Chapter 1

Kura crawled out of her igloo that morning to find her mother, Katara, and Sokka sitting around their small family fire. There was a smoked fish waiting for her. She sat down and began to eat it. Kura looked around at their solemn faces; they were all looking around at each other.

"Is something wrong?" she asked. Her mother turned to face her.

"We have something we need to tell you, Kura." she said.

"What is it?" She was a little anxious. They all looked very serious.

Suddenly, Zuko ran up to them from Katara's igloo. "Did you tell her yet?!" he gasped.

"Tell me what?" Kura said, exasperated. She wished someone would just tell her already. She looked to Katara, for she was always truthful with her, but Katara had quietly begun to cry. Zuko, seeing that the secret hadn't been told, went over to comfort Katara. Kura didn't understand! Why was Katara crying? Why was her mother looking at her like she couldn't bear to tell her this big secret? She now looked to Sokka: the only one left. He looked at Khanna, and she nodded, now on the brink of tears herself.

Sokka sat next to Kura and turned her away from the others. "I know this isn't the most formal way of telling you, but we couldn't think of any other way, so I'm just going to come right out with it." He paused. Kura was about to explode with the suspense before Sokka said it. "You're the next Avatar." Sokka said. Now Kura was really confused.

"The...Avatar?" she said incredulously.

"Yes. The last one was an airbender named Aang. He was...He died in the war." Sokka said.

"An airbender? But didn't they die out over a hundred years ago?" Kura exclaimed. "You'd better tell me what happened!" She paused. "You...you haven't spent your entire life here, have you?

"No, Katara and I...well, let's just say this isn't the first time this village has had a run-in with an Avatar. Let's see...it must have been a little less than thirteen years ago; when Katara was still just a beginner at waterbending. We found Aang frozen in a block of ice. He had been frozen there for a hundred years, and had missed Sozen's attack on the air temples. He had no idea there was even a war going on at first. You see, when they told him he was the Avatar, it brought him some bad luck. He tried to run away during a storm, but he went into the Avatar State and froze himself. Anyway, the three of us ended up traveling around the world to train Aang in the four elements. And, man, did we ever have some crazy adventures! Those were good times..." He trailed off for a moment, probably thinking of Aang. Kura now wished she'd known him. Then she realized that she couldn't have; they were the same person! Sokka shook his head and continued his story, "There were many obstacles, especially when we traveled to the fire nation. Actually," he chuckled, "Zuko was our biggest enemy at the time." Kura's eyes widened, and she just stared at Sokka, hoping he was joking. "Yeah, I don't know if he wants me spreading around his past, though. It's not a pretty one. You could ask him about sometime I suppose. Anyway, he's proven himself and now he's one of us."

Kura couldn't believe it! She was the Avatar; Sokka and Katara knew the past Avatar, who was an Airbender; Zuko used to be their enemy. And, nobody had ever even told her! "Why did you all wait until now to tell me?" she asked Sokka irritably.

"Well, traditionally you wait until the Avatar is sixteen to tell them, but we need you to end this war before it gets any worse. But we didn't want to tell you too early; we didn't want to scare you. Don't worry, it isn't too late. What we need to do now is train you. Not only in bending, but fighting. I know this is all coming on a little fast, but we need to prepare. If you need a few minutes to...talk things out with your mom, that's fine. Katara, Toph, Zuko, and I need to plan some things." They turned around. Katara and Khanna had calmed down, and all of them had been listening to the conversation. Everyone but Khanna and Kura got up and walked to Katara and Zuko's fire pit.

The mother and daughter turned to face each other. Kura prepared for the talk of her life.