The Second Avatar

6

Soza woke up the next morning sore and hungry, instead of fishing again she decided that she would start walking and hope that she could find someone or a village that was somewhat close by. She packed up what little things she had and started to walk in a random direction, if she could find a path then there would be a village on either side. Soza did find a small stream that she was able to drink from.

She decided that she should follow the stream so that she was close to water. A few hours passed before she stumbled into a small village, everyone here seemed content and calm. Soza walked further into the town, and a small girl about the same age as Soza with wild pigtails approached her. "Aunt Wu has been expecting you now if you'll follow me." the girl started to walk away from Soza.

She had to jog to catch up to her. "Where are we going and who did you say was expecting me?" Soza didn't get a response so she just continued to follow the girl, they stopped in front a nice looking building, the door opened and they both stepped inside. They entered what looked like a waiting area there were pillows spread around the room for people to sit on.

"Go ahead and have a seat, Aunt Wu will be out in a minute. While you wait can I offer you some bean curd puffs?" Soza sat down on one of the pillows. "Oh, um sure that would be great." her stomach growled loudly and they both giggled before the girl left and Soza was left alone. She looked around, there were a couple of hallways that she wasn't sure where they went to.

The other girl didn't take long before she came back with a tray. "By the way my name is Meng" She set the tray down in front of Soza. "It's nice to meet you, Meng my name is Soza." Soza bowed to Meng in greeting. Meng bowed back to Soza before she left the room again leaving Soza to her curd puffs.

Soza was able to eat a few of the puffs before an older looking woman came out from one of the hallways. "Why don't you come back with me and I can explain some things to you." Once they reached the room they sat across from each other, between them was a small fire. "My name is Aunt Wu, I am a fortune teller and I have been waiting a long time for you to come to our village."

"Oh, well it is wonderful to meet you Aunt Wu" Aunt Wu smiled down at the girl, she then leaned forward and grabbed her hand looking at Soza's palm. Aunt Wu studied Soza's palm for a few minutes before she let it go and Soza rested it in her lap.

"Your love line is very strong, you are going to marry a very powerful bender and you are going to live a very long life, it is going to be full of adventure. You will come to a point where you think everything is going to go down from there but once you get past it you will be very happy." Aunt Wu smiled at Soza again. "You are destined for a great future." Soza smiled back at Aunt Wu. "Do you have any questions, young one?"

Soza sat quietly for a few minutes contemplating. "No I think I'd rather leave the rest up to be a surprise and I'll deal with it when it happens" Aunt Wu Gave Soza another smile before leading her back into the waiting room, Meng came back out with a small bundle and handed it to Soza. "Aunt Wu wanted you to have some supplies since you don't have much so I gathered a few things that you might need." Soza took the bundle gratefully. "Thank you Meng, I hope that We'll get to meet again." They bowed to each other before Soza left and she made her way out of the village to continue her search for a waterbending teacher.

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A few days had gone by and Soza was still traveling on foot, she didn't really know where she was going but she was hoping that she could stumble on a waterbender. Her supplies were dwindling again and she wasn't sure when she would be finding another village. The trees around her started to thicken and the ground beneath her feet began to turn into a marsh.

Soza knew that she was stumbling across a swampy area and was going to try and avoid it but there was something that was calling to her inside of the swamp. She didn't even realize it but her feet were leading her directly to the center of the swamp, Soza's mind cleared as soon as she laid eyes on a very large tree. She looked at her surroundings. "Where the hell am I?" A gas bubble burst behind her making her jump in surprise.

"I need to get out of here. Which way was I even going?" It was the middle of the day so Soza wouldn't be able to figure out which way she was going without the stars to tell her. "Guess I'll have to wait till nightfall." Soza began to find a good spot so she could nap for a little while before she started to travel again. Finding a good spot against some of the roots of the large tree, she grabbed a small blanket out from her bag and piled it up on the ground for her to sit on and used her bag of clothes as a pillow.

Soza released a large sigh, it felt good to rest. She hadn't had many breaks in traveling and this was just what she needed right now. Soza could already feel herself start to doze off, her head falling back against one of the roots of the tree. It didn't take long for Soza to fall into a deep sleep