Chapter 4:
Freya beamed as she ran at the water and dived into it, disappearing below. She wore her light blue crop top and shorts, a skirt wrapped around as Sokka found a large leaf and was flopped in it, his feet hanging over in the water as it floated along. Appa had dropped himself into the water himself as Aang had removed his top and shoes. Katara was dressed in white similar to Freya and they stood near an arch in the water. Freya jumped out before she dived back into the water with a laugh to swim around and appear in the archway to watch the two other water benders as Sokka floated past them.
"You guys are gonna be done soon, right?" Sokka questioned and Freya rose an eyebrow. He was wearing nothing but white trunks to match Katara's white swim wear. Momo was curled up on the boy's stomach and he had pulled his hair out of it's wolf tail. "We've got a lot of ground to cover if we wanna make it to Omashu today." Katara slumped in her bending stance and Aang relaxed as he watched her. The girl turned to face her brother
"What? Like you're ready to go right now, naked guy?" she smirked
"I can be ready in two minutes. Seriously." he lifted a piece of his hair from his eye to look at them before his arm dropped lazily back into the water. "Whenever."
"I get the feeling you'd take longer than us." Freya smirked and she waved her arm for Sokka to be tipped over, Momo taking flight to avoid the water.
Katara and Aang chuckled as Sokka appeared spluttering.
"Aang's still got to master water bending Sokka, chill out." Freya shrugged as Sokka looked at her annoyed through his hair.
"So, you were showing me the octopus form." Aang said to Katara.
"Right. Let me see your stance." Aang took his and Katara looked him over thinking. Freya rose an amused eyebrow as she waited and Katara gave her a look. She nodded her head and the girl moved towards Aang. "Your arms are too far apart. See, if you move them closer together you protect your centre. You got it?" Katara reached around Aang to do so and Aang looked slightly surprise as a blush crept into his cheeks.
"Oh... yeah. Thanks." Aang said flustered. Freya giggled and submerged her mouth into the water to hide it. Aang glanced at her and she winked, making him blush harder.
Katara walked back through the water to retake her place and Aang relaxed as he watched her.
"Okay, let's see what you got." she decided, spinning around and raising her arms. Aang leaned down to the water and it began to bubble before he raised his arms and eight tentacles, four on either side, rose from the water around him.
Katara threw an icicle at the boy and one of the tentacles grabbed it. Aang turned around, his arms moving with him, and the tentacles moved around him to block another. He blocked more and Katara moved towards the avatar as she sent more flying at him. Aang blocked two and at the same time reached forward to wrap one of the tentacles around Katara's leg.
The girl stopped, looking at it surprised before she smiled and straightened up.
"You make a fine octopus, Pupil Aang." she decided. Aang covered his body with the body of an octopus, his hands waving on either side of him as he held his breath.
"My turn!" Freya grinned as she jumped out of the water and walked towards Katara.
"Are you sure…?" Katara said worried "I can't even beat you yet…"
"Yeah, but you take it easy on him. His opponents won't. Plus you and I are a little different, it's good for him to learn from us both." Freya decided. Katara looked worried as she glanced at Aang who removed the body of the octopus and kept it's tentacles as he watched them.
"Katara, I'm not going to hurt him. Jeez." Katara sighed and she stood back as Freya took her stance. Aang grinned and his tentacles moved as he readied himself.
Freya started like Katara did with a few icicles before she created bigger ice objects for Aang to cut through. She moved on to her own tentacle streams and Aang counter balanced it all. Freya however was able to avoid Aang's tentacles even when she wasn't facing him, moving her feet or cutting the tentacles before they could even touch her.
Freya threw a few blows at Aang who caught them before she had him hanging by his ankle in the air. Freya smiled as Katara looked surprised.
"Wow!" Aang smiled and Freya released him for him to airbed his way back into the water, sending water everywhere. "It's like you know exactly where I am and what I'm doing no matter what."
"Well of course, I can feel you." Freya shrugged
"Feel him?" Katara asked and Freya nodded.
"Water is energy, but its denser than air and it reacts through waves and ripples when something moves in it." Freya explained "I can use that to determine where and what movements you use, as well as when something's flying towards me." she shrugged and Katara and Aang shared an amazed look.
"You've got to teach me that." they both chorused earning a laugh from Freya.
"I will, promise."
Momo suddenly sat up on Sokka's chest and Freya stopped as something like music sounded. The older boy pushed the lemurs ears down to see what had caught his attention. Singing joined the music and from the trees came five people. Three male and two female. One of the men was playing a guitar, another was banging a drum and the last was dancing. One of the women held a flute and the other danced as they walked. The man with the guitar was the one singing as they moved. They wore a lot of flowers with their outfits, around their necks or in their hairs.
Sokka suddenly fell off his leaf again as he watched the group move towards them.
"Don't fall in love with a traveling girl. She'll leave you broke and broken hearted…" They stopped when they saw the four and the man singing stopped before he grinned and pointed at them. "Heh-hey! River people!"
"We're not river people." Katara declined as Sokka resurfaced behind her, Momo landing on his head.
"You're not? Well then what kind of people are ya?" he wondered
"Just... people." Aang answered
"Aren't we all, brother? Whoo." the man said pleased.
Freya chuckled.
"Hippies." she said before chuckling some more behind her hand. Katara nudged her with her elbow. Sokka stalked past the three towards the group on the rive side.
"Who're you?" he demanded pointing at them.
"I'm Chong, and this is my wife Lily." he pointed to the women beside him who curtsied "We're nomads, happy to go wherever the wind takes us!" he moved his hand through the air as an indication. He suddenly played a quick beat on the guitar, making a rocking face as he did.
"You guys are nomads? That's great! I'm a nomad." Aang smiled, pointing to himself
"Hey, me too." Chong grinned
"I know... you just said that." Aang said flatly
"Oh." Chong looked away from Aang before he focused on Sokka before him. "Nice underwear." he complimented and Sokka frowned embarrassed before he grabbed Momo from his shoulder and moved him to cover his trunks. The boy then stepped away and Katara, Aang and Freya laughed.
The four got out of the water, coaxing Appa out too and got redressed. Sokka walked off to look at something as Aang, Katara and Freya sat down with the nomads on Appa's feet. One of the girls started to plat Appa's fur and add pink flowers as Lily did the same with Katara's braid with yellow flowers.
Aang began to ask what the Nomads had been up to and where they'd been and the three listened to their stories excitedly.
Chong was strumming away at his guitar as Sokka stomped back over to the group, Momo flying with him.
"Hey, Sokka, you should hear some of these stories. These guys have been everywhere." Aang grinned, he had a ring of pink flowers around his head.
"Well, not everywhere, Little Arrowhead." Chong confessed as he stopped playing "But where we haven't been we've heard about through stories and songs." Sokka looked annoyed as he rose an eyebrow.
"They said they'll take us to see a giant night crawler." Aang said
"On the way there's a waterfall that creates a never-ending rainbow." Moku was lying on the floor with his drum across his stomach and he waved his hand dreamily.
"Look, I hate to be the wet blanket here, but since Katara is busy I guess it's up to me." Katara looked at her brother annoyed as Lily continued to add flowers to her hair. "We need to get to Omashu. No sidetracks, no worms, and definitely no rainbows." he said counting on his hand.
"I love how the rainbows are the worst in that list." Freya said causing Aang to laugh.
"Whoa... sounds like someone's got a case of "destination fever," heh." Chong believed "You're worried too much about where you're going."
"You've gotta focus less on the "where" and more on the "going."" Lily agreed, waving her hands and yanking on Katara's hair.
"O. Ma. Shu." Sokka said strongly, saying each syllable separately
"Sokka's right. We need to find King Bumi so Aang can learn earthbending somewhere safe." Katara agreed
"Well, sounds like you're headed to Omashu." Chong smiled and Freya laughed as Sokka hit himself in the forehead. "There's an old story about a secret pass… right through the mountains." he said ominously
"Is this real or a legend?" Katara asked skeptically
"Oh, it's a real legend. And it's as old as earthbending itself." Chong started playing his guitar, Moku hit the drum, Lily began her flute and Katara, Freya and Aang moved along to the beat as the two free handed nomads began to dance. "Two lovers, forbidden from one another… a war divides their people, and a mountain divides them apart. Built a path to be together." Chong paused and thought for a second "Yeah, and I forget the next couple of lines, but then it goes…" he strummed his guitar enthusiastically and the beat picked up. "Secret tunnel! Secret tunnel! Through the mountain! Secret, secret, secret, secret tunnel! Yeah!" they stopped and everyone clapped to Chong except Sokka who didn't look at all amused or impressed.
"I think we'll just stick with flying. We've dealt with the Fire Nation before. We'll be fine." Sokka said
"You must have forgotten where we needed the avatar state to win in the North Pole." Freya said and Aang looked at her as she grinned, making him chuckle behind his hand. Sokka didn't hear her but walked towards her, Aang and Katara as the three got to their feet.
"Yeah. Thanks for the help, but Appa hates going underground and we need to do whatever makes Appa most comfortable." Aang smiled and the bison rumbled in response.
Freya smiled as the four got onto the bison's back and waved to Chong and his friends before taking off.
"Launch!" balls of fire went flying through the air from the catapults on the ground and Appa ran and tried to dodge through them all.
Freya blasted one backwards before it could hit him square in the saddle as Aang, Sokka and Katara screamed.
"What was that about making Appa comfortable! I think he'd prefer the tunnel!" she shouted.
Aang yanked the reins and Freya deflected several move fireballs, one exploding and covering them in soot as they retreated back the way they'd came.
Chong and his group hadn't gone very far and were lounging by a fallen tree as the four stalked past covered in soot annoyed.
"Secret love cave. Let's go." Sokka said annoyed, pointing ahead as Freya, Aang and Katara followed him.