The Second Avatar

7

Panic set in as soon as Soza opened her eyes, it was pitch black now, she had slept through the rest of the afternoon and the moon was already high in the sky. Soza was completely blind to her surroundings but she felt like she was being watched from all around her. She knew that she didn't have this feeling before or she wouldn't have been able to fall asleep so easily. Soza sat up a little more in her spot before she lit a small fire in the palm of her hand.

Now she could see a little bit of her surroundings but it didn't help ease the feeling of being watched. " Why are Swamps creepy?" Soza wasn't sure why she was talking to herself but sometimes it made her feel less lonely, like maybe one of these days someone would actually respond. The fire in her palm grew and became brighter making it easier for Soza to see into the eerie night.

Soza shuffled around as she stood up to look around her little sleeping area, more gas bubbles popped in the distance making her jump slightly."I don't like swamps, as soon as the sun is up I am out of here and never coming back." Soza gathered all of her things back into her bag before she sat herself down in a corner that the roots of the tree had made so that nothing could sneak up behind her and all she had to watch was in front of her.

Soza tried her hardest to stay awake but her eyes were not agreeing with her, they wanted to close but with the feeling of being watched still there Soza didn't want to wake up to any surprises but it was like her body was shutting down on her and she fell into a dreamless sleep. It only felt like a couple of minutes before Soza woke up to the sun shining in her eyes. "Well atleast I made it through the night." Soza sighed before she stood up. Her body ached from sleeping on the ground but she was going to have to get used to it because she was not going back to her royal status anytime soon.

"Alright, time to get the hell out of here." As soon as her bag was over her shoulder she started her trek out of the swamp. She didn't get very far before she got another feeling of being watched and this time she could actually see her surroundings with the sun out and about. All she could hear was the sloshing of the swamp water around her but if she listened close enough then she could hear that there were people bending the swamp water.

All of a sudden Soza was grabbed by her ankle and flung like a rag doll. Soza screamed when she was swept off of her feet, she could barely catch a glimpse of the vine monster that held her. Sent a blast of fire towards it hoping it would let her go and she could make a run for it, Soza did not want to have to battle this monster in its home. She didn't know the layout and the monster was more equipt here then she was. Unfortunately her fire blast seemed to only make it more angry, the monster flung her into the dirty swamp water before shooting more vines at her.

Soza tried to slice at some of the vines with her airbending but the monster would just reattach anything she could cut off. She was beginning to fight more aggressively taking more offensive shots then defensive and it was beginning to annoy her that the monster just wouldn't let up no matter how much damage she caused it. "Alright, that's enough!" Soza shouted as she created the strongest gust of wind that she could and blasted the monster with it. With all the wind the monster couldn't hold onto all of his vines and Soza could get a glimpse of the person that was inside the monster controlling it.

Soza threw her hands down, cutting off the wind. "Are you serious!" she couldn't believe that she was seeing a waterbender inside of the monster that was attacking. "Why are you trying to kill me?" The man inside the monster let go of the vines and they all sloshed into the water around them. "I'm not trying to kill you. I'm just trying to scare you and it worked pretty well." Soza glared at him slightly. "I still don't understand why you were attacking me, I'm just trying to find my way out of here."

The man gave her a small shrug. "Well most people who wander through here are cutting things up to use for firewood and hurting nature." Soza raised her eyebrow and shook her head "I can bend fire, I don't need to cut things up for firewood and I wasn't hurting anything I was just trying to get out of here." The man approached her, he was only wearing leaves. "Sorry about that, sometimes I get carried away." Soza watched the large bellied man come closer. "Well I wasn't hurt but that was pretty cool what you were doing with the vines. Do you think you could teach me how to do that?"

The man looked her up and down and a look of realization went across his face. "You must be the Avatar." Soza nodded sheepishly. "I'm one of them at least and I'm trying to find someone who could teach me how to waterbend. I was going to head to the North Pole but I don't think I'm going to be getting there any time soon." Soza shrugged her shoulders. "Well if you're trying to get to the north pole you're going the wrong way. How'd you end up coming through our swamp?"

Soza looked up to the sky but it was useless; she couldn't see the stars while the sun was out. "Honestly I have to guess it was like something was calling me here and I didn't realize that I was wandering into the swamp until I got to that huge tree over there." Soza motioned to the large tree that she had slept under all night. A look of understanding washed through him. "You must be talking about the Banyan grove tree. This whole swamp is actually made up from one tree and some say they see people they miss and haven't seen for a very long time."

Soza looked up at the tree in wonder, she hadn't even thought that that one huge tree could be the entire forest of trees in this swamp. "But I would be honored to teach one of the Avatars what I know." a huge smile grew on Soza's face as she launched herself at the man giving him the tightest hug she could manage. "Thank you so much I never thought I would actually get to learn waterbending cause who would want to teach someone from the fire nation how to waterbend."

He smiled back at her. "Why don't you come meet the others? There are a few of us that can waterbend that live in this swamp." Soza nodded enthusiastically. "That would be great! By the way my name is Soza and it is very nice to meet you." Soza bowed in greeting. The man returned her greeting. "My name is Huu and it is very nice to meet you as well Soza." Huu began to lead the way to their camp while explaining more about the swamp to Soza. It was amazing how much spiritual energy radiated from the Banyan grove tree and Soza thought that that was what called her to the swamp.

But she couldn't help but think that she didn't see anyone that she missed while she had been alone, maybe she hadn't met someone yet who would be that for her. They continued their way through the swamp making small conversation about her journey so far. Soza told Huu about all the places she was able to visit now that she wasn't under the watchful eyes of the fire nation. Soza began to see a few other people using their waterbending to steer the boats that they were in. "Are we close?" Soza looked up to Huu. " Just around the next bend and we're there."

When they finally reached their camp Soza noticed that there weren't very many people here. There were a few people she could see that were wandering around either bridging fire wood or making sure that everything was still running smoothly for them. "Hey Tho, how's it going?" Another man who was only wearing leaves was in a boat. "Hey Huu, who's your friend?" Soza and Huu made their way to the water edge. "This here is one of the Avatars. Her name is Soza."

"Well Avatar Soza it is very nice to meet you but what are you doing here?"Soza smiled back at him in greeting. "I'm not sure exactly but Huu said he could teach me how to waterbend so I guess that's what I'm here for." Soza shrugged, not sure what exactly to say. "Well alright then, Huu here is probably the best person to learn from! It was nice to meet you Soza but I'm on dinner duty tonight and if we want anything to eat then I need to get on out of here and catch up somethin." Soza bid him goodbye and he waterbended away and out of sight.

Huu turned to her and gave her a small smile. "Well why don't we get you settled in and then tomorrow we can start on the lessons." Soza agreed and Huu led her over to the area with the tents and they set her up her own tent so that she could have some privacy, there weren't any other women in their camp besides Soza so she couldn't bunk up with someone. Soza thanked Huu and have big a hug. Huu left her so that she could get settled into her tent and she would wander around a little bit to familiarize herself with the swamp.