The Honor of Love (ATLA fanfic)

19. the swamp

Sokka collected some wood and I made the fire. "Do you also have that feeling of being watched?" Katara asked quietly, when she pulled up her knees and embracing them. "I am sure it's nothing, don't worry." I lied and smiled at her.

Eventually, the four of us fell in a deep sleep. I woke up a few hours later from a tickling feeling on my foot. I opened my eyes and saw that a vine was wrapping itself around my leg. Before I could scream, I got yanked into the bushes by the vine. I managed to free myself from the vine by burning it off and I started to run through the forest, trying to find my way back. I called out Sokka, Katara and Aang's name, but I didn't get any reply.

I turned around and saw a woman standing in the swamp. I could not believe my eyes. I froze and gasped loudly. "M-mom?" I said shakily. I walked up to them and just before I wanted to lay a hand on my mother's shoulder, I heard something behind me. I turned back but did not see anything. I looked back at my mom, but I was standing in front of a small tree.

"It must be the fog, your parents are dead." I whispered to myself, trying to fight back my tears.
I heard some rustling in the bushes behind me and someone bumped up to me. I just managed to keep my balance and angrily looked around. "Sokka!" I shouted. "Is! Are you okay?" He asked worried. I nodded and I hugged him tightly.

"What happened? I have been searching for hours?" He asked breathlessly. "You are not the only one!" Katara said and she appeared behind the bushes, Aang following her. Relieved I hugged my friends. "You guys were right... This place has something supernatural." I said, anxiously looking around.

"I have been chasing some girl." Aang said with a faint smile. "A girl? What girl?" I asked curiously.
"I don't know, just a girl in a fancy dress." Aang replied.

"Well, that's nice, everyone is having a tea party here and we weren't invited." Sokka said teasingly. "I thought I saw mom..." Katara said quietly."I thought I saw my parents." I said after that.

"I thought I saw Yue, but that doesn't prove anything. We are all hungry and tired, and our minds are playing tricks with us." Sokka said determined.
"Well all our visions have led us here." Aang said.
"Look at that tree..." Katara said when she pointed to a huge tree, "this must be the center of the swamp."
"Its the heart of the swamp indeed, I knew it was calling." Aang said with a smile.

"I am getting tired of this. There is nothing else here but us,"Sokka said, "we are all alone here and there are no such things as-"
Out of the water a huge monster of plants and vines rose up and started to swing around with it's arms. The four of us yelled and they all put on 'battle mode'. I shot fire to it and Katara tried to cut the vines with water. One of the huge vine-y arms grabbed Sokka and lifted him up from the water. I succeeded to free Sokka by firebending a ray of fire, but I got thrown away by it myself. I bumped up to a tree and fell with my face in the mud. I grunted and ran back to the vine-monster. I stopped when I saw a shadowy figure in it. "There's someone in there! He's bending the vines!" I exclaimed. Aang stood down in front of it and inhaled deeply to blow all the vines away. A chubby man was all that was left of it.

"Why did you calls us anyway if you wanted to kill us?" Aang asked, when the man was unarmed. "No, wait," the man started, "I did not call you here." He looked a bit like Iroh, but then with short messy hair and only a leaf covering his manly parts. "I heard someone calling." Aang said again. "He's the Avatar, things like that happen a lot." Sokka said with his arms crossed over his chest. "The Avatar?" the man asked surprised, "come with me!" The five of us walked to the big tree. "So who are you?" I asked curiously. "I am just a man protecting his home from folk that want to hurt it. Like this guy," he said pointing to Sokka.

"See, just a man protecting is home, nothing supernatural." Sokka replied airily.
"Oh it is supernatural," The man replied, "The tree called me as well. This swamp is hidden you see. This tree is the heart of the swamp, and it's roots spread out for miles and miles. One big organism. Just like the whole world is." The man said. "The whole world?" Aang asked confused. The man nodded. "Do you think you are different than me? Or your friends? No, if you listen hard enough you can hear all the organisms breathing together, we are all living together, even if some folk don't act like it. We are all of the same roots, and we are all branches of the same tree."

"The tree of life," I said dreamily, "that's beautiful but," I continued, "what did our visions mean?"
"The swamp let us see people we have lost, people we love and still love. We are still connected to them, time is an illusion and so is death." He replied. I smiled brightly, thinking my mom could maybe still be alive..

"But the girl I saw... I have never met her." Aang said with a big frown on his forehead. "Time is an illusion, right?" I asked, looking for confirmation at the man, "maybe you still have to meet her." The man nodded. "Come, let's have dinner together and let me give you a good night's sleep," the man said friendly. "Thank you, but we need to find our animals first." Katara said serious. "I think I know how to find them. Everything is connected. You go along with him, I will bring them back." Aang said and he went into the swamp again.

Katara, Sokka and I followed the man. We went to a small village where the swampfolk lived. We found at that they are waterbenders and that the man who attacked us was called Hugh. We had a nice meal consisting of possum-chicken and rice and after an evening of telling stories and singing songs, we got ready for bed.