THE OTHER AIRBENDER (Book 2)

(V) Earth

I still can't believe we spent all night digging around the sewage for pentapuses. It did pay off in the end, though, because everyone here is completely covered in red marks that would completely fool me if you had told me they were real. Besides, the little guys are adorable, so that's always a bonus.

"The marks make ya look sick, but you gotta act sick too. You gotta sell it!" Sokka instructs the crowd. "Okay everyone! Into sick formation."

Everyone starts walking behind Sokka and groaning in fake pain. However, there is one person who isn't following the crowd, as I notice him trying to sneak away from us quietly.

"Aang, what are you doing? Aren't you coming with us?" Katara asks, clearly catching him in the act as I did.

"No. I'm not leaving until I find Bumi," Aang replies determinedly.

"There's a lot of people that need you here, Aang. I know Bumi is your friend but these people need help," Katara says with a sigh. "Besides, it's too dangerous for you to go looking for him alone. What if you get captured?"

"I have to go, Katara. I'm not putting it up for debate."

"Then I'm going with you!" I declare. "If anything happens, at least you'll have me as backup."

Aang simply nods gratefully. "Alright. Let's go."

***

"Is that..." I begin, unable to finish my sentence before Aang jumps off the rooftop excitedly.

"FLOPSIE!" he hurries to hug the creature, but not before freeing him from the chains he was tied to. "Let's go, Alya."

I climb onto Flopsie behind Aang and hold on tight to him, feeling slightly uneasy. "Aang, we need to hurry. We can't draw too much attention to ourselves or they will know the pentapox thing was just a ploy."

"I know, don't worry. Come on, Flopsie. You gotta help us find Bumi. Yip Yip!" Aang says, but Flopsie doesn't even flinch at his commands. "Oh... I guess that doesn't work with you. Let's go!"

We looked everywhere, but to no avail. There were no signs of Bumi anywhere. I finally convinced Aang to go back to the others, and we somehow manage to still make it out of the city with no issue whatsoever.

"You're back!" Katara says, hurrying towards us with worry. "So?"

"We searched the entire city, and we couldn't find him," I admit, sighing heavily.

"We've got a problem. We just did a head count," Yung says, joining the conversation.

"Oh no. Did someone get left behind?" Katara asks worriedly.

"No, we have an extra," Yung says, pointing at an infant playing with Momo a few feet away from us.

I immediately recognize that baby. It was the same baby from the woman we saw the other night. He's probably the son of someone important, and if so, we're in big trouble.

The baby suddenly stops bothering Momo as soon as he gets his hands on one of Sokka's clubs. He starts sucking on it as if it were a popsicle, but Sokka quickly snatches the weapon away from him and frowns disapprovingly.

"No! Bad Fire Nation baby!"

The baby starts crying making me roll my eyes at Sokka. "Great, Sokka. Look what you did."

"Oh... all right," Sokka says, returning the club to the baby and making him stop his crying.

"Oooh, you're so cute," Katara says picking the baby up gently.