by Nickelodeon
I had no choice. My recklessness got us into this
mess, and now my skills would have to get us out of it.
I told the king that I’d do whatever he wanted.
He led me into a huge cavern. Sharp stalagmites
jutted up from the cave floor, and equally sharp
stalactites hung down from the ceiling. In the center
of the cave, right in the middle of a raging waterfall,
a key hung on a chain from the ceiling. A ladder rose
up just below it.
“It seems I’ve lost my lunch box key and I’m
hungry,” the king said, looking right at me. “Would
you mind fetching it for me?”
It didn’t look too tough. I launched myself off a
stalagmite and used my Airbending to speed to the
base of the ladder. But the moment I entered the
waterfall, I felt its raging torrent press down on me
and I couldn’t outmuscle it. I lost my grip and was
flung out of the waterfall. It took a last-second bit of
Airbending to catch myself before I fell on a sharp
stalagmite.
“Oh, climbing the ladder,” the king mocked me.
“No one’s thought of that before!”
I hated being made fun of, especially by some
crazy guy who held the fate of my friends in his
hands. Obviously force wasn’t going to get the job
done. There had to be another way. I glanced down
at the stalagmite I was clutching and I got an idea.
I grabbed the point, yanked hard, and the top snapped
off. I hurled it toward the waterfall, following up with
a powerful Airbending burst that directed the pointy
rock right through the key’s chain. The rock cut the
chain in half and continued to soar through the air,
landing in the wall above the king’s head. There was
the key, dangling right in front of his face!
“Here, enjoy your lunch,” I said as the king took
the key. “I want my friends back. Now!” I looked
over and saw that the crystal was growing quickly.
“Not yet,” the king replied. “I need your help with
another matter. I lost my pet, Flopsie.”
The king led me into another chamber, where
I spotted a small, sweet-looking furry creature, which
I assumed was Flopsie. After a few minutes of chasing
the little fur ball, this other huge creature came
towering over me, growling
and revealing long, sharp
fangs and long, floppy ears.
Suddenly, it started licking
my face. That’s when I
discovered the little ball of fur
wasn’t Flopsie—the big, scary
ball of fur was! Yikes! Good
thing Flopsie turned out to
be a lovable ball of fur after I
stopped acting scared.
“Okay, I found your
Flopsie!” I told the king.
“Guys, are you okay?” I called over to them.
“Other than the crystal slowly encasing my entire
body, you mean?” Katara said, forcing a pained smile.
“Doing great!”
The crystals just kept spreading. Time was running
out.
“Come on!” I shouted.
“I’m ready for the next
challenge.”
“Your final test is a
duel,” the king said. “And
you may choose your
opponent.”
Suddenly
two
of
the
scariest-looking
guys
I’d
ever
seen
stepped into the room.
One guy carried a sharp spear, the other, an
enormous ax. I didn’t have much of a choice. Then
I came up with a brilliant plan—at least, I thought
so at the time. I pointed at the king. He was old and
weak and I figured I’d be able to knock him over with
a single Airbending blast.
Boy was I wrong!
The king threw off his robe, and underneath, his
body was solid muscle. His Earthbending power was
beyond anything I’d ever seen. He jumped into the
air, and when his feet struck the ground, he sent a
wave of rock rippling under me, which knocked me
halfway across the room!
The king continued his powerful attacks, sending
small rocks and large boulders sailing at me.
I deflected them using Airbending, but I wasn’t sure
how long I could keep it up!
“Typical Airbender tactic,” the king taunted me.
“Avoid and evade. I’d hoped the Avatar would be less
predictable. Sooner or later you’ll have to strike back!”
Angered by his taunts, I charged right at the king,
but he forced a thick wall to spring from the ground,
blocking my way. No matter which way I turned, a
wall rose up to stop me. At one point he even turned
the ground I was running on into quicksand! How do
I get myself into these messes?
I began to run around in a tight circle repeatedly
to create a spinning vortex so I could catch his rocks
in it and deflect them back at him. My vortex worked,
but the king just Earthbended the boulders into tiny
grains of sand!
He then tore off a huge chunk of the room and flung it
toward me, but my air vortex spun that right back at him
too. While the king was busy disintegrating the large chunk
of rock, I was able to sneak up on him and slam him with an
Airbending blast that knocked him to the ground.
“Well done, Avatar,” the king said. “You fight with much
fire in your heart.”
Then he opened a crack in the ground and fell through
it. He reappeared right next to Katara and Sokka, who were
now, aside from their faces, completely covered in crystal. I
had done it. I had finished the challenges in time.
“You passed all my tests,” he said. “Answer this one
question and I’ll set your friends free,” the king said. I was
furious! I had already passed all of his tests! He kept changing
the rules, and I wasn’t about to take it. But no matter how
much I protested, he just smirked and said, “What’s the
point of tests if you don’t learn anything?
“What is my name?” the king asked.
How should I know? Talk about an unfair challenge!
“Think about the challenges,” Katara suggested as the
crystal started closing in on her face. “What did you learn?
Maybe it’s some kind of riddle.”
“Well, they weren’t straightforward,” I said
. “To solve
each test I had to think differently from how I would
normally.”
I thought about the king for a moment, and then it struck
me like a thunderbolt. “I know his name!” I announced. I
was sure I was right.
I turned toward the king. “As you said a long time ago,
I had to open my mind to the possibilities. Bumi, you’re a
mad genius!”
Imagine that! My old friend Bumi, the king of Omashu!
I was so happy. I thought I’d never see him again!
“It’s good to see you again, Aang. You haven’t changed a
bit . . . literally,” he said, smiling.
“Uh, a little help over here!” Katara yelled, just as the
crystal enclosed her face.
With a tiny wave of his hand, Bumi shattered the crystal
surrounding Katara and Sokka. Then he picked up a piece
and popped it into his mouth. “Jennamite is made of rock
candy,” he said. “Delicious.”
“Why did you do all this instead of just telling Aang who
you were?” Sokka asked.
Bumi said that as the Avatar, I have a pretty huge task
ahead of me, and that he hoped that his little tests would
help me meet those challenges by thinking like a mad genius.
Maybe he’s right!
Before we left Omashu, Bumi and I took a long-overdue
ride in a cart down one of the mail chutes. As I sped along
the chute, I thought that when the time came for me to
learn Earthbending, I couldn’t find a better teacher than my
old pal Bumi!
The legend of the first Earthbenders, also known
as the “Legend of the Two Lovers,” is as old as
Earthbending itself. Two lovers from warring villages
were separated by a mountain and forbidden to see
each other. These lovers learned Earthbending from
the first Earthbenders, the badger-moles who lived in the
mountain, and thus became the first human Earthbenders.
They used their newfound abilities to carve an elaborate
system of tunnels through the mountain so they could
be together. When the man was killed in the war, the
woman became so furious that she unleashed a display
of Earthbending that could have destroyed both villages.
Eventually, she used her powers to end the war and both
villages helped her build a new city out of the mountain
where they could all live in peace. The woman’s name
was Oma. The man’s name was Shu, and so the city was
called Omashu.
I gathered the information below after spending some
time traveling across the incredible Earth Kingdom.
HOW OMASHU CAME TO BE
THE GATES OF OMASHU
Omashu’s massive stone gates can only be opened by
skilled Earthbenders. There are three gates, one behind the
other, that stand at the entrance to the city. Each gate is five
feet thick and towers over thirty feet into the air. Working
in tandem, the two guards use Earthbending to separate
the two halves of the first gate.
KYOSHI
The Earth Kingdom village of Kyoshi, named for the
Avatar who was born there four hundred years before, is
located on an island in the South Sea. The island is primarily
a fishing port and is visited by many travelers and traders.
Its remote location and small population have kept it safe
from Fire Nation attacks. The village has a team of female
Kyoshi warriors, who stand ready to serve and protect the
people of the island.
KYOSHI WARRIORS
Avatar Kyoshi, a powerful Earthbending woman, taught
the fighting and defensive techniques now used by the
Kyoshi warriors who defend the island. In her honor, the
village has a huge statue of her. Because of her great influence,
all the warriors on Kyoshi are female. Their fighting style is
about turning the enemy’s force against himself, not about
overpowering their opponent. Their weapon is the fan and
their traditional outfits and painted faces, modeled after
Kabuki theater, are designed to intimidate their opponents.
My buddy Aang is a pretty
smart guy. Of course, he’s
also the Avatar, so that’s
no surprise. One of the
smartest things I ever saw
him do was make peace
between two feuding
Earth tribes, the Gan Jins
and the Zhangs.
By the way, I’m
Sokka, just in case
there’s any confusion
about who’s writing
this. I’m a warrior
from the Southern
Water Tribe and
I’m traveling with
Aang, the Avatar,
and my sister,
Katara, on our
way to find them
a Waterbending
master.
by the Avatar and his friends about their travels. One
memorable adventure through the Earth Kingdom taught
everyone a valuable lesson about how important it is to
stand behind your people in times of danger.
We just finished crossing the Great Divide, this huge
canyon of rocks, with the feuding Earth tribes. Boy, an
experience like that really reminds me how important it is
for us to fight together against our common enemy—the
Fire Nation—and not get sidetracked by silly arguments,
no matter how frustrating some know-it-alls can be!
Take my sister, for example. She’s a Waterbender.
And she can be quite a pain sometimes! Just last night,
I was setting up the tent in our campsite when she basically
demanded I put the tarp on top of the tent. As if I needed
her instructions! She has this idea in her head that she knows
everything. I tried to tell her it was the dry season and we
wouldn’t need it, but she got mad and then we got into a
huge fight.
That’s when Aang came back from gathering dinner.
When he realized we were fighting, he actually gave some
pretty good advice. He said that harsh words wouldn’t solve
problems. Only action could. Then he suggested that we
switch jobs. We both agreed. I knew I could gather more
firewood than she could any day. And I couldn’t wait to see
her try to put up the tent!
“You see that,” Aang said. “Settling feuds and
making peace. All in a day’s work for the Avatar.”
Little did Aang know, he’d soon have a much
bigger feud to settle.
The next day we came to the Great Divide, the
bigg
est canyon in the world. Katara was all impressed.
Me, I found the whole thing boring. I mean it’s just a
bunch of rocks! I just wanted to get across the thing,
and flying over on Appa was the fastest way to do it.
But then this guy came running up to us; he
seemed annoyed.
“If you’re looking for the canyon guide, I was here
first,” the guy said. “He’s an Earthbender and the
only way across the canyon is with his help. And he’s
taking my tribe across the canyon next.”
“All right, calm down,” I said. Jeez!
“You wouldn’t be calm if the Fire Nation destroyed
your home and forced you to flee,” he said. “My
whole tribe has to walk a thousand miles to the Earth
capital city of Ba Sing Se.”
Then Katara spotted a tribe coming toward us.
“Is that your tribe?” she asked.
“It most certainly is not!” he replied. He sounded
really annoyed. “I’m a scout for the Gan Jin tribe.
That wretched-looking group is the Zhang tribe, a
bunch of lowlife thieves. They’ve been the enemies of
my tribe for a hundred years.”
When the Zhang tribe arrived, they started arguing
with this guy about who should go across the canyon
first.
“Where are the rest of the Gan Jin tribe?” the
Zhang leader asked. “Still tidying up their campsite?”
These guys really didn’t like each other. But
I didn’t see why this was our problem. We had Appa.
Then the canyon guide showed up, followed by the
rest of the Gan Jins, and a big argument broke out
over who should cross the canyon first.
“We should go first,” the Zhang leader said. “We
have sick people that need shelter.”
“We have old people who are weary from traveling,”
the Gan Jin scout argued. So Aang stepped up to