"… The war is over," the group of eight children chanted the remains of the verse that all knew. The crowd stood in remembrance of all the people lost during the war. The war had been over for 300 years, and all who stood in that crowd had never been in the war, but all had seen the remains. The eight children were representative of all four nations. One boy and one girl from Water, Earth, Fire, and even Air nations all stood up on the stage. The crowd started to disperse to enjoy the festival. Children ran around playing games. Teens wandered around the booths and arenas, and adults and elders socialized.

A loud racket could be heard as earthbenders and airbenders raised and leveled the earth. By the time the benders were done there was no mistake in the game that was about to take place: air ball. Two air benders leaped up on the pillars on opposite ends of the playing field. A good sized crowd had gathered to watch. Firebenders had started their own game: dueling. Water and earth benders could decide between the two or look for some other form of entertainment. The game quickly got underway. The ball rocketed off the pillars back and forth. Few people could see the ball as it rocketed through the poles. They could only see it when it struck a player down or was hit back by a player. Both players had been knocked off twice. The next to fall would lose. Neither was holding back now the ball rocketed off the poles with tremendous speed. It went back and forth until the player on the left of the field was hit by the ball and was knocked off the pole through the square wood board and into the pool of water. The crowd cheered for the triumphant bender. The other bender, a boy, furiously climbed out of the pool and charged the winner.

"I will not lose to a girl!" he yelled as he flew through the air. "You cheated Mika! Admit it! The ball never does that at full speed!" The girl, Mika, didn't even turn around, but she blasted the boy back down the field and into the pool. This was a pretty amazing feat considering the distance.

"Dantako," Mika said as she leaped over on the poles toward Dantako. "You are too arrogant. It was just a game," she said as she jumped down to help her opponent out of the pool. Dantako sat there muttering profanities under his breath. Mika held out her hand to help Dantako out of the water. Dantako stared at Mika's hand and then at Mika. The he spat at her hand and climbed out of the pool and stalked off toward the depth of the festival. Mika watched Dantako stalk off and then bent down and washed off her hand in the pool of water.

"You should have hit him," a young earthbender said to Mika as she handed her a towel. Mika took the towel from the girl who looked no older than five. As she dried off her hands she noticed that the girl was staring at something. Mika followed the little girl's gaze and saw that she was looking at Mika's head. She then noticed that the crowd was keeping a good distance from her and was sneaking glances when they thought Mika wasn't looking.

"Typical," Mika thought ", no one ever wants to treat an airbender normally. If their not staring at us then they are staying at an uncomfortable distance. You'd think that after 300 years they would accept us, but those strange stories still keep them feeling uncomfortable around us like we are gods to them or something. I guess we are pretty unusual." Mika handed the towel back to the kid and headed off to the center of the festival.

The festival was well underway. Venders were selling clothes and trinkets of all kinds. There were tents with bright colors and streamers. Children ran around dragging colorful streamers with "Peace Day" written on them. Older children played various groups sports. There were groups doing dances and practicing a multitude of bending arts. Mika wandered through the groups and looked at different vendor's booths. She stopped though when she saw a group of young airbenders. One in particular made her grin. He was standing in front of what looked like his mother. The boy's mother was securing the typical shoulder cape that airbenders wear. He was squirming with nerves as he watched the rest of his peers watched the older teen mentors give last minute tips and reminders. The boy tightly gripped a staff as his mother gave him one last look over, and then he ran off to join the rest of his group.

Mika smiled as she reminisced about the first time she had flown at the festival. She had loved how the people watched n awe as her group flew through the air. She was shaken out of the past though when she heard her name being called. She looked up and saw her friend calling her over toward the group that would be performing. Mika walked over to her friend wondering what they could want.

"Mika!" her friend said as soon as Mika was in hearing rage, "We need another person for the show. Shank was going to perform, but he hasn't shown up."

"Figures," Mika said under her breath.

"What?"

"Oh nothing," Mika replied quickly, " He probably is sucking up to that sexist moron Dantako. He is always trying to stay on that guy's good side. You know how he gets Tadoko."

"He sore because you beat him at airball?" he asked.

"Yeah," Mika replied. Just then a young airbender came flying toward themnearly thaking hteir heads with him ", Whoa! Okay, I can see why they need help. You going out?"

"No, I'll be directing the group from the ground."

"Okay," Mika said", I'll be right back." Mika ran off and then came back. She soon was up in the air with the others. She soared with the rest of the group. The crowd watched in awe. Mika forgot for a while about the strange looks she had gotten and the comments that Dantako had made. She was flying. She was in the air. She was where she belonged. She flew past her friends. On cue she swooped down almost touching the heads of the crowd. She kept a close eye on Tadoko as she flew. They preformed the last part of the act and then all landed. Mika then filed off the field with the other flyers, and put the staff up. Then she the walked over to Tadoko. She smiled at him.

"Good job," Mika said as she walked over.

"Thanks. You did very well. How did you know the program so well?" Tadoko asked.

"It's the same as last year," Mika replied ", You want to get something to eat before the fireworks? It's getting dark." Tadoko nodded. The two walked off toward the food plaza. They talked about airbending and legends. Tadoko started to talk about Aang. Both of the two knew a great deal about all the avatars and Avatar Aang was always a point of interest for the two teens. They booth were junior archivists at the Southern Air Temple, but Mika knew had read a lot more about Aang. She always knew the answers that other struggled for.

By the time they had finished eating and debating the post war relationships of the fire and Earth nations it was dark. A large crowd had gathered by the center of the grounds. Firebenders were setting up the fireworks, and kids ran around with sparklers. Mika saw them and chuckled remembering how she too had enjoyed such games in the cool night air.

"I can't wait to find out what the theme this year is," Tadoko said. Mika just nodded.Tadoko knew that she always enjoyed the fireworks no matter what the theme.

The show started with four fireworks: white, blue, orange-brown, and finally red. After the next few fireworks Mika knew the theme. It was in remembrance of the war. Although the theme had occured several times before at the festival the program always changed. The final one was of a white firework along with a blue putting out and covering up the red. Many people sat saying it had been pretty, but they didn't get the point. As Mika and Tadoko walked down toward where the flying bison were Mika got a great idea. Tadoko saw the gleam in Mika's eye.

"Mika, you've got revenge on your mind don't you?" he asked. Mika nodded.

"Is it with Dantako?"

"Yeah."

"I want in," Tadoko said.