THE OTHER AIRBENDER (Book 2)

(VI) Fire

We have been flying over what appears to be a large swamp for a little while now. Honestly, the whole way, I have had this bizarre feeling in my gut to go check it out. At the same time, it does look slightly terrifying. But there's something about this place that gives me a strange sensation; it's almost as if I can hear whispers calling from it.

"Hey, you taking us down for a reason? Aang, why are we going down?" Sokka asks, as we fly over the vast swampland. Only now do I realize that we've been flying at a very low altitude this entire time, as if we were about to land.

Aang simply blinks twice. "What? I didn't even notice."

"Is there something wrong?" Katara asks with her characteristic worry.

"I know this is going to sound weird, but I think the swamp is calling to me."

"I feel it too," I say, frowning.

"Is it telling you where we can get something to eat?" Sokka questions, as clueless as always.

"No, I... I think it wants us to land there."

"No offense to the swamp, but I don't see any land there to land on."

"I don't know. 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 retorts at Sokka.

"I think ignoring the earth would be rude. But I also think this place is really creepy," I comment with a slight shiver.

"Agreed! There's something ominous about that place," Katara says, with a frown.

Appa and momo grunt and squeak respectively as if on cue.

"See, even Appa and Momo don't like it here!" Sokka says, gesturing to Momo, who is now hidden inside one of our bags.

"Okay, since everyone feels so strongly about this, bye swamp," Aang says, yanking Appa's reins. "Yip, Yip!"

As Appa starts to ascend once again, I hear the sound of whooshing winds approaching, and when I turn around, my eyes widen as I spot an incoming tornado that has appeared out of nowhere. "AANG!"

"You better throw in an extra 'yip'! We gotta move!" Sokka says, but as he speaks, the tornado catches up to us, pulling him off the saddle rather violently.

Katara manages to grab his hand and keeps him from flying away from us, and Aang gestures for me to follow his lead. "We need to create a shield!"

I simply nod and start conjuring air around us as to surround Appa from the tornado's violent winds. We manage to stabilize the area inside our shield enough to get Sokka back on the saddle safely. However, it's tough to keep it up. The winds in this tornado are a hundred times stronger than ours, something I had never seen or felt before. If I didn't know any better, I'd even say that they are trying to pull us in on purpose.

The wind finally sucks us in, even with our air shield. The shield starts shrinking, and before we can do anything else, Appa's leg falls out of it, effectively breaking the barrier completely. We all fall off Appa, surprisingly enough, we end up falling on the swampy water.

We groan, and I immediately look around, but there are no signs of Appa or Momo. Thankfully, Sokka, Katara and Aang seem to have fallen near me.

"Alya! Are you alright?" Katara asks in her motherly tone.

"Yeah. A little scratch here and there, but nothing I can't manage," I reply with a frown. "Where are Appa and Momo?"

"Hold on," Aang airbends himself up one of the trees and disappears for a few moments, before coming back down and shaking his head. "I couldn't find them or the tornado."