THE OTHER AIRBENDER (Book 1)

(VII) Fire

"Good job today," Aang says with a smile, as I slowly manage to land on the ground after creating an air vortex strong enough to lift me into the air. "You're progressing really fast!"

"Thanks."

"I'm glad to see you two training so hard," Katara notes with a smile. "But I wish Sokka was back now."

"Me too. I'm starving," I agree, earning a glare from Katara. I clear my throat awkwardly. "Yeah, and I also miss him and stuff."

As if on cue, I spot Sokka in the distance, slowly walking towards us. Aang is the first to reach him, smiling enthusiastically. "Great, you're back! What's for dinner?"

"We've got a few options. First; round nuts. And some kind of oval shaped nuts?" Sokka says, showing us his collection of round, small, clearly inedible rocks. "And some rock-shaped nuts, that might just be rocks."

Katara frowns. "Seriously... what else you got?"

Before Sokka can answer, the earth underneath us starts to quake, as if there had been a tremor.

"What was that?" Sokka quickly asks.

Another tremor.

"It's coming from over there!" Aang calls out, as we follow him all the way behind a small tree.

There's a boy earthbending some boulders, then punching them into the ravine. I suddenly understand what the tremors have been about. I gasp as he bends another one, and then, another one. I have to admit it, this boy is pretty handsome. However, I don't think his personality is quite as charming, from the angry way he controls each boulder.

"An earthbender!" Katara gasps in surprise.

"Let's go meet him!" Aang suggests.

"He looks dangerous, so we better approach cautiously," Sokka warns.

"Sokka, he'd be up against an airbender, a waterbender and the Avatar. I think we have the edge here."

"Hello there! I'm Katara! What's your name?" She quickly introduces herself with a gentle smile.

However, the boy doesn't seem as happy to see us. He quickly turns around and starts running away from us, as if he were afraid that we'd hurt him or something.

"Nice to meet you!" Aang yells.

"I just wanted to say hi," Katara says with a frown.

"Well, maybe he's shy," I suggest with a shrug.

"Hey! That guy's gotta be running somewhere. Maybe we're near a village? And I bet that village has a market!" Aang suddenly says with a smile.

"Maybe we won't have to eat Sokka's rocks for dinner after all!" I agree excitedly, earning a glare from him.

"Hey! I worked hard to get those nuts!"

We don't really listen to the rest of his muttering before speeding after the boy, running as fast as our legs can carry us. Even Momo flies behind us, probably as sick and tired of eating food so bad, it could double as a weapon.

***

The village is small, but kind of quaint. It is certainly not as flashy as the city of Omashu, but there's plenty of different food stands to choose from.

"Great hat!" Aang says, as he walks over to a shopkeeper and pulls out one of his merchandise hats. "I'll trade you some nuts for it."

"Aang, I don't think..." Before I finish, the shopkeeper surprisingly agrees and takes the nuts, leaving a giggling Aang behind.