By the time the sun rises, Sokka is out like a light, exhaustion finally setting in.
I get an apple for breakfast and watch as the others slowly wake up.
Aang and Katara decide to do some waterbending practise.
Soon, Sokka floats about in his underwear. I decide that Sokka's got the right idea and join him. Aang seems normal, after our talk yesterday. Maybe I should've led with Sokka and Katara? Just Sokka? Just Katara? I have no idea. They'll have to know soon, too. Maybe I can talk to Aang again and then we tell them together? Or something?
At some point midday Sokka and I get into a contest of who can balance their knife better on their fingertips without having to get up off the leaf.
Katara and Aang practise their octopus bending, which is all nice and good, the flirting's funny to watch, too. "You make a fine octopus, Aang."
She does help him out of it, though, so the Avatar doesn't die.
"What am I doing wrong, though?" he asks after he's caught his breath.
She shakes her head, "It was probably that while you were yanking on my ankle, you also pulled the rest of the water around you towards you."
Nope, not it, but neither of them know that you can manipulate another's forms so long as you're connected to the source either. I never said I was mature. I'll let them in on it later.
"Yeah, makes sense."
Then, music. I completely forgot about those guys. Man, they've got to have some of the good stuff, if I remember correctly. Maybe they'll be charitable. I haven't smoked since I was reborn.
"Don't fall in love with a traveling girl, she'll leave you broke and broken hearted," the one with the sweeping hair sings and Sokka splashes into the water behind me with a squawk. That one wasn't me. Katara, maybe.
"Hey-hey! River people!" he greets and I raise a hand to wave at him. The Chinese-looking man waves back.
"We're not river people," Katara says.
"You're not? Well then what kind of people are ya?"
"Just… people," Aang says. I get off of my leaf.
"Aren't we all, brother? Woo!"
Sokka walks over, "Who're you?"
"I'm Chong and this is my wife Lily. We're nomads, happy to go wherever the wind takes us."
With that sentence he's got Aang hook, line and sinker. "That's great! I'm a nomad."
"Hey, me too," Chong replies.
"I know. You just said that," Avatar Sassy says.
"Oh," Chong shrugs, "Nice underwear."
Sokka goes to hide. Yeah, I'm thinking they've got the good stuff. Nice. Now how to…
One of the girls begins packing a pipe. Nice. Now how to…
"Want some?" she offers. Nice.
"Sure, thanks," I take a careful drag. No embarrassing coughing, otherwise that'll be my first and last. Ah, just as horrid as I remember. I take another, then hand the pipe back. "What's your name?"
"Shuika. Yours?" she inhales and hands the pipe back.
"Kaito."
And that's that.
I get blissfully high and let her braid my hair that's grown to my chin in the last few weeks. Then we slink off to… well, Sokka and Katara probably know, but so long as Aang doesn't need the sex talk yet, I'm going to keep this PG13.
"Heey, the lovebirds are back," Chong sings once we return to the others.
Katara immediately shoots me her death glare, but I don't really mind. We stumbled across some berries earlier and sharing is caring, so we brought them with us.
"Hey, Sokka, you should hear some of these stories. These guys have been everywhere," Aang says with a flower crown on his head.
Chong replies, "Well, not everywhere, little Arrowhead. But where we haven't been we've heard about through stories and songs."
Sokka is clearly sceptical of this. I hand him some berries. Then I settle into Appa's fur next to Chong. Sokka stares at me a little, then he gets his thought process back on track. That boy needs to learn to relax. Or remember how to. He did so well earlier.
Before Sokka can say anything more, Avatar Happy tries to get Sokka into the mood, "They said they'll take us to see a giant night crawler."
"On the way there's a beautiful waterfall that creates a never-ending rainbow," the Chinese man adds from where he's lying on the ground.
Sokka is not swayed. "Look, I hate to be the wet blanket here, but since Katara is busy I guess it's up to need to get to sidetracks, no worms, and definitely no rainbows."
That's… man, I'd have liked to see that waterfall. Maybe even surf down. I think even Katara would be up for that. Aang definitely.
Chong imparts his next bit of wisdom, "Whoa... sounds like someone's got a case of 'destination fever', heh. You're worried too much about where you're going."
His wife nods and gestures with Katara's braid, "You've gotta focus less on the 'where' and more on the 'going'."
Sokka is clearly not into that. "O. Ma. Shu." The facial acrobatics he can perform are impressive.
"Sokka's right. We need to find King Bumi so Aang can learn earthbending somewhere safe," Katara chimes in.
"Well, sounds like you're headed to Omashu," Chong deduces. Sokka is so unimpressed he smacks his own forehead. "There's an old story about a secret pass… right through the mountain."
"Is this real or a legend?" what is with these two? Always so sceptical.
"Oh, it's a real legend," I snort at that. Chong is pretty funny. Then, he begins playing the song about the tunnel and the other nomads save Aang dance to it.
"Thanks, but we'll just stick with flying. We've dealt with the Fire Nation before. We'll be fine," Sokka proclaims. I don't sweat it. I can go along with whatever.
"Yeah. Thanks for the help, but Appa hates going underground and we need to do whatever makes Appa most comfortable," Aang says.
True to his words, we get into Appa's saddle and take the areal route. It turns into a bit of a rollercoaster ride with fire elements involved. I decide to try out my skill with cloud-bending. I'm pretty good. Maybe it helps that I'm so… floaty. It's all quite fun, really.
The others don't think so, though, and so we return to where we left the nomads.
Not Aang's dead relatives. The musicians. Yeah. It's. Maybe not the best idea to get high at the moment with so many concerns floating – clouding? – about in my head. Too late. Must be fate.
And there is the gate.
To the cave. Of love… yeah. Sure.
Fuck love, though.
Fuck life.
Fuck it all.
We're still doing this.
Sorry, Appa.
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Don't forget to throw some power stones :)
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