Odette:

I paced up and down restlessly as Fanindra flew through a mostly cloudy sky, broken only by a few shafts of sunlight that pierced the cloud cover in certain areas. I stared at the floor of the saddle, a worried expression on my face as I paced while Alana drove Fanindra. It had been like this for a better part of the day.

Alana turned slightly, annoyed. "Would you sit down? If we hit a bump you'll go flying off! What's bugging you anyway?"

I sighed in frustration. I had explained everything already last night as we'd left the temple. Why Ren was chasing me and what I had to do, why I didn't want to do it.

I decided to just repeat what was bugging me the most at the moment.

"It's what Avatar Koren said. I'm supposed to master all four elements before that comet arrives," I said, still pacing. I had been trying to figure that part out all morning.

"Well, let's see, you've pretty much mastered airbending and that only took you one hundred-seventeen years...I'm sure you can master three more elements by next summer," she said sarcastically.

I looked at her, a frightened expression on my face. "I haven't even started waterbending and we're still weeks away from the North Pole! What am I gonna do!?"

I put my head in my hand in frustration, my left arm hanging loose at my side. Kole leaned over and grabbed my hand gently. He pulled me to him where he was kneeling in the passenger area. I sighed and knelt beside him as he took my hands in his.

He smiled calmly. "Calm down. It's going to be okay. If you want, I can try and teach you some of the stuff I know."

I brightened, searching his bright blue eyes curiously. "You'd do that?"

Kole nodded his head and smiled. He and I then crawled over to the edge of the saddle to look down.

"We'll need to find a good source of water first," he said, looking around.

"Maybe we can find a puddle for you to splash in," Alana piped up, her voice filled with a mocking tone.

About ten minutes later we found our water source, a huge waterfall with a river flowing swiftly by.

Kole, Alana, Fang, and I stood on the left bank a little ways off from the bottom of the waterfall where the water was calmer. I looked over at Alana and Kole excitedly. She looked a little sour while he looked up in excitement and happiness at the mighty waterfall.

"Nice puddle," she said, sarcastic as ever.

We walked over a little ways and stood out in the catch basin of the waterfall. Fanindra swooped in overhead, roared loudly and dropped herself into the water. Fang was on a rock in the catch basin. The sun was blotted by a shadow – a wave of water from Fanindra's messy swan dive. The wave crashed over her and she was soaked. She rolled over in the water, relaxing.

I started removing my clothes, leaving my wrap for swimming on, greedy to join the fun. Kole did not look pleased.

"Yehhhh! Don't start without me, girl!" I called to her.

Kole cleared his throat pointedly. "Remember the reason we're here."

Caught at the moment of running to jump in the water, I stopped and looked back to him.

I smiled sheepishly as I threw my normal clothing back on. "Oh right, time to practice waterbending."

"Great. So what am I supposed to do?" Alana asked, annoyed.

"You could...clean the gunk out of Fanindra's toes?" I said awkwardly.

I picked up a leafy branch and held it out to Alana, who folded her arms across her chest.

"So, while you guys are playing in the water, I'm supposed to be hard at work picking the mud out of a giant dragon's feet?" she clarified.

I smiled cutely. "Mud and bugs!"

"Okay," she said after pausing for a moment.

Alana grabbed the branch and walked away, resigned to her task.

Ren:

I fired blast after blast of fire at my sparring opponent, taking all of my frustration out on him.

Drake. Blast. Uncle. Blast. Father. Blast. The girl. Blast, blast, blast.

I still couldn't believe she had escaped me. I seriously needed to stop underestimating her. Next time we met, I would have a handle on things. After all, I still had that necklace I could use against them.

Suddenly the ship tilted to starboard, knocking both my sparring partner and I off balance.

I snarled angrily. What was going on here?! I hadn't given any orders to change direction!

"Someone's changing our course!" I hissed furiously.

I looked up furiously to the bridge, spotting the helmsman at the wheel. Without wasting a moment, I stomped up there and slammed the door wide open. I stormed in furiously, walking right up to the helmsman.

"What's the meaning of this mutiny? No one told you to change course!" I yelled.

The helmsman nodded over to his left. I looked over to see Uncle and some other crewman playing Pai Sho nearby.

Uncle grinned sheepishly. "Actually, someone did. I assure you it is a matter of utmost importance, Prince Farren."

I perked up, walking over to him hopefully. "Is it something to do with the Avatar?" What could be more important that that?

He shook his head. "Even more urgent. It seems...I've lost my lotus tile."

He moved a piece forward on the Pai Sho board.

"Lotus tile?" I said, mystified.

Uncle nodded. "For my Pai Sho game. Most people think the lotus tile insignificant, but it is essential for the unusual strategy that I employ."

"You've changed our course for a stupid lotus tile?" I asked, incensed.

"See, you, like most people, underestimate its value. Just give me ten minutes to check the merchants at this port of call. Hopefully they'll have the lotus tile in stock and I can get on with my life!" he said dramatically.

I worked hard to contain my anger, ultimately releasing a gout of flame from my mouth that licked over the ceiling. I looked furiously down at a smiling Ira, who was soon clouded with smoke.

"I'm lucky to have such an understanding nephew," he said happily as I stormed away.

Kole:

As Odette got ready, I watched as Alana flossed Fanindra's toes with the leafy branch. Fanindra was floating on her back with her wings spread out, Alana hard at work on her toes while the huge beast grunted happily.

"Yeh, don't get too happy. You gotta do me next," Alana said, irritated.

Odette cleared her throat and I turned around and met her on the river bank. As I began to explain, I started to waterbend the move I was describing.

"This is a pretty basic move, but it still took me months to perfect, so don't be frustrated if you don't get it right away. Just push and pull the water like this…"

I began to bob gracefully back and forth, the water on the river edge moving back and forth with me.

"The key is getting the wrist movement right," I said as I concentrated.

Odette got up and imitated me. "Like this?"

I looked over at her to check her position before turning back to the water in front of me. "That's almost right, if you keep practicing, I'm sure eventually –"

"Hey, I'm bending it already!" Odette exclaimed and I looked over, surprised.

She was moving around a respectably sized wave of water, executing moves that I had never even seen or heard of before.

I blinked. "Wow, I can't believe you got that so quickly. It took me two months to learn that move," I said, a little unhappy.

Odette shrugged and winked at me. "Well, you had to figure it out on your own. I'm lucky enough to have a great teacher."

"Thanks," I said, smiling as I shook of my annoyance.

"So, what's next," she asked eagerly.

Since she seemed to have things basically figured out, I decided to make things a little tougher. "This is a more difficult move. I call it "streaming the water.'"

I moved my hands and pulled out of a stream of water from the river and began to loop it around.

"It's harder than it looks so don't be disappointed if…"

I glanced up and to my amazement I saw that Odette had already mastered this move. She was moving her stream of water around as if it were a toy while I stood motionless. After a few minutes of her frolicking, my mood soured. I dropped my water stream.

Odette played with hers for a few more seconds and then dumped it back into the river.

I nodded, trying to keep hold of my annoyance. "Nice work, though the over-the-head flare was unnecessary."

She blushed. "Sorry. Well, don't stop now, keep'em coming!"

I pondered for a moment, trying to think of the hardest one I knew. "Well, I kind of know this one other move, but it's pretty hard. I haven't even totally figured it out yet. The idea is to create a big, powerful wave…"

I concentrated, raised a blob of water out of the river, but it fell back upon itself when my concentration collapsed. Odette set up to try.

"So, like this?" She raised her hands and a huge wall of water shot up into the air. I gapped at her furiously. How was this possible? The girl had never bent water a day in her life and yet she was already better than I was!

As the huge wall of water built, Alana turned and her eyes went wide.

"Odette!" Alana said warningly.

She got soaked as the wave broke over her and Fanindra. A moment later, Alana came up out of the water since she had been washed off Fanindra.

Odette turned back to me happily. "Looks like I got the hang of that move! What else ya got?"

"That's enough practicing for today," I said crossly.

"Yeh, I'll say!" Alana seconded and pointed downstream to a bunch of bags floating down the river. "You just practiced our supplies down the river!"

"Uhh...sorry. I'm sure we can find somewhere to replace all this stuff," she said, guilty.

"Ugh, it was hard enough when you were just an airbender," she shot back before sinking back down into the water.

After half an hour of flying around, we finally found a little port village. We landed a little ways away from the village, hiding Fanindra before we went in.

As we walked down a market street, we stuck close together as tough looking sailors, merchants and shady types ran past each other.

I put my arms around Odette and Alana's shoulders protectively as different men eyed them as we walked by.

Just ahead of us, a big man was holding up a much smaller one for some reason, as the smaller one yelled, "Please, put me down!"

Another shopkeeper in blue was addressing a crowd, holding up a sack and asking, "Who's brave enough to look into this bag?"

We found a vacant looking shop and Odette and I sat in the shop window while Alana rifled through our last bag.

"We've got exactly three copper pieces left from the money that King Bumi gave us. Let's spend it wisely," she said.

"Uhh, make that two copper pieces, Alana. I couldn't say no to this whistle!" Odette said, producing a gold whistle in the shape of a dragon from behind her back. She drew in a great breath and blew into it. Alana stuffed her fingers in her ears to stop the sound. Nothing happened – only the sound of rushing air.

Alana quirked an eyebrow. "It doesn't even work." Fang yapped into Odette's ear as his master stopped blowing into it. "See, even Fang thinks it's a piece of junk."

I smiled and shook my head. "No offense, Odette, but I'll hold the money from now on."

Odette looked guilty and then handed over the money to me while I tried to keep from laughing at her expression.

Suddenly, a loud male voice boomed out over the port. Odette's head shot up in curiosity. We looked over at one of the larger ships at the dock where one of the crew was soliciting customers.

"Earth Nation! Fire Nation! Water Nation! So long as bargains are your inclination, you're welcome here! Don't be shy, come one by!"

I leaned towards Odette. "Don't even think-"

She slid off the window and hurried toward the ship.

"-about it," I finished sarcastically as I watched her go.

Alana rolled her eyes, "Come on, we'd better go and make sure she doesn't get into trouble.

I sighed and followed her.

We caught up to her just as she was approaching the man. I grabbed her arm and spun her back around, pushing her forward, trying to make it look like we were just passing by. The man ran right up to us, but we kept walking. I tossed an arm around her shoulders to keep her from taking off again.

"Oh! You there! I can see by your clothing that you're world traveling types. Perhaps I can interest you in some exotic curios?" the Barker asked.

Odette slipped out from under my arm and turned to the man excitedly.

"Sure! What are curios?"

"I'm not entirely sure, but we got'em!" the Barker said after a pause.

The man took Odette by the shoulders and bustled them onto to the ship. I glowered after them, not liking this one bit.

Alana and I followed them inside. I quickly spotted Odette and walked up to her, irritated.

"Would you stop running off. Ren is out looking for you and so is Drake. You're making it impossible for us to protect you," I growled as quietly as possible.

She snorted. "I don't need you or Alana protecting me. I can take care of myself."

I rolled my eyes at her stubbornness. "I know but still. Ren and Drake have tons of men at their disposal. It wouldn't be hard to capture you with that many soldiers."

She turned to glare at me in annoyance. "Drake expects me to stick to the sky. He won't waste his time here. Ren is too proud to let anyone else capture me. He'll do it himself and I'm pretty sure I could take them both if it came down to it," she snapped.

I crossed my arms and glared at her.

She sighed and punched my arm lightly. "Fine, I'll stay close. Try to relax and have some fun for once."

I groaned as Alana came over. We started looking around the crew's hold, gawking at their wares. Just by the looks of all their things, it was obvious that these men were Pirates.

After a while I did start enjoying myself, looking at all the artifacts from around the world. I started breaking off with the others, looking at different objects. I was momentarily mesmerized by a stone monkey richly jeweled with large, blood red rubies, when a sinister voice spoke just behind me.

"I've never seen such a fine specimen of wolf. That beast would fetch me a hefty sum, if you'd be interested in bartering," I jumped and turned around.

In the midst of speaking, who I suspected was the Captain, entered from a dark doorway. He wore a wide brim hat and had a huge green parrot like creature on his shoulder, which screamed several times when the Captain was finished. He was leaning close to Odette, who hugged Fang protectively.

"Fang's not for sale," she said defensively. I thought about walking over and telling him to get lost but decided against it. I didn't want to make her mad again.

I walked over to a scroll rack. One of them, the thinnest, had the water symbol on its end. Curious, I opened it and saw the instructions on how to perform various waterbending moves. My eyes lit up and I drew an intake of breath, excited.

I turned slightly to Odette who was standing behind me. "Look at this, Odette! It's a waterbending scroll. Check out these crazy moves!"

Odette came over and peered at it before turning back to the Captain. "Where did you get a waterbending scroll?"

I was so busy reading the scroll, I didn't notice the Captain stomping over. The Captain's hand suddenly slammed down upon it. He stood between Odette and I, rolling up the scroll and smiling.

"Let's just say I got it up north at a most reasonable price. Free!" he said nastily.

The Captain replaced the scroll in the rack as I eyed it hungrily.

I looked over and saw Alana looking at some merchandise. She turned around, puzzling something out.

"Waaait a minute...sea-loving traders...with suspiciously acquired merchandise...and pet reptile birds...You guys are pirates!" she gasped.

I sighed and shook my head. Had it really taken her this long to figure that out?

The Pirate Barker from before put his arm around Alana's shoulders and smiled. "We prefer to think of ourselves as high risk traders."

I looked at the two measly copper pieces in my hand. I turned to the Captain.

"So, how much for the, uh, "traded" scroll?" I asked him.

"I've already got a buyer, a nobleman in the Earth Kingdom. Unless, of course, you kids have two-hundred gold pieces on ya right now?" he asked coldly.

Odette and I withdrew slightly to speak in private. She put her hands out, asking for the coins.

"I know how to deal with these guys, Kole, pirates love to haggle." I shrugged and gave her the two copper pieces.

"Watch and learn," she said with a wink and walked over to the Captain. "What say to the price of...one copper piece?"

Odette held the copper piece up to the Captain, a wide grin on her face.

"Hahaha! The price is two-hundred gold pieces. I don't haggle on items this rare," the Captain said harshly.

"Okay – two copper pieces!" she said stubbornly.

"It's not as amusing the second time, girl," he replied, annoyed.

Okay, this obviously was not working. I glanced around to make sure no one was watching me. I backed up and smoothly grabbed the waterbending scroll and slipped it underneath my clothes without attracting any attention. I walked up to Odette as calmly as possible.

"Odette, can we get out of here, I feel like we're getting weird looks," I said, glancing around uneasily.

Odette nodded and turned back to the Captain. "Aye, we be castin' off now!"

Odette grabbed her staff and followed me out, Alana right behind her.

"What was that all about, Kole," Odette asked me once we were a good distance away.

"Yeh, I was just starting to browse through their boomerang collection," Alana pouted.

I hugged the hidden scroll protectively. "I'll just feel a lot better once we get away from here."

"Hey you, get back here!" someone yelled. I froze as we all turned around.

The pirate who solicited us originally ran across the deck, shouting.

Odette grinned smugly. "Well, well, look who's come to their senses. Told ya the haggling would pay off."

Like angry bees from a beehive the pirates were exiting their ship to come after Odette, Alana, and I. Suddenly, we were faced with a dozen or so well armed and obviously angry pirates.

I was terrified.

I glanced over at Odette who was equally as terrified, immediately regretting taking the scroll.

The pirates crowded around us, yelling things like, "There they are!", "Get'em!" and "Nobody's goin' nowhere!"

"I...I don't think these pirates are here to trade with us!" I said shakily.

Odette kicked one of them in the shin and we took off, running as fast as we could.

"Get back here!" they yelled as they chased after us.

We ran down an alley and the pirates split into two groups. One followed us while the other, led by the pirate salesmen, went in another direction.

We approached the corner of a building, pirates in pursuit. As she rounded the corner Alana skidded and yelled "whoa!", but we kept going.

As I passed the corner, I waterbent some water from a nearby stall onto the ground and froze it. The lead pirate slipped and hit the ground as Alana and Odette caught up to me.

Just as everyone cleared the corner, I blinked in surprise when I recognized the same cabbage dealer from Naliwen. He was nuzzling a cabbage happily.

Weird, I thought to myself.

He put the cabbage in his portable stand, which was full of cabbages and began to wheel it away. As he did, Alana and I ran by, bumping the cart and knocking off cabbages. The shopkeeper saved the vegetables from hitting the ground, but then Odette launched herself between the cart's canopy and the cabbages and emerged out the other side.

As she did, she turned and airbent the cart up the street to strike the pursuing pirates. The cart disappeared in a cloud of dust as did the pirates.

She turned and ran after us smugly, leaving the merchant sad and irate.

We started running down another alley, but when we turned the next corner we were met by the pirate salesmen and his men. We ran back the way we came, the pirates again in pursuit.

"I hope that wolf of yours has nine lives!" one pirate sneered.

We turned into a blind alley. Huffing and out of breath, we turned around to face our pursuers. The Pirate Barker and his mates now blocked the entrance.

"Now, who gets to take the steel of my blade first?" the Barker said nastily, dual wielding a pair of long knives.

"No thanks!" Odette said perkily. She scooped up Fang and threw him at me. I caught him and held him in confusion.

"Don't let him go," she said to me before airbending a huge gust of wind at the pirates, who were blinded with dust and disoriented. Odette began to rush forward while opening her glider. Catching on quickly, Alana and I ran along behind and then latched onto to Odette's legs.

"Hold on tight!" she called to us.

I adjusted Fang under one arm. "Odette, I thought we were running away from the pirates!"

"Just hang on!" she snapped, grunting with the effort of keeping us all up.

We had trouble gaining altitude at first, in fact we bounced off the heads of many of the pirates they we were trying to escape. We eventually got airborne, however, and looked back to see the pirates and the port receding behind us.

Eventually, we made it back to Fanindra and then the waterfall. We all stood once again on the river bank, tired now. My closed her glider, rotating her shoulders as she flopped down on the grass.

"I used to kind of look up to pirates, but those guys are terrible," she said.

I stood straight and smiled. "I know, that's why I took – this!"

Her eyes fixed in surprise on the waterbending scroll in my outstretched hand. Odette got up, an unhappy look on her face.

"No way," she said in disbelief.

"Isn't it great?" I asked her enthusiastically.

Alana came over, irritated. "No wonder they were trying to hack us up. You stole their waterbending scroll."

"I prefer to think of it as "high-risk trading.'" I replied, self-satisfied.

"Haha! Good one, Kole," Odette laughed, smiling.

I rolled my eyes at Alana's angry expression. "Alana, where do you think they got it? They stole it from a waterbender."

She shook her head. "It doesn't matter. You put all of our lives in danger just so you could learn some stupid, fancy splashes!"

"These are real waterbending forms. You know how crucial it is for Odette to learn waterbending," I snapped back, starting to lose my patience.

Alana turned and walked away, muttering, "Whatever."

Odette rubbed her forehead. "Well, what's done is done. We have it. We might as well learn from it."

I smiled at her, completely agreeing.

Ren:

After we docked the ship at a little port village, Uncle and I started to walk through the market area. My arms were folded across my chest and I stared into the crowd, unhappy that I had to waste more time so my uncle could find a stupid tile for his equally stupid game.

After wandering around for a few hours, Uncle finally sighed. "I've checked all the shops on this pier. Not a lotus tile in the entire marketplace."

I turned to him. "It's good to know this trip was a complete waste of time for everyone!" I shouted at him furiously.

Uncle shook his head happily. "Quite the contrary. I always say the only thing better than finding something you were looking for, is finding something you weren't looking for at a great bargain!"

In the middle of his saying, a parade of Fire Nation soldiers walked by, carrying armloads of merchandise that Uncle had just bought. One of them was some kinds of brass musical instrument.

"You bought a sumki horn?" I asked, recognizing it.

"For music night on the ship. Now, if we only had some woodwinds," he said longingly.

As we began walking down the dock, he stopped to look up at a pirate ship.

"This place looks promising!" Uncle said excitedly and hurried inside.

I groaned and followed him. I stood in the middle of the shop, annoyed as he examined an ugly red jeweled monkey.

"Ooo! That is handsome! Wouldn't it look magnificent in the galley?" he asked me.

I ignored him and instead focused my attention on the conversation going on off to my right. Meanwhile, Uncle picked up the jeweled monkey with a huge grin on his face.

I watched the man who I assumed to be the Captain out of the corner of my eye. He was speaking with one of his Barkers.

"We lost the Water Tribe boy and the little monk girl he was traveling with," the Barker said angrily as my Uncle started to make monkey noises behind me.

I started and turned and walked over, glaring at the man coldly.

"This girl, did she have an arrow on her head?"

Kole:

Almost as soon as we returned to the waterfall, I opened the scroll.

"I just want to try this one move first and then it's all yours," I said to Odette.

We were standing by the river, with Odette now holding open the scroll for me. I leaned backward, assuming the waterbending stance prescribed in the scroll.

"The single water whip"…looks doable," I said.

I raised a stream of water and whipped it around, but it hit me in the forehead, leaving a burning sensation. Alana was sitting cross legged on a rock, laughing her head off.

I turned angrily on her. "What's so funny?"

"I'm sorry, but you deserve that," she said, wiping the tears from her eyes. Alana turned to Odette who stood on her left. "You've been duped. He's only interested in teaching himself."

"Odette will get her turn once I figure out the water whip!" I said, a little guilty.

I tried again, but the whip behaved erratically and unintentionally zapped Fang, who screamed at me in protest.

"Why can't I get this stupid move!" I snapped angrily.

Odette came over, walking to the edge of the river. "You'll get it," she said confidently.

I glared at her, displeased at this pronouncement, expecting her to show me up once again.

She did.

I watched irritably as Odette made the water whip correctly on the first try.

"You just gotta shift your weight through the stances…" she said happily. She gracefully manipulated the whip for a few seconds and then dropped it back into the river. "There. See, the key to bending is…"

I snapped. Angrily, I shook my fists in front of me. "Will you PLEASE shut your air hole! Believe it or not, your infinite wisdom gets a little old sometimes. Why don't we just throw the scroll away since you're so naturally gifted!"

I looked over at Alana, who is not impressed. She glared at me angrily, shaking her head in disapproval.

"What?" I snarled at her. I looked at Odette, who was frightened and looked on the verge of tears. My heart dropped to the bottom of my feet and I mentally kicked myself.

How could I have yelled at her like that? It wasn't her fault that she was better at this than I was. She was the Avatar; she was supposed to be better than me for crying out loud! She didn't deserve to be treated like she was a nuisance.

"Oh my gosh, Odette, I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over me. But, you know what, it won't happen again," I said, my guilt beating at me. I rolled up the scroll and handed it to Odette. "Here, this is yours. I don't want to have anything to do with it anymore."

That wasn't exactly true, but I also didn't want to get mad at Odette again.

She smiled slightly. "It's okay, Kole."

Alana, still sitting on the rock, spoke up.

"What about Fang? He's the real victim here," she said, pointing to the little wolf as he licked his sore behind where the whip had struck him.

I walked over and started stroking his ears as he yipped. "I'm sorry Fang."

Alana, clearly milking the situation, said, "And...what about me? There was that time you –"

"No more apologies!" I snapped, angry again.

Ren:

The prows of my ship opened and deployed a small cutter craft that steamed away. We sailed on the river, looking for any sign of the Avatar or her friends. The cutter craft and the pirate ship were moving up the river in parallel. The Captain and I stood on the deck of my ship. With the annoying green parrot still on his shoulder, we were deep in conversation.

"Shouldn't we stop to search the woods?" the Captain asked, confused.

"We don't need to stop. They stole a waterbending scroll, right?" I said, rolling my eyes at his obvious lack of intelligence.

He nodded. "Uh huh."

"Then they'll be on the water," I said, scanning the shoreline.

Kole:

Night came quickly and we set up a fire before settling down for the night.

After a few hours, the girls were finally asleep, but I was awake. I tossed and turned for another hour or so before I finally gave in to what I really wanted. I got up and silently removed the scroll from Odette's bag, dying to use it again.

I backed guiltily away from the camp, knowing what I was doing was probably a mistake. I turned around only to be confronted by Fang's luminescent green eyes. He was sitting on some sort of tree trunk as he growled lightly at me.

"Shhh! Fang, go back to sleep," I whispered at him.

I walked by and he growled again, but I "shh'ed" him once more. I stood down by the river, a good distance away from camp so no one would hear me. I was practicing, but failing to produce, the water whip.

"Shoot! Come on water, work with me here!" I said, frustrated.

I lifted a globe of water out of the river and tried to manipulate it, each of my mistakes being punctuated by a verbal exclamation of "okay", "stupid!" or something else. I started wielding my fifth stream of water.

"Okay, Kole, shift your weight through the stances…" The stream collapsed "...ugh!"

Suddenly I heard the noise of grinding metal. I ran over to a row of bushes on my left and parted them to reveal Ren's cutter craft beached on the river bank. I turned to run, trying to get to Odette and Alana as quickly as possible, but there stood a pirate, who grabbed me.

"No, let go of me!" I yelled.

I bent a water whip around and smacked the pirate in the face. He let me go, but I ran right into Ren, who swung out his fist and punched me right in the jaw, sending me sprawling as pain exploded through my face. Jeeze he was stronger than I thought.

"I'll save you from the pirates," he said coldly, lifting me up slightly but my shirt collar as he kneeled over me triumphantly. I blinked in surprise and fear for a moment before I fixed a furious glare on my face.

He laughed and turned to his men.

"Tie him up," he ordered. He let me go and I tried to make a break for it but was suddenly dragged back by the pirates we had run into earlier.

I was bound to a small tree, my hands behind the trunk, surrounded by the pirates and Ren's soldiers.

Ren stood facing me, a smug smile on his face.

"Tell me where she is and I won't hurt you or your sister," he said confidently.

"Go jump in the river!" I hissed. He wasn't going to get either one of them.

"Try to understand, I need to capture to restore something I've lost. My honor. Perhaps in exchange I can restore something you've lost," he said, trying to be reasonable. He walked around to the back of the trunk so he was standing behind me.

Suddenly, my mother's necklace appeared at my neck, Ren holding it in place. I blinked in shock as Ren walked away with the necklace. I tried to break free from my binds, hating him touching it.

"My mother's necklace! How did you get that?" I growled.

He snorted in irritation. "I didn't steal it, if that's what you're wondering. Tell me where she is," he snapped back.

Even though I really wanted my necklace back, I couldn't risk giving up Odette. "No!"

The Captain walked forward now, fed up. "Enough of this necklace garbage. You promised the scroll!"

Ren produced the scroll and made fire in his hand beneath it. "I wonder how much money this is worth?"

The pirates gasped and some cried, "no!"

He smirked. "A lot, apparently. Now you help me find what I want, you'll get this back and everyone goes home happy. Search the woods for the girl and meet back here."

"Fine," the Captain grumbled, sullen.

Odette:

I woke up at dawn to the sound of Alana's irritated voice.

"Huh? Where did he go?"

I rolled over to see Alana searching my bag.

"I don't believe it," she snapped.

I yawned and rubbed my eyes. "What's wrong?"

She looked up at me. "He took the scroll! He's obsessed with that thing. It's just a matter of time before he gets us all in deep –"

She was cut off when her hands got wrapped in a sling thrown from somewhere in the nearby trees. She was pulled right off her sleeping bag screaming. She landed on the ground and was faced by a pirate who threw another sling at her.

I jumped out of my bag as she rolled out of the way, picked up her spear and charged the intruder. I turned to see a huge beefy pirate hefting two crossbows with a net tied between them. He aimed and fired right at me.

I fired an air ball at the approaching net, but the air passed right through it. The net rolled me up into a nice neat bundle and I was thrown backwards onto the ground, where another pirate began dragging me away. Thankfully, they instantly left Alana alone, who got up, her pride hurt.

"I got her, come on!" one of the pirates called out as I was dragged off.

"Oh, what? I'm not good enough to kidnap?" Alana snapped, irritated. I rubbed my temple in annoyance.

She was answered by another net which scooped her up. She screamed as they drug her with them.

When we were finally let out of our nets, we stood, a pirate holding an arm on each side of us. I was surprised to see the pirate ship beached on the river bank and the pirates we had encountered earlier. I was even more surprised to see Ren and his men lined up, facing the pirates who had also formed a line. Kole was bound to a tree and next to him stood Ira, the kind old man who I had discovered was Ren's uncle.

Ren held the waterbending scroll in his hand.

"Nice work," he said approvingly, his golden eyes trained on me. I glared at him.

Kole called to me, guilt saturating his voice as he looked at me sadly. "Odette, this is all my fault."

"No, Kole it isn't," I said, trying to make him feel a little better.

"Yeah, it kind of is," Ira said, not rudely, just stating a fact.

"Give me the girl," Ren said, taking a threatening step in the pirate's direction.

"You give us the scroll," the Captain shot back.

"You're really gonna hand over the Avatar for a stupid piece of parchment!?" Alana spoke up suddenly, sounding flabbergasted. We all looked over at her in confusion.

Ren pointed accusingly at her. "Don't listen to her! She's trying to turn us against each other."

The Captain looked at me with greedy eyes. "Your friend is the Avatar?"

Alana suddenly appeared at the Captain's side. "Sure is, and I'll bet she'll fetch a lot more on the black market then that fancy scroll."

"Shut your mouth, you water tribe peasant!" Ren barked at her furiously. I kinda had to agree with him.

"Yeh, Alana, you really should shut your mouth…" I said, concerned. What was she doing? Did she think I had caused enough trouble for her and her brother? Was she going to give me up to the Fire Nation so they would leave the siblings alone?

Alana looked sweetly at the obviously very interested pirates. "I'm just sayin', it's bad business sense. Just imagine how much the Fire Lord would pay for the Avatar. You guys would be set for life!"

I glanced nervously between the two opposing groups. The Captain pointed to Ren.

"Keep the scroll! We can buy a hundred with the reward we will get for the kid," he said.

The pirates began to walk away with the Alana and I. I glanced behind me to see Ren's face was seething.

"You'll regret breaking a deal with me!" he yelled. He and the guards on either side of him unleashed a torrent of flame, which bathed the ground underneath the pirates who jumped out the way. A fight broke out.

The pirate salesmen jumped into the midst of the firebenders with a cry. Ren and his men bore down on Alana and I, who were still bound. As they neared, four pirates jumped in front of us to defend their captives. They dropped smoke bombs and the battlefield instantly became a foggy mess. The remaining Fire Nation soldiers approached the edge of the crowd and are instantly pulled in by the arms of pirates emerging from the smoke.

I ran through the smoke, coughing, my hands still bound. Near misses with a throwing star and a spear cut my bonds.

I glanced around and, after a little bit of peering, I could see the exterior of the smoke cloud where Ren suddenly emerged. He put the waterbending scroll through his waistband on his back and turned around to just avoid a sword stroke. He assumed a firebending stance, the Captain pointing a sword at him. They struggled, but no one gained advantage.

Suddenly, a sling removed the scroll from Ren's waistband. Fang intercepted the sling as it returned to the pirate and took the scroll, running. Fang in turn was pursued by the Captain's green parrot, which tackled him from the air. The wolf dropped the scroll and it rolled back into the smoke filled battlefield. Jets of flame erupted from it at various points and the sounds of steel on steel sounded all around me.

Suddenly, I heard Alana calling out.

"Odette, are you there?" she yelled over the noise.

I airbent myself up and over the smoke cloud, then dropped back down.

"I'm over here, follow my voice!" I called back.

"Where? I can't find you!" she said, panicked.

"I'm right here!" I said, annoyed.

I assumed an airbending stance and blew away the smoke from the immediate area to reveal a mix of Fire Nation soldiers and pirates in combat. They froze and looked at me. I quickly closed the smoke back up around us and the sounds of fighting sounded once more.

"Uhh, never mind! I'll find you!" I said to her.

I spotted her crawling out of the smoke and getting up. As she did, I jumped out of the smoke over Alana's head.

"Run!" I called to her.

We ran towards the pirate ship, which Kole was trying to push off the beach.

"Kole! You're okay!" I said, relieved. I hadn't seen him since the fighting had started.

"Help me get this boat back in the water so we can get out of here!" he said.

We all began to push on the boat, but nothing happened. We stopped and looked up at the prow.

"We need a team of rhinos to budge this ship," Alana groaned.

I thought for a moment before turning to Kole. "A team of rhinos...or two waterbenders?"

Kole looked at me and smiled gratefully. Together, Kole and I pulled the river back and forth up the beach, slowly raising the water level around the prow. The ship eventually began to float.

"Everybody in!" Kole said as we all ran up onto the deck.

Ren:

The Captain and I were still dueling when my uncle came and suddenly broke it up.

"Are you so busy fighting you cannot see your own ship has set sail?" he asked, annoyed.

"We have no time for your proverbs, Uncle!" I snapped, glaring at the Captain. I was still furious that this man had tried to take the girl from me. I had lost her too many times already.

"It's no proverb," Uncle said, pointing to the river.

I looked at the river and saw the pirate ship sailing downriver, much to my delight. Served the low life's right.

"Bleeding hog-monkeys!" the Captain cried out as he ran off.

"Haha!" I laughed enthusiastically, something I hadn't done in a long time. In this one moment, I was actually grateful to the girl.

I stopped though when I saw my ship following the other ship which was a good distance down he river now. It was loaded with pirates, one of whom moved to moon Uncle and I.

My gratitude toward the girl disintegrated in an instant.

"Hey! That's my boat!" I snapped, taking off down the river to catch it.

Uncle scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Maybe it should be a proverb," he said.

"Come on, Uncle!" I snapped, trying to keep up with my boat along the riverbank.

Odette:

I looked astern at the pirates as they closed in on Ren's stolen ship. I turned to yell forward to Alana who was at the wheel.

"Alana! Can't you make it go any faster?" I asked.

She shook her head, unsure. "I don't know how. This thing wasn't made by the water tribe."

When I turned back again, the pirates were passing us. When they drew parallel, pirates began jumping onto our ship.

I looked to the aft deck, where Kole faced two pirates as they advanced on him. As he backed up, I waterbent a huge wave onto the deck that washed one of the pirates overboard.

Kole, afraid at first, then gaining confidence and determination, created a water whip and smacked the other one overboard. Kole beamed up at me.

"Hey, you did the water whip!" I congratulated from where I still stood on top of the cabin.

"I couldn't have done it without your help!" he replied.

Alana was on the bridge with a beefy pirate and the pirate salesmen on her.

"Will you two quit congratulating each other and help me out!" she snapped us, irritated.

Fang suddenly ran across the deck, closely pursued by the Captain's parrot. The pursuit ended when Fang trapped the parrot by wrapping him in the pirate vessel's black flag.

I turned my attention back to Alana, who was being held aloft by the beefy pirate. Alana screamed as the pirate threw her into the sail in front of him. She fell with a thud to the deck below.

"That's good!" the Barker approved.

I suddenly dropped down next to the pirates from the left and threw the pirate Salesmen through the guardrail and overboard with a huge blast of air. I then twirled the beefy pirate around on a whirlwind of air for a few minutes before ejecting him high into the air. He came back down on the other side of the ship, landing with a splash in the river. I jumped down to Alana, who was rubbing her head where it'd hit the deck.

Kole pointed forward worriedly. "Odette, look!"

The sound of falling water could be heard as he spoke. I looked up to see that we were rapidly approaching a large waterfall.

"Oh, no!"

I looked back behind me and jumped in surprise when I saw the pirate Barker standing right behind me, his blade drawn.

I turned to face him and drew my dragon whistle in response. I blew the whistle furiously, hoping it would work. When nothing happened, I glanced at an unimpressed Barker nervously, who was promptly round-kicked overboard by Alana who has just appeared from the right side of the deck.

Alana tapped the side of her head. "Have you lost your mind!? This is no time for flute practice!"

I ignored her and ran to where Kole was looking over the starboard railing at the rapidly approaching waterfall. The prow was almost at the lip of the fall.

"We can stop the boat! Together, push and pull the water!" he said quickly.

Kole and I turned to quickly stand on the foredeck, waterbending in unison, making pushing and pulling motions. The boat started turning around right at the lip of the fall.

"It's working! It's slowing down!" Kole said excitedly.

The ship was now at a ninety degree angle near the lip of the fall and motionless. As we continued bending, I looked beyond Alana and saw the smokestack of the cutter growing larger.

"We're doing it!" Kole cheered.

Alana pointed to the cutter, noticing it as well. "But we have another problem!"

The cutter was now bearing down on the pirate ship. The cutter rammed into the pirate ship, amidships.

"Whoa!" I cried out at the impact, slamming into a rail. The cutter's impact lifted the starboard side of the pirate ship out of the water and, consequently, made the ship list badly to port. The list rapidly became so bad that we all fell off the ship and over the falls, ship falling behind us. As we fell, I glanced around nervously when out of nowhere, Fanindra swooped in and we landed on her back. She flew away just in time to avoid the falling pirate ship.

Leaning over the side of Fanindra's saddle, we all watched the pirate ship as it disintegrated when it hit the bottom in a cloud of water and debris. As we flew away from the waterfall, I leaned back and looked at the dragon whistle. It had worked.

I looked up at the others smugly. "I knew a dragon whistle would come in handy. Thanks, Fanindra."

"Yeh, we owe ya one," Alana said, petting Fang as he lounged on her lap. As Fanindra grunted in response.

Ren:

I ran up to the river bank near the waterfall, Uncle huffing and puffing behind me.

"My boat!" I gasped as I watched it fall.

I couldn't believe it! Not only had I lost the girl again, I had now lost one of my boats as well. This day was turning out to be just fantastic.

Uncle finally regained his breath. "Hehe, Prince Farren, you're really going to get a kick out of this. The missing lotus tile was in my sleeve the whole time!"

He produced the missing lotus tile with a huge smile on his face. I really didn't find it all that amusing.

While he was still holding out the piece, I was trying to control my breathing and my temper. Without having any other way to channel my rage, the tile disappeared fast as lightning when I snatched it from his hand. I threw it as far as I could, glaring at the pirates that were floating downstream. The piece landed on the Barker's head, much to my satisfaction.

Kole:

As Fanindra lazily flew through the clouds, I decided that now would be a good time to apologize for my behavior.

"Odette, I still owe you an apology," I said, not really looking at anything. "You were just so good at waterbending without really trying. I got so competitive that I put us all in danger. I'm sorry."

She nodded and gave me a comforting smile. "That's okay, Kole."

I nudged her with my elbow. "Besides, who needs that stupid scroll anyway."

"Is that really how you feel?" Alana asked and we looked over to see her holding the scroll in her hands.

"The scroll!" I gasped happily. I reached for it, but she pulled it away and pointed the heisman at me with her other hand.

"First, what did you learn?" she said seriously.

I rolled my eyes. "Stealing is wrong."

I took the scroll and grinned wickedly. "Unless it's from pirates!"

Odette burst out laughing at Alana's face. "Haha! Good one, Kole."