Disclamer: Avatar - and these charecters ('cept for Kenya of course) - are, sadly, not mine.
A/N: This chapter is weired, I know, hope you like it anyway. Please R&R!
After a tearful goodbye from Kenya and a slightly drawn back one from Aang, Katara and Zuko were off. Though he had appeared distant and uncaring when they said there final goodbye, Aang watched Katara leave with a heavy hart, and his eyes were moist when he turned away. He still couldn't grasp the fact that she was with Zuko now, or the fact that she was pregnant. It didn't seem right, it didn't seem… like Katara to him. All the time he had known her Katara had harbored a great loathing for all Firenation, but she hated none more than Zuko. True she had loved the Blue Spirit but her hate for the firebending prince had always outweighed that fact – or so it had seemed. He turned back inside, almost tripping over Kenya.
"Sorry" he said quickly.
"It's all right" she said. "I know enough airbending to deflect you if you were to fall on me." She flipped her hair over her shoulder and looked at him with her calm grey eyes. "Are we going to start now? I'm already ten years behind."
"Wha- oh, er, yes, we are" Aang said, snapping out of a trance. He led her out to the barn, lifting up a dusty saddle with the help of airbending. He lay it onto the ground and wet it down with a powerful stream of water he produced from his hands. He flipped it up with the air and then held it in pace with two pillars of rock.
"This saddle needs cleaning" Aang stated. "I've done most of the work, now you dry it off without knocking it off the rocks."
"Aww!" Kenya whined "Do I have to?"
"Appa can't fly with a wet saddle" Aang said with a grin. "and flying bareback is not fun. Trust me!" Kenya let out a gasp and her eyes lit up.
"Were gonna fly?!?" she let out a shrill squeak of excitement and lifted into the air for a moment.
"Can you call yourself an Airbender if you haven't?" Aang asked with a smile "of course were gonna fly! I want you to have the best possible learning environment, and your mothers not going to come visiting for at least a few months, were going to where I grew up – the southern air temple! So lets get this saddle cleaned so we can go!" Kenya immediately started whooshing air at the saddle, but it flipped off the rocks and onto the ground. Aang flipped it back up onto the pillars.
"Why can't you just put some earth on all sides of it Sifu-Aang?" Kenya asked.
"Because I want to challenge you, Kenyasan" Aang replied. "If I put a ring of earth around it you would find the task easy. You need to learn to make the wind obey you. Now if you don't mind I'm going to go pack up our supplies."
An hour or two later Appa was saddled and ready to go. The fluffy bison yawned in protest as Aang and Kenyasan tied on the last of their supplies, but you could tell by the glint in his big brown eyes that he was happy to fly once again. Aang took him out regularly so that he never got board, but he hadn't been on a big trip since Aang had moved out here. The sun was over halfway up in the sky by the time they set off, Aang had firmly insisted that they had something to eat before the flight because he wouldn't land until they had made good headway.
"Come on Momo!" Aang called once he was on Appa and had the reigns in hand. The lemur came soaring out of the house and landed comfortably on Appa's saddle where he firmly wrapped his tail around one of the loops in it.
"Appa! Yip yip" Aang called and the huge beast defied all rules of logic and rose into the air.
"Road trip!" Kenyasan shouted into the wind. She thought for a minuet. "or rather… AIR TRIP!" she and Aang both laughed at this, Appa just grunted and continued to fly south. Aang and Kenyasan had the same laugh, even if they were at different pitches, they were the same long string of sound, and there was no doubt that they were somehow related.
Kenyasan hooked her legs in one of the loops in Appa's saddle and leaned out over into the open air. Aang looked worried and ran over to her, ready to catch her if she fell, but she just curved her feet around the saddle and let out a shrill cry of joy that turned into a long laugh. Aang went back to his position on Appa's head, giving him a little nudge in the right direction, and pulling back on the reins to slow him a bit, just in case.
Kenyasan looked down at the world below her with wonder in her grey eyes. Her long blonde hair flew out behind her, whipping around in the wind and always managing to get in her face, she'd really have to tie it up if she intended to do this often, which she did. She saw a long procession of people in red walking in a line towards the house they had just left. There was a boy in the front riding one of those Komodo Rhinos that her father had told her were all dead. 'Sifu-Aang sure is a popular guy' she thought, looking up at the Airbender and then back to the procession. Then they went over a hill covered with trees and the group disappeared from view.
With a bit of struggle Kenyasan made her way back onto the saddle and got comfortable in the back. The sun was setting in the sky, but neither Aang nor Appa showed any sign of landing. Kenyasan curled up among the bags in the back and settled into a slightly uneasy sleep.
I opened my eyes to a scene much different than the one I had fallen asleep to. I gasped as a large heat wave hit me, making me shield my eyes from the searing warmth with my arm. I squinted at my surroundings and almost cried out. Everything around me was burnt to a crisp, even the ground was blackened. All around me things were dead or dying, I couldn't stand it. I could feel the pain of all those things, the trees cried out silently while their bark burned, and the animals screamed in agony.
There was a small circle around me of living things. The dirt beneath my feet was soil crawling with plant life. On my solder sat a small, odd creature. It had a striped body that was covered in black, brown, and orange fur. It had little ears that were shaped like triangles and had tufts of white hair coming out of them, and its eyes were like tiny emeralds with flakes of gold in them. It had small white paws and a little white chest that rose and fell quickly like it was afraid.
I cupped the little creature in my hands. It sat there and made a rumbling sound, wrapping its striped tail around my arm and rubbing its head against my wrist. Suddenly I felt an overwhelming urge to protect it and all the things in her circle, which each passing heat wave was eating away at. I grew angry and a great wall of air surrounded me and the tiny beast, and all of the plants around my feet.
Footsteps filled the silence and a dark figure about my height stepped from the shadows. He was dressed in deep blood reds and blacks that offset his pale skin. Each step he took left behind a ring of smoldering, destructive fire in the shape of his boot. He came right up to my swirling mass of protective air. I boldly held his amber gaze with my own knowing grey one. He looked taken aback for a moment, and then smiled mockingly, his lips thin and tight.
"Hello" he said, his voice cold, his tone pitiless.
I said nothing, but looked at this dark man with up most loathing.
"I said hello." he said, sounding annoyed now "Aren't you going to great me?"
"Get out of here before I make you leave!" I spat. He merely laughed at my threat, as if I was no more than an insect and he some great ruler of men.
"You?" he asked, humor in his voice "Kenken, you know you wouldn't dare hurt me!" He smirked as my shocked expression.
"I, however," he began, forming a ball of fire in his hands "have no such qualms about eradicating you before you actually grow powerful enough to cause a disturbance for me." He shot the fire straight at me and I screamed.
"Kenyasan!" Aang cried, he was at my side the minuet I cried out. "Are you O.K.? What happened?" he held a damp cloth to my head, a worried expression on his face. I slowly opened my eyes and raised a hand to my forehead. I still had the last image from my dream fresh in my mind, the swirling ball of fire soaring straight at my face.
I blinked and looked around me. I was on the ground, but it was a brown color, not scorched black, the trees were silent, and the only sounds made by animals were the chirps and squeaks of early morning. There was a fire cackling nearby, I gasped and scooted back.
"Put that out!" I demanded, looking at Aang with fright in my grey eyes.
"Why?" Aang asked, looking confused.
"Just put it out!" I said, scooting even further back. Aang did so and then looked back at me, if he had looked worried before it was nothing compared to now.
"What's wrong?" he asked "What happened? I heard you scream"
"Nothing" I lied "I just had a bad dream." I looked at Aang pleadingly "No more fires please."
"No more fires" he replied.
"Promise?" I asked.
"Monks honor" he said, his voice solemn, I could tell that he meant it, and I felt bad about lying to him, but I didn't want anyone to know about my dream. It was personal. I shivered and hugged my knees to my chest, letting my hair fall over her eyes like a protective wall.
The earth rumbled and shook at the southern air temple as a rock crashed down into a wall and smashed into a thousand pieces. It was no use, the door didn't break, she couldn't get in. The girl gave a curse and sat on the ground in a slump. Her hair was short and black; her eyes were a pale, unseeing green. She placed her hand on the ground and held still for a few moments.
"Yup" she said to seemingly no-one. "It's defiantly coming from in there. Now how do I get in? It seems damn near earthbending proof!" She tried to ding herself into the ground to get in that way, but it resisted her. She let out a muffled curse.
"Now how am I supposed to get inside?" she said "Go find Aang again? Like that'll work! He probably hates me now, I forgot to visit four years in a row! I guess I'll just have to wait for something to happen" she said with a grumble and sat down.
A long procession of people all dressed in red stopped in front of the shabby building that was said to have housed the Avatar. The leader of the group, a boy who looked to be about nine, thrust his hand out and the whole line of people stopped. He jumped from his Komodo Rhino and landed with a soft thump. His amber eyes glinted as he walked into the deserted shack. He was dressed in blood reds and blacks, and a wicked smile decorated his pale face. He dropped the smile to be replaced by his best sorrowful look as he faced the troops.
"The Avatar has stolen my sister" he said "We will leave him no place to return to when we have recovered her. Burn the house" he leaped back onto the Komodo Rhino and pointed to where he had seen the Avatar disappear off to. "And follow that bison!" He started off, leaving the once homey building a pile of ashes.
"Were getting you back Kenken" he whispered "Weather you like it or not."