Sorry this took so long but I've had to do a lot of revision lately.
I hope you like this, even if this is a filler chapter.
Just to inform you, the "3" at the end of some of the chapters in Book 1 was supposed to be a heart but for some reason, the inequality signs don't show up and it was just left with the "3".
So, hope you like the chapter and please review!
Chapter 2: The Labyrinth
Eira stretched out happily as she sat next to a small little body of water, leaning on the tall rock formations that jutted out of it and absorbed the heat of the sun. She was wearing her old t-shirt because it was a lot cooler than her tunic and they seemed pretty isolated so Eira didn't really care if anyone saw them.
Katara and Aang were training in the water, both wearing more water-suitable clothing and Sokka was simply floating and relaxing on a large leaf.
Eira had chosen to stay out of the water and it looked like she was the only one, except Momo, as even Appa was relaxing in the water, floating on his back and looking adorable.
Eira wasn't really doing anything specific. She was just enjoying the gentle breeze and the warmth of the sun. It was a completely different atmosphere compared to how it had been for the majority of their journey.
It felt more like the penguin sledding from when Eira had first really met Aang and Katara.
Speaking of, it was so cute to watch them training but Sokka didn't really think it was as sweet as Eira thought.
"You guys are going to be done soon, right?" He asked, his head resting on his arms as he floated on the leaf, his dark brown hair out of its short ponytail and covering his eyes. "We have a lot of ground to cover if we're going to make it to Omashu today."
Katara rose from her hunched-over waterbending pose and turned to face him smugly.
"What? Like you're ready to go right now, half-naked guy?" She asked, smiling in a similar smug fashion.
Eira smiled from next to the water,
"On that note, put some clothes on!" Eira called teasingly.
"Ha ha! But I could be ready in to minutes. Seriously." He said, laughing sarcastically and brushing his hair out of his eyes. "Whenever you say."
Katara and Eira both rolled their eyes and then laughed. Eira scratched Momo's ears and stroked his fur absent-mindedly as she watched Katara and Aang.
If she closed her eyes, it almost felt like she was back home a couple of years ago, when her cat, Peaches, was still alive and Eira sat next to a paddling pool watching Jenna mess around… Eira really missed her sister, thinking about her and her family made her chest feel like it was being bound by a boa constrictor.
Katara turned around and flicked her wrist, causing a small splash of water to hit her brother before turning her attention back to Aang.
"Sooo, you were showing me the octopus form?" Aang asked as Sokka looked at Katara, annoyed as he brushed the water off his face.
"Right, let me see your stance." Katara said, ignoring her brother's annoyed glare.
Aang took a crouched, defensive position, ankle-deep in the water and Katara looked at it thoughtfully, resting her chin on her hand before walking up to him.
Katara ducked under his right arm and stood behind him, resting her hands on his arms.
"Your arms are too far apart." She said, pushing his arms closer together in front of his chest.
"See, if you move them closer together, you protect your centre. You got it?" She asked and as Aang looked back at her, he blushed.
"Oh, yeah… thanks." He stuttered nervously.
Katara walked away and faced him, taking a fighting stance.
"Okay, let's see what you got." She said. Eira smiled. It was fun to watch their training sessions and it was interesting to see the waterbending.
Aang then proceeded to bend the water, creating a large globule of water that separated into eight tentacle-like streams of water. They moved around ever-so-slightly as Aang prepared to defend himself.
Katara smiled again and shot water at him, turning the water into icy spikes as they flew at Aang.
Aang moved his arms and the water caught some of the ice and broke it as well as deflecting others. Katara threw the spikes rapidly at him and Aang managed to deflect all of them and as he began to send the eighth water arm at Katara and it grabbed her leg firmly and pulled on it..
Katara looked down in surprise and smiled proudly.
"You make a fine octopus, Pupil Aang." She said, looking back up to see Aang morphing the arms into an octopus shape.
Eira laughed as she watched Aang dance around inside the water, puffing out his cheeks as he held his breath and the arms danced around with him.
"Aang, you're certainly a piece of work." Eira said, shaking her head but still laughing until she heard something in the distance.
"Wait, what's that?" She asked, looking around as the sounds became clearer. It was a strange twanging music.
A bunch of colourful, flowery people were dancing and singing as they moved down the dirt road, playing instruments as they did.
Eira saw them and she tried to hide her horror. The hippy nomads… they were here. Crud! They were so annoying in the show
"Da, da, da. Don't fall in love with the traveling girl. She'll leave you broke and broken-hearted." The man in the middle sang as he bounced along the path, strumming his small guitar-like instrument.
Katara and Aang stopped their waterbending and looked at them oddly and Sokka tried to look up from his leaf but he managed to fall off and land in the water, creating a large splash.
The man then stopped singing as he saw them and the people around him stopped dancing and playing their instruments.
The man pointed at the group and waved.
"Hey, river people!" He said. His voice was calm and carefree but also a bit… sleepy, maybe? It sounded slowed either way.
"We're, uh, not river people." Katara said, looking around at Aang and Sokka unsurely and a bit confused.
"You're not?" He asked, puzzled. "Then what kind of people are you?"
"Just...people." Aang said.
The man smiled and gestured grandly.
"Aren't we all, brother?" He said cheerfully.
Eira stood up as Sokka walked over to them and pointed at the accusingly, still soaked from falling into the water.
"Who are you?" He asked, glaring at them.
"I'm Chong, and this is my wife Lily." Chong said, gesturing to himself and the woman next to him. She wore a headdress over her shoulder-length brown hair and a flower was pinned in the middle, it was probably a lily of some sort if her name was a hint.
"We're nomads, happy to go wherever the wind takes us." He said, then strumming crazy rock star-like on his guitar-like instrument. It was quite odd compared to his more flowy personality and carefree voice.
"You guys are nomads?" Aang asked in a slightly puzzled tone then he smiled widely and his voice became more excited. "That's great! I'm a nomad!"
Chong looked just as excited as Aang.
"Hey, us too!"
"Uh, I know… You just said that." Aang said, looking at them blankly. Eira observed them all silently, a bit dumbstruck at how this was playing out. It was kind of weird to see how sincere they were in their responses.
"Oh." Chong said, as he looked at Sokka, a bit creepily. "Nice underwear…"
Sokka looked down at his underwear and his eyes widened in the realisation he was just wearing his underwear in front of a group of complete strangers.
Sokka grabbed Momo, who was sitting peacefully next to where Eira had been sitting, and strategically placed him in front of himself as he sprinted away to put his clothes back on.
Eira looked down at her own clothing and quickly decided that she should go put on her tunic. Even though these people were very odd themselves, she didn't really feel too comfortable wearing her clothes from home in front of people from this world, with the exception of Aang, Katara and Sokka.
She grabbed her tunic and quickly threw it on as the nomads quickly began to talk to Katara and Aang. They were absolutely fascinated by Appa and they were braiding his fur.
"The giant night crawler is a sight to see, my friends. Its fifty feet long, pitch black and it has the power to paralyse someone by just looking at them… or does it kidnap people and choke them… I get it confused with the elephant-parslesnake." Chong was saying as Eira walked back.
I wonder if these stories are actually true. Eira thought as she saw everyone lounging around Appa. A woman was making several wreaths of different coloured flowers. She passed a wreath of pink flowers to Aang and placed it on his bald head.
Aang tried to look up at his forehead and he smiled widely. The flower crown on his head reminded Eira of when she was in primary school and would make daisy crowns for her and her friends. I'm certainly in a reminiscing mood lately. Eira thought, realising that she was thinking about her old life a lot.
As Eira sat down in a free spot near Appa, she pulled out the map that Pakku had given her. They hadn't really made a plan of how they were getting to Omashu and Eira wanted to plan a way to get there.
Eira traced her finger on the paper absent-mindedly as she looked for Omashu and roughly where they were. The problem with a full world map was that it didn't have a lot of detail.
Sokka was very disappointed when he found that out because he wanted to see if the Fire Lord's palace was on the map. Eira didn't really know what he was expecting though, a secret passage to the Fire Lord's bedroom and free killing weapons on the way?
Sadly, as Eira found Omashu, she saw that it was surrounded by a large set of mountain ranges and the ocean. Not very good for a simple smooth flight. No wonder she didn't remember them simply flying to Omashu.
As she looked at the map, Eira felt something touch her head and she jumped embarrassingly. It turned out the woman who was making the wreaths was just placing a purple flower crown on her head, but Eira had managed to send her work into the water.
Eira felt her face burn as she looked apologetically at the flowers and then back at the woman.
"Uh, sorry." Smooth, Eira… Very smooth. Eira thought, silently scolding herself. She was still surprisingly jumpy.
The woman resumed with her carefree smile and made her way back to make more flower crowns. Chong continued to tell tall tales and Lily was plaiting Katara's hair as Aang listened intently. Chong would casually strum his lute (Eira asked what it was) and Moku was absent-mindedly lying on his back and looking at the clouds.
After a while, Sokka finally re-joined them.
"Hey, Sokka, you should hear some of these stories. These guys have been everywhere!" Aang said excitedly and Eira couldn't help but smirk knowingly. Haven't been in a million places in my world. She thought, though she understood that they meant this world and have probably never even thought about a world like hers existing.
Chong stopped playing to correct Aang.
"Well, not everywhere, my Little Arrowhead. But where we haven't been, we've heard about through stories and songs." And, as if to make his point clearer, he strummed on his lute to indicate the songs.
Aang turned back to Sokka, his smile wider than ever.
"They said they'll take us to see a giant night crawler!" He explained but Sokka didn't look amused or excited. Moku rolled over to get a better look at Aang and Sokka and gestured grandly and dreamily with his arms as he spoke.
"On the way, there's a waterfall that creates a never-ending rainbow!" His voice was dream-like and it felt like it was floating and Eira did have to admit that a waterfall and a never-ending rainbow did sound beautiful.
"Look, I hate to be the wet blanket here, but since Katara's busy and Eira's not saying anything, I guess it's up to me." Sokka said, earning the glares from Katara and Eira.
"In my defence, I'm usually a wet blanket around, you know, fire. Also known as the situations you manage to get us into." Eira said defensively, a little peeved that Sokka called her a wet blanket.
"Hey, it's not always me! But we need to get to Omashu." Sokka said, swiftly trying to ignore the death glares. "No side-tracks, no night crawlers and definitely no rainbows." It's funny how he was most determined to avoid the least threatening option. Eira thought, smiling to herself.
"Wow! Sounds like someone has a case of destination fever. You're worried too much about where you're going." Chong said, stopping his strumming again.
"You've got to focus less on the where and more on the going." Lily said, her grand gestures accidently tugging at Katara's plait.
"O-MA-SHU!" Sokka said impatiently.
Katara looked at the Nomads apologetically.
"Sokka's right. We need to find King Bumi, so Aang can learn earthbending somewhere safe." Katara said. Chong looked at her, somewhat blankly.
"Sounds like you're going to Omashu." He said and Sokka smacked his forehead in frustration as Eira did the same, but mentally instead. Did he have some sort of short-term memory loss?
"Ya' know there's an old story about a secret pass right through the mountains?" Cong said and Katara looked at him sceptically.
"Is this real, or a legend?" She asked.
"Legends are usually based on truth." Eira said, butting in. "Myths are the ones that come from absolutely nothing."
"Yep, it's a real legend. And it's as old as earthbending itself." He said, starting to strum louder, starting to get into a proper melody. "Two lovers, forbidden from one another, the war divides their people." Then Moku began to tap on his drum and Lily started to play her flute. "And the mountain divides them apart! Built a path to be together." Then he quickly stopped, a puzzled look on his face.
"Yeah, I forget the next couple of lines, but then it goes…. Secret tunnel! Secret tunnel! Through the mountains, secret, secret, secret, secret tunnel! Yeah!" The song sounded surprisingly good and it definitely had energy, but there was something about Chong's voice that annoyed Eira.
As the song stopped, everyone began to applaud and Eira went along, and, to her surprise, a genuine smile crept onto her face. But Sokka was as unamused as ever.
"I think we'll just stick with flying. We've dealt with the Fire Nation before. We'll be fine." Sokka said dryly. Aang jumped up and patted Appa's fur.
"Yeah, thanks for the help, but Appa hates going underground." He then flashed a large smile. "And we need to do whatever makes Appa most comfortable."
Why does that line fill me with such dread? Eira thought, her body feeling like it was turning to ice.
o.O.o
Appa was flying past a small Cliffside and, guess what, they were met with an entire line of Fire Navy ships. As Appa swerved to try and avoid the giant fiery projectiles that were flying through the sky.
Eira, Sokka, Katara and Aang all held on for life as Appa flew around, erratically moving as they all screamed. New waves of fire were constantly being shot at them as Eira tried to hold herself against the saddle, feeling the heat brush over her as they flew over her head.
Ohhh, this is why.
o.O.o
As Appa landed back near the water and they all got off, all scorched and completely covered in ash.
The all walked past the nomads in single-file, all annoyed, and as Sokka walked past him he gestured at them.
"Secret love cave, let's go." He said dryly and the nomads, after a moment of pause, they stood up and joined them.
The walk was spent in silence from the Gaang but the nomads made up for it with boisterous singing and talking. Eira brushed off her clothes and wiped her face so she could clean herself of the ash as it was starting to become really annoying and she saw the others do the same.
The ground was starting to form a small ditch and the trees were beginning to branch over, creating a natural tunnel that looked amazing.
"How far away are we from the tunnel?" Sokka asked, looking around.
"Actually, it's not just one tunnel." Chong said as they continued to walk. "The lovers didn't want anyone to find out about their love, so they built an entire labyrinth underground."
Sokka and Eira stopped in their traps. Under…ground… again? Really!?
"A labyrinth?" Sokka said, shocked. Damn! Eira thought. Now I remember. The caves. Just what she needed.
"Oh, I'm sure we'll figure it out." Chong said causally, walking ahead.
"All you need to do is trust in love…according to the curse." Lily said, adding the last part quickly.
"Curse!?" Sokka complained in a somewhat whiney voice.
"Sokka, I don't want to do this either, but there's no other option." Eira said quietly, beginning to walk after the group and trying to hold in her apprehension. She still barely remembered anything about the episode.
"Hey-hey! We're here!" Chong announced as the natural dip in the path lead them to a large tunnel opening.
Sokka walked briskly over to the entrance and began to read a small inscription on the side.
"So, what are the details of this curse?" Eira asked nervously as she looked at the darkness in the tunnel. She could barely see a couple of metres in.
"The curse says that only those who trust in love can make it through the caves." Chong explained. "Otherwise, you'll be trapped in them forever." Thanks for the vote of confidence.
"And die." Lily added, oh so helpfully.
"Oh yeah, and die." Chong said, suddenly brightening. "Hey, I just remembered the rest of that song!" He stood in front of the cave entrance and strummed his lute dramatically, changing his singing voice to one that was ominous and in a low tone. "And die!"
"Okay, thanks for confirming that this is an absolutely awful idea." Eira said sarcastically, trying to hide her nervousness.
"That's it, there's no way we're going through some, some, cursed hole!" Sokka persisted, cutting his hands through the air,
Moku, who managed to keep his calm, dreaming expression, turned his head and pointed at the sky above the trees which was filled with billowing grey smoke.
"Heeeey, someone's making a big campfire…" He said and as they saw the smoke and as Eira smelt the air, she realised it wasn't a natural campfire. It was the more industrial-smelling fire the Fire Nation seemed to use.
"That's… not a campfire, Moku." Aang said, the realisation dawning on his face.
"It's the Fire Nation. They're after us." Katara said grimly. Aang quickly looked at Chong, clearly trying to make sure he understood.
"So all you need to do is trust in love to get through these caves?" Aang asked.
"That is correct, Master Arrowhead." Chong said. First Little Arrowhead, now Master Arrowhead… He sure has variety with his names. Eira thought.
Aang turned to see Katara and his eyes shone in adoration, the kind he only got when he saw Katara.
"We can make it." He confirmed, smiling.
Sokka pointed into the entrance commandingly.
"Everyone into the hole!" He ordered and they all filed into the cave, Appa moaning as he lumbered in.
As they moved further into the cave, taking cautionary glances back at the entrance as they began to walk further in but then, suddenly, the entrance collapsed.
There was a large crashing sound of the tumbling rocks as the metal grappling hooks shot out into the entrance and pulled them out, sending the rocks above it into the entrance and sending them into complete darkness as well as the horrible, loud echo.
As Eira blinked the dust from her eyes she saw Appa quickly freaking out, pawing desperately at the walls and Eira was pretty sure she was going to join him soon. The darkness wasn't very comforting.
"It's okay, Appa." Katara said reassuringly. "We'll be fine… I hope."
As Eira had been watching Appa and the entrance, Eira hadn't noticed that Chong and Lily had lit torches and Eira was thankful for the light, but now she could see the tonnes of rock above her that could crush them all. Yaaaay…
"We will be fine. All we need is a plan." Sokka said before directing his attention to Chong. "Chong, how long do those torches last?"
"Uh, about two hours each." He said casually, not grasping the situation properly. Lily then, having a bright idea, lit all of the torches.
"And we have five torches, so that's ten hours!" She announced, clearly proud of herself. Panicking, Eira quickly threw a blast of air at the torches, putting all of them out.
"That's not how it works!" Eira yelled, beginning to get incredibly frustrated with their ignorance.
"Oh, right." Lily mused softly. Then Sokka quickly scrambled onto saddle and pulled out a piece of graphite and some paper.
"I'm going to make a map to keep track of exactly where we've been. Then we should be able to solve it like a maze and find the exit." He explained but Eira, Aang and Katara exchanged nervous glances.
Eira could think of about a million reasons why this could not work but they didn't really have another option as she couldn't really think straight, she thought she remembered how they left, but she didn't understand how to get to it.
"So… where do we go from here?" Eira asked.
Everyone looked around at the three or so tunnels around them and Sokka, after a moment of thought, he chose the one to the right of him.
"This one." He announced, walking towards it. Katara raised an eyebrow sceptically.
"Why that one?" She asked. "Wait, let me guess, you're just guessing."
"Never mind, let's just go." Sokka said quickly, confirming what Katara said. Having no reason to disagree with him, they all walked through the tunnel. The dark tunnel with barely enough room to fit Appa in.
Sadly, a couple of minutes into the tunnel, they reached a dead end.
"I guess we have to turn around now." Eira said blankly, turning around.
o.O.o
The labyrinth was certainly living up to its reputation. After the tenth or so dead end, the map that Sokka was making was a scrambled mess of lines.
After a while everyone was getting annoyed, well, the nomads weren't. They were as calm as ever but Katara was getting annoyed, Aang was getting nervous and Eira was getting even more scared. Sometimes, she felt like she heard some rumbling which was either the tunnels beginning to collapse or the tunnels moving and, since they were created by earthbenders that wasn't such a stretch.
Sokka stared at the walls of the dead end and turned him map around and moved the torch around the earth to try and find some sort of secret passage or something.
"Sokka, this is the tenth dead end you've led us to." Katara said in frustration.
"But, this doesn't make sense. We've already come this way." Sokka said.
"Maybe you didn't draw the map correctly, or the tunnels are changing. I mean, there are earthbenders around here, right?" Eira said, her arms crossed as she looked around nervously. "Moving tunnels isn't exactly out of the realm of possibility."
"That's why we don't need a map." Chong said slowly. "We just need love. The little guy knows it."
Aang smiled nervously and rubbed the back of his head.
"Yeah, but I wouldn't mind a map as well." He said.
"But if the tunnels are changing, then… how can we leave?" Sokka said ominously, leaving the question hanging in the air and with it, the nervousness settled in Chong. He looked around frantically and started moving around erratically.
"The tunnels, they're a-changin'! It must be the curse! I knew we shouldn't have come down here!" Chong said, looking out from behind his hands.
"Right… Because it wasn't your idea in the first place." Eira mutter sarcastically.
"Everyone be quiet." Katara hissed. "Listen." Everyone went quiet and they all looked into the darkness behind them. And then…Eira heard it. Several low snarls echoed through the caves and Momo quickly flew up to perch himself on Aang's shoulder for protection.
Sokka cautiously edged up and held up his torch to inspect the darkness and as the light spread across the floor, a shrivelled face showed up. It had a light face and bony skeletal bat wings as well as a fury lean dog-like body.
"What the-" Eira cried out as the thing screeched and flew off back into the darkness. THAT THING WERE IN HERE ALL THIS TIME!? She thought, not believing it. WHAT THE HELL! Eira had seen bats before, they would sometimes live in her attic, but those were cute and fluffy… That thing was not!
"It's a giant flying thing with teeth!" Chong screamed in panic, basically saying what Eira was thinking.
"No! It's a wolf-bat!" Moku said, pointing to it as it landed further back but it started to creep towards them, growling before it pounced at Eira and Sokka.
Eira tried to blast it off but its claws scratched at her scarf so she just flailed her arms around as Sokka began to freak out, swatting at it with his torch.
The small cinders fell on Eira's arms and, yelping in pain, she jumped back quickly in pain, managing to finally dislodge the bat but she bumped into Appa and the wolf-bat decided to fly over to Appa and jump of his head, making Appa completely freak out as well.
Appa ran around the tunnel, slamming into the walls and causing the wall to crumble, sending the rocks and debris to fall down on them.
As Eira's eyes widened as she saw the rocks falling down on them, paralysed with fear, but then she felt a large force slam into her and push her against Sokka and the nomads, away from the falling debris.
Eira slammed into the floor and skidded, the small stones biting into her skin as she did. Eira clenched her eyes to shield them from the dust and gravel and after a while, she blinked her eyes open and, after a second of darkness as her eyes adjusted to the lack of light, she saw a large wall of rocks in front of them.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" Eira stuttered, getting up quickly and inspecting the wall as Sokka did the same.
Eira tried to move a couple of rocks but as the rocks started to shake, she had to stop. It was structurally unsound.
"Yah it's no use." Chong said uselessly. "We're separated. But at leave you have us!" Eira's blood went immediately cold.
Sokka looked at her hopelessly.
"Can't you just blast the walls with your airbending?" Sokka asked desperately and as Eira's grip tightened on her glider, she shook her head.
"This wall is holding up the walls now. If I try, I could end up sending it all down." She explained, frustrated. "Cachau… Aang! Katara! Are you okay back there?!" Eira shouted after cursing under her breath.
After a pause, they finally answered.
"Yeah." It was Aang! "But we can't remove these rocks! We're gonna just have to meet up at the exit after finding our way out!"
Darn it… I guess we're just going to be split up. Eira thought, annoyed, before turning back to the group.
"Well, I-I guess we just have to get out now." Eira stuttered, grimacing as she remembered the wolf-bat and the feel of its claws on her head.
Gah! It wasn't a pleasant feeling at all, and the thought of more of them in the darkness was almost nauseating and top it all off with the feeling that the walls could just collapse so easily and the memory of almost being buried alive and dying made her feel like the walls were shrinking around her.
Sokka and Eira began to walk down the tunnels, the torch lighting the way as they did and the nomads helpfully supplying the background music.
"Oh, don't let the cave-in get you down! Don't let the falling rocks turn your smile into a frown!" Chong sang, strumming his lute and nudging Eira as he did. Eira crossed her arms angrily. It was hard not to frown when you were separated from your friends, underground and threatened with wolf-bats and collapsing tunnels.
"When the tunnels are darkest, that's when you need a clown, hey! Don't let the cave-in get you down, Sokka, Eira!"
Sokka and Eira scowled at them.
"We don't need a clown. We need a way out." Eira growled angrily, charging ahead, racking her brain for a way out. Aang and Katara made their way out by following glowing gems and… Sokka got out by…uh…. Maybe she could just use the glowing gems instead, seeing as she had completely forgot how Sokka got out in the show
Sokka was looking around, holding the torch nervously.
"Uh, Sokka? Do you mind if I borrow the torch for a quick second?" Eira asked, slightly nervous about her plan.
Sokka raised an eyebrow at her sceptically before cautiously handing her the torch.
"Alright. What are you planning to do with i-" He began but he stopped speaking quickly as Eira put the torch out. "Eira! What are you thinking?!" He shouted, his voice echoing throughout the tunnels.
"Shhh!" Eira hissed. "Just watch." She whispered as the darkness spread across the cave and then, one after another, the hundreds of green gems began to glow and light up. The light washed over Sokka's amazed face and the Nomads looked at them in awe.
"Eira… How did you-?" Sokka began but Eira shrugged.
"These were in my old world. I just recognised them." Eira quickly lied. Well, I did sort of recognise them. So it's kind of the truth. "It makes sense too. These tunnels are dark, so anyone who'd follow the creators of the tunnels would bring a light and get lost forever." Eira chuckled. "It's surprisingly brilliant."
"Yeah, brilliant. Apart from the fact that we'd probably die if you didn't recognise them." Sokka mutter sarcastically. Eira elbowed him.
"No, you're torches would go out eventually, so you'd eventually figure it out… If you didn't go insane from having to listen to them, or get swarmed by wolf-bats." Eira joked. I couldn't survive that long, the fear of the tunnels and being underground would get to me before the wolf-bats. She thought, shivering slightly, remembering the claws scratching at her head.
"Anyway, let's follow them." Eira announced, walking ahead.
Walking through the tunnels and following the green lights was a lot more calming and peaceful than wandering in the dark with just a couple of torches.
The nomads were still playing their music and singing but Eira was actually managing to tune it out.
"I hope Aang and Katara are okay." Sokka whispered as they walked.
"Don't worry, they're smart, they've probably already figured it all out." Eira reassured.
"Even if you're lost, you can't lose the love because it's in your heart…" Chong sang and Sokka looked irritated and he smacked his forehead with his palm again.
"Ugh! If only they didn't sing. Maybe then, this would be tolerable." He groaned. Eira laughed.
"True, at least you've got me, though. Otherwise I'm sure you would have gone insane by now." Eira said, elbowing him again.
As they continued walking, Eira spotted something dark and moving in front of them. She immediately stopped in her tracks.
"Uhhh, what's that?" She asked nervously, pointing to it. Sokka squinted his eyes and as he looked closer at it, they both then heard familiar low growls as several large wolf-bats began to race towards them.
Eira jumped back and swung her staff at them, sending them all flying into the air and running behind them out into the other side of the cave.
"Hey! You save us, Eira!" Moku said in the same dreamy voice but Eira wasn't reassured, and neither was Sokka.
"No, they were trying to get away from something!" Sokka said in realisation.
"Really?!" Eira exclaimed in frustration. Seriously!?
"From what?" Chong asked, oblivious, as always.
The caves began to rumble and the small stones on the ground were jumping around and vibrating as were the cave walls.
Then, without warning, the tunnel walls burst open and rocks were sent flying through the tunnel, as well as a large billowing dust cloud, and Eira raised her arm to shield her face. Then two giant creatures walked through. And by giant, Eira meant giant. It was over five times the size of her, it had brown fur with black and white stripes going from its face to its tail and it's large paws had massive Eira-length black claws.
The one badger-mole in in front of her swiped its paw at the tunnel it had just come through and it actually earthbent the tunnel closed.
"Well, I guess those are the things that are changing the tunnels." Eira whispered, absolutely terrified.
Then the two badger-moles slammed their paws down on the ground and a large spit in the earth appeared in the ground, separating the nomads from Eira and Sokka, forcing Eira and Sokka to move back to avoid falling in.
The badger-mole closest to them tried to swipe its claws at them and Eira tried to deflect them but the force of the swing sent her back several feet and then they both backed up hastily.
The badger-mole lumbered forwards, closer to them and as they continued to back up, Eira looking into the creature's blank eyes, absolutely terrified. It slammed its paw down at them again and they managed to narrowly avoid it but as they were pressed up against the wall, a musical note rung out through the tunnel.
Everyone stopped in their tracks to see Chong, who had just dropped his lute. The badger-mole looked at him curiously and cocked its head to the side.
Chong looked down at his lute and then back at the badger-mole. He picked it up gingerly and strummed it experimentally. The badger-moles seemed to like it as they quietened down and turned to listen more clearly.
"Hey, those thinks are music lovers!" Chong said cheerily. He continued to play a tune and Sokka and Eira shared nervous glances before singing timidly.
"Badger-moles are coming towards me. Come on please, help us now!" Eira sang, looking back at the nomads desperately, singing was not her forte.
Catching on, for once, the nomads started singing and playing louder.
"The big, bad badger-moles who earthbend the tunnels, hate the wolf-bats, but love the sounds!"
The badger-moles sat down in front of Chong and the others and Sokka looked at them, his eyes sparkling with a new idea.
Eira looked from him and the badger-moles and finally caught on to his idea.
"Really, no. You can't be-" Eira started but then she saw his expression and her face fell. "You are, aren't you?"
"Yep!" Sokka said, walking across the tail of the badger-mole and sat on it. He turned around to look at Eira and he gestured to the badger-mole's back.
Eira rolled her eyes. They could've just walked a peaceful walk, just following the pretty green gems, but no. They just had to go with the badger-mole option.
Eira walked nervously across the badger-mole's back and sat down next to Sokka.
"Hey! Chong! Can you get them to get us out of here?" Sokka asked loudly. Chong nodded and started playing a new song.
"Badger-moles, get us out of this tunnel, come on, and be a pal. You love listening to my song, now time to take us where we belong!" He sang and the badger-moles went to work, using their earthbending to quickly build a large tunnel and after a couple of minutes, they were outside.
The glaring light of the sun and the change of being in sunlight from being in a dark tunnel with low light, Eira was temporarily blinded and sneezed right off the badger-mole.
Eira flew into the air and landed hard on the ground. Damn airbending!
"Sokka! Eira!" Eira turned to see Katara and Aang running up to them. Eira smiled and stood up to hug them.
"I am so happy to see you guys." Eira said, relieved to see them again and to be out of the caves. Underground didn't suit her.
"How did you guys get out?" Sokka asked curiously.
"It was just like the legend said, we let love lead the way." Aang said, smiling sheepishly at Katara.
"Really? Well, we let Eira and huge, ferocious beasts lead our way. Not that there's much difference between them." Sokka explained.
"Hey!" Eira exclaimed, scowling at him but he just smiled.
"See, just like that. I cannot tell the difference." He said, receiving a well-deserved elbow in the stomach, effectively winding him and sending him to the ground.
"So, uh, how was it, Eira?" Katara asked, slightly nervous due to the fact that her brother was collapsed on the ground.
"It was infuriating." Eira said bluntly. "And terrifying."
Chong walked over to them and looked at Aang who was behind them, talking to the other nomads.
"Nobody react to what I'm about to tell you: I think that kid might be the Avatar!" He whispered, looking at Aang. Eira rolled her eyes.
"I think that explains the infuriating part." Katara giggled.
After Aang talked with them, the nomads began to walk away, but as Chong walked past, he threw a flower necklace around Sokka's neck.
"Now, I hope you learned a little something about not letting the plans get in the way of the journey." He said and Sokka looked away, irritated but sounding almost defeated.
"Just, play your songs…" he said and Chong perked up.
"Hey! Good plan!" He began to strum his lute and sing as he walked away with his group. "Even if you're lost, you can't lose the love because it's in your heart. Da, da, da ..."
Aang looked at Katara happily as they listened to the song and Katara blushed as they all turned around to walk over the mountainside, Appa walking behind them as they did.
As they approached the peak, Sokka smiled and gestured grandly.
"The journey was long and annoying, but now you get to see what it's really about: the destination." He said. "I present to you, the Earth Kingdom of O-" He paused as they all saw what was down there. "Oh no…"
Eira saw Omashu down in the chasm and what she saw was a captured, horrible city with large Fire Nation flags and smoke pouring out of it.
"This isn't good." Eira whispered, her hand over her face in shock. This wasn't going to be fun.
Next chapter, we face Azula. I wonder how this will work as Eira can probably annoy Azula to the point of "death-by-lightning"
Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter, thanks for all of the reviews, favourites and follows so far and please review and tell me what you think.