Omashu, Nuts, and Bad Acting
Don't really have anything to say.
Tora: Lady of the Spirit doesn't own anything but the idea for this story and me.
Sokka, Katara, Aang, Zuko, and Iroh: We belong to Nickelodeon!
Edit: New version! Changes in the chapter. Watch out for them. Some of them are subtle, but they're there.
"Finally!" I yelled, jumping down from the saddle. "We were stuck up there for so long; I thought my legs would wither up and fall off!"
"Oh, calm down." Katara said, rolling her eyes. But she was smiling.
"Ladies and Sokka, I present to you the wonderful city of Omashu!" Aang said, throwing his arms wide, presenting the city. It was impressive, I've got to admit. It was so big, and it was made entirely out of stone. Unlike the Fire Nation, who made most of their buildings out of metal.
"I used to always come here to visit my best friend Bumi!" Aang said, smiling.
"Wow. They don't have buildings like this in the South Pole!" Katara said.
"They have buildings here that don't melt!"
"It's so big." I mused, staring at it.
"Well, I heard Ba Sing Se is even bigger." Aang told me. "Come on, slowpokes! The fun takes place inside the city!" He started to take off on his glider, but Katara stopped him.
"Wait Aang! It would be dangerous if people find out you're the Avatar, or Tora's Fire Nation." She said, glancing at me. She knew I didn't like hiding I was Fire Nation. I shrugged, telling her that I didn't care.
"What do you want us to do? Grow a moustache?" Aang said sarcastically.
"I have an idea." I said. When they looked at me, I tilted my head toward Appa.
"What about you?" Katara asked.
"I have the Kyoshi Warriors outfit. I can wear that." I said, shrugging again.
A few minutes later, Aang had a beard and a wig made out of Appa's fur, and I was dressed in Kyoshi's warrior dress and had my hair pulled back into a braid.
"Ugh. This is so itchy!" Aang exclaimed, scratching under his wig. "How do you live in this stuff?" He asked Appa. The sky bison just snorted on him.
"Great, now you look just like my grandfather." Sokka said dryly.
"Well, Aang is a hundred and twelve years old. Technically speaking." Katara commented.
Aang twirled his staff, before leaning against it like a cane. "Let's get to skippin', young whippersnappers!" He said in an old man voice. "The big city awaits!"
After twenty minutes of walking, we were nearing the wall of the city. Aang was telling us how we were going to love it, and how the people in Omashu were the friendliest in the world. Not even five seconds after he said that, one of the guards by the wall started yelling at a cabbage merchant about "rotten cabbages" and "what kinda slum do you think this is?" Then he earthbended the cabbages right over the side of the pathway, sending the cabbages down into the abyss.
"No, my cabbages!" The cabbage guy yelled in despair. We all looked over the cliff and saw the cabbages falling into the creek very, very, very, far down.
"Just keep smiling!" Aang said through his smile. We approached the guard, who earthbended a huge rock over Aang's head, making me squeak.
"State your name and business!" The guard ordered. Aang shot out of underneath the boulder, way too fast for his supposed age. He pointed his finger in the guards face, making him drop the boulder.
"My business is my business, young man, and none of yours! I have half a mind to bend you over my knee and paddle your backside!" Aang yelled in the guards face. The Water Tribe siblings and I started freaking out, but I managed to keep my freaking out inside me.
"Grandpa!" I said through my forced smile, putting a hand on his shoulder and clenching it tightly. "Why don't you just tell the nice man who can arrest us or send us over the cliff your name and business here in Omashu, the friendliest place on earth!" I said through clenched teeth.
Aang seemed to get over himself. "Name's Bonzu Pipinpadaloxicopolis, the Third! And this is my granddaughter, Aya." He said, gesturing to me.
The guard glared at Sokka and Katara. "And they are?"
"Oh!" Aang chuckled. "The boy is Aya's fiancé, and the girl is his sister."
Sokka and I both let out choking sounds when I realized he was talking about me being Sokka's fiancé, and then we both turned furious shades of red. FIANCE?! Where the hell did that come from?! Spirits, I was going to kill Aang! Then I would kill his reincarnation!
"Hi. Aya Pipinpadaloxicopolis. Nice to meet you." I said, smiling through tightly clenched teeth. "This is my future sister-in-law, June." I gestured to Katara, who came forward and waved politely.
The guard stared at us for a moment, before pointing at the two of us. "You two seem like responsible young ladies. See that the old man stays out of trouble! Enjoy Omashu."
"We will." Katara and I both said at the same time. The guard motioned for us to pass, and Sokka followed us.
"Wait a minute!" We all turned around to see the guard glaring at Sokka. "You're a strong young man. Show some respect for your fiancé and her grandfather and carry their bags!"
"Good idea!" Aang said, pulling off his bag and throwing it to Sokka.
"Yeah, 'sweetie'." I said, smirking as I tossed him my own bag. He scowled at the two of us, glaring particularly hard at me.
The wall in front of us suddenly started to move apart, revealing two more interlocking walls that were slowly moving apart. We stared in amazement, before walking through it. I noticed Momo's ears suddenly poke out of Aang's wig, and stuffed them back into the fur.
As soon as we were through the gates, we all stared in disbelief at the impressive city in front of us. It was filled with houses with the roofs painted Earth Kingdom green. There were chutes all over the city, with an occasional package shooting past us. Staring at the incredible city, I felt my irritation with Aang slipping away. That didn't mean I forgot about it, though! I would get my revenge on him, sooner or later…
Sokka suddenly shoved my bag back into my arms, glaring. "Sweetie?"
I smirked at him again. "Blame Aang for coming up with that. I was just making it more believable."
"This is the Omashu delivery system. Earthbending soldiers bring the packages up; gravity brings them down." Aang said, ignoring us completely.
"Great." Sokka said, sounding like he didn't even care. "Good on them for getting their mail on time."
"They do get their mail on time! But my friend Bumi found a better use for these chutes..." Aang said with a mischievous look on his face. "I'll show you. Come on!"
~~Water~~
A few minutes later, we were all sitting in one of the package carts, teetering back and forth over the slide.
"Just one ride, okay? Then we'll head for the North Pole, and we won't make any stops unless we need to - Airbender's honour." Aang promised. I was grinning like crazy, while Katara and Sokka looked a little terrified.
"Yeah, yeah, let's go already!" I exclaimed impatiently. I was practically bouncing in my seat with excitement.
"You know, this sounded like a lot of fun at first, but now that we're here, I'm starting to-!" Katara screamed as we shot down the chute. I started screaming with joy at the top of my lungs, clinging to Aang. We started shooting past a chute next to us, and I could see that it was going to merge with our chute in a few minutes. Unfortunately, a cart carrying a bunch of spears came rocketing down that chute, and when it merged with ours, it almost stabbed Sokka, who had to duck to avoid getting killed. We all started making distressed noises, and Aang suddenly started rocking the bin back and forth, sending us over the side. I let out a scream as our bin collided with the ground, in front of a group of soldiers.
"Get your foot out of my face!" I yelled at Aang as he airbended us off the ground and back into the air.
"Get your face off my foot!" He yelled back. We landed back into a chute, making us all sigh in relief.
"Aang - airbending!" Katara yelled at him. "Use your airbending!"
"Right! That'll make us go even faster! Great idea, Katara!"
"YEAH!" I screamed, throwing my hands in the air with excitement.
"NO!" Sokka and Katara yelled at me.
Down below us, a bin had been stopped by one of the guards, and we were going to crash into it. We all screamed. The earthbender pushed the bin out of our way, and we sighed in relief. Then he earthbended another bin in front of us, and we all started screaming again. Instead of hitting the bin, we hit the side of the trench, and we shot off the chute again. We all started falling out of the bin, making us scream even louder, and Aang airbended us back into the bin. We hit a roof and bounced off it and through a window, shattering a guy's vase.
"SORRY!" I yelled over my shoulder at him. We broke through the window of the guy's house, and shot into another person's living room. Then we crashed through the wall of a balcony and started falling again, and we all screamed even louder than before.
We suddenly hit the ground, crashing through that cabbage merchant's cart.
"MY CABBAGES! You're gonna pay for this!"
"I only have one thing to say." I said slowly pulling myself off the ground. "That was AWESOME! Can we do it again?"
"NO!" pretty much everyone shouted.
~~Water~~
"I am never going back to Omashu." I stated, as Katara and I waited for Sokka to come back with dinner.
"We'll have to eventually. When Aang masters waterbending, we'll probably come back so Aang can learn Earthbending from King Bumi." Katara pointed out.
I rolled my eyes. "Well, then I'm never going back to Omashu unless we have to."
Sokka came out of a group of bushes, holding a sack.
"Great, you're back! What's for dinner?" Aang asked, sitting up.
"We've got a few options. Round nuts, oval shaped nuts, or some rock shaped nuts that… might just be rocks. Enjoy!" Sokka said, dumping the nuts out of his bag. We all stared at him for a moment, before Katara said, "Seriously, what else you got?"
Sokka glared at us for a moment, before he opened his bag and looked into it.
Suddenly, a loud BOOM burst through the silence of the forest. All of us jumped, and Sokka shrieked, "What was that?"
"It's coming from over there!" Aang exclaimed, pointing over to where the noise was coming from. Three of us ran over to where Aang was pointing.
"Shouldn't we run away from huge booms, not towards them?" Sokka yelled at us. I rolled my eyes in exasperation.
"Come on, Sokka!" We followed the noise to a river bed that had dried up, and peered through the branches of a tree that had fallen over. Standing a few feet away from where we were, was a boy, probably around our age, with long hair and Earth Kingdom clothes. He was moving a large boulder around carefully.
"He's an earthbender!" Katara said in amazement.
"Let's go talk to him!" Aang said to Sokka.
"I don't think that's a good idea." I said nervously. "He might think we're a threat and try to take us out."
"I'm with Tora on this one. Let's try to approach him cautiously."
"Sokka?" I asked.
"Yeah?"
I pointed to Katara, who had run out from the tree while Sokka was talking. She was facing the earthbender with a smile on her face. "Hello there! My name's Katara. What's yours?"
The earthbender turned to Katara, with a look of surprise on his face. Then he dropped his rock, and sprinted away, Earthbending a pile of rocks down to block the river bed so we couldn't follow him.
"Nice to meet you!" Aang yelled after him. I wasn't sure if he was being sarcastic or not.
"I just wanted to say 'hi'." Katara said, sounding disappointed. I put a hand on her shoulder.
"He has to be running somewhere, doesn't he? We might be able to find a village. And where there's a village, there's food!" I pointed out.
"Which means no nuts for dinner!" Katara said in excitement, her smile returning.
"Exactly! After that guy!" I shouted, pointing after him like a hero leading an expedition.
"Hey, I worked hard for those nuts!" Sokka yelled after us as we ran off.
~~Water~~
We were now standing in the market in the village we had found. Katara was looking around, searching for the boy probably, and Aang was trying out a hat at merchant cart. I laughed when Aang offered to pay the guy with the nuts Sokka found.
"What do you think?" Aang said, gesturing to his new hat.
"I think you look ridiculous." I stated, pulling the brim of the hat over his eyes.
"Well, you…" Aang struggled to find something to insult me with. "You walk funny!"
I raised an eyebrow. Then I heard Katara say "Hey!" And saw her run into a small house.
"Let's go see what she's doing." I said, gesturing to where she had disappeared. Sokka nodded in agreement, and the boys led the way into the house.
We came into the room just in time to hear Katara say, "Why did you run away before?"
The earthbender kid looked nervous. "You must have me confused with some other kid." He said, obviously lying.
"No, she doesn't." I said. "We saw you earthbending."
The earthbender kid suddenly got into a fighting stance, while an old lady who I didn't notice before gasped in horror. I stared at them.
"You can't take Haru away!" The old lady, who I guess was Haru's mother, said in terror.
"Why would I take him away?" I asked in confusion. I admit I was wearing a Fire Nation tunic, so I understand why they would be so defensive. But I had no reason to take the kid away.
"What are you doing here?" Haru demanded.
"Um, I'm with them." I said, jerking my thumb in my friend's direction. Haru turned to the others, now looking confused.
"Why are you with someone from the Fire Nation? You're not Fire Nation. I can tell." Haru asked, looking very perplexed.
"Tora's our friend." Katara explained.
"You're friends with a firebender?" Haru said, looking even more perplexed.
I placed my hands on my hips and glared at him. "Not everybody in the Fire Nation are evil."
"But-"
Haru was cut off when there was a knock on the door.
"Open up!" A loud obnoxious sounding voice came from outside.
"Fire Nation! Act natural!" Sokka ordered in a whisper.
When the door opened, Katara was standing in the middle of the room with a mouthful of nuts, Aang was leaning against a barrel (which he fell into), Sokka and Haru were looking at something with interested looks on their faces, and I was chewing on an apple like a chipmunk-squirrel.
"What do you want? I already paid you this week." Haru's mother said coldly.
"The tax just doubled. You wouldn't want an accident, would you?" the soldier asked, smirking. A fire ball appeared in his hands. "Fire is sometimes so difficult to control."
I narrowed my eyes at the man. Spirits, I hate it when people assume I'm evil when they find out I'm Fire Nation, but people like this soldier made me realize why so many people did.
Haru's mother's face suddenly became sad and resigned. She went and got a small wooden box from the back, and opened it up in front of us all, revealing a few coins. She picked them up and handed them to the soldier, who walked back to the door. He suddenly tossed back a small one. "You can keep the copper ones." Then he did a Fire Nation bow in my direction, which I returned. But inside I was fuming.
"Nice guy." Sokka said sarcastically as they left. "How long has the Fire Nation had control here?"
"Five years. Fire Lord Ozai uses the coal from our coal mines to fuel his war ships." Haru's mother said bitterly.
"They're thugs." Haru said suddenly. He looked angry and sullen. "Everyone in this village is a coward. They won't do anything about it."
"Quiet, Haru. Don't talk like that."
They're not cowards. They want to protect themselves and their families. I thought. Those soldiers wouldn't hesitate to put a fire ball to a toddlers head at the very mention of a rebellion.
"But Haru's an earthbender! He can help!" Katara exclaimed.
"Earthbending is forbidden. It's caused nothing but misery for this village. He must never use his abilities." Haru's mother said sadly.
"How can you say that?" Katara asked in shock. "Haru bending is a gift. Asking him not to earthbend is like asking me not to waterbend, or Tora not to firebend." I had recently asked my friends to say I was just a firebender if someone asked what sort of bender we were. "It's a part of us."
"You don't understand." The mother said.
"But what could those soldiers do to you that they haven't done already?"
"They could take Haru away!" I gasped in horror when she said this. "They took his father. I won't let them take away my son."
~~Water~~
The next day, Sokka, Aang and I were in the barn. Haru's mother let us stay for the night, but she said we should leave in the morning, so we were getting ready to leave. Katara was getting water for our journey.
Speak of Agni, Katara suddenly burst into the barn, looking extremely upset. "They took him! They took him away!"
"What?" I gasped, getting up.
"That man we rescued - he turned Haru in to the soldiers. It's all my fault, I forced him to do it! Not turn Haru in, I forced Haru into saving the old man! Lot of good it did!"
"Calm down, Katara. When did they come here?" Sokka said, trying to calm down his sister.
"Ajala (that's Haru's mother's name) said they came for him at midnight."
Sokka suddenly looked depressed. "Then we can't find him. He's been gone for too long."
Katara suddenly got a determined look on her face. "We don't need to track him. The soldiers will take me right to Haru."
"And why, exactly, would they do that?" I couldn't help but ask.
"Because they will arrest me for earthbending."
~~Water~~
I was hiding behind a rock with Aang. Aang's job was to airbend into the air vents when Katara gave the signal. My job was to get Aang to focus. I think my job was tougher.
I suddenly heard Sokka start talking in a very loud, much exaggerated voice "Get out of my way, pipsqueak!" So the soldiers had finally come.
Katara started talking with the same voice. "How dare you call me "pipsqueak" you giant-eared cretin!"
"What did you call me?"
"A giant-eared cretin! Look at those things. Do herds of animals use them for shade?" I snickered at her comment. It was kind of funny.
"You better back off!" Sokka yelled. Then I heard him mutter something, but I couldn't hear what he said.
"I will not back off! I bet elephants get together and make fun of how large your ears are!"
"That's it – you're going down!"
"I'll show you who's boss – earthbending style!" Katara yelled.
I was so wrapped up in watching the little play I hadn't been paying attention to Aang. I turned back to him to see him spacing out.
"I SAID, EARTHBENDING STYLE!" Katara yelled, sounding like she said it through clenched teeth. Aang jumped, and airbended into the vents, and I turned back to the play. The boulder Katara "lifted" floated off the ground, revealing Momo with his arms in the air, looking like he was earthbending it.
"The lemur!" one of the soldiers gasped. "He's earthbending!"
I mentally slapped my forehead. "No, you idiots, it's the girl!" Sokka yelled.
"Oh, right." The soldier said, sounding embarrassed.
"I'll hold her!" Sokka yelled, planting both of his hands on her shoulders tightly. Then he whispered something into Katara's ear.
When Katara had been led off by the soldiers, Sokka turned to Momo, who was perched on my shoulder. "Momo, you have some very big ears!"
"Come on, giant-eared cretin." I sighed.
~~Water~~
Pieces of burning coal and fire zoomed past me, several of them nearly burning me. I grabbed several chunks of coal, burned them, and threw them as hard as I could toward the warden.
"Guys, throw me some coal!" Aang yelled, airbending a small funnel, one end directed at the enemy firebenders. We all started placing the coal into the funnel, sending them flying toward the warden and the soldiers. They were all knocked over. Then the earthbenders moved the coal, making a small island out of it. The coal was moved over the side of the prison, and it hovered over the water.
"No, please! I can't swim!" The warden yelled in desperation.
"I heard cowards float." Haru's dad, Tyro, said with a smirk. Then he let it drop.
I couldn't resist. I ran over to the railing, leaned over it, and yelled, "HA!"
To my surprise, a lot of people laughed.
An hour later we were standing on one of the Fire Nation ships, now under the command of the Earth Kingdom. A lot of the earthbenders were surprised to see a firebender on their side, but they got over it soon enough. Now we were all getting ready to get on Appa and leave.
"I want to thank you for saving me. For saving us." Haru said to Katara.
Katara blushed. "All it took was a little coal."
"It wasn't the coal, Katara, it was you."
Tyro put a hand on her shoulder. "Thank you for helping me find my courage, Katara of the Water Tribe. My family and everyone here owes you much."
"So, I guess you're going home now?" Katara asked.
"Yes, to take back my village." He turned to the rest of the former prisoners and raised a fist, talking in a loud voice. "To take back OUR village! Fire Lord Ozai will regret the day he had his soldiers set foot on our land!"
Everyone cheered as loud as they could. I punched my fist in the air, and whistled and cheered.
"Come with us." Haru offered.
"I can't. Your mission is to take back your home. Ours is to get Aang to the North Pole."
I crawled over the side of the railing of the ship and dropped onto Appa's head. Aang was airbending a small piece of coal around in the air. I tossed a small flame toward the coal, making it burn, and Aang nearly dropped it.
I looked up when I heard Katara gasp. "My mother's necklace! It's gone!"
"It must have fallen off during the fight." I said, standing up.
"We have to go back and find it!" Katara exclaimed, looking immensely distressed.
"Katara, we can't. If we keep stopping, we'll never get to the north pole." Sokka said sadly.
"But-"
"Katara, remember when you lost your necklace during that blizzard a few years ago?" I asked her. It was before I came to the tribe, but Katara told me about it while we were taking a walk around in the snow.
Katara nodded.
"You said that when you lost it, you had fallen in the snow and it fell off. You didn't notice until you got home, but by then it was dark, and when you went out the next morning the blizzard had started." I continued. "And then, when the blizzard was over, you thought for sure you'd never find it. You thought it was lost forever."
Katara nodded sadly, remembering.
"And you told me, that when you ran off to cry about losing it, what did you find at your feet?"
"Her mother's necklace?" Haru asked, making a guess.
"Exactly!" I nodded, pointing at him.
"What is the point of this story?" Katara asked.
"Someone up there," I pointed to the sky. "Wants you to keep that necklace. And no matter what, someone up there," I pointed up again. "Will make sure you find it."
Katara sighed. "Thanks for the support, Tora. But I honestly doubt that I'll find it this time."
"Don't give up, Katara." Haru said, smiling at her.
Oooh, Katara's got two people crushing on her. Don't know that for sure, but I'm getting that vibe.
"Thanks Haru." Katara sighed again, getting on Appa. "I hope we'll see each other again."
As we took off, I saw Haru and his dad waving at us. The earthbenders all yelled out goodbyes. I noticed Katara still looked sad.
Well, who wouldn't be? I would be devastated if I lost my necklace. Just to be sure it was still on my neck, I reached up and touched it. It was there, which made me let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.
~~Water~~
Back in what used to be the earthbenders prison, Katara's necklace was lying on the floor amongst the coal and abandoned weapons.
Zuko got down and picked it up, holding it in his hand.
He stared at it for a moment, before he looked out into the distance.
The Avatar was here.
Bet you thought I was going to have Tora's necklace fall off too, didn't ya? Well, SURPRISE!
I decided I didn't want to go that way. It just would seem kind of pointless to me to have her necklace fall off too, because, SPOILER ALERT, she doesn't get captured by Zuko like Katara did in The Waterbending Scroll.
Edit: So how'd you guys like this new version? I liked it better than the old version – and I'm not just saying that because the old version could help in getting the story deleted.
Also, you guys – don't worry. If this story is deleted (and I'm working hard to make sure it isn't) I'll change some things around and repost it. So don't you guys worry, alright?
So my plan is to work on a chapter a day. First I'll work on this story, and then I'll move onto my other stories – but I'm going to work on working on both stories very fast.