I feel like this episode doesn't get enough love, and something kinda important happens - at the end of the chapter, of course, what do you expect from me - so that's why I decided to do it! :D But it isn't the full episode. Just around the first… quarter (or so) of the episode.

Oh, and I finally got around to watching season 2 of Legend of Korra online. I'm not a huge fan of Korra, (like, I like it but I don't LOVE it) but I do personally like season 2 better than season 1, towards the end - after the whole "Avatar Wan" episodes, 'cause those were AWESOME! The ending of the season was, well… interesting. I hope Korra keeps her new personality in season three, which I'm gonna watch some other time.

Oh, and I DESPISE Eska. Desna is okay, but Eska… ugh.

By the way, about the little Tora/Aang interaction last chapter, that was something I really wanted to do. I realized that they hadn't really talked one-on-one before, so I wanted to do something with them. Whereas Katara acts like a mom to everyone, including Aang and especially Toph, I want Tora to be like the "cool big sister" to the two youngest members of the group (when Toph comes into the story, anyway).

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender or any characters thereof. Nickelodeon, and Mike and Bryan the proud owners of the fantastic show, while I am just a High School student and am writing this for my own amusement. I only own my own characters, and/or any plot twists that are caused because of them.

The Northern Air Temple

"Do you really think we'll find any airbenders?" Katara asked Sokka and I. Her brother was whittling a piece of wood into a shape I couldn't recognize, while I just leaned against the side of the saddle and stared at the sky in boredom.

"Do you want me to tell the truth, or be like you?" Sokka deadpanned.

"Are you implying that I'm a liar?"

"No, I'm just saying that you're an optimist." Sokka shrugged. "Same thing, basically."

Katara glared at her brother for a moment, before turning her eyes to me. Already knowing what she was going to ask, I sighed. "Hey, I'm kinda on Sokka's side on this one." Yeah, it would be great if we saw airbenders - more great for Aang than for us, but still great. But honestly, I highly doubted it. I mean, the guy who claimed to see the "air walkers" was an old guy without any teeth and whose general appearance honestly creeped me out very much.

"Hey, guys!" Aang called from his position on Appa's head. He had practically been bouncing in place ever since we had heard the story from the guy who had told us about the air walkers the night before. "Check this out!" We all went to the front of the saddle and stared at the tall mountain ahead of us in amazement. At the peak was a tall temple, even more glorious than the Southern Air Temple. While the Southern Air Temple had been built into the mountain, the Northern Air Temple was built at the very top, and loomed over us. It looked almost like a castle in some ways, with the tall turrets. With the snow on the ground surrounding the temple, it was a beautiful sight. The only thing that ruined the appearance were the streams of brown smog rising from two of the turrets. But more important than that was the sight of what looked like large birds, flying in circles in the air around the temple. Upon closer inspection, we realized that they were, in fact, gliders.

Katara's eyes seemed to light up in amazement. "Aang! You were right, there really are airbenders!"

"No, they aren't." Aang said bitterly, crossing his arms and looking sullen.

"What are you talking about?" Sokka demanded, gesturing towards the flyers with one hand. "They're flying!"

I tilted my head, frowning slightly. The people were flying, but it looked… somewhat off. I had seen Aang flying before. His flying seemed to be a bit more… I don't know, free. "Gliding, yeah, but not flying." Aang said, glaring. "Real airbenders use their bending to fly. They're just moving along with the wind. Those guys have no spirit."

Right after he said that, a glider swooped down, flying over us and nearly taking our heads off. I heard the pilot of the glider laughing loudly as he flew back up, then circled around and flew right past Appa. We managed to catch a brief glimpse of the kid flying it. It was a boy, maybe around Katara's age or younger, wearing a green tunic and sitting in some sort of chair with wheels, with his legs wrapped up to his knees in bandages. "I don't know, Aang." Katara teased, watching the gliding boy. "He seems pretty spirited!"

Without a word, Aang leapt off of Appa's head, opened up his glider, and flew off towards the other boy. "What are you doing?" I yelled after him, and not getting any response. Then more gliders came flying down beside us. I noticed that none of the other people had chairs; instead they seemed to be harnessed into their gliders with some sort of bar that kept their feet up while they held onto the control bar. Two more gliders flew right past Appa's face, startling him and making him halt in midair for a split second. This, of course, sent both Katara and me flying backwards and crashing into Sokka. "We should find some solid land before it finds us!" Sokka said, looking over the side of the saddle. We spotted a courtyard below us, where people were standing and watching the gliding people above them, and slowly Appa descended into an empty space in the center.

I jumped over the side of the saddle to the ground, landing on both of my feet before running across the courtyard to the barrier that kept anyone from falling over the side and plummeting to their deaths.

"Go, Teo!" Someone next to me yelled. "Show that bald kid how it's done!" I looked up into the sky and watched as Aang and "Teo", as he was apparently called, flew in loops and circles in the sky, competing with each other. Though, considering how abruptly Aang had joined the other boy, I was under the impression that only Aang and the audience members thought it was a serious competition.

The audience members included me. "Go, Aang!" I yelled, swinging my fists around wildly. "Beat him down so badly he can't get back up!"

"While they're flying?" Katara asked dryly as she walked up next to me. "How would that work?"

I simply ignored her.

Within seconds, Aang was flying back to the ground where we were standing, and there was a smoke image of his frowning face in the sky, courtesy of Teo. The kid descended into the courtyard, and his wheelchair skidded across the ground before it came to a squealing halt. A few other kids came and took the glider part of his chair away, and he rolled his chair over to us. As soon as he got closer to Aang, his eyes widened and his grin seemed to split his face in half. "Hey, wait a minute - you're a real airbender!" He paused for a split second, before his grin widened. "Then you must be the Avatar! That's amazing!" He ran a hand through his shaggy hair, eyes almost glowing in amazement. "I-I've heard stories about you!"

Aang looked at the ground modestly, smiling. "Thanks."

Sokka, it seemed, was more impressed by Teo's glider/wheelchair than he was by anything else. Typical. "That glider chair looks awesome!" He said, grinning as two girls brought over the wings for Teo's chair. As Sokka began to inspect the wings, Teo nodded in agreement.

"If you think that's cool, just wait until you see all of the other stuff my dad made." With that, Teo headed for a doorway that led into the temple, with us following. I noticed, with a small frown on my face, that metal pipes lined the hallway we were walking through, heading into the room ahead of us.

When we reached the main chamber, I honestly didn't know what to say.

I couldn't even describe it.

What must have once been beautiful sculptures and statues and an amazing temple, now resembled a piece of machinery. Pipes lined the walls and stuck out of them as well, humongous wheels and gears turned, and the air had the faint scent of smoke.

Sokka ran forward into the room, looking amazed at everything. "Wow!"

Teo nodded proudly, beaming. "My dad's a genius - he recreated this whole place. Everything is powered by hot air, and we can even use it to pump air outside to give us a lift when we're gliding.

"This is… unbelievable." Aang said softly, looking around. I gave him a side glance, and felt a pang in my heart when I saw his stunned, utterly confused expression. I put an arm around his shoulder, in an attempt to give him some comfort, but he only shrugged it off as he approached a faded mural on the wall.

"Isn't it great?" Teo asked, smiling widely.

"I didn't say that. Just that it's unbelievable." Aang stated solemnly, looking up at the mural that had been chipped away with time.

"Aang used to come here a long time ago." Katara explained to Teo, watching the airbender with concerned eyes. "I think he's just a little shocked that it's so different."

"So better!" Sokka exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air in excitement. I shot him a glare and approached him from behind, and once I reached him I pressed down on his skull, pushing him to the floor, completely ignoring his small cries of pain.

"If by 'better', you mean 'completely and utterly ruined', then yes, it is better." I spat, before releasing him.

"Hey, I'm just saying what I think." Sokka brought one hand up to his head, holding it and wincing slightly. "You do that all the time, but I can't? And it isn't 'completely and utterly ruined', it's still standing, isn't it? It just isn't the same as it was a hundred years ago, but we should have expected that!"

I opened my mouth to retort, but found that I couldn't think of anything to say.

~~Water~~

After seeing the mess that had once been – according to Aang – a glorious temple chamber, Teo brought us to a part of the Air Temple that hadn't been destroyed. It was a small temple building, separated from the rest of the main temple, with a courtyard and a few statues of Airbenders along the walls.

"What is this place?" I asked Aang, turning around in a full circle to get a look at everything surrounding me.

"It's the guest rooms for the female airbenders when they came to visit the temple – boys and girls had to be kept separate." Aang explained, smiling as he and Katara looked up at one of the statues. "It's nice to see that some parts of the temple haven't changed." He added.

A moment later, a voice cried, "Look out!" Then, what looked like a boulder wrapped in a green blanket came crashing through the wall, knocking off the head of the statue Katara and Aang had been looking at – and it would have probably killed them if they hadn't fallen backwards fast enough. I let out a screech of rage upon seeing my friends nearly get hit, and as the dust settled, we could all see the people who had caused the destruction. It was a group of about four or five people, most of them men, carrying hammers in their hands and peering through the new hole in the wall. There was a man at the front, and he walked forward, and soon his features became clear. He was a middle-aged man, with patches of hair sticking straight up all around his head, although the top of his head was completely bald.

He blinked upon seeing us. "What the doodle?"

I was unable to stop myself from bursting into laughter at his statement.

"What are you doing in here? This is a construction site!" He continued, wagging his finger in disappointment – that stopped my laughter, and I straightened up and glared at him. "We need to make room for the bathhouse!"

"Do you know what you just did?" Aang yelled, his face nearly going red in fury.

"You nearly killed my friends!" I yelled, storming up to the man and putting my nose right up to his. He looked taken aback by my sudden closeness to him, his eyes going cross-eyed as he stared at me. Upon closer look, I saw that most of his eyebrows were growing in patchy tufts. "How dare you!" I clenched my fists, and I could feel my hands growing hotter as flames flickered across my knuckles.

"Well, to be fair," The man said, leaning back a bit to get away from my face. "Your friends aren't supposed to be here right now, considering this is a construction site."

Just as I opened my mouth to respond, Aang interrupted, joining me at my side and looking furiously into the face of the man. "You just destroyed a sacred building, for some stupid bathhouse!"

The man looked even more taken aback at the sight of two furious faces glaring at him with the exact same expression. "Well, the people here are starting to stink." He said it so seriously that I almost forgot my anger and burst into laughter – almost.

"This whole place stinks!" Aang yelled, before swinging his staff and slamming it against the ground. A gale of air flew out the hole in the wall, sending the wrecking ball and an odd looking wooden contraption that was holding it up flying off the edge of the cliff. "This is a sacred temple!" Aang continued to yell, pointing furiously towards the man. "How dare you treat it this way? I've seen it when the monks were here, and this isn't what it's supposed to look like!"

I couldn't help but stare at Aang with a slight bit of shock. This was probably the angriest I had ever seen him when he wasn't in the Avatar State. Honestly, it was a little shocking. And judging from the others expressions, they were thinking the same thing. Although, since Teo had just met Aang, this was and most likely would be the angriest he had ever seen Aang.

"The monks?" The man repeated, now looking utterly confused. "But you're only twelve!"

"Dad!" Teo said, sounding mildly embarrassed though he was smiling, as he rolled up to the man's side. "He's the Avatar! He used to come here a hundred years ago!"

"Who are you?" Aang demanded. "Who gave you permission to be here?!"

The man – Teo's dad, as he apparently was – turned his back to us, looking lost in thought. "Who gave us permission…? Well, a long time ago – not a hundred years, mind you – we became refugees after a terrible flood." He put his hand on Teo's shoulder, sighing. Teo looked down sadly. "My infant son, Teo, was injured, and we lost his mother." He wiped a tear from his eye, sniffling, before he continued. I bit down on my lip, my expression becoming softer, though not entirely. I was still a little sore from the near-death experience (though you'd think I'd be used to those by now). "I needed a place to call home, and then, low and behold!" He spread his arms widely, gesturing to our surroundings. "I discovered this place! It was unbelievable! Pictures of flying people, but the entire place was completely empty! No other humans to be found! And then I stumbled across these fan-like contraptions-"

"Our gliders." Aang said. It wasn't a question.

"Exactly!" The man pointed to Aang, a smile lighting up his face. "Little flying machines, and they gave me an idea! To build a new life for Teo, and the rest of the refugees, in the air, so everyone could be on common ground – so to speak. All we're doing is improving what's already here, and isn't that what nature does, after all?"

I bit down on my lip, rubbing away tears with the sleeve of my dark blue parka. It wasn't exactly one of the saddest stories I had ever heard, but the emotion in the man's (I made the mental decision to call him "the Inventor" from then on) voice as he told us his story brought me to tears – though I wouldn't admit it. And apparently, Sokka and Katara were clearly both in agreement with me on that, because Katara was wiping her eyes on Aang's orange shawl while Sokka looked to the side and lifted his head up, fighting back tears. Aang's eyebrow was raised a bit, and somehow he managed to look impressed and unimpressed at the same time. "Nature knows when to stop." He stated solemnly.

The Inventor nodded a bit, looking down sadly. "Yes, I suppose it does. However, progress often finds a way to fall out of our control." He looked back up, and his eyes went wide. "Oh! Look at the time." We looked to the side, and saw a stone pedestal, with three candles sitting on it. From where we were standing, I could see odd little markings on the candles. "The pulley system has to be oiled before dark, we should hurry."

"Wait," Sokka interrupted, approaching the candles. "How can you tell what time it is? The candles all look the same to me."

The Inventor moved to stand next to Sokka, pointing at the candle. "The candle will tell us. Watch." Sokka leaned closer to the candle, and after a moment, the flame sparked four times.

"Oh, you put spark powder in the candles!" Sokka said in realization.

The Inventor nodded. "One flash means one hour, so four flashes means its four hours past midday. Or as I like to call it, four o'candle!"

"Mechanist!" A female voice suddenly called out. We turned and saw a tall woman waving one hand as she ran through the archway into the chamber. Her skin was dark, but lighter than Katara or Sokka's was, and she had short, black hair that was choppy and had uneven lengths, with little braids tied in different sections of her hair. She wore a dark green dress with a high collar, and a lime green-coloured cloth belt around her midsection, and thick white pants underneath. My eyes went wide as the woman suddenly tripped and landed on her face.

"Is she okay?" Katara asked, frowning a bit.

Teo chuckled. "She's fine. Miyabi's always doing that. She's a little… uh…" He paused, scratching the back of his head.

"Scatterbrained?" I deadpanned.

"Yeah."

Meanwhile, the Inventor (who this Miyabi person was calling 'Mechanist', but I liked my name for him better) was looking at Miyabi as she got back to her feet. "Are you alright, Miyabi?"

"Fine!" She said cheerfully, before bounding over to us. I noticed she looked young, but older than her teen years – maybe around twenty five or so. "Mechanist, it's four in the afternoon, and the pulley system has to be oiled." She stated, looking rather concerned for some reason.

"Yes, Miyabi, I know." The Inventor chuckled. He then turned back to Sokka. "If you liked the candles, then you'll really like my finger safe knife sharpener." He held up his left hand – which had three wooden pegs where the three fingers that weren't his thumb or pointer finger should have been. "Only took me three tries to get it right." He stated, detaching the fake fingers and tossing them to Sokka, who let out a yelp as he caught them. "Follow me!" With that, Sokka followed the Inventor, and soon they were out of our view.

Miyabi waved after them, calling, "Have fun!" Once they had gone, she dropped her hand, and turned towards us. She blinked in surprise – I noticed she had brown eyes – when she saw us. "Oh! Who are you?"

Teo rolled forward, gesturing to each of us. "Miyabi, this is Aang, Katara, and Tora. Guys, this is Miyabi. She came here with her daughter about two months ago. Miyabi," Teo gestured from the woman to Aang. "This is Aang, the Avatar."

Miyabi's eyes grew wide, and she gasped. "Really? The Avatar? I've heard all about you in stories, and I've heard about you from letters from my Auntie Ajula!" Wait, where have I heard that name before…?

"Haru's mother?" Katara asked, eyes widening. Oh. That's where. "So that makes you-"

"Actually, it's highly unlikely that she's talking about the same Ajula, so-" I began.

"You know my cousin!"

"Never mind."

"My aunt told me you saved my cousin and my uncle and their entire town from the Fire Nation." She said, smiling and taking Aang's hands in her own. "Thank you!"

"Oh, it wasn't a problem – I mean, it was a team effort and all." Aang said modestly.

"And Haru wrote to me about you, Katara, the waterbender who got herself sent to prison just to help his village! You wouldn't believe how much he raved about you! He said you were amazing!" Miyabi added, turning to Katara – who had blushed a bit when Miyabi had mentioned Haru thought she was amazing - and hugging her. The waterbender blinked, looking a little startled, before patting the older woman awkwardly on the back.

When Miyabi pulled away from her, she turned to me. I stared blankly at her, waiting for her to say something. "And, I heard from my Aunt about you as well, Tora of the Fire Nation." Miyabi said with a wry grin. I gave Teo a side-glance when Miyabi said 'Fire Nation', expecting to get a reaction out of him. I was surprised when he merely smiled at me. "She and Haru both wrote that they were surprised someone from the Fire Nation was on their side, but they accepted it quickly, and my uncle said that you helped get the village out of prison!"

"Well, yeah. I didn't really… do anything… it was mostly Katara." I said, shrugging.

"Well, however much you helped, I'm thankful to you all." Miyabi said, clasping her hands over her chest. I honestly wasn't sure what to make of her. She seemed very… cheerful. Almost like Amaya in a way. And also sort of… what's the word I'm looking for? I'm not sure exactly.

"Hey, I just remembered something." Teo said suddenly, bringing our attention to him. He looked at Aang and smiled. "Aang, I want to show you something. See you later, Miyabi!" He called over his shoulder as he started wheeling away from the woman. Katara and Aang followed the paralyzed boy, and I moved to follow them, when I felt a hand on my shoulder, stopping me. I turned around and saw Miyabi staring at me, smiling sweetly.

"Would you mind coming with me, please?" She asked, tilting her head slightly as she watched me.

Every particle in my body was screaming for me to run – something about her expression and question mixed together screamed "psychopath" to me.

It must have showed on my face, because Miyabi's expression suddenly became desperate. "Please – please! I need your help!"

I had just met her. I had no reason to believe that she didn't want to hurt me.

So saying "Alright" and following her out of the chamber may not have been the smartest thing to do. What could I say? Something about her made me feel that I could trust her.

And even if she ended up attacking me or something, it wasn't like I couldn't take her on. Because I could.

I followed Miyabi across the bridge from the air chamber to the temple holding the mountain. Miyabi's steps were quick and light, almost like a fairy or something, and I noticed she had a habit of occasionally tripping a bit over her own feet. She also seemed to bounce a bit with each step.

"I didn't know who else to turn to."

I nearly jumped when Miyabi suddenly spoke.

"If I hadn't heard the rumors about you, I don't know what I would have done." She continued, beginning to walk a little faster, lowering her voice a bit as we entered the Air Temple. It didn't make sense to me that she would lower her voice, considering most people were outside, and the machinery in the rooms made it hard for me to hear people talking at normal volume.

"Rumors…?" I repeated, frowning.

"Yes. I don't know why I believed them, but I really hope they're true. Nobody else would understand…" Her voice softened slightly towards the end, and she stopped in her tracks for a moment, looking down at the ground. But then she looked back up and continued walking, with me following her.

"What rumors?" I demanded.

"Rumors that say you can bend two elements." Miyabi said, way too casually for my liking.

I choked on my own spit, and, as a result, starting coughing. Miyabi turned around quickly, looking panicked. "Ah! Are you alright? I'm sorry! Did I say it too casually? I should have said it less bluntly! I'm sorry!"

I managed to stop coughing after about a minute, during which I was bent over at the waist, one hand on one of my knees while I waved the other hand at her furiously, keeping her from coming over and trying to whack me on the back or something. I straightened up, coughing a bit into my fist, before tossing my head and sending some pieces of hair out of my face. "T-there are rumors about me?"

Miyabi nodded, still looking worried. "How did they get started?!" I didn't understand it! I couldn't remember ever bending two elements in public! Who could have seen me? How did those rumors get started?!

"I don't know!" Miyabi said, raising her hands to show innocence. "I just heard them, I don't know how they got started!"

"Well, whatever! I don't care, too late now isn't it?" I stuffed my hands into my pockets, balling them into fists, trying to act like I wasn't upset about it and failing miserably. Maybe Kyoshi Island…? No, they aren't a part of the war, and I don't think they'd give information about someone who was helping the Avatar…

Miyabi still looked worried, but she nodded, grabbed my shoulder and started pulling me along. "Anyway, I believed the rumors about you. And well," she chuckled a bit. "I'm glad you're here, honestly, because I don't have any idea what to do about Ela."

"…Ela?"

"My daughter."

I already knew she had a daughter, because Teo had mentioned it, but still – she looked so young! And she already had a daughter!

"She's six years old." Miyabi continued. "Her father – my husband – died in a mudslide before she was born."

"Oh. I – uh – I'm sorry."

"Oh, it's alright." She waved my condolences away with her hand. "It's been a few years. I still miss him, of course, but – well." She shrugged. "Raising Ela helped me move past it. Her father was an earthbender, you know, a very good one at that, too. So I wasn't really surprised when Ela started earthbending around the time she turned four."

"Uh-"

"And then just around two and a half months ago, this storyteller came to town. She was a great woman, entertained the kids, wore a bunch of masks when she was telling her stories too so they wouldn't get distracted, and I liked talking to her, and during one of our chats I said I was thinking about moving on from our town but I didn't know where to go, and she mentioned the Northern Air Temple and told me a story about the so-called air walkers, so I decided to see it for myself – I travelled for days to get up here, but it was worth it." Miyabi gestured to our surroundings, a smile growing on her face. "Ela loves it here, and she loves playing with the other kids to – she loves to fly."

"Excuse me," I interrupted, finally getting to say something between her long, unpausing story. "But what was the point of travelling here if you didn't know for sure anyone was up here?"

"The point was the journey, not what was waiting for me." She stated solemnly, nodding her head a bit as she closed her eyes. "If there hadn't been anyone here, I would have travelled somewhere else.

"Why would you want to leave your village willingly?" I couldn't help but ask. It didn't make sense to me. I had never left any of the places I lived willingly. I had been forced out of the Fire Nation, then captured by Zuko in the Water Tribe and taken hostage, then just decided to join Aang and Katara and Sokka on our journey. Never had I had any say in whether I left my homes or not.

Miyabi smiled at me. "Because I had grown tired of my village. It was an alright place, and I had lived there my entire life, but when you live somewhere your entire life and never go anywhere else…" She trailed off a bit, her eyes growing distant. "Well, it gets a bit boring. I enjoyed the journey. I got to see things I never would have been able to see otherwise."

I bit down on my lip, chewing it absentmindedly. Okay. So maybe she had a point. I mean, yes, because I had been forced to leave the places I lived, I had seen more of the world than I would have if I had stayed there. Had I stayed in the Fire Nation – and hadn't been captured by the Fire Lord and forced to become a human weapon – I most likely would have spent my life in my father's mansion, before inheriting the mansion and everything else, and never have left my town. Had I stayed in the Water Tribe – assuming Katara and Sokka never found Aang, and therefore Zuko would have never come to our village to take us away – I would have spent the rest of my life on a block of ice until the Fire Nation either won the war or the Tribe wasted away to nothing.

One of the worst events of my life had opened me up to the world.

~~Water~~

Miyabi had one hand holding onto the curtain that was keeping us in the hallway, just a few steps away from entering her and her daughter's living quarters.

"Can you hurry up?" I couldn't stop myself from asking. "I kinda want to get back to my friends." I knew it sounded rude, but I couldn't help the tone it came out in.

Miyabi shot me a small, nervous smile. "Look, before we go in, you have to understand something."

"Yeah, what is it?" I was growing slightly impatient.

"I already said that Ela started earthbending when she was four, right?"

"Yes, you did."

"Well," She began to twirl some hair around her finger, looking nervous. "A few weeks ago, something… odd happened."

"What do you mean by odd?"

"Luckily everyone just assumed that it was an accident caused by the Mechanist. He's the only one who knows about this, and he never said otherwise. Great man, he is." Miyabi continued, ignoring me.

"What do you mean by odd?"

"So you shouldn't tell anyone what happens in the next twenty minutes or so."

"What do you mean by odd?"

"But," She grabbed my hands with her own and held them tightly, staring directly into my golden eyes. "You are the only one who can possibly understand why Ela can do what she does. So if you can help us both in any way, I would be grateful to you for the rest of my life."

I opened my mouth, ready to ask her what she meant by 'odd' for the fourth time, before she pulled open the curtain. "MOMMY!" A high pitched shriek reached my ears, and I fought the urge to clamp my hands over my ears to protect them from any other noises. Before I could even blink, a blur of green fabric flew out of the room and crashed into Miyabi's legs. Impulsively, I raised my fists, already covered in fire. Then I blinked.

Clinging to Miyabi's legs was a girl whose head probably reached my waist. She was dressed in a short green tunic with long sleeves. Dark brown hair was held back in twin buns at the top of her head, big brown eyes, and lightly tanned skin. She was looking up at Miyabi with the most adoring expression I had seen in months, ever since I had left Lili back in the Southern Water Tribe. That girl had always looked at Katara, Sokka and me as if we had hung the moon. Maybe it was because we were all teenagers and therefore 'cool', or because we were the closest things she and the other children had to big siblings, but either way, she had adored all of us. All of the kids adored us. Sokka had been like a dad to them all, or an older brother or something, Katara like a big sister or a second mom, and me – well, I don't know how they saw me, but Katara had said that they thought of me as a 'cool big sister' or something along those lines. I don't know if I believed her, but, well – she was Katara. Katara doesn't lie. Usually. Most of the time.

"Ela!" Miyabi exclaimed, leaning down and hugging the girl.

"Oh, this is-" I pointed from Miyabi to the girl. "Your-"

"My name's Ela!" She announced proudly, smiling up at me. "I'm five and a half!" She showed me with her hands how old she was, showing me five fingers on her right hand.

"Hi, my name's Tora." I said, leaning down at the waist and putting my hands against my knees. "I'm fifteen."

Ela paused, thinking. "That's… nine and a half years away from five?"

I paused, frowning. "I think. I'm not good with numbers." Words and fighting, yes. Numbers, no.

"Ela, this is Tora." Miyabi said, gesturing to me. "She's going to help us with your bending."

"Uh, sorry?" I laughed a bit. "I'm not an earthbender. Just fire and water."

"You're a firebender?" Ela asked, eyes practically shining.

"Ela, show Tora what you can do." Miyabi said, crouching down and putting her hands on her daughters shoulder.

Ela nodded, before getting into – what I assumed to be – an earthbending position, with her fists out, one foot ahead of the other. She lifted her fists, and a small chunk of rock rose from the ground and started rotating around her right fists. Then, still smiling, she lifted her left hand.

I stared, wide-eyed, as flames flickered across the palm of the little girl's hand.

Bet you thought I wouldn't mention it, huh? But I am! I have officially gotten 200 reviews on this story! 207 reviews if you want to get technical, and that's even better! :D Anyway, Thank you, all my lovely reviewers! You're all wonderful! And I mean that!

You know, I once read somewhere that, to avoid making your Avatar OC a Mary-Sue, if she has like, golden eyes (Fire Nation/Firebender) or grey eyes (Air Nomads/Airbender), you have to make sure you DON'T say her eyes are golden or silver, respectively. That doesn't make any sense to me. It's being descriptive, there's a difference between being descriptive and being over-the-top, which apparently "Silver/gold eyes" is.

Oh, right, I was going to tell you guys this but then I forgot, so I'll tell you now: Just because Tora thinks something is true, doesn't mean it actually is. I know most of you guys probably know this already, but I thought I'd say it anyway, in case there were people who hadn't realized it yet. ^^; She isn't right all the time.

And also, if you've noticed how sometimes I write in a fear of Tora's or a thought that seems out of character for her or something she's never mentioned before, it's because fears and weaknesses aren't something we think of all the time. They aren't on our mind constantly. Sure, they're in the back of our thoughts, and they're always there, but they aren't going to be the focus of your thoughts 100% of the time.

Does that make me fail as an author for lacking in my character's thought process? Perhaps. But it's how I write – for Tora, anyway. As I said before, my writing for Tora is different from how I normally write, and I can't really explain why. Maybe the next book will be better written? Because I have grown as a writer since starting this, even if it isn't obvious in my writing.

Last note: While I mostly want to keep to the original plotline of the show (as much as I can, with another character changing some things) part of me wants to make Taang happen instead of Kataang, but at the same time I want to stay with Kataang. Oh, well. I still have a lot of time before Toph shows up, so I think I'll be able to figure it out by then. If anyone has any strong opinions on the pairing of Canon characters in this story, not involving Tora or any other OC, don't be afraid to tell me 'cause I'm open to suggestions and opinions. :)