Fifth Nation and New Companions

"How long will it take until we arrive to the territory of the Earth Kingdom?"

Nero looked at Qin Yang, who was currently waterbending his way to the Earth Kingdom.

That's right, they were currently atop a wave that was controlled by Qin Yang, heading towards north.

Since they didn't have the knowledge to build a ship, Qin Yang decided to train his waterbending and cross the sea using a wave.

Although it was uncomfortable, it was much faster than a ship.

"At our speed, we will most likely reach land in a day." The young multi-element bender Qin Yang answered without much care.

"A day?!" Nero wanted to complain, but he quickly remembered who the person in front of him was and quickly shut his mouth.

Qin Yang naturally noticed, but he didn't care. It wasn't like there was another way they could rest. The moment he stopped waterbending, they'd immediately fall in the water.

It wasn't like it was all that bad, it was helping him increase his waterbending experience points and maybe it would increase in level when they arrive.

"Look! There's a ship!" Nero immediately noticed a ship on the far east. "Maybe we can ask for a ride with them?" Nero looked at his leader with hopeful eyes.

Qin Yang nodded, "Alright." He immediately 'steered' the wave underneath them and headed into the ship's direction.

...

"Look, captain there's a waterbender to our west! And he's coming towards us!" A man with a bandana tied to his head called out to the tall man beside him.

The captain squinted his eyes. His rough voice sounded. "Let them come and then capture them. A waterbender with exotic hair and a good-looking face would catch a very high price in the slave market. As for his companion, kill him." The captain turned around and shouted at his crew.

"Prepare the benders! A waterbender in their natural area is a troublesome person to deal with."

...

Qin Yang and Nero soon arrived beside the ship and without caring about the passengers' opinion, Qin Yang immediately controlled the water, making them land on the ship's deck.

Qin Yang didn't say anything and looked at Nero. He immediately understood what he meant and went forward to introduce them both.

"Nice to meet you, My name is Nero and this is my friend Qin Yang. We were hoping that you could let us sail with yo-" Nero was introducing them both and telling them about their intentions when he was suddenly cut off by the tall man behind the crew.

"Enough. Surrender now or be killed." Four men suddenly surrounded them and the rest of the crew threw bags of earth besides them.

Qin Yang's eyes suddenly turned cold. "If that's your intentions, then I will cut your legs and throw you off your own ship."

Nero turned serious and stepped back, he knew that Qin Yang was a person who didn't like getting interrupted and since he was an earthbender in the middle of the ocean, he was of no use.

"Hahaha! Did you hear what that kid said? He's going to cut our legs off and throw us into the ocean!" The rest of the crew started to laugh and insult Qin Yang.

"Listen here kid, we are from the Fifth Nation! Even Avatar Yangchen had to make a treaty with us pirates instead of fighting us because we are the rulers of the Eastern Sea!" The captain started boasting.

"Fifth Nation, I'd love to fight your leaders someday." Qin Yang grinned crazily at them. "Unfortunately, you won't be there to see me kill them."

Swish! Swish!

Qin Yang suddenly swept his feet downward and sent wind slashes to the pirates' legs.

"H-Huh?" One of the pirates felt a sharp pain in his leg and looked down, only to see it parting from his torso.

"Agh!" Screams sounded around the ship. More pirates came out from inside the ship and saw the horrifying scene.

"What are you useless benders doing! Kill them!" The captain instantly knew that he had messed with the wrong people.

The four people who had surrounded Qin Yang were two earthbenders and firebenders. The two earthbenders quickly tried to make a wall around themselves, but Qin Yang was much faster.

Swoosh!

Water suddenly rose up beside the ship and tied their arms and legs. The firebenders tried to resist but they were no match for the ocean.

Swish!

Four air blades suddenly appeared and cut their legs off.

"Argh!!" The men screamed in pain while the other pirates watched in shock, including their captain that 'realized' who Qin Yang was.

"The Avatar! He's the Avatar!" The captain tried to run away, but he suddenly felt his legs go cold and then he dropped down. He looked at his legs and screamed.

"My legs! My legs are gone!" He screamed like a pig being slaughtered.

Qin Yang was immediately annoyed with him and used his waterbending skills to pick him up and his legs, immediately throwing him off the deck for the animals to eat.

Qin Yang turned around and saw the frozen crew who was looking at him like he was a monster that crawled out from hell.

He showed a creepy grin.

"This is going to be fun."

...

"Qin Yan, we're almost near the shores of the territory of the Earth Kingdom. Where will we go after we land?" Nero looked at his ruthless leader.

"That should be a river just ahead. We follow it and might lead us to a human settlement." Qin Yang didn't memorize every place in the Avatar map and the pirates didn't exactly have a map for the mainland, so he decided to use the most primitive way of finding people.

However, he was sure that this was close to the abandoned mining town of Tu Zin, the place where the Avatar and his gang, along with Zuko and Iroh fought Azula. It was the place where Iroh got injured as well. It was located west of the Xishaan Mountains and north of the Zeizhou Province.

Nero only nodded at his answer. It wasn't like he had a better plan.

After crashing the ship to the shore, they immediately abandoned it and only took the resources with them. All of the loot was inside Qin Yang's storage ring and everything was managed. Time inside the ring didn't exist, meaning that food won't go bad inside. The inside of the ring was organized and split into several areas for the earth, water, food, and necessities.

The pirates even had quite a large chest filled with Earth Kingdom coins so that takes care of their money problems should they encounter one.

"Let's go, we should find a settlement or have a place to stay before night arrives." Qin Yang chose the fastest way they could travel, by water.

Just like his classical way of traveling overseas, he immediately made a wave of water and they both jumped on it. The wave set off, following the river.

...

Qin Yang looked at the end of the river path in front of him with lazy eyes. While Nero was clenching his teeth in distress.

"Hey Nero." Qin Yang kept looking at the river.

"Hey Qin Yang." Nero answered back with grief in his eyes.

"There aren't any settlements."

"There isn't a single settlement around master."

"Hey Nero?" Qin Yang yawned and sniffed around like a dog.

Nero: ???

"I smell smoke, towards the direction of northwest." Qin Yang crouched and touched the ground. "It's a small camp of five, judging from their footprints, it's two adult men, a boy about your age and an adult woman."

Nero was looking at Qin Yang with admiration in his eyes. No matter how much Nero observed Qin Yang listening to the earth, he never ceased to be impressed by his skills.

...

Qin Yang and Nero were currently standing in front of the five people who were observing him. And in return, Qin Yang observed them back.

As someone who could slightly see the energy in them, Qin Yang deduced that they were all waterbenders, although he didn't know how to distinguish someone from the Northern Water Tribe and the southern one.

Although Nero had introduced them both, the people didn't say anything and the two adult men were looking at each other.

Qin Yang was getting a bit impatient so he started to speak. "You people are waterbenders. What are waterbenders doing in this place, far away from the two tribes?"

The four were surprised at his remark, but one of them was clearly displeased. The young man among their group scoffed at Qin Yang. "Lucky guess! How about you two? Why is an earthbender and a firebender together? You must be spies!"

Qin Yang shook his head. 'Another one who judges people by their clothes.' He was still after all wearing the same red clothes he woke up with, therefore it wouldn't be wrong that people mistook him for a Fire Nation person, but can't the idiot see that he was wearing the clothes of Earth Kingdom citizens as well?

"What, can't say anything because I'm right aren't I?" Seeing that the young man wasn't answering, he got even more cocky. Although they had no particular grudge, Qin Yang was handsome and seemed like a charismatic person, as a useless person, he was jealous of this kind.

Qin Yang wasn't a person who would accept insults and immediately waved his hand, making the nearby puddle turn into an ice spike which pointed towards the young man's throat.

"You're a waterbender!" The other three exclaimed at the same time. They were deeply impressed with Qin Yang's skill as well. He had good control over water and looked at ease as he controlled it.

Qin Yang didn't speak but he nodded at them.

The two adult men walked forward and introduced themselves.

The tall and slightly buff man spoke first. "My name is Feron I am from the Northern Water Tribe and this is my wife Yumi. Yumi is from the Southern Water Tribe."

The woman nodded her head and didn't say anything else.

Then the long haired man introduced himself. "My name is Li Rong, from the Northern Water Tribe, and that is my son Li Yan."

Qin Yang nodded at them but still had some questions. "Now tell me, what are you guys doing in Earth Kingdom territory?"

Feron gave a light laugh. "You can say me and Li Yan are envoys sent by the Northern Water Tribes a year ago. However we had to take a longer route by ground in the Earth Kingdom because the Fire Nation colonies completely blocked our path.

My wife decided to join us because she wanted to see her homeland once more and bring our daughter someday to meet her family. Li Yan brought his son so that he may get some experience."

"I see..." Qin Yang finally got his question answered.

"C-Can you please remove this now?" Li Yan, who was still stuck in the corner with the ice spike a few inches away from his throat.

"Tch, weren't you acting all cocky earlier? Seems like you aren't strong enough to break my ice and waterbend your way out of it." Qin Yang complained, nevertheless still freed him, melting the ice.

Li Yan sighed and relief and glared at Qin Yang, but he didn't dare insult him again. Qin Yang noticed this but he was too lazy to care about it.

"Can you tell us about yourself?" Feron looked at the two curiously. "Where are you both from?"

Qin Yang didn't see any harm in telling them about this therefore he shared some information. "I lived in the Eastern Air Temple in the land of the Air Nomads and he lives in an Earth Kingdom village near it."

"What were you doing there in the temple? Wasn't that abandoned a long time ago? Where are your parents?" Feron showered Qin Yang more questions.

"I was training there with someone who saved me, however he had passed away already. My parents have died a long time ago." He shrugged.

"Oh, I'm sorry. How would you like to travel with us? It'll be nice to have some new faces among our group." Feron scratched his head.

"Don't be sorry, I don't need sympathy. As for traveling, I see no problem with that, however we also have our own destination. If you're planning to go to the Southern Water Tribe, then you'll most likely sail from Kyoshi Island to the territory of the Southern Water Tribe.

We haven't decided which path to take yet so it's still unknown whether we'll part in Gaoling."

Feron was a bit surprised at the boy's knowledge in geography but he still nodded. "If it's alright to ask, where are you both headed?"

Qin Yang shrugged and answered calmly.

"Fire Nation territory."