40 th day of our journey. We have left the mountainous coastline and are travelling due north. The landscape has changed to forest-covered low hills and valleys. The Avatar and I have continued to learn the skills of waterbending from the scroll we took from the pirates, but there have been several distractions along the way.

What I wrote above isn't really true.

About Aang, I mean. He isn't really so focussed on learning the waterbending forms. He always finds some excuse and goes off.

Today it's Hogmonkeys. The forests here are full of the barking, noisy animals. And Aang said he just had to ride them again. Well, ride them he did and boy, wasn't that a rodeo! He had once mentioned that Hogmonkeys are rather reluctant about being ridden.

Reluctant is an understatement.

If he hadn't been an airbender and able to cushion his falls, he'd be in pieces by now.

As for me, I'm making slow but steady progress at waterbending, in spite of Aang's distractedness.

Not that he doesn't tell me if I ask him something. (Oh yes: I do ask him – humbly. I'm not falling into that silly, competitive game again.) Aang explains what the drawings mean, when they're not clear, and demonstrates the moves they're trying to depict, when I can't understand.

'You really get this stuff immediately,' I said, ruefully after he had explained one of the more obscure stances I had pointed out on the Waterbending Scroll.

'Well, yeah: if you spend hours and hours staring at airbending scrolls for homework, you kinda get used to seeing what they mean.'

'You're lucky to have had that chance, Aang.'

'There were plenty of times when I didn't think so, ' he said with a wry grin, 'especially when my friend Jin Ju and I accidentally dropped ink on one of the old scrolls and Monk Tashi made us copy the whole thing by hand. It took days! I would've much rather spent the time with the air scouts ...'

'Are you two still studying fancy splashes?' Sokka came up behind us holding up the days catch: two large birds and a bagful of lychees, 'I thought I'd find the fire ready.'

'It'll only take a minute, Sokka' I said, rolling up the scroll irritably.

It wasn't even close to midday.

'Don't worry. I'll do it.' Aang got up.

'Don't get waylaid by the Hogmonkeys again!' Sokka shouted after him 'Oh, and I've ripped my sleeve again, Katara.'

'Give it here,'I sighed, 'And I'll see what I can do. Can't you be more careful? Aang never tears his clothes.'

I grudged every extra chore I had to do -it took time off from my practising.

'Aang doesn't hunt,' my brother retorted, 'And those birds had some pretty long claws, you know.'

I had no answer to that. Actually, I had often wondered why Aang wasn't more squeamish about the kills Sokka got back from hunting trips (when he was able to). I knew enough from the history of the Air Nomads to know they had a philosophy of respecting all life, and I was slowly realising how this philosophy affected the way the young Airbender lived: from the way he used his bending in a fight, to his love of animals. And though he was adamantly a vegetarian, yet he was strangely matter-of-fact about our Water Tribe culture of hunting and fishing. I guess that accepting other peoples' differences comes from being a well-travelled Air Nomad.

'Anyway, tomorrow we'll be going further inland,' Sokka said, his voice muffled as he slipped out his tunic, 'There won't be any large rivers there, so say goodbye to your tidal wave splashes.'

'Actually, I wanted to speak to you about that, Sokka. The waterbending scroll suggests a waterbender should always have a steady supply of water. This afternoon I'm going to that small town we saw earlier to buy a waterskin. A special one like I've seen at that seedy market town where the pirates were.'

'You can't do that. You don't have any money!'

'I'll trade for one of those birds ya got.'

'What? I caught them!'

'Even you can't eat both of them, Sokka - they're huge!'

'But…'

He searched for some other objection, but his shoulders slumped and he gave up.

'The things I have to do so that you can play around and have fun!'

'I'm NOT playing around! 'I retorted immediately, incensed at his words 'Waterbending's serious stuff, and-'

'What about that other scroll, then? You're always writing away in that when you could be doing something useful!'

'I write only when there's nothing to do!' I yelled 'You're usually snoring away when I'm writing.'

Aang looked up from the fire at the sound of our raised voices.

'That's 'cause you don't want to show me what you're writing,' my brother retorted with a sly grin, 'I betcha it's about boys!'

'Boys?! What boys?!'

He looked at me for a second with a sly look on his face. Even Aang was staring at me from near the fire. Though my writing is nothing of the sort, I felt my cheeks start to redden.

'Nah – it couldn't be that,' my brother said after a while, 'You're too young for that sort of thing. Not to mention you're my little sister, and –'

He stopped, for he saw the murderous look on my face. Who does Sokka think he is? The world's greatest lover?

'I told you it's a journal,' I said, through clenched teeth, trying to keep my temper in check 'like a ship's log, of where we went and –'

'Yeah, yeah,' Sokka waved his hand dismissively 'That's what you would have us believe. But we know different, don't we, Aang?'

And he winked in Aang's direction.

'Uh….we do?' Aang shook his head.

Clearly, this was all in Sokka's head.

''Ship's log'huh?' Sokka leaned over and made a silly face, 'Betchya it's a luuurv story you're writing! Betchya it's all kisses and sighs and –'

'Don't be ridiculous, Sokka, it's nothing like that! I'm just …describing the landscape in detail.'

'Describing the landscape in detail…' Sokka repeated in a deadpan voice, 'I see.'

To my dismay I could feel my face flush redder.

'Anyway, what's it to you, what I write? You're just curious, and it's none of your business, really!'

I was angry with myself for feeling so flustered. Aang wouldn't stop staring and Sokka was grinning broadly, enjoying my discomfort:

'So who's the hero of your tale? That Haru guy? You went for a walk with him…'

'So what?! Can't I walk with anyone now?'

Aang was frowning, but Sokka started making kissing noises. That was it: I bent the water from the cooking pot in a glistening ball over his head.

'Shut up, Sokka! Or you're gonna get your bath early today! You're so – ugh!'

Sokka backed off ( the cooking water was full of onions) but I was close to dousing him with that water! Serves him right. He should keep his nose out of my business and my diary – I mean, journal.

In the afternoon, I went to the small town we'd seen on our way and traded the game bird for a large water-skin. It's made from Tiger-seal skin and has the distinctive stripes across its width. It's slung around the shoulders and fits snugly around your waist. It looks very much like the diagram I found in the waterbending scroll.

Late afternoon I practised using it with Aang's help. In a place where there is no readily available water, I need to carry it with me and I need to be able to have access to it quickly and smoothly. Besides these last four days we've seen signs of Fire Nation soldiers in the woods. If we have another close encounter, I want to be ready.

I bent the water out of the skin towards Aang and he caught it deftly and bended it right back at me, so that I could replace it back in the skin. There were a few accidents, and both Aang and myself got drenched, but I soon mastered the technique.

We practised some more waterbending until the lengthening shadows of the trees in the clearing indicated the end of another short, winter day and Aang said he had to go and see to Appa and left.

I continued with the waterbending, however. I would have liked Aang to stay practising with me. He's still quicker at learning than I am, yet I pick things up better when I'm with him. He hasn't shown any interest in showing off any more flamboyant moves, and in fact, he seems a bit either disinterested or reluctant to waterbend. I'm wondering whether what happened last time with the waterbending scroll has anything to do with it. Perhaps he thinks I'll yell at him again, if he does better at waterbending than me. I hope not - I'm over that now.

Looking at him frolicking around with the Hogmonkeys I would say he's just distracted, I can't imagine he could be so deceptively wise.

Or could he?

Well, to tell the truth, this whole forest has us all distracted to some degree. Aang with the fauna, Sokka with the hunting, which he says is good, and as for me – well, I think this is an enchanting place. It is not the tall dark green conifers we've seen near the mountains. The trees are beautiful red and gold: there's hardly any green. Aang says Autumn lasts well into winter in this part of the world.

I suppose I've let this beautiful forest lull me into a sense of unreality too. Sometimes I forget the urgency of Roku's words and the coming of the comet. After all, Aang did learn the basics of waterbending pretty fast (though he still has to learn to change its form to ice): if he learns the other two elements just as fast, I think he'll actually make it way before next summer.

Aang himself has alternated between bouts of boisterous clowning around and bouts of seriousness, when I catch him gazing blankly into the blue, his mind probably going over the challenges that lay ahead.

However the latter are becoming more infrequent as the magic of this red forest settles on us.

I'd better stop writing now. Sokka is looking at me out of his sleeping bag with a smirk and an 'I-know-what-you're-doing-look' on his face.

41 st day of our journey. This morning we accidentally came upon an encampment of Fire Nation soldiers. We were saved by a group of young fighters called the Freedom Fighters. Their leader, Jet, displayed a formidable use of double hooked swords and almost single-handedly took down half the soldiers. He also demonstrated great hospitality by inviting us to his treetop hideout, where we are spending the night. The Freedom Fighters are doing their best to save a nearby Earth Kingdom town of GaiPan from Fire Nation rule.

It all started out with a quarrel about who's gonna be the leader of our little group.

Sokka decided we should all walk to avoid Appa being spotted by Fire Nation soldiers or Zuko.

Why does he think he's a good leader, anyway? It's true he's the eldest, but Aang's the Avatar! He should be the leader. Sokka said Aang's just a goofy kid and typically, Aang agreed with him.

That's not true. I mean, sure Aang fools around sometimes, but never at the wrong moment or the wrong time. He can turn the silly off in a second when necessary, and he has proved it, time and time again.

Why do boys always think someone has to be the leader? Sokka gets so bossy about things sometimes! I thought his meeting with the Kyoshi warriors had cured some of his outdated ideas! Or perhaps if he got to know another aspect of a girl he'd mellow down a bit.

'I bet you wouldn't be so bossy if you kissed a girl,' I said, remembering how he had teased me yesterday.

'I-I've kissed a girl—you...just haven't met her'

'Who? Gran-gran? I've met Gran-gran.'

In spite of his protestations, Sokka, like myself, has been brought up in a complete dearth of teenagers at the South Pole. There were no girls to kiss there.

But Sokka said we have to trust his instincts, and finally I gave in and said we'd give it a go. Aang declared it might be fun and loaded himself with the heaviest bags (Appa had to walk too, and he's too big to pass under the trees loaded with our luggage)..

Trusting Sokka's instincts came at a heavy price: not least because walking is slow and tiring and we were soon quite disenchanted with the whole idea.

That's when we came upon the Fire Nation encampment. They were as surprised as we were. But not for long. They grabbed their swords and the Fire Benders among them started hurling fireballs at us. We were soon surrounded.

Suddenly, their captain dropped dead or unconscious.

At first, I didn't realise what had happened, but then I saw them as they jumped down from the trees: a motley crew of young fighters dressed in an odd assortment of clothes and fighting gear. Arrows were flying everywhere, a low, hissing sound followed by a thunk as they hit their target: the searing heat of flames swirled around as the Fire Benders retaliated, however, one young fighter stood out above the rest: he couldn't have been more than 17 or 18 years old, tall, tanned, with a shock of unruly brown hair and a twig firmly grasped between white teeth. He fought amazingly well with twin hooked swords that he wielded as though they were part of his own body. He took out several soldiers single-handedly and that galvanised Aang and I into some bending action, and I found out what a good idea investment that water-skin was.

The whole fight didn't last long: the few remaining uninjured soldiers took off through the trees, disarmed and demoralised. The last soldier was taken out by the young fighter with a cool move that broke the soldiers spear and sent the young man – twig still firmly in his mouth - stumbling towards me. He regained his balance stopped inches away from me.

'Hey' he said in a low, pleasant voice, just as though he was passing the time of day, instead of fighting soldiers with deadly weapons.

'Hi,' I answered, my heart still beating form the chaos of the fight. I noticed immediately how tall he was.

The young fighter introduced himself as Jet and the rag tag army as Sneers, Smellerbee, The Duke, Pipsqueak and Long shot: names as odd and mismatched as their owners.

They started going through the Firenation tents and belongings finding some very useful stuff. While they were busy I thanked Jet for saving us. Though he never even mentioned it, I knew Jet was their leader. He didn't need to say anything - he had a quiet authority that was unmistakeable. I could see how the others looked up to him and he had an answer to everything. So when he mentioned a hideout, I was eager to see it.

Aang had immediately made friends with the toughest-looking of the young fighters and only Sokka was sulking because his 'instincts' as Jet said, almost had us all killed. It took a while to load everything that could be useful, but Jet didn't want to linger in case the soldiers came back with reinforcements, but it was past noon when we left for their hideout.

It turned out the hideout was high in the treetops. Sokka was winched up by a rope that catapulted him suddenly upwards through the branches. Aang airbended himself up in that inimitable airbender way from tree trunk to tree trunk, light as a feather, until he reached the top.

I was wondering how to get up when I saw Jet holding out his hand. With the other hand he held a rope.

'Grab hold of me, Katara'

My heart beat faster as I placed my hand in his, feeling suddenly shy. Then it almost stopped when he spun me round and put his arm round my waist, lifting me effortlessly against him. I wasn't expecting that! I could feel the slight roughness of his face as we ended up cheek to cheek. Then the rope whisked us up through the red-leaved trees, and I slid a bit further down, but his arm tightened around me holding me firmly against him with an easy confidence.

My heart was fluttering wildly against my chest, and I was sure he'd notice. Worse still, I could feel my face was as fiery red as the foliage around us. I had never been this close to a young man before! I risked a quick glance at Jet but he was looking up at the tree canopy above. He looked really handsome in a daredevil, roguish kind of way. I was glad he was looking up at that moment, because my face was so red it could've set his shirt on fire.

We arrived on a wooden landing high up in the branches of the highest trees. I let go of Jet quickly and tried to compose myself. Thankfully, it was getting darker.

Up there, in the red forest canopy, it felt like we had been transported to a different but very beautiful world. Even in the gloaming I could see that there was a whole village of treehouses at different levels, all connected with zipcords or wooden bridges.

Jet explained they were fighting to liberate a nearby Earth Kingdom town, GaiPan from the Fire Nation and they had done enough damage to be on all on the wanted list. He also explained that most of the freedom fighters had lost their home or their family because of the war.

Jet had lost both.

He showed us to one of the treehouses: it was small, but dry and well built. We dropped our stuff there and joined the Freedom Fighters for a feast arranged on a table in the middle of wide platform that looked like some communal gathering place under strings of lighted lanterns.

Jet gave a short speech, nothing long-winded: just what his followers wanted to hear and cheer to, with a few carefully-placed words of praise for the bravest actions from the smallest of them: The Duke. The tree-tops rang with the cheers and shouts of every single one of the freedom Fighters.

Jet truly has the qualities of leadership: it is effortless and unquestioned by his followers and you can see he had earned his position as leader. He's earned it because he's brave and resourceful and considerate of his followers. Sokka should take a few pointers from him.

And he is handsome, and so, so, cool! That has nothing to do with being a leader, of course, but I guess it's a bonus. Throughout the meal I couldn't keep my eyes off him, especially when he came over and praised our bending during the fight.

He wants our help in his struggle to free the Earth Kingdom town. He even persuaded a still-grumpy Sokka to go with him on a mission tomorrow. The two of them discussed the plan – an ambush – for some time, then Sokka went to bed. Aang had been taken away by Pipsqueak and The Duke to see the lookout posts and find a suitable 'nest' for Appa in the trees. Slowly the young fighters dispersed back to their own treehouse, so that only me, Jet and some of the lookouts at their higher posts, remained.

We talked far into the night, and to my surprise I found Jet eager to talk. I told him about my quest to learn better waterbending at the North Pole, and though I know I still have a long way to go, how I practised hard every day, knowing that someday I will master the art. Jet never mentioned his parents again, but spoke about how the forest had become his home and how little by little he had built it into the complex little miniature village it was today.

'We even had a bathhouse fitted in,' he grinned, 'especially after girls joined the Freedom Fighters. Girls are more particular, though Smellerbee prefers to splash around in the river like the rest of us...'

'Oh... I thought Smellerbee's voice and face seemed far more delicate than a boy's. I – I mean, I wasn't sure - with that face paint and tough attitude...'

Jet gave a small laugh. 'Smellerbee's an awesome fighter, but I guess for some it ain't easy to separate being a girl and being good fighter. Unlike you.'

'W-What?'

'You've the strength and determination of a warrior,' Jet said his dark eyes fixed unwaveringly on mine, 'but no-one could doubt your femininity, Katara.'

'Oh.'

Suddenly I realised how close we were and he was looking at me in a strange way. My heart rate shot sky-high.

'I guess what I'm trying to say is,' Jet leaned closer, till we were only inches apart, 'You're a beautiful girl, too.'

That's when I stopped breathing.

Was he going to kiss me? There was only the sound of my own heart hammering in my chest but even in that split second, a turmoil of emotions passed through me: excitement, nervousness, but also a kind of terrified, yet eager, anticipation.

'Hey, Jet! You're on sentry duty next up by the great Oak. Snickers hurt his foot.'

The shout came from above us. Jet stood up and I realised I was still holding my breath. I let it out in a shaky sigh. The speaker was one of the sentries I had seen earlier.

'Is he ok?' Jet asked.

'Sure, Jet. He just twisted his ankle. I think he was trying to imitate some of the Avatar's moves and had an awkward fall.'

'Yeah, Snickers would. He's great at climbing trees but he's no Air bender,' Jet said, 'Well, he can't stand on that leg all night. Tell Smellerbee to patch him up, I'm coming right away. I'll take his turn tonight.'

'Right.'

The thin boy climbed nimbly back up into the branches disappearing in the darkness beyond the light of the lanterns.

'Katara...'

Jet held out his hand to pull me up.

'Tell your brother to be ready at dawn, it's a bit of a long track to the road,' he said, keeping my hand in his a second longer than was necessary. I didn't miss the gesture and my face was aflame again. 'Now go get some sleep and I'll see you tomorrow, hopefully with more good news.'

'Goodnight, Jet.'

'Goodnight, Katara.'

And with that he jumped lightly off the platform and was swallowed up by the darkness of the woods.

I made my way back to our treehouse, my mind buzzing with a myriad thoughts and emotions.

Sokka was still awake.

' 'bout time you came back. I thought you'd never stop batting your eyes at that Jet!'

I ignored him and passed on Jet's message. Just then Aang came in with news about the unknown Snickers death-defying imitation of an Airbending move and consequent fall. Apparently, it was Aang who saved him from something much worse than a twisted ankle. Aang, like me, was impressed with the treetop lifestyle and even Sokka's deprecating comments did nothing to dampen his enthusiasm about it.

Thus it was much later when they both finally settled down to sleep and I took out my scroll. I wanted to be able to write this without anyone watching me because ... well ... because they'd notice something was up. I still feel like it's written all over my face, and writing about it is almost the same as being next to Jet again...

I almost got my first kiss today, and for a girl, her first kiss is a BIG DEAL!

Especially a girl like me: living among only women and children for so long, back at the South Pole, there weren't too many opportunities for romance. Even assuming there had been the time for it: we were so busy trying to survive that there wasn't much time to think about romance, or even such frivolities as having fun.

Yesterday, I was ticked off with Sokka and his insinuations that I'm romantically naive and my scroll was stuffed full of romantic garbage ( I suppose that was why I teased him about Gran Gran being the only female he kissed), but I guess it's no secret that, to a certain point, it's true.

What is a secret is that it's worrying me, now.

My notions of love and romance have come, for half my life, from third-rate sources: the older women's gossip; some half-burnt books and scrolls recounting the old sagas and stories of our tribe. The latter were more about famous warriors and their deeds than about love, and after the fire nation attacks, we were lucky to even have those half-burnt stories. The women were a fount of information of course: some funny; some sad, some contradictory and some was just well-meaning advice that I didn't really need. Most of them had a pragmatic, down-to-earth-approach to romance that came, they told me, from the wearing of the Marriage Cloak for so many years. Yet when they spoke about their missing husbands there was a wistful note in their voices that spoke volumes.

As did the twinkle in their eye when they recounted their own romances as teenagers and their betrothals...

'When I was your age,' they would start, lowering their voice confidentially 'I developed a crush on so-and-so...'

When I was your age...

It was usually at this point that I'd get the weird looks and their voices would sometimes stammer into silence. I endured their pitying glances as best I could: they knew falling in love was not going to happen for me. Not unless the men came back.

That didn't really bother me at the time: I was the only waterbender, and, apart from surviving, I had other ambitions. Not having someone to develop a crush on did not seem such a big thing.

I remember as a pre-teen being kind of attracted to a couple of the unmarried warriors of the tribe,( something Sokka was quick to tease me about) but the youngest was at least 6 or 7 years older than I was, so I guess that was pretty silly of me.

I could remember my mother and father though: now that was love!

Love that was cut short.

I never saw love like that again and for the following years, even as I grew older, romance was the last thing on my mind, given the situation.

I'm so glad Aang came along and changed that.

The situation, I mean.

Ever since my brother and I started travelling with Aang, things have been happening!

Which means with all the crazy stuff that's been going on, I've had even less time to think about romance! Half the time I'm worried whether we'll come out of each new adventure alive, but I suppose it was only a matter of time before I met someone like Jet. After all, I'm growing up now!

Apart from being such wonderful leader and warrior, ( and a really handsome guy), what I like about Jet is his concern for others. He seems so thoughtful and considerate: I never heard him utter a depreciating comment about anyone of his followers – he was kind even to Sokka, who acted obnoxiously towards him. It's like, beneath the obvious toughness, he has a gentle soul and he would never hurt a fly!

It's just that it's happened so quickly and Jet has such an incredible presence, that I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and beyond my depth.

Perhaps all those years of not having other teenagers around have now suddenly caught up with me! I can't stop thinking of that magical moment when Jet took me in his arms and pulled me up through the red trees! No-one had ever done that before.

Well, actually, come to think of it, there was someone else who did...

It was in a rusting hulk of a fire nation ship, remnant of past raids on the South Pole and Aang had taken me in his arms and airbended both of us out of that ship after we had set off an ancient alarm. Even back then, it had been a dizzying thing: I guess the strange fluttering sensation then was because it was my first ( and only) experience at being airbended lightly down several hundred feet of rusty ship. Aang was the only one other boy I had met in years, so I suppose I might have been a bit in a flutter because he was so special (even though I didn't know he was the Avatar, then).

My eyes flicker over to where he's sleeping: I can make out Aang's slighter form curled up in a bedroll beyond that of my brother.

I can't resist a fond smile. Yes, Aang is special: but not only because he's the Avatar, he's a friend, airbender, goofy kid ...and something else entirely I can't quite put her finger on... all rolled into one.

I can't believe how easy it is to talk to Aang now ( I think, barring very few occasions, it always has been) so I have to hope that this feeling of being out of my depth with Jet will disappear soon. When tomorrow comes, I'm going to try and talk to him again. I've got to put more faith in my instincts!

If Sokka had to read that...

42 nd day of our journey. My brother had his own reason for wanting to leave the Freedom Fighters today, but their leader, Jet, has asked the Avatar and I to help them prevent a nefarious Fire Nation plan to destroy the forest they live in. We are staying.

Sokka's reasons for wanting to leave are totally unacceptable! He seemed eager enough to go on a mission with Jet, but he came back with some very serious ( and unfounded) accusations. I think he is secretly jealous that Jet is such a good leader.

I don't know what happened exactly, but they left at dawn with Smellerbee and Pipsqueak.

Aang was up early too: I saw him on the zipcords that run between the treehouses : aided by a little airbending he was going as fast as we had done on Omashu's 'superslides'. It wasn't for long though -Sneers and Long Shot needed him to help sort out with the blasting jelly.

I explored the arboreal village a bit more slowly. Like Jet said, there was even a bathhouse with water showering down through it from above and then draining through a hollow trunk to the ground below. Everything is cleverly made and I would've thought something like that would've intrigued Sokka. But no, the expression on his face when saw him in the afternoon was thunderous.

I had spent all morning making a hat for jet and going over, again and again, out conversation of yesterday. Given that Jet and the freedom fighters wear clothes that blend in with the forest to avoid detection, I thought I'd make one out of the leaves and berries I found around me.

Not that I know anything about hats: in the South Pole all we ever wear are fur hoods. There are ceremonial headdresses of course, but those don't count. However, I've seen men with lots of different hats: at Omashu especially, but even in the smaller towns and villages so it must be an important item of clothing here in the Earth Kingdom.

That is why I was upset when Sokka said we should leave, and even more upset when he said Jet had been attacking helpless old men. I wanted to hear Jet's side of the story. I know Jet wouldn't do such a thing.

Just then something exploded with a sharp crack at my feet. I jumped and dropped the hat. Momo had grabbed hold of some of the miniature popping bombs made of blasting jelly The Duke had given Aang, and was throwing it around.

'Sorry, Katara,' Aang said, bending down to pick up the hat, but I was already on my way to Jet's treehouse, determined to prove Sokka wrong.

And I did.

Turns out the old man was Fire Nation, and he had a poisoned dagger.

A poisoned dagger meant for Jet!

Jet even tried to thank Sokka for saving his life, but my brother was being stubborn and unreasonable and stormed off. Jet told us about the Fire Nation plan to destroy the Forest. Aang immediately asked what we could do to help. Jet said he needed help to waterbend and fill a reservoir with water to help fight the fire. I knew I would do anything to help these people and not only because I liked Jet, but because the Freedom Fighters were doing whatever they could to fight the fire nation. We needed people like these.

Jet said he was tired and wanted an early night so Aang and I left him to rest. As we made our way to our treehouse. Aang was strangely quiet.

'We gotta convince Sokka to stay, Katara' he said after a while, 'Jet is right. We can't let the Fire Nation destroy this Forest. It will be like Senlin village all over again.'

I remembered how upset Aang had been at the vast black scar left by the Fire Nation outside Senlin village.

I nodded vigorously. 'Pointless destruction just to smoke out the Freedom Fighters. Besides, we don't want to anger another Forest Spirit like Hei Bai. Don't worry, Aang. You leave my brother to me.'

With Aang on my side, Sokka would have to give in, like he did when I was imprisoned on that rig. That turned out well, so I don't see why this won't too. And even if he won't give in – I'm staying here to help Jet!

43 rd day of our journey. My brother's suspicions on the leader of the Freedom Fighters turned out to be true. The reservoir he wanted us to fill up with waterbending was not intended to fight a forest fire, instead, Jet intended blowing up the dam to flood and drown the entire town. It was an insane, vengeful and monstrous idea. Aang and I discovered his plan but where too late to stop the explosion of the dam. Thankfully, my brother who had realised Jet's intentions earlier, managed to warn the inhabitants of the peril they faced and they got out on time.

Jet came for us in the morning. Sokka had disappeared somewhere while Aang and were still asleep – I thought he was just sulking, but it turned out he had followed Jet and his followers as they took the blasting jelly to the reservoir, and found out all about their plan.

There he was captured.

In the meantime Jet took us to a high ledge above the river that fed the reservoir. It had dwindled to a stream. but in the ground below our feet I felt a strange sensation. It was the presence of water – but not moving water exactly, more like water under pressure. Aang felt it too: actually he was standing on the source of the water: geysers! It exploded with a hissing sound sending Aang flying skywards. Unperturbed, he simply airbended himself gracefully down again.

Jet explained we needed to bend the water out of the geysers to join the river below. I was a bit doubtful about bending water that was so deep and unseen, but Jet placed his hands on my shoulders and said I could do it!

May the Spirits forgive me for this - but I was flattered at his confidence in me and did what he said. I did not yet know what a monster Jet is.

I should have suspected even then that he was lying: he said Sokka apologised for his behaviour. Aang and I both found that very strange. Sokka NEVER apologises.

However we knew nothing about that at the time so Aang and I took up our position on either side of the geyser and concentrated on the water beneath our feet. I could feel the turbulent eagerness of the water to escape the geyser, so bending it was far easier than I expected. Aang and I moved our hands in unison drawing forth the water slowly at first: it formed an untidy irregular stream between us but then we bended it out and down so that it gushed forth as an impressive torrent, the rest of the underground water following suit to join the river below.

Jet left us to get on with it, saying he'd meet us back at the hideout, but we finished early and I convinced Aang to go and meet Jet by the dam.

That's when we saw the freedom fighters placing the blasting jelly at the foot of the dam.

Aang understood what was happening before I did.

I couldn't believe it.

Not Jet.

The cold shower of disbelief froze me to the spot. All I had felt and believed about the young rebel came crashing down around me. Thank goodness, Aang had enough presence of mind to take off on his glider to warn the people of their imminent doom.

But at that moment Jet re-appeared and charged Aang, knocking him off his glider and almost off the edge.

I stood in shocked silence as he explained how he intended to drown the whole town: Fire Nation, innocent civilians, men, women and children: condemning them all to death in a deluded attempt to rid the valley of Fire Nation soldiers. And when he mentioned Sokka, I knew he had done something to my brother!

Sokka had warned me about Jet. I never believed him, and now he was paying the price for my stupidity...

I felt the hot tears roll down my cheeks, and when Jet dare – yes, dared – to touch my face, as though what I thought or said could ever mean anything anymore, I lashed out at him, blasting him away from me with water from my waterskin.

Aang reached out for his glider then, but Jet stopped him and soon they were both up in the branches, Jet's hooked swords flashing with swift and deadly accuracy. Aang managed to avoid Jet's onslaught, trying to avoid an outright fight, but Jet was unrelenting and soon Aang was retaliating. I followed them from the ground but they fought their way to the higher levels branch by branch and the foliage sometimes hid them from view.

Then Aang's glider fell through the branches, and it was followed, shortly after, by Aang himself. He landed heavily and lay still. I ran towards him – if Aang got hurt too...

But Jet beat me to it - he jump down lightly from the branches above just as Aang was getting groggily to his feet. The cruel monster was so keen to sink those hooked swords in Aang that he didn't even notice me.

Big mistake.

I hit him with the water from a nearby stream, bending it into a lashing wave into which I poured all my fury, and hurt and disgust at his betrayal! I swung my arms, feeling the rage flowing into the movement and then into the water, bending it into an unstoppable, furious torrent, and attacking again and again and again!

Jet staggered backwards against the tree, and I froze him to it, to stop myself from continuing the attack as much as to immobilise him.

How could I have trusted him?

But Jet wasn't finished yet. There was a bird call from the valley below.

And Jet answered it.

It was a signal. We realised what he was doing and Aang snapped open his glider to try and stop the fighters below, but the wings of the glider had been shredded by Jet's original attack and he slammed down to the ground again.

Then we heard the explosion. A terrific noise that was followed by an eerie split second of silence and then the roar of rushing water and falling stone. We watched in horror as the little town of Gaipan was swept away by a huge tidal wave that we – Aang and I – had helped create.

I was transfixed with at the sheer enormity of the catastrophe! Though I couldn't see at this distance, there were people there – children - drowning slowly before my eyes!

I think I was blinded by rage then and I turned back to Jet. I didn't know what I would do – I wanted to hurt him - badly! This was beyond – far, far, beyond – the pain of his personal betrayal! He had a whole town of innocent lives to answer for!

Then that Sokka's voice reached us as he flew in on Appa saying that he had managed to convince the townsfolk to evacuate! I was so proud of him: walking into a Fire Nation- held town takes some guts! Thankfully that old man – Jet's would-be poisoner, vouched for him and Sokka saved the day!

As we climbed on Appa to leave, Jet even had the nerve to turn to me and ask for help. Who does he think I am? Perhaps he figured I'm young and inexperienced and therefore an easy target to his charms and smooth talking, but though he may have fooled me once he'll never do so again!

'Goodbye, Jet' I said with an air of finality and I hope I never see him again, because if I do...

He could stay there till the ice melts for all I cared, but probably his friends found him before he even felt cold.

We spent the rest of the day making up for time lost at Gaipan, and flew in a Northerly direction. I spent the time helping Aang fix the damage to his glider. It was painstaking work because now that I saw it up close, the craftsmanship of that thing is very high quality, but I used the smallest stitches I could trying my best to emulate the skills of the unknown airbender who had crafted it a 100 years ago.

It also gave me an excuse to work in silence.

My mind was in turmoil at Jet's betrayal; at my own gullibility; and at the complete disaster that those people barely avoided. The slow precise stitching helped calm me down somewhat and focused my thoughts into something a bit more cohesive than the ungovernable hurt and anger of before.

Aang and I worked in silence – he held up the torn pieces of the wing of the glider while I stitched. I think he felt my mood because he glanced up at me every so often with a worried look in his eyes.

Even Sokka has held off his I-told-you-sos (at least for now).

I shouldn't be feeling this upset I suppose: after all, nothing really happened between me and Jet, but we came very close and Jet knew it! But it was all a lie - including what might have happened – he just needed me on his side to use my skills – and Aang's – to complete his plan! I was nothing more to him than a means to an end! And a bad one.

This experience should teach me a lesson. From now on, I will never trust smooth-talking, self-assured young men EVER again! I should put my faith in someone who is sincere and trustworthy - if there are any that fit that description. Assuming I even want to. This brush with the young Freedom Fighter has shaken my faith in romance, and it will be a long time before I allow myself to think along those lines again.