Ba Sing Se

"Uhnhh..."

A few minutes later I found myself lying face to dirt in the middle of some large marketplace. Folks were walking around me as if I were merely a hole in the ground. (And there was somewhat of an indentation where I landed...no wonder I could barely remember my name.) No, I take that back. They were walking OVER me. "Ouch!" I yelled as some lady crossed over me. She was looking straight ahead. What is with people? The good people of our school weren't so...

Oh dear.

Marketplace? People in odd clothing? Bizzare-looking bird/pack mule/horse things?

Well. Avatar land.

The only question now was how the heck did I get here! I sat up and dusted myself off, thinking back. What had I done before I ended up here? School, library, fansite...oh yes, and that strange little icon. Drat my uncontrollable curiosity. Getting quickly to my feet to avoid being trampled further, I walked past some buildings and into a shadowed alleyway to think. Ok, how was I going to get out of here? The people would notice me soon enough. Some were already giving me looks (you don't see guys with their hair spiked up in the front and wearing band shirts in Avatar Land, do you?).

The best thing to do at this point would be to find some proper attire. So, gathering up my courage, I wandered aimlessly around until I located some sort of clothing shop. After looking through the odd selection of men's clothing for a bit, I realized that I had no...um...whatever those round metal things were. Money. Well, I did have about ten dollars in my pocket, so that would have to do...wait a sec. When I reached in to get the money, something clanked. Sure, there's some loose change in every guy's pocket, but change jingles, it doesn't clank. I hesitaintly pulled one out. So my CASH had changed too? Now I had a pocketful of metal disks with holes in them. And let me tell you, they were HEAVY. I grabbed some interesting-looking clothes and paid for them. The clerk looked at me oddly, but said nothing. Thank goodness.

The next thing I did was go back to my alley. After checking about ninety times to make sure no one was there, I changed into my Avatar duds. Jeepers. The pants were so wide and long I had to use a leather cord I found on the ground to hold them up. If I hadn't ripped off part of the waist, the pants alone would be a jumpsuit on me. Luckily the greenish-beige shirt went down to my knees. I ought to have checked the size before I bought the stuff. The matter of my 2006 clothes was easy enough to figure out; all I had to do was roll them up and carry them. My sandals looked more or less like anyone else's, so I kept those. (Yes, I wear sandals in September. Is that so wrong?)

This whole clothing buisness took about thirty minutes, and then I decided to take a little walk. This Ba Sing Se was huge. I could see earthbender kids playing their rock games and adults chatting. They didn't look my way. I guess even with spiked hair I must fit in somehow. But one thing did happen though. Three figures, two tall ones and a little one, watched me from the alley as I walked past. They stared at me. And stared. And stared.

Still staring.

They talked to each other excitedly.

I kept looking back and walking faster.

Before I knew it, these three figures were CHASING me. I ran. They ran. I yelled and ran faster, clutching my clothes. Dirt bombs were popping up with every pound of my feet. Oh yeah, forgot I was an earthbender in this world...no time for remembrance now. It was time to SCRAM.