Lost Arrow [A:TLA au]

four

Annoyance overcame Flo. They certainly weren't making it easy watching out for them – or babysitting, as Sokka said over and over again. She quickly followed Katara and Aang, and Sleemo flew into the trees to watch and follow too. Sokka wasn't too fair behind her, either. They came up to a fallen tree in the dried up river bed. The four stood behind the tree, crouched to stay hidden; Flo stood between Aang and Sokka, her dark eyes locked onto the boy not too far away. An earthbender, a teen not too much older than them. He was obviously practicing his bending, and moved a large boulder from place the place. It was what caused the booming sounds.

"An earthbender," Katara said excitedly from the other side of the youngest.

"Let's go meet him!" Aang suggested.

"He looks dangerous, so we better approach cautiously," Sokka said to him.

Flo shook her head. "Not dangerous. He's an earthbender, yes, but he's not much older than us, if at all. If he's not practicing at home, then there's a reason he's out here. But we should still be careful, we don't know who else might be around." She put the arrow back in the quiver but held tightly onto the handle of her bow. Her eyes finally caught sight of Katara. The younger girl had walked away from them and now stood farther into the dried up river bed, but still a good distance away from the earthbender boy. Flo rubbed at her forehead. She was seriously starting to regret coming along.

"Hello there, I'm Katara! What's your name?"

The boy looked at Katara in surprise and dropped the boulder one final time. He ran down the river bed instantly and didn't look back. Rocks fell into the riverbed. It blocked them from him easily. Flo stepped away from the fallen tree the rest of them were still behind, and the other two followed suite.

"Nice to meet you!" Aang shouted loudly to the stranger.

"We just wanted to say 'hi'," Katara mumbled.

Aang's face suddenly lit up. "Hey, that's guys gotta be running somewhere, maybe we're near a village and I bet that village has a market!"

Katara's excitement came back. "Which means no nuts for dinner!" The two started to run off again, and Flo went to shout for them to stop, but closed her mouth instantly. It was no use, at this point.

"Hey! I worked hard to get those nuts!" Sokka offendedly yelled at his sister and friend. Momo suddenly flew by, chittering, and Sleemo was right behind him, a squawk leaving her as a response to the lemur. The teen deflated, downcast. "Yeah, I hate 'em too."

Flo sighed and started to follow the younger ones and the pets, and when Sokka was being too slow, she grabbed his sleeve to make him walk faster.

+++

There was, in fact, a village and a market place in said village. Because of her lack of money, Flo didn't get anything. She just looked and walked around and let the others buy stuff if they wanted. Sokka smiled at her, blue eyes shining, and she just gave a tiny one back to acknowledge him. It was barely even a smile, really. She then let Aang pull her over to some hats. He placed a hat on her head with a pleased smirk. She rolled her eyes but let the twelve year old have his fun, and soon enough placed it back just as Aang tried on a hat for himself.

"Great hat. I'll trade you some nuts for it," Aang said to Sokka, and laughed when he turned to him.

"Hey!"

Flo turned around in an instant, and quickly noticed that Katara was running off, again. She groaned in annoyance and ran after the other girl. The two boys were quick to follow. They made it to one of the nearby buildings in no time, just seconds after Katara walked inside to follow the boy from earlier.