Dao and the Freedom Fighters

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟖 - 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐖𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐊𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐀𝐧𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞

Third Person POV:

Jet led them through the forest towards the tree house on foot since apparently not everyone could jump through trees with ease, though he supposed kids who'd grown up in the Southern Water Tribe, trees weren't something they saw often. He also learned the names of each of the teenagers. The boy with the arrows on his head was Aang, and also the Avatar, the guy with the boomerang was Sokka, and the girl, who he found out was a waterbender, was Katara. 

When they got to the base of the trees where their treehouse was hidden. The other kids had gotten back before them, which Jet was honestly really glad about. At least this way he knew all his kids were back home safe.

"We're here." Dao proudly proclaimed.

"There's nothing here. I think you're mistaken," Sokka snarked, obviously missing the way Dao's face started to fall at his tone. But Jet didn't miss it. He wouldn't tolerate anyone talking that way to his brother. Oh he was going to enjoy this.

"Here, hold this," Jet said, handing Sokka one of the ropes up to the treehouse.

"Why, what's it-" 

He didn't have time to finish his sentence before the rope mechanism pulled Sokka up into the trees above. Dao brought over another couple ropes for Katara and Aang, though Aang politely declined it preferring to fly up on his own. So Dao took the rope he'd left up to the hideout. Katara was more hesitant though, so Jet joined her rope up into the trees.

At the top, Sokka was still getting himself untangled from the mess of rope he'd gotten tied up in and of all people, or in this case animals, to try and help it was Dao's, already middle sized, dragon, Druk, biting away at the rope or more Sokka's fingers than anything else. 

"Druk!" Dao pulled the dragon away, wrapping him gently around his neck, and reached to untie the knots. With a few deft movements, the rope fell away letting Sokka stand. 

"It's beautiful up here," Katara gushed.

"It's beautiful and most importantly it's hidden from the Fire Nation. They won't find us here."

"They'd love to find you, wouldn't they Jet." Smellerbee said from where she was crossing over one of the connecting bridges.

"Of course they would 'Bee, but that's not gonna happen."

"What'd you do to make the Fire Nation want to hunt you down?," Sokka asked, now at least a bit less sounding like a jerk than before.

"You mean other than ambushing their troops, taking their supplies, really causing any sort of trouble we can? Trust me, they'd love to get rid of us, but they never will." Jet said with a smirk.

"We need to get rid of them before they can take over more of our land," Bee chimed in. "There's a town a few miles west that they've had control of for a few years now that we've been working to free for a while."

"And one day we will and the Fire Nation will know that they picked a fight with the wrong kids," Jet concluded.

"That's so brave," Katara said.

"Yeah, nothing braver than a guy in a tree house," Sokka remarked sarcastically.

Katara rolled her eyes, "Ignore my brother." Sokka squawked behind her but was instead dragged into a conversion with Smellerbee instead of continuing to interrupt his sister. "So you all live here?"

"Yeah, Longshot over there," he pointed toward the archer who was walking along the bridge with Dao, who had his hood down and mask off, and Aang, "His town got burned down by the Fire Nation. And we found the Duke sneaking into our storage a few years back, we're not really even sure where he came from. Dao got stuck in one of our hunting traps and had an infected burn on his face that came from some firebender, now he can't see or hear on his left side."

Katara had a horrified expression on her face. "What about you?"

"'Bee and I grew up in the same village. One day a group called the Rough Rhino's showed up and burned the entire town to the ground. We both lost our parents that day."

"I'm so sorry Jet. Sokka and I lost our mom to the Fire Nation too."

Sokka chose that moment to interrupt. "As great as this has been, we need to get going if we're gonna reach the North Pole anytime soon.

"Wait, you're leaving already?" Dao asked, his unintentional puppy eyes drawn across his face. He had Nookie on his head and Aang's lemur on one of his shoulders. "Can't you at least stay the night? Let yourselves rest?"

"Sokka, one night won't hurt. Plus, Dao's right, Appa's tired and he needs rest too. " Katara reasoned with her brother.