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Emerald Dragon chapter 18 -
🕑 Added 2021-07-02 21:05:18 +0000 UTCChapter 18 -
"Well, this is just great, isn't it?" Harry said in a dry voice as the team found themselves resting in an abandoned and ruined building. They had set up camp here, Aang had gone off to check the perimeter while Sokka was lying on top of Appa. Sokka was resting in his sleeping bag, his face was horribly red, covered in sweat and he kept coughing.
"This should bring your fever down." Katara said as she pressed a wet rag onto his forehead.
"You know what I love most about Appa?" Sokka asked suddenly. "His sense of humour." He said with a grin.
"Great, now he's delirious." Harry sighed as he sat a small distance away, cross legged with his eyes closed.
"Ha!" Sokka laughed loudly. "That's a funny word."
"Yes, yes it is." Katara said patiently, a small smile on her face. Appa grunted before closing his eyes and resting his head on his paws.
"Ha! Funny Appa!" Sokka chortled before coughing violently.
"Hi guys," Aang said as he came back. "how is he?"
"Unfortunately he is still Sokka," Harry said, opening his eyes to look at Aang. "how's the perimeter?"
"I checked, double checked and then triple checked, nobody is here." Aang replied confidently.
"Good boy." Harry nodded to him.
"I don't know how he got sick," Aang said as he looked at Sokka. "he looked perfectly fine yesterday."
"Well, it's possible he ate something bad, given how much he eats, it was only a matter of time." Harry shrugged.
"Swishy wishy, fruity pruty." Sokka said with a silly grin.
"I beg your what?" Harry blinked and looked at him.
"Huh? Oh!" Katara suddenly gasped in realisation. "Oh the fruit!"
"The what?" Aang asked in a confused voice.
"Well," Katara let out a long sigh. "you know how after Harry won that money he had given us each a few coins to spend?"
"My one nice act for the year, yes." Harry nodded. "What about it?"
"Well, Sokka and I walked around and stumbled on that merchant woman from before."
"The one with the bad fruit?" Aang asked.
"Exactly," Katara nodded. "she made us feel bad for her and convinced Sokka to buy some fruit from her. Maybe that's why he's sick."
"Swishy on the inside means that it's good." Sokka said in a dreamy tone, sounding like he was repeating something from memory.
"That's what the woman said, she..." Katara found herself interrupted by a sudden fit of coughing.
"Katara," Harry said after taking a deep breath. "did you by any chance eat some of that fruit?" He asked.
"Maybe a little." Katara admitted before coughing again.
"Oh no, this is bad." Aang said in a worried voice. "I'm going to go and find some medicine!" He said before turning his staff into a glider, he was ready to start flying but stopped when he heard the crack of lightning. "Um...on second thought, maybe I should go on foot."
"Probably best." Harry agreed.
"Keep an eye on them." Aang said to Harry, Momo and Appa before he ran off.
Harry shook his head before closing his eye, he continued meditating for a few seconds until he heard a noise next to him. He opened his eyes and saw Momo sitting next to him, also sat cross legged and with his eyes closed. Momo opened his eyes upon feeling Harry's gaze. The winged lemur looked at Harry who was looking at him questioningly.
"Momo," Harry spoke in a quiet voice. "I can see that you're imitating me, what I have yet to work out is if you're aiming for flattery or mockery." Momo responded by letting out several quick noises while making several hand gestures. "Oh, fair enough." Harry said by the end of it as if it had all made perfect sense to him.
"Ha! Classic Momo!" Sokka laughed loudly.
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"Harry." Sokka said after a couple of hours later, interrupting Harry as he was doing push-ups.
"Yes, Sokka?" Harry asked in-between reps.
"I'm cold." Sokka whimpered. Harry paused after another rep and looked at Katara and Sokka, both of whom were lying down on Appa in their sleeping bags.
"You have got sleeping bags and you're resting on our fluffy boy," Harry pointed out. "isn't that enough?"
"No!" Sokka said pathetically, shaking his head.
"It is a bit too cold." Katara agreed.
"Please Harry, pretty fire please!" Sokka begged.
"Fine." Harry said, rolling his eyes. "Momo, do you mind getting off?" Harry asked. Momo chittered before hopping off of Harry's back. Harry stood up and walked over to the two Water Tribe siblings, he gently sat himself down in-between them before raising a hand and allowing it to become covered in green flames. "Is that better?" Harry asked.
"Oh, much better." Katara said with a content sigh as she snuggled into her sleeping bag.
"Brilliant." Sokka said in a dreamy voice as he did the same, he closed his eyes briefly before opening them and looking at Harry. "You know something, I'm glad that you're our friend." He hummed.
"What?" Harry asked in a confused voice as he looked at Sokka.
"I...I do mean that," Sokka yawned deeply. "you...you might not like me and you do piss me off sometimes, but I'm glad that you're here. I feel safer with you around, like I have to worry less about Katara as well, because you're here to protect her if I can't. And you've been helping us a lot and...I'm glad you're here." Sokka said in a sleepy voice. Harry stared at him for several seconds, allowing a long silence to fall over them.
"Go to sleep, buddy." Harry eventually said, using his free hand to reach over and close Sokka's eyelids.
"Hmm," Sokka didn't resist at all. "good night." He said before going to sleep.
"That was nice of you." Katara sleepily smiled at Harry.
"Go to sleep." Harry told her an irritated voice.
"Fine. Though, for what it's worth, I'm also glad your here." She yawned before closing her eyes and joining Sokka in descending to the land of sleep.
Once he was sure that the two water tribe siblings were asleep he let the fire on his hands die down, his hand reached for his locket and gave it a small squeeze before he slowly stood up and took a few steps away before resuming his push-ups.
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"I'm back." Aang said in a tired voice as he arrived later that evening, he found Appa allowing Katara, Momo and Sokka to lie down on him while Harry was sat off to the side and was meditating.
"You took your sweet time." Harry said, opening his eyes.
"Had kind of an adventure." Aang said in a low voice before he shoved a frog into Katara's mouth before doing the same to Sokka. "Here, suck on these, they'll make you feel better." Aang told the sleeping siblings. Harry, to his credit, didn't even raise an eyebrow at that.
"What's wrong with you?" Harry asked, not missing Aang's easily noticeable bad mood.
"It's a long story." Aang said as he sat down opposite Harry
"I've got time." Harry shrugged.
"Well," Aang sighed. "it went like this..." He began.
Harry listened patiently as Aang explained how he was captured by Commander (Now apparently 'Admiral') Zhao on his search for the frogs that apparently would make Sokka and Katara better. After being captured he had been rescued by someone, someone who was dressed in black while wearing a blue mask and possessing two dao swords. As they escaped the prison, Aang's rescuer had been knocked out and Aang grabbed him before quickly escaping.
"It was Zuko," Aang said in a quiet voice. "it was Zuko under the mask. I brought him to safety and I waited until he woke up."
"What happened then?" Harry asked patiently.
"I asked him if we could have been friends before the war, he didn't answer, though the fire blast he sent at me pretty much summed up how he felt about it." Aang said sadly.
"Alright, first of all, I want to thank you for rescuing him, Aang." Harry began. "Really, I'm glad you did. I know Zuko doesn't really seem like a great guy at the moment, understandably so, but I honestly do believe he has some good in him. The guy's just stuck in-between a rock and a hard place at the moment."
"What do you mean?" Aang frowned.
"When we were younger, Zuko was banished from his home." Harry replied.
"That's awful, why?" Aang asked.
"Because his dad's a prick." Harry said bluntly. "After his father had banished him, he told Zuko that the only way he'd be allowed to come back is if he captured the Avatar, if he captured you."
"That's why Zuko wants to catch me? He wants to go home?" Aang asked in a soft voice, suddenly feeling very sympathetic for Zuko. After all, there were many times where he wanted to be back at home with his friends and Monk Gyatso.
"Yeah, but you only came back recently." Harry reminded him. "Before that, it was a fool's errand. Everyone believed you were gone, what Zuko hadn't realised or chose to ignore was that finding you would have been impossible. He might have been hopeful for a bit but I believe his hope had started dying until you came along. Zuko's not seeing the bigger picture, all he sees when he looks at you is a chance to go home, a chance to earn his father's love, a chance to have his friends and family back."
"I had no idea." Aang said quietly.
"That's part of why I want to work so hard to stop the Fire Lord," Harry admitted. "once we've defeated him, there will be nothing to stop Zuko from returning home."
"Oh." Aang said, looking at Harry like it was the first time he had ever seen him. Aang didn't think that that was the only reason Harry had for helping him, but he did believe that it was really one of them.
"Yeah, now I think you and me should probably go to sleep now." Harry said as he stood up and walked over to his sleeping bag. "Goodnight Aang."
"Goodnight." Aang replied before going over to his own sleeping bag, feeling very thoughtful.
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"Harry." Sokka said, the next day as the group began packing away their stuff.
"Yeah?" Harry asked.
"About what I said while I was..." Sokka began awkwardly before trailing off as he tried to think of an accurate description.
"Out of the realm of sanity." Harry helpfully supplied.
"Yeah, that." Sokka nodded. "I um...I was a bit messed up and..."
"Already erased that conversation from my mind." Harry told him as he finished packing.
"Oh, well good." Sokka nodded. "Because I didn't really didn't mean it."
"I believe you." Harry replied.
"I really didn't," Sokka insisted. "I wasn't even thinking straight."
"I know."
"And I would never say that normally."
"I know that."
"And I was just really sick and..."
"Sokka," Harry interrupted him. "I believe you, okay?"
"Oh, okay." Sokka said after short silence before he continued packing.
"Boys." Katara said under her breath as she rolled her eyes.
"Thanks Harry." Aang said as he put all his stuff away.
"What for?" Harry asked.
"For talking with me yesterday," Aang answered. "you're a good friend." He said with a smile. Harry gave him an odd look but didn't say anything.
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"No, not like that." Harry told Azula after her latest attempt at the firebending technique he was trying to teach her. The two of them were currently stood outside on the training grounds, and had been practising together for the last hour.
"What am I doing wrong?" Azula said in a frustrated voice.
"You're not breathing properly." Harry replied.
"But if I wasn't breathing properly then I'd be dead." She said, sounding very annoyed.
"Not what I meant." Harry said with a roll of his eyes. "Breath out when you punch your arm out, and remember to do it properly. When you did it just now you only grunted, breath out when you punch out."
"Fine." Azula said through gritted teeth, she took her stance and was about to perform the move again but was stopped by Harry who grabbed her by the wrist.
"Take a moment and calm down first." Harry told her. "You're not going to get anything worthwhile when you're so frustrated." He said before letting go of her.
"You get angry when you firebend." Azula pointed out as she relaxed her stance.
"I get angry when I fight and I direct it at my enemies." Harry said before he paused as a thoughtful look came on his face. "Alright, let's try another why to explain this to you." Harry said before he took a few steps back until he was a short distance away from her. "Hit me with a fire blast." Harry told her.
"Really?" She looked at him with disbelief.
"Really." Harry confirmed. "Whenever you're ready." Harry added.
"Fine." Azula said before sending a fire blast at him that Harry easily dispelled with a back hand.
"What was that?" Harry asked with a roll of his eyes. "Come on, give me some emotional content."
"Fine." Azula said through gritted teeth before firing another blast at Harry, this time it was much bigger and Harry simply dodged it.
"What was that?"
"What? I did what you wanted!"
"No, I said 'emotional content', not 'anger'." Harry pointed out. "Now try again, come on." Harry said before he took a fighting stance.
"How am I supposed to do that?" Azula frowned. "What am I supposed to think?"
"Don't think, feel." Harry told her. "Come on."
"Fine." Azula said before she took a deep breath and fired another fire blast at Harry, this one was roughly the same size as her previous one.
"Nicely done!" Harry said with a smile as he dodged it. 'Thank you, Bruce Lee. You bloody genius!' Harry thought to himself.
"Thanks, but I still don't completely understand." Azula admitted, sounding embarrassed by that fact.
"When you fired the first time the first time, you lacked intent and the emotions necessary to destroy or harm, so your blast is like a performance. Then the second time you were just angry. But the last time is done without the freezing effect of thought, nor is it controlled by anger. So, your emotions and intentions are in harmony. You need to balance your emotions and your thoughts, which is admittedly far easier said than done. I have no doubt that sometime in the future I'll probably mess that up, but do as I say, not as I do." Harry finished with a shrug.
"Such wisdom for one so young," An impressed voice commented, the two turned to see General Iroh walking up to them. "Harry is right, Azula." Iroh said to Azula. "It is a delicate balancing act, one that even the most experienced warriors occasionally fail at. The only thing one can do is try their best. Use your emotions, channel your emotions, but do not let them control you."
"What he said," Harry said as he gestured to Iroh before turning to the man himself. "also, I have an important question for you."
"Yes?"
"Where the hell's my tea?"
Comments
Q
Thanks π
Q
I plan to reveal more about it soon.
Christian Jeffress
Another great and entertaining chapter, loving the growing relationship between him and Azula, and loving the relationship between him and uncle Iroh
Revanshan2077
I need more information about that neckless itβs starting to bug me, but still a great chapter
