In a small Earth Kingdom village, a Fire Nation girl crept stealthily behind a group of small, simple houses, looking for something. Finding the clothesline she was looking for, she plucked an outfit off of one and found a place to change into it. Perfect. She then fled the village and went off into the wilderness.
It's been four days... Need... Meat...
The girl walked out of the brush into a clearing, stopping to rest. Her eyes glanced from side to side, up, then backwards. She heaved a sigh of relief, and ran her fingers through her long hair, humming absently.
As she hummed, she heard more music, not just from other voices, but from instruments, too. A flute and a guitar, and a drum...
She stopped humming and ran towards the music. It was too happy for her to be afriad of it. Another sigh of relief escaped her lips. She liked the music, and started to slow her pace and sing. "Oh, have you heard about the girl? Yeah, she's on the run. Her life has unfurled, tryin-a save everyone-" The music stopped.
"Hey, a ghost!" The voice, probably one of the people playing music, was not too far away.
"I've never seen a ghost before," said another person, not at all afraid.
"Sing a song, ghost! You have a good voice!" the first voice yelled, and a melody, different from the first one, started up.
"I move like a ghost, I sing like a fairy, but I am neither, so don't be wa-" The girl was face to face with the music players, who were dressed in strange outfits and and apparently had an affinity for long hair and flowers. "-Ry."
"So that's what a ghost looks like," one of the women said. These people aren't too smart...
"Hello, ghost," said a particularly big man. "We're nomads."
"Yeah," said another man, who was holding a guitar. "We go wherever the wind takes us, repeating every story we hear." It's probably a bad idea to tell them who I am, then...
"I'm Chong," the guitar man said, "And this is my wife Lily." He pointed to the woman with the flute.
"I'm Moku!" the big man added. "What's your name, ghost?"
"Um..." Think, El, think! "I am just a lonely ghost who sings... I lost my name with the sands of time..." the girl named El said in a particularly far-off voice. " I long to travel with a musical group, so I may stay anonymous and hone my musical skill..."
"Hey!" said Lily. "We're musical!"
"And I could teach you haow to play the guitar!" Chong said. El looked at him and smiled.
That was how it went for the next few weekes of El's life. She learned how to play the guitar, she sang a lot, even learned some dancing from the other two nomads, Sasha and Hayden. She ate and slept when she could get it in. Until one day, where the dysfunctional group came upon a river.
They were doing one of El's favorites, "Don't Fall In Love With a Travellin' Girl", with El strumming Chong's guitar, Chong himself singing, Lily doing well on her flute, Moku hitting away on his drum, and Sasha and Hayden doing what they did best: dance.
Chong stopped when they came to the bank. "Hey! River people!" He was talking about a bald boy tatooed with arrows and wearing yellow baggy shortsand a dark skinned girl wearing something like a very light blue bikini top, tape around her legs, and a skirt about the same length.
"We're not river people," the girl said. Behind her, another boy, this time El's age and dark skinned, burst from the water wearing only underwear.
"You're not?" Chong replied, unconvinced. "Well then, what kind of people are you?" Um, regular people is my guess.
"Just... people," said Bald Boy.
"Aren't we all, brother."
Underwear Boy splashed through the water, thrust a finger at Chong, and asked, "Who are you?" You haven't told us who you are...
"I'm Chong," said Chong, "And this is my wife, Lily."
"And I'm Moku, and this is our ghost friend!" Moku looked at El. He leaned closer to Underwear Boy and whispered, "She has no name!" He looked proud of himself, like a child who's figured out a good secret.
"You have no name?" asked the girl, looking suspicious. El tried to look like this was no big deal and almost succeded.
"You're a ghost?" asked Bald Boy. Aw crap.
"Um, we're nomads," El said, changing the subject.
"You guys are nomads?" Bald Boy seemed happy at the thought. ""That's great! I'm a nomad!" And the other two aren't?
"Hey, me too!" said Chong.
"I know," Bald Boy said. "She just said that." He jabbed a thumb toward El.
"Oh." Chong's face fell. El walked closer to the unfamiliar people and said, "I'm sorry. They're like that."
"That's okay," said Underwear Boy. "I know exactly what you mean." He rolled his eyes and gave her a smile. The girl in the water frowned.
"Hey," spoke up Chong. "Nice underwear." El and the girl laughed at this, but Underwear Boy's eyes widened and took the winged lemur that was on his shoulders, and placed it in front of his underwear.
"Um, how about you guys go and get dressed," El suggested.
After the three got dressed, El walked up to them, out of earshot of the other nomads.
"Okay," El started, "Obviously, I'm not a ghost, and I have a name. I'm assuming you figured that out." The three nodded, but Underwear Boy, who was actually pretty good-looking when he had more than underwear on, said, "Where are you going with this?"
"Well, if someone would have PATIENCE," El said, getting a snigger from Bald Boy and the girl, "Was if I could tag along with you guys for a bit. See, if I stay with them," looking in the nomads' direction, "I'll go slowly insane." And I can't have them spilling things about ghosts...
"I don't know," said Underwear Boy. "We have a schedule to keep, and we can't have anyone holding us up. I'm sorry," he added, sounding sincere.
"Sokka!" yelled the girl, and to El she said, "I guess it'd be okay, right Aang?"
Bald Boy, who apparently was called Aang, said, "Sure! We're headed to Omashu, so I can learn earthbending."
"So you guys come from the Earth Kingdom, then?" That's funny, they look like they come from the Water Tribes... Except for Aang...
"Actually... I'm the Avatar," Aang said. "And Katara and Sokka come from the Southern Water Tribe."
"Seriously?" El said. ""Wow. I'm El." She smiled.
"I'm Katara," said the girl who was Katara, "This is my brother Sokka," she pointed to Underwear Boy, "And this is Aang." She nudged the Avatar.
"Well, thanks then," said El. "Oh, by the way, now that I know Sokka's name, does that mean I can't call him Underwear Boy in my mind anymore?" Katara cracked up, and Aang smiled, but Sokka went, "Hey! That's not funny!" "You're right," said El. "It's hilarious." The four of them walked back to where the other nomads were, which was near a flying bison, Aang's flying bison, apparently.
"Ooh," said Lily and Sasha, "Let us braid your hair!"
"That's it," said Sokka, "I'm leaving. I'll be back when you guys are ready to go." And he stalked off.
"Look!" said Sasha. "We already did Appa!" They presented the bison, very proud of his braids. El laughed. "You did a good job! Me next!" She shook her hair and loosened it out.
"I made a flower chain for you, Aang," said Moku. "But it's a little small..."
"That's okay," said Aang. "I'll just wear it around my head. See?" He placed it on his head, crossing his eyes to look at it, causing Katara to laugh.
"I know a place that has a giant worm," said Chong. "I could show you guys!"
"That'd be cool!" exclaimed Aang.
Sokka came back a while later. Sasha had finished El's hair and tied it back in a yellow-orange ribbon, so she was currently working on putting flowers in Appa's braids.
"Hey, Sokka, you should hear some of these stories!" Aang looked up at Sokka. "These guys have been everywhere!"
"Well, not everywhere, little Arrow-head, but where we haven't been, we've heard through stories and songs." Chong lifted his hand from his guitar casually.
Sokka lifted an eyebrow.
"He said that he'll take us to see a giant nightcrawler!" He leaned closer to Sokka.
"And on the way," added Moku, "There's a waterfall thet creates a never ending rainbow!" He rolled over onto his back and spread his arms out.
"I hate to be the wet blanket here," Sokka said with an edge in his voice, "But since Katara is busy, I guess it's up to me." Katara gave him a look, but El gave out a little chuckle.
"We need to get to Omashu. No sidetracks, no worms-" He was cut off by El.
"Darn, and I was looking forward to that," El remarked sarcastically, which deserved another look from Katara.
"-And DEFINITELY no rainbows."
"Woah, sounds like someone has a case of destination fever," Chong said, laid back as usual. "You're worried too much about where you're goin'."
"You've got to focus more on the where, and less on the going," Lily added, pulling Katara's hair.
"OH-MA-SHU." Sokka started to look peeved.
"Sokka's right," Katara agreed. "We need to find KingBumi so Aang can learn earthbending somewhere safe."
"Well, sounds like you're headed to Omashu," commented Chong. Sokka slapped his head.
