Part III

Escape from the Mountains of Madness

Chapter One.

Sokka felt as though he were plowing through deep snow, but all that greeted his stumbles were harsh gravel and sharp rocks. Beads of sweat poured down his temples, following the curve of his jaw, and a thick layer of moisture had built up between his skin and inner clothes, making him feel scummy as well as fatigued. He had to keep alert so he wouldn't get lost in the dark, winding caves, so he was unable to take refuge in mindless drudgery the way he had when crossing the snowfield for the first time. Every so often, a bolt of blue flame would appear behind his head and go sailing off towards a real or possibly imagined enemy, reminding him of the hazards of stopping or losing his way.

Finally, it came to the point where his legs refused to obey him, and his knees would not rise high enough to make a successful step forward. He went down faster than he'd wanted, and Azula yelped and cursed as she slid off his back.

"What are you doing?!" she shouted, her voice filled with pain bordering on panic. "They're all around us! We can't stop!"

Pain now wracked his body, causing his extremities to feel heavier than he'd ever felt them. His muscles, having been given a brief reprieve, now refused to respond and were punishing him for trying to make them move. The warm air of the caves had taken its toll, too, and he felt as though his furs were an oven. He tore off his coat and felt the heat waft off his moist torso.

"I...can't...need to rest," he panted, still hunched over.

Azula growled and hurled a bolt of fire in the direction they'd come. He saw the black rock walls glow blue and heard the flame strike something solid not far back. He could smell charred rocks but couldn't detect the foul odor of burning cave monster.

"How much farther is it?" she asked, sounding both weary and irritated.

The area lit by the lantern looked the same as everything else, and he forced himself to remember the landmarks he had passed: The cave with the dip in the floor, the tunnel that kept getting narrow then wider in regular intervals; next should be an open area with one wall covered in cold water. Beyond that would be a small pool with some of the glowing fungus, and past that would be what he dreaded now, a series of winding tunnels that would require a flawless memory of which turns to take to traverse.

-First left, second right, then two more lefts, right, left,- he thought in a sing-song voice, the way he'd been taught to remember long sequences by Gran Gran. He reached for Hoplo's journal and felt its solid cover in the rucksack. Knowing he could consult it if need be was a comfort, but he didn't want to have to stop for that long.

The tunnel was silent. All he could hear were the blood pounding in his ears and Azula's hisses of discomfort.

"I asked you how much farther!" she said.

"A while. But I can't keep this pace up," he replied, the exhaustion already seeking to overwhelm him.

"Well you'd better. I'm all but sure those things are working towards a trap."

He let out a deep sigh and admitted to himself that he had underestimated how difficult carrying the supplies and Azula would be. It was not at all like dragging a sled over the snowfield, where the only exertion had come from from shuffling forward. Carrying her and their things put his body under constant strain.

"Up! Up, now!" Azula shouted, throwing fire in a seemingly random direction.

He heard something sizzle when the bolts struck and the smell of strange, burning flesh wafted over him. Sokka turned to see something not quite solid filling the passage, oozing forward. Azula's blue flames illuminated it before snuffing out on impact. If the thing felt pain, it didn't show it.

"Go, it's coming!" Azula shouted again, sliding backward frantically, uncaring of the rocks as they scratched her bare hands.

This was it, he thought, this was the thing's trap. It had harried them until they were too tired to move, and now it was putting on a rush of speed and ignoring the injuries dealt to it, knowing there would soon be nothing left to harm it. Fear came over him like a scalding bucket of water, burning his nerves away so he felt no pain and was able to get to his feet. It was like his limbs had been infused with a bolt of lighting. He threw the rucksack on over his open coat, grabbed the lantern and knelt beside Azula.

"Hop on!" he shouted, hoping she would be possessed by the same fear he was.

She fired a large ball of flame before crawling into him, shrieking as she did so from the agony that shot through her leg.

He lifted her without caution and heard her whimper. He could sense the massive being behind him was within meters, close enough to perhaps snatch him in one quick spurt. His limbs didn't feel heavy anymore, but he could tell they had been pushed to their limits. He gritted his teeth and willed his legs to move.

He felt as though he had gone to sleep and was dreaming. Distant sensations of pain still plagued him, as did idle, random thoughts that swam up from the void beneath his mind. Katara's hair loops, the Earth Kingdom as it looked from the air, the smell of Suki's war paint, all rose up and burst on the surface of his consciousness like bubbles from the muddy bottom of a lake. He couldn't see the black tunnel, as it was lit partially by a green light which would occasionally become flickering and blue, or orange.

Reality came back to him in the form of dusty, hard stone scuffing his cheek. He felt the warm sting of broken skin and the sticky smear of blood when he moved his head to the side so he could breathe.

"Ow..." he said, knowing his legs would not work now, no matter what fear spurred them on.

He felt Azula's weight on top of him and her breath in his hear. "Are you alive?" she whispered. Her voice shook and he felt warm drops of her sweat on his cheek.

"I think so," he said, his words slurred and weak.

"Keep quiet. I managed to slow it down. We got ahead. It might not know where we are."

All he wanted to do was sleep, or at least not move as even sleeping seemed like too much an effort. His legs and back ached even when he didn't move, and screamed at him when he did. "Where are we?" he whispered.

"I don't know. You seemed like you knew where you were going." Her voice held an accusatory sting, but Sokka was too tired to retort.

"I did?" he mumbled, picking his head up.

Everything was black, and he remembered almost nothing of his mad flight. He put his hand on the floor and ran his tired fingers along the rock, remembering that different parts of the caverns had their own surfaces. Some with loose stone, others with hard, sharp rocks. This surface was smooth and covered in fine dust.

"Oh crap," he said, suddenly feeling more alert due to his growing fear.

"What is it? Are we lost?"

He shook his head, realizing seconds after he did so that she wouldn't be able to see it in the gloom. "No...worse, we're at the city."

"The cit...where they live!?" Her voice had risen from a cautious whisper to a near shriek.

"I guess...I don't know where we are in it...it's huge. And what happened to being quiet?"

"Forget it," she said, waving her hand wearily. "I don't think they hear by sound alone, they sensed us out in the snow and lured me here with dreams, remember?"

"Whatever," he said with effort. "I can't move."

"You'll have to."

"I can't," Sokka said, wearily. "Not for a while. And probably nowhere near as fast. You're no feather, princess."

She looked about to say something in response to his comment about her weight but thought against it and settled for an exasperated hiss. "You...ugh. Well I can't drag you, so it seems this is where we make our last stand if they find us."

Sokka felt sleep coming up on him as his aches seem to die down, but he could still think. "You said..." It was hard for him to speak. "You said, when it went after you, you hid in the water...?"

"Yes," she said, sounding as though she'd caught on. "The water...it couldn't sense me through the water." Azula began dragging herself away, sucking in her breath as she went.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"To...find...someplace better to hide," she said, her leg clearly hurting her. "I'll return. I need you, remember?"

"Whatever," he said, wondering how she would find him again the dark.

As his eyes drifted shut, he realized that he was too exhausted to care.

To be continued...