Last Time…

I flopped onto the bed and curled up into the soft covers. Even though I was a bit nervous about what tomorrow held for me, it did not take long for me to fall asleep.

I awoke to the loud boom of the stone wall opening into my chamber. A gruff voice called out, "It's time to get up. King Bumi requests your presence."

I blinked the sleep from my eyes and groggily sat up. Two earth kingdom guards were standing at the opening. I grabbed my bag and swung it onto my back, standing as I did so.

"You won't need that," One of the guards said. I dropped the bag, stepped over it and past the guards. I walked out of the room and they followed. I stood there impatiently tapping my foot as they closed up the entrance again.

"Right this way."

I followed them through the castle, casually looking out the windows as we passed. The sunlight was very dim, but I couldn't see the sun in the east. It wasn't until we passed through an open-roofed section of the palace that I realised why. The sun was almost covered by the horizon to the west.

"Did I sleep in?" I asked, looking up at the darkening sky. The guards didn't even look back.

"King Bumi instructed us to let you sleep as long as you wanted. He said you needed your rest," One of them said.

"Hmm. That was nice of him," I mused. Very nice of him for someone he's never met before now. Ah well. I'll just take advantage of it. I got another surprise when we reached our destination. The two guards went off to the side and I got a full view of a huge banquet table, full of food. The table last night had nothing on this one and there was so much food. There were numerous guards, in various states of uniform, sitting and eating. The ones who had escorted me strode over to a group who laughed and hollered at their friends. And I could see another group of chatting guards approaching the supposed dining hall from the hallway on the other side. I hesitated before taking an empty seat on the far end of the table, away from all the guards.

Sure, I was in another world, but my social anxiety wasn't going away anytime soon.

I ate a decent amount. Once I got going, it was pretty hard to stop. With all my planning and preparation, we still had rough patches for food. Yes, I'm saying Sokka ate everything before I could explain how to ration it all. The more I ate, the more I realized that I was absolutely starving. I'd just grabbed another leg of unknown meat when I heard a high-pitched yell from behind me.

"Rei?!"

I didn't even have enough time to turn around before being engulfed in a bear hug by a tiny person. When I looked down, the arms had light blue arrows tattoos which confirmed my suspicions. I sighed.

"Hi Aang. Can I have my body back?"

The only response was only a harder squeeze which actually started to hurt.

"Aang? I can't breathe!" I gasped out and was finally released. But I barely was able to catch my breath before I was then whipped around to face the distraught Avatar. He wrapped his arms back round me a bit more gently. At least it was before Katara and Sokka joined in. In the end, I was trapped in a very tightly packed Gaang sandwich.

"Aww guys. You didn't have to worry about me. I'm bigger and smarter than you lot," I smirked and patted the tops of their heads. That patronizing behaviour caused Aang to airbend himself out of the huddle.

"Hey! You're not smarter than us!" He whined with the most adorable angry face. He even tried pointing his staff at me threateningly, but it just made me smile wider.

"No comeback for the other one I see," I teased. "And you guys got arrested. I walked around the city, bought a cup of tea and politely asked King Bumi to see my friends."

Katara released her hold on me and gasped, "You knew that the King was Aang's friend and you didn't think to mention it?!"

"Yeah, he trapped us in jennamite and forced Aang to do these dangerous challenges!" Sokka cried emphatically, gesticulating widely. I folded my arms and furrowed my brows.

"He trapped you in jennamite!" I exclaimed angrily.

"I know! We were nearly completely encased by the time Aang figured it out."

I groaned in disappointment, "Lucky! I want to be encased in jennamite. Imagine eating your way out of it. It would keep growing back and you'd have an endless supply of candy!"

"Wait, how did you know it was rock candy?!" Katara demanded.

"Gran Gran's told us about King Bumi of Omashu and his penchant for trickery. And his great love of jennamite rock candy. Seriously though, do you have any left? I really want to try it." I pleaded. The gang all shook their heads. Thankfully, neither of the siblings called out my blatant lie. Gran Gran never told us about Omashu. She did talk about Ba Sing Se, so the risk of them realizing I was lying was small. And it evidently paid off cause they didn't question it at all.

And a giant chunk of rock clocked me on the back of the head.

"Owww!" I yelled, clutching my head. I spun around and found the King standing at the other entrance with a sheepish look on his face.

"What was that for?"

"I thought you would catch it. Sorry about that then Rei. Why don't we all eat dinner then?"

Both Aang and Sokka ran, jumped onto a bench and respectively stuffed an apple and a leg of meat in their mouths. Katara followed and gently sat a meter away from the hungry maniacs.

"Thank you King Bumi," she said, bowing her head slightly.

"Come on, Rei. Sit down. You have to tell us about what you did yesterday and today," Aang beckoned after taking a huge bite out of a sandwich. I smiled and sat in between Sokka and Katara.

"It's not very exciting. I walked around the city yesterday, got a cup of tea and slept the day away today. I only woke up about an hour ago."

Sokka's jaw dropped. A bit of his sandwich dropped out of his mouth eliciting a disgusted sound from both Katara and me.

"You got to sleep until an hour ago?!" Sokka's whine got higher and higher as he went on.

"That's not fair! We had to wake up at the crack of dawn! I was still yawning by the time Aang had to do his third challenge."

"Well, maybe you shouldn't just go along with Aang's master plan of causing mischief and mayhem. And I didn't get arrested."

Apparently, our conversation was very entertaining because many of the guards I had seen making jokes with each other when I entered the room were now staring at our little group and struggling to keep in their laughter.

As I made this observation, Sokka was muttering to himself, "Stupid guards. Get arrested. You get arrested." His volume went up as he apparently came up with the perfect comeback. "Well, you had no fun. We got to ride the mail system. You got a cup of tea."

"Is that a challenge Sokka?"

The whole hall was silent, looking at Sokka.

"Yes."

The communal staring shifted back to me. I smirked, "I accept."

The whole hall exploded into raucous laughter and whoops.

"However!"

My voice pierced through the crowd, silencing it instantly.

"I want Aang or an earthbender with me cause I don't fancy dying just yet."

As quickly as the cheering had stopped, it started again. Aang and Sokka joined in hollering loudly and jumping in excitement with some of the guards. Smiling eyes trained on Aang, Katara kept sitting with her hands over her ears. I grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the room with me. We kept running until we couldn't hear the commotion anymore. I let go of her hand and, panting like dogs, we both collapsed onto the ground.

"Thanks Rei. Boys are so weird."

I chuckled, "Yeah, but it's kinda adorable how excited they get." I turned on my side and smirked at her. "And don't think I didn't see those puppy eyes that you had pointed at Aang."

Her cheeks bloomed into a rosy red. She stuttered, "Wha- no. I wasn't-"

I laughed and tackled her into a rolling hug. She got me off quickly and I fell over on my back, cackling loudly.

"You've got a crush." I sang, pointing a teasing finger at the blushing girl.

"Shut up." She muttered. I just laughed and skipped away to my chambers.

The next morning

The general consensus was that I'd love it and want to go multiple times. By the time I actually got to the top of the starting chute, there was a line of various earthbender guards with Aang and Bumi at the very front.

"Are you kidding? Guys, I hate to disappoint you, but this is terrifying. I'm not gonna want to go again."

I loved it so much that there were many repeats of the line with many more newcomers as the day went on. Everyone was trying to top each other. One of the palace guards, who usually was stationed outside the royal library, actually managed to do a loop-the-loop in thin air with a well calculated push at the right time. I got terrible motion sickness after a while and was thankful when lunch came so I could completely clear my mouth of the taste of sick.

In the afternoon, I declined going again in favor of watching from our covered table set-up. Of course I didn't have to worry about disappointing anyone because Katara, Sokka and all the non-earthbending guards took my place as the rider. Bumi and I watched from our lofty perch and actually started scoring benders. We both agreed it was unfair for Aang to be a part of it. Our winner was a wall guard, Halin, who maneuvered the crate all over the city and did several impressive aerial stunts.

We spent two more days in Omashu. From the newly made window in my chambers, I watched Aang and Bumi dash around the city through the mail system. I took advantage of our luxurious amenities and took frequent naps between meals and explorations of the city with the gang.

On the night before our departure, I finally gathered enough courage to ask, "King Bumi, would it be alright if I spoke with you privately? I just want to ask you for some personal advice. Nothing horrible or anything."

"Why do you need to talk to him?" Aang asked, his eyebrows raising suspiciously.

"That's none of your business Aang. She said it was personal. I'd expect you to respect that." Bumi responded before I could get a word in. He eyed me and I just sat there looking shocked.

"Of course you can Rei," Bumi smiled. "I have just the place. Please excuse us."

He led me to a separate balcony and waved the guards away.

"What's on your mind, Rei?"

I scoffed a little, amused.

"Well, lots of things, but I specifically wanted to ask you about something: Something that might make me seem very suspicious."

Bumi smiled.

"Ask away, young one. There's little that can surprise me at this age."

I swallowed my fear and stated, "I know about the White Lotus."

Bumi paused and looked out over the cityscape of Omashu. He cackled before saying, "Maybe I should rethink my earlier phrase because I have had two impressive surprises within three days. Any point to asking how?"

That was not the reaction I thought I'd get. I stuttered, "Uh, um… no."

"So, what's your question?"

He turned and peered at me intensely. I bit my lip.

"I wanna join. I don't know how everything works, but I'd like to."

Bumi thought about that for a moment.

"Hmm...We don't usually allow outsiders to become initiates."

I rushed, "I'll do whatever you ask of me."

Bumi smiled.

"Well… since you're traveling with the Avatar, I'm not sure if we have time to perform the full initiation."

"I happen to know for a fact that we will meet other members on the road. If there's a way that we can split the initiation into parts, that might be the way to go."

Bumi looked at me with skepticism evident in his eyes, but nodded, "The first step is a separation from the mortal realm and entering the spirit world through meditation. And you have to stay there for 8 days continuously. I suggest meditating frequently and practicing, but you shouldn't enter the spirit world until a member can look after you. The spirit world isn't the pleasantest of places. Though, it does usually take a while before an initiate is able to enter the spirit world."

I nodded.

"I understand."

Bumi took me through my first ever true meditation right then and there.

The next day, Bumi handed me a White Lotus Pai Sho piece with the parting words, "May you find peace and acceptance in every nation."

As we walked away from Omashu, Aang asked, "So, what'd you guys think of Omashu?"

"It was awesome! So much good food!" Sokka exclaimed. Katara and I snickered. "What? It was good food!"

"I thought it was a wonderful city, Aang. It was nice to meet one of your old friends."

At the mention of Bumi, Aang beamed, "Bumi's great! What about you Rei?"

I smirked and thought about my new connections and power.

"It was a very productive side trip. It was definitely worthwhile to go to Omashu."

A/N: So sorry for the time it's taken to actually get this out. Online college started and that's been eating up a lot of my energy. I'll try to get the next chapter out sooner this time.

JS - Thank you for the review. I'm so glad you took the time to read my story. Since you've reviewed, I've updated most of the chapters and I think I've added a bit more depth and interaction between Rei and the characters. It is a deliberate choice to have Rei be a compulsive napper. She likes her rest and will threaten death to anyone who wakes her up before she's ready. Thanks again for the review. It inspired me to keep writing this fanfic.

Lavender Queen - Thank you so much for your kind review. Rei's age is supposed to be kind of ambiguous so the reader could potentially imagine themselves in her place, but I imagined Rei at around 17. I've taken out that bit with Aang. It was supposed to be a plotline where Aang found out about Rei's foreknowledge. I decided against that, so I've taken it out. Thank you for reading. I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Just a disclaimer, I am not asking for reviews and may not have a response for every one that I get, but these reviews really helped to keep me motivated the past two months.