Chapter Text
The sea. A vast surface of deep, clear, uncharted waters, seemingly expanding everywhere around you. Without a starting point, and without an end. Deep blue nothingness that gives life, that brings things into existence, that births, but also takes, takes, takes, until you’re left with nothing, pleading and weeping on your knees for the depths to show some semblance of mercy. But no matter the impression, the sea was freedom.
Lynn Yamasato knew confinement. She has been acquainted with it from a very early age. Life by the sea would’ve seemed idyllic to the majority of people, but to her it just represented the shackles that were meant to keep her safe. So close to freedom, yet so far away. The best way to describe Lynn’s existence would be hiding in plain sight. If she were to reveal who she really was, nothing good would come out of it, only pain, so she was much safer hiding a part of herself that the world had no right to see anyway. But Lynn would be lying if she were to claim that she wasn’t suffocating.
She longed to fly. She longed to feel the wind in her hair, pressure in her eardrums, adrenaline pumping through her veins. For as long as she can remember, her heart tugged for a great adventure of her life, something larger than life itself, something that would leave her with shallow breaths and a feeling that would finally satisfy the hunger she felt for as long as she could identify the feeling. Lynn felt stuck, and all she ever longed for was to breathe freely, fully, without confinements.
So, in lack of an adventure that would take her out of her body, out of her soul, and strip her from everything she knew all her life, Lynn Yamasato found a way to compensate…
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No matter the occasion, occurrences or even the developments of the war, one thing about Seedy Merchants Pier stayed a constant, and it was that life there was always hectic. Crowds upon crowds of merchants, travellers, sailors, common folk, soldiers, or even the very few wealthy constantly roamed the expansive port, some in a determined search of a specific thing, some just taking a break from their exhausting travelling, and some just wandering the cobblestone streets and taking in all the bustle Lynn was by now quite used to.
It was just another, repetitive day in her life. That morning, her grandfather had ushered her out of the shop in order to buy some produce they were lacking for their meals that day, after which she’d just return and help him around the bookshop until it finally closed in the evening and she’d have the chance get insistent, or rather pestering enough for him to humour her with some combat training after dinner. Nothing out of the ordinary, just same old, same old.
Lynn would like to think that she was quite used to the mundane. She has had quite a good life up until now, without anything to really complain about. Sure, she longed to have some friends other than the passerby acquaintances she had the opportunity of spending a week utmost with, having lived in Seedy Merchants Pier all her life. But other than that, she should’ve been quite satisfied. She had a roof over her head, a grandfather who loved her, and quite a peaceful life spent in reading way too many books in their little bookshop and training in combat so that she’d be capable of protecting herself if it ever came to it, but also for her own enjoyment. Yet no matter how hard she tried, she’s never been quite able to tame that longing for adventure she always felt deep inside.
It was a particularly bright day outside that day, considering the fact that Winter Solstice had been celebrated just less than a week ago, so after having finished the day’s small errands, Lynn decided to take the longer way home. She always did this when she needed to clear her head, when the thoughts of confinement seemed more nagging than usual. It almost seemed rather ironic that one of the very few ways for her to not think about the incessant feeling of suffocation was walking along the harbour and looking at all those ships that got to sail the deep blue seas while she remained in the little village she has spent all seventeen years of her life at, but just the simple act of living vicariously through imagining all the places those metal vessels got to see brought the tiniest sense of normalcy back to her unremitting thoughts. There was also another reason why she decided to take this way home instead of through the market streets, the shorter path, but for now she was just content with looking at the horizon and trying to determine the place where the sky kissed the sea; she’ll get back to it tonight…
The boats lining the docks hadn’t sailed in any particular order, yet to the dark-haired girl walking alongside them, they always seemed to resemble a certain pattern that she’d come up with in that moment. Fire Navy ships, black and carrying their nation’s emblem, stood the tallest and most malicious-looking in the sea of smaller boats. Some others were wooden and belonging to pirates and sporting blood-red battened sails; some Earth Kingdom owned – usually painted in dark greens and lavishly decorated, most likely in order to represent the Kingdom’s might and wealth; while the smallest ones, typically used for fishing, were simply owned by commoners. There were also ones belonging to merchants or the wealthy, typically standing out due to either their unusual colour palette, as to communicate not being tied to any nation in particular, with purple sails or carved ornaments on the wooden front. Lynn had to admit that the port itself was also a nice place. Albeit loud and constantly buzzing with life, it was well structured with wide cobblestone streets and small market area near the pier, the air smelling of spices used in street food from all over the globe, merchants shouting and beckoning tourists and wanderers to their stalls and offering them all kinds of attention-grabbing artefacts and services. The deeper into town you set off, and the more distance you put between yourself and the vastness of the ocean, the more you’d notice the buildings become larger and well-built, with shops on the ground floor becoming less about just attention grabbing and much more about providing useful services to the passerby folk. Small lanterns hung between buildings, the same ones that’d light up once summer came and beckon wandering souls to venture trough the cobbled streets and enjoy their evenings spent in the small town on the sea. It really was no wonder that Seedy Merchants Pier was one of the best-known coastal towns in the Southern Earth Kingdom.
As the dark-haired girl stayed tangled in her thoughts, taking it all in and feeling herself begin to separate from the uneasiness she felt that morning, she noted the smell of salt and iodine that filled her lungs, and let the cold breeze tickle her soft skin, deciding to slow her step and just soak it all in. She would’ve almost enjoyed this, only if it weren’t for those imposing, godforsaken, metal contraptions along the shoreline. Spirits–
“Hey, you! Get back here!”
The sound of shouting not far ahead of her seemed to finally snap her out of her thoughts. A part of her wasn’t surprised to see that all the commotion was coming from Captain Tuluk’s pirate ship, with one of his crew members – a long-haired man named Oh – shouting down at three children. Leave it to the pirates to always cause such a scene only for a pretty copper piece.
But what made Lynn keep her attention on the trio was their unusual looks, even for a busy port such as this. The two taller ones looked alike even from a distance, both dark-skinned and wearing Water Tribe attire. Siblings, if she were to bet on it. But the smallest one of the three had a shaved head, mustard yellow robes and was carrying a stick, with some sort of a white lemur on his shoulders. But what surprised her the most were unusual, light blue markings on his head in the shape of an arrow. Could it be? No…
Without second thought, as soon as she saw them dash off in order to escape the pirates that were now after them, Lynn ran off into the alleyway parallel to the one they ventured into, knowing that they were connected by another alley normal to them. She had to get to the trio before Tuluk’s crew did.
Just as she anticipated it, the trio emerged on the other side of the alley at the same moment she did. She recognized the looks of panic written on their faces upon realizing that they were being cornered – by her on one side, and by pirates both from the alleyway they just stepped out of and from across the alleyway her and the three stood in at the moment.
“Hey, follow me!” She yelled at them. She could tell that they were hesitating, and couldn’t quite blame them for it. She, too, would be reluctant to follow a complete stranger when a bunch of other strangers were chasing after them for reasons she was yet to discover. However, their hesitance lasted only for a moment once they realized that the pirates were closing in on them, so the trio dashed past the malicious looking treasure hunters and let the dark-haired stranger lead the way.
Lynn ran down the alley before making a sharp turn to the right, with the Water Tribe boy right behind her. She heard water splash against cobblestone before cracking with frost behind her and one of the pirates moaning in frustration as they ran off. One of them must be a waterbender, she thought, but couldn’t dwell on it too much as their path was soon blocked by an Earth Kingdom merchant with a cabbage cart that took up most of the alleyway. Lynn jumped on a barrel that stood on the side of the alley, that way being able to completely avoid the merchant. The Water Tribe boy crashed with the other side of the cart, causing a few cabbages to roll off the top, the girl following right after him, while the smallest boy managed to jump between the roof of the cart and the stacked cabbages while simultaneously sending a gust of wind behind him, causing the cabbage cart to crash with the pirates that were still after them.
They made a turn to the left, leaving the merchant to grieve for his produce behind. The bald boy was now running beside her, and Lynn knew that they’d need some kind of a diversion if they were to definitely lose the pirates. So she turned to him and tried her luck, by now already having been given proof that her assumptions were, in fact, correct.
“Once we make the next turn to the right, I’ll need you to create some kind of a distraction in order for us to lose them. Can you do that?”
“Sure,” the boy replied, and a few seconds later, just as she asked him, he let his friends pass in the alley before turning to the pirates for the last time and using the staff he was carrying to push the wind up and towards the remaining three members of Tuluk’s crew, the air sending them flying backwards along with the dirt from the cobblestone paths, blinding and distracting them long enough for the four children to finally escape.
Lynn led them just a bit further down the alleyway, before opening the back door of the building that was still a mystery to the three strangers, ushering them inside with the small white creature following closely behind.
She shut the door and found herself standing across the three strangers who breathed heavily from exertion, the dark-skinned boy clutching his knees while his sister did the same with the right side of her stomach and the bald boy – an airbender, she now knew – leaning against his staff with the white lemur now perched atop his right shoulder.
It was the airbender that seemed to regain his senses first.
“I used to kinda look up to pirates but those guys are terrible.”
“Don’t worry, they’re harmless,” Lynn started, gaining the trio’s undivided attention. “They wouldn’t have hurt you, just probably wanted to collect whatever they deemed as rightfully theirs.” She unstrapped her daishō swords, setting them on the table in the centre of the small room they all found themselves in, and turned back to the trio. “So, tell me: What is the object of affection this time?”
That seemed to pull the tallest boy out of his initial shock from everything that just happened because he turned to her, rather harshly, and almost yelled: “I’m sorry, what?!”
But Lynn was the perfect picture of composure as she almost lazily gazed at him.
“They were chasing you because you either stole something or have something they want. I’m just asking what that object of affection is?”
“Look, we don’t even know you and we didn’t steal anything. Thank you for saving us from them and everything, but we really should be on our way now.”
He was just about to leave, probably expecting the younger two to follow right behind him, when the dark-skinned girl shuffled around her pocked and pulled out some kind of a scroll for the rest to see. She had a shy smile on her face, but Lynn could also see a glint of mischief in her eyes as she turned to them and held out the said object.
“Actually… You’re right,” she said, her eyes meeting Lynn’s. “I took this.”
“No way,” the airbender said, a look of disbelief on his juvenile features.
“Isn’t it great?” she excitedly asked.
It was the older boy that spoke next. “No wonder they were trying to hack us up. You stole their waterbending scroll!”
“Waterbending scroll?” Lynn asked, her curiosity now piqued even more. “Can I see it?”
“I prefer to think of it as… high risk trading,” the girl retorted to her brother while opening the scroll for Lynn to see.
At that, the airbender laughed. “Good one, Katara.”
So the girl’s name is Katara…
Katara lifted her gaze from the scroll in her hands and turned to the boy Lynn still did not know but had the assumption was Katara’s brother.
“Sokka, where do you think they got it? They stole it from a waterbender,” she stated.
“It doesn’t matter,” the boy – Sokka – returned. “You put all of our lives in danger just so you could learn some stupid, fancy splashes,” he finished, wriggling his finders in the air in order to mimic what Lynn assumed was waterbending.
“These are real waterbending forms! You know how crucial it is for Aang to learn waterbending! And she,” Katara said, pointing at Lynn, “said that we weren’t in real danger anyway.”
Sokka, however, just scoffed. “Whatever,” he said, taking a seat at the table Lynn had laid her swords and bags of produce at.
“Well, what’s done is done,” the youngest boy – Aang – started. “We have it; we might as well learn from it.”
Having been looking at the scroll until now, Lynn raised her head and looked at the pair that has just decided to put some use in the stolen scroll.
“I hate to break it to you, but these are just the basic forms. You’ll need a lot more than this if you want to learn waterbending.”
From behind her, Sokka decided to speak up.
“I’m sorry, but who are you?”
“Oh, my name’s Lynn,” she answered, giving the trio a smile which only the younger two returned.
“Right… And how do you know so much about waterbending?”
“I help my grandfather around a bookshop – the one we’re currently at.” The trio turned around themselves only realize that they were standing in a small kitchen, so Lynn gestured to the door behind her for them to realize what she was referring to. “We have some more advanced waterbending scrolls. I can show it to you if you’d like.”
“That’s okay,” Katara said, faintest bit of blush now dusting the apples of her cheeks. “Both Aang and I are beginners, so I think this one’ll do just fine until we get to the North Pole and find a real master.”
“Wait,” Lynn said, turning to Aang. “You’re learning waterbending too? Aren’t you an airbender?”
“He’s the Avatar. Surprise.” Sokka said, a tone of resignation in his voice, which seemed to annoy Katara a bit. Aang, however, gave Lynn a sheepish smile, seemingly oblivious to his friends’ staring contest.
“That is so cool!” Lynn exclaimed. “Come on, you have to meet my grandpa.”
She opened the door behind her, leading them into the shop. Once they properly stepped inside, she enjoyed the looks of amazement marring their features. She felt proud because of that.
Kenzo Yamasato’s bookshop wasn’t big by any means. It was on the smaller side compared to other shops in this part of Seedy Merchants Pier. It was, however, filled with rows upon rows of shelves backed against every wall of the shop. The shelves themselves were stacked with books – encyclopedias, history books, guides, novels, even some poetry – various scrolls, maps, and also some trinkets that travellers would trade whenever they wanted to purchase something but didn’t have the money to do so. The musky aroma of parchment lingered in the air, mixing with the smoky smell of a single candle that burned at the counter. It was a quaint shop, with a singular wooden armchair with olive green cushions atop of it – the same armchair Lynn’s grandfather sat at and read while the shop was empty for long enough that he was certain he wouldn’t be interrupted if he decided to take a break – and a Pai Sho table right beside it. The counter itself was just by the wall that the door to the kitchen led to, and Lynn found her grandfather, Kenzo, organizing various maps under it.
“Ah, Lynn, you came back,” the old man started, having looked up after hearing the door open and various footsteps patter against wood. He gazed at the three children that now stood next to his granddaughter and offered them a friendly smile. But he couldn’t stop his eyes from lingering on the smallest of the bunch, not quite believing in what he was seeing.
The man behind the counter was undeniably old, but not as withered by age as one might’ve thought. Once he turned towards the newcomers, Kenzo Yamasato stood straight, commanding attention as if though he was more than just a humble bookshop owner. Although the three children noticed the same air of importance linger around Lynn when they first met her, her stance was much more leisurely than her grandfather’s. He was gauging them all expectedly, his dark amber eyes, identical to the ones his granddaughter possessed, assessing them as if he already knew what has happened and was just waiting for them to confirm his speculations. But Kenzo’s face didn’t carry a stern expression either. Much like the interior of the bookshop itself, its owner had a kind expression on his face. His hands were clasped in front of him. His grey hair tied back into a long braid while his mustache and beard seemed to make his expression even more welcoming to the trio. He wore Earth Kingdom robes, not exactly the kind the wealthy could afford, but certainly not cheap ones either. But even with all the contradictions regarding the merchant before them, the children could tell that he meant them no harm.
“Grandpa, these are Katara, Avatar Aang and Sokka,” Lynn said, gesturing to each person on her right as she spoke. Then she turned to them. “This is my grandfather,” she made the quickest eye contact with the man, a kind that could easily be missed by the untrained eye, “Kenzo.”
“The Avatar,” Kenzo repeated, bringing his hands together into an Earth Kingdom hand greeting and bowing slightly to the boy before him. “It is an honour to have you in my home.”
Aang, having been raised by monks to show respect to the elders, returned the greeting with his fists against each other. “Thank you,” he answered. “Please, call me Aang.”
“Of course. What brings you to my humble shop, may I ask? The Avatar hasn’t been seen for a century, I certainly wouldn’t have expected him to pay a visit to Seedy Merchants Pier, even less to a small shop such as ours.”
“They were being chased by Tuluk’s pawns, Grandpa–– ”
“ ––Not surprising.”
“ ––because they stole a waterbending scroll. I helped them escape, but I still don’t understand why they were so set on catching them, since the scroll has only the beginner forms.” Aang, Sokka and Katara, along with Lynn’s grandfather were all looking at her as she trailed off and started rummaging through a stack of scrolls on one of the bottom shelves next to the Pai Sho table. Then, she pulled a few from the bunch, and Aang and Katara could only guess what they were. “Anyway,” Lynn started, turning to them, “these have more advanced moves. I know you said that you’re only beginners, but that doesn’t stop you from at least looking at them.”
“Oh, uhh,” Katara started, accepting the scrolls the taller girl handed her, a rosy tinge making its way to her cheeks again. “Thanks.”
“No problem. Would you like some tea?”
“I’d love some tea,” Aang quipped excitedly from Katara’s right.
“Great. We have a really good jasmine blend. I’ll call you when I finish making lunch,” she added to her grandfather, to which he nodded, and followed the trio back into the small kitchen that they were occupying just minutes ago.
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As it turns out, it only took Lynn a few minutes to brew a pot of tea for the three travellers and offer Sokka some biscuits along with it for the Water Tribe boy’s spirits to lift, even if only slightly. Still, the four of them found themselves huddled around the low table in a small kitchen, with Lynn being closest to the counter and having to turn around every once in a while in order to prepare the meal for the company that has accepted the offer to join her grandfather and her for it. Sokka was pretending to sharpen his boomerang while simultaneously enjoying the bits of food laid in out in front of him while Katara and Aang inspected the scrolls Lynn had lend them earlier, and Aang’s flying lemur – whose name Lynn had learned was Momo – tried to steal food from her hands whenever she wasn’t paying it proper attention, having instead decided to get to know the Avatar and the Water Tribe siblings a bit better.
In the short amount of time Lynn learned that Aang had escaped the attack inflicted upon his people and had been stuck in an iceberg close to the South Pole for a hundred years, which was a miracle in it of itself, but still somewhat explained how he was the only living airbender when the world hasn’t seen one ever since the genocide started by Fire Lord Sozin. They also explained to her how Sokka and Katara have accidentally found him when they went fishing one day less than a month ago and how it had been Katara’s waterbending that freed Aang from the iceberg he was stuck in this whole time. It was now their mission to reach the North Pole, where Katara and Sokka’s sister tribe lain, and find Aang a waterbending master since Katara couldn’t teach him waterbending as she herself was only a beginner – being the sole bender in her tribe and then not having anyone who could teach her herself.
“What about you?” Aang asked. “Are you a bender by any chance?”
“No.”
Lynn felt uneasy under Aang’s innocent gaze, but it seemed that none of them have noticed the slightest tone of hesitation in her voice.
“But you were so fast back there when we were running away from the pirates. Surely you must have some kind of skill.”
“My grandfather taught me some self-defence,” she explained. “The closer you go towards the harbour, the sketchier the merchants become, so I kind of had to learn it from an early age. The speed, however, is just from me having to run away from the bunch such as Tuluk’s pirates more often than not.”
Aang looked almost disappointed… as if he was expecting some kind of a different answer.
But it was Sokka who spoke next. “Wait… So are you, uhh… a thief?”
“No! Spirits, no. I just like causing trouble every once in a while,” she answered with a cheeky grin.
“Well,” Katara started, deciding to side with Lynn, “even if she was, those pirates deserved what they got.”
Sokka just grumbled in response and took another bite out of the biscuit in his hand. Then, he opened his mouth again and decided to speak without first swallowing the bite he took.
“What do you do around here anyway?” the boy asked curiously.
“I mostly help my grandfather around the shop. Organize the shelves, dust around, go to town to buy something when the shop’s busy. Read, a lot actually,” she added with a chuckle.
Aang seemed to be deep in thought after that.
“Doesn’t it get – I dunno – lonely?”
“… Sometimes. But it’s fine,” she answered, giving him a reassuring smile. But it seemed as if she was trying to comfort herself more than ease the group’s worry now evident on their faces. “I mean, I’ve had a couple of friends before, but they were all just travellers so we were never really close ‘cause they all eventually had to leave. But the time spent with them was nice.”
“Where are your parents?” Katara quietly asked.
“I never knew my father. He left before I was even born. Grandpa says he was a coward.” There was a slight pause before Lynn continued again. “My grandmother was killed by the Fire Nation and mom died giving birth to me, so it was always just my grandfather and I. I don’t mind though,” she quickly added, noticing the fallen expressions all three now bore. “We’ve always been close, and he’s given and taught me everything I know.”
Lynn knew what the three were feeling now. They were pitying her. She didn’t want that though. She’s already made peace with herself about her life, and she was quite satisfied with how it turned out, a part of her knowing how it would’ve been if circumstances were any different. She didn’t want to dwell on the thought too much. Doing so wouldn’t be fair to her grandfather, the man who had given up everything of his past in order for his family, now the word being a synonym to solely Lynn, to live in some resemblance of a peace he himself never got the chance to experience.
The girl was thankful that right in that moment, as she was finished telling Aang, Katara and Sokka the details of her circumstances, she was also finished with preparing the meal – even a bowl of fruit for Momo, which he eagerly accepted as soon as she set in in front of him and started munching on the cut up pieces of the same fruits that he was trying to nick from her up until now.
The meal today was different from what Lynn and her grandfather usually had. It was still abundant with spices that the two family members were used to, but she kept in mind that the Water Tribe siblings were not familiar with this type of cuisine (no matter how much it seemed that Sokka had no problem with eating pretty much anything set in front of him) and that Aang was vegan – something that the airbender had told her as soon as the tree accepted the offer to stay for lunch. Lynn was a decent cook, not particularly good by any means, just good enough to satisfy her taste buds. But even she had to admit that she had outdone herself that day. She certainly didn’t make a feast in any traditional sense, but there was much more food than what she would’ve usually prepared if it were just her and her grandfather sharing a meal. She had put much thought into making Aang some vegan dumplings, while the rest of them enjoyed some smoked salmon-koi that she got a good deal on today with rice and seasonings. She called her grandfather into the kitchen and the five of them all took a seat around the low table, with Momo squeezing in between the Southern Water Tribe siblings as to not feel left out, and enjoyed the meal laid out before them.
Just as Lynn expected, Sokka devoured the food in front of him, and it was not long before he relaxed in his seat, stomach full, and scanning the rest of their plates to see if either Katara or Aang would leave a bite or two for him. But the younger two paid him no mind. They politely answered Kenzo Yamasato’s questions, deciding that the old man’s wisdom could be of some use when he started explaining them the nature of his job. He told them that having a bookshop that also provided maps and other useful things that the clientele who frequented Seedy Merchants Pier could benefit from had its own perks. Having come in contact with so many different people from all across the globe that happened to stumble upon the shop every day left him with a memory full of knowledgeable folk and useful information regarding the progress of the war inflicted upon the world during the past century. It wasn’t every day that he learnt about the movement of Fire Nation’s troops or their latest conquests, but it was, however, the state that those happenings left Earth Kingdom in. Civilians ran before the army, not caring about what they brought with them anymore, just wanting to escape the terror that would’ve otherwise been inflicted on them. But they carried memories – memories of the horrible events that they tried to escape but seemed to haunt them no matter how far they went. It was those stories, stories of the common folk that could almost be deemed as cowardly, but were still brave enough to survive, to continue living day after day, no matter how difficult life got, that Kenzo remembered and decided to share with the Avatar.
A part of Aang felt the guilt crawling at his insides. It was him who was too cowardly to stand up to Fire Lord Sozin all those years ago. It was him who let this happen. It was him that essentially brought suffering upon these innocent people. It was him who had disappeared from the face of Earth when he was needed the most. But what could have he done? He was only a child! He is still just a child! No child should carry the burden of saving the world on its shoulders, Avatar or not. So when Lynn’s grandfather started telling Aang about those who stood up to the Fire Nation, who fought to protected their home even though they knew there was not even an ounce of hope, who were ready to die protecting their loved ones, Aang felt the guilt slowly dissipate and a different kind of feeling bubble in his stomach. It was determination to help those people, to defeat the Fire Lord, and restore balance to the world.
Just this morning Aang felt uneasy after finding out that the fate of the world has been thrust upon his shoulders, and that he had to defeat the Fire Lord by summer’s end. He was scared, lost. He started panicking because he did not know where to even start with his waterbending lessons, and he needed to master it before even starting to practice earthbending or even firebending for that matter. And with the state of the world right now, he wasn’t even sure if he’d ever be able to find a firebending master who’d be willing to teach him instead of burning him alive. But after hearing Lynn’s grandfather’s words, hearing that people still believed, still had hope, he was determined to succeed. No matter what it took, no matter the difficulties, he will succeed. He will defeat the Fire Lord and restore balance to the world. It was his duty, his destiny.
Soon enough, the lunch was over, and it was Aang, Katara and Sokka’s time to return to their camp by the waterfall.
“It was a pleasure meeting you all,” Lynn said, bowing to the trio in a sign of goodbye. “Good luck on your journey, Aang.”
However, it didn’t feel quite right.
“Actually…” Aang started, almost hesitantly. He did not know how the teenager would react, but he had to ask. “I was thinking… Would you like to come with us?”
Both Lynn, Katara and Sokka were taken aback by his question. There was a collective What? uttered by the three teenagers, all in their respective voices. The situation seemed to amuse Kenzo Yamasato, who stood at the side and watched the situation unfold before him, while the twelve-year-old Avatar just offered them all a sheepish smile.
“I don’t know why, but I feel that you’re somehow important to me,” Aang added.
“You’re serious?” Lynn whispered in disbelief. She was still trying to comprehend what was happening, but every word that could even in the slightest bit describe what she was feeling at that moment seemed to evaporate from her mind. Could this be the life-changing adventure she has been waiting for all along?
“Yes,” Aang replied, gaining back his childish confidence.
“Of course I’ll come with you,” Lynn said, which made both Aang and Katara excited while Sokka just chuckled in relief. “But I need to pack first. Wait for me, it won’t be long,” she added before running up the stairs to her room.
Lynn was exhilarated. That out of body feel, the adventure of her life, it was finally happening. The shackles have been broken. She could feel the wings spreading, her heartbeat drumming in her ears, the blood pumping in her veins with newfound zest. She could finally fly.
The dark-haired girl wasted no time packing. She knew that she could only bring necessities. So she grabbed a bag and secured a sleeping bag to it. It was old, black, with golden stitching. It belonged to her grandfather. Inside her pack, she put some clothing – all of the clean underwear she had (even with two waterbenders as her friends now, who knows when she’ll get the chance to wash her clothes again), some tunics and pants for warmer weather, some for the colder climates (they did mention that they were heading to the North Pole). She also put some money, she suspected they’d be needing it. She was just about to leave the room when in the spur of the moment, she glanced back, and her gaze fell on her writing desk. Without much thought, she grabbed the book on it and thrust it inside her pack. Then she slid the door behind her, saying goodbye to the room she grew up in.
When she walked down the stairs, she found Aang, Katara and Sokka waiting for her, Momo somewhat impatiently perched on the older boy’s shoulder. However, Lynn’s grandfather was the one closest to the stairs, and as soon as she walked into the small kitchen, he turned to her.
“Lynn, can I have a word with you?”
The young girl nodded and followed her grandfather into the shop. He took one of the waterbending scrolls she had showed Katara that morning, as well as another scroll similar to that and handed it to her. Then, he pulled out a box from underneath the counter and held it in front of her to take.
“Grandpa–– ” she hesitated.
“She would’ve wanted you to have it, Lynn. I want you to have it.”
She took the box out his hands, tracing the delicate carving on the black oak with her long fingers. Then she nodded, more to herself than to her grandfather, and put the scrolls and the box inside her bag. The tears were threatening to spill down her face, so she pulled the man in front of her into a firm hug, wanting to hide the state of her distress from him.
“I am so proud of you,” Kenzo said, stroking her dark wavy hair with one hand and holding her close to his chest with his other hand.
After a moment, she pulled away, offering him a teary smile. She did try to stop this from happening, but there was no way of holding the sole tear that slid down her cheek to stay in place. She quickly wiped it away, knowing that she would just break her grandfather’s heart if she left like this.
“Always remember who you are,” he whispered to her with a pat of her shoulder and a significant smile on his face.
“I will,” she said, huffing a laugh.
They walked back into the kitchen, the trio standing in the same places Lynn and Kenzo left them.
“Ready?” Katara asked.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Good luck on your journey, children,” Kenzo said as Lynn strapped the daishō swords back to her waist. “May the spirits guide you on your way.”
With one last bow, they left. They walked out of the back door, just as how they entered that morning, and found themselves in a small dead alley with the camp kilometres away from where they stood.
“I suppose you don’t have a way of flying us all the way to the North Pole,” Lynn started, turning towards Aang.
But the boy merely smirked and tapped his staff against the cobblestone, the wooden stick turning into an airbender glider before Lynn’s eyes. “Actually, I have. First time flyers, hold on tight!”
───── ˗ˋˏ ✹ ˎˊ˗ ─────
Out of all things that Lynn expected to experience at least once in her lifetime, an airbender flying her while she held onto his legs for dear life was certainly not on her list. She never would’ve thought she would ever even get to meet an airbender, let alone that airbender being the Avatar at the mere age of twelve, but today proved her that miracles do happen and that she’ll never actually know what fate has in store for her until it actually happened, but flying over the vastness of the Southern Earth Kingdom still felt like a dream. A surreal, blood-curdling, terrifying dream.
Lynn held onto Aang’s legs for dear life. No matter how strong her grip usually was, nor how much the boy himself reassured her that she was doing fine and that they almost made it to the camp, she still felt as if she was going to fall at any given moment. It seemed that Sokka wasn’t doing much better from next to her. While Lynn was terrified of the whole experience, especially with it being her first time, she still managed to peel her eyes open, even if only for a bit, and peek at the passing nature beneath her. It was beautiful, she thought. Sokka, however, held onto Aang’s left arm like his life was depending on it – which it was – and decided to scream the whole time. Later in the evening, Lynn wondered if the boy would’ve managed to dislocate Aang’s shoulder if the ride were any longer.
It took a moment for Lynn to compose herself once they landed. When she was sure that all of her limbs were in place, she decided to look up and turn around herself. The camp was breathtaking. During all seventeen years of her life, Lynn had never been this deep into the wilderness, so she was quite mesmerised by all the nature surrounding her at that moment. The first thing that caught her eye was the waterfall, a giant body of clear blue water falling into the river a few feet away from where they stood. Then she noticed the trees, lush with leaves and standing tall all around them. It was as if the Solstice wasn’t merely a week ago. She could hear the birds chipping from inside trees’ crowns. She could smell the wildflowers that surrounded them and pick out which ones they were. She’s never seen so many colours in her life. She could almost feel the nature breathing, welcoming her. She really was at a loss for words.
She couldn’t dwell on the feeling too much because, soon enough, she was snapped out of her thoughts by a deep and low rumbling coming from inside of the trees. Katara, Aang and Sokka heard it too because they turned towards it at the exact same moment, with Aang running towards the sound and hauling himself onto its source. What emerged from the forest, however, left Lynn speechless and glued to the spot. It took only a second for her to find herself staring at the giant, white, buffalo-like creature with six legs, curling horns and a tan arrow on its head. Lynn could not quite believe her eyes. Not because of the creature’s size, nor its appearance, but because of the simple fact that she found herself standing in front of a fully grown flying bison – a species that was up until recently believed to be extinct. There was no guessing as to who was the owner of this enormous white furball.
Sensing Lynn’s shock at the discovery, much similar to Katara and Sokka’s only a month ago, Aang slid down from the bison’s head, took one side of the reins in his hand, and walked up to the teenage girl that was still ogling at his companion.
“Lynn,” he started, drawing the girl’s attention to himself. “This is Appa, my flying bison.” Then he turned to the creature and continued, as if introducing the girl to it much like she did him to her grandfather that same morning. “Appa, this is Lynn, my new friend. Don’t worry, he’s harmless.”
At Aang’s words, Lynn gulped, and just nodded her head slightly.
“Can I… touch him?”
“Of course!” the airbender replied eagerly, pulling Appa’s head closer to the girl’s now outstretched hand.
Lynn offered her palm to Appa to sniff it, telling herself that this was no different from when she did it to panther-kittens in dead alleys of Seedy Merchants Pier. And it really wasn’t. After a moment of Appa sniffing the girl’s palm, he nuzzled his big grey snout into it and decided that the newcomer could be trusted. What caused Lynn to shriek in surprise was when, just a moment after, he opened his enormous mouth and decided to lick her from calves upwards. This gesture, however, just seemed to amuse the Aang, Sokka and Katara to no end.
“This just means he likes you,” the airbender explained between laughs.
“Ahh… hilarious,” declared Sokka amusedly, pretending to wipe a tear from the corner of his eye. “Well, we should probably set up the camp before evening.”
The rest of them followed him to a small clearing secluded by the woods on the sides and a cliff in the back. The older three decided to lay down their sleeping bags while Aang offered to collect some firewood for the log they’d make in the evening. It was indeed nearing sunset, Lynn noted once the young airbender returned with a heap of mostly dried twigs in his arms. They made a small campfire, just enough to warm them a bit, as the air by the river was much colder than back at the harbour. The four of them sat around and decided to just talk for a bit in order to pass the time before Katara pulled out the waterbending scroll, the same one that resulted in them entering each other’s lives just hours before. She unrolled the said parchment and set it on a stump behind her.
“Why don’t we practice a bit before nightfall, Aang? I just wanna try this one move and then it’s all yours,” the dark-skinned girl said, peering at the parchment in front of her and trying to understand the movement as best as she could. “Here, hold it open for me,” she added, thrusting the scroll into Aang’s hands as he was the closest and walking a bit towards the river behind her.
“The single water whip – looks doable!”
Katara turned towards the water, widening her stance and leaning onto her left leg with her arms outstretched over the river bank. She brought her hands and widened them, the water following her movement, but as she went to turn her right hand, the lifted water slapped her across her forehead.
Sokka laughed from his spot on one of the rocks near the bank, which just made Katara glare at him and turn ever so slightly to ask: “What’s so funny?”
“I’m sorry, but you deserved that,” he said before turning to Aang who found himself in between the siblings. “You’ve been duped. She’s only interested in teaching herself.”
“Aang will get his turn once I figure out the water whip,” Katara declared, a hint of annoyance in her voice. She tried the movement once again, but instead of succeeding, the bit of water she bended slapped Momo from behind, the small lemur shrieking in protest from his place on one of the rocks in the shallows. “Ugh! Why can’t I get this stupid move?!”
“You’ll get it,” Aang reassured, making his way to the river himself, his calmness having annoyed Katara even more. “You just gotta shift your way through the stances,” he explained while effortlessly performing the water whip. “There. See? The key to bending is–– ”
But Katara was having none of it.
“Will you please shut your airhole?!” she yelled, stomping over to the boy. “Believe it or not, your infinite wisdom gets a little old sometimes! Why don’t we just throw the scroll away since you’re so naturally gifted?!”
“Katara–– ” Lynn started.
“What?”
There was a moment of silence before Katara looked back at Aang and saw his crestfallen face. His bottom lip was quivering and tears threatened to spill from his eyes.
“Oh my gosh, Aang. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me,” the young waterbender tried in a much gentler voice, quickly making her way back towards the scroll. “But you know what – it won’t happen again. Here, this is yours,” she said, handing Aang the rolled up parchment. “I don’t wanna have anything to do with it anymore.”
“It’s okay, Katara,” Aang gently reassured.
“What about Momo?” Sokka quipped, gesturing to the small creature that was rubbing his bottom in order to soothe the slap-induced pain. “He’s the real victim here.”
“I’m sorry, Momo,” Katara apologized, lowering herself next to the creature in order to pet his pointy but now downturned ear.
“And what about Lynn? You didn’t really give a good first impression back there. Or about me? There was that time you–– ”
“No more apologies!” Katara declared, causing Momo to jump away from her. She got up from the ground and decided to sit alone by the river bank, not far away from where the rest of them stood. Aang wanted to make his way over to her, but Lynn lightly placed her hand on his shoulder as if to say that Katara probably needed some time alone.
It was getting darker by that point, so Aang, Sokka and Lynn made their way back to their sleeping bags and decided to get a bit warmer by the fire. The young airbender made his way over to Appa, offering the bison a sole apple he had found while collecting firewood, while the older two sat on their sleeping bags.
“She’s not always like this, y’know,” Sokka started, shuffling around in order to get comfortable. “She was just annoyed the whole day because it took Aang only a few tries to learn everything she has been teaching herself ever since she discovered she can bend.”
“It’s fine, really,” Lynn reassured him, noticing how serious he was at that moment. “I suppose it wasn’t easy having to be the only waterbender in the tribe. I guess she never had anyone to confide in.”
“Yeah… she didn’t.”
They fell into a comfortable silence after that, only exchanging a few words once Aang set in his own sleeping bag and offered some of the food Lynn’s grandfather packed while she was in her room that day. Sokka eagerly accepted, as did Katara, once it got too dark for her to sit alone by the river. Soon after that they fell asleep, the events of the day having drained each of them in their own way. It was only a moment after Lynn tucked her right arm beneath her head that she fell asleep, falling into a world filled with scrolls, lush greenery, chilling streams and waterfalls, and soaring through the sky on a flying bison’s back.
───── ˗ˋˏ ✹ ˎˊ˗ ─────
It was almost sunrise when Lynn awoke again. It took her a moment to realize where she was, but once she turned around and noticed Aang’s lying body close to his bison’s and registered Sokka’s light snores, she almost sighed a breath of relief. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe that it was all real, but just that yesterday’s occurrences haven’t fully sunk in that a part of her still thought that it had all been merely a dream.
She would’ve probably fallen back asleep at that moment, but then she noticed that Katara wasn’t in her sleeping bag. She decided to get up and look for the girl, maybe even talk to her and get to know her a bit better before the boys woke up. As she flattened some creases on her brown tunic that made its way into the material during the night, she gauged that she should probably look for Katara by the water. The girl must’ve probably woken up earlier and made her way towards the shore in order to finally learn the water whip, so Lynn decided to do the exact same.
As she was making her way through some oak trees by the river, Lynn noticed something that certainly had no reason of being there. It was Captain Tuluk’s pirate ship, along with a small Fire Navy vessel not far from it. Then she heard a distinct Tell me where he is, quickly followed by a familiar voice angrily yelling No!
After last evening, Lynn was quite certain that she could place Katara’s anger from a mile away, so she hurried down the shore and found herself in a small clearing, with less than ten Fire Nation soldiers in front of her, Captain Tuluk accompanied by his pirates across from them, Katara tied to a tree between those two crowds, and a single Fire Nation soldier standing in front of the tied girl, his shoulders straight and hands behind his back.
“Enough with this necklace garbage,” she heard the pirate captain say. “You promised the scroll!”
At that, the soldier in front of Katara pulled something from behind his back – the waterbending scroll, Lynn suspected – and held it in front of the pirates with his other hand conjuring up a flame beneath it. “I wonder how much money this is worth,” he taunted, earning a collective gasp from the pirates across from him.
Lynn had at that point crept up close enough to the group without being noticed, so she decided to speak up, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to free Katara without making herself known anyway.
“Not a lot, considering that it’s been ripped in a few places,” she said, voicing one of the observations she made when Katara showed her the scroll the previous morning.
At the sound of her voice, unfamiliar to some while the opposite for others, everyone’s heads instantly snapped to look at her.
“Who are you?” the soldier holding the scroll snapped. Upon closer look, Lynn realised that she found herself in front of a boy, no older than herself, clad in an intricate burgundy uniform. Even in the early morning, without the sun having risen yet and the only source of light coming from the hissing flame in his outstretched palm, Lynn noticed that his skin was exceptionally pale. His head was shaven with only a clump of black hair tied back in a ponytail that meant to symbolize his status. The hairstyle looked ridiculous on him, Lynn noted, but paid it no further attention as her gaze lingered and then decided to stick on his face. His features were sharp, eyebrow full, and his lips would’ve been almost beautiful if they weren’t set into a deep frown while he kept his gaze back at her. But what stood out the most was none of the listed, but rather a deep, red scar that stretched over the majority of the left side of his face. It was scrunched, red around the edges, seeping into burgundish and purply shades closer to his eye. The eye itself was pulled back by the scar tissue, without an eyebrow above it, and the scar stretched all the way up to the tip of his ear. It almost looked like a… burn.
Instead of giving him the demanded answer, Lynn decided to humour only herself and bluff for a bit until she figured out a way to free Katara.
“Oh, don’t mind me. I’m just a simple girl, taking a stroll through the woods. Carry on.”
Her one-woman show, however, did not last for too long. As soon as Captain Tuluk came back to his senses, it was him who spoke over the now fuming soldier.
“Quit with the games, girl!” he threatened, before turning to his crew. “Men, charge!”
As Lynn pulled out her swords, fighting of the pirates, she noticed the Fire Nation soldier give his men a nod towards her. Soon enough, she wasn’t fighting just the harbour rats, but also military trained men that were ready to inflict the worst of pains upon her if they needed to. She was blocking their attacks with ease, disarming the pirates and throwing their swords and spears out of their reach with just her katana and wakizashi. She was light on her feet, agile, but stood her stance when she needed to. At one point, she came face to face with the pirate captain himself and decided to humour him with a simple jab while they more so sparred than actually fought.
“Hurts when someone knows how much your stolen merchandise’s worth, doesn’t it, Captain?”
He was just about to hit her with his own sword when one of the Fire Nation soldiers grabbed him by the neck with his spear and yanked him backwards. And with that, she was left surrounded by soldiers, all of which holding up flames in their hands, ready to attack her if she made even the smallest of moves.
Realizing her position, Lynn brought the swords back into their sashes around her waist and held up her hands. “Alright, you got me,” she said while one of the soldiers behind her came up and grabbed her wrists in order to tie them.
“Lynn, no!” Katara yelled, but no one paid her even an ounce of attention.
“Uncle, hold her!” the scarred soldier ordered, followed by an older man taking her hands out of the grasp of a helmeted soldier who tied her. The man who now held her appeared to be old, however a bit younger than her grandfather, she noticed. He was a tiniest bit shorter than her, with a long greying beard and a top knot, but the only one in just simple robes instead of an armour. His grasp wasn’t tight, it almost seemed as though he was bored by his nephew’s antics, but Lynn noticed that his palms were warm on her wrists. A firebender, she noted.
“Now,” the scarred boy said, turning back to the pirates still recovering from their defeat. “You help me find what I want. You’ll get this back, and everyone goes home happy. Search the woods for the boy and meet back here!”
“Fine,” Captain Tuluk grumbled, him and his crew disappearing into the woods most likely in search for Aang.
As soon as they disappeared from sight, the young soldier turned back to Lynn and got really close to her face. The frustrated growl that went past his lips told her just how much trouble she was causing him, which just made her smirk in success.
“Who are you?!” he bellowed, leaning even closer. With the sun rising and illuminating the right side of his face, she managed to get an even better look at him. In the morning light, his eyes shone like they were made out of pure gold, with dark thick lashes only on his right eye casting shadows down his cheekbone.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Lynn retorted, enjoying his frustration to no end. Just as a part of her expected, the soldier growled in frustration once again, and even Katara huffed a laugh at that from her spot by the tree.
It was the man holding her, soldier’s uncle, that spoke next. “Now, now, Prince Zuko. Show some kindness to the young lady in our custody,” he told his nephew. Prince? She was being held captive by the prince of the Fire Nation? Then the man holding her, his uncle, could only be––
Her thoughts were soon interrupted by the pirates’ return, the crew dragging Aang and Sokka along with them. They quickly tied the two boys up and held them out for the prince, similarly to how Lynn was currently being held. Prince Zuko turned away from her, and made his way towards his prey, tapping the waterbending scroll against his right palm.
“Nice work,” he said, a tone of satisfaction in his voice. Sokka struggled to somehow free his wrists while Aang gulped, taking in Zuko’s glee and preparing for the worst.
“Aang, this is all my fault,” Katara tried, still struggling against the tree.
“No, Katara, it isn’t,” the boy reassured.
“Yeah,” prince’s uncle started from behind Lynn. She was now positive that he was General Iroh – the great Dragon of the West. “It kind of is.”
“Give me the boy!” Prince Zuko demanded.
“You give us the scroll,” Captain Tuluk shot back before adding, “and the girl.”
The Fire Nation Prince turned back and cast a quick glance towards her, and Lynn took it as her opportunity to buy them some time and confuse the greedy pirates for a moment before at least one of them figures out a way to escape their confinements. “You’re seriously gonna hand over the Avatar for a stupid piece of parchment?” she called.
“Don’t listen to her! She’s trying to turn us against each other!” Prince Zuko warned the pirates.
But it was already too late, because when she made eye contact with Sokka, she saw that he had figured out what he was trying to do and that he was ready to play the part.
“Your friend is the Avatar?” Tuluk sceptically asked.
At that, the Water Tribe boy quipped. “Sure is! And I’ll bet he’ll fetch a lot more on the black market than that fancy scroll.”
“Shut your mouth, you Water Tribe peasant!” the prince yelled.
“Does he seriously have no manners?” Lynn muttered to herself, causing his uncle to just sigh in resignation from behind her.
“I’m just saying,” Sokka continued, “it’s bad business sense. Just imagine how much the Fire Lord would pay for the Avatar. You guys would be set for life!”
It seemed as though Sokka had succeeded in his sweet talk, because in the next moment, Captain Tuluk turned back towards the prince and yelled, “Keep the scroll! We’ll buy a hundred from the reward we’ll get for the kid.”
With that, the pirates left, dragging Aang and Sokka along with them, leaving Prince Zuko visibly fuming at his spot. “You’ll regret breaking a deal with me!” the prince called, him and the two soldiers closest to him shooting up flames towards the group.
The pirates now decided to attack, with Oh jumping forward and throwing smoke bombs towards the enraged prince. Fire Nation soldiers charged towards Aang and Sokka, but the rest of Tuluk’s crew came to their rescue, trapping the soldiers and themselves in another cloud of smoke so that the soldiers wouldn’t be able to make them out easily.
Lynn was just about to yank her hands out of General Iroh’s grasp when she felt the man himself untie her wrists. She turned around in confusion, but the old General offered her a warm smile and answered the question she didn’t even get to ask. “I am much too old to be fighting you, young lady,” he explained, before adding, “I have a feeling we’ll soon be meeting again.”
With one last look towards the man, she dashed towards Katara, pulling out the sword and cutting the ropes that held the younger girl this whole time.
“Thanks,” Katara said. “Come on, let’s find them.”
At that moment, she heard Sokka yell out from somewhere inside the cloud of smoke “Aang, are you there?”
The airbender’s head peaked out on top of the cloud, closer to where Lynn and Katara were standing, and called back. “I’m over here, follow my voice” he said. The girls just exchanged a look, both knowing that it wouldn’t work but still making their way towards Aang. The young airbender made the cloud dissipate from around him and the girls saw him surrounded by both pirates and Fire Nation soldiers before he bent the smoke back around himself. When they heard Aang yell to Sokka that he’ll find the older boy, they decided to do the same and went around the cloud of smoke and the battle happening inside it.
Katara and Lynn reached Tuluk’s ship by the time Aang and Sokka caught up to them. They were trying to get it back in the water when the boys stopped next to them and Aang acknowledged that they’re both alright.
But Katara wasn’t about to waste time chatting. “Help us get this boat back in the water so we can get out of here,” she told the boys and they quickly joined the two girls in pushing the boat back into the water.
“It’s no use,” Lynn stated once she noticed that their efforts were in vain.
“We need a team of rhinos to budge this ship,” Sokka added.
His comment, however, seemed to spark an idea in the airbender’s head. “A team of rhinos,” he started, turning towards Katara, “or… two waterbenders.”
Katara smiled back at Aang in gratitude, but they had no time to waste, so Aang and Katara took their stances on either side of the ship and started pulling the water over the river bank while Lynn and Sokka continued pushing the boat next to them.
Once they got the boat into the water, they quickly made their way towards it in the shallows and climbed the ladder to the deck. They let the flow carry them down the river, with Sokka taking a spot behind the wheel, when Aang noticed the pirates catching up to them using the Fire Navy ship.
“Sokka, can’t you make it go any faster?” the airbender called.
“I don’t know how. This thing wasn’t made by the Water Tribe.”
“Give me that,” Lynn stepped in. “And go tighten that sail.” She tried to steer away from the unwanted company, but with the lack of wind and the same company’s vessel burning coal while they just had the current to carry them, it was an obvious defeat.
The pirates jumped overboard, but Aang quickly waterbended a wave and threw them back into the river. One of the pirates – Sho – was still left standing, and Katara did not have much time to think, only enough of the lingering water to conjure a water whip. She succeeded this time, and threw the remaining pirate overboard.
“Hey! You did the water whip!” Aang excitedly acknowledged.
“I couldn’t have done it without your help,” the girl replied.
It was Sokka who snapped them out of it. “Will you two quit congratulating each other and help me out?” he yelled from a headlock he was being held in. Lynn, who in that moment threw Kisha – another pirate – overboard, ran up to the boy and fought Oh and Chen until they let go of the boy, with Momo and Tuluk’s parrot-lizard dashing past them. Lynn managed to distract Oh and kick him into the river with her leg, while Aang came to Sokka’s rescue and airbended Chen out of the way. Lynn came to help Sokka up on his feet, but she saw Katara stare into the distance.
“Aang, look!” the young waterbender yelled, pointing towards the horizon where there seemed to be a waterfall.
“Oh, no…” the boy trailed of, before simply taking a whistle out of his pocket and blowing it with all the air in his lungs. But the whistle made no sound whatsoever. Lynn just stared at him dumbfounded.
“Have you lost your mind?!” Sokka yelled. “This is no time for flute practice!”
While Sokka and Lynn just stared at Aang, Katara ran towards the edge of the boat and looked over. “We can stop the boat!” she called. “Aang, together! Push and pull the water!”
They quickly started bending on the either side of the ship, the giant vessel seemingly being held back by their strength. “It’s working, it’s slowing down,” Katara acknowledged as the boat turned towards the side and now stood parallel to the waterfall ahead. “We’re doing it,” she said with joy while pulling the water back towards herself.
At that, Lynn turned around and spotted the Fire Navy ship advancing towards them. “But we have another problem,” she said, pointing towards the iron vessel. In a second, the vessel crashed into the wooden side of the boat, the larger of the two turning towards the side while Katara and Aang lost their grasp on the water below. They had no other option but to jump, managing to somehow grasp each other’s hands while doing so, and freefalling towards the river below.
This is it, Lynn thought. This is the end of her journey––
But in that moment, before they could crash into the cold depths and take the fall as if they fell from a twenty feet high cliff onto a pile of rocks, somethings caught them and they planted stomach-first onto a leather… saddle?
“Appa!” Aang delightfully exclaimed, while the Water Tribe siblings laughed in relief and Lynn just grasped onto the saddle, stunned from the shock.
“I knew a bison whistle would come in handy,” Aang declared proudly, holding the small object up for the others to see. “Thanks, Appa!”
“Yeah, we owe you one,” Sokka said, with Momo attaching himself around the boy’s head. At the sound of the older boy’s voice, the bison just made a delighted bellow.
Lynn took a seat on one side of Appa’s saddle, with Katara laying across from her. She was still stunned from the morning’s events, but grateful that this time flying, she didn’t have to grasp onto anything for dear life. She couldn’t believe how quickly her life has turned around since meeting the trio, but was also thankful that she finally had someone she could call a friend.
Appa soared through the sky, flying upwards over the clouds and leaving them a bit moistured, but Lynn didn’t mind. The experience couldn’t quite compare to anything before. As she sat against the saddle and reached her pack to pull out the black ties she usually wore on her wrists, she noticed Katara’s hesitation before speaking.
“Aang, I still owe you an apology,” the dark-skinned girl started, her head hung low. “You were just so good at waterbending without really trying. I got so competitive that I put us all in danger. I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay, Katara,” the boy reassured her.
“Besides, who needs that stupid scroll anyway?”
“Is that really how you feel?” Lynn asked, pulling a piece of rolled up parchment from her bag. But before she could hand it to the younger girl, Sokka quickly snatched it out of her hand and held it out of his sister’s reach.
“First,” he asked, “what did you learn?”
“Stealing is wrong,” Katara said in a mock-serious tone. But once Sokka handed her the scroll, she slyly added “Unless it’s from pirates!”
“Good one, Katara!”