"Don't scare us like that again!" Sokka whined. He was standing over me as Mika and Katara sat on either side of me. They refused to be any further than a foot away from me, paranoid that I may actually go into labor if not in their sight. Aang and Zuko stood beside Sokka, looking both relieved and horrified. They were flushed of color. Azula, however, was off to the side, watching with an amused expression as she leaned against a tree. Unsurprisingly, she appeared all too entertained by my fit of agony.

"I'm sorry," I said softly. "It was just a false alarm. I'm fine now. We've more time to find the answers we're looking for and get back home before the baby actually does arrive."

Home. I'd never referred to the palace as my home before. I'd never even considered the Fire Nation to be home. Quite frankly, it felt strange to even say the word aloud. Zuko nodded. "We'll work fast," he said. "You're sure you can make it?"

"Don't I always?" I teased.

"Well," said Azula, making her presence suddenly remembered, "if you ask me—"

"I didn't."

She ignored me. "You should just push the little heathen out right now. Get it over with. It'll do you no good to keep it anyway. Just push it out and leave it here for the beasts."

"Shut up, Azula," Mika snapped. The burn on her arm stretched as she tensed. For an earthbender, she had a short fuse. I hadn't known her as long or as well as the others, but it was something I had learned to adjust to. I gently laid my hand over her hand. She looked at me, and I shook my head. A fight would only make matters worse.

"Am I wrong?" Azula asked, taunting us. "It seems none of you have parents to argue that you were worth keeping or staying with. And poor, poor ZuZu. Why, dear old Father couldn't even bear the sight of you!"

This time, it was me to speak up. "That's enough, Azula!" I barked. "Shut up!"

"Quiet, guys!" Aang shouted. "I'm detecting something.... It's kinda making me wanna go—" He turned to face us again, and his face was uncomfortably contorted once again. "—like this."

"Oh, sweetie," Katara frowned. She stood to comfort her Avatar boyfriend. "Not the faces again!"

"No, no," said Sokka. He looked around. "I think Aang may be onto something. If you look carefully, there are actually faces all over the place!" And he was right. Everything surrounding us possessed a pattern that resembled facial expressions. Of course, Sokka, being himself, shared this discovery by mimicking each pattern: a frowning face on large leaves, a grinning face on the backs of squirrel-toads, a menacing scowl in the bark of a tree. There was even a flutter-bat with a resembled the contortion of Aang's face, which duly caught his attention.

"Don't fly away, Mister Flutter-bat!" The Avatar shouted as he chased the large creature. "I think we were meant to be friends!"

"Aang, don't run off by yourself!" Zuko warned. "You don't know what's out there!" But it was too late. Aang disappeared into the forest, leaving us behind.

There was a long pause. "Why are we just sitting here like a bunch of turtle-ducks?" I asked, forcing myself to my feet. I huffed with the strained effort. "Let's follow him!" With as much authority and speed as a pregnant woman can emit, I left the others behind and waddled after the Avatar. The others followed closely behind with concern, both for me and for Aang.

"Have you ever seen someone move so quickly?" I heard Mika huff behind me.

"Believe me," Zuko said, "without that baby in her, she would've already been by Aang's side."

We joined Aang's side very soon, stopping at the edge of a pond. The water was bluer and more clear than anything I had ever seen. I knelt down beside the water and closed my eyes. A wave of tranquility washed over me like a tsunami, bring me and the restless baby to a quiet peace. There was certainly something spiritual about this place. I opened my eyes and looked down at my reflection. My face had rounded over the past nine months, taking away from its natural heart shape and making it more of an oval. My hair was pulled back from my face, a single lock dangling free of its binds. I wondered, did I look like my mother? I never did know her face, nor had anyone mentioned a resemblance to her like they did Katara to her mother. I frowned at the thought. Beside me, the reflection of a scarred face — one of my favorite faces — smiled at me. I smiled back as his hand rested on my shoulder, his finger twisting my loose hair around itself.

"I know what you're thinking about," Zuko said softly. He kneeled beside me.

"Do you, now?"

He nodded. "You'll get the answers you're hoping for," he whispered. "I promise."

"You know," I smiled, "we've made a lot of promises over the years. Hopefully, this is one we can keep without question."

"Don't you ever shut up?!" Azula shrieked, zapping a bolt of lightning into the water. Zuko was quickly on his feet. So quickly that I hadn't even seen or felt him move. He shouted for his sister to stop. The crazed look in her amber eyes had returned. She pushed a blue ball of fire towards her brother and Aang, screaming accusations of this being a trap. A trick to continue whatever torture was haunting her mind.

Just as Katara and I bent water from the pond to freeze the princess in yet another cocoon of ice, a collection of shards shot past us. The embedded into the bark of a nearby tree. As we looked closer, we found that the shards were actually flowers. Lilies. "Those have to be the prettiest throwing stars I've ever seen," I said, gently pressing the pad of my finger into the sharp edges.

"It's like the forest itself is attacking us," Katara pointed out.

Sokka cried out and pointed accusingly at Azula, who was unmoved. "Because nature hates her!" However, Azula had no time to defend her actions with her typical uncaring shrug. More of the floral shurikens came soaring at us. Katara and I bent water was a shield to cover ourselves and the royal siblings, and Mika and Aang erected a wall of earth to block the deadly lilies — whereas Sokka swatted at them with his club. He smacked a flower that was coming straight for his head, and it shattered into tiny fragments. I knelt down, taking cover behind the terra firma wall. Upon touching the pale pink petals, a chill rushed through me. "It's frozen," I whispered to myself. I quickly looked up, grabbing Katara's arm. "Katara! Look what happened when Sokka hit the flower." I handed her the pieces.

"I don't understand," she said, looking at me as if I was as insane as Azula.

"Someone is bending the water in these flowers," I explained.

"Not just the flowers!" Sokka shouted, swinging his club through a collection of vines that were speeding towards Aang. "They're bending the vines, too!" With that, he tossed his boomerang and it slashed through another bundle of vines. Azula, shocking us all, shot a bolt of lightning through a bundle that was zooming in Sokka's direction.

Rather than giving the proper response when Sokka thanked her, Azula sneered, "The more peasants I have fight for me, the better chance I have of surviving this nightmare forest!"

Katara and I stepped forward, inhaling and exhaling deeply. Together, we waved our arms and the motion of the vines and leaves slowed. "Whoever you are," Katara shouted warningly, "you're not the only one who can waterbend. Show yourself!"

And they did.

Out came a duo, an old woman and a masked man. By their attire, it only seemed right to assume that they were from the Water Tribe — most likely the Northern Tribe, our sister tribe. The woman apologized for attacking us then introduced herself as Misu, and then man was her brother Rafa. To make up for the incident, she offered us food. Again, she apologized as we ate beside the water, explaining that she and her brother were not used to seeing other humans in the forest and had assumed that a forest animal was disturbing the pool. She and her brother acted as guardians for the pool, keeping a spirit at peace.

"Misu," Sokka said with a mouthful of food, "this stew is delicious! It reminds me of..."

She finished for him with a soft smile, sweetening her wrinkled face. "The seaweed stew of the Northern Water Tribe?"

"That's it!"

The woman chuckled, saying, "Rafa and I make do with what we can find here."

"I hope you don't me asking—" I spoke up. To my surprise (and against Zuko's quiet urging), I had hardly touched the stew. The bowl simply sat in my lap, warming my hands. "—but how did two people from the Northern Water Tribe end up in a Fire Nation forest?"

Misu's smile fell sadly. She stared blankly as she began recounting whatever events had led her here. She explained that she and her brother were complete opposites, much like Sokka and Katara. Misu was studious and abided the rules. Rafa was a brash risk taker. He'd a habit of stealing possession of those with power within the tribe: the Chief's battle helmet, a waterbender's pouch, a warrior's club. Misu always yelled at him to return them, and he would obey. "He just wanted to prove to everyone that he could do it," she told us. The people he stole from had always been too embarrassed that he'd stolen from them, so the only person he'd ever had to answer to was his sister.

Of course, this could only last for so long.

One day, Misu had found her brother lying alone in the snow. His face was horribly disfigured, mutilated. She took Rafa to the best of healers, but no one could help. Rather than give up, Misu opted to help her brother the best way she knew how: Study. She traveled to a library and found a Fire Nation scroll. In it, she learned about a powerful Spirit. A Spirit that possessed the ability to give people new faces. To heal her brother. From that day forward, she made it her life's mission to heal her brother. Knowing it would be dangerous for two Water Folk to journey through the Fire Nation, Misu began learning to use waterbending to fight. "After many failed attempts, we finally made it to Forgetful Valley," she said quietly. "We've lived ever since, hoping to encounter the Spirit."

There was a pause.

"How come Rafa hasn't eaten anything?" Sokka asked abruptly. I elbowed Sokka in his side, hissing quietly at him for being rude.

"It's alright," Misu assured me, then she explained. "Ever since his injury, Rafa had been caught between life and death. He doesn't eat anymore. He doesn't do much of anything." She said this sadly. She fought the tears that shimmered in her eyes.

Azula sighed in annoyance and said, "Sorry to interrupt your sob story—"

"No, you're not," I frowned. "Stop being rude."

"—but we're here on a mission of our own. We're looking for a woman named Ursa."

"I'm sorry," Misu replied, "but we haven't seen her. The forest was pretty quiet until you arrived." She went on to tell us that the forest has a way of telling when the Spirit is arriving. The life throughout it — the plants, the animals — would manifest facial patterns. Misu told us that a giant wolf Spirit would go to one of the four pools in the forest. Whichever it chooses to drink from, that is the one from which the healing Spirit will emerge. Unfortunately, they had been at the right one at the right time.

The loss of hope in her voice didn't sit well with Aang. He stood up, determined that he would help. He moved by the pool, sat with his legs crossed, and closed his eyes. Then, his tattoos began to glow. Somewhere within those couple of minutes, Azula had stormed off in a huff, and Zuko chased after her. I sat between Sokka and Katara, Mika sitting on the other side of Sokka.

Misu looked to me, as if the others were no longer there, and asked, "Why are you here?"

"Pardon?"

"You're in no condition to be traveling, especially through a forest," she stated. "Why are you straining yourself?"

A hand on my belly, I responded meekly. "Ursa — the woman we're searching for. She's very important to me. I've so many questions and she's the only one with answers." I looked over to Aang and watched him as he meditated. "I just hope that I can move on with my life once I have the answers I'm looking for."

"What if they aren't the answers you wish to hear?" She asked me.

"Well, then I'll simply have to live with that disappointment."

Suddenly, yelling could be heard echoing from the direction on which Zuko and Azula had gone. "I'm getting close, aren't I, Mother?!" I heard Azula's voice cry out. "Is that why you sent those two vagrants?! To slow me down?!"

"Oh no," Mika breathed out, rushing to her feet.

Azula came sprinting through the brush with Zuko close behind. He shouted, "Stop!" She ignored him. Electricity crackled at her fingertips, which she aimed at the older siblings we had befriended.

"Azula, stop!" Zuko shouted again, diving between his sister and the elders as the electricity shot forward.

This time, it was my voice to echo throughout the forest: "No!"