We stopped at a small creek one morning, Katara suggested that we brush up on our bending, and Aang seemed pleased with the suggestion. I hopped into the water with them in order to participate. Sokka didn't want to stop, but we coaxed him into relaxing for a few minutes. He found himself a large leaf that floated quite well on the water, and he laid down on it and started soaking up the sun.
"You guys are going to be done soon right?" Sokka asked as he drifted next to us. "We've got a lot of ground to cover if we want to make it to Omashu today," Momo was sleeping on his stomach.
"What, like you're ready to go right now, naked guy?" Katara mocked.
"I can be ready to go in two minutes!" Sokka replied.
"You were showing me the octopus form," Aang interrupted. Katara turned to face him and asked him to get into his stance. I decided to try it out along with him, this technique was helpful to learn how to control multiple watery tentacles at once. Katara walked up to Aang and looked at his stance.
"You're arms are too far apart," She noticed. "You need to move them closer together, to protect your centre," She came up behind him and moved his arms into their proper position. Aang's face turned into a bright red.
"Hey, don't get too excited there buddy," I laughed, causing his face to turn redder. He thanked Katara awkwardly and she moved away from him, sticking her tongue out at me.
"Ok, let's see what you got," Katara moved a few feet away from Aang and prepared to attack him. Aang created a multitude of watery limbs around him, and when he was ready, Katara started to shoot some ice spikes at him. His octopus arms deflected the ice spikes as he moved, and eventually he managed to snake one of the limbs around Katara's ankle.
"You make a fine octopus, pupil Aang," She laughed.
"That's nice, but can he block this!?" I cried. I lunged forward and sent four large tentacles towards Aang, they froze around him, piercing his octopus arms. Before he could react, I moved my hands close together, creating a web of spikes around the boy.
"Hey, I wasn't ready for that!" Aang cried.
"Nice move, what do you call it?" Katara asked as she approached my frozen tentacles that now looked hairy because of the spikes coming out of them.
"Doesn't have a name, but I've been trying to perfect the move, I first used in during the siege of the Northern Water Tribe," I answered. I lowered my arms and the ice melted, freeing Aang. When he was free, he sent a large wave of water to knock me off my feet. I found myself drenched and on my butt.
"You deserved that," Aang smiled. I grinned back at him. We started to hear the sound of music coming from the trees not far from the water. We all turned towards the shore to see who it was that was approaching us. A group of four people came towards the water, each had a musical instrument and they played music together as they walked. They all looked dirty and stoned, hair decorated their heads. The group consisted of a skinny man with stubble and a banjo, a fat man dressed in a pink kimono with a straw hat, a woman in a black dress with a flute, and another woman with long flowing hair and an extensive dancing costume. They stopped when they noticed us.
"Hey hey! River people!" The man with the banjo laughed as he pointed at us.
"We're not river people," Katara said.
"You're not?" The man seemed surprised. "What kind of people are ya?"
"Normal people?" I half answered, half asked.
"Aren't we all?" The man smiled.
Sokka stepped right up to him. "Who are you?" He demanded.
"I'm Chung, and this is my wife Willie," He pointed at the woman with the flute, who smiled kindly at us. "We're nomads, happy to go where ever the wind takes us!" He started to violently pull the strings on his guitar, making a pathetic wail.
"You guys are nomads? That's great! I'm a nomad!" Aang smiled.
"Hey, me too!" Chung laughed. Aang looked at him with a confused expression.
"I know," The boy replied. I stepped up to the nomads.
"What are you people on? I want some!" I laughed.
"We're on the ground, the dirt beneath our feet," Chung answered, stomping his feet to prove his point. This made me burst out loud.
"I can tell this is going to be fun," I grinned.
We spent some time talking with the nomads, they told us about their travels, though their stories were confused because of their mannerisms. They braided Appa's hair and made flower crowns for us, which was rather strange. Aang was quite enthusiastic about it all, and he seemed to enjoy these peoples company. Sokka was rather annoyed with the delay that these people were causing, he persisted that we left for Omashu, which led Chung to accuse him of having destination fever. Eventually, Chung told us of an old story that told of a secret passage that passed right through the nearby mountain range straight to the city of Omashu. We asked them to show us where the secret tunnel was, they happily agreed to take us. Along the way, they sung a whole collection of annoying songs, and I started to think that my initial impression of them was maybe not accurate. We eventually came to a clearing near the mountains.
"How much further is this tunnel?" Sokka asked.
"Actually, it's not a tunnel, seeing as the lovers who built it didn't want anyone to know about their love, they made a whole labyrinth!" Chung answered.
"What!?" Sokka cried.
Chung smiled. "I'm sure we'll figure it out,"
"Oh god…I don't want to be stuck with these people underground," I fearfully muttered. Katara giggled.
"I'm sure we'll be fine," She said, patting my back.
"You only need to trust in love to avoid the curse!" Chung's wife told us as she walked by. We soon came to the entrance of the maze, when Sokka asked what this curse was.
"The curse is that, if you don't believe in love, you will be forever trapped in the tunnels," Chung explained.
"And die," His wife added.
"That too," Chung agreed, smiling.
"There is no way we're going through some cursed hole!" Sokka protested. He turned around and saw a large column of black smoke rising in the distance.
"Look, it's a large campfire!" One of Chung's companions giggled.
"That's not a campfire," Katara corrected him.
"It's the Fire Nation, they must be looking for us," Sokka mumbled.
"So all we need to do is trust in love, and we'll make it out alright?" Aang asked Chung. The man turned and nodded. Aang turned to face Katara for a short moment, and then declared that we'd make it through the tunnel.
"Everyone into the hole!" Sokka ordered.
"That's what she said!" I cried. Chung's gang burst out laughing.
"Still don't get it," Katara told me.
"Neither do we!" Chung giggled.
"You're all lame!" I yelled. We quickly piled into the large cave entrance and moved deeper into the tunnel. After a few moments, we heard the sounds of crumbling rock and the light from the outside world that bled into the cave entrance suddenly went out. Chung quickly lit a torch, allowing us to see in the dark. Appa began to nervously pace around, making grunts and moans.
"It's ok, Appa, we'll be fine…I hope," Katara said, touching the large animal.
"We WILL be fine, Chung, how long do those torches last?" Sokka turned to the hippy.
"About 2 hours each," He answered.
"And we have five torches, so that's ten hours!" His wife gleefully added as she lit her five torches. Sokka quickly ran over and put them out.
"It doesn't work that way if you light them all at once!" He barked. He told us that, as we moved through the maze, he would draw a map in order to keep track of where we've been. This would mean that we could work out where to go and eventually find our way out.
"I seriously doubt we'd make it out before our torches run out," I mumbled to myself. I followed the group. We walked for a good long while, and would have to sometimes double back as we'd often hit dead ends. Eventually, we headed down a tunnel we've already explored, and found that it was blocked.
"This doesn't make any sense," Sokka growled as he studied his map.
"We don't need a map, all we need is love!" Chung smiled. Sokka paid no attention to the man.
"All you need is love, love! All you need is love!" I sung, the hippy group started to play music, but Sokka shushed them.
"You're not helping," He snapped.
"I'm sorry," I laughed. Sokka studied his map for a few more moments, then turned to face us all.
"I think I know what's going on," He said. "The tunnels are changing!" As if to prove his hypothesis, the earth started to shake and the sounds of moving earth echoed in the tunnels. Everyone looked at Sokka with wide eyes, and for some reason, my mind drew the picture of a giant mole.
"The tunnels, they're changing! It must be the curse! I knew we should never have come down here!" Chung started to wimper.
"Right, if only we listened to you," Sokka growled.
"Everyone be quiet," Katara ordered. We could hear the sounds of something…growling deep in the tunnels. Before we could tell where it was coming from, a large bat-like creature flew into the light of the torch. The creature landed and I got a good look at it, it looked like a-
"It's a Wolf-Bat!" Sokka cried as the animal slowly advanced towards us. It leapt up in the air and started to fly towards Katara. Sokka jumped in front of his sister and waved his torch frantically to try to scare away the Wolf-Bat. The beast managed to knock the torch out of Sokka's hands and onto Appa's foot. The bison let out a huge cry of pain and he started running all over the place. The racket that Appa was making was enough to frighten the Wolf-Bat, but the large bison started ramming into various walls in the tunnel. The ceiling soon started to collapse, and Aang sprang into action. He blasted a gust of wind at Sokka and the hippies sending them barreling down one tunnel, I leapt out of the way from some falling rocks, but tripped and landed on my stomach. Aang ran over to Katara and managed to push her out of the way of falling rocks. I closed my eyes until the sound of the collapsing tunnel ceased. I tried to get up, but I couldn't. I looked down at my left leg and saw it crushed under a pile of rocks, despite my incredibly poor visibility. My brain quickly processed the image, and gave my body the appropriate feeling.
"AAAAAHHHH!" I yelled in pain as I finally felt my broken foot. I have never broken a bone up until that point, I was never the kind of guy to take many risks, and the pain I felt was indeed great. I was sure that bits of rocks also managed to wedge themselves beneath my skin.
"Damn…damn it…I can't move," I breathed, gulping down my cries of pain. I slowly turned towards my leg, and tried wiggling my toes. A sharp pain ran through my leg, but I knew that at least the ligaments were ok. I stayed still for a few moments, breathing.
"What is that?" I asked, feeling a stick in the dark. I couldn't see very far ahead, but my fingers wrapped around a long thin…torch. I smiled when I saw it, and then turned back to my leg. "Ok, time to get you out," I reached behind my back and drew my water, I moved a thin tentacle towards the debris on my leg and slowly began to remove it bit by bit. Eventually my leg was free, and it plopped to the ground when I pulled it out.
"OW! You son of a limb!" I cried. I quickly made and icy splint for my leg, when I was sure it was tight, I got up. Putting weight on my leg hurt immensely, but at least I could limp. I fumbled in the dark for my torch, and when I found it, I dragged it across the ground, lighting it. I could see clearly now, and saw the large cave in that Appa created. I looked for a way through the rubble, but when I saw none, I turned towards the tunnel.
"I wonder if they all made it out alright?" I asked myself, thinking about the others. "Duh they're fine, we always find each other somehow!" I slapped my forehead. But then a shadow fell over me. "But I'm not part of this world…what if I don't find a way out?" I quickly slapped myself. "Don't talk like that! You survived a siege; you can make it out of a dark cave!" I started to slowly limp forward, moving deeper into the maze. I leaned against the walls to avoid putting too much weight on my leg. I took a look at my torch, and remembered the time limit on it.
"So I have two hours to make it out of here and if I don't find my way out…I'm screwed," I told myself, trying to move faster. My mind brought the image of moles again. I wondered why my brain kept bringing that thought up when suddenly, I remembered part of the Avatar lore. Giant moles created earth bending, and the tunnels were changing, like Sokka said. So was it possible that some of these earth bending moles were in this labyrinth? I grinned at the thought. I realised that within these two hours, if I could find a mole, I could ask it to carve a way out of the labyrinth for me rather than try to figure out this maze. I moved with new strength, limping along the tunnel walls, keeping my ears opened for any sound.
I walked for a good long while with no luck. The tunnels seemed to go on forever, and my torch was dangerously close to going out. My mind wanted to break down, make me sit and wait for death, but the rational part of me drove me on.
"If this torch goes out, I'll feel my way out, I don't care how long it takes, but I am not going to die in here," I encouraged myself. My leg had become incredibly numb and swollen, but I couldn't stop to tend to the wound. My torch went out after I had tripped on a root. I desperately searched for the torch in the low light, but realised that even if I found it, it'd be out of fuel. I cursed loudly, smashing my fists into the earth. I sat there, alone in the dark for a good long while, when I heard the sounds of scrapes in the distance.
"Who's there?" I asked. I didn't get a response, but a large BOOM resonated in the tunnels ahead. I quickly got up and moved along the walls, following the sound I heard. Another BOOM resonated and It sounded much closer this time.
"Moles? Are you there!?" I cried. "I could use some help to find my friends and get out of here!" Another Boom, and suddenly a faint light at the end of the tunnel shone through. My heart thumped loudly and I started to limp as quickly as I could towards the light. I tripped when I reached the newly formed exit, the sounds of cheering surrounded me, and a giant Badger-Mole stood over me.
"Fred, you made it out too!" I heard Aang cry. The boy ran over and helped me up. "What happened to your leg?" He asked,
"Cave in," I replied. "I'm lucky that it's only broken," The Avatar told me that Katara would help me with it later, and I thanked him. Aang turned towards the Hippies, and asked them if they were going to accompany us to Omashu.
"No," They refused, and we let them go without a fuss. Katara healed my leg when the hippies left, and I was soon able to walk properly again.
"Are we lucky to have you or what?" I laughed after she pulled her hands away.
"Don't mention it, come on, we've got to go," Katara smiled as she turned to leave. We all trekked up a small mountain, and the walk felt great because it allowed blood to flow down to my foot.
"The journey was long and annoying, but now you get to see what it's really about!" Sokka said as we approached the top of the mountain. "The destination!" He reached the top and posed like an announcer. "I present to you, the city of O-" He didn't finish his sentence when he turned. Curiously, I looked out towards the city when I reached the top, and my heart stopped when I saw the large banners that covered the city walls.
The Fire Nation had taken over the city of Omashu.
