AN: This story will be in Katara's POV.
I frowned as my lazy lump of a brother sat hunched over his meal on the fallen log by the fire. He was currently inhaling his food so fast he would probably end up choking soon. Sure enough, his eyes popped and his hands flew up to his throat. Sighing and shaking my head, I rose and walked over to where he sat, coughing and spluttering. As I walked past him, I thumped him, hard, on his back. He gave a great, whooping cough and the considerably large hunk of fish popped out of his mouth and landed on the sandy ground.
Turning my head to look at him as I retreated into the surrounding forest, I saw with exasperation that Sokka was, once again, eating his dinner as if he expected a hoard of platypus-bears to leap out of the bushes and steal the meager meal from him.
Turning back around, I took in my surroundings. The forest was beautiful; lush green plants, moist, soft earth. And the sound of clear, bubbly water came to my ears as I walked deeper into the wood. Exited at the prospect of getting a chance to practice my waterbending, I quickened my pace, heading to the sound only waterbenders could be able to pick up from such a distance.
After about fifteen minutes of walking, I found a clear, blue spring. It was breath taking. A large waterfall was at the back, causing mist to fly out around the spring. Vibrant colored fish as big as my head darted here and there, making the spring seem all the more surreal. I sighed, placing my feet in the comfortable coolness of the water. I swirled my feet around, causing ripples to rise to the surface. With a flick of my wrist, a long, flowing strip of the water rose and writhed under my control. I contorted it into the shape of a dragon, making it fly once around the clearing before letting it fall back into the water.
Getting ready to do another simple trick, I snapped my head up when I heard a faint snap in the bushes to the left of me. Straining my ears, I desperately tried to decide whether it had been an animal, or…something else. After a few minutes of painstaking silence, I decided it had been a lemur or something. Turning back to the water, I made another bit of water rise out of the pool, turning it into a penguin. Oh, how much I missed Gran Gran and the rest of the tribe…
A hand over my mouth caused me to jump out of my thoughts. I tried to swipe the hand away, but to no avail. They had my hands tied behind me. Twisting, I saw two men dressed in black. Both had twin pairs of long, nasty looking swords. With a sickened feeling, I knew no one would come to help me. Both Aang and Sokka would be asleep by now.
Before I knew it, they had wrapped a piece of cloth around my mouth. Looking up, I noticed the two men were standing in front of me, hungry looks in there eyes. Fear stabbed at my insides again. What would these awful men do?
The next second I saw another figure leap out of the bushes also dressed in black. I narrowed my eyes at him. He didn't seem like the others. He had a crude blue and white mask covering his face. The mask was that of a face, with long, cruel fangs, and a wide, gaping mouth. But somehow, I knew I could trust this one.
Just as soon as he had jumped out of the forest, he brought out two identical broadswords, swinging them in a graceful arc over his head. He brought them swiftly outward, merely an inch in front of my two captors. The two men looked at each other, fear evident in their eyes for only a moment before they brought out their own weapons and swinging them into a battle stance as well.
The one in the blue mask gave a loud yell, running at the two men. He swung his two swords back and forth in front of him as he pelted toward them. I watched in amazement at how well he handled the swords, which had to be fairly heavy. He didn't slow down, not even when the two men leapt out of his way, taken aback. The masked one turned swiftly, bringing the swords in another arc in front of him. He jabbed them both in front of him swiftly, only this time, twin streams of flames shot out of the ends. The fire caught on the two men's clothes, and they took off running, desperately trying to put out the embers as they went. I looked back at the lone figure, who stood watching the place where the men had disappeared. I wondered if he would help me out of these ropes. Just as I thought of it, he turned his head slowly, looking at me for the first time. He began walking over t me in slow, careful steps. I watched in facination as the figure approached, his eyes never leaving my face.
When he was a mere five feet from me, I heard a whistling sound and then a sharp pang pierced my lower back. I immediately began to feel dizzy, and as I fell back, my eyes connected with the most beautiful, deep amber eyes I has ever seen. Then all was black.
