[Earth on Fire] Zuko x OC

Chapter 17: The Blind Bandit (Part 1)

"There's a town down below!" Katara called, pointing at the cluster of houses that looked tiny from Appa's altitude. "Let's land there for the night."

"Hopefully it won't be a repeat of the last town we went to," I muttered, lying on my back and bouncing a rock up and down. "Seriously, worst field trip ever."

"It wasn't a field trip," Katara said, sounding slightly irritated. "We were escaping the Rough Rhinos."

"Yeah, and we escaped to a town where everyone hated Aang," I replied, making the rock spin in circles. "And locked him up and tried to boil him in oil. What a sanctuary!"

"Gotta agree with Kioni," Sokka said while Katara huffed, crossing her arms. "I think we need to be a little more careful about choosing our landing spots."

"How many Avatar-hating towns do you think are out there?" Katara snapped. "I don't think that's going to be a common occurrence!"

"There's an entire Avatar-hating nation, in case you'd forgotten," I pointed out. Katara's left eye twitched and she looked like she was about to explode.

"Okay, okay," Aang called from Appa's head. "We're all a little hungry and tired, let's just stop here. We need to restock on food and supplies anyway. And if they turn out to hate me to, I'll just win them over like I did in Chin!" He popped up and shot us a beaming grin.

"Do the words 'almost boiled in oil' mean nothing to you?" I muttered, leaning back against the saddle again as Appa began to descend.

As it turned out, the town was named Gaoling, and did not in fact harbor an unreasonable resentment towards the Avatar. It was actually quite a nice town, filled with bustling shops and restaurants The people seemed pretty well off as they ambled around wearing silk robes and tunics and adorned jewelry.

"Oooh, can we go shopping?" I asked, catching sight of the rows of stalls in the marketplace.

"Yes!" Sokka cried, jumping forward. "It's been too long!" I watched with raised eyebrows as Sokka dashed off to the stalls, ooh-ing and aah-ing over everything.

"Is that normal?" I asked Katara, who was watching her brother with a long-suffering expression.

"Unfortunately, yes," she sighed, moving to follow him.

After about an hour, three of us were ready to move on, having seen everything there was to see. I found a wonderful necklace with a small Earth Kingdom emblem made of stone that was both stylish and simplistic and went great with my tunic. Katara picked up a small hairband and Aang found some Earth Kingdom trinkets that he loved. We were all shopped out and ready to grab a bite to eat.

Of course, the only person still having trouble deciding what to get was Sokka.

"It's pricey," he said, staring at the green bag thoughtfully. "But I really do like it!" He turned to Katara with a slightly pleading expression.

"Then you should get it," Katara said in a rational tone. "You deserve something nice."

"I do, don't I?" Sokka beamed. His face fell the next second. "But, no, it's too expensive, I shouldn't."

I rolled my eyes as Katara responded in a weary voice, "Alright, then don't." Letting out a quiet sigh of relief, Aang and I got up and began to walk out of the store, with Katara following and Sokka plodding morosely in the back.

Not two seconds had passed before he dashed back to the store and grabbed the bag off it's stand. "You know what, I'm gonna get it!" he grinned, looking way happier than any normal guy should over a bag.

"Pssst, hey!" I turned to my left to see a man hunched over and leering at me slightly. I stepped closer to Aang, stiffening slightly.

"You kids like earthbending?" he asked, holding out a small piece of paper. "You like throwing rocks? Then check out Master Yu's Earthbending Academy!" He shot us a cheesy grin and placed an advert in Aang's hand before walking off.