It was freezing, even for a winter night in the South Pole this was cold. Kia hugged herself against the winds and shuddered at the thought of them. They were proof of just how far her father had fallen. Back when he'd still been strong, the air itself had always seemed calmer and lighter with him around. This night could very well turn out both a blessing and a tragedy. At the North end of the village, Kia's daughter was about to make her a Grangran, but at the south end her father could very well be dying. Sixty-one years had passed since her father had ended the Great War and supposedly, he had lived for one-hundred years before that. That is, if you could call being trapped in an iceberg living. She was at her parents' house now. Her mother's blue eyes were empty with hopelessness. She followed Katara's eyes to see what she saw. Had Aang's skin had that grayish tint to it yesterday? Suddenly Kia was no longer the brave old woman she'd grown up to be but the scared, childish, little girl she had been each time her father had left without her to help keep the peace. Her hand felt through the darkness beneath the thick blankets for her father's hand. It was abnormally cold but there was still a pulse there. She watched his chest rise and fall with each breath and about an hour later, it finally ceased. Katara tried to wake him and when she nearly passed out because she couldn't Kia caught her. They cried for him together before Kia finally decided to check on her daughter. When she arrived, the Water Sages informed her that her new granddaughter was fine but that her daughter had died in childbirth. That was when Katara walked in. She insisted on taking the little girl. Kia tried to convince her mother otherwise but she just kept saying over and over, "Your father would have wanted it this way", there was no arguing with her anymore.
Two whole years passed and Kia herself died. Katara soon was the only family Aurora had left. Appa was still around but it had been clear over the last few years that he didn't want to be. Katara had to force him to eat. That all changed when Aurora learned to walk. She stepped outside the house and Appa acted like Aang had just come back from the dead. Katara wondered… after all water was the next element in the cycle… and Aurora was born the night of Aang's death… could she be…? It was possible but the part of Katara that still remembered those rough early days hoped not…