The first night out of Fong's compound Katara wakes up screaming. Everyone jolts awake to comfort her.

The second night Katara wakes up screaming. Everyone jolts awake but Aang goes back to sleep.

The third night Katara is drunk off her ass - they passed through a village earlier - and Zuko wakes everyone up by turning the small campfire into a pillar of flame in his sleep.

The fifth night Katara is shaken awake by firm hands before she can wake anyone else up.

By the eighth night it's become normal for Zuko to wake her in the middle of the night. They take catnaps on Appa during the day. Sokka doesn't say anything, but he doesn't try to interfere.

The morning of the tenth day dawns bright and cool, not chilly but not quite as warm as they'd like though Zuko is fine. By mid afternoon it's the perfect weather - warm and not a cloud in the sky - and they stop for a much needed dose of relaxation. Katara has been training Aang every morning before they set off. Aang vehemently refuses her suggestions that perhaps Zuko should show him some fire bending. He's getting better at water bending and now they're on their way to Omashu to find an earth bending teacher.

Relaxing comes in the form of a clear stream running through a clearing tucked into the foot of a mountain. "Come on Katara," Aang tries not to notice the dark circles under her eyes, "Why don't we do some bending?"

She smiles wearily, "Sure." Sokka has already stripped to his underwear and steps into the water with a sigh. Small waves lap at his thighs as he gets deeper in before he sinks back and begins to float, all the tension easing out of his back. Aang pulls most of his clothes off and jumps in, splashing all around him. Katara thinks nothing of it as she too disrobes. She breathes a long sigh of relief as she steps into the water, actually letting it wrap around her instead of jumping into a lesson to teach Aang. She blocks other sounds out and sits down, feeling the currents around her letting them sink into her mind.

Zuko stands by Appa a moment longer than the others before shrugging out of his shirt. It's unprincely for him to be without pants and so he keeps them on. Katara's dress drops from her shoulders to reveal white cloth wrappings and he chokes. She sways as she steps into the stream. The day seems to have gotten a lot hotter, and for the life of him he can't tear his eyes away from that gorgeous woman. No, he has to! Zuko plunges into the freezing water, letting it steam around him. When he surfaces Katara is, for the first time in days, smiling softly to herself. He wants to keep her smiling.

Aang breaks the spell, zooming up to her loudly. "So, you want to start?"

The smile falters momentarily until she plasters another one on. "How about we just relax? You've done enough training for now."

"Oh. Okay." Aang wanders over to the shore and over a little hill, pouting. Katara reaches a glowing hand up to her neck and sighs. Zuko contemplates wading towards her when a small wave attacks him. What! He didn't see Katara move to bend at him, is she so good that she somehow mastered bending with a twitch of her fingers at some point or what?

"Hey jerk bender." Ah, that explains it. He turns around to meet another lazy splash directed at him which turns to steam. "You wanna spar?"

Zuko snorts and looks imperiously down his nose at Sokka, or at least as imperiously as he can while dripping and staring at a mostly naked guy who has a lemur curled up on his chest. "How would you spar with me? You're not a bender."

"I know that, I was talking about hand to hand. I could use some good practice."

Zuko rolls his eyes, "I'll kick your ass."

"Whatever jerk bender, whatever." Sokka stands up casually and Zuko heads back to the bank. "Mega-tackle-kick!" Sokka cries and runs at Zuko who turns around with time to spare and easily flips Sokka over his shoulder but Sokka grabs hold of him and pulls the prince down with him into the water and mud.

"No, no! I am not grappling with you when you're half naked Sokka!"

Sokka just laughs in reply, "Really, the prince of the Fire Nation is afraid to fight because I'm not dressed? What, do I have cooties?" Sokka guffaws and chases towards Zuko, making what he assumes are cootie noises. Zuko blocks. Soon both boys are grappling in the water despite Zuko's protest that he wouldn't do it unless Sokka got dressed. Katara finds herself laughing and with a grin joins in creating larger waves. Water pulls playfully at Zuko's ponytail and smacks Sokka's back. "Hey! No bending Katara, that's not fair!"

"It's perfectly fair," She hollers back and washes both boys a bit further out into the stream. Sokka turns back to his opponent, the one who's actually being fair and not bending but a wicked smirk greets him. "No, nope, I'm not doing this!" Zuko's grin grows wider and the water starts to heat around them. "Ah, I'm boiling alive!" Sokka shouts melodramatically though the water is only barely starting to give off steam and he flops back.

"I beat you."

"Only because you cheated."

"I still wo-" Both guys gets water to the face.

"Boys, boys I think I'm the one who actually won," Katara smiles daringly. Sokka knows better than to get into this and scampers out of the way of the two benders.

"You might want to guess again."

"You're in the middle of a stream." Katara laughs at the realization that dawns on his face as the face spins around him and washes him downstream, depositing him safely and swiftly onto the ground far enough away that there was no question that she had won.

Eventually Aang returns to find Sokka still floating around, Zuko going through various kata, and Katara giving Appa a good bath which he thoroughly seems to be enjoying. No one expects it when a throaty tenor joins in with the chirping birds and all of the travelers turn in unison, Zuko and Katara immediately dropping into battle poses. Sokka and Aang just look over in surprise at the new arrivals. An odd older man with an atrocious hat and worn clothes comes traipsing in playing a sitar, followed closely by a young woman with a flute, and a fat man with a bored but vaguely content expression. "Hey, hey, river people!" The appears-to-be-leader calls.

Katara relaxes a little, they seem harmless and Aang pipes up, "We're not river people."

"Well, what kinda people are ya then?"

"Just people," Aang shrugs, confused.

The man grins, "Aren't we all brother, aren't we all."

"Who are you? What do you want?" Zuko growls as they step closer.

"I'm Chong and this is my wife, Lily." Chong doesn't even think to introduce the other man. "We're nomads, just wandering around wherever the winds takes us."

Aang perks up, "Nomads! That's great, I'm a nomad!"

"Oh cool, I'm a nomad too," Chong grins.

"Uh, you just said that."

"Oh," Chong doesn't look particularly perturbed by that and just grins and wanders towards Appa. Katara can almost see a smoky haze around them as they get closer and the smell burns her nose.

Zuko doesn't budge. "What do you want?" he asks again.

"Brother, we just want to spread happiness." Chong grabs Zuko by the shoulder and hugs tightly causing the fire bender almost to smash the man's face into his knee but he holds still repeating over and over to himself 'do not hit strangers do not hit strangers'. Katara rescues him and stops the vein in his neck from popping in frustration at being nice.

"So Chong, that's a nice instrument," she smiles through clenched teeth. They smell and something about Chong throws her off and it's not just the smoke.

He pulls away from Zuko and strokes the sitar lovingly, much the same way Sokka strokes his boomerang. "Oh really, thanks. Would you like to hear a song? There's one that goes like-"

"No, nope, sorry but we have to get to Omashu now," Sokka springs out of the water not at all interested in hearing what this stoned hippie has to sing.

"Oh but it goes like SECRET TUNNEL, SECRET TUNNEL," The man belts out, causing the gaang to wince.

"No, no we have to go now." Sokka doesn't even bother with pants before climbing up on Appa and Zuko isn't far behind, scooping his shirt up on the way.

The woman, Lily, smiles serenely, just as high as her husband, "It sounds like someone's got a case of destination fever. You've got to focus less on the where and more on the going."

"We're going to Omashu. O-Ma-Shu."

Katara nods, "Sokka's right, we need to get there and find Bumi so Aang can learn earth bending somewhere safe."

Aang groans, "I thought we were relaxing today you know, taking a break from everything."

"We can take a break later," Katara's tone doesn't leave any room for arguing.

Aang hangs his head and gathers up his clothes, Katara coming behind him and grabbing hers and Sokka's. "Okay."

"There's an old legend about a secret tunnel through the mountains that leads right up to Omashu."

Aang turns around, "Really!"

"No, Aang," Zuko snaps.

"Yeah, arrow-kid," Chong starts to sing and Sokka's hand meets his forehead, "Two lovers forbidden from one another. A war divides their people and a mountain divides them apart. Built a path to be together. I don't remember the next few lines but then it goes, SECRET TUNNEL, SECRET TUNNEL SECRET SECRET SECRET SECRET TUNNEL!"

"I think we'll just stick to flying, thanks," Sokka replies.

Aang nods sadly, "Yeah, Appa hates going underground and we have to whatever makes him happiest." Not to mention the fact that Katara was recently entombed in stone and will gladly strangle someone before setting foot into a tunnel.

. . .

The wind whips through Katara's braid as she flows from one form into the next. It finally occurred to her why she detested that Chong man so much but the reason bothers her even more. His name, Chong is so much like Chang and Fong and she hates him for it. It's silly to hate someone she doesn't even know especially because of his name but she can't get rid of the angry boiling inside her chest and so she throws herself even more into the forms.

Zuko watches and sees the stressed muscles and tense jaw. He sees how her bending is sharper than what he's seen in the past week or two, it's more like the forceful fire bending forms he taught her.

Sokka sees and recognizes the mood his sister is in though he can't for the life of him figure out why.

Aang just watches the sky ahead and sees the fireball flying towards them at the last second. He yanks on the reigns and Appa swerves to the side throwing his riders off balance. Katara stumbles but Sokka reaches out and grabs her before she goes over. "Geez, sis, you okay?"

"What was that!"

"Someone just tried to hit us! The Fire Nation spotted us!"

"Don't worry about the fire, I'll take care of that just don't get hit by the rocks they use."

"And I'll just sit here holding on for dear life as Appa tries to throw us all off," Sokka shouts, clutching the saddle as they dodge yet another fireball though the flames quickly disperse.

"Are you trying to kill us, Avatar?" Zuko roars.

"Shut up! I'm doing the best I can!" Appa crashes into the forest below them, uprooting trees in his wake. All of the passengers fly off except for a green Sokka who still has the saddle in a vice grip. He quickly lets go to puke over the side.

Aang drifts down leisurely to land on Appa's back. "Where's Katara and Momo?"

"They must have gotten thrown off with Zuko." Sokka wipes his mouth and looks around at the forest, no swamp is a better term for it. Flies buzz around murky puddles of water and vines wrap heavily around the trees. He pulls his boomerang off his back. "We'd better go find them before it gets dark."

. . .

"So much for a relaxing day," Katara hisses to herself. "I'm stuck in the middle of Goddess only knows where with no idea where anyone else is. Great." There's no way to know where the others are, the fall disoriented her and there's no debris showing which way Appa fell. Katara sighs though she is thankful for a few moments alone. Maybe she won't hurry back to them so quickly.

. . .

Momo had the unfortunate luck of grabbing onto Zuko during the crash and now scampers across his shouldered angrily chattering until he's pulled off and held at arm's length. "Get off of me you flying rat!" Momo may not understand him but still manages to look properly offended. Zuko rubs the back of his head, annoyed. "Fine, fine you're not a flying rat but you still don't need to be climbing all over me."

Zuko looks up at the trees and vines around him. "Shit," there's no evidence of which way the others went. "It looks like we're lost." He steps forward, the murky water sucking at his legs. Something croaks in the distance and it doesn't take long before the area is again alive with the sounds of nature and Momo is perched atop Zuko's shoulder. "Let's try and figure out where to go. I can't see the sun much but I think it's that way and it was on our left side when we were traveling."

. . .

"These stupid vines are getting in the way!" Sokka groans as he hacks at them. Aang jumps from tree to tree but never out of Sokka's sight. Even from the treetops nothing's visible that would lead to the others. Another tree, larger than all the others overshadows them even from a distance and Aang's heart speeds up. Something about it is familiar, something about the towering limbs and swaying vines calls to him. His feet move without his permission and leaves fly by underneath him without him even realizing it. He has to get to the tree, it's calling him pulling his spirit towards the massive trunk.

Far below and behind Aang, Sokka still hacks at the vines. "Hey Aang, can you give me a hand with this? Use some of your bendy powers or something." No reply except for croaking birds. "Aang?" The branches above him are clear, no monks. "Aang this isn't funny!" Still no one replies and Sokka deflates, plopping into the mud. "Did you see him Appa?" The bison just looks at him and roars. "Yeah, I thought so. Leave it to him to wander off in the middle of a search. Katara's might be in trouble but no Aang runs off!" Sokka jumps at a touch on his ankle. "What the-" a vine slithers away from him and his eyes go wide. "We've got to get out of here buddy!"

The Water Tribe boy scampers up Appa's side and stops cold. Katara stands in the saddle, the Katara of his nightmares. Blood runs down her arms and sticky pools of it are at her feet. Her usually bright blues eyes are dull, almost dead and follow him as he stumbles back and falls against the rim of the saddle. "Why didn't you protect me, Sokka?" Crimson drips out of her mouth as she speaks. "You ran away and left me."

"No!" He chokes out. "I didn't mean to!"

The apparition tilts her head. "Didn't mean to? Just like you didn't mean to leave mother alone? No one loves you Sokka, no one stays. Dad left. Yue left. Even I left you Sokka. Why would we want you around, you can't bend, you can hardly fight. You're nothing to us."

His hands cover his face and ears, trying to block her out. "You're not real, you're not real, you're not real!"

. . .

"Ugh!" No matter how many tendrils Zuko cut down more appear in front of him, thicker and more tangled than the ones he just had finished with. Eventually, after only moving about fifty yards, being tapped on the shoulder to find no one there, and sweating buckets, the prince punches a nearby tree in frustration. "Shit!" A large splinter gets lodged in between his knuckles. He flinches as he uncurls his fist before deciding that it would be easier to pull out from the original position. He clenches his hand and moves to remove the wood but a softer, delicate pale hand closes over his. "Hold on turtle duck, I'll get it for you."

"Mom," he gasps, not even realizing that the image in front of him has taken out the shard. She wears what he remembers her in, long flowing robes that have relaxed shoulders and golden dragons dancing along the rims of her sleeves and around her neck. A metal flame perches atop her head and her long black hair swishes as she moves.

"Oh my dear little turtle duck, look at how you've grown," She smiles and the entire swamp seems to light up before she casts a worried look over her shoulder. "Remember my love, everything I've done, I've done to protect you." Cool lips press against his forehead and he closes his eyes, leaning into his mother's touch.

Tears sting at the corner of his good eye and his heart aches. "I've missed you so much Mom. I wish you could have been -" Zuko opens his eyes and she's gone, only Momo is there with him. "I miss you," His voice cracks and his face falls. He stumbles forward, trying to get away from much more than just that place but he doesn't realize that the vines are much thinner now that he's not cutting them.

. . .

It's a nice walk, even if the air is sticky and bugs are buzzing around her head. Her only problem is that the shadows are making her jumpy, each one seems to shift as soon as she takes her eyes off of it. Occasionally she'll stop for a moment and feel the water around her. The first time it was a shock, the swamp is so alive and she can feel so much. A larger awareness dances at the edge of her consciousness but she can't quite feel or understand it. She can tell vaguely what direction the others are in by the way they move in the water, disrupting the flow. Bigger animals, maybe even people, she's not sure, are here also. Right now someone one close to her and so she's headed in that direction. This time when she reaches out to feel the water and the creatures lurking around her, instead of finding calm ripples she feels hurried splashing coming from close to where she last felt one of her companions. There might be something wrong! She needs to find out!

Her leisurely stroll quickly turns into a bending practice as she raises her arms, the mud much slower to react than water but she can still zoom forward on a wave of it. The water bending master speeds forward but stops in a small clearing. A beam of golden light breaks through the branches illuminating the wounded neck and ghoulish grin of Chang. Katara's blood turns to ice and she hisses, "You're not here. You can't be." Her breathing speeds up, her heart in her throat. She's terrified but by the Goddess she will not show it to this monster. His grin just grows and a knife appears in his hand as he advances towards her. Fong walks up beside him and the earth trembles under her feet, threatening to swallow her and the mud she stands on. "No, not this time!" Her stance changes, dropping into attack and she strikes first this time. "I'm not afraid of you!" She shouts, just as much to tell herself as is it to tell them as mud yanks them away from her. "I won't be afraid of you!" The ground opens up but she leaps, riding a brown wave onto a fallen log. Her eyes harden and her jaw clenches, she won't falter this time. She won't let anyone else hurt her, ever again. Her arms shoot out and the mud listens, sending solid spikes through her enemies. Fong dissipates but Chang, the brutal barbaric Chang falls instead, moaning and crying.

"Please stop! Please don't!" His face is smashed in and his ribs cave in sickeningly as blood begins to stream from his nose and mouth. It takes too long for the whimpering to stop but Katara's shaking doesn't. She can smell burning flesh and hear screaming.

. . .

About an hour later Katara finds Zuko sitting on a log ashen faced, absent-mindedly petting Momo. He jerks up at the sound of her approach, "Oh, you found us-" Katara's fierce hug takes him and Momo by surprise. "What's going on, are you okay?" She doesn't say anything, just hugs him tighter.

. . .

Yes, I am aware that the swamp is in a different part of the Earth Kingdom but considering that they end up all over the place by accident I thought this would be fine. Thank you to all of the followers and to those that favorites this story. For Americans Happy Thanksgiving and for all Merry Christmas - though I do plan on updating before that since I finally reached a break in the conventions.