Georgia: Good day my faithful readers! After Altaïr returned I managed to write two chapter since last week, yay, so sent both to Justagenericusername at the same time. Now, she has brought to my attention that I should probably explain the set up that is going on here. *sheepishly rubs the back of her neck* And that I should have done this earlier. So, *claps hands together* explanation time!

Basically, Justagenericusername is my . . . how do I say this . . . medium? Scribe? I'm not sure, but put simply - she is just posting my story. I am sending her the chapters of my life as and when I write them, and she posts them on the site. This is for security reasons - so Altaïr and I cannot be tracked by anyone (this will become clear later in my story). As for everything being said right now, each file I send has a video attachment - that Justagenericusername transcribes - to prove that we are both alive and it is me sending this story to her. It was difficult to convince Justagenericusername that I was an actual person to begin with and she was only contented after seeing visual proof. Now, I send video updates each time as she is concerned for my well being and wishes to know how we are doing. It also allows me to clarify any miscommunications and helps me communicate with my readers - you lovely people. Not to mention it helps my sanity a lot. Altaïr is a . . . difficult companion at times.

Altaïr: *shouts from a distance* I am not!

Georgia: *turns around* You so are. Now shh, I'm busy. *turns back around to face forward* So, now that's explained it should help Justagenericusername write these parts a little clearer, and clear up any confusion you guys have *smiles* Now, on with the story!

Falling with style

I awoke to the sun streaming through the window of my small bedroom, 'guess I'm up early today, not surprising after last night to be honest,' I thought as I stand up and stretch. I took the chance to actually look at the little room I had been in for the past few days, there wasn't much to it, a plain bed in one corner with a small side table between it and the door, a shuttered window opposite it and a large chest sitting at the bed's end. It was quite a calming room, with a colour scheme of cream with light green accents.

I changed into a fresh set of clothes, deciding to wear a white t-shirt rather than the usual black today but don't bother with any shoes, turned on my mental music once again and wandered out to my little training area. After having a really cool dream the night before there was something I really wanted to test out, the idea of an earth hover board.

The sun was barely up so I figured I have a while before anyone else would be awake, giving me plenty of time to practice. I began testing by gathering a bunch of earth and making it just hover there for a while, which doesn't take too long to ace. Sometimes I found it suspicious how quickly I was picking this stuff up. I guessed it had something to do with me being from an alternate universe and/or watching the show since I was a kid, maybe I learnt the technique through watching it on TV? I'd always wanted to be able to earthbend. Or maybe it was just that my mind works differently then those in this dimension? Who knows . . . but I had the feeling this wouldn't be the end of how different my abilities were from the earthbenders here.

I shook myself out of my thoughts and brought up some earth to hover again, only this time I moved the earth underneath me so I could stand on it. I opened my arms out for balancing both the earth and my body whilst keeping a wide stance. It went well . . . for about 20 seconds, after which I fell to the ground because it was too high or was too heavy or difficult, either way I couldn't hold it. I fell down on my ass and cursed violently. "Shit! Why didn't that work?"

I picked myself up and dusted myself down before attempting it again. This time I lasted a minute. "Hmm," I mused to myself, "I guess it was just too much too fast. The more I do it the better I'll get." I kept trying until I could hold it for a steady 10 minutes at about 5 feet off the ground, "yes!" I shouted with glee, thrusting my fists into the air in triumph with a grin on my face, "I did it!"

There was a loud 'smash' of a lump of earth hitting the side of the mountain, causing me to jump out of my skin and spin to face the house. I saw Toph in the distance waving me to come over, so I raced back, trying to do that earth thingy she did yesterday with little success. By the time I reached Toph I was gasping from the effort of running and trying to earth bend at the same time. "Food," she said simply before turning and walking inside. She seemed mad at me for some reason or other . . . I wasn't not sure what, so I turned off my music and followed. I went to my room and opened my portal to switch out my boots with my non-running trainers, and slipped them on.

Once we were sitting down and starting to eat she suddenly leant forward and pointed a fork accusingly at me and said curtly, "what was that?"

I froze with my fork in my mouth before slowly pulling it out and swallowing, "what was what?" I asked carefully.

"That thing you did just then," she glared at me.

"Eat?"

Toph slammed her fist down on the table, "don't get smart with me Georgia! What was that you did with the rock? I could see you just fine and then the earth and you vanished for ages before coming back down. What. Happened?"

"Oh. That," I said slowly. 'I guess I was right; my abilities aren't normal,' I thought to myself before responding to her question. "I levitated the earth, like you do with a normal projectile, only this time I did it so I was standing on it."

"Why would you do that?"

"Well, I wanted to see if I could use it as a form of transport, a bit like the earth thing you did yesterday."

Toph leant back in her seat to a normal angle, she stayed silent for a while so I resumed my eating, eyeing her carefully in case she decided to lash out again. Finally, she said, "it's called an earth wave. Only high level earthbenders can do it, so don't expect to be able to any time soon. But what you were doing . . . that . . . that has never been attempted before. You want to . . . fly through the air on earth you have levitated yourself?"

"Yeah," I said carefully, "I think it could be cool."

"Well, you are welcome to try but I don't know how far you will get, I can only see the Avatar being able to do something like that," she said to me somewhat condescendingly. "Most normal level benders can only propel themselves upwards, and you would probably need to be a bender of high skill to be able to levitate the rock with you on it. I'm sure all you managed was to propel yourself up on the rock."

I was hesitant to disagree with her but I wanted to know everything I could to help me achieve this, so pressed on to say, "erm no . . . I managed to levitate the rock while I was on it for about 10 minutes."

Toph's mouth hung open in disbelief, "that's . . . that's impossible. You have only been learning for three days, you shouldn't be even close to advanced enough to be able to do that!"

I slumped down in my seat, head hanging, as I muttered, "I don't know why I could do it. I don't pretend to understand how this works." I could see Toph thinking for a moment about what I had said, during which I just sat quietly eating my breakfast until Aang and Zuko walked in. 'Greeaat,' I thought, 'now there is an audience to witness my strangeness.'

I broke the silence to greet them, which they returned before Aang asked Toph what was wrong. "Just thinking about something Georgia suggested," she replied, pausing before continuing, "Aang, have you ever thought about using the earth as a kind of flying transport?"

Aang paused his food preparation for a moment before responding that no he hasn't and asked why she wanted to know. I explained to him how I believed it would be faster than walking and less effort than the earth wave Toph demonstrated yesterday. After a few moments discussion the earthbender and Avatar came to the conclusion that there is no way it could work for me, not without being the Avatar. "Oh . . . okay," I begrudgingly accepted, 'I guess I can't do it'.

Toph then said, in response to my earlier mumbling, that I needed to understand earth bending and so explained to me the mechanics of earth bending. She explained that earthbending expresses the aspect of neutral jing, which involves listening and waiting, and requires decisiveness; when the time comes to strike, it must be done without hesitation or uncertainty. If an earthbender lacks determination, the earth will not respond to their will. She also explains to me that being connected to the earth is also an important aspect of earthbending in both spirituality and power, as it enables the transfer of kinetic energies into bending for fast and powerful moves. In addition to this she told me about how there were some very very rare benders who did not need to use physical movements to bend, and if I came across one to be very careful.

I finished my breakfast listening intently while the others filtered in and joined the table, also listening in on the conversation. Once Toph was finished I query, "but I don't understand why my idea wouldn't work, surely the only limitation to your bending is your imagination? I mean, Toph, it was impossible to bend metal until you thought about it and decided to try, and I'm not even trying to manipulate a different form of earth." I received stares from everyone in the group. I felt a little uncomfortable but held my ground, I wanted to be able to do this.

Surprisingly, it was Zuko who broke the tense silence that followed my question, "well . . . she isn't wrong. What you test your bending to do is up to you Georgia, and I must say you have the most potential of any bender I have seen in a long time, your mind and will is strong. So maybe you can do this thing you want with the earth, maybe you can't. I believe that how far you go with your bending is based upon your personal limitations, each person is born with their own level of potential." He paused for a moment to think, "from what I have seen yours is exceptionally high in manipulation, but maybe lacking in power. So do not give up, keep testing what you can do."

With that said Zuko stood and left the table, leaving everyone in a state of awe, for the very reason I voiced, "I think that's the most he has said to me since I arrived."

Sokka mutely nodded with agreement before muttering, "I guess good old uncle Iroh's wisdom rubbed off on him over the years."

"It seems so," Aang agreed quietly. We sat in stunned silence for a while longer before I became restless, so I got down from the table to try my idea some more.

I reached the base of the mountain and shuffled my music whist kicking off my trainers, but before I could try anything Toph was there telling me she needed to teach me metal bending still. Metal bending was difficult, it took me the rest of the day before I could manipulate any kind of metal, but the strangest thing happened, once I figured out how metal bending worked it was easy. I could reshape the metal into anything I wanted and within an hour of figuring it out, I was making swords out of lumps of metal before turning it back and then into a crown. Toph praised me and informed me that this is how it usually works with metal bending, slow to start with but once it's understood comes reasonably quickly.

"I'm going to go back to the house now, feel free to keep trying your levitating rock transport idea." She then hesitated before saying, "and . . . I'm sorry about earlier, I shouldn't have yelled, I just couldn't understand what you did, can't see remember?" giving a slight smile at the end.

I walked over and put a hand on her shoulder, "it's not a problem Toph, I understand that it freaked you out, I'm sure I would've too if I was in your shoes, don't worry about it," I tell her firmly. I snort with laughter and said to her, "when I get stressed or freaked out I get super sarcastic and sassy, which irritates a lot of people. So I totally understand your reaction, so lets just forget it happened." She paused for a moment before agreeing and going back to the house to leave me be. As I was hoping to be flying around by the end of this I opened my portal up, picked my shoes up and threw them into the storage.

I then took up my stance again and pulled up just enough rock to make a small surfboard, I hovered for about a minute before testing the water and moved it left and right. Shifting my weight didn't seem to do much beyond making the movement easier, it seemed that it had to mostly come from my bending control and therefore hand movements were what controlled it. I set down again to regain some strength, thinking 'next time. Next time I'm going all out' as if reading my mind, the next song on my shuffle was a power song of mine – Sun is Shining by Axwell_Ingrosso – and as the lyrics started I carved out a board in front of me and jumped onto it sitting there for a moment.

The beat started and I shifted left and right a bit, slightly nervous as the song builds up and decided to go for it on the drop (what can I say, music builds mood). I breathed in and out slowly, waiting for it with butterflies in my stomach, 'I hope this works'. The song rose, I focused on the board, it dropped and I just went for it. I thrust my hand behind me and use my bending to propel myself up and forwards. The board leapt forward with a speed I was not anticipating, I had to change my stance to a classic boarding stance and crouched slightly to stay on the board. And I was flying.

The feeling was exhilarating and I knew I made a good decision to wait for the drop because combined with the song, this felt FANTASTIC. I felt like a superhero. The wind whipped through my hair as I flew around the house, I pulled it out of the usual ponytail to make the most of it. I dropped the board to fly just over the ground and as the song built for the major drop I sped past the house yelling, "I DID IT!" at the top of my lungs. As the song dropped for the final time I flew up into the air again and turned tightly to go back towards the house to fly past everyone that had run outside to see me, mouths agape at me flying through the air. "WOOOO!" I yelled as I sped back to the ground to stop in front of them.

I hopped off my board with a large grin on my face. They were congratulating me when Sokka asked, "what is that sound?"

"What sound?" I asked, thoroughly confused. Then the base of "Sail" started in my head, but . . . I could feel the vibrations in my feet - and apparently so could the others, as they were staring at the ground in concern.

"What's this about a . . . 'sail'?" Aang asked confusedly. In that second I realised what had happened, I had somehow managed to make the song from my head . . . vibrate into the ground, or however I you can describe this. I had made the ground into a giant speaker, the vibrations of the music inside my mind was being transferred into the earth through my bending, meaning that everyone else could hear (and feel) my music too. I quickly figured out how my bending did it (don't ask me to describe it, I really can't) and stopped the music from pouring out of me.

It was at that point I thanked whoever is responsible for luck, because as I was about to open my mouth to try and explain, I see a portal open out of the corner of my eye. I had absolutely no idea how long it would stay open so hurriedly said to them, "I don't know, but I've really got to get something quickly," and sprinted to my room to pick up my bag - mentally cussing myself for being an idiot and leaving it in my room rather than putting it in my storage portal. I grabbed it scanning the room quickly for anything I might have left, seeing nothing I shoved it into my storage portal and ran back to the others.

I skidded to a stop in front of them and hurriedly but sincerely said, "thank you guys so much for taking me in and helping me learn about bending, it means a lot to me," smiling at them all. I then turned to Toph and gave her a quick hug as she can't see my smile, "and Toph, thank you for being an amazing earthbending teacher, I won't forget anything you taught me and I promise I will work on my bending every day." I can feel myself running out of time, so quickly say thank you to Zuko for his wise words about my abilities, to which he looks surprisingly bashful.

"Georgia, remember what I Zuko said, you are skilled in manipulation but lack power, work on it!" Toph firmly orders me.

"I will. Promise. Goodbye everyone, it was great to meet you all, thank you again, but I really must leave now."

They all looked slightly confused at my sudden departure but everyone managed to say goodbye, Aang and Katara even said it was great to have me here, before I smiled at them one last time and ran off towards the portal mentally praying I hadn't been too long. Ironically as I was running to the portal 'Run Boy Run' started playing in my head, I mentally laughed as my feet pounded against the grass. I reached the portal and I was in such a rush that I didn't even notice that rather than the normal swirling grey, it was gold this time. I jumped through the vortex and wondered what strange dimension I would be taken to next.

Georgia: So there you have it. I met the Avatar and his gang, hung out with them and was trained by them. They were pretty cool. But now it's time to move on to the next dimension, so I'll see you all there!