Nine Years Later

The night was dark, but the sea was pitched black. The waves came crashing down ferociously upon each other as they scrambled to make themselves heard. High winds and rain were beginning to buffet the hull of the ex-naval frigate, drawing the few people on deck downstairs.

To Tara, the weather was absolutely delicious. Taking a running leap, she flung herself off the side of the ship, spreading her arms wide and letting the wind catch upon the triangular pieces of sails she had strapped to the knotted rope bracelets on her wrists and to her belt of even thicker knots. The unstrapped vertices of the sails in the region of her under arms were strapped to each other around her upper body with even more thick rope, it all in sailor's knots that she had perfected over the years. She had gotten the idea for this contraption from the ring-tailed winged lemurs on her uncle's island, since she couldn't quite figure out how to operate the air ball.

For the most part, she let the perfect winds take her where they wanted her to go, at first. Tara only added a little push here and there as to not plummet or crash into the sides of her ship. Then over a small amount of time, she dominated much more control, procuring her own winds in order to perform practiced tricks, loop-di-loops, nose dives and everything else that amped up her adrenalin. She pushed the differently heated airs underneath her, causing her body to be launched so high into the air that she could barely even see the ship. She was completely fine with that, of course.

Tara considered, as she had so many times before, simply flying off somewhere new and leaving the frigate completely behind altogether. She could do it, after all. Her father probably wouldn't have even remembered she was onboard with him. From that point on she would be free to do as she pleased, without anything or anyone to anchor her with rules or limitations.

However, these ideas were shattered by a flash of nearby lightning, telling her to make her way back out of the danger zone and onto the deck of the ship.

Her landing was rather heavy and sloppy, something she reminded herself that she had to work on if she was going to impress her uncle enough into believing that she didn't need his training when they docked in Republic City next week. As she began to undo the first knot from her left bracelet, she saw a little spark of light from the corner of her eye. She turned to find a boy maybe a year or two older than her, tall and dark, leaning against a mast and absentmindedly letting flames dance across his fingertips. He didn't look up to acknowledge her arrival, but when he began to speak, she knew it was to her.

"I heard that this would be where I might find myself an airbending teacher. While I think we both can agree that you're quite far from skill mastery, perhaps you'll find more incentive to teach than those idiots down on Airbending Island."

Tara had no idea what to say to this, (mainly she was just pissed that this random firebender kid somehow got on this ship only to tell her that she sucked,) so she chose instead to see what else she could find from this boy as she cautiously retightened the knots on her wrist, "Will I? And why is that?"

"Because otherwise, I'll be burning down this entire ship and everyone on it. Because I need a teacher for this ridiculous element, or else I can't learn waterbending either. Because, Katarra Feng," he looked up at her when he said this last part, and Tara's body chilled at the sight of his ice blue eyes, "I am the Avatar."

Tara shook her head indignantly took a step toward him, "Liar. Avatar Korra is still alive."

"For the most part, yes," he smirked as he examined the ship's exterior. "But her full bending aptitudes were taken by my father about the same point which I was conceived. Therefore," he said, smirk widening, "I'm in control."

While he was speaking, Tara had found a nearby barrel of water that wasn't properly strapped down. With a strong thrust of her right arm, she sent the barrel whizzing towards his abdomen, knocking him off the starboard side of the frigate.

She had been aiming for his head in order to knock the guy out, but that worked too.

Tara once again took flight off of the port side of the ship, but this time she actually did try to get away. She wasn't worried about lightning anymore. She had a feeling that the previous incident was caused by her firebending friend anyway. She knew the general direction of Republic City and headed straight for it.

After getting a few miles out, Tara mustered up the courage to look back at her father's ship.

She knew she would find it in flames, but it still hurt to see. She didn't look back anymore after that.