Avatar With A System - Chapter 15

Upon buying some masks from the street vendor, everyone put on the masks and began walking around the small town that seemed to have more visitors than normal due to the Fire Days Festival. Shortly after starting their exploration of the town, Aang noticed a street vendor selling food, causing Sokka to rush over to the shop with saliva running down the side of his mouth that was only hidden by the mask on his face.

[What do you have?]: sokka

[They’re flaming fire flakes… The best in town if I say so myself]: shopkeeper

Upon explaining the name of the contents in the small bag with smoke emitting from the flake-like shavings, the shopkeeper began bragging about how his stall sold the best flaming fire flakes in town, but Sokka didn’t care, as hunger took over, making him grab the bag as he began shoveling it’s contents into his mouth, before his face began to redden, and the heat started to kick in, causing him to spit out the food, as he started crying due to how hot and spicy the food was.

[Ahhhhh!… Hot! Hot! Hot!… Eaaahhhggg!]: sokka

[You idiot!… Flaming fire flakes… The name should tell you they’re hot]: katara

Upon realizing his mistake, Sokka walked away with a dejected face, while Soren decided to buy a couple of bags, making Katara question if he just saw what happened to Sokka seconds earlier.

[Soren, you do know those are quite spicy, right?]: katara

[Yeah, I know… My mother used to make a really good spicy curry soup that would light a fire inside your stomach, I just wanted to compare the difference in spice]: soren

[I see… Then there’s no problem, as long as you don’t waste them like Sokka]: katara

Katara gave Sokka a slight glare that couldn’t be discerned from underneath the mask, while Soren began feeding some of the fire flakes into his mouth before chewing them, as the heat began spreading, but there seemed to be no effect, causing Soren to question the shopkeepers words about these being the best in town, but because he didn’t want to offend the nice old man, he kept his thoughts to himself.

[Hey… Look at this!]: aang

[Ahahaha!… Don’t worry loyal citizens! Nobody can surprise the Firelord!… Ahahaha!]: firelord puppet

Upon watching the puppet turn around, the appearance of an Earthbender puppet made its appearance with a small bolder raised above its head, as the kids watching the show began to voice their concerns about the obvious sneak attack about to be performed on the puppet Firelord, only for the puppet Firelord to turn around and seemingly breath fire from its mouth, and completely burn the Earthbender puppet to ashes, causing the kids watching to shout with cheers of joy that the Firelord won. And upon seeing this sight, Soren and the others began to leave, as they no longer wanted to stick around to see what was next, before Aang found something new to be interested in, as he led the group to a big stage saying he felt that this new area would be more interesting, and he might possibly learn something from it.

[The crowd seems to be pretty big]: aang

[Well, knowing the Fire Nation, it’s probably an execution]: sokka

[Oh, come on… Not everything is an execution, Sokka]: katara

[No… But it could be!]: sokka

Soren just silently chuckled at the banter between brother and sister, as they all closed in on a spot towards the front, where they saw a young man in white clothing with red accents who was controlling the fire from the tall pillars that had fires raging atop of them, and upon making the fire explode, a bunch of doves flew away from the center of the explosion.

[Wow!… I gotta learn that trick!]: aang

[Seems to be one of those Fire Maigicians]: soren

[Thank you!… And now, for my next trick, I’ll be picking a volunteer from the audience]: performer

Upon hearing this, Aang was quick to stick his hands up while shouting like a child who wants to play with a new toy.

[Ooh, ooh!… Me! Pick me!]: aang

[What are you doing, Aang!… Put your hand down, are you trying to get us caught!?]: sokka

[But I wanna get a closer look]: aang

[It’s better if you just continue observing from a distance, as we don’t want to attract any attention to ourselves]: katara

Upon whispering in Aang’s ear, the performer pointed towards Katara, causing everyone to look at her and the rest of the group.

[How about you, little lady?]: performer

[Umm… No thanks, I’m okay just watching]: katara

[Aww… She’s shy… How about we give her some encouragement, with a round of applause!!!]: performer

Upon saying this, the crowd began cheering and clapping for Katara, causing Aang to give his two cents on the matter.

[Come on, Katara… What’s the worst that could happen?]: aang

Upon seeing Aang encourage her, Katara reluctantly accepted and got onto the stage, causing the performer to smile as he started his next performance.

[Way to go, Katara… And you call this observing from a distance?]: soren

Soren’s words reached the ears of Katara, causing her face to redden under the mask, as she was now doing the opposite of what she spoke about earlier, only for Soren to follow up his previous sentence.

[Just kidding… Have fun!]: soren

Katara then stood at the center of the stage, while the performer pulled up a chair and had Katara sit down as he explained the name of his next trick.

[Alright, the name of this next trick is called “Taming the Dragon!”… And you, little lady, will be my captured princess!]: performer (A/N: the name of this trick sounds a little sus)

[Don’t worry, young maiden!… I will tame this fiery beast!]: performer

The performer then created a rope of flames that connected to the head of the dragon-like fire construct, and began leading it around the crowd and through the air before he began the last part of his act.

[I-It’s too strong!… I- I’m losing control!]: performer

The performer was shown to be a great actor, as the crowd was fully immersed in the trick, where even Aang, Sokka, and Soren were all trying to find a way to save Katara, while Soren was trying to debate if he should reveal his ability to Firebend.

[We gotta help her!… She’ll get hurt if we don’t do anything!]: aang

[Aang, calm down… We don’t wanna make a scene… Have faith that Katara will be okay!]: sokka

Upon holding Aang back, the performer went for the finale of the trick, as he spoke, and led the dragon towards Katara.

[Oh no!… The rope! It’s breaking!]: performer

Upon seeing the dragon close in on Katara, Aang through all care for keeping his identity a secret, as he appeared before Katara and used Airbending to create a vortex that dispersed the dragon, causing the performer to be pushed away as the fire turned into confetti that rained over the crowd, before the crowd began booing, as the trick was ruined.

[Hey!… Are you trying to upstage me, kid!?]: performer

Upon realizing that his cover was blown, both Sokka and Soren got onto the stage and went to untie Katara, while Aang began doing his Airbender jigg, causing the crowd to boo even louder, before one of the guys in the crowd recognised Aang.

[Hey!… That kid’s the Avatar!]: man

Soon, the crowd began to clear out as the Fire Nation soldiers began rushing towards the stage with their weapons drawn, ready to attack and capture Aang and the rest.

[Hey… Follow me, I can get you out of here]: ???

Upon seeing a strange man in a cloak calling to help them escape, Aang and the rest followed him without any second thought, as it was to trust this man and escape with a high possibility that it’s a trap, or get caught by the guards of the city that would definitely lead to their capture. The chances were small due to them being in a town governed by Fire Nation folk, but not everyone from the Fire Nation was after Aang, so the obvious choice was to follow this strange cloaked man. After running through the city, the group came to a dead end, and had begun to be surrounded by Fire Nation soldiers, while Aang called for Appa with his bison whistle, leaving Soren to raise an earth wall for defence.

[That should hold them for now, but it won’t hold them for long!]: soren

Just as Soren said this, the earth wall began to glow with a red light, as the solid wall began to turn into molten earth, and just as a hole big enough to let people pass, Appa made his appearance and picked everyone up before flying off, but not before the cloaked man threw a bomb into a giant cart of fireworks, causing a distraction for their escape.

[You seem to know your explosives]: sokka

[Wait… You’re a Fire Nation soldier!]: sokka

Sokka was quick to go on the defensive, but before anything turned ugly, the man spoke.

[Was!… I’m no longer a soldier… My name’s Chey]: chey

After flying a few miles away from the city, Aang had appa land down for the night, as they all gathered around a fire and listened to Chey’s story, and in the end they found out that he had followed in the steps of his master who was also a deserter of the Fire Nation Army.

[So, this Jeong Jeong, guy… How did he escape the Fire Nation for so long?… If you said he held a high position within the Army, then he should have information that could be crucial to the Fire Nation, so letting a man like that leave alive is just asking to have useful information weaponized against the Fire Nation]: sokka

[Jeong Jeong isn’t an easy man to track down, and even now it’s hard to find him, even for someone like me who is one of his followers]: chey

[Then do you know where he is, now?]: aang

[He should be around here for a little while… If you want to meet with him, I can try to work something out for you, Avatar]: chey

[That would be great!… I really need to learn Firebending, and who better than a man who was considered a Master among Masters]: aang

Just as the conversations were about to continue, Soren and the rest had all been surrounded by old men wearing little to no clothes and a bamboo hat, pointing spears towards the group, before being led deeper into the forest, before Chey was forced to go talk to the man he was praising minutes earlier, as he wasn’t supposed to go looking for the Avatar, but persisted and left anyway.

[Don’t worry!… He’s a good man… No… He’s a Great Man!]: chey

[Hey, I think Chey may be a little crazy]: soren

[I’ve been saying that for the last hour!… But no!…. Nobody ever listens to Sokka!]: sokka