And now, the next chapter

of the first episode

of Avatar: The Last Airbender

Book 4: Air

"And now, Avatar Aang will perform with our own Katara!" Bato announced Aang and Katara at the end-of-the-week dinner.

The applause went on for about a minute, and Aang and Katara took center stage.

In front of the couple stood two big jars filled with water.

Katara took half from one jar, and half from the other. Moving her body elagently and steadily, she formed the two strands of water into a swirl.

Captivated by her beauty, Aang almost forgot his cue. He woke up just in time, and took the other two halves, and formed another swirl.

Together, the two moved as one, linked. A connection only a strong bond built over time could form.

The swirls came together and merged into one giant swirl.

"Woo!"

"Go Katara!"

"Yeah!"

Aang, smiling his face off, took drinks from the crowd.

"Oh!"

Katara did the same. They each had two. A blue drink, a red drink, a yellow drink, and a green drink.

They both put each drink into each strand.

"Ooo!"

They formed the swirl into a loop, and turned it to show the captivated audience a swirling circle.

"Aaahhh!" The audience began to applaud.

After a minute, Aang and Katara, turning, walked around each other in a circle until their faces met. They couldn't resist giving each other a small kiss.

"Woo!"

A loud whistle came from the crowd.

Then, the two faced the crowd, and sprayed the drinks & water over the crowd, Katara turning it into rain, and Aang bending wind to send it flying!

"Eeek!"

"Oh, come on!"

Now standing next to each other, the two slowly moved their hands up at the same time, evaporating the water.

They then both pulled their right arms back, bringing the four drinks together, and they both sent two drinks back into the two big jars.

They bowed.

The applause went on for a long time, and so Katara got down from the stage, and went to take a seat by her family. Aang soon joined her.

Katara's father, Hakoda, patted the both of them on the back. "Another great job, you two!" He sat back down after Aang and Katara thanked him. Then he leaned closer to them and whispered, "But was the kiss really necessary?"

"Dad!" Katara pushed her father away, laughing.

"Ha ha! I'm just kidding, Little One!"

Everyone at their table: Paku, Gram-Gram, Bato, Hakoda, Katara, Aang, and even Momo, laughed. Well, Momo just made a startled noise, he had been sleeping and the laughing woke him up, and then he flew away!

Later that night, Katara and Aang took a walk on the edge of town.

"You really did do a great job, tonight..." Aang said, as they walked, holding hands.

"Yeah. So did you." They stopped walking and looked into each other's eyes.

"You're so beautiful," Aang whispered.

"Yeah. So are you," And they kissed. This time, it wasn't small. It wasn't short. When they came apart, reluctantly, Aang said, chuckling, "I'd better go find Appa..."

"Yeah..."

They continued to walk until they found Appa, sleeping. They walked toward a rock about twenty feet away, and decided to sit there.

Considering it was night time at the north pole, Aang made a huge fire.

"So how was your week?" Aang sat down with his girl-friend after he finished.

"It went alright, I guess...Just the normal stuff. I do miss Sokka though. We all do." Katara picked up Aang's arms and put them around her.

"Yeah, I miss him too. As soon as Zuko finds his mom, or finds out he can't," Aang said what he would never say to Zuko's face. "Sokka will come back."

"Yeah, I know. But who knows how long that will be?" Katara thought about Zuko, all alone in the world somewhere...then she told herself that he had done it before, more or less.

"It'll happen." Katara loved that about Aang. He was always optimistic, always sure.

"And what about you? How's the life of the Avatar this week?" Katara straightened up, changing the subject.

"It's alright, I guess...Just the normal stuff." Aang shrugged.

Katara laughed. "Yeah, for you! Now come on, what happened?"

"Well," Aang started, smiling, contentedly, "I tried to teach some kids how to do the air scooter today..."

"And how did that go?"

"They couldn't really get it..."

Katara smiled and gave him a peck on his cheek. "Ever since we saved the world, Aang, (Wow, it feels so weird to say that, even after all this time!) you've been so happy. There are more airbenders now. There will always be airbenders now!"

Aang took his arms off of Katara and held his knees. "Yeah..." He sighed. His eyes drooped.

Katara gave him space, scared she said something wrong. "You don't still miss them, do you?"

"Katara, something like that won't ever go away. I'm willing to move on, sure, but...There will never be actual airbenders ever again..." Aang shed a tear for all those he knew...

Katara put her loving hand on Aang's shoulder. "Give it time...they'll come to deserve their name."

"Yeah..."

Appa woke up suddenly, and he stood up. He started to growl.

Aang stood up. "Appa, buddy, what's wrong?" Aang said, worried.

Appa cried out! "Uuuunnngh!" It's eyes were wide. Aang, realizing Appa's warning, formed a giant sphere of air around both him and Katara, just as eight balls of fire came raining down on them!

"Yaa!" Katara shrieked in surprise, but jumped up, ready for battle.

"Katara look out, their attackers jumped down from the rock, now somewhat visible in the dark of night, and lunged toward the teenagers.

Katara quickly disposed of one of them, grabbing a pile of snow, and encasing the attacker in ice.

"What's going on?" She screamed as she jumped to fight the next one.

"How should I know? Ask them!" Aang fought one of the silent fire benders with air. He wished he had his staff! He left it back at Katara's house!

At this point, Appa had charged and knocked out three of the fire benders as Aang took out his opponent.

"Thanks, Buddy!" Aang congratulated his friend, when two of the fire benders shot fire at Appa!

"Whoah!" Appa bent one of the fire balls into the sky. "Katara! The other one!"

"Right!" Katara raised up snow from the ground to melt the other one just in time, but Appa was freaking out.

"It's okay, buddy! We have this! Go find Hakoda!" Aang blew a small gust of wind, urging Appa to flee, and Appa reluctantly flew off.

Aang turned around, and saw that Katara had taken out another attacker, and, unleashing his a little bit of Avatar state, Aang shot the last attacker into the air, and, eyes glowing, followed him.

Bending air around them to where they would not fall, the Avatar asked,

"WHO SENT YOU? WHY DID YOU ATTACK US?" The masked man whimpered, but did not answer.

Aang came out of the Avatar state. "Fine then." He dropped him!

The man did not know exactly how far he was falling, he just knew it was a long way down!

"Aaah!" The man looked around him to see Aang falling next to him.

"You can talk whenever you feel like it," Aang stretched, and then yawned.

The masked man caved in. "I don't know who it is! I swear!"

"Where did you get your orders then?" Aang looked at the man, eyes flashing white.

"J-Just a small town in the fire nation! That's all I know! I promise!" The man was sobbing, unsure if he would live.

"Thank you."

Aang grabbed the assassin, and gently floated down to the ground.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you!" The man sobbed in relief.

"No problem," Suddenly, Aang punched the man, and knocked him out!

"Man, that was close!" Katara started to walk up to him, and stood a few feet away.

"Yeah, I just don't know why that...! Katara, look-" The fire bender they had forgotten about came from behind the rock and posed to attack!

Before he could, however, a small pile of snow flew onto his mask.

"What the...?" The man flinched. It gave Aang just enough time to air bend him to the ground.

Katara, closest to the man, picked up some snow, turned it into water, and water whipped his lights out!

"What the heck was that?" Aang said, trying to find where the snow had come from.

"I don't know. Somebody bent it!" Katara said, turning to face her boy-friend.

"Yeah, but who?" Aang looked all over.

"I did!" A boy, Aang guessed fourteen or fifteen, walked out from behind the rock.

Katara gaped, and the boy squirmed.

But Aang said, "You know, we really should move away from this rock..."

That's it for Chapter two!

I'll try to have the next chapter up on Friday.
So what'd you think?
No Sokka's a bad thing? Awesome performance with the water? No Zuko is a bad idea? Cool Cliffhanger?

I know you guys have your thoughts too!

So why don't you go ahead and review?
Peace in Christ, and Imagine on!