𝑯𝑰𝑫𝑫𝑬𝑵 𝑫𝑹𝑨𝑮𝑶𝑵, 𝒂: 𝒕𝒍𝒂

➳ 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘯𝘦: 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺

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BY THE TIME THE GROUP REACHES KIDA'S HIDEOUT, they're all out of breath.

"Thanks for the help, we were really cornered there," the Avatar says, causing the other boy to roll his eyes at the pun. "I'm Aang, and these are my friends Katara and Sokka." He points to the girl, who looks just as grateful as him, then to the boy, who looks as though he's still deciding whether or not this is a trap. "What's your name?"

At first, Kida doesn't respond; after years on her own, her automatic response is to run away, but Kida knows that those days are now behind her.

"My name is Kida," she murmurs and starts to remove her bandana.

"Kida?" Sokka asks. "That sounds like a girl's name, but you just -" He stops when Kida's face is fully revealed, her amber eyes meeting his blue ones, as if getting ready to challenge him.

"I just, what? Single-handedly fought off a bunch of pirates and saved you from falling your death?"

"Oh, please, that height was nothing! The worst thing that would have happened is a broken arm."

"Maybe she should have let you fall," Katara scoffs. She and Aang giggle.

"So, is this where you live?" Aang asks, poking around the room. Although, there was nothing much to see. For the time being, Kida had set up camp in the attic of a small, abandoned house. In one corner lay her weapons and her food, and in the other she made a sleeping space with a bag of spare clothes acting as a pillow.

"Not really," Kida answers. She grabs some food and hands it to Aang, Katara, and Sokka, who all follow her lead in sitting crosslegged in the middle of the room. When Kida receives looks of confusion from the group, she elaborates: "I move around a lot."

"You mean, you're traveling somewhere?" Katara asks in between bites of her apple.

"Or she's a fugitive," Sokka grumbles. Kida notices that he hasn't touched his food.

Katara and Sokka, in true sibling fashion, start arguing about whether or not Kida can be trusted, while Aang starts feeding the flying lemur monkey Kida just realized was there.

Kida plays with the moon peach in her hand before taking a bite. While she's chewing, she tries to craft a believable story. She's so immersed in her thoughts that she doesn't realize that something fell out of Katara's sleeve, until Sokka yells:

"You stole that waterbending scroll!"

"No wonder those pirates were after us," Aang mumbles, though his attention still remains on the lemur monkey.

"Yeah, no wonder!" Sokka growls. "You stole from them."

"Sokka, where do you think they got it? They stole it from a waterbender," Katara counters.

"I don't care. You put all of our lives in danger just so you can learn some stupid, fancy splashes."

"These are real waterbending forms. You know how crucial it is for Aang to learn waterbending!"

Sokka glowers, pointing to Kida abruptly. "Katara, you can't just go around, revealing that, you-know-who is you-know-what."

"I know that Aang's the Avatar," Kida informs.

This finally grabs the boy's attention and suddenly all eyes are on Kida.

"You do?" Aang wonders, although he doesn't seem too bothered by it.

"I saw your arrows and your airbending, so I kind of put two and two together."

Sokka narrows his eyes and gets up. "We're leaving."

"What?" Katara asks.

"We're leaving," Sokka repeats. "For all we know, she's a Fire Nation spy."

"Then why would she save us first?" Katara challenges.

Aang nods in agreement, but Sokka doesn't back down. "I don't know! People from the Fire Nation are messed up. Maybe she wants to lead us into a false sense of security and strike when we least expect it, then take Aang directly to the Fire Lord and -"

"Why would I work for the man who murdered my parents?" Kida snaps, finally bringing some sense into Sokka. He doesn't sit back down, but he looks into her eyes sympathetically before looking at the ground. Kida turns to Aang. "When I realized who you were, I knew I had to help. So many people have lost so much because of this war and I just, well, I just want to do something about it."

Katara places a gentle hand on Kida's shoulder. "Sokka and I lost our mother to a Fire Nation raid. We know how you feel." Kida glances toward Sokka, who just turns away.

"So, you really are alone?" Aang wonders, his eyes filled with sympathy. Kida nods and Aang furrows his brow, then perks up. "Well, then what if you joined us? We could use someone like you on the team."

"That's a great idea, Aang," Katara notes excitedly. "Since you've traveled around so much, you could help us navigate. Plus, you're a great fighter, which would come in handy because trouble tends to find us."

"Are you guys sure?"

Sokka turns to Kida and crosses his arms. "I think our little gang is perfectly fine the way it is."

"Sokka, be reasonable," Katara pleads. She, Kida and Aang start getting up, ready to bring Kida where they had set up there own camp. Kida starts to pack what little stuff she has, allowing the three to have a private conversation. "We can use all the help we can get."

He glares at his sister and Aang, but ultimately gives in. "Fine," Sokka sighs. "We'll bring the mysterious archer girl on our quest to save the world."

"You made the right choice, Ponytail!" Kida exclaims as she walks up to the group, holding all her belongings. Katara and Aang laugh as Sokka's cheeks turn red.

"For your information, this is a warrior's wolf tail!" he defends and points at his hair.

"Whatever you say," Kida shrugs, walking past him to stand in the doorframe. "So, where to now?"