Third Person POV
(Y/N), Aang, her siblings and Appa all walk towards a ledge on a large hill that gave them the perfect view of the city in front of them.
Aang raises his hands in the air, "The Earth-Kingdom city of Omashu. I used to always come here to see my friend Bumi."
"Wow! They don't have cities like this in the South Pole." Katara explains while staring in awe of the large city before her.
"They have buildings here that don't melt." Sokka gapes at the city with his oldest sister.
"Sokka did you really think that all buildings are made of ice and snow?" (Y/N) teases her brother, standing on her tippy-toes to ruffle his ponytail.
"Come on slow-pokes! The real fun is inside the city!" Aang exclaims.
Aang quickly jumps up into the air, landing further down the hill they are placed on and nearly starts sprinting down, but stops once Katara butts (haha butts) in. "Wait Aang! It could be dangerous if people know your the Avatar."
"You need a disguise." Sokka tells him.
"What am I supposed to do? Grow a mustache?" Aang inquires.
During the time that this talking had been happening, (Y/N) gathered up some of Appa's shedding hair and sprints down to meet Aang and shoves the fur into his hands. "Exactly!" (Y/N) sends Aang a bright smile, going back up to get more supplies for his disguise.
~~
"Ugh, so itchy." Aang complains, scratching at his head under his wig. "How do you live in this stuff buddy?" He asks Appa, who just sends him a look and huffs.
"Great. Now you look just like my grandfather." Sokka says.
"Technically Aang is a hundred and twelve years old." Katara replies.
Aang flips his staff up with his air bending and turns it multiple times in the air. "Lets get skipping young whipper-snappers, the city awaits!" And starts hobbling off like an old man.
~~
Sokka and Katara are walking behind Aang and (Y/N) when Aang addresses all of them. "You guys are going to love Omashu! The people there are the friendliest in the world!"
Just as Aang finished his sentence, a loud voice rang out. "Rotten cabbages? What kind of slum do you think this is?" The earth bender how said that then proceeded to smash the cabbage he was holding and then pushed the cabbage merchant out of his way, and then bends his stand of cabbages down the seemingly bottomless trench that surrounds the walls of the city.
"NO MY CABBAGES!" The man yells as we look over the edge with him.
"Just keep smiling." Aang mutters to us from beneath his fake mustache. (Y/N) just nervously laughs as they walk forward.
The earth bender swiftly bends a boulder above Aang's head and tells him to state his business. Aang runs quickly towards the earth bender and says, "My business is my business young man and none of yours!" Aang points his finger close to the benders face to emphasize his statement. "I've got half a mind to take you over my knee and paddle your backside!" Aang continues. The earth bender drops the boulder.
"Calm down old timer just tell me who you are." The earth bender tells Aang.
"Name's Bonzo Pipinpadolockztopolitz, the third! And these are my grandkids." Aang tells the man.
"Hi, June Pipinpadolockztopolitz and this is my sister, April Pipinpadolockztopolitz." Katara say.
(Y/N) then moves forward, waving to him while saying, "Hi, I'm April. Nice to meet you!"
The guard looks Katara and (Y/N) up and down and strokes his chin and then points at the sisters. "You two seem like a responsible young ladies. See that your grandfather stays out of trouble. Enjoy Omashu." The man lets the girls and Aang pass, but stops Sokka and tells him to carry his grandfathers bag.
Once they all got passed the gates, they all took a moment to appreciate the beauty that is the city of Omashu.
"This is the Omashu delivery system, miles and miles of tubes and shoots. Earth bending brings the packages up, and gravity brings them down." Aang explains.
"Great, so they get they're mail on time." Sokka looks at Aang, confused.
"They do get their mail on time." Aang looks in another direction. "But my friend Bumi found a better use for the shoots." Aang grins wildly.
~~
They four all sat against each other in the mail crate. Aang was at the front, (Y/N) behind him and then Katara and Sokka.
Aang is the first to speak once they were all seated. "One ride. Then we will go to the North Pole. Airbender's honor."
"This seemed like a good idea at first, but now that I'm here I'm starting to have second thoughts!" The crate that the four are in swoops down the ramp just as she finishes her sentence.
Aang laughs in joy at the ride as they continue down while Momo clings to Aangs wig. Behind Aang, the siblings all scream in terror. Once they stop screaming, the only sound is Aangs shouts of happiness as the crate bolts down the "slide".
On the other side of the ramp a stand holding multiple spears comes up besides them. Once they all see it, they start to yell. They're crate goes ahead of the spear stand and then the ramps connect. The stand starts to speed up, catching up with the group and nearly piercing Sokka.
(Y/N) screams loudly and hugs Aang around the waist, burying her face into his back.
"I'm on it!" Aang says as he uses his body weight to push the cart they were in over the edge of the ramp. They slide off a slanted roof, interrupt an army announcement then they break another shoot and land on a different one.
As they are sliding down the ramp at a fast pace, Katara yells out to Aang, "Aang do something! Use your air bending!" as she takes her sister in for a hug.
"Yeah!" Aang replies. "Good idea! That will make us go even faster!" Aang grins and then slices his hands in front of their cart, doubling its original speed.
The cart is going so fast it nearly crashes into two other carts. It then crashes into the side of the ramp, causing its passengers to fly out with it. Aang then does some air bending and safely gets everyone back into the cart. They then slide down two more roofs, breaks some pottery and intrudes a building.
The cart they are in then smashes into a cabbage stand, and they all end up in a pile next to the ruined cabbages while a man screams out, "MY CABBAGES" in the background.
The guards then approach the group and Aang rubs his head while looking up sheepishly and says, "Two cabbages please."
~~
The group was lead bye multiple guards into a large room and was placed in front of, who they assumed to be, the King. He was an odd looking man, with hunched shoulders, colorful clothes and two different sized eyes.
The four kids stood next to each other, three of which were looking on in shame, whilst the other looked around in curiosity (guess who that was) while one of the guards declared that they were arrested for vandalism, traveling under false pretenses and the "malicious" destruction of cabbages.
The man whom owned the cabbage cart that they destroyed added his input into the conversation by saying, "OFF WITH THEIR HEADS! One for each cabbage!"
The guard who spoke before him gave him an annoyed look and yelled out "Silence! only the King can pass down judgement. What is your judgement sire?"
The King makes a noise of uncertainty before saying, "THROW THEM..." he drags on a second before continuing "a feast." The children make a noise that could only be referred to as relief.
~~
The King bends over Aang's shoulder and tells the four kids, "The people in my city have gotten fat from to many feasts, so I hope you like your chicken with no skin."
Aang looks at the chicken in front of him and says, "Thanks, but I don't eat meat."
The King then looks at Sokka and asks him if he likes meat and then shoves the drumstick into his mouth. Sokka then continues to eat the drumstick with pleased noises as the King walks to his chair.
Katara leans into her sister to talk to her and Aang, who is sat next to (Y/N). "Is it just me, or is this guys crown a little crooked?"
"I agree." whispered (Y/N). "It is quite odd-" (Y/N) is cut off by the Kings voice.
"So tell me young bald one. Where are you from?"
Aang is silent for a second before answering. "I'm from Kangaroo Island." (Y/N) performed a silent face palm that went unnoticed the the others.
"Kangaroo Island, aye? I heard that place is really hopping!"The Kings pun is only rewarded with Sokkas laughter.
Sokka stops laughing after his siblings and Aang looked at him. "What it was pretty funny."
The King yawns. "All these good jokes are making me tired. I think its time to hit the hay." The King reaches into his robe and throws a chicken leg to Aang and a very high speed.
Aang catches it with his airbending and the guards in the room gasp in surprise. "There is an Airbender in our presence, and not just any Airbender." the king says. "THE AVATAR." Aang stops airbending and quickly hides his hands under the table. "Now what do you have to say for your self, mister Pipinpadolockztopolitz?"
~~
"Ok, you caught me. I'm the avatar. Doing my Avatar thing, keeping the world safe. Everything checks out, no fire benders here. So good work everybody. Love each other, respect all life and don't run with your spears, So bye!" During this entire speech Aang had slowly been shuffling the four of them out, but the guards bye the doors wouldn't let them leave.
"You can't keep us here." Katara tells the unnamed King. "Let us leave!"
"Lettuce leaf?" The King questions as he takes a bite out of a lettuce leaf.
"We are in serious trouble. This guy is nuts." Sokka whispers to them.
"Obviously." (Y/N) reaches for Aangs hand to calm her down.
"Tomorrow the Avatar will face three deadly challenges. But for now, the guards will show you to your chamber." The King announces.
"Sire, do you mean the good chamber or the bad chamber?" One of the guards asks.
"The newly refurbished chamber."
"Wait, which one are we talking about?" The guards asks again.
"The one that used to be the bad chamber, until the recent refurbishing, that is. Of course we've been calling it the new chamber but we really should number them. Ugh, take them to the refurbished chamber that was once bad." Once the King is finished speaking, Aang, Sokka, Katara and (Y/N) are all escorted out of the room.
~~
"This is a prison cell? But its so nice!" Katara says.
"Well he did say it was newly refurbished." Aang points out.
"Nice or not we are prisoners." Sokka reminds them.
Aang looks down at his staff. "I wonder what the challenges are gonna be."
"We're not sticking around to find out. There's got to be a way out of here." Katara says
Aang points excitedly to a wall. "The air vents!" The vent was a small circle, much to small for any human.
"If you think that we're going to fit in there than your crazier than that king!" Sokka declared.
"We can't, but Momo can!" Aang points to the lemur who was lavishly licking an apple on one of the beds. "Momo, I need you to find Appa and bust us out of here."
Aang tries, with no success, to fit Momo in the vent. "Go on boy, get Appa!"
Sokka turns to look at Aang from the bed he was laying on. "Eh, how is Appa supposed to save us anyway?"
"Appa is a ten ton flying bison, Sokka. He could figure something out." (Y/N) points out to her brother as Momo tries fruitlessly to escape from the vent he was still trapped in.
"Well, no point in arguing about it now." Katara says as she climbs into one of he three beds. "Get some rest Aang, you'll need it for tomorrow."
(Y/N) turns around after gently prying Momo out from the vent. "Um, guys?"
Her voice was met with multiple noises as Momo climbs onto her shoulder, gently resting his head on hers.
"We only have three beds." (Y/N) says.
"So?" Sokka has his face mushed into his pillow as he said that.
"There are four of us." (Y/N) points out.
There is a moment of silence as they all contemplate what to do. Katara is the first speak. "Well, how about you and Aang sleep together, after all you two are the smallest."
(Y/N) blushes and Sokka murmurs in agreement before falling asleep. Still situated with a light blush, (Y/N) scoots next to Aang on the bed, with Momo propping himself above her head, on top of a plush pillow. After a chorus of good nights, the day comes to a close.
~~
Aang woke with a loud bang. He called out to his friends with blurry eyes. With receiving no response, he turns to yell at the guard behind him. "Where are my friends?"
"The King will release them if you complete the three challenges." The guard said, his voice monotone.
"And if I fail?" Aang asks.
"The king did not say. Your staff, please." The guard hand reaches out for Aang to place his staff in it. Aang gives him his staff with reluctance.
~~
"First, Avatar. What do you think of my new outfit?" The King asks. His arms are outstretched to showoff his very purple outfit. "I want your honest opinion."
One of the guards cough.
"I'm waiting." The king says as Aang stands in silence.
Aang scratches at his head."Its fine, I guess."
"Excellent! You past the first test."
"Really?" Aang asks, surprised.
"Uh, not one of the deadly tests. The others are more, uhm, challenging." The King says.
Aang runs forward, "I don't have time for your silly games! Give me my friends back. We're leaving."
"Oh I'd thought you'd refuse. So I will give your friends some special souvenirs." A passage opens up, revealing Katara, Sokka and (Y/N), all held tightly by a different guard. The guards place different colored rings on each of the siblings, and soon the rings start to tighten and grow on their fingers. "Those delightful rings are made of pure geminate, also known as creeping crystal. Its a crystal that growls remarkably fast. By nightfall your friends will be completely covered in it. Horrifying really, I can stop it. But only if you cooperate."
"Ah! Its already creeping!" Sokka yells.
"I'll do what you want." Aang looks at the King.
~~
Aang stands in front of the large waterfall as the King laughs. "It seems I've lost my lunch box key and I'm hungry." The key dangles in the middle of the waterfall. "Oh, there it is! Would you mind fetching it for me?"
Aang looks up at him before leaping from the sharp rocks that are shaped like the tip of a sharp spear. The more he leaped, the closer he got to the waterfall. He then proceeded to jump into the waterfall and climb, or attempt to, the ladder leading to the key.
"Ooo, climbing the latter, no ones thought of that before." The King rolls his eyes.
Aangs hand slips from the latter due to the pressure from the water surrounding him. He falls back, his body nearly getting penetrated by one of the rocks. He then attempts to climb up and dive into the water but gets thrown out.
"Thats right, keep diving head in. Im sure it'll work eventually." The king taunts Aang.
Aang, whilst hugging one of the sharp rocks, breaks of the top of one and stands where the top previously was, and launches said top at the key and then send a gust of air after it, to speed it up. It slices through the chain and lands in a position where the king can see it.
"There, enjoy your lunch! I want my friends back now!" Aang yells loudly.
"Not yet. I need help with another matter. It seems I've lost my pet Flopsy." The King says. (OMG WHO ELSE LOVES FLOPSY)
~~
"Okay, found him." Aang calls up to the King once he's landed next to a small bunny.
"Bring him to me! Daddy wants a kiss from Flopsy."
"C'mer Flopsy." Aang slowly walks up to the animal silently in hopes to not scare it.
A large animal, much bigger than Aang, lands behind him. Aang summersaults away before the animal can crush him. Aang starts to chase after the bunny, and the large animal chasing after him as he constantly yelled out "Flopsy", all whilst the king was laughing.
Once the bunny had run into its hole in the wall, Aang had realized that the bunny was probably not Flopsy. He stood up as the large animal ran towards him and said in a questioning voice, "Flopsy?"
Flopsy stopped and wagged his tail for a moment before taking Aang into his arms and licking him. The King whistled and Flopsy ran up the wall to meet him, and soon received praises and tummy rubs from the King.
"Guys, are you okay?" Aang asks his friends.
Katara's crystal was a greenish color, and you could only see her feet and head. All she had to say was, "Other than the crystal slowly encasing my entire body, doing great."
Sokka's crystal was a nice shade of blue, but was covering more of his head than Katara's was. Sokka then fell over, as his crystal became unbalanced.
(Y/N)'s was a cute aquamarine color, and was about the same size as her sisters, although a bit smaller. However, she looked far more uncomfortable. "I think my crystal is a bit tight." She muttered.
Aang approached the king, who was still giving praises and tummy rubs to his pet. "Come on. I'm ready for the next challenge."
~~
"Your final test is a duel. And, as a special treat, you may choose your opponent." Two large, bulky men appeared and Aang was given the choice on which he would fight.
"So whoever I point at I fight?" Aang asks.
The King grins. "Choose wisely."
Aang looks down at the ground in contemplation. "I choose," he points at the king. "You."
The king chuckles and grins before saying, "Wrong choice."
The King straightens his back and chucks his robe behind him. He is very muscular, with powerful earth bending abilities, as Aang found out as he was catapulted into the air by the Kings earth bending.
"You thought I was a frail old man. But I'm the most powerful earth bender you'll ever see." The King says.
"Can I fight the guy with the axe instead?" Aang asks
"There are no take backsies in my kingdom. You might need this!" A guard throws down his glider to Aang, who begins to dodge the boulders being thrown at him.
"Typical Airbender tactics. avoid and evade. I'd hoped the avatar would be less predictable." The King shoots a boulder at Aang once more. "Don't you have any surprises for me? Sooner or later you'll have to strike back."
After a series of attacks Aang fell to the ground and lost his glider.
The king taunts him again. "Aww, you'll have to be more creative than that."
At one point in the fight the King puts up a slab of rock in front of him, just as Aang attacks him with a powerful gust of air.
In retaliation the King says, "Did someone leave the windows open? It feels a little drafty in here. Are you hoping I'll catch a cold?" He leans on his slab of rock and sends a rock slide towards Aang, knocking him down.
After the king sends another attack towards Aang he says to him, "How are you going to get me from way over there?"
A determined look crosses Aangs face and soon he is running at top speed at the King, who simply traps Aang by turning the ground into sand. Aang is nearly trapped by two boulders but escape at the lats minuet. Whilst in mid-air, Aang sends a gust of wind towards the King that send his into the wall behind him. Aang then summersaults around a boulder send at him, which nearly hits the King, but is turned into sand before it can.
The unnamed King then takes a chunk of the arena and throws it at Aang, who had already created a tornado to deflect the blow. Once the King sees it coming back to him he brings it above him, only to have Aangs staff pointed at his throat.
It was a tie.
"Well done, Avatar. You fight with much fire in your heart." The king praises before throwing the large boulder away, and disappearing through the ground, before appearing next to (Y/N), Katara and Sokka.
Aang flies up there with his airbending as the king says, "You have past all my test. Now, you must answer one question."
"Thats not fair! You said that you would release my friends if I completed your tests!" Aang yells at him.
"Aw, but whats the point of tests if you don't learn anything?" The King tells him.
"Oh come on!" Sokka whines.
"That wasn't the deal!" (Y/N) growls, struggling in her tight crystal.
"Answer this one question, and I will set your friends free." He jesters towards us. "What... Is my name."
With Aang looking clueless the King says, "With the look of your friends I'd say you only have a few minuets."
"How am I supposed to know his name?" Aang asks.
"Think about the challenges! Maybe they're some sort of riddle!" Katara adds.
"I've got it!" Sokka suddenly yells.
"Yeah?" Aang asks excitedly.
"Well, he's an earth bender right? Rocky! You know, because of all the rocks!" Sokka exclaims.
"We are going to keep trying but that is a good backup." Katara tells him.
"Okay, so back to the challenges." Aang says.
"Well, you got a key from a waterfall, saved his pet, and you had a duel." (Y/N) says.
"And what did you learn?" Katara asks.
"Well... Every challenge was different than what I expected." Aang tells them.
"And...?" (Y/N) stresses.
"Well, they weren't straight forward. To solve each test, I had to think differently than I usually would." Aang looks up from the ground. "I know his name."
~~
"I solved the question the same way I solved the challenges. as you said a long time ago, I had to open my brain to the possibilities." the King begins to laugh, snorting from time to time. "Bumi, you're a mad genius." Aang smiles.
Aang runs forward and hugs him. "Oh, Aang its good to see you. You haven't changed a bit, literally."
"Uh, over here!" Katara calls.
"A little help!" Sokka says.
"It's too tight!" (Y/N) informs them.
Bumi makes a swift movement and the geminate breaks off them. Katara and Sokka look hocked whilst (Y/N) huffs silently and rubs at her red wrists.
"Geminate is made of rock candy." Bumi takes a bite. "Delicious."
"So this crazy king is your old friend Bumi?" Katara asks.
"Who you calling old? Ok, Im old." Bumi says.
"Why did you do all this instead of telling Aang who you were?" Sokka questions.
"First of all its really fun messing with people." Bumi snorts. "But I do have a reason.' Bumi turns to Aang. "Aang, you have a difficult task ahead. The world has changed in the hundred years you've been gone. It's the duty of the Avatar to restore balance to the world and defeat fire lord Ozai. you have much to learn. You must master the four elements and confront the fire lord. And when you do, I hope you will think like a mad genius." Bumi finishes with a grin.
Aang smiles and bows. "And it looks like your in good hands. you'll need your friends to help you defeat the fire nation. And you need Momo too!"
"Thank you for your wisdom, but before we leave, I have a challenge for you."
~~
Two loud laughs of joy would be heard around the whole city, only stopped by the distressed voiced calling out, "MY CABBAGES"
A/N: I. AM. SO. SORRY. ABOUT. NOT. UPDATING. I've had a lot of stuff in my personal life going on, and I'm trying to cope with something that will impact me for the rest of my life. I don't want to go into detail about it, so I'm not going to. This update should have been out like a month ago, but it wasn't. The reason for that was I had finished the whole thing, and I was going to publish it but the internet was down so when I saved it before publishing, IT DELETED IT. I was so mad that I didn't even bother trying to rewrite it for like, 3 weeks. But now here we are, its finished, and not deleted. I don't know if this is something that just happens or its only happening to me, but I'm still salty about the chapter being deleted. so yeah. Anyways, hoped you enjoyed it, and I apologize for not updating in like forever. I'm not abandoning this story, it means to much to me. I hope to start a schedule for updates soon, but I'm not sure when that'll be happening.
Much love,
I-swear-Im-innocent
(4317 words)