Author's note: Well, it seems that the story indeed changes as I write. I love how my stories write themselves when you wonder how the characters would react to this or that based on their history or who they are.
True Thinker: I'm sure you already know the answer to that question~ She is powerful but she's still only a kid. Her abilities won't be that broad and she'll be strong only much later as she gets stronger with the group. Also, while your story is not what I usually read, I still find it entertaining.
bucketbot: I tried so hard to not leave any spelling mistakes as I checked it again and again and yet they still manage to be there. I'll re-read them when I have the energy but I don't think it will be soon because of real-life pressure. But the idea of having the group interact and bond even more sounds like a good idea! Thank you for that! I'll try and aim for it.
Ah...adult life.
I also have fallen ill so I do not have the energy right now to focus on the next chapter. I already have an idea but it's still a rough idea.
"This is the city of Omashu!" Aang exclaims with his arms stretching out in front of him, beholding the magnificence of the stronghold that can never be fully captured into paintings inside school textbooks.
My feet crushes the frozen grass buried under thin layers of snow as I walk closer to the edge next to get a better look.
The stronghold consists of pyramid like structures, expected since this building structure has a strong base that is similar to earthbending basics.
Learned that from Ming's loud gloating.
Omashu is connected to the mountain it is sitting on and the only way to reach Omashu is that one, singular zig-zag path leading to the thick-looking walls.
"I used to always come here to visit my friend Bumi!"
Bumi?
While Sokka and Katara are overwhelmed by Omashu's strong presence, I am bewildered but for a different reason.
"Wait, you mean King Bumi? The strongest earthbender in the world?" I ask Aang with a finger pointing at Omashu.
"What? No. Wait. Uh..." My question confuses Aang into silence, unsure if we're talking about the same Bumi.
"Wan, Aang's friend was from 100 years ago. It's nearly impossible for someone to live that long." Katara steps up to try and smooth us out.
"But not completely impossible. King Bumi is over 100 years old! I'm not sure what's his precise age though. Just know he's more than 100 and still healthy." I share my knowledge to the three non-earth kingdom friends.
"Then maybe..."Sokka starts and eyes a shell-shock Aang at the corner of his eye, "It could be the same Bumi."
A smile slowly spreads as Aang starts to radiate joy from his entire being.
"It's Bumi, right? The same eccentric, crazy, unpredictable, mad genius Bumi?" Aang begs for confirmation as he leans forward with eagerness to hear my answer.
"Uh...sounds about right?"
Sounds close enough to what I remember from school.
"Yes!" Aang leaps high into the air that only an airbender can reach and does a back flip.
Snow flies up into the air and threatens to hit the rest of us on the ground but we raise our sleeves to block the snow from hitting us. I had changed out of my burnt clothes and into a new one. It's the same type of shirt too so it's all good!
I just really like wide-sleeves, okay?
"Come on, slow pokes! Let's go!" Aang exclaims as he lands on the ground a little ahead of us.
Before Aang can take another step to Omashu, Katara calls out, "Wait, it could be dangerous if people know you're the Avatar."
Oh yeah, like back in Kyoshi Island.
"You need a disguise." Sokka suggests but did not elaborate as what.
"Oh! I know!" I burst out as I clap my hands together.
"How many of this shirt do you have!?" Sokka cries out as he looks over the pile of clothes inside my bag.
"Shut up and don't look inside a girl's bag like that!" I snap at him as we wait for Aang to come out from the other side of Appa once he is done changing.
Katara pushes Sokka away from my bag as she chides at him and closes my bag for me.
But only after tidying up a few things because there are some of my stuff poking out of the bag.
"Besides, I don't see you wearing anything new either!" I retort but the come back isn't as effective when it comes after a few seconds of silence.
"Done!" Aang signals as he steps into our line of sight.
Aang is wearing a long dress that reaches above his ankles and has a hood to cover his head. It's green with thick brown lines at the sides of the dress. He has his yellow shirt and orange mantle hanging on one of his arms but he's still wearing his yellow pants underneath the dress along with his boots.
"Nice dress, Aang." Sokka teases in the same manner that Aang had teased him before when Sokka was wearing his Kyoshi uniform.
Aang humps and strides up to Sokka. Sokka stands in place with a smirk and arms folded in front of him, waiting and wondering what Aang would do.
Katara and I watches from the side, expecting to jump in to break up a fight but what Aang did next catches us all off guard.
Aang leans to Sokka's arm, surprising him, and speaks in a bad imitation of a girl's voice, "Why thank you, Sokka!"
Katara and I break down laughing at how Sokka's jaw just suddenly hangs open in shock. Even Aang is about to break but holds strong to contain the laughter as he dares to push it further by batting his eyelashes.
Once the shock has worn off, Sokka's shoulders start to tremble before he turning away from Aang to laugh his heart out. Aang's the last to relief his amusement, the most joyous one out of the rest of us as it is his joke that started this enjoyable moment.
We walk up the pathway to the entrance of the intimidating stronghold. We have to leave Appa behind for obvious reasons but Momo is hiding under Aang's hood.
"You're going to love Omashu! They're the nicest people you are ever gonna meet!"
And just as Aang finishes that sentence, one of the guards ahead starts yelling.
"Rotten cabbages!? What kind of slum do you think this is!?" He roars at the poor merchant before crushing the cabbage he was inspecting with his bare hands and smacking two more to the ground from the merchant's trembling hands.
Unfortunately, the guard isn't done.
He takes an earthbender stance and stomps a foot ,trembling the earth beneath us.
The merchant senses his doom as the tremor shakes him to the core. He raises both of his hands to weakly defend himself.
Only when he hears the sound of wood breaking did he open his eyes to see his cart full of his hard-earned cabbages flying high up into the air.
Nobody did anything as we watch the cart fall down into the abyss below the pathway. Judging from how many seconds are needed before any of us hear the cart crash, we exchange nervous glances as we anxiously wonder if we're next to go over the edge.
"My cabbages!" The merchant cries at the amount of time, effort, and money he has lost in just a few seconds.
But the guard is having none of it and shoos the cabbage merchant away.
"Just keep smiling, guys. Just keep smiling." Aang encourages us before taking the lead and walk ahead of us.
His words effect none of us.
The guards ahead wait for their new preys to step forward. There is no where to run and the only choice we have is to begrudgingly head their way with stiff shoulders and straining smiles.
The guard is still irritate. Instead of asking politely or even in a calm manner, he threatens us by bending a boulder above our heads.
"Hal-!"
"Ah!" I screech from surprise at the hovering boulder and instinctively raise my arms, flinging the boulder over our heads.
The guards remain stun as they watch the boulder crash behind us. Before any of them could recover from the surprise, Aang rushes up to the guard and jabs his finger at the guard's armored chest.
"What do you think you're doing, huh!?" Aang scolds with the same bad imitation of a girl's voice.
Our stun doubles from mortification as we fearfully watch Aang do the impossibly stupid.
With a hand on his hip, Aang wags a finger closely at the guard's face.
"So you think it's manly to threaten little girls? Where are your manners!? Why I ought to tell your mother about this! She will bend you over her knee and paddle your backside! How can you be so rude to us children! Even your daughter would be disappointed!"
I want to walk up and pull Aang away from the displeased guard but my feet remain planted to the ground, unwilling to walk closer to the guard whom is definitely going to explode and earthbend us to the other side of the world. Katara and Sokka are already saying their prayers with eyes wide with tremendous fear. Katara shakes her head with her teeth gritted tightly and Sokka just remains frozen with his jaw open for flies to enter.
"Okay! Okay! Easy, there little girl! I didn't mean any harm! It's just..." The guard pauses as he struggles to sum up his day into a single sentence.
Failing to do so, he just sighs, "It doesn't matter. Let's start over, okay little girl?"
Aang steps away and flashes a big, friendly smile that shines so bright, it breaks the dark feeling of dread the three of us had. Even the two guards behind relaxes their tense shoulders.
"Okay! We're just trying to get inside."
"Names, please?"
"I'm...Bonza Pippinpaddleopsicopolis!" Aang exclaims as he proudly points a thumb at himself.
I stare at his ludicrous fake name that I can't even remember anything more than the first three letters as I walk up next to him.
"I'm...Yang. Just Yang." I introduce myself as I bow my head.
The guards look over Aang and I to focus on Sokka and Katara.
"I'm June Pippinpaddleopsicopolis." Katara introduce herself as she takes a tentative step, still cautious of the guard.
I look over my shoulder to stare at Katara with the same look I had given Aang. What she has done was impossible.
"Jong." Sokka bluntly throws it out there, allowing me to sigh in relief that at least we have one normal person here.
"And your purpose of being here?"
"My sister tried to run away. Said she wants to travel the world beyond the walls. My- Our parents had to go to work so we had to come and find her." I quickly lie and then slap my 'sister's' arm to emphasize our 'sisterly bond' that I've seen back home.
"Ow!" Aang rubs his arms and glares at me, reminding me that I had to watch my strength.
Oops.
The guard looks to his partners behind for any confirmation about a run away kid but they both shrug their shoulders. He rolls his eyes and turn back to us.
It's not like he can't allow us to go into Omashu if we say our home is inside. After all, he seems nice enough(now) that he doesn't seem to be the type who would get a good night sleep after sending 4 children into the wild.
"Alright, come on in." He signals to his partners to open the entrance into Omashu.
At first we didn't know what to do because we didn't see an entrance, until the guards take an earthbending form.
Together, they require to bend a portion of the wall's surface and continue to do so three times before we can see the inside of Omashu. In an awed trance, we walk into Omashu with no problem.
We are so overwhelm by how tall and big Omashu really is on the inside, we hardly react to the sound of the walls' loud collision as the guards close the gate.
Finally in the safe zone, Aang coos Momo out of his hood and let Momo climb onto his shoulders.
"Why are you in awe? Didn't you study this or something?" Sokka snaps me out of my trance with his curious question.
"I don't know. Didn't pay attention in class." I answer with a shrug.
"You should have appreciate your school a little more. We don't have school like you back in my home." Katara says as she takes on her motherly lecture posture. Hands fisted and on her hips.
I purse my lips at this familiar sight before realizing a meaning in her words. "You don't have schools?"
"I did." Aang adds in his answer. "But it's probably not the same as yours but it should have taught the same kind of stuff. History, culture, fighting techniques."
I turn to Aang with a finger up to point out a difference, "Not the last one."
"I teach the kids back home to learn how to fight. We have education but we don't have schools like you two. And we definitely have less contents because we don't have a lot of papers or books nor can we afford them for a group of children." Sokka shares his info about his home life.
I cringe at his story, feeling a little sympathetic and unwillingly realizing that I'm a little bit ungrateful. I try to push away this small, disgusting feeling of guilt but it only continues to discomfort me until I do something right.
"Sorry." Is all I can say.
"No need to apologize. I'm just saying that you should be grateful for what you have. Even the little things because they're a lot more precious than you think." Katara's words got me wondering what else did I take for granted.
"After this is all over, maybe we'll build a school for them! We'll get books and stuff for your people to learn from." Aang cheerfully suggests and the image of children running to school with books they've never had causes us to smile.
Even me and I don't even like school.
But maybe that will change when I go home and return to school.
I've been sleeping most of my school days away that maybe I have been missing out on things.
"Right, let's get on with this! Now that I now Bumi is still here, we have two things to do on our list." Aang says as he holds up two fingers in front of him.
"What's the first?" Katara asks as we start to walk deeper into Omashu with Aang leading the way.
"Riding the greatest super-slide in the world."
Author's note: I have been searching about the mantle things for a long time. That orange piece of clothing that Aang wears drove me nuts that I couldn't find the name for it. I googled it a lot and some of them didn't show the right results but mantle seem to fit in the most out of all the other words I've seen. Hope it's the right one.
Edit (21 jan 2014): I'm still sick and I'm feeling a bit odd. It's kind of worrying me a bit but so far nothing bad has happened. I also have a new problem which is my laptop. It has given a warning that my hard disk is going to crash. I have no idea when and this is making me worry even more.
All of this worry is giving me a little stress and I can't focus on writing write now like this. I start to feel faint whenever I get very worried like this. Until my problems are gone, I won't be writing because I can't focus. I'm very saddened that I can't write for a while and I'm very sorry. I hope my problems will be solved without too many problems.
Until then, see you next time.