We travel through the skies once again quietly and peacefully to our next destination, wherever that may be. As usual, I was meditating, closing my eyes, breathing deeply and ignoring everything around me, just focusing deeply on nothing but my inner self.
Everything was going without any hitches until I feel a mysterious pull internally, drawing my attention to the area beneath me. I open my eyes, peering downwards and staring at a forested area, immediately feeling drawn to the area and wanting to go down. Appa slowly begins to descend down to it and unaware of everything else except the forested area, I began unconsciously climbing over Appa's saddle, only to be stopped by someone grabbing my arm tightly.
I blink again, snapping back to reality and realising where I was, seeing that Sokka and Katara were pulling me back onto Appa. Sokka stares at me as if I were a lunatic. "What are you doing, Suzume? You could've killed yourself!"
"I don't know, I just lost sense of reality there for a second and I-I don't know, I feel like something wants me to go down there," I gaze at the area beneath myself, seeing that it was a swamp. "I just feel naturally drawn to it for some reason. But thanks for saving my life, both of you."
"No problem, Suzume," Katara smiled, but her smile soon melted into a frown. "Just don't do that again, please."
"Yeah," I paused in confusion. "I just don't know why I feel so attracted to the forest all of a sudden."
"I feel the same way as you did," Aang looks back at me, nodding in agreement. "I know it sounds weird," Aang gazes at Katara and Sokka. "But I feel like the swamp is calling to both of us."
"Is it telling you where we can get something to eat?" Sokka joked, rubbing his growling stomach.
"No, I-I think it wants us to land there," Aang answered, looking to me for confirmation and I nod, sensing the same thing Aang was.
Sokka shrugs, "No offence to the swamp, but I don't see any land there to land on." I began to hear rumblings, chitters and all sorts of noises coming from beneath us, making me even more keen on going to the swamp.
"I don't know. Bumi said to learn earthbending Suzume and I would have to wait and listen, and now I'm actually hearing the earth." Aang looks at me again and I nod, confirming that I was hearing the same thing. "Suzume does too. Do you want us to ignore it?"
"Yes," Sokka deadpanned.
"I don't know. There's something ominous about that place," Katara shuddered. 'Yet it seems so fascinating.'
Momo quickly hides under Appa's saddle in fear and even the flying bison groans, further supporting Sokka's point which he was quick to point out. "See, even Appa and Momo don't like it here."
"Okay, since most of us feel so strongly about this," Aang sighs in defeat, glancing at the swamp. "bye swamp. Yip yip!" Aang yanks Appa's ropes upwards, making the flying bison fly upwards and away from the swamp.
Katara and Sokka both breathe sighs of relief while I gaze down at the swamp longingly, still desiring and longing to explore the swamp. Aang's apologetic voice fills my mind, 'Sorry Suzume, the others just didn't seem to like the idea of visiting the swamp, maybe next time you and I can go visit the swamp together.'
'Well, I hope we do.'
Suddenly, I hear a continuous rumble and whooshing behind us, it was as if a train was heading toward us at light speed. I quickly turn around and Sokka does as well, spotting a massive swirling tornado heading straight for Appa.
"We gotta move!" Sokka yelled.
Appa starts to fly faster, zigzagging away from the tornado but he wasn't fast enough, the tornado started to close the distance towards Appa. As the tornado neared Appa, the strong air currents around it almost pulls Sokka right off Appa's saddle. Thankfully, Katara reacts quickly, grabbing onto Sokka's hand before he could fly off the flying bison. I slam my fists together, summoning air currents and forming an air shield around Appa to shield us from the powerful gusts of winds that emanated from the tornado.
Sokka falls back into Appa's saddles, thankfully unscathed. I feel every one of my muscles straining, grunting as I kept the air shield alive but to no avail. I slowly begin to feel the air shield beginning to shrink and sensing this, Aang joined me, bending another layer of air to add on the air shield to keep it intact. However, one of Appa's legs slips through the air shield, ultimately breaking our air shield. The strong winds from the tornado fling us off Appa and into the waters of the swamp beneath us, throwing Appa and Momo somewhere else. Aang and I use airbending to land gracefully in the swamp waters while Katara and Sokka had a rougher landing, landing into the swamp water with a splash.
I help them both to their feet while Aang leapt onto the top of a mangrove tree, searching for his animal companions, "Appa! Momo!"
He begins swinging on some vines, going off to find them. Meanwhile, Sokka had problems of his own.
"Sokka, you've got an elbow leech," Katara pointed out blandly.
Sokka begins to look around his body frantically, "Where? Where?"
"Where do you think?" Katara asked sarcastically.
"Why do things keep attaching to me?!" Sokka peels the leech off him, quickly tossing it aside in my direction.
"Watch it, Sokka!" I scolded, summoning a gust of wind to knock the leech further back from me.
"Sorry," Sokka smiled sheepishly and Aang comes swinging back over to us, jumping down from the vine and landing beside me.
"You couldn't find them?" Katara questioned.
"No, and the tornado," Aang paused in confusion. "it just disappeared."
"Well, we better get a move on if we want to find Appa and Momo and get out of here as soon as possible," Sokka advised.
We let Sokka lead the way through the swamp, coming to a halt at an area blocked off by vines. Sokka takes out his machete, starting to cut and slash through the vines blocking our path.
"We better speed things up," Sokka reiterated, now quickening the pace at which he sliced through the vines.
Aang and I exchange uneasy looks and Aang was quick to voice our concerns, "Sokka, maybe this isn't such a good idea, we should be a little nicer to the swamp."
"Aang, these are just plants," Sokka rebuffed. "Do you want me to say please and thank you as I swing my machete back and forth?"
"Sokka, this place feels a little spiritual and a little alive, so unless you want to offend some spirits, I think you should listen to Aang," I advised.
"I'm sure there are lots of things that are alive and spiritual here so if we don't wanna wind up getting eaten by them, we need to find Appa as fast as we can," Sokka argued, continuing to slice through the vines with his machete. He eventually manages to slice through all of them, allowing us to press on with our journey until the sky above us darkened. We were now in a foggier part of the swamp, all of us still on the lookout for Momo and Appa, tirelessly calling out for them, our attempts bearing no fruits.
"Appa! Momo!" Katara yelled.
"There's no way they can hear us and no way we can see them. We'll have to make camp for the night," Sokka declared. A 'pop' suddenly goes off in the waters of the swamp beneath us, releasing large wisps of odourless gas that started flowing closer to us.
"What was that?" Katara asked in fear.
"Nothing, just swamp gas," Sokka shrugged. "Look, there's nothing supernatural going on here."
The smell of the gas reaches us, making us all groan in disgust and making me nauseous. I quickly airbend the gas away from us and the four of us continue to move forward in silence. The silence was soon shattered by a piercing human-like scream, scaring the absolute daylight out of the four of us and causing us to huddle together in fear.
I look at the source of the sound, seeing a small, white bird perched on a branch. It opens its beak extremely wide again, emitting the same terrifying scream before it flew away, fluttering off to some other place.
We release each other, breathing a collective sigh of relief and continuing to tread forward.
"I think we should build a fire," Sokka suggested nervously, running off to a nearby tree to cut pieces of wood from its roots.
"Sokka, the longer we're here, the more I think you shouldn't be doing that," Aang advised anxiously.
"No, I asked the swamp. It said this was fine." Sokka grabs a nearby root of a mangrove tree. "Right, swamp?" Sokka shakes the root, faking a reply from it, "No problem, Sokka!"
"Sokka, this isn't a joke!" I upbraided. "Haven't you realised that this swamp is somewhat alive?"
"Yeah, you told me that before and nothing has happened to us yet so don't worry too much about it! Besides, what else are we going to use to start up a fire?" Sokka continues to chop more wood while Aang and I stare at him unsurely, unsure whether to stop him or let him continue, knowing that we would need fire to last the night. Aang and I decide on the latter, still looking at him uneasily.
We do manage to get a fire going and we huddle over it, our surroundings already beginning to feel even eerier than before. Katara hugs her knees in fear, her eyes roving the swamp cautiously, "Does anyone else get the feeling that we're being watched?"
"Please, we're all alone out here," Sokka waves away Katara's concerns nonchalantly, using his machete to scare away several flies that were flying around him. They fly away from him, giving off a luminous glow and illuminating over a dozen pairs of eyes staring at us.
"Except for them," Aang shuddered and we began huddling together, gripping onto each other tightly in fear.
"Right, except for them," Sokka said anxiously, his composure completely vanishing. We remain like this until we fall asleep, just hoping the night would go smoothly and that we could exit the swamp by tomorrow. 'I have no idea why the swamp even called Aang and me to it in the first place.'
Time Skip
Sleeping soundly, I thought that I'd get the peaceful night I desired, but my wish was not granted. I instantly shoot awake as I feel something entwine itself around me like tendrils from a plant wrapping itself around a pole, snaking up my body and binding it tightly but instead of tendrils, it was vines. The vines yank me away and hearing the distant screams from the others around me pierce the air, I assumed the same thing was happening to them.
Using all the strength I could muster, I manage to free my hands from the vines, quickly airbending a ball of air around myself to repel the vines from me, giving me just enough time to evade its clutches. I leap onto a tree with airbending and somehow, the vines continue to pursue me. I waterbend the water from the swamp below me, bending it into a water whip and slicing through the vines, leaping away from them as far as possible with airbending shortly after.
I now find myself alone in the swamps, free from the danger of any more vines hunting me down and breathing a sigh of relief. Now that I had successfully evaded the vines, I proceeded to the next course of business, finding my friends. 'Aang, where are you? Are you okay? I'm doing fine here.'
'I'm fine, Suzume. I don't know where I am now and it's kinda hard to describe. Just try to stay where you are now, Suzume, I'll try to find you and the rest.'
'Got it, Aang.'
I follow Aang's orders but get a little bored after doing so for a while, deciding to wander the area for a bit. Everything goes fine until I see someone uncannily familiar standing in front of me, coming to a halt in front of her. A lady wearing a traditional Northern Water Tribe outfit was standing right in front of me, her skin chestnut-brown and her hair short and wavy just like mine. She shared the exact same sky-blue eyes as I did and I had no doubt in my heart who I was staring at, feeling my soul almost escape my body and my breaths quickening.
"Mom," I whispered quietly, feeling tears prickling my eyes.
She begins glaring at me, pointing an accusatory finger at me, "Suzume, why did you jump from the ship? Why did you leave me? We would've been all safe, living life happily if it weren't for you. I wouldn't have had to spend the entirety of my life trying to find you! You're a selfish girl who cares for no one but herself!"
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," I feel my knees buckling, falling to the swamp on my knees and weeping. "You're right, I'm a terrible child. Please, forgive me, I just want to see you again. I'll do anything, please!" I try to reach out to her but she fades away, vanishing completely. I stand back up, wiping the tears away from my face and realising what had just happened. 'It was all an illusion.'
I suddenly hear giggling above me and I look up at the source of the sound, seeing a girl donning a fancy dress standing beside a winged boar, both of them standing on top of a tree branch. The girl blows sticks her tongue out at me and mocks me, "Catch me if you can, unless you're too weak to, waterhead." 'The absolute nerve!'
The feelings of sadness I experienced earlier completely evaporated, superseded by feelings of anger. I leap onto the tree with airbending, chasing her down but she runs away from me, leaping onto another tree with her winged friend trailing her.
"Come back here!" I shouted, continuing to pursue her as she leapt onto the trunk of yet another tree, using the vines from the tree I was on to swing me onto her tree but by the time I make it, she was already off dashing on the ground, giggling and laughing.
"Who even are you?" I grumble in frustration, continuing to chase her from the treetops. She eventually runs behind a wall of vegetation, and I leap down from the tree using airbending, gracefully landing in the swamp. Using a combination of airbending and waterbending, I propel myself forward in the water, reaching the wall of vegetation. Peering through it, I see the girl standing stationary on the branch of the tree on the other side.
"I've got you now!" I whispered, dashing at her with airbending and almost reaching her, only to find myself running through her as if she were nothing but air (because she was, and I got tricked again) and straight into a charging Aang, both of us widening our eyes in surprise and screaming as we saw each other and collided, barrelling down the tree and ending up at the root of the tree, where Sokka and Katara were standing.
"What do you guys think you're doing!? We've been looking all over for you!" Sokka shouted.
"Well, we've been wandering around looking for you!" I countered, rubbing my head and standing back up with Aang, looking at him expectantly, "We both saw the same thing, didn't we?"
"Yeah, we did," Aang nodded in agreement.
"What did you two see?" Katara inquired curiously.
"We saw this girl, dressed in some sort of fancy dress with some kind of winged boar beside her," I answered.
"Well, there must be a tea party here and we just didn't get our invitations!" Sokka exclaimed sarcastically.
"Very funny, Sokka," I glared at him. "I'm sure I saw her and Aang did too."
"Suzume may be right," Katara nodded. "Because I thought I saw Mom."
Everyone turns serious at this, and I place a comforting hand on Katara's shoulder. "It's okay, Katara. It was all just an illusion and I know because...I thought I saw my mom too," I added quietly, shaking my head and pursing my lips to prevent any tears from escaping.
I felt everyone's gaze now fixated on me, Aang's eyes widening in disbelief. This time, Katara wraps her hands around me, engulfing me in a hug. "I'm so sorry, Suzume. I understand how it feels but I know deep down that somewhere, my mom is watching over me and I'm sure your mom is too. The best thing we can do to honour them is to remain strong because they wouldn't want to see us forever grieving, would they? You're strong, Suzume, you'll be able to get through this."
"Thank you Katara," I hug her back, releasing myself from her hug shortly after.
"If you ever need to talk to someone about her, I'll always be here," Katara reassured. "I'll always have your back."
"Thanks, Katara," I offer her a smile, and she returns it. "I'll always have your back too." Aang's voice begins to fill my mind, 'Suzume, just remember, you can always talk to me about anything if you feel like you wanna get something off your chest. I'll also always be here for you and I definitely have your back, I'll always have your back, I'm never letting you get hurt as my fellow Avatar, not on my watch.'
'Thanks, Aang. I'll keep that in mind. I definitely will always have your back too, no matter what.'
'Thanks, Suzume.' Aang shoots a smile at me and I return it gratefully.
"Look," Sokka finally interjects. "I'm sorry about everything that's happened, but we were all just scared and hungry and our minds were playing tricks on us. That's why we all saw things out here."
Katara looks at Sokka in surprise, "You saw something too?"
"I thought I saw Yue," Sokka conceded. "But, that doesn't prove anything. Look, I think about her all the time, and you saw Mom, someone you miss a lot. And Suzume saw her mom, someone she also missed and wanted to know a lot more about."
"What about Suzume and my vision?" Aang asked. "We didn't know the girl I saw. And all our visions led us right here."
"Okay...so where's here?" Katara gestured to where we were standing. "The middle of the swamp?"
"Yeah, the centre," Aang gazes at a massive tree beside us, gasping in realisation. "it's the heart of the swamp. It's been calling us here. I knew it."
"It's just a tree. It can't call anyone. For the last time, there's nothing after us and there's nothing magical happening here," Sokka ranted.
Just as I was about to rebuff his argument, a huge wave of water erupts beside us and a monster made of vines emerges from the swamp. All of us scream in horror, running in different directions as the monster started to attack us. It aimed for Sokka first, shooting out its vine and coiling them around Sokka's body. Aang was quick to react to this, slicing the arm that it was using to hold Sokka off with an airbending slice.
The monster sends Sokka flying back into a tree and launches its vines at Aang, sending him flying back into the surrounding trees. Its vines somehow regenerate, its arms now fully regrown.
"Aang!" I cried out in concern. Ignoring and suppressing the pain that arrived in my back from him being knocked back, I create a wave of water in the swamp, riding on it and chasing the monster who had just recaptured Sokka with his vines and was running away from us by riding a wave of his own. Katara joins me and side-by-side, both of us create water whips, slicing the monster's arm off and releasing Sokka from the monster's grasp. I then send a huge wave crashing into the monster's body, freezing it up and preventing it from moving, or so I thought.
Vines shoot out from the monster's head, breaking the ice that trapped its body. The monster subsequently launches its vines at me before I could even react, sending me flying back into a tree trunk. Seconds later, Katara also faces the same fate as I do, knocking into the tree beside me.
"Suzume! Katara!" Aang cried out in concern and I look up at him, seeing that he was now dealing with the monster.
'Don't worry Aang, I'm fine.' I get up again, grunting and racing forward to rejoin Aang.
'Suzume, I have a plan on how to defeat the monster.' A glance from him was all that was needed to convey his plan to me and I immediately understood, agreeing to it.
Narrowly evading an outstretched vine from the monster, Aang conjures an air scooter, scooting around it in all directions and confusing it while also causing the monster to bend its vines around itself.
Aang leaps off the monster and waterbending the water from the swamp into sharp circular water blades, I began directing it at the monster and so does Aang, slicing through its vines and not allowing it to regenerate. Katara soon joins us and more and more vines from the monster come off. I glimpse a person within the monster, bending more vines around the monster and regenerating its vines. Sokka quickly mentions that to us from behind, "There's someone in there! He's bending the vines!"
Aang and Katara hasten their waterbending, creating a hole in the monster large enough which reveals the man behind the monster. Summoning a powerful gust of wind, I send it at the man in a powerful air blast, sending him flying through the monster and landing into the swamp. The monster he created with vines turns motionless and the vines from it begin falling into a great heap in front of him.
The four of us get into our fighting stances, surrounding the rotund man only wearing a leaf loincloth who stares at the four of us innocently as if he didn't know what he just did.
"Who are you?" I growled.
"Yeah! And why did you call us here if you just wanted to kill us!?" Aang questioned demandingly.
The man rises from the ground, looking at Aang curiously, "I didn't call any of you here."
"We were flying over and she," Aang explained, pointing to me and himself. "and I heard something calling to us, telling us to land."
"They're the Avatars. Stuff like that happens to us a lot," Sokka added.
"The Avatars?" The man started beaming in interest. "I've always thought the second Avatar was a rumour, I didn't know it was true. Come with me."
We relax our stances, looking at one another in surprise. We follow him and he leads us to the top of the massive tree Aang spotted earlier.
"So, who are you then?" I inquired.
"I protect the swamp from folks that want to hurt it, like this fella with his big knife," the man points to Sokka.
"See, completely reasonable," Sokka puts his machete away. "Not a monster, just a regular guy defending his home. Nothing mystical about it."
"Oh, the swamp is a mystical place all right. It's sacred. I reached enlightenment right here under the banyan grove tree," the man sits down on the tree. "I heard it calling me, just like both of you did."
"Sure you did. It seems real chatty," Sokka jested sarcastically.
Ignoring Sokka, the man continues explaining the place to us, "See this whole swamp is actually just one tree spread out over miles. Branches spread and sink, take root, and spread some more. One big, living organism. Just like the entire world."
"Wow," I muttered in amazement.
Aang looks at the man sceptically, "I get how the tree is one big thing, but the whole world?" The four of us take a seat in front of the man, listening attentively as he spoke.
"Sure. You think you're any different from me or your friends or this tree? If you listen hard enough, you can hear every living thing breathing together. You can feel everything growing. We're all living together, even if most folks don't act like it. We all have the same roots and we are all branches of the same tree."
"But what did our visions mean?" Katara asked.
"In the swamp, we see visions of people we've lost, people we loved, folks we think are gone. But the swamp tells us they're not. We're still connected to them. Time is an illusion and so is death," the man informed. 'If so, is reality just an illusion and the universe just a hologram?' (Author's Note: Did anyone get the reference?)
"Wait, so that means," Aang and I exchange glances, finally understanding the true meaning behind the vision of the girl we saw. "So the girl we saw is someone we'll meet," I conclude.
The man nods in response and Sokka suddenly interrupts us, "Sorry to interrupt the lesson, but we still need to find Appa and Momo."
"I think we know how to find them," Aang and I exchange nods and we both place our hands on the tree, closing our eyes and imagining Appa's appearance. Almost instantly, we were greeted with a vision of him, captured in a net and pulled along in the swamp by what looked like tribesmen in two boats.
Reopening our eyes, we stand up quickly, gesturing for the rest to follow us, "Come on! We've got to hurry!"
Aang and I lead the way to Appa and without wasting any time after reaching the location, I waterbend a jet of water at their boats, knocking all the tribesmen back except one of them out of the boat and into the swamp.
"Appa!" Aang yelled in concern, airbending the last person in the boat into the swamp.
"We're under attack!" One of the tribesmen in the water exclaimed, waterbending a wave of water from the swamp at us. Katara, Aang and I waterbend the wave back at him, the wave slowly beginning to inch closer to him.
"Hey, you guys are waterbenders!" Katara cried in surprise.
"You too! That means we're kin!" Katara shoots him a disgusted look and to be honest, I can't blame her. He stops waterbending and we reciprocate the act, dropping the wave back into the swamp peacefully. The man then waves to the rotund man we met earlier beside us, "Hey Huu! How you been?"
"You know, scared some folks, swung some vines, the usual," Huu replied casually, smiling at him.
"Huu?" Sokka questioned in disgust.
Time Skip
We learn that the tribesmen that captured Appa were from a tribe known as the Foggy Swamp Tribe. The tribesmen we met introduced themselves to us and in turn, we introduced ourselves to them. They invited us to have dinner with them, which we accepted. They lead us back to their campsite and with the thoroughly pitch-black sky now above us, we were huddled around a campfire and eating with them.
"How you like that possum chicken?" Due asked, gazing at Sokka inquisitively.
"Tastes just like arctic hen. So why were you guys so interested in eating Appa?" Sokka points at an alligator-like creature behind Due. "You've got plenty of those big things wandering around."
"You want me to eat old Slim?" Due sounded affronted by Sokka's suggestion. "He's like a member of the family!"
Due hands some fish over to his animal companion and he gulps it down quickly.
"Nice Slim!" Sokka complimented, tossing a random bug he found on the floor at Slim. Slim completely ignores it, the bug bouncing on its nose and its nostrils flaring in anger, growling at Sokka. Sokka cowers back in fear and Due merely laughs at him.
"Oh, he don't eat no bugs! That's people food," Due chuckled.
Tho gazed at Katara inquisitively, "Where'd you say you was from?"
"The South Pole," Katara smiled.
"Didn't know there was waterbenders anywhere but here. They got a nice swamp there, do they?" Tho asked.
"No, it's all ice and snow," Katara answered cheerfully.
"Hmm," Tho rubbed his chin in thought. "No wonder you left." Tho then looks at me. "And you said you were from the one just north of hers right?"
"Uhhh, well, I'm from the North Pole so I guess you could say that," I shrugged unsurely.
"Well I hope they have swamps there," Tho muttered.
"Well actually, we don't. The North Pole is similar to the South Pole, it's just snow, ice, some buildings made of snow and a palace," I informed.
"Oh," Tho shook his head in disappointment.
"Well," Sokka turns to face Katara and me. "I hope you two realise now that nothing strange was going on here. Just a bunch of greasy people living in a swamp."
"Right, whatever floats your boat Sokka," I rolled my eyes. "This swamp is magical and I'm sticking with what I think."
"Yeah," Katara nodded in agreement. "What about the visions we had?"
"I told you, we were hungry. I'm eating a giant bug!" Sokka holds up a giant bug one of the tribesmen gave him, munching and gnawing on it slowly before forcing himself to swallow it. 'Ugh, that's disgusting.'
"But what about when the tree showed Suzume and me where Appa and Momo were?" Aang spoke up.
"That's Avatar stuff, that doesn't count," Sokka reasoned, turning his attention to Huu now. "The only thing I can't figure out is how you made that tornado that sucked us down."
"I can't do anything like that," Huu shrugged. "I just bend the water in the plants." 'That's genius, we're going to have to try that someday, Aang.'
'Definitely, Suzume.'
'We can call that, plantbending.'
'Good thinking, I like that name.'
"Well, no accounting for the weather. Still, there's absolutely nothing mysterious about the swamp," Sokka reiterated and I sighed, knowing that nothing would change his obstinate mind about that.