Avatar the last airbender: The Samurai

Hope must not be abandoned

       It has been a week or so since the gang had escaped the desert, Sokka has been looking at the maps from the library while the others relaxed around the valley. Shinta watches them as he meditates until he is suddenly covered in water as he suddenly opens one of his eyes in a glare directed towards Katara, she jumps a bit from the tense glare that she got as she looks towards him.
        "Oh uummm sorry Shinta." She says as she bends the water out of his clothes. The others gather around Sokka as he lays down the map.
          "So have you found a route to get us to the earth kingdom." Aang ask as he looks down at the map, as Sokka explains that they will be taking the serpents pass a couple and another woman appears from the walkway leading to the valley.
        "Hello fellow travelers!" The man says catching there attention as the gang walks towards the smaller group.
          "Hello what are you doing here?Sokka ask.
         "My name is Than and this is my Wife Ying.We're heading to Ba Sing Se to live a life of peace, hopefully we get there before my wife has her baby." The man answers, as the groups continue to talk about how they were going to Ba Sing Se when Sokka says that they were thinking about taking the serpents pass. The pregnant woman gasp in fear.
        "Only the truly desperate go through there it's a very dangerous path." She says as Toph punches Sokka in the arm.
        "Dangerous path, nice job Sokka." She says.
         "But we are desperate we need to tell the earth king some very important news about the war." He says.
          "Me and my wife were going to Full Moon Bay ferry's take refugees to Ba Sing Se, its hidden so the fire nation won't be able to find it." Than says.
         "I agree with Than." Shinta says looking towards the others. "I've been through serpents pass and Ying is right it's too dangerous for them and the baby." He continues.
         "Then let's head to there." Katara says as the others agree.
          As they arrive to Full Moon Bay they are all shocked to see how many refugees are here.
          "There's so many..."Aang says with a hint of sadness in his voice.
         "The fire nation have ruined so many people's lives." Shinta says looking down at the floor. "They don't really care about anyone's lives except there own." He clenches his fist hard enough to cause it to bleed.
         "Don't worry Aang will stop the fire lord and the world can live in peace."Sokka says and  they begin to make there way to the desk to get tickets to get onto a ferry.
~~~~~~~~Meanwhile~~~~~~~~
Zuko and Iroh are looking out to the sea as Zuko eats some rotten food and spits it out.
     "This food is disgusting, I'm tired of eating it." He says.
       "I heard the captain is eating like a king while we're eating the scraps." A voice says as Zuko and Iroh turn towards the direction it came from.
        "The names Jet." He continues . "This is Smellerbee and Longshot, we're freedom fighters." He finishes
      "What type of king is he eating like?" Iroh ask.
       "The big fat kind." Jet answers as Iroh begins to drool.
        "I was thinking we should steal some of his food and give to the rest of the passengers...Will you help me?" He ask looking towards Zuko, Zuko looks down at the bowl of rotten food and turns and throws it into the ocean.
         "I'll help you." He says and Jet smirks.
~~~~~~~~~Meanwhile~~~~~~~~~~~~
      The gang and the smaller group now stand  in front of the entrance to the serpents pass. Shinta stares at the carved message on the wooden pole as the groups tried to gather themselves and start making there way across.
"We can't simply abandoned hope it's the only thing we have." Ying says with sadnesses and fear in here voice, Than begins to calm her down.
"Don't worry we don't need to abandon hope miss Ying." Shinta begins to say. "No matter what no one must ever abandon hope not even in the most hopeless of situations such as this." He smiles towards her than quickly looks back at the path they must travel.
"We should get a move on before it gets dark." He says as he begins to to walk. The others take a moment to gather what he said and begin to follow, Suki gets close to Sokka and walks next to him and whispers.
"Where did you find this guy he has a really strong warriors spirit" she says as a small hint of jealousy passes Sokka as he feels as if his pride had just been attacked.
"What are you talking about Suki?" He ask looking towards her.
"He has the spirit of a very powerful warrior like a leader of sorts, where did you and the others find a guy like that?" She answers.
"We found him in a Earth kingdom village, actually he kind of found us since he figured out Aang is the avatar." He says looking forward towards Shinta who is walking behind Aang and Katara with The couple and there female companion behind him.
"Even though he's told us that we can trust him I still kind of don't." He continues.
"How come?" Suki asked.
"He was an assassin for the fire lord he told us he was pretty close with the fire lords family so who knows he could have been sent here to gain our trust and kill us." He says with slight anger in his voice. "He still acts like he's hiding something from us and I can't read him Suki...it's worrying me that he's going to hurt my friends, my sister, and even...you." He finishes looking towards her stopping and grabbing her hand. She could tell that he truly was worried and that her perspective of the strange ex-assassin had changed a bit but it's hard to believe that he would go that far to be there friend and help them.
"Don't worry Sokka we both know that all of our friends can protect themselves especially Aang he's the avatar he should be able to tell if you all can trust Shinta." She says trying to relieve the worry that haunts Sokka but before he could answer he sees a fire nation ship preparing to attack when Toph had used her earthbending to save Than from falling.
"Oh no." He's says as he runs to help the others with Suki right behind him.
The day has passed by quickly as they are nearing the end of the serpents pass. They begin setting up there camp for night, Shinta sits near the edge with sword resting on his shoulder looking up towards the moon.He hears the voices of Sokka and Suki when she walks out of an area nearby looking down with sadness written on her face, he does not ask her what happened until Sokka appears and sits a foot or to away from him not realizing he's there.
"Sokka what happened in between you and Suki?" He ask which frightens Sokka.
"AAAAAHHHH! How did you get here!?" He yells flinging his arms around until he put them in front of his body ready to attack.
"I've been sitting here the whole time."Shinta answers giving him a blank stare.
"Oh ummm well then." Sokka says trying to fix his composure. "Nothing happened." He says answering his question.
"Your pretty bad at lying Sokka you can tell me I promise I won't tell anyone." He says calmly smiling towards him.
         "It's nothing." Sokka says as he gets up and leaves but before he could get out of earshot range Shinta says something that shocks him.
         "Don't worry Sokka, Yua knows you did everything you could to protect her."he said which causes Sokka to look back at him with anger and sadness in his eyes.
         "How do you know about her?!" He says angrily.
          "My sword came from the spirit world so it can contact spirits,I can also see them as long as I'm holding the sword. She's knows you think you could've saved her but she did it to save the world from a moonless sky." Shinta answers still looking at the moon. "She still loves you." He finishes and turns his head to look at Sokka but sees he's gone and sighs.
       "I guess he's not ready to completely accept the truth yet." He says and gets up and begins to head where the others are when Yua begins to speak.
        "What about Sunako? It seems you're not ready to accept the truth either." She says and he stops in his tracks.
         "It's to painful to accept." He says and then continues on his way to the campsite.
          The next day the group had made it through the serpents pass after fighting off the serpents but as they take there first few steps to the earth kingdom Ying goes into labor. As Katara and the others help her Shinta try's treating the wound he got from the serpent throwing him onto against the cliff near the land where the others were.
       "Ow this hurts a lot." He says as he try's to finish treating the wound when he causes it to bleed a bit again, he sighs and fixes his clothes to appear like he's ok as he sees the others walk inside into the earth tent to see the baby.
       "It looks so squishy looking." He hears Sokka say.
        "Well she was just born Sokka." Katara retorts. He notices tears slide down Aang's face as he walks closer to the couple as they try to think of a name for there daughter.
       "I've going through a really hard time lately, but you've......made me hopeful again." Aang says with a sad smile.
         "I know what to name our daughter know...hope." Ying says looking at her now sleeping baby.
        "That's the perfect name." Than says looking down at his wife and child, as everyone smiles at the young family Shinta steps out and walks away, he leans against a tree and looks down as a few tears slip down his face, the young family reminded him of what could have been if Sunako was still alive. He feels a sharp pain go through his cheek as he reaches up and touches it as he realizes it is the side of his face that is scared, he sighs and wipes away his tears to rejoin the others.