We took refuge in a forest a few days away from Omashu. The temperature here was warm enough for me to change back into my clothing, and did it ever feel good to be in that t-shirt again. I was a small distance away from the group, looking for something to do. There was a small stream that passed by, and once again, a childlike urge in me was begging my limbs to try bending the water or the earth around me. "That's ridiculous," I told myself. But I gave into the urge, and took a stance similar to the one I've seen Katara use in front of the steam.

"Move!" I cried as I moved my limbs, but the water didn't do anything, it simply kept on flowing. I moved my arms more fluidly, like Katara, but I was having no luck…That is until I thought I saw small ripples form when I was moving my hands back and forth. At the same time though, a breeze had picked up. Am I doing that? Or is it the breeze? I thought. I laughed at myself and headed back to the group. Sokka was there, showing what he got for food, which wasn't much. Momo, the lemur, was trying to crack one of the nuts on a nearby rock.

"That's a rock," I told the small animal when I got a better look at the object in his hand. He looked at me with his big green eyes, then he dropped the rock and climbed onto my shoulder.

"Seriously, what else do you have?" Katara asked her brother. Sokka flipped his bag over, but only dust came out. Before he could speak, he was interrupted by a loud bang. We all looked around, trying to locate where the sound came from.

"What was that!?" Sokka nervously yelped.

We heard the bang again, this time it was clearer. Aang pointed in the direction of where the sound resonated from, and we took off in order to find out what was making that racket.

"Shouldn't we run away from huge booms?" Sokka asked us, but we ignored him. We followed the stream to a small trench. We hid on the side and peered inside, the source of the sound was an earth bender practicing his bending on large rocks. He flung them into the walls of the trench, and smashed them together.

"An earth bender," Katara smiled.

"We should say hi," Aang suggested.

"He looks dangerous, we should approach him cautiously," Sokka whispered.

"Are you kidding? Don't we need an earth bending teacher for Aang? We should be jumping at him," I replied. I noticed that Katara was no longer with us. "Where did your sister go?" I asked the Water Tribe warrior. He looked around and gasped when he saw his sister approaching the bender, her arms waving in the air for his attention.

"Hello there! I'm Katara! What's your name?" She called in a friendly voice. The earth bender turned around, with a terrified expression on his face. He then bolted away as fast as he could.

"NICE TO MEET YOU!" Aang cried after him.

"I just wanted to say hi," Katara sighed.

"Yeah, well next time, don't act so friendly, it's kinda creepy," I remarked.

"He's got to be headed somewhere," Aang turned to face us. "Maybe we're near a village, and maybe it has a market!"

"Which means no nuts for dinner," Katara triumphantly cried as she started to chase after the earth bender.

"Hey! I worked hard for those nuts!" Sokka protested. Momo flew over his head.

"And no one seems to appreciate that," I laughed. Sokka sighed and started to run after Aang and Katara. He gestured for me to follow, and I did.

We soon found a village, it was surprisingly large despite the number of people that lived here. Aang was shopping for whatever trinket he could find. I head my stomach growl, so I pulled out a shard of the creeping crystal that Bumi had imprisoned us in. I had a rather healthy supply of the stuff, and I tried my best to keep my stash secret from the others, I was very selfish when it came to candy. I quickly munched my shard, swallowing the blue crystal in record time. Sokka asked me what it was I just ate, and I told him it was one of his nuts. He laughed at my joke.

"Hey!" Katara gasped, we all turned to her just in time to see her walk into a small shop. We followed her inside the shop was the earth bender with, who I presumed was his mother.

"Hi, why did you run away?" Katara asked.

"You must have me confused with someone else," He nervously replied.

"No she doesn't, we saw you earth bending!" Aang happily answered. The two villagers gasped, and soon the mother rushed to the door and windows and closed them.

"They saw you doing what?" The mother gasped.

"They're crazy mom! Look at how they are dressed!" The boy protested.

"Why does everyone say I'm dressed weird?" I questioned.

"You know how dangerous that is!" The mother warned her son. "You know what would happen if THEY caught you earth bending!" We heard knocks on the door, and a voice ordered us to open the door. Sokka lifted the curtains a little and peeked outside.

"Fire benders," He whispered. "Act natural," everyone took a pose somewhere in the room, and seeing as I didn't want to be the odd one out, I took a pose, pretending to be frozen while browsing through the stores items. Aang's hand slipped on the barrel he was leaning on, causing him to fall over.

"What do you want? I already paid you this week!" The woman cried.

"The tax just doubled, and we wouldn't want an accident now would we?" the soldier made a rather large ball of fire appear between his hands. "Fire can be so hard to control sometimes," He smirked. The woman's face contorted into a defeated expression. She slowly walked behind the counter and pulled out a small chest. Inside must've been the money that her shop collected. She pulled out most of the coins inside and handed it to the soldier.

"You can keep the copper ones," He said as he flung aside the useless coins and kept the silver ones. He had a rather large grin, and I nearly jumped on him.

"Pig," I whispered. He stopped and turned to me.

"Did you say something?"

I looked up at him, "I called you a pig," I replied. He locked eyes with me for a long moment, and then laughed.

"I won't waste my time on you, boy," He grinned. He turned away and walked out the store.

"Nice guy," Sokka grumbled. He turned towards the woman. "How long has the fire nation been here?"

"5 years," The woman answered. "Fire lord Ozai uses our coal to fuel his ships,"

"They are thugs," The boy added. "They steal from us, and everyone here is too much of a coward to do anything,"

"Quiet Harue! Don't talk like that," The mother cried fearfully.

"But Harue is an earth bender, he can help!" Katara protested.

"Earth bending is forbidden!" The woman snapped. "It's caused nothing but misery, he must never use his abilities,"

"How can you say that? Harue has a girt!" Katara took a step forward. "Asking him not to earth bend is like asking me not to water bend. It's a part of who we are,"

"You don't understand,"

"I understand that Harue can help you fight back! What can the fire nation do to you that they haven't done already?"

"They can take Harue away! Like they took his father," The woman nearly cried with this statement. Katara just stared at her with a shocked expression.

Harue lead us to a barn on a hill. He explained that his family owned this land, and that his mother had allowed us to stay the night. He urged us to leave in the morning, and I understood why he would've wanted that.

"Thanks! I'll make sure Appa doesn't eat all your hay," Aang smiled. We turned to see the Bison munching on a pile of hay. I placed by bags down and started to unroll my sleeping bag. Momo flew around the barn a few times, looking at every nook and cranny. Katara stepped out of the barn in order to speak with Harue, leaving us to get things ready for the night.

"Hey Aang," I asked. The Avatar turned to face me.

"What's up?" He answered.

"I was wonder, how do you feel around the other elements? Do you get like…a feeling like you should be controlling them?" I wondered. He paused and thought for a moment.

"Well, I wouldn't quite describe it like that," He replied after a moment. "Why? Is this about you not being a bender?"

"Yes….no! No not at all, just answer my question," I laughed nervously.

"I sometimes get a feeling that asks me to try to bend the other elements," Aang explained. "Like my arms just want to push and pull the earth or water," I froze when I heard this. I did get a similar feeling when I was alone.

"Don't worry, just because you can't bend doesn't mean you're useless," Aang told me.

"That's not it…" I paused. "When I'm alone…I try to bend," I whispered to him so that Sokka couldn't hear. The Avatar laughed.

"Really?" He giggled, but then he stopped when he saw my serious expression.

"Yeah…and I sometimes get that feeling you described," I added. He paused for a moment.

"Are there any benders from where you come from?"

"No, no one can bend, it doesn't exist where I come from," I explained. He gave me a quizzical look, but didn't press further. "It's strange, I am now thinking about the dream I had back on Kyoshi Island,"

"Think maybe you CAN bend?" Aang asked.

"No, it's impossible," I replied firmly. But part of me hoped that I was wrong.

After an hour, Katara came back. Sokka asked her where she was, and she told us about how Harue helped an old man trapped in a collapsed tunnel using his bending. Both Aang and Katara seemed pleased with Harue's actions, but I wasn't so sure.

"That was stupid," I said. Katara and Aang looked at me with shocked expressions.

"How could you say that?" Aang questioned.

"This town in gripped with fear, and I wouldn't put it past the fire nation to put a reward for people to turn in earth benders," I explained. "Now this reward maybe isn't just a monetary reward, maybe it's immunity from taxation or something like that. They are controlling these people through fear, and fear can make people do almost anything. I wouldn't be surprised if that old man turns Harue in," I sighed.

"People are better than that," Katara snapped. "I don't think the old man would do something so cruel to his savior,"

I shrugged in response, ending the exchange. We slowly drifted to sleep, and that night, I had a dream. I was in the alley, and once again, I was standing in front of the man who's face I couldn't see.

"Another thing," I added. "…to be able to…" I couldn't hear what I was saying very well.

The man grinned, and even though I couldn't see his face, I knew he was smiling.

"Then it's a deal!" He laughed. I woke up to Momo's face. The small lemur was sitting on my stomach, looking curiously at my face.

"Hey buddy," I yawned. Sokka was standing over me with an annoyed expression.

"Are you awake yet?" He asked. I got up and stretched. He then rolled up my sleeping bag and started packing my things.

"You know you talk in your sleep right?" Aang told me, he was on Appa's back, putting our things on the Bison.

"Really? What did I say?" I asked.

"You said something about being able to do something," Sokka answered as he threw my stuff up at Aang.

"Yeah…I had a dream about that guy again," I muttered to myself. Aang looked at me with a ponderous expression, but he didn't say anything. Katara suddenly ran into the barn.

"They took Harue!" She cried. I had the sudden thought of saying "I told you so," But knowing that it would be a rather rude and insensitive joke, I held back my tongue. That being said, I was worried about Harue, but sometimes my sense of humour decided to come up at awkward times.

"When did this happen?" Sokka asked. Katara told us that the earth bender was taken at midnight. "It's too late to track him then," Sokka sighed.

"We won't need to track him, the fire nation is going to arrest me for earth bending," Katara answered.

The plan was to place a rock over a ventilation shaft, and have Aang shoot a large gust of wind through one vent to the other in order to make the rock levitate. They would do this in front of fire nation troops in order to make it look like Katara was earth bending. The scene that followed this would be Katara and Sokka getting into an argument.

"Aang, did you get all that?" Katara asked. Aang was busy playing with a butterfly, but he gave a half convincing reply.

"I'll make sure he does his job," I assured the siblings. They nodded. We saw a group approaching from the trail to our right, and Sokka and Katara got into their places.

"Get out of my way pipsqueak!" Sokka cried in a forced voice. He and Katara we leaning towards each other aggressively…but their acting… The soldiers stopped and watched the argument

"How dare you call me pipsqueak you…Giant eared cretin!" Katara yelled as if she were reading from a script.

"This is going to fail," I moaned, facepalming.

The "argument" continued, getting worse and worse as it went on. I had to cover my ears in order to avoid laughing at the siblings' acting.

"You're going down!" Sokka cried.

"No, you're going down, EARTH BENDING POWERS ACTIVATE!" Katara cried. I tapped Aang's shoulder and he sent the air through the vent. The rock begun to float, and the fire bender soldiers gasped.

"That lemur…it's earth bending!" One of them cried. Momo was busy licking his arm pits from behind the rock. It actually did look like he WAS making the rock float. I nearly laughed.

"No you idiot, it's the girl!" Sokka cried. The soldiers laughed at their stupidity. Sokka grabbed his sister and whispered something in her ear. The soldiers came over and apprehended Katara, leaving us alone.

"Alright, Aang, get Appa because we are going to shadow them," Sokka explained. "We can't get too close because they might see him,"

We followed the boat that the soldiers had taken Katara too. They were headed to an artificial island where all the earth benders were kept at. This prison reminded me a lot of an oil platform. Appa flew high in order to use the low clouds as cover, and so far, it looked like it was working. Aang nervously watched the boat below us, and Sokka sensed his unease.

"She'll be fine, Aang. Katara knows what she's doing,"

"Yeah, and she's got backup," I added. He turned to us, his expression was still the same worried look, but he made Appa pull away from the boat. The sun was setting, so we decided to fly in wide circles around the platform in order to avoid detection. We didn't talk much, it was almost like we were afraid that any sound would reveal us to the enemy. Eventually, night fell, and we were able to get close to the platform. Aang cautiously disappeared into the floating prison. After a few minutes, he returned with Katara.

"Your 12 hours are up, where's Harue? We got to get out of here!" Sokka whispered to his sister.

"I can't," Katara replied. We all gave her odd looks.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"We need to go!" Sokka added.

"I'm not leaving, I can't abandon these people," She told us.

We climbed off Appa and onto the platform. Sokka was rather angry with Katara's decision.

"We have to help these people," I agreed.

"She's right, we have to do something," Aang added.

"You're all crazy! We need to leave!" Sokka protested, but we all gave him hard looks. He sighed. "We should hide," We got up and ran into the complex. Aang told his Bison to leave until morning, and catch up with us. We found a nice spot to hide among some crates. We began to discuss a plan. Momo was watching our surroundings, and would warn us if any guards were coming.

"I tried talking the earth benders into fighting back," Katara told us, "but they didn't listen."

"For that, they'd need earth," Sokka remarked.

"Didn't Harue's mom say that the fire nation used coal?" I asked. Everyone looked at me. "Well…I mean, that giant black column of smoke must come from coal being burnt, and they are putting these prisoners to work in this uh…factory, so we could just steal the coal," I pointed at the large chimney at the centre of the prison. A large black column of smoke rose from it.

"Fred, you're a genius!" Sokka cried a little loudly. Katara slapped his mouth shut and we remained quiet for a few moments. We sent Momo to look around, but he came back with nothing.

Sokka came up with the real plan from there. He got Aang to close every vent in the complex, that took a rather long time, and day break was just starting. We were positioned around the one vent Aang didn't close. Just like the floating rock trick, Aang would send a gust of wind from his end and shoot the coal out at our end, into the courtyard. We were soon discovered by fire nation guards. They quickly sounded the alarm and surrounded us and the vent. The prisoners were watching, and a muscular old earth bender stepped towards us.

"Katara, stop!" He ordered. "You can't win this fight!" I noticed that Harue was standing near this guy, and I saw similar features in their faces. I guessed this was his father. The way he spoke to Katara made me think that they must've spoke the previous day.

"Listen to him child," A fire nation guard told Katara. He didn't wear a helmet, and he had a grey beard and mustache. The way he was being escorted towards us made me believe that he was the prison warden. "You're one mistake away from dying,"

His soldiers advanced, and we clustered closer together, our backs against each other's backs. We then heard a large whooshing sound coming from the vent, and soon a mountain of coal came bursting out. It knocked some of the guards away, and we dove away from the hail of coal. Aang suddenly came up the vent, covered in soot. He slapped away the filth from his suit, and soon he was good as new. When she got back up, Katara walked onto the mound of coal, and held a piece in her hand.

"Here is your chance earth benders!" She cried. "Take it! Your fate is in your own hands!" No one stepped forward, they just looked at the guards nervously. We stared at the prisoners with surprised expressions.

"Ha ha ha! Foolish girl, you thought a few inspirational words and coal would be enough to change these people?" The warden laughed. "Look at their hopeless faces, their spirits were broken a long time ago!" Katara brought her hand down, her expression was one of defeat. I look at all the prisoners, and all of them couldn't meet Katara's eyes. The Warden began to walk away, when he was suddenly pummeled by a piece of coal from behind. He turned towards his assailant, as did I. It was Harue, and he was spinning three piece of coal with his bending between his fingers. The warden shot a jet of flame at the boy, but his father created a shield for his son with the coal. It didn't take long for the prisoners to start using the coal as a weapon, and soon the courtyard became a large battle field between fire benders trying to contain their earth bending captives. We joined into the fight, Sokka was cutting the ends off of spears and giving the pieces to Momo who was flying above us. I was pushed back by a fire bender who was trying to burn my face with his flames. But when he shot one of his arms forward, I grabbed it and threw him with a neck throw. One he was on the ground, I stomped on his head, knocking him out. Aang was shooting gusts of wind, tripping up the fire nation soldiers and protecting the earth benders. Suddenly, we heard a large thud and saw that Harue and his father made a hole in one of the courtyard's walls.

"Get to the ships!" The old man yelled. "We'll hold them off!"

The battle was one sided, the earth benders quickly over powered the fire nation guards and threw them over board into the sea. The earth benders stole most of the ships docket at the prison and were quickly headed home. Our group was on Appa, swimming next to Harue's boat. Katara said her good byes to the earth benders, and jumped back onto Appa. As we were flying away from the boats, I noticed something odd about her, she was touching her neck with panic…

"Are you missing something?" I asked as we flew up into the sky. She nodded and told me that her mother's necklace was gone. I suddenly had the feeling that this would lead to some rather unpleasant future events…