Polar Opposites *A Prince Zuko Love Story*

Chapter 3 - The Painted Lady

It's been 3 days since the dance party that we had for the students of the school that Aang had been enrolled in. Currently, Appa is swimming his way down a disgusting, sludge-infested river. I literally can't believe that Aang is swimming in it right now! UGH! Disgusting! Currently he's playing hide-and-go-seek with Momo. "Momo!" He calls before he ducks into the water before Momo sees him. He resurfaces nearby. "Oh Momo!" He calls again before he ducks again, surfaces again, and Momo finally spots him. "Ah! Ha ha, you found me, buddy." he laughs as Momo lands on his shoulder.

Aang then airbends himself up into Appa's saddle. "Hey guys, I think this river's polluted." He says as he looks down at the goop that's covering his body before he bends the goop off of him, sliming the others and I in the process. I cringe in disgust at the feeling of the goop on me and before I can say anything about it, Aang shoots another blast of air blasting the goop off of the others and I. "Well, that explains why I can't catch a fish around here." Sokka says, making the others and I to look at him. "Because normally my fishing skills are... off the hook!" he jokes, causing me to roll my eyes and the others to just stare at him. "Get it? Like a fishing hook?" he grins. "Too bad your skills aren't on the hook." Toph retorts back to him and the others and I laugh, as Sokka scowls at her. "It looks like we'll need to go somewhere else to get food." Katara states. "Yeah." I agree as Sokka unrolls his schedule in front of us. "Assuming that'll fit into Sokka's master schedule."

Sokka studies the schedule intently for a moment before he speaks. "Hm... it's doable." He states. "But that means only two potty breaks today!" he continues. "Hey, maybe we can get food there." Aang exclaims, pointing off into the distance. The others and I turn around to see a small village in the middle of the river. Hopefully, this village will have fish, but by the looks of this river... That's very unlikely...

******************************************************

We find a spot in the nearby uplands where we decide to leave Appa and Momo while the others and I go into the small village on the river for some food. Aang covers Appa with a blanket of turf, covering all but his horns. Hopefully, no one will notice that and think that it's suspicious... "Now you look just like a little hill with horns. Bye buddy!" Aang says to him to which Appa grumbles in reply and the others and I walk away, heading towards the river.

******************************************************

The others and I stand near the edge of a cliff that overlooks the river, looking out at the tiny village in the middle of it. "I don't feel anything. Where is this village?" Toph asks. "It's in the middle of the river!" Sokka answers, pointing at the small village. "Sure is!" a voice from below exclaims, making the others and I to look down at the shore of the river to see a man standing in his boat. "My name's Dock. Mind if I ask who you are?" he asks. "We're, um, from the Earth Kingdom colonies." Katara says. Sounding a little bit unsure as to if this guy will believe her. "Wow... colonials!" Dock exclaims. 'I guess this guy did believe Katara when she said that we were from the Earth Kingdom colonies.' I think. "Hop on; I'll give you a ride into town." Dock says to us.

The others and I get down to the small dock next to Dock's boat, getting in his boat, where Dock starts to take us to the village. "Why do you guys live on the river?" I ask Dock as we make our way to the village. "Because we're a fishing town." He answers. "At least that's how it was before the factory moved in." he continues and I see the factory that he's talking about in the distance. "Army makes their metal there. Moved in a few years ago and started gunking up our river. Now our little village is struggling to survive." Dock explains. It's just like the Fire Nation to destroy people's way of life, even when it's their own people. I glare at the factory before it disappears from my sight. These people may be Fire Nation, but they don't deserve this... The army could've found a different place to put their factory.