Don't Call Him Short
Ed woke with a headache only to find himself tied to a pole in the middle of the village he had just ran from earlier that day. This time though the entire village was gathered around him and the others he had ran into and they didn't seem happy. He saw Suki and two other girls remove bags from over the heads of the kids glaring at them and him rather menacingly.
"Who are you where are the men who attacked us?" the tall darker skinned boy said as he looked around.
"There were no men we were the ones who caught you now tell us why you are here." Ed saw the smirk on Suki's face and guessed the boy had a strange look on his face.
Five seconds later, "Wait a second there is no way a bunch of girls took us down." Ed just snickered at the boy's denial as he continued to make his transmutation circle on the pole he was tied to. He had found some chalk in his jacket for whatever reason it was there for but he wasn't complaining.
"A bunch of girls, the Unagi is going to eat well tonight." Ed clearly saw the angry look on Suki's face and judging by how the boy was wriggling next to him it clearly affected him. Ed had finished his circle as the girl calmed Suki down concerning her idiotic brother and felt a comment was need.
"You know just because someone's a girl doesn't mean they can't fight or in your case grab and tie up like a roast for the oven in a few seconds." Ed grinned as the boy glared at him but out of the corner of his eye he saw Suki give him an appraising look. Clearly a lot of people didn't have high opinions of girls fighting other than here if her look meant anything.
"But men are stronger, faster, and tougher than girls that's why we're the fighters not girls!" Ed just snorted at the remark. He damn well knew plenty of girls that kick just about any guys butt as Hawkeye and Teacher's faces came to mind.
"So, I've met girls who work in mines right alongside guys, it really doesn't matter if you're a guy or a girl, if you train or work out you get stronger the training doesn't care if you're a boy or a girl as long as you train." Ed's explanation was met with silent stares as he finished. Most were looking at him with curiosity and several of the girls were giving him a new look over. Even Suki looked taken aback at what he said and the boy next to him glared at him for crushing his argument.
"For someone so well spoken I find it hard to think of you as a spy from the Fire Nation as they like most of the world doesn't share your point of view young man." Ed turned his head to look over at the village leader, Oyaji he remembered as he was talking.
Ed snorted, "Shouldn't be hard seeing as I'm not hell I'm too damn loud to make a decent spy." Ed saw how several of the warrior girls started to giggle at his comment but he paid them no mind. He wanted this whole spy thing over with so he could finally figure out where he was.
"I don't know you're plenty short enough to sneak around unnoticed you…" Sokka didn't get to finish that sentence when Ed yelled.
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT THEY WOULD NEED A MICROSCOPE TO SEE." Ed yelled as he activated the circle he had drawn earlier which transmuted the pole to create several spikes in order to cut the ropes and tackled the boy his right hand holding him down as his left started to choke the boy in his anger.
No one was in a condition to stop Ed as he continued to strangle Sokka as they were either laughing too hard at his words or staring stupidly at the sudden spike coming out of the pole. Eventually Katara was able to recover from the sight of the spike to rush over and start pulling the strange blond haired boy off of her brother. She was quickly joined by the girl who had captured them earlier in her attempts to save her brother and finally got him off of her brother. Katara fell to the ground and checked to see if Sokka was alright as he regained his breath when she heard the stranger say, "I'm not short." And walk off somewhere.
"While the boy is no longer a suspect you three on the other hand still are now tell us why you are here." Katara heard the village leader say as he glared at them. Katara tried to think of something to say when Aang beat her to it.
"I'm sorry I just wanted to ride the Elephant Koi. I'm sorry for coming here well leave you be." Katara looked at how dejected Aang looked and how the Village leaders face didn't seem to change in expression though she doubted it would.
"Kyoshi Island had remained out of the hundred year war and we plan to stay that way even it if mean dealing with spies." Katara saw how Aang's face seemed to brighten up at the mention of Kyoshi and he looked at the leader as he said.
"Wait this island is named after Kyoshi, I know Kyoshi!" everyone looked surprised at the comment but the girl who helped her earlier narrowed her eyes at Aang.
"That's impossible, how could you have known Avatar Kyoshi?" the girls voice rang through the air as the blond from before watched them all with a strange look in his eyes.
This was followed by the Village leader saying, "Avatar Kyoshi died over four hundred years ago you couldn't have known her."
Aang simply smiled at them and said, "The reason I know Kyoshi is because I am the Avatar." His sentence made everyone go into shock again as they tried to proses what he said.
Ed looked at everyone not having a clue what they were talking about but it made logical sense that if the kid was this Avatar he would know about other Avatars before him most likely this Kyoshi was of an interest to him when he was studding about these Avatars.
"That's impossible the last Avatar died when the Air nomads were made extinct." Ed flinched at her words thinking about all the civilization made extinct by his own country when the other girls started to surround the three from earlier.
"Aang do some airbending." Ed didn't have a clue what that meant but the next sight left him speechless.
Ed watched Aang jump into the air and sail to the top of the pole making everyone stop in their tracks while someone said, "It's the Avatar." There was silence for a while then Aang did the stupidest thing (in Ed's mind) he could do. Pulling out some marbles Aang started spinning them in his hand and grinning like it was the best trick in the world.
The following days went well for Ed as people were milling about happily around him talking about Aang and the others like they were the most important people in the world. He didn't mind and the villagers didn't bother him too much and he didn't bother them. He was currently writing in his journal which he found miraculously undamaged in his jacket. So far he was lucky nobody asked about the spike in the pole which he fixed when everyone was distracted by Aang. He really didn't want to try and answer any questions concerning it so he didn't make any comments on it.
Ed heard someone cough above him where he laid against a tree near the Kyoshi Warrior's dojo. Looking up he found the kid he strangled earlier Sokka if he remembered right standing above him.
"What do you want I'm in the middle of something." Ed didn't like the boy much and didn't try to hide it.
Taken aback at the rude start Sokka quickly remembered what he came over to say.
"You know you only got lucky back there I didn't expect the rope to break all the sudden when and that's the only reason you beat me." Ed looked at Sokka for a few seconds them burst out laughing.
"Shure you keep telling yourself that man." Ed said when his laughter died down slightly while Sokka's face went red whether out of embarrassment or anger he didn't know. Ed went back to writing while Sokka stood over him but despite Ed's relaxed posture he was ready for any attack the boy might try thinking he was distracted.
"All right you me one on one no tricks no surprise attacks." Ed looked at him trying to figure out if he was serious. Seeing that the boy was Ed closed his journal and stuffed it back into his jacket he got up and walked over to the dojo.
"Hay where are you going?" Sokka screamed at Ed's retreating back.
Ed turned around to look at Sokka and said while pointing at the dojo, "I thought you wanted a fight so I figured the best place would be somewhere people train to fight." Ed didn't care where they fought at but he thought it might be funny to make the idiot look like a fool in front of the girls hell maybe they'll want to have a go at them to. He felt out of practice and needed someone to train with anyway.
"Right like a bunch of girls can call themselves warriors alright I beat you and then show them what a real warrior looks like." Ed rolled his eyes at Sokka as the boy continued to daydream and continued to walk over to the dojo.
Sokka soon caught up with Ed as he knocked on the doorway to the dojo. Sokka stood behind him and started to stretch out his arms while Ed waited for someone to answer the door.
A few seconds later Suki opened the sliding door fully dressed with her makeup and all but she looked surprised to see both him and Sokka outside but she quickly recovered and asked, "Ed what are you doing here?"
Ed simply pointed at Sokka and said, "He wanted a rematch so I figured you wouldn't mind if we had it here." Ed watched as Suki looked between him and Sokka and a smirk spread across her face as her eyes settled on Ed.
"Sure my girls were just about to take a break and we could use the distraction." Suki made way for him and Sokka to enter the dojo and Ed studied the room intently. The main room was open with mats covering the floor and side doors probably leading off to other necessary things for the place. Ed also saw the other girls leaning against the far wall as they chatted with one another mostly at how their broken bones had suddenly healed.
Ed felt himself grin as they tried to figure out what happened. He was glad he had been able to study part of the Purification Arts that the people of Xing developed and was able to help them out. Not that he would say anything better they don't know about his involvement as that would raise too many questions.
"All right girls Ed asked if he could use the dojo for his rematch if nobody minds." Ed watched as all the girls looked at him with the same look Suki had earlier and they all had the same smirk on their faces as well which made Ed feel uncomfortable.
"Right ready to go down." Ed and all the girls looked at Sokka as he took a stance against Ed a determined look on his face. Ed just grinned at him and put his left arm behind his back as he stood strait his eyes on Sokka.
"I'm feeling generous ill only use one arm that fine by you?" Ed asked a cocky grin firmly planted on his face. Sokka just shrugged at him so he turned to look at Suki waving for her to start the fight as he kept Sokka in sight.
With a chopping motion between the two combatants the fight started as Sokka charged at him yelling rather loudly while Ed waited for him to come closer. As Sokka came within reach Ed spun past the charging boy using the momentum to knock Sokka off his feet with a blow to the back from his arm. Everyone stared at Sokka as he laid on the ground moaning something about his back then looked at Ed who stood grinning down at Sokka.
"Uh I think you broke my back." Ed snorted at Sokka's comment as he bent down and lifted the boy back up to his feet.
"I couldn't have broken your back because I deliberately aimed away from your spine so I didn't break anything." The others laughed as Sokka glared at him before he turned his head away with a huff.
"Ok so you win but there is still know a girl could beat me in a real fight." Ed saw Suki glare at Sokka and a thought came to mind making Ed grin evilly.
Turning to look at Sokka Ed said, "If that's the case then you should be able to take Suki no problem then." Everyone looked at him in surprise then Suki saw Ed's smile and realized what he was planning.
Smiling herself Suki turned back to Sokka and said, "If you think your man enough to take me on your welcome to try it." Suki could see everyone grinning at her as they all backed up giving her and Sokka the space needed for their fight.
"All right I'll show you my moves don't feel bad if you can't keep up." Ed nearly busted out laughing as Sokka took the same stance as before during their fight.
Ed started for the exit he still felt like training but he was pretty sure the girls wanted to put Sokka in his place and that was probably going to take a while so he figured someone had to tell his sister where he was.
As Ed exited the dojo he heard a solid thump sound and Sokka's upset voice declaring he was going easy and Ed's grin grew.