“I’d love for you to show me how strong you are, but some other time.” Avani said. 

She watched as Kasai pulled string out of the bag, and wondered why someone had packed string, but no rope. They had to settle for the vine that Kasai got down from the tree. It was tied to a branch higher up and then around the woman’s waist.

“Yup, no worries.” Avani said with one end of the vine in her hands, and then she enjoyed the view as Kasai began to climb up the tree trunk. “Aw, you almost sound worried for me.” 

Avani turned her eyes away from Kasai’s behind when she mentioned catgators though. There should be corrupted spirits around if nothing else, so where were they? It was surprisingly silent and calm, which made the situation kind of eerie. 

She smiled as Kasai gave her a thumb up after reaching the top, but held onto the vine with a firm grip. Neither of them had any idea what was up there, and it was possible she may be pushed off. Avani didn’t want to be the reason someone else died.

There were gurgling noises coming from within the sac. Mio heard a voice from outside though, and saw a silhouette. It certainly wasn’t Avani based on the shape, and the words of the voice confirmed it. She felt as if she should care more than she did, but the toxins of the sac had made her docile and numb. 

“No…” She answered Kasai’s question if they were okay. “I’m not okay.”

Mio was fairly certain she was dying, and Kieron, well, he was already dead as far as she could tell. She attempted to move towards Kasai, but was stuck in place. She used her arms to dig through the sac and look Kasai in the eyes. She doubted she could be saved from the state she was in. 

The sac had already consumed parts of her face, and the rest of her body. The skin was gone in places. She wanted to believe she would have been happy that Avani didn’t get to see her like this

“Is Avani alive?” She asked when she came face to face with Kasai. “If she is, you two need to get out of here before a similar fate befalls you.”

Mio felt the sac reacting to her movements, slowly closing the gap she made, but trying to reach out for Kasai to pull her inside with them as well. “It’s eating me alive.” Mio stuttered, tears beginning to stream down her face. “I was so scared when it trapped us, and then I got to watch as it dissolved Kieron.” Mio shook her head, there was nothing more to fear. She had kind of accepted her end, because of the poison injected into her. “I’m sorry.”

With what little power she had left she used her airbending to blow Kasai out of the tree. Hopefully she would hit the water, but either way it was better to die from a fall and a broken back than the way the two of them had gone.

Avani felt the vine straining as Kasai fell out of the canopy. She smirked, thinking she shouldn’t have jinxed her by imaging she may be pushed out of the tree by something at the top. Fortunately the vine didn’t snap and she was able to lower Kasai to the roots of the tree safely. 

“They weren’t up there?” Avani said, wishing that it was the truth instead of whatever Kasai must have seen.

They didn’t get much chance to talk about it, as the winged spirits returned from hiding in the clouds and dived towards them. 

“So much water and no waterbender.” Avani stated, fretful for how well she would be able to fight without any major source of earth nearby.