Chapter XIII.

Fever Dreams

"Keep picking at it and it will fall off," Azula scolded, making Sokka's hand come away from his ear.

His head had been enjoying a bandage-free life for the past few hours. Katara's healing skills had been enough to finally heal over his wounded ear, but he had not been able to stop touching the tender flesh for any length of time. "It think it's crooked. It's crooked, isn't it?" he asked, sticking his neck out to better see his shadow on the back of Appa's furry head.

"It's only noticeable from the back. A better haircut will solve the problem," said Azula, who sat directly behind him.

"Hey, I'm one of the few people who can really rock a warrior's wolf tail. Most Water Tribe guys can't."

"I'd say none of them can, but if you insist on keeping it then perhaps a piercing would draw the eye away. Aren't you the tribe that pierces itself?"

Katara coughed loudly and Sokka looked to his left to see the outermost wall of Ba Sing Se as it separated the tightly packed stone houses from a vast expanse of farmland which was carved up by rivers and streams that gave way to thickly forested hills. The sky was an ashen gray color, which Sokka thought would make them harder to spot by people on the ground and by the dozens of airships that flew in and out of the city.

"No piercings? Perhaps I'm thinking of a different group of people," said Azula.

Sokka did not have to look to know Katara was seething. He wanted to tell her that Azula was being downright sweet compared to her usual self, but in the past three days Azula had not left him the opportunity.

-Who'd have thought Azula could be clingy?-

Katara had been clingy in her own way, and so Sokka had likewise not had the chance to speak to Azula as freely as he wished. If Azula was bitter about what he had said to her at the temple, she was not letting on. Sokka was fairly certain about why she refused to be alone from him for any real length of time, and he wished he could explain that to Katara as well.

He had gotten used to Azula's nightmares in recent weeks. Her tossing and turning and crying out were all normal sounds for him. Rarely would she wake up from a screaming fit, and even then only when she slept at night.

Since the temple, however, Azula had only slept about a night's worth, and those short stretches of slumber had all ended in a violent fit.

Each time she had come awake clawing at herself, as though something was on her, some substance she could not scrape off. In her sleep she had scratched her arms bloody, and Katara had heal her when she calmed down.

Azula would not talk about her dreams, becoming surly when pressed and if questioned harder, she would go completely silent, almost like Nekka. Soon, Sokka and his sister learned to leave the matter alone.

"How are we doing for supplies?" Sokka asked as Ba Sing Se shrank behind them.

Azula shuffled through their remaining gear, happy to have even a minor task to occupy herself with. "We're set for water of course. Food we could use more of. Luckily you managed to grab all of our medicinal needs, but we're low all the same. How much farther to this wretched-sounding swamp of yours?"

"It's not wretched," said Katara. "It's a very spiritual place."

"That's what I'm afraid of," Azula said in a low voice.

Sokka pulled his hand from his ear and shook his head to clear the fatigue he felt. "I'm not a big fan of the swamp, either, but Katara's right, it's a special place. Everything there is connected, or whatever. It's the kind of place that can help Nekka."

-And maybe you,- he thought.

"She seems better," said Azula.

Looking back, Sokka could see the Water Tribe scholar sitting against the rear of Appa's saddle. Her gaze was fixed on Katara's boot. She had not looked up while they were talking about her, but Azula was right, Nekka looked less like a hollow shell than she had days prior.

Nekka would eat and drink normally when food was put in front of her, and thank the universe she could see to her body's needs on her own, but beyond a word or two when pressed, she would not speak and her attention did not seem to be on the world around her.

As for the Necronomicon, Sokka insisted it be kept wrapped in cloth and tucked in a bag far from Nekka, who seemed to have as much interest in it as she did everything else.

"Trust me, if anyone can help us out right now, it's Huu and the Foggy Swamp Tribe. They probably haven't got the memo about us being wanted criminals, yet," Sokka said

"We can still head for Ba Sing Se, or even Omashu," said Katara, her voice like a wind chime.

Azula's laugh was reminiscent of her normal self. "Wanted poster or not, I wouldn't get far in either city," she said. "Didn't Sokka tell you about the sand worm at the library? I doubt you'd want one of those popping up in a major city."

"I don't want them popping up anywhere, near anybody," said Katara.

Sokka had opted not to tell Katara his theory on how Cthulhu's minions were tracking them, and he had been vague about the true nature of Azula's mental troubles.

"Well, not to be cruel, but we need to get help from somewhere, and this Foggy Swamp of yours sounds less filled with screaming innocents," said Azula.

Sokka wished she would let him do the arguing and he longed for a moment alone with either one of them.

The sun arced above their heads, unseen behind the endless sheet of cloud. Azula tried to make small talk with him, and occasionally Katara, who responded with one-word answers and sometimes not at all. They seemed to have silently arranged a special contest: Who could be the first to scold Sokka for touching his ear.

The clouds broke up towards dusk, but the sun was still there to pound the side of Sokka's face. "Hey, look at that," he said, pointing to the ground where an apple melon orchard had been left to grow wild. He guided Appa downward towards a house with a partially collapsed thatch roof. A nearby barn looked to be in better shape and Appa landed between the two buildings.

Azula was the first off the saddle and she charged into the house, hand alight with blue flame. She came out scowling. "No beds. I haven't slept in a real bed in years."

"We had a bed in the Northern Water Tribe," said Sokka, jumping down from the saddle with their supplies.

"A bed?" Katara was leading Nekka down Appa's flat, strong tail.

"Azula got the bed, I got the floor," he said, rubbing his ear and hoping Azula's smile would not be noticed. "Which she can make up for by straightening out the house while you and I go refill our water skins."

"I should go with you. What if you're attacked?" Azula asked.

"Katara will save me. She's used to it," he said. "See if you can get Nekka to help you, maybe it will bring her back to the real world if she remembers a little housework."

"I'm not a house servant!" Azula said.

Sokka thought it best to say nothing and go. He heard Azula speaking lowly to Nekka as he gathered empty water skins and a sack for melon apples and whatever else they found that was edible.

"Alright, time to come clean with me. What's with you and her?" Katara said when they were away from the house and deep into the shady orchard.

"You know, it's really none of your business, is it?" he said, not expecting to feel so hostile as he tossed his boomerang at a high cluster of melon apples. They fell softly into the grass.

"Fine, then. I'll go find the stream."

"No, hang on. Ugh. It's hard to explain. What happened in the temple, I'm not sure what that was about, honest, but it's true we're kind of...friends, I guess. It's weird."

Katara bent a line of water from her water skin and casually flicked it into the trees, knocking down more melon apples. The small fruits were gathered by Sokka, who loaded them into his sack. "It's weird alright," she said. "It's stupid, too. You know her, you know what she's capable of."

"Yeah, I do. I'm not saying I trust her completely, but you have to kinda admit she's not all bad."

Katara scoffed and bit into a melon apple. She made a sour face, for the fruits were a few days before full ripeness. "Not many people are all bad, so that doesn't count for much. Don't think I'm being vindictive, here. I had the chance to kill the man who took our mother, you know."

"I know," Sokka said, his voice matching the shady tempo of the orchard.

"We didn't exactly become pals, either, and he was no Azula. You know how good she is at lying and manipulating people."

Gathering up more melon apples as they walked, Sokka searched for the right words as he turned each fruit over, checking each for bruises and worms. "I can't tell you to trust her, but just trust me that she's on our side when it comes to going up against this Cthulhu thing.

"Okay, great, but the second it's not a threat anymore, she'll become one herself. She wants to be the Fire Lord and rule the world you know."

Sokka frowned and looked back towards the house as it hid behind the melon apple trees where it cast a long shadow beneath a sky turned gold by the setting sun. They had all the melon apples they could carry, so he slung the sack over his shoulder and they began walking through the thick grass and low branches towards where they had seen a stream from the air.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Sokka said.

"Go right ahead and let her fool you; you'll be the only one."

"Yeah, I will be, because she's got nobody else. She's alone, Katara, unless you count her jerk father, and I don't. And before you start, yes, she kinda brought it all on herself. Alright, not kinda, she did bring it on herself. Let's just say she deserves all of it. Now what? Does she spend the rest of her life in a cage because everyone's too afraid of her to let her have a life?"

Katara walked faster through the melon apple strewn grass. "I hate to break it to you, but it's not going to be up to you what happens to her in the end. When we get the real Zuko back he'll be the one that decides what to do with her, and he knows what she's all about better than anyone. You might not want to get too attached to her."

"Hard to believe I'm being the forgiving one here," said Sokka. The trickle of the stream could be heard now as the ground started to slope. They were still in the shade of the melon apple trees and the air was cool. "I know she hurt Aang, but..."

"She almost killed your best friend, Sokka! She's tried to kill you, Suki, me, her own brother, her uncle...I don't understand how you can defend her. I know she's pretty in a ghost story kind of way, but..."

"Okay, that was a low blow," he said, stopping. "And I'm not defending the bad stuff she did, or her attitude, but look at whose shadow she grew up in. She can change, but if we treat her like a monster, that's all she'll ever be."

Katara's arms were crossed and what maddened Sokka the most was the look of concern she wore. "I won't trust her, and I'll treat her exactly how she treats me," she said.

She started off towards the stream with him carrying the now-heavy bag over his shoulder. Unable to see the house he became anxious as he held the water skins open while Katara bent stream water into them after purging it of impurities.

The house's windows were still dark, and panic briefly flooded Sokka when there was no sign of Appa. His tracks in the grass leading to barn brought calm again, and he went with Katara into the house.

"Welcome back," said Azula, who leaned against the far wall. Nekka's white hair could be seen easily in the room where she sat on a bedroll. "I arranged to light a fire in the fireplace, but decided to consult with you before lighting it."

"Oh, my," said Katara, looking at the tidy, if dark, space.

"Something wrong?"

"No, you, uh, cleaned the place pretty well. I'm impressed."

"I don't think we need a fire," said Sokka, interrupting. "Unless someone knows a good hot melon apple recipe."

"I haven't eaten a good melon apple in years," said Azula. "They don't grow well in the Fire Nation."

"What are you talking about? There were orchards full of them near the capital," said Katara.

"It might interest you to learn that there are different breeds of melon apple. And none of them grow in an asylum!" She stepped away from the wall, keeping her arms crossed while Katara removed melon apples from the bag, separating them into groups of four on a cloth she had spread on the floor.

"I'm sensing a lot of negative energy in here," said Sokka, trying to move between them.

"It's coming from her!" both women said in unison.

"I'm going to go guard the bison. We all know if something happens, I'm the most capable," said Azula, grabbing two melon apples from the bag and stomping out the door.

Sokka sat crossed legged on the floor and commenced to eating his dinner while Katara ate hers in silence with Nekka.

The melon apples were sour, but good. They were not as filling as rice, beans, or noodles, but the change in flavor was welcome and Sokka made them disappear in a flurry of crunching.

"Hey," he said, getting his sister to turn her head slightly towards him. "When this is over, I say we get the gang back together and fly around the world. We could solve problems, have adventures..."

"Sure. Why not."

He took a large bite from his melon apple to make the crunch fill his ears and drown out the silence. He took a second large bite, then a third, crunch, crunch.

"Could you eat a little quieter?" Katara asked.

"Sure thing," he said, picking up his remaining melon apples and stepping outside. Sokka's thoughts were the last things he wanted to be left alone with, but he took a few steps towards the orchard all the same.

His head throbbed and all he could think about was worms in his melon apples. He tossed the one he was holding, having eaten it down to its core, and went to the barn where Appa had been put up. The bison sat like a shaggy hill of straw, his nose and lips wet from having been watered recently. Azula sat on Appa's middle leg, nearly disappearing into his fur as she ate.

"Hi," he said.

"Good evening," she replied.

In the dark, against her pale face the rings under her eyes were more pronounced. She ate her melon apple slowly, chewed it slowly, only opening her deep amber eyes when he moved.

Suddenly he felt tired enough to think about having a sit on Appa's rear leg, but he remained standing. "I didn't get a chance to say I was sorry about what I said at the temple," he said. She bit into her melon apple, making a loud crunch. "Well, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. You just kinda surprised me, is all."

A small shrug of her shoulders was her only response for a long moment between bites. "I surprised me as well," she said.

"So that's twice you've kissed me now."

"Yes."

"And?"

Another small shrug. "What of it?"

"It makes a guy wonder."

"Wondering if it's all some scheme to get you on my side?"

"No, I told you, I trust you're here for the right reasons."

"Glad to see it's working."

"What?"

She laughed and tossed her melon apple core into the air before burning it to cinders with a small jet of blue flame. "I've kissed you twice in three years, what's there to wonder about?"

"I'll give you the first one, but the second one..."

"Did you like it?"

"Did I look like I liked it?"

"No."

Sokka felt like someone else had control of him, like danger was all around and he was running on pure instinct, relying on the darkness beneath his mind to do his thinking for him. "Well, maybe I liked it a little bit."

He leaned next to her, letting himself sink into Appa's thick fur. He could feel her arm against his through the cloth of his tunic and his fatigue was too great for him to move a few inches away.

"Why did you come out here?" she asked.

"I thought you might be lonely. Appa's not much of a talker."

"He's better than your sister, and our scholar friend was never one for conversation. Tell me, does your sister know about your little friend, the one in your mind that talks to you?"

He was wary again, and weary of it. "Yeah, I told her."

"I have something to tell you," she said, sounding small. He waited for her to continue as the corners of the barn grew darker. "My dreams, they're getting worse. The thing I locked away in my mind, I think it's leaking out somehow. In my dreams I'm running through that awful city of his, like normal, but I can't move quickly because I'm covered in one of those blob creatures. I can feel it seeping into me as it spreads."

"That's awful," Sokka said. "Maybe if we can get help for Nekka, we can get help for you."

He expected some arrogant retort, but instead she pressed her arm against his and took his hand. His heart began to pound and his brain sped up. "I just want to be able to sleep," she said. "It's been so long, I don't know how much longer I can take this."

"I'll crash here tonight," he said. "Katara won't like it, but she'll deal."

He could see her profile, could see she was pondering some sarcastic remark, but all she did was squeeze his hand harder and close her eyes. Sokka kept his hand around hers as the shadows gathered around them and Appa began to snore.

-888-

Foggy Bottom Swamp made Sokka think of a large bowl of kelp with a garnish in the middle. The giant banyan-grove tree in the swamp's center looked as lush and green as ever, and Appa instinctively headed for it despite the fact that the last time he was here he had been pulled down by a freak tornado.

As Appa glided over the smaller banyan trees, which were still of formidable size, Sokka looked into the dark recesses of the swamp and remembered it had not always seemed like such a friendly place. Even now it held an aura of menace beneath the green canopy, which was vast an largely unbroken save for fallen trees, rivers, and pools.

The swamp's wet odor was strong as Appa dipped bellow the canopy to follow a shallow river that led to the one of the giant banyan tree's main roots which acted as a road to the great tree's massive trunk.

Sokka shielded his eyes against the sun as Appa followed the root above the smaller trees and landed not far from a man meditating by the giant tree's trunk. "There he is," said Sokka, before turning to Azula. "Be cool, please."

She frowned as Appa landed and they all disembarked. Sokka led the way up the giant root which was wide enough to have built a house upon. Katara followed behind, guiding Nekka along. "We're probably going to have to tell this guy what's up for him to help us," Sokka said to Azula.

Huu sat, asleep, with his legs crossed. A short, stocky man, his hair was cut so that it somewhat resembled the shape of the banyan tree he meditated beneath, and it bore discrete lines of silver that had not been there the last time Sokka had seen the man. Clearing his throat, Sokka stood patiently before him as the others caught up. Sokka coughed again and was answered with a snore.

"Hey!" shouted Azula, startling Huu enough to make him fall over.

"Oh, visitors!" he said, recovering. "How nice. Do I know you? Oh, I do. Sokka, how are you?" Huu stood and clasped Sokka's arm before bowing his head to Azula and the others.

"Huu, this is..."

"Suzi," Azula said, making a polite bow and taking half a step back to avoid any hand clasping.

"Ah, Katara. Good to see you again, too," said Huu.

"It's good to see you, too, Huu," said Katara as she held Nekka by the hand.

"And this is...?"

"This is Nekka," said Sokka. "She's not well. It's a long story, but we need your help."

The old man's gentle, dull eyes took in the entire scene before him and the faint smile he always wore took on a serious tilt. "I had a feeling I'd be seeing you again, and dark times would follow," he said.

For a moment Sokka did not know what to say, anything he could think of sounded stupid. "I'm hoping we'll be able to leave before we bring any bad stuff here."

"But you know you won't," said Huu.

He nodded. "I'm sorry. We really are in it deep, and this was the best place I could think of."

"I understand. We'll be just as safe in the village, for now. It's about lunch time anyway."

They all climbed onto Appa's saddle and he flew them to the river, where he decided he would partially submerge himself and go paddling upstream to the swamp village where thatched roofs, wet from a morning rain, glowed in the sunlight against the dark greens and browns of the surrounding banyan swamp.

Members of the Foggy Swamp Tribe spotted Appa and began shouting happily as they rushed to the riverbank to greet his dripping arrival. Sokka could not resist grinning as Azula was mobbed by a small gaggle of children backed by adults, all dressed in leaves and grass. The adults did little to assuage their offspring's curiosity. That Azula was from the Fire Nation had them enthralled, and it did Sokka's heart some good to hear the younger children ask her questions; why were her eyes yellow, could she really call fire out of thin air, was everything in the Fire Nation made of metal so it wouldn't burn down, and so on. They were silly questions, far from the kinds of things he wondered when he was young.

Sokka let them pester Azula just long enough before stepping close to her and their parents seemed to sense she was best left alone. Katara, meanwhile, was more than happy to greet the small ones, and Sokka took over leading Nekka along after Huu. All sensed the white-haired Water Tribe woman was not well and they kept a respectful distance.

After a few minutes the children were sent back to their chores and were told to stop being a bother by their parents, thus allowing the visitors to follow Huu through the village. Some men Sokka recognized as having helped in the Black Sun invasion offered to look after Appa, and after being assured they would not attempt to eat the bison Sokka gave them the go-ahead.

Huu led them up a small hill where there was a longhouse built from pieces of dead, moss-covered wood. "Believe it or not, privacy can be hard to come by around here," said Huu, leading them inside. It was gloomy inside, but they all found cushions of dried swamp grass to rest on. "So tell me, what's the trouble?"

Sokka told him about the Avatar and their other friends being kidnapped, about how the latter group had returned and appeared to be working against them, about the cult, and about Cthulhu. Without going into too many details, he spoke of their experience in the south pole, Azula's dreams, and his own.

"We think Cthulhu wants to eat Aang, or something like that, so he can go take down this Azathoth guy, or whatever," said Sokka. "So, to find out more we went looking for this weird book, which Nekka read, and it messed her up."

Huu took a deep breath, his brow furrowed. He had no trouble understanding what Sokka had said, and he looked at Nekka with a mixture of pity and befuddlement. "All life is connected," he said, touching his chin. "You've heard me say that before."

Sokka and Katara nodded while Azula rolled her eyes.

"But it's a little more complicated than that," Huu said, pushing his jaw to the side.

"What? I don't understand," said Katara.

"The life we're mostly familiar with is all connected, and so are the spirits we know about," he said, pausing to ponder his words. "You kids remember when I told you I'd reached enlightenment under yonder tree? Not the most humble thing I've ever said, but it's true. Anyhow, right after I sensed everything on this planet was one big, living thing I sensed something else."

All except Nekka leaned in closer, Huu's every word being muddied in the humid air of the longhouse. His swampy eyes looked over their faces as if he expected them to supply an answer to a question unasked. When they said nothing, he continued. "I'm not sure how to explain what I felt, what I still feel. It's like it's near, but far away, too. It feels separate from us somehow, but alive all the same."

"Cthulhu?" Sokka said.

Huu's shrug-nod made Sokka move closer, for the man seemed afraid his voice would carry beyond the longhouse's walls.

"Funny thing is, I'd heard about it long before I felt it. Cthulhu you called it? It's gone by many names. Cooloo, Tulu, Kuthuthu, a whole bunch of 'em. When our people first came here from the Southern Water Tribe many, many years ago, legend has it this swamp was a dark place, full of people who were spiritually cut off from the web of life, who put their hearts and souls into things from the Outside."

Huu was looking up at the ceiling which was a web of thick boughs, thatch, and spiderwebs. "You can still find their shrines in the swamp. Most of them look like piles of rocks and sticks, and we wreck 'em when we find 'em, but there's other ones that are real old and best left be."

"I knew there was something wretched about this place," said Azula.

"The swamp has its dark places," said Huu, before Sokka could scold. "I reckon the whole world does, but this is still a place of life and healing energy. It can help you, but it might not be a nice experience. Healing sometimes hurts."

"What should we do, then?" asked Katara.

"Bring your friend up to see me by the big tree tomorrow morning. In the meantime, you can stay in this house. Now if you'll excuse me, there's something I got to ponder." He stood up with a grunt as his joints popped and muttered about getting old. He shuffled to the door, but once he was there his stride returned and he walked easily. Sokka and Azula had jumped up to follow him out.

"Where are you going?" Azula demanded. "You know more than you're telling us."

Huu chuckled and waved without turning around. Down the hill was a handful of spectators doing a poor job of looking uninterested. "I'm goin' to my ponderin' spot, and yeah, I know more than I've said. I always do."

Sokka's hand on Azula's shoulder kept her from following him. "I'm gonna ask my sister what she wants to do for the night, then I say we spend the rest of the day stocking up on supplies. If you're polite, these people will share what they have. We need to be ready to fly outta here in a hurry."

"Are these people capable warriors?"

"They can handle themselves, but if comes to a fight I don't want them involved. We have to be careful about who we draw into this."

Azula looked beyond him to the western end of the swamp where the tops of the banyan trees, bright with sunlight, overlaid deep shadows. "The old man was right before, bad things follow us and there's nothing we can do about it," she said.

His teeth clenched, but he took a deep breath to calm himself, noting the people watching them were waving to Huu as he headed back to the giant banyan tree. "Yeah, I know, but that doesn't mean we're not responsible for what happens."

She seemed to be mulling a retort, but settled for something less offensive. "If he's figured out the danger we pose then he's a fool for not telling us to leave, which makes me wonder what he's holding back."

"What's going on?" asked Katara, who had come out of the longhouse. "It doesn't make a lot of sense to be planning things on your own, you know."

"I thought you could hear us," said Azula, coolly.

The knives in Katara's eyes were only for Sokka, who repeated his suggestion about gathering supplies. As it happened, all four went to the village where Sokka sat beside Nekka around a fire pit the villagers kept the coals glowing in throughout the day. He was nervous about Katara and Azula acting as a pair, but Azula seemed glad to have a buffer between herself and the swamp folk. He watched them near one of the larger mud huts; Katara was speaking to an old woman while Azula's arms were folded across her chest, her eyes moving over the people in between long, wary glances at the swamp.

-This place is hgghuignjf-

"Ow!" Sokka said, reaching for his temples as his own inner voice became distorted and painful. He rubbed his head, feeling pain the back of his eyes and briefly he wondered if someone had struck him.

-What did you just do?- he thought as hard as he could, hoping the Old One in his mind would hear.

"Head hurtin' ya?" said a stocky man with a stubble beard who had come over. Sokka recognized Tho under his leaf hat and stood to clasp the man's forearm. "I got some headache powder if you want."

"Nah, it's gone already," Sokka said, returning to his seat. Tho sat next to him and began poking the smoldering fire pit with a stick. "How have things been around here?"

Tho let out a long, grumbling sigh and seemed to be vetting his words. "Same as ever, I guess. Been right dull ever since the war ended, not that I enjoyed it much, mind you. Didn't think I'd ever come back, but here I am."

"Yeah, it was pretty crazy."

"Who's yer friend? Not that white-haired princess I heard tell about?"

"Oh, no, this is Nekka. She's had it kinda rough. We came here to see about getting her some help."

"Yeah? Funny place for that sort of thing. I reckon you got other reasons, so I won't pry, I just hope...well, I done said too much. Huu will explain."

"Explain what?"

Tho coughed and tossed his stick into the fire. He stood, and chuckling to himself said something about having to feed Old Slim, who Sokka remembered was a pet catgator he had mistaken for food. A number of catgators were roaming freely around the village, and he suspected any one of them would do for Old Slim in a pinch. "Said too much. See ya," said Tho, wandering off.

The sun was on its way down and wood was added to the fire pit by villagers whose job it was to tend it throughout the day. A small group of people had gathered nearby, mostly women, and they talked in low voices while looking at Nekka. Sokka fixed them with an awkward stare until they left, then watched Nekka carefully himself. Her gray eyes were locked on the fire and her lips parted to form soundless words. Sokka supposed that was a good sign and tried to take cheer in seeing her so animated, but her white hair and blank face were impossible to ignore.

-How can reading a book cause something like that?- he thought, hoping for an answer even if it came with a headache.

Sokka's thoughts were interrupted by what sounded like the call of a giant elephant frog. It was a deep thrum, thrum, thrum sound, which he could feel in his chest. It was not a sound he had heard the last time he was at the swamp, and he soon noticed the villagers were startled by it. They had begun to whisper.

"Early...closer...where...when is...can't they..."

While he could not make out a complete sentence, it seemed the sound was not a new occurrence in the swamp. The thrums formed a steady beat coming from every direction.

-Drums. No big deal. Must be another village.-

He tried to catch the eye of a villager to ask about the noise, but everyone was returning to their homes, including the people who had been feeding the fire pit with sticks. Even Nekka had been unsettled by the beat, her attention now fixed downriver. Sokka's hand on his boomerang steadied his nerves, and he was glad to hear Azula's voice coming up behind him.

"What is that awful drumming all about?" she asked, stopping directly behind him so he had to get up to speak to her.

"I don't know, but they're freaking everybody out," he said.

"I demanded answers from no less than three of them and they had the audacity to ignore me," she said.

"Yeah, I couldn't get anything out them either," said Sokka. "Maybe this has something to do with what Huu wanted to tell us."

"He had best tell us right now. Let's go fetch him."

"These people don't seem panicked, so we should be just fine," said Katara, who had been hanging back. "I'm going to take Nekka back to the longhouse. The supplies we gathered are tied to Appa's saddle."

She took Nekka's hand and led her away without saying another word, leaving Sokka in a quandary.

"I'll think I'll guard the bison again. You're coming with me, let's go," said Azula, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him through the village to the nearby grove where Appa had been left to rest. The drums had the big animal on edge and he grunted his relief on seeing Sokka, who spoke soothing words while petting his nose.

Azula climbed into Appa's saddle and with a look towards the village Sokka joined her. Azula had found her usual sleeping spot at the back while Sokka sat off to the side. The perpetual twilight of the swamp was deepening. Shadows were becoming longer and reaching from beneath roots and tussocks. The pools of water had gone from reflective to black, and the steady pounding of drums was now underlain by a constant screen of insects.

"Unbelievable. Does this place ever shut up?" Azula asked.

"Let's hope not. When everything goes quiet, that means we're in trouble."

Azula chuckled, closing her eyes and crossing her legs. She looked worn out, her only rest having come a few days prior at the melon apple orchard. "I can't tell if you're more frightened of those drums or your sister," she said.

"I haven't had a chance to really clear the air with her yet, you know?"

"Clear it of what? Is she angry over you not treating me like a prisoner?"

The whine of a million insects and the beat of the drums made thinking hard, but he found if he tried to listen to all of it at once it became a great blur of noise and had a soothing effect. "I wouldn't put it exactly like that," he said.

"She still hates me, even after I risked my neck for you at the temple. She probably thinks I have some ulterior motive," said Azula.

"Yeah, she does."

"Do you think I'm plotting something?"

He made a disgusted sound. "You know what, let's not spoil it. It was a nice thing you did at the temple, and I'm grateful."

They were silent for a while. Azula closed her eyes, but her body was tense and she was far from sleep. Sokka sat in a meditating position and let the sounds of the swamp soothe him, even the ominous drums. He might have fallen asleep had Azula not kept moving. "Will you be sleeping here, then?" she asked.

"I guess. That's why you dragged me here, isn't it?"

Her lips curled, then pressed into a line. "Yes," she said, almost inaudibly. "The only real sleep I've had in weeks was that night in the barn."

"Because of me?"

"It wasn't this smelly, snoring bison," she said.

"Yeah, alright, I guess I'll stay the night here. I think Katara was expecting I would."

There was another long stretch of silence as the night gathered around them. Appa had gotten used to the drums and the insects, and settled down, his breathing adding to the cacophony around them. The drums had quickened, or so Sokka thought, and he listened to them while he sat, letting them pull him into a meditative state where he could think. He tried to contact the Old One, but it was silent.

True night had taken over and Azula was still moving around in the dark. He listened to her until she was still, then when he heard her breathing change he laid down to do some sleeping of his own. He dreamed of a black violin then came awake when Azula shrieked.

Sokka's blood was rushing, flushing the drowsiness from his head, but he soon calmed when he realized it had been one of her night terrors. She was breathing hard. "Sokka," she whispered.

"Yeah."

"Come here."

He crawled over to her, and she guided him down so his head lay on the cushy part of the saddle.

"Uh..."

"Shut up," she said, laying her head into his shoulder. "Be quiet and let me sleep."

-888-

While he had gone to sleep with the pounding drums and the whine of insects in his ears, he dreamed of violin music and flapping wings. The music was alien to him and just short of being unpleasant in its weirdness, but the wings were almost intolerable. In truth, they made no sound, they only gave him the impression of flapping as they touched him. He was being borne off somewhere though long, twilight distances. The ride was rough, like falling, and he was being shaken. Azula was hissing at him.

His eyes had adjusted to the night, which was pin-pricked by the tiny green lights of lantern bugs. "What?" he groaned, rolling away from the warm body beside him.

She slapped him hard on the chest. "I'll never be able to sleep with those accursed drums pounding all night," she whispered.

"It's probably quieter up at the longhouse," he said, brushing his face where the dream wings had tickled him.

"I'd prefer to avoid your sister for a few more hours."

He sat up and rubbed his eyes. He could see her silhouette against the swamp, which was not only noisy but teemed with the motion of nocturnal beings large and small. He could hear the pounding drums beneath the natural swamp racket and had to admit the sound somehow asserted itself above all the others.

Azula stood and walked to the end of Appa's saddle. The bison was sleeping lightly, his breaths audible beneath the drums, buzzes, whines, and chirps from the swamp. "I want to know who's beating on those things," Azula said.

"We'll ask Huu in the morning. I'm pretty sure it's the other thing he wanted to tell us."

"He knew we'd hear them, so why was he silent on the subject? Come with me, I'm going to do a little reconnaissance."

She hoped off Appa's saddle and over the marshy ground before he could say anything. Wide awake now, he decided to humor her and jumped off the saddle, making a wet squelch on his landing. "You know, I've got some experience with bad ideas, and trust me, this is one of them."

Her laugh was that of a girl sneaking out at night. "You remind me of Zuzu when we young, always whining. Don't be a dummy and just follow me," she said.

Azula leaped from soggy tussock to soggy tussock, from wet rock, to rotten log, and gracefully moved across a bank of moss-covered roots. Sokka moved slower, his footing coming from years of moving over ice, but he was out of practice and his feet were soon wet. Azula clucked her tongue when he caught up, and she led him to the edge of the village near the river. There was a long, bark canoe tied to a tree and after some searching they found a pole to propel it. "We shouldn't go far," he said.

"Afraid your sister will be mad?"

"No," he said, thinking of what Katara would say, or do, if some disaster befell them.

"Liar. You should stand up to her more."

"We get along just fine, thanks," he said, a familiar weariness coming over him as he pushed the pole against the muddy river bottom.

"I've noticed," Azula said.

He stifled his laugh. "No offense, but you're not the greatest person to be taking advice from when it comes to family stuff."

She huffed, summoning a tiny flame in her palm only to snuff it out. "On the contrary, I know quite a bit about the subject."

-This is folly. Turn back,- Sokka heard himself think. The voice was his own, but it came streaking from out of his mind with enough force to startle him. He could see Azula's bemused expression in the darkness. The sky was clear, and the faint light from the stars reflecting from the water was the swamp's only illumination.

"Hearing voices?" she asked. "What are they saying?"

"Nothing I don't already know. That seems to be all it can tell me when I'm awake, and I forget whatever happens when I'm asleep."

"Some people need to be told what they already know," she said, leaning back in the canoe and letting her hand flutter over the edge. She was careful not to lower it too far, less some swimming thing with teeth take a bite. "You're lucky. My little mind worm isn't so polite."

"Really? What does it say?"

"I'd rather not tell," she said. "Forget it, it's just an annoyance."

"I think it's more than that," he said. "You should go with Nekka to see Huu tomorrow. If anyone can help you, he can."

"Is that supposed to put my mind at ease?" she asked.

Sokka shook his head and paddled the canoe, steering clear of logs, and floating clusters of root and dirt which appeared as deep, black blobs on the water.

The canoe moved in silence, but faster, while the sounds of the swamp and the drums seemed to emanate from behind every tree and curtain of vines. Sokka yelped when something slapped the water with its tail and disappeared. There was a bend up ahead and Sokka vowed to turn the canoe around once they reached it.

He soon realized they had gone quite far from the village. Azula turned and faced the swamp, and for some reason Sokka could not explain he continued to steer the boat as they were drawn in deeper.

Sokka's anxiety about how far they were from the village steadily rose, but he said nothing. Suddenly, Azula pointed at a bright, orange light behind vine-draped banyan trees.

It was a fire, a huge one. It burned in the woods a few hundred yards from the river, rising up around a tower of sticks. Flames tore angrily at the night sky, while on the ground strange shapes pranced in the light.

Sokka leaned hard to make the pole touch bottom and stopped the canoe. Beyond the fire was a deep, black thicket. The insects had all but been drowned out by the drums, which he could feel in his chest. Azula waved for him to bring the canoe to the bank, but he shook his head. "Are you crazy? I know you like fire, but come on."

Her amber eyes flashed in the firelight, and he pushed the canoe to the shore where she jumped out and dragged the front end onto the riverbank. "Azula! Azula, this is nuts!"

She pressed her finger to her lips and keeping low to the ground moved closer to the violently burning fire, using the moss and vine covered trees for cover. Sokka stuck close to her, keeping his footsteps in hers so he did not squelch or snap a twig. They could see the dancing shapes now. Their backs were black against the fire, but when the light caught them their skin was sallow and corpse-like. Not all were entirely human, and while their numbers were hard to tally it was more than Sokka wanted to see.

"Okay, reconnaissance mission complete, let's go back now," he said, tugging on her tunic. "Azula, I just had my stitches out from the last fight we got into, I'd like to have a few more days of being wound-free, okay?"

"If you don't want more wounds, then shut up," she whispered back.

They were close enough to feel the heat from the fire, and the grotesquerie of the revelers was laid bare. They did not posses the Outer-Maw Look, but Sokka wished they had. Each one bore some sort of deformity, be it a club foot, mottled skin, and in some cases extra, deformed limbs. Sokka saw they were a mix of men, women, and children. Animals, too, but the distinction was hard to draw. While their bodies were sickening to behold, what truly unnerved him and filled Azula with a bizarre anger was their demeanor. They danced about the raging flames as if it were joy incarnate, some prancing so close their skin blistered.

A few were making a game of seeing how close they could be to the flames and for how long. Most jumped back, smoldering, while they were congratulated by their less daring fellows, but a rare number decided to jump, or collapse, and be swallowed by the inferno.

It was as hard to watch as it was to look away, but he was able to tear his attention from the cavalcade of dancing horrors long enough to take in their surroundings. The grove was adorned with hundreds of hanging bundles. He could see the glint of white bones and strips of seared flesh that had been bound up into the strange little fetishes.

There was movement in the darkness where the fire's light did not touch, and Sokka could see there were even more revelers in the shadows. Some were quite close to them, and he was glad they had been cautious.

A burning branch broke, sending others down in a storm of sparks and coals. A cheer rose up from the group which sounded to Sokka almost mournful and angry, but his attention was on what the shifting wood had revealed.

The fuel for the bonfire had been piled around a massive, black stone. Had Sokka not seen Cthulhu's image burned into a wall once before, he might not have recognized its likeness carved into obsidian.

He was about to say something in her ear when she stood "Run back to the boat," she said.

She shook his hand off her arm as she moved into the firelight. Everything was happening fast, the distances between them and the bonfire were somehow shorter. Azula's arms moved in wide arcs, her fingertips sparked, and with a thrust of her arm she sent the largest bolt of lightning he had seen her produce streaking towards the fire-covered obsidian statue.

He clamped his hands over his ears in time to avoid them being hurt by the explosion which sent hot shards of stone and burning logs into the gathering of subhumans who howled in shock before twisting in agony.

Clouds of blue fire erupted from her arms and scorched the swamp before her, igniting the forms that had languished in the shadows. She was screaming as she produced waves of blue fire, then followed them with bolts of lightning that arced between pale bodies when it did not destroy them outright.

Sokka cowered behind her, his boomerang in hand, and swept the legs out from under a charging figure. Man, woman, child, or animal he did not know, but Azula burned it to ash as soon as she noticed he had felled it. She wore a look of manic glee on her face that frightened him and made him call out to her.

Many of the dancers fled into the swamp, their terror overpowering their rage. Azula did not seem to want any survivors, however, and she ran after them, sending lightning bolts into the thicket where they exploded more trees and set fires.

Sokka followed, striking down things that came at her flanks and back with relative ease, as they seemed to only have eyes and hate for her and the destruction she was causing. "Die! Die, you scum!" she shrieked. "How dare you! How dare you!"

They were in the thick, vine laden part of the swamp beyond the Cthulhu shrine, and it was here Sokka finally mustered the courage to grab her around the waist. "Azula! Stop! They're gone, we got them!"

This was not entirely true, but he thought the truth would only encourage her to stay and fight. While the dancers had fled into the darkness of the swamp, some instinct told him it was not quite the route it appeared to be. He could sense them gathering, waiting for him and Azula to go beyond the light and be in amongst the thick trees and vines where her devastating bending attacks would be less effective.

"Let me go, coward! They all have to die!"

"Stop it! What's gotten into you?"

She wrestled away from his grip, and for a moment looked about to turn her anger on him directly, but it was like she had been shaken out of a trance. "Run, fool, back to the boat," she said, dashing past him but letting him catch up.

As they ran, sticks and stones began to fly past them, then small darts. Sokka felt a stone bounce off his shoulder blade, laying the roots for a formidable bruise later on provided a second stone did not find the back of his skull.

Each of them had been hit by something by the time they reached the boat, and behind them were two freshly burned corpses, creatures that had tried to come around to flank them or cut off their escape.

Azula jumped into the canoe first and Sokka soaked himself to his waist pushing off. She pulled him in hard enough to almost tip the canoe, but some quick pole work on his part saved them and he was pushing off as hard as he could, sending them over the water towards the village as the swamp became full of strange shrieks and undulating war cries.

"We gotta ditch this canoe and hide! A third-rate waterbender on a log could catch us at this speed!" he shouted.

"Enough of your nonsense, this water is filthy. Hang on and prepare to steer," she said, moving to the back of the canoe and getting on her knees. She held both arms out and took in a deep breath. Twin jets of fire shot from her palms, lighting the swamp around them in blue. The canoe lurched forward and sped upriver. Sokka did not so much steer as he rammed the pole into obstacles, keeping them from colliding with the logs and floating tussocks they had glided gently past on their way down.

After what felt like several miles Azula cut the flames and they let the momentum carry them a ways into calmer water, where Sokka began to furiously propel them with the pole.

Azula was exhausted, but elated. Her sharp laughter joined the chorus of bugs and night birds, and as Sokka's arms felt like wet sand, he pulled the pole in and slumped on his back in the bottom of the canoe.

"Reconnaissance mission, huh?" he said as his breath returned to him.

"When you see a chance to deal a crippling blow, you take it," she said, moving towards his legs. He looked up; she was smiling.

"What were those things? They didn't look like cult people," he said.

"Who cares? We hurt them, didn't we? We showed them we're not weak fools who can only fight on the run."

He let out a deep breath as the back of his head touched the canoe. His mind reeled about for some point to make, something to second guess her with. Finally, it surrendered. "Yeah, it felt pretty good to hit back, didn't it?"

She was grinning in the dark and he could not help but feel her excitement. They had come a long way over the river, but they were still far from the village. "It did. They've had us on the run for so long, they've been tormenting me this entire time, they needed to suffer. You did well. I would have been attacked from behind had you not run interference."

Azula's hand was on his leg, making his body go rigid. "Yep," he said.

"You wanted to know before what the shoggoth in my mind says to me," she said. "I can tell you, can't I? You won't be afraid of me?"

Propping himself up on his elbows, he saw her pale face was covered in a sheen of sweat. "No, you can tell me," he said.

"It wants me to burn things. It likes my bending, it's fascinated with it for some reason. It doesn't care what gets burned, so long as it's something. It...took over for a bit, back there. Not completely, but enough to make my bending stronger, I think."

"Something tells me that's not a good thing," Sokka said.

She shook her head and crawled closer to him. He braced himself, but did not recoil. "It's eating me alive, Sokka," she said. "I've been keeping it in check, but something's happened and it's loose in me...you're the only thing that holds it back."

Sokka's lips parted, but they hung there stupidly with nothing to say. She kissed him, and rather than recoil his body froze, all but his lips which worked to envelop hers. Azula pulled back, her amber eyes wide.

-Stop. Stop it, you idiot, this is a bad, bad move,- he thought, as her lips met his again and his elbows shifted so his arms could go around her.

The smell of her skin and hair, and the weight of her body were exactly as he remembered them from the south pole when he had needed her heat to keep him alive in the deadly cold. Ice and snow had been replaced by muggy air and a wooden canoe bottom, but they ignored the discomfort and pressed themselves close, using their hands to further define each others forms in the darkness.

Each was careful to avoid the others cuts and bruises, but they soon stopped caring. Sokka knew he would have some new marks in the morning in the shape of teeth, and while most of them would be where his clothes covered, Azula did things to his neck that made him shiver and gasp.

Knowing it was too late to turn back, he drove himself forward. She met him with equal force, and he felt all the anxiety and fear he had been holding lifted from him, leaving a great hollow in his mind which she filled with sweat, her long hair on his bare chest, and finally her fingernails digging deep into his back.

When it was over he did not move, both out of fatigue and the fear of the disgust and regret he was sure to feel once outside the heat of her embrace. The canoe floated quietly along in the direction of the village, and he planned to remain still, listening to her breathe, until the boat ran ashore.

To be continued...