Okay, okay. I know this took ages but I have some reasons. I have had some exams this week and this was a reallllllly hard chapter to write because, like Eira as you'll find out, I hadn't watched this episode in absolutely forever. I don't know why but the first five episodes of season 2 never stuck in my memory all that well, of course the last couple of episodes in season 2 or my absolute favourites but I digress.
Also, I know the title is the same as the episode and I try and avoid that but... I honestly couldn't think of anything else.
Enough rambling from me and I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Please review and tell me what you think! :D
Chapter 4: The Swamp
Eira was simply staring out into space and thinking about old songs that she used to like and thinking about how if she didn't go home soon they'd probably disappear from her mind. It was a weird thing to think about but it was where Eira's mind managed to wonder.
As Eira was staring at the clouds, she saw them begin to fly up and as she looked around she saw that the clouds weren't flying up, they were going down.
"Aang?" She said but Aang didn't respond. "Aang! Why are you taking us down?" She asked.
He suddenly looked around as if he'd been taken out of a trance.
"Wait, what? I didn't even notice." He said, looking at the slowly nearing ground.
Sokka gestured at the forest below them.
"Are you noticing now?" He asked. Katara moved over to the front of the saddle to talk to Aang better and Eira couldn't help but think. Hey, how about you stop Appa from flying down, Aang?
"Is something wrong?" Katara asked, the concern showing in her voice but Aang still seemed dazed for some reason.
"No, but… I know this is going to sound weird, but I think the swamp is calling to me." He muttered.
"Is it telling you where we can get something to eat?" Sokka asked, holding his stomach and received a well-deserved elbow in the gut from Eira.
"Can you think of anything else put your stomach?" Eira asked incredulously. "This is obviously some Avatar-y thing."
"Yeah… I-I think it wants us to land there." He said airily.
Sokka shrugged and looked overboard.
"No offense to the swamp, but I don't see any land to land on."
Aang looked puzzled at the swamp as they were still slowly descending.
"I don't know, Sokka. Bumi said to learn earthbending I would have to wait and listen, and now I'm actually hearing the earth. Do you want me to ignore it?" Aang asked, turning back to look at them.
Eira looked down at the swamp. From above it looked like a forest but she absolutely hated the idea of trudging through a swamp.
She barely remembered the swamp episode because she just didn't enjoy watching them all spend time in the swamp with the weird waterbenders and the creepiness of it all.
Everyone looked over the side of Appa's saddle, following Eira's example and Sokka plainly said what they were all thinking.
"Yes. Ignore it." Even Katara was looking disgusted at the swamp and she was the one who was always going on about how Aang was the Avatar and needed to follow his spiritual Avatar-y things.
"There's something ominous about that place." She admitted.
"As much as it's probably an Avatar-y thing, I can't imagine how trudging through a swamp can help us find you an earthbending teacher." Eira said gently, secretly hoping they didn't need to go in there.
It may sound weird considering all of the weird crap she'd already been through, but she didn't want to go through a swamp listening to the creepy birds screeching and the constant bugs trying to bite your skin. It was awful to think about and it made her skin crawl.
Momo and Appa seemed to share her feelings as Momo hid under a pile of bags and Appa groaned in protest.
"See, even Appa and Momo don't like it here. We should leave." Sokka insisted. Aang sighed in reassignment.
"Okay, since everyone feels so strongly about this." He looked down at the swamp and waved. "Bye swamp." He tugged Appa's reigns away from the swamp. "Appa, yip, yip!"
Appa bellowed and flew upwards, away from the ground but as Eira was beginning to feel relieved she felt a shiver down the back of her neck and as she turned around all of the blood turned to ice.
Right behind them was a giant swirling tornado. How does that happen!? Eira didn't get it, how did this happen? Tornadoes don't just appear out of thin air.
"Aang, get us out of here!" Eira yelled and everyone was incredibly panicked.
Aang looked back and his eyes widened in fear. He flicked the reigns and Appa began to fly even faster away, attempting to avoid the tornado but he clearly wasn't fast enough as the wind was now grabbing at them, pulling them into it.
Sokka was being pulled off in the wind and he began to fly backwards, off the saddle.
Eira was terrified as she was being looked back at Sokka and she grabbed onto the saddle, trying to reach for Sokka's hand as Katara did the same but just as he was going to fly away Aang jumped up to form a sphere of air around them, causing them to be unaffected for a couple of seconds, letting Sokka fall back onto the saddle but then he looked at Eira expectantly.
"Eira! Help me try and keep this up!" He shouted, trying to be heard over the wind and Eira was becoming even more scared. She had never done anything like that, she wasn't even sure that she could it.
Eira nervously tried to copy Aang's motions and she felt something responding but it definitely wasn't enough. The strong wind of the tornado ripped apart the sphere and Appa was sucked into the tornado and as something snagged Appa's legs sending them spiralling down.
Eira, who was partially stood up, was thrown off Appa and into the wind as her grip on the saddle failed. Eira screamed as she felt herself flying through the air, unable to hear or see the others as the wind stung her eyes and bombarded her ears.
As Eira felt the wind ease she managed to squint her eyes open and she screamed as she saw the ground coming up closer to her. Fast!
Eira thrust her hands forwards, towards the ground and a large jet of air blasted out from her hands and as she was five feet from the ground, her falling slowed and she gently landed on the ground in the murky swamp water.
Eira breathed heavily as her voice recovered from the screaming and as her heart rate began to slow, she lifted her head and looked around. She was in a dark, humid, green area with lots of vines, roots and trees. The ground was covered in dirty water and if Eira listened closely, she could hear a vast array of birds and bugs… yay…
Eira stood up straight and looked around for Katara, Aang and Sokka. They probably landed near her as they must've fallen off almost right after her.
Eira heard several splashes to her left and she quickly ran over to it and as she cleared some vines out of her way, she saw Katara and Sokka getting up some the water, covered in mud and Aang standing and looking around.
"Aang! Katara! Sokka! There you are." Eira called as she walked over a log and over to them but then she saw something was off.
"Where are Appa and Momo?" Eira asked, looking around in confusement. "Didn't they land with you guys?" If only I had watched this episode recently. Eira thought, mentally scolding herself.
Aang also looked around for Appa and Momo and he was clearly surprised that they weren't with them.
"What? I thought they were here." Aang exclaimed, jumping up in the trees for a better look around.
"Appa! Momo!" He yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth and as he jumped around, Eira turned her attention back to Katara and Sokka.
"So how are you gu-AHHH!" Eira began, but her speech turned into a strangled gasp as she saw Sokka. There was a giant black slimy… thing attached to his elbow. Sokka began to flail around as Eira pointed at it.
"Sokka, there's something on your elbow." Eira said and after some more frantic flailing, he ripped it off and threw it away, behind Katara.
"Why do this keep on attaching to me!?" He cried angrily.
"We should leave here as soon as possible." Eira stated, crossing her arms as she looked around. I don't think I could stay here overnight. It's far too disgusting and creepy. Eira thought, choosing to not say them aloud as she feared it would come across as whining.
It really was a horrible place, though.
Aang came swinging back from the trees and landed in the middle of the trio. He looked sad so they could only assume he didn't find them.
"You couldn't find Appa or Momo?" Katara asked disappointedly.
Aang shook his head,
"No, and the tornado… it just disappeared." He explained, his voice mystified and they all shared the feeling. How could a tornado just go and disappear so suddenly. That wasn't how weather worked.
They all turned to face the differing directions of darkness in the swamp and they didn't want to admit it, but it felt hopeless. How were they going to find them?
"Soooo… Where should we start? Do you know where they could've landed, roughly what direction they landed in?" Eira asked. "I fell off first so I have absolutely no idea." She admitted shamefully. It was annoying that she was knocked off so easily.
Sokka looked around but he settle on pointing to the left of them.
"I think they went off in that direction. Don't worry guys, Appa's a big thing, there's no way we won't be able to find him." Sokka said reassuringly as he marched off in the direction he was pointing at.
Having no better ideas, they all followed him but after a while, all of the vines were getting clumped together and tangled, making it really hard to get past them.
After several attempts to get past a certain section of the swamp, Sokka just resigned to pulling out his machete and slashing at the vines, leaving them to fall to the ground and leaving a clean, straight line where they were cut.
"We'd better speed things up." He mumbled, continuing to slash at the vines but for some reason every slash made Eira feel uneasy and as she looked at Aang, she saw that he was almost wincing at every vine falling to the floor.
"Hey, Sokka. Maybe we should be a little nicer to the swamp." Aang suggested but his suggestion had no effect on Sokka.
"Aang, these are just plants. Do you want me to apologise or ask permission as I swing my machete back and forth?" Sokka asked sarcastically.
"Yeah, and the forest that Hei Bai almost destroyed a town over was just a forest as well." Eira grumbled. "I'm a newcomer to this world and even I know that here acts against nature tend to get punished."
Sokka turned back and raised a sceptical eyebrow at Eira.
"You really think that sprits can really come over and attack us whenever they want? I thought you didn't believe in that stuff." He said, going back to swinging his machete.
Eira walked over to him and yanked the machete out of his hand forcefully.
"Well, seeing as the Fire Nation almost killed two spirits and destroyed waterbending and I've been taken to the spirit world by Hei Bai and kidnapped by two more spirits, I think that I have more than enough reason to think that spirits could do that." Eira said angrily. "I may not have had spirits or bending in my own world but I think I know enough about them to know that randomly hack at nature."
"Then if we don't want to wind up getting eaten by them, we need to find Appa as soon as possible." Sokka concluded unhelpfully, snatching his machete back and continuing to slash at them.
Eira cast a look at Katara for help but she didn't have any. They both knew that Sokka was stubborn and was never going to treat spirits seriously…
Wow. If Eira that complained about someone not taking spirits seriously back home, everyone would have thought she'd be insane. She never believed in superstitions, hell, she made thirteen her lucky number just to spite people who thought it was unlucky.
As they moved deeper into the swamp, Eira had tried many times to move the vines out of the way to help Sokka avoid cutting them but it still wasn't having too much of an effect. They all waded through the ankle deep water and the fog was starting to get heavier and thicker, as was the atmosphere.
"Appa! Momo!" Katara yelled, trying to project her voice in all directions but it was useless. Eira couldn't see anything more than two metres away from her.
"It's pointless, Katara." Eira said quietly. "We can't see anything due to this fog and I doubt that Appa and Momo could hear us."
A fly buzzed around Eira's head and she swatted it. Sokka looked around and also seemed to reach the same conclusion but with a slightly different ending.
"Then we'll have to make camp for the night." He stated, swinging his machete around at the flies dangerously.
Eira glared at him.
"Sokka. Stop that." Then they all heard a pop and they all jumped in shock.
"What was that?" Katara asked nervously but Sokka waved it off.
"Nothing, just swamp gas." Sokka explained, motioning to the water. "Look, there's nothing supernatural going on here." Then they smelt it. It was an awful, putrid smell that made Eira's face crinkle in disgust.
She quickly wrapped her scarf around her nose to try and block the smell as the others groaned in complaint, Sokka waving his hand in front of his face to try and blow it away and Katara clamped a hand over her mouth and nose.
Then they all jumped into a group hug of sorts as a terrifying shriek interrupted them. What the hell was that? Eira thought, looking around for the source, terrified and… it was a tiny white bird. SINCE WHEN DID BIRDS SOUND LIKE THAT?! Eira thought before taking a breath to calm herself. She needed to stop getting so panicked.
"I-I think we should build a f-fire." Sokka said, sweating bullets and voice cracking. Sokka then ran off to a nearby tree and chopped up pieces of wood.
"Sokka, the longer we're here, the more I don't think you should be doing that." Aang protested.
"No, I asked the swamp. It said this was fine." Sokka said sarcastically, grabbing a nearby root that he cut off. "Right swamp?" He asked, then he shook the root and went into a falsetto. "No problem, Sokka!"
Sokka then continued to chop up the tree, completely ignoring the annoyed looks from Eira and Aang.
"So help me, Sokka, I'm going to take that machete or else." Eira mumbled angrily under her breath as Sokka collected the water in his arms and moved over to a more sheltered area of the swamp.
They all walked over to the area, which was thankfully dry and Sokka started to build the fire and, despite how Eira disagreed with it, she was grateful for the heat.
"Sokka, just to be safe, can you give me your machete? I don't think it's wise for you to have it in this place." Eira asked, holding out her hand expectantly.
Sokka rolled his eyes.
"Yeesh, Eira. It's going to be fine. There's no one here but us." He said in a patronising voice that Eira suspected was supposed to be reassuring.
Eira kept her hand out and stared Sokka down. She continued staring until he finally gave up. He slowly took his machete out and handed it to Eira resulting in a smile.
"Thank you."
Katara shivered and her eyes began to dart around.
"Do any of you feel like we're being watched?" She asked. Everyone else looked around and a cold breeze brushed past all of them.
"Yeah, I've been feeling it too." Aang said. Sokka rolled his eyes in disbelief.
"You guys are being ridiculous. We're all alone here." He began to swat at a fly around his head and it exploded into a burst of gold light. It flew off, still enveloped in bright light and as it flew past, it lit up dozens of mirror-like eyes.
"E-Except for them." Aang stuttered as they all began to huddle together in fear.
"Right." Sokka whispered, his calm demeanour gone. "Except for them."
He looked up at the dark night sky.
"M-Maybe we should get some sleep." He suggested, his voice shaky. Aang and Katara looked at him incredulously but then the tiredness seemed to sweep over them. The mumbled in agreement and lied down on the ground, closing their eyes and trying to ignore the creepy atmosphere as they went to sleep.
Eira, however, couldn't. She found it hard to sleep in such a creepy, humid place, especially with the eyes starting to fade back into the bushes. They were still watching them. Eira could feel it.
Eira watched the fire flickering and crackling in the darkness as everyone slowly drifted off to sleep. After a while the fire began to die down and Eira was starting to feel her eyes grow heavy. It was weird, she both felt tired and wide awake at the same time.
I guess I'm just that determined to avoid sleeping here. Eira thought, almost laughing at her own ridiculousness. Eira absent-mindedly twirled the machete in-between her fingers but then she saw some movement in the corner of her eye.
Eira's eyes opened fully and she saw that some vines were moving but before she could wake the others up the vines shot out at all of them, binding them all and then yanking them away from each other.
"Guys!" Eira screamed as she felt herself being pulled through the darkness, away from the campfire and the others.
Eira felt herself being thrown around at every bump of the ground because of the speed she was being pulled at and as the vines began to tighten around her, Eira began to struggle even more.
She felt the machete still in her hand and with one strong movement, she managed to slice the vines, freeing herself.
Eira scrambled away from the vines and got up as she tried to run away from the vines. She used her airbending to jump into the trees and, to her surprise, she saw that the vines weren't moving again.
Eira paused for a moment in confusion but she shook her head to clear her mind. She needed to focus. She didn't want to get lost in this swamp.
"Guys?!" Eira shouted, trying to make her voice heard but it almost felt that the trees and vines were blocking it. Eira jumped across to the trees and looked around wildly for her friends.
"Sokka! Katara! Aang!" She yelled but again she heard nothing back except for chirping of insects. Dammit! Where are you guys? Eira thought.
Eira walked across a damp branch but she suddenly hit a cloud of flies. Eira spat as she was sure some went in her mouth and as she tried to swat them away and get out of it, she slipped on the branch.
Eira inhaled sharply in fear as she flailed her arms for balance but ended up just falling hard to the ground.
She landed in the swamp water on her back and winced as the blow knocked the air from her lungs, forcing her to stay still for a few minutes to recover.
"Cachu!" Eira hissed. She got up slowly, her back aching from the fall. She looked down at her soaking, muddy clothes and scowling.
"Damn it…" She cursed. It felt itchy and uncomfortable. Just perfect. Great. Eira swirled her hands around to create a sphere of air and threw it at the ground, forcing the water and mud to fly off her.
"Aang! Sokka! Katara!" Eira yelled again. Seriously, how could they not hear her? "Where are you!"
Eira trudged through the swamp, noticing that a group of those screaming white birds were perching on several tree branches. Why do those exist? Maybe they scare of predators or something. Eira thought, her mind wandering off to try and distract from the creepiness, even though her thoughts were focussing on why the creepiness could exist.
The fauna and flora here were so diverse and strange. So different to Wales it felt unnatural to Eira. She definitely preferred the more wild, free green trees and bushes and ivy… Eira really missed it.
Eira walked in silence, trying to travel in the opposite direction that the vines pulled her in. Her mind wandered to thoughts of home and her family. She was ashamed to say that she hadn't been thinking of her family as much, with all of the excitement of their travels.
But as she was thinking about her family, she started to hear crying. Eira's head perked up to try and hear it better, to make sure it was just her hallucinating, wait, could you hallucinate sounds? Or was that something else. It didn't matter! It wasn't real.
Eira walked further through the swamp and the crying began to become louder and clearer. It's not real. It's not real. It's not real. Eira thought, constantly repeating it in her head.
But… then she saw them… her family… and they were crying…
"M-Mum… D-Dad, Jenna?" Eira stuttered, her eyes wide in disbelief and she felt a tear run down her cheek. She hadn't realised that she was crying. Her family was here! They were here! But why were they crying? Eira didn't understand.
They were dressed in the same clothes they had been wearing when Eira had been taken away. Eira didn't have time to register that despite the fact they were in the swamp water they were all completely dry. All she could notice was the fact they were all hugging each other and crying. Their faces so full of despair and sadness Eira couldn't take it. It made her heart break just to look at them.
She just couldn't take it! Eira began to run towards them, she wanted to touch them, to make sure they were real. They had to be real! They needed to be real!
But… as Eira made her way to hug her mother. To try and stop her tears… she disappeared. She vanished into thin air. As she vanished before Eira's eyes, Eira cried out in shock.
"No! Mum!" Eira whipped around to see her father and sister quickly fading into the mist of the swamp. "Dad! Jenna!" Eira tried to stop them from disappearing but as she tried to reach out to them, they all completely faded… and Eira was left all alone again.
She couldn't handle it, Eira fell to the ground, ignoring the dirt and the coldness of the water. All she could feel was the ache in her heart and the wet tears streaming down her face.
"DAMN IT!" Eira shouted her voice full of angry frustration. Eira slammed a fist down into the water angrily. Why did they do this to me? To show me them…and take them away like that. I just wanted to, to be with them again.
Eira didn't know how long she knelt there, crying in frustration but it was some time later when she managed to somewhat recover.
Get yourself together Eira! She scolded silently. You need to find the others. Snapping back into motion. She got up slowly and creakily, her knees stiff from kneeling for so long.
The others were probably waiting for her.
Eira quickly began to run away in the direction she was previously travelling in but then… she was interrupted again.
"Mam, pam ydych chi'n yma?" It was a little girl's voice but, it was in welsh? Mum, why are you here? Eira thought in confusion. Why would someone be saying that here? Eira honestly didn't want to find out. After the last swamp hallucination, well, she didn't want to go through that emotional anguish if it's just going to rip her heart out and stomp on it.
"I'm not going to listen." Eira spat through gritted teeth, holding her hands over his ears, trying to block it out but her curiosity was too strong. Eira turned around slowly and she saw that she was surrounded by five children.
Two boys. Three girls. From what Eira could tell, they were likely aged frim fifteen to five or four. The strangest this about it though, they all looked a bit like her. Some had her blonde hair, others had her eyes, her nose but with something else mixed in. Almost like they could related to her. But that was impossible.
"W-Who are you?" Eira stuttered, feeling almost claustrophobic as they stood around her in a circle.
The eldest began to speak but as she did only a faded whisper came out, like she couldn't speak any more than she had already done.
Eira couldn't shake the fact that she looked so much like her but with bright green eyes, more tanned skin and bright blue airbender tattoos. Wait, she was an airbender.
"What the hell is going on?!" Eira shrieked. Her mind was becoming overwhelmed by all of these swamp vision.
They didn't answer, instead they all began to jump away, most of them using airbending but with the youngest girl using earthbending instead to catch up with the others.
Eira clenched her fists.
"No! I'm going to get answers!" She yelled, jumping up to follow all of them. They were all incredibly fast and agile but she was not going to give up.
Eira ran as fast as she could, using her airbending to get herself even faster and jumping across the trees to try and follow them.
"Who are you!?" Eira yelled as she brushed past a curtain of vines and running across a thick branch but then she managed to run into another curtain of vines and they snagged at her arms and legs, sending her flying forwards but being trapped in the vines.
As Eira looked around, still suspended in the air thanks to the vines but her eyes widened in surprise as she saw Aang, Katara and Sokka all looking up at her in surprise.
"Eira?" Katara exclaimed in shock but Eira didn't respond. Her mind felt like it was spinning in confusion and frustration. Where did those weird children go?
She felt a slash at the vines and she fell to the floor, reacting quickly and using her airbending to soften her fall.
"Where have you been?" Sokka asked, clearly annoyed. "We've been looking all over this stupid swamp for you."
Eira looked around in a daze-like state, her thoughts still swirling around her head.
"Same, but, uh, you didn't see anyone around here, did you?" Eira asked, slightly nervously.
Aang cocked his head in confusion.
"Who are you talking about?" He asked. "Was it a girl in a white dress? Because I saw someone like that."
Eira shook her head.
"No, it was-. Never mind. It's not important." Eira said, dismissing it. "So, you guys saw something?"
Katara and Aang nodded but Sokka just gave Eira a weird half-sceptical expression.
"Yeah." Katara said her voice barely above a whisper. "I saw my mum."
Eira paused. She was annoyed with herself and how she lost control of her emotions, so she didn't exactly want to tell them.
"Yeah… me too. And my dad and sister." She admitted, not really wanting to remember it and choosing to exclude the strange children she saw. Eira wasn't going to try and explain it seeing as she didn't understand it herself.
"I keep on telling you it was nothing." Sokka persisted. "We're all just tired and hungry, and saw people we think about all of the time. Just because you saw things doesn't mean this swamp has any spiritual magic or anything."
"Did you see anything, Sokka?" Eira asked, half-concerned, half-curious. He paused, obviously mulling it over.
"I-I saw Yue, and Suki. But it was like they were ghosts or something." He said. Why would that be? Eira thought puzzled. They aren't dead. Yue isn't even a spirit. "But it means nothing. It was just my hungry stomach, nothing else."
"But, then how did we all end up finding each other again? I followed a vision and it led me here to you guys." Eira explained.
"I dunno? Coincidence?" Eira rolled her eyes, then remembered something. She pulled out the machete from her belt. She'd forgotten about it. Thank goodness she didn't lose it or Sokka would've gone mental.
She handed it to Sokka.
"Here, I forgot to give it back considering the whole "separated by vines" thing." He took it and looked around.
"Eira, you didn't happen to see Appa or Momo did you?" Aang asked. "We didn't manage to see them so maybe you did." His face was hopeful but after seeing Eira's reaction, his face fell.
"I guess you didn't then." He concluded sadly.
"And we still don't know where we are." Katara added. "Maybe in the middle?" She said, trying to find any sort of indication of their location.
Aang and Eira looked up and saw the same thing in surprise. It was a shock they didn't notice it before. There was a massive tree growing out of the centre of the swamp. Its roots burrowed into the ground and seemed to snake in and out of the earth and its trunk was at least fifty or a hundred feet wide.
It formed an umbrella-like shape that seemed to shelter its trunk and it felt like it was radiating some sort of good feeling. A feeling of togetherness.
"Yeah, the centre… It's the heart of the swamp. It's what's been calling us here, I knew it." Aang said in realisation, his voice floaty as he looked in awe at the tree and Eira could understand why. Its sheer size by itself was simply awe-inspiring.
"It is just a tree." Sokka stated stubbornly, raising his arms above his head. "It can't call anyone. For the last time, there's nothing after us and there's absolutely nothing magical or spiritual happening here!"
And that was the moment a giant monster made of plants erupted from the water.
"You had to say something!" Eira exclaimed in frustration just as it began to slam its monstrous, vine-y arm at them.
They all split up, Eira and Katara going to the right and Sokka and Aang going to the left. Thankfully its turning speed was slow but it certainly wasn't slow with its attacks. It shot out some vines at Sokka and swung him around but Aang cut off the vines with an airbending slice.
Eira began to charge at it, trying to avoid its attacks and as she was only a metre or so away, she leaped at it and slashed at the centre, cutting off a decent chunk of vines but to her horror more just moved up to take their place.
In her shock, Eira paused and in her confused state, she couldn't avoid the clump of vines slamming into her chest and sending her flying into a tree.
Eira slid down the tree, breathing heavily in pain but as more vines began their attack on her, she managed to roll away and Katara quickly used her water whip to slash the vines.
More vines picked Aang up by his foot and tried to fling him into the trees but he used his airbending to jump off the trees and back at the monster.
Katara and Eira kept on slashing at the monster, successfully cutting off large segments of the monster but even more vines kept on growing back to fix it.
It was getting tiring and as they tried to push it back, it just slammed its arm into the two girls and sent them flying again.
Sokka was hacking at the vines trying to envelop him with his machete but it wasn't working as he was quickly getting covered by them and as Aang was staring at him in shock, he was also hit with the vines again.
Eira sent a blast of air at the vines as she recovered from hitting the ground again and as Katara got up she span around in an airbender-like form and completely froze the vines surrounding Sokka when Eira struck the around with a forceful jet of air, it shattered and Sokka was thrown out of the monster.
Katara and Eira slashed at the vines that they had destroyed, preventing them from being regenerated and as Eira slashed at it one last time, she froze in shock as she saw a man inside it and it looked like her was waterbending.
Eira vaguely remembered this from the show but it still came as a surprise.
"Someone's bending the vines inside it!" She announced as she and Katara, with one final slice of air and water, the wooden mask in the centre of the monster was spit open as was the top of the monster but that still didn't stop it.
The vines picked Katra and Eira up and kept them up against two trees and as Eira struggled to escape the bindings she saw Aang using airbending to rip apart the vines.
"Why did you call me here is you just wanted to kill us?!" Aang demanded offensively.
"Wait!" A masculine voice began to talk from within the monster and after a slight pause, the vines dropped and the monster lost its form, revealing, to Eira's distaste, a stout middle-aged man with grey hair wearing nothing more than a leaf loincloth of sorts.
"I didn't call you here." He said in a puzzled tone, dropping his stance and the vines keeping Eira and Katara pinned to the trees relaxed, letting them drop to the ground.
Aang and Sokka shared a look of confusion but they kept their offensive positions.
"We were flying over and I heard something calling me, telling me to land." Aang explained sharply.
"He's the Avatar." Sokka mentioned, giving a small gesture to Aang. "Stuff like that happens to us a lot." Tell me about it. Eira thought slightly bitterly as she and Katara slowly edged towards their friends.
The man looked confused for a second but then a realisation crept up on his face.
"The Avatar? Come with me." He instructed, turning around and starting to walk up the tree. Sokka and Aang dropped their stances and they all shared nervous glances but they all silently agreed to follow the man.
He began to lead them up the side of the tree but there was still a nervous tension in the air.
"So, who are you?" Katara asked curiously. The man continued to walk, stopping only to bend a curtain of vines out of his way.
"I protect the swamp from folks that want to hurt it, like this fella with his big knife." He explained and Eira shot a pointed look at Sokka.
"See, Sokka? If you didn't begin to hack at everything you saw, we probably could've left without all of this madness." Eira scolded.
"But there was nothing mystical happening here." He persisted, finally sliding his machete back into his belt. "No monsters, just a normal guy defending his home." Sokka said smugly.
"Oh, the swamp is a mystical place all right." The man corrected as he sat down in a small gap in the tree. "It's sacred. I reached enlightenment right here under the banyan-grove tree. I heard it calling me, just like you did." He explained. Sokka raised an eyebrow sceptically.
"Sure ya' did. Seems really chatty." Sokka said sarcastically but as Eira looked out at the view from the tree, she was amazed. The tree's roots were the swamp. They grew up into new trees and from a distance, Eira could barely tell one thing for another. It was absolutely incredible.
"See this whole swamp is actually just one tree spread out over miles. Branches spread and sink, take root, and spread some more. One big, living organism. Just like the entire world." Just like the entire world. All connected. All sitting on the same earth… It's funny how humans never realise that.
Aang looked a bit sceptical at that new information.
"I get how the tree and the swamp are just one big thing, but the whole world?"
The man smiled.
"Sure. You think you're any different from me, or your friends, or even this tree? If you listen hard enough, you can hear every living thing, breathing in harmony. Growing together. We're all the same, no matter what folks want to believe. We all have the same roots and we are all branches of the same tree."
The same roots… branches of the same tree. Eira thought. Is that really true. I wasn't even born in this world. How could I have the same roots? Is that another indicator that I don't belong here? She couldn't help but take his enlightenment as more confirmation that she didn't belong in this world.
"But what did our visions mean?" Katara asked and Eira had to admit she was curious about that. What kind of hallucinogens did this swamp have to get them to so vividly see those things? Her family had looked and sounded so real.
"In the swamp, we see visions of people we've lost, people we loved, folks we think are gone, or out of our reach." He explained simply and Eira almost began to cry again as she thought about Jenna and her mum and dad. I don't think people can be as far out of someone's reach as my family.
"But the swamp tells us that they're not gone. We're always connected to them. Time is an illusion, as is death and separation." Aang still looked confused.
"But what about my vision?" He asked. "It was someone I had never met."
The man gestured to Aang.
"You're the Avatar. You tell me." He said and Aang looked down at his feet to try and process his thoughts.
"If time's an illusion, then… It's someone I will meet." He finished. And that person is the great and mighty Toph. Eira thought, smiling at the prospect of meeting Toph.
The man nodded but, as usual, Sokka was the one to break the mood.
"Sorry to interrupt the lesson, but we still need to find Appa and Momo." He said coldly, obviously not caring too much about interrupting the lesson.
Aang looked down at his hands and then at the vines, his face looking like he was having an epiphany.
"I, think I know how to find them." He muttered, kneeling down to one of the larger vines. "Everything is connected." Aang placed his hand gingerly on the vine and his tattoos and eyes began to glow as well as the vine.
The light travelled down the vine and after a minute it faded and Aang eye snapped back into reality.
"I know where they are!" He announced, jumping up and running off. Eira, Sokka and Katara ran after him trying to keep up with him and they ran for what seemed like ages until they heard some commotion.
They ran up to a small ledge next to a river and they saw some canoes chasing Appa and Momo.
Aang sent a giant stream of air at them and knocked one of their boat and Momo flew out of the bag he'd been trapped in.
"We're under attack!" One of them cried as he sent a puddle of water flying at Aang but he and Katara quickly used their waterbending to throw it away from them and they created a wave to hit the men who were trying to hunt Appa but they put up a defence, locking them into a fight with no-one gaining the advantage.
"Hey, you guys are waterbenders!" Katara realised.
"You too!" One of the men exclaimed. "That means we're kin!" They all stopped their waterbending and Eira couldn't help but snigger at Katara's slightly disgusted expression. Eira didn't blame her, being compared to middle-aged men in leaf loincloths who lived in a swamp wasn't very flattering.
Behind them, the man who had attacked them ran up behind them and waved to the men below and they did the same in response.
"Hey Huu! How you been?" One of them asked.
"You know, scared some folks, swung some vines, the usual." He joked and Eira just realised that she had never learnt his name.
o.O.o
It was night and they were finally able to eat some of the food they had on the saddle and Eira was so glad because by that time Eira was absolutely starving. They were all sitting down on some logs around a fire and Sokka and the waterbenders, whose names were apparently Due and Tho, were digging into some sort of bug and bird. It looked absolutely disgusting and Eira had no idea how Sokka was eating it.
"How do you like that possum chicken?" Due asked Sokka as Eira looked up at the night sky. The stars were sparkling like diamonds, almost exactly like when she and her family used to go camping and her father would teach her all of the different constellations.
"Tastes just like artic hen." Eira chuckled. Apparently every kind of meat tastes like some variant of chicken even in other worlds. At times like this, Eira both missed meat and didn't.
Eira began to tune out all of the conversation as she mainly focussed on what she had seen in the swamp.
The reason she saw her family was obvious. She missed them more than anything and the fact that the bridge between them almost completely burnt to her knowledge made her homesickness even worse than anything she'd ever experienced but the children confused her.
They looked like they were related to her but they were also benders. The eldest girl looked most like her as they were about the same age but she also had tanned skin and bright green eyes.
In fact, if Eira remembered correctly, almost all of them had green eyes and no-one in Eira's family had eyes that green. Like the golden/amber eyes of most firebenders in this world, that specifically vivid green eyes colour seemed to belong to this world.
Does that mean they were from this world; well they were airbenders and an earthbender so of course they were but… were they supposed to be her children?
The thought hit Eira like a punch. It would explain the resemblance but, Eira would never have five children. Eira didn't think she'd have more than one and maybe not even that so how could that be?
And the two boys even looked like twins! It was just too far-fetched for Eira to think about.
It was also the fact that if they were her future children, it would mean that she wouldn't've have made it back home and she would've stayed in this world and Eira knew that wasn't going to happen. She didn't want that to happen. It would mean that she'd be doing what Fei Lian and Feng Yi wanted.
As stubborn as it sounded, Eira was determined to not do what they wanted her to do i.e. stay in this world as an airbender and restore their culture… Wow, that sounded selfish. It's not like I'd be condemning the airbenders. Aang's an airbender and if what I know of the Legend Of Korra will be true, he most likely will have an airbender child. Eira thought, trying to reassure herself.
Eira sighed. She didn't have time to over-analyse had promised Aang that she'd help him defeat Ozai, and she was going to make sure she helped as much as she could and try and save some people as she did, make a positive impact. She could find a way home when she completed that promise.
Okay, now we have some possible foreshadowing and you can all think about what it means for Eira's future but I hope you liked the chapter, I hope it was worth the wait and I have to warn you that you might have to get used to a weekly update or even further apart as it's exam season. Yay!
Please tell me what you thought and please review! :D