The boy speaks again. It's not a voice Bumi would recognize, but the fact that it comes as part of a packaged set that involves Appa, Momo, and those particular tattoos...

"They...they always were," he says quietly, giving Appa's nose one more pat. Feeling the familiar sensation of bison's breath on his hand as he does so.

Eventually he turns his attention to the boy. The boy who shouldn't, it doesn't...none of this makes sense. But yet there he is, and he looks as real as the weight of Appa feels.

"....great rutting badgermoles," he swears under his breath.