The Traitor Princess

Chapter 43 - Lake Laogai

Sokka laid on his stomach in the living room, drawing pictures of Appa. Eziri sat nearby, reading one of the novels she bought from the man in the Lower Ring. Toph was laying beside her with her arms behind her head.

The front door burst open and Aang and Katara came running in.

"We found a printer to make our posters." Katara said excitedly. She held up a poster with a nicely drawn portrait of Appa. Eziri put down her book and took the poster from Katara.

"This is perfect!" She said with a smile.

"Hey, I thought designing the lost Appa poster was my job." Sokka whined. He held up one of his poorly drawn pictures. "I've been working all day on my Appa."

Katara put her hand in front of her mouth to try and hide her laughter. Eziri bit her lip to keep from smiling. Aang just looked confused.

"Sokka, the arrow is on Appa's head." He corrected. Sokka looked at his drawing.

"This is his head." Sokka argued. Katara walked up and pointed at the drawing.

"Why are feet coming out of it?" She asked. She picked up the poster to examine it closely.

"Those are his horns!" Sokka snatched the poster from his sister. "I haven't seen him in a while, ok?" Eziri couldn't contain it anymore and stifled her laugh.

"Hey! You said these were getting better!" Sokka complained.

"Yes, I did say that." Eziri gave him an apologetic look. "But to be fair, better doesn't necessarily mean good." She said gently. Sokka slumped his shoulders in defeat.

"It looks just like him to me." Toph added. Eziri laughed but Sokka perked up.

"Thank you, I worked really..." Sokka paused and frowned as he realized the dilemma. "Why do you feel the need to do that?"

"Let's just stick with the professional version." Katara suggested. Sokka angrily ripped up the drawing in his hands. Aang excitedly left with a stack of posters, his staff, and Momo.

Eziri looked at Sokka's drawings and picked up the one that looked the best. She took down one of the pictures hanging on the wall and placed the drawing in the frame. She hung Sokka's framed drawing back up. "Ta-da!" She gestured to the frame. "Now all that hard work gets to be displayed."

Sokka and Katara looked at the drawing. Katara tried to hide her laugh once again, and Sokka just stared at the drawing with a serious expression.

"You know, now that it's in the frame, I get what everyone was saying." Sokka admitted.

"So...do you want me to take it out of the frame?" Eziri asked.

"No!" Sokka said, a little too quickly. Eziri smirked and gathered the rest of his drawings. She tucked them into the pages of one of her books for safe keeping.

–

Aang and Momo left to drop the posters over the city. Aang flew on his glider while the little lemur flew next to him. The others waited at the house until the pair returned.

Almost as soon as Aang got back, Joo Dee–the real Joo Dee–showed up to the house and told them they were forbidden from putting up posters without proper clearance. Much to everyone's surprise, Aang yelled at the woman and slammed the door in her face. It seemed he was sick of waiting around and hoping to find Appa–he was prepared to take matters into his own hands.

The group decided to go out on foot and put up posters in addition to the ones Aang dropped from the air. The group split up into pairs to cover more area. Toph went with Sokka, Eziri went with Katara, and Aang was paired with Momo.