Chapter Nine

The WaterBending Scroll

Ever since we had left Roku's island, I had been sitting at Appa's reins while Aang paced the saddle. The boy was worried. And rightfully so. I didn't know how to comfort him, so I figured that offering to steer Appa would be the least I could do.

"Would you sit down?" Sokka suggested. "If we hit a bump, you'll go flying off. What's bugging you anyway?" he asked.

"It's what Avatar Roku said" Aang answered worriedly, finally stopping his pacing. "I'm supposed to master all four elements before that comet arrives."

"Well, let's see" Sokka started sarcastically. "You pretty much mastered airbending and that only took you a hundred and twelve years. I'm sure you can master three more by next summer."

"Not helping Sokka" I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose.

"I haven't even started waterbending and we're still weeks from the north pole. What am I gonna do?" Aang asked frightfully.

"Calm down, it's going to be ok," Katara said as she grabbed Aangs arm.

"She's right" I added "If you want, Katara and I can try and teach you some of the stuff we taught ourselves back home" I offered. That seemed to do the trick, as Aang finally sat down in front of Katara.

"You guys would do that?" he asked with a light smile.

"Of course" I nodded.

"We'll just need to find a good source of water first" Katara continued.

In return, Sokka gave a sarcastic smile to our sister. "Maybe we can find a puddle for the three of you to splash in."

We flew for a little while longer, both Katara and I on the lookout for a river or lake or something for us to try and teach Aang some of the basic moves we had taught ourselves. It worried me a bit, however. Aang was the Avatar, he technically had mastered waterbending hundreds of times before in his past lives. He was bound to pick it up in no time at all. And that's what worried me. Katara was the type to get...aggravated when someone was advancing farther than her. She ignored me for two weeks when I figured out how to raise a fish out of the water before she did.

Which was another reason why I still hadn't told my little sister about the blessing I had received from Mava. I knew that I needed to tell my brother, sister, and Aang. But I didn't know how. We had gone our whole lives believing that Sokka was the eldest, that he had been the one to be born first out of the two of us. But we were wrong. Gran Grann and our father had kept that from us. Along with the fact that Mava's blessing was traditional in the southern water tribe. It made me wonder what else they were keeping from us.

After a few hours of flying, we finally landed beside a decent sized river. Complete with a large waterfall.

"Nice puddle" Sokka deadpanned as Aang, Katara and I looked at our surroundings with excitement.

Appa was the first of us to get into the water as he flew down into the river. His large splash knocking Momo off of the rock he had been standing on. I couldn't help but laugh as the large fluff monster turned over and began to float on his back.

Smiling, Aang took off his shirt and began to run towards the water. "Yea!" he cheered. "Don't start without me boy!"

"Remember the reason we're here" Katara stopped him.

"Oh right," Aang said as he stopped short and looked at me and Katara. "Time to practice waterbending," he added as he put his clothes back on.

"Great" Sokka drawled sarcastically. "So what am I supposed to do?" he asked.

"You could..." Aang thought for a moment before handing Sokka a branch with a bushel of leaves at the end. "You could clean the gunk out of Appa's toes," he said.

Sokka simply frowned and crossed his arms, clearly unimpressed with his task. "So, while you guys are playing in the water, I'm supposed to be hard at work picking mud out of a giant bison's feet?"

"Mud and bugs!" Aang smiled cheerfully.

"Okay," my brother finally sighed as he took the stick and walked over to Appa who was still floating in the river. "Yea don't get too happy" Sokka continued after he had climbed up onto Appa's stomach and began brushing between the bisons' large toes. "You've got to do me next." At that, Appa let out a low, happy, moan. Almost as is he was agreeing to my twins' ultimatum.

With Sokka and Appa occupied, Katara, Aang and I stood by the shore. Readying ourselves for the Avatars first waterbending lesson.

"So this is a pretty basic move," I told him. "It was one of the first things Katara and I learned" With a nod to my little sister, I had her demonstrate.

"It took me months to perfect" Katara added. "So don't get frustrated if you don't get it right away," she said before she began to move her hand back and forth. Using her bending to make small waves in the water. "Just push and pull the water like this" Katara told him, while Aang simply looked up her with a smile. "The key is getting the wrist movement right."

After watching Katara do a couple of pulls, Aang jumped up and worked through the motions himself. "Like this?" he asked, moving his hands the same way Katara was. Only nothing was happening. Biting my lip, I walked over to the Avatar and repositioned his feet for him. Aang giving me a small smile of thanks in return as he continued making the motions.

"That's almost right," Katara said kindly. "If you keep practicing I'm sure eventually..."

"Hey, I'm bending it already!" Aang interrupted as he made much larger waves than Katara. Not bad for his first time bending water. Then again...he was the Avatar after all.

"Wow," Katara was surprised. "I can't believe you got that so quickly. It took me almost two months to learn that move."

I bit my lip once more. Not willing to tell my sister that it had taken me about two weeks to master the gentle waves. Never had I thought about why mastering the small techniques took such little time compared to my sister. Then it hit me. It must have been because of Mava's blessing. I made a mental note to ask the water spirit about it the next time I found myself in her oasis.

"Well, the two of you had to figure it out all on your own" Aang assured my sister. "I'm lucky enough to have such great teachers," he said, causing a small blush to reach my sisters' tanned cheeks.

"Thanks, Aang" Katara smiled.

"So what's next?" the boy asked, eager for his next lesson.

"How about something little more difficult?" I suggested. "We call it streaming the water." Once more, I looked to Katara who nodded, moving her hands to bend the water. Raising a stream of water from the river, she held the liquid in the air and moved it around.

Seeing that Katara had everything taken care of with Aang, I decided to leave the two of them alone. Instead, I wandered along the shore before stopping near the raging waterfall. I remembered reading about meditation being a good way for certain people to contact the spirit world. Iroh had a fairly decent selection of books, some of which he had snuck into my bag as he was getting me ready to finally escape Zuko's ship.

One of the books he had given me, dealt solely on contacting the Spirit World. I haven't read much of it, but I think there may be information on actually traveling to the spirit world. How did a firebender I barely knew know that contacting spirits would be something I needed information on.

Ever since the solstice I've been wanting to talk with Mava again. I had so many questions. The last time I had been to her Oasis, she had that I was special compared to the other waterbenders she had blessed. She had also said something about training. I could only assume that meant that Mava was going to teach me about my waterbending. Being the spirit of water and all.

Another thing I had learned from Iroh's books was that it always helped a bender to be with their element. The weather was slowly starting to grow warmer, but not warm enough for me to want to submerge my self in the river. So instead, I sat on a slick rock as close as possible to the waterfall, with my feet in the water and my eyes closed. It didn't matter how you meditated, Iroh had once told me, so long as you opened yourself to the energy of the Spirit World.

So that's what I did. I closed my eyes, with my feet in the water, I focused on my breathing before feeling the energy of the water. Instantly, I could tell that the energy wasn't that of my bending, that it was my element itself. Which was also a little strange and confusing. Hopefully, Mava could tell me what exactly it was that I was feeling.

It didn't take long for the water to react. Almost as soon as I closed my eyes, as soon as I got control of my breathing, the water reacted. Rising to the middle of my calf with every inhale, and lowering with every exhale. If I wasn't a waterbender then I probably would have been more concerned about my clothes getting wet.

I wasn't expecting to cross over to the spirit world my first try. But still, my breath hitched as I felt the energy crackle across my skin. It was such a shock to suddenly be able to even smell the familiar scent that hung in Mava's Oasis. But I wasn't there. I knew that even if I could hear her bell-like laugh, I couldn't see her. Not yet. And that was the only reason why I decided to open my eyes.

Well that, and the fact that I could hear a splash, and then Sokka shouting at Aang. Looking at my sister and Aang, I could see an annoyed look on Katara's face while Aang looked excited to have learned a new waterbending move. Which really I wasn't surprised, Katara tended to get a bit...competitive. And practicing with a natural like Aang would definitely bring that out in her.

"That's enough practicing for today," Katara said, aggravation coating her voice.

"Yea I'll say!" commented Sokka, his head still sticking out of the water, causing me to giggle as I approached them. My laugh was cut short, however, when my twin pointed to his left. "You just 'practiced' our supplies down the river." Sure enough, our bags were far away, floating far down the river.

"Uh, sorry," Aang said guiltily with a sheepish smile. "I'm sure we can find somewhere to replace all this stuff.

Thankfully I had kept my bag with me. There was no way I'de be able to replace the books Iroh had given me. Briefly, I wondered if Aang had waterbended our small handful of coins down the river as well. But then I remembered that Katara had been holding on to them.

Once we got Sokka and Appa out of the water, I used my bending to dry the three of us off. Well, Aang and Katara had to help get Appa dry, otherwise, it would have take all day.

It didn't take long for us to reach the nearest town after leaving the river. Though calling it a town was a bit of a stretch. It was more of a market place and port. Where merchants of all kinds could dock and sell their wares. There were some wandering the market who caused my siblings and I to look on nervously. While Aang seemed to pay the heavily armed men any mind as he looked around at the kiosks in wonder.

Which really, I couldn't blame him. The port was filled with lots of interesting things from all over the world. For a few minutes, the three of us wandered about the port, but still stuck close by.

"We've got exactly three copper pieces left from the money that King Bumi gave us," Sokka said. "Let's spend it wisely."

"Uh, make that two copper pieces, Sokka," Aang said sheepishly. "I couldn't say no to this whistle" he continued, holding up a white bison whistle. Taking a large breath, Aang put the whistle to his lips while my siblings and I covered our ears in preparation. But when Aang blew into the woodwind, no noise seemed to have come out.

"It doesn't even work" Sokka scoffed as he pulled his fingers from his ears. "Even Momo thinks its a piece of junk"

"No offense, Aang, but I think maybe Katara should hold the money from now on," I told the little bald monk.

"Why not you?" Aang asked.

"I may be the oldest, but Katara is far more responsible" I grinned, swinging an arm over my sister's shoulder and giving her a light squeeze before walking away from the others. It was as I was looking at some Water-Tribe inspired jewelry that I realized... up until recently, we had thought that Sokka had been the oldest. It wasn't until my spirit world vision that we had learned the truth. Hopefully, the others didn't pick up on my little slip-up and I could keep Mava's blessing a secret from them for a little while longer.

I could hear them trailing behind me, ooh-ing and aah-ing over the baubles being sold. And honestly, I was with them in that aspect. There were so many things. Sure a lot of the stuff people claiming to be water tribe was obviously fake.

Considering the man shouting from in front of his boat literally said 'Water Nation'. Before he ran over to us as we walked passed him. "Oh you there," he said, "I can tell from your clothing that you're world-traveling types. Perhaps I could interest you in some curios?" the man offered.

"Sure!" Aang instantly responded. "What are curios?" he asked.

The man looked confused for a moment as he thought about Aangs question. "I'm not entirely sure. But we got 'em!" he said excitedly after a moment or two. Seeing that he had a potential customer in Aang, the man put his hand on the Monks' shoulder and walked him towards the ship.

It took me less than a second to realize that Aang had been lead away. Instantly, I nudged my siblings and we quickly followed after our naive friend.

The inside of the ship was a mess of objects from all around the world. And I could tell that the stuff that looked like water tribe, actually was water tribe. It made me wonder, briefly, how these people got all of this stuff.

It was the graying man with an iguana parrot on his shoulder that told me all I needed to know. These guys were pirates. They probably stole everything in here. When the pirate asked about buying Momo, I took that as an okay to pocket a water tribe dagger. Mine had disappeared after we had left Kyoshi island, so I figure taking back what belonged to my people would be ok. I just had to be careful to not get caught with it.

At least not until we were far away from the pirates.

"Keira, Aang, look at this" Katara spoke. Sneaking the dagger into my bag as quickly as possible, I made my way over to where Katara was standing with an open scroll. "It's a waterbending scroll!" she said excitedly as Aang and I walked over to her. "Check out these crazy moves."

"Where did you get a water bending scroll?" Aang eagerly asked with wide gray eyes.

Shouldering passed us, the pirate slammed his hand down on the scroll and pulled it away. "Let's just say I got it up north, at a most reasonable price...free," he said, rolling the scroll back up and putting it back in its little slot on the shelf. Whatever guilt I might have felt about putting the water tribe dagger in my bag was beyond gone.

"Wait a minute..." Sokka started on the other side of the room. "Sea loving trader, with suspiciously acquired merchandise and pet reptile birds?" he was almost yelling, now, with his eyebrows raised. "You guys are pirates!" my brother accused as he spun to face the pirate who had invited us to the ship in the first place.

The man simply put his arm around Sokka's shoulders. "We prefer to think of ourselves as 'high-risk traders.'"

At that, I decided to go wait outside with Momo on my shoulder. I could already tell that Aang and Katara were interested in buying the waterbending scroll. And I knew that there was no way that the pirate was going to sell it to them for the two small copper pieces that we had.

"What was that all about Katara?" I heard Aang ask a few minutes later. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw the others walking down the gangplank.

"Yea I was just starting to browse through their boomerang collection," Sokka said as we continued to walk down the street. Curiously, I glanced over to our little sister.

"I'll just feel a lot better once we get away from here" was all she said, wrapping her arms around herself as we walked.

I had never stolen anything before in my life. Except for maybe mom's old parka, but even then it was more of a borrowed gift. There was something exhilarating in pocketing the knife. And it helped that the dagger was already stolen property, to begin with.

Suddenly we heard one of the pirates shouting at us. "Well, well. Look who's come to their senses" Aang said as he calmly turned back towards the ship. "Told you the haggling would pay off."

Suddenly, in an instant, we were surrounded by a group of armed pirates. Each and every one of them were hissing menacing words and swinging their weapons. All of us were visibly shaken and I could feel my heart pounding in my ears. Had they figured out that I had stolen the dagger right from under their noses? On instinct, I clutched the strap of my bag tightly.

"I don't think these pirates are here to trade with us" Katara's voice shook as she began to back away. Before turning and running down the street. Cursing under my breath, I ran after my sister. Thankfully Aang and Sokka had the good sense to follow after us. The pirates certainly helped with that.

As we ran down the street, I could tell that a little more than half of the pirates had stopped chasing us, Choosing to go in another direction, probably hoping to cut us off. Using my bending, I pulled water from a nearby bowl and pooled it on the ground where it instantly froze.

Thankfully that slowed down the one group of pirates as we ran passed a familiar looking cabbage merchant. Katara, Sokka and I bumped the cart as we ran, while Aang simply used his airbending to fly just over the cabbages. Before sending a blast of wind that threw the cart into the rest of the pirates.

"My cabbages!" the merchant shouted angrily, causing me to wince. "This place is worse than Omashu!"

I couldn't believe that the pirates were going through all this because of a stupid whale tooth dagger.

As we ran, I kept my eyes peeled for any water. But it was just my luck, there wasn't any water close enough for me to bend. So really all I could do was run. At least, until we were cornered in the dead-end of a street.

"Now, who gets to taste the steel of my blade first?" asked the skeevy pirate.

"No thanks," Aang responded sternly before spinning and hurling a blast of air a the pirates, sending them backward. Then he ran towards the pirates, with his glider out. "Hang on tight!" he called over his shoulder.

"Aang! I thought we were running away from the pirates!" Katara called out. Not asking any questions, I grabbed onto the tail end of Aang's glider. Mys siblings taking my lead as we flew just over the pirates a moment later. Sokka and I kicking some of them in the head as we went.

I don't know how long we flew for. But I was seriously impressed when Aang touched down near our campsite by the river. Flying that distance, with just his glider and three passengers, should have been a difficult task. But since Aang was the Avatar, I figured it was a fairly easy feat.

We walked the rest of the way, and I kept as close to the water as possible. The energy from my element, causing my nerves to settle. Even just a little bit. Briefly, I pulled a small stream of water towards me, idly swirling it between my hands before sending it back into the river.

"I used to kind of look up to pirates" Aang admitted once we were back at our camp by the river. "But those guys were terrible."

"I know" Katara started mischievously. "That's why I took this" she continued. My eyes widened as she held out the waterbending scroll that we had found in the shop.

"No way!" Aang said in surprise.

"Isn't it great!"

"And I thought that they were actually after this" I added, sheepishly, pulling the dagger out of my bag.

"No wonder they were trying to hack us up!" Sokka exclaimed. "My sisters are a bunch of thieves! You stole their stuff!"

"I prefer to think of it as high-risk trading" Katara joked.

"Good one, Katara" Aang laughed.

"Sokka, where do you think they got these things? And the rest of the stuff in their shop?" I asked. "They stole it from the water tribe. From our tribe!"

"It doesn't matter" Sokka snapped, cutting me off. "You and Katara put all of our lives in danger just so you could learn some stupid, fancy splashes and because you wanted something shiny!" he continued, jabbing his finger at Katara and me respectively.

"These are real waterbending forms. You know how crucial it is for Aang to learn waterbending!" Katara responded. All I could do was glare at my brother. He should have known me better than to assume that I took the dagger because it was shiny. It was a freaking whalebone for Spirit's sake!

Sokka simply scoffed and walked away. "Whatever," he said.

"Well...what's done is done" Aang intervened. "We have the scroll, we might as well learn from it" he suggested.

It didn't take long for me to realize that Katara really just wanted to practice for her self. To get the move perfected before Aang or I could have anything close to a turn with the scroll. Why we didn't just look at it and learn at the same time, I didn't understand.

I could help the roll of my eyes when she told Aang to hold the scroll open for her. Instead of waiting around for my little sister to get over herself, I sat down beside the rock that Sokka was sitting on.

"Let me see that," Sokka said when I began to fiddle with my stolen dagger. Looking at him with wide eyes, I handed the weapon over to my warrior-in-training twin. "It's just like the one Dad gave you before he left," he said.

"I know" I nodded, hugging my knees to my chest. "I lost mine a while back. So when I saw this one in the pirates' shop..."

"You thought of dad" my brother sighed, handing the knife back to me.

"I thought of dad" I agreed. "And I thought of the rest of the tribe. And I thought about how those guys took stuff from our home, from our tribe, and were going to sell them to people who won't even appreciate the work that went into making this."

Sokka sighed beside me and I could tell that he was shaking his head. "I get it, Keira. Still, it's just not like you."

Looking down at the dagger I traced my thumb over the hilt. The blade itself was made from a whalebone, while the hilt was mostly wooden and wrapped lightly with purple and blue dyed strips of cloth. Carved into the end, and painted blue and white, was the symbol of our people. The moon to represent the moon spirit, and waves for her ocean counterpart.

Also known as Mava's parents.

Taking a breath, I opened my mouth to speak...only to be interrupted by the sound of water hitting flesh. Followed by Sokka's laugh. Opening my eyes, I looked over to Katara, who was wiping water from her face. Obviously not getting the water whip move on her first try. At the frustration on Katara's face, I couldn't help but let out a small giggle of laughter.

"What's so funny?" Katara glared, her eyes going rapidly between me and Sokka.

I chose not to answer, unlike Sokka. "I'm sorry, but you deserved that," he said before turning to Aang. "You've been duped; she's only interested in teaching herself."

"Aang and Keira will get their turn once I figure out the water whip" Katara snapped before turning back to the river. Curious I stood and walked over to Aang and looked at the scroll one more time. "Ugh, why can't I get this stupid move!?" she shrieked when she tried once more, only for the water to splash poor Momo.

"You'll get it," I told her, hoping to ease my sister's frustration. Earning me a glare in return.

"Keira's right" Aang agreed. "You just gotta shift your weight through the stances." With that, Aang attempted the water whip for himself, doing it perfectly on his first try. "There see, the key the bending is-" but the young Avatar was cut off by Katara's scream of frustration.

"Will you please shut your air hole!" she snapped. "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!" she shouted.

"Katara!" I hissed, while Sokka shook his head at our sister in aggravated disappointment. While Ang looked at my sister with tears welling up in his wide gray eyes.

"What?" Katara all but demanded, before looking back at Aang. Once she saw the hurt look on our friend's face, Katara's blue eyes widened with regret. "Oh my gosh, Aang, I am so sorry," she said. "I don't know what came over me. But you know what, it won't happen again" Katara added as she walked over to the stump Aang had put the scroll down on. "Here, this is yours. I don't want to have anything to do with it anymore."

"It's okay Katara," Aang said softly, taking the scroll when Katara handed it to him.

After we all reconciled, and I bended the excess water from Momo's fur; the four of us got to work setting up camp. Which really just consisted of Sokka, Katara and I setting up our sleeping bags. Once mine was laid out on the ground, I split off from the others and went in search of some firewood. Which was more of an excuse than anything. Really I just wanted to walk back towards the rock I had been sitting on earlier. It was a safe distance from camp, and I didn't want Katara seeing me practice the water whip.

I had all but memorized the movements. So pulling the water to me, I moved fluidly; shifting my weight like Aang had said. He may have been a novice like me and my sister, but Aang was also the Avatar. He's mastered waterbending hundreds of times before.

My form was still shaky, but I had managed to at least whip the water. However feebly. I knew that if I just pushed myself a little harder, I could all but perfect the move in no time at all. The hard part, as usual, would be to fake my progress for Katara's sake. That girl was simply far too competitive for her own good.

After a few hours of practicing the water whip, I sat on the same rock as before and began to meditate once more. This time, though, I wasn't trying to reach Mava. I just needed a calm down from the excitement from earlier.

I hadn't felt my fear earlier when we were running from the pirates. It was still there, sure, but it didn't paralyze me as it had been since leaving home. Hopefully, it lasted, being afraid all the time will only slow us down on our journey.

I must have spent the entire night in the same spot. Because the next thing I knew, the sun was slowly lighting up the sky. Cursing to myself, I jumped off of the rock and raced back towards the campsite. I doubt that the others would have waited on me to get firewood, but I still grabbed a few loose sticks here and there, just in case.

As I walked, I could hear the telltale sound of water splashing. Curious, I followed the noise. Not surprised to see Katara at the riverbank, with the scroll, practicing the water whip. Deciding to leave Katara to her practice, I turned from the river and made my way back to our campsite.

Thankfully the boys were asleep when I got there. Sokka was sure to have questions about where I had been all afternoon. Telling him I was practicing the water whip my self wouldn't have been that much of a lie.

Suddenly, as I was taking out my braids for the night, Sokka began to stir. "Huh?" he mumbled sleepily, "Keira...where have you been?" Sokka asked as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. Before I could answer, Sokka interrupted me. "And where did Katara go?" he questioned, before scurrying over to his bag, where I'm assuming he had put the waterbender scroll. "I don't believe it" he muttered.

At that same time, Aang woke with a yawn. "What's wrong?" the Airbender asked. "Oh, hey Keira" he added with a grin.

"She took the scroll!" Sokka told Aang. "She's obsessed with that thing. It's just a matter of time before she gets us all in deep-" but Sokka never got a chance to finish the sentence. Suddenly, a rope wound its way around my brothers' wrists and pulled him forward. Looking up, I saw one of the pirates from earlier.

"Aw crap," I muttered, putting my hand on my waist to grab my waterskin, only to remember that it had been emptied earlier that day. And I stupidly hadn't refilled it. So instead of relying on my waterbending, I bent down to pull the stolen dagger from my boot. Only for a rope to wind its way around my wrists.

"I got them!" a pirate exclaimed. "Come on!" he added. Beside me, I could see Aang caught in some sort of net.

Sokka and I struggled against the ropes as the pirates dragged us back towards the river. Where I had last seen Katara. Cold fear ran through at the thought of the pirates hurting my little sister. What I wasn't expecting, however, was to see Zuko and Iroh on the river bank.

"Ah, young Keira, I was wondering when we would meet again" Iroh smiled warmly. Despite the circumstances, I couldn't help but smile back.

"Nice work" Zuko complimented the pirates as he looked over the three of us. His golden eyes lingering on me briefly before snapping over to Aang.

"Aang, guys, this is all my fault" Katara whimpered.

"No, Katara, it isn't" Aang tried to comfort her, but it wasn't working.

"Yea it kind of is" Iroh's words earning him a glare from my sister.

I would have said something. But I knew that the pirates weren't here for a dagger they were selling for smaller coin. The scroll was the big moneymaker, and I knew that they would be more upset about that.

Zuko ignored the exchange, and instead looked to the pirate captain. "Give me the boy."

"You give us the scroll" was the response.

"You're really going to hand over the Avatar for a stupid piece of parchment?" Sokka asked. If my hands were free then I probably would have hit my brother.

"Sokka!" I hissed.

"Don't listen to him, he's trying to turn us against each other!"

The pirate captain turned from Sokka and me, before looking at Aang. "Your friend is the Avatar?" he asked.

"Sure is!" Sokka nodded.

"Sokka!" I said a little loud, trying to shift so I could kick him. "Shut it!"

But of course, my twin didn't listen. "I'll bet he'll fetch a lot more on the black market than that fancy scroll."

"Shut your mouth, Water Tribe peasant!" snapped the Fire Nation prince.

"Yea, Sokka, you should really shut your mouth" Aang muttered,

As Sokka spoke the pirates again, I realized exactly what he was doing. Baiting the two bad guys against each other. Classic.

"Keep the scroll," the pirate captain told Zuko. "We can buy a hundred more with the reward we'll get for the kid."

I wasn't surprised that Zuko and two of his soldiers sent blasts of fire our way. What surprised me was the fact that while the pirates, my brother, and Aang all jumped away from the flames, I had stayed put. What's more...the flames didn't touch me. Instead, a wall of water stretched from the river and circled me. Protecting me from the fire.

This was the first time I had truly seen water react the way Mava had said it would. And it was absolutely amazing. The second the flames dissipated, the water dropped to the ground and soaked into the river bed.

The second the fight between firebenders and pirates broke out, I rolled out of the way and ran towards Katara.

"Hey sis" I grinned. Not waiting for Katara to so anything, I moved to the back of the tree and untied the ropes that bound my sister. Without saying anything more I bent down and pulled my new dagger from my boot. Positioning it as best I could between my hands to cut the rope.

"Thanks, Keira. What was that just now?" Katara asked, obviously referring to my water shield.

"I'll tell you later" was all I said before looking around for some kind of escape. "There!" I said, nudging Katara's shoulder when I spotted the boat. "Come one, let's see if we can get it in the water," I told her.

"What about Aang? And Sokka?" Katara asked.

"I'm sure they can get out of there," I told her. Almost sure about my words.

Katara and I struggled against the wood of the pirate ship for a few minutes. Every now and again, I would glance over my shoulder, praying to the spirits that Aang and Sokka got out of those clouds of smoke soon.

It wasn't even a minute later when I heard Aangs voice. "Katara! Keira! You guys are okay!"

"Help us get this boat back in the water so we can get outta here" was all Katara could say. Without asking any questions, the boys jumped into action and tried to help us push the boat. But still, the watercraft wouldn't budge.

"Ugh!" Sokka groaned. "We'd need a team of rhinos to budge this ship."

"A team of rhinos, or... three waterbenders" Aang said, causing Katara and I to turn and look at him.

"Let's do this" I smirked as the three of us took our stances. Pushing and pulling the water with ease, the river slowly raising until the ship began to float.

"Everybody in!"

Unfortunately, it didn't take very long for the pirates to realize we had stolen their boat. "Sokka can you make it go any faster?" Aang asked when he saw that the pirates were on our tail, cutting through the water in Zuko's small boat.

"I don't know how!" Sokka exclaimed. "This thing wasn't made by the Water Tribe!"

It took seconds for the pirates to catch up and jump on board the boat we had stolen. Thankfully, Aang managed to use his newfound waterbending to sweep most of them overboard. Katara and I shared a determined look before shifting our weight through the stances, both of us performing perfect water whips. Throwing the last two pirates off.

"Hey, you did the water whip!" Aang cheered.

"We couldn't have done it without your help," I told him.

"Would you three quit congratulating each other and help me out?" Sokka's voice cut in. My eyes widened in shock, and fear for my twin was all but crushing me. When the pirates through him onto the lower deck, I ran passed the pirates and went for my brother.

"Aang, look!" Katara shouted when she and the bald monk finally joined us. Looking to where my sister was pointing, my jaw dropped in shock. Our stolen boat was headed towards a huge waterfall.

"Oh no..." I whispered. When Aang turned, he was met with a pirate wielding a large knife. Instead of using his bending, Aang pulled out the bison whistle he had bought yesterday. The pirate looking confused when no sound came from the whistle.

Thinking quickly, Sokka snuck up behind the pirate and pushed him off the ship. "Have you lost your mind! This is no time for flute practice!"

"Guys, we can stop the boat!" I told them. "Katara, Aang, just push and pull the water!" Doing as I said, Katara and Aang began pushing and pulling the rapidly moving water. Closing my eyes, I let out a shaky breath and cleared my mind. Slowly, I moved my arms in the same motions as my sister and the Avatar. My eyes tingling behind my eyelids as I worked. Soon enough, I could feel the boat start to slow.

"It's working!" Katara exclaimed. "It's slowing down, we're doing it!"

"That's great...but we have another problem" Sokka interrupted. Opening my eyes, I turned and saw Zuko's boat sailing straight for us. When his boat rammed into us, the four of us were forced to jump as the ship we were on went over the falls.

I wasn't expecting Appa to break our fall.

"I knew a bison whistle would come in handy!" Aang smiled. "Thanks, Appa."

"Yea thanks buddy" I smiled, reaching over the saddle to run my hand over the bison's off-white fur.

Tiredly I watched as Katara finally apologized to Aang for how she had acted yesterday. Perking up slightly when Sokka pulled the waterbending scroll from his bag.

Even though the three of us already had the move down, it would still be a good idea to hold on to something this rare.

We flew in silence for a little while longer before Katara finally spoke up. "Keira...what was that back there?" she asked. "With the water?"

"Yea, did you learn a new waterbending move?" Aang asked.

"No" I shook my head. Biting my lip as I fiddled with the end of my freshly tied braid. "You guys remember when we were in Senlin? When Sokka, Aang and I were pulled into the Spirit World?"

"Does this have something to do with why you said you were the oldest yesterday?" Sokka asked, shuffling over so that he could sit next to me. I just nodded.

"I lied when I said I didn't remember what happened in the Spirit World."