Water. Earth. Fire. Air.

My grandfather told me stories about the old days, times of peace, when the Avatar kept the balance between the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, and the Air Nomads...

But everything changed when the Water Tribes attacked.

Only the Avatar mastered all four elements; only he could stop the ever-adapting waterbenders. But in the world's darkest hour, he vanished. A century has passed, and the Water Tribes, now called the Water Clan, collectively, is nearing victory in the war.

Two years ago, my father the Fire Lord, and the majority of our army journeyed to the Earth Kingdom to help oppose the Water Clan, leaving my brother and I in the homeland, with our Uncle as De-facto Fire Lord.

Some people believe that the Avatar was never reborn into the Air Nomads and that the cycle is broken, but I haven't given up hope. I still believe that, somehow, the Avatar will return, to save the world...

No matter what season it is in the Fire Nation, the temperature was always warm and tropical. All year round, there was always fields of grass and exotic flora to be observed.

One volcano in particular, one among many within an archipelago of tropical islands, was currently being explored by two siblings.

One of them, at least, seemed to show some enthusiasm on their little trip, although the serious expression on his face didn't betray it. He was crouched low, wearing gloves he didn't usually keep with him. Both him and his sister were on a relatively manageable slope along the volcano's many rolling hills.

Zuko breathed in through his nose and calmly and quietly out of his mouth. A goodly sized rodent, about the size of Zuko's calf, was merely feet away from him, oblivious to the human sized predator approaching it. He slowly raised his hands in a fire bending stance, prepared to trap the animal in a ring of fire.

"Watch and learn, Azula," Zuko said, looking over his shoulder toward his sister.

"This is how you catch a fire ferret."

Unseen by Zuko, Azula rode her eyes, arms crossed, as she stood with her back against a relatively vertical rock surface, one leg bent behind her.

When their father, Fire Lord Ozai, left with a third of the Nation's military to aid the Earth Kingdom, both her and Zuko's training was put on hold. Ozai was a strict teacher, but he wasn't cruel. Azula's prodigious talent allowed her to easily keep up with her older brother, but Zuko felt the need to assert that he had the most experience out of the both of them, even if it was only slight.

Their Uncle Iroh expressed his willingness to continue their training, but his duties as de facto Fire Lord only allowed him so much free time.

So here they were, catching fire ferrets as some, in Azula's mind, ridiculous training exercise.

Out of the corner of her eye, Azula spotted two fire ferrets, wandering aimlessly, and close together. She smirked at the thought of one-upping Zuko by catching them both. Leaning off of the rocky wall, Azula silently took up a fire bending stance, both hands open with her right hand wound back as if to push an invisible object. Breathing out, she thrust out her hand, a flame encircling the two ferrets like a will-o-wisp.

Actually surprised by her own quick success, she makes sure to keep rotating her hand in a circular motion, keeping the surprised ferrets trapped in the rotating, orange fire.

"Zuko, take a look at this!" Azula declared proudly, slowly stepping back to near her brother, who simply shushed her.

"You're going to spook it," he whispered aggressively, his back still to her.

Azula frowned in annoyance, continuing to maintain the fire. Or she would have, if Zuko hadn't shoved her when he chambered his firing arm backwards.

"Hey!" she exclaimed, skipping forward to keep from falling. Her will-o-wisp sputtered out and the fire ferrets suddenly jumped in her direction, past her face. Reeling backwards, Azula reflexively swiped her hands, fire whiffing from her fingers. Her wild gesturing threw the fire onto Zuko who jumped with a start, furiously patting himself down to smother the fire.

Zuko slowly rounded on his sister to see that Azula stood straight up, hands behind her back with a false smile plastered on her face.

"Why is it, that every time you firebend, I keep getting burnt?" Another small flame flared up on his shoulder and he smothered it with a single angry pat, not having broken eye contact with Azula at all.

Azula crossed her arms, looking away imperiously. "Oh please," she retorted. Zuko could already hear the condescension in her tone. "Maybe if you had better awareness of your surroundings-"

"You can avoid getting hurt, blah, blah, whatever," Zuko cut in rudely. His voice softened as he continued, however.

"I'm just saying, you can't keep deflecting blame, okay?"

"Me, deflecting?" Azula parroted with a raised brow. "Need I remind you who blamed me for throwing a rock at a turtle duck in front of mother and said it was my idea?"

Zuko glared but didn't immediately answer. "That was three years ago," he replied scathingly.

Their argument was cut short by a thunderous boom.

What looked to be dozens of fire ferrets dashed past them down the volcano's slope, easily leaping over boulders and scattered volcanic debris.

Azula and Zuko shared a glance before Zuko grabbed Azula's hand, accelerating into a mad dash. "Run!" he ordered.

The thunderous boom sounded again, louder and more drawn out than the last. Azula looked back, taking an involuntary inhale of breath. Lava was spewing out of the volcano, and the ground shook as if Agni himself had suddenly threw a tantrum.

Lava and rocks of all sizes imaginable began to rain down, and Zuko pulled her along, attempting to outrun mother nature.

As they descended, it seemed as if they were still speeding up, the surface becoming more steep the more distance they covered trying to reach the base of the volcano.

"Wait, Zuko! Go left! Left!" she frantically ordered, realizing Zuko was leading them into the path of a crashing boulder. She attempted to pull back, causing the both of them to tumble to the ground painfully. On Instinct, Zuko pulled Azula under him in case more debris began to fall. The boulder she saw flying through the air earlier crashed to the ground in front of them, disrupting their descent, followed by similarly sized rocks surrounding them on all sides until they were completely closed in, even along the top. The sky was blocked out, but the space was tall enough for them to stand up without having to crouch.

Once everything settled down, Azula shoved Zuko aside, patting herself down as she stood up.

"Nice evading, dum-dum," Azula said derisively.

Zuko crossed his arms once he stood himself up. "Didn't like my running?" Zuko made a poor imitation of a messenger hawk. "Maybe you should have flown us out of there with your fire feet."

Azula sucked her teeth. Zuko was well aware that neither of them had been taught how to fly with fire. "So it's my fault?" She concluded, responding to her brother's blaming.

"If you didn't notice, we'd be a safe distance from the volcano and not stuck in all this," Zuko gestured to their surround ings lazily, "If you hadn't thrown us to the ground!" Azula tapped her foot impatiently.

"We'd get in a lot less trouble if you weren't always trying to show off..."

Azula's boundless patience had it's limits. Unseen by Azula, lava started to breach through the tiny gaps left by the rocks they were trapped in. Zuko's brows shot up in surprise.

"You are the most insufferable, immature, short-tempered-!" Azula had been gesticulating wildly to get her point across, unwittingly keeping the lava at bay, but making it splash against the largest boulder behind them, where the magma began to cool.

"Sometimes it's infuriating being related to you!"

She swung her arms angrily backwards again, this time a large mass of lava being forced onto the boulder as if by her command.

Zuko still had his arms crossed, stubbornly looking away. He glanced towards her only for a moment before belatedly doing a double-take. The giant boulder behind Azula began to crack, a large fissure forming. Rubble fell from the boulder, some of it landing into the unconsciously held back lava flow.

"Ever since mother disappeared, I've been the one helping Uncle with all of his official work, while you run off playing border guard!" She emphasized the last word with another swing of her arms, pushing the lava away from them and towards the Boulder again.

"Uh...Azula..." Zuko said slowly, pointing behind them.

"I even do all the cooking with the staff on leave! Have you ever tried your tea? Leaf juice indeed!" She unconsciously lavabends again, deeping the already dangerous looking fissure.

"Azula, calm down!"

"No, from now on, you train on your own!" Azula's last movement causes the rest of the lava to splash onto the boulder, finally splitting it in half with a resonating crack.

Azula finally looks behind her, and she stumbles away from the two halves as it begins to crumble into large sections.

The ground shook violently again, the slight incline of the ground making them lose balance and falling backwards.

"Great, now you've gone full psycho with bending lava and all."

Azula didn't react to the insult, looking dumbly at the destroyed boulder. "I did that?"

"Apparently," Zuko replied bluntly, standing up.

The ground quaking again stilled them, and they feared the volcano was still erupting. However, whatever remained of the boulder that was in front began to somehow glow.

"What in the-" Zuko was cut off by Azula pushing past him as the glowing rock began to break apart as well. Sections broke off before revealing what looked to be a trapped figure inside.

Glowing eyes suddenly materialized in the darkness of the apparently hollow stone, eliciting a gasp from both siblings.

"Someone's in there," Azula remarked, nearing the stone as if in a trance. Glancing around, Azula picked up a rather large slab of stone, about half the size of her torso, and began swinging it at the edges of the rock opening.

Grabbing Azula's shoulder, he attempted to pull her away from the glowing eyes.

"Azula! Get back! We don't know what that thing is!"

He finally managed to pull her back, but not before the rest of the rock crumbled away. A pillar of light blasted forth from it, and as if made of solid matter, punched through the ceiling of rock and into the sky.

A young man in traditional Water Tribe snow wolf armor, lowers the hand held telescope from his face, rounding on the older man seated a small distance from him.

The young man, Sokka, stood at the Water Navy Ship's railing, a triumphant smile on his face.

"Gramps, you know what this means?!"

The older man sighed aggressively. "I won't get to finish my game?" He frowned. "And stop calling me Gramps."

Sokka ignored his complaint, looking back towards the pillar of light emanating from one of the islands in the archipelago. "It means my search is finally finished!"

The elder, Pakku, sighed, disinterest clear in his voice as he places a tile on the table in front of him.

"Nothing can possibly glow with insane spirit magic unless...it's the Avatar!" Sokka continued. "It's gotta be him!"

"Or it's just the celestial lights," Pakku countered, uninterest still evident. "We've talked about this many times, Prince Sokka," he said as if scolding a child.

"For spirits' sake, both poles have these lights all the time." His voice softened. "I just don't want you getting worked up over nothing." Pakku gestured to the table in front of him. "Why don't you pour yourself some Jasmine tea? Special recipe from a friend."

Sokka waved away the offer with obvious disinterest, his back still turned.

"Forget the tea, the Avatar is like minutes away!" He turned toward a soldier stationed above them on the ship. "Helmsman, navigate us to that pillar of light!" he said, pointing in the direction where it was last seen.

Pakku sighed, continuing his game. The airbending tile was in his hand, and he placed it onto the board. Almost seemingly on cue, a guest of wind blew past, rustling his hair.