The Lunar Warrior [ATLA FF]

Book 1: Water | 50 | The Scroll I

Katara felt like she could breathe the further they got from the market. She was certain that her brother would be fine. He always was, and this time wouldn't be any different.

What she'd done was a good thing. She'd stolen something those thugs had stolen first. Something that belonged to her people. Something that could help them, help her. The further they got, the more the weight of the object she'd taken registered in her hands.

A step in the right direction.

A chance to finally close the gap she felt.

A chance to not be the useless little sister.

Ayaan would be okay. He was strong. He was always okay, no matter what happened. He never cried when he got wounds or bruises. After the funeral of their mother, he never let an ounce of weakness break through his high walls.

When she would look at his back, she saw the strength that she wished she had. An envious power to fight through anything and everything. Perseverance.

Night after night, he'd leave for a hunt and come back. Sometimes it would be a few days before he did. But he always did. He always sat with her through her self-training and indulged her whenever she asked for something.

He could be silent for days on end without so much as a single word to her, yes. Sometimes, she could almost forget what his voice sounded like before he spoke again. But he always listened, he always came back, and he was always there.

This time would be the same, just like every other time. He would be okay, and they would continue their journey together. She would learn from this, and she would finally catch up to him. To both of them.

This was her chance to finally start being more.

She didn't think about the consequences when she saw it. She didn't heed that small voice at the back of her head telling her to just tell her brother about it. She didn't listen to it say that she should voice her concerns to him.

All of her problems would be over if she could finally learn what she wanted.

If she could learn waterbending, then everything would be worth it.

And this wouldn't just be helping her, it would help Aang, and it would help her brother too. She didn't want to think about the fact that they would probably master whatever skills it had immediately.

This was her chance.

After deciding that they flew far enough away, Aang landed them safely on the ground. With Ayaan's training, he was more than strong enough to lift them properly through his airbending, but his glider could only take so much weight.

"Will Ayaan be okay...?" Aang gazed back at where they'd flown in from.

"I'm sure he is." Sokka stated, "He'll meet us at camp. He promised he would."

"Yeah," Katara agreed, ignoring the iffy feeling that swirled at the back of her mind, "He never breaks his promises if he can help it. Besides, those guys weren't anything compared to Ayaan."

"Yeah, I guess your right," Aang said, his worry easing at their confidence. Now that everything had relatively calmed down, they were left thinking, "You know, I used to kinda look up to pirates, but those guys were terrible."

"I know," Thinking that now was as good of a time as any, Katara pulled out what she'd been hiding: The Waterbending Scroll, "That's why I took this."

"No way!" Aang stared at the precious parchment, looking between her and the scroll in both awe and worry. "When did you manage to snag this?"