"Katara! Get out of bed sweetness, there's someone here to see you!" yelled Toph. Katara slowly opened her eyes and her first sight was Toph's feet. She'd moved in with her in Ba Sing Se shortly after Zuko had become the new fire lord two years ago. Her heart fluttered a little when she thought of him. Katara quickly scolded herself, knowing that Toph would be reading her heart beat.
"Oh, so you're thinking about your fire lord hottie again, eh?" Toph said, with a smirk. Katara regretted telling her about her crush on Zuko. She only told Toph because she needed to get it off her chest and Sokka was visiting Suki so she was her only option. She felt so guilty because she was with Aang now and he had been off searching for other airbenders. Katara used to love Aang, she still did, but it just didn't feel the same anymore. Katara shook the thought and got out of bed before Toph could chew her out any longer. Katara walked out of the room and didn't see anyone but Toph.
"Alright, who's here, Toph? Or did you just wake me up for nothing?" Katara said, frustrated. Then Katara felt someone tap her shoulder and she whirled around to find Aang standing behind her.
"Aang!" she exclaimed as she embraced him in a hug.
"Katara! I've missed you so much!" Aang said. He pulled back from the hug and started to head back outside. "I have someone here I want you to meet." He said with excitement in his voice. Katara looked to Toph, who made a shrugging motion. Aang came back in followed by a girl who looked about his age and he was smiling wildly, like he does. "This is An! She's an airbender!" Katara's jaw dropped.
"Another… airbender? That's fantastic!" She said, right before Toph added,
"Where did you find her! She couldn't have been hiding out this whole time… could she?"
"I'll let her explain" Aang said, turning to An. She blushed a little and started to explain.
"See, when I was younger, my parents and I traveled as nomads. They never told me where we were from or why we kept traveling, but I never wanted to ask. We were happy, at least for a while. When I was around 6, I got bored of walking and started jumping alone, minding my own business. I turned to talk to my parents but they weren't there. I turned around and they were way far behind me, jaws dropped. That night, I overheard them talking and the only word I could make out was 'airbender'. I had no idea what that was, until my dad caught me eavesdropping and explained to me. I thought it was cool, and didn't realize the craziness of me being an airbender. This was at a time when the world had no idea where Aang was and they thought the airbenders were wiped out. My parents tried to teach me what they could think of, but I mostly experimented by myself. My parents were killed two years ago by a rogue firebender we ran into on our travels." Tears started to well up in An's eyes, but she continued her tale,"Aang found me while I was traveling all alone. I would stop occasionally at villages or in major cities but I would just walk and walk for days, weeks even. He saw me from the sky right as I sneezed. I honestly hate when that happens. I fly like 15 feet!" Katara giggled. That was how she and Sokka had figured out Aang was an Airbender in the first place. He had sneezed and flew up just like An must have. "Aang said he could teach me Airbending and I was skeptical at first, but then he explained that he was the Avatar and of course I didn't believe him until he demonstrated all of the elements. Aang promised he'd teach me as soon as we got to Ba Sing Se, so here we are!" she finished, leaving Katara and Toph in shock, but also interested.
"Well I guess we better go get to work then!" Aang said, as he walked over and gave Katara a hug. "See you guys later!" He walked out the door and An waved goodbye and turned after him.
"That was so freaky. " Toph said after they left. Katara nodded. Then said,
"Very. But… I guess that gives us hope that there are more airbenders out there. " Toph looked like she was thinking something over, then said,
"Well I'm going to the market and if anyone tries to pull something on me cause I'm blind, they're getting a beating." She walked out of the door and into the city. Katara hoped she didn't hurt anyone too much. With no one around, she decided this would be the perfect time to go to her favorite spot and practice bending.
Fire Lord Zuko stared out of his balcony at the Fire Nation. Well, he wasn't the Fire Lord yet. He had to get married first, even though he had been in the position for two years now. He sighed. Everyone was pushing him to marry Mai, and he wanted to, or at least he did before he met someone else. Someone stubborn, beautiful, and a fantastic bender. Zuko shook his head. He shouldn't be thinking of that now; he had meetings to attend. Being the Fire Lord was already getting boring for him. He considered what it would be like with his friends stirring up mischief in the palace.
"Lord Zuko? You have a meeting in five minutes. Are you even ready?" Mi said. She had always been a friend to Zuko, but she was not the same as Aang, Toph, and Katara. Especially not Katara.
"Yes, I know, and I'm ready." He called from the balcony. "I'm coming." He heard Mi start to leave, but he called her back. "Mi?"
"Yes?" she said.
"Would you please send a message to Ba Sing Se for me? I've been in desperate need of company."
Mi smiled. "Shall I ask for the Avatar and his group to visit for a while?" She always knew what he wanted. He smiled and nodded. Mi bowed and walked off. Zuko started to walk to his meeting and wondered if having Katara here would be too much of a temptation. He stopped himself. He knew what he wanted to do and he was going to do it. After this meeting he was going to break up with Mei, for good. Now he could have a chance with the girl he really liked.
"Alright, An, let's see if you could to this!" Aang said, as he demonstrated the next move. An was a quick learner and had already picked up on a few moves. She messed up this one though. "Try again." Aang said, but she couldn't get the hang of this one. She tried again, with no luck. An was upset. Aang noticed that she wasn't positioning her arms right. He walked behind her and lifted her arms to the right position. "Try it like this" he said softly, as he moved her arms through the motion. She laid her head back on his chest and looked up at him and nodded. Aang blushed and pulled back. He was with Katara. He loved her, didn't he? He shook the thought. An moved through the motion and this time she got it right.
"Yes!" she exclaimed as she turned to Aang."I got it!" He smiled and congratulated her, then demonstrated the next sequence. As she was trying it, he thought he heard a rustle in the bush, but nothing was over there besides the natural hills of dirt and rock. He turned back to An. Toph released her shield of earth and started to walk home. So An and Aang were hitting it off? She had also heard his heart beating like crazy. Should she tell Katara? Even though she appeared to not really care, she did care about Katara, almost like a sister. Katara did have that thing for the new Fire Lord, so who knows! She thought. Maybe it'd work out… or maybe not. Toph had started replaying what she'd heard in her mind and she didn't even notice the person in front of her until she ran into them. She must've been speed walking because they both fell over. Toph groaned and stood up, taking a fighting stance when the other person stood up. She enclosed their feet in earth.
"Woah, there. No need to get upset." The person said. This person was a guy and although most people would be freaking out at the whole fact that they can't move, he was freakishly calm. Toph felt the ground around his feet shift back as he said,"You're not the only one with tricks, you know." Toph's mouth dropped open, but she quickly shut it.
"Sorry. Just don't like it when people try to pick on the blind girl." She mumbled, keeping her head down.
"That's fascinating. What's your name?"he asked.
"Toph. Who are you?" she asked, keeping steady watch on his heart beat. It stayed normal.
"I'm Feng. You know, I would love to see how you earth bend." He said. Toph smirked.
"Yeah,yeah. Love to see how the blind girl manages. I'll kick your butt."
"Oh really? Well I accept that challenge." Toph was surprised, but she wasn't going to go easy on this guy."I know the perfect place." Feng said."Follow me."