The Burning Truth-Harmony

Part 7~The Town

Hachi sighed as he patted Pickle's head. "I know, I know. It's not nice, but we got to do what we got to do."

Pickle groaned in disagreement, saying something that could be interrupted as 'you aren't the one walking through the sludge', but he continued to trudge on.

The river the bison were crawling through was filthy, full of muck, grime, and slime.

"Hey, I think the water's polluted," Isu stated as Sokka grinned.

"Well, that explains why I can't catch a fish around here because normally my fishing skills are off the hook." Sokka held up a fishing hook as the gang remained unamused. "Get it? Like a fishing hook?"

"Too bad your skills aren't on the hook," Toph joked as the group laughed and Sokka huffed.

Katara jumped down from the reins, leaving Isu in charge as she spoke. "It looks like we'll need to go somewhere else to get food, assuming that'll fit into Sokka's master schedule." She glanced at the long scroll Sokka had rolled out.

"It's doable. But that means only two potty breaks today."

"Hey," Isu interrupted, "maybe we can get food there!" She pointed at a village in the middle of the river, grinning as Hachi sighed.

He had a bad feeling about this place.

~~~

Isu hopped back, having finished hiding the bison and joining back with the others.

"I don't feel anything. Where is the village?" Toph frowned as Sokka smiled.

"It's in the middle of the river." Sokka pointed out, spotting the ferryman approaching.

"Sure is. My name's Dock. Mind if I ask who you are?"

Katara stepped in front before anyone else could say something stupid. "We're from the Earth Kingdom colonies."

"Wow, colonials. Hop on, I give you a ride in the town."

The group shared their suspicious gazes as they climbed into the boat, barely getting everyone on board by having Hachi sit in Zuko's lap.

The boys blushed as Katara tried to drag Dock's attention away from them. "Why do you guys live on the river?"

"Because we're a fishing town. At least, that's how it was before the factory moved in. Army makes their metal there. Moved in a few years ago and started gunking up our river. Now our little village is struggling to survive."

Isu tutted, her gaze fixed on the water. "Those idiots don't know the damage they're doing."

Katara placed a hand on Isu's shoulder, forcing her to take a breath as they arrived in town. The group scrambled out as Katara waved Dock away. "Thanks for the ride."

Dock waved back as the rest took in the surroundings. The town was barren, villagers were starving, and their homes were falling apart.

"Look at this place. It's so sad. We have to help," Katara stated as Isu cheered.

"No," Sokka interrupted before the girls could get ideas in their heads. "We can't waste our time here. We have a bigger mission that we need to stay focused on. These people are on their own."

Katara stared, chasing after her brother and grabbing his shoulder. "These people are starving. But you'd turn your back on them? How can you be so cold and heartless?"

"I'm not turning my back on them. I'm just being realistic. We can't go around helping every rinky-dink town we wander into. We'll be helping them all by taking out the Fire Lord."

"Hey, loudmouths," Toph shouted, lowering her voice. "Maybe we should be a little quieter when we talk about 'taking out the Fire Lord.'"

Hachi and Iroh nodded, but it did little to break up the argument.

"Come on, Katara, be reasonable about this. You know our mission has to come first."

Katara could see she was outnumbered as she finally sighed. "I guess so."

Isu placed a hand on her shoulder. "We'll come back and free the water after we've finished our mission."

Katara smiled softly. "Fine."

"Let's get what we need and go," Hachi decided as the group split up. Zuko, Iroh and Hachi approached an outdoor market stall, seeing someone suspiciously like Dock but wearing a different hat behind the counter.

"Hey, Dock. You work here, too?" Zuko smiled awkwardly as the man turned around.

"I'm not Dock. I'm Xu. Dock's my brother."

The trio were confused as Hachi gave him a concerned look. "But we just saw you. You're even wearing the same clothes. The only difference is your hat."

"Dock works on the docks. That's why we call him 'Dock', and I work in the shop. That's why they call me 'Xu'!"

Zuko frowned. "I don't get it."

"Me neither," claimed 'Xu' as he jumped down behind the counter and pulled out a crate filled with rancid grey seafood. "What I can getcha?"

Hachi reared back, looking horrified as Xu brushed off his disgust.

"Hey, I'll give you a special deal. If you buy three fish, I'll give you a clam for free."

Iroh smiled politely, holding the clam as mucus splashed out of it. That was enough to sway Zuko, who joined Hachi as far away from the stall as possible.

Iroh cleared his throat, "just six fish."

Everyone gave Iroh a look, well, except Toph, who had no idea what was happening.

"Could you tell your brother we need a ride back to shore?"

Xu jumped down behind the counter before reappearing wearing 'Dock's' hat. "Hey, colonials. My brother says you need a lift." He jumped over the counter and walked back to the dock.

The team followed behind when the little boy walked up to Katara. "Can you spare some food?"

Katara smiled softly, giving the boy a fish. "I wish I could help more." The boy bowed, leaving and giving the fish to his sick mother.

"Come on," Isu gently pressed, pulling Katara away no matter how guilty they both felt.

~~~

The sun had long set, and the team were setting down for the night. Zuko pulled water out of the river as Toph separated the pollutants from the water with her earth bending. Once free of non-safe for consumption, the water went to Katara, who boiled the water in a crock.

"Our detour into town today has completely thrown off our schedule. It's gonna take some serious finagling to get us back on track," Sokka complained as Toph shook her head.

"Finagle away, oh schedule master."

"Well, for starters, it looks like we'll need to wake up forty-three minutes earlier every day."

"Forty-three minutes," Hachi gaped in surprise as Sokka stayed looking at the schedule.

"Look, we only have a few weeks to get to the Fire Lord in time for the invasion and the eclipse, which, by the way, only lasts for eight minutes. And we just lost a whole day. So if we want to make up the time and stay on schedule, we have to wake up early."

"Well, I'm not waking up early," Toph claimed as Sokka huffed.

"Or we could just cut out all of our eating breaks." That did not get a happy response. "I got it. How's this going from now on? We'll take food breaks and potty breaks at the same time."

"You're a moron," Isu announced as Sokka shrugged.

"Hey, it might be gross, but it's efficient. Either way, we have to leave here first thing tomorrow morning."

Katara did not look happy as Isu placed a hand on her shoulder. "I know this isn't ideal, but we'll return. I promise. Just let your insane brother do what he wants. It'll all be over soon."

Katara nodded, though she didn't believe it. She grabbed the berries as she snuck off.