Change of Hearts (Zuko X Reader) Book 2

Chapter 11

Previously on Chapter 10

"Tom Tom!!" The woman said, picking the baby up in her arms. I smile fondly at the sight. Aang nudges me gently. I turn my head to look at him. He smiles softly at me and make a head gesture that we should get going. I nod my head. We turn around and we leave the place.

-The Swamp-

Y/N P.O.V

We are now flying under a grey sky. Beneath us is a swampy forest. I stare at the ground below. I feel some spiritual presence there. There's also a lot of fogs.

"Hey, are you taking us down for a reason?" Sokka said, snapping me out of trance. I turn my head to see he's talking to Aang. I turn to look at Aang to see him in some kind of trance. "Aang?" I called out. I move closer when he didn't answer.

"Aang! Why are we going down?" Sokka said. Aang finally snaps out of it. "What? I didn't even notice" he said. "Are you noticing now?" He said. Katara moves to sit next to me.

"Is something wrong?" She said. "I know this is going to sound weird, but I think this swamp is calling out to me..." he said. "No... I feel it too... there's a spiritual presence somewhere" I said, turning to look at the swamp below.

"Is it telling you where we can get something to eat?" Sokka said, while holding his stomach. "No, I... think it wants us to land there" Aang said. I just nod my head.

"No offense to the land. But I don't see any land there to land on" Sokka said, shrugging his shoulders. "I don't know. Bumi said in order to learn earth-bending. Y/N and I would have to wait and listen" Aang said. "And now we're actually hearing the earth. Do you want us to ignore it?" I said. "Yes" he said.

"I don't know... there's something ominous about this place" Katara said. Momo hides behind Appa's saddle, while Appa lets out a groan. Aang turns to look at me. I just shrug my shoulders.

"Well, since everyone feels so strongly about this. Bye swamp! Yip yip!" Aang said, shaking Appa's rope. "Tornado!! Aang, move!!" I yelled. A tornado appears out of nowhere.

"Y/N's right! You better throw an extra 'yip.'! We gotta move!!" He said. Appa starts to fly faster, attempting to avoid the tornado, however he is not fast enough to get away.

As the tornado begins to move closer to us, the wind pulls Sokka right off from the saddle. Katara manages to grab his hand, holding him back from flying into the tornado.

I jump to my feet on Appa's saddle and creates an air shield around Appa, stabilizing the air and allowing Sokka to fall back into the saddle, uninjured. The wind sucks us, but we are still protected by the air shield.

Aang notice that I'm struggling and joins in to help maintaining the air shield. But we soon feel tired for holding it. I notice that it starts to shrink. One of Appa's legs slips from the protective air, thereby breaking it. Which causes Aang, Katara, Sokka and I to fall off Appa.

Aang and I landing lightly in muddied water as the latter two land quite roughly. Appa, l/n and Momo are thrown elsewhere in the swamp. I stand up and use my air-bending to get the mud from my body.

"Where's the lemurs and Appa..." Aang said. I turn to him and look around as well, noticing our fury friends is no where to be seen. The two of us jumps on top of a tree.

"Appa! Momo!!" Aang yelled. "l/n!!" I yelled too, trying to look for my lemur. But no matter how hard I try to look for them. I can't seem to make find them. This place is covered with trees. I turn to look at Aang sadly. He gives me a sad smile and wrap an arm around my shoulder.

We jump back down to see Sokka panicking. "Why do things keeps on attaching to me!!" He yelled. I notice he's trying to pull a leech from his body. I let out a sigh and walk towards him.

I grab the leech from his body and reach inside my bag for some salt. I sprinkle it on the leech and it instantly let go of Sokka. I throw the leech back into the water. Sokka rubs where the leeches was latches on. He smiles at me as a 'thank you.'

"You couldn't find them?" Katara said. "No... and the tornado. It just disappeared" Aang said. "I don't like this place..." I muttered, while looking around the place. Aang wraps a comforting arm around me as an attempt to calm me down.

***

Sokka takes out a machete as we are trying to walk through the swamp. He starts cutting down some vines. "What are you doing Sokka?" I asked. "I just think that we should speed things up" Sokka said.

"Maybe we should be a little nicer nicer to the swamp" Aang said. "Yeah, Sokka. You can't just start cutting down the vines. That's disrespectful to this place" I said. Sokka rolls his eyes and turns to look at him. "Aang, Y/N. These are just plants. Do you want me to say 'please' and 'thank you' as I swing my machete back and forth?" Sokka said.

"Maybe you should listen to them. Something about this swamp feels... alive" Katara said, agreeing with us. "I'm sure there are lots of things that are alive here and if we don't wanna wind up getting eaten by them, we need to find Appa as fast as we can" Sokka said. I let out a sigh knowing he'll not listen to us.

"Appa! Momo! l/n!!!" Katara yelled out. As we keep on walking. "There's no way they can hear us and no way we can see them. We'll have to make camp for the night" Sokka said.

Several flies surround Sokka. Sokka swings his machete at them, trying to shoo them away. At that moment, a huge bubble of swamp gas rises from the muddy water below them. The gas grows closer to us.

"What was that?" Katara said. "Nothing, just swamp gas. Look, there's nothing supernatural about this place" Sokka said.

The four of us groans as the smell reaches us, with Sokka waving his hand in front of his nose as Katara clamps hers shut. Suddenly, the quiet is shattered by a terrifying scream. We let out a scream and huddled together. I start looking around wide-eyed for the source. Okay...

What is happening here?

*to be continued*