Forbidden | Avatar the Last Air Bender

Chapter 29: Doing Good

As we continue our adventures...

Tasha's POV

Few weeks of being in fire nation lands. Our backs were breaking from the endlessly going journey, and buckets of sweat were dripping from our foreheads. Our noses were scrunched up in a very unpleasant manner, due to the foul stench of the sludge-infested river we were slowly making our way through in.

"Momo!" Aang playfully called from the river, throwing a handful of disgusting brown substance towards the playful leemur.

Momo chattered nosily, hopping towards Aang, sludge dripping from every end of his body.

Aang finally looked down in distaste at the water. Hopping back into the clean saddle the rest of the team were, Aang airbended himself clean, splattering endless amounts of sludge to our faces.

"Hey guys, I think this river is polluted." Aang exclaimed.

"Wow," I rolled my eyes, water bending the mud off me. "Like we didn't know that."

"PAH! PLEGH!" Toph spit mud away from her mouth. With that, Aang finally air bended the mud away from us, leaving our clothing pretty messed up. Well done, Aang. I sighed, fixing my attire.

"Well that explains why I can't seem to catch a fish down here," Sokka stated matter-of-factly. "Because my fishing skills are usually off the hook...!"

Sokka then lifted up the fishing hook, grinning goofily at us. "Get it? Like a fishing hook?"

"Too bad your skills aren't on the hook," Toph folded her arms.

And at that comment, we erupted in laughter. Sokka made a disgruntled face in response and looked down in defeat.

~

"Well, guess we should stop for supplies at that nearby fishing village." I commented, checking our food supplies. "Seems like we don't have a lot left."

"No!" Sokka replied without hesitation. "There's not much time before the esclipse! Any more delays and we won't make it in time!"

"I second Tasha's point though," Katara added. "All we have now are just some gumberries and... oh."

Momo quickly scurried to Katara's hand and ate all of the gumberries. Oh well.

"Ugh, fine! Only because it is getting pretty late and our food supplies are nothing... But we're only staying for one night!" Sokka finally gave in, sighing.

All of us nodded our heads in agreement. Let's go then...

~

We made our way to the fishing village, not knowing what to expect. Unfortunately, it was beyond what we expected. It was a terribly unhealthy, dirty and lifeless slum. The stench of the river filled the entire place, and we could only scrunch our nose in response.

"This place... really needs our help," I commented to myself, my heart breaking at the sight.

"Definitey," Katara replied sadly, looking over to me. While Toph, Sokka, and Aang were busy bargaining with the shop keeper over the prices of the food, or whatever there is left for us to buy, we watched the site of a sickly, scrawny young boy picking up small grains of rice which apprantly dropped on the floor.

What a terribly sad sight, I thought to myself. If only I could do something to help this village.

"Ah, it's that darn fire nation factory I tell you, they've been polluting our river with the chemical waste... our livelihood... fishing... all gone. Now our children have to suffer... many of them, I'll say, they're sickly, weak, dying..." The shop keeper mentioned dishertenedly.