The Burning Truth-Harmony

Part 18~Hawky

It was safe to say, the whole 'no more scams' thing did not last long. It wasn't long before Toph, Sokka, Hachi and Zuko were conning the conmen. Toph would stop the dice on the numbers she wanted. In one event, she walked up to a strong man event, struggling to even lift the hammer as the crowd laughed.

She used her earthbending, moving the hammer's head and striking down on the game. The ball launched in the air so hard it broke out of the game.

She even pretended to be hit by a noble lady's carriage, getting Sokka to dress up as a fire nation guard and give the lady a disapproving look. It didn't take long for the bribery to be accepted and for them to leave.

"Guys, I think these scams have gone far enough. If you keep doing them, something bad is going to happen," Katara announced as Toph scoffed.

"Could you, for once, stop being such a sourpuss and just lighten up?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. You think I should be more like you? Like some wild child?"

"Yeah. Maybe. Maybe then you'd see how great we have it. I mean, look at us. We're travelling around the world. Making easy money. Having fun. With no parents to tell us what to do."

"Ah, I see. You're acting like this because of your parents."

"Whatever."

"They were controlling over you, so you ran away, and now you act like your parents don't exist. You act like you hate them, but you don't. You just feel guilty."

"I do hate them."

"I don't think so. I think you miss them, but you just don't wanna deal with that, so instead, you act like this crazy person."

"Look, I ran away to help Zuko."

"You know what? It doesn't matter. These scams put us all at risk, and we don't need them. We've already got some third-eye freak after us."

Sokka chose that moment to speak up. "Speaking of that 'third-eye freak', I think I've come up with a name for him. What do you think of 'Sparky-Sparky-Coom Man'?"

Isu gave Sokka an unimpressed look. "Seriously?"

"Just think about it."

Katara and Toph completely ignored him. "We have enough money. You need to stop this," Katara shouted ass Toph huffed.

"I'll stop when I wanna stop and not when you tell me." Toph used her earthbending to launch the bag of money behind her and into her hand. She walked away as Katara shook her head.

"Speaking of money, I'm off to spend some. See you guys later." Sokka also walked away as Isu approached the non-fighting group.

"Please tell me you agree with us. This is going too far," Isu pleaded as Zuko shrugged.

"I still can't believe you have a problem with scams," Hachi muttered as Isu tutted.

"I don't think you should take anything that doesn't belong to you. It's Airbending 101. And now you are taking from people that aren't even cheating. You went from scamming scammers to faking injuries for someone who was minding their own business. It's not right."

There was a pause as Zuko sighed. "Yeah, that last one I didn't like. It felt like something Toph would have done to me if we had met under different circumstances."

"Exactly. I don't like it."

"Hey, it'll be okay," Hachi tried to cheer them up. "If worse comes to worse, we'll just drag Toph away."

There was a pause before Isu burst out laughing. "Oh brother, it's adorable you think you could beat Toph in a fight."

"Hey, I could."

"Keep believing that." Isu ruffled Hachi's hair as he tried to swat her away.

"Shut up."

~~~

Sokka walked through town, holding a messenger Hawk. "Hawky, welcome to Team Avatar. My name's Sokka and I'm your new owner. We don't really have any other animals- aside from the bison- but we will get the others back, and when that happens, no fighting." Sokka paused to scratch Hawky's stomach. "Good little messenger, Hawky. Who's got pretty feathers?"

He paused, spotting a wanted poster with Toph's picture on it. He gasped in horror, ripping it off the wall as Hawky screeched. "You're right, Hawky. This is bad."

~~~

Sokka returned from town, spotting Katara and Zuko practising waterbending as Toph counted her money. "Toph, while I was in town, I found something that you're not gonna like." He pulled out the wanted poster and showed it to her.

Toph was not impressed. "Well, it sounds like a sheet of paper, but I guess you're referring to what's on the sheet of paper."

"It's a wanted poster. Of you. They've nicknamed you the Runaway."

"A wanted poster! That's so great. 'The Runaway.' I love my new nickname. Is there a picture of me? Does it look good?"

Sokka looked at the poster, comparing it to Toph. "Well, yeah, actually, it does look pretty good. But, Toph, you're missing the point. Maybe Katara was right. These scams are drawing too much attention to us."

"Don't be such a worrywart like your sister." Toph stood up, walking up to Sokka. "Think of it this way: Now you've got plenty of money to help with the invasion plan." She held up the money, jiggling it in front of him.

"Well, that is true. I had this idea of making armour for Corno and Pickle."

"Here's a little extra, so you can get yourself a nice map of the Fire nation. You know what? Make it an atlas." She gave Sokka the entire bag as Sokka smiled.

"I do like expensive atlases."

"Of course you do. And that's why this wanted poster is going to stay our little secret." Toph walked off with the poster as Sokka put his money away.

"Sokka, tell me you didn't buy a bird," Katara scolded as Isu shot over.

"A bird!"

"Not just a bird, a messenger bird. Now we can send messages all over the world. Even to Gran Gran."

Hachi smiled, walking closer. "Wow, how does it work?"

Sokka hesitated. "I never actually thought about that. I assume Zuko or Iroh might know something."

Zuko stuck up his hands faster than Sokka could finish his sentence. "No. I've never trained a messenger hawk before, we have an entire job in the castle for that."

Iroh nodded. "Sorry, messenger hawks have never been my cup of tea."

Sokka hummed for a second. "Hawky. Gran Gran, South Pole." Hawky shook. "I think he gets it."

Isu chuckled to herself. "Oh, this is going to be a disaster.