The past few minutes had all been a blur, between rushing back onto Appa's back, coaxing the exhausted bison back into the air, and finding Aang and the scary firebender from Omashu in some freaky, deserted ghost town.
They had her cornered now-all four of them, poised and ready to attack. Her gaze flickered between them all, her eyes narrowed. After a tense moment, she sighed, raising her hands into the air.
"I'm done. I know when I'm beaten," she snapped. "You got me. A princess surrenders with honor."
They stood there, silent and wary. Sokka exchanged a glance with Katara-and in that instant, a rush of blue fire shot towards him.
His gaze snapped towards the girl-and then the flames hit him, sending him tumbling backwards. Pain seared through him, and-
His head hit the ground, and everything went dark.
Sokkas's eyes flickered open to a green blob hovering just above his face. He let out a startled squawk, scrambling backwards and into a seated position. His heart raced in his chest, and his gaze shot up to the green...thing before him.
It wasn't a thing-it was some sort of pastel green deer-bunny, but with little, rapidly fluttering, blue wings, like a dragonfly-lizard. It didn't have horns, just two inky eyes that seemed to bore into his skull.
Sokka rubbed his eyes, groaning slightly. Had he really hit his head that hard?
The dragonfly-bunny thing was still there. Sokka eyed it warily as he stood, turning in an awkward circle as the creature fluttered around his head. It fluttered towards him, and he stumbled backwards, his hand going to his boomerang.
Well, the place where his boomerang should have been.
His hand drifted down to his hip, where he kept his machete-and that, too was gone.
The dragonfly-bunny fluttered closer to him, before nudging his forehead briefly with it's twitching little nose. The creature floated down to meet his gaze again, blinked, then fluttered off. Sokka glared at the little green thing for a short moment before his gaze wandered to the scenery around him.
He was in a forest filled with gargantuan trees that extended as far as he could see. Their canopies didn't let in much of the rosy, fading sunlight, which pierced at Sokka's eyes as he looked up. He frowned, squinted, and returned his gaze to the forest-and the quickly disappearing dragonfly-bunny.
It stopped, then turned and glanced back at him.
Sokka let out a groan. Did it seriously want it to follow him? He glanced around himself once again, realizing that he was very much alone.
Great. He'd been separated from Katara and Aang again-by who knows how far. They'd just been in a desert, fighting that crazy chick with the blue fire, and-
He'd been hit.
Panic hit him, and he glanced furtively down at himself-
He was glowing.
Not to mention, while his shirt was definitely torn, the skin below was completely unblemished.
But he was glowing. His entire body was glowing an ethereal, ghostly white. He stared down at his hands, turning them this way and that, inspecting himself.
Was he dead?
Panic built in his chest, and he did the only thing he could think of.
He slapped himself in the face, as hard as he could-and immediately regretted it. He let out a weird, half-gasp, half-strangled cry of pain, clutching his cheek.
So he wasn't dead.
He glanced up at the dragonfly-bunny, who was hovering in place, staring at him with its dark, empty eyes. Sokka could only guess that the creature was either annoyed with him or mocking him internally.
Whatever the case, Sokka just rolled his eyes. He glanced around again, trying to figure out where on earth he was-and by the time his gaze wandered back to the dragonfly-bunny, it was a few feet away from where it had been before, but still...staring at him with its vacant eyes.
Sokka groaned. Was he being crazy, or did the weird thing want him to follow it?
He glared at the little creature, feeling frustrated. The last time he'd followed some random animal, he'd...seen some weird stuff.
But he'd also been soon reunited with Aang and Katara. Barely even five minutes after the winged man had disappeared, his sister had barrelled right into him, followed soon after by the Avatar.
He'd never told them about the winged man, nor about the fish. He'd lied, said that he'd seen Yue. He'd felt so, so guilty saying it-but what was he supposed to have done? Say, "Hey, Aang, guess what? I saw a freaky man with wings, and then-guess what! He just took off into the sky!"
Yeah, like that would go over well at all.
He sighed, turning his contemplative gaze back over to the dragonfly-bunny.
It couldn't hurt to follow it.
Anything was better than just sitting around in a strange forest at sunset.
He let out another heavy sigh. Making up his mind, he strode over to the awaiting dragonfly-bunny. It just stared at him blankly, unmoving.
"Well? I thought you wanted me to follow you?" he cried, exasperated, throwing his hands in the air.
The dragonfly-bunny blinked-and then promptly took off into the forest, its wings fluttering rapidly. Sokka raced after it, only to catch his foot on a tree root and almost go tumbling to the ground. He let out a startled squawk, limbs flailing as he stumbled forwards, just barely catching his balance.
He let out a breath of relief, and looked up to see that the dragonfly-bunny was still flying away at a rapid pace. He huffed, and began to run to catch up with the strange little creature once again.
Sokka followed it until he was out of breath, hunched over and panting in the middle of an oddly circular clearing. The light was beginning to fade, and a chilling breeze rustled the leaves of the trees. Sokka sighed, stood, and looked around.
Great.
The dragonfly-bunny was gone, and he was even more alone in the forest than he had been before.
The wind picked up again, and, this time, Sokka shivered. It bit into his skin, colder than he was used to after weeks of travelling through the Earth Kingdom.
Where was he?
The rustling of the trees grew steadily louder, until it was all he could hear-save for the whistling of the wind. The branches around him swayed back and forth with the force of the wind-and then, as suddenly as it had come, the wind died.
"Murderer."
Sokka whirled around, startled by the sudden voice.
There was no one in sight.
"Who's there?" he called, his eyes narrowing. He turned in a circle, squinting at the stilling branches of the trees around him. He let out a frustrated sigh.
Sokka took a step forwards-and the wind rustled through the trees again. He glanced around himself, finding himself eerily alone.
It was then that he noticed how silent the forest was. There was no birdsong, no ambient noise of any sort.
Nothing but the faint rustling of branches in the frigid wind.
"Aang?" Sokka called, narrowing his eyes. He began to walk forwards, his gaze roving suspiciously around the forest. "Aang, is that you?"
"Murderer."
Sokka whirled around again, glancing all around himself.
Still, there was no one there.
He stepped forwards-and the voice came again.
"Water scum."
His eyes narrowed. "Come out where I can see you!" he snapped, his black eyes narrowing.
There was laughter, thin and wispy, accompanied by a small rousing of wind. "As you wish."
Suddenly, one of the trees before him twisted and bent forwards, extending an enormous branch towards him. Sokka let out a yelp, scrambling backwards and nearly tripping over his own feet.
The branch swept him off of his feet, and curled around him. A little offshooting branch dug into his ribs, prompting a curse to drop from his lips. He squirmed against the constricting branch as it hoisted him into the air, dangling him upside down.
He grunted, trying to pry himself free from the tree-but its grip only tightened, eliciting a not-so-manly squeak from the young warrior. He fell slack, huffing frustratedly.
"What do you want?" he snapped indignantly. The tree laughed again.
"Vengeance."
"What? Why?" Sokka squawked. Immediately, he began to struggle again, pushing as hard as he could on the branch tightening around him. A particularly sharp stick dug into his chest right below his ribcage, and he let out a hiss of pain.
"Bhakshak."
"What?"
The tree let out a snarl. "My son."
Sokka's eyes widened. "Look, if this is about all those vines I cut-"
The tree growled, the large branch tightening around his ribs. Sokka let out a gasp of pain, and the branch curled even tighter around him. He tried to suck in a breath, but all that came was agonizing, crushing pain.
He couldn't breathe.
He gasped for air, pushing as hard as he could against the branch twined around him. Panic filled his mind, blotting out his senses.
He couldn't breathe.
He struggled as hard as he could against the tree's crushing force. His hands trembled, his head buzzed. Like a fish out of water, he tried desperately to breathe but the pain in his chest was too much. His vision was filled with dark spots. His struggling grew frantic, his limbs burned-and then a flash of white light overtook his vision.
In an instant, the branch let him go, recoiling with a hiss. He fell to the ground, and for a moment, he just laid there in a crumpled heap, wheezing in air. His chest ached, but at least he could breathe.
Sokka dragged himself into a seated position, clutching his battered ribs. He let out a groan as a wave of dizziness rolled through him.
"Child of La," the tree rumbled, sounding slightly surprised.
Sokka stiffened. Something about that name was eerily familiar, in a way that he just couldn't place. Where had he heard it before?
"Forgive me, great one," the tree murmured, bending again and extending a branch to Sokka. He narrowed his eyes, glaring warily at the tree.
Before he knew what he was doing, he reached up and grabbed the branch. It curled around his wrist and yanked him to his feet. He stumbled slightly, catching his balance on the sturdy branch.
He glanced up at the tree. "What-"
He was cut off as something suddenly yanked him downwards, through the earth. He let out a strangled cry-and then he was falling, tumbling through the air towards a speck of blue below.
And then he was sucked into the blue, faster than he could even process.
Sokka sat bolt upright, panting.