The sea was calm outside the tiny port of Mizuna, the sky overcast, and the sun shone in bright shafts down through the clouds like the sun itself was smiling on them. Days like this were Kaida's favorites: the best weather for fishing with her cousin Ren.

"So I heard Hachiro asked you to help him with his homework tomorrow," Kaida said with a sideways glance and a smirk.

Ren rolled her eyes but couldn't help but smile a bit. "We're just friends… but yes, he did."

Kaida grinned crookedly. "Sure, 'just friends.' And I'm the Ava—holy Kyoshi, did you see that!?" Standing up and abandoning her fishing rod, she pointed to the sky. "I swear I just saw something in the clouds!"

Ren shielded her eyes from the sun and looked up. "What did it look like? I don't see anything."

"I don't know," Kaida said slowly. "Big and fluffy and—right there!"

There was a tremendous splash as something huge and hairy landed in the bay. Something white and brown and… with three people riding it?

"What in the world is that thing!?" Kaida gasped, watching in awe as it beached itself on the sand and three figures got off it as if to set up camp.

"That's… but it can't be!" Ren stared wide-eyed. "It looks like a flying bison. But it can't be, they're extinct!"

Kaida went even paler than usual as she got a closer look at the three kids. One of them had a shaved head and… blue arrow tattoos. Swallowing hard, she whispered, "Extinct? Like Airbenders?"

"Yeah, like Airbenders—why?" Ren followed her cousin's gaze until she too saw the tattoos on the bald boy. "Um, Kaida? Those tattoos—they look really familiar."

"Master Tamlen's wall scroll," Kaida whispered. "The one we had to hide for him when the Fire Army searched the town. A picture of the old leaders of the nations, before the war. The Air Nomad priest… he had tattoos like that."

"But—that would make that boy…" Ren's brow furrowed and her eyes widened to saucers as she whispered, "The Avatar."

"But he can't be," Kaida said, though she found herself slowly walking toward the newcomers in awe. "The Airbenders were wiped out a hundred years ago. The Avatar had to have been reborn before then. He couldn't be so young. He couldn't."

"Should we follow them? Those tattoos are pretty unique. We should just be sure…"

"It looks like they're going to stay the night," Kaida said slowly. "We could always… stay out here until after sunset…"

Ren paused. "We could just talk to them. I mean, if he really is the Avatar… which I'm not saying he is… maybe he could help us with our Bending?"

She looked suddenly excited, and Kaida bit her lip, fighting the temptation to run straight up to them. "The Avatar's the master of all four elements," she murmured. "If anyone could possibly help both of us, it would be him. I mean, it's not like there's an abundance of opportunities in a place as tiny as Mizuna… But surely the Avatar wouldn't even be here? I mean, he would have much bigger things to do like ending the war!"

"Even the Avatar needs to rest, Kaida!" Ren said, practically bouncing up and down with excitement. "I don't even know what I would say to him! I mean, he's the Avatar! What does anyone say to the Avatar!?"

Then Kaida's skeptical side caught up with her optimism and her eyes narrowed. "Maybe he isn't," she said cautiously. "Maybe it's a Fire Nation trap. They aren't above tricking people into revealing their Bending—maybe they've just heard stories and want to corner the last two Benders in Mizuna."

Ren's excitement dimmed. "How could they possibly recreate the tattoos of the Avatar? And what about the flying bison? I'm not saying we run in there and start Bending for him, but at the very least talk to him."

"The tattoos could just be paint," Kaida reasoned. "The bison… well… that's a little harder… but still, we should be cautious." She looked at the sun already sinking toward the horizon and then back at the three kids gathering around a fire on the beach. "We could just act like we're going home… we'd walk straight by them…"

"Okay." Ren gathered her fishing pole and picked up the bucket holding their catch, then took a deep breath before beginning to walk toward them.

"Uh-oh," Sokka said, looking past his sister to the other side of the bay. "We've got company."

Aang looked up, then immediately grinned hugely. "Hey! I bet they live around here! They could probably help us find the elephant koi!"

Sokka looked outraged. "They could be Fire Nation spies come to capture you and take you to the Fire Lord!"

"Fire Nation spies who are carrying their day's catch and fishing poles, and who just so happened to already be here when we arrived?" Katara said sarcastically, rolling her eyes at her brother. "Come on, Sokka. They probably just live in that village we saw."

"If they live by the ocean they'll definitely know!" Aang said brightly, jumping up and waving at the girls. "Hey! Hey, you guys!"

Kaida blinked, trying not to look too surprised that the very kid they had noticed was now running toward them. She tried to rationalize that the Fire Nation would be less obvious about a trap, but it still made her a little nervous and she shifted her bare feet in the sand in case she needed to Bend. "Um, hello?" she responded uncertainly.

Ren smiled slightly. "Hi. Do you need help with something?"

"Do you guys live around here?" Aang asked, completely oblivious to Kaida's uneasiness.

"We're from Mizura, yes," the older girl answered slowly. "Why do you ask?"

Ren turned her head toward the boy and girl still sitting by the fire, her gaze lingering on the girl. Something about her seemed to call to something within Ren, though she shrugged it off and turned her attention back to the boy in front of them.

Katara sighed heavily as she looked at Sokka, who had a permanent suspicious glare on his face.

"He better be careful," Sokka muttered darkly. "Gonna get us all arrested because he wants to go koi surfing…"

"I was just wondering if you knew of a place with these huge koi?" Aang asked innocently. "I mean, I know it's somewhere around here…"

Kaida cocked her head to the side curiously. "You're looking for elephant koi? You mean like they have around Kyoshi Island?"

"Kyoshi?" Aang repeated. "Like Avatar Kyoshi?"

Ren's eyes darted toward her cousin and then back to the boy. "Yes. Why are you looking for elephant koi?" she asked curiously.

Aang grinned. "For surfing, of course!"

Kaida shook her head as if she thought she hadn't heard him right. "Surfing? You must be joking."

"Nope," Sokka said, coming to stand beside Aang and crossing his arms. "Aang's just that easily distracted."

Katara joined Sokka next to Aang and smiled apologetically. "I apologize in advance for anything stupid my brother may say. My name is Katara. This is my brother Sokka, and obviously this is Aang."

"My name is Ren and this is my cousin Kaida," Ren said, smiling at the three of them. "Why in the world would you want to go koi surfing? Isn't that dangerous?"

"No, it's fun!" Aang insisted with a laugh.

Sokka, on the other hand, narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "You don't look very much like cousins," he said, looking suspiciously from Kaida's pale complexion to Ren's coppery skin. Where Kaida's hair was sleek and black, Ren's was wavy and brown. And Kaida's green eyes were not even close to Ren's stormy gray ones. Add in the four inches of height that Kaida had on her cousin and they made a pretty diverse pair.

"We're cousins, not twins," Kaida said with a roll of her eyes. "And Ren's mother was from the Northern Water tribe."

"Your mother was from the Northern Water tribe?" Katara asked excitedly. "Is she a Bender? I'm still looking for a master. I have a lot to learn," she admitted, smiling wryly.

Ren looked shocked and shot a glance at her cousin. "Um, yes. She was."

"If you're looking for a master here you came too late," Kaida said quietly. "Aunt Izumi was a great healer; that's why she was one of the first targets when the Fire Nation rounded up the Benders here. I was only three then, and Ren wasn't even old enough to remember."

Aang looked down sadly, as if he was taking personal responsibility for what had happened. "I'm sorry," he said quietly.

"It's a pretty common story here," Kaida said grimly. "The Waterbenders were massacred and the Earthbenders forced to mine coal for the Fire Nation ships. Then one day, the army decided we had run our usefulness." Her eyes turned as hard as jade. "They blew the entrance to the mine early one morning and buried everyone inside. We haven't seen a single Fire Nation ship since."

"You said we," Sokka said suspiciously. "Does that mean you worked in the mines too?"

Kaida glared at him. "That was ten years ago. I was six when they collapsed a thousand tons of dirt and rock on the heads of my father and a lot of other good men and women. No, I wasn't exactly old enough to be working in the mines."

Katara's expression turned to sadness. "I'm sorry. We didn't mean to bring back any bad memories."

Ren smiled sadly. "It's alright. How could you have known?" She paused as if considering the next question for a moment before asking, "So… how advanced are you in your Bending?"

"Not nearly as far as she thinks she is," Sokka muttered.

Katara shot a glare at her brother before smiling at Ren again. "Not nearly far enough. I have so much work to do, but I can't find anyone to teach me. That's why we're going to the Northern Water kingdom. We're hoping we can find someone there."

"We?" Kaida asked, raising her right eyebrow. "Are you boys Benders too?"

"Me, play with magic water? Please," Sokka said with a roll of his eyes.

"I don't know much Waterbending yet," Aang admitted as honestly as possible.

Kaida cocked her head to the side. "You don't look much like a Waterbender."

Ren looked confused. "He's not a Waterbender, but you are?"

Aang chuckled. "Uh, well… I'm kind of the Avatar."

"Aang!" Sokka objected. "You can't tell people that! What if they're Fire Nation spies!?"

Kaida didn't even bother being upset at his accusation, just stared at Aang in awe. "No, you—really? I mean, I saw the tattoos, but… you're an Airbender?"

Ren looked shocked but relieved at the same time. "You're—but how?"

Katara looked slightly nervous. "Well, we found him outside our village encased in a huge ball of ice."

Kaida looked at Aang like she had never seen anything quite like him before—which, naturally, she hadn't. "So you were frozen for a hundred years? And you didn't die? How is that possible?"

"I'm not really sure," Aang said with an awkward chuckle. Then a gleam lit up his eyes. "But… check this out!"

He pulled a couple of pebbles out of a pocket and held them between his palms, and then suddenly started whirling them around with a gust of concentrated wind. "Oh wow," Kaida whispered, unable to believe her eyes.

Then, as Kaida and Ren leaned in closer, something truly bizarre happened. Aang's tattoos began to glow a bright blue-white. Suddenly a spout of fire flew from the boy's fingertips too, a thin trail of water glided over from the ocean to join the elements spinning in his hands.

The second all four elements met on Aang's palm, Kaida felt an electric charge pulse through her veins. She was no longer in control of her Bending; the earth cracked beneath her feet and as she tried to steady herself to stop it, she realized that flames were dancing on her palms. And though she couldn't see it, where Aang's eyes were glowing blue-white, hers suddenly shone red-gold.

Ren gasped as she looked down at her feet to see a tornado-like wind swirling around them, being joined by tiny droplets of water drawn from the sea. "What's happening!?" she cried, sounding as terrified as she felt even without being able to see that her eyes were glowing the same color as Kaida's.

Sokka, of course, focused on only one thing: "FIREBENDER!"

Kaida stared at her hands, shaking with fear and uncertainty. "But I—I'm not—"

The fire leapt, out of control, onto the earth and exploded upward at the contact. For one brief moment, the plume of fire, earth, water, and air mingled; and then suddenly everything went still, the light dissipating from all three pairs of eyes.

Aang staggered backward, looking at Kaida and Ren in awe. "What was that!?"