Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Water, earth, fire, air... Long ago, the four nations lived in harmony. Then, everything changed when the fire nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he vanished. One hundred years passed, and the Avatar was at last discovered. He now travels with his companions Katara, Sokka, and Ashlynn... Ashlynn being the childhood best friend of the fire prince, Zuko...
"So... where are we headed next?" Ashlynn asked as she stretched her arms out over her head and then rubbed her drowsy eyes.
"Well, I wanted to visit the earth kingdom of Omashu. I haven't been there for... well, over a hundred years. I'm hope my old friend will be there still. I used to visit him all the time," Aang replied, and steered Appa's reins to the right slightly.
"Who is this friend of yours? And how could you be sure he's still there... it's been so long..." Katara said as her voice dropped to a whisper.
"His name is Bumi. And I know he'll still be there. Where else would he be?" Aang said cheerfully. At this, Katara and Ashlynn exchanged nervous glances, both thinking about the fire nation again.
"There it is: The earth kingdom of Omashu!" Aang said as he dismounted Appa and stepped forward after doing so. Ashlynn remained on Appa for a moment, unmotivated to continue walking all the way they still had to go.
Omashu looked like a bland city made of simple dirt, to Ashlynn. At least, at the distance they were standing at. She'd definitely seen more magnificent things in her lifetime.
"Wow... we don't have cities like this in the south pole..." Katara said in complete awe. Ashlynn rolled her eyes, and thought that it was quite obvious that the South Pole wouldn't be able to hold down such large cities.
Aang only laughed, and then started to walk in the direction of the distant city. "Wait Aang, if people find out you're the Avatar, it could get nasty. Maybe you should wear a disguise..." Sokka said.
It only took a moment to create Aang's disguise. Ashlynn thought it was a rather unconvincing one, but she couldn't help but let them go along with it. Katara and Sokka had made a failed attempt to make Aang look like an elderly man, but to Ashlynn he simply looked like a kid playing dress-up. Or maybe, that was just because she'd gotten used to Aang's kid-like personality.
"You look JUST like my grandfather now," Sokka said. Aang went along with what Sokka said, and grabbed hold of his staff and used it as a walking stick, and gave the appearance that he was so old that his back had a hunch.
Finally, Ashlynn burst out laughing, unable to hold in the giggles any longer. However, no one else seemed to think it was that funny, and she immediately felt awkward and out of place.
"Sorry... it was just funny... I haven't laughed in some time; I guess I needed to..." Ashlynn said sheepishly, and blushed.
Katara nodded, and Ashlynn thought she saw Sokka roll his eyes. Aang grinned at her, and then beckoned the group to follow him.
Ashlynn's legs quivered by the time they reached the gates. "Man, I don't think I'd be so sick of walking if there was more to look at than dirt, rocks, and more dirt," Ashlynn sighed.
"Well, at least the friendliness of the people here will make up for the poor surroundings," Aang assured her. "I sure hope so," Ashlynn replied bitterly.
As they said this, they approached the gates of the city, where the guards were interrogating a harmless man about his wagon of cabbages. "What kind of slum do you think this is?" one of the guards shouted at the man, and earth bended his wagon of cabbages off the side of the mountain.
"Friendly?" Ashlynn whispered to Aang in annoyance. He laughed nervously, and told the group to just smile and everything would be fine.
As Aang approached the guards, one of them used earth bending to force a large rock to hover above Aang's head as a threat, in case Aang tried anything they didn't like. "Who are you? State your business!" the guard shouted at Aang.
Aang shouted back, telling the guard things like "Mind your own business" and sending him threats that seemed unlikely to come from an "old" man. The guard immediately put the rock back in its former place. "Settle down old man... Can we at least have your name?"
Ashlynn didn't even bother trying to make sense of the long title Aang gave the guard. Aang then said that his followers were his grandchildren. Ashlynn had to keep from sighing in disbelief as the guard bought every word Aang told him, and allowed them entrance into the city.
Ashlynn was far more impressed with the inside of the city than she was with the outside. She still felt bitter, however, as she thought to herself "Wow, it's just a bunch of dirt..." To her left was Katara and Sokka, who both viewed the city with such awe that Ashlynn was surprised their jaws could even shut when they'd gotten over their shock.
After having gotten over her annoyance with the water tribe siblings, Ashlynn took in the full view of the city. It was in fact all simple dirt, but it still wasn't as bad as she had anticipated. There weren't any fire nation that she could see, and the townsfolk looked rather happy. Up on the top of the mountain was what looked to be the palace of the kingdom, and coming down from it were dirt carts that carried goods and belongings around the whole city.
"That's Omashu's delivery system," Aang explained. "There are miles and miles of tubes and chutes. Earth bending brings packages up, and gravity pulls them back down the city. Yeah they get their mail and goods on time and everything, but Bumi found a much better use..." Aang said with a devilish grin.
"And what would that be?" Katara asked. "Come on, I'll show you!" Aang smiled.
It turned out that what Bumi's idea of this delivery system was, was a giant super-slide. Ashlynn's heart raced with excitement as she thought of how fun it would be to ride down one of the enormous slides in the dirt-made cart. "Come you guys, just one ride down the slide and that'll be it..." Aang said.
"I'm so up for it!" Ashlynn said in excitement, and hopped into the cart that Aang was already in. "I don't know..." Katara said uneasily, but boarded the cart as well. Sokka didn't say anything, and hopped in too.
Katara began to protest, but was immediately stopped as the cart shot down the slide. Ashlynn screamed at first in surprise, and then out of how thrilling it was. Aang laughed, and Katara and Sokka held on to the sides of the cart as though they might fall off if they let go.
However, Ashlynn lost the excitement she was being filled with as Aang rocked the cart, and flew it off the slide. Everyone but Aang screamed in terror, and even Ashlynn gripped the sides of the cart, terrified she might fall out.
The cart landed on the roof of a building, slid off, and sped up as it did so, giving it enough speed to slide past a group of soldiers and off the side of that building, and land in another slide.
"Aang- Use your air bending!" Katara screamed in desperation. "Great idea," Aang said, and then did the exact opposite of what Katara had in mind, and instead made the cart slide down faster.
"Stop," Ashlynn screamed louder and shut her eyes, afraid they might crash into something. She decided then that Aang was crazy, for he the faster the cart went the harder he laughed.
When Ashlynn opened her eyes, she screamed louder still as she saw that their cart was headed right for another cart. When the carts collided everyone was thrown out of the current cart, and then pulled downward by gravity. Ashlynn groped the air, desperate for something to hold on to. Then, she fell back into the same cart, for Aang had air-bended it back underneath everyone.
However, the cart did not land onto another slide, but slid off a roof. Then, slid on another roof, and crashed through the windows of a house, and landed, finally, on top of a fruit-cart.
Ashlynn's head spun in pain as she tried to regain visual focus. When the cart had finally crashed, she'd been tossed out and had landed on a nearby wall. She forced herself to sit up, and clumsily hop off the wall. When her vision came into clear focus, she saw the guards of the kingdom were surrounding their group.
"Playtime is over, kids. You're going directly to the king; he'll know what to do with you."
The king of Omashu was one of the ugliest people Ashlynn had ever laid eyes on. He looked far too old... and slightly insane. His eye looked like it might've had a permanent twitch, even though it never actually twitched. His hands were decrepit, and his skin sagged. Ashlynn looked down at the floor, feeling like she might get sick if she continued to stare at him.
"Your majesty, these kids were arrested for vandalism, travelling under false pretenses, and malicious destruction of some of our finer fruits," the guard said, and at this each of them was forced to their knees.
"What is your judgment, sire?" the other guard asked.
Tension built up as the king decided upon what to do with them. Finally, he said "Throw them a feast!"
Ashlynn raised an eyebrow in confusion, and Aang did the same. Each guard groaned, as though the king had given similar "punishments" before.
Ashlynn was even more disturbed by the king during the feast, where she got to understand more of what he was like. He got really up-close to the group, invading their personal space, which made Ashlynn really uncomfortable. He also kept talking about how fat the people of his kingdom were getting from eating at feasts.
"So, where do you come from young bald boy?" the king asked as he finally sat down in his chair. Aang quickly made up a place as to where he had used to live, and Ashlynn could tell the king wasn't buying it.
"I'm afraid I'm just too tired to continue sitting here... I guess I'll be going to bed..." the king said with a yawn, and as he turned to remove himself from his chair, he threw a piece of food right at Aang's direction. Reflexively, Aang bended a bubble of air around the food to keep himself from being struck with it- revealing he was an air bender.
"See guards, there's an air bender in our presence. And therefore he must be.... The Avatar!" the king said angrily, and stood up from his chair. Ashlynn flinched at this, still grossed out by his appearance and now intimidated by his anger.
Aang was quick to cover up what he was doing there. "Yep, you caught me! I'm the Avatar... doing what I do best: protecting the world! And it seems like everything here is pretty safe and protected! So since I'm done here, I guess we should get going now..."
"Oh, I'm afraid you guys won't be going anywhere," and as the king said this, the guards blocked every available doorway. "No... Tomorrow I want to survey the Avatar as he faces three challenges. For now, the guards will be escorting you to a room that was once a prison cell."
The room they were given hardly looked like a prison cell. It obviously had had some major fixing done to it. Now, it looked like a clean room meant to hold several people. There were, conveniently, enough beds for them all, too.
"I can't believe this used to be a prison cell... it's too nice," Ashlynn said as she wandered the room. "Nice or not, we're still prisoners. We need to try and find a way out of here," Sokka said.
"Yeah... I don't want to stick around and find out what these challenges are like," Aang said.
"Well... sorry gang- but there's no way out of here. The walls are made of rock, and none of us are earth benders.... and the air vents are far too small to fit through," Ashlynn said as she laid out on her chosen bed.
Sokka chose a bed on one side of her, and Katara chose the bed on the other side of her. Aang sprawled out on the bed between the two of them. "You should get some rest Aang, you'll need it for tomorrow," Katara said as she crawled under the blankets provided for her. "I guess so..." Aang said, and did the same.
Ashlynn remained motionless, not really tired enough to sleep. She felt rather antsy and impatient. She hated the idea of being held prisoner, again. If she had to be a prisoner she'd much rather be Zuko's prisoner again.
Hours after everyone had fallen asleep, Ashlynn still remained where she lie. She couldn't quite shake off the antsy feeling that was keeping her from sleeping.
Finally, she stood up and began to pace around the room, trying to rid herself of the energy in her body. "Ashlynn- What are you doing?" came Katara's voice.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you," Ashlynn said and turned away from the wall she faced to look in the direction Katara's voice came from. "No, it's alright," Katara said, and Ashlynn heard her get up from her bed.
"You really shouldn't bother yourself with me. Go back to bed Katara," Ashlynn said, but it was too late, for now Katara's shape was coming into view through the darkness.
"Well, it's obvious you're bothered. Want to talk about it?" Katara asked as she stopped by Ashlynn's side.
"There's nothing to talk about, really. I just hate being a prisoner. I mean, I was a captive in the fire nation for so long... I just enjoy freedom and I'm mad I'm a prisoner again."
"What do you mean you were a captive?" Katara questioned.
"I wasn't really a captive... I just felt like one. Living with the royal family for all my life... I was forced to go wherever they wanted me to, and I had to do everything they said. I lived behind palace walls during my childhood, and thought I'd obtain freedom by going with Zuko when he left the nation to redeem his honor," Ashlynn explained.
"So you just felt like you were behind walls all the time... and you're upset to be behind walls again, after only just regaining your freedom?" Katara summarized. Ashlynn nodded.
"Oh, well--"
But before Katara could finish, the wall nearest them shuffled, and a guard with a lit torch entered the room. "You two- wake the other friend of the Avatar's and come with me. In order for the avatar to complete his tasks, we need you three to motivate him to do so," the guard explained.
"I guess there's no sense in arguing..." Katara said, and went to wake Sokka.
The group taken away from Aang didn't see their fourth companion until early morning, when the guard brought Aang to the king. Ashlynn thought the king didn't look as gross in his newest outfit, but she still wasn't happy with his appearance.
"I don't have time for these tasks your majesty. Give me my friends back, we're leaving," Aang demanded. The king laughed. "I thought you might refuse, therefore I'm giving each of your friends a ring of 'creeping crystal'. Its crystal that grows fast, and by night fall will have consumed your friends in it. I'll remove them, but only if you cooperate."
Ashlynn found 'creeping crystal' to be very creepy indeed. She twitched as it began to grow over her finger.
"...I'll do what you want..." Aang said, defeated. The king smirked, and escorted Aang to the area of his first task.
The first task was to retrieve the 'lunch-box' key of the king's. The key hung on a chain, which was surrounded by high powered, downfall water. The water was surrounded by dirt spikes in the ground.
Aang's first attempt, trying to climb up the waterfall, failed. The second attempt he dove head first into the water, and failed as well. His third, throwing one of the dirt spikes at the chain to break it, was the successful try.
"Alright then, Avatar... The second task... I've lost my pet Flopsy," the king said and stuck out his bottom lip.
Ashlynn groaned, not enjoying the sight of his pouty bottom lip.
The second task took place in an arena. What appeared to be Flopsy sat upon a rock in the middle of the arena. Ashlynn figured this wasn't the real test, because that seemed too simple.
"Bring me my pet," the king ordered.
Aang approached the little bunny sitting on the rock, and as he did so he was assaulted by an enormous beast. Aang tried to evade the creature as he chased the little bunny that fled in terror.
It wasn't until the little bunny ran into a hole for safety that it occurred to Aang that the trick of this task was that the beast chasing him was the Flopsy the king was looking for. As soon as Aang realized this, the beast turned friendly, and ran to his master for attention.
Aang hopped onto the wall where the king and his companions waited. As Ashlynn watched this, the crystal began to grow more. She sighed in annoyance, for the crystal had already encased all her body but her feet and head.
"I'm ready for the next challenge," Aang said as he watched the king rub the belly of Flopsy. The king laughed a rather evil laugh.
The third task took place in an even larger arena than the last. Other than that, the only difference was that this one looked more like a professional fighting arena, rather than one meant to hold a pet inside.
"Alright, this is a special task. And so, you may choose your opponent," the king said. As he said this, two heavily armored and intimidating men stepped forward. One looked like agility was his advantage and the other looked like he was slow... yet could deal tough blows.
"Choose wisely," the king sneered. Aang thought for a moment, and then pointed at the king. The king laughed and said, "Wrong choice."
Ashlynn gagged as she watched the king morph into his 'battle' appearance. His back stretched upward so it was no longer hunched, and it sounded as if every bone in his body cracked. He threw off his purple robe to reveal a bare chest and simple fighting pants. Ashlynn looked at the floor, not wanting to stare at the half naked, old man at all. Even Aang made a kind of disturbed noise.
Ashlynn made no move to look up and survey the scene below. Instead she just listened. Every couple of seconds there was a gasp or a shout or a noise of panic that exited Aang's mouth. The king only taunted him every time Aang made a move.
It was quite some time before Aang began to start winning. Ashlynn noticed the ground shake more than once, and still she refused to look up. At this point she figured she just had no interest in watching the fight go on, because she knew she wouldn't act like such a baby after the length of the current fight.
Finally, the noises of panic and surprise and the cackling of triumph stopped. "Well done Avatar," the king congratulated. It was then that Ashlynn looked up.
Aang had his staff pointed at the old man's chest. When the king had finished his comment, he fell back into the earth, and (apparently) earth bended his way back to the avatar's companions' sides. "You passed all my tests, and so you must now answer one question," the king said calmly.
"What! That's not fair! You said you'd let us go if I completed your tasks," Aang complained. "What's the point if you don't learn anything?" the king said.
"Now, answer this question and I'll let everyone go. What... is my name?" the king asked, and his lips peeled over his teeth to form a rather goofy and satisfied grin. The king walked off to the side, cackling, leaving Aang to ponder the question.
"You don't have a whole lot of time Aang, this crystal stuff is about to completely take over my body," Ashlynn said as the crystal began to cover one side of her face. "Think about the tests Aang. What'd you learn?" Katara said.
"Well... each one... was different than I expected. I had to think different from how I normally would..." Aang said, and looked away from his friends to think some more.
Ashlynn wanted to scream as she felt an itch happen across her covered shoulder. "Aang, hurry up," she whined.
"I know his name!" Aang smiled.
The group was escorted back to the main palace hall where the king waited for them, ready for Aang's answer.
"I solved the question the same way I solved the tests you gave me. You once said I had to open my mind to the possibilities, and that's just what I did. Bumi... you're a mad genius," Aang said, and ran forward to hug the friend he hadn't seen for a hundred years.
"I guess he was right, his friend really was still alive," Ashlynn said, ever more impatient due to the itch that refused to leave her alone. "Your majesty- It'd be great if you could remove this crystal now," came Sokka's voice from behind the crystal mass that now covered everything but his mouth.
King Bumi released Aang from their hug and earth bended the creeping crystal off of them. "Finally, yes!" Ashlynn cried, and relieved her shoulder from its irritating itch.
Katara laughed a little, and Aang smiled. Sokka, who's humor was still absent, then questioned Bumi. "Why did you do this? I mean, instead of just telling Aang who you really were?"
"Well on the whole, it's fun messing with people," Bumi laughed. "...Are you serious?" Ashlynn asked as she relieved herself of another itch.
"I'm very serious. However, I do have another reason. Aang, it's your job to restore balance to our world. You have to master the four elements, and face the fire lord. When you do, you need to be sharp. And think like a mad genius!"
Aang bowed before King Bumi, and smiled a very large smile. "You're an excellent company too. You've chosen great friends, and they'll help you more than you can imagine," Bumi said, and nodded at Ashlynn, Katara, and Sokka.
"Thanks for everything Bumi," Aang said, bowed once more, and turned to leave.
Ashlynn followed, and exited the city feeling very refreshed and once again appreciating the freedom she had.