"Water. Earth. Fire. Air. My grandmother used to tell me stories about the old days, a time of peace when the Avatar kept balance between the Water Tribes, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Air Nomads. But that all changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar mastered all four elements. Only he could stop the ruthless firebenders. But when the world needed him most, he vanished. A hundred years have passed and the Fire Nation is nearing victory in the War. Two years ago, my father and the men of my tribe journeyed to the Earth Kingdom to help fight against the Fire Nation, leaving me and my brother to look after our tribe. Some people believe that the Avatar was never reborn into the Air Nomads, and that the cycle is broken. But I haven't lost hope. I still believe that somehow, the Avatar will return to save the world."
There once was a time when I would have called the world peaceful. I would tell an asking stranger that I lived in a harmonious place, where it did not matter what kind of bender you are because we all lived together. We were one. Why did it have to end? Why couldn't it stay in peace forever? Simple. No Avatar, No Rules.
Katara paddled the boat as hard and fast as she possibly could. Her arms aching as if she has drained all energy out of them, when the time has not. The water pulled them between icebergs like a drain had opened in the sea and is sucking everything into it. In front of her, Sokka yelped and pushed off an iceberg before it ensnared them. Everything was a blur, and he could not even think of what might be going on. He supposed that they would find out soon enough.
That was the last thought in his head before two ice blocks ahead of them made the gap between them close in around the middle of their boat. He suddenly pushed off the bottom of the boat with the oar and boosted himself out of the way. At the same time, Katata had turned and leaped onto the nearest platform she could see, and slid face-first down to the edge before coming to a halting stop. When she looked up, the first thing she felt was relief. She was okay, and Sokka must be too or she would be hearing him screams and whines. Then she felt anger, Sokka can't steer and now we are floating on ice in the middle of no-where with no boat left. Would you look at that?
"You call that a left?" She asked a little breathless. It had a sarcastic tone to it, but there was also caution. She knew her brother was sensitive.
"You don't like my steering? Well, maybe you should have just," he waves his arm like waves as dramatic as he could, "waterbend-ed us out of the ice." At this he peeked an eye open to see his sisters face. Ha, now I've insulted her as much as I feel insulted, he chimed to himself"
"Oh! So now this is my fault" Katara retorted defensively.
"I knew I should have left you at home," He almost sighed. Trying to act like he could have caught plenty of fish if she wasn't here to help him."Leave it to a girl to screw things up." And he turned his head away from her. Katara's face contorted up to the middle of her face, tears formed in her eyes.
"You are the most sexist, immature, nut brained," She racked her brain for better insults and let a small huff of anger out. She threw up her arms still sore from the hard paddling,"I am ASHAMED to be related to you!"
Sokka heard a crack noise, and glanced up toward his sister to see if the noise came from her or something else. He was about to look back down at the water and let Katara finish her rant, but his eyes caught a crack forming off the edge of a berg. Did her yelling cause that? She was so into her insults that she didn't notice the piece about to chip off and land on them. Sokka looked to Katara, PLEASE stop yelling and turn around! There was a slight pause in her speech, and he was able to mutter, "Uhh, Katara?" He shrank back in fear with a scared glove shaking towards the ice. But she halted not. With every angry fwap of her arms, the water slammed against the side of the great rock, cracking it deeper and deeper. Until it shattered as Katara looked over her shoulder.
They both gasped and grabbed on to the edge of the ice as the waves pushed it over vertical with the two hanging by their mittens. The waves pushed and carried them away from the splitting ice, and came to a slow, rocking halt. Sokka's arm was over his sister, protectively holding her. A little relief came to his face, but was quickly taken over by his sarcastic side.
"Okay, you've gone from weird to freakish, Katara." And he pulled his arm away from her.
Katara looked down at the water, amazed. "You mean I did that?"
"Yep. Congratulations," he elbowed her with one lifted eyebrow in his joking way. But Katara wasn't paying attention. Just then a blue light caught his eyes. It was glowing and raising higher up out of the water. The water bubbled and up rose a giant light blue mass of energy, causing the two to stumble back was in the shape of a giant sphere. But wait, wait is that? Is there something inside of it, causing the light? The middle was a black area in the center of the globe shimmering with light.
Katara stepped closer to try to get a better look. To her confusion, she found out it was a person frozen in the middle. He was kind of small, but a sense of power radiated out of him. The blue light was coming from these arrows in his skin; down the arms and pointing on the back of the hand, and over the top of his head onto his forehead.
The strange person was sitting with his legs crossed, fists pressed together in front of him, and a bowed head. He looked like a monk meditating there in the center. His eyes opened and the blue light overpowered the sun, or so it seemed. The thought that this could be a trap of the fire nation doings scared Saka, or maybe it was a spaceship from in the sky. Yeah, spaceship sounded much better to him. But yet, Katara saw a person. A person who was stuck and needed help. She pulled Saka's club from his back to whack the ice with, and ran towards the colorful sphere. Sokka, dumbfounded, ran after her with the spear.
"Katara, we don't know what this thing is!" They jumped across the some small piece of ice and onto the edge. Katara ran up to it, pulled the club back in her arms, and pushed it forward as hard as she could. The club hit, and she formed a small crater. Saka stood in the back, still too dumbfounded to do anything else. She hit it again, and again, and again; grunting with the force of the hit. Her hands and arms ached as she desperately pounded the ice, but she had to know what this was. Her last hit before she gave up crashed through the ice and released a shotgun of air in their faces. The force sent Katara backwards off her feet, into Sokka. Sokka grabbed a hold of her and pushed against the air.
A light shot high into the sky emanating blue waves. Nearby, Zuko stood on the deck of his ship looking up to the light in the sky. "Finally," he clenched his fist and lowered his eyes. "Uncle!" He turned around to the low table and a grey bearded man sat firmly. "Do you realize what this means?" He lifted a hand towards the stream of light.
"That I won't get to finish my game?" the old man said in a disappointed tone. He sat holding a card, looking at Zuko behind the veil of hot tea steam.
"It means my search," Zuko said turning back to the light and closing his eyes to take in this moment and remember it forever, "will end." The skin around his burnt eye wrinkled up like a raisin in the sun. The elder man sighed deeply and laid down his card.
"That light came from an incredibly powerful source," Zuko threw his arm back out like a child demanding to be believed. "It has to be him!"
"Ooooh, it's just the celestial light," he reassured. "We've been down this road before, Prince Zuko. I don't want you to get too excited over nothing." He laid the wooden square on top of another one. "Please sit. Why don't you enjoy a cup of calming jasmine tea?"
At this, Zuko snapped. "I don't need a cup of your calming tea! I need to capture the Avatar! Helmsman! Head a course for the light!" His barked orders settled quite fast with the men on the ship. Wind blew past his ship as the same breeze whipped Katara's hair around her face. Saka pointed the spear into the misty blue light.
Then the most odd thing happened, if you believe it. A boy around his own age crawled up from the ice and stared down and him with glowing eyes. Sokka raised his spear and commanded that it stop. For a moment, he thought maybe the boy was going to attack him, but the blue faded from his eyes and skin. An odd child in strange clothing was falling over the edge of the sphere. Katara acted quickly and rushed forward to grab the boy before he hit the ground. She held his head up from the snow with worried looks as Saka poked his head with the end of his club. Katara threw out her arm towards him, "Stop it!"
She rolled over the boys body and looked into his opening eyes. They held a serene color of brown when they flitted open. His hair looked like it had been shaved off, or lost while he was frozen underwater.
"I need to ask you something..." the boy asked, weakly.
Katara dropped him on the ground and clutched his shirt in her gloved hand. "What?"
"Please," he strained, "Come closer."
Mystified that he could even speak, Katara did. "What is it?"
His face changed from a dying man to an excited child. " Will you go penguin sledding with me?!"
What the literal- "Auuh, sure?" she questioned leaning back. The boy lifted himself from the ground and onto his feet. Saka exclaimed and put the sword to him.
The boy rubbed his head, looking around. "What's going on here?"
"You tell us!" Sokka said. "How'd you get into the ice? And why aren't you frozen?" He poked the boy in the stomach. The boy gasped and started climbing back into the ice where he came.
"FENDO!" he jumped forward into a large donkey and buried his face in its mane. The great beast stood and shook it's body.
"What is that thing?" Sokka asked.
"Fendo, my trusted donkey."
"Right. And this is Katara, my flying sister."
Fendo shook his head violently and snorted slimy, green mucus over Sokka.
"It'll wash out," the boy said with an apologetic smile.
Sokka began to rant about how he could be a fire nation spy, but Katara interrupted- "The paranoid one is my brother Sokka. You never told us your name."
"I'm-" he began, but got stuck at the last moment. He stuttered a few times and released a sneeze that rippled the water around the ice, and shot him upward into the sky. A few moment later, water fell and he glided back to the ice. "I'm Jesus!" He said lifting a hand up beside his face and smiling sheepishly.