𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍, sokka

nine.

that afternoon, kierah and katara are practicing waterbending with aang, while sokka just floats around the river on a leaf.

"you guys will be done soon right?" sokka asks. "we need to get going if we're going to make it to omashu today."

"what, like you're ready to go now, naked guy?" katara smirks at sokka.

"i can be ready anytime," sokka says, pulling back the hair covering his eyes.

kierah laughs, turning back to katara.

"you want to show aang the octopus move?" kierah asks katara. "you're much better at it than i am."

"yeah, sure," katara says.

kierah pulls some water out of the river, and sends it right at sokka, knocking him off his leaf.

"hey!"

"sorry," kierah laughs.

"no, you're not," sokka says.

"you're right, i'm not."

"hey, do you hear that?" katara asks.

"yeah," kierah says. "it sounds like...music?"

the gang turns to the riverbank to see a group of people singing and playing music on instruments.

"hey! river people!" one of them says.

"we're not river people," katara says.

"you're not?" the guy says. "well then what kind of people are you?"

"just...regular people?" aang says.

"aren't we all, brother," the guy says.

kierah and katara make a face at each other.

"who are you?" sokka says accusingly.

"i'm chong and this is my wife, lily. we're nomads, happy to go wherever the wind takes us."

"you're nomads? that's great, i'm a nomad!" aang says.

"hey, me too!" chong says, excited.

"you just said that," kierah points out.

"oh. nice underwear," he says to sokka.

kierah snorts as sokka's face goes white an he runs back to camp. (to get some clothes, she assumes.)

the group of nomads tells the gang about their travels, and are currently braiding flowers into katara and kierah's hair.

"hey sokka," aang says. "you should hear some of these stories. these guys have been everywhere!"

"well, we haven't been everywhere, little arrowhead. but where we haven't been, we've heard stories and songs about."

"they said they'd take us to see a giant night crawler," aang says excitedly.

"on the way, there's a waterfall that creates a never-ending rainbow," one of the nomads says dreamily.

"look," sokka says. "i hate to be the wet blanket here, but since katara is busy, i guess it's up to me."

katara glares at him.

"we need to get to omashu. no sidetracks, no worms, and definitely no rainbows," sokka continues.

"wow," chong says. "looks like somebody's got a case of destination fever. you're worried too much about where you're going."

"you need to focus less on the "where" and more on the "going"," lily adds.