Chapter 10: New Friends Made

Appa roared as he flew past puffy white clouds overlooking the ocean. Onboard, Aang and his friends sat around and enjoyed the fresh new day as they made their way slowly north. The young avatar had been contemplating for two days if he should tell his friends of the strange encounter he had had with Prince Zuko. Deciding that they deserved to know, Aang related all the events of his capture by Admiral Zhao and the rescue by Zuko and then to the part where he had offered friendship with the fire prince. This last part was a bad idea; Sokka immediately went into a long lecture about how dangerous it was to help a fire bender out and he should have left him there and escaped himself.

"You can't trust anyone from the Fire Nation, understand? They're ruthless, cold-hearted murderers who would rather kill so much as look at you, especially Prince Zuko."

"Well, what about the old man you rescued from Jet and the sage, Shiyu; they helped us and they were from the Fire Nation." Aang replied, sticking up for himself.

"That… that doesn't count. The old man was too old to fight and Shiyu was following his duties as sage. What I am saying is…" Katara rolled her eyes at her brother and looked off down below them at the cool, blue-green water. Her element always made her happy and at peace and she let her eyes sweep over it all as she tried to drown out Sokka's incessant talking. Seeing something in the water, she tried to take a closer look but they were too high up to make out what the object was.

"What do you think that is?" she asked, turning to her two companions. Following where her finger was pointing to, the two boys looked down to see the floating something in the water.

"Let's check it out." Aang said, pulling on the reins and steering Appa down to the ocean. As they got closer, they realized what it was. Appa landed in the water next to the floating barrel and its precious cargo and Aang helped Katara unbound the ropes and lift the body onto the saddle.

"Do you think she's okay?" the air bender asked, looking at the girl's face. Katara felt for a pulse and nodded with relief and then began checking her wounds.

"Look at these, these are some nasty burns."

"I wonder what happened to her." As the two benders looked the girl over, Sokka picked up the knife that had been pierced into the barrel and studied it. His eyes grew wide at the recognition of the craftsmanship of the blade and quickly turned to his friends.

"Get away from her! She's from the fire nation!" Sokka thrust the knife into Aang's hands and then began picking up the unconscious girl.

"What are you doing?" Katara asked jumping in front of her brother.

"She's dangerous Katara, she can't stay with us."

"So, what? You're just going to leave her here? She's not a fish, Sokka, you can't just

throw her back because you don't like her, she's a human being!"

"Yeah, you're not being fair!" yelled Aang, taking Katara's side. "She can't hurt us Sokka, and, who knows, maybe she's nice."

"Hello? Fire Nation- ruthless, non-trustworthy! Didn't you hear anything I just said?"

"Who couldn't hear you? Half the world probably heard you. Put her down Sokka, it's settled." Sokka hesitated for a minute before setting the enemy down in front of Katara and Aang and walked to the front to sit on Appa's head, away from the fire bender.

"Yip, yip!" he snapped out and the bison launched into the air again.

Warm. It was warm… and dry. These two facts did not seem right as Tamara slowly came back to consciousness. Once fully awake, her eyes cracked open but shut again immediately as a glare blinded her. Opening her eyes again, Tamara found the source of warmth and light coming from a small pit fire only two feet from her. Almost instantly, Tamara was struck with a wave of pain. Her head throbbed excruciatingly and as she reached up to try to stop the pain, she found a bandage around her wrist and found two more covering her other wrist and her head as well. She could not understand it, last thing she remembered she was floating out in the ocean, who had saved her? She was pondering over this when something caught her attention; voices reached her ears from somewhere in the distance, their creators just out of eye sight with Tamara.

"Hey, look guys. I think she's finally awake." Tamara tensed up as someone walked towards her and she soon found herself looking into the gray eyes of … a boy? She looked at him curiously as the boy smiled to her and helped her sit up. "How are you feeling? You've been out for most of the day." Before Tamara could answer another boy walked up and pulled the other one away.

"What are you doing? If she finds out who you are we'll be done for!"

"Come on, Sokka, lighten up, she won't hurt us." The younger boy pulled away from the

one called Sokka and walked back over to Tamara. "Sorry. What's your name?" She looked at him curiously before answering.

"Tamara."

"Tamara, huh, that's a nice name. My name is Aang, and these are my friends Katara, her brother, Sokka, and this is … Momo …" he stopped and looked to her side. Tamara followed his gaze to her healer's bag, where a strange animal was rummaging through it, making all kinds of sounds as it dug deeper and deeper trying to find something to eat. Tamara laughed as she pulled the strange creature from her bag and held it in front of her.

"You must be Momo," she chuckled, "Sorry, but I don't have anything but medicinal plants in there." Momo purred at her and she set him down. Katara sat down next to her.

"You're a healer?" Tamara nodded and then looked at Aang again. She looked back over at the strange young boy and saw the blue arrow across the top of his bald head.

"You're…you're the avatar aren't you?" she gasped out, not believing who she was staring at. Everyone froze at her question and Sokka began taking out his club as she looked like she was going to rise. Instead of standing up as everyone expected, Tamara simply knelt down in front of him, her head on her knee, in the deepest respect. "It is an honor to be in the presence of the Avatar and his friends. Thank you for rescuing me." Aang looked at Katara, who just shrugged, and back down at the healer kneeling before him. He laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Uh, please, Tamara, don't do that and you can call me Aang." She looked up in surprise at him but nodded her understanding.

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Very short I know, but sorry. The next chapter will be longer and it will get better, I promise. Keep reading and I'll keep writing.

Thanks. Bye.