Percy Jackson and that kid in the iceberg

I appreciate how good Aang looks for his age (Percy)

I woke with a cry that was quickly muffled by a hand around my mouth. I struggled but to no avail was I was dragged away. My mouth, eyes, and hands were bounded with earth.

"Don't worry," the gruff voice of the guard said. "The king insisted you not be hurt."

The next thing I knew, I was freed and in the throne room again, along with Katara, Sokka, and Annabeth. The king was standing way too close to us. And let me tell you his big eyebrows and mismatched eyes were not the first thing I wanted to see that morning.

"You," he pointed a finger at Annabeth. "I heard you have a great love for architecture."

"Oh...um, yes," Annabeth blinked, trying to lean away from him. "I love architecture. I think Omashu is amazing."

"Then you would like a tour of my castle, eh?"

"I love it," Annabeth said, delighted.

"Wonderful!" The king clapped his hands. "You," he pointed to a guard. "Take her away and give her a tour of the castle. And you-" he turned to Sokka. "I heard you have a great love for food."

"Well, yeah," Sokka said.

"Then you'll enjoy the nice big breakfast I've prepared for you," the king smiled. "It's the most important meal of the day, you know, and as today is going to be incredibly exhausting for the three of you I think it's best we start on the right track. Guards, throw another feast!"

"What about Aang?" Katara said as we were lead away.

"Oh, don't worry about him," the king promised. "He's just sleeping in."

The breakfast was great, but both me and Katara were too nervous to eat. Both of us wondered about Aang, but the guards around us were hesitant to actually talk about anything. Sokka just plowed along scarfing down as much as he could. When Katara gave him a look he shrugged.

"What? With that guy around I'm going to need to keep my strength up."

After breakfast, we were lead away to another room. The guards earthbended part of the wall down. We were by the throne room, where the king and now Aang was.

"I thought you might refuse," the king was saying to Aang. "So I got your friends some uh...special gifts."

The guard pulled out three rings, all made of some sort of crystal, and started to put them on our fingers.

"Those delightful rings are made of pure jennamite, also known as creeping crystal. It's a crystal that grows remarkably fast," the king cackled, as the guard slipped a yellow one on me. It instantly tightened around my finger. "By nightfall, your friends will be completely covered in it. Terrible thing, really. I can stop it, but only if you cooperate."

Sure enough, I could see the gem beginning to creep up my finger.

"I'll do what you want," promised Aang.

———————-

I'm not going to go into detail about the challenges, because it was actually quite boring. We just watched Aang do one crazy thing after another while these freaky gems slowly encased our bodies. It was terrifying. I kept on thinking of ways to escape from the gems or to help him, but none come. Maybe I shouldn't have worried so much—he was the avatar—but he was also Aang.

The first challenge was getting this key from a waterfall thing and Aang pulled it off pretty well. The second was returning the weird king's pet to him. It turned out that flopsy wasn't a bunny but a giant goat-gorilla. Knowing the king I guess that shouldn't have been the shock it was.

The third challenge was a duel. Aang got to choose who to duel, and he chose the crazy king. At the time it seemed like a really smart idea, but then the king ripped off most of his clothes and we found out that he was really buff. If he had disturbing before...well, I think I might be scarred for life. Did I mention he had really hairy underarms too?

Why couldn't I be like Annabeth? Then I could be skipping around the castle looking at beautiful walls instead of slowly being covered in a giant yellow gem while my friend dueled the buffest 112-year old I had never wanted to see.

Finally, Aang defeated him, which was good because it was almost dinner time and I was seriously regretting not having a bigger breakfast.

"Well done, Avatar. You fight with much fire in your heart," the geezer said. "You've passed all my tests. Now, you must answer one question."

"That's not fair! You said you would release my friends if I finished your tests."

"Aw, but what's the point of test you don't learn anything."

"Come on," moaned Sokka.

"Answer this one question and I will set your friends free. What ... is my name? From the looks of your friends I'd say you only have a few minutes." And with that, the king turned away.

"How am I supposed to know his name?" Aang said.

"Think about the challenges. Maybe it's some kind of riddle." Katara said.

"I've got it," Sokka said. "He's an earthbender, right? Maybe it's Rocky. You know, because of all the rocks."

"We're going to keep trying, but that is a good back-up." Katara said, clearly getting desperate.

"Okay. So back to the challenges. I got a key from the waterfall, I saved his pet, and I had a duel." Aang began to pace.

"What did you learn?" Katara prompted.

"Well, everything was different from what I expected."

I sighed. "He's probably just messing with us. The guy's completely crazy. Loopy. Mad."

"Mad..." Aang's eyes widened. "Oh man, you're a genius, Percy-"

----------------------

"I needed to solve the question the same way I solved the challenges. As you said a long time ago, I had to open my brain to the possibilities," Aang told the king. "Bumi, you're a mad genius."

The king laughed, a funny, awkward snort, and he and Aang hugged.

"Oh Aang, it's good to see you. You haven't changed a bit. Literally."

"Uh, a little help?" Katara said.

"Over here," Sokka added.

"Mmmmph," the gems had covered my mouth by this point.

With a chuckle, the king, Bumi now, I guess, broke the crystals encasing us with his earthbending. He scooped some up and bit into one.

Jennamite is made of rock candy," he declared, biting into one. "Delicious!"

"So this crazy king is your old friend Bumi?" I said, amazed.

"Who you calling old?" Bumi grumbled. "Okay, I'm old."

"Why did you do all of this instead of just telling Aang who you were?" Sokka asked, still annoyed.

"First of all, it's pretty fun messing with people," Bumi snorted. "But I do have a reason. Aang, you have a difficult task ahead. The world has changed in the hundred years that you've been gone. It's the duty of the Avatar to restore balance to the world by defeating Fire Lord Ozai. You have much to learn. You must master the four elements and confront the Fire Lord. And when you do, I hope you will think like a mad genius. And it looks like you're in good hands. You'll need your friends to help defeat the Fire Nation. And you'll need Momo, too."

"Speaking of friends, where is Annabeth?" I asked.

"Oh, her tour of the palace and city is almost completed. She'll join as all for a feast soon. You all had better spend some more time here in Omashu."

"No kidding," Aang smiled at Bumi. "I have a challenge for you. Want to ride the mail shafts again?"

Bumi gave a terrifying grin of pure insanity. "Oh, I would love to."