Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction ❯ When Ice and Lava Meet ❯ Little Bag of Coins ( Chapter 4 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: crescentmoon 
Please Read and Review
Non Anime: Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Adventure | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 07.04.2009 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.3K | Visits: 487 | Status: Work In Progress
Please Read and Review
Non Anime: Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Adventure | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 07.04.2009 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.3K | Visits: 487 | Status: Work In Progress
Disclaimer: I don’t own Avatar: The Last Air-bender, the very talented team of Mike and Brain own the show and characters. The rating maybe wrong but I did try to get it right.
By: year of the snake (at fanfiction) aka. crescentmoon (at mediaminer). And now Opal-Dreams on DeviantArt.
When Ice and Lava Meet
Chapter Four
The next day when ‘Jen’ and ‘Mai Ling’ as they still called themselves entered the market their ears were filled with the exploits of a mysterious woman whom those who knew her legend called the Painted Lady.
Katara and the Blind Bandit smiled at each other. They smiled even bigger when they heard most of the guards from the night before had quit. They hadn’t signed up to deal with ghosts. Some of them talked of leaving the city.
“Hey Jen, Mai Ling!” called Aang. He ran over to them.
“Aang it’s good to see you again.” ‘Jen’ said.
“Yeah it’s good to you two too.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s good not to see you too Twinkle-Toes.” Not getting all the sleep she needed made the Blind Bandit grumpier than usual. “What brings a hillbilly like you into town?”
“We need a few things on the farm. I came with mother to get them.”
“And I buy some things too heavy for me, turn around and find you gone.” Lily-Lee shook her head at her boy.
“Sorry Mother. I saw these two and got distracted.”
“Hello Mrs. Yong.”
“Hello dears, how have you been?” She turned back to her son, “You go load the cart.”
‘Mai Ling’ snickered.
“We’ve been good.” answered Katara. “How have you and the family been?”
“We’ve been fine. Ming and Ruon-Jian have finally set a date, a week before the mid-summer Sun’s Star feasible.”
‘Jen’ exclaimed, “That’s great!”
“You two will come of course.”
“Of course.” agreed ‘Jen’.
“Hey!” the Blind Bandit spoke. “Don’t I get a say?”
“Don’t you want to come to my daughter’s wedding?”
“I guess. I just wanted to add my say so.” Then she went off to find Twinkle-Toes. He needed a good torture since they hadn’t seen each other in a while.
“Hey Twinkle-Toes, you should lift with your knees. You keep lifting like that and you’ll throw your back out.”
He dropped the bag from shock. “Oh! Mai Ling!” Aang smiled at her.
She smirked. “Don’t have a heart attack Twinkle-Toes. It’s just me.”
All Aang could think was, ‘And that’s why I’m having a heart attack.’ his heart was pounding from surprise.
‘Mai Ling’ loved making him jump. His reactions to her various tauntings were hilarious.
Aang to get the subject on anything but him said, “Have you heard about the Painted Lady? They say she came out of no where last night and attacked the tax collector. Then took a bunch of money and things to the people in the Hide District.”
“I saw her man!” A guy popped up beside them causing Aang to jump. “She stepped out of fog, no not stepped she flew, and the fog traveled with her. She was like a vision. She could be nothing but a spirit of great power. I saw her thrash those guards of the tax collector just by waving her hands!” He was one of the tax collector’s neighbors. “I wouldn’t want to face her, no sir.” The man lurched off.
“That was odd.”
Aang just nodded.
The Blind Bandit’s ear’s twitched. She could hear a scam taking place, and she wanted in, just on the opposite side. “Excuse me.”
“Sure… Wait a second I can’t let a blind girl wander around this city alone. I’ll come with you.” ‘Mai Ling’ had to keep it a secret that she could earth-bend so Aang had no idea she could see using her feet.
‘Mai Ling’s’ hands squeezed into tight little fists. She hated this. She just wanted people to treat her normally. But when one is blind and hiding from two groups of people there’s not a whole lot she can do to make people think of her otherwise. She got control of her anger and said, “Whatever floats your boat Flying-Subhuman.”
Aang looked hurt at her new nickname for him. Yet he still trailed after her. When around her Aang was constantly amazed by her ability to avoid all the obstacles in her path.
‘Mai Ling’ went straight to the man and put on her humble blind girl routine. The man called her over and explained the game to her like she was an especially stupid kindergarten child. The only part of her that reacted to his treatment was one of her eyebrows twitched. She was used to this kind of treatment, even her parents had treated her like this to both a lesser and greater extent. ‘I absolutely hate being treated like I‘m a dumb pigeon-hog!’ She was going to enjoy taking money from this man even more for his underestimation of her.
Aang noticed the change, ‘Something must be going on here…’ but he said nothing. It was odd, this was the way he had always pictured the woman of his dreams, soft, quiet, shy, beautiful, traditional and kind, but seeing ‘Mai Ling’ act that way was disturbing. He missed the girls, and now he missed the real ‘Mai Ling’. Aang didn’t like this imposter with her face. Aang wanted to say something to bring the brash, strong woman he knew back. Yet he kept his mouth shut. He was too curious as to why she was acting thus.
‘Mai Ling’ put a small drawstring coin purse on the short table. “I’ll wager one silver piece to test this luck you say I may have.” She opened the purse and felt a coin more than it was necessary for her to tell it was a silver piece, she did so to allow the man to look inside and see all the coins about half of which were gold pieces. There were a few copper pieces too. She knew to a man like him the temptation would be great and he would let her win the first hand so that on the second or third hand he could take her for all she had. That was just the way his type worked. She knew the game well.
Aang thought that she was just throwing away the money, he didn’t know her plan. But he didn’t say anything. It was her money.
To Aang’s great surprise she won. She won the next game too. Then the man said, “Wow you are so lucky that you could put me out of business! Care to see how that luck holds with a higher wager?”
“A higher wager?” She asked like she didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. “What ever do you mean?”
“Well, little missy, you wager your little bag of coins against my big bag of coins and whoever wins takes them all. I‘m practically giving you this bag of coins.” She pretended to think on what he said.
“I don’t know… Daddy always told me to never wager gold pieces, and I know there are twenty-five gold pieces in my bag…” She acted like she really wanted to say okay even though she knew she shouldn’t.
Aang had had enough. There was no way he would let his blind friend lose all her money to this creep. “Mai Ling…”
She threw her hand up in his face. “Quiet I’m thinking.”
“Mai Ling, I don’t think you should do it. You could lose everything in that bag to the man.”
“That she could but with the way her luck’s been holding I doubt she would.” the con-man said.
“Excuse us.” The Blind Bandit stood up and pulled Aang a little ways away. “Aang, what are you doing?”
“That man is a con artist. One or two coins is okay every now and then, but that’s too much money to risk. You should use that money on food or rent or something useful.”
‘Mai Ling’ rolled her eyes, not that he could see them. “Aang do I tell you how to use your money?”
“No, but…” he shook his head.
“That’s right, I don’t Twinkle-Toes, so don’t tell me how to use mine.” she huffed quietly at him.
The man was watching them, trying to understand what they were whispering.
“Maybe we should consult Jen.” Aang thought maybe the other girl could convince her ‘cousin’ not to be foolish with their money. “Jen!” he called, knowing if he left the younger girl alone she would take the bet.
‘Jen’ and Lily-Lee came running.
“Jen,” Aang was holding onto ‘Mai Ling’s’ arm. “Mai Ling is thinking of betting a large amount of money at this man’s table for a bag that’s probably worth two-thirds what hers is, can’t you talk her out of it?”
Katara knew the only reason the Blind Bandit allowed Aang to hold her arm like that was as to not lose her cover as a helpless blind girl. She almost bit her lip in worry as to how to get ‘Mai Ling’ out of Aang’s arm and back to the table. “Aang, it’s her money. We’ve already paid the rent and I’ve got some set aside for food. She can bet it all if she is so inclined. She is an adult and I cannot stop her. If she loses it all hopefully she will learn not to make such foolhardy bets again.” ‘Jen’ said.
The man at the booth was worried with that many people there the quiet blind girl was sure to be convinced that this was a stupid thing and would just walk away. “What if I make it two bags of silver and ten gold pieces?” he called at them. He really, really wanted her money it was more then he could cheat people out of in a week on a good week.
‘Mai Ling’ smiled and turned to the man. “It’s a deal.”
“What!” said Aang.
“Aang, this is her decision. Let her make it.” said his mother. Lily-Lee was worried too but she knew it was none of her business.
A few seconds later ‘Mai Ling’ grabbed the bags of money even swiping the gold pieces into her palm and rushed passed them. She wrapped one arm through Aang’s and one through Katara’s and ‘Jen’ grabbed Lily-Lee so they all got out of there together.
“I told you not to worry.” puffed ‘Mai Ling’.
“If you won fair and square why did we run away?” asked Mrs. Yong.
“Because sometimes when a blind girl wins a large amount of money they aren’t too happy. Sometimes they refuse to give me my money and sometimes they throw things at me.” she lied so easily.
Lily-Lee Yong asked another question, “You do this often?”
“Sure. It’s fun, and sometimes it gets us the money we need to survive.” They were near a man who had only one leg and was begging in the street, ‘Mai Ling’ dropped three of the gold pieces at his side. She smiled in the direction of the man and nodded.
Aang and his mother looked at each other then at ‘Mai Ling’.
“What? We don’t need all this money.”
“Glad to hear it.” a bulky man stepped in front of them from the shadows and a team of other men joined him. They were street thugs, common and low class. Katara and the Blind Bandit both felt the urge to bend but knew that this would force them to leave the town. A few of the men used this indecision to surround them.
‘Jen’ leaned down towards the Blind Bandit and whispered, “What do we do?”
747474747474747474747474747474747474747474747474747474747474747474747474 7474747474747474747474747474
Hi! I am putting this out in honor of the 4th of July. Do-Do-DoDo_DO-DoDo-Do! Hehehe! Chapter four on the fourth! =D
Thank you to my three reviewers! =O Three! Yay! =D Mannie258, allyonshinezutara, and Liontracks. Thank you so much! Ps. Liontracks, Zuko is coming I swear! Just a chapter or two more…
Thank you all for reading and big thanks to my reviewers!
Ps. FYI I am doing a little seven pieces of art for Zutara inspired by 7 words. The words are Winsome, Old-Fashioned, Scenery, Extirpate, Cahoots, Virtuosity and Genteel. To hear more about it go to my http:// opal-dreams . deviantart . com/ (Minus the spaces). If you would like to join they can be stories or art. My goal is to have them done by the 11th but you can get them done at any time… I might not have my own up in time because our scanner is down and I don’t know how to find the scanner on the computer with my parents’ new programming. *Sigh*
Please Review if you like this story, if you don’t have an idea of what to put you can say what you favorite part in the story and/or the chapter is, you can wish me luck, or just say how much you like it. And if you must say something bad about it please put it in a helpful way thanks.
Bye for now!
By: year of the snake (at fanfiction) aka. crescentmoon (at mediaminer). And now Opal-Dreams on DeviantArt.
When Ice and Lava Meet
Chapter Four
The next day when ‘Jen’ and ‘Mai Ling’ as they still called themselves entered the market their ears were filled with the exploits of a mysterious woman whom those who knew her legend called the Painted Lady.
Katara and the Blind Bandit smiled at each other. They smiled even bigger when they heard most of the guards from the night before had quit. They hadn’t signed up to deal with ghosts. Some of them talked of leaving the city.
“Hey Jen, Mai Ling!” called Aang. He ran over to them.
“Aang it’s good to see you again.” ‘Jen’ said.
“Yeah it’s good to you two too.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s good not to see you too Twinkle-Toes.” Not getting all the sleep she needed made the Blind Bandit grumpier than usual. “What brings a hillbilly like you into town?”
“We need a few things on the farm. I came with mother to get them.”
“And I buy some things too heavy for me, turn around and find you gone.” Lily-Lee shook her head at her boy.
“Sorry Mother. I saw these two and got distracted.”
“Hello Mrs. Yong.”
“Hello dears, how have you been?” She turned back to her son, “You go load the cart.”
‘Mai Ling’ snickered.
“We’ve been good.” answered Katara. “How have you and the family been?”
“We’ve been fine. Ming and Ruon-Jian have finally set a date, a week before the mid-summer Sun’s Star feasible.”
‘Jen’ exclaimed, “That’s great!”
“You two will come of course.”
“Of course.” agreed ‘Jen’.
“Hey!” the Blind Bandit spoke. “Don’t I get a say?”
“Don’t you want to come to my daughter’s wedding?”
“I guess. I just wanted to add my say so.” Then she went off to find Twinkle-Toes. He needed a good torture since they hadn’t seen each other in a while.
“Hey Twinkle-Toes, you should lift with your knees. You keep lifting like that and you’ll throw your back out.”
He dropped the bag from shock. “Oh! Mai Ling!” Aang smiled at her.
She smirked. “Don’t have a heart attack Twinkle-Toes. It’s just me.”
All Aang could think was, ‘And that’s why I’m having a heart attack.’ his heart was pounding from surprise.
‘Mai Ling’ loved making him jump. His reactions to her various tauntings were hilarious.
Aang to get the subject on anything but him said, “Have you heard about the Painted Lady? They say she came out of no where last night and attacked the tax collector. Then took a bunch of money and things to the people in the Hide District.”
“I saw her man!” A guy popped up beside them causing Aang to jump. “She stepped out of fog, no not stepped she flew, and the fog traveled with her. She was like a vision. She could be nothing but a spirit of great power. I saw her thrash those guards of the tax collector just by waving her hands!” He was one of the tax collector’s neighbors. “I wouldn’t want to face her, no sir.” The man lurched off.
“That was odd.”
Aang just nodded.
The Blind Bandit’s ear’s twitched. She could hear a scam taking place, and she wanted in, just on the opposite side. “Excuse me.”
“Sure… Wait a second I can’t let a blind girl wander around this city alone. I’ll come with you.” ‘Mai Ling’ had to keep it a secret that she could earth-bend so Aang had no idea she could see using her feet.
‘Mai Ling’s’ hands squeezed into tight little fists. She hated this. She just wanted people to treat her normally. But when one is blind and hiding from two groups of people there’s not a whole lot she can do to make people think of her otherwise. She got control of her anger and said, “Whatever floats your boat Flying-Subhuman.”
Aang looked hurt at her new nickname for him. Yet he still trailed after her. When around her Aang was constantly amazed by her ability to avoid all the obstacles in her path.
‘Mai Ling’ went straight to the man and put on her humble blind girl routine. The man called her over and explained the game to her like she was an especially stupid kindergarten child. The only part of her that reacted to his treatment was one of her eyebrows twitched. She was used to this kind of treatment, even her parents had treated her like this to both a lesser and greater extent. ‘I absolutely hate being treated like I‘m a dumb pigeon-hog!’ She was going to enjoy taking money from this man even more for his underestimation of her.
Aang noticed the change, ‘Something must be going on here…’ but he said nothing. It was odd, this was the way he had always pictured the woman of his dreams, soft, quiet, shy, beautiful, traditional and kind, but seeing ‘Mai Ling’ act that way was disturbing. He missed the girls, and now he missed the real ‘Mai Ling’. Aang didn’t like this imposter with her face. Aang wanted to say something to bring the brash, strong woman he knew back. Yet he kept his mouth shut. He was too curious as to why she was acting thus.
‘Mai Ling’ put a small drawstring coin purse on the short table. “I’ll wager one silver piece to test this luck you say I may have.” She opened the purse and felt a coin more than it was necessary for her to tell it was a silver piece, she did so to allow the man to look inside and see all the coins about half of which were gold pieces. There were a few copper pieces too. She knew to a man like him the temptation would be great and he would let her win the first hand so that on the second or third hand he could take her for all she had. That was just the way his type worked. She knew the game well.
Aang thought that she was just throwing away the money, he didn’t know her plan. But he didn’t say anything. It was her money.
To Aang’s great surprise she won. She won the next game too. Then the man said, “Wow you are so lucky that you could put me out of business! Care to see how that luck holds with a higher wager?”
“A higher wager?” She asked like she didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. “What ever do you mean?”
“Well, little missy, you wager your little bag of coins against my big bag of coins and whoever wins takes them all. I‘m practically giving you this bag of coins.” She pretended to think on what he said.
“I don’t know… Daddy always told me to never wager gold pieces, and I know there are twenty-five gold pieces in my bag…” She acted like she really wanted to say okay even though she knew she shouldn’t.
Aang had had enough. There was no way he would let his blind friend lose all her money to this creep. “Mai Ling…”
She threw her hand up in his face. “Quiet I’m thinking.”
“Mai Ling, I don’t think you should do it. You could lose everything in that bag to the man.”
“That she could but with the way her luck’s been holding I doubt she would.” the con-man said.
“Excuse us.” The Blind Bandit stood up and pulled Aang a little ways away. “Aang, what are you doing?”
“That man is a con artist. One or two coins is okay every now and then, but that’s too much money to risk. You should use that money on food or rent or something useful.”
‘Mai Ling’ rolled her eyes, not that he could see them. “Aang do I tell you how to use your money?”
“No, but…” he shook his head.
“That’s right, I don’t Twinkle-Toes, so don’t tell me how to use mine.” she huffed quietly at him.
The man was watching them, trying to understand what they were whispering.
“Maybe we should consult Jen.” Aang thought maybe the other girl could convince her ‘cousin’ not to be foolish with their money. “Jen!” he called, knowing if he left the younger girl alone she would take the bet.
‘Jen’ and Lily-Lee came running.
“Jen,” Aang was holding onto ‘Mai Ling’s’ arm. “Mai Ling is thinking of betting a large amount of money at this man’s table for a bag that’s probably worth two-thirds what hers is, can’t you talk her out of it?”
Katara knew the only reason the Blind Bandit allowed Aang to hold her arm like that was as to not lose her cover as a helpless blind girl. She almost bit her lip in worry as to how to get ‘Mai Ling’ out of Aang’s arm and back to the table. “Aang, it’s her money. We’ve already paid the rent and I’ve got some set aside for food. She can bet it all if she is so inclined. She is an adult and I cannot stop her. If she loses it all hopefully she will learn not to make such foolhardy bets again.” ‘Jen’ said.
The man at the booth was worried with that many people there the quiet blind girl was sure to be convinced that this was a stupid thing and would just walk away. “What if I make it two bags of silver and ten gold pieces?” he called at them. He really, really wanted her money it was more then he could cheat people out of in a week on a good week.
‘Mai Ling’ smiled and turned to the man. “It’s a deal.”
“What!” said Aang.
“Aang, this is her decision. Let her make it.” said his mother. Lily-Lee was worried too but she knew it was none of her business.
A few seconds later ‘Mai Ling’ grabbed the bags of money even swiping the gold pieces into her palm and rushed passed them. She wrapped one arm through Aang’s and one through Katara’s and ‘Jen’ grabbed Lily-Lee so they all got out of there together.
“I told you not to worry.” puffed ‘Mai Ling’.
“If you won fair and square why did we run away?” asked Mrs. Yong.
“Because sometimes when a blind girl wins a large amount of money they aren’t too happy. Sometimes they refuse to give me my money and sometimes they throw things at me.” she lied so easily.
Lily-Lee Yong asked another question, “You do this often?”
“Sure. It’s fun, and sometimes it gets us the money we need to survive.” They were near a man who had only one leg and was begging in the street, ‘Mai Ling’ dropped three of the gold pieces at his side. She smiled in the direction of the man and nodded.
Aang and his mother looked at each other then at ‘Mai Ling’.
“What? We don’t need all this money.”
“Glad to hear it.” a bulky man stepped in front of them from the shadows and a team of other men joined him. They were street thugs, common and low class. Katara and the Blind Bandit both felt the urge to bend but knew that this would force them to leave the town. A few of the men used this indecision to surround them.
‘Jen’ leaned down towards the Blind Bandit and whispered, “What do we do?”
747474747474747474747474747474747474747474747474747474747474747474747474 7474747474747474747474747474
Hi! I am putting this out in honor of the 4th of July. Do-Do-DoDo_DO-DoDo-Do! Hehehe! Chapter four on the fourth! =D
Thank you to my three reviewers! =O Three! Yay! =D Mannie258, allyonshinezutara, and Liontracks. Thank you so much! Ps. Liontracks, Zuko is coming I swear! Just a chapter or two more…
Thank you all for reading and big thanks to my reviewers!
Ps. FYI I am doing a little seven pieces of art for Zutara inspired by 7 words. The words are Winsome, Old-Fashioned, Scenery, Extirpate, Cahoots, Virtuosity and Genteel. To hear more about it go to my http:// opal-dreams . deviantart . com/ (Minus the spaces). If you would like to join they can be stories or art. My goal is to have them done by the 11th but you can get them done at any time… I might not have my own up in time because our scanner is down and I don’t know how to find the scanner on the computer with my parents’ new programming. *Sigh*
Please Review if you like this story, if you don’t have an idea of what to put you can say what you favorite part in the story and/or the chapter is, you can wish me luck, or just say how much you like it. And if you must say something bad about it please put it in a helpful way thanks.
Bye for now!