Book One:

Water

Chapter One:

The Boy In The Ice Berg

When we were younger, Gran would tell us stories about the old days. Back before the war, there was a time of peace, when the Avatar kept the balance between the Water Tribes, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Air Nomads. But that peace, that balance, was destroyed the Fire Nation attacked. A part of me used to believe that there had once been a good reason, but now I believe that the Fire Nation just craved more power.

In each corner of the world there existed people who could master and control an element. There was only one person who could control all four, the Avatar. Only he could stop the onslaught of the firebenders. But when the world needed him most, he vanished without a trace.

It's been a hundred years since then and the Fire Nation is nearing victory in the war. Two years ago, my father and the rest of our tribe left our village to aid the Earth Kingdom against the Fire Nation. Leaving me, my twin brother Sokka and our younger sister Katara to protect and care for our small tribe.

Some people believed that the Avatar was reborn into the Air Nomads and that somehow the cycle was broken. They have lost hope that an end to the Hundred Year war would ever come.

Katara and I haven't lost hope, however. We still believe that the Avatar will come back to us, that he'll return to save the world.

Sokka, Katara and I had spent the morning wandering to the icy river to catch fish for our village. The canoe was heavy on our shoulders but it was worth it. Our people were hungry and it was our duty to make sure that they were fed.

As we floated in the frigid waters, Sokka had his spear poised, waiting for a fish to cross his path. Katara and I didn't have spears. We didn't have arrows or nets or any tools like that. No, Katara had something else entirely.

Water Bending.

I sat on the opposite side of the canoe with Katara's back pressed against mine. My blue eyes focused on the seemingly still waters underneath us. Closing my eyes I inhaled deeply and slowly exhaled. Though our canoe was barely rocking, I could feel the energy of the water swirling beneath my feet.

Suddenly I felt something move into my area of concentration. Instantly, as if on instinct, I started moving my mitten-covered hands. I could feel Katara doing the same. Suddenly, I had formed a bubble of water around my catch and It began to rise out of the water.

"Katara, are you seeing this?" I asked my sister in awe. I could just feel her nod, just like me she was trying not to break her concentration.

We weren't masters, this was one of the only things we really knew how to do. There was no-one in our village to teach us.

"Sokka look!" Katara called out, not looking at our brother who was basically ignoring us.

"Katara, shh! You'regonnaa scare him away." Sokka said quietly, one wrong move and his catch was gone. "I can already smell it cooking" my twin all but moaned as Katara and I fought to move our respective bubbles of water over to the small basket we had set up to hold our fish.

"But Sokka, Keira and I caught one!" Katara told him, her arms still waving, trying to mover her water bubble. I didn't have the confidence to even move. It was honestly taking all I had to keep the water in formation.

Slowly I moved, the water trailing just barely higher than the top of our canoe. As I did, Katara moved hers higher. But she had moved the bubble just a little too far, and it popped against the back of Sokka's raised spear.

"Why is that any time either of you play with magic water, I get soaked?" Sokka asked blandly. Biting my lip I looked at the water bubble and started to slowly move it to the basket. Just like Katara's, my bubble popped too, but it was a lot less violent.

"It's not magic, Sokka" I said calmly. "It's water bending."

"And its..." Katara started, but Sokka cut her off.

"An ancient art unique to our cultre, blah blah blah." Sokka said, "Look, I'm just saying, if I had powers, I'd keep my weirdness to myself."

"You're calling us weird?" Katara crossed her arms over her chest. "We're not the ones who make muscles at ourselves every time we see our reflection."

As if proving Katara's point, Sokka had been flexing his muscles in the reflection of the still ice-water.

Suddenly, just as Sokka was about to respond, our conoe hit one of the small glaciers floating in the water. The impact causing our canoe to veer off to the rougher waters. Instantly Sokka and I grabbed the paddles and started trying to get us to the calmer waters. Though the ice had very different ideas and instantly floated into our path.

"Look out! Go left!" Katara shouted at us from the back. I love my sister, but her directions were very unhelpful.

And then our canoe was crushed by the ice and were stranded in the now calm waters.

"You call that 'left'?" Katara asked snarkily.

"You don't like my steering?" Sokka asked, " Then maybe you two should have waterbended us out of the ice."

"So now it's our fault?" Katara shouted. I don't think either of my siblings heard the small creak in the ice. I'm not saying it was caused by Katara, I'm just saying that our bending powers are connected to our emotions. When I told my sister to cal down, she just snapped at me, causing another creak.

"I knew I should have left you two at home" Sokka grumbled. "Leave it to a girl to screw things up."

"Hey what did I do?" I asked, slightly offended. "If you remember, I'm the only one out of the three of us who actually got a fish." I was really proud of that fact.

That's when Katara absolutely lost it. Normally I was the one scolding our brother, whish usually consisted of hitting him one way or another. But our dear sister had different ideas.

I watched as Katara's face twitched and contorted as she tried to hold in her anger. It didn't work.

"You are the most sexist, immature, nutbrained..." Her arms were flailing and I don't think she noticed the waved that the movements were causing. "Ah! I'm embarrassed to be related to you!" With that last surge of emotion, the ice that had been creaking was hit was a small wave...and cracked.

But Katara's anger didn't end there.

"Ever since mom died Keira and I have been doing all of the work around camp while you have been off playing soldier!"

"Uh, Katara..." Sokka stammered as he noticed the ice berg started to crack even further.

"I even wash all of the clothes!" she shouted. Well, not all of them. There's a certain way I like my clothes washed, our mom knew how to do it, and showed me before she died. "Have you ever smelled your dirty socks?" Katara asked our brother. "Let me tell you...NOT PLEASANT!"

Katara then moved her arms in a slicing motion, and the iceberg cracked in a very unsafe way.

"Katara, settle down" I tried to calm my sister. Sure I think Sokka deserved it, but Katara could scold him in an area that wouldn't respond to her untrained anger.

"No Keira!" Katara yelled at me. My little sister was scary when she was angry. "I'm done helping him!" she said before turning back to our brother. "From now on, you're on your own!" she shouted, making the same slicing motion with her arms once again.

This cause a giant spurt of water to run up against the ice berg. Which, in turn, caused the giant cracks to widen dangerously before the iceberg crumbled into the water before our eyes. The impact caused a giant tidal wave, thankfully the three of us were quick enough and held onto the edge of our own little chunk of ice.

"Okay," Sokka breathed once we stopped moving. "You've gone from weird to freakish Katara," he told our little sister.

"Quit being such a jerk, Sokka" I sighed. "I think that was awesome. A little dangerous, yea, but that's not your fault. We don't have a Master, all we have is us."

"You mean... I did that?" she asked in awe, unaware of her own strength.

"Yup, congratulations," my twin brother said sarcastically.

If anyone of us were going to say anything more, we didn't. Not because there was nothing to say, because there was plenty, but because there was a weird glowing coming from the depths below. The...sphere or whatever it was was slowly growing larger, and I could tell it was coming straight for us. I can honestly say that I was freaking terrified. For all, we knew it could be some weird thing from the spirit world that could kill us all.

Or maybe I was just being dramatic.

When the thing popped up above the waters surface, my siblings and I gasped and stumbled backwards. It was a GIANT ball of glowing ice. Ice isn't supposed to glow! At least normal ice isn't, I'm sure something from the spirit world would glow.

Slowly, Katara took a step or two towards the glowing mass. Sokka made a weak attempt to stop her, and really I just stood there looking at the iceberg in awe. It was unlike anything I've ever seen before.

But there was more than just ice infront of us. There was something, no...someone inside of it. Were they alive? Doubtful. I couldn't help but wonder how long they had been in the ice. And why they were in the South Pole.

Suddenly, the persons eyes opened. People frozen in ice for however long don't just open their eyes! Unless they were from the Spirit World of course.

"He's alive!" Katara said inawe. "We have to help!" she said, grabbing Sokka's bladed boomerang.

"Katara! get back here! We don't know what that thing is!" Sokka tried to stop our sister from jumping across the ice blocks. "Keira do something!" he shouted at me. Sokka was older by fifteen minutes. so he liked to think that he was in charge.

Obviously, he had meant for me to do sometihng to stop our sister. But instead, I grabbed the small knife I always kept in my boot and followed Katara across the ice. I could hear Sokka groan from behind me before he followed.

Together, Katara and I started hacking away at the giant glowing iceball. We had only given it a few good whacks before there was a crack and...warm air blew out at us. Katara and I stumbled backwards into Sokka as the iceball continued to crack and split apart. As it did, there was a huge beacon of light that shot out into the sky.

Spirit World, I'm telling ya.

I could feel it, somewhere inside of my veins. In my soul. This meant something huge, imortant. I don't know if Katara felt it, and I know for a fact that Sokka didn't, but I could feel the water practically humming around us.

Once the air around us settled, and the light dimmed, there was a large crater infront of us. And out of us rose a boy with glowing markings.

"Stop!" Sokka shouted, pointing his spear at the boy in defense. But just as the glowing boy stood and tried to walk towards us, he fell, his limp body rolling down the icy hill to a stop at our feet. Thankfully Katara was able to cushion his fall.

Only fo Sokka to poke the boy with the spear handle.

"Stop it!" Katara and I said in unison as I pulled my twin away from our sister and the boy. Turning my attention back to the two people infront of us, I watched as Katara made sure the boy was unharmed. Mostly my younger sister did all the work and I msotly just made sure Sokka didn't do anything stupid.

Slowly the boy started to wake.

"I need to ask you something" he groaned. He was young, probably around Katara's age, if not a year or two younger.

"What?" Katara asked.

"Please, come closer" his voice was weak.

"What is it?" I heard my sister whisper as she moved a little closer to the boy.

"Will you go penguin sledding with me!?" he suddenly asked in excitement.

"Uh...Sure?" Katara answered, just as confused as I was . This boy had been trapped in an iceberg, unconscious, and his first thought was penguin sledding?

"Sounds...fun?" I offered. Suddenly the boy was on his feet. It was weird though, as if the air itself pushed him up into a standing position.

The action caused Sokka to stand defensively once again.

"What's going on here?" the boy asked as he looked at his snowy surroundings.

"You tell us!" Sokka yelled."How'd you get in the ice? And why aren't you frozen?" he asked, poking the boy in the stomach with the spear. Only for it to be swatted away.

"I'm not sure."

If we thought that this weird boy was the only thing trapped inside of the ice, we would have been wrong. There was a loud, almost terrifying growl coming from inside of the crater. At the sound, the bald boy climbed up the mountain of snow and ice.

"Appa!" I heard the boy say from the other side of the crater. "Are you alright? Wake up, buddy?"

Rounding the small snow mound, Katara, Sokka and I saw the boy fighting against the lip of a large, snoozing animal. There was nothing like this in the south pole, not that I've seen at least. It was bigger than even a polar bear dog.

Suddenly the creatures mouth opened and lifted the boy up on it's tongue with one big lick.

"You're okay!" the boy cheered as he hugged the creature's nose. It's head was bigger than me, Katara, Sokka and the boy combined.

"What si that thing?" Sokka asked, cautiously walkling forward, his spear still raised infront of him.

"Thsi is Appa, my flying bison."

"And this is Keira, my flying twin," Sokka said, his voice oozing sarcasm.

In the few books we had in our village, I had read about the flying bison. Legend has it, the extinct animals were companions to the also extinct airbenders.

As the bison nose twitched, the boy, Katara and I all started moving out of it's way. Sokka, howver, didn't and was rewarded with icky green snot.

"Don't worry, it'll wash out" the boy told my brother as Sokka started rubbing himself against the snow in hoped of getting the snot off of him. Ewwwwww. "So do you guys live around here?" he asked. This boy was a strange one. He acted as if he didn't just break out of a glowing hunk of ice.

"Ye..." I started before Sokka shoved me to the side and shoved the spear back infront of the boys face.

"Don't answer that!" my twin said. "Did you see that crazy bolt of light? He was probably trying to signal the fire navy."

"Oh yea, I'm sure he's a spy for the fire navy" Katara said sarcastically.

"That face just screams evil incarnate" I drawled, pointing to the boy. "The paranoid one is my twin Sokka. I call him 'Idiot'." I smiled at my brother. "And the nice one is Katara."

"What's your name?" Katara asked the boy nicely.

"I'm..." the boy started, before his nose also started to twitch. "Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah...CHOOOO!" then suddenly he was in the air with a loud boom. "I'm Aang" he introduced as he came back to the ground with a slight sniffle.

"You just sneezed... and flew ten feet in the air!" Sokka said in awe.

"Really?" Aang asked, looking up in the air. "It felt higher than that."

"You're an airbender" Katara and I said at the same time, both of us were in shock. The sirbenders had been wiped off of the face of the planet by the Fire Nation generations ago.

"Sure am!" Aang nodded happily. I felt as if he didn't know about the genocide that started the war.

"Giant light beams, flying bison, airbenders... I think I've got midnight sun madness. I'm gunna go home where stuff makes sense" Sokka said as he started to walk away.

I think my twins head was about to explode.

"Sokka, wa..." I tried to warm him we were stranded, but he had reached the edge of the ice before I could say anything.

"Well... If you guys are stuck," Aang spoke up. "Appa and I can give you a lift" Heoffered as he airbended up onto the head of his bison. It was then that I noticed the reigns tied to the fluff-monsters horns.

"We'd love a ride!" Katara said, running over to climb up onto Appa's back.

"Thanks!" I followed my sister. Cimbing up onto the back of the bison was more difficult than I had originally thought.

"Oh no. I am NOT getting on that fluffy snot monster."

"Are you hoping some other monster will come along and give you a ride home?" Katara asked as Aang helped her intot the sadle. "You know before you freeze to death."

Sokka lifted his hand and opened his mouth as if he had a witty response. But he didn't and his head hung low as he walked over to Appa and joined us on in the saddle on his back.

"That's what I thought" I elbowed my twin playfully.

"Okay! First time flyers, hold on tight!" Aang told his from his spot behind the reins. "Appa, yip-yip!" he said, snapping the reins lightly.

Appa then started to move, his long tail flapped against the snowy ground before he lifted in the air. But then he landed in the water.

"Come on, Appa, yip-yip" Aang tried to spur the bison back in the air.

"Wooooow, That was trully amazing," Sokka said blandly, his arms folded across his chest as leaned against the back of the saddle.

"Appa's just tired" Aang defended. "A little rest and he'll be soaring through the sky. You'll see." He said, looking at Katara with a large smile on his face.

"Why are you smiling at me like that?" My little sister asked.

"Oh... I was smiling?" Aang answered. If I didn't know any better, I would say that the bald boy was blushing.

I didn't listen to the rest of the conversation. Instead I tucked my self in a corner of the saddle and curled up in a ball and fell asleep.

When I woke up, I was in my little bundle of furs with my small little spotted kitten curled up next to my head. She looked an awful lot like a snow leopard cub, except for the fact that I've had her for years and she's still as small as ever. And the weird crescent moon shaped spot on her forehead.

Not even Gran, who knew pretty much everything, knew exactly what my little Luna was. I didn't really care, I just knew she was my pretty little kitty and I loved her.

With a large yawn, I stretched and sat up. I don't remember actually coming into my small area, a part of me wondered if yesterdays adventure actually happened. I've had crazier dreams.

I knew it wasn't a dream though. I just knew that everything had happened. The water-bending, my little sisters melt-down and the air-bender boy we had found in the ice. Everything.

Sighing, I looked at my small pile of folded clothes. Socks, under garments, tight black pants, and a simple blue long sleeved shirt. Not that it really mattered what I wore, clothes would just be covered my my thick blue, fur-lined parka. The girly-girl inside of me wished I could wear something different, but the realist in me didn't want to freeze to death.

I shook the thoughtsfrom my head and dressed, tying my hair up into two braided buns before pulling on my thick, yet form fitting, parka, boots and gloves. I'm sure Katara and Gran needed some help getting breakfast ready.

Once outside, I saw that our small village was outside infront of our communial firepit, probably waiting to meet Aang. It was rare that we had visitors. Especially vistors with an extinct Bending power.

As if one cue, Katara came out of what I considered the guest-tent dragging Aang.

"Aang, this is the entire village" Katara introduced, pointing to the very small amount of people left in our tribe. Mostly women and children. Aang bowed respectfully, but the village shied away from him.

Like I said, it was very rare for us to get visitors in the South Pole. Especially after the fire navy came here and murdered the waterbenders.

"Why are they looking at me like that?" Aang asked Katara as I walked over to them. "Did Appa sneeze on me?"

"Maybe they forgot their manners" I said, glaring at the adults. The little kids didn't really know any better.

"No one had seen an Airbender in a hundred years" Gran told him. "Everyone thought they were extinct. Until my grandaughters and grandson found you."

"Extinct?" Aang questioned quietly, causing me to bite my lip. I couldn't help but wonder how long Aang had been trapped if he didn't know about the massacre of his people. It was, after all, common knowledge.

"Aang, this is our grandmother" I smiled at the old woman.

"Call me Gran Gran" Wow, for Gran that was almost heart-felt. She must like Aang.

"What is this, a weapon?" Sokka asked, taking the thin wooden staff from Aang. "You can't stab anything with this."

"It's not for stabbing" Aang told him, using his airbending to bring the staff back into his own hands. "It's for airbending."

As he spoke, Aang pressed what I assume was a hidden button on the staff, causing wings to sprout from the wood. I couldn't help but chuckle at Sokka's reaction. My twin brother, the fearsome warrior, jumping in fear at something so harmless.

"Magic trick! Do it again!" One of the little girls left in our village smiled, at least the children had gotten over their initial fear of Aang.

"Not magic, airbending" Aang corrected. "It lets me control the air current around my glider and fly."

"You know last time I checked, humans cant fly" Sokka said, ever the non-believer. He knew these things existed. Has seen them with his own eyes, yet still refuses to believe them.

"Check again," I told Sokka as Aang gripped his glider and jumped into the air. I was in awe, just like everyone else. The smaller children were watching Aang soar through the sky like a bird. And then Aang crash uncerimoniously into a giant pile of snow Sokka called his watchtower.

It was a giant snow pile with rocks on it. Pretty lame watchtower if you ask me.

"That was amazing!" Katara said with a smile as she ran over to help Aang up. Whereas Sokka ran over to make sure his precious snow pile was alright.

"So awesome," I said, picking up Luna and walking over to my sister and our new friend. "This is Luna by the way" lifting up my kitty.

"Hi kitty" Aang smiled scratching the top of her head, just above the moon-shaped spot on her forehead.

"Great" Sokka groaned. "You're an airbender. My sisters are waterbenders, together the three of of you can waste time all day long."

"You're waterbenders!" Aang said excitedly.

"Sort of," I said letting Lunna down on the snow to play.

"Not yet" Katara agreed.

"Alright," Gran said, "No playing, come along girls, you have chores."

"I told you he's the real thing, Gran Gran" Katara whispered as our grandmother led us away. "We finally found a bender to teach us."

I bit my lip. Could Aang teach us how to waterbend? The two talents couldn't have been that different. Right?

"Girls, try not to put all your hopes in this boy."

"But he's special, I can tell" Katara tried to convince our grandmother.

I didn't have high hopes that Aang could help us with our bending. I knew he was special, that his appearance in our lives meant something. But that didn't mean the airbender could teach us waterbending.

"I sense he's filled with much wisdom" Now my little sister was just sucking up.

Looking over to where our 'wise' new friend stood with the kids, I snorted when I saw that he had stuck his tongue to his airbending staff.

"Yea, Katara, suuuuper wise." I chuckled.

First chore, laundry. Katara and I usually switched off. Today I was on laundry duty and my little sister did the cooking. With Luna at my side, I lifted the large pile of clothes and dumped them into the warm basin of water. If I were to do this outside, the our clothes were surely freeze before they were dried.

I'm glad we did Sokka's laundry yesterday. I don't think I could deal with his socks right now.

While Luna curled up a little ways away, i stirred the clothes around in the water, scrubbing when necessary. Biting my lip I looked to the opening of the small hut I was in before looking back at the basin of hot water.

Slowly I moved my hand over it, concentrating on the ebb and flow of the water. As I did, I slowly lifted my hand up and down until a small, thin torrent of water lifted up into the air. Not trusting myself to really do much else, I let the water drop back into the basin.

I loved my bending, but at the same time...

It was the reason my mother had been killed.

A few hours later, after I had hung the wash up to dry, I was setting up a fire for the rest of the village to stay warm by. As I did, Katara came running over to me.

"Have you seen Aang?" she asked.

"No, not since we went to do our chores a few hours ago." I shook my head. "Is he missing?" I asked.

"I don't know" Katara bit her lip.

"Come on, let's see if Sokka's seen him" I suggested, standing up and brushing the snow off of my pants.

It didn't take us long to find my twin. He was training the 'warriors' of the tribe. A bunch of boys younger than ten.

"Have you seen Aang?" I asked him as the little boys walked away.

"Gran Gran said he disappeared over an hour ago." Obviously Katara was worried for our new friend.

But he was, apparently, just using the bathroom.

"Katara, Keira, get him out of here!" Sokka yelled. "This lesson is for warriors only."

Sokka's 'warriors' were using Appa's tail, which was propped up on a spear, as a slide.

"Stop! Stop it right now!" Sokka shouted as he ran over to Aang and the others, sighing Katara and I followed after him. "We don't have time for fun and games with a war going on!"

"What war?" Aang asked, sliding off of his bison. "What are you talking about?"

How could Aang not know of the war?

"You're kidding right?" Sokka asked.

Aang was quiet for a minute before peering around Sokka. A large look of excitement crossed the boys face.

"PENGUIN!" He shouted. Looking over my shoulder, I saw a small little penguin-otter waddling near by. And then Aang was gone.

"He's kidding...right?" Sokka asked us.

"Come on, Katara. Let's go find him" I sighed.

There was one place nearby that the penguin-otters liked to congregate. So, naturally, Katara and I checked there first.

It didn't take us long to get there. I was glad Luna didn't decide to follow. She liked to chase the penguins.

Which was exactly what Aang was doing. Only he wasn't thinking 'chase,hunt,kill' he was thinking more along the lines of 'sledding'. I'd assume so, at least, considering he had asked Katara to go with him.

"I have a way with animals" Aang laughed when we had walked over to him. Then he started waddling like one of the penguins and making a weird noise.

"Aang, I'll help you catch a penguin if you teach us waterbending." Katara offered.

"Katara..." I trailed off. I can honestly say that I don't think that Aang could teach us anything, at least not anything we didn't know.

"You got a deal!" Aang agreed. "Just one little problem. I'm an airbender, not a waterbender. Isn't there someone in your tribe that can teach you?" he asked.

A solemn expression crossed over my sisters face, and I looked away from the airbender.

"You're looking at the only two waterbenders in the whole south pole," Katara told him.

"This isn't right," Aang said quietly. "A waterbender needs to master water" he was quiet for a moment. "What about the north pole? There's another water tribe up there, right?" he asked. "Maybe they have waterbenders that could teach you."

"Maybe..." Katara shrugged. "But we haven't had contact with our sister tribe in a long time."

"It's not exactly 'turn right at the second glacier'." I said, folding my arms over my chest. "It's on the other side of the world."

"But you forget" Aang smiled. "I have a flying bison. Appa and I can personally fly you two to the north pole. Katara, Keira, we're gonna find you a master."

I had thought about it, before. Not to long after mom died and Katara learned about our powers over water. I had thought about packing up one of the canoes and traveling to the north pole. The only thing stopping me was my family. My tribe.

And my fear.

"That... I mean... I don't know. We've never left home before" Katara stammered softly. She was right. The furthest we had gone was the ive river where we had found Aang.

"Well... You two think about it" Aang told us. No pressure. "But in the meantime, can you teach me how to catch one of these penguins?" he asked.

"Okay, listen closely, my young pupil," Katara said in a sage-like voice.

"Catching penguins is an ancient and sacred art. Observe." I told him, looking at my little sister. Who had pulled out a small fish and tossed it to Aang. As soon at the slimy fish was in his hands, the penguin-otters surrounded him, wanting a bite of the yummy treat.

Soon after the three of us had wrangled our own penguins, we were sliding down a small mountain on their backs. It was a type of fun I hadn't had in a long time. Normally I spent my days babysitting, doing chores or reading. Not sledding on the backs of had even found a hidden tunnel that led to a frozen lake, an area we weren't really allowed to be in.

"Woah," Aang said. "What is that?"

Infront of us, was a large, terrifying mass

"A fire navy ship." I told him. "A very bad memory for our people."

As if his curiosity got the better of him, Aang walked over to the ship.

"Aang, wait!" Katara called out. "We're not allowed to go near it. The ship could be booby trapped."

"If you wanna be a bender," Aang said stopping at the bottem of the ship."You have to let go of fear." He told us.

Katara was the first to walk over to the Airbender. Biting my lip, I looked over my shoulder at the tunnel we had come out at. Aang was right, I knew that. The books and scrolls I had managed to find all said something along those lines. Fear could only hinder progress.

Taking a deep breath, I followed my sister and Aang. I just knew that this was a terrible idea.

The ship was creepy.

"This ship has haunted our tribe ever since Gran-Gran was a little girl," Katara told Aang when we stopped in what I assumed was the small amory. "It was part of the fire nations first attacks."

"Ok. Back up" Aang told her. "I have friends all over the world, even in the fire nation. I've never seen any war."

"Aang" I finally spoke up. This has been bothering me ever since we found the airbender. "How long were you in that iceberg?" I asked.

"I-I don't know... a few days maybe?" he didn't sound so sure, and neither was I.

"I think it was more like a hundred years," I told him. Kaatra widened her eyes and she knew I was right.

"What? That's impossible." Aang denied. "Do I look like a hundred and twelve year old man to you?"

"Think about it," Katara told him "the war is a century old. You don't know about it because somehow you were in there that whole time. It's the only explanation."

Aang looked at us in horror. He knew we were right too. Slowly, he stumbled back and dropped to the ground.

"A hundred years," he said quietly, running a hand over the arrow that was tattoed on his head. "I can't believe it."

"I'm sorry, Aang," Katara said softly, kneeling next to him. "Maybe, somehow, there's a bright side to all this."

"I did get to meet you and Keira" he smiled.

"We are pretty awesome" I smiled back. "Come on" I continued. "Let's get out of here, this place gives me the creeps."

Apparently, Aang wanted to explore the ship a little more. A few rooms later, Katara finally spoke up.

"Aang, we should really get out of here. This place is creepy." I'm glad somebody agreed with me.

It happened in the blink of an eye. We were trapped.

"What's that you said about booby traps?" Aang asked. As soon as he spoke, knobs started turning and steam started coming from the pipes. A part of me was in awe over the fact that this ship could still function after all these years, the other part of me was terrified of what could happen next.

Looking out the window, we saw what I assume is a flare shoot off into the sky.

"Uh-oh."

"We need to find a way out of here," I said. Looking around, I noticed the giant hole int he ceiling. "That'll work" I sighed.

"Hang on tight," Aang told my sister as he lifted her into his arms and airbended them up and out of the hole. Okay, so now I was still trapped, you guys! But before I could really start to freak out, Aang came back and did the same with me, only I was on his back.

Once outside, Aang grabbed Katara once more and brought us back down to the ground. This kid must have some strength in him if he could actually carry the two of us. Granted I think the airbending helped a lot.

Once on the ground, we made a run for the tunnel. As we did, a bad feeling settled in my chest.

AN: So this is my second attempt at an ATLA story. Hopefully, this one will turn out better than the last. Now, I can't promise speedy updates or anything. So for those of you who read this, I will let you know now, the updates will be... sproadic, at best. But hopefully, I can get back into the swing of things sooner or later.

As Always, Leave Love

)0( Iris RainbowWolf )0(