I recommend reading my first two books Avatar: the Last Airbender Book II: Fire and Book III: Earth before this last Book. Thanks!

Dedication:

To Mom: For her sharp eye and attention to my characters, I couldn't have a better editor.

To Adam: who endures my rantings in large written chunks

To Michael: who loved Avatar before I did and listened to the story I wrote

THIS LAST CHAPTER IS YOURS

(Of course, all characters except Lenara and Xeilu are property of those creative, hard working writers and animators of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I take no credit for their work, just my own)

The Avatar

Book 4

Air

I.

Silver green waves breathed foam out onto the shore, then inhaled them back into the sea. Sokka knelt on the beach, cupping water in his hands. He wiped his face dry with the back of his sleeve and dipped his hand into the water again, only to pull up another dirty bottle.

"What the…" A shadow fell over him and he glanced up just in time to see the ten foot wave curl over on top of him. The water receded, leaving Sokka buried in the beach. He raised his head, spitting sand. A body lay on the shore. He scrambled on hands and knees to it, brushing sunset hair away from a pale, cold face.

"Well, what do you know," he murmured. Lenara turned her head aside and coughed the remains of the sea from her body. Her eyes adjusted and she smiled when Sokka came into focus.

"Best thing I've seen all day."

"You got off the ship?"

"I got off the ship."

"I didn't think he'd let you go."

"Well, he didn't have a choice-he knew I had something important to accomplish, so he…I didn't have a reason to stay. " She sat up, Sokka's arm around her shoulders.

"Aang and Katara?"

"Back at the camp."

"And we're how far from Roku's grave?"

"Forty miles to the Nibushi, as the bison flies."

"Okay, well, we'd better get movin," Lenara stood up, buckled and dropped as Sokka caught her under her arm.

"Are you okay?"

"Me? I'm fine. Just the swim took a lot out of me." She leaned against Sokka, her leather sack around her shoulder digging into his side. She pointed to the bottle Sokka had found moments ago.

"Could you get that?"

"Sure." He stooped down and scooped up the bottle. They began to stumble across the beach.

"Lenara?"

"Yeah?"

"Welcome back." She grinned, taking back some of her weight on her legs.

"Thanks, Sokka. Hey, is that penguin jerky?" She sniffed the air.

"Yep, that's breakfast."

"Great. I'm starved!" The corner of his lip turned up in a smile. She had left Zuko for her father's mission, he knew that. But he still felt pretty smug about Lenara being in his arms rather than the Weenie of the Fire Nation's.

II.

Aang dumped another armload of branches onto the fire. Katara tilted the pan, scrutinizing the progress of their breakfast. They both raised their heads as Sokka stepped into the clearing.

"Hey, you guys, guess what I found at the waterfront?" Aang shrugged.

"What?" Sokka reached into the foliage and pulled Lenara into the clearing. Katara laughed. Aang jumped to his feet.

"You're okay!" He threw his arms around the Water Chief's neck. She could hardly look down on him anymore; Aang had grown almost as tall as she was.

"Yeah, Aang, I'm fine. Oh," she sighed, encircling her arms around him like a kid sister, "it's good to see you." Aang released Lenara and Katara grasped her fellow water bender's hand. They touched noses, as was the formal greeting. The four circled the fire and crouched on the ground, fishing hot jerky out of the pan as they talked.

"So, you're time with the Fire Nation is over?"

"I bid them a fond farewell…for now."

Katara asked, "and did you learn to Fire bend?" Lenara squirted a flame into the kindling and the sticks popped in reply.

"I should be able to teach you the basics, Aang." Katara's eyes lit up.

"Great! That's all Aang needs to learn and then we can go after the comet and the Fire Lord!"

"Keep your fuzzy britches on, Katara," Sokka said through a mouthful of jerky, "we have to get up to the Nibushi first."

"Oh yeah, the Hotaru," Katara turned to Lenara, "Where is it?" Lenara unwrapped the cloth from a metal crescent moon in her lap. She held it up, the stones floating in the water rattled and echoed off the ore. The banner curled itself around her arm. Aang gasped.

"That's a Rü-lan!" Lenara grinned.

"That's right, Aang. Straight from the Western Air Temple to your Hotaru. Here," she handed the bell to Aang, "take good care of it, 'cause I'm not making another!"

"I will. Thank you."

"Don't thank me just yet. Let's see if it works first." Sokka picked up the bell, turning it over in his hands.

"Are you telling me this thing will call together an army?"

"So the old women's gossip on washing day goes. It can also be used to shatter mountains or glaciers, anything big and immobile. This all depends on how powerful the Avatar is. It amplifies your power. Just be careful not to aim it at your face when you use it." Sokka carefully handed the Hotaru back to Aang and he wrapped it back up and placed it in his pack.

"We should begin training right away, Aang. Spring is almost over and that comet is fast approaching the Fire Nation." Aang swallowed a handful of Lichi nuts, his alternative to the jerky. He air bent himself to his feet.

"Okay. Where should we practice?"

"How about a little further into the woods?" Katara tossed her uneaten jerky back in the pan.

"Can we watch?"

"Maybe later. Aang really needs to concentrate on learning Fire bending and I have a lot to teach him. How about we give you a demonstration later?"

"Sure!" Lenara and Aang left the camp. Katara wrapped the rest of the jerky and placed it in her knapsack.

"Glad she got away from the ship okay."

"Mmm." Sokka absentmindedly rolled out another sleeping mat.

"How are you doing?"

"Could be worse." Katara paused.

"Did…did you say anything about…" Sokka shook his head. It wasn't as if the thought hadn't occurred to him to let Lenara in on the silly, sadistic crush he had on her.

"I don't think she knows, which helps in the long run to salvage my dignity," he let out his frustration in one long breath, "I wish she'd never gotten on that ship."

"Are you serious? Do you think any of this would have turned out differently if she hadn't met Zuko?" Sokka gave his sister a bitter look.

"Maybe." Katara let out a ladylike snort.

"Tuh. Fat chance on the wishful thinking. What is it with you and girls, anyways?" Sokka was suddenly very interested in his boomerang.

"Just drop it, Katara."

"I don't want to see you set yourself up for a one-way fall into the pit of despair. Did you start liking her when you found out she wasn't interested in you? Why do you keep chasing the stuff at the top when it's clearly out of reach?"

"Not telling me something I don't already know." Katara folded her arms. Sokka relented under his sibling's gaze.

"It stinks watching her with him, okay? I don't trust Fire Nation, especially him! He's a rotten, ugly, stubborn weenie…"

"I know, Sokka," Katara sat down and dropped her head on her brother's shoulder, "I hate seeing you torn like this. But what else can you do?"
"I can hate his guts. Yeah, it's practical and within my means…"

"Sokka…"

"I hear you, Katara, but I'm not going to stop feeling the way I do about her now just because I know better. Maybe I'll come to my senses one day and drag my sorry sucker of a head out of my rear, but until then, I guess I prefer to torture myself by being at her side than against her. I don't know, maybe I'm tired of everyone telling me I have to kiss more girls, so I pick the one I'll never kiss. Maybe I'm tired of relying on instincts through this whole journey and for once I'd like to go against everything my brain tells me is dumb or hopeless. I can't just forget things I feel strongly about." Katara put her arm around Sokka's middle. She didn't understand, but accepted it for her brother's sake. This was how Sokka found refuge from the world-in another's happiness. And it may not be the exact kind of love he hoped for, but a slice of light in all this cloud was that her brother had the unrelenting affection of a girl who wouldn't leave him because of another beau-Lenara loved Sokka like a brother.

The water tribe siblings sat in silence for a brief moment. Trees groaned, birds coughed. Sokka began to sand a ragged chunk torn from his club. Katara stood and walked over to Appa and stroked his head. The clouds above, as restless as they, rolled and trembled in the grey anxious sky.