Water, Fire, Earth, Air…
Long ago the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he vanished. 100 years passed and my brother, friend and I discovered the new avatar, an Airbender named Aang. And although his Airbending skills are great, he has a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone. But my friend and I believe, Aang can save the world. *dramatic music*
Book one: Water
Chapter two: The Avatar Returns
Aang, Katara, and I walk back to the village. I clearly have a pist look on my face while Katara and Aang have worried looks. I look up ahead and I see the whole village watching us come. I look at the sky behind us and I see that the flare is still up there.
"Thanks a lot Aang. If there are any Firebenders in the area you just led them right to us." I say to him. "You have to understand the world has changed. You can't do the same things you did a hundred years ago."
Aang continues to look down taking in everything I have said. We eventually reach the front of the village. The children run toward Aang and surround him, laughing.
"I knew it!" Sokka says angrily. "You signaled the Fire Navy with that flare. You're leading them straight to us, aren't you?"
"Aang didn't do anything." Katara said. "It was an accident."
"Yeah, we were on the ship and there was this booby trap." Aang says. "And, well, we— we boobied right into it."
'That is not helping the situation.' I think to myself as I hear them.
"Katara, Masami you shouldn't gone on that ship." Gran-Gran says. "Now we could all be in danger."
"I didn't." I mumble.
"Don't blame Katara or Masami." Aang says. "I brought them there. It's my fault."
"A-ha!" Sokka says while pointing at Aang. "The traitor confesses! Warriors, away from the enemy. The foreigner is banished from our village."
"Sokka, you're making a mistake." Katara says.
"No, I'm keeping my promise to dad." Sokka says in anger. "I'm protecting you from threats like him."
"Aang is not our enemy." Katara says. "Don't you see? Aang's brought us something we haven't had in a long time, fun."
"Fun? We can't fight Firebenders with fun!" Sokka says clearly upset.
"No, but you could distract them." I say. I then turn to Aang. "Aang you should go. I will catch up with you later, but right now if the Fire Nation comes I could be here to help fight."
"Get out of our village now." Sokka says.
"Grandmother, please, don't let Sokka do this." Katara pleas.
"Katara, you knew going on that ship was forbidden. Sokka is right." Gran-Gran says. "I think it is best if the Airbender leaves."
Katara then looks at me. "You can't let him leave either, right."
I look at Aang and give him a reassuring look about what I said earlier. "Sorry, but Aang knows that I will find him again, but for now it is best for the village if he leaves."
"Fine, then I'm banished too!" Katara says. Aang gives her a scared and surprised look. "Come on, Aang, let's go." She then grabs his arm and pulls him toward Appa.
"Where do you think you're going?" Sokka says.
I look at Aang and see that he has a sad and worried look on his face
"To find a waterbender." Katara says. "Aang is taking me to the North pole."
"I am? Great!" Aang says with a happy voice.
"Katara, would you really choose him over your tribe?" I asks her. "Your own family?" I then point to the other villagers.
She looks back and gives a sad look. Aang walks next to her and says, "Katara, I don't want to come between you and your family."
"So you're leaving the South Pole?" Katara asks. "This is good bye?"
"Thanks for penguin sledding with me." Aang tells her.
"Where will you go?" Katara says.
"Guess I'll go back home and look for the Airbenders. I haven't cleaned my room in 100 years… not looking forward to that." Aang says.
I walk up to him and put my hand on his head. "Aang this is not a good bye, this is an 'I will see you later.'" I say to him with a smile. "You will see these guys before you know it, ok."
He gives me a happy look and does a dramatic hop onto Appa's head using his Airbending. "It was nice meeting everyone."
"Let's see your bison fly now, Airboy." Sokka says.
"Come on, Appa, you can do it." Aang says. "Yip, yip."
Appa then stands up, but begins to walk instead of fly.
"Yeah I thought so." Sokka says clearly upset.
One of the little girls then runs forward and starts crying. "Aang don't go, I'll miss you." The girl says.
"I'll miss you, too." Aang says as he gets one more look at the village. "Come on boy." Appa and Aang then leave.
Gran-gran walks up to Katara and says, "Katara, you'll feel better after you-"
"You happy now?" Katara says as she interrupts Gran-gran. "There goes my one chance of becoming a waterbender." She then walks away.
I go back in the village and I see Sokka telling the little boys, "All right, ready your defenses!" the little boys then run into the village. "The Fire Nation could be on our shores any moment now!"
"But I gotta pee!" one of the kids says.
"And no potty breaks!" He yells at the kid.
"What do you want me to do, Sokka?" I ask him.
"You are going to take the front line with me." Sokka says.
I look at him in surprise.
"I know I don't normally let girls fight with me, but you are a strong fighter and right now we are in danger." Sokka says seriously. "So I have no choice."
"Very well then." I say with a smile.
"Do you need a weapon?" Sokka asks.
"No, I prefer to fight with my bare hands." I say while punching the air.
"Ok." Sokka says he then runs to his little hut where is room is at.
'You better not have gone too far, Aang. There is a chance we will probably need you.' I think to myself as I look at the ocean. I quickly go to my little hut and take off the blue fur coat and put on some dark blue pants and a light blue shirt. Custom Waterbending outfit that I got from the North Pole. I walk outside my hut and I see Sokka walking out of his. He is wearing his normal outfit minus the fur coat. He also has face paint on.
"Nice makeup, Sokka." I say to him as we walk toward one of the walls surrounding the village.
"It is not makeup!" Sokka yells. "It is a traditional warrior's face paint!"
"Whatever. If you say so." I say as I continue to walk.
I sit on the edge of the wall as Sokka stands there keeping watch. We then hear a loud crash and the ground begins to move. 'Crap, they were closer than I thought.' I think as I stand up.
I turn around and I see everyone freaking out.
"Oh man." Sokka says as the wall starts to fall. I quickly jump of the tower and help the villagers get into their houses. I look back and I see that the Fire Nation Ship is heading straight for Sokka.
"Sokka, you idiot! Get down." I yell at him. He didn't hear me though.
Sokka stands there in shock as the ship comes closer to him. Sokka holds up his weapon to fight, but it doesn't do much since the snow under his feet falls causing him to slide down. The ship starts to steam up a little bit and the front of it opens, revealing a boy about 16 years old and some other firebender soldiers.
The other villagers come out watching. 'You guys crazy? I would be hiding if I were you.' I think as I watch the villages.
The Firebenders begin to walk down off their ship. Sokka runs up attempting to attack the firebender boy, but the boy easily blocks it and kicks Sokka face first into the snow.
'This kid seems like a real challenge. It would be fun to fight him.' I think as I watch him.
The seven Firebenders finally step onto the snow in front of us. The boy steps forward and looks at all of us.
"Are you looking for something?" I ask him.
He gives me a hard glare and I return the glare. He then says, "Where are you hiding him?"
Nobody answers. The villages look at him in confusion. He then grabs Gran-Gran and pulls her forward. "He's be about this age. Master of all elements."
Everyone continues to look at him blankly. He then pushes Gran-gran back to the group. He then throws fire at all of us. To block it I quickly by pulling the water out of the snow and freezing it to create an ice wall in front of the villagers.
"If you want a fight, then attack me, not them." I say as I step forward.
I could hear them starting to murmur. "You could Water Bend." I hear Katara say.
"All my life." I say.
He looks at me and says, "I know you're hiding him."
"Actually you just missed him." I say back as I get in a defensive stance.
Sokka then gets up and runs toward him again. The fireboy dodges Sokka's attack and Sokka goes flying. He then throws a fire ball at Sokka. Sokka dodges it and throws a boomerang at the Fireboy. The Fireboy dodges it.
"Sokka. Don't fight him. He could hurt you." I say to Sokka.
"I will show no fear." Sokka says as he grabs his spear.
He then runs to the Fireboy to stab him with his spear, but the Fireboy takes the spear and breaks it. He then grabs it and pokes Sokka in the head with the end of the spear. Sokka lands on the ground and rubs the spot where he got poked. The Fireboy is just sitting there glaring at us, but then the boomerang came and hit fireboy in the head and messed up his helmet.
I couldn't help but laugh. I was bursting out laughing. Fireboy and Sokka were glaring at me. "I'm sorry that was just too funny." I then calm myself down and get serious.
Fireboy glares at Sokka and makes two fire blades in his hands. Aang then comes and trips Fireboy while riding a penguin. Fireboy falls right on his face.
"Welcome back Aang." I say to him while patting his head.
Fireboy gets up and walks toward us and gets in a fighting stance.
"Aang we have to fight. I will take on Fireboy, you fight the guards." I tell him while getting in a fighting stance.
He looks at me with a worried look.
"Don't worry we will be fine." I say with a smile.
The guards then begin to surround Aang and me.
Aang uses his airbending to push up the snow toward the guards. I pull water out of the snow and use it as a whip to hit Fireboy right in the head.
"Looking for me?" Aang asks.
"You're the Airbender?" Fireboy asks. "You're the Avatar?"
"The one and only." I say as I whack him on the head again.
"I've spent years preparing for this encounter." He says while dodging my attack. "Training, meditating. You're just a child."
"So are you!" I say as I whip him again with my water.
He then gets pist and throws fire my way. I quickly put my hands through it and separate it, showing that I am a firebender. He is startled but continues to throw fire at me and I continue to block it. I then take the water from the ice wall that I made and throw it at him. While he is distracted with that I jump in the air doing a front flip, a stream of fire is coming down with my foot as I kick him in the chest. The guards tried to attack me, but Aang pushed them off by using the Air.
"Thanks." I say.
"No problem." Aang replies.
Fireboy then throws a fire ball at Aang and Aang blocks it by spinning his staff, but the fire is about to hit the villagers. Aang looks back with a worried look.
"If Masami and I go with you, will you promise to leave everyone alone?" Aang says.
"What? Why me?" I ask. "Why do I have to go?"
I look at Fireboy and he nods in approval. The guards then come and take Aang's staff and pull him on the ship. The guards then come and grab me by my arms.
"Hey let me go! I could walk by myself." I say as I struggle to get free.
"No, Aang, don't do this." Katara says.
"Yeah, Aang. Don't. we could fight them off!" I say as I still struggle.
"Don't worry Katara. It will be ok." Aang says, "Besides I got Masami with me. She will protect me."
"Yeah because that is the reason I was born!" I say in anger. "If I could, I would kill you myself."
We then get pushed on the ship. I turn around and I see the giant door closing and I look down at the villagers.
"Take care of Appa for me until I get back!" Aang says.
"Head a course to the Fire Nation." Fireboy says. "I'm going home."
"Going home. How long have you been gone?" I ask Fireboy.
"That's none of your business." He tells me.
"But I should at least know a little bit about the person who caught me." I tell him.
"I don't care." He says.
Aang and I follow the guards up the stairs. We finally reach the deck.
"This staff will make an excellent gift for my father." Fireboy says while he looks at Aang's staff.
"What is he going to use is for, firebending?" I say to him. "The last time I checked Firebenders will burn that thing. That is a pointless gift."
I look toward the old man and I see him eyeing my curiously. 'Creepy much…'
"I suppose you wouldn't know of fathers, being raised by monks." Fireboy. "Take the Avatar and his friend to the prison hold."
"Leave her up here. I need to ask her a few questions." The old guy says to Fireboy.
"Why uncle?" Fireboy says to him.
"I need to ask her a few questions." The old guy says.
"Fine. Take this to my quarters." Fireboy says as he hands it to his uncle.
"Hey, you mind taking this to his quarters for me?" The old guy says as he hands the staff to the guard.
He then looks at me.
"What do you want?" I ask him.
"I just wanted to know if you would care to sit down and have a cup of tea with me." The man says as he points to a small table with some tea on it.
"Uh… Sure." I say while following him. 'It beats the prison hold, plus I could probably run away.'
"And don't you think about running away." The man says as he walks toward the small table.
"Who are you?" I ask him.
"That is for me to know and you to figure out." He says with a small smile.
I follow him to the little table and sit across from him.
"I hope you like Jasmine tea." He says. "It's my favorite." He then rubs his stomach.
I take the small cup of Jasmine tea that he hands me as I say, "I love Jasmine tea!"
"My nephew told me that you are a Firebender and a Waterbender." The man says to me. "You are a Devera, aren't you?"
I almost choked on my tea. "How do you know that?" I ask him.
"I have my ways." He says while taking a sip of his tea.
'This man seems very familiar.' I say as I watch him.
"You know I use to know a person like you." He says while taking a sip of his tea.
"Really? What was that person's name?" I say as I watch him. 'Who is this man?'
"Don't worry about it. How old are you?" he asks me. "I know you are not 15 years old." He then takes another sip of tea.
I just look at him in shock.
"You should, by now, be about 115, correct?" he says while rubbing his beard.
"Who are you?" I say while slamming my hand on the small table. "I demand answers."
"Now, now Masami you don't want to spill all this delicious tea." He says while taking another sip of his tea.
"How do you know my name?" I say as I sit back down. 'How does he know so much about me? There was only one person who really knew me. It can't be him… can it?' I think as I look at him. 'He seems about the same age… is this really Iro that I grew up with? No it can't be. My Iro was a Prince in the Fire nation. He would never leave. He wouldn't even remember me.'
"This tea is delicious." The old guy says while pouring himself some more tea.
'This guy gets under my skin and there were only two guys who could do that.' I think to myself.
"Are you getting any ideas, Masami?" he says to me. "About whom I am?"
I just glare at him. Just then one of the guards comes to the old man and say, "General Iro the Avatar has escaped!"
"Well what do you want me to do about it? I am drinking my tea." Iro says.
"Iro…" I say in disbelief. 'It can't be him, my best friend from so many years ago. The Fire nation prince…' I think as I look at him.
"Looks like you cheated, Masami." Iro says while drinking his tea.
"Iro… but that is impossible." I say as I stare at him. "What are you doing here in the middle of the South Pole?"
"Oh, I am helping my nephew capture the Avatar." He says. "But the true question here is, what are you doing here?"
"You should know, Iro. I have to keep running. I cannot stay in one place for long." I say to him as I drink my tea. "Wait a minute. Fireboy is your nephew? He is the Prince?" I say to him in disbelief.
"Yes that troublesome boy is my nephew, but he is a good kid on a troublesome path." He says while drinking his tea.
"I see you haven't change much, still very wise." I say with a smile.
"And you haven't changed either, literally." Iro tells me while rubbing his beard.
Just then Aang runs past us and into the main part of the ship where they took his staff.
"Shouldn't you be helping him?" Iro asks me.
"He will be fine. Besides this tea is good. I will help him when we have to break out of this ship." I say while pouring myself more tea. "And if Fireboy goes and attacks him."
I look up and I see in the tower there is fire by the windows. Iro also sees it.
"Looks like he is in Zuko's chamber." Iro says.
"Ha that seems like fun. Are you Zuko's trainer?" I ask him.
"Yes I am." Iro says.
"Well he still needs to master the basics." I say. "It was real easy to get an attack on him."
"That is what I have been telling him." Iro says agreeing with me.
"So you know. When Zuko comes out here and tries to attack Aang, I will attack him." I say seriously. "I will show him what a real firebender can do. You obviously have been going too easy on him."
"Go ahead. It will teach him a lesson." Iro says to me approvingly.
I look up and I see Aang jumping off the top balcony while he throws his staff. He is about to fly away but Zuko comes and jumps and grabs Aang's leg causing Aang and Zuko to fall to the deck.
"Looks like this is where I fight, Iro." I say as I stand up.
Right when I was about to get ready to fight I hear Appa behind us. I look up and I see Katara and Sokka flying on Appa.
"What is that?" Zuko says.
"Appa!" Aang says but he quickly turns around and blocks the fire attacks Zuko is throwing.
"Hey, Fireboy!" I yell as I whip some water at his head.
He then turns to me and throws a fire ball at me. I easily block it with water. He then throws more fire at Aang causing Aang to lose his staff on the far part of the boat. He continues to throw fire at Aang causing Aang to fall over board. I throw fire at his feet causing him to jump back.
"Come on Fireboy." I say. "Fight a real Firebender!"
"Stop calling me that!" he says as he throws another fire ball at me.
I throw a whip of fire at him. He then blocks it and tries to throw a punch of fire at me. Just when I was about to throw more fire at him Aang comes spinning out of the water, while the water is pulling him up. His arrow tattoos are glowing. He then lands on the ship and has the water swirl around him and uses it to hit Zuko and some of the guards that are coming out. The guards and Zuko end up falling over board. Aang then falls to the floor as the arrows on him stop glowing.
I run toward Aang as I say, "Aang that was awesome! Now if you could only do that while not in the Avatar state!"
Katara lands Appa and runs to Aang with Sokka while saying, "Aang are you ok?"
"He will be fine after some rest. Let's get him on Appa and get out of here." I say. I then look at Iro. "It was nice seeing you again! Hopefully we could catch up more next time!"
We quickly get on Appa and start to fly away. Right when we get in the air Zuko has his Firebenders try and shoot us down with a lot of firebending. Aang comes and uses his staff to make the Fire ball fly toward the glacier causing their boat to be covered in snow.
"So long boys!" I yell out with a smile. I could see from here that Iro is laughing at me.
When we get far enough from them Katara asks, "How did you do that with the water? It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen."
"I don't know. I just sort of did it." Aang said.
"Why didn't you tell us you were the Avatar?" Katara asks.
"Because I never wanted to be." Aang says in sadness.
"But, Aang, the world's been waiting for the Avatar to return and finally put an end to this war." Katara tells him.
"And how am I going to do that?" Aang asks.
"According to legend you need to first master water, then earth, the fire." I tell him.
"That's what the monks told me." Aang replies.
"Well if we go to the North Pole you can master Waterbending." Katara says.
"We could learn it together." Aang says.
" But wait! Why go to the north pole if Masami here knows Waterbending?" Sokka says.
"Because I tried to train him before, but he won't listen to me." I say while laying back.
"But you could have helped me learn how to water bend. You knew I wanted to learn." Katara says.
"To troublesome, I was spending most of my time finding the Avatar and running, so I didn't want someone knowing that I know so much about water bending at the age I look." I say.
"Wait how old are you?" Sokka asks.
"I am 115." I say. "I am supposed to age with the Avatar that I was born right before. Aang here disappeared by freezing himself in an iceberg, he didn't age, and thus I was frozen in time, also. It is very complicated and I don't feel like answering."
"So you know how to fire and water bend." Katara says. "Do you also know how to earth and air bend?"
"No, my brother does." I say.
"You have a brother?" Sokka says.
"Yes." I reply. "He is better suited to answer your questions."
"Where is he?" Aang says.
"I don't know exactly." I reply. "But he is in an Earth Kingdom."
The three of them just stare at me. I continue to ignore all of their questions as I slowly drift off to sleep. Eventually we all fall asleep and wait for the next day to come.
'This was one crazy day.' I think as I fall asleep.
To be continued…