A/N: Hi! Just a warning that we're going to discuss the abandonment/death of infants in this chapter. It's the third paragraph if you'd rather avoid that.
The silence that followed Enya's confession was very uncomfortable. Enya felt the urge to start talking again in order for there to be no silence. She sat there, watching each of the four children as they processed what she had said. It was during that time that she realized that the Earth Kingdom girl—who Sokka had called Toph—was blind. Enya immediately had respect for Toph. She couldn't imagine what it was like being blind and having to deal with three other kids. But, having deduced that Toph was an earthbender, she imagined that Toph used her earthbending in some way to make up for the lack of sight.
It was then that the bald boy finally spoke up. He seemed a bit confused about something. "Why didn't your mom just go back home? Surely the Tribe would have helped her."
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"You're sort of right." Enya gave a shrug. She fully knew that war children were more likely to be orphaned or killed. Her mother had made it clear that her grandparents would had been less than compassionate if she had came back with a Half Fire Nation baby. "It wasn't this bad before the war started, but my grandparents would have left me to die…Most people don't want a Half Fire Nation baby now."
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She knew that it was a hard pill to swallow. The topic was still a bit sore for her, but practically everything concerning the halfness of her heritage was a sore topic. The Fire Nation hated the Water Tribes and the Water Tribes hated the Fire Nation. Enya watched as the kid slowly began to accept what she had said. If her teaching did her any justice, she would say that the boy was of Air Nomad blood. He certainly dressed like he was an Airbender child. Her heart twinged slightly as Katara reached over and gave the boy a hug.
"It's not your fault, Aang." Katara murmured, soothing the boy. Finally, she knew all of the children's names. She watched passively as Katara and Aang engaged in some sort of silent conversation with their eyes.
Aang turned back to her, grey eyes shining slightly with tears. "Would you like to travel with us? I'm Aang and I'm the Avatar."
Enya was completely shocked by this. Sure, she suspected that Aang was of Air Nomad blood, she had assumed that the Airbending Avatar had been killed in the attack against the Air Nomads. The Avatar had survived and now he wanted her to travel with him. Well, that was something that Enya never thought would happen in her life. She must have looked like she was considering saying no because Aang hurried to add something to the offer.
"You could teach me to firebend! I need a firebending teacher."
Ah, there was it. She wasn't surprised since she hadn't told them that she was a waterbender. If she was actually a firebender she'd definitely be honored to be teaching him. Unfortunately, she had to refuse since she couldn't.
"I'm not a firebender." Enya smiled apologically. "Sorry, Aang."
"Oh." He looked disappointed like had had been hoping to find a firebending teacher. "You can still come with us if you would like."
Her smile grew. "If everyone's ok with it, I'd love to come."
It had been a few days since the Gaang—Aang, Sokka, Katara, and Toph—had let Enya join them on their journey to stop the War by defeating Fire Lord Ozai. After being filled in with what they had experienced so far, she felt like it was fair to say that she couldn't hold it against Sokka for accusing her for working with Princess Azula. Not that they realized that that was who she had been. She was a little disappointed that they were headed towards the Fire Nation, which was the direction that she had came from, but couldn't complain. She decided against telling them that she was a waterbender. It really wasn't necessary and it was clear that Katara was the Master that Aang needed in order to further his training in waterbending. If she had it her way, she wouldn't be telling them she was a waterbender unless they were far away from the Fire Nation.
They wouldn't run into Hama, would they? They couldn't. It just wasn't possible for them too. It wouldn't make sense if they came across Hama. They couldn't run into Hama. Hama would see Enya and know that she hadn't been truthful about getting revenge. She squeezed her eyes shut and let the rushing air blow around her as she tried to calm down—hard if you're on a flying bison—and think. Hama was old. It was possible that she had already died since Enya left her place. Katara couldn't know about the crazy revengeful Watertribeswoman and her forbidden use of waterbending.
Bloodbending will end with me. Katara won't ever need to know the burden.
She supposed that Katara learning that she was a waterbender would be important enough for the kid. Enya knew that she wasn't much older than these kids. Sokka was fifteen and she had her twenty-first birthday coming up this year. Despite the five year age difference, she considered them to be her kids. They needed to her be the slightly more sane rational mind that Katara could not always be. She adored all of them for every part of their personalities, even if that meant that she constantly had a bruise on her arm because of Toph. If only the nightmare that was her life would get better for more than three days.
