'give up! you're completely surrounded!' shouted a man on a rhino.
i bolted up, collected my things, and jumped onto appa.
'come on, come on, come on!' said sokka as i helped him up.
'my scrolls!' cried katara, running back and freezing a man's spear before grabbing them and sprinting back to us.
'my staff!' said aang.
one of the men pulled a tree down in front of him but he jumped over it with ease.
he took his staff and knocked a stick of dynamite (that one of then had thrown) into the bushes.
aang jumped up and landed on appa, 'yip! yip!'
and, just when we thought we were safe, one of the men threw a fireball at our heads.
we ducked and just about missed it.
'sokka what's wrong?' i asked as we flew away
'my boomerang!'
he'd left it back at the camp.
'there's no time!' said katara.
'oh, i see. there's time to get your scrolls and time to get your staff, but no time for my boomerang?'
'that's correct!' she grinned.
'oh' said sokka as we got further and further away from our old camp.
---
we stopped at a merchants to get food and i sat by sokka as he sulked.
'sorry about your boomerang, sokka.' said aang.
'i feel like i've lost part of my identity. imagine if you lost your arrow, or if y/n lost her weird thing with zuko or if katara lost her... hair loopies.'
i blushed and felt katara and aang looking straight at me.
could they please stop bringimg that up.
sokka stood up and walked over to the stall.
'here's your produce, ponytail guy.'
sokka picked up the basket and said, sadly, 'i used to be boomerang guy...'
'hey, water tribe money.' said the merchant as katara paid him.
'i hope that's okay.' she said, worried.
'so long as it's money.' he smiled, walking away, 'have a nice avatar day!'
'avatar day?' asked aang, confused.
the merchant turned around, 'you guys are going to the festival, right?'
---
we followed the merchant into the town and saw that there was indeed a festival.
'there's a holiday for the avatar. who knew?' said aang.
'look! they made a giant kyoshi float.' said katara, pointing.
'and here comes avatar roku.' smiled sokka
'having a huge festival in your honor is great, but frankly, it's just nice to be appreciated.' said aang, humbly.
'and it's nice to appreciate their deep-fried festival food.' sokka said, taking a bit out of a deep fried cake of some sort.
'aang it's you!' i grinned, pointing at the aang float.
'that's the biggest me i've ever seen!'
a man began running towards the floats, holding a torch.
'now a torch; that's a nice prop. it's bright, dangerous... smells manly. but i'm not sure i could carry it off.' said sokka, pretending he knew what he was talking about
'no.' i whispered, 'no you could not'
'hey, what's that guy doing?' said katara as the man jumped through the kyoshi float, setting it on fire.
he set the other two floats on fire - which was met with celebration from the crowd.
'down with the avatar! down with the avatar! down with the avatar!'
katara ran forward, using water from pots to put out the fires on the floats.
'hey! that party-pooper's ruining avatar day!' yelled a member of the crowd.
aang air bended himself onto the shoulder of the "him" float.
'that party-pooper's my friend!' he shouted, taking his hat off to reveal his tattoos.
'it's the avatar himself! called a man from the crowd
'it's going to kill us with its awesome avatar powers!'
'no, i'm not, i...' began aang, as the man ran around - terrified.
'i suggest you leave. you're not welcome here, avatar.' said the mayor.
'why not? aang helps people.' katara said
'it's true.' said aang, jumping down to the ground, 'i'm on your side.'
'i find that hard to swallow considering what you did to us in your past life. it was avatar kyoshi; she murdered our glorious leader, chin the great.' said the mayor.
chin the great?
fuckkk
aang was amazed, 'you think that i... murdered someone?'
'we used to be a great society before you killed our leader. now look at us!' cried an old man - who was a tiny bit off his rocker.
'aang would never do something like that. no avatar would.' said katara, pouting at the crowd, 'and it's not fair for you all to question his honor!'
'katara can we go...' i whispered, taking out my staff.
'let's tell her what we think of the avatar's "honor."' said a man who blew a raspberry and stuck his but out at aang.
and, sadly, he was met with celebrations from the crowd.
'give me a chance to clear my name.' asked aang.
the mayor sneered, 'the only way to prove your innocence is to stand trial.'
'i'll gladly stand trial!' said aang, confidently.
'you'll have to follow all our rules. that includes paying bail.'
we gave him he money he wanted - but they put aang in jail anyway.
'how was i supposed to know they wouldn't take water tribe money?' said aang, his head in a stock in the jail.
'so some people don't like you. big deal! there's a whole nation of firebenders who hate you. now let's bust you out of here.' said sokka.
'i can't.'
'sure you can! a little... swish, swish, swish! airbending slice! ... and we're on our way.' he said, pretending to air bend.
'i think what "master swish" is trying to say is that you're supposed to be out saving the world. you can't do that locked up in here.' said katara, motioning to the prisons bars.
'i can't do that with people thinking i'm a murderer, either. i need you guys to help prove my innocence.' said aang, sadly.
'how're we gonna do that? the crime happened over three hundred years ago.'
'y/n what do you know about it? wouldn't you be there?' asked katara.
i shook my head, 'im not getting into this'
'then what are we gonna do?'
'that's okay, sokka. for some reason, i thought you were an expert detective.' said aang, feeding right into sokkas ego.
'well, i guess i could be classified as such.'
'yeah! back home he was famous for solving the mystery of the missing seal jerky.' said katara, playing along.
sokka went into a big monologue about how he'd solved something about seal jerky - or something.
'so you'll help me with my case?' questioned aang, once he'd finished
'fine. but i'm gonna need some new props.'
sokka ran around the town and came back with a strange hat on.
'i'm ready.'
i giggled as he extended a magnifying glass from his eye.
'what?'
---
katara and sokka left to find evidence and i was stuck at the jail with aang.
'you okay?' i asked, throwing a ball of air at him through the bars.
he caught it and sighed.
'that bad huh?'
he threw it back, 'kyoshi didn't kill him, right?'
i smiled weakly, but didn't have time to reply.
one of the prisoners came up behind him, saying,
'you got a bald head...some nice tattoos...you're going to fit in real well around here.'
i jumped over the wall and into the prison and sat next to aang.
'they seem nice'
and, they were!
we sat next to them, just chatting about stuff that was on our minds : they were really easy to talk to.
'y/n,' said one of the prisoners, 'you've been around for a while - you must've had some sort of relationship before?'
'i guess so, yeah,' i nodded, smiling, 'aang, you're doing a great job - just don't do anything stupid.'
he sighed at me and rolled his eyes, trying to mask his worriedness.
the man turned to aang, 'this girl you're talking about - she'll come around. you just gotta hang in there.'
'you think so?'
'sure! yeah. you're a catch.' said the men
'i don't know...' said aang, uncertainly.
'hey! you're smart, handsome, funny, not to mention you're the avatar.' said one of the prisoners.
aang smiled, 'you guys are great.'
'don't be afraid to tell her how you feel.' said a prisoner, wiping a tear from his eye.
---
when katara and sokka arrived back, they looked hopeful.
i jumped over the fence and said hi, just as the mayor arrived.
'honorable mayor,' said katara,' we've prepared a solid defense for the avatar. we did an investigation and found some very strong evidence.'
sokka smiled at me and aang, but i wasn't so sure.
the mayor scoffed, 'evidence? that's not how our court system works.'
'then how can i prove my innocence?' aang asked.
'simple. i say what happened and then you say what happened and then i decide who's right.'
we all gasped in unison, horrified.
'that's why we call it justice. because it's "just us." hahaha!' said the mayor, walking away.
that man was absolutely bloody insufferable.