Avatar: The Last Airbender

I'm Not Alone: The Journey

Chapter 1: A Prophecy is Made

"Kyoshi… Kyoshi, are you alright?"

10-year-old Kyoshi was in her room, sitting on her bed, with a blank look on her face. Her mother had just walked in, and was concerned.

"Kyoshi… honey, are you okay?" she repeated to her daughter.

Suddenly, something very strange happened. Kyoshi's eyes began to glow a bright whitish blue. And before her mother could react, Kyoshi, her voice accompanied by hundreds of others, began to speak:

"Hundreds of years from now, there will be a great war, between the Fire Nation and the rest of the world. During the majority of this war, the Avatar will not be present.

"After the war has been raging for one hundred years, and the Fire Nation nearing victory, the Avatar will return. He will be but a young boy, but the world's fate will rest in his hands, thus, a great burden will lie on his shoulders.

"He will not be able to defeat the Fire Nation or the Fire Lord by himself. But he won't be alone. Not only will he have two friends, but also, two others will be with him, and they will be the key to winning the war. These two will be known as the Avatar's Assistants…"

And, with that, Kyoshi's eyes faded, and she fell backwards on her bed in a dead faint. Her mother hurriedly scooped her up and ran for help. Little did she know that her daughter had just foretold the distant future all too truthfully…

It was a beautiful, if gusty, early winter day, and a lone flying bison was soaring through the sky.

On it, a teenaged girl looked down on the beautiful, blue-green sea, and breathed in the soothing ocean air that she loved so. She looked up at the almost cerulean sky that had only scarce splotches of white, fluffy cloud tainting it.

The girl was somewhat tall for her age of 14, and had tan skin, with her dark brown hair in a long braid that ended just below her waist. Her clothing looked like a robe-like dress. It was mostly blue, and the edges were outlined in white. She also wore navy pants under the robe-like dress. A stone bearing the Water Tribe's symbol laid on her collarbone, strung around her neck on a deep blue ribbon. And her eyes were the purest blue you've ever seen; it was almost magical how blue they were…

She glanced around at her companions: two boys, one in his mid-teens, and the other a few years younger. The younger boy was sitting on the head of the flying bison, steering.

Unlike most people those days, he was bald, and had a light blue arrow tattooed on his forehead, which continued over his head and down his neck, where the girl knew it branched off into 4 separate parts – one for each of his limbs – and ended on his hands and feet. His clothes were yellow, red-orange, and brown, and his eyes were gray; not a cold, steely gray, but dark and warm. He was 12 years old.

The other boy, who was sitting next to the girl in a saddle on the bison's back, was her brother. Like herself, his skin was tan, his eyes were blue, and he was reasonably tall for his age (15). His clothes were similar to hers, except they were a bit shorter at the bottom. A large amount of his head was shaved, with only a strip of brown hair a few inches wide left, and it was pulled back into a rather short ponytail. And, right then, he had a pained expression on his face.

"Awww… what's the matter, Sokka? Hungry?" the girl teased him.

"Well, duh! The last time we ate must've been a really long time ago!" exclaimed the teenaged boy.

"Don't you mean two hours ago, Sokka?" said the young boy in front, turning around to face the others.

"No, Aang, I meant what I said!"

"There's a first," muttered the girl, purposely letting the two boys hear her. Apparently, this comment got on Sokka's nerves, because he started towards her angrily, saying "Katara!" angrily. This didn't scare her though. She uncapped the canteen of water that she always carried around with her, and with one swift, fluid movement of her arms, the water was suspended over Sokka's head.

"Don't even think of trying anything," she said smugly. Her brother, grudgingly acknowledging defeat, sat down again, and Aang turned back around, sensing the argument was over. The girl, Katara, returned the water to her canteen with a sweep of her arms.

These three children were on a quest for the North Pole. Aang, the younger boy, needed to learn Waterbending there. You might be wondering why. Well, he was the Avatar. And not just any Avatar; he was the Avatar during the Great Fire War between the Fire Nation and the rest of the world. It was his duty to master all four bending disciplines, and it was his destiny to confront the Fire Lord in a final battle for the fate of the world. To add even more weight to the 12-year-old Avatar's burden, he had to do it all by summer's end.

But Katara and Sokka, two siblings from the South Pole Water Tribe, journeyed with him, and gave him support. The three of them were the best of friends, and traveled together on a flying bison named Appa. Additionally, Aang had a pet lemur named Momo. Together, they considered themselves a family, a strange family, but a family nevertheless. Katara and Sokka didn't have very many blood relatives left, and Aang, to the best of his knowledge, had none whatsoever, the reason being that he was the last Airbender.

Later that night, the three adolescents were camped in a clearing in a vast forest. Aang and Sokka were sleeping peacefully (especially Sokka, who was so deeply asleep that he could have been mistaken as dead). But Katara's slumber was being interrupted by a dream:

Appa was flying through the air with Aang, Katara, and Sokka on his back. Katara was standing up, trying to spot land amidst the calm sea.

Suddenly, Katara felt something fly into her eye, and instinctively reached up to rub it out. Unfortunately, she ended up poking herself in the eye instead. The sudden pain shocked her enough that she stumbled forward, tripping over one of their supply bags. Katara expected to land on the saddle, until she opened her eyes and found herself falling off of Appa!

She began to scream for help, but she needn't have. Aang and Sokka had noticed her fall. Aang quickly took action and formed a dense cloud of air below her. Katara landed in it and abruptly stopped screaming. She looked up at Aang and smiled.

"Thanks Aang," she said gratefully.

But no sooner were the words out of her mouth, Aang disappeared into thin air. Without its bender, the cloud of air below Katara decondensed, and she continued her freefall, screaming.

As she approached the surface of the water, she shut her eyes tightly, bracing herself for impact. Then...

Katara woke up with a start, breating heavily and staring upwards. It was a beautiful sight: the trees in the forest surrounding the campsite framed a patch of starry sky.

"It was just a dream Katara," she whispered to herself reassuringly, "Just a dream."

Then, she closed her eyes and rolled onto her side, quickly falling back to sleep. Too bad she didn't hear the faint noise coming from the edge of their campsite. It was especially unfortunate because that noise just happened to be Aang, struggling violently against the ropes that bound him, as he was dragged from the clearing by Firebenders.

Dun dun dun! So, do you guys like it? It's my very first fanfic! Please review if you have anything to say! Thanks in advance!