"Eska."

"Yes brother?"

"Is this animal abuse?"

Eska strapped on her goggles. The brother and sister were sitting on top of a giant otter penguin, one that was actually quite infamous among the southern village locals. As large as the otter penguin had grown into, Desna and Eska could still barely sit their bums on the animal's back. A rope was tied around them, as they were strapped on the penguins back like it were a saddle.

"Probably," Eska said. "On the bright side, it just proves how superior we are."

"That doesn't make it okay."

A few paces next to them, three children were staring down the hill on top of their own otter penguins. Their rides were smaller of course, each to match all of their proper sizes. "Ready?" Meelo growled out. His siblings nodded. Meelo howled out, like his penguin was motor that could get charged up.

The penguin Desna was on was ridiculously old. He didn't trust the heart wouldn't stop while they were in mid fall. The 'hill' they were preparing to ride there seemed more like am mountain. Desna gulped sitting behind Eska on the otter's back, "we did this together twice when we were five, do you really think-"

Eska yelled, "Face my fury you foreign scum! Banzaaaai!"

She kicked the penguin and it waddled its body forward in a panicked action. The paws thrusted into the snow, the two siblings quickly dove into the steep canyon hill like they were falling off a cliff. Desna screamed while Eska cheered with her arms raised up.

"Hey!" Jinora said not moving forward, "that's cheating!"

"We have to take the enemy by storm!" Meelo yelled with an arm raised up. Like he were entering a war, Meelo yelled, "onward to victory!" Meelo glided forward.

Ikki yelled, "yahooooo!" And slid her otter penguin behind him.

"Not fair," Jinora pouted, before using her own legs to forcefully move the mammel forward.

Desna and Eska sped through the snow at high speeds screaming. The snow whooshed behind them before Meelo quickly rushed passed them. "Air bender cheater!" Desna yelled.

"Air bender cheater!" Desna yelled.

Ikki rushed next to them immediately after, and stuck her tongue out before passing beyond their speeds.

Meelo's voice echoed behind him, "for Air nomad honooooor!"

Eska yelled back, "airbenders have no honor!"

Eska leaned her body forward. While Desna was more focused onto holding tightly to his sister, Meelo and Ikki began throwing snow back at them. Eska yelled, "we agreed no bending!"

"We lost our bending," Ikki yelled, "so throwing snow is okay for us!"

A frozen tunnel appeared closer to them. "Watch out!" Desna yelled. Using his bending, her redirected the snow around them to guide Meelo and Ikki into the cavern. They slid across the icy walls while barely missing the frozen icicles that easily could've crashed into them. "Wooohooo!" Ikki yelled, making her echo emphasize her laugh. Meelo was laughing too, the pure excitement of danger made the experience all the more thrilling.

"Oh crap," Desna said, "we're going to kill Tenzin's kids!"

The otters were doing most of the navigating for them. While the kids couldn't steer the animals, the otter penguins had the instincts needed to dodge any collision course that came their way. The cold ice provided the perfect fall for them and the animals. By the time they reached the end of the frozen cavern, they reached a cliff. Meelo, Ikki, Desna, and Eska all flung into the air while the Otter Penguins prepared for a dive into the ocean.

Can't survive cold water, Eska remembered.

Eska instinctively rose the sea water to the air, and Desna took her lead and formed the water into a long extended slide. The slide shaped into a giant swirl, and extended to exactly where Ikki and Meelo would fall. Desna, Eska, Ikki, and Meelo, all slid down the slide in a fast paced action.

Meelo crashed into the soft pile of snow after reaching the edge. Ikki fell on top of him. Eska successfully landed on both feet, and made a pose before wobbling her body straight. "Victory!" Eska said.

Desna landed next to her, "we almost died."

"Still victory!"

"Nah-uh," Meelo said. "You said first to the bottom wins, we fell off the slide first!"

"Yeah!" Ikki said rising from the snow. "You also said no bending, that slide was bending."

"You're serious?" Desna growled, "I just saved your life."

"You still cheated to do it!" Ikki complained.

Desna squinted at him, "see, this is exactly why I hate children! Ungrateful brats..."

"You say that every day," Ikki said pointing, "you know what I think? I think you're lying, and you actually love us."

Desna threw a regular snow ball at her face, "stop spreading lies, child."

"Fine, you guys win." Eska threw a snowball at Meelo, "but we can still beat you in a non-bending snowball fight."

Meelo wiped off the snowball from his face with a frown. "But we did that yesterday. What else do you guys do for fun?"

Eska pouted her lips. "Well..." Eska looked up for a moment, "crap, I'm out of ideas."

"Crap!" Ikki exclaimed.

"Yeah, crap!" Meelo repeated.

Eska frowned at them, "aaaaaand now I'm teaching them bad words…"

Jinora walked down the icey passage to meet with the rest of her siblings. Kya was following behind her, she had only found Jinora after they were halfway done with their race. Jinora had opted not to go down the dangerous frozen tunnel, and instead walked down as Kya lead the way. Jinora said, "come on guys, it's time to go home."

"Ahhh," Meelo groaned at the sight of his aunt, "but I don't wanna go home. "

Jinora said, "come on Meelo, we still have to practice our forms before dinner."

Ikki asked, "do we really have to practice our forms if we can't airbend anymore?"

"No, she's right," Eska sighed. "studies first, and all that mojo. You guys gotta go home. It's getting dark anyway, and we can't play when the northern lights are up."

"But it's so boring at home," Ikki groaned. Ikki ran up to Desna and hugged him from the thigh, "let's sleep over at our cousin's house!"

Desna raised an eyebrow, "we're not even cousins yet."

Kya tapped at her necklace, technically, she was engaged to Unalaq. But it was the only excuse the kids needed to call Eska and Desna their cousins.

Meelo said, "Uncle Bumi never learned his forms and he's not a bender. I can still be a general even if I never get my bending back too!"

"Don't say that!" Jinora snapped at him, "don't you ever say that! We're not going to be like this forever! Don't even think about being like Bumi!"

The frozen hillside echoed Jinora's scream. A long silence fell over all of them as they remembered that never bending again was a very real possibility for all of them. "Jinora," Kya said, "we will get your bending back. Its just important that you be patient for now."

Jinora glowered, "easy for you to say, he didn't take away your bending..."

"Jinora..."

"We'll find a way," Eska said calmly to her. "If Zuko could bring dragons back, and two way radios can exist, we can bring back bending too. We just haven't figured out how yet."

Jinora stayed quiet. Kya said, "come on, Katara has hot meals ready for all of you." Before leaving, Kya said to the twins, "thank you," with a genuine smile.

When the family walked out of earshot, Eska said, "I really hate her."

Desna bursted out laughing, "are you serious?"

"I don't know," Eska said murmuring, "it's like she's trying too hard to be my mom."

"Or, you know, she's genuinely a nice person."

Eska shrugged, "it just feels wrong." She laid back on the snow and looked up at the dark sky. It was a calm day, and she could see the stars clearly beneath the southern lights.

Desna asked, "do you really believe that? That they can get back their bending?"

"Of course not," Eska said. "But I couldn't say that to Jinora, at least not now."

"This is why you're trying to make them happy," Desna stated. "You're trying to get them used to the idea that they might never bend again."

Eska nodded, "just because you lost something, it doesn't mean you can't ever have fun again... Do you think they'll get their bending back?"

"I honestly do. As unlikely as it sounds, they need to have hope when there is none to see."

The light sky soon became night, and the northern lights soon danced above their heads. As they stared up at the lights in a calm silence, they both made their own wishes for Tenzin's kids. Eska wished that they'd accept their new lives as non-benders, and Desna wished that their lives would go back to be what it was before Amon's uprising. Neither of them realized that none of these wishes would come true.