Okay. New chapter.

Yuck factor: 9

Fluff: 0

Creepy: 6

Katara stared at Haru as he walked in front of her. She couldn't talk to him. Every time she even started to say something he would cut her off.

"Haru.."

"Shs." See? He did it again. She frowned. She did things in her past that she wasn't proud of. She had fallen into Aang's arms long before she even started going with Haru. There was something addictive about the avatar. She had broken it off with him though after Chyiana was born. That's when the strain started in her marriage. Haru became enveloped in the child, giving her less and less attention as his wife. She should have cherished that as it was. She could have married a man that beat her, or ignored the child. She married a man that worshiped her and loved his daughter with all of his heart. She couldn't' have found a better husband or father for her child. But that's all he was, a husband and a father, he wasn't a lover or a friend. She stopped as Haru stopped.

"Get down!" He barked. She got down close to the the ground as she heard a barking howl ring over her. Haru hit the ground as three red beasts shot over their heads. Haru threw a slab wall up as one of the eyeless creatures lunged at him. Katara shrieked and snapped a water whip on the snout of another one that lashed out at her. The creature's nose fell off in a shower of black goop. Snarling jaws snapped at her as massive paws slashed her way. Haru frowned and stood up.

"To hell with this!" He growled and slammed his fist onto the ground. The large earth slab disappeared and Katara felt fear jolt through her as she covered her arms in water. What was he doing? Just as the creatures moved in three massive boulders fell crushing the creatures in a smush of black.

Zuko stopped as he noticed something in the distance. He turned to look at Sokka.

"Do you see what I see?" Sokka frowned and directed his eyes over along the same line of sight that Zuko had. He frowned deeper when he saw it. A figure hanging from a tree. Toph frowned as the guys rushed past her. Damn men.

Zuko stopped and stared at the hanging corpse. A rope was tight around the bloated neck and one eye ball hung loosely from it's socket. By the looks of the man, his neck hadn't broken when his foot hold was removed. So he suffocated. Sokka stared with wide eyes as the two of them examined the corpse4 further. He was bloated severely and the top layer of skin was almost transparent due to the juices below it, giving the man a brownish color. His clothes said little about him. He was no one of power, most likely a farmer or herder.

Toph crossed her arms and shook her head.

"Guys? With all things dead coming back to life to try to kill us, do you really think that is such a good idea?" Zuko and Sokka took a collective step back and looked at the girl. But they stopped as their eyes landed on yet another corpse. Sokka was the first one to this one. He stared down at the piece of the woman. She was further decomposed than the first, her skin tearing with the weight of the fluids, causing a rotting fluid to leak and ooze from various lesions across her body. She was torn in half. Zuko looked at the woman and looked around but didn't see her lower half anywhere near. Her spine had a dark dirty glow to it as it stuck out firmly from her insides. Her intestines lay split open as they rotted in the sun, as her female parts were stuffed partially into her abdomen. One breast was swollen with the bloat from the humidity and the heat, the other one seemed to be in a further stage of decomposition, being that it was sunk heavily to one side the flesh splitting with the weight. Her eyes were open wide, but very little of the actual eye was left in the sockets, seeing that the scavenger birds most likely plucked them while they were warm and fresh. Toph let out a yell from a few feet ahead. Zuko turned with a frown and glanced at Sokka. The two caught up with Toph as crossed her arms.

"This dead thing in front of me, what is it?" Sokka covered his mouth as he felt the urge to vomit tickle his throat.

"It's the other halve of the woman we were just looking at." Zuko frowned. Her female parts had been badly lacerated, pieces and chunks ripped out and off. The skin from the stomach hung loosely where the organs should have been. Sokka frowned as he looked a little closer, though not too much closer for the smell would have sent him reeling. The skin was jagged at the point of separation. Whatever had killed this woman, didn't cut her, it tore her in half. Zuko frowned and looked up through the dense forest of dead trees. He looked harder and noticed that bodies littered the ground and the trees. He took a step back and frowned.

"Shit. What the hell happened here?

"My guess, Aang got tired of people trying to steal his vegetables and went ballistic." Zuko frowned at Sokka. Toph laughed and gave Sokka a hard slap on the back.

"That must be it Sokka." Zuko shook his head. At times it seemed as nothing had changed. Zuko stepped over the remainder of the woman and continued to walk. Body parts laid scattered out everywhere, some with the original body, some with no base body in sight. Zuko bent down and picked up a small arm. It was that of a child who couldn't have been over four. It had lumpst of torn flesh haning from the small bone, as if an animal had been chewing on it. He closed his eyes and dropped the severed, mangled arm back to the ground.

Sokka shook his head as he walked with Toph, both with their hands clasped firmly over their noses. The stench grew stronger the deeper into the forest they walked. The humidity brought the smell in a wet thickness to their noses. The heat added to the heavy feel of the stench, partiatially because teh decomposing bodies around them were baking in the sun. Toph gagged but forced herself to calm down. Rotten eggs, That's all it is. Rotten eggs.

Sokka shook his head as the bodies became worse. Mutilated nearly beyond recognition. Some had the meat ripped from the bone, and some had the meat rotting off the bone. Zuko stopped and looked back to his wife and friend. He had heard something. He waited until they caught up with him and looked around, as he heard the noise once again. He looked a few yards ahead of them and narrowed his eyes.

There was a corpse of a fairly large man. The stomach was rolling, and jolting. Zuko and Sokka stared as the movement under the half rancid flesh moved. The large lump grew and finally burst in an explosion of entrails and curdled blood. Out shot a winged creature of some sort. Sokka and Zuko took a step back as the creature rose above them, it's large wings flaring out. Sokka felt his jaw fall open as the creature lowered it's self to the ground in front of them. It resembled a man, with large leathery wings sprouting form his back. Zuko blinked at the being as the tattered clothes hung loosely by threads from the skinny body. The face twisted into a smile, as a long fingered hand rose to point at them.

"You shouldn't have made it his far." A whispering hoarse voice choked out of the thin lips. The creatures mannerisms as it stood there staring at them were exceedingly bird like, but the eyes. Those eyes were extremely human. Zuko drew in a breath and took a step back. He knew those eyes.

"Zhao..." The creature through it's deformed head back and let out a loud cackling laugh. He hled his bone thin arms out to the side.

"In the flesh." Sokka shook his head.

"What is he?" Those beady human eyes moved painfully in the sockets to peer at Sokka.

"Ever wonder what happens if you piss off a spirit when you die?" Sokka stared with wide eyes at the creature that used to be a fierce Fire Nation general. The body was withered and frail, with a leathery appeal that reminded him of a lizard. There was nothing left of the human face that could give any hint at what it used to be. Toph frowned.

"You should have lived a better life. You have no one but yourself to blame for your actions. You got what you deserved." The thin neck fell to the side as he looked at her.

"And what awaits you in the after life? You may find out soon." He growled and lept into the air. Zuko grabbed Toph and jerked her over to him as the Zhao creature dove at them, then with a burst from his wings was gone into the murky sky. Zuko held onto Toph as he watched the creature with horror in his eyes.

"Just what the FUCK are we walking into?" Toph shrugged.

"Shit."

"I agree." Sokka nodded.