Brothers Avatar

The Legend of Two Avatars

Book 1 – Family

Chapter 8 – Creatures of the Swamp

"There there, Xulo, you've got to get it eventually." Ibera stood a ways away from Xulo.

"Uh huh, when will that be?"

Ibera bit his lip, "It's really about the journey, Xulo."

"He means 5 years, Xulo!" Lozulia yelled from afar.

The team had decided to stop in this valley so that Xulo could begin to learn airbending. "Thanks, Lozulia." Xulo looked back, dripping in sweat.

"No problem, Xulo!" Lozulia and the others were lounging on a comfortable little plateau, bended out by Xulo. "He never had this much trouble with fire…"

"I heard that!" Xulo yelled, still trying to produce air.

"Avatars, without fail, have trouble with their opposite elements." Ibera explained, "Avatar Rinley had a terrible time with firebending. Usually they are able to at least blow a gust of wind, but..."

"Xulo's such a good bender, I thought he'd be better…" Lozulia said to Taresc.

"Nobody's perfect, not even Xulo." Taresc said.

Xulo got more and more frustrated with each comment from the peanut gallery, "He's doing plenty adequate, thank you all." Ibera said, "I feel you getting a tad angry, Xulo."

"No, I'm doing great."

"Well, you're not doing great." Ibera laughed to himself, Xulo responded with a heavy inhale through his nose, "Sorry, I'm guessing adequacy isn't normal for you."

"Not one bit."

"I say we show them who is exactly who. Close your eyes." Xulo did as such, "I want you to imagine a giant whirlwind violently flowing through this valley. Feel the grass being tugged by this humungous tornado and internalize it and let it grow." Ibera could see a tension growing within Xulo, "Bigger! I want Lozulia's hair to be hideous from this wind."

"Rude!" Lozulia yelled.

"Do you have it?" Xulo nodded his head, "Now… Release!"

Xulo opened his eyes, with one great step, forced his hands forward like he was trying to push a mountain a foot forward. However not even a breaths-worth of air emerged from his palms. Instead a huge crack emerged from where his foot stomped. This crack didn't stop however, it continued to grow in size and move forward down the valley. The earth shook, it seemed very possible that the earth was about to split into two. Eventually, a mile or five down the valley, the fissure stopped.

Ibera clasped a hand on Xulo's shoulder. "Very impressive, Xulo. Not airbending, but very, very remarkable."

From around the bend of the valley, a large group of people started walking towards the cause of the tremor. "Lozulia." Xulo said.

"Yeah?" Lozulia got off of her back.

"You don't happen to know what's at the end of this valley, do you?"

"Well from this way" she pointed in the direction that the people were coming from, "there's a Stormbender camp… oh." Lozulia poked a laying Minege, "Wakey-wakey, we've got trouble."

Minege groaned, "Stormbenders?"

"Stormbenders."

Minege jumped to her feet and shook Tanton awake. They all quickly jumped on and rode her down the valley for Xulo and Ibera to jump on. Tanton started running full sprint down the valley, "That could've been bad." said Minege, riding the speeding alligator-duck.

"I'd say 'can.' Rather than 'could've.'" said Ibera.

When Minege looked back she saw that the Stormbenders were in hot pursuit, using their airbending to quickly sprint after the group, "Why are they chasing us! How do they even know we've got the Avatar?"

"Who knows, Minege? Maybe it's the only living alligator-duck? Or the masterful earthbending only akin to an Avatar-level of power?" Xulo said.

"Don't listen to them, Tanton." Minege whispered in the panting animal's ear. Minege indicated for Tanton to hurry her pace. With every step Tanton took it seemed that the Stormbenders were taking five. The team attempted to send rocks, fire and air to slow them, but nothing was keeping them back. It seemed that that they were just about to catch up with them, when they suddenly stopped. The team stared at the now-shrinking figures in the distance, confused as to why they would discontinue their pursuit. They looked forward for some clue and saw what seemed to be a swamp. "Lozulia, what is that?" Taresc asked.

"Foggy Swamp, really good name, by the way."

"Oh heavens no! Not Foggy Swamp!" Ibera fell back on his back, covering his face.

"What's wrong?" Xulo said confronting Ibera.

Just then a huge row of indiscernible creatures arose from the mire. "That's what wrong." The creatures were huge, larger than even Xulo and Taresc's old house. These golems of muck, were standing side-by-side ready to block any intruders.

"What are we going to do? We can't turn back!" Taresc was freaking out and crushing Lozulia with his grip.

"I got an idea, but I'll need your help." Ibera pointed at Xulo and brought him to the backside of Tanton. "We're jumping those things."

"And how are we doing that?"

"A little air should help us clear those things."

"Ibera—" Xulo stepped back.

"I'd love to argue, but that's probably the least useful thing to do right now." Xulo puffed and silently looked at the ground with his hands out. "Now airbending is based around circular motion—"

"Shorter version please!" Minege said as they were closely approaching the barrier.

"Fine! So I imagine there is a storm swirling in you right now. Channel that circling pattern and let it flow out, on the count of three we are going to burst. Okay?" Xulo nodded once again. "One. Two. Three!" A huge flurry emerged from Xulo's hand, far exceeding Ibera. The whole team rocketed into the air, clearing the muck monsters by a huge margin. The abrupt wind didn't help for too much longer as they all dislodged from Tanton easily. They all yelled as they separated in the air, falling in entirely different parts of the swamp.

The taste of mud filled Xulo's mouth. His head had planted itself in a pile of sludge upon his launching. Once free, he bended the mud off of his face and out of his orifices, "Taresc!" He yelled. There was no answer, "Minege!" again, no answer. "Ibera! Lozulia!" He quickly realized his team was nowhere near him. His only option was to trek forward in hopes of finding his way out of Foggy Swamp. This was no easy task, having landed face down, he was entirely clueless as to what direction he was going or where he'd come from.

The ground was a thick paste, every time he'd drop his foot in the swamp, it was a struggle lifting it once again. He tried to bend the dirt in the pasty ground but he had minimal success.

The trees up above we're proficient in blocking out most of the light. While it was a beautifully sunny day outside the swamp, inside it seemed to be forever nighttime. Or perhaps it was nighttime, Xulo lost track as he trudged through the slime, calling out his teammates' names. His only friend in this darkness was the flame in his hand and the intimidating sounds of nearby animals. While worrying, the sounds of other creatures brought him sanity in his solitude.

With flame in hand, he was ready to give another round of calling out their names, when he saw a figure in the darkness. "Hello?" He made his flame brighter and saw that the figure was that of a little boy. Before Xulo could ask why someone of his age was roaming around a swamp, the child fled.

Xulo ran in the direction the child was going, the child wasn't fast so it wasn't too hard of a challenge. When he caught him, Xulo turned the boy around and found a familiar face, "Lido?" Xulo's voice was quivering like a newborn's cry.

The child's voice was tempered and cold like a blade, "Where were you, Xulo?"

Xulo had tears flowing down his face, "I'm so sorry, Lido. I- I was—" Xulo couldn't utter the words.

"It's your fault, Xulo." Xulo had to close his eyes with how hard his tears were spilling out, when he opened them, Lido was no longer there. Xulo frantically called out Lido's name and looked around. In his passionate search, he was stopped only by the formation of a muck monster in front of him. It was then his eyes started to glow once again.

"Xulo! Are you here?" Taresc found himself all alone in the swamp. Taresc began to cry when he realized the gravity of the situation. His terror mainly stemmed from those muck monsters that were around. He'd always have Xulo or someone to help him fight, but this time he was all by himself and that was a horrifying to Taresc.

He found a skinny, hollow banyan tree to hide in, it brought him some comfort that he wasn't out in the open. His tears flowed a little less and simmered into simple sniffles as he hugged himself. He watched the outside intently, ensuring that nothing could sneak up on him; it was suddenly that a flurry of flapping and croaking found its way into the banyan tree. Taresc was completely clueless as to what this mystery threat in the blackness was. He swatted and tried to strike at the creature until, in an odd moment, he realized it had perched itself on his shoulder. He looked over and saw the unassuming and blank eyes of a toad-parrot.

The little spherical thing had the body of a toad, but its back was that of a parrot with green and yellow feathers. It had expansive wings but lacked talons and a beak. It never sported an amused or confused expression, always was it looking bored and forward.

Taresc wasn't entirely trusting of this animal at first, but the company became a welcome addition for Taresc. It wasn't for long though, as the parrot-toad ran away. "Come back!"

Taresc left his sanctuary to run after his newfound friend. As he got to the middle of a soupy pond where the parrot-toad was flying across, muck monsters appeared all around him, completely encircling him. Taresc panicked, it was his very biggest fear coming to life. The monsters started encroaching on him and Taresc simply knelt, ready to accept his fate. He felt a touch on his shoulder.

"Come on! Fight!" Taresc turned around and found Xulo. "Waterbend these things!"

"Xulo? I- I?"

"It's okay, Taresc, I know. It's alright." Xulo gave Taresc a hand to get up and then the fight really began. One by one he used his waterbending skills to slice each one apart. The monsters each attempted to devour Taresc, but every time Taresc was able to bend them apart. Taresc was on a rampage, he felt so free knowing his brother accepted his being of an Avatar. But no matter how many time he destroyed a muck monster, they'd always come back.

He ran up to Xulo. "Xulo, they keep coming back!" They were back to back, surveying the muck monsters.

"You gotta run, Taresc!"

"But what about you?" He looked behind him and saw that no one was there. Xulo was right there a second ago, he had no clue where he went, in his panic, he fled.

With the muck monsters on his trail, Taresc had no rhyme or reason to where or how he would escape, he simply needed to escape. He was stopped when he felt a violent breeze blow through the banyan trees. Thinking it might be Ibera or Xulo, he ran towards the zephyr.

After a great deal of running, eventually he reached the source, which turned out to be Xulo in the Avatar State. Xulo bending what seemed like a huge tube of swirling air, he was thrashing around with ii. Slamming the think and windy whip against trees and causing for the entire area to be full of air torrents. Between trying to find footholds in the mud, he saw that the other members of their team were also situated around Xulo.

He moved over to Ibera who also was braving the winds, "What's wrong with Xulo!" Taresc yelled.

"We don't know! He keeps yelling about how 'it's his fault.' We have no clue what 'it' is!"

Suddenly a bunch of puzzle pieces sorted themselves out and fit together in his mind. First he realized that the Xulo from before was a hallucination, there's no way that he could have been here and also fighting with him from before. He also was able to assume that whatever caused Xulo to get this way was probably also a hallucination. From Ibera recounting of 'it's all my fault' he was able to deduce who exactly that hallucination was. "Ibera, I need you to get me close to Xulo."

"Okay, Xulo's brother." Ibera was able to bend the turbulent air out of the way, while also avoiding Xulo's deadly whip. They eventually got to the center and as Taresc got into the eye of the storm, Ibera got whipped by a gust of wind and flew back against a banyan tree. Taresc looked back but realized he needed to stop Xulo.

"Xulo!"

Xulo turned around and it was apparent that Xulo was emotionally ravaged, "It's all my fault!" Xulo screamed, glowing tears blasting out of his eyes.

Taresc embraced Xulo, and spoke softly into his ear, "Xulo, it's not your fault. It wasn't mine either. It's nobody's fault."

Xulo seemed to settle a little, "Taresc, I- I could have been there." Xulo spoke sleepily.

"There's no way we could have known, Xulo, what's done is done."

With those soft words, Xulo finally came back to reality. "I'm sorry, Taresc."

Taresc let go of Xulo, "It's fine, Xulo."

"I saw Lido, Taresc, he was here!"

"I figured, it was just a hallucination." Taresc said. Xulo looked down, his sadness clear, "I had one too."

"What of?"

Before Taresc could answer, the whole gang bombarded the two, "The gang's back together!" Lozulia yelled, "Welcome back Xulo!"

Xulo wiped a tear from his eye, "Great to be back."

"So I'm guessing you got a good handle on airbending now?" Ibera said.

"If I have a couple past Avatars' help, yeah." Xulo chuckled; even Tanton came by to softly nuzzle Xulo. Just when they were about ready to make a plan to get out of the swamp, muck monsters started forming out of the ground, instead there were far more than there had ever been, it seemed to be tens upon hundreds of these fiends. "These things again."

"There's so many this time." Minege said.

Lozulia got into her fighting stance, "And there's so many of us now! Let's make these mucky muck-mucks fearful that they ever messed with us!" The team sprang into action, they all went their separate ways in fighting the muck monsters. Minege boarded Tanton and charged into the thicket of muck monsters, quickly ramming them down and slapping them with Tanton's tail feathers. Lozulia sprayed her flames wide and heavy, leaving brittle mounds of unmoving sludge. She cut through them with her martial arts and moved onto another batch of monsters. Ibera utilized his razor sharp winds to completely decimate tens of muck monsters at a time. He was able to flip over one and, with his foot, blow a hole through another. Taresc and Xulo worked in tandem with each other with Taresc rapidly retrieving boulders from under the swamp and Xulo rocketing them at rows of muck monsters, instantly dispelling them.

"These things are easier to beat than a bunch of braindead weeds, but once one goes down, five more pop up!" Ibera was panting. "I hate this place." The whole team was exhausted. Fire spreads got narrower, air cuts got sloppier and boulders were shot slower. They eventually all ended up cornered at a banyan tree, sweating profusely from the swamp humidity.

"I don't know how longer I can do this, guys, I feel like I'm going to faint soon…" Taresc said.

"We can do it!" Xulo said looking out on the horde of muck monsters, seeming to have doubled. Just as Xulo was about to jump back into the fray, a guy dropped from the heavens.

"Stop it! All of you stop it!" the guy yelled upwards.

"Hoorah hoorah! The hallucinations have come to help." Ibera slumped down next to the tree.

The muck monsters seemed to have halted their approach, "These people are my friends!" the guy turned around and hugged Xulo, "Just go with it" he whispered into Xulo's ear.

"This is where you live!?" Xulo played up the act, "Dude, I thought you were in the town over, I haven't seen you in the longest time."

The guy winked and just then the army of muck monsters seemed to slump back into the ground. From the tops of the banyan trees many people jumped to the ground, boys and girls of all ages. "You know these people?" one of the girls said.

"Of course."

The girl looked the crew up and down, "You'll want to see the chiefs."

"Come on Owa." The guy said.

"Pio." All she did was give a stern look and he knew, suddenly she and her group jumped onto the closest trees and they were gone up to the treetops.

He sighed and turned around and said to the group, "We should get going. The name's Pio, by the way."

The group walked a ways until they reached a river where Pio had a canoe waiting for them. They all got on, except for Minege who rode on Tanton, floating down the river. Once all on, he started bending them down the river.

"So what exactly is happening here, were you behind those muck things?" Xulo asked.

"You guessed it. We are the puppet masters of those swamp creatures, pretty rudimentary stuff, really; Just bending the swamp water into human like forms, real spine-chilling, really effective at keeping people out of the swamp."

"Why are you guys so intent on keeping people out?"

Pio scoffed incredulously, "You tell me!" He stopped bending for a moment, "My brothers and sisters and I are charged with the task of keeping all intruders out. All because they're worried that someone is going to invade and take advantage of our spiritual powers for themselves. INADVERTANTLY making us the most antisocial hermits of all time but I digress." He got up and continued moving the boat.

"So those people were your siblings?"

"Yes indeed, The Foggy Swamp Haunted Security Agency: Owa, Paina, Alite, Lalo, me, Mala, Ugi, Riki, Makira, Ulawa, Raha and San. All in chronical order for your convenience." Pio curtsied, "However, never has anyone given the FSHSA quite the struggle as you guys have. Let me tell you, I've never quite seen these boys and girls sweat as much as I did when you guys were mowing down our creations left and right. Except on hog roasting night, nothing compares to the perspiration of hog roasting night."

"I just wanted to ask, why exactly did you pull that stunt back there to save us?"

Pio started rubbing his hands together nervously, "I saved you because… well… I was maybe thinking you could… take me with you?"

"You want us to take a swampbender with us?" Ibera gave a pained look.

"I beg of thee! This place is awful, even you can tell that."

"Visibly." Ibera said.

"I saw that you were the Avatar and I'm sure you could use a waterbending teacher, unless if this one gives me a run for my money." Pio pointed at Taresc.

Taresc's eyes widened immensely, "What do you mean by that?"

"You were waterbending earlier, I saw you, I was the one controlling those muckers."

Taresc tried to keep his cool as everyone on the teams' eyes shifted to him. He tried to come up with some excuse but his mouth just stayed wide open, luckily Lozulia jumped in. "Taresc is an earthbender, you obviously saw him bending the earth in the water."

"Oh yeah, you were always good at that type of thing." Xulo said.

"Sorry, my mistake." Pio said, Ibera however continued to stare intently at Taresc, "Well that's good for me, at least. I know you're apprehensive about bring one of my kind onto your group but I am infinitely better than all of the other swampbenders." Pio wasn't lying, just from the looks of him, he was odd in comparison to the rest. He was very well-groomed, he wore actual clothing instead of giants leafs. His long hair seemed to shine and shimer, it was devoid of all bugs and twigs. Just his manor of talk well exceeded the gibberish of the other Swampbenders. "I won't make you answer now, we can talk after we finish talking with the chiefs."

"By the way, what is that on your shoulder, Taresc?" Xulo pointed out.

Taresc looked to his side and squawked to see the parrot-toad from before, "AGH, you again."

Pio looked behind, "That's a parrot-toad, right? I've never seen one so docile, they're usually so mercilessly high-strung, this one must've taken a liking to you."

"Ooo! Keep it! Keep it! Keep it! Please!" Lozulia was begging, "And name it Lozulia II, I'll love you forever if you do!"

"Well, I think I'll keep him, but I'm not sure about Lozulia II. I think…" Taresc thought, "Woorq might be nice."

Lozulia looked disgusted, "Boo! It didn't even react to that name." Lozulia got really close to Woorq, "How about Lozulia II, you like that name?" Woorq gave the same unimpressed look as it always does, "I think she blinked."

"Woorq it is." Taresc tickled Woorq's chin.

"Pio?" Xulo said.

"Yes?"

"I don't exactly know how to ask this, but is there something in the air?"

Pio looked perplexed, "Love?" Pio laughed hardily at his joke, "I have no idea what you mean. How so?"

"I had visions and hallucinations while I was here." When Xulo said that, Taresc noticed Lozulia being taken aback by that comment.

"That'd be that spirit energy in this swamp. It's really quite miraculous, the spiritual qualities of this place will induce visions of people you lost, people you've yet to meet or even your deepest desires. Actually, the reason I was so certain you'd be the ones to take me out of this place was because I saw you all in a vision."

"And we can't fight destiny, can we?" Xulo said, Pio nodded happily, "We can always try though." Xulo said unintentionally cold. "What did we all see on our journeys today, Lozulia?"

Lozulia was rather flustered to be picked first, "Hm, me? Uh, let me think…" She was clearly very in her head, "I'm just trying to think back."

"Was your vision so boring that you forgot about it amongst the excitement of travelling through swamp water?" Ibera said.

"No, it's not that…" She said. "I remember now, it was my mom, she was really happy, it was a nice change."

The group sensed there might be something wrong but they decided not to press it, "I had a rather weird vision, it was of Xulo," Ibera recalled, "and you were in the Avatar state. Beside you had two people, a guy and a girl, and I think they might've been Aurut and Cersiek."

"You foresaw me defeating them?"

"No it was odd, they seemed to be friendly with you." Ibera turned to Taresc, "Or it could've been you, I suppose."

"The person was in the Avatar state, right?" Taresc retaliated, "So it couldn't have been me."

"True." Ibera left the issue, "It was just so weird, it was like they were your comrades… but it might've just not been them, I've never actually seen the generals. Just a hunch."

"Hey Minege!" Xulo yelled over the river.

"My turn?" Minege said, "I had two visions, sort of a combination of Lozulia and Ibera's visions. I also saw my mom, which was as tragic and scarring as one can imagine. But I was interrupted from that vision by the vision of this guy I've never seen before. I followed after him and he lead me to Tanton being stuck in a tangle of vines. I tried to thank him but he disappeared before I could even get a good look at his face. Sweet guy."

It got to Taresc's turn and he froze, "Taresc, what was your vision?" He wanted to say Xulo, but he was neither dead nor unknown to him and his deepest desire, he'd prefer to keep that desire as deep as he could.

"Our parents, I saw them." Taresc kept his eyes low.

Pio turned the question on Xulo, "What about you, Xulo?"

"Lido." Xulo looked directly at Taresc.

"And that'd be?" Pio asked.

"Unimportant."

"Alright then." Pio continued his rowing, "Touchy subject I assume." With the tension raised, they decided to take in the scenery. Soon they were floating into the swamp town. They saw children playing in the waters, women washing clothing waved at the foreigners floating through and they saw little boys playing on top of catgators. Some catgators swam beside Tanton, taking akin to the alligator in the alligator-duck. Tanton was much larger than the catgators so it was like a mother duck with her little ducklings. "We're almost at the Banyan-Grove Tree." They floated down the river a little while longer until they reached a large, official looking building (as official a swamp building could look) at the base of a giant Banyan-Grove Tree. "Follow me and don't say a word."

They walked in and at the end of the room was a large meeting-style table that a man and a woman sat at, already in discussion. Pio got onto one knee, "Chief Ulira. Chief Mukawa."

"Son." Ulira said.

Mukawa and Ulira stood to greet their son, Mukawa was a heavy-set man, very unlike his son. He was very rugged—dirt mottling his face and arms exceeding the thickness of half of the banyan trees—but seemed kind, "I see you've brought guests, Owa said you saved them." Mukawa said.

"Yes, these people are my friends." The team nervously shifted around.

Ulira was nothing like her husband, she was skinny and decorated it with a chic leaf dress, tightly hugging all of her curves. He face was also tight, like the stress of life sucked all tissue from her face and now she's stuck with only a skull, "They are outsiders…"

Pio got off of his knee, "Yes, I met them on my trip to the nearby city."

"Please, introduce them to me." Ulira said.

Pio instantly realized that he never actually asked for their names, they said their names in casual conversation but he could only vaguely remember them. He wandered over to Xulo, "This is Lo." Xulo simply waved and smiled.

He then wandered over to Taresc, "Seeing as this is his twin, this is… La…"

"Lo and La, Lola?" Ulira raised an eyebrow.

"Of course." Pio said, he moved over to Lozulia, "This is Ibelia." He shifted over to Ibera, "and Lora." He finally went over to Minege, "And this is Minge."

Ulira and Mukawa looked disgusted towards each other, "Her name is Minge?"

Pio smiled, blissfully unaware, "That's her name." Minege had to contain her frustration.

Ulira and Mukawa looked to each other and shrugged, "It's wonderful to meet you, Lo, La, Lora, Ibelia and… Minge." Mukawa said.

Ulira came forward, sliding her feet across the wooden floor, "Now we need to talk about why you've really come."

"Does this mean…?"

"No, not at all, Pio." Ulira coldly put, "I have absolutely no clue why you'd even think we'd entertain the idea of letting you leave this swamp. Your father and I let you leave the swamp for one week and you come back with all of these ideas!"

"Ideas?! Does showering more than twice a month count as an idea?!" Pio was baffled, "Does wearing clothes not out of leaves count as some kind of propaganda? To me these are common sense!"

"I do not need this tone from you, Pio!" Ulira yelled.

"Mom, I don't belong here, I need to be around like-minded people, ones that need more than a catgators and a bowl of worms to have fun!"

Mukawa came behind and rubbed Ulira's shoulders with his husky hands, "Pio, we need you here, you're one of our best waterbenders. We'd crumble if you—"

"Mukawa, stop giving him ideas. The reason why you aren't leaving is because I said so." Ulira was bright red, "Now see your friends off and when you get back we'll talk about disrupting defense missions and why you should never do that!"

Pio was silent for a bit, it was Xulo that cut the tension, "I think he'll see us off and himself."

"Excuse me, Lo?" Ulira said.

"Xulo, actually. I don't think you have the right to talk to your son like this. If he is such a great bender, then you should celebrate him and not berate him for having different opinions!"

"Guy, you might want to—" Mukawa tried to warn Xulo.

"And who do you think you are?" Ulira spoke with venom on each word.

"I'm Avatar Xulo and I believe that your son will have much more use with us than with you. Let's go, Pio." Xulo tried to storm off.

Just as they were at the door, a giant tentacle of water broke through the wooden floor, when he looked behind, there was a bug-eyed Ulira, "OH NO YOU WILL NOT!"

Pio jumped into action, he bended a geyser of water below Ulira and it shot Ulira and Mukawa backwards. It disrupted her bending and they were able to run out the front door.

The team rushed onto the boat and Pio bent a giant wave for Tanton and the boat to ride on their way out of Foggy Swamp. They sat back in the canoe thinking they escaped danger, but as they looked back they saw a psychotic Ulira skating through the river, catching up. "Let it go, Mom! He's coming with us!" Ibera yelled. Pio made the wave even bigger, trying to outspeed his mother. "You have 11 other kids! You got to let this one breathe!" Ibera continued to yell parental advice.

"She's gonna catch up to us soon, we need to think of another plan."

"A-ha! I got one!" Lozulia jumped up, "Freeze her water and she'll fall!"

"What?" Pio asked.

"You know, turn her water into ice?"

Pio looked at Lozulia as if she was speaking a different language, "What's ice?"

Ibera shook his head, "Xulo, I've got plan," he laughed, "but I'm going to need your help again."

"Oh please, not this again." Lozulia gripped the side of the canoe.

Ibera and Xulo told Pio to get back as they both got to the end of the canoe, "So I'm sure that storm is a-circling again in your stomach. Like last time I need you to channel that, but maybe only half of it, okay?" Xulo got into position, with palms out, "Count of three. One. Two Three!" The two airbenders shot out gusts of wind from their hands but this time Xulo was able to control the air. They blasted from the wave, just as Ulira was about to tackle her way onto the boat. Even from so high in the night sky, they could hear Ulira scream.

They shot way above the banyan trees, but it seemed like they were going to be in for a rough landing, "We're not going to make it!" Pio yelled.

Just then Ibera summoned a swirl of wind underneath the canoe and Tanton. It obviously was a big strain on Ibera as he look ruby-red as he held his breath. The team slowly glided down to the ground only for Ibera to run out of breath and drop them a few feet from the ground. They all tumbled to the ground, being spread out all over the grass with a broken canoe.

Pio lay on his back, feeling the grass for the first time in a long time. The non-humid breeze blowing against his face. Looking up he could see the night sky, unobstructed by banyan trees, never before did he feel like he belonged more. As he let in a nice breath non-swamp air, Woorq landed right on his face.

"Welcome to the team, Pio!" Lozulia whooped.