Beginnings: Gliders

Disclaimer: Do I really have to say it? Really? Ugh Fine... Idon'townAvatar:TheLastAirbender. There I hope you are happy.

A/N: Hi! I'm Larkyn! Uhh I've never written Kataang or ATLA before, but I really enjoy the series, and I thought that participating in Kataang week 2012 would be really fun, and a good way to get into writing Avatar. Also this is meant to take place somewhere around the first five episodes.

Enjoy!

"Umm Aang, I'm still not really sure about this..." The 14 year old girl shouted from across the other side of the deep crevice to the younger boy who was sitting on the edge of the 20 foot wide canyon.

He had been flying back, and forth over the hole just to prove to her that it was no big deal. That he hadn't fallen to his death yet. Despite this, Katara was still unsteady about the idea of flying over a seemingly never ending canyon on the back of a flimsy glider.

Aang stopped swinging his legs carelessly, back and forth over the ledge, and got up to fly back over to the other side. He landed gently beside a very skeptical Katara who had her back pressed to a tree a few feet from the ledge. "Why can't we just walk back to camp, and get Appa to fly us over?" She suggested, thinking she had finally found a solution to this sticky situation she was in.

"Come on Katara," Aang said, getting a little impatient after putting up with Katara's rebutles for about thirty minutes. "You know Appa is resting, and we don't know where another water source is, and-"

"Ok, ok." She exhaled in defeat as she started to come off the tree a little towards Aang, whose eyes lit up at his long sought after victory... Until Katara ran back to hug the tree after only a few steps. "What if we try to waterbend the water from the stream to us here!" She suggested with a brilliant smile placed upon her face.

"Katara..." Aang sighed a little as he inched closer to try to pry her off of the thick tree, but she just tightened her grip in response. "First off, you can't waterbend while hugging a tree, and second, the stream is a quarter mile away! There is no way we could bend that much water from there into our buckets!"

For every alternative Katara suggested, he had plenty of reasons as to why riding on his glider would be the only way to get to the other side of the canyon.

After several more ideas, and attempts to break Katara's killer grasp on the tree, Aang sat down on the grass layered earth in defeat. "I just don't get it Katara, why don't you trust me?"

She widened her eyes noticeably at his sudden comment. "What? That's not true! Of corse I trust you Aang!" She argued with him. "It's the air I don't trust!" She admitted finally.

"The air?" Aang laughed loudly at the idea as he stood once again. "That's just silly!" He concluded.

"No it's not!" Katara shouted back in a childish defense. "I mean, I know you wouldn't understand, being an airbender and all, but for normal people the idea of themselves defying gravity just seems absurd!"

He put his hands up in defense. Even though he had only known her for a month or so he already knew not to cross paths with her when she was heated. "I know that, and that wasn't why I was laughing. I was laughing, because you said you didn't trust the air."

She glared at him. "I don't see how that's funny."

"Well it's just that you said that you trust me, and I trust the air... So doesn't that mean you should too?" He asked timidly; afraid of having another angry comment directed towards him.

However, he was quite bewildered when she stood there, thinking, instead.

I do trust Aang... I know he wouldn't hurt me. She thought to herself. ...He wouldn't of even suggested the idea if he thought I would get hurt.

Cautiously, she began to loosen her grip on the tree until she was free. "Only, because I trust you." She spoke slowly. It was clear that although she was trying to be brave, she was still very unsure of the entire situation.

Aang smiled at her as he expanded the glider, and guided her behind it, instructing her where to hold on to.

Seconds after they were weightless, and much to Katara's surprise, it took only seconds before her feet were in contact with the soft earth once more.

"That's it?" She asked in astonishment as she opened her eyes to see that they were truly on the the other side. She even turned her head to check for the canyon behind them.

"Yea." Aang said simply as he closed his glider, and they began to walk towards the stream. "Do you think you'll be ok when we fly back over?" He asked hopefully.

"Be ok?" She repeated, before exploding into excitement. "I'll be more than ok, Aang! That was amazing! It just felt so free and..." She waved her hands in animated gestures as she went on about how that was one of the most spectacular things she had done in her entire life.

Aang just smiled, and listened the entire time, thinking back to how after his first time gliding he had said almost the exact same things to Monk Gyatso.