Katara draws Aang into a hug while he blushes. I just smirk and shake my head.

After leaving Kyoshi Island, Aang told us that we only had one more place to visit. Omashu. I was super excited too. There was so much to do in Omashu. There was everything from the insane mail cart rides to meeting Bumi. I'm excited that Aang gets to see one of his old friends again.

Unfortunately, it seemed like it was going to take forever to get there. We all tried everything to evade the boredom but to no avail. I even tried to teach Rhu how to fly. Just the memory makes me cringe. It was just the day after we left Kyoshi.

Rhu was starting to get bigger. She was about the size of a golden retriever-a very scale-y reptilian one- but still. Anyways, she was starting to get big enough that none of us knew how much longer she could ride in the saddle with us. That honestly made me kind of nervous. I didn't know if she could even fly yet! I haven't ever seen her fly. And if she didn't know how to fly, I honestly didn't know how she was going to learn. This wasn't exactly covered at school. Or by Roku, for that matter.

I guess I'll just have to find some way to teach her. I crawl in the saddle until I'm close to Aang. I can't actually sit next to him because he's sitting on Appa's head. "Hey Aang, I have a request for you and Appa," I start off.

Aang turns his head towards my voice. "Yeah?"

"Ok so you know how Rhu is growing and getting bigger kinda fast right?" He nods. "And you know that she probably won't be able to fit in the saddle for much longer right?" Another nod. "So I was just thinking, just a thought, that maybe we might need to teach Rhu how to fly."

Aang let go of Appa's reins and he turned all the way around to face me. He looked at me like I had just grown a second head. "You want to what?" he asked.

I hold my hands up in defense. "I mean, it's not such an outrageous idea. Have you seen her fly at all?" Aang thought for a moment before shaking his head. "Ok, so maybe she just doesn't know how."

"So how would you even begin to teach a dragon how to fly?" he asked. "We don't have wings or anything."

"It sounds crazy but maybe you could fly Appa a bit higher than normal, and we could drop her outside of the saddle." Aang's eyes widened at my suggestion. "Wait, wait ,wait before you freak out! You haven't heard the rest of my idea!" I said, trying to calm Aang down. Once he looked somewhat ready to listen I continued, "Once she's dropped into the air, she might have a natural instinct to use her wings. If she doesn't, then we could always swoop down and catch her before she hits the water. We could do that until she gets the idea of how to fly."

Aang looks like he's thinking about it. After a minute or so he asks, "Are you sure that would work? Do you think she would just naturally learn how to use her wings?"

"Do you have another idea?" I ask. Aang shakes his head. "Ok, then let's just try this one. There's no other dragons to teach her right now. If it doesn't work, I'll find some other way to teach her."

Aang reluctantly agreed, so he urges Appa to fly higher into the sky. Katara and Sokka notice this and come up to the front of the saddle with me.

Katara asks, "Is there a reason we're flying higher, Aang?"

"Kazumi is going to try to teach Rhu how to fly," Aang answers casually.

The Water Tribe siblings turn towards me and look like they're questioning my sanity.

"What? I haven't seen her fly at all. She has to learn sometime. And preferably before she outgrows Appa's saddle," I try to reason. They still don't look too sure.

I crawl over to Rhu, who is laying down near the side of the saddle. "Come on, Rhu! Get up. You get to learn how to fly today," I say excitedly.

Rhu just lifts her head up and stares me down for a few seconds before laying back down. I huff. "Okay, we'll just do this the hard way. Ready Aang?" They all give me a thumbs up.

I somehow manage to gather Rhu up into my arms. As I start to lean her over the edge, she lets out something between a screech and a roar and starts to flap her wings at me. This made it much harder for me to hold her, and she slipped out of my arms. Rhu batted her wings and stayed up right beside Appa.

I scrunched my eyebrows together, thinking. "Wait. You didn't even fall. You knew how to fly that whole time?"

My answer apparently was a very pissed off dragon shooting a small ball of fire straight at my face. "Ahhhhhh!" I yelled as I stood up blocking the fire. Rhu just kept firing at me which caused me to keep backing up and deflecting it. After about the fourth or fifth blast, the heel of my foot hit the edge of the saddle and I tipped over the side.

"AHHHHHHHHHH! OH MY GOD! HELLLLPPPPPPP! AANG! KATARA! SOKKA!" I screamed while I frantically waved my arms around, trying to grab ahold of something. I don't know what though.

I saw Appa fly down and dip under me. Sokka and Katara helped pull me into the saddle. I landed with a thud. I rolled onto my back, still breathing heavily. It took me a second, but I realized that everyone was laughing. At Me. My cheeks heated up in embarrassment. Even Rhu was doing something like a purring sound that I guessed was laughter.

I looked over at her. "Well played Rhu. Well played," I said. "I guess we're even now. I have learned my lesson. So please, don't ever throw me out of the saddle again."

I shook my head as the memory ended. That was a check off of my list of things to never do again.

"Hey guys we're almost there!" Aang excitedly said to us.

He landed Appa in a small clearing, and we all got off. Aang motioned for us to follow him. He led us up a small hill. Once we reached the top, he gestured to the Earth Kingdom city.

"I present to you, the Earth Kingdom city of Omashu," he said proudly.

Of course, I had seen the city on TV whenever I was watching the show, but here it looked amazing. Omashu looked like an endless maze of earthen buildings that nothing could ever break down.

Aang continued, "I used to always come here and visit my friend Bumi."

"Wow. We don't have anything like this back in the South Pole," Katara said in awe.

Sokka exclaimed, "They have buildings that don't melt!"

I rolled my eyes at him. "They had buildings that didn't melt on Kyoshi too," I said teasingly. Sokka just stuck his tongue out at me in annoyance.

Aang launches down the hill, but stops at the bottom. "Well lets go slow pokes! The great city awaits!"

"Wait, Aang. It could be dangerous if people find out that you're the Avatar," Katara calls out.

Sokka agreed, saying, "You need a disguise."

So we walked back to where Appa and Rhu were. "So what am I supposed to do?" Aang asks. "Grow a mustache?"

Katara, Sokka, and I all share a knowing smile. Soon enough, Aang was covered in Appa's fur. It formed into a mustache, beard, and crazy hairdo for Aang. He just itches at it.

"How do you live in this stuff?" he asks Appa in annoyance. Appa just grunts back at him.

"Good, now you look just like my grandfather," Sokka says, proud of his handiwork.

"Technically, Aang is 112 years old," Katara points out.

I jump in the conversation. "Ok, now we need to have a backstory. Since you said he looks like your grandfather, maybe we could actually pretend that he is," I suggest.

Everyone seems to be in agreement so Aang says in his grandpa voice, "Lets get to skippin', young whippersnappers! The big city awaits!"

We start to head along the narrow path to the entrance to the city. "You guys are going to love Omashu. It has the friendliest people in the world," Aang tells us.

Right after Aang finishes, the guards up ahead catapult a cabbage stall into the ravine below. I know exactly what's coming next. The cabbage merchant screams, "My cabbages!"

I try so hard not to laugh. After all, the man's livelihood was just thrown off a cliff. But I can't help it; I burst out into laughter. Everyone just stares at me like I'm insane.

"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. It's just the 'my cabbages' thing is really funny. It was a joke in my other world," I say, trying to find a reasonable excuse.

Soon enough, our group is standing in front of the guards. One of them lifts up a huge boulder above us. "What's your business here?" the guard demands in a loud voice.

Aang rushes up to him and pokes him a few times in the chest. "My business is my business, young man, and none of yours. I've got half a mind to bend you over my knee and paddle your backside."

The rock drops with a boom behind us. The guard just stands in shock while our "grandfather" rattles on at him. I glance over and see Katara and Sokka's terrified faces. Between them and the scene in front of us, I have to bite my lower lip to keep from laughing at the absurdity of it all.

The guard finally comes to his senses and tries to calm him down. "Settle down, old timer. Just tell me who you are."

"Name's Bonzu Pipinpadaloxicopolis, the Third, and these are my grandkids," Aang says with a smile.

Katara steps forward a bit. "Hi, I'm June Pipinpadaloxicopolis. Nice to meet you."

"You seem like a responsible young lady. Make sure your grandfather stays out of trouble. Enjoy your stay in Omashu," the guard replies.

The guard steps aside and our group walks to the entrance to the city. The guard calls out, "Wait!" We immediately stop and turn around. The guard points at Sokka. "You're a strong young man. Show some respect and carry your grandfather's bag."

"Good idea!" Aang exclaims, throwing his bag at Sokka and almost knocking him over.

We hurry through the gates and the close behind us. We collectively let out a sigh of relief. "Well that was fun," I say, trying to break the ice.

Aang looks back at us and motions for us to follow him. "Now we can get on with the real fun!"

We follow him until we're on the stop of a hill and standing in front of one of the mail chutes. I'm grinning from ear to ear. I. Am. So. Pumped. Up. For. This.

Aang begins to explain, "This is the Omashu Delivery System. Miles and miles of tubes and chutes. Earthbending brings the packages up and gravity brings them down."

Sokka seems unenthused. "Great. So they get their mail on time."

"They do get their mail on time," Aang replies. "But me and my friend Bumi found a much better use for them."

Aang works to get two carts set up for us. There was no way that all of us would fit in one cart, so Sokka and I would be in the first cart while Aang and Katara would be in the second. Sokka and I would go first so that if we needed any airbending help then Aang would be right behind us.

Sokka and Katara seemed a little more on edge about this idea than Aang and me. Before we got in our respective carts Katara came up to me. "Have you done anything like this before, Kazumi? Are you sure this is safe?"

"Oh yeah! We used to have things like this all the time in my old world. They were called roller coasters." I said excitedly. I rubbed the back of my neck. "As for safe though, in my old world, we had a LOT more safety features. But it'll be ok. We have Aang's awesome airbending powers on our side here," I said, waving off those concerns.

We hurriedly got into our carts before we could rethink this idea. Katara spoke up, "Aang, I'm not so sure about this anymore. I think I'm having second THOUGHTS," she screamed as we started to speed down the chute.

The only thing I can possibly compare the ride to is Goliath, the roller coaster at Six Flags. Well, with no seat belts and some free falling on the side. We dodge everything from spears to houses. Until both of our carts ram into the cabbage merchant's stall.

"My cabbages!" he screams in anguish.

Aang holds up two fingers and sheepishly says, "Two cabbages please."

Now all of us are kneeling in front of Bumi. The guard says, "Your majesty, these juveniles were arrested for trespassing, traveling under false pretenses, and malicious destruction of cabbages."

The cabbage merchant stands up and yells, "Off with their heads! One for each head of cabbage!"

I roll my eyes. Oh come on, dude. Seriously? First off, isn't that just a little bit extreme? You know, just a tiny bit over the top? And second, there's no way that would work. There's only four of us compared to your whole cart of cabbages.

The guard cuts the cabbage man off. "Silence! No one can pass judgement except for the king. What would you have us to do, sire?"

I stare up at Bumi. He leans forward a bit and says, "Throw them...a feast!" He finishes with a big gesture with his hands.

The guards stare in shock before quickly escorting us out of the throne room and down a set of hallways. We stop in front of a gigantic door. It's opened and we are ushered inside. After we all are in the room, the guards shut the door behind us. Aang, Sokka, and Katara all look really confused.

"I think we're supposed to sit down and wait," I say, motioning to the huge table in front of us.

After about ten minutes, Bumi finally walks in and stands behind us. The food is right behind him too. Once everything is set up Bumi says, "The people in my city have gotten fat off of too many feasts, so I hope you like your chicken with no skin."

And smiled but said, "Thanks but I don't eat meat."

Bumi turns to Sokka instead. "How about you? I bet you like meat." Then, he practically shoves the chicken drumstick into Sokka's mouth.

Bumi leaves to go to his seat. Katara turns to all of us and asks, "Is it just me, or does this king's crown seems a little crooked?"

Before anyone could say anything, Bumi sat down in his seat and interrupted. "So, tell me young bald one. Where do you hail from?"

"I'm from...Kangaroo Island," Aang finishes, looking proud that he came up with something.

"Kangaroo Island, eh? I hear that place is really hoppin'!" Bumi says jokingly.

Take a deep breath in...And breath out. In and out. Pay no attention to the corny jokes. Just let the awfulness of them drift away. I say this to myself in a joking meditation way.

Meanwhile, Sokka is about to fall out of his seat from laughing so hard. We all just stare at him. He sees this and tries to explain, "What? It was pretty funny!"

Bumi stands up, stretching his arms out, and gives a fake yawn. "Well, all these good jokes are making me tired. Guess it's time to hit the hay." Then, he takes a chicken leg and launches it towards Aang.

Aang leans the chair back and catches the leg in a small air ball. All the guards in the room gasp in awe. Aang notices and drops the chicken leg and looks around the room like he hasn't just airbended.

"There's an airbender in our presence, and not just any airbender, The Avatar!" Bumi says extravagantly. "Now what do you have to say for yourself, Mr. Pipinpadaloxicopolis?"

Aang stands up and holds his hands up in defeat. "Okay, you caught me. I'm the Avatar, doing my Avatar thing, keeping the world safe. Everything checks out." He lift me the tablecloth up to look underneath it. "No evil firebenders here! Good work, everyone!" he proclaims as we all stand up and walk backwards toward the door. "Love each other, respect all life, and don't run with your spears! We'll see you next time!"

We reach the door, but the guards cross their spears so that we can't leave. Katara shouts at Bumi, "You can't keep us here. Let us leave."

Bumi holds up a piece of lettuce. "Lettuce leaf?" He takes a big bite out of the leaf.

Sokka lowers his voice and says, "We're in serious trouble. This guy is nuts."

Bumi gets serious and says, "Tomorrow, the Avatar will face three deadly challenges. But for now, the guards will show you to your chamber."

One of the guards looked confused and turned to the old king. "My liege, do you mean the good chamber or the bad chamber?"

"The newly refurbished chamber," Bumi replied.

The guard was still confused. "Wait, which one are we talking about?"

"The one that used to be the bad chamber, until the recent refurbishing that is. Of course, we've been calling it the new chamber, but we should really start numbering them," Bumi rambled on. He came to his senses and declared, "Take them to the refurbished chamber that was once bad!"

We were led down a series of hallways until we stopped in front of a wall. Sokka opened his mouth to question them, but the earthbenders bent the wall down before he could say anything. Our group went into the large room and looked around. The guards shut the "door" behind us.

"This is a prison cell?" Katara asked. "But it's so nice."

Aang jumped in, "Well, he did say newly refurbished."

"Well, refurbished or not, it's still a prison cell," Sokka pointed out.

You know, if I didn't know what was happening, I would totally be on board with Sokka's thinking right now.

Aang looked deep in thought, "I wonder what these challenges will be."

"We're not gonna stick around and find out," Katara answered.

"How do you think we're going to get out of here, Katara?" I asked. "It's not like Aang can earthbend us out of here yet. And there's no other doors!"

"The air vents!" Aang exclaims, pointing at one.

Sokka sat down on one of the beds. "If you think we can fit in there, you're crazier than that king."

"We can't, but Momo can!" Aang tried to explain.

Needless to say, Momo couldn't. I think he gained ten extra pounds at Bumi's feast. We all just gave up on that idea and sat on our beds.

"I guess we'll just go to sleep. Looks like you're going to need it tomorrow, Aang," Katara somberly said.

I woke up slowly. I still had my eyes closed, but I scrunched my eyebrows together in confusion. It felt like I was moving. I quickly opened my eyes and realized that I was being dragged out of the room. I opened my mouth to scream, but a hand is put over my mouth. I try to struggle, but soon I'm dragged out of the door and it closes.

I shoot a small burst of fire out of my mouth and hands. The person holding me quickly lets go and lets out a loud shout. I hear all of the guards around me shout "Firebender!" Oh great. Look what I just got myself into.

I see a few of the guards drop into earthbending stances. I notice that the only ones that don't are the ones holding Sokka and Katara back. The guards start to make small chuncks of rock and launch them at me. I want to curse the limited room in the hallway as I try to dodge them. I start to alternate between making large fire blasts to break them up and dodging them.

After a few seconds, I feel myself starting to wear out. It's me against about five guards. Those aren't the best odds. I know I'm the Guardian, but I can't last forever. I only managed to last for a few more seconds until I dodged straight into the path of another boulder.

It hit my stomach hard and knocked the breath out of me. I could hear both Sokka and Katara shout my name. I couldn't do anything but cough and lay there until a pair of guards yanked me to my feet and slammed me into the side of the wall, holding me there. I grunted when I hit it and clenched my teeth in pain. A few other guards came up and put what I'm guessing to be an earthen form of handcuff on me. They covered all of my hands and bound them together.

My two guards yanked me off the wall and shoved me forward. "You're going to pay for that, firebender," they sneered. "Let's see what the king will say to you."

The whole walk was filled with jeers and shoves for me. At least, Katara and Sokka were still being treated well from what I could hear. The guards weren't giving them a hard time for traveling with a firebender or knowing a firebender, so that was a small victory. We stopped in front of a giant, ornate door and my stomach filled with dread. What is Bumi going to do with me?

The door opened slowly and we were lead in. Our entourage stopped while Sokka and Katara were lead to the side and kept there. Oh goodie. This means more fun for firebender me. I was pulled forward until I was a few feet in front of Bumi, who was sitting on his throne. Then, I was pushed roughly down on my knees.

The guard began to speak, "Sire, while we were taking the Avatar's friends out of their chamber, we discovered this vile firebender in their midst. She bent fire at the guard holding her and then proceeded to attack the rest of the escort. What would you have us to do to this scum, Sire?"

Ohhhhhhh no. You did not just call me that. Scum? Oh yeah, buddy. Let me out of these handcuffs. I'll really show you what I can do. Now you've made me pissed off.

I can imagine that I probably look livid, but, despite my anger, I keep my head pointed at the floor the whole time. There's no way it's going to help me get out of this mess. Ok, so time for a plan. First plan, use the whole "Guardian" thing to get me out of this situation. One small problem with that plan-I don't think Bumi knows I'm the Guardian. It's not like I can tell him either. I don't have any proof. I can't blow one poof of air at all. So yeah, telling them that I'm the Guardian would totally work out. Next idea. I could beg him to spare me or whatever...no, I'm not going to do that. Let's cross that off the list. Alright, so last idea. I could just hope for the best and wait to hear what he has to say. Actually...why hasn't he said anything yet?

I look up at Bumi with what I'm sure is a very confused look on my face. He's just grinning like he has some master evil plan at work. Ok, not the look I was expecting. Well of course it's not what I was expecting. This is Bumi we're talking about.

"I should have known that the Guardian would visit us with the Avatar. Such horrible manners that I would leave you out of the festivities," Bumi said.

What? How did he even know I was the Guardian?

Gasps of shock go around the room as the guards realize who I am. I'm not even paying attention to them. I'm just curious about how Bumi knows who I am. "How did you even know that I was the Guardian? And why didn't you say so before now?" I question him.

Bumi cackles. "Well, I know who you are because of many different reasons. Most of them being the news that both the Avatar and the Guardian have returned, the countless bounty posters of the both of you, and I have friends that speak very highly of you."

I just sit there in shock. One, because of how fast news had traveled. Two, because Bumi had managed to trick me. And three, because he said friends that speak highly of me. Who could that even be? The only person that I've really gotten to know besides the Gaang is...Iroh. How did he even talk with Bumi? Did he send a message to people in the White Lotus?

Bumi interrupted before I could finish my internal QandA. "You may go over to your friends for now. Once the Avatar is brought to face his challenges, you will face them as well." With that, he sent me on my way over to Sokka and Katara.

I walked across the room in a daze. Ok, that whole scene was a bit unexpected. I finally reached the other side of the room to where Sokka and Katara were. "Kazumi!" they shouted, sounding relieved. I awkwardly waved at them.

The guards moved away to give us some room, but they were still close enough to keep an eye on us. Katara and Sokka rushed over to me.

"Are you ok? The guards were really rough on you. What did the king say?" Katara asked me rapidly.

I hold my hands up. "Alright, first, calm down. Take a few deep breaths. Now, to answer your questions. Yes, I'm alright, and the king knows I'm the Guardian and is making me do the deadly challenges with Aang."

Sokka jumps in, "That's not ok. This crazy king is keeping us locked up here and is going to make both of you do these stupid challenges!"

I try to calm him down, "Sokka, it's fine-"

"No, it's not fine!" he interrupts. "Look, you have this future knowledge stuff, right? Why don't you just use it to bust us out of here?"

I pinch the bridge of my nose. "Sokka, it doesn't work like that. I can't just change this, and I can't explain why not." More like I won't. That would be an extremely long and difficult explanation.

Sokka just huffed and walked away. I just closed my eyes and tried to somewhat prepare myself for all of the challenges.

After about an hour, a pair of guards came to escort me somewhere. I'm guessing to where Aang and Bumi were. We stop in front of a wall and earthbend it down. I walk through to see Aang looking angrily at Bumi. He sees me and brightens up. "Kazumi! You're ok!" he says happily.

I smile and walk over to him. "Yeah, some of the earthbenders didn't like my firebending too much though," I say with a laugh.

Aang looks back over to the king. "Where's my other friends? Give them back so we can leave!"

Bumi grins and says evilly, "Oh I thought you might refuse."

Another wall drops down, and we see Katara and Sokka lead out by a pair of guards. The guards place rock rings on their fingers. They try to pull on the rings and take them off but they can't.

Bumi continued, "I have given your friends some special souvenirs. Those delightful rings are made of pure genemite, also known as creeping crystal. It's crystal that grows remarkably fast. By nightfall your friends will be completely covered in it. Terrible fate, really. I can stop it, but only if you cooperate."

I see the crystals glow and inch up their fingers a bit. Sokka yells and tries to pull it off again. "It's already creeping!"

Aang looks back at me with a fierce look on his face. I see the question in his eyes. I nod. Aang turns back to Bumi and says, "We'll do what you want."

Bumi cackles maniacally and we're lead away.

There's a guard in front of us, leading the way, and a guard behind us, making sure that we keep up and don't escape. They're far enough away that they won't hear us if we whisper to each other.

Aang whispers, "You said that you know stuff that's going to happen right?"

"Yeah, you guys had a legend or story that I knew of in my world," I answered. I had told them that whenever I explained to them where I was from and how I knew them.

"So do you know what's going to happen now?" he asks nervously.

I look over at Aang. "I know what the challenges are going to be. I'll help you through them as much as I can, and I promise that we'll be okay."

It looks like he relaxes a bit and accepts my reassurance. We walk the rest of the way in comfortable silence.

We come out onto an earthen balcony over a room filled with stalagmites with a nice waterfall in the background. I look around until I see Bumi standing with Sokka and Katara.

I hear his voice break through the room. "It seems I've lost my lunch box key and I'm hungry," he pouts. Bumi points over to the waterfall. "Oooo there it is. Would you mind fetching it for me?"

Aang takes off before I can stop him. He hops between the stalagmites and then dives into the waterfall. I see him struggling to climb the ladder. I just put my hand over my eyes, sighing and shaking my head.

Bumi even mocks, "Ooooo climbing the ladder. No one's ever thought of that before."

Soon, Aang loses his grip and is spewed out of the waterfall. He had to do a split in the middle of two stalagmites just to avoid being impaled by another one. I take this as my chance to offer some advice.

I yell, "Aang! Wait a second!"

I see that he just moves to grab on one of the rocks. Ok, I think he's listening.

"You won't get anywhere just diving head-on. The water is just too powerful. You need to think like an airbender; think out of the box. You're going to have to use something else to get the key instead!"

I think he understands what I mean because he looks around and then hopes off to a different section of stalagmites in the room. He breaks off one and launches it with his airbending towards the chain. The rock nails the chain with the key in the wall right above Bumi's head. Aang and I smile at each other.

Once Aang manages to get back to the balcony that I was still on, we were led to a small arena. Aang and I take a few seconds to just look around the room. There's a few rocks in the room. One has a cute bunny sitting on one of them.

"I need your help with another matter. It seems that I've lost my pet, Flopsy," Bumi says.

Aang walks over to the bunny. "Okay, I found him!"

"Bring him to me. Daddy wants a kiss from Flopsy!" Bumi calls.

"Come here Flopsy!" Aang calls out to the bunny.

Flopsy drops down behind Aang, causing the bunny to run away. Aang gives a quick look to the actual Flopsy, but then he start to run after the bunny. I laugh as I try to catch up with them. I see up ahead that the bunny just went into its burrow in the wall and Aang's trying to reach in there and get it. I finally ran enough so that I'm almost right beside the actual Flopsy. I reach over scratching his belly and he collapses on the ground. I bend down to scratch his belly some more and he starts patting his leg on the ground.

"Aang," I call to get his attention, "This is the actual Flopsy. He was following you around the whole time you were calling his name."

I stop scratching when Aang runs over. Flopsy stands up and looks at him.

Aang holds out his arms and exclaims, "Flopsy!" Bumi's pet sort of grins and licks Aang's whole face, leaving slobber all over him.

Bumi whistles and calls Flopsy over to him, leaving us alone in the arena. We look and see Katara and Sokka on a balcony overlooking the arena. The crystals are all the way up to their neck now. That can't be comfortable.

"Guys are you okay?" Aang asks.

"Other than the crystals slowly encasing my entire body, doing great!" Katara calls back in a sarcastically optimistic way.

Aang yells to Bumi, "Come on, we're ready for the next challenge."

I turn and say to Aang, "I'm not ready for the next challenge if you're still covered in Flopsy's slobber."

We both laugh and Aang blows it off of him. Then, the guards come and escort us to another part of the palace.

We're led out onto a balcony over a huge arena. Bumi steps out on the balcony with us. "Your final test is a duel and as a special treat, you may choose your opponent."

Two super buff gladiator dudes walk to either side of Bumi. Now I can definitely see why Aang was terrified on the show.

So you're saying that whoever I point to, that's the person we get to fight?" Aang asks mischievously.

Bumi answers, "Choose wisely."

Aang has a thinking face on. "I...choose...you!" he exclaims pointing at Bumi.

Bumi laughs, "Haha, wrong choice." The king straightens his back and throws off his robe. Aang makes a noise of surprise when he sees that Bumi isn't just an frail old man. Bumi stomps the ground, catapulting us into the arena.

I land with a thud on the ground beside Aang. We scramble to our feet as Bumi lands in the arena. "You thought I was a frail old man, but I'm the most powerful earthbender you'll ever see!"

"Can we fight the guy with the axe instead?" Aang asks nicely.

Bumi shakes his head. "There are no takebacksies in my kingdom." Bumi points his finger to one of the balconies. "You might need this." A guard throws Aang's staff towards him.

Once Aang catches his staff, Bumi starts launching rocks at both of us. Aang dodges them while I break through them with strong fire blasts.

"Typical airbender tactic: avoid and evade, and typical firebender tactic: attack and attempt to overpower. I'd hoped the Avatar and Guardian would be less predictable," Bumi jeers.

Bumi sends another boulder flying over to Aang, but he avoids it by jumping into the air. He starts to spin his glider to keep him up there. Bumi turns his attention to me. He sends a shock wave of rocks on the surface of the ground. I jump to dodge it, but Bumi launched another rock right into me.

My back landed on the ground and I skidded a few feet. I just tried to catch my breath for a second before getting up. Once I stood up, I saw that Aang and I were almost at the opposite wall from Bumi.

"How are you two going to get me from all the way over there?" Bumi asked.

I know Aang was going to run straight at Bumi, so I thought of a different plan. I ran a few steps before sending fire jets out of both of my feet. They propelled me across the floor, kind of like I was skating. I went around in an arc so that I was coming towards Bumi's side. Once I was close enough, I stopped the jets, jumped high into the air, spun and brought my foot down making a huge line of fire coming down at Bumi.

Bumi created an earthen bunker around him to protect him from the fire I just bent at him. With Bumi blocking my attack, I saw that Aang finally airbended himself out of the quicksand stuff he was in. I jetted myself over to him.

"Are you okay so far?" I asked him.

Aang nodded his head. "Yeah, but how are we going to win this?"

"I don't know, Aang, but I'm sure we'll figure out a way," I try to say reassuringly. I honestly couldn't remember every move of the battle. My knowledge of the TV show wasn't as good as it used to be because I had been in this world for months already. I still remember big events but some of the details are starting to slip.

Bumi finally emerges from his little bunker. He drops into a wide stance and starts to make pushing and pulling movements with his hands. I see the cracks that are starting to form in the gate of the arena, and Aang and I both make sounds of terror.

Aang puts his staff over his shoulders and tells me to stand over towards one of the walls. Once I jet over there, Aang starts to run in a circle. I feels the air start to pull in that direction, and in no time Aang has a giant tornado formed in the arena.

On the other end of the arena, Bumi finally broke off the gate area. He hurled it at Aang's tornado, but the winds carried the giant rock around and back towards Bumi. Aang and I both ran towards Bumi and cornered him. Aang pointed his staff towards the king and I was in a firebending stance.

Bumi just smiles and looks up. We look up too and see that Bumi still has a gigantic rock above our heads.

Bumi laughs and says, "Well done. You fight with much fire in your hearts."

Bumi falls backward and falls through the ground, leaving an imprint of him. I remember this part so I was expecting it, but Aang looks like he's just had his mind blown. I laugh at him and ask, "Can I have a ride up there?" I point up to the balcony.

He nods and spins his staff above him like a helicopter blade. Once he's a few feet off the ground, I grab onto his ankles and we fly up onto the balcony.

Bumi stands in front of us and says, "You've passed all my tests. Now, you must answer one question."

Aang comes up and shouts at him, "That's not fair! You said you would release my friends if we finished your tests!"

Bumi counters, "Oh, what's the fun of tests if you don't learn anything?" That honestly sounds like something one of my old teachers would say.

Sokka even whines, "Come on!"

"Answer this one question and I will set your friends free," Bumi stated. "What...is my name." Aang's mouth dropped open in disbelief. "And by the looks of your friends, you only have a few minutes." Bumi left after that.

Aang walked over to where the rest of us were. "How am I supposed to know his name?"

Katara jumped in, "Think about the challenges, maybe it's some kind of riddle."

"I got it!" Sokka exclaimed.

"What is it?" Aang and Katara both asked him.

"Rocky!" Sokka said excitedly. "You know, because of all the rocks and earthbending."

There was an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes before Katara said, "We're going to keep trying, but that's a good backup."

"Okay, so back to the challenges. We got a key from a waterfall, saved his pet, and had a duel," Aang listed off.

Katara questioned, "And what did you learn?"

Aang thought for a second. "Well everything was different than I expected and nothing was straightforward."

"You had to open your mind to the possibilities," I said, hoping to jog his memories.

Aang looked up at me with realization on his face. "I know his name!"

Aang rushed off to the throne room while I helped Sokka and Katara get there. Katara asked, "You knew the whole time who the king was, didn't you?"

I sighed and looked up at her. "Yes, I did."

Sokka asked angrily, "Why didn't you just tell Aang at the beginning? You could have saved us all a whole lot of time and trouble."

I answered, "One reason is because I totally agree with Bumi. It is fun messing with people. I do have some serious reasons though. One is because Aang just got to spend a whole day with one of his old friends. One of the only people still around that he used to know a hundred years ago. Another reason is because I couldn't just go and tell Aang right in front of Bumi. That would raise way too many questions that I don't want to answer. My last reason is that I'm don't want to change anything that isn't going to be harmful to us. It might change something later on and then my knowledge won't be of any use. Do you guys understand?"

They both nodded. Sokka even apologized for bugging me about my future knowledge the whole day. We finally entered the throne room as Aang and Bumi were finishing their little reunion.

"Over here?" Katara called.

Sokka finished, "A little help?"

Bumi breaks the crystals and catches one. "Genemite is made of rock candy. Delicious!" he says, taking a bite of it.

"So this crazy king is your old friend Bumi?" Katara asks.

Bumi interjects, "Who are you calling old?" We all wait for a second. "Okay. I'm old."

"Why did you do all of this instead of just telling Aang who you were?" Sokka asked.

Bumi cackles. "First of all, it's fun messing with people," I give Sokka an "I told you so" look before Bumi continued, "Aang, you and Kazumi have a difficult task ahead. The world has changed in the hundred years you've been gone. It's the duty of the Avatar and the Guardian to restore balance to the world by defeating Fire Lord Ozai. You have much to learn. You must master your respective elements and confront the Fire Lord, and when you do, I hope you will both think like mad geniuses!"

We both smile and bow to Bumi. He continues, "And it looks like you're in good hands. You'll need your friends to help you defeat the Fire Nation." Momo hops onto Aang's shoulder. "And you'll need Momo too."

Aang laughs and says, "Thank you for your wisdom. But before we leave, I have a challenge for you!"

Sokka, Katara, and I headed back to Appa and Rhu while Aang had a mail cart ride with Bumi. We had made it to the animals a few minutes ago, but we could hear their laughs and shouts all the way from here.

A/N: Thank you for reading this long chapter! I appreciate all of the reviews, favorites, and followers that this story has so far. I would love to hear from you all and especially if you loved the little Rhu/Kazumi moment at the beginning of this chapter! See you guys next time!