Avatar Zuko

Chapter 39

“Remember everyone, we're on a really tight schedule so we can only stay here for a day.” Reminded Sokka for the fourth time that morning after they'd landed a little outside a Fire Nation town. All things considered, they'd had a relatively easy time so far since their fight at Ba Sing Se, but Katara still found herself hoping for more than just a day’s pit stop.

“Come on, Sokka, we have plenty of time before the eclipse. Do we really need to rush so much?” She moaned as they headed towards the town for supplies.

“Yes! It's always better to be early than late anyway, plus knowing us we'll get into trouble halfway there and be stuck for a month.” Okay, Sokka had a point.

They kept walking towards the town until they came across some small, mouldy rafts and a man named Doc. He offered them a way across and Aang excitedly agreed. It was a mucky, depressing place to say the least with brown, sickly looking water and houses falling apart. The town was elevated on wooded, rotting planks and looked close to collapsing. Even the people had an air of mellow sadness, with skin paler than Zuko's and hair greasy enough to cook seal-bacon with. Their clothes were dirty right down to the seams and the children they passed had pants that barely reached halfway down their calves, and were ripped almost to pieces. It tugged at Katara’s heart how the skin hung of their faces, reminding her painfully of how her own villagers looked when it was too cold to collect sufficient food for weeks.

“This place…” Katara trailed off quietly, trying not to let Doc hear her.

“It's awful.” Zuko finished grimly, whilst playing with the hem of his red shirt. Sokka, who was sat extremely close to the Prince, placed his hand on his thigh.

“I… Always thought everyone in the Fire Nation had more money than they had morals. But this place- it's just as bad as the Earth Kingdom.” Admitted her brother, leaning back so far that he would have fallen out of the raft if it wasn't for Zuko's quick reflexes.

“What's that about the Earth Kingdom?” Asked Doc cheerily, making the group freeze.

“We're from the colonies.” Toph replied simply, before elbowing Sokka hard enough to crack a rib. Thankfully, he bit back his wince of pain.

They'd chosen to let Zuko tag along, mostly because the ramshackle town didn't look like it would have anyone capable of reading the words on a wanted poster. It was also falling apart to the point that, even if the town tried to arrest Zuko, it would probably take the measliest flame in existence to destroy the entire place. Yet there was a factory a short distance away that could prove problematic if Zuko was recognised, but he'd probably have less chance of getting noticed when surrounded by other Fire Nation citizens than he would weirdly alone on some hill with a sky bison and a lemur.

“Now, let me just grab my brother, Shop, so he can sell you some food!” Doc smiled before entering a small stall, ducking under the counter and reappearing again, only this time with a straw hat on his head. “Hello, kids, I'm Shop! So, what’ll it be? Fish, clams or, get this, two headed fish!”.

“... What?! You're Doc!” Remarked Sokka in shock, before Katara could tell him to leave the crazy man alone so they could get some disgusting and probably disease-ridden fish.

“No, that's my brother. I'm Shop.” Doc/Shop grinned and held out a fish that was leaking green mucus, and suddenly Katara considered joining Aang in being a vegetarian.

Zuko ended up having to physically wrench Sokka away from his argument with Shop, after they'd wasted over half an hour going back and forth over how a new hat didn't make you a new person. All the way back to Appa and their camp, Katara just couldn't shake the feeling that she had to help the villagers somehow; so many were dying from illness and were in poverty, whilst the nearby factory turned a blind eye to innocent people's suffering. Perhaps not everyone in the Fire Nation was a murderous monster, but the leadership and much of the military were clearly indifferent to their own citizens’ struggles.