The Flames of the past (Avatar: Zuko love story)

Chapter 25: The Swamp

They were on their way to Ba Sing Se. They were not there, and they won't be there soon, but they were on their way. Aoi was sitting on Mia's lap. He was huge. He was as big as a lynx and he kept growing and growing. Mia stared at the clouds above her and for a moment she was at piece until Sokka broke the silcence. "Hey, are you taking us down for a reason?" He asked. "AANG! Why are we going down?" Sokka asked when he hung over the saddle and looked down.

"Oh, sorry. I did not notice." Aang replied. "Are you noticing now?" Sokka asked like he had just been stung by a bee. Aang frowned and Mia looked to his worried face. "What is it?" She asked. "Is something wrong?" Katara asked and she laid her waterbending scroll down and walked up to the front of the saddle. "I know this sounds really weird but" Aang replied, "it looks like it's calling to me."

"Is it telling you were we can get something to eat?" Sokka asked, while his hand rested on his stomach.

"No...," Aang said calm before Mia could say 'idiot', "but I think it wants us to land there."

"No offense to the swamp Aang," Mia said when she looked of tyhe edge of the saddle, "but I don't see any spot to land." The whole earth under them was dark green and thick. "I don't know. Bumi said I've had to listen to the earth," Aang replied, "and now I am actually hearing the earth." Aang looked at Mia. "Do you want me to ignore it?" Mia nodded heavily.

"It seems like it's an odd place." Katara said.

"Okay.... Well then no swamp. Goodbye swamp," Aang said disappointed, "Yip Yip."

Suddenly the four heared a lot of noise behind them and Sokka and Mia turned around. They saw a huge tornado coming up to them, that wasn't there three seconds ago. "Could you throw an extra Yip?! We gotta go!" Mia yelled. Appa zig-zag'ed through the sky. It was odd to see several trees flying in the sky, but it was more odd to see how Sokka got launched out of the saddle. Katara grabbed his hand and Mia held Katara close to her. Aang made a huge ball of wind around them, and Sokka fell back into the saddle. They were in the tornado now, and Aang could impossible hold this for long.

They all got thrown out of the saddle and they fell in the swamp. Mia fell in a tree and the branches cut in her body before she fell in the dirty water. Sokka, Aang and Katara landed behind her. "Where are Appa, Momo and Aoi?" Aang asked and he started to jumped up to a tree. Mia looked at Sokka and she noticed he had a leech on him. "Sokka you have an elbow leech." She said when she pointed to him. "Where? Where?" HE asked panicky. "Where do you think?" Mia replied calm when she looked at the enourmous leech, almost the same size as Sokka's arm itself.

Sokka screamed and started to pull the leach hysterically. "WHY DO THINGS KEEP ATTACHING TO ME?!" He yelled and he succeeded to free himself from the leech and he threw it away. In the meantime Aang came back. "You couldn't find them?" Katara asked. "No, and the tornado... it just disappeared. Sokka slashed his way through the swamp. "We better speed things up." He said. "Maybe we should be a little nicer to the swamp." Aang said. Mia and Sokka immediately turned around and gave him 'the raised eyebrow'. "Aang these are just plants. Do I have to say please and thank you everytime I swing my machete back and forth?" Sokka replied.

"Maybe we should listen to Aang. This place feels a bit... alive." Katara said.

"I am sure there are a lot of things that are alive here, but if we don't want to get up being eaten by them we need to find our animals as soon as we can." Sokka replied. It started to get really, really foggy as they made their way through the swamp. Katara was yelling Appa's, Momo

s and Aoi's name but of course it was unuseful. "We should make camp for the night." Mia said. They walked passed a little lake, and there came bubbles out of it, ith a kind of gas. "What's that?" Katara asked. "I don't know... swamp gas?" Mia replied annoyed.