Hello, my faithful readers! I am so sorry that I have not updated sooner! BUT, I have (finally) found a site that has all of the transcripts for the Avatar the Last Airbender episodes! So that means faster updates because I no longer have to watch the episodes over and over until I get it right (Yay)!
Anyways, I got a really good response to the first chapter, so I have continued it! I have no idea what the schedule for updates is going to be for this fic, so the updates might be a little random, but, when I figure it out, I'll be sure to let you all know.
With out further ado, here's chapter two!
Natsu continued to stare at Sokka's pony tail as they went looking to find Appa and Momo. The hair style was really starting to bother her. Pony tails are for girls, not boys. When she had pointed this out to him, Sokka had claimed that it was a Warrior's Wolf Tail. Yeah right…
"We better speed things up!" Sokka announced as he slashed through the vines. Natsu's stare was really starting to creep him out.
"Do you think that's really smart? To slash all those vines like that? Maybe we should be a little nicer to the swamp…" Aang asked, worry clearly written on his face.
"Aang, these are plants. What? Do you want me to say please and thank you as I swing my machete back and forth?" Sokka asked sarcastically as he continued to slash through the plants.
"Maybe you should listen to Aang, Sokka." Katara said. "Something about this place feels… alive."
"I'm sure there are lots of things that are alive in here, and if you don't want to wind up eaten by them, we need to find Appa as fast as we can." Sokka protested. Natsu was uncharacteristically silent during this time, as was Happy. Someone, or something was most defiantly watching them right now.
Suddenly, Natsu grasped her ears and fell to her knees.
"What is it, Natsu?" Happy asked, gaining the attention of the Gaang.
"There's a really high pitched noise, it only sounded twice, almost like a whistle for animals. But damn! That one is really obnoxious!" the Gaang exchanged looks, Appa's whistle? So they were here in the swamp. A slight weight was lifted from their shoulders, this relief caused them to overlook the fact that Natsu could hear incredibly high pitched frequencies.
"APPA! MOMO?" Katara called. The day had faded into night, causing the swamp to get creepier by the second.
"Look, they obviously can't here us and we can't see them. We'll have to make camp for the night." Sokka said before group of bugs suddenly swarmed Sokka. The proud owner of a Warrior's Wolf Tail slashed at the bugs while yelling random things.
"What was that?" Aang asked uncertainly.
"Nothing, it was just swamp gas. There's nothing supernal about this place." Sokka reassured the group.
"Pony tail, what's swamp gas?" Natsu asked. Sokka face palmed.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" a scream ripped through the air. The group, including Natsu and Happy, all huddled together. Their eyes landed on the bird in the distance. The bird opened its mouth and made another high pitched cry.
"Ne, Happy, will you go kill that bird for me? Exceeds like to eat birds right?" Natsu begged Happy.
"Not that bird, Natsu." Happy shuddered.
"I think we should build a fire." Sokka announced, fully fed up with the swamp. Sokka ran over to a tree root and began to hack at it.
"Sokka, the longer we're here, the more I think you shouldn't be doing that." Aang said with worry.
"No I asked the swamp," Sokka started sarcastically, "it said that it's fine. Right swamp?" Sokka turned to one of the roots, "No Problem, Sokka!" Sokka said, imitating a 'swamp' voice, then chopped the root into pieces.
"Does any one else get the feeling that we're being watched?" Katara asked. The faces of the Gaang plus Natsu and Happy were shown by the light of the fire.
"Please, were all alone out here," Sokka said as he once again slashed at a bug. The bug suddenly illuminated, before flying away. The bug's light revealed many glowing eyes, watching them.
"Except for them," Natsu said shakely as the gang huddled together. Who wouldn't be scared by hundreds of glowy glowy eyes?
"Yeah, except for them." Sokka agreed.
Vines slowly unraveled themselves from the surrounding trees and wrapped around the sleeping forms of Happy, Sokka, Aang, Katara, and Natsu. With out any warning, the vines pulled, sending each of them in different directions.
Natsu was the only one who wasn't struggling, seeing as she was still sleeping. She could sleep though the apocalypse. It was a gift, really. Sometimes, sleeping through important events can be overall beneficial to the group and or the plot. Sometimes, sleeping through the foreshadowing can make the big revelation more dramatic, so that's what Natsu decided to do. Sleep.
"Yummy~…. No Happy! The fish does not go in the toaster that way! You have to put the head in first, not the tail! Stupid baka exceed…." Natsu mumbled in her sleep. Aang, Sokka, and Katara, who had freed her from the vines, sweat dropped.
"Natsu~ GET UP! YOUR FIRE'S BURNING!" Happy yelled in her ear. Even the swamp man had stopped fighting to watch.
"NOOOOOOOOOO! HAPPY! I TOLD YOU NOT TO EVER TOUCH MY FIRE! NOW LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE! IT'S ALL BURNT! HOW COULD YOU?! I THOUGHT YOU WERE MY FRIEND!" Natsu proceeded to cry, quite loudly. "Wait! Where did all the fire go?" Natsu asked, blinking.
"Ne, Natsu, there was never any fire! I just said that to wake you up!" Happy said joyfully. "What's really sad though is that you're stupid enough to believe that you can burn fire!"
"EHHHHHHH?! I'm not that stupid Happy! I knew that! You- you just made me confused! Yeah! Confused!" was Natsu's smart reply. Truly, she has all of her smarticles. Natsu takes pride in her smartness.
"Sorry to interrupt your really freaky," Sokka flailed his arms around a bit, "waking up ritual, but if you haven't figured it out already, we're kind of being attacked by a swamp-thing."
"Oh… Can I go back to sleep then?" Natsu asked.
"NO!" Sokka face palmed. The swamp-thing took advantage of this moment to filing each of the members of the Gaang and Natsu and Happy in different directions.
"ZzzzzzZZzzzzZZZzz~" Natsu fell asleep again. What could she say? The clouds are comfy.
Natsu woke up when her head connected with a tree branch.
"Gahh!" Natsu rubbed the- now prominent- bump on her head.
Natsu looked around. She was in the middle of the swamp again! But this time, Arrow, Loopy, Pony-Tail, and Happy weren't with her!
"Natsu." Natsu looked around, her head whipping back and fourth, trying to find who had called her name. "Natsu! Look at me!" the voice said again. Natsu's eye's finally landed on the source of the voice. He was tall, taller than her by several inches, he had the most beautiful golden eyes she had ever seen. He had a lean, handsome face, that was scarred on one side. Natsu thought it added to his overall appeal. She was about to classify him as beautiful, but then she noticed something.
He had a pony tail.
… And one eyebrow.
Weird…
He spoke again, "Come away with me Natsu, leave the avatar and his friends and come with me! Back to the Fire Nation. I… I don't want to leave you here, with them. They will never appreciate you like I do! They fear fire, but I love it! Come back with me because I lov-" the boy's image faded.
Natsu sat in the swamp water for a few more minutes.
'What- what the hell was that? Who was that boy?' Natsu thought silently to herself. She got up out of the water and heated her skin slightly to burn the water out of her clothes. The dragon slayer ringed her hair out and walked off into the swamp.
'… Are pony-tails a common hair style for guys here? Weird…'
Oh, Natsu… It's a warriors wolf tail.
Natsu felt something hit her back. She swerved around as fast as she could. There, before her eyes, was the Gaang and Happy.
"What do you guys think you're doing? I've been looking every where for you!" Sokka yelled.
"I was chasing some girl." Aang replied with a shrug.
"What girl?" Katara asked, her voice held a tint of jealousy.
"I don't know," Aang said, completely oblivious to Katara's jealousy, "I heard laughing and then I saw some girl in a fancy dress."
"Well, there may just be a tea party here and we didn't get our invitations!" Sokka said sarcastically.
"I thought I saw mom." Katara said, her voice only a little louder than a whisper.
"Look, we're all just scared and hungry and our minds are playing tricks on us. That's why we all saw things out there." Sokka reassured the group, but it sounded like he was reassuring himself.
"You saw something too?" Katara questioned.
"I thought I saw Yue. But, that doesn't prove anything. Look, I think about her all the time, and you was Mom, someone who you miss a lot." Sokka reasoned.
"Maa, maa, I never met the person I saw." Natsu remarked, remembering the eyebrow-less guy.
"And I saw Charles." Happy added.
"Same here, I didn't know the girl I saw. And all of our visions led us right here." Aang said as he began to walk around.
"Okay," Katara starts, "so where's here? The middle of the swamp?"
"Yeah," Aang replies, "the center… It's the heart of the swamp. It's been calling us here. I knew it."
"Do you think it might have called us here as well?" Happy questioned, gesturing to Natsu and himself. Before Aang could make any further remarks, Sokka cut in saying,
"It's just a tree. It can't call anyone. For the last time, there's nothing after us and there's nothing magical happening here."
As if Karma had a grudge against Sokka, a seaweed monster jumps out from the water. The Gaang, Natsu, and Happy huddled together and screamed. The monster began to attack, sending vines left and right.
Several vines reached out and grabbed Natsu and Happy binding their arms and legs (and tails and wings). Natsu struggled to get free, as did Happy.
Karma really must hate the water tribe boy because the giant swamp monster grabbed a hold of Sokka and started to drag him into the heart of the vines.
"GAHHHHH! HELP!" Sokka screamed. Aang tried to free Sokka with his air bending, but the young avatar had no such luck. Katara used her water whip to slice the vines next to Sokka and free him. Sokka fell down to the swamp floor and landed in the water with a splat.
As the cut Katara made in the vine monster was healing itself, Katara saw something thought the vines.
"There's someone in there! He's bending the vines!" Katara shouted. Katara starts to slash at the monster again while Aang used his air bending.
"Why did you call me here if you just wanted to kill us?!" Aang questioned the man inside the vines.
"Wait! I didn't call you here." the man replied, confused. The man stopped attacking but kept Natsu and Happy in his hold.
"We were flying over and I heard something calling to me, telling me to land." Aang said, trying to help jog the man's memory.
"He's the Avatar. Stuff like that happens to us a lot." Sokka said.
"The Avatar? Come with me." the man said. Natsu and Happy still in the vines' hold.
And that's when Natsu got pissed.
"THAT'S IT!" Natsu screamed, drawing the attention of the others. "I'M GETTING OUT OF THESE DAMNED VINES NOW!" Natsu finally managed to free her arms. Natsu activated her magic, causing a red circle to appear out of thin air, crying out, "FIRE DRAGON'S IRON FIST!" the circle vanished, leaving her hand on fire. Natsu slammed her fist down on the vines, causing all of the vines that were holding her and Happy to shrivel up and fall to ashes, freeing Happy and herself. Natsu panted slightly.
"YOU'RE A FIRE BENDER?!" Sokka yelled as he pulled out his boomerang. "Are you a Fire Nation spy? How did you find us? Was this your plan all along? Call us down to the swamp, make it so that we conveniently loose Appa and Momo, our only way of transportation, and then take Aang?" Sokka said angrily.
"Ne, what's the Fire Nation? That's the second time I've heard that today…" Natsu asked, unfazed by Sokka's indignant cries.
"Don't play dumb with me, Fire Nation spy! You and your nation have been on our tails for months now!" Sokka ranted, "And how would you not know of the Fire Nation? They have been taking over the world, bit by bit! EVERYONE knows about the Fire Nation!"
Natsu then had one of her few intelligent moments, "What do you call these lands?" she asked, Happy perched on her head.
"We're in the Elemental Nations." Katara replied with caution. Natsu's eye's widened.
"Happy, I don't think we're in Earthland anymore." Natsu said, her voice shaking slightly. "Damn! What did that rune do to us?" Natsu asked Happy.
"Natsu, I think we're in another dimension…" Happy replied.
"What are you talking about, fire bender?" Sokka pressed.
"I'm not a fire bender, I'm a mage! A fire DRAGON SLAYER mage. I don't 'bend' fire, I use my magic to create it!" Natsu said. They seemed to be afraid of these 'fire benders', if she could convince them that she wasn't one… maybe they could be friends again?
"So you're one of those sick people who went out and hunted the dragons just to gain the title?" Sokka spat. Natsu's and Happy's eyes widened.
"Th-they ki-killed a-all of the d-dragons here?" Natsu stuttered.
"Yeah, but you would know all about that Dragon Slayer." Sokka said with distain.
"B-but I'm half dragon! Why would I want to kill my kin? I was taught by my DRAGON father dragon slayer MAGIC." Natsu said, confident in her heritage.
"Where did you say you came from again?" Aang asked in a small, quiet voice. He hadn't spoken since Natsu had asked.
"Earthland, specifically Magnolia. I'm a proud S-class mage of Fairy Tail, the strongest guild in Fiore! And Happy here is my partner!" Natsu said with pride. She had passed the S-class exam just a few months ago, and she had been jumping at any chance to tell someone about it.
"She's telling the truth, Sokka, Katara." Aang stated firmly.
"How do you know?" Katara asked carefully, she didn't know where she stood in this yet.
"I've met someone from there once, nearly a hundred years ago. He said his name was Mystogan. I remember because he had the strangest blue hair and used magic, claiming that he was a mage from Fairy tail." Aang finished.
Natsu's and Happy's eye's were the size of dinner plates.
"That bastard did more than just go to Edolas, Happy."
And scene! Yeah, I'm cutting it off there. SORRY! I couldn't help myself!
If there are any questions about the story, or if you have a suggestion, leave a signed review (with the question or suggestion) so that I can answer or get back to you on it! Lets keep my writers block away by giving me ideas!
~Slayerofthewind
