Katara and Zuko were standing awkwardly, trying to look at anything other than each other. Katara finally shook her head and scoffed at their behaviour. She grabbed his arm and dragged a very flustered and confused Zuko behind her.
When they resurfaced, they found that the sun had already risen in Omashu, and that Iroh and Azula were nowhere to be found.
"Where could he have gone? Do you think Azula somehow got away?" Katara asked.
"No, no. Azula is powerful, but not stronger than Uncle. She wouldn't have been able to escape. They probably just went to get some food." Zuko tried to reassure both him and Katara.
"And left us? That doesn't sound like him."
"Well, maybe it was important, and he didn't realize we weren't behind him."
"Maybe." But Katara didn't sound convinced.
"What were you doing coming to Omashu, anyway?"
"I was looking for you. I knew King Bumi would probably help me find you and- wait. Maybe he'll help us find your uncle!"
"Let's go."
By the time they got to the palace, they were starving.King Bumi was laying sideways across the throne, playing with his crown.
"King Bumi," Bumi paid no attention to her. "King Bumi!!"
Bumi snorted, and fell off the throne. He slowly got up looking through his crown at the children.
"Aahh. Katara. I haven't seen you for some time." Bumi threw his crown at one of the guards and went to look at Zuko. Zuko's eyes widened as Bumi took his chin and looked at him. Bumi started laughing and choking. Zuko, alarmed, tried to help the old man. Before he could do anything, Bumi took off his robes and made a tunnel going through the ground. The soldiers tried to go after him, but the tunnel was already closing.
"BE QUEEN FOR THE DAY KATARA! IT'S REALLY FUN!" Bumi waved at them as he disappeared from view.
"Does he do that a lot?" Zuko asked Katara. She could only shrug, confused by what had just happened.
Reluctantly, the soldiers bowed to Katara and Zuko and gave Katara the crown.
"Wait, what? You can't seriously expect me to rule." Katara said, surprised.
"Fine. Then the other one shall do so." The head guard said to them.
"What? You can't just give the crown to someone." Zuko seemed horrified.
"He does do this a lot. It's really not so bad. You just have to solve a few problems for the people." The guard spoke to him again.
Katara nodded her head at him. "I'll try to find Iroh and Azula. You be king for the day."
"Fine." Zuko relented and took the crown. He sat on the throne, looking very uncomfortable. Katara mock bowed to him.
"Your Majesty." Katara smirked as he groaned.
Zuko spent the day trying to solve problems for the quarreling villagers of Omashu. Whenever he thought he was done, 5 more villagers showed up for his judgement. For some reason, a cabbage merchant kept coming in and asking if he wanted some cabbages for the palace. When he showed up for the 3rd time, Zuko lost it and yelled,
"I DON'T WANT YOUR CABBAGES!!" He burned the cart, and the merchant screamed.
"MY CABBAGES!!! Nooooo! Not again."
The guards had taken Zuko to a guest room where he paced around.
"Ok Zuko. What would Uncle say?" He paced around some more, until he adopted the voice of his uncle.
"You must look within yourself to save yourself from your other self. Only then, will your true self reveal itself." Zuko hung his head, and tried not to think about how only half the day had passed. He had a lot more challenges to get through.
Meanwhile, Katara was staring up at the sky, wishing that she had thought to take some money with her for food. She went to a river, hoping to catch some fish. As she was roasting the fish with a fire, she saw a blur of movement from her left. She turned around quickly to see someone jumping from roof to roof. She quickly went after them. When she finally caught up, she realized that it was Azula. Azula looked at her. She started to attack, but before she could hurt her, Azula seemed to change her mind. Katara looked at her leaving, too shocked to follow her. Had Azula just shown her mercy? Or was she scared of her?
Curious, she followed Azula's tracks backwards to see where they had started. Iroh was sitting there with Bumi, laughing and drinking tea with his old buddy, perfectly calm and not caring that Azula had slipped from his grasp.