With an extra person on the team, it didn't take long until the food supplies ran out. The next morning, Aang had a nightmare about how he got trapped in an iceberg for a hundred years.
As the group got prepared to go to a nearby town for food, Sokka stopped them, "Guys, wait! This was in my dream! We shouldn't go to the market."
"Really?" Kaiden asked, a bit skeptical, "What was in your dream?"
"Food eats people!!" Sokka replied, a bit terrified.
Kaiden face palmed as Katara shook her head.
"Also, Momo could talk," Sokka glared at the flying lemur, "You said some very unkind things."
Momo just looked at him funny.
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After nearly getting swindled by a shopkeeper, they realized they had no money.
"Out of food and out of money," Sokka groaned, "Now what are we supposed to do?"
"You could get a job, smart guy," Katara replied.
As if on cue, an old couple started arguing about a storm the old lady thinks is coming. Kaiden looked to the sky. There wasn't a single cloud. Yet, he had the sneaking suspicion she was right.
"Maybe we should find some shelter?" Aang suggested.
"Shelter?" Sokka exclaimed, "From what?!"
Sokka walked over to the old fisherman and got himself a job hauling fish. But sure enough, a storm appeared just an hour or so later. But Sokka insisted that he go help the old man.
"Sokka," Aang said, "Maybe this isn't such a good idea. Look at the sky."
"I said I was gonna do this job," Sokka retorted, "I can't back out just because of some bad weather."
"The boy with the tattoos has some sense," the old woman snorted, "You should listen to him!"
"Boy with tattoos?" The fisherman asked, turning to Aang, "Airbender tattoos...well I'll be a hogmonkey's uncle! You're the Avatar, ain't ya?"
Katara smiled, putting her hands on her hips, "That's right."
"Well don't be so smiley about it," the old man replied, "The Avatar disappeared for a hundred years. You turned your back on the world!"
"Don't yell at him! Aang would never turn his back on anyone!"
Kaiden just watched the scene unfold, unsure of what to say.
"Oh? He wouldn't, uh? Then I guess I must have imagined the last hundred years of war and suffering."
"Aang is the bravest person I know! He has done nothing but help people and save lives since I met him. It's not his fault he disappeared, right Aang? Aang? What's wrong?"
Aang had been backing up while Katara had been telling off the old man. When she finished, he opened his glider and took off towards the mountains.
"That's right!" the old man yelled, "Keep flyin!"
Kaiden hopped on his board and flew after him, "Hey! Aang, wait!"
"You're a horrible old man!" Katara sneered, mounting Appa, "Appa, yip! Yip!"
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After a while, Kaiden and Katara tracked Aang down. He was in a cave, sulking.
"I'm sorry for running away," he apologized.
"It's ok," Katara replied, "That fisherman was way out of line."
"Actually, he wasn't," Aang frowned.
"What do you mean?" Kaiden asked.
"I don't wanna talk about it."
YOU ARE READING
Avatar: The First Metalbender Book 1: Water
Fanfiction|Book I| Kaiden is from the Southern Water Tribe, but that's all he'll tell you about his background unless you were a close friend, like Katara or Sokka. But even he has a secret he won't tell them. Truth is, he's a natural metalbender, able to ben...
