fire & lightning

chapter ten

       "This should give us a good idea of what's around here." Katara pointed at a poster attached to a tree.

"Does it have a menu? I'm starving." Sokka whined.

"I'll bet we'll find food here!" Aang ripped a poster off of a tree and began to read it. "The Fire Days Festival. Fire Nation cultural exhibits, jugglers, benders, magicians... This would be a great place for me to study some real firebending!"

"You might want to rethink that." Sokka spoke. "Look at this."

We walked towards Sokka, noticing he was standing in front of another tree. On it, was a wanted poster of Aang.

"Hey, a poster of me!" Aang cheered.

"Aang, it's a wanted poster." I concluded, trying to make him realize it isn't a good thing.

"I think we need to keep moving." Katara speculated.

"I have to learn firebending at some point, and this could be my only chance to watch some masters up close." Aang refused.

"It's still a bad idea." I gave Katara a look that read 'don't give into it'.

"I suppose we can check it out?" Katara shrugged, receiving a look of disapproval from me and Sokka.

"You want to walk into a Fire Nation town when they're all fired up with all their... fire?" Sokka ranted.

"We'll wear disguises! And if there's trouble, we'll leave." Katara responded, not taking 'no' for an answer.

"Yeah, because we always leave before there's trouble." I commented sarcastically, receiving a laugh from Sokka.

"Tell me about it!"

"Appa, Momo, you guys stay out of sight while we go to the festival." Aang instructed his pets, Momo immediately flying into a nearby bush, disappearing in it. Appa hid behind the same bush, not realizing he's still visible and the only thing covered was his nose.

~

"The fireworks are pretty." I proposed, watching them light up the sky. The festival consisted of families with children, food offerings, puppet plays, mascots, flashing lights and everyone was wearing a mask.

"Where do we get our masks?" Sokka inquired.

"There!" Katara bolted towards a stand, a man giving out masks. We each got ourselves one, placing them over our faces.

"A food stand!" I noticed as i turned around. Sokka immediately ran towards it, asking the man what he had to offer.

"What do you have?"

"Flaming fire flakes! They're the best in town." The man gushed, giving Sokka a serving. He devoured the entire thing, then let out a scream. "They're hot!"

"They're 'flaming' fire flakes, Sokka. They're also delicious." I remembered the times Zuko and I would go out to get some.

"Let's go join that big crowd! Must be good." Aang guided us towards the main stage of the festival. A man was playing with fire, blasting the flames into the sky. Suddenly, the fire made an explosion and the smoke turned into doves that flew away from the scene immediately.

"He's a magician." I stated the obvious.

"I need to learn that trick!" Aang exclaimed, fascinated by the show.

"For my next trick, I need a volunteer from the audience!" The magician on stage called out, searching for people in the crowd to let participate.

"Me! Me!" Aand chanted, wanting to be picked.