Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction ❯ When Ice and Lava Meet ❯ The Fire Cherub Flys Away ( Chapter 6 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
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 Six

Katara already knew her next objective that night she would target a man in the Chan District. This man was an art dealer by day, an art thief by night. In the Hide District, where Katara and the Blind Bandit lived, there was a young man who risked everything to escape his drunken father. He followed his life dream of being a painter. Then this man stole his only painting, The Fire Cherub. The pour painter couldn’t afford more paints or canvases without the funds his piece may have brought him. It may have even gotten him a patron. Now he would be stuck in the poorest district in this crummy city.
The Painted Lady would not allow this injustice.
This time after dressing and trailing fog all the way to the area she needed to be the thumps were heard only by the owner and a few of his neighbors. It was so the Blind Bandit and the Painted Lady wouldn’t always have to work together. Each night the Blind Bandit would bend her element quieter and quieter until it made no sense for her to bend the earth to her will.
This night the neighboring households gathered around as close as they dare to the woman gliding down the street. They watched her float up the steps, she was fairly certain spirits did not walk up steps. The door was locked but that held her back very little. She waved her arms to gather silver strands of water. She moved in a way that the water wouldn’t shine in the moonlight and draw the attention of the bystanders. The Painted Lady pressed her hand to the lock, forcing the water inside it. Then she froze the water. Water expands when it freezes, and this expansion exploded the lock.
The Painted Lady smiled at the awe that echoed behind her. Tiny fragments of the lock landed at the feet of a child. The child picked up the four freezing metal pieces. They would be her treasure. Her father was a blacksmith and he would incorporate them into a pendant for her. The little girl gazed up at the fringe of fabric and smoke that disappeared into the home of the ‘mean man’ with admiration.
The ‘mean man’ was hiding in his room under his covers like a scared kid. This man was just five years older than Katara and unmarried so he lived alone. It was so easy it should have been a crime for such a pitiful man to be such a powerful art dealer. Katara went through the house. Any painting he had that he didn’t have a written agreement with the artist she took. She’d find out where all the people were later. The Fire Cherub was hanging in a place of honor in his salon. It was there so all his guests could see his priceless work of unknown origin.
Katara used water-bending to harden the stem of a Panda-Lily. She then proceeded to fling it into the very spot where The Fire Cherub had been. The Panda-Lily bobbed on its stem. The flower seemed to be waving goodbye to the pretty girl. She in turn nodded to the Panda-Lily.
The Painted Lady shifted out the house, the crowd was larger, waiting for a glimpse of her. She nodded at them like she had the flower. Then the ground disappeared just under her and she was gone again.
When she met up with the Blind Bandit the Painted Lady whispered, “A few more nights of this and the legend will sustain itself for a while…”
“Yes.” The blind girl led the way through the tunnel that was slowly filling behind them. “Katara… I thought you went in for one painting.”
“I did. There were others that didn’t belong to that man, so I took them too. We can find out who they really belong to later.”
The Blind Bandit nodded. There were gossips all over the city, the trick was finding the right one and being crafty enough to get them to reveal the information without drawing suspicion. It was another game and she loved games, she excelled at games of high society like that one. Even if she distained high society in general. The snobs that snub anyone they think may be beneath them, the luxurious living with no thought of how anyone else was living made her sick. Not all the rich were that way, just the ones she and her parents knew that was why they never introduced her to anyone if they could help it.
Katara felt the air shift moods; there was a twanging sadness there. “Blind Bandit, are you alright?”
“Of course, Sugar-Queen.”
‘Sugar-Queen’ didn’t believe her but she let it go. They arrived at the place they would return the painting. Katara didn’t bother to conger much mist; she would be entering the shack through a large hole in the side.
She set the painting at the man’s feet. He was asleep and by the looks of it having a nightmare. The Painted Lady placed her hand on his brow. She murmured about watching cute animals play until he was soothed.
Then she left.
The market rang with the newest adventures of the Painted Lady again. The general moral of the city lifted. There were a few people who feared they may be next and became extra cautious. So crime also began to decline. Just as there were those who thought to be extra careful there were those who thought themselves out of the Painted Lady’s league. Thus everyone was happily awaiting the next strike of the Painted Lady. The city police were concerned with the capture of the gentlewoman thief.
The young man was able to get a buyer for the painting. A romantic young woman, the daughter of the mayor, had caught the Painted Lady craze. She got her father to buy her that painting, and because the Painted Lady was now associated with it he got the price a famous artist would have gotten for one of his paintings. And the mayor’s daughter liked his work so well she became his patron of the arts.
Yes, most of the changes in this city were for the better.

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Hi Everyone! I was going to have this out days ago but I didn’t have time. The Scanner is still being a pain! So my Zutara Seven is still sitting in my backpack waiting to be uploaded. So please someone do one of my words and make me feel better.
Zutara Week’s coming!
Thank you all my reviewers, Liontracks, Mannie258, allyonshinezutara (deviantART), and ArrayePL (fan fiction(.)). Thank you all!
ArrayePL said “I like the way you introduced Iroh and Zuko, but I’m not sure if they could hide out in the Fire Nation under their real names given Zuko’s scar. I mean the authorities would have warrants with their pictures on them. So someone could recognize Zuko.” This is a good point, one that could have put a hole in my plot if it weren’t for the fact that I have yet to explain what really happened to ANYONE that brought them to hide in the Fire Nation. (At lease I haven’t explained in detail, but I will.) I assure you ArrayePL that I have a plan in action that will cover this hole splendidly (I hope.) And I’m not completely sure that the Fire Nation authorities would have pictures of people who they don’t know has returned …. (The rest of this thought must be bleeped out to keep from revealing to much of the plot.) It is likely that they have a book or file with their pictures in it. I would also like to point out that changing his name would make little difference with the authorities using pictures. I hope this clears things up, at least a little, without reveling what is to come. Thank you for pointing this out, I knew there was something that I needed to put in a Quick Fact Note in Chapter Five but by the time I got to that point I had forgotten what it was.
Thanks for reading, please review. Write again soon I hope.