DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN AVATAR THE LAST AIR BENDER. ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED FOR ITS RESPECTIVE OWNERS.

*****Guys, I have updated so much that my brain hurts. But I am still going to update WS tomorrow more than likely. At least I hope I will. Who knows?

Okay, on with the next installment in DW!!!!

"Ashes"

1.) the powdery residue of matter that remains after burning.

She didn't know him, and, quite frankly, didn't want to. He was too cruel, too withdrawn, too evil. But even as she knew and understood all of these elements about him, she couldn't deny the beauty of his movements, of his attacks. She was in a state of awe as she watched him, watched him execute complex and intricate techniques she could only ever dream of perfecting.

He moved seamlessly, never doubting his intuition, never questioning fate's hand in the game he was playing. He simply moved with his element—the element of fire.

Fire is defined to most people as the beginning of a slow, agonizing death. And she supposed that, in a way that was mainly what fire was - death. However, Katara also understood that, without fire, life would barely begin before it would wither and disappear altogether. The human race could not be sustained without the tendrils of orange and yellow that lived within their fire pits, warming them from the bitter cold and cooking their meals for them.

But, as she watched the boy clad in red, a dismal expression adorning the canvas of his face, she had to consider something that Sokka had once told her.

The boy's golden eyes looked her way, asking questions she could not answer. Offering a future she could not enter. Despite the blossom of silent desire that had sprouted in her heart.

"Nothing beautiful ever comes of a fire, Katara." Her eight year old brother had told her when she had been burned by the cooking fire.

She had stubbornly stuck her bottom lip out, her six year old self never registering the fact that life was not simply black and white. There were shades of gray… and even shades of red too. "Well something has to come from a fire, Sokka."

His penetrating azure gaze settled on her, demanding that she understand that he was completely and utterly serious. His eyes traveled back down to her hand, where he was carefully bandaging her wound with a type of pain relief cream. His voice was so low that she almost didn't hear him, "Nothing but ashes."

******I liked this one, surprisingly a whole lot. Don't ask me why.

So anyway, R&R!!!!

BTW: NEW chapter (9) for "Wailing Sparrow" out now.

~Moonlit- Silhouette