Fire and Aether

Chapter 1: The Girl and the Boy In the Iceberg

Picture for reference (Rose)^^
   Far out to sea in the south pole region, two people sat in a boat.
   "Just wait. You're not getting away this time. Katara, watch me fish."
    Katara rolled her eyes in annoyance at the interruption of her inner monologue. One day, she knew the Avatar would return. But when? The last had disappeared 100 years ago and none had been reborn into the air nomads.
    It was frustrating! But she couldn't lose hope. Otherwise, the Fire Nation would win.
    She shoved the thoughts to the back of her mind. There was something else on her mind--she needed to practice waterbending.
   Taking a deep breath, she made a small area of the sea swirl around before rising into the air, taking a fish with it.
   "Sokka, look!"
   He shushed her. "Shh, Katara! You're gonna scare it away!" He whispered.
    "But, Sokka, I caught one!" She said, focusing on her bending.
    Sokka didn't pay attention, simply moved his spear which accidentally poked the bubble that Katara had the fish in. The fish escaped and Sokka got covered in water.
     "Why is it that everytime you play with magic water I get soaked?" Sokka asked in annoyance.
     "It's not magic." She reminded her brother. "It's waterbending. And it's--"
    "Ancient, unique to our culture. Blah blah blah." He trailed off, still annoyed. "Look, I'm just saying if I had weird powers, I'd keep them to myself."
    "You're calling me weird?" Katara asked, incredulously. "I'm not the one who makes muscles at myself everytime I see my reflection in the water."
     Sokka, who was doing that very thing, quickly cleared his throat and looked away from his reflection. All of a sudden, the rapids stirred and the two propelled forward through the water. They tried to row through the sudden rapids but two icebergs broke their boat and they had to quickly jump onto one of the icebergs.
     Soon enough, the siblings were arguing again. "You are the most sexist, immature, nutbrained--" Katara ranted. "And I'm embarrassed to be related to you!"
    Her waterbending made a huge chunk of ice break in half, not that she noticed, still ranting, now about their mother.
    "Uh, Katara?" He warned, noticing the ice breaking off in pieces.
    She continued ranting, now about his dirty socks. "No, from now on, you're on your own!"
    The ice broke completely this time, clearly in half, leaving them floating down the river. A strange blue light began glowing from beneath the water then and they watched in fascination as a huge iceberg appeared from the water.
     Inside, two figures sat indian style. One was a teenage girl a little older than Katara, with long flowing red hair, covered in blue tattoos, wearing a white dress. The other was a bald headed boy with tattoos of arrows on his hands and head, dressed like the shoalin monks.
     The tattoos glowed on the woman and when the two figures opened their eyes, they held hands and both glowed with an unnatural light.
     "They're alive! We've got to help!" Katara said, grabbing Sokka's weapon.
     "Katara, get back here!"
     Katara didn't listen and struck the iceberg multiple times until it finally broke apart. The force sent a giant light into the sky, which caught the attention of several different animals--and someone who shouldn't have found out.
                           * * * * *
     Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation stood on the boat, looking out at the light. "Finally!" He said. "Uncle, do you know what this means?"
     His uncle, an overweight old man who always had a smile on his face, responded, "I won't get to finish my game?"
     The disgraced and scarred prince turned away. "It means my search is about to come to an end." He pointed. "That light came from an incredibly powerful source! It has to be the Avatar!"
     Uncle Iroh sighed. "Or it's just lights. Don't get too excited over nothing, Prince Zuko. Sit down and have a cup of calming jasmine tea."
    "I don't need any calming tea!" Zuko bellowed. "I need to capture the Avatar! Forward!" He commanded.
                         * * * * *
     Meanwhile, the boy and girl had stood and moved towards Katara and Sokka. The girl was a bit taller than the boy but not as tall as Sokka.
    Then, they parted hands and the boy fell into Katara's arms. The girl swayed before toppling forward. Sokka ran forward and caught her.
     The boy opened his eyes and stared at Katara. Then, he spoke. "I need to tell you something. Come closer."
     Katara moved closer. "What is it?"
     "Will you...go penguin sledding with me?" He said, now opening his eyes further and hopping up in excitement as Katara said, "Uh sure. I guess."
    That's when the girl opened her eyes to see Sokka. "Hello." He said, a dopey grin on his face.
    "Hi!" She said, jumping up.
    "Rose! You're ok!" The boy said, running into her outstretched arms.
    "Aang! You made it!" She called back.
    Sokka pulled them apart. "Ok what's going on here? How'd you get in the ice? And why aren't you frozen? And how do you two know each other?"
     Rose giggled, her hair flying in the wind. "Why don't we start with the basics? I'm Rosalia but most people call me Rose."
    "And I'm Aang!" Aang said, proudly poking his thumb to his chest.
    "Aang and I are old friends." Rose continued. "He's practically a little brother to me. As for the rest..." she trailed off, looking away suddenly.
    "We have no idea how we ended up here." Aang answered.
    That's when a small shape flew by at tremendous speed. "Oh, there you are, Crystal!" Rose said with a smile.
    Crystal landed on Rose's shoulder, revealing herself to be a tiny dark purple dragon with scales that looked like tiny dark crystals.
    At that moment, a loud growl sounded from nowhere. "Appa!" Aang said, jumping on top of a giant flying bison. "Are you ok? Wake up, buddy!"
     Aang tried moving Appa until he finally licked him, waking up at last. Rose moved over and accepted her own lick. "Nice to see you too, buddy!" She said sweetly.
     "What is that?" Sokka asked Rose and Aang, referring to Crystal and Appa.
    "This is Crystal, my baby dragon."
    "And this is Appa, my flying bison."
    "And this is Katara, my flying baby sister." Sokka said, sarcastically.
     Appa then sneezed, covering Sokka in his snot, making him let out a tremendously hilarious series of noises as he hopped around, trying to clean himself.
    Rose shrugged and snapped her fingers, producing a towel. "Here." She offered.
     Sokka took the towel and cleaned himself. "Thanks. So..." He began, moving towards her, "you seem like you're far from home. Could use some protection."
    Rose smiled. "And I suppose a big, strong warrior like yourself could protect me?" She asked, playing along, fluttering her eyelashes.
    "Well..."
    She punched him in the face so fast he had no time to react! "No thanks. I think I can take care of myself."
    "You guys live around here?" Aang asked.
     Sokka jumped up. "Don't answer that. You saw the light in the sky. They could've been trying to signal the Fire Nation."
    "Oh please! You're just upset that you couldn't flirt with Rose!" Katara said.
    "It's true." Rose said. "You can tell by the evil look in Aang's eyes."
    Aang grinned, innocently.
    "But in all honesty, I'm a princess from the Aether Realm. And Aang here is an airbender who's providing me what protection I do need from enemies."
     "Great! Strange boy and girl in an iceberg. A dragon. A flying bison. An aetherbender princess. An airbender. I'm going home where stuff makes sense."
     "If you guys need a ride, Appa and I can help."
    Sokka gripped but got on with Aang and Katara. Crystal jumped off Rose's shoulder and grew until Rose was able to hop on her back. With that, they took off through the sky.
                       * * * * *
     "Zuko, you need to get rest!" Uncle Iroh reminded. "Even if the Avatar is alive, there's almost no chance you'll catch him. Your father, grandfather, and great grandfather all tried and failed."
    "Because their honor didn't hinge on the Avatar's capture." Zuko reminded his uncle. "Mine does. This coward's time for hiding is over."
                           * * * * *
     When Rose woke up, she was lying in a tent, a blanket covering her. "Where am I?" She wondered.
    Quickly, she whipped up a golden sword, preparing for a fight. That's when the flap opened and Katara and Aang entered.
     "Hey, Rose." Katara said, sweetly. "We're in the village. C'mon. The whole village is waiting to meet you both."
    She led the two to where a group of about ten women and children waited.
    "Rosalia, Aang, this is the entire village. Village, this is Rosalia and Aang."
     "Why are they staring at us?" Rose asked, pulling her fur lined cloak warmer around her.
     "Well no one has seen either an airbender or an aetherbender in a hundred years. Airbenders were thought to be extinct until my granddaughter and grandson found you." The old woman pointed at Aang. "And aetherbenders are very antisocial at the best of times."
     "Extinct?" Aang asked.
     "Antisocial?" Rose asked. "Listen here you old hag--"
     "Call me gran gran."
     "Cool sword." Sokka said, trying to touch it."
     Rose moved quickly, moving the sword from his grip and placing it at his collarbone, making him step back and scrutinize Aang's air staff instead who then showed how he could fly with it.
     "Great. You're an aetherbender, he's an airbender, and Katara's a waterbender. Together you can waste time all day long." Sokka said in annoyance, walking away.
     Katara was happy. She suspected Rose might be the Avatar but she wasn't quite sure yet...
                           * * * * *
     Zuko argued with his Uncle once more about how powerful the new Avatar must be. Then his uncle agreed to teach him.
                         * * * * *
     "We don't have time for fun when we're in the middle of a war."
     "A war?" Rose asked. "What war?"
     "You're kidding right?" Sokka asked.
     Suddenly, all they heard was Aang shout out, "Penguin!" Then he ran like his pants were on fire.
    "Is he serious?"
                        * * * * *
     "Hey, Katara! Could you help me catch one of these penguins?"
    "Sure. If Rose can help me learn to waterbend."
    "You got a deal."
    Rose's face fell. "Actually, I'm sorry. I don't know how. Can't someone from your tribe teach you?"
    It was Katara's turn to give them that look. "I'm the last waterbender of my tribe. In all of the South Pole."
    "This isn't right!" Aang said. "A waterbender should have a teacher."
    "That's a nice thought, Aang, but what's she gonna do? Go to the North Pole?"
     Aang's eyes widened. "Yea! That's a great idea!"
     "But that's on the other side of the world!" Katara protested.
     "But I have a flying bison. Appa, Rose, Crystal, and I are gonna find you a master. But first, penguin sledding."
    Then the three of them started in on the game.
                            * * * * *
     It was a fun game until they found an old Fire Nation ship. And when Katara had had to explain that, somehow, Rose and Aang were over a hundred years old. And to top it all off, they fell into an old trap.
     They got out just fine but someone found them and he was ready to capture his prize...