Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: the Last Airbender. I'm just obsessed with it. I own my characters.
Heyday ho! Welcome to Chapter Four. For people who were wondering how the heck this is a ZukoxAmory romance because Zuko has not been in it, wonder no longer! Zuko will be in this chapter. Sorry if he is OOC. I'm not use to writing him. I mean, this is my first fan fiction, after all. Yay! I thought that there would be no one to thank in this chapter! I'm so happy that I'm wrong!
Ekari Turone- Thanks fro your review! I'm glad that you like my story. Don't worry, I'll update ASAP! I'd love to review one of your stories as soon as I can!
I live and write off reviews, so please r and r!
"Look over there," Aang cried excitedly. "It's a town. We can go get supplies!"
"Great idea Aang!" Katara agreed. Sokka stopped in his tracks. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, everybody. For all we know the Fire Nation could be in there in droves."
"It's not," Amory, the newest addition to their group told him. "That town is not under Fire Nation control. We can go through there as much as we please, but we don't control it." Sokka grimaced as she said "we". "That settles it," Aang said, starting off towards the town, Momo on his shoulder. Appa stayed behind, safely concealed behind some dunes. They followed Aang into the town, carefully examining all the goods. "Great!" Sokka exclaimed. "Now we can get more food." His face fell. "But we don't have any money," he moaned, clutching his stomach. Amory laughed. "Hel-lo Sokka. I'm the daughter of a great Fire Nation general. I'm not exactly destitute. I started out with some money, and whenever I ran low I'd just do a bit of work to earn some. So I can pay for the food and stuff."
"Thanks!" Aang told her, beaming. "See Sokka? Was I right or was I right?" They spent several minutes examining all the stands before picking out various food items and supplies. The town may have been small, but they had a lot of merchandise.
"Uncle, please tell me why you feel the need to stop at this town? It's not even under Fire Nation control!" Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation was not in a very good mood. His uncle had decided that they needed to stop and get more ginseng tea. Since he did this quite often, Zuko was right to be angry. To further better his mood, they had lost track of the Avatar, again. "Now, now Prince Zuko. I have run out of ginseng tea. We need to get more." Zuko tried to suppress his anger, but a stream of smoke still escaped from his mouth. "Tell me, Uncle," he said through gritted teeth, "Why do we need to stop to get more tea when we just stopped to get more a VERY SHORT TIME AGO!" he ended, yelling.
"It appears that we-"
"You," Zuko said, too quietly for Iroh to hear.
"-have ran out. So we need more. But let us not dwell on that. How about you play a game of Pai Chow with me?" his uncle asked, hopefully. "Now that we have bought a new lotus tile after you threw the last one away, I can use my master strategy." Zuko did not bother to answer. He just stormed away, growling to himself. We'll never find the Avatar at this rate, he thought to himself. Sure, his uncle was a great firebender. Sure, he was helpful in trying to capture the Avatar. But sometimes…he could be very, very, annoying.
"Excuse me," Iroh said to a soldier, tapping him on the shoulder. "Would you care to join me in a game of Pai Chow? I would offer you some ginseng tea, but we have no more left." The startled firebender nodded dumbly. Did the Dragon of the West just offer him to play a game of Pai Chow? "Good," Iroh said, beaming.
"So, what should we do now?" Katara asked.
"Uh, I dunno." Aang scratched his head. "Maybe we could take a look at the sights. You know, take a break?" Sokka, as usual, did not like this idea. "Look, the sea. Look, shops. Look, people. Well, I think that's about it. Let's get going." Aang looked at him, giving him the puppy-dog eyes. "We need to put as much distance as we can between us and Zuko," Sokka continued weakly. "And there could be Firebenders here…" he trailed off.
"Sokka, I'm a firebender, if you haven't noticed," Amory told him.
"I'm not talking about you," Sokka said.
"Aha! So you accept me as myself, not as one of those evil, tyrannical things that you think are firebenders." Sokka sighed. He had just lost two arguments. "Fine. Aang, we can do some sight seeing, I guess. But if we get captured by the Fire Nation, I'm blaming you."
"Great! Let's get going," cried Aang, looking considerably happier. Sokka sighed again, resigned to the worst.
Prince Zuko was standing on the deck of his ship, Iroh beside him, watching the ship pull into the harbor. Once the ship was successfully secured, the ramp was lowered and Zuko and Iroh walked out; Iroh had insisted that his nephew came with him. Zuko sighed as his uncle took the time to examine what seemed like each and every item on display in every SINGLE shop. "Come on, Uncle! Can you please hurry up and buy your stupid tea!"
"Patience, Prince Zuko. I wish to examine the items on sale." Zuko snorted furiously. "Well could you please conduct yourself a little faster?" Iroh turned to him, giving him the puppy-dog eyes treatment. Zuko had not known that one so old could successfully pulled off. He sighed. "Fine, Uncle. We can examine all the junk." Iroh beamed at him. "Thank you, nephew. You are too kind." Zuko glared, picking up the reprimand of his stinginess. Who wouldn't be stingy when their half- crazed uncle had dragged them, saying they only wanted some stupid tea, only to examine every shop in the whole town!
Zuko and Iroh slowly moved to the center of town, whilst Iroh continued to examine the shops.
Meanwhile…
On the other side of town, Aang, Amory, Katara, and Sokka made their way to the center of the town, trying to find something interesting enough that looking at it would be classified as "sightseeing." The problem was, that in a town as small as this, there was not much to be found. In this town, the market dominated everything. Most of the inhabitants were farmers, so the market was filled with tons of food. But here and there a down-and-out merchant would be in one of the stalls, trying desperately to sell their goods. Even rarer in this town, a thriving merchant would be selling exotic goods. These were the stalls that Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Amory stayed at the longest. Reaching the center of the town, they found what they were looking for. The richest merchant had set up his stall in the center, where he was selling elaborate masks. Katara, and Aang too, for some reason, were especially interested in the masks. Amory glanced over them, while Sokka hardly even looked at them.
Zuko followed after his uncle as Iroh made a beeline for the largest stall, a large display of richly decorated masks. Zuko looked at the masks, and received a shock as he saw a blue mask, identical to one he owned. Suddenly he did not feel like examining the items on display anymore. Not that he had ever wanted too. He turned around, with every intent on walking back to his ship, when he bumped into a girl. The girl turned to see who had bumped into her. She had blue eyes, brown hair, and was wearing the garb of the water tribe. Their eyes met. "You!" Zuko hissed. "Uncle, the Avatar is here!" The water peasant didn't wait around. "Aang, Run! Prince Zuko's here!"
"What?" Aang asked, astonished.
"Come on Aang. I told you it was a bad idea stopping here,"Sokka yelled, running. Katara and Aang followed suit. Amory stood there, not knowing what the hell was happening, until Sokka grabbed her and started dragging her along. "Okay, okay. I can run for myself," she grumbled. Aang glanced back. Zuko was gaining on him, and Zuko's uncle was standing, talking to Zuko's soldiers, who had rushed out when they heard the commotion. Suddenly, those soldiers started chasing the group too. Aang dodged a fireball Zuko sent after him. It was hard running from the firebenders. Even though this was a small town, almost all of the inhabitants were out on the streets- and in their way. Sokka, Katara, Aang, and Amory had their worked cut out weaving and dodging through them, all the while narrowly avoiding fireballs. However, Zuko and his soldiers were having a worse time then them. No one in this town harbored any sympathy for the Fire Nation, so they would purposely get in the way, only to be pushed roughly aside by the firebenders. Some of the braver ones even tripped the passing firebenders. "Where do we go, where do we go, where do we go?" Sokka cried.
"Head towards the beach!" Amory commanded. Sokka gave her a strange look. "The beach? But we'll be trapped!"
"I've got a plan, but you've got to trust me!" Amory replied. Sokka opened his mouth, closed it, then nodded grimly. "Okay. I'll trust you. For now." They continued running, now heading for the beach. They got to it, and then came to a stop. "What now, o smart one?" Sokka said sarcastically. "You wanted us to get trapped here. You're working for the Fire Nation!"
"SHUT UP SOKKA!" Amory cried, losing her concentration. "Aang, use your bison whistle. Katara, can you make a big wave to hit Zuko and his firebenders? We need some time." Katara nodded grimly. The firebenders were right behind them. Sokka got his boomerang out. Katara started making a wall of water. Amory got into a fighting stance. Momo started chattering in fear. Aang blew his whistle.
A while away Appa the flying bison woke from his nap. Needing no further urging, he flew to the direction of the sound and his master.
"Okay, do you have a plan B?" Sokka asked nervously. Amory ignored him. Zuko and his soldiers rushed on the beach, conjuring fireballs. "Katara, NOW!" Amory shouted. Katara let the huge wall of water she had been holding up come crashing down. Several of the soldiers screamed as the water hit them with surprising force. Zuko just braced himself. As the wall of water cleared away, Appa came soaring down. Aang and Katara quickly jumped onto his back. Amory jumped on, with a little difficulty, then helped Sokka up. "Thanks," he grumbled.
"Welcome," she replied, smiling.
"Come on Appa, yip yip!" Aang called, watching the dripping firebenders worriedly. Appa soared up into the sky. "Bring that bison down!" Zuko commanded. The firebenders shot fireballs at the bison, but Appa just dodged them. Zuko, frustrated from losing the Avatar again, breathed fire into the air. Aang and his companions watched until Zuko became a black speck in the distance. Then they turned to face where they were headed. "We have a lot of supplies, so we should try to close the gap between us and the North Pole." The others nodded.
Well, there's Zuko for ya. Not my best chapter, but oh well.