"Don't fall in love with a traveling girl. She'll leave you broke and broken-hearted."
𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟
You played in the water with Ming in the middle of the lake. Trying to have some fun after the encounter of General Fong's crazy schemes.
"Ah, isn't this refreshing. It's quiet, the place surrounded by trees and water. This is my way of relaxing." Ming chirps as he splashes your face with water.
"You guys are gonna be done soon, right?" Sokka asks, laying on the big leaf as he water moves around him with Momo on top of his stomach.
Aang and Katara practice waterbending. You chuckle at Aang making a water octopus as he dances in a goofy way. "We've got a lot of ground to cover if we want to make it to Omashu today." He remarks. You rolled your eyes at him. "What, like you're ready to go right now, naked guy?" Katara sass her sibling. "I could be ready in two minutes."
"Says the guy who is always late to get ready." You muttered, splashing his face with water. You turn around to see the two getting close to each other, you can see the red spots on Aang's cheeks the way Katara was closer to his face.
Suddenly you hear someone humming and strumming their guitar. a group of Earth Kingdom nomads appears, displaying the characteristics of carefree, nature-loving people.
"Don't fall in love with a traveling girl. She'll leave you broke and broken-hearted." The man sang in a carefree tone. They all stop to see four teenagers having fun at the lake.
"Hey, hey! River people." You stared at them with a weird look on your face, Ming only squeaks in a confused tone. "We're not river people."
"You're not?" The man said as if disappointed. "Then who are you?"
"Just people." Aang stated. "Aren't we all, brother? Hoo!"
"Who are you?" Sokka points at them. They introduce themselves as Nomads which brightens up Aang's face. "You guys are nomads? That's great! My sister and I are nomads!"
"Hey! Me, too." You scoff, he's definitely something else.
"Nice underwear." Chong said looking at Sokka who quickly hides it with Momo's body and is left embarrassed.
--
Meanwhile, Zuko and Iroh are trying their best to survive on their own. After being vanished once again by the Fire Lord. They decided to survive on their own.
Zuko holds the ragged scarf that you gave to him when you two departed at Omashu. He kept it because he remembers the time with you in Omashu.
You're the first girl to ever care for him genuinely. Not that his ex-girlfriend, Mai, is different. It's just you were never scared of him and you didn't think of him as a bad person like someone he know.
Every time that he looks down at his hand, the one he held your hands. He remember those small smile despite being in pain.
'It's nice to see you again, Zuko.'
Your voice is so soft and caring. He couldn't deny it but he misses you.
But for now, he has to do this on his own along side his uncle Iroh.
--
The group of nomads braided Appa's long fur along with Ming. "You look adorable, Mingxia." The fennec fox rolled his eyes, he couldn't do anything so he just let them be.
Lily soon braided your hair next with beautiful F/F flowers.
When the four teenagers reveal their plan to travel to Omashu, Chong, the lead nomad, speaks of a shortcut through a tunnel passing under a mountain. They began to tell a story in a song version.
"Two lovers, forbidden from one another. A war divides their people, and a mountain divides them apart. Built a path to be together. Yeah I forgot the next couple lines, but then it goes..." And now everybody's singing it all togther except Sokka. "Secret tunnel! Secret tunnel! Through the mountain. Secret, secret, secret, secret tunnel."
The song was catchy so you couldn't stop from singing with them. "Y/N, you're not helping with the situation."
You blow raspberry at him and dance along.
"I think we'll just stick with flying. We've dealt with the Fire Nation before. We'll be fine." You finally stood up, you look up and feel the flower in your hair. You feel pretty thanks to Lily.
Sokka initially distrusts these new characters, but, after an unsuccessful attempt to fly over the mountains due to an assault by Fire Nation Soldiers the team agrees to follow the nomads through the tunnels.
"Ming, stay be my side, okay?" Your guardian nodded as the four of you followed them in the tunnel. "How far are we in the tunnel?"
"Actually, it's not just one tunnel. The lovers didn't want anyone to find.out their love so they built a whole labyrinth." Sokka stops walking, comically shock at Chong. "I'm sure we'll figure it out."
"Yay, so much for a field trip." You said, faking a happy tone while walking at your destination.
"All you need to do is trust in love... According to the curse." Once again, Sokka overreacted at the nomads.
Stopping at your destination, you saw a cave and a carved stone written in the center. "Hey, hey! We're here!"
Left and right, you saw different kinds of stone statue. You remember Bumi used to tell you about this cave where two lovers would go here to meet each other again. You thought he was messing with you, since he likes to do that with other people, turns out it is true.
"Hey, someone's making a big campire." Moku points out the smoke coming from the cliff. You and the others knew that it wasn't just any campfire. It's the Fire Nation.
"We don't have any choice but to go inside the tunnel. We won't be risking ourselves." You said in a serious tone. Everyone began to walk inside the dark tunnel.
As you enter the tunnel, you feel the ground shaking, turning around with wide eyes. A group of pursuing Fire Nation soldiers in tundra tanks destroy the entrance to the tunnels, trapping everyone inside.
Appa began to dig, trying to find a way out. Ming also starts to panic, helping out Appa. "That's quiet enough, Mingxia. You'll just tire yourself out." His ear twitches as hops away from the rocks.
"We need is a plan. Chong, how long to those torches last?" Sokka questions the nomad. "Um, about two hours each."
"And we have five torches, so, that's 10 hours." Lily said gleefully turning all the torches at once. Sokka immediately takes out the fire and make his way to Appa. Sokka creates a map to mark their progress while traveling though the labyrinth.
Before long, however, Sokka's technique proves useless. "Sokka, this is the tenth dead end. You've led us to. The boy looks back at his map with a troubled look. "This doesn't make any sense. We already came through this way."
"Maybe this tunnel is changing course?" You questions them. Katara looks at you like you said the words that's on her mind. "That's it. Chong said no one really knows where the exit is so maybe it's continually moves it tunnels. You're a genius, Y/N."
"And I don't really think love is the way to make it out alive." You said, Aang wanted to protest about it but keep his mouth shut.
The tunnel begans to rumble once again, Mingxia got startled and hides inside your cape. "I have a feeling someone's with us." You look at Mingxia.
Chong begans to panic, saying that they shouldn't have enter in here when he's the one who suggested it. Katara kept everyone to quite down. You all heard a wailing sound from afar and suddenly a wolfbat appeared.
You quickly cover Mingxia's head and tuck down when the wolfbat makes it to your direction but Sokka quickly swats it away. In the process the wolfbat kicks the torches and it rolls down to Appa's foot. The bison began to panic running away as he screams in pain. He unconsciously hits the rocks making debris fall.
Aang's quick action protects everyone from being crushed by the falling rocks, but the group ends up divided.
Sokka takes out the fallen rocks but immediately gives up. "It's no use, Sokka. We have been seperated from Aang and Katara. Along with Appa." You said behind him. much to you and Sokka's dismay, are forced to travel through the tunnels with the musical nomads. Chong assures him that he should not not be let down by the cave in.
"Glad you ended here with me rather than being alone with them." He said, letting out a sigh of relief. You arched your brows, crossing your arms. "I thought you hated me bickering all the time." You exclaimed. "Uh, well, they're more annoying than you are. So it's a win win." He trailed with a toothy grin. "And besides, you get a life changing trip with me."
"I beg to differ. This is more than a scary situation with you."
"You're always mean to me." He cowers.
After traveling for a while, Chong expresses his belief that the way out of the cave was to play a love song, proceeding to guide the group, an irked Sokka in tow.
"How can you tolerate this? I'm going insane if this keeps going." He whisper to you, covering his ears. "It's kinda catchy. My friends use to sing like this." Sokka groans, holding a torch as he walks like a worm. Then he remembers something about you going to the Spirit World. "Hey... About the time your Spirit form went to the Spirit World... Do you uh, happen to see Yue there?" He trails, awkwardly scratching his head.
You look at him, saddened by his sudden question. You look down at your feet. "Well, I did see her fox form. But my mother said that she's with the moon." You said in a hush tone. Sokka didn't question you, silently walking with a frown displayed on his lips.
He really loved Yue. He always looks at the moon, but in this situation, he couldn't look up to see his Yue.
You, Sokka and the nomads continue to incur dead-ends in their quest for the exit and are eventually confronted by a pair of enormous badgermoles, who corner the group. Sokka placed his arm around your waist, pulling you closer to him. "Whatever you guys do. Don't panic." But later on Moku began to panic. The badgermoles earthbend created a large crack on the floor. You push Sokka away to step back from the badgermole swatting it's claws towards you two.
As Sokka tries to escape, he accidentally strums a dropped guitar, producing music. The angry badgermole pauses, intrigued, and Sokka tries to play a song to pacify the beast. "Hey, those things are music-lovers!"
Sokka begins to strum the guitar, singing in an awful tone, looking back at the nomads for help. Chong began to sing as the badgermoles were entertained. They are successful in taming, or at least pacifying, the badgermoles, who transport them to the exit of the labyrinth.
The group is reunited with Aang, Katara, and Appa. You cough to get Sokka's attention. He saw himself holding your waist. He became flushed and quickly takes his hands away. You hopped down at the badgermoles. Running towards Katara and Aang as you engulf them in a hug. "You two made it out easy... Wait, why are you two flushed?" You pointed out their red faces. Aang and Katara simultaneously talk about what happened, one was stuttering and the other is saying it too fast. You began to get overwhelmed.
"Okay, zip it. I don't understand what you two just said but I'm glad you made it out fine." You smile at them.
You all bid farewells to the badgermoles, entering in the tunnel again. The three creatures started to talk about their journey inside the tunnels.
Aang thanks them and bids the singing nomads farewell. After this, you, Aang, Sokka, and Katara finally arrive at Omashu, but as they mount a ridge which hides the city from view, they are devastated to discover that the Fire Nation has taken control of the city.
"It seems that the Fire Nation came before us. We're screwed."