Ritu came about an hour after Saza left. I was in a tree when he walked into the clearing, about to jump out, like Tula had taught me. I had this skill down, but it was too fun to not do it, so whenever I could I did.

"Hey! Rea!" he called. "Rea!"

I won't lie and say that it didn't cross my mind to give him a scare. But, because I am a terribly nice person, I didn't.

"Ritu!" I shouted, and jumped out of the tree. "Hi."

He grinned at me. "Showing off?" He really did have a nice smile.

"What, that? Psh. Child's play. This is showing off!" I took the horse stance and thrust my hands downwards, twisting my body in a semi-circle.

He let out a scream as the ground below him dropped away.

I swear I didn't mean to keep him down there for so long. But that scream…

He was down there for about ten minutes before I was able to stop laughing and control myself enough so that I could get him out.

"That-" I gasped out between fits, "That was the- the highest-pitch scream- e-ever,"

He glared at me, but broke out into laughter not long after.

Finally I managed to stop and compose myself, the thought of his scream no longer causing me to break down.

"So," he said, watching as I wiped away tears, "Let's begin."

"'Kay," I said. "Are we going to the stream?"

He nodded and began to walk. I followed behind, allowing myself a second to admire his shoulders. Then I felt creepy and looked away.

We walked in silence for about five minutes, listening to the birds and the wind.

"Did you have any siblings?" he asked suddenly, and I may have jumped. Just a little.

Just before I was about to reply he gasped. "Wait! No, I didn't mean- about the town… I was just trying-"

I cut him off. "No, it's fine. Um, no. I didn't. I always wanted one, though." He was beet red, and we were silent another minute.

Then he sighed and looked at me out of the corner of his eye. "Clichéd single child. Figures."

I snorted. "Clichéd non-single kid. Figures."

He grinned.

"So how many siblings do you have?" I asked.

"Seven," he said. My mouth dropped. "I'm one of six benders, four of whom are earth. The rest of us are water."

"Seven?"

"Yup."

"Woah."

He laughed. "Woah, indeed. Ah, here we are!"

He stepped around a tree, and for the first time I heard the babble of the stream. I followed, and was completely shocked at the size of the river. At least fifty feet across and stretching as far as I could see, (which, granted, wasn't that far due to the curve that it had about thirty feet to the left and ninety to the right,).

"Woah."

"Woah, indeed."

I glared at him. "Why didn't I see this before?"

"I'm not sure."

"This could have helped so much with showers." I had been using bottles of water that Saza had brought… one once a day, just to wash off the grime. Barely enough to do that, even.

He smiled. "I can always go away if you want ten minutes to yourself."

Before I realized I was nodding he was walking away. I waited a minute, then took off and jumped into the river, (which, thankfully, was deep because I would have slammed into the bottom if it wasn't,) super happy that the water was mildly warm.

I stayed under and spazed out, trying to get the water all around me, before frantically running my hands over my legs and arms and face and through my hair.

Bursting through the surface to get a gulp of air, I realized how nice it felt to be semi-clean.

I went under again and repeated my routine, the thought of all the sweat and dirt and grime coming off of me making me extremely happy.

I surfaced again and took a deep breath before going under once more. Finally, I swam/walked towards the shore, my clothes and hair dripping wet. I really hope they'll be dry soon. I sloshed onto land, pulling my hair off my face, listening as water slashed onto the ground.

"Ritu!" I called. "You can come back!"

It took him thirty seconds to appear.

"Well, you look a lot better."

I stuck my tongue out at him. "Shut up."

He smiled and walked to the edge of the steam.

"So, you've been able to heal; but we're still gonna start at the beginning…"

…

We had practiced for hours- it was somewhat like airbending. The motions, at least. I was able to lift water and form it into a sphere, (once I learned this I did it to my clothes. It was really, really nice.) I also managed to form ice once or twice, and Ritu showed me how to make steam, but I wasn't as good at that.

That night I lay down in my usual spot, (Aetia had never gotten back to me on if I could sleep in her house or not, and I didn't want to bother her any more than I was, so I was still outside,) and attempted to sleep.

I tossed and turned for what felt like hours- but was probably only thirty minutes- before I gave up on sleeping. I always hated when I didn't get to sleep right away… most nights, it gave me time to think about Mom and Dad.

And that was not a good thing.

But, since the heart just loves ripping itself into smaller and smaller pieces, I went over to where I had put the dragon and rings and unburied them; the rings glowed softly in the moonlight, the dragon's open mouth catching some of the light.

I played around with them until I got tired, and then I went to sleep.

A/N: Okay. I know that there is no excuse. But I'd like to say that I am so, so sorry for leaving the story this long. I won't do that again… I swear. I'm so sorry!