A/N. So, a new story! I am not at all finished with Ashes of Autumn, but I wanted to get this one out. It is not a prequel to Blossoms of Spring, so this story will go another direction, and won't be associated with it. It will just follow Book 1 : Water, but with aged up characters. And as always… Kataang. I wanted to reexplore it, now I have more experience as a writer!

I watched the Netflix live action, and I quite liked it! Of course, there were going to be changes, but overall, it was good! But as always, my stories are based on the original series, so we will follow that pattern! I will publish this first chapter, then finish AoA, and if this is a hit, I will continue it!

"Come on Katara, I already know this is going to suck, don't make it any worse." Her brother grumbled as he grabbed the spear that was leaning against the outer wall of their grandmother's igloo.

"Why can't you go alone? You always claim to be the best at everything, so why do you need me?" She answered, crossing her arms over her chest. It wasn't as if they really needed to go out fishing today, there was enough for at least three days. Three days if they rationed, as they had discussed. He had agreed! But of course, a day later, he had changed his mind. As he always did!

"I'm not the best, I'm just the one in charge. And for your information, I am the best at fishing!" He answered, waving the spear around as if that would add dignity to the idiocy of his words. As if. Their father had left Sokka in charge, because he was the only boy had been left around that had done the Ice Dodging trials. Barely. Their dad had done the trials with her brother just before he left.

And she had overheard her father tell their grandmother to keep an eye on Sokka, as To be quite honest with you Mother, you are in charge. Sokka has not had the chance to learn and Katara is just too young.

Too young. Sure, three years ago, she had been too young. But now, at seventeen, it was another story! She was sure she could do a better job than Sokka. Her brother was the de facto chief of their tribe, but that didn't mean he did know what he was doing. Because three years hadn't taught him wisdom. She had been in charge of rations even before their father had left, and in the three years since then, she had improved on other skills that were normally only taught to the men of the tribe.

Katara could navigate the waters around the tribe as good as Sokka could, her hunting technique weren't bad and she knew for a fact that when it came to a fight, she could hit them as hard as her brother could. For that, she had had more than enough practice with the idiot.

And she was the only waterbender of the tribe. That had to count for something! Sure, it wasn't that impressive, but she had managed to lift a small sphere of water and splash it over Sokka's head more than a few times, to the great amusement of the children that were supposed to be trained as warriors by her brother.

"Ka-ta-ra!" Sokka spoke out her name as he always did when irritated with her, "If possible, today. Come on, you can daydream in the boat."

"I wasn't daydreaming." She retorted, as she followed him towards the small cove where they kept the canoes for fishing.

"Of course not. Dreaming is for when you sleep, not now. Now there is more important stuff to do."

Katara bit her tongue to keep the angry retort behind her lip. Dreaming wasn't bad, even daydreaming. Dreaming was for her hopes and the things that would probably never happen. Dreaming was a good escape from reality. At least, in her dreams, there wasn't a war with the Fire Nation, there was no big gaping hole in their community where the men were supposed to be. And in her dreams, her mother wasn't dead.

Keeping her tongue wedged between her teeth, she followed her brother. As he jumped into the nearest canoe, she couldn't help but click her tongue. She hated that one, it always nudged to the left. Probably because it had been built by some of them the first year that the men had left. She much preferred the older canoe, which had been built by Gilak the boatbuilder. At least his boats were stable.

"Here." He handed her a paddle as he himself sat in the front, looking expectantly at her, "Let's get going."

"You know, you may help with the paddling as long as we aren't in the fishing coves." She bit back.

"And I will be tired when we get there, and the fish will escape. Are we going to have this discussion every time?" Sokka rolled his blue eyes to the heavens.

"All right, but at least lean to the right. It will make this thing go straight." She grumbled as she sat down and pushed them away from the shore. As the paddle hit the water, Katara saw her brother turn to the water in front of them. She liked it better that way, at least like that, she could repeat the stories her grandmother had told them the night before in her head without interruptions.

Where had I left off? Ah yes, Ba Sing Se. I never entered it, but I did see the Outer Wall. I even went as far as the first checkpoint, to say goodbye to the group of merchants I travelled with. For safety, you see? Robbers aren't interested in big groups, but like the lone travellers. But the wall! Tui and La, it was at least twice as high as the Chief's Palace up North in Agna Quel'a…

Her grandmother was from the north, even though she had never explained why she came here all those years ago… Katara had long ago understood why her grandmother told them those stories. Because no one in their tribe was going to see the wonders of the world. And even though she had heard them a million times, it was always nice to listen to them at night, as the fires from the hearth warmed the igloo.

Tonight, she would ask Gran Gran to tell the story about Avatar Kuruk. She would do so when Sokka went to the latrine, of course, for he found the Avatar stories to be boring, grumbling all the way through about childish fables. But Katara liked them. It was materiel for her dreaming, when she could imagine that the Avatar had stopped the war before it broke out.

She knew better, but just imagining didn't hurt anyone.

"To the right here!" Her brother spoke, pointing left. Katara rolled her eyes, for she knew that Sokka always mixed up the two. She knew the way, but it was irritating to be told, even after two years accompanying him to the fishing spots.

"I know." She grumbled as she turned the boat left. They steered through blocks of ice that were floating on the surface of the dark water. In the distance, there was a colony of tiger seals sunbathing.

"We could go there tomorrow." She gestured to the animals, making Sokka turn to the spot.

"Yeah, good thinking. It would make for an easier hunt than the otter penguins." Her brother nodded. A quick smile crossed her face. He was a pain in the butt, but he didn't always mean it. She loved him, even if he was an idiot sometimes. He would probably forget to mention it had been her idea, however, when they suggested it during dinner tonight, presenting it to the tribe.

But today, they would need to fish. She didn't like it, as their fishing wasn't as effective as the fishing that had been done before… But the big boats, equipped with nets for fishing, had all gone with her father.

"Alright, from here on out, slow paddling. We don't want a repeat of last week." Sokka gestured his hand toward her in a calming way, but it only served to irritate Katara.

"If you wouldn't have tried to hard to spear it, you wouldn't have fallen out of the boat." She muttered, but the waterbender suspected that Sokka choose to ignore it. It wasn't as if she had tried to hide the words.

"Stop here! There are fish, I can feel it!" Sokka called, and Katara dropped the paddle as soon as he said that. They would probably spend five minutes here, before they would go to their usual spot. As her brother leaned down from the front of the ship, the spear ready to strike in his right hand, Katara herself leaned back.

Turning around from her spot in the boat, the waterbender lifted her hand, trying to focus on the water behind their boat. She had managed small spheres of water, but an idea had just crossed her mind. She could also trap something inside the ball! Perhaps a fish! That would a useful skill, as it would not alarm the animal, and it would make them less reliant on the bone spearhead that had a tendency of chipping when it grated the bones of the larger fish.

Exhaling softly, Katara tried to do as her grandmother had told her. Up north, Gran Gran had said, the waterbenders felt the water, they sensed the currents! But to be honest, Katara had no idea how they did that… And Gran Gran had not been able to explain it.

So, as she moved her hands over the water, she tried to sense what the water would do, where it would go. Katara could imagine the great current underneath them, in the depth… But she was quite sure it was exactly that. Her imagination.

But before she could sulk about that, she noticed a small fish turning around itself to the right side of their boat. Quickly turning to it, she inhaled deeply, lifting a hand to the spot. As a small ball rose out of the water, Katara grinned. The fish was trapped inside it, and kept turning, oblivious to the danger from the boat.

"Sokka! I caught one!" She laughed. She had actually done something useful with her bending. Pride filled her heart, but that was quickly replaced by anger as she noticed that her brother didn't look up from his watch.

"Sokka." She grumbled, moving the ball next to her brother. It was beginning to drip water quite rapidly, and Katara noticed the way it trembled, and how her fingers were beginning to do the same. That was not good… But she wanted Sokka to see that it did serve a purpose!

"And… now!" Her brother spoke suddenly, lifting the spear at exactly the wrong moment. The butt of the spear pierced the sphere, and she lost control over it. The water and the fish crashed right on Sokka's head, who screamed as the ice-cold water soaked his hair and clothes. From a corner of her eyes, Katara noticed several fishes flee away from the boat.

"Katara! How many times do I need to tell you to stop with the fucking water magic! Every time, I get soaked! Knock it off for once!" Her brother's voice swelled in irritation, "Dad told you to keep that secret! To NOT" he yelled that word, "use it, under any circumstance!"

"Well, Dad isn't here! And it's not magic, it's bending! It's a part of our culture!" Katara yelled right back, "Just because you don't understand it, doesn't mean it's wrong!"

Before she had even finished the sentence, Katara had sensed the danger. There was a chunk of floating ice coming towards them. Sokka had sensed it too apparently, as she was quickly pushed to the side as he grabbed the paddle.

A great lurch behind them began to move the boat, and glancing backwards, Katara groaned aloud. She watched the waves build, as they always did with unexpected currents caused by shifts in the ice.

"Sokka! Go to the left!" But instead, Katara felt the boat move to the right, towards the ice, "LEFT you idiot!" She yelled as the ice hit the boat. At the same time, another piece of ice she had not seen pierce the right side of the canoe, letting water enter into it.

"Out, out!" Her brother yelled, but Katara was already on the move, grabbing Sokka hand and jumping out of the boat, slipping on the unstable surface of the ice. There was an iceberg jutting out of the water just on the other side of the ice block, and she pulled Sokka with her towards it.

"Stop, not together! It will tip the ice over if we both stand on the edge!" His yelling was now filled with determination as a loud crack sounded. Katara glanced back, seeing that their boat had been crushed and that all that was left were small bits of hide and timber. Shit.

Letting her brother go first, she watched as he jumped from the edge of their ice refuge to the relative safety of the iceberg. As soon as he had left the ice, Katara quickly followed and jumped. Her feet landed on the icy surface, but she nearly fell backwards into the water, if it was not for Sokka grabbing the front of her parka and pulling her towards where he was standing.

"Come on Katara! Why did you have to do that!" Sokka shouted angrily, "No boat, no way back! What now?"

"What I did? If you had gone left, like I said, we would still have a canoe!" She yelled straight back. Why did he try to dump responsibility on her!

"You could have used that bending of yours to pull the ice away, you know?" Sokka muttered under his breath, but Katara heard him. Feeling her ear grow warm as they always did when he was infuriating, the waterbender put her hands on her hips.

"Excuse me?"

"Yeah! Leave it to a girl to screw things up!" He bit back, probably thinking that insulting her gender was a better option than insulting waterbending.

"Oh, you nut-size brained coward! You do realize that this girl has to do twice as much as you, right? Screw things up? I come with you on hunting trips, I help you with the wall around the village, I do everything you do! And to top that off, I do the washing when Gran Gran's back is hurting, I cook with her, I do everything! But no! I screw things up!" Katara lifted a finger for each chore she counted. For a moment, she thought she saw surprise in her brother's eyes, but before she could be sure of it, she continued.

"Ever since Dad left, you are acting all high and mighty, as if everything falls on your shoulders! But you don't do any more than the others! We all do our part! Only, my part seems far heavier than yours! Maybe, if you do everything this girl does in one day, you too would sometimes like to relax and play with magic water! I had it with you!" She stamped her foot down. From somewhere, she heard a loud crack, but she didn't care.

"It is always like this here! Girls do that, girls do this! Meanwhile you men got to do the interesting stuff! When we get back, I'm summoning the women! And you get to explain why we lost a boat and got no fish whatsoever!"

"Katara…" Sokka spoke weakly.

"Don't Katara me! You get what you deserve!" She yelled at him, but as she looked into his eyes, she noticed he wasn't looking at her. But rather, over her shoulder. Turning around, she saw what the crack had been… It had been their iceberg refuge.

As she looked, a great fracture appeared in the ice, and her mouth fell open as at least half of the iceberg slowly began to crash into the ocean around them. Sokka grabbed her around her waist, pulling her down with him. Glancing towards her brother, Katara opened her mouth to yell at him, but saw he planted the spear into the ice and grabbed the shaft firmly, while his other had was around her. Her heart swelled with love for him, as she knew he was doing his best. These arguments had happened nearly every week or so, and every time they made up in a blink of an eye. Or in this case, thanks to an enormous iceberg crashing around them.

As the water around them calmed a bit, Sokka released her and the waterbender straightened, looking from left to right. Big new chunks of ice were floating around them, but their iceberg seemed to be still afloat. Sure, she knew it could be filling up with water as they stood there, but it seemed more or less secure.

"Alright, I take back what I said. That was not just weird, that was freakish." Her brother grumbled beside her, but the insult completely went past her…

"You mean… I did that?" Pride bubbled into her voice as she said that. Tui and La… She had never done something quite so grand! Screw little puddles of water, this what she imagined when thinking about waterbending! Moving enormous amount of water and ice! Using it to build, to fight, to survive! Spirit! This was great!"

"Yes, congrats sis." This time, Katara noticed the total lack of anger, or even teasing. It even made her think he meant it.

There was a strange pulling sensation in her chest, as if something was pulling her parka towards the opened crevasse in the iceberg, and Katara stepped forward, compelled by the feeling in her heart. She didn't understand, but it was as if her heart was beating in her throat instead of her chest…

"Do you feel that too?" She asked her brother. Probably the stress of the whole situation.

"The horrible realization we are still stuck on this piece of ice, in the middle of the fishing spots. Sure." Sokka answered, but Katara shook her head. Sure, there was fear. But that wasn't exactly what she was feeling.

"No… Like… I don't know."

The mist that had released itself as the iceberg had cracked was slowly disappearing, and she saw that the iceberg had actually mostly survived her superb waterbending. There was a blueish glow, but that was normal. Older ice that had been submerged long enough took on a blue colour. Her mother had always told them to stay away from that particular sort of ice, as it meant there were debris of newer ice around it, perhaps hiding in the water. But this time, she had caused the old ice to resurface… So, no danger.

Stepping towards the ice that had been uncovered, Katara grinned, turning to Sokka.

"It's beautiful."

"Beautiful, yes. A way out of here? No." Her brother brought her back to reality. They had lost their boat, and there was no way of the ice… And knowing the currents of this part of the bay, it was more than likely they were slowly going to open sea… And if that was the case, they were doomed.

"Swimming?" Their parents had always strictly forbidden them to swim in the ice-cold water of the South Pole… But there would be no other option…

"Yeah… Between freezing to death or starving to death, I chose the freezing." Sokka nodded. The waterbender could hear the light fear in his voice, something she too felt. Swimming was a death sentence. But it was better than the alternative. By swimming, they stood a chance.

"If we swim to those tiger seals we saw earlier, we might stand a chance. Kill one, built a fire with driftwood and the fat of the animal, and dry our clothes as fast as possible, we might stand a chance. But we can't swim for more than two minutes…" Sokka began to list off their situation, as he always did when he worried. At the beginning of his sentence, Katara had been listening, but after the first few words… The iceberg drew back her attention.

She didn't know why… But as she watched the ice closer, she had the distinct impression that somehow… It was calling to her. Was that what Gran Gran had meant with feeling the water? It made sense, but… it didn't feel like bending. It felt like worry, like something was wrong. Like someone was in danger…

"Sokka." The waterbender interrupted her brother as she noticed the dark shapes in the ice, "I think there is something inside the iceberg." Getting closer, the shape took form, looking like…

"Oh Tui and La… Someone got stuck in the ice…" For some reason, the idea of someone dying like that filled her with sadness. She had seen death, but this… This had to have happened some time ago if an iceberg had formed around him or her. All alone, frozen to death…

As she looked at the shape, her heart still beating in her throat… The person suddenly opened his eyes, a blinding white light shining from the place eyes were supposed to be. There were also other parts that lit up, but through the ice, it was difficult to see what exactly.

"Oh Spirits, it's alive!" Sokka muttered, astonishment clear in his tone.

"He's alive!" She corrected him. There was no reason for her to assume it was a man inside the ice, but… Well, it looked that way, "Give me your club!" Katara quickly grabbed the weapon from her brother's belt, and lifted it without thinking.

"Kat, don't!" Her brother stepped towards her, trying to grab her arm, but he was too late. The bone and stone club fell down, hitting the ice and cracking it with the first hit. As she lifted her arm again, the ice began to crack into every direction, and everything went quiet… there was no sound of the waves, no wind, no calls of animals… It was as if the world stood still, just for a moment.

Then, Katara heard a soft rumble from deep beneath them, and the sea around them began to move in several directions. Oh Spirits… What had she done? There was no way that was due because of the thing in the iceberg… right?

She should have listened to Sokka, the waterbender realized…

The cracks in the ice opened, and she was hit in the face by the air escaping from within. Katara felt herself fall backwards, only to be caught by Sokka, who stumbled too. As they fell down, the waterbender thought she heard voices… Voices?

Gising an… Tangi… Avadi Kalur…

She had no idea what it meant, or even if those were real words. But the sounds disappeared with the wind, so it had probably been just that… The wind. The light inside the iceberg brightened, and with a great boom, the ice flew into every direction. Quickly shielding her face with her hands and her stomach with her knees, there was no pain… Daring to look through her fingers, Katara's mouth fell open. A great column of light was shooting into the sky, burning away the small clouds that had hung in the air. In the distance, she could hear the loud rumbling of the tiger seals as they bellowed at the light.

"Well, we're dead." She heard Sokka's voice mutter, and to be quite honest… It was the only logical explanation. Katara had never even heard about something harmless that could do all this… Why did she have to break the ice?

But then again… The person inside had been alive. What had she been supposed to do? Wave at him or her, and walk away, leaving them in their icy prison?

The great column slowly disappeared, as light still shone from the iceberg. Daring to lower her hands, Katara immediately noticed that instead of a heap of ice, there was now a crater, from which white-blueish light still appeared. Standing up, there was immediately a hand on her lower arm.

"You don't know what's inside that iceberg Sis." Sokka's voice sounded quite high, something she had not heard since he had been fourteen or fifteen… And she understood the feeling. But then again… Whatever had been inside the iceberg could be hurt. No one could come out of that explosion unscathed.

Just then, a crunch sounded from the rim of the crater, and, lifting her head, Katara felt her knees grow weaker. Not only had the person inside the ice survived… He was standing right there. And it didn't seem to be a really nice person. His eyes still glowed in that brilliant white, and the light seemed to extend onto his arms. The light was blinding, so the waterbender had to squint. In the meantime, Sokka also stood up beside her and shoved her behind him.

"Sokka, I can take care of myself!" She said, but clearly her brother didn't seem to hear her.

"Stay there!" Sokka shouted at the person emerging from the ice, and just then, the face turned towards them, and the light disappeared. For an instance, Katara thought she saw eyes stare right at her, before the young man, for she could now tell what he was, fell face first from the rim of the crater.

Before Sokka could stop her, she had already removed herself from his protection, quickly crossing the small distance between them and the boy, who fell right on the ice. Kneeling down next to him, her brain registered the strange yellow and orange colours around him before she grabbed his shoulder to turn him around.

"Katara! No!" Her brother joined her and poked the boy's head with the butt of the spear, "He seems dangerous!"

"He seems hurt! Since when have we refused to help people?" She retorted, reminding him of one of the essential rules in the tribe. Help those who need it.

"Sure, let's help the guy with light shooting out of every hole. Are you crazy?" Sokka grumbled but did step a little bit away from them. That gave Katara time to look at the person who lay, eye closed, in front of her.

To be quite honest, there was too much strangeness about him. Not only did he indeed wear yellow and orange clothes, but those clothes were also some of the weirdest she had ever seen. There was no way in the cold hells of La that that would keep someone warm, right? Removing the glove around her right hand, Katara extending her trembling fingers, grabbing a small bit of the cloth between her thumb and index. The smoothness surprised her, making her think this had to be silk. Down in the South, no one wore it on a regular basis, but she knew her grandmother had a shawl of it that she wore on very special occasions.

Not only that… But there was the fact it covered only the stomach of the boy, and half of his chest, keeping the right side completely bare, chest, shoulder and arm. Feeling her cheeks grow lightly warmer, she noticed that the young man was not bad looking. He seemed too tall for his body, but so had Sokka a year or two before. His face was very different of anything Katara had ever seen. Not only was his skin far paler than the light brown she was used to… His nose was a bit on the long side, and the chin had not quite lost the boyish roundness, even though she spotted some peach hairs above his upper lip.

What surprised her most of all was the presence of the rather noticeable tattoo on the boy's forehead, an arrow pointing straight down between his eyebrows… What was that about? Just the, she saw that he was also completely bald, revealing the line of the tattoo disappearing down into his neck, probably towards his back…

Alright. Freaky. Sokka was right, this was not normal.

"Mphm.." The boy groaned, and she couldn't help but create a little distance between them by shuffling her knees. Keeping her eyes straight on his face, Katara watched as his eyelids fluttered open by an inch, revealing starting grey eyes that immediately made her think of the autumn skies above the village. She had never seen such eyes, and as she kept starring into them, something in her stomach felt heavier. This wasn't a dangerous person, anyone with eyes could see that. Those eyes screamed kindness, so she shuffled back a bit to see the young man's lips curl into a small smile.

"Is this… is this the Southern Water Tribe?"

She had to wait for a moment, as the accent had been so foreign, she had not been able to understand the first two or three words, but after a second, Katara nodded.

"Don't tell him who we are!" Sokka groaned, "He is probably Fire Nation!"

The boy in front of them sat up, still looking at her. Katara felt a smile creep up her lips, without really knowing why, but as soon as the boy saw her smile, his own mouth changed into a toothy grin. The waterbender noticed that one corner of the mouth had lifted far higher than the other.

"Nope, no Fire National!" The boy laughed, "Just plain old Aang!"

"Bless you." Sokka shook his head, but Katara quickly turned to her brother, trying to shoot daggers at him with her look.

"That's his name you idiot!" She half whispered, hoping the young man didn't feel insulted.

"Sure is!" The boy laughed once more, the sound ringing of the ice around them, "Are there otter penguins around? And if so, would you come with me? I never had the chance to go sledding before!"

Wait… What?

The Ashes of Autumn chapter will be posted Wednesday or Thursday, depends on how much time I get between experiments lol.