Chapter 8

The Firebending Scroll

It have been a week now since they seen Zuko. Katara, Luna and Sokka sat by the river as they groaned after traveling on Appa for several days as Momo was trying to crack open a leachy nut.

Getting up Sokka stretched and looked into their bag and gasped and screamed, "WHERE IS THE FOOD!?"

"Oh, let me think about that…someone ate more than the others…" scowled Luna as she got up as Katara sighed, "Alright, lets head to the marketplace and get some stuff, sounds good?"

"MORE THAN GOOD FOR FOOD!" cried out Sokka happily as he ran ahead of them and charged into the village and looked at the various food stands as Luna went to grab some fruits, as Katara when to get Sokka.

Finding him trying to bribe for the jerky, Katara grabbed Sokka by his ear as he yelped, "OW, OW, OW!"

"Maybe that'll teach you to not bribe with expensive items Sokka." Snapped Katara as she released him and found Luna running up to them and grinned, "Katara, come I think you'll like to see this."

Katara, Sokka and Luna walked over to a pirate ship as Katara rested her hand on her hip and asked, "This is what you wanted to show me?"

"No, come inside." Laughed Luna as Sokka grabbed the two girls and shook his head, "I don't think so you two…my instincts are reacting that this is a bad idea."

"Whatever, come on Katara." Scoffed Luna as she grabbed Katara as Sokka shook his head and walked inside and frowned at the stuff as Luna pulled out a scroll and grinned, "Here Katara, look at this."

Katara opened the scroll and gasped, "A Firebending scroll…"

Suddenly the scroll was snatched out of her hands as she looked up and saw a pirate with a parrot on his shoulder, as he chuckled, "Well girls, are you interested into buying this Firebending scroll?"

"Yes, how much is it?" asked Luna.

The Captain walked over to his counter and inspected it and replied, "Well since Firebending Scrolls are rare, I would make the price…40 000 copper pieces."

"40 000!?" exclaimed Sokka, "Sorry man, we don't have that kind of money, come on lets go."

The captain replaced the scroll back into his place as Luna grinned, "Well, how about some bribing?"

"No."

"Please?"

"Mo."

"Pardon?"

"Look get the word in your head kid, NO!" scowled the captain as Katara took her friend's arm and dragged her out behind Sokka.

As they were leaving they heard a pirate shout, "Get'em!"

"Hey maybe-"

"No Luna, I think-"

"Never mind RUN!" shouted Katara as they ran out as Katara waterbended some ice and made some pirates slip as they ran through the narrow path and shoved a cabbage stand over as the Cabbage Merchant cried, "MY PRECIOUS CABBAGES!"

Then they heard the cabbage man cry it out again as the pirates smashed the cart as Katara and the others ran into a dead end as Luna yelled, "Katara airbend!"

"I don't know how!"

"Then Earthbend!"

"But I only know the basics!"

"Then you might as well do that to get us up over this wall!"

"Stand back then." Katara stamped the earth and made a small hill as Luna and her brother quickly leaped over the wall as Katara broke the earth hill as she leaped over the wall before the pirates could grab her as she ran off and saw her brother and Luna running back at her and yelled, "Get on to the roof!"

Katara nodded as they quickly climbed on to the roof and ran across as the pirates continued to chase them down as Katara snapped open her glider and stopped, "Luna, Sokka head into the forest, I'll try and loose them!"

Sokka nodded as he grabbed Luna as they quickly fled the village as Katara snapped open her glider as she swooped out into the harbour over the water where she could loose the, but unfortunately she saw the last thing she wanted to see that day…

"Uncle…"

"Ooooh! Look at this shop!"

"UNCLE!"

"Ooh lets look at this ship!"

"Oh joy…" groaned the teenager as he followed his gleeful uncle into a pirate ship as Katara fled from the village and back to the camp.

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"Katara what taken you so long?" exclaimed Sokka as she grinned a showed them the Firebending scroll as Luna and Sokka gawked and frowned, "You stole from the pirates?"

"Yes, not like they actually owned this!"

"Well…"

"I got to try this!"

"No, no, and no, not yet!" exclaimed Sokka.

"I was planning to learn how to mediate Sokka! I know I am not ready to Firebend, but it says here, that breathing is the first step I need to know."

"Ha, ha, ha, breathing? You already know how to breathe Katara." scoffed Luna.

"Know what Luna, we are seriously getting tired of your stupid sayings, Katara is a lot smarter than you and she will practice mediating for now, until she finds a Master Earthbender."

"Fine. Then take me back to the Northern Water Tribe!" smirked Luna.

"Yes, we will, you are saying I can just slip steps, I am not going to do that, Firebending is dangerous, and when it says it is based on your breathing it means it!" scowled Katara as she stormed off and sat down by the river and placed the scroll in front of her and closed her eyes and snatched a leaf and breathed carefully.

"HEY KATARA!"

The beginning of the burning leaf flared as Katara growled and turned to face Luna and scowled, "See what I mean Luna, fire is part of you when you are a firebender!"

"So?"

"Look go and help Sokka with dinner."

"Whatever."

Katara scowled and snatched another leaf and waited for silence until she began breathing and focused on the burning the leaf as she heard Sokka out raging at Luna as she growled and threw the leaf into the river and pulled out a waterwhip as she whipped it at the two of them and demanded, "Alright what is with the fighting?!"

"Well, she was asking if we could go and play a prank on you while you were practicing-("Ha, yeah right Sokka!")-"Shut up! Anyways I told her no-("HEY DON'T-") "-And she was planning to dump water on your head."

"I DID NOT!"

"DID TOO!"

"DID NOT!"

"DID TOO!"

"DID NOT!"

"DID-"

"ENOUGH!" yelled Katara as flames suddenly flared in her hands as she quick made them vanish and took a deep breath and began, "Luna, we will be leaving without you if continued with this, I cannot afford extra work, if you are willing to be more mixture then sure, you got a deal to stay with us, now please keep it down."

"I'm going fishing." Scowled Sokka as he headed down the river as Katara opened the scroll as She and Luna glanced at it.

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"Ooooh! Prince Zuko look at this-"

"Oh joy; it is the ugliest thing I ever saw!" scowled Zuko.

"And that damn Water Tribe people managed to get away, and they got that Firebending Scroll too with them."

"Why would Water Tribe want a Firebending Scroll?" asked the Captain as he banged his fist on the counter.

Zuko turned to the two men and asked, "Did they happen to have a boy with them?"

"Yeah, there are two brown haired girls and a boy with a wolf traditional hair style." replied the Pirate that was talking to his captain.

Zuko frowned and asked, "Who was interested in the scroll?"

"These two girls, one of them kept on bribing while the other probably snatched it, the boy left the ship before the girls left."

"How about we make a deal?"

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Katara looked around as she looked into the night sky where the moon was shinning up high in the sky with the stars glimmering as she silently slipped out of her bedroll and took the scroll as she headed back to her mediating place and began…

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"We should check the forest."

"You said they took a Firebending scroll."

"Yes?"

"They'll be by the water shore in order to waterbend to hose and the avatar will need a good source of water to stop a fire from spreading."

"Yes."

"Remember, you capture the Avatar, and I'll capture the girl."

"Yes."

The Captain's parrot flew back to them and crawked as the captain nodded, "The Water Tribe people are near."

Zuko nodded as he heard something, he turned to the captain as he nodded the same as the made it to the shoreline.

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Katara paused and looked around looked at her half burnt leaf and heard something and silently crawled into some bushes and saw the Pirate's and…"

"Prince Zuko's ship…he's here…" she whispered as she backed away and was suddenly grabbed and was held firm as she growled, "Release me now!"

Pulling out a giant wave she crashed it into the muscular pirate and quickly froze him as she ran and was suddenly grabbed by her wrists and gasped as she saw Prince Zuko as he hissed, "I'll save you from the Pirates."

"I don't need your help!" scowled Katara as she yanked her hands trying to waterbend, but he held her firm and tied her around a tree as she glared at the pirates and Prince Zuko and scowled, "If you are looking for the Avatar, we split up, he saw you coming down the river this morning!"

The prince ignored her as he tied her up to a tree and began sharply but calmly and softly, "Try to understand, I need to capture the Avatar to restore something I lost, my honour, perhaps I could restore something you've lost." a daggling object when around Katara's neck as she gasped, "My mother's necklace! How did you get it?!"

He removed it and smirked, "Well for one thing I didn't steal it, if that's what you were thinking, now how about this, I trade you your special necklace back if you hand over the Avatar peacefully."

"Uh sorry that will not happen."

"Alright Fire scrum, hand back the scroll." Demanded the captain pirate as Zuko grew an evil smirk on his face and cruelly flared a fireball beneath the scroll and smirked cruelly. "Did you forget the deal already?"

The pirates gasped in horror as Zuko looked at the scroll and continuing to smirk, "This is worth quite a lot…For you though…For me, it is like trash."

Zuko suddenly frowned and glanced at Katara and demanded, "Why were you carrying and why did you steal the scroll?"

Katara was quiet for a second and replied, "My Great grandfather is studying about Firebending and comparing it to Waterbending."

"Why would he do that?"

"Interest, he is a very knowledgably man." stated Katara smoothly.

Zuko eyed Katara as she began burning the rope little by little until a pirate asked, "Is that smoke I smell?"

"Duah! You are standing right beside some filthy Firebenders and yourself!" Snapped Katara as she began untying the rope and held it until the perfect moment.

"Go and find the boy and the girl and bring them back to me, maybe they'll speak up." Ordered Zuko as the pirates quickly scurried off as Zuko ordered, "You five, you go and do the search too, and then we won't have to deal with their stupid deal."

The soldiers hurried out as Iroh walked up to Zuko and began, "Prince Zuko, what are planning to do with the girl?"

"Hand her over to the pirates unless they trade me the Avatar."

Iroh shook his head and glanced at Katara and noticed something and walked over to her and looked at her as she snapped up and scowled, "What do you want!?"

Iroh was rather shocked to see a girl with enough courage to out rage in front of everyone and began, "Are you from the Northern Water Tribe?"

"Southern."

"Do you have any siblings with you?"

"My older brother."

"And who is that other girl the pirates mentioned?"

"A new friend, from the Northern Water Tribe, to be truthful she is a bitch."

Zuko glanced at his uncle and Katara and asked, "What was that?"

"I said that the other girl in my group is a bitch! She bribes the pirates to get the scroll cheaper and you actually think the pirates would make anything cheaper?"

"No." replied Iroh as he chuckled and asked, "So you stole it?"

"To get her to shut up yes, but then when we were looking at the diagrams she saw the breathing in meditation and said that, that was a waste of time for every firebender."

"And what did you say?"

"My brother just walked away on us and went fishing, and I told her that it was based on your power and control over the flame."

"Yes that's true indeed; every firebender must know that skill by heart."

"Obviously, or else they'll burn anything around them into crisps." She grumbled.

"My, your grandfather-"

"Great Grandfather."

"Well anyways he is truly intelligence."

Katara nodded as she saw Prince Zuko scowl and looked at the sky and saw the sky beginning to grow pale and saw the pirates coming back as she heard…

"ALRIGHT YOU RELEASE US RIGHT NOW! WHERE IS MY SISTER!?"

"Sokka?" called Katara as he looked over to her and grinned, "Oh Katara, thank god you are alive, I thought those fire scrums tried to burn you."

"Yeah and you were crying, because you were soooo worried for her!" laughed Luna as Sokka out raged at her as Katara rolled her eyes as Zuko walked over to the pirates and looked at Sokka and shot him a glare as Sokka gave him a nervous smile as Zuko scowled, "Alright where is the Avatar?"

"Her." Pointing to Luna she exclaimed, "WHAT!?"

Katara smirked and listened to her brother continue, "Well dudes, you got the Avatar, I mean the Fire Lord would pay you a great price, even more than that silly scroll."

"Shut up peasant." Growled Zuko as Sokka continued, "And I mean, why would you want to help the Banished Prince to get what he wants?"

The pirates looked at each and looked over at Zuko and replied, "No, we'll keep them, keep the scroll and the girl."

"THAT WILL NOT HAPPEN!" yelled Zuko as he flared his fists and shot flames at the pirates as they quickly ducked.

Katara released the ropes and created a fireball in her hands and shot it at the pirates holding her brother and Luna as they quickly broke free as Zuko spun around ducked a sword swap and checked his ponytail still there and shot flames at the captain as Katara waterbended a great amount of water and shot icicles at the soldiers as Sokka managed to grab the scroll and took out his boomerang and shot it and knocked out three soldiers and two pirates as Luna fled to get Momo and Appa.

Iroh burst out of the smoke and dust and looked around and saw Katara leap out of the smoke and sent a wave of water into everyone and quickly grabbed her brother as they made their way down the river and noticed a waterfall and took each other's hands and leaped off the falls as Zuko ran after them and watched them land on to the flying bison and growled.

"RETREAT!" yelled Zuko as he got on to his river boat as his soldiers quickly got on as he headed back to the harbour.

Iroh stroked his beard as Zuko paced the ship and growled, "HOW COULD I LOOSE TO THOSE PEASANTS!?"

Iroh sat down and took a sip of his tea and looked up at Zuko and began, "Prince Zuko come here my nephew."

Zuko stormed over and say down as Iroh began, "I know who the Avatar is."

"How?"

"This." Iroh held out the burnt rope as Zuko gasped, "She…the avatar is…"

"A girl."

"No but…how…"

"She is a fine storyteller."

"No, but…she…wait…"

"What?"

"She is the avatar because she wasn't with her brother." Exclaimed Zuko angrily as flames erupted from his fists.

"Exactly, they must've seen us coming."

"But I want to know how many bendings she is capable of."

"I don't know, but she seems like she mastered Waterbending, but if she is planning to head up to the Northern Tribe she might be heading north."

Zuko nodded and glanced up at the clouds and furrowed his eyebrows and walked inside as Iroh glanced up at the dark stormy clouds and shook his head.

…

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Disclaimer: Ooooh, what is gonna to happen!? Okay well I noticed people aren't really enjoying the story, but what the hell, I am writing it because I feel like it!

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