Responses to Reviews:

RonaldM40196867: I don't think I hate any Avatar animal. I can't think of any which are particularly unpleasant.

Zigzagdoublezee: Azula does genuinely care about Mai within the context of the wild power imbalance within their relationship, so maybe it is a genuine warning (delivered with intent to manipulate as well.)

As Always, Please Review!

Stalls were set up all along the docks, selling all kinds of exotic goods which Sokka pored over, holding up a pot here, a scarf there, and lugging around a big blue bag he had already purchased almost as soon as he had arrived.

The rest of their Team Avatar followed along just behind him, indulging in some more casual browsing.

Yue looked around. This was her first time in an Earth Kingdom town, and while the port was similar to her northern home nearly everything else was different. It was a lot warmer for a start.

It also didn't look like there was a war on. There were no fire citizens present, but Yue could see figures in the green of the Earth Kingdom, the blue of the water tribes and the orange and yellow of the Air Nomads bustling around. Several wooden ships were docked along the shoreline, many of them with boarding ramps leading up onto their decks and signs at the front advertising what treasures lay within.

There was a certain atmosphere about the place though. It was a sense of anticipation, of trepidation, as if the people there were just waiting for something bad to happen, for the ash to start falling from the sky and the Fire Nation fleet to appear on the horizon. It was a wonder this market was happening at all.

Yue watched a group of southerners walking past curiously. These were Katara and Sokka's people, and they wore lighter blue than the northerners of Yue's tribe. She nudged Katara.

"Do you know them?"

Katara looked over, and shook her head.

"The South Pole is a big place," she reminded her. "I don't know everyone there."

"Even so, couldn't we hitch a lift?" Yue asked. "It would give Gembul a break."

But Katara shook her head.

"Gembul is faster, and the Fire Nation have a big navy," she said. "We should keep doing what we're doing."

Sokka waddled over, now with a second bag slung over his shoulder.

"What?" He demanded, seeing everyone looking at him. "We can never have too many bags!"

It was a nice bag, Yue was forced to admit. But before she had a chance to comment she felt a tap on the shoulder, and whirled to find a man in red staring at her, wearing the biggest hat she had ever seen.

"You're waterbenders!" The man said jovially. "I've got a good deal for you!"

Katara and Yue glanced at each other warily. The man saw it and laughed.

"Come on, don't be like that!" He said. "It's a relic of your culture!"

"That's great!" Rinzen said immediately, and began following him.

"Hey!" Katara hissed. "Why are we trusting this man?"

"Why shouldn't we?" Rinzen replied. "Is being a pushy salesman a crime now? And it's your culture, don't you want to see it?"

Yue had to admit the nomad had a point, the man hadn't actually done anything wrong. And he apparently had a relic of her culture. So she shrugged and followed him. The man led them towards a wooden sailing ship, which sat docked at the waterfront. Other men stared at them as they approached, many of them with weapons on open display.

"We consider ourselves... high risk traders," the man told them, swaggering up the gangplank. "Our business is conducted very quickly, and we drive a very hard bargain."

"Right," Yue nodded. She was on guard as the man led them into a room which was full of treasures. Chests full of gold and silver gleamed, along with exotic statues from across the world and rare gems of a hundred different colours. But the man did not seem interested in any of those, instead going over to a shelf on the wall and pulling down a scroll.

"Behold!" He called, and unravelled it. Yue wasn't initially sure what she was looking at, but Katara's jaw immediately dropped.

"It's waterbending techniques!" She said. "Look!"

Yue looked, and sure enough she could see figures doing poses and hand gestures with illustrations of water streams flowing around them.

"We, ahem, liberated this from a water tribe ship," the man said.

"How much did you pay for it?" Katara asked.

"Pay?" The man burst out laughing. "We didn't pay!"

Yue's heart dropped, as she realised exactly what this man's line of work was.

The pirate turned to her and grinned. "A hundred gold pieces and it's yours," he said. "No other waterbender wants to come near us for some reason. I can't think why."

Katara turned to Yue, almost vibrating with excitement. "This is great!" She said happily. "Now we can teach ourselves better!"

"You're both waterbenders?" The pirate asked.

"Think of what we can learn!" Katara carried on, before swivelling back to the Pirate.

"We'll take it."

But the Pirate's face had changed.

"You seem like you really want this," he observed.

"Well, we do," Katara said. She held out her hand, but the Pirate didn't move.

"Well, if you want it so much, surely you won't mind paying 200 gold pieces for it!"

"What?" Katara looked as outraged as Yue felt. "But you said 100 a minute ago!"

"I did, but I was lowballing," the pirate shrugged. "Besides, my men need to be adequately compensated for their troubles in getting it. One hundred would not do that."

"We need to make this money last!" Sokka frowned. "200 is a little outside our price range."

"That is not my problem," the man said firmly.

But Yue folded her arms.

"You either get one hundred," she declared flatly, "or you get nothing. Your choice."

"Oh well," the Pirate turned to put the scroll back. "I guess you won't be able to teach yourselves waterbending like you wanted to then, will you?"

"You're a scammer!" Katara jabbed her finger at him.

"I'm a pirate," the pirate said as if it were a matter of simple detail. "Unscrupulous is what we do."

Yue had to work extra hard to stop herself scowling at him.

"Alright," she said. "It's clear we've wasted our time. Let's go."

It looked for a moment like the man would move to block her path, but he just stood aside.

"How disappointing," he said. "I don't like it when a deal falls through. Don't let me stop you."

Just then there was a crash from behind them, and Rinzen jumped away from a statue which went crashing to the floor, scattering precious jewels everywhere.

"It wasn't me!" Sokka called from the other side of the room.

"Hey!" The Pirate stormed over to Rinzen. "I thought air nomads were supposed to be careful! Don't touch the merchandise!"

Yue watched the nomad hold his hands up as he pleaded with him for a few seconds. Finally, the pirate just gestured to the exit.

"Get off my ship, please. Before you break anything else."

"Hello," Katara said from next to Yue. She seemed slightly out of breath.

"Hello," Yue said politely. "Why-"

"Let's go, shall we," Katara took her arm and steered her towards the exit. "Oh well, it didn't work out but these things happen ok bye!"

Katara didn't let go until they were well down the gangplank and back into the town.