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Emerald Dragon chapter 9 -
🕑 Added 2021-04-27 23:20:03 +0000 UTCChapter 9 -
The gang were enjoying a nice moment of relaxation, they were currently in a forest and sat on a raised, grassy plateau with a gentle stream running out beneath it. Appa was lying next to it while Harry was lying down on the comfy grass with his hands on the back of his head and his left foot resting on top of his bent knee while Aang had chosen to hang around on a tree branch while Katara folded their sleeping bags. Katara looked between Aang and Harry with a smile.
"Is there something I can help you with?" Harry asked, having noticed her gaze.
"No, just enjoying the relaxing silence." Katara shrugged. "It's so peaceful."
"Well...your brother isn't here so I'd recommend you enjoy it as much as you can before he gets back." Harry said, closing his eyes.
"Great, you're back!" Aang said enthusiastically when Momo and Sokka returned.
"I've brought food!" Sokka said loudly.
"See what I mean?" Harry sighed as he opened his eyes shifted to a sitting position.
"What's for dinner?" Aang asked as he hopped down from the tree.
"Well...we've got a few options." Sokka said as he began looking through his bag. "First; round nuts. And some kind of oval shaped nuts? And some rock-shaped nuts, that might just be rocks." Sokka said as he tossed one rock-shaped nut to Momo. "Dig in!"
"I see our mistake," Harry said in a solemn voice as he looked at the food that Sokka had brought. "we forgot that Sokka specialises in eating food, not finding it." He said with a small shake of his head as he picked up one of the rocks.
"Shut it," Sokka said with a roll of his eyes. "I worked hard on finding these."
"If you work hard and that was the best you could bring then I feel even more sorry for you." Harry said as he lazily tossed the rock away. The moment he does so, however, the entire earth quakes, making Momo shriek and his hair stand up on end. "Huh?" Harry blinked and picked up the rock, he tossed it in the air and when it landed the ground shook again. "Huh, I think I might have just mastered earth bending." Harry said before the ground shook again, this time without Harry doing anything. "Oh, apparently not."
"It's coming from over there!" Aang said pointing in the direction where the earthquakes.
"Let's go!" Katara said.
"No," Harry began. "I think that..." He trailed off as the two had already started running.
"Shouldn't we run away from huge booms? Not toward them?" Sokka called out before he and Harry rolled their eyes and followed after them along with Momo who had jumped on Harry's shoulders.
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The three, joined by Momo, hide behind a fallen tree and spy on a young boy bending boulders into the air and punching them into the side of the ravine.
"An earthbender!" Katara gasped.
"Let's meet him!" Aang grinned.
"Wait," Sokka spoke up. "He looks dangerous, so we better approach cautiously."
"Exactly," Harry agreed, "we should..."
"Hi there!" Katara's voice interrupted and the gang suddenly saw she was standing a few feet away from there and the earthbender was now looking straight at her. "I'm Katara! What's your name?" She asked. The young boy gasps in surprise, dropping the boulder he was bending to the ground. He flees, bringing down an avalanche of boulders with his bending to block his exit.
"Nice meeting you." Aang called as he and the other two walked forwards and stopped behind Katara.
"I just wanted to say hi." Katara said with a small frown.
"Hey! That guy's gotta be running somewhere." Aang said after a small pause. "Maybe we're near a village? And I bet that village has a market!" He grinned.
"That means none of Sokka's pitiful nuts for dinner." Harry grinned.
"Hey!" Sokka said in an offended voice. "I told you I worked hard finding those."
"You could have worked hard finding me a solid lump of metal, I'm still not going to eat it." Harry said with a roll of his eyes.
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A short while later the group found themselves in the local village, Aang had managed to get himself a straw hat that worked in covering his very recognisable little head. They were looking through the market place when the three males suddenly saw Katara rush into a shop, they exchange looks before shrugging and following her in. Once inside they found Katara along with the earthbending boy from earlier and a woman that looked like the boy's mother.
"Haru!" The woman hissed as she looked at the boy, now identified as Haru. "You were doing what?!" She whispered disbelievingly as she rushed around closing all the windows and doors.
"I wasn't earthbending Mum, I..." Haru began.
"Shush!" The woman hissed again. "Don't speak about it too loudly." She said
"Sorry," Haru apologised. "but I wasn't, she must have me confused for someone else."
"No, she doesn't." Aang spoke up. "All four of us saw you."
"You know how dangerous that is! You know what would happen if they caught you earthbending!" Haru's mother said as she glared at him.
"I..." Whatever Haru was about to say was cut off by the sound of knocking on the door.
"Open up!" A voice demanded.
"Fire Nation!" Sokka whispered after looking through a peep hole. "Act natural!"
Haru's mother opens the door, allowing the Fire Nation tax collector to walk inside. He stares awkwardly at the five children in front of him. Haru grasps his chin and stares toward Katara, cross-eyed 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. His pose is short-lived however as the barrel's lid spins, dunking Aang's hand into the barrel of water and causes him to fall down. Harry meanwhile had opted to duck behind the shop counter, not wanting to risk being recognised.
"What do you want? I've already paid the tax." Haru's mother said, glaring at the new arrival.
"The tax just doubled." The tax collector said arrogantly. "And we wouldn't want an accident now would we?" He smirked as he creates a ball of fire between his hands, making everyone slightly back away. "Fire is sometimes so hard to control."
"Fine." Haru's mother said through gritted teeth.
"Well...that was fun." Harry said as he got out of the bar a short while after the collector had left.
"How long has the Fire Nation been here?" Sokka asked.
"Five years." Haru's mother answered.
"Give or take," Harry nodded. "Fire Lord Jerk-face uses its coal mines to fuel his ships."
"They're thugs." Haru growled. "They steal from us. And everyone here's too much of a coward to do anything about it."
"Don't talk like that!" Haru's mother quickly said as if fearing the possibility of the Fire Nation running in the second they said something bad.
"But Haru's an earthbender, he could help." Katara frowned.
"Yeah, if not for the fact that the Fire Nation would punish him if they even heard he was using earthbending." Harry said with a shake of his head. "They'd take him and lock his boulder throwing ass into prison before he could blink."
"That's horrible!" Katara gasped.
"That's life." Harry shrugged. "It's what we're working to fix."
"What do you mean?" Haru asked curiously.
"I mean shut it and listen to your mother." Harry told him. "Keep your earthbending to a minimum and be careful not to get caught."
"Or better yet don't do it at all." Haru's mother spoke up.
"Like that'll work." Harry snorted, letting her know what he felt about how likely that was.
"Harry's right, bending is a part of who we are." Katara agreed with a nod. "Asking him not to earthbend is like asking me not to waterbend. Haru can help you fight back, what can the Fire Nation do to you that they haven't done already?"
"They could take Haru away, just like his father." Haru's mother said in a saddened voice.
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The group with the exception of Katara were currently sat in a barn and preparing to leave, Haru's mother had been nice enough to let them stay in the barn for the night so long as they left in the morning, something which was more than fair given the situation.
Aang was currently sat on Appa's head and relaxing while Sokka was going through all their supplies and making sure everything was in order. Harry, meanwhile, was doing some push-ups with Momo sat on his upper back. The trio (plus animal friends) were waiting for Katara so they could leave, Harry and Sokka were both very insistent that they leave as soon as they could to reduce the risk of being caught by any of the numerous members of the Fire Nation or any of the villagers willing to hand them over to the Fire Nation in exchange for protection, favours or whatever else they believed they could get away with.
"They took him! They took Haru away!" Katara cried out as she rushed into the barn.
"And that's my peaceful day gone." Harry sighed before he sat up and looked at her. "What?" He asked, and that was pretty much all it took for Katara to begin explaining. Yesterday when she and Haru had gone out on a walk she had managed to convince him to use earthbending to help an old man who had been trapped by a boulder, so of course Haru was taken away by the Fire Nation at midnight.
"Then it's too late to track him." Sokka said in a sad voice.
"No," Katara said, her voice full of determination. "we don't need to track him. The Fire Nation is going to take me right to Haru."
"What?" Aang blinked.
"And how do you suppose that will happen?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.
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"I thought you were crazy at first, Katara, but this might work." Sokka said as they were now on a rocky road and had just finished moving a boulder over an air vent in the road. "There are ventilation shafts throughout these mines. All Aang or Harry or Aang and Harry has to do is send an air current from one of the vent to this one right here. The boulder levitates and ta-da! Fake earthbending." Sokka finished with a grin.
"Aang, Harry, did you get all that?" Katara asked.
"Yep." Harry nodded before they looked at Aang who was busy lying down and sending small puffs of air at a butterfly.
"Sure, sure, I got it." Aang said dismissively.
"Do you remember your cue?" Sokka asked.
"Yes, just please stop worrying, you're taking all of the fun out of this." Aang complained.
"By this, do you mean intentionally being captured by a group of ruthless firebenders?" Sokka asked in an annoyed voice as the butterfly flew off.
"Exactly," Aang grinned as he sat up. "that's part of the fun!"
"Allow me." Harry said to Sokka who looked very upset over how Aang was not taking this seriously. "Aang," Harry spoke in a soft voice as he kneeled down in front of Aang. "I think it'll be fun too." He said with a slow and small smile.
"Oh...really?" Aang asked, feeling something off with the way that Harry was smiling.
"Of course," Harry grinned. "I mean...imagine if it goes wrong! Haru's mother will probably fall into a deep depression, given her advanced age it is highly unlikely for her to find true love again and have another child, so she will have to spend her remaining few days in the land of the living trying not to cry too hard over the fact that she has lost all of her family, hopefully she might not fall depressed enough to kill herself."
"Oh...I..."
"And then there's Haru himself," Harry continued. "he'll probably spend the rest of his life in a horrible prison where he'll repeatedly be worked to near death, and maybe one day he'll die in there. But we mustn't forget Katara who could possibly fall into a deep depression if this fails and will live the rest of her life haunted by the fact that she could not save him, heck it's even possible that the Fire Nation will kill her. Then that might have an impact on your mental state and your ability to restore balance to the world, and if you can't help me then that means I've wasted precious years of my life searching for you when I could have been dedicating more time to saving lives, and that might just anger me enough to burn you to ashes. So...is this still fun for you?"
"...No." Aang squeaked, shaking his head quickly.
"Are you going to miss your cue?" Harry asked, Aang quickly shook his head again. "Good Avatar." Harry smiled and patted Aang on the head.
"That was a little more extreme than i was hoping for, but it got the job done." Sokka shrugged as he turned to a gaping Katara.
A short while later some Fire Nation soldiers had arrived and the plan quickly went into action, Katara and Sokka staged a mock fight while Harry and Aang (from behind another rock) used airbending through the vents to raise a boulder to help mimic the appearance of earthbending.
"That lemur, he's earthbending!" One of the soldiers blurted out when he saw Momo standing near the boulder with his arm raised as he licked himself. At this point Harry bit down on his lip and covered his mouth to stop himself from getting up and shouting some very insulting things at the soldier.
"No, you idiot, it's the girl!" Sokka said as he gestured to Katara who had a hand raised.
"Oh," The guard blushes. "right...that makes more sense."
"These are the guys that helped conquer the world for the Fire Nation?" Aang whispered to Harry.
"Thankfully for the Fire Nation they used other guys." Harry replied.
Comments
Hannibal St.Michael
I loved Harry's pep talk. I'm waiting for either Aang or Katara to send Harry over the edge one day though.
Erinnyes
Harry's little talk there was honestly one I wanted to give Aang so many times throughout the show. As harsh as he was, he barely scraped the surface of all the horrible things that are not only possible but highly likely if Aang screws this up.
