COLLAB: CHAPTER 1
I've felt this way before. Constantly running from the authorities.
Of course, before I had my group of friends and many other people throughout the world that stood right beside me. Now, I have been split up from my friends; no one is here to side with me this time.
Its been this way for about two months now. I'm forced to conceal my identity constantly, or risk being turned in immediately.
I have to keep going though. The way things are isn't good, and it seems I'm the only one who is willing to change it.
After I had to defeat the Fire lord many years ago, and peace had finally returned to the world, humans found a bridge to enter the spirit world and come and go as they pleased in human form. Many considered it a gift from the spirits for finally finding amity after so many years of war.
At first everything was fine, no one disturbed the spirits, and people mainly just came there to be happy. Then, people began living there and brought with them modern day machinery and other things that had already begun to harm our own world. In the spirit world, the lakes, rivers, creeks, caves, all of it, began to become polluted.
The spirits became angry and tried to kick the humans out. They were denied, and it began an all-out war.
I tried to step in, but neither side listened to me. The spirits refuse to let me into the spirit world any more, and the people here want me dead.
Which is why I'm on the run, and desperately looking for help from anyone.
Fortunately, I know my old friends are still around somewhere, so my first goal is to find them and bring the old group back together.
The only one I kept in touch with after so long was Katara.
After the war ended, she left to start her own private life. She ended up opening a club that had been in favor of the Avatar. Once all of the spirit world problems began to rise, she was quickly put out of business.
But, if I know Katara, she would never leave that place, so she couldn't be too far from where the club used to be. I'm guessing she's hiding out somewhere close by, and I have to find her.
The club was in a small village, by the ocean, in the Earth Kingdom.
I'm not sure where I'll look to find her, but my first stop will be at the run down club. Hopefully, I can find some kind of clue to where she went.
This village has been reduced to nothing.
When I arrived in this village, I was utterly shocked at the lack of civilization. There is no one here. All of the buildings seem like they haven't been used in years, almost as if you even tried walking in them now, the floorboards may crack.
Since the commotion has only started two months ago, I knew the destruction of this village must have been fairly recent.
I walk through what is left of the village, barely recognizing any of these buildings. I'm only hoping I can at least recognize the building that means the most to me right now.
Eventually, I see it.
There is no proof that it is the right place, but a gut feeling tells me this is where it is, so I decide to head into the now torn up building.
It was obviously long deserted. Everything was thrown everywhere and fallen over, my guess was from being searched for more people. Dust coated the walls and floors, which also contained many holes that animals must have dug into.
If Katara is still here, I can only imagine how she is getting by under these living conditions.
"Katara," I call out, "It's me, Aang!"
There was no response.
I call out again and again as I walk farther throughout the building. After checking the entire place, I return to the front and look around.
Then, as I take a step forward, I hear the wooden floorboard creak abnormally loudly.
I tap my foot on it again. Then I tap the floorboards around it. They are all making strange sounds.
I get to my knees and knock on it with my hands, and can tell its is dense.
I start prying at the boards to lift them up, and with enough force, they begin to lift up one by one.
After all of the possible boards have been moved aside, I see a stairwell in their place. Quickly, I walk down the stairs.
At the end, there is a fixed-up, small basement with concrete walls and furnishings. There are a few pots and pans near the back that sit next to a small mattress with a blanket and pillow sitting on top.
The basement was clean and well-kept, meaning that someone obviously was living here now.
I walk around to try and find the person living here. It seems no one was there at the time, until I hear footsteps on the stairs.
"Hello?" says the person behind the footsteps, "Who is there?"
Then, she comes into view.
It's Katara. She looks a little different from the last time I had seen her, but her face was still the dark tan it had always been, with her huge light-blue eyes. Her outfit was a light green dress, clearly Earth Kingdom.
She was just as beautiful as I remember, and I couldn't have been happier to see her.
"Aang…" She says once she sees me.
She runs over to me and embraces me in an extremely tight hug, and I can feel the tears from her face dripping onto the back of my shirt.
"It's been so long, and I've missed you so much, I thought they had gotten you by now" She tells me.
"I've missed you too, Katara. I thought they had taken you away to. Have you heard from Sokka, Toph, or Zuko? Do you know where they are?"
Katara looks down at the floor with a sad look on her face.
"I'm not sure where any of them are. I've had to live down here since all of this started."
"Well, when was the last time you heard from them?" I asked with a worried expression.
"The last time I heard from any of them was when Sokka decided to go back to the Northern Water Tribe. That was months ago, though. I have no idea about the rest of them" She said sadly.
