Tale Of Two Avatars

The Deserter

Us not coming to a conclusion on where to go leads us to another forest in the middle of nowhere along our way to the North Pole and I can't say I'm surprised anymore.

After a while of walking and exploring, we stumble upon a kiosk in the middle of the forest and Katara goes up to inspect the poster on it. "This should give us a good idea of what's around here."

"See if you can find a menu, I'm starving!" Sokka commented, emptying the remnants of what was our food supply into his mouth.

"I bet we'll find something to eat here," Aang walks up to the kiosk, the poster on it instantly catching his eye. "the Fire Day's Festival. Fire Nation cultural exhibits, jugglers, benders, magicians..." He pauses, turning to face Katara and me eagerly. "This would be a great place for Suzume and me to study some real firebenders."

"Yeah, I guess so," I shrugged. "I wouldn't mind going."  

"Both of you might wanna rethink that. Look at this," Sokka called from the other side of the kiosk. We bring ourselves to Sokka's position and what I stare at next shocks me, a few posters embellished the kiosk, all of them wanted posters. However, only two posters stood out to me, and both of them were the ones that bore Aang's image and my image. 

"Hey, a poster of me!" Aang shouted in excitement.

"Aang, those are wanted posters," I informed plainly. "It means the Fire Nation wants to capture us Aang."

"This is bad," Sokka stated.

Katara stares at the posters, nodding her head in agreement. "I think we better keep moving."

"Suzume and I have to learn firebending at some point and this could be our only chance to watch a master up close," Aang protested, glancing at me silently for help. 'Help me out Suzume.'

"Aang's right," I sighed. "It's a risk we're going to have to take and if we're careful enough, we won't be caught."

"I guess we could go check it out," Katara admitted reluctantly.

"What?" Sokka walks in front of the three of us in protest. "You wanna walk into a Fire Nation town where they're all fired-up with their...you know, fire?"

"We'll wear disguises and if it looks like trouble, we'll leave," Katara reassured, walking to Appa with Aang.

"Yeah! Because we always leave before we get into trouble," Sokka crossed his arms unconvincingly.

"True, but we always manage to get out of them," I countered. "Besides, there's no excitement in life if you don't take any risks."

Sokka grumbles, following me back to Appa while muttering something incomprehensible under his breath.

Time Skip

We land at the edge of a forest overlooking the festival, using the circumambient trees as a cloak before we made any further progress. We dismount from Appa and Aang begins giving us orders, starting with Appa and Momo. 

"You guys stay out of sight here while we go to the festival," Aang orders Appa and Momo. Appa obeys, hiding behind a bush, though his gigantic frame made him stand out. That didn't seem to bother anyone though so Aang now directed his attention to us, declaring excitedly, "Ready disguises!"

I put on a dark cloak Katara handed me earlier, Sokka and Katara following suit. Aang puts his shawl from his robe over his head, smiling at us ridiculously. 

"It's like you're a whole different person," Sokka commented sarcastically. Katara giggles at this and I joined in, it was hard to suppress it.

"Let's go," We began descending the hill, with Aang leading the way. By the time we make it to the festival, it was close to night. We walk in, the festival already bustling and bursting at the seams with various stalls and people, most of them wearing masks.