And now for the long awaited first chapter! Sorry about the wait...
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"Day number... You know what? I've lost count."
Kaiden didn't care anymore. He'd been stuck in this prison for months now, maybe even a full year. Things had been very slow going for him in these past few months. He had nearly given up on trying to plan an escape. All of his planned escapes were scrapped.
He laid down on his rather uncomfortable bed and sighed. He was a pretty smart guy, but he was dead out of ideas.
He suddenly heard a door open and saw the guards bring in a new prisoner. It was a boy in dark skin, probably about Kaiden's age, maybe older. He was shoved into a nearby cell and the cell door was locked. With their jobs done, the guards left.
Kaiden looked at the guy as he sulked. After a few seconds of silence, Kaiden spoke.
"So..." he said, "What are you in for?"
The guy raised an eyebrow, "What do you think?"
"Earthbending?"
"Yep. The name's Haru."
"Kaiden. I would shake your hand, but..."
Haru laughed, "Yeah, that's gonna be a little difficult right now."
(A/N: Okay, after re-watching the episode, I learned that there aren't cells, just long rooms with sleeping bags. But just go with this please. I'm too lazy to think up something else.)
"How'd they catch you?"
"Well..." Haru's expression hardened, "I was turned in. Me and a new friend of mine helped an old man escape a mine collapse. I had to resort to earthbending to help him. But the same day, at nightfall, the old man turned me in to the Fire Nation. And now I'm here."
Kaiden sighed, "That's war for you. You never know who you can trust."
Haru nodded, "Though I can't imagine how my new friends are feeling right now..."
"Who are your friends?"
"The youngest is a boy named Aang," Haru then lowered his voice, "The Avatar."
Tyler's eyes widened, "What?! Are you sure?"
"Yes. He had the arrow tattoos and everything. His two friends were from the Southern Water Tribe, Katara and Sokka."
"..."
"Kaiden? You okay?"
"... Did... Did I hear you correctly? Katara and Sokka?"
"Yes, why?"
Tyler let out a joyful laugh, "Well, what do you know! My best friends got involved in the Avatar's business!"
"Wait, what? Your best friends?"
"You see, Haru, I'm from the Southern Water Tribe too. Katara and Sokka were the only friends I had. Then I got shipped off to war and eventually got captured here."
"Wait... You say you're from the Southern Water Tribe, correct? How'd you end up here?"
Tyler was silent for a moment, "I'll tell you sometime, just not now. I'm sure you're tired."
"True enough. Good night."
"Good night."
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The next day, Kaiden, after officially introducing himself to Haru, was out in the courtyard with some fellow older prisoners. He would always meet up with them to discuss escape, but as the days went by, they lost more hope.
Today in particular was pretty bad. Kaiden informed them that he was out of ideas. There was no way to escape without a large number of deaths.
"So that's it?" An older man, Tyro, who happened to be Haru's father, said.
"Pretty much," Kaiden sighed, "Unless someone else has a better plan?"
Nobody spoke up. Kaiden's confidence reached an all time low.
"So that's that," he concluded, "We're stuck here until this war is over..."
"It certainly seems that way," Tyro sighed.
The group sat in silence for another half hour, eating their poor excuses for dinner. Kaiden looked in Haru's direction and noticed him talking to a dark-skinned female. While he couldn't exactly see from the distance, he couldn't help but get a sense of familiarity.
Then the two began walking towards them. Kaiden went back to eating as they walked up and got his first look at the girl. He almost spit out his dinner. The skin, the face, the hair-loopies... It was Katara.
"Katara," Haru said, pointing to his father, "This is my father, Tyro. Dad, this is Katara."
"It's an honor to meet you," Katara said with a slight bow.
Kaiden watched on in silence as Tyro offered Katara a bowl.
"Have some dinner Katara," Tyro stated.
Katara gladly took the bowl, then grimaced at the smell.
"It's not as bad as it smells," Tyro assured.
Katara ate a spoonful and nearly choked on it. So Kaiden then chose to speak.
"It's still pretty bad though," he joked.
Katara looked at Kaiden and squinted her eyes at him. She didn't seem to recognize him right off the bat. After all, Kaiden had probably lost some weight from the lack of food and his hair might've been a bit longer. She decided to ignore the fact that Kaiden seemed familiar and turned back to Tyro.
"If you don't mind me asking," she asked, "What's your escape plan?"
Kaiden laughed. Katara turned to him, a glare appearing on her face.
"What?" She exclaimed, "You think this is funny?"
"Sorry Katara," Kaiden said, "But we don't have an escape plan. If there was something we could do, I would have thought of it a long time ago."
"Our plan is to wait out this war," Tyro continued, "And hope that someday we can go home and forget this ever happened."
"How can you say that?!" Katara nearly yelled, "You sound like you've already given up!"
"That's because we have," Kaiden sighed, "As much as I hate to admit it, even with what I can do, there's no way off this island without extreme losses. I can't have people dying because one of my plans went wrong."
"Your plans?" Katara said, And what do you mean, 'With what I can do'?"
Kaiden kept quiet. He then inwardly smiled, remembering Katara's stubbornness. Apparently nothing had changed.
"Do you have a better plan?" Kaiden asked, "Because if so, I'll be happy to hear it. I'm all ears."
Katara didn't respond. That was enough proof.
"That's what I thought," Kaiden then added quietly, "You haven't changed at all..."
"What was that?" She asked.
"Nothing. I'm sorry, but there's nothing we can do."
"We'll see about that."
Katara walked away and began drumming a pan to get everyone's attention. Kaiden sighed and walked away before he could hear her make a fool of herself.
'I'm truly sorry Katara,' he thought, 'But unless you've got an avalanche of rocks, there's nothing we can do.'
Kaiden retired to his cell and laid down, preparing to go to sleep. He heard a clang and saw Katara being dragged into the cell directly across from him.
'An avalanche of rocks...'
Those words kept rolling through his mind for some reason. Then his eyes widened. Kaiden looked out the window at the docked ship... and the smoke coming out of its stacks. And Kaiden then felt like an idiot.
'That's it!!'
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Sorry to leave you with that note, but hey, at least the first chapter is done! Till next time guys!
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Avatar: The First Metalbender Book 1: Water
Fanfiction|Book I| Kaiden is from the Southern Water Tribe, but that's all he'll tell you about his background unless you were a close friend, like Katara or Sokka. But even he has a secret he won't tell them. Truth is, he's a natural metalbender, able to ben...
