My shoulder stung, severely but I persevered through the pain.
Sokka said I should continue to hold his hand, just for my pain purposes, if I needed a hand to squeeze....right.
The team, the band of nomads and I were now journeying to the tunnels, Chong had told us about. We trailed along a wide street surrounded by the ruins of a temple.
"How far are we from the tunnel?"
"Actually, it's not just one tunnel." Chong says. "The lovers didn't want anyone to find out about their love, so they built a whole Labyrinth."
Sokka halts in his tracks; in shock. "Labyrinth?"
"Oh, I'm sure we'll figure it out," Chong casually says. We continued walking.
"All you need to do is trust in love... according to the curse." Lily whispers to her husband, but Sokka and I overheard because we were walking in front with them.
Suddenly, Sokka halts once again as everyone in back of us, passes. He flinches in terror. "Curse?!"
I pulled Sokka along with me as we noticed the group had stopped in front of a dark entrance.
"Hey! Hey! We're here!" Chong cheers.
My eyes trail up a inscription on the side of the cave entrance. "What exactly is this curse?"
"The curse says that only those who trust in love can make it through the caves. Otherwise, you'll be trapped in them forever."
"And die." Chong's wife, Lily finished.
Sokka's hand clutched around mine as he looked a bit worried.
"Oh yeah, and die." Chong lightly chuckled. "Hey, I just remembered the rest of that song!" He stands before the entrance and strums his lute, while singing an ominous line in a low voice. "And die!"
"That's it!" Sokka shouts fed up. "There's no way we're going through some cursed hole!"
Moku turns his head to observe gray smoke rising from the horizon, which he proceeds to point at. "Hey, someone's making a big campfire!"
I shake my head, lowering it down. "That's no campfire, Moku."
"It's Fire Nation." Sokka grimly says. "They're tracking us."
Aang turns to Chong making sure he understands. "So all you need to do is trust in love to get through these caves?"
"That is correct, Master Arrowhead." Chong responds.
Aang turns to stare at Katara, who has her back to him. Her clothes and hair sway slightly as a breeze passes by. "We can make it." Aang smiles.
I'm definitely snitching on him to Katara later.
I then began to examine, the Water tribe boy holding my hand. My focus shifted to his tall stature. Since when was Sokka starting to grow a few centimeters?
Could Sokka and I escape the tunnel alive? Do I even like Sokka? Does he even like me? We are so dead, oh, no.
My mind wonders off when Sokka gestures to the cave; somewhat commanding. "Everyone into the hole!"
We all begin to enter the cave. Several Fire Nation tanks rumble across the terrain toward the entrance of the tunnel and pause once they reach the mouth of the cave.
The tanks fire rotating grappling hooks from canisters into the tunnel and release them after a few moments, unleashing a myriad of boulders. Closing off the entrance to the tunnel.
Appa begins to frantically paw the walls of the tunnel.
Katara tried to soothe the bison. "It's okay, Appa. We'll be fine." She sighs. "I hope."
"We will be fine." Sokka reassured. "All we need is a plan. Chong, how long do those torches last?"
Oh, how I liked it, when Sokka goes straight down to business. Okay, I need to stop thinking about Sokka. He was honestly corrupting my mind recently.
"Uh, about two hours each." Chong casually answers.
Lily lights the rest of the torches in her hand. "And we have five torches, so that's ten hours!"
Sokka grabs the torches and stomping out the fire. "It doesn't work like that if they're all lit at the same time!"
Lily places her hands on her temple. "Oh, right."
Sokka marched over to Appa, opening our duffel bag to grab a map. "I'm going to make a map to keep track of exactly where we've been. Then we should be able to solve it like a maze and get through."
We all followed Sokka's lead. I join him in the front as I wrap my arm around his arm and lean my body on his, "You know, I like when you take charge like that."
Sokka's body twitched. "Y-you, uh do?"
"Yeah," I turned my gaze away from him as I could feel heat creeping up my neck and face.
"Well someone's gotta be the leader around here!"
As I tilt my head into the map with Sokka, I blush and say, "Yeah, your the brains of this team."
Our faces were right next to each other once Sokka turned his head toward mine. "Then, I assume, your the brawn's." He exhales a light sigh. "And the beauty."
Once more, I turned my head away from him. Okay, it was obvious that I had feelings for Sokka. Just look at him, he's so charming and so good with his words.
After a long time of walking and dead ends, Sokka stops in his tracks. He stands examining the map, he tilts it to the side a few times before drawing it closer to him.
"Sokka, this is the tenth dead end you've led us to." Katara said. "Maybe if you stop flirting with Venus for once-"
"Hey," I lightly scold. "It's not my fault Sokka doesn't know how to multitask."
"This doesn't make sense."Sokka yells a bit frustrated. "We already came through this way."
"We don't need a map." Sokka passes by Chong. "We just need love. The little guy knows it."
"Yeah," Aang answers, "but I wouldn't mind a map also."
Sokka walks closer to the wall as he looks up from the map. "There's something strange here. There's only one explanation. The tunnels are changing."
A wave of surprise passes over everyone as the tunnels shake.
Chong moves around frantically. "The tunnels, they're a-changin'. It must be the curse! I knew we shouldn't have come down here!"
"Right," Sokka sarcastically said. "If only we listened to you."
I hold up a hand in warning. "Everyone be quiet. Listen."
Sokka looks into the dark tunnel. A low snarl can be heard from within the darkness of the tunnel. Momo flees from his shoulder.
Sokka suspiciously holds the torch up to the tunnel to inspect the strange sound. Suddenly, a wolfbat flies from the darkness of the cave, causing everyone to panic.
"It's a giant flying thing with teeth!" Chong shrieked.
The creature lands on the ground. "No! It's a wolfbat!" Moku hollers.
The wolfbat takes off again. In a frenzy, Sokka swats at the creature with the lit torch.
"Sokka, don't-" I was cut off when several hot cinders are thrown about and land on Appa's skin.
Yelping in pain, the bison begins running around the tunnel, releasing a discharge of rocks and debris.
Aang quickly airbends Sokka, the band of nomads and I out of the way of the falling rocks.
Sokka tumbles on top of me as we slam onto the ground, his body pressing down on my shoulder.
If this were any other day, I wouldn't mind Sokka's body being on top of mine, but it had to be the day where I impulsively decide to get a tattoo.
I wince from underneath Sokka, he scatters off of me. "Oh, no! Venus. Are you okay?"
I hold my right hand and press the palm of it to my left shoulder. "Fuck, it just stinks a lot, but I've dealt with worse pain mentally, I'm okay."
The water tribe boy helps me to my feet. His facial expression begins to darken as he noticed the band standing behind us.
Sokka runs to the rocks attempting to dig his way through the barrier that divided us between Aang and Katara.
"Yeah, it's no use. We're separated." Chong says approaching Sokka. "But at least you have us!"
"Noooo!" He resumes digging through the rocks only to have a pile of debris fall on him.
I rush over to the boy, kneeling over him and removing the rocks off his crushed body. "Oh, Sokka. What am I going to do with you?"
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We began walking, trying to find a way out the tunnel.
Chong and his group are singing much to Sokka's annoyance. Chong sings as he and the nomads pass the angry warrior. "Oh, don't let the cave-in get you down! Don't let the falling rocks turn your smile into a frown!" Moku passes by, nudging Sokka. "When the tunnels are darkest, that's when you need a clown, hey! Don't let the cave-in get you down, Sokka!"
Sokka scowls at this. "How are you not annoyed?" He turns to me in question.
"I had a needle go in and out of my shoulder for two in a half hours. I'm dealing with my own pain."
Sokka sighs and stops us both in our tracks. He pulls the torch in between us, keeping us distant. "Are you sure, you're okay?"
"Why, are you worried about me?" I tease.
"Yes!" He shook his head. "I mean, no...I don't know."
As I focused on the water tribe boy, who was shaking in his tunic, I lightly bit my bottom lip. To get closer to Sokka, I moved the torch to the side and took it out of his hand. "I like when you worry about me....it looks good on you."
Why am I being so bold towards Sokka? Although, I'm a flirtatious gal, Sokka had always made me nervous.
Sokka's fingers brushed up my arm as it crawled to the side of my face. His eyes criss crossed as he was staring down at my lips. His head moved closer to mine. "Venus, I-"
"There you two are!"
Sokka and I quickly separated apart, the torch I was holding went flying over Chong's head.
"Are you crazy women?" Chong then enhaled and exhaled. "You could have taken my head off. Thinking about it, that would be cool."
"Hey!" Sokka shouts. "Don't call her crazy. You're the one, who's crazy." He grumbled. "Now why we're you calling me?"
"Oh," Chong chuckles, "I have an idea."
"Oh really?" Sokka turns his head to me as he sticks his tongue out, pointing his finger into his mouth and rolling his eyes back.
As I giggle, I cover my lips with my hand. See, this was one of the reasons, I liked Sokka so much. Despite, the fact that we just had this cutely weird moment. We could always return back to our true silly selfs.
"Well, then listen to this: If love is the key out of here, then all we need to do is play a love song!" Chong begins playing songs much to Sokka's dismay.
Chong and his band begin to lead the way as they sing. "Even if you're lost, you can't lose the love because it's in your heart..."
To the music, I light swayed my hips and arms.
Sokka slaps his forehead once again. "Not you too!"
I grimace against his stare. "I'm sorry, it's quite catchy."
As I move over to Sokka and bump into his hip, I begin to dance around him by grabbing his hands and intertwining them with mine.
Sokka was trying his best to keep his laughter in, but he tremendously failed. "V, you're ridiculous."
I smiled brightly at the boy. "I'll take that as a compliment,"
Suddenly, a loud growl was heard. I stopped dancing as my eyes worriedly trailed up Sokka. "Please, tell me that was your stomach?"
He slowly shook his head with fear in his own eyes.
Out a dark tunnel, several wolfbats come into the light, racing toward us.
Sokka pushes me behind him in an attempt to protect me. He waves his hands frantically in an effort to scare them off. The creatures fly straight past him.
"Hey! You saved us, Sokka!" Chong cheers.
"No," Sokka eyes widen in realization, "they were trying to get away from something!"
I peered my head over his shoulder. "From what?"
The caves rumble and the walls of rocks crumble. Without warning, two giant badgermoles burst through the caves, causing the group to panic.
One badgermole closes its hands together in a prayerful manner, closing off a tunnel behind it with earthbending.
The other badgermole pounds the ground with its paws and raises a wall of earth, blocking off the exits. The cave where one badgermole is seen using earthbending to create a split in the earth between the nomads, Sokka and I.
Sokka who tries to avoid the badgermole's swipes. He is blown back several feet and starts hastily backing away.
"Sokka!" I look around my surroundings, I see Chong's musical lute and throw it over at the badgermole, causing no harm to it, but a musical note is heard and the badgermole cocks its head curiously. The creatures quiet down.
"The lute; Sokka, pick up the lute. Play a few notes, they like it!"
Sokka picks up the lute, I threw beside him and begins playing a tune.
I glare at Chong and his crew. "Help Sokka out. Sing your songs!"
Sokka nervously sings. "Badgermoles coming toward me. Come on guys, help me out!"
"Hey, those things are music lovers!" Chong starts to join in. "The big, bad badgermoles who earthbend the tunnels, hate the wolfbats, but love the sounds!"
The tunes of the music, calmed the badger moles down. We quickly gained their trust. We climbed atop of badermoles as they began to dig their ways out of the cave. Sokka and I share a mole while the band of nomads had their own.
Soon, we emerge from the cave, riding atop badgermoles. Debris flies everywhere and Aang and Katara shield themselves from the rubble.
"Venus! Sokka!" Katara shouts over at us.
Sokka helps me carefully dismount off the badger mole without harming my shoulder.
We made our way to the younger kids. "How did you guys get out?" Sokka asks.
"Just like the legend said, we let love lead the way." Aang smiles sheepishly.
My hand covered my mouth as I turn over to Katara in shock as I look for her approval.
A blush creeps up her face as she nods. "I'll fill in all the tea, later." She mouthed.
"Really?" Sokka scoffed a bit disgusted. "We let huge, ferocious beasts lead our way."
I stick my tongue out at the kids. "Sokka and I are just way cooler than you,"
Sokka gives me a low five as we turn to the badgermoles and wave to them as they slowly plod their way into the cave again. Two walls of rock rise up where the badgermoles re-entered the cave.
Katara hugs her brother, as she lets go of him to hug me as well, she looks over at Sokka's face. "Why is your forehead all red?"
Chong pokes his head into our conversation. "Nobody react to what I'm about to tell you: I think that kid might be the Avatar!"
Sokka smacks his forehead, enlarging the red spot while Chong looks at him in curiosity.
Chong places a necklace of flowers around Sokka's neck. "Sokka, I hope you learned a little something about not letting the plans get in the way of the journey." He hugs the water tribe boy.
Sokka looks irritated yet blushing. "Just play your songs."
"Hey! Good plan!" Chong pulls out his lute. "Have a good life, little lady." He says looking at me. "And take care of the tattoo." Chong begins playing his lute and sing. "Even if you're lost, you can't lose the love because it's in your heart. Da, da, da..."
I'm actually going to miss him.
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Later in the day, the group and I were heading up the mountainside to Omashu.
"The journey was long and annoying, but now you get to see what it's really about: the destination. I present to you the Earth Kingdom city of O- " Sokka pauses abruptly. "Oh no..."
I peeped my head over Sokka's shoulder to see the view of the city, we once visited.
My jaw drops as we discover that Omashu has been captured and placed under Fire Nation rule.
A/n: Heyy guys. I've been in a really good mood lately for like the past few days, so here are a few pics of myself🤥🫣