Falling through the air, Sokka was sure this would be the end. His right hand´s fingers were still clutched around Zuko´s sleeve when they hit the ground. Except it wasn´t solid earth they landed on. They died into a pond of cold, smutty water. Sokka couldn´t believe their luck, but at the same time, he realized in panic that he had let go of Zuko. He got to the surface and looked around. There were voices and the sounds of fire blasts in the distance. Fire nation!, Sokka thought, feeling a little uneasy. Where was Zuko? He dived down again, then his hand touched something big under water and he got hold of the other boy, pulling him to the shore. Both coughed out dirty water. While Sokka got his breath back soon, Zuko started to cough up smoke again. Ironically it´s better than it could be., Sokka thought. If he spit fire, they could see us. However, they weren´t out of danger. Even though the unfamiliar fire benders were shouting something to each other, Zuko´s expectorating was not exactly quiet. Therefore, Sokka was relieved when the other boy dropped on the floor a few seconds later, remaining shivering and panting. He crawled over to his friend and shook him softly on the shoulder. "Hey, how are you?" Zuko, who didn´t feel like talking, just gave him a well-what-do-I-look-like- glance. His head was spinning, and he could hardly breath. While his lungs seemed to be on fire, he was freezing from the ice-cold water they had just escaped from. He took some laboured breaths before managing to say: "I´m sorry." Sokka looked at him in confusion. "What are you sorry for?" "For all this." Zuko winced when a fiery pain pierced his lungs. "If I wasn´t sick, all this would not have happened. I…" He held his breath trying to choke down another coughing attack, but it didn´t work out well, so he managed to muffle the sounds by coughing in his shirt, making it smoke slightly. Sokka hold him up at the shoulder. "You are talking nonsense. Yeah, maybe we wouldn´t be here if you weren´t sick. But it doesn´t matter what could have been, we are here and have to get you to this herbal institute." Zuko, still coughing badly, tried to focus on his friend´s voice to avoid passing out. "By the way, it wasn´t as if you forced us to get here. We decided to do it because you are worth it."
When Sokka and Zuko plummeted, Katara let out a panicked scream. "What happened?", asked Aang, who was trying to get Appa straight again while avoiding the flames. "Sokka and Zuko fell off!", Katara answered fearful. "Oh crap." Appa spiralled upwards so that they were out of reach. Aang climbed into the saddle. "Are you all alright?" "Yes, we are, but them two are not!" Katara was worried out of her mind. "I know we weren´t as high as now, but what if they…" She started crying. Suki hugged her. "They are alive, I´m sure about that! There were many ponds and swamps beneath us, it´s a very wet area." She sounded much more confident than she felt. The boys could still be injured. "However, they are now exposed to these firebenders down there.", Toph clarified. "When they find them… Well, I think we can imagine what they would do." Aang´s face took on a gritty expression. He picked up his glider. "You navigate Appa to the institute. Make sure no one from down there will see where you are going, he is quite visible due to his size. I´ll get down there and find Sokka and Zuko."