Frozen Heart, Melted Ice

Chpt 9 - Avatar Day

It had been a few days since the group had left the swamp, and physically speaking, Y/n was doing much better. She had finally scrubbed the grease and grime from that mucky place off her body and thanks to them finding Appa, she was able to not only change her clothes but also wash the ones she had worn in the swamp. She didn't even realize how tattered and torn her clothes had become from wandering around that place. Her pants had a large tear along the right leg and the waistband of the shirt she had been wearing was also ripped. Luckily they had a few days of downtime that she was able to spend sewing up her clothes.

Well lucky in that sense. Because of all the downtime, Y/n had a chance to think about her vision in the swamp, and frankly every conclusion she came to was terrible. She had come to two possibilities of what she saw;

1) She was going to somehow fall in love with Zuko, this she ruled to be the less likely of the pair, but the idea of it even being a possibility terrified her. The swamp showed people someone has or will love. How could Y/n fall in love with the son of the most evil man alive? The Fire Prince? The fact that this was even an option terrified her. She tried to keep herself calm by trying to convince herself that the vision was just because of the flower she picked. But in the back of her head Y/n knew that the flower was not what caused the vision.

2) She would have to fight Zuko, maybe be the one to take him down. "Only one will fight the throne" could she be the one, and the throne be Zuko? This sounded much more likely than falling in love with the guy. But still, the idea of fighting the prince was almost as terrifying as falling in love with him.

Before she had joined up with Aang, Katara, and Sokka, she never believed in destiny, the thought it to be something you create, but Y/n wasn't so sure anymore.

In the past few days, Y/n had lost a lot of sleep over all of this. She was constantly tossing and turning almost every night trying to figure out what was going to happen to her. Tonight was yet again one of the nights she couldn't sleep. Y/n laid on her back atop her sleeping bag and stared up at the sky, specifically the moon. She spend a lot of her time staring up at the moon lately.

Y/n watched mindlessly as the moon began to set and the sun rose. Normally she was not a morning person, but lately the only thing she could do to get her mind off of everything was, well anything but laze around.

Sokka had decided that today they would be traveling further East towards the city of  Gao Ling. Since Y/n was the only one who was awake, she decide to begin to pack up her things onto Appa.

Y/n had just finished securing her backpack and sleeping bag on Appa's saddle when she heard a squeal come from Sokka's direction. She looked over to see Momo's hand in Sokka's mouth, he quickly flipped his head up, forcing Momo onto his stomach.

"What are you doing in my mouth?!" Sokka shouted at Momo who purred in response, "Momo you need to be a little more sensitive to my boundaries." Sokka scolded the animal who quickly jumped onto his head. Y/n laughed at the ridiculous sight. "Oh so you think this is funny do you?" Sokka asked, noticing the girl laughing.

"Oh yes, very." She turned away and continued to laugh.

There was a rumbling in the distance, spirits what was it with rumbling around them. From out of the trees burst 5 Fire Nation soldiers riding rhino like creatures. The animals were big and looked strong, with three long horns on their heads.

"Give up you're completely surrounded." The leader called as the four other men circled the group.

Sokka tried to inch away in his sleeping bag, but it was quickly hit with 3 flaming arrows, forcing him to leave it behind. Everyone ran to join Y/n on Appa to make their quick escape, but just before they were about to take off, Katara and Aang realize they left their scrolls and staff behind. They both were able to grab their belongings with a mixture of air and waterbending before making it back to Appa for takeoff.