So it's been a while. I apologize for the wait, for some reason I just couldn't get into this story. Not writer's block, exactly, just...not writing. Y'all should check out Fyre's Guide to Creativity; that's what got me back into the swing of things! It's totally RANDOM!

Enjoy!

Book 1
Water

Chapter 5
The King of Omashu

"Here it is, guys! The Earth Kingdom city of Omashu!" Aang exclaims as we break over a hill. Ahead of us was a massive city built around a mountain. "I used to always come here to visit my friend, Bumi."

"Wow," Katara says as she admires the city, "We don't have cities like this in the South Pole."

"They have buildings here that don't melt," Sokka says in utter shock.

"This place is amazing," I add, completely awestruck.

"Well, let's go slow-pokes! The real fun is inside the city!"

"Wait, Aang!" Katara stops him as he heads towards the city. "It could be dangerous if people find out you're the Avatar."

"You need a disguise," Sokka agrees.

"So what am I supposed to do? Grow a mustache?"

"That's not such a bad idea…" I say slowly.

"Huh?"

I walk over to Appa, and sift my fingers through his thick hair. "Sorry, buddy," I apologize before gently yanking out several tufts of fur. He rumbles at me, but doesn't seem to mind. I ask Sokka for some rope, and fashion a mustache and some really tall hair from the fur, then stick it on Aang's head.

"There," I say happily, satisfied with my creation.

"Not bad," Sokka says as he examines my handiwork. "Not bad at all."

"Ugh, this is so itchy," Aang complains, fiddling with his 'hair'. He turns to Appa. "How do you live in this stuff?"

Appa faces him and blows air through his nostrils.

"Great, now you look just like my Grandfather," Sokka declares.

"Technically, Aang is one hundred and twelve years old," Katara replies.

"Now let's get to skippin', young whippersnappers!" Aang says in a gravelly attempt at an old person's voice. "The big city awaits!"

I can't help but laugh at his imitation, and Aang smiles at me through his mustache. He uses his staff as a walking stick and starts hobbling off towards Omashu.

A narrow path of rock acts as a bridge across a huge chasm surrounding the city, clearly the work of many talented earthbenders. When we've almost reached the entrance Aang tells us, "You guys are gonna love Omashu. The people here are the friendliest in the world."

We look at the guards watching the entrance, and there's a merchant trying to get into the city.

"Rotten cabbages? What kind of slum do you think this is?" the leader of the guards shouts at him. He crushes the vegetable he's holding, and then uses earthbending to send the cart of cabbages flying into the deep valley below.

"No! My cabbages!" the merchant wails. Katara and I exchange an alarmed look.

"Just keep smiling," Aang mutters, continuing forward.

We approach the men guarding the entrance, and the leader swiftly earthbends a huge boulder right over Aang.

"State your business!" he shouts harshly.

"My business is my business, young man, and none of yours!" Aang shouts back in his old man voice, getting right up into the man's face. "I've got half a mind to bend you over my knee and paddle your backside!"

I stare at him, terrified of how the guard will react. By their horrified expressions, Sokka and Katara seem to have the same mindset.

"Settle down, old timer," he says to Aang, an almost concerned look on his face. "Just tell me who you are."

"Name's Bonzu Pipinpadaloxicopolis…the Third! And these are my grandkids."

"Hi, June Pipinpadaloxicopolis. Nice to meet you," Katara improvises.

"You seem like a responsible young lady," the guard finally replies. "See that your Grandfather stays out of trouble. Enjoy Omashu!"

"We sure will," I say as I hurry Aang forward, waving back at them.

"Wait a minute," the guard says suddenly. We turn around quickly. "You're a strong young boy," he continues, addressing Sokka. "Show some respect for the elderly and carry your Grandfather's bag!"

"Good idea!" Aang agrees, all too happy to throw his bag in Sokka's direction.

Then the men earthbend the walls of Omashu open and we look on in awe. As I walk forward, I admire the beautiful buildings and arches, watching as separate crates of many differing contents fly around in strange shoots. I'd heard about how grand Omashu was, but I'd never imagined it like this.

"This is the Omashu delivery system," Aang explains. "Miles and miles of tubes and chutes. Earthbending brings the packages up, and gravity brings them down."

"Great, so they get their mail on time," Sokka says indifferently.

"They do get their mail on time," Aang concurs as a sly look crosses his face. "But my friend Bumi found a better use for these shoots."

"And what's that?" I ask, slightly suspicious.

"The world's greatest super-slide!"

Katara and Sokka look at each other, and I just stare at Aang. Then I look at the 'super-slide'. Then I look back at Aang.

"No way," I say decisively. I point at the ground. "I'm staying right here."

"Aw, come on, Anala," Aang begs me. "Live a little!"

"I think I'll pass. You guys go have fun, and I'll wait right here."

"Well, if you change your mind, we'll be right up there."

He points almost straight up, towards the beginning of the shoots at the top of the mountain.

"See you in a bit!" Katara shouts behind her as Aang drags her and Sokka up towards the top.

"See you in multiple bits," I joke to myself. I take in my surroundings, enjoying just looking at the city.

It soon gets old. Shouldn't they be back by now? I wonder anxiously. I shade my eyes and look at all the different shoots. I don't see them…so I wait a little longer. And a little longer after that. I pace back and forth, my patience and nerves wearing thin. Where are they? Do they expect me to just sit here all day?

Apparently so, because even as the sun started to create longer and longer shadows, they still weren't back. I decided to ask someone for help, although I wasn't sure exactly what I was asking. A grocer told me to see the King of Omashu, and gave me directions. I was a little nervous about seeing him, him being a King and all, but what else could I do? I have no idea where to even start looking for them.

So I'm going to the palace to see the King. When I arrive, they let me right in. I was surprised that there wasn't more security. I'm escorted to the throne room, where there are only two guards. At the far end of the room, a throne stands at the end of a green carpet, surrounded by the only guards there. Sitting in the throne is an ancient-looking man. There's something…different about him. I can't tell if it's because he looks slightly familiar, or if he seems a bit…well, senile.

"Hello, Your Majesty," I say politely as I bow. Maybe I was supposed to curtsey, because I'm a girl…? Oh, well. "My name's Anala, and I—"

"Anala, eh?" he interrupts musingly. "You know, it has a meaning?"

I shake my head. My Grandmother had asked my parents to name me Anala with her dying breath, and they had gladly obliged.

"Three, actually," the aged King continues. "Anala means fire and wind, in the old language."

I freeze. Fire and wind? Had my Grandmother known—?

"And the number three," he continues, appearing not to notice my shock, "But that's irrelevant."

He finally notices my lack of a response. Getting to his feet, he ambles towards me. He dismisses his guards, and carefully examines me as they leave. Once they're gone, he finally speaks.

"You can bend air as well as fire; can't you, Anala?"

I look at him nervously, remembering how I'd ended up imprisoned the last time an outsider found out my secret. But for some reason I trust him, and I nod.

"I thought so," he mutters, nodding to himself. "How old are you, Anala? Fourteen? Fifteen?"

"I'm fourteen," I answer slowly, questioning the strange, almost suggestive way he'd said fifteen; like it meant something.

He just nods thoughtfully.

"Well, you're welcome to stay the night," he says after some time. "You'll be led to your room."

"But, Your Majesty, I—"

"And tomorrow I'm putting on a sort of show, if you'd care to join me?"

"Certainly, but I need to—"

"Well, goodnight!"

"Wait! I—"

But it's too late. He must be an earthbender too, because one of the walls suddenly opens, he slides through, and it slams closed again—leaving me alone and bewildered. Moments later, a woman enters the throne room and escorts me to my chamber for the night. I follow her to a nice little room with a large bed, a writing desk, and a dresser. The colors are all earth tones and it's got a very calming atmosphere, but that doesn't do much to ease my worry for Aang, Katara, and Sokka. I crawl into bed after several minutes of indecision, and sink into a troubled sleep.

"Ah, Anala! How lovely to see you again!"

The king walks towards me, dressed in an absolutely outrageous purple outfit. I bow to him, deciding that it was best considering I'm wearing pants and therefore have no skirt with which to curtsey.

"Um, good morning Your Majesty," I begin. "Well, the whole reason I came here in the first place was because my friends went…somewhere yesterday, but they never came back, so I was wondering if—"

"Don't worry, your friends are safe and sound," he assures me, dismissing it with a wave of his hand. He then puts his hand on my shoulder and starts to lead me down a hallway.

"Well, then where are they?" I ask warily. "And how do you even know who they are? I haven't told you yet."

"All will reveal itself in due time," he replies evenly.

We go down a long hallway and turn left into another hallway with a huge set of doors at the end. When we approach them he slows to a halt and turns to face me. I hear a loud grinding noise from behind me, and there's suddenly a big doorway he has earthbended out of the wall.

"Turn left when you go in," he tells me as we walk towards the gap, "And just keep going."

I step through the doorway hesitantly then hear the grinding noise a second time, and it's suddenly very dark. I whip around to find that the door is gone, and the king is no longer with me.

"Great," I mutter, having no choice but to start forward.

After a while, I start to see a subtle glow from up ahead, and hurry to see what it is. I sigh in relief when I see Sokka and Katara with three men. I hurry to catch up with them, but quickly realize that they aren't with the three men, they are being escorted by the men as though they're prisoners. I come to a halt, but one of the men heard me. I turn around to flee, but there's suddenly a wall where I was standing just moments before.

One of them leads me to the others, and they continue to take me, Sokka, and Katara to an unknown destination. It quickly becomes known, however, when we come to a stop in front of a wall.

Katara and Sokka hadn't spoken, but I don't know if it's because they were told to remain quiet or not.

"So guys," I say brightly, my voice echoing in the hidden hallways. "How'd you—"
"Silence!" my personal guard hisses. I guess that answers my question.

"I'm just trying to lighten the mood," I mutter my retort.

Sokka snorts and says, "Ha! 'Lighten'…get it? 'Cause it's all dark?"

With another loud grinding noise, a doorway is created into one of the larger hallways, and the King of Omashu speaks to Aang as if he's halfway through a sentence.

"So I will give 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."

As he talks, the guards around us force a thick, crystal ring onto each of our hands, and mine immediately shrinks against my finger so that it's too tight to get off. I try anyway, but it's no good.

"Ah! It's already creeping!" Sokka wails hysterically as his ring grows.

At the same time, my genemite ring gets really warm, glows for a moment, and grows a few centimeters up my hand. Sokka starts whining and clawing at his hand in an attempt to remove it.

"I'll do what you want," Aang says determinedly.

The King smiles, and leads us away. Just while we walk, the crystal encases my entire hand and wrist. I can't help but wonder if the King will tell them that I'm also a firebender. It's not like I'm trying to hide it—in fact, I've tried several times to tell them—it's just that I've always had the feeling that I shouldn't tell anyone.

We're taken to a cavernous room with stalagmites and stalactites protruding from the floor and ceiling. A waterfall cascades down from the top of the room, and a key hangs from a chain within it.

Aang's first 'deadly challenge' is to retrieve the key from inside the waterfall. After two attempts to climb up the ladder in the middle of the strong stream of water and dive into the water for the key, Aang finally succeeds by throwing a pointed rock at the chain holding the key and making it go faster with airbending. The point goes right through the chain, and the key dangles directly in front of the King.

"I want my friends back, now!" Aang demands.

"Uh, not yet. I need help with another matter," he replies, suddenly looking sad. "It seems I've lost my pet, Flopsy."

He then takes us to an arena cut into the earth, where a small chipmunk bunny with extremely long ears is sitting on a rock in the center. By this time the crystal is completely covering my arm and lower body, and continuing to grow. Aang jumps down to stand beside the bunny.

"Okay, I've found him."

"Bring him to me!" the King demands, before his voice gets softer. "Daddy wants a kiss from Flopsy!"

"Come here, Flopsy," Aang coos as he creeps forward towards the bunny.

A huge monster jumps into the arena next, right behind Aang, who's thrown into the air from the force of the impact. He turns around slowly, and laughs nervously.

It turns out that the giant monster was actually Flopsy, and as soon as Aang realized that, the thing stopped chasing him and started licking him. With a whistle, the King calls Flopsy to him, and starts rubbing him. Aang jumps up to where we are, and asks if we're okay.

"Other than the crystal slowly encasing my entire body, doing great," Katara assures him.

Yeah, she's great. Her crystal grew around her like a nice dress. Sokka's grew around him like a cone. Mine, however, grew straight down. So now I'm about five feet taller than usual, and the crystal around my torso is stabbing into my sides and arm as it holds me up. I somehow managed to keep my other arm out of it. It heats up again, glows, and grows again, but only on one side, so now I'm lopsided. Lovely.

"Come on, I'm ready for the next challenge," Aang says to the King.

He laughs wickedly, and takes us to the last room. I have to be carried there sideways by multiple men. This area looks similar to the arena we just left, but there are seats and balconies that give it a look more like that of a stadium. Sokka, Katara and I are on one balcony with the guards, and Aang is with the King on a larger balcony.

"Your final test is a duel," he begins, "And as a special treat, you may choose your opponent. Point and choose."

Two huge, intimidating men step forward to stand beside the King, each carrying formidable weapons and wearing heavy armor.

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

"Choose wisely," is his response.

I can see Aang contemplating this, then examining each opponent.

"I…choose…" he begins slowly. Aang points at the King. "You."

"Wrong choice," the elder replies with a laugh.

I can hear numerous revolting cracks as the King straightens, then he tears off his clothes. I gasp; he is the most in shape old man I have ever seen. He's now wearing a green and black sarong, as well as black wristlets. He's got the most muscular build I think I've ever seen, even on a younger guy.

Aang immediately realizes his mistake. The King stomps his foot and a chunk of rock rushes up beneath Aang, sending him flying into the arena. The old man follows with a single bound from the balcony.

"You thought I was a frail old man," the King scoffs, "but I'm the most powerful earthbender you'll ever see."

"Can I fight the guy with the axe instead?" Aang tries.
"There are no take-back-sies in my kingdom," he declares. "You might need this!"

He motions for one of the guards to throw Aang his staff. Aang expertly catches it, just in time to use it to dodge the King's earth attacks. He evades the flying boulders and walls slamming out of the ground for a while, but soon the King gets the upper hand. Almost as quickly, it seems like Aang is winning.

The battle ends when the King rips a huge piece of earth from the wall and floor of the stadium, and heaves it at Aang. As it's flying towards him, Aang is creating a funnel that captures the earth in it's tow, then whips it back at the King. When he sees it coming back at him, the King cracks it in half with earthbending, and Aang comes flying through to face him, pointing his staff at the old man's throat.

Aang smiles. The King smiles. A pebble falls on Aang's head, and he frowns as he looks up to see the giant stone suspended above him.

"Well done, Avatar," the King chuckles. "You fight with much fire in your heart."

He throws the boulder off to the side, falls back, and seems to melt into the floor, popping up from the earth in front of Katara a few seconds later. Aang leaps up after him, landing in a defensive stance.

"You've passed all my tests; now, you must answer one question."

"That's not fair!" Aang protests. "You said you would release my friends if I finished your tests!"

"Oh, but what's the point of tests if you don't learn anything?"

"Oh, come on!" Sokka moans. His face is completely surrounded by the crystals.

"Answer this one question and I will set your friends free," the King promises. "What…is my name?"

Everyone looks at him blankly.

"By the looks of your friends, I'd say you only have a few minutes."

And with that, he leaves.

We're just about to go.

As it turns out, the King of Omashu was Aang's old buddy, Bumi, who was just trying to mess with Aang's head; and teach him to think outside the box. Or something…

At the moment, Aang and King Bumi are riding down the mail systems, like they used to when they were—well, back when Bumi was a kid. I can see the two dizzily totter out of the cart from where I stand beside Sokka and Katara, who are not willing to go on it again. I'm still fighting the urge to say, I told you so!

King Bumi and Aang laugh a little, but things quickly become serious, and they start to stroll over to us. Bumi is talking to—well, maybe more like giving a lecture to—Aang, whose head suddenly snaps up to stare at us. I wave at him, and he waves back, almost skeptically. I hope King Bumi didn't tell him that I was a double-bender—I wanted to do that, myself. Or at least attempt to.

When they come close enough to be within earshot, Bumi shouts a good-bye, and starts walking merrily back to his home. Aang comes over to join us.

"What's wrong, Aang?" Katara asks him when he doesn't say anything.

"Yeah," Sokka agrees, "What'd King Bumi say to you?"

He looks at me quizzically. "He said to keep you close, because you'll be a crucial and powerful ally when it's time to end the war."

"But what does that mean?" Katara asks, looking at me.

"It's probably because I can bend—" I begin.

"Maybe it's because you're going to do something amazing and totally unexpected and singlehandedly put this war to an end," Sokka says, studying me and stroking his lack of facial hair.

I raise my eyebrows at him, and Katara looks at him doubtfully. Although Aang looks intrigued by the idea.

"Nothing against you, Anala, but 'singlehandedly put this war to an end'? I don't think so," Katara says.

"I don't know, Katara," Aang replies, before looking at me. "I found you in the Fire Nation prison cell. You had to be there for some reason, right? Can you do something…dangerous? Special?"

I open my mouth to respond, but Appa suddenly lands behind us, catching everyone's attention and causing them to forget about what we'd been talking about just moments before.

I sigh. This is what—the sixth time I've tried to tell them I can bend fire? And every time someone—or something—interrupts me. I really do want them to know, it's just…not easy.

I sigh again, and follow the others onto Appa's saddle.

Oh yeah. The bit where it says Anala means Fire and Wind and Three is true, according to some baby name website. It's Sanskrit, apparently.
If this is not true, blame the baby naming website.

Reviews are greatly appreciated and awarded with Awesomeness!

Your Pal,

SuperOreoMan