The Honor of Love (ATLA fanfic)

18. Return to Omashu

It was a long journey before we finally reached the Earth Kingdom. The people have changed. They've become so desperate. When we entered the Earth Kingdom, a general called Fong tried to force Aang into the Avatar state by almost drowning Katara. It was a terrible mess. After that we bumped into a group of nomads, that took us through a secret tunnel, that would lead to 'the cave of two lovers'. Our group got divided in two and I had to travel with Sokka and the nomads, while Aang and Katara were all alone with Appa. It was quite the journey, but we survived. It was time for us to go back to Omashu, so Aang could teach Earthbending from King Bumi.

We were climbing up the hill to overlook earth kingdom of Omashu. Sokka was already on top and smiled.
"I present you," he said looking back to us, "the Earthkingdomcity of Oma... shu...."
"Oh no!" Sokka said immediately and I pushed him away to look what happened. Smoke rose out of Omashu, and over the wall hung a huge red flag with a black flame in the middle.

"I can't believe it... I know wars spread far, but Omashu always seemed... untouchable." Aang said quietly.
"Up until now it was,"I said with a sigh, "now Ba Sing Se is the only great earthkingdom stronghold left."
"It's horrible.. but we have to move on," Katara said and she walked up to Aang, but he refused. "No, I have to find Bumi."
"Aang, please stop, you don't even know if Bumi's still..." Sokka swallowed his words.
"What? If he's still what?!" Aang asked angrily.
"u-u-around." Sokka replied carefully.
"We are going to find out." Aang said and he let us on Appa to a secret passage, deep in the valley.
"A giant drain?" I asked, covering my nose.
Aang nodded excitedly and we stepped in. The smell was unbearable and with great difficulty we made our way into town.

It was dark already and no one was on the street. We climbed out of the sewers and looked around. Sokka started to anxiously pull something off his arm. "THEY WON'T LET GO!" He yelled, pulling the things off him. "Stop! STOP!" I said hastily, trying to shield myself from his flapping arms. When I looked closer I noticed the little purple things all over his arms were pentapusses. I rubbed on the pentapusses' round head and they let Sokka go. Only a few red marks were left on his skin.
"Hey!" A voice came out of the dark and suddenly 3 guards walked towards us. Aang quickly covered his arrow and the four of us smiled friendly at the guards.

"We were just on our way home, sir. Goodnight!" I said quickly and we turned around.
"What's the matter with him?" One of the guards asked, pointing at Sokka.
"Oh... he has eh, pentapox, sir," Katara said quickly, "it's highly contagious."
Sokka started to act like a zombie and all the guards stood still, motionless. "And deathly." I added seriously.
"We better wash our hands and burn our clothes!" The main guard said and they quickly ran away.

"Let's find Bumi and get out of here!" Katara hissed as we were wandering the streets.
"Where do you think they would keep him?" Sokka asked Aang.
"Somewhere he cannot earth bend... somewhere made of metal."
Two rocks rolled down from the hill and Aang looked where they would go. It was about to crush a couple of men, but Aang blew them away and the four looked down. When I looked closer I angrily looked at Aang.
"THE RESISTANCEEE!" A woman yelled. Guards climbed up the hill, followed by a young woman that I knew too well. "You should have let it roll." I said with gritted teeth, looking at the woman.

"Hello Istari." Mai said with her terribly exhausting voice.
"Mai." I replied with gritted teeth.

"Okay this is all very nice, but we have to go now!" Sokka said, pulling me with him. We ran away from the guards and Mai. I stopped and turned around. I waved my arms in the air, the electricity slowly forming. Before I could strike, the ground disappeared underneath our feet. We fell down and with a thud, we landed onto a pile of straw. Anxiously I looked around and saw we were surrounded by Earthkingdom people.