Avatar the last airbender: Kyoshi's descendant

Chapter 3

Katara and I started to fold some sheets and loaded them onto Appa, just then we spotted Sokka with his bag full of somethings, "Great, you're back!" Aang said as he leaps off the root with his airbending, and landed beside us as Sokka digs in his bag. "What's for dinner?" 

"We've got a few options. First; round nuts. And some kind of oval-shaped nuts?" He said pulling them out one by one, "And some rock-shaped nuts, that might just be rocks. Dig in!" 

Aang, Katara, and I look at each other then back at Sokka, "Seriously ... what else you got?"Katara asked, "Yeah, not to sound ungrateful or anything but didn't we had nuts last time?" I asked as I picked one nut up to get a closer look. 

BOOOOOOOOM!!!!!  

"What was that?" asked Sokka, the quaking returned causing Momo to leap towards me. "It's coming from over there!" Aang said, pointing to where the sound was coming from, and with that we got up and followed the noise, "Shouldn't we run away from huge booms? Not toward them?" Sokka yelled, but gradually joined us. 

We finally found where the noise was coming from, a guy the same age as Sokka, earth bending a huge rock, "An earthbender!" Katara said in amazement, "Let go meet him," suggested Aang, 

"He looks dangerous," warned Sokka, " so we better approach cautiously." 

 A few feet in front of them, Katara and I excitedly addressed the earthbender. "Hello there! I'm Katara! and this Amaya."  I waved politely "What's your name?" 

 The boy gasps in surprise, dropping the boulder, he then flees quickly, bringing down an avalanche of boulders with his bending to block his exit.

" Hey, that wasn't very nice, where I from we had something called manners!!" I yelled, waving my fist in the air. "Nice to meet you," Aang followed. "I just wanted to say hi." Katara said confused, "Don't take it personally," I said holding Katara's hand in comfort. 

"Hey! That guy's gotta be running somewhere. Maybe we're near a village?" Aang said,  "And I bet that village has a market!" "Which means real food," I said salivating, "And that means no nuts for dinner!" Katara joined, and the three of us started to run down the path,  leaving Sokka behind.

"Hey! I worked hard to get those nuts!" Sokka protested, but then he suddenly realized, "Yeah, I hate 'em too." and slowly follows us.

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At the market place, we started to peruse certain shops, Katara and I went to the local produce stand while Aang buys a hat for Sokka and himself,  just then I saw the boy enter into a shop, I nudged at Katara pointing at the shop where the door closed, and we both entered into the shop, 

"Hey. You're that kid."  Katara said, "Why did you run away before?" the boy gasp as turned to us quickly, "Yeah, and to be honest that was kind of rude, at least you could say was hello," I said folding my arms and frowning,

"Uh, you must have me confused with some other kid." the boy said, giving a nervous smile, "No, she doesn't. We saw you earthbending." Aang said as he and Sokka walked in, the guy and his mother gasps in horror at his secret being revealed and both the door and window to the small shop are promptly slammed shut.

"They saw you doing what?!" said the woman, "They're crazy, Mom! " the boy said "I mean, look at how they're dressed."

I scoffed, "Umm, for your information, this is cultural chic," I said showing the many patterns on my kimono. 

"You know how dangerous that is!" warned the woman "You know what would happen if they caught you earthbending!" "Open up!" the sound of the knock startled all of us,  Sokka peered through the window of the shop, "Fire Nation! Act natural!" 

Haru's mother opens the door, allowing the Fire Nation tax collector to walk inside. He stares awkwardly at the five of us in front of him,  the boy grasps his chin, while Sokka eyeballs an apple, Katara hunches forward with her eyes wide open, having stuffed her mouth with berries. Aang has his hand atop a barrel, beaming an immense toothy smile while I had my arms crossed acting cool with my back to the wall and my feet touching it, suddenly Aang's pose is short-lived as the barrel's lid spins, dunking Aang's hand into the barrel of water and causes him to fall down.

"What do you want?" said the guys mother "I've already paid you this week!"

"The tax just doubled," He says arrogantly "And we wouldn't want an accident now would we?" said the tax collector as he creates a ball of fire between his hands, I held my left fist between my bosom and close my eyes in vexation, "Fire is sometimes so hard to control."  the boys mother frowned as she and the tax collector approach the store's counter, where she opens a small chest and passes a meager handful of coins and gives them to the tax collector. I watch as the boy leans against the counter, staring with contempt toward the Fire Nation man. Poor guy,  I thought  to myself, no wonder he didn't greeted us when we first saw him, he must've thought that we would've reported him, "You can keep the copper ones," the tax collector said, as he drops the copper coins and he and the fire nation guards exited the shop.  "Here let me help you, it's the least I can do," I said bending down. The woman smiled politely as we picked up the pieces.

 "Nice guy." Sokka said "How long has the Fire Nation been here?" by that time we had just finished picking up the last coin, "Five years." said the woman "Fire Lord Ozai uses our town's coal mines to fuel his ships."

"They're thugs." said the guy said his arms folded harder, "They steal from us. And we're too much of a coward to do anything about it." I tried to comfort him but I hesitated.

"Quiet, Haru!" said the guys mother in annoyance "Don't talk like that."

 "But, Haru's an earthbender?" Katara suggested   "He can help!"

"Earthbending is forbidden. It's caused nothing but misery for this village! " explained Haru's mother "He must never use his abilities."

"How can you say that?" Katara asked "Haru has a gift! Asking him not to earthbend is like asking me not to waterbend. It's a part of who we are." 

"You don't understand." Haru's mother said shaking her head.

" I understand that Haru can help you fight back." Katara suggested  as she looked at me then to Haru's mother "What can the Fire Nation do to you that they haven't done already?" 

"They could take Haru away! Like they took his father." said Haru's mother.