I got a letter a while ago from Sokka. How he was able to get a letter to me, I don't know. They had reached the Northern Watertribe and were able to find a waterbending teacher for Aang. According to Sokka, the teacher used to be engaged to Gran-gran. The Northern tribe believed that women were only supposed to use their water bending for healing and not for fighting. This was probably really hard on Katara. But she must have found a way to learn because the letter said she was already on her way to becoming a water bending master. I knew she would. She had the same drive I did in getting what we want, especially when we are super passionate about it.
It's been about 8 months since I have seen my siblings. Throughout that time, I was able to quickly rise up through the ranks of the Kyoshi warriors. I was now just under Suki in rank. We were both about the same strength and fighting ability, always working with each other and trying to make the other better. She has become probably my closest friend.
When I got the letter from Sokka, he told me that they were going to be on their way to the Kingdom of Omashu. Suki knew where that was and was able to get me passage on a traders ship to Omashu. That's where I am now. I was on the back of a wagon heading into the Kingdom. I was surprised when I finally saw it, I was told it was in the Earth Nation, but it had Fire Nation flags everywhere.
Before I left, Suki was able to have a simpler version of the Kyoshi warrior uniform. I had tight green pants on of the same color as the skirt. The black armor part of the uniform was made into a small dress, but still had the same look as the uniform. I had arm bracers that were of the dark green color and had the gold circle on it. My hair was now half up and half down with a golden headband wrapping around my head. The symbol of my rank was in the back of my hair, holding part of it up.
The uniform looked like this so it still showed to any other warriors who I was, but wouldn't give outsiders reason to attack me. As well as having cooler clothing so I wasn't over heating with wherever I was going to be going.
"Where are you coming from?" A guard asked the driver.
"My daughter and I are coming from the mining village. We have supplies to trade in Omashu." Taking that as my cue, I sat up on my knees and waved at the Fire nation soldier. He walked to the back where I was and looked in the wagon. The wagon was carrying coal and some other metals. Please with what he saw, the soldier motioned for us to head into the city.
"Quickly find a place to stay, curfew will be starting soon." The soldier spoke. There was a curfew here?
"Yes sir." We drove into the city, a very quiet city. Very few people were out, which means there were no kids running the streets, people in the market, nothing. The sun was still out, for maybe another 30 minutes, but already people were not in the streets.
"Thank you for the ride, I need to go find my family now." I told the man who let me tag along with him. I gave him a couple coins for help and headed into the city. I stayed in the shadows, hoping I would be able to find a sign of them somewhere.
It didn't take long to hear the thump of something. I quickly made my way over to the sound and was able to see Aang and Katara climbing out of a sewer grate. Following behind them was a large slime creature. Katara flung water at it to show Sokka underneath all of the slime. I chuckled as Sokka became drenched in water. Aang then blew wind at him, drying him off. On his face were 2 purple creatures, and they were kind of cute.
Sokka started freaking out, trying to pull them from his face. "They won't come off!" He pulled and pulled but they didn't let go.
Aang pushed Sokka back to the wall, "shh! Stop making so much noise. It's just a purple pentapus." Aang reached up and gently scratched the head of the pentapus and it unlatched from Sokka's face. It unlatched from his face, but left purple dots on it.
I heard footsteps coming up from the alley that I was in. I turned and saw a couple soldiers walking towards the group. I pushed myself further down into the shadows, hoping not to get seen. "Hey! What are you kids doing out past curfew?"
"Sorry. We were just on our way home." Katara answered as they all turned to look at the soldiers. They gave a smile then turned to walk away,
"Wait. What's the matter with him?" The head soldier asked.
"He has pentapox sir." I heard Katara say. Crouching down means that I am unable to actually see what was going on. "Um, it's highly contagious."
Sokka started groaning, "It's so horrible, I'm dying."
"And deadly." I covered my mouth to stop from making too much noise.
"Hey, I think I heard of pentapox! Didn't your cousin Chang die of it?" One of the soldiers exclaimed.
I took that moment to stand up and run into the clearing. "Thank goodness you found him. We can't have this spreading to others." I ran up to them and grabbed Sokka's hand. All three of them looked shocked to see me, but Sokka was the one that recovered the fastest. He let out another groan and clung onto me.
"We'd better go wash our hands, and burn our clothes." One of the soldiers exclaimed before they all ran away. We watched them go then started laughing.
"When did you get here?" Sokka practically yelled, pulling me into a big hug.
"I have been here for about 2 hours, just looking for a sign of you guys. I'm glad I found you though."
"You look different." Katara said. I pulled back from Sokka and looked at her.
"So do you. You look a little more grown up." And she did.
"I feel it. I was able to find a master and learn more about water bending. And now I am supposed to help teach Aang." She replied with a large smile.
"You can help me too. I basically mastered and became a Kyoshi warrior, so now I just need to learn water bending."
"It's great and all being able to catch up, but we really should find somewhere else to go." Sokka said, looking around us.
"Good idea, this way." Aang answered, pointing in a direction. Sokka wrapped his arm around my shoulder, like we used to do at home when we were walking around together. It felt nice to be able to do it with him again. 8 months is a long time to be away from your twin, let alone your family. I don't know how dad is able to do it, being away for years. If he is even alive still.
We ran from alley to alley, following behind Aang. He was the only one who knew where we were going. We climbed our way up some steps, hiding behind a pallet of wood planks as soldiers walked past.
"Let's find Bumi, and get out of here." Katara said from behind me.
"Where would they be keeping him? Sokka asked. They were able to catch me up a little bit as we ran through alleys. One of Aang's old friends, an earth bender, used to live here. He wants to find him and hopefully he can become Aang's earth bending teacher.
"Somewhere he can't earth bend. Somewhere made of metal." Aang answered. Taking the break in the soldiers, we ran forward. As we ran forward, there was a loud sound quickly becoming louder. We stopped to see boulders rolling down a railing. Aang used air bending to break the stones and turn them to dust.
"The resistance!" I heard someone yell. I looked down to see a group of people, they were in the direction the boulders would have been going. One of the people whipped their hands forward and I could see blades coming at us. I used one of my fands to block the ones I could. We then took off running in the direction we had come from. Soldiers were following behind us as well as a girl with long black hair. She was the one who flung blades at us. Katara used some water, whipping a couple of the soldiers and flinging them off the cliff.
She whipped her hands forward again. Katara used some water to make an ice wall and stop the blades. The ones that missed the shield I used my fans to block. Aang pulled us both back and used airbending to break a tower of planks, blocking the path. The blade girl stopped on the other side, but flung some more blades at us. Before we could do anything, we dropped under the floor.
Katara, Sokka and Aang all let out groans as they fell on their butts. I was able to land on my feet and look up. We were surrounded by earth benders. "Hi, sorry to drop in." I said getting the rest of the group to look up.
"We were the ones that dropped you in. What are you doing here?"
"We're here to find someone." I replied to the man who asked.
"Hmmm, walk with us." The same man asked. He most likely was the leader. As we walked, we soon came to a large cave, with hundreds of people in it.
"So, is King Bumi with you? Is he leading the resistance?" Aang asked as we came to a stop at the top of the walkway leading down.
"Of course not. The day of the invasion, we readied ourselves for battle. We were prepared to defend our city." The man looked out to the group of people. "To fight for our lives and for our freedom. But before we even had a chance, King Bumi surrendered." The man continued with the store after a brief pause. "The day of the invasion, I asked King Bumi what he wanted to do. He looked me in the eye and said, 'I'm going to do….nothing.' It doesn't matter now. Fighting the Fire Nation is the only path to freedom. And freedom is worth dying for." He finished. I could tell that Aang was upset. One of his good friends surrendered and voluntarily let the Fire Nation take over his home.
"Actually, there's another path to freedom. You could leave Omashu. You're directing all your energy to fight the Fire Nation. But you're outnumbered. You can't win. Now's the time to retreat, so you can live to fight another day." Aang tried to reason.
"You don't understand. They've taken our home, and we have to fight them at any cost." Leader retorted, not stepping down.
"Part of my training as a warrior was to look at ways of survival and redirecting energy to a different location. If you redirect your energy from fighting to surviving and leaving, a lot more could be done for a change. It seems like you all have been down here for a while. I'm sure some of you don't want to be living underground for a very long time. Maybe looking at the situation from a different angle can make all the difference." I spoke up. I could tell that my words had gotten to a few of them.
"I don't know Yung. Living to fight another day is startin' to sound pretty good to me." One of the people on the leader's; Yung's side said.
"Yeah, I'm with the kids." The other one spoke up. Yung looked frustrated for a moment but then his face fell.
"Fine. But there's thousands of citizens that need to leave. How're we going to get them all out?" Yung asked, motioning to everyone. We all looked at each other. I mainly looked at Sokka. At times like this, he was typically the one who came up with some sort of plan.
His eyes lit up and a small smile appeared on my face. "Suckers!" He exclaimed, making most people's eyebrows raise. "You're all about to come down with a nasty case of pentapox." I let out a laugh. My brother always could think of unique solutions to a problem and I loved him for it.
We all slept for the night, but once people were waking up, the plan was put into action. Over 30 minutes or so, many people collected buckets of the pentapi. Those who weren't gathering them, were placing them on everyone else. I was one of them who was placing and taking off the pentapi. Once everyone, including us, had spots on the arms, face, neck, legs; wherever there was skin, there were spots. Sokka stood up on the top of the ramp and looked at everyone.
"The marks make you look sick, but you gotta act sick too. You gotta sell it!" He was excited. An older man stumbled over to him holding his back and groaning. Sokka grabbed him and pointed so much more excitement. "Now that's what I'm talkin' about!"
"Years of practice." The old man said with a smile and tapping a wooden leg.
"Ok everyone, into sick formation!" Sokka yelled. We all walked as a group to the surface. Once we reached the surface, everyone started acting sick. Limping, dragging a leg, moaning, coughing, the whole thing; towards the city gate. There was a large group of soldiers at the front gate.
Once they saw the group, they started yelling "plague, plague." And ran from the door. Drums started sounding through the city. We all gathered at the city gate, waiting and hoping that they would open the gate. Luckily the gate was opened pretty soon after the drums started. Everyone started exiting the city, not stopping the "sickness" until they were well out of view of the city.
I looked back and watched everyone smile and hug each other with smiles and cheers. Many people were thanking Sokka and Katara, but I didn't see Aang. "Hey, where did Aang go?" I asked stepping up to the both of them.
"He said he wasn't going to leave until he found Bumi. He went back into the city." Katara replied, bowing her head.
"I guess we will have to wait for him. Where do you guys think we should make camp?" I asked.
"Let's follow the group, everyone stick together." Sokka spoke. I motioned for them to lead the way as we all followed the rest of the group.
Over the next couple hours, Katara started showing me the basics of water bending. Watching her do it, I was able to easily pick up the motions. It took a little bit to understand the feeling of the water becoming another extension of me and moving as I moved. Because I was used to it happening with a fan, it didn't take as long as we thought it would take.
"I can't believe it's been 8 months since we last saw each other." Katara said as we all laid down in sleeping bags.
"Me either. But it has been a good 8 months, at least for me." I replied with a smile. "I was able to learn everything I could and became really close to a lot of the girls. It was amazing to learn how to fight and learn to become a warrior." I looked up at the stars, seeing the same one's I would have seen if I was still on the island.
"What else did you do?" Sokka asked.
"I didn't really do much else. Trained, made friends, rose in ranks, all that stuff. I didn't leave the island until I got the letter telling me you were going to be on your way to Omashu. Suki had the uniform changed slightly so it would be easier to move through the world and not get attention. I got here about an hour or so before you guys did and now we are laying next to a fire together, waiting for Aang to return. That's what I've been doing."
"Wow ... .that seems kind of boring compared to our couple months." Sokka said. I gave him a look, "I'm just saying."
"I figure you guys have probably had a crazy couple months. What have you been doing?" I asked, looking over at Katara.
"Well, after we left the Island of Kyoshi, we continued to the Northern Water tribe. We stopped here, ran into King Bumi. Helped a town become free of the Fire Nation. Dealt with an angry spirit, fought pirates." Katara started.
"Katara fell in love with someone who didn't care if innocent people died because they were Fire Nation." Sokka interrupted.
"Jet wasn't bad, until that point."
"You still fell for a bad boy."
"Oh shut it Sokka. You fell for the princess of the Northern Water Tribe who then turned into the moon spirit." Katara countered.
"Wait, what?"
"When we got the water tribe, Sokka fell for the princess, whose life was only possible because the moon spirit gave her life when she was born dead. Zuko stole the moon spirit and one of the other Fire Nation generals killed it."
"Is that why the moon disappeared for a couple minutes?" I asked. I remember that night. The water died down and any tie I felt to it disappeared.
"Yeah. Yue gave her life essence back to the dead moon spirit to bring it back to life." Sokka finished with a sad look on his face.
"Wow, you guys did go through a lot in these past months. If that's what you did before, I wonder what we'll get up to now." I commented. Footsteps appeared out of the camp making us all look over. Aang was walking up with a large white….rabbit thing? He had a sad look on his face, he wasn't successful.
"We looked everywhere, no Bumi." Katara pulled him into a hug, trying to comfort him. Sokka pulled the white rabbit thing into a hug as he let out a small whimper. He must be King Bumi's or else he wouldn't be reacting this way to not finding King Bumi.
"We've got a problem." Yung said running up to us. "We just did a head count."
"Oh no, did someone get left behind?" Katara asked.
"No….we have an extra." He pointed backwards to Momo who was being chased by a little baby boy. A small smile appeared on my face as I walked towards him. I picked him up and he started laughing as I bounced him.
"We will need to get him back to his family." I say looking down at him. With Aang following, we all went back over to our campfire. I held the baby for a few more minutes before he fought me to be put back down. As soon as I put him back down, he started going after Momo again.
We all watched him while he was entertained by the flying lemur. The baby reached out just as Momo jumped away, making the baby fall and tumble towards Sokka. Once he reached Sokka, he grabbed the little club that was sitting next to him. Sokka quickly snatched it from his hand. "No! Bad Fire Nation baby!" The baby immediately started crying. I looked at Sokka with a glare who tried to not meet my gaze. Katara hit him on the back of the head. He looked between the both of us, before letting out a sigh. "On, all right." He gave the club back to the baby who stopped crying and started sucking on the ball of the club.
"Oooh, you're so cute!" Katara said with a baby voice, talking to the baby. She cooed over the baby while the rest of us watched.
"Sure he's cute now, but when he's older, he'll join the Fire Nation army. You won't think he's cute then. He'll be a killer." Yung spoke out with discust.
"There is no guarantee that he will become a killer. Sure his parents are the ones who took over Omashu, but I am sure that Aang will bring peace before he grows up." I added to the discussion as Katara held up the baby.
"Does that look like the face of a killer to you?" The baby was still sucking on the club and had snot running from his nose.
Before Yung could speak, a screech turned our attention to the sky. "A messenger hawk!" Yung stood up, holding out his arm for the bird to land. Aang stood up with the rest of us and pulled out the scroll on its back.
"It's from the Fire Nation governor. He thinks we kidnapped his son. So he wants to make a trade. His son…" he paused and looked at the rest of us. "For King Bumi."
"We should do it." Sokka spoke up.
"I agree. The boy needs to be with his family. Even if they weren't going to trade anything, we would need to take him back."
"Sene's right." Katara added to what I said.
"Well, we can go tomorrow once everyone has gone to sleep. But how are we going to get him to sleep?" Sokka asked, pointing at the baby.
"He seems to really like Momo. And I can get him to relax enough to go to sleep." I stepped towards the baby and picked him up. It took probably 30 minutes to get the baby relaxed enough to go to sleep. Once he was asleep, I slowly placed him next to Momo, who curled up with the baby. Now that he wasn't chasing after him, Momo was ok being around the baby.
The next morning, we all got up and got ready to go back to Omashu. Aang was standing at the cliff edge, holding the baby and looking at the city. Katara, Sokka, and I watched from the bottom of the hill as Aang walked down to us. "You know we are probably walking into a trap." Sokka offered.
"I don't think so. I think the Governor wants his son back as much as we want Bumi." Aang replied, still holding the child. He glanced down at the baby with a smile. "It's a new day, I have a good feeling about it."
The 4 of us flew back on Oppa to the edge of the city. We were let in and made our way to the top of the city. We stood in a group next to a statue that was being built of Ozai. It was a long 10 minutes of silence. Only the sound of the engines working in the city below. Eventually, we watched 3 girls approach us at the other edge of the long platform. The one at the front was the same one from yesterday, the one who threw blades. Then there was a girl in pinks on her right and a girl in red…with a crown of the Fire Nation nobility in her hair. I glanced at Sokka who was holding the baby. If someone from the noble family was here, it was not going to go the way Aang thought it would.
The girls stopped the same distance as us from the other side of the platform. Sounds of chains filled the silence making us all look up at the sound. Being suspended from a chain, an old man with white hair hung above us. "Hello everyone." He said with a chipper voice. He must be King Bumi. He was brought down to the platform behind the girls.
"You brought my brother?" The girl in the middle asked.
"He's here. We're ready to trade." Aang replied.
"I'm sorry, but a thought just occurred to me. Do you mind?" The girl on the left spoke up.
"Of course not, Princess Azula." So I was right. She was of the noble family, most likely the sister of Prince Zuko.
"We're trading a 2 year old for a king. A powerful earthbending king?" She looked up at the man in the box. He just nodded, not helping his case in any way. "It just doesn't seem like a fair trade." She finished looking back at the one in the middle.
The girl looked at us then stepped forward. "You're right. The deal's off." I could see Azua smiling, she knew exactly what she was doing. The girl in the middle raised her hand.
"Woah, see you all later." King Bumi said as he was raised back into the air again, laughing.
"Bumi!" Aang shouted before running forward to the girls. I reached out to stop him, but he was too fast with his airbending. Azula stepped forward, sending fire at Aang. But she didn't have orange fire like her brother, she had blue fire. My eyes widened as Aang jumped up to the scaffolding then opened his glider and moved towards Bumi.
"Guys, this isn't good. She is stronger than Zuko and…" My comment was broken off when Azula exclaimed,
"The Avatar! My lucky day." She then took off after Aang up the scaffolding.
"Not good, not good." I said again watching Aang fly to Bumi.
"We've got to get the baby out of here!" Katara yelled as her and I got into defensive positions. I pulled out both of my fans, getting into the defensive stance I have been learning and using for 8 months. The other two girls were headed towards us.
"Way ahead of you!" Sokka yelled as he blew a whistle. I had never seen it before, but I couldn't question it now.
We all turned and started running towards the edge of the platform. Before we could reach the edge, a hand came up from underneath grabbing and tripping Sokka. He slid a good couple feet, holding the baby close so he didn't get hurt. Katara and I both turned to watch as the girl in pink came up from a hole in the floor and started towards Sokka.
"I got it." I said running after her. I assume Katara turned to the other girl, I didn't see her next to me. I was able to quickly reach the pink girl. Just as I reached her I slid on my side, taking her feet out from underneath her. She fell to the ground as I jumped up and got in another defensive stance in front of Sokka. "Run." I called back to him. I hear a loud snap and see Aang and King Bumi falling from the chain.
The pink girl flipped up from the floor and looked at me. She flipped around me, kicking and punching as she went. I blocked everything I could with my fans. She was able to get one good hit on an arm, and I felt it go numb. I took a moment to look down at my arm, to which she took that moment to make my other arm go numb. I was still holding my fans, but I wasn't able to move my arms up to block her. She kicked me, making me fall onto my back. I let out a grunt as the wind was knocked from me.
Slowly getting up, without being able to use my arms, I saw her hitting specific parts on Katara. The ice Katara had control of turned to water and fell to the ground. Katara tried to make the water move back up, but it wouldn't budge. "How are you gonna fight without your bending?" The girl in black asked. I quickly ran at them, trying to get my arms to move so I could block the blade she was holding up. Just as I got to her, her blade was knocked out of her hand.
We all glanced up and I saw Sokka flying Oppa towards us. "I seem to manage." He said as Oppa flew down to the platform. Once he landed, Oppa flapped his tail and the two girls flew backwards. Katara helped me and we both quickly got on Oppa.
"Where is Aang?" I asked as we flew over the city.
"There." Katara pointed off to the side. He was on top of King Bumi and they were sliding down one of the chutes. The only problem, he was being followed by Azula.
"We can catch him!" Sokka yelled as he changed course with Oppa. Aang glanced up at us before blocking a ball of fire coming from Azula. Azula threw fire at us just as Aang flung him and Bumi into the air. We tried to grab the metal container as they flew over us, but they flew over us.
They landed on another chute before sliding down that one. Azula changed her direction and threw a fire sphere at Aang. Before it could hit him, a pillar of stone blocked the path. Aang and Bumi kept going but Azula stopped. Aang and Bumi continued down the chute, reaching the bottom safely. Sokka directed Oppa towards Aang and Bumi. Before we got to Aang, I watched the metal container shoot back up the shoot.
"Is everything ok Aang?" Katara asked.
"Bumi isn't coming with us. He told me I need to find a master who has mastered neutral jing." He explained as he jumped onto Oppa.
"Then we move forward in our search. I'm sure we'll find someone for you Aang." I pulled him into a side hug.
"Now what are we going to do about the baby?" Sokka asked, holding him up.
"We still need to return him." Katara replied.
"Let's maybe wait until night, when all the chaos has cooled down and we can get through the city a little easier." I offered. "And probably just Aang because he can get away quickly if needed." Everyone nodded their heads as we flew off to the cliffs.