𝐎𝐏𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐒; ₛₒₖₖₐ

Chapter 5 ~ The cave

"Hey, Sokka, you should hear some of these stories. These guys have been everywhere!" Said Aang.

"Well not everywhere, Little Arrowhead. But where we haven't been, we've heard about through stories and songs." Said Chong.

"They said they'll take us to see a giant night crawler!"

"On the way, there's a waterfall that creates a never-ending rainbow!" Said Moku, one of the nomads.

"Look, I hate to be the wet blanket here, but since Katara is busy, I guess it's up to me." Said Sokka, earning a glare from Katara. "We need to get to Omashu. No sidetracks, no worms and definitely no rainbows."

"Wow, sounds like someone has a case of destination fever." Said Chong, chuckling. "You're worried too much about where you're going."

"You got to focus less on the "where" and more on the "going"." Lily said.

"O. Ma. Shu!"

"Sokka's right. We need to find King Bumi, so Aang can learn earthbending somewhere safe." I said.

"Sounds like you're headed to Omashu." Said Chong.

Sokka smacked his forehead.

"There's an old story about a secret pass right through the mountains."

"Is this real or a legend?" I asked skeptically.

"Oh, it's a real legend. And it's as old as earthbending itself." Chong said, strumming his dramyin. "Two lovers, forbidden from one another, the war divides their people and the mountain divides them apart! Built a path to be together!" Chong paused the music, and said. "Yeah, I forget the next couple of lines, but then it goes... Secret tunnel! Secret tunnel! Through the mountains, secret, secret, secret, secret tunnel! Yeah!"

"I think we'll just stick with flying. We've dealt with the Fire Nation before. We'll be fine." Said Sokka.

"Yeah, thanks for the help, but Appa hates going underground. And we need to do whatever makes Appa most comfortable ..."

We all hopped on Appa, said goodbye to the nomads and started flying. As we tried to get over the mountain, we were intercepted by fire nation soldiers, who fired on us. Luckily, we managed to come back to the river relatively unharmed.

"Secret love cave, let's go." Said Sokka.

"All right!" Said Chong.

He led us to the cave. "How far are we from the tunnel?" Asked Sokka.

"Actually, it's not just one tunnel. The lovers didn't want anyone to find out about their love, so they built a whole labyrinth!"

"Labyrinth?"

"Oh, I'm sure we'll figure it out." Said Chong nonchalantly.

"All you need to do is trust in love... according to the curse." Said Lily.

"Curse?"

Lily nodded. We continued our journey to the caves.

Time skip - 30 minutes

"Hey-hey! We're here!" Said Chong

"What exactly is this curse?" Asked Sokka.

"The curse says that only those who trust in love can make it through the caves. Otherwise, you'll be trapped in them forever."

"And die." Added Lily.

"Oh yeah, and die. Hey, I just remembered the rest of that song!" He strummed his dramyin and said in a very dramatic voice. "And die."