They were on their way to Ba Sing Se. They were not there, and they won't be there soon, but they were on their way. Aoi was sitting on Mia's lap. He was huge. He was as big as a lynx and he kept growing and growing. Mia stared at the clouds above her and for a moment she was at piece until Sokka broke the silcence. "Hey, are you taking us down for a reason?" He asked. "AANG! Why are we going down?" Sokka asked when he hung over the saddle and looked down.
"Oh, sorry. I did not notice." Aang replied. "Are you noticing now?" Sokka asked like he had just been stung by a bee. Aang frowned and Mia looked to his worried face. "What is it?" She asked. "Is something wrong?" Katara asked and she laid her waterbending scroll down and walked up to the front of the saddle. "I know this sounds really weird but" Aang replied, "it looks like it's calling to me."
"Is it telling you were we can get something to eat?" Sokka asked, while his hand rested on his stomach.
"No...," Aang said calm before Mia could say 'idiot', "but I think it wants us to land there."
"No offense to the swamp Aang," Mia said when she looked of tyhe edge of the saddle, "but I don't see any spot to land." The whole earth under them was dark green and thick. "I don't know. Bumi said I've had to listen to the earth," Aang replied, "and now I am actually hearing the earth." Aang looked at Mia. "Do you want me to ignore it?" Mia nodded heavily.
"It seems like it's an odd place." Katara said.
"Okay.... Well then no swamp. Goodbye swamp," Aang said disappointed, "Yip Yip."
Suddenly the four heared a lot of noise behind them and Sokka and Mia turned around. They saw a huge tornado coming up to them, that wasn't there three seconds ago. "Could you throw an extra Yip?! We gotta go!" Mia yelled. Appa zig-zag'ed through the sky. It was odd to see several trees flying in the sky, but it was more odd to see how Sokka got launched out of the saddle. Katara grabbed his hand and Mia held Katara close to her. Aang made a huge ball of wind around them, and Sokka fell back into the saddle. They were in the tornado now, and Aang could impossible hold this for long.
They all got thrown out of the saddle and they fell in the swamp. Mia fell in a tree and the branches cut in her body before she fell in the dirty water. Sokka, Aang and Katara landed behind her. "Where are Appa, Momo and Aoi?" Aang asked and he started to jumped up to a tree. Mia looked at Sokka and she noticed he had a leech on him. "Sokka you have an elbow leech." She said when she pointed to him. "Where? Where?" HE asked panicky. "Where do you think?" Mia replied calm when she looked at the enourmous leech, almost the same size as Sokka's arm itself.
Sokka screamed and started to pull the leach hysterically. "WHY DO THINGS KEEP ATTACHING TO ME?!" He yelled and he succeeded to free himself from the leech and he threw it away. In the meantime Aang came back. "You couldn't find them?" Katara asked. "No, and the tornado... it just disappeared. Sokka slashed his way through the swamp. "We better speed things up." He said. "Maybe we should be a little nicer to the swamp." Aang said. Mia and Sokka immediately turned around and gave him 'the raised eyebrow'. "Aang these are just plants. Do I have to say please and thank you everytime I swing my machete back and forth?" Sokka replied.
"Maybe we should listen to Aang. This place feels a bit... alive." Katara said.
"I am sure there are a lot of things that are alive here, but if we don't want to get up being eaten by them we need to find our animals as soon as we can." Sokka replied. It started to get really, really foggy as they made their way through the swamp. Katara was yelling Appa's, Momo
s and Aoi's name but of course it was unuseful. "We should make camp for the night." Mia said. They walked passed a little lake, and there came bubbles out of it, ith a kind of gas. "What's that?" Katara asked. "I don't know... swamp gas?" Mia replied annoyed.
It stinked horridly, and suddenly they heard a terrifying scream. The four immediately group-hugged eachother and looked around. Another scream was heard. It was the scream of a four inch little owl, and it happily flew away again. "Yep, let's make that fire." Sokka said and he started to collect some wood. When the fire was made, the four said quietly around the fire. "Do you also have that feeling of being watched?" Katara asked. "All the time." Mia replied. She did not care.
Eventually, the four fell a deep sleep. Mia woke up a few hours later, for there was quite a bit of itch on her foot. Then a strong feeling around her leg and suddeny she was being stricted in vines. With a loud scream she got yanked into the darkness.
Mia burned the tentacles off her and she started to run through the forest. She climbed in a tree, and made her way over the branches. One vine stricted her foot and Mia slammed on a big branche before she landed in the water. The fog disappeared and she looked around her. "Guys...?" She said quietly, with a shaky voice that Mia had never used before.
~
Mia ran around, around and around, calling her friends' names. Mia searched in her pockets. All she could find was a sharp little knife of Mai (that she threw to her in Omashu), a dead fly and some crumbs. Disappointed Mia sat down on a tree stamp and looked into the distance. Suddenly, a rabbit hopped by. His leg was bleeding and he seemed to be in pain. Mia was hungry and she pitied the rabbit, that had a lot of pain. "I think we both know what the best for both of us is..." Mia said quietly and she threw the knife to the rabbit. It hit it right in his head and he was immediatly dead. Quietly Mia walked up to the rabbit, and the pain seemed to be swept of his little face.
The firs thing she did was to cut of the white rabbit's foot and stopped the bleeding. 'for luck'. She did not eat it immediatly, she kept it for maybe her friends would find her back. Mia continued her journey through the forest. Mia saw a man standing in the distance. "Oh, thank the almighty!" She said relieved and she ran up to the man. "You have no idea how glad I am to see you, I have been walking around here for hours." She laid her hand on the man's shoulder and he turned around. Mia started to shake. "Dad?" She said. The man stared at her, not saying anything. Mia blinked a few times and she was talking to a tree. "It must be the gas." She turned herself around and she saw her father again but then in front her her. Mia stuttered and she shot fire to him. When she stopped and looked, he was gone.
Mia heard noise coming out of a bush, and her fists set on fire, and suddenly, Sokka bumped up to her and they fell in the water. "Sokka!" Mia said and she gave him a little push. "I almost burned you!" She yelled. "How can I know?" He replied. "Well just..." Mia stuttered, "give a sign!" Sokka smiled and she hugged him tight. "Any way, what the hell did you think you were doing? I have been searching for hours!" He replied. "You are not the only one!" Katara and Aang came from the other way. Relieved Mia hugged her friends. "You guys were right... This place has something suprnatural." Mia said.
"I have been chasing some girl." Aang replied. "A girl? What girl?" Mia asked him, with a little smile.
"I don't just a girl in a fancy dress." Aang relied. Mia frowned. "What nice, everyone is having a teaparty here and we weren't invited." Sokka said. "I thought I saw mom..." Katara said quietly.
"I thoght I saw my father." Mia 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
"Well all our visions have led us here." Aang said.
"Look at that tree..." Mia 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 than us,"Sokka said, "we are all alone here and there are no such things as-"
Out of the water a huge monster of plants rose up and started to swung around with it's arms. The four yelled and they all put on 'battle mode'. Mia shot fire to it and Katara tried to cut it with water. One of the huge planty arms grabbed Sokka and lifted him up the water. Mia succeeded to free Sokka, but she got thrown away by it herself. She bumped up to a tree and fell with her flat face in the mud. Mia ran back to the vine-monster and she saw a shadow in it. "There's someone in there! He's bending the vines!" She yelled. Aang, savior of the day, came by and he blew all the vines away and there was just a man left.
"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 suprised, "come with me!" The five walked to the big tree, "so who are you?" Mia asked. "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 mysterical." Sokka replied airy.
"Oh it is mysterical. 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 hink you are different than me? Or your friends? No, if you listen hard enough you can hear all the organisms bretahing 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."
"That's beautiful but," Mia said quietly, "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. Mia smiled brightly and she started to envy the man. "But the girl I saw... I have never met her." Aang said with a big frown on his forehead. "Time is an illusion," Mia said while she thought about it,"maybe you still have to meet her." The man nodded. "Come, let's have dinner together and let me give you a good night sleep," the man said friendly. "Thank you, but we need to find our animals first." Katara said. "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.
Mia, Katara and Sokka followed the man. They went to a small village where the swampfolk lived. Aang returned with Appa, Momo and Aoi, and after that they had a delicious meal (including the rabbit) and they told each other stories and sang songs. It was a nice experience and Mia really had learned a lot from them. Aang kept thinking about the girl and Mia about her father. They all went to bed rigjt after midnight and it had been a while since the four had a good and peaceful night.