Koete ↠ Sokka

Chapter 7: The Pirates - Part 3

Charlie bolted around a corner, weaving her way through the crowd. She looked over her shoulder seeing four pirates following. The others must have gone around to cut them off from the other side. Reaching out to her left, Charlie pulled down a stack of wooden boxes from one of the stores, which crashed to the floor behind her before scrambling off again. However, her attempt only stopped one of them, the other three managing to jump over and continue chasing them.

"This way!" Sokka screamed, leading them right around another corner. Katara bent the water out of a bowl in a store, freezing it on the ground which caused the pirates to slip and crash into each other.

Charlie looked over her shoulder again, finding two pirates still following. "Are you kidding me?!" she shouted through a wheeze, finding herself quickly losing her breath. Stumbling on her feet, she picked up speed to catch up with the others—that was until she saw it. Or, more specifically, until she saw him.

The cabbage man. Standing there in all his glory, with his refurbished cabbage cart after having been smashed to pieces last time they met. The man grabbed the handles of his cart, preparing to move its location, but was forced to pull it back when Sokka and Katara squeezed by, narrowly avoiding knocking into it. Charlie, however, passed the cart before sliding to a stop, unable to force down the malicious smile that rose on her lips. It only took an instant for the cabbage man to recognise her, his expression morphing into one of horror.

"No, not you again! Get away from my cabbages!" he screamed, frantically throwing himself in between his cart and her.

Charlie didn't even have to do anything, watching Aang flip over the cart, twisting in the air, then bringing down his staff to send an air slice towards the pirates through the path of most efficiency—straight through the cabbages. It flew backwards down the alley, crashing into the two pirates following them and flinging them into the ground.

"My cabbages!" he shrieked, clutching his head.

Charlie nodded in satisfaction before turning on her heel and running after the rest of the gang, but not before shouting over her shoulder, "That's for Omashu, asshole!"

When she caught up, three more pirates had already blocked their path. Sokka let out a sound of panic before leading the group back in the direction they came, turning into another alley, but this one was a dead end.

"Now," one began in a sinister tone, turning the corner with his knives in hand. "Who gets to taste the steel of my blades first?"

"No thanks," Aang said strongly, hurling a wave of air towards the pirates, sending them flying back into the wall of the opposing building. "Grab on tight!" he ordered, whipping out the wings of his glider and kicking into a sprint.

"Can this thing hold four people?!" Charlie questioned as they picked up speed.

"Uh, I've never tried! Just hang on!" She didn't have time to respond before Sokka grabbed onto her with one arm and the glider with the other. Letting out a scream of shock, her free arms immediately shot up to grab the tail of the staff. She hung in between the siblings, the three all shouting in fear as they flew over the pirates' heads, narrowly missing the points of their weapons.

Aang had to land on the outskirts of the trading village, unable to keep all of them in the air for any longer. They had to run back to the lagoon, fearful that they'd be followed. As soon as they had reached their camp, Charlie collapsed to the floor.

"Why are we always running? Can we just not have to run away from people for once?" Charlie breathed out heavily, rolling onto her back.

"You know, I kind of used to look up to pirates," Aang admitted, dropping his glider to the floor and leaning against a rock in exhaustion. "But those guys are terrible. Why would they just start chasing us for no reason?"