Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Water, earth, fire, air... Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the fire nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them. But, when the world needed him most, he vanished.
A hundred years passed and the new Avatar, an air bender named Aang, was discovered. Now traveling by his side are Katara and Sokka of the southern water tribe, and Ashlynn: An ex-member of the fire nation, and Prince Zuko's lifelong companion...
Ashlynn firmly grasped her staff with both hands. She was still grateful towards Aang, who'd had it made for her. She only regretted she hadn't had much of a chance to use it yet. She focused on the staff, and sensed the air currents around it, and she was nearly tempted to jump off of Appa and glide away for a while.
A slight breeze rustled her hair, and she combed through a side, and silently growled to herself when she felt the uneven portion. Ever since her fight with Mai, whom had managed to slice through a shawl she had on her head, thus cutting off some of her hair as well, she'd been troubled about her very appearance. She grew impatient, and wished the missing hair would grow back. Yet, she knew it would remain uneven until she cut her hair to its length.
"It's not that bad Ashlynn, you can't even tell until you start playing with it like that," Katara said, noticing Ashlynn picking at the shorter strands of hair. Ashlynn frowned, and grasped her staff again to help keep from playing with her hair.
Ashlynn peered out over Appa's saddle, and shivered as she saw an eerie swamp beneath them. She then noticed the swamp was getting closer. "Sokka, Aang's taking us down there," Ashlynn said, still peering over at the ominous swamp.
Sokka looked over the side of Appa's saddle too to confirm Ashlynn's comment, and then spoke to Aang. "Are you taking us down for a reason?" Sokka asked, yet Aang didn't reply. "Aang?" Sokka asked again after a minute of silence.
"What? Oh, I didn't even notice," Aang responded finally, and wiped a few beads of sweat from his forehead.
"What's the matter, Aang?" Katara asked, instantly getting worried about Aang's strange behavior.
"Err... I know this is going to sound weird but... I think that swamp is... calling to me!" Aang said, and shuddered. The group stared at his back, bewildered. Ashlynn felt Katara's growing worries, and she, too, felt slightly worried for Aang.
"What do you mean?" Ashlynn spoke up, curious as to what Aang was talking about. "I think it wants us to land there..." he trailed off into his own thoughts.
"Aang, there's not even a spot we can land on. It's all covered in trees and everything. Where would Appa fit?" Sokka reminded him, trying to spot a place to land, but failed to do so.
"Bumi said to learn earth bending, I needed to learn to wait and listen. Now, I'm actually hearing the earth. Should I ignore it?" Aang replied bitterly.
"I don't know Aang... There's something ominous about the swamp," Katara said, and peered over the saddle with Ashlynn and Sokka to get a better look at the swamp that was still getting closer and closer. Appa roared in protest to Aang's wishes, as well.
"See, even Appa doesn't want to land here," Sokka said, trying his hardest to convince Aang to fly away. "Okay... Since all of you feel so strongly about this, I guess we shouldn't," Aang said, and steered Appa upward into the sky again. Ashlynn watched the swamp grow further away as he did so.
Suddenly, there was a rumbling in the earth, and a loud wind was heard from behind them. Everyone aside Aang turned to look behind Appa, and gasped in unison as they saw a tornado they was headed right in their direction. "Aang, we got to get out of here fast!" Sokka shouted over the loud winds.
Ashlynn gripped her staff tightly and prepared for collision with the tornado, which was approaching them much faster than they could run. Try as he might, Aang couldn't prevent Appa and his passengers from being sucked right into the monstrous tornado. So, to promise the groups safety, he hopped up and landed beside his companions, and created a protective bubble of air around them, to keep the tornado from separating everyone. Ashlynn helped by making another protective layer of air.
Yet, their attempts were futile, for the winds of the tornado were too strong for the combined efforts of Ashlynn and Aang. The shield of air broke, and the team was sent flying off of Appa in all directions.
Ashlynn screamed in fear for her own life as the tornado whirled her about at a fast speed. She felt as though her brain were rolling about viciously in her head, and like her skin would be peeled right from her bones. She couldn't even muster enough strength to bring her arms up to her face and protect her eyes from the violent leaves that whipped about her.
Suddenly, she was tossed from the tornado right into the swamp. She screamed as she collided with its dark, tall trees, and then collapsed into unconsciousness.
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Ashlynn groaned with pain and a searing headache as she finally stirred from her slumber. She was surprised to see she was still well intact, and was even more surprised to see she still had her staff. She couldn't recall having held onto it during the unfortunate event with the tornado.
She waited a few moments for her vision to clear, and then noticed she was tangled in some vines. "How I ever managed to survive... I don't know," she muttered to herself as she tried to tug her sword from its sheath. Both wrists were knotted into vines, but she managed to pull her arms down to her hip and uncover her sword. She then cut the bonds on her legs so that her legs dangled freely, and then proceeded to slice through the vines around her waist and arms. Luckily, there was none around her neck.
What she had not taken into consideration was how far the fall was. She gasped and held tightly to her staff as she fell, but was too terrified of the swamp itself to scream or make any other loud noise. She used her staff to create a soft 'air-bed' beneath her to catch her fall, and she landed safely in the shallow, murky waters of the swamp.
She sighed with stress as she looked in all directions, unable to see past the thick crowding of the looming trees. None of her companions were in sight, and it was slowly getting darker and darker as the sun went down. Ashlynn shivered with fear, and tried to remain brave as she thought up a plan of what to do.
She decided it was best to remain put, try to sleep, and shout for help in the morning. Ashlynn crawled up into a nook within a grouping of tree roots, and created a small air bubble around her in hopes of keeping out anything she didn't want near her.
And slowly, uneasily, but surely, she fell asleep.
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Ashlynn groaned, once again, as a single stray strand of light shone through the treetops right upon her face. She held a hand up to block the sunlight and let her eyes adjust. She then grasped her staff, and used it to help herself stand up.
She could see her surroundings better, since it wasn't as dark out. Her knowledge of her surroundings had deceived her the evening before, and frowned as she failed to recognize the area she was in. It was almost as though she'd been moved from her sleeping spot to a whole new area.
"Sokka? Aang? Katara?" Ashlynn shouted as loud as her own lungs and throat would permit. There was no response, and so she decided to carefully step through the shallow waters of the swamp.
She didn't fully trust that the swamp would keep her alive, so she refrained from damaging the trees and vines with her sword. Instead, she merely found her own passageways through the mazes of roots and thick tree vines, trying to find any sign of human life.
After stomping through the swamp for at least an hour, Ashlynn's hope began to falter. At least- until she finally spotted a human.
Through the thick tree vines and branches, Ashlynn managed to make out a figure standing on the other end of a clearing from which Ashlynn was. Desperate for help and company, Ashlynn shoved past the vines and ran into the clearing.
"Hello? Are you lost, too?" Ashlynn asked, and frowned with confusion when the person did not turn around.
Looking at the person from behind, Ashlynn was able to tell the figure was female. She had long, thick red hair that ran down to her waist, and she was clad in an old, brown skirt and ruined moccasins. Ashlynn frowned, feeling a sense of familiarity.
Ashlynn began to run towards the woman, still calling out in an attempt to get her to turn around. When Ashlynn was no more than ten feet away, she blinked, and suddenly the woman was gone.
Ashlynn gasped and skidded to a halt, looking around for the mysterious woman. It was impossible for her to have gone out sight within the short moment it took Ashlynn to blink. So, she came to the conclusion that she was most likely hallucinating from lack of food and from poor sleep.
She walked towards where she'd seen the woman before, and continued in a straight path, to where she bumped into an enormous tree root that jutted high up from the ground. Ashlynn took a deep breath, and air bended her way to the top of it. From where she stood now, she could get a better idea of where she was.
Yet, before she could go any further, she was suddenly struck down by two beings much heavier than her. She cried out in surprise as she and the beings fell off the massive root towards another being, and all four collapsed in a heap.
"What are you guys doing?" came the voice of Sokka, and Ashlynn realized she'd never been more relieved to hear his voice. "What do you mean?" came Katara's voice. Ashlynn felt weight being lifted off of her as Katara stood up.
"I've been looking all over for you guys!" Sokka growled. "Well I've been looking all over for you!" Katara shouted back. Ashlynn groaned, and suddenly missed the silence she'd been given moments before. Ashlynn felt her arm being grasped as Sokka made an attempt to pull her up.
"Glad you're safe, we'd spent all of yesterday looking for you," he said quietly to her as she stood up. She nodded, the throbbing in her head preventing her from responding with words.
"I was looking for some girl..." Aang said, as he, too, stood up. "What girl?" Katara asked curiously.
"I don't know, I saw a girl in a fancy dress with a pet flying boar. So I chased her, and she led me here," he explained.
"I saw someone too," Ashlynn said suddenly. "Who did you see?" Aang asked, glad he wasn't the only one seeing people.
"I don't know, she was a woman with really long red hair, dressed in nothing more than a peasant's outfit," Ashlynn explained. "Did you find her?" Katara asked.
"No... I ran after her, but she vanished suddenly. I was hallucinating," Ashlynn sighed, and rubbed one of her temples with her free hand, still gripping her staff in the other.
"I don't think you were hallucinating. I thought I saw my mother, and she's... gone," Katara said. "Yeah, it's no coincidence we all saw something. The girl I was chasing vanished too," Aang said.
"Look, we were all just tired and hungry. There's nothing supernatural going on here. I think Ash is right, and we were just hallucinating, seeing things that weren't there," Sokka retorted angrily.
"You saw someone too?" Aang asked, bewildered. "I thought I saw Yue... But that doesn't prove anything."
"It's not a coincidence, Sokka," Katara argued. "I think about Yue a lot... And you saw mom, who you miss a lot. We were just seeing things," Sokka said.
"But... I didn't know the person I saw," Aang frowned. "I didn't know the person I saw, either," Ashlynn said, backing him up.
"And, all our visions led us right here," Aang told them, and everyone realized he was right. "Well where is here? What's so significant about the middle of the swamp?" Katara fought sarcastically. "Yeah... It's the center. The heart of the swamp, it's been calling us here!" Aang said happily, and pointed up as the massive tree that loomed over them.
It was by far the largest tree Ashlynn had laid eyes on, at least within the swamp. It stood several hundred feet over them, and even its mammoth roots swallowed their size. Ashlynn listened to what Aang was saying, and realized that the massive tree was the start of the swamp, that it alone was the mother of all the plants and other trees living for miles in every direction. Had it not been for the ancient tree, the swamp would not exist.
"Guys... for the LAST time, there's nothing calling to us! Nothing is after us, and there's nothing 'magical' happening here!" Sokka shouted, having gone to his last nerve.
Just as he said that, a monstrous being made entirely of tree vines rose from the water beside them. It dwarfed the children in height. Even if they stood on one another's shoulders, it would still remain much taller than them.
The children cried out in shock, and grasped onto one another, unable to think of what to do about the vine monster before them. One of its massive arms rose upwards, and the team ran away in all directions. Yet, Sokka was grasped anyways, for the vines grew out towards him. They tugged him back, and he cried out in fear as he tried to free himself.
Katara kept running, but Aang and Ashlynn paused to air bend at the enormous arm that held Sokka sight within its grasp. The air sharpened, and sliced through the thick vines, causing them to fall from the rest. Sokka fell with the loose vines, and quickly used his weapon to slice the remaining bonds about him.
Enraged, the creature used its other arm to attack Aang. Before Aang could react, he was thrown across the area, and slammed into a tree with full force.
With Aang distracted, the creature gathered more vines from the surrounding area to re-grow the parts it had lost. With a fresh arm, it grasped Sokka again, and took off speeding down the main river that was near them. Katara took the opportunity to jump in front of it, and use the river's water to create a massive gash in the shoulder of the vine being.
Yet, her efforts didn't gain much, for the creature used more vines to heal the area, making it whole once again. Katara then tried a different approach, and created a giant wave with the water, and forced it upon the monster. It was pushed back, and slammed intoa root of the mother tree. Katara then ran towards it, and when she got close enough, the creature struck her with a grouping of vines that spilled out from its center.
Ashlynn watched as Katara flew through the air and, like Aang, collided with a tree. Ashlynn then created a ball of air, and rode on it along one of the roots towards the creature in an attempt to get it from another angle. Aang distracted it, and allowed it to strike him like it did Katara.
When she got close, Ashlynn held her staff in front of her like a spear, and jumped off her ball of air towards the head of the creature. She bended the air around her, and gave herself enough force and speed to cut right through the side of the head of the monster with her staff. She came out the other side, and turned around to see the damage.
There was a round hole going through its head for a moment, but it quickly healed by re-growing the vines to block the hole. It turned to strike her with an arm, but she quickly opened her glider and jumped out of harm's way, and flew up towards a branch above it.
Aang was the next to try and damage it, and he bended his way to the top of its head. She created a small tornado around the being, and twisted the vines around itself, giving Katara some time to finally free Sokka from the being.
Aang hopped off the creature before it could retaliate, and flew up to the branch where Ashlynn stood, still catching her breath and trying to find the perfect moment to jump in. They nodded at each other, and surveyed the scene below.
With Sokka freed, Katara was able to focus on finally bringing the creature down. She began to quickly bend sharp disks of water at the creature, slicing it in all places. It was gaining wounds faster than it could heal itself.
"Come on Aang, let's keep it busy," Ashlynn said, and opened her glider. Aang nodded, and opened his glider too. Together they flew down, and swarmed around its face and middle, trying to annoy it and cause it to lose its focus on healing itself.
"There's someone inside it bending the vines!" Sokka shouted suddenly, and Ashlynn turned to notice a person standing in the middle of the creature. Now realizing the solution, Katara bended one final slice across the middle of its face, and the vines finally collapsed upon one another. Ashlynn landed beside her companions, glad that the battle was over.
Aang landed, and sent a full wind at the vines, causing them to slide off and away from the person. Ashlynn grimaced as she saw the chubby, bearded man wore nothing more than a loin cloth.
"Why did you call us here if you just wanted to kill us?" Aang demanded, and held his staff as a weapon towards the man. "What? I didn't call you here," the man replied, confused yet intrigued.
"I heard something calling to me, telling me to land," Aang argued, trying to get the man to spit out the truth. "He's the Avatar. Stuff like that happens to us all the time," Sokka followed sarcastically.
"The Avatar? Come with me!" the man replied, and took off towards the mother tree. The group gave one another confused looks, and then decided it'd be better if they did. So, they followed him.
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"So, who exactly are you?" Katara asked as they followed the swamp man up a massive root towards the trunk of the mother tree. "I protect the swamp from people who want to hurt it, like this fellow," the man replied, and motioned to Sokka.
"I told you there was nothing mystical going on around here. No monsters or anything, just a man guarding what's his," Sokka said, satisfied and convinced he was correct.
"Oh but the swamp is a mystical place. It's sacred. I reached enlightenment right here, at the base of this tree," he told the group, and sat down at the base of the tree where the major root was jutting out from.
"I heard it calling to me, just like you did. This whole swamp is really just one big tree spread out for miles. Branches spread, sink, and take root, and then spread even more. It's just one big organism, just like the whole world," he explained, and the group looked out at the swamp before them, trying to understand what he meant.
"I get out the tree is all one thing... But, the whole world?" Aang pondered aloud, confused.
"Well sure. Do you really think you're any different from me, or your friends? Or this tree? If you listen hard enough, you can hear everything living together as one. You can see everything growing. We're all living together, even if most everyone don't act like it. We all have the same roots, and we're all branches of the same tree," he finished poetically.
"We each had visions though. What do those mean?" Katara asked, hoping the man could explain.
"In the swamp, we see visions of people we've lost, people we loved, and folks we think are gone. The swamp tells us they're not, and that we're still connected to them. Time is an illusion, and so is death," he said, and Ashlynn raised an eyebrow in confusion, trying to make sense of what he was saying. She could understand how that would apply to Katara and Sokka, but she and Aang didn't know the people they saw.
As if reading her mind, Aang asked "But what about the person I saw? It was someone I had never met."
"You're the Avatar, you tell me!" the man chuckled.
Aang thought hard for a few moments. "If time is an illusion... Then... It's someone... I will meet?" Aang asked, wondering if he'd had it correct. The man nodded, confirming that Aang had it right. Ashlynn wondered for a moment if the person she'd seen was someone she'd meet.
"I'm sorry to interrupt, but, we still need to find Appa and Momo," Sokka said suddenly. Ashlynn jumped slightly, realizing that Appa and Momo were in fact missing. She'd grown so used to them being around, she hadn't noticed that they weren't.
"I think I know how to find them. If everything's connected, then I can feel through the roots of this tree, and find them using that method," Aang said, and placed a single palm on the massive root. Everyone stared at him for a moment, wondering if his plan would work.
"Come on, we got to hurry! He's in trouble!" Aang gasped, and opened his glider and quickly flew off.
"Lets hurry," the man said, and began bending the vines around them. "Let me follow the kid, I'll bend our way there," he said, and Ashlynn gasped in surprise as the vines wrapped around her waist. Then, at an alarming pace, the group began to move in the direction Aang had flown off in.
"Let me help Aang!" Katara shouted to the swamp man. He nodded, and allowed the vines to release Katara when she neared Aang. Together, she and Aang ran out of sight towards a stream.
The swamp man released Sokka and Ashlynn several moments later, and together they ran towards Aang and Katara.
Ashlynn frowned when she saw more swamp folks before them. Aang and Katara had already stopped them from capturing Appa and Momo, and they even refrained from attacking because Katara was a water bender, just like them.
"Hey Huu! What you been up to?" one of the skinny swamp men, also wearing a simple loin cloth, asked the guardian of the swamp. "Oh, I been around," the man, Huu, shrugged.
Sokka stared at Huu, completely dumbfounded, and Ashlynn giggled at the look on his face.
Then, the group followed the 'swamp-benders' back to their 'home', where they were to be given a decent meal and some well earned rest.
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Ashlynn gagged as the swamp-benders passed around their dinner. "Bugs?" she asked, and held up the oversized fly before her. "And possum-chicken!" the skinny man, Due, said, and took a bite out of his meal. Ashlynn made a repulsed face, and gave her food to Sokka, who happily ate her food as well as his own.
"So, I hope you guys realize now that there's nothing supernatural or magical about this swamp," Sokka said after he finished eating.
"What about the visions?" Katara asked, still angry that he refused to believe in anything about the paranormal. "I told you, we were tired and hungry! We're eating bugs, for goodness sakes!" he responded, and ate another bug.
"But what about the roots showing Aang where Appa and Momo were?" Ashlynn asked, and scratched the head of Momo, who lay beside her, happy to be back with his 'family'.
"That's all Avatar stuff, it hardly counts. I just can't figure out how Huu made the tornado that sucked us down here in the first place," Sokka pondered aloud. "I can't do anything like that! I just bend the water in the vines," Huu responded.
Sokka paused before saying "Well, bad weather happens everywhere." The group sighed in annoyance at his response.
Then, the group rolled out their sleeping bags, and fell into a deep slumber, so that they'd be awake and capable of continuing their journey the following day.