Author´s Note: Thank you for reading this. :D This is my first story and I was so happy when I received my first favourites, follows and reviews. I decided to do one chapter per episode, though I might skip some of them if they aren´t important for the plot. Enjoy.

There was a noise. Something was cracking. Where was I? The last thing I remembered was water. Water everywhere. And then a light. By the force pushing in on me from all sides, I assumed I was still underwater. But… why wasn´t I drowning?

Another crack, louder this time. I hard a voice. A beautiful, female voice, blurred as if underwater. I felt something warm and soft pressed against me. storm. Judging by the soft leather beneath me, I was sitting on Appa.

Then, there was a crack of light and everything returned. I was falling, there was water again but I could breathe- and I landed on something cold. I was freezing since I was wearing my sleeveless red and gold top and simple black pants and there was ice everywhere around us.

Then there was a male voice inhaling a shaky breath. „Fire Nation! I told you, Katara. This has to be some kind of trap!" For the first time, I noticed the two people standing in front of me. My eyes still hurt from the light but I could make out a boy around my age, maybe a bit younger, and a girl a bit older than Aang. Judging by their similiar dark skin, which was just a bit darker than mine, and their eyes the exact same shade of blue, they seemed to be siblings.

So we had made it to the South Pole? I smiled crookedly and the boy narrowed his eyes and protectively pushed his sister behind him, holding up a boomerang in one hand. Somethng stirred beside me and I took my eyes off the siblings in front of me.

A spike of worry rose in me. Aang was lying next to me, drenched. Tentively, the girl stepped out from behind her brother and, while making a beeline around me, kneeled down next to Aang. „He´s just a child, Sokka." When she raised Aang up in her arms, I made a sudden move towards her and she stumbled back, though, to my relief, she didn´t drop him. Rather… she held him protetctively against her, as if wanting to protect him… from me?

I narrowed my eyes at her and tried to stand up. As soon as I moved, the boy´s boomerang whirred past me. I snapped around to him. „What´s your problem?!" My voice came out raspy and quivering since I was shaking from the cold. He opened his mouth to reply, when Aang stirred and opened his eyes. He blinked at the girl. „I- I have a question." His voice was just as raspy as mine. I tensed. Then, he smiled brightly. „Will you go penguin sledding with me?"

Relief flooded me and I let out a breath I was holding. Aang turned around and, just as relieved as I was, scrambled out of the girl´s arms to jump into mine. „Kia! You´re safe!" „He´s with her, Katara!" The boy exclaimed, his eyes narrowed. „Get behind me!"

I found the boy´s ocean blue eyes and stared back determinedly. „Sokka?" The girl quietly tried to get her brother´s attention. His blue irises snapped away from my yellow ones and he slowly moved over to the girl, as if we were going to jump on him every second. I was still freezing but decided against warming me up with Firebending, since the siblings seemed to inexplicably hate the Fire Nation and I didn´t want to give them more reason to, for some reason, be scared of me. I knew the boy noticed me shivering, but he pointedly looked away.

I was snapped out of my contemplation by a familiar snoring. Aang seemed to realize too and excitedly jumped over the rest of the ice we had spilled out of. I took a little longer to follow, since Katara, Sokka and I had to walk around the wall. We turned around the corner just in time to see Aang landing on Appa´s head bfore he tried to wake him. Grinning, I sprinted over to the bison and burried my head in his soft, warm fur. Just like he always did, Appa licked Aang and, for maybe the secondn time, me too.

Incredulous, Sokka gaped at him. „What is that thing?" I was about to defend Appa, when Aang brightly stated „That´s Appa, my flying bison." Sokka rolled his eyes. „Sure. And that´s Katara, my flying sister." I snorted and the boy looked proud of himself for a second before realizing who was laughing at his joke and putting on a blank face again.

Furrowing my brows, I tried to think of something the Fire Nation could have done to make them hate us this much. Sure, there were tensions, but we didn´t hurt anyone. Again, I was interrupted by Aang. „Watch out!" I ducked down just in time to avoid Appa´s snot which hit Sokka who threw himself on the floor trying to wipe it off with sounds of disgust.

Aang didn´t seem to be bothered. „So, were are you guys from?" Immediately, Sokka got up and scowled. „Don´t tell them Katara, they´re from the Fire Nation! They probably alerted other troops with the beam of light!" Katara looked at me sceptically but then smiled at Aang. „He can´t be dangerous!" I smiled at her kindly. „I´m not dangerous either." „You´re wearing Fire Nation clothes!" Sokka spat at me, like it was some sort of crime. I groaned. „That´s because I am from tne Fire Nation." The boy gaped at me. „So you admit it!"

I was about to reply when we were interrupted by Katara, apparently trying to calm the situation down. „This idiotic guy is my brother Sokka, and I´m Katara. What´s your name?" she asked Aang and me. „Kalia. You can call me Kia." „I´m A- A- "They flinched just as violently as I did when Aang sneezed loudly and flew three meters into the air, blowing air around the small floe we were on. „I´m Aang," he grinned, sniffing. „You´re an airbender," the girl, Katara, breathed. Aang looked at her questioningly. „So?" The girl opened and closed her mouth for a few seconds, confused, before deciding not to say anything.

Sokka threw his arms up into the air. „A Fire Nation girl, an Airbender, light beams, a flying bison, I´m going home. We need to prepare for an attack." Again, he narrowed his eyes at me, as if I had done something wrong, before turning around and stopping, clenching his fists. The floes connecting the piece of ice we were on to the shore had drifted away and there was just the dark, blue sea in front of him.

„Appa and I can give you a ride." Aang exclaimed excitedly which had me raising my eyebrows at him. Katara looked at me contemplatively for a few seconds before smiling. „Really? Thank you." Sokka spun around hastily. „Katara, no! They are from the Fire Nation! You can´t-" „Do you want to stay here?" she inquired, obviously annoyed. Sokka didn´t seem to know what to reply to that.

In the meantime, Aang had airbended himself on top of Appa´s head and I followed him up. Katara joined us a few seconds later but Sokka was still standing in front of Appa, arms crossed, staring darkly at something in front of him before stomping over to climb up Appa´s tail. Content, Aang grabbed the reins. „Appa, yip yip!"

The bison jumped into the air with a roar before spreading out his six legs and flopping into the water with a splash. I cooed and started petting him „Poor guy. You must be tired." I ignored the Water Tribe´s boy´s eyes staring holes at me from behind. I was pointedly looking out at the sea when I heard Katara´s voice behind me. „Why are you grinning at me like that?" I turned around to see Aang beaming dreamily at her and turned back around, smiling to myself. „Oh god." I heard Sokka groan behind me.

I only realized I had fallen asleep when my eyes snapped open from Appa making impact on the floor. There were children talking and laughing. We must have arrived at their village. I sat up, yawning, and noticed everything go quiet around me. Everyone was staring at me, scared. When I smiled at one of the children, his mother ran to him and pushed him behind her. Questioning, I looked to Katara, who shrugged sheepishly. „We don´t have good experiences with people from the Fire Nation." Yeah, I could imagine that, we weren´t the most pleasant people, but they were terrified. Even Katara, who somewhat seemed to trust me, was still hesitant.

In silence, we walked past the small village now not only staring at me, but Aang too. „I´ll get you a coat." Katara offered me, looking at my top. „Do you want new clothes?" I shook my head and looked over to Aang. „Can you dry me off?" I asked the airbender who looked at me, confused. „Why don´t you-" My dark look cut him off and he quickly blew a gust of air at me. I didn´t want to use Fire Bending in a village where everyone seemed to hate my nation and he seemed to have understood that now, too.

Katara returned with a thick wool coat and I smiled gratefully. Noticing rustling behind me, I saw Aang vanishing into a tent, probably to change. Slowly, more and more peole of the village were assembling in what seemed to be the main part of it. When Aang emerged from the tent, Katara introduced us. „Village, meet Aang and Kalia. Aang and Kalia, meet the village." One old lady, who looked a lot like Katara, thinking about it, looked like Sokka did when he first saw me. „Katara, why have you brought someone from the Fire Nation here?"

In the Fire Nation, we respedcted old people a lot, so I didn´t snap at her. What was their problem? Ever since waking up, I´ve been receiving hate for being from the Fire Nation. „And is that an Airbender?" „Yes, I am," Aang grinned, purposefully taking the attention off me. „For a hundred years, no one´s seen an Airbender. We thought they were all dead." Aang and I furrowed our brows at that. Katara didn´t seem to notice though and introduced the woman as her grandmother. „Just call me Gran-Gran."

Apparently interested in Air Nomad Culture, Sokka grabbed Aang´s glider. „Is that supposed to be a weapon?" Aang took the opportunity to explain and show off his glider. The children loved it and I wanted to show off my Firebending too, children were fascinated by it, but judging from these people´s reactions to me, they would probably be terrified. I just couldn´t think of a reason why.

Longingly watching them, I noticed that the village only consisted of women and children. Almost as if the men had gone somewhere… The only situation that had men leaving their home I could think of was war.

I was snapped out of my thoughts by Aang crashing into Sokka´s watchtower because he was grinning at Katara. What would he need a watchtower for?

Even though I had stayed back, I heard Sokka complain. „Great, you´re an Airbender, Katara´s a waterbender, go and waste your time together." I perked up at that. Sure, we were at the South Pole, there had to be waterbenders, but knowing for a fact that she was one was different. Waterbending was amazing, the way the movements flowed together was beautiful, and I had always wanted to learn some of them.

Now that the children got used to us, Sokka, who seemed to be the oldest male, started getting the boys together in some kind of class. Interested, I sat down on a nearby rock of ice to not scare the children. Sokka seemed to take whatever this was seriously, the children obviously didn´t. One of them raised their hand to go to the toilet. Exasperated, Sokka walked up and down in front of them. „As long as your fathers are fighting in the war, you are the Water Tribe´s men."

Wait, so there was war? How did I not know? Aang didn´t either. I was about to ask, but was interrupted by all the children having to use the toilet. Aang, who had apparently been in the toilet for an hour, started fooling around with them.

Using that chance, I strolled over to Sokka, who immediately tensed. „What war are you talking about?" The boy gaped at me, and then his face darkened. „Are you making fun of us?" he hissed at me. Aang came to my defense. „War? What war?" Ocean blue eyes flicked from me to Aang, now looking put out. „You´re joking, aren`t you?"

„A penguin!" Aang suddenly yelled next to me, before running off after it. Sokka looked to his sister. „They are joking, aren´t they?" Katara looked a bit worried, but then decided to follow Aang. Good, that meant I could question Sokka and there was someone watching the airbender.

„We´re not joking. What kind of war?" He looked at me, now as worried as Katara. „The war that the Fire Nation started a hundred years ago? That has killed hundreds of people? How long have you been in that iceberg?" Realization sank in. „I- I don´t-" was the only thing I got out before a lump formed in my throat. „Probably a hundred years," Sokka continued, deep in thought.

A choked cry escaped me, making Sokka flinch. „Kuzon… oh god… Kuzon." By the sudden cold on my face, I noticed I was crying. The confused Water Tribe boy next to me reached out with a hand before pulling it back. That´s when I broke down on the floor and started sobbing loudly. Deciding to ignore his now explained hate for me, he dropped down next to me and put his hand on my shoulder. It was warm. „Hey… who´s Kuzon?" he asked quietly. There was a pain in my chest at his name. Needing to talk to someone, I got out a blurred „M-my brother" before having to break off again. Sokka seemed to understand though and just sat next to me while I cried for my probably long gone baby brother.

Then there was a loud bang, a firework shot into the sky and everything got worse.