Avatar - The Last Airbender (Storyteller Version)

Interlude VI

Resuming their journey, Aang and his friends soon reached Omashu. Unfortunately, a nasty surprise was in store for them — the stronghold had already been conquered by the Fire Nation. Nonetheless, Aang was determined to find his friend, King Bumi. As they sneaked in through a secret entrance, a purple pentapus attached itself to Sokka's face. Aang tickled the little creature and it let go... but Sokka's face was now covered with red polka-dot marks! When the kids reached the city itself, some guards confronted them, spotting the marks on Sokka's face. Katara cleverly claimed that her brother had contracted a contagious sickness called "pentapox." This frightened the soldiers so much, that they fled! Aang and his friends were safe for the moment. Before long, the companions met with an underground resistance movement, who had tried to defend Omashu from the invading Fire Nation. But their efforts were thwarted when King Bumi unexpectedly surrendered. Even so, they still wanted to take their city back, but Aang convinced them that the better option was to evacuate both themselves and the citizens for their own safety. But first they would have to trick the Fire Nation soldiers. Recalling Katara's wild story from earlier, Aang and the others suggested the whole resistance pretend to be ill with pentapox. It worked — the soldiers were so terrified that Omashu's newly appointed governor, Ukano of the Fire Nation, demanded that all civilians were to be exiled. And so Aang and the others successfully escorted everyone safely into the mountains.

In all the commotion, Momo sneaked off to find something to eat and inadvertantly ended up in the nursery of the Governor's baby son, Tom Tom. Intrigued, the toddler trailed the lemur as he flew off to join the others. When Governor Ukano learned that his son was missing, he demanded a trade — Tom Tom for the life of King Bumi. Still hoping for a chance to save his friend, Aang brought the baby back to Omashu in disguise. Unfortunately, he never could have guessed who he was going to be dealing with. Still on the hunt for her brother and uncle, Azula had come to the former Earth Kingdom city, too. She had enlisted the help of two close friends of hers — Ty Lee, a sprightly acrobat, and Mai, the governor's surly teenage daughter. Behind them was Bumi, trapped in a coffin. Believing the trade was useless, Azula convinced Mai to call it off, and they hauled Bumi away. Infuriated by this double-cross, Aang gave chase — and in so doing, accidentally dropped his disguise... so that Azula realized who he was! Katara and Sokka protected the baby while Aang rushed to rescue Bumi. Azula followed, blasting blue fire everywhere. After a wild chase, Aang eluded the cruel princess and saved Bumi. When the boy asked why the king had chosen to give in to the Fire Nation, Bumi explained.

"There are options in fighting called jing. It's a choice of how you direct your energy."

"I know!" replied Aang, "There's positive jing when you're attacking, and negative jing when you're retreating."

"And neutral jing when you do nothing!" added Bumi, "Neutral jing is the key to earthbending. It involves listening and waiting for the right moment to strike."

"That's why you surrendered, isn't it?"

"Yes, and it's why I can't leave now."

"I guess I need to find someone else to teach me earthbending."

"Your teacher will be someone who has mastered neutral jing. You need to find someone who waits and listens before striking."

With this new information, Aang reluctantly bade Bumi goodbye, and departed Omashu with Katara and Sokka. Before doing so, however, he returned Tom Tom to his parents, never showing himself to the governor or his wife. Little did he know that Azula, Ty Lee and Mai had decided to pursue him, too ....