Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar, the Last Airbender, or any of its characters, except for the kids I made up. I own them, for sure.

Skya: Can you sell us, then? I'm really hungry, and Til is dying.

Til: -raspy cough-

Me: Ugh! You guys are so annoying. I'm putting you up on Ebay.

Skya: What's that?

Me: You'll see.

Chapter 3: The Study

"I wish I could help you," Mika began.

"Maybe you can," Katara said hopefully. "If you can Water Bend than you can teach Aang. He needs to learn."

Mika's wings tensed again. "It does not bother you that I am of Dragon decent?"

Katara furrowed her eyebrows. "Dragon decent?" She had noticed. Really, these people as a whole were strange. The furry tails and ears of Skya and her people, and the reptile-like wings and ears of Mika. Whatever they were supposed to be, people or animal, they were part of both.

Mika's ears perked and her stare straightened. "It bothers me most," she said, disregarding Katara's question. "It's what bothers me anyway, the fact that I am different."

"Why isn't Skya...why doesn't Skya..." She couldn't word it, and it would be rude to ask. "Isn't Skya your sister?" She said finally.

"Yeah...at least that's what my aunt tells us. My grandmother or something...I don't know. They don't live with us any more." Mika looked up at the sky. "It isn't important..." She looked back at Katara, her face trying to form a slight smile. "Can I meet the Avatar?"

Katara snapped out of her trance. "Oh, yeah...sure. Come on." Mika followed Katara into the village.

------------------xXx-------------------

"Skya, how many times have I told you? You should not bring people into our village, you never understand!" An older women was yelling at Skya infront of Sokka and Aang, not noticing the looks of oddity they were shooting them. "It is dangerous! Dangerous! Do you understand that? It is dangerous!"

Skya looked down at an angle and flattened her ears to her head. "Sorry Auntie...it won't happen again."

"Aye! 'It won't happen again', she says. You crazy girl! You will bring the war upon us!" Her aunt threw her arms into the air as she talked Skya's tail made its way between her legs. "You'll kill us all, Skya! It means nothing to you!"

Skya closed her eyes, her ears totally flat and her tail hidden. "I'm sorry," she choked, "but this is the Avatar." She moved her hand to point to the staring Aang. "And he needs our help."

Her aunt placed her hands on her hips and glanced at Aang, who smiled sheepishly, sorry that he had followed the strange girl in the first place. "The Avatar, eh? He's just a boy," she stated.

Skya straightened and her tail pointed outward, her ears perking. "Auntie! How dare you? This boy can Air Bend! Can't you see his marks and his staff?"

Her aunt made a face at Aang. "Prove it, Avatar." There was a silence, a slight ripple of whispering among the crowd of people.

"Alright..." Aang began, grabbing his staff and opening it. He ran around in a circle, the wind around him growing denser and thicker, carrying him into the air. He moved gracefully over the town of huts and sand, slight gasps emerging from the people below him. Finally he decided that Skya's aunt had seen enough, and he landed next to Sokka and Appa, folding the wings of his staff. He smiled broadly at the crowd as an applause lashed out.

Skya's aunt curled her lips into a small smile. "Well then, Avatar, welcome to Tenkay."

Aang scratched the back of his neck and smiled again. "Um...thanks."

Sokka squinted at the horizon, only to see Katara and some other girl coming over a low, sand hill. When they got close enough, Aang and Sokka wrinkled their noses and stared.

"This is Mika," Katara introduced, pointing to the reptile like girl. "And this," she said as she pointed to Aang, "is the Avatar."

Mika bowed, revealing 2 flattened wings. "It is an honor to meet you, Avatar."

Sokka, now full of confusion, finally sumed up his thoughts. "Can you explain what you are?" He blurted.

Mika pulled back from her bow slowly and thought for a moment. "It's hard to explain..." She began. "But if you want to know more, there are books about...us...in the studies." She pointed to a brown hut behind her. "Everything you may want to know is in there."

Sokka didn't like reading, but Aang and Katara's interest sparked almost instantly. "Can we go there now?" Aang asked.

"Yeah, just ask around...look in the history sections or something. I don't know if they've rearranged it or not, it's been a while since I've been there."

"Thanks," Aang called out over his shoulder as he and Katara made their way to the hut.

"What am I supposed to do?" Sokka asked Mika as she turned around to go back to the lake.

"You could unpack all of your stuff. You can stay as long as you need to."

Sokka furrowed his eyebrows and crossed his arms and Mika finished her way back to the boulder.

------------xXx----------------

"She seems nice," Katara told Aang, moving through the halls of books. "Don't you think so, Aang?"

Aang scratched the back of his head. "I guess so," he whispered, avoiding the stares of the people in the study. "Something just seems too...familiar about her, about them."

Katara wasn't really listening. These people had sparked her interest, and now she looked over the faded rows of scrolls before her. "Uh huh."

-----------xXx-----------------

"Mika, you are not hungry?"

Mika slumped her shoulders inward. It was her aunt, Skya's aunt. She looked nothing like her, and now she was behind her, offering food. "No, Auntie. I am fine, really."

"You have not eaten in days, Mika. I worry for you."

"Please, Auntie. I am fine, really. I eat...fish...um...yeah. I eat fish, all the time at the shores." She turned around to face her aunt.

Her aunt smiled and let out a small chuckle. "Ah...you and your Water Bending. I must see you preform sometime, Mika."

Mika bit her lower lip and blushed. "Yeah...some time. When I get better, maybe..."

"I am sure you are a fine Water Bender, and it is an honor to have you among us, Mika. I am sorry if I bother you, trying to get you to eat. But even Water Benders need their strength."

"Yes Auntie. Thank you." She swallowed and continued to the shore. I will never be able to tell them...