"I didn't mean right now, you idiot!" Katara grinned. "But we do have to repopulate those Airbenders…you know?" Aang blushed as Katara kissed his cheek. "Isn't that what you want?"
"Er, yes." Aang nodded. Katara smirked. The day continued on slowly as the ocean stretched on for what seemed like forever. Aang and Katara pulled their packs out as they were going to feast on what they had packed.
"Not much…" Katara shrugged at their miniscule meal of easily packed fruits and nuts.
"We have an entire bison-saddle full of cabbage." Aang laughed.
"Cabbage doesn't seem any more appetizing." Katara rolled her eyes.
"Hey!" someone called out to the two. They looked up from their feast. "You two wanna eat? We're eating dinner!"
"Uh…" Aang and Katara exchanged glances. They both looked to their tiny dinner and then to the lit ship.
"It looked better than what you guys were doing…" the sailor shrugged. Another man came out.
"We're sorry about how you were treated earlier! Come join us!"
Katara rolled her eyes and Aang smirked.
"Alright, hang on!" Aang pulled Appa closer to the ship, since Appa had drifted a little further from the ship. He made sure Katara could easily step from the bison to the ship. Aang jumped, using his air and then helped Katara onto the ship.
"Thanks," Katara grinned.
"Come on, you two! Come meet the entire ship!" the two exclaimed dragging them below deck to the galley.
"Is it just me or are these two drunk?" Katara whispered. Aang raised his eyebrows and shrugged. As the entire room came into view the entire crew was rowdily enjoying their meal. They spotted the cabbage merchant in the corner with his arms crossed, obviously not approving of the entertainment.
"This may be a long night…" Aang laughed.
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Hahaha, this is where my Kataang writing goes, for those of you who read my Homecoming fic and complain about lack of Kataang. :P SORRY FOR AWKWARD CUTOFF. I COULDN'T DECIDE WHERE I WANTED TO END IT. D:
ramdomperson, Hahaha, thank you! I totally haven't even thought about it...but I will probably be totally obsessed with it when it comes out...so yes. There is a high possibility of Korra fics. Also, Avatard is just easier to type out than 'I'M SUCH A HARDCORE AVATAR FAN', so I never meant to use it in a bad sense hahaha. Hell, I've got my entire family hooked on it and quite a few of my friends, and Korra is supposed to be on the 'darker' side, so no I don't think it's a silly kids show. And I definitely agree, people of every age can enjoy it :D
joan36, Yeahhh I'm awful at choosing ending places...sorry if it feels too much like a cliffhanger D:
TheSoggyBug, HOMG, I can't believe you enjoy my fic that much LOL, and thank you for totally exploding my reviews/email. I just like glanced at the review count and it like went up by like TWENTY and I was like HOMG WHAT THE HELL. I hope your okay with all those implosions...D: You aren't going to send me your hospital bills or anything? THANKS FOR YOUR AMAZING TWENTY MILLION REVIEWS. They made me fuzzy inside. :D
Katsumara, just thanks for being an awesome faithful reviewer...I probably don't recognize that enough. :D AND SINCE IT IS THANKSGIVING...
I'll be getting up in like four hours for Black Friday...so I should probably sleep...