Avatar Katara

The Cave of Two Lovers

"You guys are going to be done soon, right?"

The three friends were lazily swimming in a lake. "We've got a lot more ground to cover if we're going to make it to Omashu on time."

"What, like you're ready to go right now, naked guy?" Katara teased. Sokka was only wearing his underpants. He'd even taken his ponytail out.

Sokka grumbled. "I can be ready in two minutes."

"So you were going to demonstrate the octopus move," Rina said. Katara nodded and raised a blob of water around her. With a smooth motion, she split the blob into a dozen tentacles.

Rina began to fire rapid bursts of air at her, which were deflected by the tentacles. Katara saw an opportunity as Rina shifted her footing and lunged, wrapping a tentacle around her ankle.

"You make a fine octopus," Rina praised as she wrung out her hair.

Katara laughed. "Wait, do you hear that?"

They all stopped and listened.

A group of travelers crested the hills, dressed in loose clothes and wearing flower crowns. The lead man was playing a tune on his guitar as he sang, 

"Don't fall in love with a traveling girl, 

She'll leave you broke and broken hearted."

The woman on his left had black hair adorned with a pink flower as she played a flute. Another man wore a white and pink robe as he played a drum.

"Hey-hey! River people!" The singer had spotted them.

"We're not river people," Katara said.

"You're not? Well then, what kind of people are you?"

"Just people."

"Aren't we all, sister? Whoo."

Sokka stepped out of the water and started drying himself off. "Who are you?"

"I'm Chong, and this is my wife, Lily." He indicated the woman on his left. "We're nomads, happy to go wherever the wind takes us." He strung a chord on his guitar.

Rina's eyes lit up. "You guys are nomads? That's great! I'm a nomad!"

"Hey, me too!"

"Yeah, you just said that."

"Oh." Chong's attention wandered to Sokka. "Hey, nice underwear."

The girls cracked up. Sokka realized that he was wearing very little in front of strangers and grabbed Tikaani, placing him strategically over his body and sliding away.

---

Iroh studied the plant in front of him. The bush rustled and Zuko emerged, short black hair covering his head.

"I didn't find anything to eat. I can't live like this. I wasn't meant to be a fugitive." He kicked a rock angrily. "This is impossible!"

Iroh sniffed the flower.

"Uncle, what are you doing?"

"You're looking at the rare white dragon bush. Its leaves make a tea so delectable it's heartbreaking!" Iroh sighed, then stopped. "That, or it's the white jade bush, which is poisonous."

"We need food, not tea. I'm going fishing."

Iroh stroked his beard. "Delectable tea, or deadly poison?"

---

"Hey, Sokka, you should listen to some of these stories. These guys have been everywhere."

Rina adjusted the purple flower crown on her head. The nomads had given every member of the team one, including Sang and Tikaani.