Cherreads

Chapter 87 - 87 - Stealing from the fire nation

Crescent Island, fire nation territory, the space distorted as Levi appeared there, looking around, the place was nothing as he remembered it, the pagodas and Roku's temple were nowhere to be seen, and the only clue of what was here before was the wreckage strewn all around.

[Quest - Fix the mistakes of your friend.

Your companion, the mighty dark dragon Acnologia, has consumed the entire population of the northern pole marine life, replenishing it so that the northern tribe can continue to exist.

Objective 1: Replenish the marine life in the North Pole.

Objective 2: Transport more than 10 species of fish back to the North Pole.

Objective 3: Complete the quest in one day.

Reward 1: +10.000 System points

Reward 2: ???

Reward 3: ???]

Seeing the Quest instead of being glad that he was getting something out of his work, Levi's face turned dark. It seemed Acnologia's mess up was so big that it had even generated a quest from the system, and worst of all, the shameless system was praising his stupid dragon for it.

He also started sweating a little reading the description, it seemed the northern water tribe relied too much on their fishing to survive, as even the system implied they might not continue to exist if he didn't replenish the marine life.

"Alright let's do this," he said as he cracked his fingers and dived into the ocean surrounding Cresnet Island like a bullet.

With his night vision, Levi could see under the water the same as if it were a clear day on land, if not better, and with his water bending his was even better than a fish in water, so it didn't take him long to find his first target, a school of sardines moving away from him.

Using water bending and stealth Levi approached them undetected before waving his hand storing them all in his inventory, the poor sardines didn't even have a chance to react before they were yanked from there.

Finding another school of fish swimming nearby, Levi stored them and teleported back to the north pole, releasing them below the ocean, his inventory was already quite full or he would have brought more of them along, 'Ha-ah, this is going to take a while.' said Levi sighing as he teleported back to crescent Island, sadly his void monarch wasn't high enough level for him to directly teleport the fish to the north pole.

***

Walking in the streets of the northern water tribe Sokka couldn't help but feel depressed, Aang and Katara were practicing their water bending with Pakku and Levi was nowhere to be seen, and the princess he was chasing all along seemed to be pushed further from him by an invisible force, he was left alone and he didn't know what to do, except for going out on a walk.

"Hey there, you are a friend of the Avatar aren't you." a voice came from behind him as he was walking on top of a small bridge, breaking him out of his self-pity as he jumped in fright, thankfully he was quick-witted enough to not start swinging or else it would have ended badly as the voice came from none other than the princess of the northern water tribe herself.

The one he had been relentlessly chasing these past couple of days with no luck, just when he gave up she appeared right behind him with two of her guards standing on both sides of her with neutral expressions.

"P...P...Princess Yue, what a nice surprise to run into you here," said Sokka trying to keep himself composed and failing miserably, making Yue laugh while covering her mouth.

He had been looking for a chance to talk to her for ages now but due to his rotten luck he never succeeded but it seems his luck was turning around.

"I was taking a walk to calm my mind, I wouldn't mind some company," she said with a beautiful smile on her face making Sokka blush and stare at her, "You're not interested?" it seemed he had been staring at her for too long as she asked uncertainty.

"No...no, I mean yes I am very much interested," said Sokka, stumbling on his words as he ran to her side.

"Hehe, let's go then, I'll show you around," said Yue sweetly as she held Sokka's elbow and they walked away, her guards following them some distance away and keeping a close look on them.

***

Fire nation territory, below the ocean.

Levi suddenly stopped chasing after a large octopus as he looked around, 'Why do I suddenly have a bad feeling as if I had forgotten something,' he wondered as he looked around, 'Well it can't be that important if I had forgotten it,' he concluded before he teleported in front of the octopus and stored it.

Like that Levi kept collecting any marine life he found in the Fire Nation territory until it was night, the marine life near Crescent Island had run out by midday so he had to venture further into the Fire Nation territory, he was now on their borders below the ocean, by night the marine life in the north pole was replenished and was even richer than before, of course Levi had avoided bringing any predators like sharks, killer whales, and others.

At last, his quest completion notifications came along.

[Quest - Fix the mistakes of your friend - Completed.

Your companion, the mighty dark dragon Acnologia, has consumed the entire population of the northern pole marine life, replenishing it so that the northern tribe can continue to exist.

Objective 1: Replenish the marine life in the north pole - Completed.

Objective 2: Transport more than 10 species of fish back to the North Pole - Completed.

Objective 3: Complete the quest in one day - Completed.

Reward 1: +10.000 System points

Reward 2: Inventory space increase

Reward 3: 10 stat points]

The reward that had been question marks before had turned out to be an increase to his inventory space and stat points, which was a welcome surprise to Levi, he wondered if it was just a coincidence or if the system had seen his struggles of going back and forth hundreds of time between the fire nation's territory and the north pole due to his insufficient inventory space and decided on that reward.

He had also Leveled up Void Monarch by two times which opened even more possibilities for him.

He had tried teleporting hundreds of times before with no results but today he had leveled it up twice in a row, it seemed having a quest had something to do with it, or maybe it was the accumulations from all the previous uses.

***

Next day

Levi's expression was dark as he stood on top of a rooftop watching the scene below of Sokka and Yue laughing and having fun, he remembered what he had forgotten now, but it was too late, he had failed his duty as a professional cockblocker, and it was time for him to retire, he just hoped whatever happened next would serve as a boon for his brother's character development.

He couldn't help but wonder if Acnologia's actions in consuming the entire northern pole marine life were his own choice or if he was influenced by something else, all for the sake of getting Levi away so Sokka and Yue could meet, 'There is no use thinking about it now, that it had already happened,' thought Levi as he turned away and teleported.

While they were staying at the North Pole he decided to visit the spirit realm and level up his spirit body while he was at it, he hoped that by the time it reached level 90, he would get a cool sub-ability.

***

2 days later.

It was morning and Marik was on his ship with his crew and the hired water bender Pa, he had woken up depressed today, he had spent his entire life as a fisherman and didn't know what to do aside from that, the idea of changing his profession had frightened him so much that he laid awake at nights.

But it seemed he had been thinking about it too much as today's haul was richer than he had in years, in fact there were even many new species of fish around on his boat, and with today's haul he'd make enough money to cover the previous failed one plus have more money to spare.

In fact there were so many fish swimming around in the waters of the North Pole that he could see them from above the boat, the ocean was filled with fish, life was good.

***

Five days after the North Pole marine life disappeared and reappeared for reasons nobody knows.

Fire Nation - Fire lord palace 

The fire lord sat on his throne with his eyes closed, sitting on a high pedestal with a scribe wearing red fire nation colors kneeling before him with his head down, he had a nervous look and sweat falling down his face, banners with the fire nation emblem lined the walls on the sides and the wall right behind him.

"My lord we have a problem," said the scribe, finally breaking the suffocating silence.

"Speak," said Ozai in a cold tone sending a shiver down the scribe's spine.

"My lord, I just received reports on the recent fishing trips…"

"You've come to me about reports on fishing trips?" asked Fire Lord Ozai, interrupting him, his tone one of disbelief, Fire started coming to life all around him before disappearing, making one think that it was all an illusion.

"No my lord, I wouldn't dare, but this is too important." said the scribe shivering with sweat running down the side of his face more than before, seeing that he received no reply from the fire lord he continued, "All our fishing boats had come back empty handed the last couple of days my lord, even the big ones equipped with the latest technology, if things keep going like this we would have trouble feeding the army, and we might have to resort to other sources." 

Hearing him even Ozai's expression changed, this was indeed something worthy of his attention, "Give me the report." he said as the scribe ran over to him and handed him the report before running back to his kneeling position, looking through the detailed pages of the report Ozai could see that it was exactly how his scribe had described, it was truly worrisome, and unbelievable!

"Have you investigated the problem?" 

"Yes my lord, but…" said the scribe hesitating.

"Spit it out," said Ozai, frowning his brows in annoyance, the scribe's cowardness and indecisiveness were starting to get on his nerves, he didn't know why he was stuttering on every sentence, he couldn't help but think of burning him alive later and replace him with someone more fitting for the job.

"Y…yes my lord, it is like someone had stolen all our marine life, there is barely any trace left," said the scribe praying in his heart this does not provoke the ire of the fire lord, he knew how ridiculous it sounded, but all his investigations bore no results this was all he had to say, for some reason he felt that this was the more likely scenario.

"Humph Idiot, " said Ozai in a disdainful voice, the scribe almost fainted hearing that, "It's most likely that a dangerous predator had moved into our waters, possibly more than one, and had scared the marine life away, send three Battalions to scour the ocean and eliminate the threats if you find them, as for the shortage of food just collect more from the farmers, we're at war and they should fulfill their duty to the fire nation."

"My lord…" the scribe spoke instinctively before stopping mid-sentence as his face turned pale in horror, he wanted to protest, to say that the farmers were already stretched too thin and they could barely feed themselves but he held himself in the last second, he knew the consequences he would suffer if the fire lord didn't like what he said.

"What is it?" asked the fire lord, frowning.

"That is a great idea my lord I'll see to it right away," said the scribe only getting a node from Ozai as he turned around to leave, when he was out of the throne room he couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief, 'That was too close.' he thought, his back soaked in sweat.

His name was Rakan and he was the longest-living scribe of the fire lord, holding this post for one full month by now, the ones before him never exceeding fifteen days. 

What was supposed to be the most prestigious of jobs was now a death trap that everyone was doing their best to avoid, sadly for him he was selected after the scribe before him "disappeared mysteriously", he hated his job and wanted to quit, but didn't dare to, he had seen what had happened to his predecessors who tried that.

The only reason he was alive right now was that he was excellent at his job, making the Firelord reluctant to burn him alive even if he wanted to, unfortunately, that also meant that he always had to step on his toes when he was around the fire lord, always afraid of being reduced to ashes, every meeting was like going to his execution on his two legs, sometimes he wondered if death would have been better for him.

When he thought of the moment when he had been about to oppose the fire lord he almost fainted right there, but he was thankful it all ended up well, the scribes before him weren't as lucky as him. 

'Rakan you Idiot, of course it was a predator, why would you even think of something like that, and who's even capable of doing that sort of crazy thing,' Rakan thought back on his suggestion as he walked the halls of the fire palace, his face flushed red at suggesting something like their marine life being stolen to the fire lord, he wanted to slap himself for that, previous scribes had been incinerated for way less. Unknown to him and Fire lord Ozai, they were so close to the real answer.

***

AN: First look at Ozai and the Fire Nation, and apparently not all Fire Nation citizens are pleased with Ozai's rule. I wonder why? Sadly no one can do anything about it, I wonder how this would affect the story later on.

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