Those moments before finding her... were some of the darkest I've experienced
The flashes of light, angry shouts of the ocean, and images of the Avatar State added so much confusion in the small world I lived in before finally accepting my responsibility; but she's really the reason why I made it out, and the only reason I've ever been able to sleep peacefully since.
"Aang, it's getting late. Why don't you come to bed with me tonight?"
Hearing Katara's voice; reminiscing on the life we've been through and what we are today – it really sinks in a feeling of subtlety that I know is sacred amongst the Avatars. "I'll be right there, sweetie. I'm just gathering my thoughts – you know I have to meet with Zuko about something important tomorrow."
She sighs quietly before asking me to hurry. She'd been impatient for me to get more sleep since the Day of Black Sun – before actually – and the quietness of the night set in at her muse. "Baby, I know we shouldn't be sleeping together, but could you please remove some of your Avatar duties for just a moment?" she asks, truly speaking about my nomad morality.
"It's not like we're sleeping in one little sleeping bag," she adds. I simply chuckle as a retort.
"Katara, I know this about the only time that we get together alone, but I can't take back any of those details I had as a child; they're what keeps us floating now." I quietly say, rising from my meditative posture.
I turn and see her stare, quiet and intense, as if she'd been looking in the same spot for the past hour. Her eyes fluttering slightly, and the natural spark they have reflecting on my decision. "Kat- I said I was coming, sweetie," I say, smiling. I still walk away, but return moments later with two drinks in my hand: two coconut cups filled with ram-cow milk mixed with strawberry cocoa beans – tart to me, but I know she loves it.
"Thanks," she says sweetly, taking a sip. "Aang, I want to talk to you about something important. That's why I want you to sleep in my tent tonight."
I gulp. "What'd you want to talk to me about?"
"It's been four years now, Aang. Can you believe it? I never would've thought finding the Avatar would have been so… absolutely amazing."
"Ever since meeting you, it's been the same. Like being in the spirit world, and living in the physical one: all the surrealistic of it and yet all of the feeling."
"Love. Something that we're both blessed to have. The spirits really have it out for us to be so happy… it's so easy to grasp, but I still feel a disturbance," Katara says looking away for a moment before tendering, and placing a hand on me knee; she looks on me with a sadness in her eyes.
"What's wrong?" A simple question that brings so many problems.
"Remember in the Forest of Faces? When I told you about the riddle the Mother had told me?"
"These people have sought for you for years, and you're just going to abandon them!? Come back!" Katara screamed at the mother while defending herself and Aang from spirit animals as the young Avatar directed at the angered spirit.
"You have no means to command me, human! Do you understand the meaning in your eyes?" replied the spirit.
"I mean for you to spare them in happiness! Give them the love that they need, please, Mother of Faces!" Aang yelled.
The Mother snapped all attention to Katara, before saying personally, "Those times you've felt the happiest at will be replaced by doubt, if you cannot find out where the roots of where you've come from are." Katara gasped as the Mother was attacked by a cloud of fire… Azula-
"Yes, I remember. I still haven't figured out what it means," I lament. Three years and still no idea to what the Mother could have meant.
"I think I do. The Mother spoke like she knew me; and spirits are eternal, right?"
"Yes, all accept the chain of Avatars," I matter-of-factly recall. "Maybe she means that joy is the proper way to be happy, and that it can be replaced with doubt if you're not willing to try something the first time."
She chuckled slightly, and smiled widely at me, "That's better than what I was thinking for sure!"
"What were you thinking, Katara?" I ask nervously, still curious.
"I don't know… What if something bad were to happen if we keep this up? You know – us?"
Heart dropping, I ask, "What would make you say that?" Unintentionally in a panic, I grab her left hand with a light squeeze.
"It's just the way she said it… and this is the happiest I've been; well, ever! There's no denying it," Katara smiles, kissing my cheek, "I guess – what I'm trying to say is… If something were to happen. I need you to be here with me. Every night. I'm sorry, but I don't care about any tradition that the world holds, I just need you with me. I want you to hold me – keep me safe, like you always do," she said, giving my hand a tight squeeze back. "Or at least return the favor," she joked.
Smiling she kisses me on my lips pationetly, and I return her love. 'I could do this forever in Ba Sing Se. It's the right temperature, right mood, and the most lovely type of urgency available.' Moments only ruined by a fire-storm of hail. I gently brush Katara's cheek grabbing hold of her waist as we whisk away twenty feet into the air. "Okay, you got me!" she shouts.
Surprise evident, but battle-readiness more aware, Katara spirals out of my arms and latches to her hip revealing a large pouch of water. I looked around for attackers as Katara lashes out several whips of ocean-tide force around the surrounding estate walls, fireballs flailing around ferociously.
Men and women alike scream in pain. "Attack with full force! Shoot the second tier!" shouts a commander hoarsely.
I let out a panicked yell as the flaming rocks hurdled beside Katara and me; eyes widening as I gathered Katara once more and encased us in a rock fortress. "Aang who is that!?" Katara screams.
"I have no idea!"
"It doesn't make logical sense to be this bold… At the Earth Kingdom Capital? Could it be more Fire Nation rebels?" Katara suggests.
Splitting a see-through hole in the earthy fortress I peeked at the assailants. "It's… I have no idea!" Closing the peep-hole, I rack my head for a solution.
"Aang, not the Avatar State! Not yet. Maybe they're confused! The Earth Benders are the only ones who would throw boulders that big!" Katara optimizes.
"Girl, they're flinging flaming flocks of rocks at us, and I have arrows tattooed onto my head! We've been through this plenty of times; I assure you they are not 'confused!"
"It's a reasonable explanation!"
"I understand that, but right now might be a good time to save our lives!" I sit down to meditate, while the rock fortress weakens harshly.
"I'm not sure about this one, Avatar Aang!" Katara screams, ducking down. She held tightly to me, but I ignored her actions, drawing in the spiritual energy I consistently feel swelling in my gut. My eyes bulge open as I see through the different times of my past lives, devising a solution for the current problem.
Encasing Katara in a smaller and much denser cover, I hover over towards the combatants, stopping their rain in midair before dispelling it to the wayside. "What are your dealings with the Avatar and his loved one!?" I command with the fire of Roku's dragon riding my back.
To myself and my past lives surprise, the attackers quickly regroup into a retreating position. I feel the pressures of the Avatars telling me to finish them quickly and solve the issue, but I choose to let them go, freeing Katara from her shelter.
"Katara, we're gonna have to talk to the Earth King tomorrow before I meet with Zuko," uncomfortably speaking, "- and we're going to have to sleep on Appa tonight. We'll head to the Fire Nation capital starting tonight."
"Of course," she says, packing her items quickly and tightly to Appa.
~Eastern Temple of Altah~
"This time has come."
"But to which plain shall it receive? Shall the Avatar know his second destiny?"
"Questions better told than answered…"
Voices whispered and argued, causing a young boy to wake up abruptly and startled. "Who is that! What am I doing in the dark, strangers?"
Pale skin and indefinitely black hair came into view as the boy walked into the night filled with the spirits of the moon. The eerie feeling boy had gained upon awakening sunk in deeper than before. "Oh no… What did I do?" he asks aloud, glancing down to green and red hat.