THE OTHER AIRBENDER (Book 2)

(IV) Water

"I can't believe it. I know the War has spread far, but Omashu always seemed... untouchable," Aang says, staring at the invaded city dumbfoundedly.

"Up until now it was," Sokka says, crossing his arms. "Now Ba Sing Se is the only great Earth Kingdom stronghold left."

"So... That's we're we head next?" I ask, frowning.

"This is horrible, but we have to move on," Katara replies with a sigh.

"No, I'm going in to find Bumi."

"Aang, stop. We don't even know if Bumi's still..." Sokka can't even bring himself to finish that sentence.

"What?" Aang snaps back at him angrily. "If he's still what?"

"Hey, calm down. Sokka's got a point. We don't really know what's happening in Omashu."

Katara nods, agreeing with me. "I know you had your heart set on Bumi, but there are other people who can teach you earthbending."

"This isn't about finding a teacher. This is about finding my friend."

"But how are we getting in? There's no way we can get in the same way we did last time," I tell him.

"I have an idea."

I was surprised to hear about another way of getting inside Omashu, aside from the main gate. I still feel quite uneasy about going inside the city walls, though, mainly because of the Fire Nation's presence inside the city. Even if Bumi is still here and hasn't been taken to the Fire Nation, there's absolutely no way he isn't imprisoned somehow, and that means that if we intend to free him, that we will have to fight however's in charge of keeping an eye on him. We should be using this time to get out of here and find Aang an earthbender to teach him, but I know better than to try to talk him out of it when he's this determined.

"A secret passage? Why didn't we just use this last time?" Sokka complains with a frown.

The minute Aang finally manages to pry the tube open, a wave of dirty sewage waste comes flooding out. I scrunch my nose in disgust, while Sokka squeals a complaint.

"Does that answer your question?" Aang asks, as he gets inside the tube, gesturing for us to follow him inside. I take a deep breath and climb in.

***

Once we finally enter Omashu, we get out of the sewer and I immediately notice that it's nighttime. Katara tries to shake the awful smell off her clothes but shrugs casually.

"That wasn't as bad as I thought."

However, I'm shocked to see another figure coming out of the sewer, completely covered with whatever gooey substance was in there. This must definitely be Sokka. Katara immediately bends some water from a bucket to him, washing him clean, while I airbend a wind strong enough to dry him.

However, he suddenly realizes that there's two small pentapuses stuck to his cheeks, and starts to panic like a maniac for no reason.

"Ahh! They won't let go! Help!"

"Shh! Stop making so much noise. It's just a purple pentapus," Aang says, calmly rubbing the pentapus's head and making it release their grip on Sokka.

"Hey! What are you kids doing out past curfew?" a trio of soldiers in Fire Nation attire walk towards us rather menacingly.

"Sorry. We were just on our way home," Katara lies.

"Wait, what's the matter with him?" One of the soldiers asks, pointing to Sokka's red markings left by the pentapuses.

"Uh, he has pentapox, sir," Katara replies. "Umm, it's highly contagious."