When Worlds Collide: Book Two, Earth

I woke up on Appa’s back. How did I get here?
I sat up slowly, and looked around.
“Look who woke up!” Sokka said happily, looking relieved.
I looked around, confused. “How did I get here?” I asked.
“We couldn’t loose you again, now could we?” Aang asked.
I blinked. “But... I fell. And blacked out...,” I trailed off, shaking my head.
“After that one girl knocked you out, Katara took her down in like two seconds, flat,” Aang said, smiling. “After that, we hopped on Appa, and here we are!”
I looked at Katara who was avoiding my gaze. I smiled. “Thanks,” I said, but she just shrugged.
“Who were they?” Sokka asked.
“The leader, the girl with the blue fire? She’s Azula, Zuko’s sister,” I said.
“He has a sister?!” Sokka shouted.
I nodded. “She’s way worse though. He told me about her once.”
Sokka groaned. “Great. Even more Fire Nation chasing after us.”
I chuckled. “We survived this long. Just two more elements, right?”
Aang smiled, and continued flying.

We were flying over a swampy area, and I leaned over the saddle, watching the greenery pass by.
I didn’t realize that we were descending until Sokka said something.
“Aang! Why are we going down?” he asked.
“What?” the monk asked, then wiped his forehead. “Oh, I didn’t even notice.”
“Well are you noticing now?” Sokka asked when Aang didn’t pull up.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“I know this is gonna sound weird, but I think the swamp was calling to me,” Aang said.
“Is it telling you were we can get something to eat?” Sokka asked, and I hit his shoulder. “What?” he asked. I rolled my eyes.
Aang ignored us. “No, I think it wants us to land there.”
“No offense to the swamp, but I don’t see any land to land on,” Sokka said.
“I don’t know, Bumi said that if I wanted to learn Earth Bending, I would have to wait and listen,” Aang thought aloud. “And know I’m hearing the earth. Do you want me to ignore it?”
“Yes,” Sokka stated.
“I don’t know,” Katara said, looking down, “there’s something onymous about that place.”
“Okay. Since everyone feels so strongly about this... Bye swamp,” Aang said, and pulled back up into the sky.
I heard something behind us, and turned. My eyes widened, and I froze, just barely able to hit Sokka repeatedly until he finally sighed and turned.
“What?” he asked, but when he saw the tornado, his eyes widened also. “You better throw in an extra ‘yip’! We gotta move!” he shouted.
Almost instantly we were swept up by the wind, and there was no escaping. We were thrown off Appa, and we landed in the yucky water.
I sat up rubbing my head and groaning.
“Where’s Appa and Momo?” Aang asked, looking around.
“They probably had a better landing than us,” I muttered.
Katara glared.
“What? I’m just saying the truth!” I defended myself.
She huffed, then we set off to find the bison and the lemur.

“Appa!” Katara shouted. “Momo!”
“There’s no way they can hear us, and we can’t see them when its this dark,” Sokka said. “We’ll have to make camp for the night.”
I sighed. “Sleep sounds good.”
My eyes widened and Katara and I clung to each other as we heard a scream.
We sighed in relief when we realized it was just a bird, and Katara and I let go of each other, her sending me dirty looks.
“Maybe we should build a fire,” Sokka said, looking nervous.
I nodded. “I’ll get the flames going.”
Sokka went to go get some wood for a fire, using his machete to hack at the branches.
“Sokka, the longer we’re here, the more I think you shouldn’t be doing that,” Aang said.
“No, I asked this one,” Sokka said sarcastically, “this one said it was fine.”
After Sokka got enough wood, we found shelter and I used Fire Bending to get a small fire going.
Katara chewed her lip, watching the fire.
I raised my eyebrow at her, but she looked away. I sighed laying down on my stomach.
“Does anyone else get the feeling we’re being watched?” Katara asked a few seconds later.
“We’re alone out here,” Sokka said, then went to hacking at a fly that was buzzing around his head.
The bug started to glow, showing us the eyes of predetors.
“Except for them,” Aang said.
“Yea. Except for them.”
Then we went to sleep.

I screamed as something pulled me into the swamp. Without thinking, I shot fire at the thing that was wrapped around my ankle. I stood as the thing disappeared, and I stood.
Vines? Vines attacked me?
I cried out in frustration and shot fire into a random direction.
I sighed and looked around. I was alone, and the others were probably taken away by the vines.
Now what?
I spun around, and when I stopped, I didn’t think, I just walked. Something rustled to my right, and when I turned, Zuko was standing there.
“Zuko?” I asked.
He smiled, and I ran over to him. “Zuko! It’s so good to see you! I-“ I froze when he vanished.
What the...?
I shook my head. Stupid Avatar World.
I continued walking and didn’t stop until someone caught my shoulder. I turned, expecting it to be Aang or Sokka, or even Katara, but froze when I saw my family and friends.
“Where did you go?!” Ali shouted. “You just left us!”
“No! No I didn’t!” I cried.
“Your grandparents are dead Sam,” Mom said. “Because you weren’t there, your grandparents died in that car crash.”
A tear slid down my cheek. “No,” I whispered.
Danny looked up at me. “Sammy, why did you leave me? You said you would read to me every night over the phone. And you didn’t call.”
I sobbed. “I’m so sorry,” I cried. “I didn’t mean to leave, I swear I didn’t!”
Brittany glared. “How could you just leave?”
“Why Sam?”
“Sam.”
“They’re dead because of you.”
“You don’t deserve to come back!”
I fell to the ground, sobbing. “No! No I didn’t mean to leave!” I screamed. “I didn’t mean to.”
I sat on the ground, crying, even after their words were gone, them disappearing soon after.
I don’t know how long I sat there, but it felt ages went by when I felt someone slam into me, and push me down a hill.
When we stopped tumbling, I just lay on the ground, not caring that the other three were talking.
“Sam, what’s wrong?” I heard.
The tears were still streaming hotly down my face, I just lay motionless, pretending not to hear them.
Maybe I’ll die here. I would be okay with that. Just to die peacefully.
“Hey, Sam?”
Katara, Aang and Sokka’s face was in front of mine.
“What’s wrong?” Katara asked again.
I closed my eyes and looked away. “Nothing,” I croaked. “Nothings wrong.”
Someone sighed. “We know you’re lying,” Aang said.
“I don’t care.”
“Why won’t you talk to us?” Sokka asked.
I sat up, glaring at them. “I don’t wanna talk about it, okay? Just leave me alone!”
Katara glared. “What is wrong with you? All we’re trying to do is help, and you’re screaming at us.”
I sniffed and looked away. “You don’t understand,” I whispered. “They were here. All of them. And it’s all my fault.”
“Who were here?” Sokka asked, pulling out his boomerang.
I shook my head, sobbing even more. “My friends, and my family. They were here, and it’s my fault. All my fault. My grandparents... they said they were dead.”
“Who said who was dead?” Aang asked.
“My parents,” I said. “They said that Nan and Pop died since I disappeared. It’s all my fault.”
“You saw people too?” Aang and Katara asked.
I nodded, causing more tears to fall.
“Guys, it was all our imagination, that’s why we saw things,” Sokka said.
“Why? Who did you see?” Katara asked.
“Who did you see?” he shot back.
“I... thought I saw Mom,” she said.
“You just miss her a lot, that’s why you thought you saw her. And I think about Yue all the time. That’s why we saw them.”
“But I saw a girl that I had never met before,” Aang said, and I sighed, realizing that I was off the hook.
The three talked for a while, and then Katara’s eye caught mine.
She furrowed her brow and sat next to me. “It wasn’t your fault,” she said.
I ignored her, looking up at the sky.
“It couldn’t have been. You said that you were in the car one second, and then in the ocean the next, right?”
I shrugged.
“So it couldn’t have been your fault.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “And that’s what makes me so upset the most. I. Don’t. Know.”
Hesitantly, she put her hand on my shoulder. “Sometimes, that’s best,” she told me.
“Sometimes,” I said. “Not all the time.”
She sighed. “They weren’t really here you know.”
I nodded. “I know. But that has me thinking. In my world, what happened to me? Did I just disappear, my family still looking for me? Did I die in my world? Or did everyone just continue on with their lives, as if I never excised?”
“You want to go home, don’t you?” she asked.
I chewed my lip. Did I? I sighed, and nodded. “Yea. Yea I do. More than anything,” I said softly.
More tears flew down my face, and without thinking, I buried my head into Katara’s shoulder. “But at the same time I don’t. I don’t want to leave you guys,” I sobbed. “But I miss my family. And my friends. Even Cody. Even if all I want to do it attack him or something.”
Katara hugged me, and I sobbed harder. Before I knew it, the boys had joined in on our hug.
After a few minutes, I pulled away and sniffled. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I shouldn’t have just broke down like that.”
Katara hugged me again. “To be honest, I was waiting for it to happen.”
I smiled. “I kinda was too... so are we friends again? Please?”
She chuckled. “Yea. I don’t know how much longer I could go without talking to you.”
“Finally,” Sokka muttered.
Aang grinned. “Group hug!” he yelled, and attacked us all.
I laughed wiping away the few tears that remained. But one thing was still on my mind.
Why did I see Zuko?
“...and all our visions led us here,” Aang said.
“Where is here?” Katara asked. “The middle of the swamp?”
“Yea,” Aang said, looking up at a huge tree. “The center. It’s the heart of the swamp. It’s been calling us here.”
“Its just a tree,” Sokka said. “It can’t call anyone. For the last time, there’s nothing after us. And there’s nothing magical happening here.”
“Do you guys something called a jinx here?” I asked.
“No... why?” Aang asked.
“Because I think that we might want to start knocking on wood,” I said.
No sooner than I said that, a giant wave of water splashed up, causing me to yelp. Out of the water emerged a giant green monster.
We all scattered, and I saw the monster pick up Sokka, only to throw him to the ground again.
Aang shot a blast of air at the thing, cutting off hit arm, but it just grew back. The monster threw water at Aang, and the young monk flew backwards.
I hid behind a tree and peeked out just enough to throw a fire ball at the thing, then hid again.
Katara started using Water Bending to attack the creature. I started to throw more fire, and after a while, we finally destroyed it, only to find a man inside.
“Why did you call me here if you just wanted to kill us?” Aang asked him.
“I didn’t call you here,” the guy said, and we all looked at each other, not relaxing from defensive stances.
“We were flying over and I heard something calling me, telling me to land,” Aang said.
“He’s the Avatar,” Sokka said when the man gave us an odd look, “stuff like that happens to us all the time.”
“The Avatar?” the guy asked. “Come with me.” he beckoned us to follow him, and we reluctantly did.
He lead us up to the tree, moved a vine out our way.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“I protect the swamp from people who want to hurt it,” he said. “Like this fellow with his big knife.” He nodded at Sokka and I smiled.
“See? Completely reasonable. Just a simple guy defending his home,” Sokka said. “Nothing mystical about it.”
“Oh the swamp is a mystical place all right,” the guy said. “It’s sacred. I reached enlightenment right here under this tree. It called to me like it did you.”
“Sure you did,” Sokka said. “It seems real chatty.”
The guy explained how the whole swamp was just the one tree, and how the world was all connected, and how the visions that we saw was just the swamp telling us about how our friends and family were still with us.
Once Sokka pointed out how we still needed to find Appa and Momo, Aang placed his palm on the base of the tree and concentrated. In no time, he was leading us to where he thought they were.

I peeked out from behind some vines to see a couple boats with men in them. Behind them, they were dragging Appa.
I nodded to Katara and she sent a huge wave towards them. Aang released Momo, and Katara and I started water bending, blocking a wave that one of the men was trying to attack us with.
“Hey, you guys are water benders,” Katara said.
“You too?” the guy asked. “That makes us kin!”
We both cringed, and the wave fell back to the watery swamp.
Sokka and the swamp monster guy joined us, and the scrawny water bended greeted him. “Hey Yu! Where you been?”
“You know, scaring some folks, swinging some vines,” Yu answered. “The usual.”

Later that night, we were with the swamp people, enjoying a meal with them.
Everyone was having easy conversation, so I easily slipped out to think.
I thought about my visions of my family. What did they think happened? Were my grandparents alive?
Why was Zuko the first thing I saw?