Sorry guys for my two month absence, I was banned from the computer because all the internet time was used up. I know, sucky, but my parents needed someone to blame and I like watching avatar on the internet.

To stop the story getting to long I've decided I'm not going to write about every single little thing that happens while she is at the earth temple. Instead I'll have lots of little stories of what happened while she was learning earth bending. Main points mostly, I think. Besides, I don't think I could make up a whole year; I just don't have that many ideas!

; )

Chapter 13

Lee was right, about a lot of things. He wasn't cool, Kaiya didn't care. She liked him. If she didn't her tutor lessons would be unbearable.

She did know the place like the back of her hand; it only took her a month.

The schedule was tough, but she got used to it. Over time her body strengthened and the timetable now seemed almost second nature to her.

He warned her that earth bending would be hard at first, she didn't really believe him, her lessons on the island were simple enough. Again, he was right. She completely lacked the muscle that earth benders needed to move something as stubborn as rock, she had to do push up and crunches and lift weights and run. A lot.

Lee had also told her that eventually her body would grow more muscle and she would get stronger. He was right. Again.

There was one thing he wasn't right about.

"It will take you years to master earth bending, it doesn't happen that quickly. This takes time."

He was wrong.

Kaiya was moving rocks confidently within two lessons. In the third lesson she inhumanly quickly caught onto the idea about splitting rocks into pieces. Within another two she could accurately chop solid boulders into tiny pieces from ten metres away.

She made more progress in the first week than most people made in a month. She could tell it unnerved him.

He soon became her best friend though, he was funny and she found that she was a more carefree person than she had been in the north. It may have something to do with the fact that she was equal to the boys here. If one of the more jerky boys annoyed her no one blamed her if she chucked a giant bolder at him, it was the usual at this place.

Her favourite parts of every day had to be the earth bending training. It was fun to only have a couple hours of school and then just play around with dirt for the remainder of the day. After four every day she had her private lessons with Lee to help her catch up and they were helping heaps.

"You should teach earth bending when you grow up," she told Lee once. "You're really good at it."

Lee had just laughed at her and continued to throw random rocks at her.

There was one dark thought in the back of her mind that whole first month though.

She was lying to them.

She wasn't an earth kingdom girl, even though she looked and acted like one. She was Water tribe and proud of it.

She used to get her water tribe tunic out at night, once everyone had gone to bed. She locked the door and put it on. She always thought of Kouyo when she did this. Wondering what he was doing at that exact moment. She always ended these little 'thinking of home' sessions with bending the water in her wash basin to keep her skills sharp.

Lee was so nice to her. They were hanging out in the market one day, she was feeling home sick, she wished that she could at least write to Kouyo, that would at least ease the sting that they couldn't see each other for four years.

She had told Lee that she had a twin brother named Kouyo, he sensed not to ask much about him, Kaiya was relived, she didn't really want to lie to Lee even more than she had to.

They were walking through the local market that day, it was a massive market. Even in four trips Kaiya hadn't seen all that it had.

"Come on." Lee pulled her arm towards a corner she hadn't seen yet.

"Ok" Kaiya sped up to match Lee's quick walking.

It was one of the more interesting alleys of the market she had seen. There were a hundred birds in cages perched in one stall, bags of seed on the one next door. There were dogs of every shape and size and a few baby lion bird. And they were just the animals she recognised.

"Welcome to the animal market, any pet you want or need is right here at you're disposal." Lee spread his arms wide. "Come over here, there's a stall I want to show you."

He grabbed her and pulled her over to the stall stuffed with bird cages. There were all sorts here, including a lot of cross breeds. Monkey birds and salmon parrots. There were also a few sparowkeets in small cage to the side.

Lee greeted the stall owner enthusiastically, jabbering on about new imports and stock, Kaiya looked over the colourful birds impatiently. She didn't know that Lee was interested in Birds. Somehow, she didn't see the earth bender keeping creatures of the air.

"Kaiya?" Lee called out, he was now behind the stall, looking at a massive stack of cages. These looked like slightly more important birds, their feathers were glossy and well groomed. There was more room in the cages and the water and food dishes were full.

"What?" Kaiya walked round to stand next to Lee and the Stall keeper.

Lee pointed to a small section of birds at the back. "I was talking to Dusan here; he sells birds here for all kinds of purposes..."

"If you hadn't told me I might never have known." Kaiya muttered, eyeing the hundreds of birds on display.

"... most of these are for pets, but some of the better trained ones are messenger birds." Lee paused and looked at her. Kaiya Knew where this was going, he was trying to help her reach Kouyo. It made her want to cry.

"Yeah, but don't messenger birds have to know where they're going? As in, they had to live in the place they have to go to?" Kaiya willed herself not to cry, it was sweet of Lee to help her, but she just didn't see it happening.

"That would be true of a normal messenger bird," Dusan said. "We have a special breed here, They're called the sniffer-bird." He walked around to the right side of the pile of cages and picked up a cage.

Kaiya leaned forward to get a closer look at the animal in the cage. It wasn't a pretty bird, but nor was it ugly. Its feathers were boring brown, dirt colour, though they were glossy and shiny. Its eyes were sharp and relatively intelligent. The defining feature however was its beak. The huge beak was the length of the whole bird; it was a miracle it managed to hold it up. As well as a huge beak the nose holes in the beak were massive, the largest she had ever seen. They may have been even bigger than two human noses put together.

"It smells the people it's delivering the letter to, instead of seeking out the place where the person might be. All you have to do to train it to a certain person is put something that smells of that person and say their name. Once they are attuned to both your smell and theirs you can send letters to a person no matter where they are on the planet." Dusan looked triumphant as he explained.

Kaiya was speechless; here was a way to send letters to home, right there in front of her. She still had Kouyo's water bag in her things. That would smell of him surely.

"How much?" she asked the stall keeper.

"Twenty gold coins" He said instantly.

Kaiya bit her lip. That was a lot of money just for a bird.

"She'll give you ten." Lee said firmly

"Ten? Are you mad, this is a special breed!" Dusan insisted.

"I can pay fifteen" Kaiya said, "It's all I've got" that was bending the truth slightly. It was all she had in her purse at the moment. She had a hundred gold coins at home that she had been given by the water tribe priests.

"Well, fifteen is ok." The stall keeper looked slightly put out.

"It's all my money, I don't have any more." Kaiya said, making her voice seem sad. "I really need this bird mister, my twin lives far away and I can't see him for another four years because I'm banished. It would be nice to hear from him, I really miss him desperately."

Dusan looked like he was feeling a mixture of sadness, pity and concern. Kaiya could tell his heart was twisting for her story.

"Ten it is," He decided. "And I'll throw in some bird seed for free."

"Oh thank you sir!" Kaiya made her voice much happier as she reached for her purse. She fished around and bought out ten shiny gold coins. These she handed to the Stall keeper. Then she reached for the cage. Dusan handed it to her, still clutching his payment in one hand. He also handed her a sack of brown seed. Lee started to walk away from the stall, Kaiya followed him, a huge grin plastered on her face.

"Have a good day!" Dusan yelled after them.

They walked a few minutes in silence, not even the bird squawked.

"That was shameless." Lee said softly. "You totally made his heart bleed."

"I needed this bird." Kaiya shrugged.

"If he dies of a heart attack we know who to frame for murder. You weakened his heart Kaiya, did you know that? He'll never be the same again." Lee nudged her. "What are you gonna call the little squawker then?"

"Sniffles" Kaiya said promptly. "I think it's appropriate."

Lee just laughed at her.

She had to sneak out at that night to go see Suli anyway so she took Sniffles along so she could train him to the scent of her brother.

She brought Suli some fish she had bought at the market when Lee wasn't looking. She was all set for her weekly visit to her water dragon.

It took half an hour give or take to run all the way to the hiding place she had left Suli in. It felt nice to run to actually go somewhere instead of running to train.

Boy was Suli glad to see her. She erupted from the lake, spraying water everywhere. The water dragon galloped full speed over to Kaiya and then licked her from head to toe with her long, thin tongue.

Kaiya chucked her the fish first, laughing and then ducked into the cave where she had hidden her things. In one corner she found the water bag. She sniffed it slowly. It smelled of salt and had a bitter wet smell clinging to it. There was also the sweet smell of purely Kouyo still hanging around. It would be perfect for training Sniffles.

She had already trained the bird to her scent. She and Lee had tried him out from all over the city. He always found her, no matter where she went.

She carried the water bag back to the clearing where Suli and Sniffles were waiting. Suli was sniffing the cage of the brown bird while Sniffles smelled the giant dragon.

"Come on." Kaiya picked up the cage, smiling at the bird inside. "It's time to get to know Kouyo." She carried the cage over to the cave where the water bag was. She picked it up and offered it to the bird to smell.

Sniffles breathed deep, sucking in the smell of her brother.

Kaiya looked him firmly in the eye. "Kouyo." She said, "Kouyo."

Sniffles cocked his head.

Kaiya offered the water bag for him to smell again.

"Kouyo," she repeated.

Sniffles shrieked and unfurled his wings; Kaiya took this to mean he understood.

She opened the cage and reached inside for him, he climbed onto her arm, claws biting into her fingers.

Kaiya gently tied the letter she had written a few hours before onto his leg tightly, she didn't want it to fall off as he flew over the ocean. She really hoped this worked, if not, she had just wasted ten gold coins.

"Go to Kouyo," She told the bird. "Take the letter to Kouyo." She said it slowly, catching the bird's eye. "Now go to Kouyo" she raised her arm, feeling Sniffles scratching her arm as he took off.

She watched as he soared away. He was heading north by the looks of things, this, Kaiya decided, was a good sign.

She sighed and started to pack up, putting the cage in a corner of the cave and returning the water bag to its former place. At last she gave a farewell pat to Suli before she started running back to the earth temple.