I stared bleakly at what was left of my village. The fire had turned everything to charred ash and soot-including the villagers that had inhabited it. I didn't know by what luck I had missed the attack on my people. I had only been gone for a couple hours-long enough to make a trip to the stream and admire the flowers-long enough for my entire childhood and family to go up in smoke-quite literally.
This village had been my home for most of my life. My adopted mother found me sleeping in a basket near the river when she got up early to fetch water. My basket, she told me, had no distinctive markings or any indication of where I was from-not even my name. Wrapped around my hand was a necklace-a black choker with a single pendant. The pendant, a perfectly round pearl, was what had caught her eye and alerted her to my presence. She named me Cailyn, or pure, for the pearl's perfect, unblemished white. She had kept it for me until today, my sixteenth birthday, when, according to village tradition, I officially became a woman.
My adopted mother had shown me a great kindness as she had already had twin boys who were two years older than me. Tarak and Riel, my brothers, left for further Earthbending training a year ago and I missed them terribly. They had accepted me and loved me like a true little sister. It used to frustrate me so much because they were so overprotective of me, but I would have given anything to have been with them right then. I didn't even know where they were. That was "confidential military business."
Shaking off a sudden wave of dread and hopelessness, I walked slowly to the remains of my family's hut. I was too afraid to look inside, so I stood there silently and prayed. Then I ran into the forest without looking back. Night would soon arrive, so I found a low tree, curled up under it, and let the sorrow and exhaustion overwhelm me.
It was still dark when I awoke, but I got the feeling that I wasn't alone. I slowly became aware of whispering from nearby. Unsure of what to do, I kept very still. I lay silently and listened, afraid that the Fire Nation had returned. I could make out at least three distinct voices- one female and two male.
"Sokka!" the girl hissed, "get back here!"
"I'm just looking! For all we know, she could be a Fire Nation spy!"
I stiffened.
"Sokka, if everyone was really who you think, everyone but us would be Fire Nation spies, even Aang!"
"She has a point, Sokka" the younger male voice said, "you think everyone is a spy."
"Well, you can never be too careful!" Sokka shot back, "Did you see that village? You both know that was a Fire Nation attack and you know just as well as I do the kind of damage just one firebender can do!"
By then, their voices had been raised well above a whisper.
"Well, for all you know, she's just a nice girl who managed to escape the attack. How can we possibly know? Don't be so pessimistic," Katara snapped.
"I'm not being pessimistic, I'm being realistic. How do you know she's not a spy? You can't prove that either!"
"Does anyone want my opinion?" I asked, deciding to take the risk, and sat up to face them.
The sun had begun to come up and I could make out their faces. The girl wore a look of shock and mortification, the older boy, Sokka I thought, looked surprised, and the younger boy…had an arrow on his head. Some sort of tattoo, maybe, but he at least was smiling at me.
"Hi, I'm Aang," He said, "What's yo-"
"Who are you? Are you from the Fire Nation? Are you a spy? Answer me!" Sokka interrupted after regaining his composure.
"Sokka, cut it out! Let her speak!" Katara said.
"I will not cut it out, Katara! Not until she tells us who she is."
Katara rolled her eyes, "Don't mind my brother, he's a bit paranoid. I'm Katara, by the way. The paranoid one is my older brother, Sokka."
"What's your name?" Aang chimed in.
"I'm Cailyn," I said with a smile, "Nice to meet you all. Sorry, no firebending here. No bending at all, I'm afraid."
"You still haven't told us why you're here," Sokka interjected, "How do we know we can trust you?"
"You don't, I suppose," I said, looking him in the eye, "But isn't that what trust is about?"
Katara rolled her eyes at him, "So, what happened, Cailyn? It looked pretty bad."
"To tell you the truth, I'm not really sure," I explained, "I had only left for a couple hours and when I came back, well-you saw it."
"That's terrible," Katara said.
"Yeah, it just doesn't seem real. I've spent almost my entire life in that village and it just disappeared in the span of two hours."
"I know how you feel," Aang said quietly, "There are some things you just always expect to be there."
I stared open-mouthed at this little boy who seemed wise beyond his years. Of course, this thought was interrupted by an excited shout, "Momo!" and the same "wise" little boy scampered off after…a lemur.
"What…just happened?" I bewilderedly asked Katara and Sokka, who surprisingly hadn't spoken for at least two minutes.
"That would be Aang," he said now, "Avatar, airbender, waterbender, earthbender, and one weird little kid," he finished wryly.
"He's the Avatar?!" I burst out when he finished, "But how is that possible?"
"It's true, Cailyn. Believe it or not, but Aang's actually 112 years old," Katara told me.
"My village heard news of the Avatar, but I never would have guessed he was a kid."
"Aang will surprise you every step of the way," Katara said, "But he's got a good heart and a good head on his shoulders. I better go see where he got off to." She walked away in the direction Aang had gone.
I sat there, awkwardly fiddling with a strand of my hair. Sokka was still standing there, although he had taken out a sort of boomerang and was sharpening it.
"Hey! Ponytail!" a loud voice came from behind, interrupting the awkward silence, "Next time you guys decide to leave, try telling me!"
"Well, someone had to keep an eye on the campsite!" Sokka defended.
"Hello!" she said, knocking on Sokka's head, "I sort've have this blind thing going on. I CAN'T KEEP AN EYE ON ANYTHING! Besides, there are three others back at camp, anyways, remember?" and then she seemed to notice me for the first time, "Who's this? Your girlfriend?" she asked.
"She's not my girlfriend!"
"I'm not his girlfriend!" we said simultaneously.
I wasn't completely sure what to think of this girl. She was small, yet seemed to intimidate even Sokka. It was nice to see someone who reminded me of home. Sokka and Katara were both from the Water Tribe, judging by their clothing, and Aang was definitely an Air Nomad. Upon looking more closely, I realized she really was blind, yet she moved about her surroundings with confidence. Suddenly, she stamped her foot and the ground trembled.
"You're an Earthbender!" I exclaimed.
"Obviously," she said nonchalantly, "And you are…?"
"This is Cailyn," Katara cut in for me. She and Aang had just returned, lemur in tow.
"I'm from the Earth Kingdom, too," I told the girl.
"Nice to meet you," she stuck out her hand-about two inches from my face, "I'm Toph."
She scared me a little at first, but as I shook her hand, I decided the prickly exterior was mostly for show.
"Was that your village?" she asked, gesturing in that direction.
"Yes," I replied simply. What else could I say? I was done crying about it.
"That's rough," she said almost sympathetically.
"What are you going to do now?" Katara asked me.
"I'm not sure," I replied, "I don't exactly have a plan for this type of thing."
"Then you should come with us!" Aang blurted, "We're going to Ba Sing Se an-"
"Wait!" Sokka interrupted, "You can't just tell anyone where we're going! Besides," he added with a grin, "You haven't even asked Cailyn yet."
"Sokka!" Katara hugged her brother, "You're letting her come with us?"
"Sure, why not?" he shrugged, "if I said no, you'd all just overrule me and never let me forge-"
He was still talking, but Aang looked at Toph and asked, "What do you think, Toph?"
"Fine by me. Just don't get in the way," she said to me.
"Well?" Aang looked at me expectantly.
"I'm in."