Too late, it seems, I found out that I wasn't accepting anonymous reviews. Sorry! I had no idea! Apparently it's some setting in an author's account. Back when I first opened my Invader Zim fic account, I don't remember there being an option to not accept anonymous reviews. But that was kind of a long time ago, so…

I don't own Avatar, obviously, though I wish I did. (don't we all?) But I think I own the characters that I've created. But with all of this legal dookie lately, who knows who owns what anymore? (please don't sue me. I don't have any money, and the most valuable thing I own is a crappy car and a mean Mexican pine snake)

Thanks to the people who did review, and sorry to the ones that couldn't. Hopefully this time everything will work out. Not sure what else to say except thanks again to the people who've been helping this pathetic newbie get a start in the Avatar fandom!

-Hariah

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By the time Asalen returned home, Karish was already inside, packing. The girl almost joined her caretaker, but then remembered that she shouldn't know why Karish was packing at all. If she had obeyed orders, that is, she shouldn't know. Asalen always felt guilty going against what the elders wanted of her, but this time, she was fairly certain that disobedience had saved her life.

But she still needed to play ignorant. She knew this, knew it well.

"Karish?"

The older woman turned. Asalen mentally recoiled when she saw the dark, dead look on the face of the woman that had always been her mother.

"Yes, Asalen?"

"Why are you packing? Are we going somewhere"

Karish was silent for a long, long time. When she finally spoke again, her voice was hushed and thick.

"We're going on a trip, Asalen. A vacation. I'm sure you'll like it."

Asalen felt dread settle in the pit of her stomach, even though she already knew their destination.

"Where, Karish?"

"The Southern Air Temple." She pulled a thick tan coat out of a drawer and set it in her suitcase. "So pack warmly. It's very cold down there."

Asalen looked at the ground. She didn't know what to say. Karish turned and studied her for a few moments before returning to her task.

"You're afraid."

A nod.

"You don't have to be afraid. We're going to see your brother, that's all."

Asalen was feeling sicker by the moment, so she didn't respond. Rather, she began to gather up the clothes she wanted to take on her journey. Karish, sensing that nothing more needed to be said, fell silent and continued placing garment after garment in her bag. The movements were almost mechanical, as if her mind and heart were somewhere else rather than inside her body, inside that room. And in a sense, they were. Karish's mind was poring over the past, or more specifically, the past six years.

She remembered first meeting Asalen. The girl had been a tiny, warm bundle of blankets and cloths. Only a single pale hand was sticking out, grasping at the air as if the world had something that she wanted. Karish had fallen in love with her instantly, even before she knew exactly why the girl was there.

Prythan had been carrying the girl, whom she said had no name. In fact, the tiny baby had nothing at all. No family. No home. No life.

Prythan then told Karish what had happened to the baby's parents, and Karish felt sick.

But now was not the time to think of that. Now was the time to remember the happier days, when Karish herself had been a bit younger, and Asalen had been innocent.

Karish immediately agreed to watch over the girl for a few days before the elders decided what to do about her. Prythan had handed the baby to Karish before leaving quickly. Karish had smiled as she looked down at her new charge. She had never seen such beautiful, dark eyes.

Holding the baby also gave Karish a sense of purpose. Her life had been wandering, wandering down a path that she was struggling to comprehend. There seemed to be no rhyme, no reason, no idea of which dream to hold. But now, thanks to this tiny bundle. Karish was beginning to get a grip on her life. It no longer felt as if she were thrashing in a vast pool of water, struggling to find the surface. Though still lost in the water, Karish had found the air she needed to live.

"I'm going to call you Asalen," Karish had told the baby. "In the old language, it means 'bright eyes'. Your eyes are more dark than light, though. But the name still fits."

Indeed, Asalen's eyes were far from bright. But there always seemed to be a curious light dancing within them, the light of a child who had yet to explore the world. Karish had rocked the baby for a few moments before walking off.

She didn't want to put the bundle down. Consciously, she was dreading the decision of the elders. Unconsciously, she already knew their sentence for the girl.

Prythan found her way to Karish's bedroom a few hours later with the results of the meeting. Karish held Asalen tight as Prythan stated the verdict.

"Since the girl's parents have passed on, we've decided that she is to stay here. We'll appoint her a guardian and raise her as if she were our own."

"Who will be her guardian?"

"Any one of the priestesses will do," Prythan had replied. "Including you, my dear. In the Southern Air Temple, where the girl's brother is being raised, the monks there very often raise Airbender children. We are the female version of those monks. Why should our practices be any different?"

"I'll take Asalen," Karish had said quickly. "I wouldn't mind being her guardian."

Prythan had smiled. At that time, she had no reason to discriminate against Karish or Asalen alike.

"I see you've already chosen a name," the older woman had said, a smile on her face. "How long have you believed that you would be the one to care for her?"

Karish had thought about this for a few seconds, then gazed almost shakily at Prythan.

"I've known since I first saw her," Karish said quietly. "Not consciously, though. Consciously I was just scared. But somewhere inside I knew that she was to be my daughter."

"You're already changing, my dear," Prythan had said with a smirk. "Since when have you been so overemotional and mushy?"

"Since I-"

"If you say 'Since I fell in love', I'm going to throttle you."

Karish laughed and tucked her shoulder-length hair behind her ears. Those light brown locks were always getting in the way, and that day was no exception.

Karish returned Prythan's smirk. "Since I decided that yes, I want to devote my lives to wiping butts."

"Better you than me," Prythan said with a laugh. She ran a hand through Karish's hair, tossing it every which way. "I'll come by later to check on the both of you."

She gave a last smile before leaving, leaving Karish once again to tame her hair. Karish went about the task single-handedly, grooming with one hand and holding Asalen in the other. She mumbled ominously to herself, wondering quietly why she didn't shave her head like the male Airbenders did. It would certainly solve a lot of problems.

As Karish finally tucked the last of her hair behind her ears, she was treated to a beautiful sound, a sound that she had never heard before.

The little girl had started to laugh. Something about Karish's crabbiness was amusing to her. Karish quickly forgot about her hair and smiled. It was hard to be cranky when Asalen was happy.

And this remained a constant throughout all of the proceeding years. No matter what was going on, no matter how mean the other Airbender children were being or how condescending the elders, Karish could always find a reason to smile if Asalen simply smiled first.

At the present, however, there was no reason for either of them to be happy. They had a long, hard journey ahead of them.

And neither knew just how long or just how hard this journey would be.

Asalen finished packing quickly and lay on Karish's bed. Karish looked up and managed to give her daughter a shaky smile. Asalen smiled back, the same fear reflected in her eyes.

Neither knew what to say, so neither said a thing. And within a few moments, Karish's mind was once again drawing back to the things that had once been.

Asalen had been trouble right from the start. As an infant she cried nearly constantly, always wanting attention. Karish had soon found herself unable to leave the room without Asalen in her arms. The baby would get scared and panic, which would in turn panic Karish. So she had quickly settled with taking Asalen everywhere she went. This solved most of the first problems that the two faced. It was only when Asalen got older that things began to get difficult again.

By the time Asalen was three, she had developed a keen fascination with the animal world. The Western Air Temple was of course littered with lemurs and flying bison, but Asalen had become bored with them within a matter of months. The girl had then set out to discover new species that inhabited the rock that was her home.

The Western Air Temple was a safe place, as were all of the Air Temples. There was no crime, no reason to keep a child inside, nor even a reason to be with them when they played. The biggest danger that the Airbender children faced was falling off a cliff, but even that wasn't a big deal. Most of them could simply Airbend their way back to solid ground, and those who couldn't would be helped by those who could. It was for this reason that Karish let the three-year-old Asalen wander around on her own. Karish herself had things to do, and the other children could be trusted to watch over their own.

Karish never regretted this decision…

Well, at least not for the first few months.

She remembered the night when her opinions were forced to change. And oddly, they weren't changed by any sort of worry for Asalen's safety.

Karish had been in the room she shared with Asalen, cleaning house. Asalen was wandering the temple, doing only God knew what…and what only God cared. Karish was humming to herself as she worked, thinking about nothing in particular. For some reason, housework was always peaceful to her. It was meditation, even. But that night, Karish's peace had been shattered with a scream. She had dropped what she was doing immediately and run toward the sound.

The children of the temple were out in one of the many yards, as usual. Yet for some reason they were in a tight circle, a circle focused on something in the center. Karish arrived on the scene at the exact same time two of the other priestesses showed up. Yelling for the children to get back, Karish, Prythan, and Elyran forced their way to the front of the circle and looked fearfully at the ground.

On the ground was a green frog, about the size of a shoe. In fact, the thing was shaped like a shoe.

Karish and Prythan had simply stared. Elyran picked up the frog and studied it carefully.

"What is this?" she asked, frowning. Asalen was the one who spoke up.

"It's a frog! A green frog!"

"Well, I can see that." The elder studied the creature again. "But why is it here?"

"I found it under a rock," Asalen said proudly, demonstrating her near mastery of the spoken language, despite her young age. "It's green!"

"Indeed it is," Elyran said wearily. "It is a green frog. Quite ordinary, it seems. So who screamed, and why?" She cast another glance at the frog. "And why does it look like a shoe?"

"I was the once that screamed, Ma'am," one of the older girls said shyly. "It ate something."

"Ate something? And that scared you?"

None of the girls said anything. Finally, it was Karish that spoke up.

"Take a look at Asalen, Ely."

Elyran slowly turned and looked at Karish's charge. Her eyes began to widen, and her mouth dropped open.

Asalen was barefoot, or at least halfway there. Both the shoe and sock on one of her feet was completely missing.

And the not-so-little green frog was the exact same size and shape as Asalen's shoe.

Elyran didn't even have to ask the question. Asalen told her the answer anyway.

"The frog at the shoe right off my foot! It was really neat!"

Elyran swayed. "Say that again, child. What did the frog do?"

"It ate my shoe! And it's a lot bigger now!"

"She has to be lying," Prythan spoke up. "That frog couldn't have possibly eaten the shoe at its present size, let alone if it were any smaller."

"She's not lying," the girl who had screamed said. "We all saw it happen."

Prythan said nothing. Elyran and Karish exchanged weary glances.

"What do we do?" Karish asked plaintively. "Can this thing really be allowed to stay here?"

"What else are we going to do with it, throw it off a cliff?"

"Let's just watch it for now," Prythan said. "Something here just doesn't seem right."

The three woman looked back and forth between one another for another few seconds. Then, there came another scream from the younger girls.

"IT ATE THAT ROCK!"

Elyran, Karish, and Prythan whirled around in unison. The young Airbenders that weren't in the process of fleeing were staring at the frog in horror. The creature was now twice as big as it had been mere moments earlier. And the large rock that was sitting next to it was completely gone.

That had been the end of the discussion whether or not to keep the frog. Prythan promptly strode to the thing and picked it up, having a great deal of trouble due to its weight. Karish ran over to help. Together, the two women managed to get the frog to the outskirts of the Air Temple. Then, without so much as a glance at one another, they threw it over the cliff.

Well, that had been the end of that. Or so Karish and Prythan had thought at the time.

Karish returned her mind to the present and finished packing. Then, once she had closed her bag, she let her mind once again wander to the past.

The three weeks after the frog episode passed with little incident, aside from some rather strong opinions on the fate of the not-so-little green frog. The elders had all agreed that the thing had to go, but some of the girls held alternate opinions. Asalen especially was very vocal. She didn't think that it was fair to throw the frog over the cliff.

"If I got bigger, would you throw ME over the cliff?" Asalen had asked. Karish didn't have the foggiest idea how to respond to this, so she simply remained silent. Asalen had studied her for a moment before running off.

From the disappearance of the frog onward, Asalen had been scarce during the day. But as usual, Karish had thought nothing of it. Now that the demon frog was gone, there was once again nothing in the Air Temple that could hurt any of the girls. So the priestesses went about their normal lives, seemingly unworried and happy that things had calmed down after that brief bit of trouble. But as was so common in the world in general, unseen storm clouds were brewing behind their backs. Ignorance was truly bliss, but this time, that bliss would have an abrupt, bizarre end.

Three weeks after the frog's flight, another unusual sound had drawn Karish from her thoughts. Rather than screaming, the young girls had been laughing. Some of them were in near hysterics. Giggling was common enough, but frantic cackling was rather rare. So as she had done before, Karish ran to investigate. Prythan and Elyran once again met her at the scene, followed by several of the other priestesses.

And together, the woman simply gawked.

At first, they weren't able to tell exactly what was going on. The girls were once again in a circle focusing on something in the center, but this time the circle was much wider, implying that whatever was in the center of the circle was much bigger. Karish caught a glimpse of the item in question through the crowd. The thing was green, slimy, and nearly as long as she was…

And it must have weighed three hundred pounds.

Worst of all, Asalen had been sitting on top of it.

For the longest time, Karish simply stared. Her mind desperately struggled to comprehend what was going on. Then, the green blob moved, and understanding dawned immediately.

Asalen was riding the frog. And the frog was now nearly a hundred times the size it had been when Karish had first seen it.

She didn't know whether to laugh, scream, or faint.

There was a thump from Karish's right side as Elyran chose to pass out. The other priestesses gasped. Prythan simply screamed.

"IT'S THE DAMNED FROG!"

"Well, obviously," Karish said sarcastically. When either scared or confused, she always became a bit snappish. "And it's the same one, unless the temple is being invaded by a plague of these things, and this one is a different one than before. And maybe its sole purpose is to alert us to the fact that there are millions of these things all over the damned place, and we'd better run before they ate us all."

Prythan just looked sick.

"I really, really hope that you're kidding."

"What's there to kid about?"

"THE FACT THAT WE"RE BEING INVADED BY THE OTHERWORLD!"

"Otherworld? How do you figure that?"

"Because this frog died! We threw it over a cliff three weeks ago!"

"And what does that have to do with the Otherworld?"

"The frog came back from the dead!"

"Maybe it survived," one of the other priestesses said. Prythan simply shook her head.

"It had just eaten a rock before we got right of it. It would have plummeted three thousand feet to the ground."

"Unless I'm right, and this really is a different one, one intent on warning us about our impending annihilation."

"Shut up, Karish. This isn't helping."

Karish gestured frantically. "Look in front of you! My daughter is riding a three hundred pound frog! What's there to do BESIDES laugh?"

"Get her off the thing?" one of the priestesses retorted immediately. "You saw how it grew when it ate that rock! The frog can eat things that are bigger than itself! Who's to say that it won't eat Asalen?"

"If it ate her, it would be doing us all a favor," Prythan said coldly. "So maybe we should leave her on the thing."

By that time, the elders of the tribe had noted Asalen's lack of talent. All of the priestesses were cutting her some slack, saying that she merely needed time to improve. All of the priestesses except Prythan, that is.

Prythan had become downright hostile toward the girl. Karish didn't understand it, and never would. But there always seemed to be something dark behind Prythan's eyes when she looked at Asalen.

And Asalen, of course, wouldn't let go of the frog. She had sat atop it, a wide, proud smile on her face. Karish couldn't hope but smiling as well. It sure didn't seem like the frog was going to hurt Asalen.

It was Prythan, intent at causing messes as always, that finally broke the peace. She ran forward and gave the frog a mighty shove, presumably trying to get it to move. But the thing was more than twice her size, and didn't so much as budge. Rather, the frog's immense amount of slimy flesh jiggled disgustingly, and the frog croaked loudly. A look of utter repulsion on her face, Prythan took a step backwards.

"That's revolting!" she shrilled. "It's repugnant! Karish, get your daughter off of that thing right now!"

"Why should I?" Karish had asked sweetly. "Asalen is having a good time."

Prythan growled before taking it upon herself to remove Asalen from the frog. But just as she reached for the child, the frog opened it mouth, croaked loudly, then threw up all over her.

Prythan fell onto her butt, shrieking. And since the ground was covered in frog barf, she landed in a thick, viscous puddle. All of the priestesses and children froze, not daring so much to breathe.

Then, Karish started laughing. Within seconds, all of the others had joined her. And as fate would have it, that loud sound startled the frog, which puked again. The other Airbenders laughed all the harder as Prythan struggled to her feet.

Asalen got off of the frog and made her way over to Karish. Karish picked the little girl up and cuddled her, her eyes still on the frog. The frog, now minus its rider, had apparently decided that it was time to leave. With a final croak, the thing hurled itself into the air. It landed outside the circle, ten feet from where it had leapt. It then rebounded once more and disappeared over a cliff.

They never saw the frog again, after that day.

Brought back to the present for the final time, Karish shouldered her bag and looked at Asalen. The girl nodded and did the same. Karish took the girl's hand and pulled her close, wanting to feel that connection of love and dependence. Asalen closed her eyes and leaned into Karish's chest, whimpering slightly. Both females knew exactly what would come next, and neither ever wanted to face such a thing.

They hugged for a long, long time. Finally, Karish straightened up and looked out the window. Asalen's gaze followed her own.

Trying not to shake, Karish once again took Asalen's hand and led her from the room.

"Come on. The others are waiting."

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