"You guys are going to be done soon right? We've got a lot of ground to cover if we want to make it to Omashu today," Sokka says strolling on the leaf along the river.
"What, like you're ready to go right now, naked guy?" Katara teases.
"I could be ready in two minutes. Seriously whenever," Sokka says flipping his hair.
"Sokka, stop bothering us. Where's Soul?" Katara asks looking around.
"I'm right here," I reply, coming from my changing spot, wearing my bathing suit.
Woah." Sokka and Aang both gasp.
"How do I look?" I ask doing a 360.
"You look huh good." Sokka says rubbing his neck.
"Yeah, you look good." Aang blushes.
Aang shakes his head. "Huh, so you were showing me the octopus form." Hesays to Katara.
"Right. Let me see your stance."
I climb on the extra leaf and float next to Sokka.
"Hey there buddy."
"Hey there princess," Sokka says moving his hair out his face to look at me.
"Huh, you look good by the way," Sokka says.
"Thanks, you look good too, I uh like your hair down," I smile, grabbing Momo from Sokka's leaf.
"Thanks."
We both close our eyes, resting for a bit until we heard someone playing the pipa.
"Don't fall in love with a traveling girl," the man sings.
Momo jumps on Sokka's leaf, startling him. Sokka grabbed on my arm for support but we both ended up falling in the water.
"Hey, hey river people," the man greets.
"We're not river people," Katara replies.
"You're not? Well then what kind of people are you?"
"Just people." Aang answers.
"Aren't we all brother? Hoo!"
Sokka grabs my wrist, pulling us out the water as we storm over to the man and his group.
"Who are you?" Sokka yells in his face.
"I'm Chong. And this is my wife Lily," he gestures to the woman beside him. "We're nomads, happy to go where the wind takes us."
"You guys are nomads?!" Aang gasps. "That's great! I'm a nomad!"
"Hey! me too!"
"I know," Aang says. "You just said that."
"Oh." Chong says rubbing the back of his neck.
"Nice underwear," Chong says staring at Sokka.
Sokka, quickly grabs Momo, covering his area.
I giggle.
"Hey, nice hips." Chong says to me. I quickly run behind Appa.
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"Hey, Sokka, you should hear some of these stories. These guys have been everywhere."
"Well not everywhere, little arrowhead, but where we haven't been, we've heard about through stories and songs." Chong says.
Sokka looks at him unamused.
"They said they'll take us to see a giant night crawler," Aang says.
"On the way, there's a waterfall that creates a never-ending rainbow!" says Moku.
"Look I hate to be the wet blanket here, but since Katara and Soul are busy, I guess it's up to me."
Katara and I both look at eachother, our eyebrows raised.
"We need to get to Omashu, no sidetracks, no worms, and definitely no rainbows." Sokka says.
"Woah! Sounds like someone got a kick of destination fever," Chong chuckles.
"Haha, you're worrying too much about where you're going."
"You gotta focus less on where and more on the going." Lily says as she braids Katara's hair, while Katara braids my hair.
"Oh..Ma..Shu!" Sokka spits out.
"Sokka's right," Katara agrees. "We need to find King Bumi so Aang can learn earthbending somewhere safe."
"Sounds like you're headed to Omashu." Chong says.
Sokka slaps his hand on his forehead, face palming.
Chong and his friends started singing about secret tunnels.
"I think we'll just stick with flying," I hear Sokka murmur. "We've dealt with the Fire Nation before."
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"Ahhhhh!" We all scream.
"Secret love cave. Let's go." Sokka says to Chong.
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"Hey, hey!, we're here!" Chong cheers.
"What exactly is this curse?" Sokka asks.
"The curse says that only those that trust in love can make it though the caves. Otherwise, you'll be trapped in them forever." Chong explains.
"Forever?" I gulp.
"And die." Lily adds on.
"And die?" I gulp again.
"Oh, yeah and die," Chong says. "Hey! I just remembered the rest of that song. And die." He strums a note making the cave echo.
"That's it! there's no way we're going in some cursed hole!" Sokka yells.
"Hey! Someone's making a big campfire."
We all turn our heads to look at what Moku's pointing at.
"That's no campfire Moku, it's the Fire Nation," Katara says.
"So all we need is love to make it through this hole?" Aang asks.
"That's correct Master arrowhead." Chong responds.
I see Aang turn his gaze to Katara. "We can make it." Aang says.
Once we entered the cave, a group of Fire Nation soldiers in tundra tanks destroyed the entrance to the tunnels.
"It's okay Appa, we'll be fine," I reassure, walking over to Appa trying to sooth him down. "I hope."
"We will be fine," Sokka says. "All we need is a plan. Chong how long do those torches last?"
"Uh, about two hours each." Chong replies.
"And we have five torches, so that's 10 hours," Lily says lighting all the torches.
"It doesn't work like that, if they're all lit at the same time!" I yell throwing the torches on the ground.
"Oh, right." Lily says.
"Wait guys! I'm a firebender! How could I forget." I laugh, grabbing the torch, lighting it up.
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"Sokka, this is the tenth dead end you've led us to."
Sokka examine the map. "This doesn't make any sense we've already came through this way."
"We don't need a map," Chong says. "We just need love."
"A giant flying thing with teeth!" Chong yells.
"No it's a wolf bat!" Moku screams.
Sokka grabs my torch and started swinging it at the wolf bat, but eventually the torch fell on Appa's foot making him roar in pain, slamming into the tunnels making the rocks close in on us.
"Watch out Soul!" Sokka says, tackling me to the ground, avoiding the rocks from crushing me.
After saving me he stands up and sees that we are trapped.
"Ah!ah!ah!" Sokka screams trying to dig through the rocks.
"Yeah it's no use. We're separated, but at least you have us, ha ha." Chong says.
Sokka screams, digging through the rocks.. "Ahh, where's Soul!"
I let out a cough. "Right here." I say trying to stand up but fail. "I think I sprained my ankle."
"Don't worry, I got you." Sokka says motioning me to jump on his back and I do.
Chong and his friends start singing that stupid secret tunnel song again, I was starting to get a huge headache.
"Oh great your plans have led us to another dead end." Moku says to Sokka
"At least he's thinking of ideas and trying to get us out of here, Moku." I yell.
"Whoa, wait a minute, we're thinking of ideas? Cause I've had an idea for like an hour ago," Chong chuckles.
"Yes!" I scream.
"We're all thinking of ideas!" Sokka yells.
"Well listen to this, If love is the key out of here, then all we need to do is play a love song." Chong starts strumming his pipa.
Sokka face palms again, making me fall off his back.
"Ahh."
"Sorry." He apologizes, picking me up.
As we continued to walk, we heard noises coming from the direction we were walking in.
The wolf bats from earlier flew over our heads as Sokka swatted them away.
"Hey! you saved us Sokka!" Chong cheers.
"No, they were trying to get away from something," Sokka replies, looking at the direction where the wolf bats came from.
"From what?!" Chong and I both ask.
On cue the cave started to rumble as badger-moles emerged the walls.
They began walking towards us making us all fly, hitting the ground.
Sokka accidentally touched Chong's pipa making it strum a note.
The badger-mole stared at Sokka confused.
Sokka, took the pipa and started playing random notes, noticing that the badger-moles liked it.
"Hey! Those things are music lovers." Chong cheers.
Sokka awkwardly sang a song about the badger-moles. I couldn't help but cringe.
"Help me out." Sokka murmurs to Chong and his friends.
The crew started singing, letting the badger-moles lead the way out for us.
I sat on top of the badger mole with Sokka as Chong and his friends sat on the other mole.
"Soul! Sokka!" Katara yells once we made it out the cave.
Sokka jumped off the mole running over to Katara.
"How did you guys get out?!" Sokka asked.
"Just like the legend says..we let love lead the way." Aang goofily smiles.
"Really? We let huge ferocious beasts lead our way." Sokka says.
"A little help please." I say still on top of the badgermole.
"Oh sorry." Sokka says catching me once I jumped off the mole.
I wave at the badger-moles as they walked back in the cave.
"Awww they're so cute! I'm gonna miss them."
"Why's your forehead all red?" Katara asked Sokka.
"Nobody react to what I'm about to tell you. I think that kid might be the avatar." Chong says pointing over at Aang.
Sokka face palms.
"That's why." I giggle.
"Sokka, I hope you learned a little something about not letting the plans get in the way of the journey." Chong says hugging Sokka.
"Just play your song." Sokka sighs.
"Hey, good plan!" Chong strums his instrument and walks away with his friends.
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"The journey was long and annoying, but now you get to see what's it's really about the destination," Sokka says as we walk up the hill.
"I present to you The Earth Kingdom City Of O- oh no."
I look over his shoulder, still on his back.
I cover my hand with my mouth, flabbergasted.