Frozen Heart, Melted Ice

Chpt 8 - The Swamp

It had been a few days since the gaang had left Omashu, and nothing much had really happened. The four children were now rested on Appa as they flew over a large, murky swamp. At the back of the saddle sat Katara, who was flipping through one of their many waterbending scrolls. At the front of the saddle sat Sokka, who was currently sharpening his club. And between the two siblings sat Y/n, who was mindlessly making little shapes and animals out of a small blob of water.

She hated when they had downtime, not particularly because she loved action and fighting (though she did love the action and fighting) but because downtime gave her a moment to think. Specifically about the prophecy, about Yue, and worst of all that stupid Prince Zuko. No matter how hard she tried, Y/n could never get him out of her head and she had no idea why. She hated the guy, his people were the reason Yue was dead and Kenji missing. So why couldn't she get her mind off of him.

"Hey, you taking us down for a reason?" Sokka asked, breaking the long and empty silence, "Aang, why are we going down?" He asked again, fed up that Aang hadn't responded the first time.

"What?" Aang responded, snapping out of his trance, "I didn't even notice."

"Are you noticing now?" Sokka asked, clearly annoyed with the boy.

"Is something wrong?" Katara asked as the girls crawled over to join the conversation.

"I know this is gonna sound weird," Aang said not removing his eyes from the swamp below, "but I think the swamp is.. Calling to me."

"Is it telling you where we can get something to eat?" Sokka asked, earning a quick snowball to the face from Y/n.

"No I-I think it wants us to land there." Aang said, ignoring Sokka's yelling and the girls giggling.

"No offense to the swamp," Sokka said regaining his composure, "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?"

"Yes." Sokka replied leaning over the edge of the saddle.

"I don't know, there's something ominous about that place." Katara said, also leaning over the edge.

"Yeah it feels.. spirity" Y/n added as she joined the siblings looking over the edge.

At that Momo warbled and Appa groaned, "See even Appa and Momo don't like it here." Sokka said, standing up from between the girls.

"Ok since everyone feels so strongly about this, bye swamp." Aang steered Appa up and away from the swamp.

"Uh, guys!" Y/n called, turning around to see a large tornado heading straight for them.

"You better throw in an extra yip!" Sokka shouted, his eyes also landing on the tornado behind them, "We gotta move!"

The tornado caught up to them quickly, jostling and jolting the group as they tried to evade the heavy winds. Suddenly Sokka was yanked out of the saddle, Y/n and Katara each grabbing one of his arms to try to pull him back down, but the winds were too strong. Aang jumped back onto the saddle from his spot on Appa's head and airbent the gusts of wind to maneuver around them, causing Sokka to fall back into the saddle with a thud. But Aang couldn't hold it for long. With a woosh of the air Aang, Katara, Y/n and Sokka were all thrown out of the saddle. They spun through the air before landing in murky swamp water with a large splash.

They all sat up with a groan, except for Aang who was able to gracefully land thanks to his airbending,
"Ugh, I think i'm gonna vomit." Y/n gargled as she got up from the ground and sat in all fours for a moment before she forced herself to stand in the murky water.