𝑾𝑨𝑽𝑬𝑺 || 𝑨𝒂𝒏𝒈 (𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒌 1)

The Deserter*

The problem with four kids flying around the world was that they never seemed to have any food. And when they did, it ran out outrageously quickly. Jade missed having a stove and food at her disposal back home. Of course, she wasn't nearly as good a cook as Shiro, but she could make a decent stew.

They'd landed in the forest upon spotting a notice board. "This should give us a good idea of what's around here."

"See if you can find a menu." Sokka tilted their empty bag above his head. "I'm starving!"

Aang pointed to a particular poster on the board. "I bet we'll find something to eat here!"

Joining his side, Jade blinked at the poster. The image in the middle was a fiery red dragon above a scenery of -- you guessed it -- fire.

"The Fire Days Festival?" She glanced at him. "You wanna go there? Don't you think there might be a little too much...Fire?"

"But look!" He pointed. "Fire Nation cultural exhibits, jugglers, benders, magicians -- this would be a great place for me to study some real firebending!"

"...You wanna study magicians?"

Sokka called over from the other side of the board. "You might wanna rethink that. Look at this."

Aang, Katara, and Jade joined him. He was frowning at the wanted posters displayed. Two were for men Jade didn't recognize and one was for a guy with a creepy smiling blue mask. But the fourth was the one that caught Sokka's attention. The image of Aang was startlingly accurate, and the reward...

Well, Jade had never seen such a tempting number in her life.

"Hey," Aang smiled. "A poster of me!"

"A wanted poster." Sokka corrected. "This is bad."

Aang took the poster off the board to get a better look at it. He was the only one still smiling as they read it over his shoulders.

"I think we better keep moving." Katara suggested.

"I have to learn firebending at some point," He protested. "And this could be my only chance to watch some masters up close."

Jade tilted her head. "He might have a point...It'll probably be much easier to learn from firebenders who aren't attacking us."

Glancing down, Katara hesitated. "...I guess we could go check it out."

Aang grinned. Sokka gaped at her. "What?! 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."

"Yeah," He deadpanned as they walked away from him. "Because we always leave before we get into trouble."

Jade turned back to grin at him. "I bet they'll have lots of food there, though."

Sokka stared at her for a second before he slouched. "Fine." He trudged past her. "But if we all get burned, I'm doing my "I told you so" dance."

~㊌~

It didn't take them long to find the town. But instead of going right up to the gates, they stopped at the cliff a few miles away.

Aang turned to Appa and Momo. "You guys stay out of sight here while we go to the festival."

Chittering, Momo flew into a bush to disappear from their sight. Appa walked over to hide behind the same bush. The only problem was that he was several times larger than it. They could still see him easily, but at least he was doing his best.