Blurrs of colour rushed by me as I sprinted up the stairs. I needed to talk to him. I came as fast as I could as soon as I received his letter. It still took me some time to get here, since there literally was a sea seperating us.

I had visisted before with Kuzon though so I knew which ship to take. It had been getting harder lately with tensions rising between the Fire Nation and the rest of the world but I still managed, especially since most people didn´t consider a teenager threatening.

Running around the corner, I sped up as soon as the wooden door, my destination, came into view. Not bothering to knock, I pushed open the door and immediately embraced the boy looking at me startledly.

His eyes lit up as soon as he recognized me and he started trying to see over my shoulder, which would be impossible if I wasn´t lifting him up. I noticed with a pang that he deflated when he realized Kuzon was not with me.

„He couldn´t come, Aang, I´m sorry. Mom and Dad didn´t allow him to, with what´s been going on lately." Aang, the kind child that he was, looked a little sour at first, but then smiled. „At least you were allowed to come."

Realizing I was still holding him, I carefully let him go and plopped myself on the neatly made bed. „So… the Avatar, huh?"

Aang flinched, and I almost got up and hugged him again. He was just twelve. I knew that there would soon be war, but still the monks couldn´t just thrust that much responsiblty on a child. How did they expect a to deal with that?

After standing in the middle of the room for a few seconds, Aang followed me on the bed. He looked so small, especially next to me. I was six years older than him, and far taller, yes, but today, he seemed even smaller than usual.

„The others… they won´t play with me anymore. They say it´s unfair. I don´t- I´m still the same person! Just because I´m the Avatar doesn´t mean-" A choked sob escaped him and he laid down and burried his face in the pillow. My heart constricted and a spark of hate for the other children rose in me.

„I know, Aang. They need time to get used to it. You´re still the same person to me and Kuzon." He looked up at me and smiled slightly. „Thanks, Kia."

Then he seemed to remember something and his eyes found the floor. „I- I overheard the monks today. They want to send me to the Eastern Air Temple."

At that, I froze. Not just because I would miss him, but because of Kuzon. He´d always been a bit closer to Aang, they were the same age after all. With Kuzon not allowed to leave home, they might not be able to see each other for a long time, especially since Aang, with being the Avatar, couldn´t just visit others anymore and we living in the south of the Fire Nation, couldn´t just take a ship over. We´d have to find someone who traveled from where we lived to the East which would be nearly impossible, since we almost only traded with the Southern Air Temple. The only other way would be traveling to the East by foot and taking a boat from there, and that would take weeks.

„Aang, I´m sorry." „We won´t be able to see each other again, will we?" He asked me, devestated.

There still was a glimmer of hope in his eyes, and I didn´t want to take that from him. „We´ll find a way." Luckily, he didn´t seem to recognize the obvious lie and grinned. „At least you can teach me firebending now!"

I chuckled at that. Aang had always been impressed by my firebending and I had put on little shows for him and Kuzon when they were younger. For me, it was just another reason to be scared of the coming war.

The Firenation had been sending out recruitment letters lately, and it was probably only a matter of time before I received mine, even though it was rarer for women to get them. They made it seem like a choice, but I knew it wasn´t. And with me having potential to become a skilled bender, I knew it would come. My parents knew too, but we kept it from Kuzon.

I still raised my hands and made a swirling motion. A soft globe of fire enlightened the dark room, shining eerily on our faces. Slowly, the ball formed into a more defined shape, growing wings and a tail, one of my favourites, even though it wasn´t that good yet. Aang seemed to recognize what I was doing too and sat up straighter, grinning brightly. A few seconds of shaping later, a shape distinctly resembling a phoenix the size of my hand flew around the room. I wasn´t able to create as much fire as others, but I had fine control over it.

I wasn´t a warrior. I was a performer, an artist. I wanted to become a street performer one day, maybe have a succesful show. It´s not like I didn´t enjoy sparring but I didn´t want to seriously hurt someone. The bird did another round,, and for a small moment, we forgot about all our problems, before it turned into smoke. And like that, all our thoughts crashed down on us again.

„I don´t want to go to the Eastern Air Temple. I don´t want to be the Avatar," Aang whispered into the silence. „I know." I grabbed his hand in mine. I didn´t want to fight in the upcoming war. I didn´t want Kuzon to eventually follow me into the military. Aang squeezed my hand. Then, suddenly, he determinedly looked me in the eyes.

„Let´s leave. Let´s go get Kuzon and leave." I stared in him for a while. Not in shock, in contemplation. I had a family. Even if we´d take Kuzon, there´d still be our parents. We couldn´t take them too. Two children leaving would go mostly unnoticed, but a family leaving the Fire Nation this shortly before war would seem like we were fleeing and that would be punished.

I needed to get out of the pressure, of everything, though. It´s not like we would leave forever, it would just be a short break, right? We would return in a few weeks and everything would go back to normal.

„Okay. Do we fly on Appa?" Aang jumped up excitedly. „I´ll have to write a letter to Monk Gyatso first, then we can go get him. Quickly rummaging through the top drawer of his shelf, Aang pulled out a sheet of paper and a pen. I listened to him scribbling on the paper while pacing up and down the room. Rain was pouring outside and winds were howling.

„Aang?" He made a noise while focusing on writing, indicating that he could hear me. „Where will we go?" Aang just continued scribbling. „The Earth Kingdom. Or maybe the Southern Water Tribe. I´ve always wanted to go Penguin Sledding!" I smiled at that. Yes, we were just taking a holiday. And everything would be fine for a while. No war. No Avatar. Just children enjoying themselves.

Aang resolutely put his pen down and I rose as soon as I heard his chair scraping back. „Ready?" he asked. I took a deep breath in. „Ready." Grabbing his glider from next to his bed he moved over to the window and cautiously looked around. Then he waved me over. He let the wings of his glider snap out before beckoning me to grab onto the front of it.

Even though I loved flying, I never felt completely safe when flying with the glilder. Kuzon loved it. The only reason I agreed to it sometimes was because I trusted Aang. He grabbed on behind me and we both awkwardly climbed onto the window frame together. Aang looked over to me for confirmation that I was ready before we both jumped down together.

I had to surpress a scream as we took off, even though I knew we wouldn´t fall I couldn´t help but be scared every time we jumped off somewhere. It was a natural instinct Aang didn´t seem to have as an airbender. Flying itself was amazing. It felt free. You felt like you were letting go of all problems.

Even though we were drenched by the time we arrived at Appa´s stable, I had enjoyed the short flight. As soon as he noticed us, Appa trotted towards us and licked one swipe up Aang´s body length before coming over to me to for pets. I ran my hands through his soft fur for a few seconds before helping Aang saddle him.

„You know that we didn´t take any food with us, don´t you?" Aang shrugged sheepishly. „The kitchens are too far. We´ll have to buy some at our first stop." „And who do you expect to pay for that?" His grin was answer enough.

With a gust of air, he propelled himself up onto Appa, while I climbed up his tail. We just sat in silence for a few moments before Aang took a deep breath and looked out into the storm. „Appa, yip yip." I held tightly on to Appa´s fur as we slowly rose into the air. Flying on Appa was different than flying with the glider. It felt safer, since you wouldn´t just fall down if your hand slipped.

„Let´s go get Kuzon!" Aang said into the night. We were rising higher and higher and further and further away from the Air Temple. Neither of us talked, we probably wouldn´t be able to hear each other with the wind roaring around us anyways. If it wasn´t for the rain, I probably would have laid back and gazed at the stars.

I caught a first breath of sea air. Soon, the waves were crashing beneath us, some several meters high. By now, his and my clothes were completely wet and Appa had to sink further and further with lightning striking. The thunder was roaring louder and louder and I had to grab Aang to not fall off. We were too far out on the sea to turn around so we could only try to evade the waves and grab onto each other.

My short dark hair was whipping around my face and I was freezing. As a firebender, I naturally hated water and I had every reason to since every time I got near water, I almost drowned. I wasn´t a good swimmer either.

So I screamed even louder than Aang when lightning struck right next to us and Appa crashed into the water. It was like being stabbed with thousands of knives at the same time. The water was freezing and I could just hold on to Aang as it pressed down on me and I couldn´t breathe- I just tried to hold on to Aang, even though I could barely feel my arms. When I tried to open my eyes it burned and I hurt even worse so I kept them closed.

Then – suddenly – there was a bright light and then everything went dark.