MAYA [Book 1 - Water]

Chapter 33 - Gut Feeling

-Maya's Point of View-

We walked into the heart of the forest for a few minutes. The whole walk to the secret hideout was quiet. Sokka kept stabbing stares at Jet while Katara kept on admiring him. Aang was just looking around, and I observed them all. 

Jet suddenly stopped walking and then he said, "We're here." I looked around but there was nothing but tall trees ahead. "Where? There's nothing here." Sokka contradicted. Jet suddenly pulled out a rope that had a tied loop on its end from behind a tall bush. "Hold this" Jet said to Sokka and then he handed the rope to him. Sokka grabbed the rope and asked, "Why? What's this do?" 

Just a few seconds after asking that, Sokka got pulled upwards by the rope and into the tree leaves. "AAAAHHHH!" he shouted. "Sokka!" I shouted as well. "Relax Maya, he's fine. Our hideout is inside the trees. That's our way to enter" Jet assured me. A wooden platform with ropes tied on its corners came out from tree leaves above us and there they loaded the wooden cart they'd brought from the fire nation camp.

Jet then grabbed another rope and then he offered it to Aang. "Aang?" he asked. "I'll get up on my own," Aang replied and then he used air bending to climb up the trees. Momo flew along with him. 

Jet then offered the same rope to me. "Here Maya," he said. "What about Appa?" I asked him first. "The tree leaves are dense enough to hold a bison's weight, maybe he can rest there for the meantime during your stay in the hideout" he answered. "Then I'll just fly on top of the trees with Appa," I said, refusing the rope. "Why don't you go on ahead Katara?" I continued.

Jet looked at Katara before tightening his hold on the rope. He then slowly offered his hand to Katara and said, "Grab hold of me Katara." I looked at his hand confusingly before looking back at Katara. 

Why didn't he just offer the rope like he did with Aang, Sokka, and me? 

Katara held on to his hands and after that, he spun Katara closer to his body before being pulled up by the rope. 

Wow, talk about cringe.

I looked away from that scene and hopped on top of Appa's head. "Let's go up that tree buddy," I said and then we flew away. We safely landed on top of the big cluster of trees and what do you know? Jet was right, the leaves were dense enough to carry Appa's weight. 

Appa laid his belly on the leaves and then I patted his head. "Stay here for a while buddy. You sure you'd be okay all alone?" I asked. He then slightly growled an answer. "Don't worry buddy, we won't stay long in this place anyway" I said as I prepared myself to climb down from his head. 

"If ever you feel hungry just go ahead and eat the lea—AAAAH!" I shouted midway through what I was saying because as soon as I leaped off of Appa's head, I slipped through the leaves. Guess it wasn't clustered enough to support a person's foot.  

I was falling through the leaves and the small tree branches were slapping my face. It went on for a few seconds until finally inside the trees revealed the hideout of Jet and his freedom fighters. 

It looked really amazing. I was in awe for a second there but then I remembered, I was still falling. 

"AHHH! HELP!" I shouted and as soon as I said that, someone suddenly grabbed onto my torso and carried me on his shoulders. "Maya, are you alright?" the guy who saved me said. "Aang? Oh, thank goodness!" I replied. It was Aang who had caught me and broke my fall.  He flew to one of the tree houses and landed me there safely. "What was that?" he asked as soon as we were down. "It was nothing. I just slipped through the leaves while leaving Appa on top of the trees." I answered.