Continuum-Chapter One-An Unexpected Alternative

When the Gaang is in the Northern Water Tribe village, Aang begins learning Waterbending and after attempts to teach Katara incognito, they decided to just let Aang learn, and Katara will just have to stick to healing. That is, until she meets Ren, a young waterbender who learned from her mother, and decides to help Katara, as long as Katara helps her in return. They become great friends and Ren soon become part of the Gaang, but complication erupts, as always.

Katara was so upset when she realized that it would never happen.

I'm never going to learn WaterBending. After all that work…

But she came here for Aang, right? Aang, so he could learn the second of the four elements required so he could become a fully realized Avatar and overthrow the despot Fire Lord who had been planning to cause the other nations pain.

…Right?

That was only part of it. Katara actually had to learn this; it was from a deep need inside her from when she first took control of the water. A deep primal need, like needing to sleep, eat, drink, Katara needed to master WaterBending.

But how?

Good question. Learning from Aang was impossible and Healing just wasn't enough. Not to mention that it was practically a felony in this tribe. Who would teach her?

Katara attempted to push the thought away as she walked around in the Marketplace. She saw a store that caught her eye, Sayri's Scents. Katara had always been a fan of aromatherapy and perfume and walked in quietly.

There was a girl about Aang's age looking at a flask with a perfume in it. She seemed awfully focused and Katara just watched her intently, ignoring the thought that she was intruding. The girl was holding the flask in one hand and her other hand was twirling the liquid with the movements she used, obviously mixing two essences together. Before Katara could stop herself, she blurted out:

"You're a WaterBender!"

The girl looked up in alarm, and dropped the flask she was holding. Letting it fall and shatter on the floor. She gasped and said, without thinking, "Didn't you see the sign on the door?"

Katara, just deciding she should do so looked and saw that the store was supposedly closed. And by the looks of the drawn curtains and the blocked windows, this girl wasn't expecting customers.

"How did you get in here, anyway?" She took on a defensive stance, with her hands on her hips and said "I locked the door."

Katara looked at her and said "Actually the door was open."

"No way, I'm sure I locked it. I'll show you." She walked over to the door and tried to pull it open to show that it wouldn't which meant that it would be locked, however the door wasn't locked, so she fell backward on her backside, yelling in surprise and anger. "That stupid door! It NEEDS to be replaced. It's been doing this repeatedly. I'll have to add it to my to-do list." She said picking herself up from the floor and dusting herself off as Katara fought back a giggle, it was quite an amusing display, but if she had laughed, the girl would have yelled at her even more. "And Miko!" The girl yelled at the, now awake, cat-owl that was apparently called Miko. "Why didn't you warn me that someone was coming in? You usually hiss or hoot or something." The cat-owl just looked at her drowsily, annoyed that it was forced awake by his owner.

The girl turned to Katara now and said "Well, I guess you can go and tell the officials that I'm a criminal for WaterBending." She sighed in defeat.

Katara put her hands up and said "No! No, I don't want to turn you in!"

The girl crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow. "Really? Why not? What do you want?"

Katara looked at her and smiled when she got an idea, and then said:

"I want you to teach me WaterBending."