"I can't move,"he thought, awakening abruptly in the dim light of dawn with arms and legs being bound and a gag jammed into his mouth. He looked through the haziness of sleep to see six men binding him. He looked to see Katara's panicked face as she was being bound similarly. She was screaming but the gag kept but a few noises from escaping her. That "night bird" was obviously their abductors moving in the forest getting ready to capture them. He couldn't even call out to Appa. They moved that stealthily.
"How did I miss them? How had we not seen them?" he thought. Then it was obvious. The sand. The sand muffled the vibration of their movements. He had still only barely learned sand bending from Toph, who was herself still learning.
They were both dragged roughly deep into the jungle by the men, far past any landmark they had explored. They were lost again.
Soon they were standing in village hidden beneath the jungle canopy that they had not seen from above. It looked like the entire village was assembled to meet their abductors with their two human prizes. Their gags were removed, and they immediately spoke to each other.
"Are you alright, Katara?"
"Yes Aang, just terribly frightened."
Then they finally noticed.
"Aang, the villagers. They are all...umm..."
"Yes they are."
Both blushed. All the villagers – men, women and children - were completely naked from head to toe, except for a thin, dark brown fiber rope around their waists. The only differences were that hanging on each person's rope was a knotted a dangle of varying lengths hanging from one side. The only adornment of the women that set them apart from the men was a similar necklace and flowers in their hair. Aang and Katara were a stark contrast to the natives in their modest standard clothing.
Even more stark was the fact that all the natives had deeper skin tones than anyone in the known world. Katara and her kinsmen were mocha-colored, but these people had very dark brown skin with black hair. And blue eyes.
An older man with animal bones in his ears and nose and lips stood before them with a big spear. He was visibly shorter than them. He spoke in an unknown language, but was animated and angry. It was clear that the presence of Aang and Katara had upset them all. They were prodded forward, and soon it was clear they were being led to a cliff, following a stream along the path. The cliffside dropped for thousands of feet into a deep chasm. The stream itself fell as a waterfall into the chasm. The bottom of the canyon smoldered of volcanism.
"Aang what's going to happen to us?"
"I think we are being sacrificed. We upset some kind of natural balance."
The old chieftain suddenly made a move Katara recognized. The water in the stream obeyed his motion and he wrapped water whips around Katara and Aang, to pull them closer to the edge of the cliff.
"Aang! They are water benders!"
"Yeah. 'Cousins' like the swamp benders. Only a lot meaner!"
"Do something Aang. Bend something."
Then she thought deeper, "No! Bend everything Aang! Show them who you are!"
"I seriously doubt..."
"Just do it, Aang!"
He needed leverage or more power. He strained at the vine bindings and they weren't budging.
So he breathed deeply, and closed his eyes.
He opened them suddenly, and they flashed as the Fully Realized Avatar. Summoning incredible inner strength, he sundered his restraints, spread his arms wide, and tilted his head into the sky. He shot forth three fire bending streams from his hands and mouth, raised himself on an earthen column, tearing away from the water bending bonds, drew water from the stream and froze the chieftain and all of their captors to trees or the ground, and created a wind storm of air that forced everyone to kneel and try to protect themselves.
The chieftain croaked, "Ah-vuh-tah!"
Katara said, "Well at least that is the same in anylanguage!"
The villagers fell prostrate, and began to worship Aang.
"This is better. Much better," said Katara with some restored confidence.
Aang looked sternly at the chieftain lifting his head and locked eyes, "Yes, Chief. Avatar Aang!"
The old man cowered in fear. Aang pointed to the village, "Take us back."
While he understood the motion and not the words, Katara was untied and the two were led back to the village as powerful spirits. Chants of honor and clacking of weapons were heard.
They were both seated with the Chief, and the food being prepared and roasted – originally planned to celebrate their sacrifice – was cooked and offered to them. Aang only took the veggies, but Katara took some of the fish.
"Aang?" She questioned as she took a helping of the fish.
"You're a water bender before you ever met me. Have what you want."
Pleasantly surprised by that, she dug into the fish. It was delicious.
The chieftain then ordered what as clearly entertainment for their Avatar. Drums and dancers twirled before them. One instrument was particularly interesting – a very long wind instrument producing wonderful low tones. The Chief called it a dijeridoo.
At a particularly rhythmic song, Aang got up, grinned, and outstretched his arm to Katara with a very familiar phrase, "Take my hand!"
She asked, "We should do that for them?"
"Can you think of a better way to make friends than doing our best dance?"
Katara nodded positively. The villagers were captivated by their signature Kataango dance. They all danced well into the night. Aang and Katara were exhausted as they returned to their seats of honor. Language barrier or not, they could tell the Chief was very happy.
He cut off the merriment with a strong motion, and talked incomprehensibly to what appeared to be his second in command, who ran off into the village. Soon he reappeared, and took a package from him. Something wrapped in a big leaf. The Chief stood before Aang and Katara and bowed deeply.
He presented them with the leaf pointed first to Aang, then Katara, and said, "Avatar Aang. Ngal warlang. Lagiban jawh-ma wurrpbu."
Katara asked, "What's happening?"
Aang smiled and guessed, "I think he is making you and me citizens of this tribe. I actually think he said 'People of the Sea' in an ancient language.
"How can you possiblyknow that Aang?" questioned Katara.
He closed his eyes, cocked his head sideways, and concentrated harder. "Katara...wait...Kuruk learned that language. He discovered these people. Made friends with them. Katara, we're among your ancestors. All of the modern Water Tribes come from these people."
They bowed back and unwrapped the present. Inside were two thin fiber rope waist bands, clearly one for each of them – hers a little longer for her hips.
Katara held up the tiny strand that would cover nothing, giving it a look of utter dismay. Aang turned to his true love and gave her a sheepish grin and stuttered, "K-Katara, I love you."
Katara gave Aang a really stern look, "You darn well betterafter this!"
The Chief escorted them to a palm thatch hut to change.
"Dorroh-ma!" He said.
Standing in their altogether in the hut prior to exiting, helping tie the tribal ropes around each other's waists, they were sort of excited and embarrassed at the same time, blushing at each other.
"Are you ready for this, Katara?"
"No but we don't really have a choice, do we?" she lamented.
"You are so beautiful, Katara," as he held her by her bare shoulders.
"Thank you Aang. You are my handsome guy, no matter what you don't wear," she smirked.
They took a deep breath, held hands, and emerged from the hut. They were immediately cheered by the village tribespeople as they both stood before them all in their natural splendor. Katara whispered to her husband, "You have no idea how much this is gonna cost you when we get home..."
"I can only imagine," but silently was grateful to the Chief that he got to see his beautiful wife's body constantly now.
Unexpectedly, the village men all looked at Katara and chanted, "Maminukbun jilimakgun. Buluman ngabbuny!"
Through Kuruk's knowledge of the language of the People of the Sea, Aang vaguely understood they approved of his choice of mate. Katara was a great deal more endowed than the village women.
"They like how you look, Katara," he explained. She blushed, but was inwardly pleased.
Meanwhile the women chanted, "Avatar Aang no-ngolong. Buluman lagriny. Yarrwi."
They praised Katara for her choice of the Avatar as her husband, who was much better equipped than any of the village's men. They pointed for emphasis.
"Well that doesn't take any translation, Aang. I guess there are some big advantages of being the wife of the Avatar I never knew possible," Katara snickered, and elbowed him. Aang just rolled his eyes.
The Chief said a lot of words, blessed them, and declared them citizens.
They smiled at each other, but had already recovered from the shock of being exposed in front of the entire village, and they joined in the continued fun of the night. The villagers were very comfortable with their lack of dress, and it made it easier for the two to adapt. At the end of the party deep into the night, they were escorted to a hut dedicated to them, "Well we may not be alone, but nice to be treated with the respect as spirits!"