Katara gracefully swam just below the foamy surface of the sea. She took a deep breath of calm assurance before popping her head out. She saw the ship she had been following for a few miles and swam closer. She heard music and carefully pulled herself up to catch a glimpse. There he was. Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation. She sighed and rested her head on her folded arms. He was so cute. From his single patch of hair in a ponytail to his scar. It all made him look so strong and independent.

"Prince Zuko. Don't you think we should be returning to the mainland?" an older man questioned. Katara recognized him as General Iroh. Zuko glanced behind at the man.

"No Uncle. Father has tasked me with finding the Southern Water Tribe. They've been taking out our ships from below the water." Katara sighed slightly and kept watching him. She imagined meeting him for real. But there was one problem. He was a Fire Nation Prince and she was the daughter of the chief of the Southern Water Tribe, who were all now merpeople.

Katara's tail splashed against the water and Zuko looked over curiously. Katara froze. She knew she should return to the water, but part of her wanted to be discovered. At the last minute, she felt a hand grab her tail and drag her down.

"Katara! What are you thinking?" her older brother Sokka demanded as he dragged her away.

"I can take care of myself Sokka. I'm just curious. I've always wondered what it would be like to walk on land." Katara answered with a dreamy smile.

"Why would you want to walk on the land when we can destroy Fire Nation ships from down here?"

"Gran-Gran remembers what it was like to have legs. I'm tired of being afraid of land and the Fire Nation. What if we could end the war?"

"And I suppose you think the Avatar is just going to randomly appear. Get your head out of the foam Katara and come back to the sea floor."

Katara scowled at Sokka before swimming away from him. Sokka called after her, but she ignored him and continued swimming. She soon came to something strange. An iceberg that had sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Katara swam around it a few times, trying to understand it, when she saw a figure in the ice.

"Sokka! Come here!" Katara called. Sokka swam over, grumbling to himself. Before he had reached the iceberg, Katara dashed out and grabbed his club, then swam back. She savagely attacked the iceberg until it burst. A light shot out of the iceberg and Sokka and Katara were thrown back by the waves.

When they made their way back, a boy stood with a strange creature. A flying bison?! Katara swam over, her tail creating tiny waves in her urgency. The boy looked at her and then down, then back to her. Katara followed his gaze as it went down once more. They both realized something very important at the same time. The boy didn't have fins, he couldn't breathe underwater. Katara was about to create an air bubble around his head with waterbending, when the boys eyes began glowing along with the tattoos on his head and arms. The light was blinding, but when it disappeared, the boy had a tail and the flying bison a self-sustained air bubble.

"You're the Avatar," Katara whispered in awe. The boy looked at her.

"How do you know that?"

"Your tattoos indicate airbender, yet you just waterbended."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. The kid can waterbend and transform into a merman. Big deal! What I want to know is how he got here in the first place," Sokka interrupted jumping between the two. Katara pushed him away.

"You should come with us and meet our father. Please." Katara said with hope shining in her eyes.

"I suppose I could. I'm Aang. This is my flying bison Appa." the boy answered.

"I'm Katara. This hard head is my older brother Sokka."

"Hey!" Sokka protested. Katara gave him a look that said, Shut up. You know it's true. Sokka swam off quickly.

"We'd better follow him. Come on." Katara gestured that Aang should follow him and swam off.

Aang took to the tribe like a bird to the sky. They got along with him and a feast was prepared in his honor.

"So you've been in that iceberg for a hundred years?" Katara asked.

"Apparently. I remember when the Southern Water Tribe was on land."

"Wow. So, you don't know anything about the war, do you?"

"What war?" Aang wondered. Katara looked down at her hands sadly.

"The Fire Nation started a war against the other nations. They wiped out the airbenders first. As far as we know, you're the only one left."

Aang's face fell. He looked shell shocked. Straightening up, he excused himself and swam away. Katara watched him go. She probably shouldn't have told him, but she had. It had seemed right.

Katara soon tired of the party and swam off. Where she swam was a coral reef her mother would take her when she was young. Before her mother had been killed by Fire Nation patrols. Katara swam frivolously around. She didn't notice when she swam right into a cage. She soon realized the lines in her vision were not part of her imagination, they were bars and she was being raised towards the surface. Helpless, she thrashed against her prison, but it was no use. As the cage was placed on a Fire Nation deck, Katara gasped in astonishment.

"Well, it seems that we have caught ourselves a mermaid." The man now studying Katara was none other than Prince Zuko himself.