My attempt at a "Into the world of A:TLA" fanfiction.
As a disclaimer, I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender or any cannon characters mentioned in this fic. (But if I did I wouldn't be on this site…) But I do own Eira, that's something.
Anyway, please review and tell me what you think of this.
Chapter 1: Falling Through the Air
The air felt humid and warm against her skin as she danced around in the art of Baguazhang, her feet softly falling on the green grass and her arms brushing against the foliage. Eira loved this room; she loved looking at her two koi fish, Yasu and Akira, and their white and orange scales glistening in the clear blue water, she loved to practice Baguazhang and mostly, she loved the heat.
She'd first heard about Baguazhang from some friends, who visited China; she hadn't exactly been excited about it at first but after watching Avatar and seeing Aang airbending and heard that airbending was based on Baguazhang, well, it convinced her to try.
Once she started she had fallen in love with it, the movements and the flexibility as well as the way it made her feel was amazing and it almost felt like she was actually airbending. She felt so free.
After one or two hours of practice she reached for her water bottle and bag to get a drink and fetch her phone.
"Eira!" She heard her mother call, "Do you want some cake, or a snack?" She poked her head through the door, ruining the atmosphere, letting all of the warm humid out of the room. Eira scowled slightly. The Zen garden she'd created was Eira's favourite place in the house but it needed the right atmosphere to be perfect...
"Sure, thanks mum." Eira reached up to hug her mother. Her mother gave her a tight squeeze and she left through the door.
"Eira, ask your sister if she wants cake too." She added, calling from the kitchen. Eira rolled her eyes, as if she needed to ask. Jenna loved cake, sweets, anything that had too much sugar really.
"Ok mum!" Eira called back, scowling slightly. Jenna was going to end up fat, maybe she could, maybe, not tell her sister. Eira sneaked back to her koi pond but thundering footsteps reaching up to the door told her that the beast had awoken.
"DID MUM JUST ASK IF I WANTED CAKE?!" yelled the ten year-old. She was bouncing on the balls of her feet and her dirty blonde braids bouncing along with her. Hyper was an understatement and sadly, it described her almost every day.
Eira sighed; it was obvious that her little sister was going to get what she wanted anyway.
"Yes." She huffed in disapproval. "Now leave me alone, I'm trying to concentrate."
Jenna made an over-exaggerated huff as she pouted.
"Now that's not very nice."
"I know, now please, go." Eira pointed to the door and her sister, smelling cake, left with an angry walk.
As the door closed Eira turned back to the koi pond.
"Finally, peace at last." She said under her breath as she reached for the fish food. Opening the bag she littered the food into the pond. She watch amusingly as the fish gobbled up the flakes of food but then… Eira noticed a glowing light at the bottom on the pond.
"What th-" She whispered as she reached her hand for it. It wasn't an optical illusion, it was actually glowing. She reached her hand into it, almost as if in a trance and everything span. The water started to suck on her hand and everything turned white. She couldn't scream or move and then her head rushed as if she was pitched forward.
When everything cleared she was falling from the sky. Well, oh crud! Adrenaline coursed through her veins and she saw the water approaching. The ocean was covered in ice bergs and Eira started to panic, water was as hard as concrete if hit from a great height.
She contorted her body into a dive as she hit the water and immediately the cold struck. The icy water drove the air from her lungs and the water stung her eyes. She started to sink down into the water as her eyesight turned black.
This is it; she thought this is how I'm going to die, drowning after falling from the sky… Her thoughts seemed to turn blank as the oxygen bubbled away from her body.
She vaguely felt a bump on her arm and a young feminine voice yelling but it sounded distorted and then, nothing.
Katara was out on the ice when she saw it. Well, she was practicing her waterbending when Sokka was out fishing, but what was important was the fact that she saw a bright flash of light in the sky and then, suddenly, a figure falling out of it.
She gasped as she ran forwards, attempting to try waterbend a slope to save her but when she flowed the arms in the direction of the water but she only managed to create a tiny wave, she threw up her arms in frustration at her failing ability to control the water.
She looked up at the falling figure and her blue eyes widened in shock as she saw the figure point her body into a dive and hit the water, but Katara knew that the ice would render the person incapable of swimming to shore.
She waited to see the figure pop out of the water, but they were taking too long. They weren't coming up!
She ran over to the edge and summoned all of her will into her waterbending. She needed to summon a wave to float the person to the ice. She took a deep breath and took her stance. She focused on the movement of the water and slowly moved her arms into a waving motion and the water bent to her will. The water lifted and moved slowly towards her, lifting the figure towards her.
Katara could see now that the figure was a girl, around Sokka's age, with the oddest hair. It was pale and cream-ish but a lot yellower. She couldn't really describe it. She'd never seen hair like it.
She grabbed onto her arm and dragged her onto the ice and into her view. The girl was pretty, her oddly coloured hair was dragged into a high ponytail but it had been loosened by her fall, she had a straight nose and a thin face, her eyes looked big but they were closed. Her breathing was shallow and she was shivering. Her clothes were also weird, she wore a stripped yellow and white short-sleeved shirt of sorts and grey pants made of an odd, rough fabric. They were odd but they were too thin to keep her warm.
Motherly instincts kicking in, Katara pulled off her parka and wrapped it around the girl and her shivering started to subside. She needed to get her back to the tribe. But how, she was heavy despite her athletic figure and young age. She looked in the distance hopelessly, she couldn't carry her, but she had to try.
Hooping her arms under the girl's armpits, straining under her weight and shivering from the cold due to the lack of her parka, she started to drag her towards the Southern Water Tribe. Stepping carefully to avoid slipping on the ice
After getting within shouting distance of her village Katara yelled for some of the women near the gate to help her.
"Katara! Who's that?!" Yelled Uki, a woman whose husband was a great friend of her father, dropping her basket and running up to her with a worried expression on her face.
"Katara, who is this girl? What's with her hair?!" Katara brushed her off and motioned to the water, gasping from the strain of carrying the much heavier teen. Uki, seeing her strain, grabbed Eira and the two shared the weight between them and carried her back to the village.
When they approached the healing tent, they lay the girl carefully on the mattress and checked her over. Despite the blanket and Katara's coat she was shivering and on closer inspection she was covered in burns from the chunks of ice in the water.
Katara pointed to the corner of the tent and looked at Uki,
"Uki, cam you fetch me some wrapping from that basket over there?" Uki nodded her dark blue eyes full of concern and her thin mouth pulled into a frown as she reached for the sterile white bandages and passed them to the little healer.
Despite her young age of 14, Katara was an experienced medic. As she bound the burns and wrapped them up her face was hardened with stony determination. The girl she was treating occasionally groaned in pain when Katara touched the burns but Katara took that as a good sign, it meant she was alive and that meant that she should be waking up soon.
"Okay, hopefully that should be enough. Uki, tell Gran-Gran that we have someone here, I'll stay and look after her."
"Thank you Katara, good luck." She turned and left, leaving Katara alone with the pale-haired stranger.
"What IS with her hair?" Katara mused under her breath, transfixed on the pale hair.
Eira woke up abruptly, eyes wide open and sitting straight up like a bolt and immediately regretting it. Her arms, hands and chest burned with pain as she moved and she bit her lip to suppress a yell.
Her mind flashed the images of what happened and she groaned. What had just happened? She remembered falling from the sky into freezing water, but how? Sure, the waters in Britain were cold but they didn't have freaking ice and glaciers!
Eira turned her head to see a girl next to her. She looked about a year younger than her with clear tanned skin, dark hair in a braid with two hair loops and bright, clear blue eyes. She was really pretty and except for their gender, they looked completely different. Eira had almost completely white skin that blushed far too easily, pale long hair that she usually kept in a high ponytail and dull blue eyes. But the girl did look familiar, like she'd seen her before but in a different way.
"Good to see you awake finally." She said in a sweet feminine voice.
"WH-Where am I?" Eira asked, stuttering as she just realised how cold she was.
"You're at the Southern Water Tribe." She paused, as if wondering what to say next. "Do you remember how you got here? How did you manage to fall out of the sky?"
The only thing she could remember about how she got here was touching some glowing water in her koi pond and then falling out of the sky and into the water. How was she going to explain that?!
She looked at her hands in her lap.
"I-I don't… I don't know how. All I remember is falling out of the sky and then waking up here." Eira looked up at the girl. "Who are you?"
"I'm Katara." And those two words sent Eira into a downwards spiral of confusion and crisis. Katara… Southern Water Tribe… This was the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender. And Eira was in it. Well, oh crap.
Katara's face flushed and she rushed to steady Eira, "Oh my La! Are you all right?!" Eira nodded despite not really meaning it.
"Please hit me." Eira said. This had to be a dream and apparently if someone punched you in a dream it woke you up. Katara recoiled in shock at the strange request.
"No, why would I hit you, you're already hurt."
"I know, it just… Maybe it could make me wake up." Tears started to well up in her eyes. The pain of her injuries was already an indicator of reality and it was shattering.
"Don't worry. You're going to be fine." Katara rubbed Eira's arm reassuringly. "Do you mind if you tell me your name."
"I'm Eira." She said, suddenly aware of how British and different she sounded compared to her.
"Eira, that's pretty. I'm going to talk to my brother now. Rest now, I'll come back later." She got up and started to open the tent door flap. She turned and gave Eira a reassuring smile but it was tinged with sadness and she left.
Eira turned on her side and closed her eyes, allowing her mind to wander off and go to sleep. Trying to convince herself that this was still a dream.
Well, hope you like this. Please review and tell me what you think about it so far. Say if you like where this is going or if you like Eira.
:D