The group wandered into another town, perhaps ill-advisedly deciding to bring Aang along with them.
Though, to his credit, Aang had gotten a little better at controlling his bending when in the presence of strangers over the past few days. Also, it didn't matter all that much anymore, since, as they'd quickly learned once they left the last town, rumors spread fast. Already, they were being pursued by Fire Nation soldiers, and they'd heard people whispering that the Avatar had returned.
Still, as they entered, Katara was holding Aang's arm, and she gave it a light squeeze, just one, before releasing the arm and continuing onward.
"Okay, guys," Sokka said a moment later, "let's make sure we've got the plan down. Get in, get out, attract as little attention as possible while we're in the market. Let's see if we can figure out where he is."
"Yeah, we know, Sokka," Katara said. "You keep telling us. Over and over."
"Well, considering how last time went, I just want to make sure we're all clear on what needs to happen." He glanced in Aang's direction.
Aang wilted a little and nodded. "Got it," he said weakly.
"Good," Sokka said. Then he grinned and clapped Aang on the back. "Don't look so worried, Aang. We all believe in you."
"Right," Aang muttered. "Okay."
"Let's just go," Katara said. The others nodded, and they all continued forward.
This town was bigger than the first one they'd been to, and busier. They passed several people on the street. Most of them were dressed in the typical garb of Earth Kingdom citizens, but others wore Fire Nation clothing, and Katara even saw one person in blue and white—from the Northern Water Tribe?
In spite of these distractions, Katara kept her mind on the task at hand. She tried to subtly examine the faces of each person they passed, looking for someone who could be Zuko wearing some sort of disguise.
She wasn't sure how she was supposed to tell that, though. Zuko in a disguise seemed like something of an impossibility to her. After all, he was pretty distinctive. She wasn't sure that she could imagine him looking any different.
No one they passed looked familiar in any way. However, a couple of people they passed did seem to think they looked familiar. Katara saw a pair of Fire Nation guards on one corner do a double take when they walked by, then, after whispering to each other for a moment, one of them split off while the other slipped into the crowd and began following their group.
Nervous, Katara sidled up to General Iroh. "It looks like one of the guards is following us," she whispered. "Do you think maybe they recognized you?"
Iroh wasn't dressed in anything that would identify him as a general or a member of the Fire Nation royal family. He wore simple robes in typical Fire Nation colors, black and pale red, nothing fancy or flashy, and he had replaced the gold band that held his topknot in place with a black one. So unless someone already knew who he was, he just looked like another Fire Nation colonial.
"No, Katara," Iroh said. "I do not think I'm the one they recognized." He gestured forward subtly, and Katara followed his gaze.
They seemed to be approaching a central gathering place, either a market or some other hub. Right at its entrance, before the street widened into a bigger plaza, was a bulletin board with several notices tacked onto it.
Two of those notices, to Katara's horror, were wanted posters, one featuring a rough approximation of Aang's likeness, and one with her own.
The portraits weren't entirely accurate. They had clearly been drawn by someone working from a description and not someone who had seen either Aang or Katara in person. Still, they were evidently close enough that those guards had clocked the similarities and decided to follow.
Katara wanted to approach the bulletin board and read what the posters said, but Iroh shook his head when she took a step in that direction.
"Not now," he said. "Do not draw attention to it; it will make you look more suspicious. We should try to lose the guard, and then perhaps we can circle back."
Katara nodded reluctantly, shared a glance with Aang and Sokka, and the group of them continued into the square.
Luckily, the square was jam-packed with people. It was more people than Katara had seen in her entire life. Maybe that was because they were getting closer to the western coast of the Earth Kingdom and its ports that went to the Fire Nation.
They were deep in Fire Nation conquered territory, and it was making Katara nervous.
She tried her best not to glance behind her, looking for the guard who was following them, but she wasn't particularly successful.
If he was trying to be sneaky about following them, he wasn't doing a very good job. Katara could spot him easily each time she glanced back, even with the throng of people all around them. However, he did appear to be falling behind as they got farther and farther into the market.
Katara nudged Sokka. "Sokka," she whispered. "Maybe you should break off and go look at those wanted posters."
Sokka looked at her dubiously. "That seems sort of dumb. Maybe we should just get out of here."
"We need to know what the posters are for," Katara said.
Sokka sighed. "Fine." He glanced over his shoulder and, when they stepped around the next corner, he ducked into a different passageway and began making his way back to the entrance of the market.
Aang and Iroh both noticed this, of course, but aside from a questioning look from Aang, neither of them commented on it.
A few minutes later, as Iroh was speaking to a merchant selling various baked goods, Katara felt a tap on her shoulder. She jumped, a little defensive, but relaxed when she saw that it was Sokka. He slipped two sheets of paper into her hand.
"Don't read it now," he said under his breath, then stepped past her without looking in her direction.
Katara glanced down at her hand, gasped softly, and quickly shoved the papers into her bag.
Sokka had actually taken the posters? She'd just wanted him to read them! Now they were definitely in trouble.
"Sokka," she hissed, reaching out to grab his arm before he could get away, "what were you thinking?"
Sokka pulled his arm away. "It was faster to grab them. I made sure no one was looking first. You didn't want me to stand there, obviously reading them, did you?" His voice was even more hushed than hers, but it was no less full of biting sarcasm than usual.
"What if someone did see you, though?"
"They didn't. Now hush up about it before people notice something weird." He stepped away and joined General Iroh up at the stand.
Katara glanced behind her at the throng of people. She could no longer see the guard that had been tailing them, but that didn't mean that he wasn't still there. Maybe he'd just gotten a little smarter about his hiding spot.
The longer they stood there, the more Katara felt sure they were being watched. They needed to get out of there as quickly as they could. Next to her, Aang was looking around nervously as well.
They continued on from stall to stall. Iroh appeared to be completely at ease, laughing and making jokes, but Katara noticed that he was leading them on a somewhat serpentine path, not going directly between neighboring stalls, instead crossing to different parts of the market and weaving between stalls. Trying to lose the tail, maybe?
He was very good. Not only at the casual way he led them on the twisting path, but also in the way he spoke to the merchants. He asked just the right questions, prompting clues about Zuko's whereabouts without directly stating anything. Katara could only tell that was what he was doing because she knew what their goal was in coming here. Otherwise, she would've just assumed he was making polite conversation.
Katara would've been impressed if she hadn't been so terrified that they were about to get arrested any second. The wanted posters were burning a hole in her bag, begging to be read, but she didn't dare pull them out right now.
Finally, the shopping seemed to be winding down, and the four of them began to leave the market, all of them laden with bags of food and other supplies.
"Why don't we make a quick stop," Iroh suggested once they'd gotten away from the thickest crowds. He led them on a very convoluted path through the square until they emerged in a side street that appeared to be completely abandoned.
"There," he said, after taking a quick glanced around to confirm they were alone. "I think I had lost them before, but I wanted to make sure. Katara, maybe you should read those papers now."
So he'd noticed her asking Sokka to slip away. Of course he had. A little embarrassed, Katara reached into her bag and produced the two wanted posters.
She didn't dare read them aloud, even in this place where they seemed to be alone, so she gestured for everyone else to gather around and held up the papers so they all could see.
The two posters were almost identical. Both of them read "WANTED" in bold writing, followed by the portrait, and then "REWARD: 20,000 gold."
The only thing that was different besides the portraits was the text at the end describing the reason why they were wanted. Katara's read: "Young Water Tribe female, believed to be an accomplice of the Avatar."
Aang's read: "Young male of possible Air Nomad ancestry, believed to be the long-missing Avatar."
"Well," Sokka said, as Katara hastily stuffed the posters back into her bag, "I guess people noticed your little stunt, Aang."
Aang looked dumbfounded. He didn't respond to Sokka's remark with words, he just nodded and began running his fingers through his hair nervously.
"We knew they'd noticed," Katara said. "But I didn't think it was this bad. It seems like maybe they at least don't know about you two, or Appa, though, so that's good."
"They might now," Sokka said. "Last time, you guys were off by yourself. We were with you this time."
"Either way," Iroh said. "I believe it would be wise for us to leave as soon as possible. I think we got a decent lead on Zuko's whereabouts, at least for now."
"Let's go, then," Sokka said. "You're sure you lost the guy who was following us?"
"I did my best to bring us on a serpentine path through the square, but there could be others following. I do not know."
"Let's just go," Aang said. He grinned and produced a bison-shaped whistle from his own bag. "If all else fails, I can use this thing we got back there."
"I don't think those actually work, Aang," Katara said.
"Of course they do. It's called a bison whistle, isn't it?" Aang began walking confidently toward the edge of town, but Katara could see the underlying nerves. He was trying to play it off by being his usual carefree self, but his smile didn't reach his eyes, and his hands on the whistle shook ever so slightly.
Katara exchanged a glance with the other three, and then they all followed.
They should've known, of course, that leaving would not be easy. They made their way back into the more populated part of town and began backtracking through the streets to the entrance they'd come through.
But instead of the one lone guard who'd been on watch when they entered, there were instead three, and they were stopping every person who attempted to enter or exit and questioning them.
Their little group slowed and then stopped a few blocks before they got there. Glancing at each other, they all collectively sidestepped and ducked into a nearby alley.
"How are we supposed to get out?" Sokka said. "We can't fight a whole town. I bet they've got guards at every exit now."
"Probably," Iroh agreed. He stroked his beard, apparently deep in thought.
The four of them fell into silence for several seconds, before Sokka spoke up. "We need a distraction."
"I could cause a distraction," Aang said, then looked at Katara. "Maybe we both could."
"What do you mean?" Katara asked.
"Well, they're looking for us, right? Maybe you and I could go make a big bending show back in the market square, force guards to rush that direction."
"That's perfect!" Sokka said.
"It is?" Aang said. "I thought you were going to say it was terrible."
"It does seem pretty reckless, Sokka," Katara said dubiously.
"You're right," Sokka said. "Before, I would've said it was a terrible idea. But that was when we were trying to keep your bending a secret, Aang. Now that that's out of the window, it's perfect. You and Katara head back to the square, but only you let people see you, Aang. Be loud, do some bending. Whatever you need to do to make people notice. Then once the guards start heading that way, Iroh and I can sneak out of town and go get Appa."
"How do Aang and I get out, then?" Katara asked.
"Distraction number two," Sokka said, dramatically holding up two fingers for emphasis. "That's why you need to stay hidden, Katara. Once Aang has brought the guards, it's your job to cause another disturbance in the square so that you and Aang can slip away unnoticed."
"Okay, yeah, I'll just…do that," Katara said.
"Perhaps," Iroh said, "before we do that, we should check to see if there are any less guarded exits that we can leave through?"
Sokka deflated a little. "Or we could try that, yeah."
"We'll keep your idea in mind for plan B, Sokka," Aang said with a grin. "Don't worry."
With that, the four of them began making their way back through the town, skirting any Fire Nation guards and trying their best to avoid people in general. Unfortunately, it seemed that every entrance to the town was at least as well guarded as the first had been, and Katara was beginning to worry that they'd have to go through with Sokka's crazy plan after all.
"It's no use," Aang eventually said, when they'd walked around the entire circumference of the town. "Unless you want me to try to call Appa to get us in the middle of town, we're gonna have to go with Sokka's plan."
"How are you gonna call Appa?" Sokka asked, and Aang once again produced the "bison whistle" he had purchased in the market.
The other three all looked at each other and shrugged.
"It's worth a try," Sokka said.
Grinning widely, Aang brought the whistle to his lips and blew.
There was a whooshing noise from the force of Aang's breath passing through the instrument, but no actual whistling sound as far as Katara could tell.
"It doesn't work," Katara said after a few seconds of silence. "Even if it did, wouldn't you need to train Appa to respond to that? You just got it today."
Aang held up a hand in her direction, his eyes fixed on the cloudless sky. "I don't know, Appa's pretty smart. Just give him a minute. He can't get here immediately."
Exchanging another look with Sokka and Iroh, Katara sighed and gave in to Aang's request.
The group waited there in silence for a few more minutes before Sokka finally seemed to have had enough.
"He's not coming, Aang, and we can't stand around here all day. We need to get moving."
Aang frowned at the whistle, then reluctantly put it back in his pocket. "Okay. Let's go, Katara."
"Iroh and I will stay here by the gate," Sokka said. "Make sure you make a big enough show to draw the guards at the edge of town away."
"Don't worry, Sokka," Aang said. "I can make a show alright."
"Be careful," Iroh said, frowning. "We do not want you two getting caught."
Katara and Aang did their best to stick to side streets and alleyways as they made their way back to the central market square. As they walked, they came up with a rudimentary plan.
The idea was to leave no doubt in anyone's mind that Aang was the Avatar. After all, people seemed to believe he was based on his airbending alone. If people thought he could bend a second element, the suspicions would be confirmed. That's where Katara came in.
"I don't know, Aang," Katara said, when they were nearing the square, after Aang had laid out the plan to her. She pulled her braid over one shoulder and began nervously playing with the end. "I'm not a very good bender yet. I don't know if I can pull off what you need me to do."
"I think you're a great bender," Aang said. "And besides, it doesn't have to be anything super impressive. As long as you stay hidden and it looks like I'm doing the bending, that's all that matters."
"But won't people expect the Avatar to be, you know… impressive?"
Aang shrugged. "I think seeing one person bend more than one element will be enough."
"Okay." Katara was still unsure, but she didn't see how she had much choice. This was their only plan for getting out of town.
Aang gave her a confident smile. "Stay on the outskirts, but make sure you can see me and wait for my cue, okay?"
Then he walked away and entered the square. Katara ducked into a nearby alley and snaked around until she had a good view of Aang and the square.
Aang pushed his way into the center and spun around in a circle, throwing his arms out wide. As he did, a blast of wind shot out from him in all directions, rustling clothes and banners and hair and sending people's hats and scarves flying, along with anything else that wasn't securely held or tied down.
The market, which had been filled with a general buzz of conversation and motion, became utterly still and silent as all eyes turned toward where Aang stood.
"People of the Earth Kingdom," Aang called. His voice seemed deeper and louder than usual, and Katara wondered if he was using airbending to somehow amplify his voice. "I'm sorry to disturb your day, but I bring news that I think you'll all want to hear. I'm sure you've heard the rumors, but I am here to tell you that the Avatar has returned."
Gasps, shouts, whispers—Katara distinctly noticed guards at the edges of the square beginning to close in. Meanwhile, other guards left the square—hopefully the plan was working, and they were going to get their friends at the edge of town and bring them here.
She noticed all these things out of the corners of her eyes, as she was keeping her gaze locked on Aang. This was such a stupid idea.
"I'm sure many of you believed that the Avatar would never return," Aang continued, "that the cycle had been broken somehow. But I can assure you that this is not the case. And if you're still doubtful—I can prove my power to you."
With that, he cast a quick glance toward the alley where Katara hid, making it seem like he was doing a survey of the crowd. Katara wasn't sure if he actually saw her, but she stood up straighter and fell into a neutral waterbending stance, preparing for whatever Aang did next.
Aang fell into a very similar stance—he'd been watching her practice and trying to adapt some waterbending techniques into his airbending—and turned toward the circular water well that was conveniently positioned in the center of the square.
As he began to make some reasonably convincing bending motions toward the well, Katara took a deep breath and, making sure no was looking at her, started trying to pull water out of the well.
It took a lot of concentration, because of course the well was in the middle of the square, and Katara was tucked out of sight at its edge. She could neither see nor hear the water in the well, but as she dug deep within herself, she could feel it.
Please, she thought, closing her eyes to better focus on that tether. Please, great ocean spirit, just this once, let me do this.
She raised her hands above her head in a flowing motion. Her eyes were still closed, but she felt the water responding to her call.
Soon after, she heard more gasps and whispers from the crowd, and she opened her eyes.
It had worked, and better than she had imagined. It wasn't just a tiny stream that had risen from the well, but a wall of water like a fountain or geyser, but held in perfect stillness, not a drop slipping away to dampen the clothing or hair of the nearest citizens.
Katara was so surprised that she nearly lost her concentration. But she steadied herself and, following Aang's motions, broke off one little trail of water and moved it playfully around his body.
Aang brought his hands back down, and Katara let first that small stream splash back into the wall, and then carefully lowered the well water back down.
Her eyes were darting around the square. It was silent as citizens stared, agape, at Aang, and Katara saw many more Fire Nation soldiers now.
The normal villagers were backing away, the crowds thinning—not awed and amazed by this revelation, but seemingly terrified of what the announcement meant.
"Stand down, Avatar!" one of the soldiers nearest to Aang shouted. "We've got you surrounded!"
"I can see that."
Katara had to hand it to Aang. She was sure that if she were in his position, she'd be terrified. But if he was afraid, he was doing a very good job of hiding it. Which was even more impressive because they hadn't actually made a solid plan for how he would get out once he'd done his display.
One of the soldiers lunged forward, and Aang shot into the air on a jet of wind and soared 30 feet in Katara's direction.
At the same time, Katara concentrated on a large stack of barrels at a merchant stall on the other side of the well. That was a merchant they had passed earlier, one that Katara knew sold all manner of beverages.
She clenched her fingers into claws as she made a pulling motion toward her body, and the barrels exploded, sending wood, metal, and—of course—various colored liquids spraying in all directions. Katara made it surge along the ground behind Aang. It froze around the feet of some of the guards chasing Aang and made others of them slip and fall.
And Aang, quick and agile, disappeared from the square in the blink of an eye, so that by the time the guards had recovered from this distraction, Katara and Aang were already long gone, running as fast as they could toward the other side of town.
Katara sent a silent apology in the direction of the merchant whose stock she'd destroyed. Hopefully they would be able to recover without too much difficulty.
To Katara's relief, the plan seemed to have worked. The exits were completely unguarded, every soldier having been funneled to the square, and she and Aang were able to disappear into the surrounding forest with relative ease.
On another day, Katara growled in frustration and flopped down on the edge of the bank. They'd set down earlier than usual today, for two main reasons: one, Sokka had wanted to go clue-sleuthing in a nearby town, and two, Katara had seen this beautiful locale from above and couldn't resist trying her hand at some bending.
It was a lovely, secluded cove with a massive tiered waterfall cascading over a tall cliff. At the bottom rested a plunge pool dotted with large rocks and surrounded on two sides by heavy forest. The pool eventually narrowed back into a river and continued all the way past the town Sokka and Iroh had gone to. A little downstream from where Katara stood on the bank, Aang was knee-deep in the water next to Appa, washing him and brushing his fur. When Katara plopped down, though, he turned, apparently hearing her frustrated mutterings.
"Hang on, buddy. I'll be right back." Aang hopped out of the water, using his airbending to dry himself off almost instantly, and approached.
Katara looked up at him reluctantly when he sat down next to her. She tried not to get annoyed at how at ease he looked.
"Are you okay, Katara?" Aang asked.
"No. I'm never gonna get this stupid move. I've been trying for months."
"Maybe you need to try something new," Aang suggested. "When I'm struggling with a new airbending move, I find that it helps to try to work on other things for a while. Usually, something about one of them will help me understand what I wasn't getting in the first one."
Katara couldn't imagine Aang struggling to learn any bending move. He'd even started to adopt a few waterbending-style techniques in the last few weeks, after just a short time of studying the handful of scrolls Katara had brought with her from the South Pole.
It was annoying that Aang was better at waterbending than Katara was, and he wasn't even a waterbender.
"Well, I'm out of luck there," Katara said. She reached for the scroll she'd been working with—it was old and so tattered you almost couldn't read it anymore, but it was one of the few scrolls her people had managed to hold onto—and began to carefully roll it up. "This is the only scroll I've got that I haven't learned yet. I can't work on anything new."
"Then make something up."
Katara stared at him. "Make something up?"
"Sure." Aang stood up and formed one of his signatures—the air scooter. He hopped on top of it, balancing on it expertly. "Half of the airbending I do is stuff I made up. You kind of have to—I mean, most real airbending techniques were lost in the war, so I couldn't exactly learn those."
He hopped off—the wind of the scooter's dissipation kicked dirt into Katara's face, and she wiped it away.
"I don't know. I don't think I'm as creative as you. I've only taught myself a few basic moves without scrolls. I definitely couldn't have come up with something like your air scooter."
"I think you're super creative," Aang said. "Just give it a try."
Katara looked at him for a few moments longer, then took a step toward the water. She took a deep breath and raised her hands in front of her.
"Guys, guess what?"
Sokka's voice nearly made Katara jump out of her skin. She spun around. Aang was clearly surprised, too, based on how quickly he spun.
Sokka and Iroh had just entered the clearing around the plunge pool, and Sokka was waving a piece of parchment in the air like a trophy.
"What?" Katara asked. Though she would never admit it, she was a little relieved for the distraction.
"We found something—two somethings, actually. One's about Zuko—and one's for you, Katara."
Me? Katara thought. That was, of course, the one she wanted to ask about first, but that would not be the responsible thing.
Besides, before she could, Aang jumped on the other topic.
"What about Zuko?"
"We may have found a lead regarding his whereabouts," Iroh said. "There is a town not far from here, at the very edge of the Earth Kingdom. It's a major port town, and it's a common spot to find naval passage to the Fire Nation. One of the merchants said a man matching Zuko's description came by just a day or so ago, and mentioned that he was heading that way. We are not far behind him."
"That's great!" Aang said. "We should head out as soon as we can to catch up with him!" He was already getting Appa out of the water and using his airbending to dry him off.
"What's the news for me?" Katara asked once Aang had walked away.
Sokka grinned and started to reach into his pack. Katara noticed that Iroh was smiling widely, too, and the two of them were looking at each other conspiratorially.
"Close your eyes," Sokka said, "and hold out your hands."
Katara bit her lip, uncertain, but she did as he said. She heard the rustling of fabric as he dug through his bag, then felt something land in her outstretched hands. It was cylindrical and, even without opening her eyes, she could tell it was fancy. It was made of smooth polished metal, but she could feel intricate carvings all over the outside. Maybe writing, or maybe some sort of design or picture, she couldn't tell.
"Okay, open them."
She did—and immediately gasped. In her hands, she held the most beautiful scroll case she had ever seen. It was light blue and silver, clearly Water Tribe in origin, and the outside of the case depicted a stylized, but still incredibly detailed, image of a waterbender in various forms, with swirls of water around them. The scroll case was capped on both ends with round silver hemispheres, carved with what appeared to be the symbol of the Northern Water Tribe.
"Is this a waterbending scroll?" Katara asked breathlessly, even as she scrambled to unscrew one of the ends and pull out the carefully rolled parchment within.
"Isn't it great? General Iroh insisted on getting it for you."
"I…" Katara looked up at Iroh, then bowed deeply to him, clutching the scroll to her chest. "I don't know what to say. Thank you, Iroh." The scroll had to have been very expensive.
"No need to thank me, child," Iroh said. "It is my way of thanking you for being so patient with me and humoring my nephew's detour rather than following your true desires. Every young bender deserves to have a proper master, and I am very sorry it is taking so long to get you one, but hopefully this will help make up for it until you get there."
Katara nodded, feeling numb. All she wanted was to open the scroll and begin working on the new waterbending forms it contained, but she restrained herself. Aang was, unfortunately, right, after all. They needed to get moving.
As much as she still disliked the chase for Zuko, she knew it was important. He couldn't be allowed to turn himself in to the Fire Lord.
The four of them packed up the camp, got onto Appa, and flew off toward the next town, where Zuko (hopefully) waited.
