It was a perfectly normal day in Chin Village, at least until the kidnapping happened.
A crowd had gathered in the main square, gawking at an enormous white six-legged animal that sat there contentedly, munching on some hay. Its friends, meanwhile, were on the other side of the square mulling over a flower stand.
"Hey, Katara, can I ask you something?" Avatar Aang asked, picking up one of the red ones and admiring it.
"You know you can always ask me anything," Katara replied, turning to him.
"Will Sokka like these ones, or those white flowers?"
"He would probably tell you that he doesn't care," Katara replied. "But we both know the real answer is the blue ones."
"Noted," Aang replied, picking the mentioned flowers up.
"Why do you want to give my brother gifts anyway?" Katara folded her arms. "Should I be worried?"
"You know I only have eyes for you, Sweetie," Aang replied, sliding over to kiss her. "I just thought I might get them something to decorate their house with."
"How noble of you," Katara smiled. "But I think you should get the blue one."
"Blue one it is!" Aang reached into his pocket and pulled out a golden coin, part of the allowance he recieved out of the treasuries of Earth King Kuei and Firelord Zuko. He tossed it to the owner of the stand, who thanked him as he picked up a bouquet of the blue ones.
"Appa looks like he's having fun," Katara observed. The Sky Bison had bodily picked up a child, who was giggling in delight.
"Should we tell him to put that child down?" Aang whispered. "We don't want them to bring back Avatar Day."
"It'll be fine!" Katara looped her arm through his. "Now, would you care to promenade with me?"
"It would be my pleasure," Aang said in his poshest accent, and the two of them walked down towards the main square, where a huge statue of Chin the Conqueror looked out to sea, overlooking the exact spot that the real Chin the Conqueror had plummeted to his untimely demise several hundred years earlier.
"Seven years makes all the difference," Aang observed. "Last time we were here, I'm pretty sure we nearly died."
"Aang, you could say that about basically everywhere at this point," Katara pointed out. "But yes, it's nice not to have to fight a gang of evil firebenders for a change."
They sat down on the steps on which the townsfolk had once decided Aang's fate, and just watched the horizon for a while, resting in each other's company before the final leg of their journey to Kyoshi Island.
"It is nice here," Aang observed. "I never got a good look at it before.."
"Kyoshi did a good job with the place," Katara said, as Aang stood up and began walking towards the edge.
"She did," Aang replied. "I-"
He stopped as a terrible sound met his ears, and he turned to find Katara slumping over with several men in black standing over her.
Immediately, Aang felt a surge of anger as he gave a yell. Immediately, one of the men drew something from under his robe and threw it at him; with a burst of air, Aang returned the mysterious object straight to sender, and it hit him in the face, bursting and splattering him with a mysterious liquid that caused him to drop like a stone. The other men spread out, and Aang circled them.
"Let her go, now!" He commanded. His opponents just exchanged glances, before charging at him. Despite the situation, Aang couldn't help but give a sly grin.
They didn't know what they had just let themselves in for.
He ducked under the first punch, then knocked the man's legs out from under him, before using airbending to send him flying into the second man. The third managed to dodge that mess, but Aang knocked him backwards using earthbending just as a roar was heard overhead and Appa soared into view, having been attracted by the sound of Aang's yell. The Sky-Bison swooped low, plucking one off the ground, carrying him a few feet and then releasing him- over the cliff edge.
As that unfortunate's scream receded, Aang turned towards the rest of his enemies, only to find one of them lining up on him with a water-whip.
"Wait, you're waterbenders?" He asked, taken by surprise as the man lashed out. The water whip barely missed him, with the tip instead impacting the ground in front of him and exploding. Water flew everywhere, including up into Aang's face. The waterbender shielded his friends from the impact.
"Really? That's it?" Aang was about to say, until he began to feel woozy. Only then did he realise that the water whip had not been made of water at all, but of whatever the substance that had knocked his first assailant out had been. He fell to his knees, quickly losing strength, and then toppled forward as darkness immediately overtook him.
Appa gave a cry of horror and leapt towards his friend, but the other men had been prepared for this. A tidal wave of flame roared towards the sky-bison, who was forced to turn away, and it didn't recede. Appa desperately flew around the ball of flame that now encircled his friend, left and right, even trying to go over the top of it, but there was no way through. Finally, it vanished- and Aang was gone.
There was no sign of there having been a battle there except for a few scorch marks on the ground.
Appa cried out mournfully, but then he had an idea. His friends were gone, it was true, but he had more friends, who were just over the sea from there as it happened. One of them had been the one who had helped him the last time he had been separated from Aang. The best thing he could do for Aang and Katara was to bring a rescue mission.
His mind thus made up, Appa turned and flew south, leaving the site of the battle behind him as he flew for Kyoshi Island.