The first thing Sokka was aware of was that his face felt wet. Kind of like when he fell asleep in his soup. Or like when he crashed face first into a pile of snow when penguin sledding. Except it tasted… dirtier? No, wait… muddier. That was just… perfect. Great. Awesome even. Laying face first in the mud was always his dream. Eugh. It was in his mouth. He would have groaned out loud if he didn't think that was a great way to taste even more muddy goodness. Or even better, breathe it in! Katara would never let him hear the end of this.

The second thing Sokka was aware of was the lack of sound. Or worse, the lack of human sounds. There were no familiar voices to greet him, no 'Sokka you idiot!' or 'Time to get up, Snoozles', not even a 'Mud? That's rough, buddy'. But there were no unfamiliar voices either. No loud orders to move the prisoners. No stomping of heavy army boots. No gossiping from curious bystanders. Nothing. Except for the light rustle of wind running through leaves and branches, there was only the slightest murmur of something other to tell him he wasn't alone. It wasn't exactly reassuring.

There was just something… off. It wasn't loud, or even particularly strange, but it was unfamiliar. Sokka was a hunter, he knew a lot of sounds, from the penguins back home to the wolves of the earth kingdom. But he had never heard this. The murmur, the pitter-patter, the scratches and scritches and assortment of voices that seemed to make up this particular tune. It sounded like wind, like leaves and branches, like trees, but not trees. It sounded like life, like plants, except it was… more. It sounded like a conversation, the kind Suki and the warriors had when the stopped worrying about protecting everyone. It sounded almost, dare he say it… curious? Confused, maybe? Whatever it was, he didn't like it. Plants were not supposed to sound curious or confused or anything other than like plants. Maybe it wasn't a plant. But the sounds…

'There are many spirits to be found in nature… from the smallest blade of grass… to the moon herself.'

Iroh! The old man had been with him before!

Sokka quickly got his face out of the mud, scanning his surroundings as he did so. A forest, but a different one than before. Could the general have attacked him? Had they been tricked by the man? But… no, it didn't make sense! If Iroh had attacked him, then there would be no reason for Sokka to be in his current situation. Killed? Sure. Kidnaped and ransomed? Made sense. Left face down in the mud? Not so much. There was no tactical advantage to that! No way that a traitor would show his true colors without something to win, much less leaving a witness. Besides, the man might have been Fire Nation, but his loyalty was clearly to Zuko. There was no way he would leave without him, and there was no way for him to get him from Toph, especially not by deception, she would notice instantly. Therefore… Iroh hadn't betrayed them. Probably. So…

'There are many spirits to be found in nature…' Darn it. That made an unfortunate amount of sense. Unknown forest, with unknown trees and unknown noises? Yeah. Good job Sokka, just got stuck in the spirit world. Again.

Why the freaking hog monkeys did it have to be spirits?

"...hee…sh…" Sokka quickly sprung into combat position, legs spread, knees bent, eyes sharp as he tried to find the source of the noise. He couldn't see anything, and the noise had stopped as suddenly as it had come, but he had learned long ago that spirit encounters were not often as simple as that. He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck rising, the strangest feeling settling over him. He was being watched, but he had no idea who, or what, was doing the watching. Slowly, methodically, he scanned the forest around him. The plants, the floor, the shadows, even the sky. He found nothing, but still felt the pressure of a persistent pair of eyes. Worst of all though, where the glances. Snippets, lashes, mere suggestions of beings around him. Just out of the corner of his eye, always disappearing before he can truly see them.

The unfamiliar trees were daunting, the strange fog that seemed to surround the clearing was unnerving, to say the least, and he didn't know what to make of the strange rocks, monoliths of some kind. The blue, glowing flowers that grew around some kind of platform or pedestal, they reminded him of the moon, of a princess from long ago, but he couldn't afford to linger on that right now. The sword, however… he knew that sword. His space sword! Except… it was different, he noticed, as he got closer. The hilt was… bigger. The blade, it looked different too, but he could feel it. It felt like his space sword, but it certainly didn't look like it. Then again, this was the spirit world, so who knew if anything was real here? It was probably just the spirits trying to… um… whatever spirits did. Right? Because… spirit world. Spirits might like space-ish swords and blue, glowing flowers. They really were something to look at, those flowers...

Spirit world.

Yue!

What if he could find her? Speak to her? But as he looked around him he realized, if he even stood a chance, he would need a spirit to guide him. Good thing there seemed to be some around. Not so good that he didn't know how to speak to them, or even if they were friendly.

So, get the sword, find a spirit, talk to Yue, and get the heck out of town. Easy peasy.

...except it wasn't because he would never be able to just walk away in search of Yue. Not without knowing that his friends were safe. Darn it.

Sokka let out a frustrated huff, grabbing a small rock, about the size of a cherry and throwing it a a tree. Suddenly, there was a sound like a yelp or a squeal, and before he knew it, Sokka's reflexes went into action as he ducked, avoiding some kind of projectile. It was only a second later when he heard the sound of something cutting through air, barely having time to widen his eyes before he dropped to the ground again. A boomerang flew by right where his head had been, but with Sokka's absence went on to hit a tree, falling harmlessly to the ground with a yelp. Or more accurately, right beside something that yelped. Right beside a curious little gremlin thing with a mask made of leaves.

...right.

"Hey, little guy!" Sokka called out, much to the little gremlin's chagrin, who trembled and squeaked ceaselessly when he realized he'd been seen. "Did you seriously just throw a boomerang at my face?"

The green little buddy seemed to shake even worse, but he gave an almost invisible nod after a few seconds. He also jumped quite an impressive height when Sokka proceeded to startle him with a yell of, "Awesome! I never knew that spirits could use boomerangs… or weapons, come to think of it…" Sokka continued to ramble for a little bit, waving his hands around wildly and pacing restlessly from side to side, oblivious to the little being that stood paralyzed with fear as he watched the human.

Eventually, though, the little guy seemed to finally settled into some kind of terrified calmness. That was until Sokka violently pumped his fist into the air and shoved his face significantly closer to the poor guy, "I got it!" He said, baring his teeth in a huge grin. "You're my spirit guide!"

The little guy had no idea what the boy meant by that, but he privately wondered just what on earth were the Koroks who liked traveling thinking. Hylians were crazy.

Then Sokka said "We, my little spirit friend, are gonna have so much fun." And Kiki knew he was doomed.