Omashu.... or is it <Omashu, Earth Kingdom>

[airnomad]

"No, no no!" Aang said quickly in response to the girl's challenge. "We don't want to fight, we came down here to help..." He glanced around once more at the devastation around them and grinned sheepishly. He planted the butt of his staff on the ground and placed a free hand behind his neck, "but it looks like you kinda have things taken care of."

The young Avatar continued to look at the little girl for a little longer, taking note of the way she didn't actually seem to be looking at him and the others while she was speaking. Her head was turned at a slight angle so that her ear was facing them directly, her eyes hidden under a veil of jet black hair. Aang let out a deep breath and caught sight of the captured city of Omashu beside them.

"Do you know when this happened?" he asked, gesturing towards the great city.

[katara]

"No No.. We don't want to fight." Katara stammed, lifting her hands up and waving them in defense as she eyed the little girl infront of her, echoing Aang's sentiments. Her eyes fixed on the young girl in the very formal dress infront of them. Her hair was flying about in the wind, the large bun on her hair loose and coming apart. For such a elaborate dress, her skin was filthy.. The waterbender lifted an eyebrow at the girl, and remained silent, letting Aang work with this. She relaxed her stance, and waved her water back into the skin, recorking it. Her weight shifted to one foot as she crossed her arms across her chest, looking back over her shoulder at the massive earthen wall that surrounded the city. "Guys.. we should move. There could be Fire Nation Soliders on that wall at any time now with all this commotion.." Her voice quavered a bit with nerverous, her motions quick and deer-like. She turned her concerned face to Sokka, biting her lip. They all couldn't take on a city of Fire Nation soliders.. could they?

[sokka]

Sokka shook his head at the girl's challenge for a fight.
"Ahhh no thanks we're heard noise and Aang thought we should..." The words died in warrior's throat. Obviously looks were deciviing him this little girl was obviously a quite an earth bender.

He looked at Aang hear him ask about the captured city. Sokka knew that there was little hope in rescuing the city with the forces they had now. They need Ba Sing Sae's help to reclaim Omashu. If that was possible.

Sokka looked at his sister who asked an importaint question.
"Yeah at this rate we could be in serious trouble, I don't know about you but I don't think we can afford a lot of negitive attention. We do need to find away to get into the city. With out having I don't know...huge numbers of fire throwin' idiots after our butts. Got any ideas?"

[blindgirl]

Toph sneered at them then turned her head to the side huffing. Obviously displeased with their accusations and they way they backed down from the fight. It was easy enough to assume they were a bunch of yellow backed mole rats. One must be a water bender. The fact that Toph had trouble determining what was in the skein was enough to pin that. The older boy, well he seemed to exude stupidity, but the kid. Just how did he manage to move so that she couldn’t sense his movements as clearly as the others?

It angered her to think that he might know something she doesn’t “well if ya gonna do something ya better do it quick cause about ten more firebenders are coming, I have better things to do, as for the city, how should I know? I’m an earth bender not a physic. ” She turned to leave not bothering to note the carriage carrying her parents only a few miles away had turned. Her attentions were on the activities behind her and the men on the ground making sure they stayed down.

It would be a lie to say a part of her didn’t want to stay and fight but she had her pride. Unless they begged her to do so she wouldn’t. If they wanted to play hero it wasn’t her problem. She owed them no more than she owed the soldiers she managed to knock down with great accuracy, hardly managing to work up as much of a sweat. Hocking saliva she collected into the back of her throat she spit at the ground to assert her masculinity. It was something she’d seen people do at the Rumble. So if must be a way to intimidate people.

[airnomad]

"No, wait!" Aang called out to the girl after she turned and began to walk away. "Please!" The Avatar looked from the retreating earthbender, to Katara and Sokka beside him, and then to the city itself. Somewhere in there, Bumi could be locked in a dungeon rotting away... or worse. Whatever the fate of the crazed old king, Aang at least owed it to his childhood friend to find out. And to do that in a city of stone, he would need an earthbender.

With that in mind, Aang took to swift steps to gain momentum and then swiped at the ground with his staff. A current of air blasted from the tip of the staff and propelled Aang like a pole vaulter high into the air. He pulled a controlled flip and rotation as he soared in an arc over the ground before landing gently in the path of the black-haired girl. By bending the air beneath him into a rising cushion, he slowed his descent to the point where he touched down with hardly any impact.

"Please," he began once more, "My friend Bumi is the King of Omashu. I need to find out what happened to him, and I don't think we can do that without an earthbender. Will you please help us?" He folded his hands together pleadingly and made his best attmept at a convincing puppy face.

[katara]

Katara's blue eyes flickered from the girl to the bald headed kid next to her. Her lips curled into a frown, as she looked again to the dark haired girl in the rich, layering of clothes which did not look so rich anymore. She reached out with a tenative hand, halting as she protested to Aang, the little girl between them. "Aang, We need to go. Now! Firebenders could be here any minute!" Her eyes shifted back and forth, head turning as she watched the stone wall and it's massive doors behind her. From within the city she could hear the warning bells and shouts. Her eyes were wide and panicked, she bit her lip. While she admired Aang's willingness to help, to make friends, and to be kind to all, they couldn't afford the formalities right now. "Aang, Grab her! Sokka, let's get down into the ravine surrounding the city. We can enter devise a plan of attack then. MOVE!" Katara would shout, the frustation aparent in her voice.

She spun around and snapped the cork off of her water skin, drawing the water out of her, the invisible magic between her hands and the lquid's surface pulling the water intosmall, slender along the narrow the earth bridge. The water bender leapt onto the water, her feet floating on the surface. Allowing the water to pour over the side, Katara rode the crest like a penguin, sliding along between the ivory colored rocks under the shadows of the landbridge.

[meatandsarcasm]

Sokka glanced around nervously as Aang tried to convince the earthbending girl to come with them. Any time they had gained with the defeat of the Fire Nation soldiers at the gates was slipping away as they talked. Soon, it was apparent that they had no time left, with warning bells ringing and Katara yelling for them to take cover under the bridge. Unfortunately, there was a small flaw in this plan, for while Katara’s waterbending and Aang’s airbending made it easy for them to get to that precarious position, Sokka would not have such an easy time getting down there. In all likelihood, he’d have to ride Appa, or Aang would have to carry him on his glider.

“Yeah, that’s cool. I’ll just, y’know, jump into the bottomless chasm of death. No big deal,” he called down after his sister with heavy sarcasm before turning to Aang. “Come on, Aang, we can save Bumi without her. We don’t have the time for…”

At this point, the grinding sound of the gates opening could be heard, causing Sokka to abruptly stop speaking and turn in their direction. His eyes went wide as he saw what was behind them. A solid line of firebenders filled the entire width of the gate, poised to strike. There was no time to run back to Appa, nothing he could use for cover, and now way to block the attack somehow. Sokka’s only option, to his chagrin, was the “bottomless chasm of death,” and he took it. He leapt off the edge just before the huge burst of flame reached him, descending rapidly towards the ledge that Katara had found. He just managed to make it, his arms landing hard on the ledge and grasping onto it to stop his descent. Frantically, he scrambled up the side of the rock with his legs and manage to pull himself up to safety. Doubled over, panting heavily and now covered in dust, he raised a hand into the air to make it clear he was about to make an important point.

“From now on, when we try making friends with strangers, let’s not do it on a narrow bridge in front of a city full of firebenders, okay?” he said in between breaths.

Really, with such an easily defensible entrance, it was a wonder that Omashu had been taken. Aang, no doubt, would be fine, and since he was right by the girl, she’d be fine, too. After all Sokka had seen him do, he was rarely concerned about the kid. Any normal person trying to come through on that bridge, though, would find it nearly impossible to enter the city. What trick had the Fire Nation used to get past it? This whole situation was strange, and not just because that blind little girl had taken down a battalion of Fire Nation soldiers. Something odd was going on here…

[blindgirl]

Toph glared darkly toward the direction with her blind eyes defiantly hazed under her messy hair. Undoubtedly even with vision there would be no way to see through the black tresses effectively. His annoyingly nasal voice hit her ears spurring on anger and the streak of defiance that ran through her blood, causing her to feel, in lack of a better word, contempt. The fact that he was asking for her help gave her a surge of power, knowing it meant that a complete stranger recognized her powers, almost immediately. Still she’d tell him off and send him to his own doom, she needed to find her family again, they were probly miles away at this point and they wouldn’t be the wiser of her and her sound thomping of the men

“MO-“

The blind girl fell silent feeling not too far away something that caused the hot blood to run cold, the creak of the wheels and the sound of the ostrich horses could only be from one source. With any luck… things would still go bad. The choice had to be made now or never, her parents would find her out, or she would go with these annoying new people. They didn’t seem to be the most enlightened bunch but certainly until she could get herself cleaned up it was the best option. Panic was hidden carefully under brashness and the black haired girl turned her head quickly to the side in a disrespectful manner placing a hand on each hip defiantly.

Why should she go with them anyway, she owed them nothing, her mind was fighting itself but as the firenation soldiers drew closer and her parents drew closer as well the choice was made for her it seemed.

“Move it!”

The girl shoved the slightly taller lanky boy in the direction his friends went too. Her foot stomped into the ground harshly allowing a large rock barrier to jut out of the ground breaking the path of the men. Now her hands took a turn to move thrusting them out in front of her making an earthen bridge for her to move across to the water tribe’s boy and girl. Her feet, bare and dirt ridden moved expertly across the land mass not looking down nor to the side for an instant, being blind she had no fear of heights, falling off for her would be near impossible but the prospect of falling was scary. Without earth she’d have no idea where she was, and no bending abilities to speak, as long as her feet were on the ground she had the force of a raging komodo rhino.

“Lead on twinkle toes”

[airnomad]

“Lead on twinkle toes!”

Aang had kept his staff held ready in his hands as the Fire Nation soldiers approached. Katara and Sokka had already made the leap down into the chasm, and now the earthbending girl had started after them on a makeshift bridge. The young Avatar looked rapidly between his friends and the incoming enemy soldiers, and then back around behind him where Appa and Momo were watching intently. "Appa!" he called to the flying bison, "Take cover for a while!" Appa gaving a rumbling growl of consent and kicked off the ground with his six legs. Within moments he was quickly rising and moving away from the whole scene.

The airbending boy watched his animal companion just long enough to make sure he was out of harm's way before looking back at the situation on the ground. The earthen wall that the girl had raised was being quickly blasted apart by a barrage of fire. Aang decided to try and stall their advance just a little longer by raising his staff up high and then slapping it down toward the soldiers. A jet of air erupted from the tip of the staff and picked up a good deal of sand and gravel along its path to assault them. If nothing else, the soldiers stopped throwing their flames against the strong wind and covered their eyes from the stinging gust.

Aang then twirled his staff around and popped open the the wings within it by forcing a little air into the joints. He grabbed the leading edges and took a running leap off the edge of the chasm around the city. The young airbender tucked his feet ontop of the tail fin and breathed out a low, steady stream of air that provided the bending power to keep him flying. Within a moment he caught up with an started to pass the earthbending girl on her extending bridge and called out, "This way!"

Aang swooped in on a rapid arc and pulled up the front of his glider into a stall just above the ledge where Sokka and Katara had found refuge. As he reached the high point of his stall, he pulled himself free of the glider and collapsed the wings, returning it to its staff form. At last, as he started to drop, he sucked in a deep breath that lifted an air current beneath him and slowed his descent to a comfortable speed.

[homefry]

Her momentum only grew as she descended down the deep trench. Those aqua eyes of hers squinted, trying to evade the random droplet of water that every so often found its way into her pools. Fingers commanded the water, pulling imaginary strings a way the puppeteer did his puppets. The Southern Watertribe girl glided effortlessly over the jagged rocks, steadying herself for a slight incline in the earth. Deep brown braid was sucked down by gravity as she flowed up a small hill; pupils deadlocked on a ledge near to her. The water blob surfaced the ledge, and with leaving the trench behind her, she stepped off her water. Leather clad foot roughly hit the rocky surface, sliding off the liquid’s porcelain surface. With a swift jerk of her arms, the water swiveled up into the air, her hands compressing it into a tight ball. Katara fed the liquid to her water holder, until it was secure. She would use it later, once they were organized.

Blue eyes flickered back to the rest of the gang. Aang had just made his way to the ledge, and Sokka and the earth girl were just a short distance away. Spinning on her heels, she faced the avatar, collected but a bit of frantic intonation to her voice. “Our first priority is to find Bumi.” She called to Aang. As those words left her mouth, she glanced towards her brother and the girl. They were within distance to hear now. “It’s going to be dangerous crossing the city. I’m sure there are fire nation soldiers everywhere.” She gave a cautious look to Aang. Of course, he wouldn’t hesitate to be the first into the city, not matter what Katara said. Though, she didn’t have to worry so much. He was the avatar, and so far they had managed to weasel out of any tough situation they encountered. Letting out a small breath, she waited for the rest of them to speak.

[meatandsarcasm]

Sokka leaned against the cliff face, both to catch his breath and to make sure that he didn’t fall into the seemingly endless black abyss below. After all, he couldn’t make bridges out in an instant or fly like Aang and the blind little girl had to get to the outcropping just a moment ago, so a little extra caution seemed like something that would be good for his health. As such, he nodded in agreement to his sister’s assessment of the situation. They needed to get in to the city, grab Bumi, and get out of there as fast and as carefully as possible. Unfortunately, how to do that was another matter entirely. With the front gate heavily barricaded and the rest of the city surely being filled with firebenders, they would need an unorthodox approach to the situation.

“Katara’s right, this place is going to be swarming with Fire Nation,” he concurred. “On top of that, we don’t even know where Bumi is. If we’re going to rescue him, we’ll need to use stealth.” Pausing to think for a moment, Sokka turned to Aang. “Aang, you used to come here all the time, so you’d know the city better than any of us. Is there any kind of hidden entrance or secret passage into the city that Bumi might have shown you? I’d bet the dungeon is somewhere around the palace, so the closer we could get to there unnoticed, the better.”

As he waited for Aang to reply, Sokka continued to think on how they could pull this off. If they really did manage to get all the way to the dungeons undetected and rescue Bumi, they could rush to the top of the palace and call in Appa to pick them up and out of there. As the highest point in Omashu, the top of the palace would be easy for Appa to get to, and the easiest to hold off the Fire Nation until he got there. Of course, that was assuming that the dungeon actually was connected to the palace…but come on! That’s just how it worked, right? Every palace had a dungeon, right? If it didn’t, it would be a bit more tricky, but they could pull it off. He’d think of something…

[blindgirl]

“You’re all pathetic aren’t ya.”

Toph sneered at the teens and put her hand to the earth getting a better feel with the tree limbs as opposed to only the two. She could tell the soldiers were being their idiotic selves; the cities attention was focused above where they have been only moments before. Spectators looking for a good show, possibly concern or fear of an uprising. They were all pretty sad but what could she do about it now? In the end it made little difference either way you tried to look at it. Then there was the matter of her new found ‘buddies’ what was their problem. The one was obviously a water bender, female; she seemed to be the most mature of the group if not a bit whiney in Toph’s opinion. The older of the two body with the whiney voice, and then again they all had whiney voices so he was just the older one. He couldn’t move earth and she couldn’t sense him doing much of anything else. A waste of everyone else’s oxygen. What trouble had she gotten herself in now?

The last boy seemed to be about her age, his bending was something she’d never seen before, not that she’d seen to many fire or water benders before. Though he didn’t seem to fit in either of those categories. His body structure was rather lanky, at least the other two seemed filled out. Was it his age or something else that was strange about him, she couldn’t seem to put her finger on it exactly but something odd was there for sure.

“If you want to complain do it while were walking, I can get us into that city no problem unless you got a better idea”

The young girl’s voice was rather harsh, ignoring the fact she came here by choice. They were just kids and annoyingly persistent ones at that. Once they were out of sight of the soldiers she’d go on her merry way. But going back to her family was that something she really wanted? Around them she couldn’t bend, she was a small frail child in their eyes who could do nothing but sit and look like a little doll…

[airnomad]

"There's a sewer pipe somewhere further down and around to the side of the city," Aang recalled, speaking to Sokka to answer his question about another way in. He took a step closer to the edge of the little landing where he and the others were standing. "We could reach it on Appa, but he'd get pummeled by those firebenders..." The young Avatar glanced over his shoulder up toward the bridge where Fire Nation soldiers were pointing and shouting orders, trying to apprehend the group of kids.

Aang swept his gaze over his friends, then settled on the new girl. She seemed confident enough in her own abilities, even if she was a little arrogant. At the very least, her display of bending prowess against the soldiers earlier convinced Aang that she could do what he had in mind.

"Umm," he started, looking into Toph's sightless eyes quizzically for a moment as he tried to think of how to address her. He couldn't simply point or just say "hey you!" while looking her way. Without a sense of sight, how would she know? Then again, she'd been fighting as effectively as any earthbender he'd ever seen, so she must have some way of sensing things around her...

All his hesitation was wasting time, though and the young Avatar simply just decided to talk toward the girl to address her, "I need you to bend us a walkway out of the cliff-face so we can start travelling around the edge of the city. About a quarter of the way around, there should be a drainage pipe that we can enter the city through."

[meatandsarcasm]

Sokka frowned and narrowed his eyes at the blind girl as she fired off a few verbal barbs, but said nothing. There was no point in taking the bait and creating a conflict right now. An earthbender would be especially useful in Omashu, and risking her abandoning them because of a little name calling just wasn’t worth it. Arguing with Katara was one thing, after all, they were brother and sister, so fighting was something that they were used to, but outside of her, Sokka didn’t get into arguments unless he had a point to make. Granted, sometimes “meat is delicious” counted as a point, but he stuck with the principle nonetheless.

Fortunately, Aang seemed to have the same attitude, and had also ignored the girl’s snide comments. Instead, the airbender answered his question about a way in with an expected, if unpleasant, answer: sewer pipes. Most big cities probably had a sewage system of some kind, which made it the most likely solution for an entrance. They had to let the sewage out somewhere, and wherever that was could be made an entrance. Still, Sokka had been hoping for something less…dirty.

“A sewer, great,” he grumbled quietly with a sigh, kneeling down to roll up his pant legs and tighten the rope around his boots in preparation. “It always has to be something. If it’s not valleys full of giant monsters, its secret entrances full of…ugh…I’m just not gonna think about it…”

[homefry]

Finally, her brother and the earth girl had arrived, along with Aang who had landed just moments before. Of course, Sokka was the first to note again that there would be fire nation. Tons of them. And again, he gave his two cents, offering a tactical way to enter the city. However, Katara found it interesting that Sokka and this earth girl seemed very opposite. Where her brother liked to take his time and plan things out, Katara would realize, as the girl spoke, that she was brash and quick. Brown brows furrowed, a hint of annoyance lacing her wide, blue eyes. Pathetic? They most certainly were not. They were simply taking their time and planning their actions, something that proved to keep them out of danger, or at least more danger than could be encountered, had they not been so cautious. Besides, it had been the earth girl’s decision to join them, so complaining just made the situation seemed strange. But, despite Katara’s slight annoyance with it, she chose not to argue. Instead, her head flickered towards Aang, braided hair whipping against her back. Those eyes of her didn’t manage to stay angered for long. They melted, becoming sympathetic in appearance once again as the young boy spoke.

Her nose was already cringing from the thought of a sewer. Lips stretched in a temporary frown, before she once again glanced to her brother. Her voice was calm again, body tensing in preparation. “Either way Sokka, it’s our best bet.” Her fingers flexed, as if they emphasized her words. “This way the fire nation soldiers can be avoided entirely.” Katara took a few steps forward, until she was closer to the girl. Blue eyes blinked, raising a brow inquisitively. Was she… blind? How didn’t she notice before? This was very odd. She was delicate with her words, trying not to further light the short fuse of the girl. “If you’re willing to help us, then we should do as Aang said.”