Balance | Old Version

Chapter 34 (The Deserter)

Elua's POV.

We had been walking for a little while and finally, we found a post with a map and poster on it.
"This should give us a good idea of what's around here," Katara says as we walk over to the post and look at the map and poster.
"See if you can find a menu, I'm starving," Sokka says as he holds an empty bag in his hand.
"I bet we'll find something to eat here!" Aang says as he points to the poster of some kind of celebration. "The Fire Days Festival. Fire Nation cultural exhibits...jugglers, benders, magicians. This'd be a great place for me to study some real firebenders!" He says smiling in excitement.

"You might wanna rethink that. Look at this," Sokka says from the other side of the post. We walk over to him and see a wanted poster of me and Aang, along with one of 'The Blue Spirit' and a man with white hair and two scars over his eye.
"Hey, a poster of us!" Aang says taking the poster off the board, he was way too excited about a wanted poster.
"A wanted poster. This is bad," Sokka says as he shakes his head.
"I think, we better keep moving," I tell Aang, looking at the posters worriedly.

"We have to learn firebending at some point, and this could be our only chance to watch a master up close," Aang tells me, I look at him unsurely.
"I guess we could check it out," Katara says as she looks down at the poster.
"What!?" Sokka shouts in shock. "You want to walk into a Fire Nation town where they're all fired up with all their, you know, fire?" He asks her with wide eyes.
"We'll wear disguises and if it looks like trouble, we'll leave," Katara tells him as she and Aang walk over to Appa.

"Yeah, because we always leave before we get into trouble," Sokka says sarcastically. I sigh as I follow them down the path. "You agree with this!?" Sokka shouts over to me, I turn to him.
"No," I say shaking my head. "But, we can't stop them," I tell him with a shrug.
"I wish we could," He sighs as he walks over to me and we follow the other two. We all walk down the path for a while until we come up to a grassy hill, an alight-up village below us.
"You guys stay out of sight here while we go to the festival," Aang tells Appa and Momo.

Momo chatters as he flies up and then drops down into a small bush nearby, Appa follows and tries to hide behind the bush, but it doesn't work very well seeing that it's about a foot tall.
"Ready disguises!" Aang tells us. Sokka pulls up the hood of a black cloak over his head and Katara does the same. I tie a red scarf around my forehead, covering my arrow. We look over to Aang, who has pulled his shirt up over the top of his head in a completely futile attempt to change his appearance.

"It's like you're a whole different person," Sokka says sarcastically as Katara giggles.
"Let's go," Aang says as we walk down the hill towards the town. We look around the town, there were banners and lights strung along the buildings, children were laughing and playing, and everyone was wearing masks that covered their faces.
"I think we need some new disguises," I say as we look at all the people.
"Where are we gonna get masks like that?" Sokka asks. I look around and quickly stop someone selling masks.

"There," I say pointing to the merchant, they all follow where I am pointing too.
"That was surprisingly easy," Sokka says as we walk over and pick out masks. I look at Sokka and see he is wearing a happy mask, I turn to Aang and see he's wearing a sad one. Frown as I take them off, revealing Sokka's grouchy face and Aang's wide smile. I switch them, the masks now match the personality of them both. Katara and I slip on masks and then we all walk into the village square.

"Hey, there's some food," Aang says pointing ahead of us at a food stand.
"Finally!" Sokka says as he rushes over. "What do you have?" He asks the merchant.
"Flaming fire flakes! Best in town," The merchant says smiling as he holds a small bag.
"I'll take'em!" Sokka says as the merchant hands him a bag.
"Uh, Sokka wait don't there-" I try to warn him, but he stuffs them all in his mouth. "Hot," I finish my sentence and cringe as he starts yelling and blowing steam from his mouth. He partially removes his mask and opens his mouth trying to cool his tongue.