My apologies for the long wait for this chapter; first I was busy, then I had family visiting, and then to top it all off I was ill. Hopefully normal service can resume now though.

Happy Portugal Day to all my Portuguese readers!

Responses to Reviews:

Pan2000: Yue's waterbending has come on leaps and bounds from the start of this story but she's still not there yet, so she needs to fight smart in order to make up for it.

Zigzagdoublezee: I'm sorry, I don't think I've come across that one before. It sounds funny though!

RonaldM40196867: Can't say I have, but even if you found out what Cactus Juice tasted like you probably wouldn't remember the next morning.

As Always, Please Review!

Yue was nearly bowled off her feet as a yellow and orange blur raced into the room and threw its arms around her.

"You're alright!" Rinzen said joyfully.

"No need to sound so surprised," Yue grinned back. Then her smile dropped.

"You've been here before. Did you know?"

"Know what?" Rinzen laughed nervously.

"That Bumi was secretly good at fighting."

"What?" Rinzen shook his head. "How should I know that? I never even met him while I was here and even if I had, you saw how hard he works to seem harmless."

Yue considered that answer for a moment, and then nodded.

"Just checking!" She smiled. "Now, they didn't treat you badly or anything did they?"

"No," Katara told her. "In fact they kept offering us snacks."

"And they were delicious!" Sokka added. "You should have been there."

"What if they had been poisoned?" Katara demanded.

"Why would he have poisoned them?" Sokka shrugged. "The man's mad, not evil. Look, he even gave us this!"

He held up a bag in front of her, and Yue was startled to see that it had her own face on it, opposite a depiction of Bumi. The two faces stared each other down, either side of Bumi's royal seal and above writing which proclaimed the fight to be "a clash of the titans."

"They're thinking about selling them apparently," Sokka explained. "It's merchandise."

"Why does this need merchandise?" Yue demanded.

"I don't know. I just thought it looked cool!"

Yue was prevented from saying some very unkind things about the graphic design skills of the bag's creators by the door swinging open.

A guard stepped inside.

"His Majesty King Bumi I of Omashu will see you now," he said grandly. The group nodded and followed him.

Yue was ushered into the throne room, flanked by her friends. She had used the time to put her hair back in place and clean herself up, though she still ached a bit from the hit from the rock pillar.

Ahead of her, Bumi now sat in all his splendour upon the throne, a guard on either side of him. He looked down at her and grinned.

"You fight well, Avatar." He said. "Pretty impressive, considering you must be pretty new at it."

Yue was immediately knocked off balance by that comment.

"How did you know that?" She asked.

"Oh, I have my ways," Bumi giggled. "But that's not important!"

He stood up.

"I was Avatar Aang's best friend," he said. "Oh, the adventures we had! Travelling the world, fighting evil and causing mayhem wherever we went."

For a moment his eyes glazed over as he relived distant memories in his head.

"But now Aang is gone, and you are here. And the Fire Nation is coming."

"I know," Yue said.

"Then you know what must be done," Bumi suddenly became very serious. "You must save the world, master the elements, and defeat the Fire Nation."

"How?"

"Simple!" Bumi grinned. "You must defeat the Firelord in a duel! The Fire Nation is an absolute monarchy, so all power and authority derives from Ozai. Take him out, and the Fire Nation will no longer have a reason to fight."

"Won't he just be replaced by someone else?" Yue asked.

"Maybe," Bumi shrugged. "I don't know if the rest of that family is as pro-war as he is. If they are, you'll have to beat them too. But if they're not you might just get away with it!"

"Great," Yue sighed. She had rather been hoping for a better outcome than just 'getting away with it.'

"Anyway," Bumi clapped his hands. "I wouldn't want to keep you too long. Apparently you've got a date with destiny! Or with Aang, one of the two."

"You know about that?" Yue was stunned again. Only she, Aang, and Jeong Jeong had been present when that was agreed, and Jeong Jeong had had his hearing removed by Aang.

"Again, Avatar, I have my ways. Are you really surprised?" Bumi winked.

"A bit," Yue confessed.

"Good," Bumi nodded with satisfaction. "I always try to have that effect on people. Now, what can I do for you to help you?"

The group looked at each other.

"Well, you were talking about how we needed supplies," Rinzen said to Sokka.

"Really? What kind of supplies?"

"Food and money, mainly," Sokka told Bumi. "Although information on what the Fire Nation is up to would probably help too."

"Ah, information," Bumi pondered the request for a moment.

"All I can tell you is what my spies have told me; their plan is to rush for Ba Sing Se with their best troops, while the rest spread out and occupy the rest of the country. Whether they'll succeed, I couldn't tell you. Our country is big, after all, and the walls of Ba Sing Se have never fallen."

"Do you know if they're coming here?"

"To Omashu? Almost certainly," Bumi snorted. "But don't worry. They'll have to get up very early in the morning to get past me!"

He grinned a toothless grin at them.

"That's not your problem though. I take it you're going to the South Pole after you've been to the Air Temple?"

Yue nodded.

"I need to find a waterbending master."

Bumi laughed.

"You're coming along nicely without one," he said. "But good luck, Avatar. The path ahead of you is a dark and dangerous one, but if you carry on the way you're headed, I have every faith in you and your friends to carry the day."

Sokka opened his mouth, but Bumi stopped him.

"Yes, I haven't forgotten," he said. "You'll get your food and supplies. Hopefully you shouldn't need too much more of it."

He stood up.

"You are a worthy successor of Aang," he grinned down at her. "I think he would be proud of you."

Then he began hobbling out of a side door.

"Just don't screw this up!" He called, and then he was gone. The door slammed after him.

"Well that's good, isn't it?" Rinzen spoke first.

Yue didn't say anything, but she felt a warm feeling spreading through her body and a smile slid onto her face. Being compared favourably to Aang? She could live with that. She knew she still had a long way to go and she had no intention of letting the praise get to her head, of course, but it was a good start.

"We should go," she said. "The south awaits us."