Mr cabbage man
"Stupid damn machine," I said, kicking it again out of annoyance. Well, kicking the wheels. If I actually kicked the thing, I'd probably be bouncing up on one leg in pain because the metal was more likely to injure me than I was to injure it.
I looked at the machine with annoyance. I had bought it last year—a new technology, steam-powered, on a smaller mechanism with a couple of wheels, allowing me to transport a few wagons behind it. It was supposed to take my cabbage business into the next era. Instead, I was on the side of the road trying to fix the damn thing because something was wrong. What was wrong, I didn't know. I barely understood these machines. Nothing like the world changing all around you to make you feel damn old.
"Hey, Dad," my son called as he came up the road. "You didn't get very far, did you?"
"No, I did not. This stupid machine you suggested we get broke down again."
"Yeah, that's because you forgot to top off the fuel container again," he said, sighing as he moved around to one side. Opening the side compartment, he pulled off his backpack and dumped in what appeared to be a lot of black stones. After shutting it, he turned the switch three times, and finally, something ignited, and I heard the distinctive sound of fire burning.
"Why can this new technology not just stay simple? The Earth is simple. You put seeds in it, let the world water them, and you grow cabbages. These damn machines are not simple. They are wasting time. I could have just had one of our animals pull one of these carts there and back again in the course of a day."
"Yeah, but then you would have made less profit overall than just dumping a bunch of coal into this machine and letting it carry three carts to the market," he said matter-of-factly before sighing. "Where are you going, anyway? You didn't really explain what this trip is about. You made enough money on the trip to the nearby town, and I doubt they're in need of more cabbages."
I smiled at that before saying, "Well, of course, they don't need more cabbages. I sold them all the cabbages they'll ever need, at least until the next time I come there and sell them more. But the new railroad from that town has just opened, which means I could load these carts onto one of those flat-top cargo containers and take them to the capital and sell them there."
"You're going to go all the way to the capital?" my son asked, raising an eyebrow. "Are you sure that's wise? The place does tend to be a bit... odd, to say the least."
"Yes, yes, I've been there before. I'm aware of their oddities and the things that probably aren't widely spoken about in that city," I said, shaking my head. "But the profit from it should be quite good for the family. Cabbages aren't really something that makes it to that city. The profits from such an expedition should be more than enough to keep us going for a few years."
I said this happily as my son looked me over before saying, "And what if that parasitical worm made it into your cabbage wagon? Don't they close the gate and check those wagons to make sure they're not on it?"
"Bah, don't worry about such things, son. I already have a plan for that. They use some of that new wonder bug killer that's been cooked up. Supposedly, it's food-safe and will get rid of the parasites. It should be easy to get our cart through the front door."
"Hmm, I'm not sure, Dad. I think I should come with you to make sure things don't go sideways like that one time."
"That was a completely random situation. It's not my fault that boulder fell from the side of the mountain and crushed my cart of cabbages. That was just bad luck."
"And how about the time before that when those rebels from the Fire Empire held you up and burned your cabbages?"
"Completely random. It won't happen again. The roads are safe now, and I'll be on a railroad—the safest way to travel in this new world."
"And how about the time before that when you tried to take a boat trip to the Fire Empire's colonies to sell cabbages, and a sea monster nearly sank the ship you were on until it decided to smash its head on the top of the ship and eat your cabbage cart?"
"Son, what are you implying? Are you saying I'm bad luck, that things just happen around me to make life miserable? I'll have you know that if not for my hard work, you wouldn't be living under a very nice house roof and would be doing ten times the work if not for the effort I put into getting tech like this," I said, knocking the side of the steam engine.
"I'm just saying that it's kind of a thing that out of every ten expeditions or so, one of your carts ends up smashed. I'm just a little concerned that you're taking three carts on a very far expedition, which seems like asking the law of averages to have something horrible happen," my son said, putting his hands up and explaining something that actually kind of made sense. I scratched my chin before saying,
"You may have a point, son. But by that same logic, if I do have any issues and lose some of these carts, well, that just means I can jack up the price by three because it was such a dangerous road here."
My son sighed, and I simply stepped up onto the machine, giving him a thumbs-up as I said, "I'll be back in no time, son. See you in a week."
"See you in a week, Dad," he said, waving as I drove away at a walking pace. He turned and left, walking back towards the farm. I didn't relax, reminding myself that I needed to refill the coal bunker on the side of the cart when I got to town just to make sure I had enough fuel for this trip.
It didn't take long for my wagon to reach the town—only an hour of time to myself as I enjoyed the countryside, happy with its peaceful look. Other farmers were working in the fields, using newfound angle technology that had been created in the last decade or so, all thanks to the ingenuity of the new Earth Empress.
Oh sure, the story was that she didn't invent the technology, but it came into being under her reign, so she got the credit. Even if some of the technology theoretically existed before, I had seen some attempts to build machines to do the work for us in the past. They never went very far, though. Hard to see how, but the power of steam was new, and since it was new, it could be applied to machinery that didn't work properly in the past.
Although I didn't know it, nothing solved the initial crisis that was this season when you needed workers that slowly relied on human manpower. Sure, there were a few machines to help harvest stuff, but mostly you just needed people to come from wherever they lived to help harvest your fields. It had been a rough time the last few decades. First, the invasion from the Fire Kingdom, then the counter-fighting between the future Empress and the Fire Kingdom, and then the kingdom and the future Empress. Lots of good men died. I was lucky that my kids had stayed out of that stupidity. A lot of farmland had gone fallow because their kids ran off to join one side of the war or the other, including a few divisions that even hooked up with the Fire Empire. That had been a mistake for those kids. I could see why they did it. Heck, I understood it completely. It really looked like our kingdom was on its way out, soon to be replaced by territorial control by the Fire Kingdom. So why not work with the Fire Kingdom to get oneself secured? After all, the fewer people who fought the Fire Kingdom, the more nomads and Airbenders had been exterminated from what I understood, though that wasn't exactly true.
Sure, all the Airbenders had been exterminated, but I was of the opinion that a few of the nomads probably made it to the mainland and intermingled with the population. They were stories of people just trying to survive and exist in a world where the islands were now controlled by the Fire Kingdom.
Bad, but what could you do, I thought, as my tractor rolled up to the train station. Already, I saw several other merchants who had apparently gotten my exact idea and were purchasing flat cars for their wagons of various fruits and vegetables. Thankfully, no cabbages. I would corner the market, then, I thought as I brought the vehicle to a stop and stepped off, quickly stepping forward to the train operating staff.
"Good afternoon," I said with a smile, pointing to my cart. "I need to buy a seat on that train and rent one of your flat cars for my cabbage carts."
The staff looked past me before asking, "Where exactly are you going?"
"The capital, of course. That's where this train goes, does it not? All railroads lead to the capital."
They looked at each other before nodding, "Yeah, but have you had your cart checked for parasites?"
I smiled before saying, "Well, no, but I've used special brew from the new anti-parasite company. You know, the stuff that's supposed to kill them all."
"Hmm, bring out the dog!" the man yelled, and a large gentleman brought out a canine creature that was sniffing the ground. He took it to my first cart, and nothing happened. Giving a thumbs-up, he moved to the second cart. That one also had nothing. When they made it to the third cart, though, the canine creature started barking profusely.
"Oh, that's not good. You know what to do," he said, giving a thumbs-up. The large man reached onto his back, pulled out a massive club, and raised it up into the air, smashing it down on my cart, destroying it.
"Why did you destroy it?" I said, turning to the staff, who shrugged.
"The rules are that you need to destroy the cabbages. Hoh is very good at doing that."
"I can see that," I said before turning on him. "You just destroyed my crop and my wagon! Crap, fine. I would have preferred not that, but why the wagon?"
"The wagon doesn't meet the new specifications," a female member of the staff said, handing me a piece of paper. "Wagons that are allowed to go on the flat tops have to meet these specifications. We're allowing wagons to be grandfathered in that are found to be without parasites, but ones that are with parasites are destroyed at our expense." She then handed me a small purse of money. "This should pay for a new modern wagon that'll do better in the future."
I looked at the money and the paper, completely annoyed with this industrialized nonsense. I sighed, saying, "Okay, I'll handle that when I get home," sliding the money into a side pouch on my clothing.
"Fine, can I have the tickets and the paperwork for getting the remaining two wagons on board?" I asked.
"Yes, sorry," the first member of the staff said, quickly writing out the paperwork and handing it to me, along with the ticket.
"Have a good day, sir," he said as I mumbled, walking over to my wagons to make sure they put them and my cart aboard carefully. I watched them do their job for a bit. Once I was sure everything was safely aboard, I got onto the rear train car cabin.
I sighed as I took a seat, allowing myself to overlook several of the carts, including the ones that belonged to me, and relaxed. Sure, I lost one cart, but I could just raise the price on the other two, make my money, and be on my way home. Maybe make sure to buy two new modern carts so they wouldn't just destroy my stuff randomly. That way, I could also sell the old carts to people who weren't going to be getting on the train and make a little bit of profit. Or I could keep them and just use them for when I wanted to only bring stuff to the station to sell to the people in town. Many options. I pondered for a good five minutes before the train started up, and we started moving off toward the capital. I hadn't been there in a good six months. I wondered how it had changed. It used to be rather unchanging in structure, but the Empress of the Earth Empire was one for modernizations. It was always improving the city from a distance, or at least had a staff of people who loved to improve the city. Either way, the place was always growing, becoming more and more modernized, and more and more a key capital to the people.
I relaxed before I heard a shot, snapping out of my relaxed position. I watched as bandits came riding up next to the train. Immediately, gunfire started coming from the first car, which was probably mostly owned by the military, as individuals tried to come crawling out of it.
Gunfire immediately erupted from the bandits toward the first car, and the military personnel in the first cars were defending themselves and our train.
I just stayed low, though, and watched. Of course, things went badly for my cabbages. One of the bandits was a Firebender and unleashed a wave of fire directly into the last car in the line, setting it ablaze and issuing black smoke that made it harder for the army to defend the train. The firing from the bandits continued, as did the shots from the defenders. After a bit, though, the bandits boarded the train and engaged in hand-to-hand combat in the forward cars. I thought maybe things would not be so bad, and then I saw the flaming cart get thrown over the side. I watched it tumble and smash to shreds on the side of the tracks. My cabbages! I bemoaned, wondering if perhaps my son was right. Perhaps my cabbages were cursed… If that was true, then any trip that had more than three carts would end in disaster. I might want to make sure in the future to only bring one, I thought, my face in my hands, hoping beyond hope that somehow, someway, the one cart at the front of the train that I still had would not go over the side like the other. Hopefully, my hauler device would be in perfectly good working order when we got to the city as well.
Eekusi
"Careful, careful," I called as we carefully craned up a load of fish onto the deck, slowly moving it into position over the hold before pressing the button that would release one side of the net, causing it to fall into the hole and dump the fish into a tank that would keep them relatively fresh. There was enough water in there, though I doubted they'd live for long. This was the last haul of the day anyway, so we'd be heading back to Firebender territory soon.
"Great haul today," the newbie called as he looked over the side of the vessel. "Can't wait to get back to the home islands. Still not used to being out on the water for this long."
I chuckled as I made my way up the metal railing and stairs to the area he was looking over, a small section that peaked above the main hull to break the waves as we moved through the water.
"You'll get used to it," I said, patting him on the shoulder. "We all do in time. Looking over the side, I said, "It's a lot better nowadays, now that the government isn't so focused on the war."
The kid looked over the side before asking, "What do you mean?"
I laughed before kicking downward with my leg at the metal floor of the hull. "Kid, this is an industrialized piece of machinery created for getting fish for the home islands. Do you know when this was invented?"
He shrugged, and I laughed before saying, "It was invented 50 years ago. Some guy wanted to bring in more fish to feed the islands and the colonies, so he figured out a way to do it. However, he couldn't get funding for the damn thing because, guess what, all the metal needed to go to the war effort. Now the war is over, we get these nice modern ships that allow us to bring in much more profit and feed all the families back home. Life is better as a result."
"Oh, okay, that makes sense," the kid said with a nod before adding, "So, did you serve in the war? My father went to the war and just barely survived, but he never talks about it, and I'm just sort of curious."
I shook my head before signaling to the captain of the vessel that we were clear so we could start moving the ship back towards port.
"Hi, kid. Nah, thankfully I had the fisherman job, and the government was at least smart enough at the time to realize that if we sent all the fishermen to the front lines, who would bring in the fish to feed the people? Granted, we were bringing in fish at like 1/10th the amount we bring in now, but still, we needed a lot of fish back then. Looking down at the hold, I said, "Thinking about it, the amount of fish inside this thing would probably have taken a whole 2 to 3 months to stock up on."
"Wow, the vessels were that small?" the kid asked, and I laughed before saying, "Smaller than you're probably thinking. This thing's modern. It has a room for us to relax in. Those old vessels, you probably ended up sleeping on the front deck and getting splashed with water all night long. You got used to it, though, because, well, that's what needed to be done to do the job." I chuckled. "You know, I'm so glad the goddamn war is over."
"Mostly," the kid said, looking past me. I turned to see what he was looking at and quickly realized that he was looking at what appeared to be an iron-hulled vessel of military design making its way through the water in our direction.
"Mostly," I agreed as I tapped the kid and said, "Get beneath the deck. I don't know what's going on. I don't see a flag, and that could be a problem. You know what to do if there's a problem, right?"
"Hide in the hold and bring a weapon."
"Attaboy," I said, clapping his shoulder and setting him on his way. I quickly made my way from where I was positioned to the control center of the ship, moving up a pair of metal stairs to the bridge so I could get a better look at the incoming ship.
"Who is it?" the captain yelled, not asking who was at the door, of course. He could see me there; he was asking who I could see.
"Can't tell from here, but they're moving fast through the water. I'd say they're military grade, that's for sure."
"Hopefully just some tax collectors being a little bit nosy, that's all," he said, bringing the ship to a slow pace and pressing a switch that would roll out a signal flag, indicating that we were coming to a halt for whoever was chasing us. We didn't want them to come rushing in under the assumption we were trying to flee.
"Probably, but I don't see a flag of the Empire on them."
"If there's no Fire Nation flag and no Earth Empire flag, we've got a problem. Maybe it's a Water Tribe flag; they do tend to blend into the background a bit."
"Maybe. They're putting out a lot of black smoke, so maybe that's just hiding the flag," I said, trying to spot any of the colors—the green, the red, or the blue. So far, nothing had appeared.
The vessel came to a final slow stop next to us, and I looked across, waiting to see who would appear. Which Imperial Navy was it? Or were we about to have a problem with pirates jumping from their vessel to ours?
I saw the captain hold tightly to the pistol he kept under his coat, always prepared for the worst. Hopefully, he was overprepared today.
Finally, the smoke cleared, and everyone let out a sigh of relief as the red flag of the Empire appeared.
Out of all the options, that was the best. Our own people poking around us was just a sign that they were looking out for us. If it was the green flag of the Earth Empire, that would be a bit of a problem; it could be a political incident in the making because maybe we had strayed over the boundary line of what was considered each other's territory. The blue flag was less of a problem because you could generally just pay them off with a load of fish and they'd leave you be.
After a few moments, an Imperial naval officer appeared, looking over at our vessel before saying, "How's the fishing today, captain?"
The captain smiled and waved, saying, "Fishing's good. I think we're staying inside our territory. Haven't had any problems. We are inside our territory, right?"
The man nodded before saying, "You're inside Empire territory. You are safe from the Earth Kingdom's ambitions. I will note, though, you are close to some of the southern islands that used to belong to the Air Nomads. You are aware of this, correct?"
"Best place for fishing," the captain said before adding, "That's not a problem, right?"
"Well, yes and no," the commander of the military vessel said. "Rumor is that the Avatar has finally appeared, passing through the area rather quickly. My ship has been sent down here to look for them, to try and help them on their way to getting their powers, and, you know, make sure they don't run into any problems."
"Really? I didn't think the Avatar still existed," the captain said before adding, "Let me guess, you're asking if we've seen anything strange or any indications of this person in the area."
"Pretty much. Got no idea where to look, so I figured I'd ask the people who are in the region. The prince is supposed to be in the area too, looking for him, so I think he's going to head further north to search closer to the territory controlled by the Earth Empire."
"Wild and brave. Happy to hear that. We need good, brave princes for the Royal Family," the captain commented before shrugging and saying, "Well, as I said, we haven't seen anything weird. The world is as normal as ever. Just pulling fish from the sea and taking it home. We could throw over a few fresh fish if you want, give you guys a fresh meal. I'm sure your military rations aren't exactly the greatest over there."
"I ain't going to turn that down," the commander of the vessel called, saying, "Military rations are the bane of my existence. They don't do enough, in my opinion."
"Yeah, yeah, I've had the same experience when I was in the Navy," I said. He looked at me and added, "Let's see if we've got anything that would be tasty and filling for the crew across from us." I gave a salute and wandered down, quickly selecting five of the fattest and biggest fish from the hold and putting them in a sack. I smacked them against the side of the vessel to make sure they were dead and wouldn't struggle before making my way over to a gangway that was being extended to the military vessel.
"Thank you, fisherman," the military soldier said, reaching out as he stepped across the gangway. I reached back, handing him the bag before saying, "No problem, always willing to help our troops keep their spirits up."
"I'll be real happy tonight," the man said with a shake of his head. "Being in this region is all kinds of funky with pirates and standoffs, and you know, the reason for it with the Water Nation."
I raised an eyebrow before saying, "No, I didn't hear anything about that. What happened?"
"The Water Nation sent out a ship to guard some of their fishing vessels. That ship happened to cross into water that's between the Empire and the Earth Empire and started fishing on both sides, claiming that the region was actually international water because it was far enough from both areas. Well, as you might imagine, that is not being recognized by either side of the conflict. So, we've got ourselves a bit of a debate going on. I think they're going to try and hold some sort of meeting in the old Fire Colonies to figure out what they're going to do about that, but who knows, it might start a shooting war."
"With who?" I asked, because it sounded like a three-way shooting war.
"I don't know," he said. "It's all confusion and annoyance. I think the Water Nation's just getting away with things because they're the weaker power and can get away with it since the two bigger powers are facing each other down."
"Madness," I said with a shake of my head as a shadow passed over us. Confused, I looked up, expecting to see a bird. Instead, I saw a massive animal flying through the air with a few figures looking over the side at us. Blinking several times, I looked down at the soldier and said, "What the fuck is that?"
"I don't know. Should we tell our commanders?" He looked back up at the object flying. I said, "Well, we both see it, so it's got to be real, right? I mean, you see a massive animal with people on its back flying, right?"
The man nodded his head before saying, "Yeah, I see it. I don't know what I'm looking at, but I see it. I've never seen anything like that in my entire life."
I nodded before wondering, "Could this be related to that thing you're down here for, searching for evidence of the Avatar?" The man looked at me, then looked up and held the fish tight as he turned and ran back onto his ship. I watched him run up the length of the ship and then up the stairs to the bridge. There was some very loud yelling that sounded like it was about not bringing dead fish into the bridge, followed by a conversation. Then, without much more fanfare, the vessel in front of me began to move, and I was forced to hop off its gangway back onto my own vessel. The military vessel scraped the paint on the side of our ship as it rushed in the direction of the flying animal.
"Huh, must have been," I said, scratching my chin before looking back at the captain and saying, "I think we're good."
"Oh, that's good," he called back, turning on the engine and turning to face the direction of home, heading towards friendly seas at a proper pace. Scratching my cheek, I still walked back along the length of the vessel and climbed the ladder back to the captain's bridge. Leaning there, I said, "Do large animals normally fly?"
"Are you crazy? There hasn't been a large animal that flies since probably 100 years ago, back when the Air Nomads were king. Why?"
"Because I just saw a flying animal the size of a small boat heading towards the mainland."
"Holy shit! Did it have like white fur on top and dark fur on the bottom?" he said, turning to look at me. I nodded my head, which got him to say, "Holy shit."
"What?" I asked curiously.
"That's an extinct animal, or near extinct. Man, you should treasure that memory. That thing is like, rare. If it's even got more of its kind around, I doubt there's many because most of them were pets of the Air Nomads, and we all know what happened to them."
"Wow, okay," I said, shaking my head, still trying to come to terms with all this before saying, "The military vessel went after it after I mentioned it might have something to do with the Avatar's reappearance."
"Good call," he said with a nod. "Don't know how they're related, but they seem to be. I hope they find the kid. I don't know what happens after that, but you know, shit's been shitty ever since the Fire Lord started that war. It's about time we try and set things right."
I nodded my head, not sure about all that, but I'd leave it to whoever was in charge of such things to deal with.