(A/N)I've been jumpy with my feels lately that I was a bit too excited to write this. Sooo…I promised myself to finish on May 1st. And I'm really happy that I didn't break that promise! Anyways, Chapter 2, people.

Chapter 2: Fog

That night, Aang had a dream.

The moment he started drifting off to slumber, a familiar darkness engulfed him as it separated him from the real world.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself standing not on his room's hardwood floor but on a moist, slippery surface. Aang realized that he was perched on top of massive tree root covered in moss. The green substance beneath his feet made it difficult for him to balance on, so when he felt himself starting to slip, he instinctively grabbed a thick vine to keep himself upright.

Aang let his eyes wander around the ecosystem to take in his surroundings. Everywhere he looked there were unmistakable clusters of vines and branches that were covered in moss or fungi. They seem to appear at random. The trees surrounding him were huge, twisted and definitely ancient judging by their thick trunks. Their roots were even a lot larger than the boy's body in comparison, which made it possible for Aang to balance on them.

He set his gaze from the trees to the surface below him. Greenish freshwater pooled like flood after the rain. Aang realized that there was no visible land surface from where he was rooted. The only things that prevented him from getting wet were the massive tree roots. Everything else around him were either submerged underwater or if terrestrial, covered in vines, moss and fungi.

The leaves of the trees were stories high from the ground and spread everywhere to form a roof. They shielded the light from the sun above him, allowing a large canopy to stretch the vast area, with little rays of sunlight to pass through. The only sounds that he could hear came from a few animals that chattered and cricketed around him noisily.

Through his observation, he knew that he was someplace isolated. It didn't take long for him to register where dreamland took him.

He was in a swamp.

Not just any swamp, the Swamp.

He breathed in the earthly scent. The place smelled of something unpleasant but Aang decided that it was all part of the swamp's organic nature.

He wondered why of all places the Sand Man took him to a swamp. He could be on a mountain or a deserted island, or even flying in the skies with a large fluffy animal, but he never expected to end up in a swamp.

Then again, you can't really choose where your dreams will take you.

Aang sighed.

A silent moment passed. Then suddenly he realized something.

Wait a minute. I just sighed... In my dream!

He tried it again just to make sure and exhaled heavily.

Gray eyes shot wide open in surprise.

He just sighed in his dream voluntarily!

No way…

Aang did a double check and did all sorts of other things that he never knew he could do in ordinary dreams. He started to move his hands around, kick his feet outwards, rotate his head counter-clockwise and reverse. He shook his head and jumped continuously in the air like a child reaching for the cookie jar.

He paused. He did all those things voluntarily and consciously as if he was wide awake in the real world. He could see, hear, smell and even feel. What's even weirder was that he knew he was asleep in reality and was having a strange, realistic dream in a swamp.

Wait, how did he even know he's in a dream? Doesn't your brain usually tell you that you're not dreaming when you really are?

Hoping that he could wake up and escape, he desperately pinched himself on his forearm and winced.

He felt pain.

A look of horror flashed through his features and he started to panic. Painful realization struck him hard that he nearly doubled over and fell into the water below him.

He was stuck here. In the Swamp.

Trapped.

Aang fell to his knees. This place may be inescapable. He knew that he won't be able to wake up unless some miracle happens. Aang never experienced anything like this. Most of his dreams were incontrollable and he couldn't really use his senses other than his sight. His surroundings just feel so real that it was as if he were truly awake.

He buried his face in his hands and groaned. He has to find a way out of here or he'll be stuck in a marshy swamp for all eternity.

Aang forced himself to stand. He has to find an exit. It could be anywhere so he wasted no time trying to find it. He took cautious steps as he hopped from root to root, holding vines for support, careful not to accidentally slip on the moss and fall in the water. The swamp water obviously wasn't deep but he didn't want to get himself wet and filthy.

He took another step to another root, balancing himself in-between smaller ones with ease. When he reached the end of the tree, he noticed that the adjacent tree's roots were a little distant. There was a gap of water in between and it was large enough for him to possibly fall into. Aang hesitated, but mustered some courage to jump over.

He reached the edge of the adjacent root, but unfortunately, the poor boy slipped on the moss and fell on his back to the water. He was immediately drenched and it hurt where his bottom landed. He groaned from the slight pain of the impact.

Aang pulled himself to his feet and scowled. He was dripping wet and smelt of something indescribable, almost earthly and organic. He was sure that for the whole duration of his quest to the exit, he'll have a stench.

Suddenly, he heard laughter in a distance.

He whirled around consciously to find the source of the voice, only to find no one. Aang shrugged, thinking maybe he was just imagining things, and continued to climb on to the next root.

When he finally managed to settle himself on the bottom of the tree, he heard it again – the unmistakable laugh of a young girl.

Her laugh was playful, inviting, almost like music to the ears. It was as if she was vying for his attention, which in his theory, was something that she was trying to do.

His eyebrows furrowed in confusion when she laughed again. He couldn't find the source of the voice, but at least now he knows that he's not alone.

Something white caught his eye when he turned to the left. Half conscious of what he was about to do, Aang followed it.

He was in the middle of the water whirling around in confusion when she laughed again, this time she was a little closer. Aang turned his head to the source of the sound. A figure clad in a white dress was standing on a branch high above him with a flying boar hovering beside her. Her face was a blur but he could see that she had black hair and had it elegantly tied to a bun. For a moment, he wondered what a girl in a fancy dress could possibly be doing in a swamp, wherein she could be staying within the walls of her house. Aang jumped high to the tree she was perched on and was surprised to discover that he could jump that altitudinous.

Somehow he was having second thoughts of the situation being a realistic dream because normally, he couldn't jump twenty feet off the ground.

When he reached the branch, the girl with the mysterious face sprung to another tree. Aang jumped to follow her.

He grinned at his newfound ability. Cool! I can jump from tree to tree now like a flying lemur!

The girl laughed again from another tree, farther away from the one he saw her spring on and he continued to try and catch her.

"Wait!" he cried out.

The girl laughed yet again and Aang was starting to feel rather irritated. If she was trying to catch his attention, she was doing a really good job at it. Although, he did wonder if she was trying to lead him somewhere because she didn't seem like she wanted to talk but just follow. All she probably wanted to do was to play games with him.

She appeared on a tree branch behind him, laughing with mirth. Aang followed and then she disappeared once more.

"Where are you? I just want to talk," he cried.

Aang exhaled. He was beginning to get tired from all the chasing. He looked around him for her and spotted the girl below standing in the middle of the waters with her back turned to him. The flying boar that followed her earlier seemed to have disappeared.

"Who are you?"

Wasting no time, Aang jumped down from the tree he was perched on and grabbed the girl's shoulder. He turned her forcefully to face him, her features still hidden. Just when he was going to take a good look on her face, everything around him, including the girl, faded to white light.

~*-((o))-*~

"Aang…Aang!"

The boy slowly opened his eyes to find his roommate shaking him vigorously. His face had a worried expression written all over it, and his bed hair was in a total mess.

"Whurt," he said hoarsely. "Sokka?"

The older boy exhaled. "Oh thank La," the anxiety from his face faded as he let go of Aang's shoulders. "What the hell happened to you?" he exclaimed and threw his hands up in the air.

"Umm," Aang sat up, scratching his head in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"What do you mean 'what do you mean'?! One moment everything was peaceful, quiet and serene, and the next thing you know, you started doing this random dance on your bed while you were asleep." Sokka stood up and imitated Aang's previous movements: kicking around and punching randomly in the air with the occasional jumping that followed. "You freakin' woke me up from this awesome dream I was having about a gorgeous moon spirit, then you started crying about 'just wanting to talk' to someone, and then before you know it, you were back to dancing again!"

Aang's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he tried to recall his previous dream, only to realize that he couldn't remember much. Almost everything was erased from his memory: the swamp, the trees, and even the girl he was chasing; he couldn't recall a thing. But surprisingly, somehow the only thing that he probably could remember was:

Laughter.

The joyous, playful sound of laughter that belonged to a young girl drowned in mirth.

The sound echoed through his ears as the wind blew from his window, caressing his cheeks tenderly. He looked out and realized that it's still a few hours until dawn. The sun hasn't risen yet and the whole town was nothing but silence. He must've woken Sokka up unintentionally in the middle of night.

He silently hoped that he didn't wake anyone else other than Sokka; the least of all Katara. He knows how cranky she gets in the mornings if she didn't have enough beauty sleep.

Aang must've been quiet for the quite some time, because suddenly Sokka's hand was waving in front of his face.

"Hello," Sokka nearly drawled. "Earth to Aang! You still there, buddy?"

He blinked in surprise. "Huh? What?"

"I was asking you what's going on in your head, but then you kind of spaced out."

"Oh," Aang said. "Sorry about that, Sokka. It's just that, I think I had this weird dream earlier, but I couldn't remember anything. I swear, it felt so real for a moment and then suddenly…it was gone."

Sokka pursed his lips. "You sure you don't remember a thing? It could be something serious."

His eyebrows furrowed. "What makes you say that?"

"Well, aside from the 'horizontal dancing' and shouting, you kinda did something else too."

Aang secretly hoped that he didn't do anything else other than the ones Sokka had mentioned. He never did have any 'problems' like snoring or drooling when he's asleep so this was a first for him. If dancing and shouting while you're slightly unconscious is bad enough, what could be worse?

"What?" he pressed.

He paused for a moment, deciding on a good way of telling him. "Well…" He scratched his chin.

"Well what?" Aang started to panic. Judging by the way that Sokka's mischievous smirk was starting to appear, he must've done something really embarrassing.

He braced himself for what the young man was about to say.

"You jumped."

Confusion spread all over his childish face. Not sure if he heard it right, he tried again. "What? I…jumped?"

Sokka grinned. "Yeah, you jumped."

"Like…flinched?"

"Nope."

His face was priceless. "As in…stood up…and jumped?"

"That's right."

Aang couldn't believe his ears. He looked for signs of the older boy joking. "What the…what? How is that even possible?"

"Beats me," Sokka shrugged tiredly. Judging by the look on his face, Sokka wasn't giving him any hints that he was joking about the matter. It made Aang even more bemused. "All I know is that while you were dancing, you suddenly stood on your bed and jumped a few times. I don't know why, but you did. It must have been from that 'dream' you were having. I tried to pull you back down but you just kept on jumping higher and higher." He explained. "I was about to call Katara for help but then you eventually settled down, and then everything was okay again."

At the sound of Katara's name, Aang's gray eyes shot wide open. The last thing he wanted to do was to wake her. She was pretty tired the other day that she needed enough rest to recover.

"Did…did I wake her?" he asked reluctantly.

"I hope not," he said. "You know how she is. If one of her mornings start bad, the whole week will be bad. You don't wanna risk it."

"That's…a little too over-exaggerated."

"Not really," Sokka yawned. "She'd help you if it were something serious. But having bad dreams isn't that much of a problem."

Suddenly, some small fragments of detail came rushing back to Aang. He tried to recall it being a bad dream, but he couldn't remember being attacked or hurt or chased away during his trip to dreamland.

In fact, he wasn't even chased by anyone. He was the one chasing something…or someone.

But he couldn't recall who or what he was chasing.

All he could really remember was the laughter.

Then it hit him.

It was a girl's laughter.

A girl in a white dress's laughter.

"But…it wasn't a bad dream." He spoke slowly, almost cautiously.

Sokka nodded weakly as his eyelids started to grow heavy. The young man yawned. "Whatever, Aang." He walked back towards his bed and dumped his body unceremoniously on his mattress. "I'm too tired to give you a therapy. Can't this thing wait 'till morning?"

"But Sokka, it's already morning."

"You know what I mean."

Aang allowed a small smile as he lay back down on his covers. He prayed that the spirits will allow him another chance of sleep. It's already been a really weird night for him and all he wanted was a dreamless slumber. But before he allowed his eyes to close, he turned to Sokka's side of the room.

"Hey, Sokka?"

"What?" he asked with a little irritation in his voice that wasn't hard to miss.

"I'm sorry about waking you up…and, messing with your dream."

"Its fine, buddy," Sokka waved him off. "Just go back to sleep."

~*-((o))-*~

One hour before the crack of dawn, she rose from under the covers.

She had never intended to wake up this early. No one's even awake yet at this time of day. But Katara was pushed out of bed by her growling stomach. She realized that they weren't able to eat the night before since she and her friends were too tired to take a bite out of anything. They merely flopped on their beds once they reached their rooms, not even bothering to unpack.

Well, Katara did her part anyway. She unpacked a few things but she didn't have time to organize them properly.

She was completely worn out that she didn't even remember falling asleep. The moment she laid her head on the mattress, she was devoid of her energy. She didn't realize how much she missed sleeping on a bed until she actually fell asleep in the inn. While she and her friends travelled, they've always slept on the ground with their sleeping bags and blankets wrapped around them. Beds were a rare occurrence. It was nearly foreign.

She dragged herself to the bathroom sink to wash her face. The cool water was refreshing and it removed the remaining chances of sleep to overtake her once more. She brushed her hair carefully and untangled some strands. Compared to her brother's, Katara's bed hair was even wilder. Her hair was thick, dark and somewhere between being wavy and curly. It's no surprise for the young girl when she wakes up in the mornings, only to discover that she's having a bad hair day. But Katara managed. She was used to this sort of thing.

Setting down the brush, she changed into the fresh new clothes that she had washed the other day. It was her usual blue dress that reached her knees, with white linings on the edges including the collar and the hem of the skirt. She slipped on some pants underneath and boots as well to complete her casual apparel.

Reaching to her neck, she gave a sigh of relief as she fingered her necklace. It was a blue silk choker with a small, perfectly round, pale larimar centerpiece attached to its center. The centerpiece of the jewelry was carved in an intricate, curling wave resembling the Water Tribe symbol. It was a valuable heirloom, passed down from her grandmother to her late mother. Now the trinket belonged to Katara. And she promised to take care of it as if it's the most valuable thing that ever belonged to her; which to her, it most probably was.

Katara never took it off the moment it she had first worn it. It was somehow one of the only things that she had left that bore the remaining memories of her beloved mother. Katara couldn't imagine her life without it. What would she do if she'd accidentally lose it? A part of her will be shattered and it would be as if someone took a huge part of her away.

Looking out the window, the azure sky was still in a deep blue hue. The sun has yet to bathe the town in glorious sunlight.

When she walked towards the mirror to check her reflection, her stomach made a low rumbling noise and she scowled. She clenched it tightly. She was hungry and needed something to eat immediately. But she doubted anyone was awake before dawn and was already on the go. The Jasmine Dragon probably wasn't even open yet. But her stomach was persistently demanding. It was starting to hurt from being empty.

She pushed all her thoughts away as her stomach growled even louder.

Screw this, I'm starving.

Shaking her head, she opened the door to leave her room, hoping all the way that the Jasmine Dragon below was open.

Her stomach continued to distract her as she walked. Her feet made no noise as she made her way through the cemented floors of the inn. Everything around her was dark and quiet, covering the fact that everyone settling in the building was still asleep.

Katara found the hallway leading to the stairs. Still distracted by her thoughts, she turned a sharp corner to the left and …BAM! She felt her body colliding with someone else's.

They lost their balance and fell to the floor, groaning in pain and shaking their heads. Katara didn't expect anyone else to be up this early. So what was this guy doing here?

"I'm sorry," she said a little hoarsely. "I didn't know you were there and…" The rest of her words died in her mouth. From her position on the floor, she slowly looked up to see who she bumped into. The room was dimly lit so she could barely make out the other person's features. However, she did realize that she bumped into a young man whose body was seemingly tall, firm and well built. He was wearing a simple long-sleeved shirt, pants and slippers. Raven hair fell over his eyes and hid half of his face. The sun must've just begun to rise; the windows allowed a little light to protrude making his golden eyes gleam when he looked at her. Katara gasped inwardly at the way his eyes seemed to pierce through her sapphire orbs.

"…I was…distracted."

For a moment they just sat there across from each other and stared. Katara's mouth was slightly parted as she watched him. None of them moved for a while as a wave of tension washed over them.

The boy kept his gaze locked on her for quite some time, his tawny eyes fierce and ablaze. He didn't look mad or anything. In fact, Katara couldn't tell what emotion he was displaying. His handsome face was cast in a shadow; the only things that were lucid were his eyes.

The stranger broke the silence when he cleared his throat a little awkwardly. He staggered as he picked himself up from his spot on the floor.

"Its fine," he held out a hand to her. Katara, still caught up in a daze, took his hand shyly and brought herself up to her feet.

She kept her eyes on him as he continued to penetrate her soul with his gaze. Suddenly, he looked away and Katara felt blood rushing to her cheeks in embarrassment.

The strange boy brushed passed her and walked towards the hallway she just came from, saying nothing more and leaving the girl in awe staring at him. Katara continued to watch him, caught up in a daze. When he was a good distance away from her, he paused when he reached the windows. He turned his head slightly over his shoulder to catch her eyes once more.

Her breath hitched in her throat.

When he turned, she caught a glimpse of the unmistakably large scar embedded on the left side of his face. Katara's eyes widened in shock at what she saw. The boy, feeling suddenly conscious, immediately turned his head and walked briskly away before she could follow him.

To be continued…

A little scene from 'The Swamp' there. :)

You all probably know who the guy Katara bumped into was. So…I'm not gonna ask you guys to guess anymore *smiles* Reviews are highly appreciated. THANKS!