Avatar: The Last Dragon Prince

Chapter Three: Lujanne's Illusions

AN: I literally wasn't expecting anyone to like this story omg I'm so sorry for not updating, I seriously need to watch ATLA and TDP again. Anyway, here's a draft I never finished to kinda make up for it💀

The Earth Kingdom

"So let me just get this straight," Rayla said gingerly. "There are four... nations, each with different elemental mages. But not everyone is a mage. And Aang is the only mage with the ability to wield all the elements so he can stop the Fire Nation. He has mastered the air and water magic and now he needs to master earth and then fire. Did I get it right?"

Sokka and Katara shared a look and shrugged. "'More or less," he said.

"And if we've got it right," Katara went on, "you two are the princes of the uh... human nation and you're an elf from the magic nation and you sort of draw power from the moon but you're not a waterbender because there's a completely different class of waterbenders."

"Okay, my brain hurts," Sokka groaned.

"And the two nations have not known peace since the dragon king was killed, so now you're returning this dragon to restore peace."

"That's right Katara," Callum nodded. "That's actually pretty accurate."

"I try," she said, blushing furiously.

Rayla couldn't ignore their interaction, and for whatever reason, it filled her chest with a hot, unpleasant feeling. She simply turned to peer over Appa's saddle, down at the expanse of marshy green that seemed to stretch on forever. There was a perfectly reasonable explanation to why she felt that way after watching both of them. The altitude. Yeah, it was probably that.

That altitude, she noticed, was gradually reducing as her hair wildly flew above her head. The bald boy - Aang, the avatar - was flying the bison down. But there was green everywhere. There was no clearing. Where exactly did he plan on landing down there in the swamp?

"Aang, why are we going down?" Sokka demanded, voicing Rayla's concerns.

Aang blinked away his daze and tugged on the reins, guiding the bison back up. He could have sworn he saw a stream of white light in the windows between the canopy leading somewhere. Or was he so anxious about his earthbending that he was now seeing things that didn't exist?

"This is going to sound crazy," he started, "but I think the swamp is... calling me to land there."

"You're right," Rayla nodded. "It does sound crazy."

"Bumi said to wait and listen, and now I can actually hear the earth. Should I just ignore it?"

"Look, Avatar, I don't know what a 'Bumi' is but I think it's safe to assume that 'wait and listen' was probably not meant to be taken so literally."

"I get an ominous feeling from that place anyway," Katara chimed in. "We should probably stay away."

The elf, though reluctant to concur with her new friend (for unidentifiable reasons that certainly had nothing to do with Callum), couldn't deny that she felt the same way about the swamp. Plus even in the few hours she had known them, she could tell that Aang valued her opinion greatly.

"Rayla's right," Sokka agreed. "There's no land to land on. Let's try to stay focused. The sooner we find an earthbending teacher, the sooner we can start helping our new friends with their magical quest."

Though she couldn't help but roll her eyes at the almost mocking mention of their 'magical quest', Rayla agreed with him. Getting too comfortable in this world while theirs was on the verge of war was not an option. Aang read the resolve on their faces and stashed away his 'calling'. Whatever the swamp had in store for him would have to wait till after he found an earthbending teacher.