Koete ↠ Sokka

Chapter 8: The Rebels - Part 1

To put it bluntly—Charlie was seriously getting sick of all these forests. Every time they landed in one, it was like a beacon for trouble. This time, the clearing they'd landed in was surrounded by a blanket of red, leaves beginning to dry up and create mounts on the forest floor. The afternoon sun casted an orange glow between the trees, shining specks of light around them.

Appa had immediately collapsed to the floor, rolling over to rest after a long flying streak. From where they stood, there was no water nearby for Aang and Katara to practice waterbending, so the four sat around chatting lazily about the past week. It had been non-stop, one life-threatening adventure after the other. It wasn't until Sokka joked about getting kidnapped by a giant, angry panda that Aang shot up in realisation from his bed of leaves.

"Charlie!" he shouted quickly, shocking the others. "I can't believe I forgot to ask you! When I was in the Spirit World back in Senlin village, you could see me, right? How?"

She blinked in surprise, remembering how she'd seen what she could only assume to be a future version of Aang after being trapped in that cave with Sokka. It had honestly slipped her mind. "Yeah, I could see you. I don't know, I figured it must be some sort of psychic thing." Actually, Charlie figured it had something to do with the fact that she wasn't from their world, but she wasn't going to tell them that. "But when I saw you, we hadn't even gone to Senlin village yet."

"Okay, there's no way that Aang travelled back in time," Sokka stated, shuffling closer to them.

"I don't think I did," Aang admitted with furrowed brows in contemplation before holding up his finger. "But I did notice something weird. When I came back, Katara said we'd been gone for almost twenty-four hours."

Katara nodded slowly in agreement. "That's right, Charlie and I were waiting for you the whole day."

"Right!" Aang said, leaning forward. "But for me, it didn't feel that long at all."

Charlie raised her eyebrows at Aang, sharing a look with Sokka. "Are you saying that time worked differently in the Spirit World or something?"

"Maybe?"

"Okay, you've both gone crazy," Sokka said dryly after a beat of silence. He picked himself up and dusted the dirt off his pants. "I'm gonna hang out with Momo."

"Where is Momo?" Aang asked, noticing the lacking presence of the lemur. Charlie quirked her lips slightly downwards and shrugged.

Just then, a familiar screech echoed throughout the forest. The four shared a look and shot up, running in the direction of the sound. It didn't take long until they slid to a stop under three cages suspended in the air by ropes attached to the trees. Momo chattered in glee, seeing Aang propel himself towards the branch and metal crank that trapped him. He quickly unlocked the crank and lowered the cage to the ground, where Katara and Sokka pulled the bars open to free Momo. Aang landed softly on the floor with a smile, but the whimpers of two more animals trapped in the metal cages grabbed his attention.

"Alright, you too," Aang said, jumping up again with a twist.

Sokka reached behind his back and unsheathed his boomerang. "This is gonna take forever," he complained before throwing the weapon with precision, cutting straight through the ropes and sending the cages to the ground. The metal bars broke with the force, and the monkey-like animals were quick to escape into the forest.

Aang slid back down the tree, leaving a trail of dust behind him. This had to be the start of an episode, she just couldn't remember which one. The timeline for the earlier season had gotten jumbled in her head, being mostly stand-alone episodes, so it took some time to prompt her memory.