Dear Mako,

I had my birthday yesterday. I am seven. I got us a mom. She shares us with our mommy and daddy. I got a pet, I call him Pabu.

Lin drowsily headed for the kitchen for her morning coffee when she heard something crash upstairs. Suddenly wide awake, she flew up the stairs and readied herself to fight off any intruder, but she only saw a broken lamp on one end of the hallway and a guilty boy and his pet on the other. Her first instinct was 'kill the rodent', but on further inspection she saw a piece of wood in the mess.

"It didn't come back." Bolin gave a meek grin,

I got a boomerang, mom did not like it. I am grounded now. We will find you soon. Love Bolin. Bolin folded the paper and held his arm out his window, trusting the late spring wind to carry it to his brother.

Dear Mako,

Mom says it is your birthday. You are nine. Happy birthday big brother.

"Mom," he gaped at the pair as they walked through the door, "is Uncle Tenzin alright?"

"He fell down."

"The stairs." The airbender added.

"Wait and listen, Airhead." Lin said with a smirk.

Uncle Tenzin has black eyes. He fell down the steps. I will see you soon. Love Bolin.

Dear Mako,

I am eight today. Mom took me to see some benders.

"Now sit still, Kid, let them get used to you." His mother instructed. He was a little scared, he was sitting in a dark cave and his seismic sense wasn't all that great yet. So when he felt something nudge him, he jumped a little and whoever it was backed off, "Stay still. Take a deep breath, Son. She won't hurt you."

"Okay." Bolin obediently took a few deep breaths. The bender came back up to him and sniffed him. Suddenly, a large tongue licked his head, "It's a badgermole. And she likes me." he grinned.

"You manage to keep yourself grounded for a few minutes, you might even learn something."

"Really?" He grinned. How cool would that be?

"No better earthbending teacher than a badgermole."

"Sweet!" The large animal moved away from his loud voice, "Oops."

"You've been spending too much time with your grandmother."

They were badgermoles! I got to learn from badgermoles. Just like Grammy. See you soon. Love Bolin.

Dear Mako,

Asami said she didn't want to play with me no more.

He got to spend the whole day at Asami's house while his mom was at work. They'd played tag, hide and seek, thumb wars, all the usual games. Then Asami wanted to play dress up. He wore her dad's hat while she went to borrow the maid's makeup.

"How do I look?"

I made fun of her dress and makeup. Mom made me say sorry. But she was still mad. You and me can still play when we find you. Love Bolin.

Dear Mako,

Asami played with me today! Then I said she looks pretty. Then we played Avatar. She was Zuko's sister, I was Sokka with my boomerang. She got me. We can all play together when we find you. Love Bolin.

Dear Mako,

I turned nine today. The party was fun, I got some great presents. But Mom and Grammy don't like the people that live with Uncle Tenzin and Aunt Pema very much.

Three generations of Beifongs stood in the airbender training grounds, doing their best to demolish it with their earthbending. Toph and Lin were currently 'demonstrating' offensive and defensive moves while Bolin stood on the side, mimicking their movements and throwing child-sized rocks at vicious enemy trees.

"Pup, Rhyolite, heads up." Toph called timeout. The badgermole and volcanic rock took off their blindfolds as an old man stormed up to them.

"What is the meaning of this?!" He bellowed in an authoritative tone.

"You're still alive? Hey look Lin, it's Father Superior." While not as mean-spirited as she was, her daughter still chuckled.

"Thought he keeled over years ago." This guy always rubbed her the wrong way. 'Bad example...teaching the future hope of airbenders violence and disobedience and destruction'. She never told Tenzin to join her in her rebellion, how was any of that her fault?

"You will stop this right now!"

"Why?" Bolin asked, totally confused as to what they were doing wrong.

"This place is meant to train airbenders, not earthbenders. So quit earthbending!"

"Who's gonna stop us?"

"I will call the police and have you taken into custody." Apparently, he didn't think that threat through. Lin smirked, Toph laughed.

"Where you gonna find any officers dumb enough to try it?" The eldest Beifong countered. He opened his mouth, but his brain started working again.

"Erugh, humph." He stomped off, "Go destroy your own property!"

"Why? We're having a lot of fun destroying this one!" Getting into a word battle with Toph, something only the truly skilled talker should do.

"Let's clean up this mess and get ready for the party."

I don't know why they were mean to the man, but he was mean first. We won't bend at Uncle Tenzin's when he's around. See you soon.

Dear Mako,

Happy birthday. You must be getting big! We keep looking for you, but we can't find you. I hope we find you soon. Love, your little brother.

Dear Mako,

Mom's working a lot. She says there are some bad guys that are making trouble on the streets.

"You got those bets, Ash?" Mako went by an alias now. Ever since he lost his brother and Chief Beifong took him in, the cops had been after him. The only explanation his eleven-year-old mind could come up with is that he'd been sold out by his brother. At first he didn't wanna believe it, then he saw posters go up...he was a wanted man.

"Yeah, right here." He handed the money over to Shady Shin and waited for his payment.

"Hey, forget that!" Two Toed Ping shouted from the other room. Shady Shin left without giving him a yuan.

"Hey!"

"Get outta here, kid." He said before sliding the door closed behind him.

"Something big's about to happen. We still might be able to get in on the-" Mako knew it was time to leave, with or without his money. Bad things happened to people who heard too much.

Be safe or come home. Love, Bolin.

Dear Mako,

Grammy's dead. Mom's hurt pretty bad. I'm scared.