The Lost Scrolls: Water (Avatar: The Last Airbender) Read online

  by Michael Teitelbaum

  illustrated by Patrick Spaziante

  Based on screenplays by

  Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko,

  Ian Wilcox, John O’Bryan, and Aaron Ehasz.

  © 2013 Viacom International Inc. All Rights Reserved. Nickelodeon,

  Nickelodeon Avatar: The Last Airbender and all related titles, logos and

  characters are trademarks of Viacom International Inc.

  Based on the TV series Nickelodeon Avatar: The Last Airbender ™

  IF YOU ARE READING THIS,

  you have uncovered one of the four hidden scrolls I

  have compiled about the world of A

  you have found contains sacred stories, legends, and

  facts that I have gathered so far about the proud

  nation of the Water Tribes—its history, its culture,

  and the great tales of its past and present. I hope

  that this information will be as useful and intriguing

  to you as it is to me. As a great friend of the Water

  Tribes, I ask that you keep this scroll safe and share

  it only with those you trust. Beware, for there are

  many who wish to expose its secrets. . . .

  Long ago, in a time of peace, the Avatar kept

  balance between the four nations of the world—the

  Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation,

  and the Air Nomads. In these nations there are people

  who have mastered the ability to control their culture’s

  native element, an art form known as bending.

  They call themselves Waterbenders, Earthbenders,

  Firebenders, and Airbenders—only the Avatar can

  manipulate all four elements. When an Avatar dies,

  his or her spirit is reborn into a bender of the next

  nation in the cycle of Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. This

  cycle provides a natural balance, keeping any one

  nation from growing more powerful than the others.

  As you know, the four nations lived in peace for

  many generations. But all that changed one hundred

  years ago, when the Fire Nation attacked.

  The leader of the Fire Nation at that time, the

  powerful Firebender known as Fire Lord Sozin, had

  secret ambitions to take over the world by conquering

  the other nations. When Avatar Roku died, knowing

  that the next Avatar would be a child who needed

  training and maturity before he or she grew powerful

  enough to oppose him, Fire Lord Sozin secretly began

  to build a fleet of massive ships and train an army

  of Firebenders and soldiers. Throughout the years

  the Fire Nation’s armada grew strong while the other

  nations remained ignorant. Then, using the energy of

  a passing comet, Fire Lord Sozin attacked the Water,

  Air, and Earth nations at the same time.

  Only the Avatar had the skills to stop the ruthless

  Fire Nation. But when the world needed him most, the

  Avatar did not appear. Following the natural cycle—

  since Avatar Roku was from the Fire Nation—the

  next Avatar would come from the Air Nation. Sozin’s

  army wiped out all of the Air Nomads, so the Avatar

  could never return.

  Or so the world believed.

  The war has raged for one hundred years. The Air

  Nomads were believed to have all been wiped out.

  Most of the great cities of the Southern Water Tribe

  were destroyed. Many of the Earth Kingdom’s cities

  were taken over by Fire Nation soldiers, and hope was

  beginning to fade from the world. . . .

  Until the day the Avatar returned.

  My name is

  Katara. I’m a

  member of the

  Southern Water Tribe.

  I’m fourteen now. I was

  told that my mother died

  when

  I was eight during a Fire Nation

  attack on my village. Two years

  ago my father and the other

  men of my tribe journeyed to

  the Earth Kingdom to help in the

  fight against the Fire Nation. He

  left me and my older brother,

  Sokka, to help look after

  our tribe.

  Some people believe

  that the cycle was broken

  and the Avatar was never

  reborn. But I always

  believed that somehow

  the Avatar would return

  to save the world.

  the Waterbender who, along with her brother,

  discovered the Avatar and helped set him free.

  Sokka and I were in our canoe, fishing among the

  ice floes.

  “I’ll show you how to catch a fish, Katara,” Sokka

  bragged.

  That’s my brother. He thinks he can do everything

  better than anyone else! But I was born a Waterbender,

  and although I have no training, I can still make water

  do some pretty neat things . . . and I was not going

  to let Sokka catch the only fish that day! Using my

  Waterbending abilities, I shaped a bubble out of water

  and caught a fish inside it!

  “Sokka, look!” I cried.

  “Shh, Katara!” Sokka whispered. “You’re gonna

  scare the fish away.”

  My brother can be so infuriating sometimes! The

  “great fisherman” wouldn’t even bother to look at the

  fish I had caught!

  Sokka lifted his spear to go after his fish and

  accidentally burst the water bubble, soaking himself

  and letting my fish get away.

  “Why is it every time you play with magic water,

  I get soaked?” Sokka grumbled.

  “It’s not magic, it’s Waterbending,” I explained for

  the millionth time. “It’s—”

  “I know,” Sokka interrupted. “It’s an ancient art

  unique to our culture, blah, blah, blah!”

  Like I said, Sokka thinks he knows everything.

  Suddenly the current picked up, smashing our

  boat into a huge chunk of ice. Sokka couldn’t control

  the boat, so we jumped onto a floating iceberg.

  “Leave it to a girl to mess things up!” Sokka yelled.

  He was blaming this on me? That did it! “You are

  the most sexist, immature . . .” I could hardly get

  the words out, I was so furious. I realized Sokka was

  giving me a frightened, wide-eyed look. I thought I

  had fi
nally gotten through my brother’s thick head.

  All of a sudden I heard a huge cracking noise from

  behind, then spun around in time to see that an

  enormous iceberg had been split in half!

  “Your powers have gone from weird to freakish,

  Katara!” Sokka cried.

  “You mean I did that?”

  I asked. I was stunned. Could

  I really be that powerful a

  Waterbender?

  “Yup, you did that,” Sokka

  replied. “Congratulations!”

  Suddenly

  the

  iceberg

  began to glow. “Look!” I

  shouted. “There’s a boy frozen

  in the ice. And some kind of

  huge creature. Sokka, that boy is alive!”

  I began hacking away at the ice with Sokka’s war

  club. Finally the iceberg cracked, sending a brilliant

  beam of light into the sky and releasing its prisoner.

  As Sokka and I hurried to the boy’s side, the arrow-

  shaped tattoo on his head stopped glowing.

  “How did you get into the ice?” Sokka asked as the

  boy’s eyes opened. “And why aren’t you frozen?”

  We were all startled by a loud grunt.

  “Appa!” the strange boy shouted, jumping to his

  feet. “Are you all right, buddy?”

  “What is that thing?” Sokka asked.

  “This is Appa, my flying bison,” the boy replied.

  “Do you guys live around here?”

  “Don’t answer that!” Sokka shouted to me. “You

  saw that beam of light. He could be trying to signal

  the Fire Nation!”

  “The paranoid one here is my brother, Sokka,”

  I said, rolling my eyes. Sokka could be so mistrusting.

  “What’s your name?”

  “I’m . . . A-A-ACHOO!” The boy sneezed and flew

  ten feet into the air. “I’m Aang,” he said as he floated

  back down.

  “You’re an Airbender!” I cried.

  “I sure am,” Aang said proudly. “You guys need a

  ride?”

  After convincing Sokka that the boy was harmless,

  the three of us climbed up onto the giant bison. Appa

  had some trouble getting up in the air. Sokka was really

  rude—he doesn’t believe anything he can’t prove—but

  I knew Appa would fly. All it took was some patience

  . . . and a little faith.

  “Appa’s just tired,” Aang told us. “After he rests,

  he’ll fly. You’ll see.”

  Appa paddled through the water, all the way

  to my village. There, we introduced Aang to our

  grandmother, Gran Gran, and the other people of the

  village.

  “No one has seen an Airbender for one hundred

  years,” Gran Gran said. “We thought they were

  extinct.”

  “Extinct?” Aang said, sounding worried.

  That’s when Sokka grabbed Aang’s staff. “What

  kind of weapon is this?” Sokka asked.

  “It’s not a weapon,” Aang explained, taking back

  his staff. “It’s a glider for Airbending. It lets me control

  the air currents and fly around.”

  “You know, last time I checked, people couldn’t

  fly,” Sokka said.

  “Well, check again!” Aang said.

  Then he soared into the sky on his glider! It was

  amazing to see a real bender practicing his art. All the

  little kids in the village squealed with delight!

  Suddenly Aang crashed into the watchtower Sokka

  had built and knocked it over!

  “Great!” moaned Sokka when Aang had landed.

  “You’re an Airbender; Katara’s a Waterbender.

  Together you can waste time all day long!”

  I think Sokka was a little jealous of all the attention

  Aang was getting. The kids in our tribe had always

  looked up to Sokka, but in a matter of seconds, Aang

  stole the show.

  “You’re a Waterbender?” Aang asked me.

  “Sort of,” I replied. “I’ve got no one to train me. I’m

  the only Waterbender in the Southern Water Tribe.”

  “What about the Northern Water Tribe?” Aang

  asked.

  “It’s all the way on the other side of the world,”

  I exclaimed.

  “Appa and I can take you to the North Pole!” Aang

  said excitedly. “You can find a Waterbending master

  there to teach you!”

  Finding a real Waterbending master to train me

  was what I had wanted my whole life. Part of me

  was ready to say yes right away, but the thought of

  leaving home was scary. What about Gran Gran and

  the rest of our village? Could I just walk away from

  them?

  “While you think it over,” he said, “let’s go penguin

  sledding!”

  I’ve never had so much fun! We slid down a steep

  hill on a couple of penguins. But at the bottom we

  saw an old Fire Nation ship that had been there for

  years. I told Aang we’re not allowed to go near it, but

  he didn’t listen.

  “Katara,” he said, “if you want to be a bender, you

  have to let go of your fears.”

  Aang was right. For years I’ve been afraid—afraid

  of that ship, afraid of the Fire Nation, afraid that I’d

  never be a true Waterbender. Yes, if I was to become a

  bender, I had to stop being afraid.

  So I followed Aang onto the ship.

  “This ship is a very bad memory for my people,”

  I explained to Aang. “It’s from the Fire Nation’s first

  attack on us in the war.”

  “Okay. Back up,” Aang said. “I’ve never seen any

  war.”

  How could anyone not know about the war? Unless

  they were stuck inside an iceberg for . . .

  “Aang,” I said, not believing what I was about

  to tell him, “I think you were in that iceberg for a

  hundred years! That’s why you don’t know about the

  war.”

  “That’s impossible,” Aang cried. “Do I look like a

  one-hundred-and-twelve-year-old man to you?”

  “Think about it,” I told him. “The war is a century

  old. You don’t know about it because, somehow, you

  were in ice that whole time. It’s the only explanation.”

  Aang dropped to the ground. He seemed stunned.

  “A hundred years . . . I can’t believe it.”

  “Come on,” I said, helping him to his feet. “Let’s

  get out of here.”

  But on the way off the ship, we triggered a booby

  trap. A flare shot high

  into the sky and exploded.

  Aang put his arm around

>   my waist and Airbended

  us into the sky and away

  from the ship.

  “I knew it!” yelled

  Sokka when we returned

  to the village. “You

  signaled the Fire Nation

  with that flare!”

  I pleaded with Sokka,

  telling him that it wasn’t

  Aang’s fault. But Aang took the blame for me.

  “Aha,” Sokka cried. “The traitor confesses! The

  foreigner is banished from our village!”

  “Aang is not our enemy!” I cried, but no one

  seemed to listen to me. I felt so helpless. Once Sokka

  gets something into his head, there’s no changing his

  mind.

  Gran Gran lowered her head. “Katara,” she said

  softly but sternly. “Going onto that ship is forbidden!

  Now we are all in danger. Sokka is right. I think it

  would be best if the Airbender left our village.”

  And so Aang left. I wanted to go with him, but

  I couldn’t. Family comes first. That’s how Sokka and

  I were raised, and that’s what I believe.

  But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t furious! “There

  goes my one chance of becoming a Waterbender!”

  I shouted at Gran Gran. I was so sick of this whole war,

  of what had become of all of us. It was all so unfair.

  I had never raised my voice to my grandmother in

  my life. And yet there I was, screaming at the woman

  I loved most in the world.

  Just then a huge Fire Nation ship landed on our

  shore. The flare must have brought them to us.

  Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation strode from his ship

  and marched into our village as if he owned it. The

  people of my village trembled and ran for cover.

  I was scared too, though I did my best to hide it. Sokka

  bravely stepped forward to confront the prince, but

  I knew that he couldn’t take on a ship full of

  Firebenders all by himself!