The fall seems like forever.

We are just falling through thin air with nothing to slow us down or catch us but the river below. My mind doesn't seem to be able to grasp the idea that these seconds might be the last of my entire life. We're falling to our deaths and I didn't even get the chance to say truly goodbye. But I can't just die now! There are so many things I want to see, so many things I have to do. The more I think about it, the more ideas start to unfold before my eyes, all the possible futures I could have, all the different paths I could take. It only makes me want to stay alive longer.

If I was still able to airbend, I would do something. Anything! But we're only falling. I can't even remember how long it's been. The train is long gone now. I wonder if Jay is going to see that I'm not on board anymore, I know he eventually will and my disappearance puts him in a difficult position because technically, he didn't protect me and I lost his badge. I can't imagine the fury Mako's going to be in. And they probably will worry about me. And my mom, my dad, what will they think? They'll regret sending me to Republic City. My family will be torn apart because they will blame each other for my demise. I really can't die right now!

Water guy, who hasn't let go of my wrist, brings me closer and wraps his arms around me, trying to stabilize our position so we may enter the water feet first.

"Trust me on this, I know what I'm doing." He says before touching me and I nod to let him know it's okay. To let him know that in this precise moment, I really hope with all my heart he knows what he's doing and that he'll get us out of this mess, in which I technically put us.

His hand reaches the back of my head and he holds me close like a lover. I close my eyes and take a deep breath as we brutally enter the water. It's freezing and the pressure separates us. I see him trying to reach out for me but we're taken to different sides of the river that's flowing fast. I try to waterbend but it seems to be locked too. I can't see where I'm going and I'm almost out of air. I don't even know if I'm up or down. The currents are pushing me from all sides and my head's starting to spin.

That's when I hit something hard which makes me spill all my remaining air. At first, I thought it was an animal but it actually appeared to be an orca spirit than turned to look at me and gently smiled, a wild toothy smile, but somewhat gentle and nice. Well, spirit or not, I'm drowning and I desperately cling at my throat to try to keep the air inside. The spirit seems to notice I'm in trouble because it swims underneath me and shots for the surface which actually was above my head like I thought it was.

I literally scream for air and deeply breathe once we break the water surface. It takes me like a minute to calm down and breathe normally. I'm thrown on the spirit's back like a sack of potatoes but after a while, I regain enough strength to climb onto it's back.

"Thanks, I owe you."

The spirit doesn't say anything even if it could talk, it only makes an orca sound. It sounds like an angel singing underwater which is kind of cool and awesome. I try to see where water guy is, he can't waterbend right now so I'm not so sure he made it out alive.

"Could you help me find my… hum… friend? He's a water tribe dude and we had a pretty rough fall."

It sings again and starts swimming faster. I have to admit, I was never thinking I'd ride an orca spirit someday. Man! I'm glad Korra left the spirit portals open! I can't help but wonder if I would have had the courage to do the same. Probably not.

Almost as I was starting to lose hope, another orca spirit, a little smaller though, appears near, an unconscious guy laid on it's back. I ask the spirits to drop us off on the bank and thank them when they do. After a few joyful jumps, they disappear in the water. I think we're pretty lucky than good spirits found us, I don't exactly know what could be lurking out there but my guess is nothing nice. I drag water guy's body slightly away from the river's banks and start to give him CPR but he quickly wakes up and coughs water, almost in my face.

"Am I dead?" He asks.

I sit back and laugh a little, glad he's alright. I don't know what I would have done if he wasn't.

"No, you're alive. We are alive. And lost."

I start to shiver. I complained the water was cold but now it's even worse. I gather my knees in front of me and try to keep my teeth from chattering. But water guy sees it immediately and sits up.

"Let's find a shelter and then make a plan before you freeze to death."

"Aren't you cold too?"

"No, I'm used to it, I've been around it my whole life and sometimes without warm clothes."

He gets up and gives me his hand.

"I'm Sunai by the way."

"Feline."

I grab his hand and get up. We start walking towards the small mountains that are lining up way ahead of us. It's a long way to go, but at least we keep moving. I rub my arms in a feeble attempt to make them warmer and I can see in the corner of my eye Sunai would give me his jacket if he had one. And since all of my clothes are wet, putting the leopard printed scarf attached to my waist around my shoulders won't work.

"What's the grim face for? You should be happy we're alive!" Sunai suddenly says.

"I am. But this bag I've lost… well, I had important things in it, things that weren't mine and that I promised to give back."

"I can't do a thing about your bag, but I can do my best to get us as quickly as possible to Republic City. It's a long way up, but we'll make it. We made it through falling off a moving train crossing a bridge, we'll make it through anything."

I can't help but smile. I like his positive attitude.

"I know a little bit this place even if I've never left my hometown. We shouldn't be too far away from Makapu village, it should be on the other side of these mountains ahead. If we reach the sea and follow it, we might be able to avoid the mountains."

I'm trying to think of something else to say, something to keep the conversation afloat, but suddenly I hear the weird voice again. How many times has it been now? Once in Miss Sheng's teashop, another time aboard the train… It's starting to get annoying. And the more I hear it, the more I get the feeling that I'm going to discover who's it is. I also feel like it wants something and won't stop bothering me until it gets it…

"Feline…" Here it is, it says my name again. I turn back but no matter how hard I look around, no one else is there. Sunai looks in the same direction I do and breaks the silence after a few awkward seconds.

"Hum… you saw something?"

I look one last time then start walking again.

"Not exactly… There's this nagging voice that I keep hearing but no one's ever there! Maybe I'm just crazy, hearing voices… Sorry."

"No problem, I can deal with crazy."

I smile at him. I don't know how exactly I'm supposed to get that, but I'm glad he's with me, even if we've only met each other today.

"So… you mentioned you never left your hometown. Where do you live?" I'm happy he's the one to bring the conversation back to life. I didn't dare say anything after the whole "crazy hearing voices" topic.

"In Zoafu. I was supposed to start training my airbending in Republic City but, well you know… things got out of hands with the whole bandit attack. As for you, let me guess, Northern Water Tribe?"

He seems surprised.

"It's pretty obvious I'm a water tribe dude, but how did you guess which tribe I'm from?" I can see he's kind of impressed.

"My grandma's on the Earth Republic council, representing our city. I went with her to some of the meetings and once or twice people from other nations were involved. I recognized the design on your clothes, the way they're made is different from the southern clothes."

He stops in his tracks like he can't wrap his mind around something I said. I can't help but ask what's wrong.

"Your grandma's on the council? Why didn't you tell me you're a Beifong? You're almost like royalty! You guys saved the world! My father told me stories about your family and Avatar Korra's adventures!" He's totally impressed now. But I don't need a fan boy. And for what?

"Well I didn't do anything and technically, the Beifong's weren't the only ones, a lot of people were involved. I think they all kind of saved the world together. And I'm begging you, don't treat me like royalty. I'm tired of being treated like someone special."

He gently smiles and becomes serious again, quickly regaining his composure.

"I know what you mean; my father's pretty famous in our tribe since he's a doctor who saved a lot of lives. I grew up as the doctor's kind, always being treated differently even if I didn't ask for it. I guess it was the same for you, in a family of heroes."

I look down and keep rubbing my arms although I'm less and less cold now that the wind as dried my clothes a little bit.

"Well, my childhood was normal I think, being a Beifong was never a big deal to the other kids in school, but I grew up with my seven cousins, and boy being the only girl in a family is not easy!"

"I think you can defend yourself just fine."

"Yeah well I only had my first real fight two days ago so this whole bending fighting is kind of new to me."

"No way! I would have never guessed! You're a natural!"

"Thanks…"

I start blushing but before I can reply, we see something moving on the horizon.

"You see that?" I ask. Sunai squeezes his eyes and puts his hand on his brow to shade the sunbeams.

"Yeah… I don't know what it is, but it's coming towards us and fast!"

We both square off and I try to create a fist of air. I happily realize I can do it again and Sunai arms himself with the remaining water of his gourd. I'm glad it was only temporary. We both face the incoming thing that's speeding in our direction, ready to put up a good fight.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks for all your reviews and messages, I really appreciate it. Don't hesitate to contact me, I always reply. And also, thumbs up for the guest who wrote the amazing paragraph on how Feline should tell her family she's the Avatar. I really enjoyed reading it, you made my day, well evening actually but never mind. So some small hints are in order: I'm sorry, that's not the way they'll discover she's the Avatar, actually they'll see it, she won't tell them. And since I'm mean, I won't tell you when it'll happen, not very soon, but in the first book, for sure. So yes, there's going to be four books, I pretty much know what's going to happen in each one of them. Oh and other characters from the show like Asami, Varreck, ZhuLi (I never knew how to write her name...), also Tenzin's family (Jinora and Kai just got a baby yeaaaaaay) and others will be there soon. How some of them have turned out will surprise you...

If you want me to give you some small hints about the story, like who's the creepy voice, what happened to Korra, who's going to be in Team Avatar, bla bla bla, don't hesitate to ask, I'll answer while not giving away too much spoilers, I promise. Hope youl like this one and see you in a few days for chapter 8. Bye guys ^^

Ti