Aya's POV

It was just another peaceful day for all of us. We were currently flying on Appa over a large forested area with a grey sky above us. It looked menacing and not friendly but it didn't matter because we were flying right over it. Sokka and Katara were doing their own thing in the saddle while I sat up front with Aang like always.

Everything seemed normal until I noticed Appa slowly start to fly down towards the menacing forest below us and Sokka seemed to notice well.

"Hey, you taking us down for a reason?" Sokka asked Aang and I looked at the Avatar who seemed to be in a trance. He was staring at the forest.

"Aang." I softly shook him and he snaps out of his trance. "Why are you taking us down?"

Aang seemed bewildered. "What? I didn't even notice."

Appa continues to fly down without Aang steering him.

"Are you noticing now?" Sokka asked.

"Is something wrong?" Katara asked, moving to the front.

"I know this is going to sound weird, but I think the swamp is calling to me." Aang told us and I rose an eyebrow at this.

"Maybe it's telling you to land there." I shrugged and Aang glanced at me.

"Is it telling you where we can get something to eat?" Sokka asked and I rolled my eyes.

"No." Aang denied. "I... I think Aya's right, I think it wants us to land there."

Sokka shrugged. "No offense to the swamp, but I don't see any land there to land on."

I looked down at the swamp and noticed no area to land. It just looked ominous and menacing to me.

"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?" Aang asked us and I thought for moment. As much as I want Aang to listen to the Earth, the swamp doesn't look friendly.

"Yes." Sokka said.

"It doesn't look friendly." I added.

"I don't know. There's something ominous about that place." Katara states, agreeing with us.

Momo and Bubbles hide inside Appa's saddle and Appa groans. If animals don't like it then it's for sure bad.

"See, even Appa, Bubbles, and Momo don't like it here." I told Aang and he reluctantly agreed.

"Okay, since everyone feels so strongly about this," Aang looks at the swamp. "Bye swamp. Yip, Yip!"

Appa groans and flies away from the swamp.

I heard a loud, strange noise behind us and I turned my head to see a tornado heading straight for us.

Sokka noticed too. "You better throw in an extra "yip"!" Aang and Katara turn around to see the tornado. "We gotta move!"

Appa starts to fly faster, attempting to avoid the huge tornado. The tornado slowly but surely comes closer and Sokka gets pulled away by the wind. He yells out but Katara catches him holding him back from flying away. I quickly hop into the saddle and grab his other hand for support. Suddenly, Aang jumps in and creates an air shield to protect us from getting blown away and this allows Sokka to fall back onto the saddle. The air shield got sucked into the tornado and my siblings and I grabbed on to one another as Aang struggles to keep the shield in tact. Aang tried to keep the bubble but it was too much and it broke. All of us fall of Appa and got thrusted out of the tornado, towards the swamp. We all scream and crash land in the swamp.

I fall face first in muddy water and I sit up with my heart beating rapidly and I was out of breath. I look around and saw my siblings had fallen but Aang landed gracefully in the water.

My back was sore from the fall and it was hard to stand for me. Sokka helped me up and we scanned our surroundings. The place was definitely a swamp.

"Where's Appa, Momo, and Bubbles?" Aang asked and I checked around me. Bubbles wasn't here.

Aang leaps to the top of the trees where we couldn't see him but still hear him.

"APPA! MOMO! BUBBLES!"

I noticed something on Sokka elbow and pointed to it. "Sokka, you've got an elbow leech."

Sokka freaks out and turns around, panicking. "Where!? Where?!"

"Where do you think?" Katara asked, sarcastically.

Sokka rips of the elbow leech and throws it behind my sister and I. He cried out angrily. "Why do things keep attaching to me?!"

Aang swings by on a vine and lands in the water.

"You couldn't find them?" Katara asked.

"No, and the tornado... it just disappeared." Aang stated and we turned to face the darkness the looms in front of us.

This swamp is not normal.

——

"We better speed things up!"

Sokka cuts the vines in front of us with his machete. I think Sokka was being a little rough, this swamp has a personality and it doesn't seem like a friendly one if you're mean to it.

"Maybe we should be a little nicer to the swamp." Aang suggested to my brother.

"Yeah, this swamp doesn't seem normal." I agreed. Sokka and Katara stood in the water and Aang and I stood on top of a branch that was next to the water.

Sokka continues his slicing on the vines. "Aang, Aya, these are just plants. Do you want me to say "please" and "thank you" as I swing my machete back and forth?"

"Maybe you should listen to them. Something about this place feels... alive." Katara spoke nervously.

"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 explained.

"And Momo and Bubbles." I reminded him and he waved me off.

"Yeah, them to."

I rolled my eyes at him.

Time passed and we walked through the forest searching for our pets. I was worried about them.

The part of the swamp we were currently in was foggier and more menacing. I didn't like it.

"Appa! Momo! Bubbles!" Katara called.

"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 suggested and several flies attacked him and he swats them away with his weapon.

To the side of us, a huge bubble of swamp gas rises and I jumped a little.

"What was that?" Katara asked nervously.

"Nothing, just swamp gas." Sokka explains, indicating the gas. "Look, there's nothing supernatural going on here."

The gas gets closer to us and we all groan in disgust.

"AHHHH!"

All of us scream at the terrifying sound and huddle together. I almost had a heart attack.

On a branch nearby there was a white, short bird sitting. It screamed again, causing me to flinch and it flew away.

The boys hugged mine and Katara waist as we huddled together, terrified of the noise and the swamp itself.

"I think we should build a fire." Sokka suggested and scurried away to find supplies for a campfire.

Aang, Katara, and I recovered from the scary scene and went up to Sokka, who was cutting the branches on the trees.

"Sokka, the longer we're here the more I think you shouldn't be doing that." Aang advised him.

"No, I asked the swamp. It said this was fine," Sokka denied and grabbed a nearby branch. "Right swamp?" He used a fake voice. "No problem, Sokka."

I shook my head at this as Sokka continues cutting the trees.

After Sokka cut enough wood to make for the campfire, we huddled around the fire inside a large tree trunk.

The more we were in the swamp the more suspicious and scared I became. I felt like we were being watch, but I don't know who was watching us.

"Does anyone else get the feeling that we're being watched?" Katara asked what I was thinking.

"Definitely." I remarked, hugging my legs to my chest.

"Please, we're all alone our here." Sokka countered and swings his machete at the fly that was buzzing around him. The fly suddenly turns in a bright, blinding ball of light and flies in front of us to expose many pair of eyes that were watching us.

I knew it. Never doubt your instincts, never.

"Except for them." Aang said as the eyes vanished and we huddled together with fear.

I was officially terrified and wanted to leave.

"Right, except for them." Sokka repeated now scared.

——

"AHHH!"

I shot awake when I felt something grab me and I got dragged away. I saw the others get dragged away into the fog and I couldn't see them anymore.

I panicked and stabbed my dagger into the ground and held on to it. I gripped it with all my might, making my muscles hurt and I used my other dagger to slice the vines. I broke free and ran away from the vines, which still followed me.

The vines caught up and surrounded me. I tried to use firebending but I had no source of fire to use so I fought them off as much as I could. I managed to slice through them and run into a foggier section of the swamp.

I turned around and vines were gone. I didn't question this and continued forward.

It became quiet, almost too quiet. I was alone and I did not like it.

"Hello?!" I called. "Aang?! Sokka?! Katara?! Anyone?!"

I didn't get a response. I sighed and turned but I froze when I spotted a figure in the distance and my eyes widened.

She had short, brown, hair and was wearing a similar outfit to mine. She seemed so familiar to me.

"Um... excuse me!?" I called and approached this woman.

Her face was towards me and as I got closer I recognized her. She had bright blue eyes and was holding two daggers in her hands. They were exactly the same ones I had.

It was the woman I saw in my dreams. Ruka. The woman I think is my biological mother.

"Mom?" I whispered.

She looked exactly like me but with blue eyes and shorter hair. She spotted me and smiled softly.

"Aya, my little girl."

I let out a small gasp at this. I couldn't control my feelings and ran straight towards her. I hugged her waist and felt tears form.

I have a strong feeling this woman is my biological mother.

I pulled away and smiled at her but she was gone. A tree stump was there and I realized this whole was an illusion. One big lie.

"No..." I cried and sobbed into my hands.

——

After I recovered from that moment with the illusion. I walked around the swamp and searched for my siblings and Aang.

The silence broke around me when I heard footsteps behind me and I turned to see Aang sprinting towards me. I didn't have any time to react because Aang ran into me and we tumbled down the small hill I was on. We ran into Sokka and Katara along the way before we stopped at the bottom.

We all sat up and I rubbed my sore back.

"What do you guys think you're doing!? I've been looking all over for you!" Sokka exclaimed.

"Well, I've been wandering around looking for you!" Katara fires back.

"I think we all were looking for each other." I remarked.

"I was chasing some girl." Aang explained and got onto his feet.

"What girl?" I asked, glaring for a moment.

I'm not jealous. Just curious.

Aang helps Katara and I onto our feet as he continues talking.

"I don't know. I heard laughing and I saw some girl in a fancy dress."

"Well, there must be a tea party here and we just didn't get our invitations." Sokka sarcastically spoke with unnecessary hand gestures.

"I thought I saw mom." Katara sorrowfully hung her hand and I looked at her.

"I thought I... did too." I hesitantly agreed. I held my arms and glanced at Aang, who was giving a worried look.

It was silent for a moment. To them, 'mom' is the same person but for me 'mom' is different then the 'mom' they know.

"Look, we were all just scared and hungry and our minds were playing tricks on us. That's why we all saw things out here." Sokka told us.

"You saw something too?" I asked him.

Sokka turned away. "I thought I saw Yue. But, that doesn't prove anything." He turns back to us, unphased by this. "Look, I think about her all the time, and you both saw Mom, someone you both miss a lot."

That wouldn't make sense. I never met this woman, unless my dream is real and I knew her until I was a few months old. I do think about Ruka a lot, unintentionally.

"What about me? I didn't know the girl I saw. And all our visions led us right here." Aang reasoned.

"Okay...so where's here?" Katara asked. "The middle of the swamp?"

Aang looks up to see a ginormous tree growing right next to us. It was bigger then any tree in the swamp, it was probably the main tree.

"Yeah, the center... it's the heart of the swamp. It's been calling us here. I knew it" Aang grinned, satisfied with his instincts.

"It's just a tree." Sokka remarked, raising his arms up. "For the last time, there's nothing after us and there's nothing magical happening here."

Suddenly, a gigantic seaweed monster emerges from the water beside us. We all yell in fear and huddle together.

Sokka needs to shut his mouth.

The monster starts to swing at us and we all separate. The boys run in different directions while Katara and I run off together.

"Aya, can you use any firebending?" She asked me.

"I don't think so. I don't have any source of Fire to use." I told her. We stopped talking when we saw the monster had captured Sokka and Aang was nowhere in sight.

"Katara, waterbend me over to them." I ordered her and she nodded.

I jumped into the water and got out my dagger. Hearing Sokka scream only made me wanna defeat this creature more. Katara creates a wave of water and I surfed down the wave, over to my brother and threw my dagger at the creature. It sliced its arm and Sokka fell into the water as the creature stumbled back.

Katara joined me in the water and we circled the creature. The affect from my dagger did not do much because the vines grew back to patch it up like nothing happened.

"Aya! Watch out!"

I jumped at the sound and before I knew it, I was picked up by the creature.

I yelled as the monster flung me around. Katara pushes the monster back with her bending, but it only made it stumble.

This is just making me dizzy and nauseous. Sokka attempted to throw his boomerang but missed the monster completely and I got smacked in the head.

"Ow! Sokka! I'm not that target!" I called with an annoyed voice.

"My bad!"

I rolled my eyes and saw Katara sprinting toward me with the water casted to the side so the ground was visible. She got very close but got flung back and hit Sokka along the way.

Aang was sprinting towards me but the creature knocked him away.

"No!" I yelled and I reached for them, but the creature pulled me in and sucked my body into the vines. I groaned and grunted as I tried to escape but I wasn't strong enough and I was stuck in the vines.

The monster starts to leave with me in entangled in its vines and I tried to use my daggers against it but the vines were to tough.

I noticed Aang and cried to him.

"Aang! Help!"

"I got you, Aya!"

I couldn't see what he did next but next thing I saw was a huge air tornado surrounding me and the monster. The vines got all tangled up and the monster was unable to move.

Katara jumped into a nearby tree and froze the section of the monster I was attached to with her breath. She sliced it before she blasted water at me, expelling me from the monster's body.

Both of us tumbled into the water and Sokka joined us moments later. He looked relieved that I was alright.

All of us saw the monster regained his form and Aang jumped into the scene and managed to face plant the creature but it regain strength quickly and knocked Aang away.

"No!" I gasped.

Katara didn't like this either and starts to send slices of water at the creature. The creature covers its face as it regenerates it's vines in a fast manner but I was able to see inside the body and I saw a glimpse of a human body.

"There's someone in there!" I yelled. "He's bending the vines!"

Katara used one last water slice to successfully kill off the monster and slice it's top half off. I thought it was over but the monster still had control and springs it's vines out. The vines capture me and I yell as I they lift me up.

"Seriously?!" I whine. "Why me?!"

Aang jumps in to the rescue and airbends the creature to rip the creature apart. The vines under me descend and I was lowered to the ground.

"Why did you call me here if you just wanted to kill us!?" Aang demanded in an offensive voice.

"Wait!" A voice called and the vines drop to reveal a large man with nothing but under garments on his body. He seemed old but not old like Gran Gran. "I didn't call you hear."

All of us take a defensive stance and Aang, who knows I was attacked most of the time, stands in front of me protectively.

"We were flying over and I heard something calling to me, telling me to land." Aang explained to the man.

"He's the Avatar. Stuff like that happens to us a lot." Sokka pointed out.

"The Avatar?" The man asked and gestured passed him. "Come with me."

We looked at each other for confirmation before following the man.

Let's follow the man who tried to kill us. Smart idea.

The man lead us to the top of the tree we saw earlier.

"So, who are you then?" Katara asked the man.

"I protect the swamp from folks who want to hurt it." He explained as he bended a vine out of our way. "Like this fellow with the big knife."

"But why did you grab me?" I asked him.

"I assumed you wanted to hurt the swamp when I saw your weapons. My bad, Miss." He bowed his head with an apologetic smile. "I wanted to hurt this fellow instead."

"It's alright, mistake happens." I smiled softly at him.

"See, completely reasonable." Sokka spoke, putting his weapon away. "Not a monster, just a regular guy defending his home. Nothing mystical about it."

We continued up the tree and it was the biggest tree I've seen.

"Oh, the swamp is a mystical place all right. It's sacred. I reached enlightenment right here under the banyan-grove tree." The man explained as he sat down. "I heard it calling me, just like you did."

"Sure you did. It seems real chatty." Sokka sarcastically stated.

"See this whole swamp is actually just one tree spread out over miles. Branches spread and sink, take root, and spread some more. One big, living organism. Just like the entire world." The man explained as we looked out into the distance at the entire swamp.

"I get how the tree is one big thing, but the whole world?" Aang asked the man with skeptical voice.

"Sure. You think you're any different from me or your friends or this tree? If you listen hard enough, you can hear every living thing breathing together. You can feel everything growing. We're all living together, even if most folks don't act like it. We all have the same roots and we are all branches of the same tree."

Interested in the man and his theories and stories; we sat down to listen more.

"But what did our visions mean?" I blurted out.

"In the swamp, we see visions of people we've lost, people we loved, folks we think are gone." The man explained and I got confused by this. "But the swamp tells us they're not. We're still connected to them. Time is an illusion and so is death."

That doesn't make sense. Ruka left when I was a baby but these dreams could be fake and I could just be delusional.

Though, in my dream Ruka got taken away and could possibly be dead.

Or she could be alive.

Seeing her in that vision and getting a clear look at her face will only make it worse and hearing her voice just adds to it. Her voice was soft and gentle, yet she seemed like she knew when to speak up and be stern.

She was also holding my daggers with her. My father gave me my daggers, so how could that be possible?

"But what about my vision? It was someone I had never met."

Aang snapped me out of my thoughts and I forgot what I thinking about it.

"You're the Avatar. You tell me." The man spoke.

Aang looked down to try to understand what he meant before speaking. "Time is an illusion. So, it's someone I will meet."

The man nods.

"Sorry to interrupt the lesson, but we still need to find Appa, Bubbles, and Momo." Sokka interrupted, standing up.

"I think I know how to find them." Aang said and placed his hand on the tree and shut his eyes. "Everything is connected." It was silent for a moment as we waited for Aang to find our pets.

So, if time is an illusion. Then, like Aang, I might meet Ruka in the future.

Aang suddenly stood up. "C'mon! We gotta hurry!"

All of us rushed to find our pets and we found four men in boats pulling Appa across the water in a net. I saw two bags that were moving around as well.

Katara sends a jet of water towards the boats and destroys the boat nearest to us. The people inside got tossed out and flew across the swamp.

"Appa!" Aang yells as he airbends the man that was holding two bags that hopefully had Momo and Bubbles in them. The man gets blasted away and our two pets get freed.

Momo grabs Bubbles and flies away. Momo lands on Aang's shoulder and Bubbles leaps over to me. I hug her close and smiled happily. She's okay, that makes me feel so much better.

"We're under attack!" One says, alarmed and waterbends towards us but Aang and Katara bend it.

"Hey, you guys are waterbenders?" Katara notices.

"You too?" The skinnier man asks. "That means we're kin!"

This disgusts Katara and I raise my eyebrow, giving him an odd look. The wave of water descends into the water when we realize the people aren't our enemies.

Sokka and the man we met earlier join us.

"Hey Huu! How you been?" The skinnier man ask.

"You know, scared some folks, swung some vines, the usual." Huu shrugged and we looked at him.

"Huu?" Sokka asked in disbelief.

——

That night, all of us were sitting around a campfire. I was tired from the events that occurred today and I wanted today to be over with. Bubbles was tired too, she was asleep in my lap.

"So, how do you like your possum chicken?" Due asked us. Everyone here has odd names but this is an odd place so it fits.

The food they gave us taste just like the food we had at home. Possum chicken tastes like arctic hen.

"Tastes just like arctic hen. So why were you guys so interested in eating Appa?" Sokka asked and points to the catgator behind Tho."You've got plenty of those things lying around?"

"You went me to eat old, Slim? He's like a member of the family!" Due picked up a fish and fed it to the catgator named Slim.

"Nice slim." Sokka smiles and tossed a bug to Slim. It bounced of its nose and Slim growls which makes Sokka cower in fear.

Due laughs. "Oh, he don't eat no bugs! That's people food."

"Where'd you say you was from?" Tho asked, changing the subjected.

"The South Pole." Katara answers.

"Didn't know there was waterbenders anywhere but here. They got a nice swamp there, do they?" Tho questioned us and I shook my head.

"Just ice and snow." I replied.

"Hmm. No wonder you left." Tho mentioned, narrowing his eyes.

"Well, I hope you realize now that nothing strange was going on here." Sokka told my sister and I. "Just a bunch of greasy people living in a swamp."

"What about the visions?" Katara protested.

"I told you we were hungry." Sokka countered and lifted up a giant bug and I cower away in disgust as he eats it.

Sokka takes a large bite and swallows it with difficultly before he sticks his tongue out with disgust.

"But what about when the tree showed me where Appa and Momo were?" Aang objected.

"That's Avatar State. That doesn't count." Sokka waved him off and looked at Huu. "The only thing I can't figure out is how you made that tornado that sucked us down."

"I can't do anything like that. I just bend the water in the plants." Huu mentioned.

"Well, no accounting for weather. Still, there's absolutely nothing mysterious about the swamp."

Sokka may not believe it, but this swamp is different. It is a mysterious swamp.

——

The next episode is Avatar Day and I'm debating on whether or not I should do it. I've seen it and I love the humor in it from Sokka and he being a 'detective' and stuff, but I just want to get to The Bling Bandit. It's so close and Toph is my second favorite character(Aang being my favorite).

So, I'll think about it and you will see if I skip it or not.

Ruka, is she alive or dead? Is she Aya's mother? General Iroh, is he Aya's father?

You'll find out this season of The Undiscovered Girl.