Bella was ready. She smiled as she looked at everything she had packed. She had brought plenty of her robes, two extra Gliders, and extra pairs of shoes. Also, she had brought her's and Aang's money because she knew he would forget one way or another. She had also brought pillows, sleeping bags, cover-up for their tattoos, and airbending and firebending scrolls ("For extra practice!") she had told Aang. After 20 minutes of loading it all up on Tah-Li, her female flying bison, she had everything where it would take Tah-Li the least amount of effort to fly while carrying it all. She did a graceful airbending spin and landed on top of Tah-Li's big, blocky head. She was about to leave, but her long-time father figure and Mentor stopped her.
"Giatso? What's wrong?" she asked in her soft yet firm voice.
He ducked his head. "I'm sorry to tell you but... Aang has ran away."
Her instincts screamed at her to go after him right away, but instead her eyes flashed white before she asked him calmly. "How long ago?"
"About an hour and a half ago, Bella."
She sighed with relief. She had time. Bella hopped down of Tah-Li and wrapped her thin arms around Monk Giatso.
"Thank you." She whispered to her beloved Mentor.
"You know that was from me AND Aang. We both love you like a father." She smiled sweetly to the aging monk.
He smiled softly back to her. "The feelings are mutual. Try to bring him home, Dearest Bella."
She wrapped her arms around him once more. "I'll do my best, Dad."
He kissed her head fatherly. "Good-luck." he whispered.
She smiled and hopped back onto Tah-Li, who gave Giatso a goodbye lick.
"Yip-Yip!" she yelled and with a graceful leap, Tah-Li and Bella were soaring.
Though she hated to do it, she reached out with her Guardian senses. Her eyes became sharper than an eagles along with all her other senses. After a few minutes, she felt Aang. He was a couple miles east of her.
Still in Guardian mode, she turned Tah-Li to the east. She stood on her beloved bison's head and did a quick airbending move. Suddenly her and Tah-Li were rocketing. She sat back down and waited. In less than a minute she was close enough to see him clearly without Guardian senses, so she stood and did another move and as quick as they were rocketing, her and Tah-Li went back to their normal pace. A minute later Aang spotted her.
He turned Appa to them. "What are you doing here, Bella?" he shouted.
"Trying to get you to come back home! Giatso is so upset Aang! Please, let's go! It's about to storm!" With that last sentence she looked up at the sky and turned her Guardian senses off. Getting a little scared for her and Aang, she continued, "Please, Aang!"
He was about to respond, when twin lightning bolts came down and struck right next to them, effectively stunning them both and driving them under the tumultuous currents of the sea. She was slightly delirious as she thought, 'Thank goodness I put extra restraints on everything I packed'. She snapped out of it when she went into Guardian mode. Like the Moon and Ocean, Bella and Aang worked together rhythmically, icebending the water until all of them, including Appa and Tah-Li, were totally surrounded by ice. She and Aang quickly became unconscious.
As she gained back conciousness, the first thing she noticed was that the ice that was encasing her, Aang, Tah-Li, and Appa, was cracking. The second thing she noticed as she opened her eyes is that they were not anywhere near where they had been when she and Aang had talked. The last was there were two voices around them, a male and female, and they were shouting at each other. More the male shouting at the female not to do something. That was the last thing she heard before the ice around them completely shattered.
She quickly started using her firebreath to warm herself. Once she was nice and toasty, she moved onto everyone else. This all took just a few seconds. It didn't completely dry them, but it got them warm enough to move around. As she stood she heard a crunch behind her. She whipped her thin, wet frame around and turned to look at two figures. Curiosity getting the better of her, she ran up to them, her wet hair sprinkling water and snow at them. Their eyes widened, the male's more so, as she widened her big brown-black eyes to get a better look.
Satisfied that they were pretty much harmless, she leant back and smiled sweetly. "Hello!" she said in her soft voice.
The girl grinned, "Hi! I'm Katara. This is my brother Sokka."
"It's a pleasure to meet you Katara and Sokka of the...?" She trailed off to imply that she wanted to know where they were from.
"Southern Water Tribe." The girl supplied helpfully, still smiling prettily.
Bella grinned. "I'm Bella of the Southern Air Nomads," she pointed over to Aang who was trying to wake up Appa and Tah-Li. "That's Aang," she pointed at Appa and Tah-Li, "And those beautiful beasts are our flying bison, Appa and Tah-Li."
The boy she now knew as Sokka grew cautious. "Air Nomads?" She heard him speak for the first time.
She turned to him and smiled. "Yes." She jumped backwards fifteen feet in the air and landed infront of Aang, effectively scaring him.
She grabbed his sleeve and pulled him over to Katara and Sokka. Confused, he allowed her to pull him. "Aang," She said as she stopped infront of the two watertribe members. "This is Katara," she pointed at her new friend, who smiled sweetly at them both, "And Sokka!" she said pointing at him.
No longer confused, Aang grinned and then stepped up to Katara. "Will you go penguin sledding with me?"
Bella smiled, knowing Aang was warming up to Katara quite nicely.
Bella got out of the tent. Her long bangs fell into her eyes slightly, yet covered her tattoos amazingly. She loved the feel of the cold on her skin. She smiled as she closed her eyes and lifted her face to the sky. She opened her eyes confused to see black snow instead of the usual white. She ran as fast as she could to Sokka, who had warmed up to her considerably, enough so that they were pretty much friends.
"Sokka what's happening?" She held out the black snow.
His face grew grim. "Fire Nation." He ran off.
She was extremely confused as she followed him silently. Sick of following after a minute, she decided to look for herself. She sped to the front of the village and up to the top of the snow bank. She stood to her full height and looked out on the sea. She saw faintly one small Fire Nation ship sailing toward them.
Zuko stood at the front of the bow and kept an eye on the small village through a spy glass. He was about to give up, seeing nothing, when a figure in various oranges suddenly appeared next to the village's flag. He quickly had a soldier next to him fetch the best binoculars on the ship. In less than ten seconds, they were in his hands. He looked out through them and gasped. He saw a thin girl with long silky chocolate brown hair. Her bangs covered her forehead but he could still make out a bit of blue underneath them. Her eyes were so brown they were almost black and she was looking at them closely.
He passed the binoculars to his Uncle Iroh. "Look. Near the flag of the village."
He watched as his Uncle's eyes widened. "Do you see her?" Zuko asked.
"Yes, I see her. And," he chuckled softly, "She is very beautiful if I might say so."
Iroh looked at his nephew. "What of her?"
Zuko was exasperated. "Her bangs, there's an odd color underneath them and the same color is in the shape of arrows on the tops of her hands. Also, look at her clothes."
Iroh looked through the glass again, this time more closely. "Oh yes. If you also look at her stance, it's quite obvious she's an airbender."
Zuko was in shock. "Shouldn't she be older?"
"Maybe she is the Avatar's great-granddaughter?"
"How could that be true when he was supposed to be around twelve years old?"
Iroh sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I don't know." He heard the men say they were about to land. "Well, I suppose we'll find out soon enough."
Bella stood in her natural stance. Without warning, she did a triple back-flip before landing soundlessly and running like the wind to get her staff. All of her and Aang's things were now divided up between the two bison and secured tightly onto their saddles. She was ready for what Sokka had told her. Sokka had informed her that there had been a war started by the Fire Nation one hundred years ago. He had told her, with sad eyes, that they had completely wiped out the Air Nomads. She had cried for a long time until she remembered something Giatso had told her once, "Nothing is ever really lost, Dear Bella. Things leave and then return, reborn in the form of new things. I know you do not wish to hear me say things like this, but I want you to know, if anything were to ever happen to me or the other monks, I promise you we would find a way to return to you and Aang." She had grabbed onto Sokka and thanked him for telling her. She shook her head, her long hair whipping in her face. It was still hard for her to grasp that she and Aang were a hundred and 15 years old.
She sighed and prepared herself to fight as she saw the ship coming into land. "Where are you, Aang?" She whispered to herself.
Okay, this is my first story. I really hope you like it! :] If you have any questions just ask in a review or PM me. I'll do my best to answer all of them. And, yeah. :] That's about it. Hope you like my story!
~SNGL