Accidental Avatar 3: Totally Lit

Clean up!

I rowed us towards the village as Katara touched down on the dock, pulling up while Sokka threw the rope over a rung to keep the boat from bobbing away again, as Mogui and Jin snuck out of a nearby house.

Where did Mangetsu go to hide? I spotted his blonde head appear at the elbow of Dock.

Or is it Xu? No hat. It must be Dock.

"I knew you'd come!" a tiny dirty child said cheerfully as the village applauded Katara.

"Thank you!" Dock said, sounding more sincere than I've ever heard him.

"Painted Lady, you're the best!" a random village yelled, jostling Mangetsu, who glared up at him, but otherwise kept his mouth blessedly shut.

"Me and my brothers really owe you a lot," Dock said, approaching her.

"Wait-" I started, trying to stop them from getting close enough to recognize her.

"Hey!" Dock said, his expression becoming shocked. "Wait a minute! I know you! You're not the Painted Lady. You're that colonial girl!"

"Yeah, you're the lady that gave me a fish!" the boy yelled.

"You've been tricking us!" Dock yelled. "You're a waterbender!"

"Oh boy," I sighed, seeing Jin facepalm at their actions.

"She's a waterbender!" a random villager yelled. "How dare you act like our Painted Lady!"

As the villagers surged forward in anger, Sokka moved to intervene while the water nearby began to steam and hiss. I saw Mogui grab Mangetsu's shoulder and hiss something to him, getting a glare from the shorter blonde, who shrugged off Mogui's hand, but the water stopped steaming.

This also calmed the villagers, who seemed to remember that they were on a lake and had just tried to mob lynch a waterbender in the middle of said lake.

Course, they probably didn't realize there were two waterbenders just yet.

"Maybe she's a waterbender, but she's just trying to help you!" Sokka yelled. "Because of her, that factory won't be polluting your river, and the army is gone!"

"You'd think," I added, coming up to stand next to Sokka. "You'd be thanking her, not trying to lynch her."

"Sokka, Muteki," Katara said softly, touching our elbows. "It's okay."

She turned to face the villagers, removing her enormous hat. "I shouldn't have acted like someone I wasn't, and I shouldn't have tricked you. But I felt like I had to do something. It doesn't matter if the Painted Lady is real or not. Because your problems are real, and this river is real. You can't wait around for someone to help you. You have to help yourselves."

"She's right," Dock said with a shrug. "But what should we do?"

Toph popped out from the crowd, putting on a fake voice. "Maybe we could clean the river?"

Mangetsu joined in from the opposite end of the crowd, mimicking her action. "Hey, you're right. That's a pretty good idea!"

"Yeah! We can clean the river!" Dock says cheerfully, the villagers cheering. "Thank you. You know, you're not so bad for a waterbender."

"You wouldn't mind keeping that a secret, by the way, would you?" Sokka asked.

"No problem," Dock said cheerfully. "Keeping my mouth shut is a personal specialty. My brother Xu, on the other hand, he's a blabbermouth."

"Don't tell him then," I said with a shrug.

"Good idea!" Dock said brightly.

"So, Dock, are you gonna help us clean?" Katara asked.

"No, ma'am," Dock said cheerfully. "I'm going to get my other brother, Bushi. He loves cleaning rivers."

Out of nowhere, he pulled out a random hat and popped it on his head, grinning proudly.

"Alright, I'm Bushi! Let's get some river cleaning done!"

Aang popped out from behind me, pointing triumphantly at "Bushi".

"Aha, I knew it!" he yelled. "I knew you were the same guy. You're the shop owner and the boat guy."

"Oh, you must be talking about my brothers, Dock and Xu," "Bushi," said cheerfully.

"No, I just saw you!" Aang said exasperatedly. "You switched hats and called yourself a different name!"

"Oh, you know who does that?" "Bushi," said lightly. "My brother Dock."

He leaned in, whispering to us in a conspiratorial tone. "He's crazy!"

Aang fumed, and I chuckled while patting his shoulder lightly.

"Let it go, buddy," I said. "He's had one too many drinks from the lake."

"No kidding," Sokka said, pulling a mildly amused face.