Water:

The Airbending Master

"Appa!" Aang threw his arms across the beast's broad nose. The saucer-wide eyes blinked at the boy, and the creature let out a low rumble. "Good job finding me, buddy!" There was another happy roar, and a huge tongue licked Aang's face.

Katara hung back as Aang laughed and stroked the creature behind the ears. "That thing is your pet?"

Aang looked back at her. "Appa's my sky bison. He's better than a pet." Appa rumbled again and sniffed at Aang's tunic. "Come pet him. He loves attention."

Cautiously, Katara approached the bison and rested a hand on the warm, soft ear. Appa turned his head and sniffed Katara once, then flopped onto his side, welcoming a belly rub.

"I've never seen a sky bison before." She touched the bison's leathery stomach. It felt almost like sealskin, just a bit rougher. Appa snorted, and Katara pulled back in surprise.

Aang scratched Appa's chin. "Really? There's lots where I live."

She studied the boy for a second. "You're an airbender, aren't you?"

Aang nodded, then his face lit up. "Do you want to see my glider?" And he leapt effortlessly over Appa to where the massive saddle rested against the snow.

Katara ran around Appa's head in time to see Aang pull a staff from somewhere in the saddle. He lifted it over his head, and wings of fiery orange cloth sprung from either side of the staff. Aang grinned at the look of astonishment on Katara's face.

"Could you teach me?" she asked, then stopped, looking embarrassed. "I mean—Could you show me a few moves? I've never met a real bender before."

Aang lowered the glider, folding the wings back in with a snap. "You're a waterbender?"

Katara nodded. "I'm not very good at it. But Gran-Gran thinks if I had a teacher—"

Aang gave her a strange sideways look. "What about the rest of the waterbenders? The last time I heard, there were more than a hundred masters in the southern tribe."

Katara looked down. Sure, there were other villages, but if there were a hundred adults left between them all, that was it. And not one of them was a waterbender, much less a master. "Maybe there was a long time ago," she conceded. "But not anymore. I'm the last one left."

For a second, Aang frowned. "That can't be right. Just before I left home, the monks were talking about sending me down here to meet some of the masters."

She turned her eyes back to him. He seemed too earnest to be teasing her. "How long ago was that?"

He shrugged. "A week ago? Maybe two?" There was a short pause, and then Aang brightened. "Well, if there aren't any masters here, maybe Appa and I could help you find one."

"I don't know," she answered, pushing a tendril of hair back from her face. It would be a lie if she said she had never considered the possibility. "I've never left home before. I can't just leave."

"Well…" For a second, Aang trailed off. A little boy had emerged from a nearby tent, and stood staring at the newcomer.

"Hey!" Sokka rounded the corner of the tent, arms folded over his chest. He glared at the little boy. "What are you looking at? It's time for training."

"Seriously, Sokka? Do you really think they need to train all day?"

Sokka turned on his sister. "Thanks to your frozen friend there, we lost a whole day of training yesterday. They need to train twice as hard today to make up for it."

Katara groaned, but Aang perked up. "Can I help?"

Sokka grumbled something about benders wasting his time, but he could think of no good reason to refuse Aang's help.

The morning passed in a blur. Every one of Sokka's warriors seemed fascinated by the airbender's antics—Sokka himself was less than thrilled until Aang invented a game to test the boys' aim. Even Sokka had to admit that snowballs hovering in the air made more challenging targets than the shapeless lump of snow that he had built yesterday. It may not have been as disciplined a training session as he would have liked, but he had to admit that the boys to put in more effort than usual. That, however, did not stop him from scowling mightily when he caught Katara mimicking the airbender's motions, sending wild swirls of snow in all directions. Katara stuck her tongue out at her brother. So long as she had a chance to learn from a real bender, she would take it.


Sokka was the first to see the smoke. When he pointed out the gray plume on the horizon, Katara went pale. Sokka grabbed her by the shoulders and told her to get ahold of herself. They hadn't been prepared the last time the Fire Nation ships came. Today would be different. It had to be.

Aang followed the siblings, confused, as they raced off the spread the word. From the corner of her eye, Katara caught a glimpse of his puzzled expression but there was no time to explain. She darted ahead and burst into the first tent to warn its occupants, then continued down the row, barely noticing when Aang fell behind or when she grew out of breath.

She was halfway through the village when she looked toward the sky again. The plume of smoke was nearer, and a fine haze of smoke and soot was settling over the village, turning the snow a dull gray.

From across the open field at the center of the village, she caught sight of Sokka. He glanced up at the sky too, and his eyes widened. "Come on," Sokka shouted to his sister, and she nodded, turning to sprint back home.

They could smell as well as see the smoke now. Sokka burst into the tent first, followed a few seconds later by Katara. By the time that Aang caught up with them, Sokka had armed himself with his club and boomerang. Aang stood aside, confused, as Katara passed a spear over to her brother and grabbed a second for herself. In their hurry, they didn't hear the footsteps approaching outside, so when Gran-Gran threw open the tent flaps and rushed in, she nearly knocked Aang to the ground. With a yelp, he leapt out of the way, but Gran-Gran didn't seem to notice. She took the spear out of her granddaughter's hands. There was no more time, the old woman said. The ship was landing.

The village was curiously quiet as the ship's black bow opened and rows of red-uniformed men filed out, forming a silent, motionless line facing the villagers. Then, when it seemed that the ship must be nearly empty, a final group of three soldiers—two hulking men flanking a slightly smaller figure—descended.

Katara tried to push her way to where Sokka stood at the front of the crowd, but Gran-Gran held her back. Aang stood beside her, staff in hand, eyes narrowed. Even from the back of the crowd, they could see that the last man off the ship was not much older than Sokka, though there was something undeniably harder in his gaze. The young man turned his head, and Katara saw that there was a livid red scar over his left eye, tapering back into streaks that didn't end until a few inches behind his shriveled, shrunken ear.

At the front of the crowd, Sokka took a step forward, club resting on his shoulder. The young firebender gave him a look of disgust, then stepped down into the snow. Sokka's eyes narrowed.

"Get back on your boat," Sokka ordered. "And I won't have to hurt you."

Glaring straight at Sokka, the other young man gave a signal, and each of the soldiers raised his right hand, producing a hovering tongue of flame. Not breaking eye contact with Sokka, the young firebender jerked his own hand open, and a crimson flame burst from his palm with an audible roar.

Sokka hesitated, then charged forward with a yell, and the young man knocked him aside with a single well-placed kick.

"No one needs to get hurt," the firebender announced in a harsh, gravelly voice. "I'm here for the Avatar."

The villagers stared back in confused silence. Off to the side, Sokka sat up, face covered in snow, and glowered at the soldiers. Katara noticed an uneasy look in Aang's eyes, but before she could speak, Gran-Gran grabbed her by the arm and tried to pull her away from the crowd.

"I know you're hiding him," the young man shouted, and Katara shook her arm loose. "He's an airbender." Katara instinctively grabbed Aang by the arm as the firebender's narrow eyes scanned over the crowd. From his place behind the row of soldiers, Sokka rose to his knees and threw his boomerang. It clipped the back of the young man's head and flew back into Sokka's hand.

Seething, the firebender turned toward Sokka, a ball of fire hovering over his right hand. Katara rushed forward, but Aang reached the front of the crowd first.

"Stop!"

The firebender turned slowly back toward Aang.

Holding his staff at the ready, Aang added, "You said that no one would get hurt."

The young man surveyed Aang, his single eyebrow raised, and a sneer on his lips. "You're the airbender?"

Aang said nothing, but as the row of soldiers advanced on him, he dropped into a waiting stance, staff in his right hand.

The firebender laughed—a single, harsh bark. He raised his hand to halt the other soldiers. "I think I can handle this one alone."

One of the guards leaned closer. "Prince Zuko, the general gave orders—"

Zuko shot a glare at the older man. "You can tell my uncle to stop giving orders. I've got the Avatar and I'm going home."

The guard took a step back as Zuko advanced on Aang. Aang remained at the ready but didn't move a bit until Zuko was only a few steps away. Then, pointing his staff at the center of the young man's chest, Aang nodded in the direction of the soldiers.

"Call them off. I'll only go with you if you leave everyone else alone."

Zuko gave a crooked smirk, but obeyed, dismissing the soldiers with a wave of his hand. Katara watched, heart still pounding, as the men boarded the ship again. When the last soldier had vanished, Aang lowered his staff.

Sokka and Katara watched in dismay as Zuko grabbed Aang roughly by the arm. Though the prince was young, he was muscular, and nearly a foot taller than the airbender.

Katara took a step forward. "If you hurt him, I swear—" Zuko turned on her and she broke off, realizing that she had nothing to threaten him with. She wasn't a fighter. Sokka had always been willing to teach her how to fish, how to handle a boat, even how to hunt, but facing a leopard seal with a spear was very different than facing another human being. There was always waterbending, of course, but her most impressive feats had always been accidental.

"I'll be fine, Katara," Aang said, but almost before the words left his mouth, Zuko was dragging him toward the ship.

"Coward!" Sokka shouted after the retreating prince, and he rushed forward, club raised.

Practically snarling, Zuko flung Aang ahead, and in the same fluid motion, spun, sending a ball of fire at Sokka.

It was too much. At the sight of the flames headed toward her brother, Katara felt a flood of rage like nothing she had ever experienced before. And then the world went astonishingly clear and quiet. Raising one hand, she watched a wall of ice rise to block the firebender's attack. Her gaze drifted up toward Zuko, briefly registering the shock on his pale face before her hands rose again. A powerful, almost visible gust struck the firebender squarely in the chest with such force that he was knocked off his feet and driven back up the ramp onto the ship.

Aang, seizing the opportunity, leapt to his feet and hovered to the ground, twirling his staff over his head. Katara sensed rather than saw his and Sokka's eyes on her as she lifted off the ground in a funnel of swirling water.

Her arms lifted again, and the ship rose visibly on a swell of water. Her palms turned forward, and the swell turned into a wave, pushing the ship away from the shore. She couldn't be sure of how far she drove the ship—the world seemed to move unnaturally slowly—before it slammed stern-first into an icy cliff. For a moment, she remained hovering overhead as a flood of soldiers poured out onto the deck. From the top of the cliff, there was a deep, prolonged cracking, and a mound of snow and ice nearly the size of the ship broke loose. There were shouts, and several of the soldiers dropped to the deck, covering their heads with their arms as half of their ship was buried. Only one man—older and stouter than the rest—looked up. His eyes fixed on Katara.

The next thing Katara was aware of was drifting back to the ground at the edge of the village. At once there was sound again, and her legs were too tired to hold her. She dropped to her knees. From across the snow, she heard her brother shout her name. Her eyes closed.

When she opened them again, she was in the tent, Gran-Gran, Sokka, and Aang all clustered anxiously at her side. Slowly, Katara sat up, only to be bombarded with questions from her brother.

"What was that? Are they gone? For good? You were glowing!" Sokka exclaimed. "Is that supposed to happen? Do all of you bender-y people glow?"

Katara was too tired to sort out the questions in her mind. Instead, she looked to her grandmother. "What's going on, Gran-Gran?"

The old woman sighed. "Oh, my little waterbender." Looking sad, she rested her hands on Katara's shoulders.

Sokka snorted in disbelief. "There's no way that was waterbending. No offense, Katara, but waterbending is just a bunch of fancy splashes. Whatever that was—"

"Airbending," Aang interrupted, his voice little more than a whisper. He met Katara's gaze and corrected himself in a firmer tone. "Some of it was, anyway."

"But Katara's a waterbender!" Sokka said, too loudly. "No one's supposed to be able to bend air and water."

"One person is," Aang replied, his eyes fixed on Katara.

There was an instant of hesitation. "But the Avatar's supposed to be an airbender." Sokka looked from Aang to his sister and back. "Even I know that."

"The Avatar was an airbender." Gran-Gran rose and moved to her granddaughter's side. "Until fourteen years ago."

"Fourteen years?" Aang's eyes widened. "But I—" His voice cut out, and he looked at Katara. It seemed to take an enormous amount of effort, but he finally whispered, "I knew him."

Katara touched his hand sympathetically, but he didn't react. She turned to her grandmother again. "How long have you known?"

Gran-Gran smiled. "Since you were three. Your mother and I saw you set your brother's bed on fire."

"She did what?" Sokka yelped.

Ignoring him, Katara asked, "Who else knows? Does Dad?"

"No. We thought you would be safer if no one else knew that the Avatar was alive. And Hakoda—I love my son, but he was never modest about his children. If I had told him, the whole village would have known in a week." Gran-Gran caught a glimpse of Katara's expression and crouched to take her hand. "I always meant to tell you, little one. But without any airbenders to teach you, there no reason to hurry." The old woman's gaze turned to Aang. "Until now."

At last, Katara smiled. "Would you be my airbending teacher, Aang?"

Aang nodded, not meeting her eyes. "Now we really will have to find you a waterbending master."

"And how are you planning to do that?" Sokka asked sourly. "Maybe you're forgetting that you're still the last waterbender in the South Pole."

"There's another Water Tribe at the North Pole," said Aang, dragging his gaze upward. There was still a distant look in his eyes, but he made an effort to smile. "I'm sure someone there could teach you."

"And how are you planning on getting to the North Pole?" Sokka asked.

Aang shrugged. "I have a flying bison."

Sokka's eyebrows shot upward.

Gran-Gran gave a nod of approval. "Good. And Sokka—"

"I'm going too," Sokka interrupted. Gran-Gran started to say something in reply, but the boy continued. "I know Dad wanted me here to protect the village, but—"

Gran-Gran's expression stopped him short. "And Sokka," she resumed. "Look after your sister."


Author's Note:

Thank you so much to everyone who's come this far with me! And to the reviewers on Chapter 1: you made my day! There may have been some very unattractive squealing and dancing when I read your comments. Thank you for the feedback—I'm definitely continuing with this story, so please keep coming back!

It feels great to have most of our main characters introduced now. I apologize if things have been a little slow-moving up to this point, but with Team Avatar leaving the South Pole (and with Zuko and Iroh coming into the spotlight), the pace should be picking up soon. Chapter 3 should be ready to publish next Sunday morning, and with any luck, I should have Chapter 4 ready the following week (also, if you want a more in-depth look at when updates are coming, visit my profile! I've added a section dedicated to the status of future chapters). Again, I really appreciate all of the readers who've stopped by, and feel free to leave reviews! Feedback helps keep me motivated!

Thanks for reading,

SooperSara