The Island

-In which we have a picnic and make a discovery!

I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or The Legend of Korra, but I do own an ever-lasting love for Bryke!

….

It was a cold morning as usual in the South Pole when Katara and her family had to take their leave. Kya, Tenzin and Gyatso had become friends with many children so they did not want to leave yet, Kasami had also made friends, she was currently sitting down playing with a girl her age named Kimiko. Katara picked up Kasami as Kya and the twins said goodbye to their new found friends. Kasami started to wail at being separated from her friend, Katara felt a wave of sympathy and wished they could stay but she knew they must leave this morning if they wanted to get home at a reasonable time. It was with a heavy heart and Aang and his family said goodbye to everyone at the South Pole and climbed upon Appa.

"Bye! We will come back and visit soon!" yelled Kya from her place atop the sky bison.

"Yes! Soon!" echoed the twins, waving frantically as Kimiko yelled out a farewell to Kasami.

And with 2 words they were soaring through the sky, but not in the direction of the Southern Air Temple Kya noticed.

"Daddy, you're going the wrong way!"

"Silly daddy" added Gyatso

"We're not going the wrong way, before we go home we're going to visit an island" Katara explained as she bounced Kasami on her knee to calm her down a bit

"Why?" asked Tenzin

"You'll see" answered Katara mysteriously.

The truth was, they had recently gotten a letter from someone claiming to have seen sky bison on an island a fair distance from home, this letter had set Aang on edge, wondering if it were true or not, if a legacy of his people did live on somewhere other than the air temples. They could not reply to this letter because it hadn't been signed, and there was no way of telling who wrote it. When they arranged to go to the South Pole Katara told her husband they should make a small detour on the way home and see if it were true, Aang really appreciated this small gesture.

She did not want to tell her children why they were going there in case there were no bison on the island; she had bought extra food for the longer trip so if the anonymous tipper was wrong she was going to tell them they were heading there for a picnic.

Aang remained quiet during the flight; he knew what it felt like to be the last of your kind. Now, he had children to carry on the tradition of airbending, and Momo had found friends that were hiding in the Southern Air Temple, but Appa had no-one. One of the best days of Aangs life before he got frozen in the iceberg was the day he met Appa, and he had wanted to have his children share the same experience of meeting their very own bison but they hadn't found a trace of any sky bison living at any of the Air Temples.

Katara noticed the faraway look in Aangs eyes and reached for his hand, he gave her a grateful smile and then called for Tenzin and Gyatso to come back onto the saddle because they were going to be landing soon. Tenzin and Gyatso had gotten a lot better at flying on their small gliders and even remembered to keep their mouths closed! They returned to the saddle drenched from the clouds they had flown through, so Katara used her bending to dry them.

….

Appa landed on the soft green grass of the island with a muffled Thump.

Tenzin and Gyatso were as always, the first to come off Appa, simply creating an air scooter and riding down his tail.

As the rest of the family came off Appa they started to walk and look around.

The island was beautiful, pristine lakes, green grass, lovely flowers, but there were no bison to be seen or heard. After a long time searching Aang and Katara slowly began giving up home and they soon found themselves on a large patch of grass surrounded by forest and bushes. Katara spread out the large cloth she had been carrying on the ground and announced that this is where they would be having their picnic.

Katara watched Aang retrieve the food from Appas saddle with a worried look in her eyes, he had really been hoping to find bison, or at least a trace of them, but instead the island seemed deserted, except for some birds and fish. She wasn't sure how well they could hide themselves but she didn't imagine they were masters of hiding- they were huge to start with!

The children loved running around on the soft grass, tumbling and twirling without fear or scraping a knee on hard ground and it took a lot of effort on Kataras part to persuade them to sit down and eat.

As they started eating their picnic of fruit pies and moon peaches, Tenzin suddenly jumped up and ran to the bushes on the opposite side of where they were sitting.

"I forgot, I left my glider over here!" He called as he saw them looking at him curiously.

Tenzin retrieved his glider but as he returned he noticed his moon peach was gone. He was sitting with his back to the bushes and the only person next to him was Gyatso.

"Hey! Give me back my moon peach!" he yelled at Gyatso

Gyatso looked at him blankly

"I didn't take your moon peach Ten" he replied calmly

"Well then who did?" He demanded "The only person next to me is you!"

"I swear, I didn't touch your peach" He replied, throwing a desperate look to his mother and father

"Please don't fight boys" Said Katara in an exhausted voice

"But he took my peach!" yelled Tenzin and soon he and Gyatso were in an even bigger fight.

Aang had just gotten up and was walking over to them in an attempt to break up their trivial fight when he heard a noise from the bushes, it was a tiny growl.

At the sound Tenzin and Gyatso stopped fighting and cast the bush a frightened look. Kataras motherly instincts kicked in and she quietly asked for the twins and Kya to slowly walk over to her because they didn't know what was on the other side of that bush. They had encountered countless fierce beats on their adventures as children and she hoped her children wouldn't be subjected to that.

Aang looked hopeful as he pushed back the leaves, still leaving a safe distance between him and whatever was making the noise. He was in a position to jump back if something tried to attack him, then he started laughing gleefully.

At the reassuring sound, the children ran over knowing there was no danger

"What is it daddy?"

Aang used his Earthbending to move the bushes so they could all see the creature behind it.

A baby bison became visible, munching quite contently on a moon peach, it didn't even seemed to have noticed it had an audience until Kya squealed

"Awww! So cute!"

The bison looked up in alarm but Aang tried to calm it down, Appa came over to look at the creature curiously and when he saw it he started to roar.

Soon faint roars of reply became audible and Aang looked like he might just explode from happiness. Families of sky bison made their way to the strangers call and it looked like Appa was making friends with them.

The children were overjoyed; they didn't know there were any sky bison apart from Appa!

It was quite a scene, Appa was eating grass with the other bison, Aang was going to each one and petting it or offering food, Kya and the twins were running around them all and playing with the younger bison and Kasami was pointing at all the new arrivals

"Appa!" she shrieked as she pointed to them, she had only ever seen Appa so it seemed logical she thought that was what you called all bison thought Katara as she laughed at her youngest child.

….

When Aang looked at the suns position in the sky, he knew they had to return to the Southern Air Temple now or risk travelling through the night. They packed up everything they had bought with them and gave the bison their leftover food.

As they took flight Katara and Aang started discussing ways of bringing the bison to the Southern Air Temple but their thoughts were interrupted by a cry from Kasami

"APPA!" she yelled and pointed behind them all

Katara looked where Kasami pointed and gasped, 3 or 4 families had taken flight right after Appa and were following them home. Some of the younger bison would start to descend occasionally but its mother would gently help it.

The children were overjoyed at this and watched them the entire way home, laughing at the shocked expressions on the younger ones faces as they emerged from clouds soaking wet. Tenzin and Gyatso loved flying alongside the animal airbenders and trying to outdo the tricks they pulled off.

When Appa landed so did the other bison, the children were ready to started playing with them again on solid ground but Katara told them they had to go to bed now, and that they could play with the bison in the morning. Begrudgingly, the children entered the house with their mother but their father stayed outside for a few moments longer. He was stroking Appas soft fur with long, even strokes.

"I guess you, me and Momo; we really aren't the last of our kind anymore!" He told him happily and laughed when he got a licked face in reply.

A/N Thank you so much for reading. I love you all! I got no reviews for my last chapter *tear* so could you please send one my way? It would make my day :D