Chapter 5: The Hunt Begins

Hey guys! I just wanted to say sorry for taking so long to update. I've been struggling with heavy writer's block, but hopefully I've gotten over that now. Anyway, I also just wanted to say thank you guys for all the reviews and support you give me. I really appreciate it. Well, I guess I've kept you guys waiting long enough, so here's the next chapter!

Quick responses to reviews:

TheRaccoon13: Yeah, it's turning out a little better than I had thought it would. Well yeah it's goofy, the entire show is goofy! Besides, the right kind of goofy is what I try to aim for. Hopefully I'm making it that way for you guys.

Darth Gojira: Well, I'm glad to hear it helps you out. Let me know if you have any questions, I might be able to help you out.

TheWirlyDirly: Well, I'm glad that you like him as a pirate so much. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do it the right way when I started this, but I hope I am.

Benoc2004: You know it. ;)

AnonymousKataang: Maybe not her as a pirate, but she may be involved in the story later. I haven't decided just yet.

Boscos-Hat: Well, I'm glad to hear that you're really enjoying it. And thanks, I'm glad that I'm not messing up the action. I always feel like I messed up something when I write the action parts of it. Yeah, I know, that's one of the reservations I had with writing this story, but I can see her doing it if it's in the name of her family and for the world. And I agree, I believe Aang would have to rationalize it to himself.

UGudBroXD: Sorry, mate. I've got a bad habit of cliffhangers. And I could, but I'm not sure if I'm going to if I'm being honest. I have this specific vision in my mind of how they get together, and her hearing it too soon wouldn't quite make it be like how I'm envisioning it. If I didn't have a specific thought of how I wanted them to get together, I totally would, so I'm sorry.

Javier: Man, it's been a while since I've heard from you. Still drowning in calculus?

Stegz: I don't want to give anything away, so I'll just let it be said that he may or may not. We'll just have to see.

JustAReader1418: Yeah, I hadn't thought about it much either until I read "Bad People" by Lyralocke, which was part of the reason I decided to write this story. Thanks!

Kataangforever: ;)

Atlaty: Thanks! Glad to hear that you liked it. And yeah, it's pretty fun to write Katara as a badass, especially since I consider her to be one in the canon series, too.

Kataanglover2008: Awesome! I love to hear that even people who don't like pirates are liking my story. Thanks for reading.

Flip the Pancakes: Hey, long time no see. Yeah, I played Skate 3 a lot when I was a kid. It was a fun game.

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.


Katara could only blink in surprise as she continued looking between the hand that was being offered to her and the warm smile on the young man in front of her. Sure, she had learned enough about Aang to know by now that he was more than capable of surprises, but this was… shocking.

It had been obvious since the beginning that he had found her attractive. After all, he had admitted to it with no reservations, so she supposed that this shouldn't be so surprising to her. Yet she still couldn't help but stare almost dumbfoundedly at him as his hand was still raised out to her. One of the last things she had expected him to do was this.

She chided herself as her heart started beating hopefully as to what this might mean. Just because he felt an attraction to her didn't mean that he actually felt that way about her. He probably thought that this would just be something fun for them to do. Of course he didn't think of her in that way. Why would he? Beauty aside, she didn't feel as if she had a lot to offer. She was just some girl who found herself on a mission to avenge her parents deaths. She was nothing special. What could she possibly offer?

As hard as she was trying, she couldn't deny that her heart was filled with hope and excitement as she looked up into his eyes, seeing a playful yet caring light in his that she found herself getting lost in. It was ridiculous, she knew, but she couldn't help it. Why would Aang ask her to dance? There were plenty of other female pirates he could have asked, but he asked her instead. Did that mean that he…

"Katara?"

Snapping out of her thoughts, her eyes widened and a large blush colored her cheeks as she realized that she had likely just been staring at him for longer than she should have. Clearing her throat awkwardly, she shook herself out of her daze and somewhat nervously replied. "Yeah?"

Amusement danced in the young airbender's eyes as he noticed this, though he did not know why she was nervous, and decided to ignore it. "I asked if you wanted to dance," he said simply, his warm smile never faltering as Katara forced herself to gain her composure.

It took her a moment to fully regain herself, and even when she did, she could still feel her nerves and excitement get to her when she finally replied. "Oh, I don't know… These shoes aren't really right for dancing," she attempted to sound convincing, her nervousness making her poor excuse even worse as she started fiddling with her hair. "And I-I'm not sure I know how to-"

"Take my hand," Aang politely demanded, his smile never faltering as she looked up at him with nervousness plain on her face, but his heart leapt when a smile slowly found its way onto her face.

"Okay," she finally replied with just as warm a smile as she took his hand, her smile growing more than she had thought possible as he dragged her out to the middle of the room where others had already started dancing, unable to hide the excitement and happiness that she knew was on her face.

This was surprising for her, as she never in a million years would have imagined anyone making her feel this way, and yet here she was. Being dragged by a rather handsome and fun young man who she admired, despite the little time they had known each other. But, as much as she would like to, she couldn't deny that she was happy and excited that he had asked her to dance. Not that she would ever admit it out loud, of course.

Finally reaching an open spot for them, Aang turned around to look at her and leaned in to whisper in her ear, sending some not unpleasant shivers down her spine as she felt his warm breath on her neck. "Just follow my lead," his soft voice whispered to her, making her smile and nod as she waited to see what he would do.

She became a bit puzzled as she saw him extend a hand out to her, but after realizing that she was supposed to follow his lead, she did the same and crossed her forearm over his, waiting to see what they would do next.

Knowing that she was supposed to be copying him and seeing him start walking in a circle towards her as if they were sparring, she did the same and kept up with him, turning halfway through and switching directions as they did so. She didn't know how she knew what to do, but she supposed all she had to do was trust Aang. Something that she found incredibly easy to do despite the little time they had spent together.

After a few moments of some added moves that she somehow managed to pick up on, she couldn't help but notice that the crew's attention were all on them, making her a bit nervous. This didn't make any sense to her, however, as she lead them everyday. But this was different. This was more personal. And it made her feel more nervous as they watched their every move.

"Aang," she whispered to him, though she wasn't completely sure why. "Everybody's watching."

To her great annoyance, a wink and a look she didn't recognize coming from him turned her cheeks scarlett as he whispered back to her. "Don't worry about them, lass. It's just you and me right now."

Wishing she could keep the blush away, but also being completely unable to hold back the ever growing smile on her face, she finally gave him a rather sultry look right back at him, enjoying the music and being this close to him as she did so.

The music picked up and so did their dance as Aang took her hand and the two took step forward without letting go of the other's hand before taking a step back. As Katara waited to see what they would do next, she somehow knew exactly what he was going to do and ducked a kick that went above her head and twisted around to catch Aang's hand that was ready for her. Pulling her behind his back, he tried his best to keep up with her as she spun around a few times before they both almost launched themselves at each other, stopping with just a few inches of space separating them. Though neither of them could keep a smile off their faces as they did so before pulling apart, and they certainly couldn't stop themselves from wishing they could have closed the little distance that had been between them, either.

Now knowing what to do with absolutely no instruction, she aimed a swift kick over his head as he ducked and did a sideways somersault as Aang did the same, making the crowd around them erupt in a chorus of "ooh's" and "ah's". She really didn't know how she managed to do the more fancy moves she had done, but somehow she and Aang had done some moves that had shown just how flexible they were, amazing the crew around them more than they had once thought possible.

Getting ready for the grand finale, the two did one more somersault and ended on their feet, Katara doing a few backwards flips as Aang spun until their hands met and he brought her into a dip, hearing the wild cheers of the crew around them as they panted heavily and stared into each other's eyes, both of them finding that they didn't want to look away for anything.

But, after a few moments of just staring at each other, Aang seemed to remember himself and cleared his throat awkwardly as he brought her back up to a standing position. "Well, that wasn't so bad, was it?" he chuckled, making Katara laugh as she shook her head.

"No, it wasn't bad at all. Actually, it was really fun," she told him with a smile, leaning in to give him a kiss on the cheek that immediately made his face tinge red, her smile never faltering as she noticed this. "Thanks for the dance, Aang."

It took him a few moments to snap out of the daze she had left him in, but when he finally did, he smiled back at her. "Well, it takes two to dance. Thanks for dancing with me." After a few more moments of the two staring into each other's eyes, Aang once again reminded himself of what he knew could never happen and awkwardly cleared his throat once more. "Well, I think I should go see if Sokka's still alive or not," he joked as he pointed to a passed out Sokka who was currently slumped against a table.

"Aye, that'd be a good idea," Katara smiled sadly as she noticed that he seemed to be anxious to get away from her. "If he's still alive, dump some cold water on him for me."

At this, he just laughed. A pure, honest laugh that made Katara's heart start racing as it drifted through her ears straight down to her heart. "You got it, mate," he promised with a smirk and a nod before he made his way over to his drunken friend, leaving Katara standing there with a mix of emotions on her face.

"Well, doesn't someone look all mangled up?" a teasing chuckle came from behind her, making her instantly turn around to find that Toph had a mischievous look on her face. "Why do you look like someone just smacked you and ran off before you could figure out what happened? Did the new guy mess you up that badly?"

"Toph!" she hissed as she grabbed her friend's arm and started walking out of the room, looking around frantically along the way to make sure that no one, more importantly Aang, had heard her. Marching her out of the room, she looked back to ensure that they were truly alone and turned back to glare at her friend.

"What a great idea, Toph!" she exclaimed sarcastically. "Talk about my feelings when the guy I like is five feet away. Just great."

To her annoyance, Toph just laughed her worries off. "Oh please, Sugar Queen. That boy wouldn't know how you felt for him if you went right up to him and tried to suck him off." Katara looked utterly confused for a moment, but then blushed as she realized what she meant before opting to glare at her friend once more. "Oh, relax. I'm just kidding. Yeesh, it's like I'm the only one on the ship who has a funny bone." She looked up thoughtfully at the ceiling. "Well, except for the part about him being oblivious. That part is true."

"How do you know?" Katara asked with a raised brow as she decided to ignore her friend's crude comment from before altogether. "Are you an expert on boys or something?"

"No," Toph chuckled with a shrug. "But what I do know is that you've practically melted into a puddle whenever he smiles at you and he somehow still hasn't noticed." Katara couldn't hold back another blush as she realized that Toph was right. Everytime he had smiled at her, her knees had grown weak and her heart had started racing, as ridiculous as it seemed. "If he hasn't noticed that, he's probably not going to notice anything."

Katara remained thoughtfully silent for a few moments. Of course, this was good so that he didn't know about her feelings before she was ready to tell him, but it was also bad because it meant that he had no inkling of an idea how she felt for him, meaning that it would be harder for her to tell him if she ever got around to it.

But, although she wasn't sure what to make of this, she decided that for the moment it didn't matter. She wouldn't tell him how she felt until she knew for sure that he felt the same, so his obliviousness would work out in her favor for now. If she ever found out that he did feel the same, then she would cross that bridge when she got to it.

"Aye, you're right," she finally spoke aloud as she finished her inner musings. "For now, it's best that he stays that way. I don't want him to know until I know for sure how he feels about me." She looked at her friend with a raised brow. "Do you know how he feels for me?"

"Duh," Toph smirked as she blew her bangs out of her eyes, putting up a hand as she saw Katara about to open her mouth to speak, but Toph just shook her head. "I'm not telling you, Sugar Queen."

"Why not?" Katara surprised herself as a bit of whine escaped her lips, annoying her that one guy could make her act like this.

"Because it's fun," Toph's smirk grew as she cracked her knuckles. "Sorry, but you'll have to figure it out yourself. Now, if you'll excuse me, Sokka owes me money." Katara could only watch her friend go back inside the crew mess in disbelief as she struggled greatly to not let her irritation get the best of her.

Taking a deep breath, she decided to just let her irritation go. She knew her friend enough to know that no amount of complaining would help her, and it just might end up with Toph telling Aang how she felt. So, knowing that there was nothing that she could do at the moment, she decided that going back to the party would not be in her best interest. Instead, she decided to go back to her room, seeing as that she needed some time to think to herself.

Walking into her room and locking the door behind her, she took a look around the room and saw that it was dark. The young waterbender walked over to desk and pulled out some matches that she kept on her, making sure that it was lit as she then moved over to the lanterns in her room and lighting them, creating enough light for her to be able to see. Sighing a little as she moved her way over to her hammock, she reached inside the pocket of her dress and brought out her most treasured possession: Her mother's necklace.

She had used to wear it around her neck, but during one battle against some fellow pirates, one of them had actually managed to nick her, which had in turn cut her necklace off. This had made her quite angry, and that pirate had paid for his mistake with his life, but she felt content that she had managed to save it before it had been broken.

It was the only thing she had left of her family. Her parents had been killed, and her Gran-Gran had died just before they had left. The only family she had now was her brother. And though Sokka was mostly a good brother, she still found herself missing her family.

Especially right now, with her not knowing what to do about Aang. She had never imagined that someone would come and make her be like this, but although it didn't make any sense to her, she knew it to be true. Aang had come into her life, and despite knowing him for very little time, she knew that she couldn't deny that she felt something for him that she had never felt for anyone else before.

And right now she wished her mother could be there to help her figure out what to do. Her mother had always known what to do. She was always so thoughtful and considerate, and had always known what to do. If anyone could help Katara right now, it would be her mother.

But, knowing that her mother couldn't help her, she decided that she would have to figure this one out on her own. Sokka would be of no help, especially considering that it would be completely awkward to talk to him about her feelings for the man Sokka once hated. Toph certainly was out of the question, and of course Zuko and Mai would not be ideal candidates in that respect, either.

Iroh. Her eyes blinked in surprise as she realized that she hadn't even thought about him being able to help her. Of course, the old, wise man who likely knew all about life and how to get through it. He would know what to do.

Despite this new hope in her, she mentally scolded herself. She had a mission to accomplish, after all. Her number one focus shouldn't be on this, anyway. She owed it to her parents and to all the other families who would benefit from her work to stay focused on her task.

Still though, she couldn't help but wish she could at least have an idea of whether Aang felt the same or not. At times, it had seemed like he might, but then he had pulled away and grown distant, confusing her to no end on what was going through his mind. It especially irritated her because she felt like she could read people quite easily, but from Aang, she could get absolutely nothing.

Sighing in defeat, the young waterbender stripped out of her corset and kept her undergarments on, making sure to turn out the lights before she climbed into her hammock and let the soothing sounds of the waves lull her to sleep.


The next day, Katara woke to the sounds of the crew up and early, making her surprised. When Sokka had been Quartermaster, no one had been forced to get up until at least nine in the morning. Judging from how the sun was just barely over the horizon that she could see from her window, it had to be pretty early in the morning.

Groaning a little as she felt her tiredness wash over her, she rolled over and tried to get some more rest, but was dismayed to find that the talking was only growing louder, making her sigh in disappointment as she knew that she wasn't going to be able to get more rest.

Deciding that it wouldn't do her any good to just keep laying there, she swung her legs over the hammock and stood up, stretching while letting out a long yawn. It had been so long since she had gotten up this early, she wasn't even sure what she should do.

But, after deciding that she was curious to see why everyone was up so early, the young waterbender got dressed and made sure that she had her sword with her before opening the doors, her hand instantly covering her eyes as a bright beam of sunlight shone directly on her.

"Good morning, Captain!," a familiar voice called to her as they came walking up to the disgruntled captain who was still too tired to recognize who the familiar voice belonged to. "Beautiful day, isn't it?"

"Why is everyone up so early?" Katara asked with another yawn as she tried to see who she was talking to, but her droopy eyes and the sunlight coming down on her still prevented her from being able to see whoever it was.

"Oh, sorry about that," the voice turned sheepish as the figure rubbed its neck. "I forgot that you lot don't do everything that I did when I was captain. I've always been a bit of an early riser." A laugh escaped his lips as he looked at her. "It looks like someone slept well last night."

Confusion overtook her still tired mind as she wondered what he was talking about until she reached her hand up to her head to feel her disheveled hair. This created a problem, however, as her now uncovered eyes allowed her to see none other than the young man she liked standing in front of her with an amused look on his face. Feeling panic and dread start to fill her, the waterbender became very quickly self-conscious and barely held back a squeal of surprise that threatened to escape her mouth. Instead, she laughed nervously and held up a finger for a moment before running back into her room, closing the doors behind her and locking them to make sure that he didn't come following in after her.

She felt absolutely ridiculous acting like this, but she just couldn't help it. For now, she had no idea how he felt for her and the last thing she needed was for him to see her like this. Though she couldn't help but be a bit irritated with herself, as she had never been like this with anyone else. It was completely irrational and stupid, she knew, but she just couldn't help it. She wanted Aang to like her, no matter how much she felt like she was degrading herself by worrying over how she looked while he was around.

Taking a deep, calming breath, she decided to shut these thoughts out and to focus on what she needed to do. Walking back over to her desk, she pulled open one of the drawers in the desk that she had gotten from the first pirate ship she had taken down and rummaged around through it, trying to find the one thing that could help her in this situation.

After a few moments of searching, a wide smile spread across her face as she pulled out a dark blue comb and admired it in the light. It had been a gift from a friend of her Gran-Gran's who was named Hama. She was a kind old lady, and had been like a second grandma to Katara, but she had died around the same time that her Gran-Gran had. And though she hadn't had much use for it before, it appeared that it would come in handy now.

Knowing that she shouldn't waste too much time, she immediately set to work on her tangled up hair and started getting through the many knots she had somehow managed to get over the night. This hurt quite a bit, but she was determined to see it through. After a minute or two of quick brushing, she took some water out of a nearby plant and made an ice mirror so she could check her work. Once she was finally satisfied, she returned the water to the plant and put the comb away once again, taking a steady breath so that she could be calm when she talked to him again.

Now ready to talk to her Quartermaster again, she put on her confident face and walked back out, being somewhat surprised to see that Aang had actually waited. She couldn't deny that this made her happy. Not only because it meant he was good at taking orders, but because he seemed to want to talk to her more.

"Sorry about that," she apologized sheepishly as she closed the door behind her. "I… forgot something in there."

Aang, having noticed that her hair was now groomed and not understanding why she seemed to be hiding something, decided to shrug it off as he gave her a smile. "No problem at all, captain. Sorry I woke you up so early. I had just meant to get the crew going. I was hoping we wouldn't wake you up."

"Oh, it's fine," she assured him, even if she still wished she could have gotten more sleep. "I'm just not used to it yet. Did you have trouble getting Sokka up?"

At this, the young airbender couldn't hold back a laugh. "Aye, your brother was a bit hard to wake up, but Toph seemed to know just what to do."

Katara couldn't hold back the beginnings of a smirk at this. "Toph does know how to ruffle Sokka's feathers, that's for sure. Which one did she do this time?"

"She got one of the waterbenders to pour some icy water on him," the amused looking young man chuckled as he remembered watching it happen. "Though I have to say, it wasn't exactly easy to get Toph up, either."

"Oh?" Katara asked curiously, knowing that Toph wasn't exactly a fan of getting up early either. "What did she do when you tried to wake her?"

"Well, if we were on land, I imagine she'd try to throw a boulder at me," Aang shrugged with a laugh. "But she just decided to try to punch me and go back to sleep, but I nagged her until she finally got up. After that, she did the rest of the work for me."

She had to admit, she was impressed. Many times had she tried to get Toph up earlier than usual, and many times she had failed. Aang, however, managed to do it on his first try. And she respected that he didn't try to use the cold water on her friend to get her up. Of course Katara could have done that to her friend the times she had tried, but she only really would do that to her brother for obvious reasons.

"Wow, good work," she couldn't hide how impressed she was from her voice. "But just so you know, if you're planning on making them get up early every day, you're not going to be very liked."

"Oh, I'm not too worried about that," he laughed as he looked around. "They'll get used to it eventually." The two started walking up the stairs to reach the wheel. "So, what's the plan for today, Captain?"

Stopping at the wheel, Katara reached into her pocket and pulled out her map, rolling it out so that the both of them could see. "Today, we're hunting down a pirate ship who's known to be around this area. If we sink them and take a few prizes, I'll call that a good day."

"Aye, Captain," the young airbender nodded as she put it away. "Any idea where they might be?"

"Nothing to go off of," she shook her head as she took the wheel. "But I'm sure we'll find them. We'll just keep an eye out for any sign of where they might be headed."

Aang nodded in agreement and took his place at her right, listening to her call for sails and for the crew to get the ship moving. As she did so, he couldn't help but stare at her. She was so effortlessly beautiful, and it amazed her how good of a captain she was. As if this was what she had been born to do. She was truly the most amazing woman he had ever met.

Once the ship was fully going, Katara felt eyes on her and was surprised to find her Quartermaster staring at her, making her blush. "Um… Aang?"

Snapping back to reality, he too blushed and cleared his throat awkwardly with a sheepish smile. "Sorry, Captain. I just got lost in my thoughts there for a moment." Katara, feeling a little happy that she had caught him staring, decided to just remain silent and refocused on her task, though she couldn't help but sneak a glance or two at him when she thought he wouldn't notice.

After a while of roaming about the waves in search for her target, the young captain felt herself growing impatient when the sound of quick footsteps surprised her.

"Katara!" Sokka exclaimed excitedly as he made it to the top. "There's an abandoned ship without its masts over there."

Aang and Katara shared a puzzled look with each other before turning back to look at their friend. "What do you mean, 'an abandoned ship without its masts'?" Katara decided to ask the common question that she and the Avatar shared.

Sokka rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. "Oh, by that I meant that there's a ship with a full crew that still has masts. What did you think I meant?" he sarcastically remarked.

Rolling her eyes as well, Katara then replied. "Sokka, abandoned ships without masts aren't exactly common." She then turned to Aang. "What could make a crew abandon their ship? They wouldn't abandon it just because they lost their masts."

"I don't know," Aang admitted thoughtfully as he tried to think it over. "I guess there's only one way to find out."

"Aye, you're right," Katara nodded in agreement before turning to Sokka. "Get the crew ready just in case this is a trap. I want everyone to be ready." Sokka nodded and ran back downstairs as Katara took a hold of the wheel. "Aang, can you try to find this ship that Sokka mentioned?"

"Aye, Captain," Aang nodded and took out his spyglass, looking around for a few moments until he pointed in front of them. "It's directly ahead of us, Captain."

"Good. We'll pull in and check it out. If it's not a trap, maybe there's some treasure there that we can take," Katara shrugged as she steered the ship closer. After a few minutes of silent travelling, the ship finally got close enough for everyone to see it. Sokka had been right. There were no masts on it, and it appeared to be abandoned.

"This is the ship I'm looking for," Katara thought aloud as she looked at the flag of her target, recognizing the symbol on it that had marked her enemy. "If this is them, we need to make sure that they're all dead." Pulling their ship alongside the disabled one, she called for the anchor and they all moved to take a look at what was there.

"Captain! There's a bunch of dead bodies in the water!" one of her crew yelled to her as they watched it to drift by in the waters below.

"A bunch of half-eaten bodies!" Toph remarked with disgust as she saw a man without his torso float away from her. "These pirates look like they were attacked by a school of shark-dolphins!"

Katara decided that she had to see this for herself and made her way over to Toph with Aang right behind her, taking a look at the body with both disgust and curiosity. Toph was right. The bodies were only half-eaten, but some of them still had color in them, meaning it wasn't long ago that they were eaten.

There was one thing that she noticed that Toph didn't seem to, however. Something that did not make any sense to her at all. "But look. There aren't any teeth marks. It couldn't have been shark-dolphins."

"What could it have been, then?" Aang asked with a raised brow.

"I don't know," Katara admitted as she looked back to the floating corpse. "But it wasn't anything with teeth. But where did their masts go? And why did they have to abandon ship in the first place?" No one offered answers, and she couldn't say she blamed them. It was truly a baffling moment.

After a few more moments of trying to figure it out, the young captain decided that it didn't really matter. Her target had been taken care of before she had even gotten the chance to do it herself. That was all that mattered to her. "Well, there's no point in wondering about it now. Let's get on the ship and see what kind of loot they had. Bring us in close!"

The crew did as they were told and threw their grapple hooks over to the other ship, using their combined strength to bring it as close as they could. The problem with this, however, was that the enemy crew must have put down their anchor before they had abandoned the ship, because it would not go all the way.

Seeing this, Katara then turned to her Quartermaster. "Well, it looks like we're going to need to raise the anchor. I'll go over there and raise it."

"Not alone you're not," Aang disagreed immediately, making Katara raise a brow at him. "With all due respect captain, you're going to need another set of hands. Besides, it'd be faster if I took you." The young captain stiffened in surprise as her Quartermaster wrapped ar arm around her waist. "Hold on to me, Captain!"

Although she felt a blush creeping up on her cheeks, she wrapped her arms around his torso and crouched down with him as he gathered some air around his feet and launched them into the air, making her squeal a little in surprise as they went flying into the air. Though after a few moments of shock, she started laughing merrily, enjoying the feeling of the wind in her face and the view from up high.

Aang couldn't hold back a smile as he noticed this, but after seeing that their landing was coming quickly, he refocused on the task at hand and used some air to soften their landing, making it as if they had just taken a step off of their ship onto the abandoned one.

"That was amazing!" Katara couldn't help but smile widely as she turned to look at him. "No wonder you airbenders are always in the air."

"Well, flying is a lot more fun when you know you won't get hurt," he chuckled as he took a look around the ship, his eyes landing on the closed doors of the captain's cabin. "Well, before we get the anchor up, we should check to see what treasures the captain left behind."

"Aye," Katara nodded her agreement. "We can check out the cargo hold after. I'm more excited to see the gold that the captain kept with them." Leading the way over to it, she easily opened the door and made her way inside, gasping a little as she looked around the treasure-laden room.

"Wow," she breathed in amazement as she looked at the nearly gleaming treasure around them. Everything from gold to sapphires were erupting from the chests in the room. "These pirates must have been really scared to leave all this behind."

"But what could have made them abandon all of this?" Aang asked with a confused look, only receiving a confused look back at him before a faint sound came from outside of the cabin. "What is that?"

The two remained silent as they continued to try to listen to it, but found that they couldn't quite tell what it was. "It kind of sounds like the water is… bubbling?" Katara said with confusion etched clearly on her face. Sharing a nod of understanding, they both walked back out to the the main deck of the ship and followed the sound, their eyes widening as they saw that the water was indeed bubbling.

"Oh no," Katara mumbled as she watched the bubbles grow. "That can't be good."

Before Aang could respond, the bubbles finally grew to their maximum size and something large and purple started rising above the water, making the two pirates' jaws drop as they watched it tower above them, an unearthly screech erupting from its beak-like mouth as it looked down at them.

Aang couldn't help but gulp a little as the kraken's full head reached the top of the water. "We're in trouble…"