Chapter 36: Omashu (2)

Omashu only had one entrance to its giant city. It was known as a city but many villages simply regarded this stronghold as a kingdom. Constructed over the mountain range and a circular trench dug around it almost 5 kilometers deep and hundreds of meters apart, the 'City' was one of the harder areas to conquer.

Walking over the bridge, four fire nation soldiers with a specific flaming emblem on their chest could be seen walking towards the only entrance of the city. Everyone had heard of the fall of Omashu and having only one entrance meant that the city only had one exit. One might argue that there are Earthbenders but even for them, creating multiple exits was a tremendous workload and many of them were captured— Imprisoned in their own city— if the word of other earthbenders is to be believed.

As the four guards reached, positively annoyed by the sheer perspiration due to the dark and suffocating outfit that only attracted the sun's 'gentle' rays of heated destruction, they were stopped by the guards standing in front of the giant earthen gate. Although they still wore crimson arm guards, greaves, and helmets, the earthen tunic underneath and a round golden emblem with a square cutout in the middle made them out to be...

'Earthbenders,' Sokka frowned. Confusion of his eyes covered through the narrow cut-outs of the skull-like mask that is known only to the fire nation soldiers capable of firebending and thus, largely resistant to heat itself.

"Halt—"

Before the guards could speak, Nik waved his hand. He was directly behind Aang and held him by his shoulder.

"A kid made out of the city," his tone quite a bit hoarse and now Nik knew he would need water directly after since this armor really isn't made to be worn by anyone other than fire nation's warriors.

"If you know what's best for you, move. We have to report his absence."

Although the prisoners taken from the rig spoke a lot about what to expect when reaching the city, it seemed like that they purposely left out the news of Earthbenders being used as guards.

"And?" the opposing guard frowned. His fists clenched. He slowly took off his helmet, "I don't give a rat's ass if a child wants to meet his family. Although the governor let us out the day before yesterday, I'm not going to be ordered by some flaming chump who blindsided us!"

'Too much information, buddy,' Nik pursed his lips, sweating profusely.

"Whatever. Move," Sokka, too, scowled. Everyone understood it for the most part and as the tensions rose, a cooling gust emerged as Aang heaved a sigh of... relief.

"You're against all this, right? Then just help us. We really aren't the fire nation guards, and I'm not from Omashu," Aang smiled a wide grin.

Four sets of gazes landed on his bald head as he took out his bandana and Sokka let out a groan.

"Just for once, I want a plan executed perfectly!"

"Huff!" Katara and Suki worked in sync, instantly removing their helmets.

"What are... the two of you doing?" Nik looked back. Seeing their sweaty visage, strands of hair now wet and sticking to their foreheads as they revealed a pleasant expression once taking off the confines of their helmet... Nik gulped. A little motivated to remove his own helmet already.

"Who the hell are you people?!" The group of five guards instantly looked cautious and took their stances.

"Wait, don't attack," Sokka hurriedly waved his hands, "We aren't from the fire nation. Honestly. We—"

"We broke out the Earthbenders from the prison rig up by the coast and then also captured the—"

"Let Sokka speak, will you?" Nik hurriedly covered the dumpling head's mouth and grunted.

"Mmghh!" Aang nodded and Sokka looked at the guards silently before taking off his helmet.

"Look, we cannot risk exposing our origins—"

"Ayo! Brothers, look at that baldy's head. That's an airbending tattoo!"

One of the older men in greying beard gasped suddenly, smacking his forehead in realization.

"Congratulations, we shouldn't even bother hiding ourselves," Sokka rolled his eyes and Nik finally took off his mask and helmet.

"Mph," Katara let out a weird sound as Nik looked back, wiping his chin, "Yea?"

"Nothing, I just felt dizzy. Must be the heat," Katara's reply was a quick one, truly looking a little out of her wits at the moment.

---

"Hahaha, why didn't you just say so!" The leading guard laughed out loud.

Seeing the five of them, the guard thought for a moment and added, "Fine, no point in restricting you guys here... but all I said before was out of ego. The situation in the surrounding villages is just straight fucked up. But you'll understand when you see things inside. Word of advice, don't get caught. I won't be able to help you then."

"What do you mean?" Suki inquired curiously as the man shook his head, "The war is over and there is no need to oppress people. A few days ago, the current Fire Lord entered the city, discussed things with the mayor, and allowed the prisoners to go free with moderate supervision. Of course, our families aren't hurt and there is no real reason to fight since our King is nowhere to be found.

To be quick about it... I've met the fire lord. He's surprisingly a good guy—"

"None of them are good!" Katara scoffed and crossed her arms.

"I lost my brother to the war," the man laughed, "So, when I say the Fire Lord is a guy good enough for my favor, you better carve it on my tombstone. Go in kiddos. See it for yourself. But do not get caught... Fire Lord is just one person, his kindness has a limited effect and the Fire Nation is the victor... these people can be cruel and oblivious, like many of us were before being caught and treated like animals."

There was bitterness hidden within the man but he shook his head.

"Cover your faces, and you, your head," he glanced at Aang before looking at his men and nodding.

All of them gave way and one of them finally opened a small path through the wall. Seeing the marking and hinges on the surface of the wall, it was easy to understand that such a passage was long designed into the city walls.

Katara simply didn't find any energy to retort against the guard and everyone wore their helmets and masks reluctantly.

Aang was quick to cover his head and the five of them finally entered the city.

The moment they entered, their eyes were attracted to a strange city of metal.

Omashu was constructed over the mountain in the form of various levels and countless stair steps. Right from the entrance, jade green roofs with gold painted bronze plates revealed a magnificent splendor hard to be matched by any village. Earthen and rocky walls all around and given the existence of Earthbenders, these constructs would be the easiest to maintain.

"Oh, no!" Aang suddenly gasped, attracting the attention of the four adults. His gaze fixated on the framework of a metal mechanism that stretched from the foot of the city till around the peak— close to the castle. There were many metal carts hinged on this spread of metal framework and gears were installed to the side of the metal carts as they rotated and moved the cart from top to various stops until the bottom one. Workers stationed on various levels of the city controlled the movement of these carts. The high city walls had impeded their vision about such strange sights from the very beginning.

"What's going on now?" Sokka grunted.

"They... replaced the slides!" Aang mourned.

"Slides?" Nik repeated.

"Yes... the metal carts were made of earth when I used to come here. My friend— Bumi— and I used to ride these carts! But look at those gears! They took the freedom of the carts... how very evil of the Fire Nation!" Aang's gaze blazed.

"Listen, Aang. Before you feel sad over another ride lost... just tell us why did you reveal your identity?" Katara sighed softly. She already felt her brother's annoyance on the matter and now, she, too, felt that Aang will bring a lot of troubles a lot early than their needs."

"Because it is better to be honest and enter without a fight than to lie, fight, and then enter," Aang turned around.

"You can't go on exposing your identity. We don't know who to trust," Sokka rebuked.

"I need to show trust before ever expecting it in return. That was is... that's what I thought. The villagers around trust us because we helped them. Isn't there a chance that some villager might rat us out to the Fire Nation? Aren't we already trusting others at this point?"

Sokka blinked and Nik smiled.

"You're quite smart for a 12-year-old," he looked around, "But still, what confuses me is... if this fire lord allowed the Earthbenders of the city to go free, why didn't he do the same for the ones inside the Prison Rig?"

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"Let's find out," Sokka hummed, "Let's meet this spot again in two hours. Try not to get yourself exposed and let's change into different clothes."

Looking around, the four went to a corner and Nik took out their old clothes. Once they finally changed out of the view of others, they sighed in relief. Still, they didn't look good after sweating so much, and so quickly.

Sokka and Katara wore their clothes from the village. Blue kimono-tunic and dark blue trousers while Suki and Nik wore the normal blue tunics, trousers, and greaves from the Kyoshi Village.

"Finally... it was hard to get it all off," Katara remarked as she cleaned Suki's face.

"Aang, again, don't tell anyone inside the city that you're the Avatar," Katara looked at the boy and he nodded with a shrug. Aang then looked at Nik, expecting to hear from him, too. Over the days, Nik has been supportive of him, even more, empathetic than others for his situation so instinctively, the boy felt closer to Nik, too. As he said, show trust to expect it and he trusted Nik enough.

"Try and make some friends. Without airbending tricks, of course," Nik grinned. Making friends was already helping him, so that's all he could advise.

"What if I move small pebbles with air?" Aang offered.

"Then we'll all probably get captured," Nik replied, feeling Sokka's stare finally ease.

"Fine... well, see you guys in two hours!" Aang jogged.

"You think it's a good idea to let him leave alone?" Suki looked at Sokka and he nodded, "I mean, he was right for the most part. He got us into the city without any problems but if I had supported his idea of constantly exposing his identity then it would spell trouble for us. So, as Nik said, he's smart... heh, just like me!"

Grinning, Sokka looked at others, "Now, we have two objectives. Finding out the situation of the children gathered from the surrounding villages and why the prisoners of the rig were ignored. This place must have a gathering of children where they teach stuff..."

"You mean a school?" Nik inquired.

"No, silly, schools are for fishes," Katara smiled as Suki looked at the siblings strangely.

"No... it isn't? School is an institution that children of the big city can attend to learn etiquettes and history and a few other subjects."

'Like sex ed... probably not in this time period though,' Nik added internally.

"So... it's not for fishes?" Sokka was amazed.

"Maybe we shouldn't split up," Suki suggested seeing this.

"No, no. It will be quicker by splitting up. I will go this way," Sokka pointed in a random direction.

"I'll go this way," Nik pointed towards the higher level.

"I will... I don't know, join you. We both are wearing similar clothes so it's easy to say we entered the city as a family," Suki suggested and Nik nodded.

They looked at Katara.

"I will find something," she added.

---

"To find something, I need to move around. Don't think I'm trying to follow you two," Katara spoke calmly as she felt Nik's and Suki's stare.

"We didn't say anything," Nik mumbled.

"Alright, someone should ask the direction to the school," Suki smiled, easing into the situation.

Nik nodded. Gathering information for blackmail— further membership was one of the greatest sources of income in his previous organization. But it was simply because women tend to open up after a few sessions of satisfaction. Especially women of power who found him a pitiable individual with a severe lack of ambition.

"Alright, Suki, come with me," Nik whispered and walked towards a dark-haired woman who wore her hair in two buns and a light green robe covered her body. She had a small child in her arms and as she saw Nik and Suki approaching towards the vegetable stand, she couldn't help but quickly straighten her back.

"Excuse me," Nik smiled and nodded at the women while setting his glance on the pile of tomatoes, "How much?" he gave the exhausted stall owner fanning himself with a paper fan an inquisitive look.

"Eh? 5 bronze pieces for a kilo of these juicy buns!" The man smiled, revealing his two front teeth broken.

"Hahaha! Uncle's got no teeth~!" The boy instantly laughed loudly as the woman hurriedly hushed the child.

"You have a bright son, miss," Nik smiled and looked at the child.

"Please, don't encourage this naughty child!" The woman sighed.

"Why not?" Nik chuckled, "I would want such a cute little one for myself, too!" matching his gaze with the curious-looking child, Nik continued, "Wouldn't you say your mother is lucky?"

"Lucky! Lucky!" The boy grinned brightly.

The woman smiled seeing this.

"Well, you already look at the age of having a few yourself. What's stopping you?" The woman inquired, her light green eyes looking away with a shy expression. The color green for eyes wasn't rare in this world. Almost everyone from the earth kingdom lineage had varying shades of green for their irises.

"Ah, well..." Nik looked at Suki and smiled, "It's just that she worries a lot. We had to pay a lot to move into this great city since she wants a bright future for the children. I heard that there a something called schools around here."

"Ah, young girls shouldn't trouble such caring men," The woman looked at Suki and stated with a disappointed look, "But the schools are not at all costly. They teach a craft to children, too. There," the woman pointed at one of the few large structures beneath the palace, "that one is a school. Um... my name is Till. My husband frequents other cities most of the time and I live..."

The woman began to explain quite openly while the stall owner watched with a deadpan expression.

"Of course, if you want to know more. You can visit me. I'm free in the evening--"

She had only just begun when Suki gave a slight bow and pulled Nik away. Meeting up with Katara, Suki scowled and explained the situation. Both of their glares sharpened as Nik looked at them and turned away, wholly unbothered.

He just got them the information they needed. And it was Suki's idea to act as they're related.

"That was an embarrassing act. And a disrespectful one, too. Towards your mentor, I mean," Suki finally found a better reason to argue than a simple— 'How could you?'

"Is it disrespectful being viewed as related to me?" Nik inquired and Katara grumbled, "You know well what she meant!"

"So... next time you two could inquire about information," Nik smiled, "Or, I could take Katara instead. I still want to keep learning from you and, of course, I don't want to offend you in any capacity."

"That might... work," Katara frowned, looking a little reluctant.

Nik shrugged. Although there are differences in the traditions of the world, it wasn't by much and similar to his new 'home', the older women in here are easier to attract and converse with. This could also be attributed to his own intentions. Nik simply didn't have any reason to keep on warming others for no reason and acted in moderation around Katara and others but was more than willing to approach others for information, Nik didn't mind holding their gazes just for a few minutes.

"Look, what I meant was, a heads up would have been nice," Suki added and followed along with Katara as Nik nodded.

"Sure. And what about you Katara? Did you find a direction to pursue? Or do you think your time is well-spent by accompanying us to the school?" He looked at the woman who traced her chin.

"Actually... before going to this school, I wanted to see if we can find something from the market around us. I have an idea."

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