Freedom [ATLA Katara x Male Reader]

Chapter 25: [The Library]

Aang sat cross-legged on the ground looking over a vast open savanna landscape. It was mostly barren except for small shoots of grass which bent in the breeze. The ground in front of Aang was littered with holes.

You and your friends stood behind the boy, who held a thin wooden flute in both hands.

"What's out there?" Sokka asked. 

Toph put her hands on the ground. "A lot, actually. There's hundreds of little─"

"Shh!" Aang turned around and silenced Toph. "I know you can see underground, but don't ruin the surprise. Just watch." Aang blew a note on the flute. A groundhog-type creature popped out of a hole in the ground and mimicked the note. "Yeah! I'm putting an orchestra together."

"Orchestra, huh? Well, la-di-da," Sokka said, looking on with annoyance. 

Three groundhogs popped out of the ground and sang descending notes. Momo jumped into a hole and came out the middle one, trying to catch the groundhogs. 

Aang played four notes and Momo tried to catch the groundhogs that popped up. Aang played another note as Sokka ran up to the boy and plugged the flute with his finger, causing nothing to play. As Aang's cheeks swelled with air, the Avatar looked at Sokka with a sad expression.

"This is great and all, but don't we have more important things to worry about?" Sokka asked rhetorically, clearly irritated. "We should be making plans."

"We did make plans," Toph replied. "We're all picking mini-vacations."

Sokka frowned. "There's no time for vacations."

"I'm learning the elements as fast as I can," Aang said, trying to convince the older boy. "I practice hard every day with Toph and Katara. I've been training my arrow off!"

"Maybe train a little harder. Your arrow is still on pretty good," you suggested, poking his bald head. 

"It's a figure of speech, Y/n," the Avatar explained softly. Your cheeks flushed in embarrassment and you slowly retracted your hand.

"Oh. Yeah." You cleared your throat awkwardly, crossing your arms. "Yeah, I knew that."

"Come on, Sokka, what's wrong with having a little fun in our down time?" Katara asked her brother. 

"Even if you do master all of the elements, then what? It's not like we have a map of the Fire Nation. Should we just head west until we reach the Fire Lord's house?" Sokka knocked on an imaginary door. "Knock, knock. Hello, Fire Lord? Anybody home? I don't think so. We need some intelligence if we're going to win this war."

"Where are we gonna find any of that?" you asked dryly, referring to Sokka's intelligence. Your eyes suddenly lit up as an idea hit you. "Wait, I think I know where we can get a map of the Fire Nation."

"You do? Where?"

"Port Yakai. My crew used to buy all sorts of supplies from there, including maps," you explained. "I'm sure they can hook us up with something. And it's much nicer than Port Gialo, I promise you."

"Then that's where we're heading next," Sokka said decisively. "Where is it?"

You tapped the coast on the other side of the kingdom to where you were currently situated. "This map is a bit off but it's around here, in the east."

"But that's all the way on the other side of the Kingdom. It'll take us days to get there," Katara said. "Surely there has to be somewhere closer we can get a map."

"We're back to square one then," Aang said dejectedly, shoulders slumping. 

"Well, I think we should finish our vacations, and then we can look for Sokka's intelligence," Katara said mockingly, making you and Aang snicker.