I just got one of those cute Appa plushies that's so hard to find. So soft! Yea Mall of America's Nickelodeon Universe! Much better than stupid Peanuts! Blah! Anyone know how to get the site to listen to your spacing commands? I can't seem to separate different subplots. Oh and if you haven't checked it out yet be sure to visit my profile page for a cute picture of the Halloween costume I designed for my dog Indy as a fun little art project.
mT – Many thanks and I like your cute smilies too. Wouldn't have been fun if I'd have revealed what Zuko and Keiko saw before but you'll find out now below. Ugh, fish are gross, especially monster ones. I'd probably freak out worse than Ursa.
FireChildSlytherin5 – Really sweet to be listed on your C2 and that you're sharing my story to others. Didn't want the Zuko/Keiko moments to be too predictable or overdone so glad you like it. I'll be sure to keep updating!
Liooness – Though I dearly like messing with Zuko, the storyline progresses in this chapter. He'd be such a good, protective big brother if he'd ever had the chance, I think.
razzledazzle41191 – I was hoping I wasn't overdoing the humorous elements of the story; I tend to lean towards humor if you haven't noticed. :p Glad to see that you're still reading!
Thank you four very much for your continuous feedback! You're the best!
Please don't be shy to review, other readers, it only takes a couple minutes and the good vibes make me want to update the chapters all that much faster! I think this is the longest chapter I've written so far. ;)
Arual-san
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From his strict regimen of training Zuko was the faster but not by very much. Irritation at taking the coward's route in running away – as he'd done only the day before over the masses of swamp beasts – had been pushed to the corners of his mind in effort to evade what chased them. He couldn't afford a lapse in concentration, not when the water at his knees stole even a small bit of the speed he so needed.
Their pursuer had no such resistance in the air.
Behind him he shot off a wall of fire, not to attack, nor would it last long enough to work as a shield, but it bought him the seconds needed to slip away.
Zuko backed his side into a tree. Forgoing the gentleness commonly shown to a female babe, he reached a hand back to roughly tousle Keiko's head and quiet her whimpers, for whimpers were all she could utter at the sight of the unknown stressor.
He kept perfectly still, even down to his feet when a single splash could give them away.
Chancing it, he peered out beyond the bark.
Save the glowing eyes that burned as red as ember, it was the very same face-without-a-body spirit which he had knelt before whilst in meditation on his old Fire Nation ship so many months back but this one was real. It was called a kuwanji – a bloodthirsty beast all fire and rage – however it did not belong in the human realm, seeing as the rock Keiko had thrown had passed right through it.
"B-bad?" Keiko squeaked in the quietest tone he'd heard her speak.
"Bad," Zuko confirmed, not taking his eyes off it, "very bad."
The teen didn't particularly care nor want to find out why such a fire demon was terrorizing a swamp instead of a volcano, nor to tempt its terrible teeth upon them. He just wanted them to part ways with their own business but somehow didn't see that option becoming available.
Thinking it through, he found himself torn between two even worse options.
If Zuko continued to run Keiko would always be in a dangerously vulnerable position at his back. If he were to stop and fight he might compromise her safety even more. Her extra weight was something he wasn't tempered to and would put him at a disadvantage. If he could help it, no burn would ever scorch her soft skin. In the swamp that swarmed with beasts unseen, he didn't trust to set her nearby, to look away from her from a second.
The kuwanji caught sight of him again.
"Okay," thought Zuko aloud to himself as he ran, "they're both bad options. Which one is worse?" He'd have never thought he'd have had to fit a baby into his calculations. "Arrgh, what would Uncle do?"
He dodged a blast of fire and Keiko screamed at the close call.
"What about Katara – freeze it in a block of ice?" He dodged again. "Great, I'll just do that!"
If Katara was in his place he was sure she wouldn't even be in this mess, as the demon seemed to be attracted to his flames and repelled at the same time in that they heated the air around it uncomfortably.
He threw off the kuwanji again and clutched his forehead as though suffering a great migraine.
"Sorry, Kei…" Feeling that he was losing what little good babysitter karma he'd managed to collect, Zuko unstrapped Keiko and set her inside a hollow tree trunk, fastening her in there by knotting up vines. He stuffed Momo in with her so at least she wouldn't be alone.
Completely silent, Keiko stared at him with wide brown eyes.
"Be good," Zuko instructed, making himself look away as he covered the opening.
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With the very different aura and feeling that now seemed to emit off Ursa, Katara and Toph backed away. Her eyes shone a slate gray and even a smaller detail that was her posture had toned down from straight-backed and regal to a more relaxed, loose-shouldered stance.
"Please let me explain," she said, making no move forward, granting them their space.
Unsure, Katara summoned up a ball of water at her palm. Although Ursa spoke in the same voice even the woman's speech patterns were a world apart from her norm and none of this boded well in Katara's eyes.
"What brought this on?" Toph wondered from her side, perplexed. She'd not seen this coming...whatever it was. "Run into this before, Katara?"
"No, this is new."
"You said that other swamp messed with you guys' heads, right? Aang saw me, you saw your mom and Sokka saw that moon girl. Maybe this is just another illusion wrapped around Ursa? I mean, so many of the circumstances are the same and-"
"I don't think this is an illusion, Toph."
"Well, what gives then?" Toph continued on, in her need to know ignoring Ursa, the subject and one that could've answered that very question. "We've been exposed to this swamp just as much as her. If she's weirding out on us does that mean we're next for tentacles growing out of our shoulders or our feet turning into flippers? Help me out here; I've never been in some weirdo swamp before."
"This is an entirely different swamp, no matter the similarities. I'm hardly an expert on the matter."
"Hey wait, I know!" Toph suddenly exclaimed, snapping her fingers. "It was that fish! Ursa got her leg bit up by that monster fish! Maybe it infected her or something! Maybe it was a were-fish and she'll start growing gills and-!"
"She's not a were-fish!"
"Myths are based on fact and I've seen plenty of strange things! Do you have a better idea? Do you think she has a whole crowd of personalities in that brain of hers?"
"Just because I haven't come up with an explanation yet doesn't mean-"
"So quick to discredit my ideas and yet you can't even come up with one."
"Oh please, you can't really believe that she's a were-fish."
Toph shrugged. "The were part could be a disease like any other, just blown out of proportion."
"Wouldn't she sprout fish whiskers? Wouldn't her eyes go yellow instead of grey?"
"Hello! I don't do colors here!"
As she watched them continue on in, a slight discontent showing in a crease between her brows, Ursa sifted through the water to sit upon an overgrown tree root and wait it out. She herself was well versed in the art of patience and composure from many long years of meditation amongst fresh mountain air. As very old as she was, time was not an issue; she could wait as long as it took for the girls to settle.
Settle they did only when both headstrong girls ran out of steam to blow on each other.
Almost of one mind, they turned in unison back to Ursa.
"All right, lady," Toph put bluntly, putting authority into her young voice, "what's going on here? Stick to the truth."
In her time of waiting peaceably on the tree root Ursa had attracted the interest of a wide-beaked warbler and it had perched on her finger, as tame as a pet shop animal. She stroked its feathers. The animals of the swamp may not have ever had any contact with humans but for a wild bird to just cuddle up to her with no fear at all was just a little too much for the girls to take in without suspicion.
"Where is Ursa?" Katara demanded to know, her uncertainty of whether to strike now or hold out for an answer making her hand holding the water twitch anxiously.
"She is perfectly safe within the corners of her subconscious," Ursa explained with calmness as though that much was perfectly reasonable. "My flesh and bone have been reclaimed by the earth several centuries ago. I only need to borrow her body."
"Borrow?" Katara choked midway on the word. "You're borrowing someone's body?"
"Only for a short while I assure you. I can only do so over the body of one that carries the bloodline of any past or present incarnation of the Avatar and since Lady Ursa was the only one currently available-"
"Say what!?" Toph squawked, more bird-like than anything that the actual bird had chirped as of yet. "Zuko and Aang aren't cousins, are they?! Not – not Azula too?!" The idea of them all coming together for family gatherings made her shudder.
"A distant relation," Ursa clarified. "I'm afraid there isn't an actual title for it but through Avatar Roku Lady Ursa and her three children descend."
"We don't have to believe anything you say!" Katara proclaimed, her shout making the bird flee. "Who are you to make such claims anyway?! Tell me why we shouldn't attack right now and force you out of that body?!"
"Force is not necessary. I am not hurting her. I only need to-"
"Answer the question!" Katara returned now with full force, coiling a whip of water round her back into either hand, Toph joining in on picking up on Katara's stress by kicking up a boulder to hover before her.
"Calm yourselves," the woman borrowing Ursa felt she had to say (and the girls were pretty sure by her patterns of speech that she was a woman). "All this time while your group has been taking shelter in the temple of my birth I have longed to speak with you but however near you were I could not. Avatar Aang did not unlock the final chakra and so I had no way of communicating with him."
"What are you saying?" Katara drew out slowly, her anxiety not lowering.
"You know who I am," she said with a small smile. "You are smart girls."
The image of the statue carved by idolizing hands that towered several feet above all else in the Western Air Temple surfaced in Katara's mind. Toph could not make out the features of the woman with a wide shaved forehead that bore the same blue arrow as their little monk friend.
"Avatar…Yangchen?"
Ursa nodded and as she did Katara could very nearly make out behind her fleshy outlines the ghostly image of the long dead Avatar. When she blinked the outline was gone and there was only Ursa with those unfamiliar eyes.
"Any spirit could still claim the same." Toph drew her jaw up with a stubborn set. "Any spirit with the right information could take advantage, turn the scales of the war in their favor. Why don't you prove it?"
Ursa gave a small sigh. "I remember when skepticism was a concept unheard of to the people."
"We're waiting."
"I would prefer not to," replied Ursa point blank. "There can only be one Avatar in this world at a time; my simply being here in this form is pushing the limits enough as is. That she is not born with the ability to bend, the lady Ursa's body would suffer some strain. Also the current Avatar's powers would become temporarily void."
"Eh, those two are tougher than they look." Toph shrugged off with ease. "You need to earn some credibility points, Ms. Avatar, so get crackin'."
"Don't be so hasty, Toph," Katara cut in, feeling this was all moving too fast. "We should think this through."
"What's there to think through? We just need a quick little demonstration to make sure we're not getting suckered into anything. Eight seconds tops. What could happen in eight seconds?"
While Katara still looked very unsure about the whole affair, Toph nodded to Ursa the go-ahead and, after a few moments concentration in a body not designed to bend, slender fingers lifted Katara's water and Toph's earth right out from under their distracted attentions.
Avatar Yangchen spun earth and water on her hands like a craftsman on a loom, in her borrowed eyes a far away gaze. She let go the two elements back into the swamp from whence they came and spun the same with the siblings of air and fire. Those too she let go.
"Is this adequate?" she asked of the two, the sides of her lips pulling into a grin.
Katara was convinced, bowing her head in respects, forcibly doing the same to Toph's head when the other girl hesitated.
"I assume that you were the one who umm…invited us here," Katara ventured, being generous at their less than pleasant arrival.
"I recognize that tone, young lady," Yangchen returned but in her voice was no hint of disapproval. "Both times I appealed to those with whom I share a connection and yet both times I was ignored. You, Katara, I'd have thought would have learned from your mistake."
A hint of pink colored Katara's cheeks in that she hadn't given a better protest against Toph. "So then…the things that happened in that other swamp?"
"I won't be so arrogant to claim credit for everything that occurred there but, yes, with the aid of some spirit friends of mine, I did arrange that occasion. Roku and Kyoshi are more upfront with the help they provide the young Avatar. I prefer to remain anonymous."
"You…" she started, in that the attention hadn't been exclusively for Aang, "you showed me my mother…and Sokka saw Yue…"
"I am sorry," said Yangchen and she truly was at taking in the sorrow Katara fought to conceal. "I didn't mean to sadden you so but to remind you that those lost along the way are never truly lost. The love your mother left behind in you and your brother flourishes; it gives you the strength to keep standing in trying times such as these." She paused and she looked at Katara directly. "It helps ease the burden that no twelve year old boy ought to bear."
Katara sniffed at the heartfelt words and her hand closed over her mother's engagement necklace. Before Katara had taken notice Yangchen was there beside her and laying a gentle hand over Katara's free one. "Kya is at peace. She has been reborn into a kind and loving family."
Katara needed a moment with her feelings and so Toph stepped forward, asked what needed to be asked. "For an Avatar who prides herself on working behind the scenes you're being awfully upfront in possessing that body. If you brought us here does that mean you have some sort of message?"
"I don't have the time to work in my preferred manner," she said. "Yes, I have a message, two in fact. My brothers and sisters of the temples…not all was lost."
"Aang…" And Toph was struck nearly speechless, "he's not alone?"
Yangchen shook her head. "Those survivors are in hiding, scattered across the four worlds as any other civilians. Air nomads are in-tuned enough with the world to all be benders and so I can reach out to them all. There are some that won't fight…others will."
"Sweetest of sweet!" Toph beamed, bouncing on her muck-covered toes. "Take that, ya stinkin' Fire Nation!"
On the other hand, Katara's mood was still mixed between excitement and old sadness. "The other message – is it about Zuko? Is he all right?"
"I've been able to sense him somewhere in the area, just where exactly I've not yet pinpointed." Yangchen continued on to her second message, "I've actually taken a couple of travelers under my wing in this very swamp; rejected beings whom I'm sure would like to relocate." As more of an afterthought she remarked to herself that it had taken quite some luring to draw them there. "You may have seen the smoke rising from their fire."
"We'll be sure to drop in on them."
With a smile Yangchen drew her hand, beckoning them to follow. "I'll bring you to them."
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Leaving Keiko behind was similar to running himself through with one of his broadswords. Her wide-eyed expression of not wanting to be left behind burned on the backs of Zuko's eyelids every time he blinked. But he couldn't blink, not in excess when the kuwanji was on his tail. No matter how he ran it was always right there behind him, firing away.
Finally, seeing an opening, Zuko blocked off the flames that would've scorched his shoulders and faced the creature head-on. It could only speak he knew in grunts and growls but its wild expression did all the talking for it in that it had no intent to retreat and despite its small size Zuko was no fool to underestimate it. He waited for it to attack and blocked the blow with a broadsword. He did so several times, studying the way it moved, absorbing any attack it made into the swords until they burned bright orange.
As soon as it came within range, Zuko slashed at the kuwanji. He thought he'd missed until he saw a lock of its mane drift down to the water. He slashed again and again, trying to make contact with the speedy demon, going between that and his regular firebending depending on its height.
If he could just hit it once…
He thought he had it when he struck again but to his astonishment the kuwanji whipped round so rapidly it seemed to flash. It seized the swords in its teeth, and being borne of fire, reabsorbed its failed attempts like a food source.
Zuko hesitated for only a second but that second was all it took for the kuwanji to disarm him of his weapon by spitting the swords out into a tree. Being a bender he was never weaponless and continued to try and land a blow, becoming the main attacker while the kuwanji drifted above. He only realized when he'd begun to pant out of nearing exhaustion that the creature was not all teeth and rage but clever as well.
It had cornered him into an inlet thick with trees.
Blocking off the only exit, the kuwanji dove for him in the cramped space. Zuko shot with his left and his right two fire blasts to fend it off but so intent was it this time that as the flames passed through its transparent body it ignored the discomfort.
Out of ideas, having only a half second to think, Zuko dropped gracelessly into the water. There were no reeds to use for air so the solution was only very temporary. All he could think of to do in that short time to think was to pop out all at once, attack and make a dash for the exit.
When he surfaced it was gone.
Looking round with suspicion, he skipped step two and went onto three. He'd only been planting his foot down in his third step when the kuwanji dove down from the canopy directly before him, banana-sized teeth open wide.
It was too close, coming in faster than his eyes could trace.
All that he could manage was an alarmed yell.