I AM ALIVE! I know you guys have been waiting and I am sorry for the wait, I have been procrastinating with work, Nioh 2 on my PS4, and writing bits of my other stories. I am going on vacation so I will work on some of my other stories while on my road trip, and with any luck, upload them. Such works will include Daily Life with Death, Egyptian of the Hunt, Trio, Family, Phantom Love, Percy and the Hunt, and on Wattpad, my fanfic for Resturant to another world, and add words to my story that I want to publish to stop pushing carts for another four years in this freaking summer Texas heat! Once again I am sorry for the wait, but please understand that I have a life. If I could get rich from my fanfics we would all be stinking rich but alas those dang copyright laws. Enjoy!
"Katara, care to splash me with water?" Percy asked, drenched in sweat from his evening sparring session with Anima, the Kyoshi Warrior. Using her waterbending, it cooled Percy, refreshed, and healed him of any fatigue and injuries. "Ah, that hit the spot. Looks like Sokka's back." Percy told the girl, hearing the tribesman crunching twigs and leaves under his feet.
Sokka and Momo approached the group and sat a pouch sack on the dirt. "All I could find are some nuts. A few round nuts, some oval ones, and what I'm thinking may just be rocks." Sokka said, pouring them on the ground. The nuts shook as a booming sound caught the gang's attention.
They caught up with Anima, who covered herself with a fallen tree. "It's a guy practicing Earthbending." She spoke as the others peaked over and saw her words speak truth.
With a grunt, the child slammed a boulder into the valleys side. Meanwhile, with his back turned, Katara excitedly introduced herself. Spooked by her appearance, the child ran, blocking his exit by commanding the boulders on both sides to fill the gap.
"The man has to be running somewhere, so maybe we're near a village. Maybe it has a market." Aang said with Katara excited about not having any nuts for dinner. "A market would mean no nuts for breakfast!" Aang yelled gleefully as he ran toward the Earthbender.
When the group reached the coal village, they went to the market for breakfast and supplies when Katara noticed the child from earlier slipping into a house. Getting closer, they heard a woman's voice, asking where the boy was.
The group entered the house, and Katara introduced herself. "Hi, I'm Katara, why did you run away from earlier in the forest?"
The boy nervously shuffled back, explaining that she got the wrong person until Aang told him about his abilities to bend the earth. The woman immediately shut the doors and windows, following a nervous glare from the older woman.
"They saw you doing what? You know it's illegal to Earthbend. I don't want you to go away too Haru." The mother hugged her son until someone knocked the door, a booming voice commanding the door to open.
The woman opened the door, demanding why they were at her house. "The tax doubled by order of my commanding officer. I wouldn't want to cause an accident. But fire is hard to control at times." The soldier said, summoning fire to his hands, shifting it back and forth.
"You're right about fire, be it a spark or an inferno, the might of the sea will quench even the fiercest flame." Percy stated, arms crossed with water droplets around him. The shadows of the shifting flame caused his eyes to darken as the sky overhead turned and shifted. Wind howled, lighting and thunder danced about, waiting for their master's command to strike down his foes.
Outside, the ground shook and cracked as a platoon of skeletons rose to the land of the living from their mistress's command, blocking off the soldiers exit, armed with swords and spears. Gasps filled the air as Bianca took over as Anima and Percy walked toward the group of men until they were in arm's reach. The two spoke a foreign tongue while their eyes only promised one thing. Death.
After shuffling out the house, the earth swallowed the skeletons, allowing the men to flee with their tails between their legs and urine down their pants as the storm receded.
The group looked at teens; it horrified them at what they witnessed. "By La, what… what was that?" The mother asked as she looked at the group.
"It was a gift from the Spirits for helping the Avatar. Although I don't know where he or she is right now." Percy said, hoping the woman wouldn't detect his lie.
"If the Avatar is walking among us, then this war may finally end." Her face sobered with a ghostly smile formed on her face.
"Why don't you fight back against this oppression? You can arm those who can't Earthbend." Sokka asked the elderly woman as she shook her head. She opened her mouth, but Katara joined her brother.
"My brother's right, Haru can fight back. Asking him not to Earthbend is like asking me not to Waterbend. It's what makes us who we are."
"Earthbending is illegal. Fire Lord Ozia sent his soldiers here to guard our coal mines while they use them to fuel his ships. Five years we live under the shadow of the Fire Nation, afraid to use our gifts by the Spirits to fight back, less we burn for rising up." She then turned to her son. "Haru, take them to the stables outside of the village, they can sleep there."
Entering the building, Katara thanked Haru for his mother's hospitality. Meanwhile, Aang noticed Appa eating most of the hay and had to get him to stop, not noticing the dust of red on the teen's cheeks as they averted their eyes.
They soon walked away from the group as they set up camp with Anima slipping away, using Bianca's powers to shadow travel, spotting the two in a conversation about their parents.
"My father was courageous, you reminded me of him when you and your brother stood up for me and the village Earthbenders, that are no longer here." Haru glanced at Katara's smile, not knowing that Anima hid behind a tree.
"When the Fire Nation invaded, he and the others were outnumbered 10 to 1, and yet they still fought, taking down as many soldiers as they could. After the battle. They were rounded up by the remaining Fire Nation soldiers, we haven't seen them since."
"So that's why you hide your Earthbending?"
"Yes. Earthbending is how I can bound with my father. He taught me everything I knew." He told her, swirling some rocks above his hand before crushing them, letting the wind blow them away.
Katara sat by him, the setting sun gleaming off her tribal necklace. "This necklace is all I have left of my mother, she gave herself up to save me during a Fire Nation raid." A solemn tear fell from her eyes as Haru brushed it away.
"It's not enough, isn't it?"
"No, it can never be enough to bring them back."
They got up and walked as Anima slipped back into the shadows.
When the group woke up the following day, the mother came running into the barn. "They took him! Those bastards took my boy, he was spotting Earthbending, and they took him!" Tears ran like rushing rivers down her cheeks.
"Calm down and tell us what happened." Anima asked, calming down the grieving mother as she told them where her son was taken.
"I'm sorry it's my fault it happened. We tried to save an old man who was trapped in a mine, Earthbending was the only way to save him." Katara told the woman, refusing to meet her eyes.
"It's been 12 hours, so tracking is useless." Sokka said as Katara walked outside.
"They'll lead me to him, because they are going to arrest me for Earthbending." The group looked at each other like she was insane as she explained her plan.
With the siblings rolling the last boulder into place over the vent, Sokka told her that the plan may work. "All Aang has to do is send an air current from that vent," He said, pointing to one behind the rock, "Percy will shake the earth, and Tada! Fake Earthbending."
"You got it, Aang?" Katara asked as the monk absentmindedly played with a butterfly as Percy rolled his eyes as he nudged his elbow into his bald friend.
"He's got it." Percy confirmed as Aang rubbed his rib.
"Soldiers incoming." Anima said from above the trees, spotting a group of men heading towards the gang.
"How dare you call me pipsqueak? You giant eared cretin. Do animals use them for shade?" Katara said as Sokka tugged at his ears.
"Seriously back off." Her brother muttered as she gave the cue.
"I'll show you. Earthbending style!" She raised a fist in the air as Aang continued to play with the bug. "I SAID, EARTHBENDING STYLE." SHe said again, louder for the ground to shake as Aang blew air into the vent, causing the rock float.
"That… that lemur. IT'S EARTHBENDING?!" A guard exclaimed.
"If animals can bend the elements, we are doomed!"
Anima stifled a giggle as Sokka told the idiot guards to arrest the girl for Earthbending. After she was arrested, Anima came behind the boys and grabbed them. "Don't let go of each other and close your eyes no matter what you hear." She told them, pulling them into a tree's shadow.
Moments later, the group appeared in the shadows of a marketplace with Aang and Sokka trembling with fear. "W… what in La's gills was that?" Sokka asked in a quiet and scared voice.
"Shadow traveling. It's a power to travel wherever a child of Hades wants as long as they know where it is they are going. You get used to it after a while." Percy said, picking up the two boys and found them hats to wear.
Following a crowd, they made their way to the sea and stayed there while Percy dove into the sea, staying there until he saw a boat leave with prisoners and guards. Following the boat, the prince of the sea veered off into the deepest parts to connect with the sea life.
Creatures of the sea gathered near him, lured in by the power and command he possessed. A serpentine beast slithered in front of the others, bowing its head.
"It's true, he exists!"
"That old snake was right!"
"The end of the death floaters is upon us!" Those were the words of the sea life around the teenage boy.
"My Lord, the currents ripple with your emotions of urgency. What is it?" The Unagi asked as Percy told them about Katara and Haru, and about the ship full of Earth Kingdom citizens. After hearing the story, Percy asked for sharp teeth, and those hungry for Firebenders and revenge to join him in freeing the prisoners, and to start the sea's revenge.
With Aang, Sokka, and Anima sneaking on board, they woke Katara for her to escape with Haru and her. "I can't go, I'm not giving up on these people. There must be some way to help them." They ducked from the ship's searchlight and fled for cover with Aang whispering to his bison before two guards with a lantern turned the corner.
"What do we do?" Anima asked as Aang complained about not being able to summon a hurricane like Percy could.
"Speaking of him, where is he?" Katara asked as the Anima told her he was swimming. "I tried talking to the people, but it didn't work. They don't have any courage left to even bend dirt."
Sokka removed some coal dust from his hands. "For that to happen, they would need to bend some kind of rock, but all I see is the ocean and this metal ship."
"Look, they are burning coal, in other words, earth." Anima said as she and the others got to work.
"It's almost dawn, we better hurry." Katara told Sokka as he explained his plan. Not realizing guards surrounded them until it was too late.
"Found them!" A guard screamed with others drawing their spears as an older prisoner told the water tribe girl to stop.
"Listen to him girl, otherwise your body will feed the sharks." The warden said, walking towards them with the guards circle getting tighter. The vent vibrated as bits of coal surged upward, followed by a wave of earth, and a coal stained, coughing Avatar.
"Here it is, Earth benders. Take it! Your fate is in your own hands." Katara screamed as the old man held back Haru as she held a chunk of coal in her hand.
The warden laughed, telling Katara how pointless it was to keep feeding hopes when they were already broken. He turned to leave, when he was suddenly hit by flying coal by Haru.
The Warden attacked, sending a blast of fire at the child. A wall of black stone blocked it as the prisoners fought back. "For the Earth Kingdom. ATTACK!" Tyro screamed as he and others pushed the wall of coal toward their guards.
Soon fire and earth collided, Momo grabbed broken spears thrown by Sokka and the Earth benders. Father and son condensed a ball of loose coal into a hardened ball and pushed it toward the doors, granting them freedom.
"No, don't let them flee." The warden growled, summoning fire, watching his slaves flee for the boats. Aang summoned a funnel of air as the siblings and Anima fed it bits of coal, firing it at the Fire Nation soldiers.
The warden opened his eyes to see the sea creatures break the surface, with someone riding the head of a serpent, drawing a blade. "For Poseidon!"
"For La!" The creatures' voices echoed in his head as their roars matched the ferocity of the waves that hit the boat, and the creatures surged forward. The Unagi wrapped its body around the vessel with some crawling on the deck and feeding on the soldiers as Percy made his way to his friends.
"Miss me?" He said with his trademark smirk as Anima used her fans to take down an opponent as the warden and his men screamed, being dragged by the sea beasts.
"I don't taste good. I really-" His words silenced by the Unagi swallowing him as his men screamed, only to bleed into the azure ocean.
Victory was theirs as they sailed home. Before Katara got on Appa, Haru grabbed her. "Thank you for saving me, I mean us, and it wasn't the coal, but you." Katara blushed at the compliment as his father stepped in.
"Thank you, not only did you free us, but freed our courage from oppressive submission. We owe you our lives, Katara of the Southern Water Tribe." He bowed to the Water Bender as she subconsciously reached for her necklace, only to find it wasn't there.
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