~Somewhere in an Earth Kingdom woods~
Aang and Luna were folding up the rest of their camp stuff so that they could continue to travel after they ate their dinner and Sokka was out searching for something for dinner.
Luna had offered to come and help him, but he refused. If he wanted to be like his father who he looked up to then he would have to be able to provide food for his family.
"Great. You're back. What's for dinner?" Aang asked excited when he saw Sokka walking back.
"We've got a few options. First, round nuts and some kind of oval - shaped nuts. And some rock - shaped nuts that might just be rocks." Sokka explained as he pulled each 'nut' out of his pouch and when he got to the 'rock shaped nut' he threw it behind his back unsure if it was edible or not.
"Dig in." Sokka said with a proud smile on his face.
"Umm did you find any fruits or plants that we can eat?" Luna asked gently. She specifically didn't ask if he found any animals to eat because she knew that Aang was a vegetarian.
Momo picked up the rock shaped nut that Sokka had thrown on the floor near him and looked at it curiously to see if he could eat it or not. He banged it on a large rock that sat near him to see if he could break it open, but it wasn't working so he used both his hands and slammed it down hard on the large rock.
But upon impact there was a large rumble in the ground and a large 'BOOM!' noise.
"What was that?" Sokka questioned as he took his eyes off their 'dinner' to look around and see what could've possibly made that big noise.
But Momo thought he caused that large rumble and shake to happen but just to be sure he held the rock shaped nut over the large rock and dropped it. Sure, enough when it hit the large rock there was a large rumble and shake which frightened Momo who ran away from it and into Luna's arms where he knew it was safe.
"Aww, it's okay buddy. I'm sure it was nothing." Luna cooed at the adorable sight of Momo hugging her.
"It's coming from over there." Aang said noticing where the noise was coming from. He and Luna started running towards the direction the noise was coming from and Aang was smiling at how Luna fussed over the frightened Momo.
"Shouldn't we run away from huge booms, not toward them?" Sokka asked throwing his hand up in exasperation from their readiness to run at big BOOM noises.
Luna, Aang, and Momo ran over to a stump of a fallen tree with Sokka following behind them and they all hid behind it to see what was making that loud noise.
They came to what seemed to be a well or tunnel made of earth.
They saw a boy who couldn't be that much older than them and he was practicing earth bending. He would use his bending to pick up a large rock and then punch it into the earth walls beside him.
"He's an earth bender," Luna said in fascination. If she remembered correctly, this boy would be Haru.
"Let's go meet him." Aang said with a bright smile.
"He looks dangerous, so we better approach cautiously." Sokka instructed.
But it seemed like Momo didn't get the memo because he made a loud noise and caught the attention of the earth bender who looked at them in alarm since the tree stump didn't really hide them that much.
The earth bender looked startled and alarmed that they caught him earth bending and quickly turned the other way and ran and, on his way, running he sent rocks tumblinging into the path blocking their view of him.
"Nice to meet you!" Aang shouted while waving his hand.
"Hey, wait a second. That guy's got to be running somewhere. Maybe we're near a village and I bet that village has a market." Aang said in realization.
"Which means no nuts for dinner!" Luna cheered happy that they don't have to have nuts for dinner.
"Hey! I worked hard to get those nuts." Sokka said defiantly until Momo and Harmony flew over his head making noises. (Harmony was shrunken down).
"Yeah, I hate them, too." Sokka admitted.
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Aang was right they found a small village not too far away from them and decided to look around to see what they could eat for dinner.
"Great hat. I'll trade you some nuts for it." Aang told a guy as he tried on a hat.
"Look, it's him." Luna whispered to her brother and Aang as she saw the earth bender, they saw earlier walk into a building across from them.
"Hi, mom." the earth bender greeted his mom when he walked in their store.
"Where have you been, Haru? You're late! Get started on your chores." Haru's mother scolded him.
"Hello, I don't mean to be a bother, but I think I saw you earlier." Luna said to Haru as she opened the door to their shop.
"Uh... you must have me confused with someone else." Haru denied.
"No, she doesn't. We saw you earth bending." Aang told him. But once Aang said that Haru and his mother gasped and closed the door and the blinds to the windows.
"They saw you doing what?" Haru's mother asked in shock.
"They're crazy mom. I mean look at how they're dressed." Haru pointed out and he had some points because they were in the earth kingdom, but Sokka and Luna were both wearing water tribe clothes while Aang was still wearing his air nomad clothes.
They stuck out like sore thumbs.
"You know how dangerous that is. You know what would happen if THEY caught you earth bending." Haru's mother told her son trying to put an emphasis on it so that her son would stop this nonsense that could get him taken away from her.
"Open up!" a man's voice yelled as he banged on the door.
Sokka went to the blinds and opened it just a little to get a peek at who was at the door.
"Fire nation. Act natural." Sokka whispered to them.
They all moved from their spots while Haru's mother opened the door for the Fire Nation soldiers. The first soldier that walked in took a look around the shop where Sokka and Haru were looking at a piece of fruit weirdly and Aang was leaning suspiciously against a barrel.
The only one that looked natural was Luna where she looked to be examining a product on the wall before turning to look at who walked through the door. She mentally rolled her eyes at the fact that none of the boys knew what "natural" meant.
Sure, enough the barrel that Aang was leaning on the cap tipped and his arm fell into the water inside it as he almost fell to the floor.
"What do you want? I've already paid you this week." Haru's mother questioned the soldier.
"The tax just doubled. And we wouldn't want an accident, would we?" the soldier said with a menacing smirk as he fire bended a ball of fire in front of his body.
"Fire is sometimes so hard to control." the soldier finished before putting out the fire ball. Luna scoffed quietly at the audacity of the soldier but didn't vocalize anything because she knew how this would end.
Haru's mother brought over a chest and opened it up revealing just a few coins in it. She picked the coins up and placed it in the soldier's hands while Haru who was close by them scowled at the fact that the Fire Nation was stealing their money.
"You can keep the copper ones." the soldier said, taking them out of his hand and dropping them on the floor. And when Haru's mother went to pick up the coins she was beat to it by Luna.
"Here, let me." Luna said, bending down to pick up the coins then handing it to the older woman who gave her a grateful smile.
"Nice guy. How long has the Fire Nation been here?" Sokka asked.
"Five years. Fire Lord Ozai uses our town's coal mines to fuel his ships." Haru's mother explained.
"They're thugs. They steal from us and everyone here is too much of a coward to do anything about it." Haru spat bitterly. He only lost the bitter frown on his face when Luna placed a comforting hand on his arm to calm him down.
"Quiet, Haru! Don't talk like that." his mother said exasperated. It was clear that they had this conversation before.
"But what about your earth bending? Can't that help you guys?" Sokka questioned, curiously.
"Earth bending is forbidden. It's caused nothing but misery for this village. He must never use his abilities." the older woman said and Haru looked away hating the fact that his mother doesn't want him to use his earth bending.
"I understand why you would think that, and I see what the Fire Nation is doing to you, but to ask Hura to not use his bending is like taking a part of him away. How would you feel if someone took your ability to speak away? You would feel incomplete, wouldn't you? That is exactly what it feels like for you to ask a bender to not use their bending." Luna explained and Haru and Aang thought about her words before nodding along to agree with her.
They had never thought of it like that before but once they heard how she explained it, it was like it just clicked in their heads and it just made sense.
Haru's mother looked sad at the thought of taking some part away from her son.
"Look, I'm only asking him to do this because I want to keep him safe. If he were to get caught earth bending, then they would take him away from me and that is much worse than you taking any of my abilities away. They already took his father from us, and I know that if Haru was taken too, I just wouldn't survive." Haru's mother said, shaking her head at the thought of her son being taken from her.
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"My mom said you can sleep here tonight. But you should leave in the morning." Haru told them when he showed them to was looked to be a farmhouse building.
"Thanks. I'll make sure Appa doesn't' eat all you hay." Aang said gratefully as he saw Appa already munching on some hay.
"We should probably set up our sleeping bags. Thank you for letting us stay here." Luna said to Haru before turning to walk back inside.
"Wait, do you maybe want to go on a walk with me?" Haru asked nervously.
Both Aang and Sokka heard him and Sokka narrowed his eyes at the earth bender while Aang frowned. He didn't want Luna going on a walk with just the two of them.
"Sure. I'll be back guys." Luna said with a smile before turning to Aang and her brother to tell them that she would be going somewhere.
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"Thank you for explaining to my mother what our bending feels like to us. I myself never really understood it like that till I heard you say it." Haru told her with a big smile on his face.
"It was nothing, really." Luna said dismissively, she didn't think there was anything special with what she did.
"But it was something, the way you talked with such determination and power. It reminded me of how my father acted when he would talk about fighting back against the Fire Nation. My father was very courageous and when the Fire Nation invaded, he and the other earth benders were outnumbered 10 to 1. But they fought back anyway." Haru told her with a reminiscing smile as he thought back to his father.
"He sounds like a brave man." Luna complimented.
"After the attack, they rounded up my father and every other earth bender and took them away. We haven't seen them since." Haru said sadly as he took a seat on a hill where they could see the sunset more clearly.
"That's why your mother wants you to hide your earth bending." Luna pointed out. It's not that she agreed with his mother with wanting him to lock a part of him away, but she could understand her reasoning with wanting to keep her son safe.
"Yeah, but the only problem is that my earth bending isn't just a part of me now, it's the only way I can feel close to my father now." Haru explained as he picked up a couple rocks from the ground and used his earth bending to levitate them above his palm and spin them in a circle. Then he brought them back down to his palm and closed his hand making the rocks turn into sand.
"He taught me everything I know." Haru said sadly.
(A/N: Luna has her mother's necklace. Her mom snuck it into her bag before they left and attached a note to it saying, 'so you'll always remember home'.)
"See this necklace?" Luna asked, bringing her hand up to the necklace around her neck as she sat down beside Haru. He looked over at the necklace with furrowed brows but nodded his head yes still unsure where she was going with this.
"It's beautiful." Haru commented with a small smile.
"This necklace was my mother's. My grandmother passed it down to her and now my mother passed it down to me. But to my family what was once just a necklace is now a family heirloom and to me it's a reminder. When I was 8 years old there was a Fire Nation raid. They had gotten word that there was another water bender in the South Pole and that water bender was me." Luna started as she closed her eyes remembering everything that happened that day like it was yesterday.
It was like she could still hear the screams of terror and pain of her people.
"My mother told the leader of the raid that she was the water bender that they were looking for in order to save me. I guess she thought he would take her as a prisoner, but he had other thoughts. I watched as he began to fire bend against her but before he could harm my mother, I froze him in a block of ice. Ever since that day this necklace is a reminder of both the fact that my mother almost died for me and the fact that she now still lives because of me. A reminder that family is a strength and not a weakness." Luna finished as she wiped a few tears that fell while she was telling her story.
It might seem laughable to others since she was reborn into this world that she has such a big emotional attachment to these people, but they took care of her and even if they weren't her first family, they are still her family, and she will do anything and everything to protect them.
"So even at a young age you were powerful and brave?" Haru asked in a light tone to lift up her spirits and it worked because she let out a little giggle which made him smile feeling more accomplished.
They continued their walk, but they came across a mine and heard a big rumble.
"AAH! HELP!" the voice of an old man shouted from the mine.
Luna and Haru quickly rushed over to help the old man but he was covered by a ton of rocks and was completely stuck.
The old man was groaning and moaning in pain while Haru went behind to try and hold the rocks back and Luna went to try and pull the old man out from under them.
"It's not working, he's stuck." Luna told Haru.
"It's okay, I got it." Haru said reassuringly as he stepped away from the wall but before he started earth bending Luna caught his arm.
"Wait, but if he says something then you'll be taken away." Luna whispered to him so the old man couldn't hear her.
"It's either I take the chance of getting taken away or he dies, I think I'll take a page out of your hero book and use my bending to help save a life." Haru said with a smile referring to how she saved her mother.
Knowing that he made his decision Luna stepped out of the way and watched as he took his stance. In one simple motion he sent all the rocks that were once falling on the old man back into the mine.
"Nice job, hero." Luna said with a smile as she bumped his shoulder with her's making him blush.
"Come on, help me bring the old man back to town." Luna said as she picked up the right side of the old man and Haru came to help pick up the other side as they helped carry him to town.