Disclaimer: Avatar is still not mine sniff and the only way I could get money from this is if the creators came up to me and said 'We like your ideas, have some money' which, as of yet, they have not, nor will in the forseeable future.

A/N: I tried to write suspesfully here, chances are it didn't work, but at least it got you hope full. Enjoy. Please R&R

Two large green-and-gold-flaked eyes gleamed like malicious balls of earthly flame in the darkness. Ivory-white claws as long as two broadswords held hilt to tip flashed in the great grey openness of the room. Aang could hear saliva drop to the beat of huge paws making a whump on the stone floor.

"Toph?" He asked, doing all he could to keep the panic growing in him from reaching his voice.

"Yeah?" came her reply, confident as ever. She shifted into a better bending stance and Aang could see her preparing to get up a defense shield – a big one. He could tell she was scared, and that frightened him all the more. During the time that had traveled together all those years ago he had grown to think of her as unmovable, untouchable, the one who never lost her cool, and now she was scared, doubting her bending stance. Whatever it was in that room – it wasn't good.

"What can you feel?" He asked "I need to know what were up against."

Toph said nothing, concentration masking her face for a second before it went awash with fear. Her eyes went wide but still her mouth remained firmly shut, as if she was afraid something might escape from it. Something like a scream.

"Toph!" Aang shouted turning around to face her, grabbing her by the arms, and shaking her gently but firmly. "Toph, I need to know what's back there!" She looked shocked for a few seconds more, then opened her mouth to speak.

The words never left her mouth. They never had a chance. The what-ever-it-was that had been in the Avatar Room wasn't in there anymore, it was out here. With them. It was huge, and all Aang could think was –

"RUN!" he shouted. "Toph, take care of Kenyasan, get her out of here!" a brave look came over his face and he swung his staff around to face the creature.

"What about you?" Toph asked, was that worry in her sightless eyes? "It could kill you!"

"I'm the Avatar, right?" Aang said, and Toph nodded reluctantly. "I'm supposed to deal with things! Now go!"

"You heard the man!" Toph said, to Kenyasan now "lets get the heck outta here! I may not be able to see that thing, but I can feel it, and it feels pretty damn big!"

I felt the tug on my arm as Toph desperately tried to get me to flee, but I didn't budge. I had been scared before, when I couldn't see what was hunting them, oh yes, I had been positively terrified. Not anymore though, now everything seemed… I don't know… right. I was supposed to be here, this was supposed to happen, I knew that the giant thing wouldn't hurt me, it wasn't allowed to. It might hurt Aang though, and I couldn't let that happen, he was my teacher. More importantly – even if he didn't know it – he was my father. How to get it to stop though, that was the problem.

I looked more closely at the beast, the she-beast I should probably say, seeing as it was indeed a girl. I cocked my head slightly; it seemed almost… familiar to me, as if I had known it in some past version of myself. 'It's markings…' I thought 'how strange, those lines across its back, I wonder what there useful for. It is quite the odd creature.'

The beast had great yellowing fangs that dripped saliva that hissed like poison when it touched the ground. Its eyes were huge and round, full of wild ferocity and unspent strength. Its great hulking shoulders were tight yet bulgy at the same time. It was on all fours, and covered completely with black, brown, and orange fur striped along its back. Its ears were triangular with large white strands of knotted hair springing from them. Its chest and paws were a grubby brown-yellow, but it was obvious that they had once been a brilliant white.

The inspection of her pelt must have sparked something in the back of my mind, something perhaps from a dream. A small creature sitting on my shoulder, a… kitten it was called? I remembered thinking what an odd little thing it was, and then a sudden urge to protect it, to mother it. 'Come on Kenken!' I thought to myself 'There's got to be something useful in that great head of yours. Think!' Suddenly it came to me out of nowhere, popping into my mind like a snake on Easter. How could I be sure though? What if it was wrong? If it made things worse? 'Nothing else to do but try!' I thought to myself. 'Let's hope your right Kenyasan, daughter of Katara and Zuko, child of the Avatar. Here goes nothing!'

"Ankh?" I asked, my voice soft, tentative. The world didn't split in half; I tried again, louder this time, more confident.

"Ankh? Ankh is that you? Is that your name?"

The thing looked up, its eyes showing puzzlement, unsureness, and also… recognition? It stopped its assault on Aang and started padding toward me, its great paw steps quiet now on the stone corridor. When it stood before me, its great hulking mass went still and it gave me a delicate sniff. My heart raced, true I still did not feel as if this beast meant me any harm, but that didn't mean that it might not accidentally kill me. All her in instincts told me to run but somewhere in a far corner of my mind I knew I must stay utterly frozen and hide my fear.

"Mrrow?" the beast said a questioning tone to the noise. It seemed to have a voice disproportionate to its size, as if it were only a child, but I distinctly remembered it sounding much more adultish only moments ago. Something was changing about it, I noted as well, it was getting smaller, shrinking before their very eyes. I couldn't help it, I stared, so did Aang, and Toph probably would have, if she could see, instead she started asking questions.

"Where is it?" she barked "What's going on? And what's that little thing in front of miss fancy feet here?"

"Um… I think its name is Ankh." I said confusion evident in my voice. I looked down at what had been a ferocious bloodthirsty beast only seconds before. It was the creature from my dream, a kitten – I had no idea how I knew what it was, but I did. I had never seen a kitten before, or the cats they were said to become, but I knew somehow that this was indeed one.

"Well what is Ankh?" Toph said her tone impatient.

"It's a- I think she's a kitten" I said, bending down and holding my hand out to her. Ankh hopped into my palm, making a sound like a tiny engine and wrapping her tail around my arm.

"What's it doing now?" the earthbender asked again.

"I dunno, I've never seen one in person before" I said truthfully "but it seems happy, I must be doing something right"

"How did you know what to do?" Aang asked, his tone more curious than accusatory, but there was a hint of suspicion in it. 'Why don't you trust me?' I wanted to scream 'I'm your daughter, why do you have to question everything I do? Just because you didn't know I existed? You know now! Why don't you trust me? It is because of my dad? What do you have against him? What happened back when you were young to make you despise him so? Why must you take it out on me?'

"I don't know" was what came out though. "I think I dreamt it, but I don't remember clearly enough. There was fire… everything was dead… and she" I indicated Ankh "was there, with me… and even though it was burning, it was cold, so cold…" I shuddered at the memory "everything was dark, and this man came to me. He spoke of things… things I shouldn't be able to hear, he was going to kill me, and," this was the part that was worst of all to me "and I knew him. We grew up together, we used to be close, I know we did, but now I can't remember who he was. The second I realized that was I woke up, and couldn't remember a thing." I was shaking now, the pictures from my dream coming back so vivid it was painful, but I could never see quite see his face, or hear his voice, it was… skewed somehow. My poor ten year old mind couldn't take the strain of reliving her nightmare. I could feel the flames hot on my skin as the fireball flew towards me. The searing orange-and-red death was inches from my face, so close that I could see each individual lick of fire as it reached out to caress me with their burning fingers.

"NO!" I screamed, and the world went black.