Book 2: Earth

Chapter 4: The Swamp

A/N: Hey everyone! Here I am, once again taking far too long to get a chapter up. I promise I will finish this story, it might take me 6 years (I certainly hope not, I can't keep you guys waiting that long!) but I will finish it! I also promise that you guys are going to love this book. I've got some good things planned indeed!

I would also like to point out that I did start this chapter months ago, but then the account that I had stored the draft on got deleted and I had to start over so that's my life and also why it took me so long.

Sorry my dears!

Enjoy!


The small village that Emi, Zuko, and Uncle found themselves in was quaint and lively. They had collapsed against the side of a building off of the cobblestone street after a dizzying lack of food and an even more concerning lack of money left them exhausted. Emi sat leaning against their 'borrowed' ostrich horse, grateful for the chance to rest for a while. As she rested her head against its back, she looked to Zuko, who sat slightly in front of her, arms crossed and face hidden. At first she had thought that he sat that way so that people couldn't see his scar, but after a while she began to realize that that wasn't the case at all.

He was hiding behind the hat because he could no longer hide behind his fire nation armor.

"Spare change for weary travelers?" On her other side, Uncle sat cross-legged with his hat in his hands as he addressed a man walking towards them. Emi knew he was only trying to help, but she could see Zuko become more and more angry with every clink the stranger's change made as it was dropped into Uncle's hat. She couldn't help but take Zuko's side; she hated the attention being drawn to them.

"This is humiliating!" He snapped as the man walked away from them. "We are royalty. These people should be giving us whatever we want."

"They will, if you ask nicely." Uncle replied steadily, while Zuko grumbled to himself in response. Uncle gave him a winning smile before turning his attention to a young woman making her way up the street towards them.

"Spare change for hungry old man?" he asked, giving her his most pitiful look. The woman giggled in response and reached into her sleeve.

"Aw, here you go." She said, tossing the small silver piece in to join the others.

"The coin is appreciated, but not as much as your smile!" Uncle said grandly, with a large, cheesy smile. Zuko smacked his hand to his forehead and Emi rolled her eyes and smiled fondly as the woman walked away, giggling to herself.

"How about some entertainment? In exchange for a gold piece." Emi's eyes snapped up to the source of the cocky, snide voice; a rat faced man with a nasty smirk on his face. She was glad, in that moment, that Zuko sat in front of her, shielding her slightly from this man who just screamed trouble.

"We are not performers." Zuko snarled at him, but Uncle had other ideas.

"Not professional, anyway!" He said, rising to his feet. Emi tried to reach out a hand to stop him, but she was too late.

"Uncle don't-"

"It's a long long way to Ba Sing Se but the girls in the city they look sooo pretaaayyy" He swayed side to side as he sang, hands clasped in front of him. As he sang the last note, he held his hand out expectantly with a broad smile. Several people walking the streets looked over to see Uncle's spectacle, and Emi felt her cheeks heat with a blush under their scrutiny. Ducking her head down, she shifted so that she was hidden more behind Zuko's broad shoulders, wishing that the rat would just leave them alone.

Haven't we dealt with quite enough?

"Come on," the man said mockingly, "We are talking a gold piece here! Let's see some action!" Emi looked up and watched with concern as Zuko's eyes immediately locked in on the two broadswords the man had drawn from the satchel on his back. She pressed her fingertips gently against his shoulder; a warning to remain calm.

"Dance!" the man commanded. Emi bristled in fury as he began to swipe his swords at Uncle's feet, causing Uncle to stumble back and forth in an attempt to avoid them. Zuko's muscles were tense under her hand, his eyes still fixed on the gleaming weapons.

"They kiss so sweet, bet you'd really like to meet, those girls from Ba Sing Seeeee!" Zuko's eyes flashed dangerously and his hands were clenched into tight fists resting on his knees, clearly fighting with everything in him to control his temper. Emi gritted her teeth as the man gave one final slash of his sword and stepped back, laughing loudly.

"Nothing like a fat man dancing for his dinner! Here you go." With that, Emi watched as Zuko's control snapped. She barely got to him in time to stop him from attacking the man from behind as he walked away.

"Zuko! We can't." Her hands rested on his shoulders, holding him in place as she murmured quietly in his ear. "We can't draw attention to ourselves like that. Not here." They stayed like that for a brief moment before Zuko exhaled sharply through his nose and slumped back against her. She dropped her hands from his shoulders and scratched his back gently a couple of times in comfort.

"Such a kind man!" Uncle said warmly, having apparently missed the entire interaction between Zuko and Emi. She could only stare at him in disbelief. She would never understand how Uncle could only ever see the best in people.


"Mom? Mom!" Katara ran towards her with joyful tears building up in her eyes. As she got nearer, she reached out a hand to grab her shoulder.

"I can't believe you're…" her voice faltered as her hand came in contact with something rough and damp. She stumbled back and her heart clenched as she looked at the vine-covered stump reaching out of the water in confusion. With a choked sob, she fell to her knees with a splash.

She had looked so real, like she was standing right there in front of her. Katara covered her face with her hands as the ache in her heart overwhelmed her. The weight of losing her mother was a constant in her life, always thrumming painfully in the background. But now, it was surrounding her, crashing over her in a wave of despair that threated to drown her completely.

"Katara." Her head whipped towards the sound of the soft voice calling her name. She could barely see the outline of another person standing in the distance. She quickly squeezed her eyes shut, wiping away the last of her tears, before opening them when she heard her name a second time. She gasped quietly.

"Emi? What are you doing here? Where's Zuko?" Emi was standing only a few feet away from her with a sad smile on her face. She looked so different from the last time Katara had seen her, which only served to confuse her more. Her long black hair, which was usually down and decorated with the standard fire nation top knot, was now up in a messy bun piled on her head. Her purple robes were gone, too; replaced with the brown and forest green pants and v neck shirt of earth kingdom refugees. She slowly rose to her feet as Emi reached out a hand to her.

"Everything will be okay, Katara, I promise." Emi said calmly. Without another word, she turned and began to weave her way through the depths of the swamp. Katara followed without hesitation.

She didn't understand why she was so quick to follow Emi in this swamp where nothing seemed to be real, but in the back of her mind, she remembered what she had once told her that distant day on Kiyoshi Island;

I never break a promise, Katara.

Right now, that was good enough for her.


"You didn't protect me." Sokka closed his eyes and tried desperately to ignore the heavy pang in his heart at her words. Rubbing his hands over his face, he opened his eyes again, just to see Yue missing from the rays of sunlight she had previously been under. Sighing, he turned away, just to let out a startled gasp as he came face to face with Yue once again. With wide, frightened eyes, he stumbled backwards, losing his footing and landing with a splash in the swamp's murky waters. When he looked up, however, Yue was gone.

Making no move to get out of the water, Sokka brought his knees up to his chest and crossed his arms, resting his head on top of them. Guilt thrummed within him with every beat of his heart. Of course he couldn't protect her. He couldn't keep his promise to Chief Arnook, or bring Emi's friend back to her. He couldn't even chalk it up as another failure and simply move on, because Yue was gone and she was never coming back and it was all his fault.

"That's not true Sokka, and we both know it." Sokka leapt to his feet and drew his machete from his hip, standing guarded against whatever had spoken. He dropped his warrior stance in shock when he registered that it was Emi standing before him.

"Emi? How did you and Zuko possibly manage to track us here? Where is he?" He fired the questions at her one by one, and simply sighed when he got nothing but a blink of Emi's owlish blue eyes in return.

"Ah yes. Nothing can just be easy can it? How do I even know you're real, huh? You don't seem real to me."

"Yue died to protect us all Sokka. You mustn't blame yourself. She wouldn't want that." Emi said, looking at him intently before her face fell into a sad smile.

"Let's go Sokka." With that she began to leave, never looking back to see if he had followed her order.

"So that's it then? Follow you no questions asked? Typical. Why me?" Despite his grumbling and complaining, he did just that. Why did it matter if she was real or not, as long as the grief weighing down on his heart had lessened at her words?


"Who are you?" Aang asked aloud, even though he had once again lost sight of the small, giggling girl he had been trying to catch. Spinning in a circle in an attempt to catch a glimpse of her once more, he shouted in surprise as he came face to face with Emi.

"It wasn't you I've been chasing around this swamp, has it?" He asked skeptically. Emi gave him a small smile and shook her head.

"It's time to go Aang."

"Go? Go where? Emi!" As suddenly as she had appeared, she was off, disappearing and popping back into sight among the trees and vines just as the other girl had done before. With a frustrated groan, Aang chased after her, leaping over fallen trees and getting caught in the occasional vine as he raced through them. He was trying to catch his breath when he came up to a wall of vines. Pushing past them, he sighed in relief when he saw the mass of black hair he knew belonged to Emi. Racing towards her, he reached out a hand.

"Emi! Finally! Would you stop-"he cut off abruptly as the girl turned and he recognized Katara's eyes opened wide in confusion rather than Emi's. He tried frantically to slow himself down, but it was too late, and both he and Katara let out a cry of surprise as he barreled into her, effectively launching them further into the swamp and into Sokka, who had been only a few feet away from them. They landed in a disgruntled, grumbling mass of limbs, and Sokka was the first to jump to his feet.

"What's going on? I've been following Emi around this swamp for hours trying to-"

"Wait, did you just say-"

"Emi?" Katara and Aang looked at each other as they said her name in unison, confusion evident in their eyes.

"Are you telling me that we all saw Emi here?" Sokka asked in disbelief.

"She led us to each other." Aang said slowly. "I was chasing this girl. She was laughing and wearing a fancy dress, leading me around the swamp." He rose and offered Katara a hand to help her to her feet. "I had just lost her again when I turned and saw Emi standing there."

"Well then, there must have been a tea party here and we just didn't get our invitations." Sokka said sarcastically, a deep frown on his face. Katara looked up at him with sad eyes, her eyebrows knit together.

"I thought I saw Mom." Aang and Sokka went quiet, both their faces turning somber, and Katara continued. "I was kneeling there in the water when Emi called out to me. She told me that everything was going to be okay. She promised. Emi doesn't break her promises Sokka." She said firmly.

"I know." He replied softly. "Look, we were all just tired, and hungry, and scared, and our minds were playing tricks on us. That's why we all saw things out here."

"You mean you saw something too?" Katara asked curiously.

"I thought I saw Yue." He said shortly, turning away from them. "But look, that doesn't prove anything. I think about her all the time." He looked over his shoulder at Katara and continued "and you saw Mom, someone you miss a lot."

"What about me?" Aang pointed out. "I didn't know the girl I saw. And what about Emi? She led us all right here."

"Okay…so where's here? The middle of the swamp?" Katara asked, indicating to the area around them.

"Yeah…the center." Aang said, turning around and looking up to see a massive tree covered in vines, with thick roots and a giant canopy of leaves above. "It's the heart of the swamp, and it's been calling us here." He smiled to himself. "I knew it."

"It's just a tree!" Sokka said, exasperated. "It can't call anyone! For the last time, there's nothing after us, and there's nothing magical going on here." He couldn't have been more wrong. As the words left his mouth, a rush of water sounded around them and a monster made of tangled vines rose out of it, swinging its slimy green arms and glaring at them from behind a cracked wooden mask. Sokka lunged over to Katara and Aang and threw his arms around them as the three of them cried out in terror.


The moon light was bright as it shone down on their camp from high within the sky. Bright enough that she could see Zuko sneak away in the dead of the night, back to the village they had been in earlier that afternoon, donning his Blue Spirit mask. With a resigned sigh, she crawled out of her tent and settled herself next to the glowing embers that remained from their fire. A red silk blanket with a golden 'Z' in beautiful calligraphy was draped around her shoulders, one of the last remnants of their life on their fire nation ship. Zuko had given it to her just hours ago, claiming that he didn't need it, despite the leftover winter chill that accompanied the moon. Pulling the blanket tighter around herself, she settled in to wait.

She wasn't sure how long it had been, but when she heard the subtle rustling that woke her from her dozing, the moon still lit the sky. Keeping her head down, she peered up through her eyelashes to find the source of the noise. She didn't move until she saw Zuko's familiar frame heading her way.

"Feeling restless?" She called to him, rising to her feet.

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised." He countered wirily, coming to stand in front of her, carefully sidestepping the ashes that had finally gone cold. She shivered slightly in the breeze, and he took a step closer to her.

When did he get so tall? She wondered, craning her neck just to see his eyes. A glint of silver out of the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she reached up a hand to touch the handles of his newly acquired broadswords.

"These are new." She said pointedly, raising a single eyebrow. Zuko gazed down at her, his lips pressed together in a thin line, and he slipped his arms around her waist.

"Quit trying to distract me." She said jokingly, a soft blush lighting her cheeks.

"Is it working?" he asked with a smirk. She was suddenly very glad it was still dark, though she was sure Zuko could feel the heat coming from her face.

"I'm not going to dignify that with an answer" she told him primly. He chuckled and rolled his eyes in response, before brushing a feather light kiss across her forehead.

"Go back to sleep, Emi." He said softly, removing his arms and taking a step back. She nodded her agreement and made her way back to her tent. Just before she reached the entrance, she glanced back at him.

"I trust you know what you're doing, you know."

"I know."

"Goodnight Zuko."

"Goodnight Emi."


A/N: I finally finished this chapter! Let me tell you, this one was not easy, but you all could probably guess that from the ridiculous amount of time it took me to finish this! I'm very very pleased with the end of this one, I hope you all like it as well. Review if you'd please, I make no promises about when the next chapter, but it will happen, I promise you that!

I hope you all are well. Thanks for reading dolls.

Em