Sound Bender (Avatar: The Last Airbender) #Wattys2017

||Chapter 11 - Haru||

Himoko's POV

It was about two days after my first try at learning air bending with Aang as my teacher when we decided to make a stop to let Appa rest from flying for so long. Currently waiting for Sokka to get back from getting food, we were currently packing things up from the night we spent here, hoping to walk on foot around the area in search of a village, the first Earth Kingdom Village I would see in my entire life outside of Omashu, but technically speaking, it is a city/kingdom. Aela ran around and under my feet, chasing after Momo who chittered in a sort of mocking manner, instigating her to continue chasing after him. I smiled lightly, at least Aela is having fun on this journey unlike her owner

"Great, you're back! What's for dinner?" Aang's sudden loud voice made my attention go over to him before watching as he got up from lying on the back of exposed of what seemed to be an overturned tree. I beckoned Alea to follow me by snapping my fingers, alerting her. I walked over to them, watching as the three kids sat down on the ground while Sokka emptied out a small sack of... Nuts?

"We've got a few options. First, round nuts and some kind of oval shaped nuts, and some rock shaped nuts that... might just be rocks. Dig in!" Sokka yelled in excitement, throwing a rock that he mistook as a nut behind him, almost hitting Momo who stopped momentarily from running away from Alea to dodge the incoming rock. Aang and Katara exchanged glances with one another, each holding a nut

"Seriously, what else ya got?" Katara asked him and I sighed, I should have brought more food with me from Omashu... Then again, Sokka was being a pig and ate most of it without my knowledge. Sokka peered into the bag with a focused face. A large startling noise emitting throughout the forest suddenly ripped through my ears making me jump, what the?

"What was that!?" Sokka asked dumbfounded, "It sounded like a bould-" The sound of a boulder roughly hitting the ground startled us again, interrupting me

"It's coming from over there!" Aang pointed over in a random direction with a grin. He rushed off towards the direction of the noise with Katara following closely behind him

"Shouldn't we run away from huge booms– not towards them?" Sokka asked with a flail of his arms. I shrugged, reaching down to scoop up Alea into my arms

"Come on, we better follow them in case they get in trouble." I told him and he groaned in exasperation before begrudging following after me. We came upon a fallen tree, Katara and Aang sitting behind it- hidden away from view of others that would be on the other side. I sat down beside Katara, peering over to see a young earth bender, practicing his craft with precision. I watched him as he moved around the huge boulder, seeing how he bit his bottom lip in concentration

"An earthbender!" Katara yelled out in a hushed tone, her eyes wide in awestruck 

"Let's go meet him!" Aang suggested, almost jumping out of his skin

"He looks dangerous, so we better approach cautiously." Sokka informed us and I nodded. He doesn't look to dangerous by his looks and by the way he was positioned, he wasn't as skilled as many of the guards back in Omashu. Probably around my age if I'm correct. During my thought process, Katara had stood up and ran down to the riverbed, "Hello there, I'm Katara! What's your name?!" Katara yelled to him with a wave. He froze, looking over at Katara in surprise before snapping out of his frozen state and dropping his boulder. He runs off down the river bed, earthbending a load of rock behind him, blocking us running after him

"Nice to meet you!" Aang sarcastically yelled with a hint of disappointment in his voice as he jumped down after her. I stayed put as Sokka followed after the 12 year old, crossing his arms

"We just wanted to say, 'hi'..." Katara whispered in defeat, looking at the ground. By yelling at him when he was obviously focused on training? And by the way he reacted, it looked like he was hiding