Part 1

Four Years Ago at the Southern Air Temple

              “Ha! Sehun, you’re ‘it’!” twelve-year-old Yoona laughed.

              The young, bald air bender boy named Sehun groaned. He always played with Yoona, but he was never quite sure if he ever even enjoyed her games at least once. “Why do I always have to be the ‘it’?”

              “Because you at ‘rock-paper-scissors,’” Yoona stated plainly.

              “No I do not!” Sehun argued. “Just because you’re four years older, you always take advantage of me. Let’s play a different game.”

              “Will you two just please be quiet?” yelled out a third person from behind the trees. Soon he was out in plain view. He was a monk about the same age as Yoona, though rather scrawny and unusually pale like a sick child. Yoona noticed a strange little circle-patterned tattoo marked on his wrist.

              “And who might you be?” Yoona questioned the monk.

              “His name is Luhan,” young Sehun told her.

              “Look, Loo-han,” Yoona said mockingly. “If you wanted to join in the game you could always ask. You don’t have to be too -hurt.”

              Luhan sneered. Tch… This girl is ridiculous. I don’t want to play. “Be quiet, imbeciles. You’re ruining my concentration.”

              “Im-buh…what?” Yoona scratched her head.

              “Just shut up. Okay?” And with that said, Luhan left through the staircase. Usually, air benders would just jump down the rock heights and ride their gliders, but he did not.

              “Never mind him. He’s a bit of a weirdo,” Sehun explained. “He’s not even a bender, but everyone says he has great spiritual energy. I don’t understand it, but don’t mess with him.”

              Yoona stubbornly crossed her arms. “Tch…Well if I want to be loud, I’ll go ahead and be loud. Sehun, let’s go play pranks on him!”

              “Um, Noona, I don’t think that’s a good idea…”

***

Present Time

              Far away, up high on the top of the mountains of the south, a huge temple of air monks stood in peace with the passing winds. The male Air Nomads inhabit the tranquil mountaintop, meditating and growing in spirituality for centuries. Meanwhile, the young children play together down by the mountainside, gliding with the wind with their specially handcrafted wooden hand gliders. Sky bison and flying lemurs freely eat the fruit of the trees. Welcome to the Southern Air Temple.

              High up on the conical spires of the old temple, sat a young monk named Luhan. He was about sixteen—same age as Yoona. However, he was no ordinary monk. He had no bending. Every other human being born in the Air Nomads were born with bending, except him. There were rumors circulating around the younger generation of air benders that Luhan was nothing but an adopted baby by one of the female monks of the Western Air Temple. They were never sure though. Some say that he was an abandoned Earth Kingdom child, while others even go so far as to say that he was a child who fell from the stars. Wherever he was from, it was a mystery.

              His origins were not the only enigma in his identity. He also had strange abilities to predict the future and communicate through telepathy. He even once claimed to have the ability to cause the death of spirits but everyone was dubious. How could a simple human with no bending even do such things?

              “The Avatar will be betrayed by someone very close to her,” Luhan whispered in the wind in desperation. He had been trying to relay messages to Yoona using his telepathy. For some reason, only Yoona believes and accepts his telepathic messages. However, all this time, Yoona thought that his messages were her own ability to see the future. Now she claims and brags to everyone about it, but in reality, she was just receiving messages from Luhan. Sadly, since she was not trusted by the high monks, nobody ever really believes her either.

***

              “I’m telling you, it’s the truth! I heard it in the wind!” Yoona exclaimed, trying to convince the Avatar of coming danger.

              “Okay then, who will betray me exactly?” Taeyeon raised an eyebrow.

              The ability to hear about the future through whispers in the wind seemed quite dubious. It’s not that Taeyeon did not trust this strange air bender; she just did not want to believe any of the bad news Yoona brought to her. Betrayal and destruction were not exactly two of the easiest problems to counter. Besides, our poor little naïve Avatar has plenty of problems on her own: mastering elements, looking for lost friends and family, communicating with past lives, and shaking away the past. Her life was bad enough. She does not want to know all that is more to come. That might just cause her ultimate mental breakdown, and she cannot be weak right now. She has to stay strong. She cannot be shaken by mysterious claims.

              “I have no idea,” Yoona awkwardly answered. Taeyeon could not have been more frustrated with such an answer.

              Since even Yoona could not help Taeyeon communicate with Avatar Leetuek, they both just let it go and gave up. Taeyeon tried not to think about Yoona’s warnings too much either. Her main goal for now is to come up with a back-up plan since Sica and the rest suddenly disappeared. Maybe she should go look for them?

              The two lonely outcasts stayed by the ports for three more days following the ship’s disappearance. Although it was obvious that Sica and the rest have left, Taeyeon still held on to the hope that they would come back for her. She knew her friends just would not leave her without any reason. There has to be a reason.

              On the fourth day, Taeyeon was finally convinced that Sica and the others will no longer come back. So instead, Yoona stole some paper sold at the ports and Taeyeon began to compose a letter.

              My dear friends,

            I am well and in one piece. I hope that you all are doing well too and that this strange separation was not caused by anything too serious.

            I was knocked unconscious by an unknown attacker in the woods on the day that I got separated from you all. I never got to see the man or woman’s face at all so I have no idea who could have done such a thing. By heaven’s mercy, I was saved by a young air bender who graciously put up with my depressed mood. I am now alright.

            What happened while I was gone? Why did you all disappear from the ports? Where are you right now? My air bender friend named Yoona has this huge, hairy flying buffalo that can fly us anywhere. Please reply soon. I hope you’re all well.

Your worried Avatar,

Taeyeon

              Taeyeon affectionately ruffled Ginger’s maroon feathers once more and then sent him off to deliver the message. Now all that was left for them to do was to wait for Sica’s reply.

              “So, what do we do now?” Yoona asked as she watched Ginger fly far away from Taeyeon’s reach.

              “Well, the original plan was to go visit the Fire Nation Royal Palace with Sica,” Taeyeon replied.

              “Hm…The capital isn’t very far from here. It could take about a day of flying by sky bison,” said Yoona. “If you want, we can go ahead and visit the palace while we wait for your friend’s reply to your letter.”

              Needless to say, Taeyeon agreed to fly with Yoona to the capital. When they arrived—hovering over the mouth of the crater—Taeyeon was surprised at how much Yoona knew the place. Taeyeon wanted to tour her new friend Yoona around, but it seemed that Yoona knew the capital more than she did.

              “How do you know the capital so well?” Taeyeon asked.

              “I visit the capital as often as I can,” Yoona said with a smirk.

              “Why?”

              “My dream man lives there,” Yoona whimsically giggled and dreamily sighed.

              Taeyeon just rolled her eyes. Out of all the people she had ever met, this air bender was probably the weirdest. She has to admit though, Yoona can be quite funny without trying.

              “Look over there!” Yoona exclaimed as they were hovering high up the capital. She was pointing to one of the noblemen’s shingled rooftops. On it, sat a young man in his late teens, staring up at the sky. Although his hair was a bit of a mess, he still looked quite handsome.

              “Who the heck is that?” Taeyeon asked with a sneer. “He dresses like a house servant.”

              “Hey! I’ll have you know—and you should very well know—that that guy happens to be a relative of the current royal family!”

              Taeyeon leaned closer down from Yoongsan’s furry white back to take a better look. “Really? I don’t think I’ve ever seen him around before, not even in my coronation party…or maybe I missed him amongst all the others?”

              “His name is Lee Seunggi,” Yoona dreamily said his name in a high-pitched voice. “I saw him while I was flying around the capital one day, and I fell at first sight…”

***

              Twelve-year-old Yoona hid by the trees with her sidekick Sehun behind her. They were about to play a childish prank on Luhan, who knew very well about their stupid little plan. Luhan could read minds. It was that simple to ruin their little play.

              “Okay, Sehun, when I say 'go,' you scream out ‘yehet!’ and let the chaos unfold!” Yoona whispered to her sidekick.

              “Are you sure that this is a good idea? I mean, that Luhan guy is kinda scary…,” Sehun reasoned.

              “Trust me. I know deep down that you really want to do this. You have always wanted to play a prank on him. That’s a statement from me.”

              Sehun pondered for a bit and decided that it was true. He had always wanted to play a prank on that Luhan guy. Luhan does not have bending anyway. He probably won’t even be able to fight back in revenge. Besides, they just wanted a little laugh, right? It’s not like they’re going to harm Luhan or anything…

              “Sehun, one, two, three, go!”

              “Yehet!” Sehun screamed, his voice echoing throughout the trees. In an instant, all the flying lemurs at the surrounding cove of trees began to run wild—flying everywhere and chattering like agitated monkeys. It was a funny sight. Some lemurs began throwing fruits at each other; others pulled at others’ tails and wrestled with tree twigs.

              Of course, in the middle of it all was an annoyed Luhan, frustrated at Yoona and Sehun’s expected prank. All he wanted was some peace and quiet for his meditation but was flatly denied. If only he had bending to show those annoying brats who’s boss… Then suddenly he was hit by one of the peaches that a lemur randomly threw. Meanwhile, Yoona and Sehun were laughing so hard at the scene.

              “Ugh, those imbeciles…,” Luhan mumbled in frustration. “What do I have to do to make them stop?”

              Finally, Luhan had an idea. He will divert their attention so something else using this telepathy. And so he whispered in the wind for Sehun, “This is Luhan. You’re dead. I knew that you were the one who cause the lemurs to run wild.”

              In an instant, Sehun stopped laughing. This was not the first time that he heard Luhan’s voice in his head. He had also heard phrases like, “Share me your fruit pie,” or “bring me dinner,” and it always scared him. Yet, Sehun still considers Luhan his friend. It’s kind of a complicated friendship.

              “Now for Yoona,” Luhan chuckled. Then after thinking it over, he whispered in the wind, “You better head back to the Western Air Temple as soon as possible…” Then he thought some more and added, “...if you do, you’ll see your dream man!”

              As soon as Yoona heard it, she was startled. She had never heard voices in her head before. She did not recognize that it was Luhan’s voice either.

              Thinking that she ignored his telepathic message prank, Luhan attempted again. “Yoona, you better head back!”

              “What was that?” Yoona wondered, feeling rather confused. Then he turned to Sehun and said, “I think I better fly back to the Western Air Temple.”

              “What? You just arrived!” Sehun groaned. “It takes days for you to get here at the Southern Air Temple and now you’re leaving so soon?”

              “I’ll visit again, you know that.”

              Yoona immediately readied Yoongsan and flew out. After a few days of flying, Yoona passed by the Fire Nation capital and decided to stop there for the night. As she was about to land, she saw a good-looking young man lying down on a noble’s rooftop, staring up at the stars. He was smiling up at the stars and his dimples were absolutely adorable. She fell in love at first sight.

              “Wow, I wonder who that is,” she thought, her heart throbbing in her chest. “He’s so handsome!”

              Since Yoongsan was quite huge, the young man on the rooftop noticed her and began wondering about the huge creature that he saw. He squinted and saw a girl sitting by the flying buffalo’s head and even thought that he was imagining things. Since then, he kept on staring at the sky, waiting to see if the strange creature with a riding girl would come back to view.

              “Oh dear, did he see me? I can’t be seen; that’s too embarrassing!” she giggled through blushing cheeks. Then she remembered the voice that she heard back at the Southern Air Temple a few days ago: “…you’ll see your dream man!”

              “Oh my goodness! Does that mean that I just saw or heard the future?” Yoona exclaimed, thinking that she had gained a new ability when in fact, it was nothing but a little prank pulled on her by the mischievous Luhan.

              The next few days following her first glimpse of the young man on the rooftop found Yoona often flying over to watch him in his daily life. Most would call it stalking, but Yoona preferred the term “being a guardian angel.” Little did she know that Lee Seunggi—as the young man is named—often caught a glance in the sky and saw her flying bison’s figure in split seconds.

              When it was time again for her to visit the Southern Air Temple, she told Sehun the news. “Guess what?”

              “What?” Sehun turned and paid full attention.

              “I can see the future!” Yoona exclaimed.

              “What do you mean? You’ve gotta be kidding to make such claims and just expect people to believe you.” Obviously, Sehun did not believe her.

              “It’s true! I heard destiny like a whisper in the wind and it came true!”

              Yoona’s mouth moved too animatedly while talking like the amazed child that she was. Sehun did not believe anything that she said though. If anyone could be gifted with that great ability, heaven probably would not choose her of all people, Sehun thought.

              As she kept on blabbering about her “newly acquired ability,” Luhan happened to be listening from a distance. He could not contain his amusement and began to giggle on his own. His little prank totally paid off, and now, Yoona has officially gone insane. Ever since then, Luhan started to whisper to Yoona through his telepathy as a prank, making her think that she can see the future. And whatever he whispered to her often came true.

***

              “Right, so you say you’ve been stalking this Lee Seunggi guy since you were twelve, all because you heard ‘destiny’ in the wind?” Taeyeon scratched her head. She looked like a constipated child as she tried to process Yoona’s weirdness. Then she sneered and shook her head. This child Yoona is ridiculous. “How is he related to the throne exactly?”

              “Well he’s the princesses’ second cousin from the side of a prince born to a concubine…or something like that…”

              “Okay, he’s a far relative, I get it,” Taeyeon rolled her eyes once more. “Let’s just go to the palace already. I really want to see Fany and Sunny!”

              “Can’t we just stay up here and stare at Seunggi Oppa a little longer?” Yoona whined.

              “Yoona!” Taeyeon raised her voice.

              “Okay, fine, let’s go to the palace, Avatar Taeyeon…”

Part 2

              Yunho, one of the annihilation group’s best assassins, marched into the headquarters after completing another assignment. Just like Jaejoong, he was dragged into this secret group too after the volcanic eruption about two years ago. However, unlike Jaejoong, the leader valued him, while Jaejoong was nothing but a useless pawn.

              Unlike Jaejoong, Yunho was naïve of a lot of things. He still thinks that Taeyeon had died in the volcanic eruption, and never once had he ever thought that the Avatar and the adopted daughter of the Firelord was also the Taeyeon that they loved from their childhood. It is true that there could be a number of Taeyeons in the entire Fire Nation, so he assumed the latter. For Taeyeon and Yunho’s sake, Jaejoong never bothered to reveal that secret to him. If Yunho ever found out about Taeyeon, he might boldly oppose the group’s leader—something so reckless that might lose his life. Jaejoong did not want that, yet he still questioned himself if keeping it all a secret was the wisest thing to do. So then, all this time, Yunho did nothing but obey the annihilation group leader’s orders. He was quite good at it too.

              After passing through winding metal halls, he finally reached the boss’s door. He is now here for his report.

              With a quick bow, he announced, “I finished the job. I killed the Left Royal Minister and his family. Then I hanged the Right Royal Minister and made it look like he committed suicide. Now all that’s left is the Firelord and his daughters.”

              “Good, good,” the leader nodded in approval. “As always, you never fail me. Before we target the Firelord, we must first get rid of the Avatar and then get rid of the other two daughters.”

              “I heard that you finally figured out how to get rid of the Avatar for good,” said Yunho, feeling rather uneasy at the news.

              “Oh yes, I very much did,” the leader smiled. Then he began to tell Yunho about the plans.

              “Are you sure it will work? What if the strange monk turns against us and destroys us?” Yunho asked in concern. “He may not have any bending, but if he can read minds, predict the future, and cause the death of spirits, don’t you think he could be a dangerous enemy?”

              “Don’t worry, my boy. He will do what we ask. I already have it all planned out. If he doesn’t comply, then we’ll wipe out the entire Air Nomads. That way, if we ever fail in trying to destroy the Avatar, we can still succeed in stopping her from being reborn into the next nation in the Fire-Air-Water-Earth cycle.”

***

              “I swear, who ever had done this, I will surely take revenge and avenge Nichkhun’s blood!” the heartbroken Princess Fany cried out as she choked on her tears. She had been saying those words to herself ever since the news of the Left Royal Minister’s household’s deaths broke out a week ago.

              Princess Fany was nothing but an angry, heartbroken wreck these days, and no one would dare to approach her. Sometimes, she even comes off as crazy to others. Even Sunny was rather scared at what her twin had become. Fany often practiced sword fighting during her spare time and even kept a dart board in her room to shoot darts before going to bed. She also began reading about human weakness and the art of killing. It seemed like she was really serious on taking revenge. Now who would not be scared by that?

              Meanwhile, Sunny was busy with other things. While Fany had been strengthening herself in physical matters, Sunny had been digging out secret files and profiles of almost everyone working in the palace. She often monitored anyone who came in or went out. Recently, she even got Hyomin to enter the palace as her own spy under the name Sun-Young to hide her identity as former Admiral Park Yongwoo’s daughter. Together, Sunny and Hyomin accessed secret libraries to find secrets about the royal family.

              On the day after the Left Royal Minister (Nichkhun’s father) died, the Right Loyal Minister was found to have committed suicide through hanging, causing uproar in the capital and government. The Left and Right Royal Ministers were the Firelord’s most trusted subjects. How could this disaster have happened? Sunny and Hyomin both tried to investigate on their own, but since they were nothing but amateurs, they found very little of value.

              One evening when Hyomin got home from spending time with Sunny, she sat down by their old wooden table and sighed.

              “You okay, Hyomin?” asked the concerned Min-Young, Hyomin’s older sister.

              “With all these deaths, I don’t think I am,” Hyomin heavily sighed. “It’s bad enough that our father died, and now the Left and Right Royal Ministers are dead but no one knows why.”

              Remembering how their father died, Min-Young suddenly froze in guilt. She was the one who handed the poisonous medicine. Wait… that poison came from Jaejun…

***

              “You know what, Hyomin? I have this theory that the deaths are all connected,” Sunny said as she paced back and forth on the palace garden grounds the next day.

              “You’ve said that a hundred times before, but you don’t have any proof,” Hyomin said nonchalantly.

              “Sorry,” Sunny adorably pouted and stopped pacing. “I just have all these hunches and it frustrates me that I have no proof for any of them. I feel so useless. I wanted to know why the Firelord hated Agni Kais so much that I ended up researching almost everything about the Fire Nation history except that due to lack of information. I even went so far as to research Firelord Sooman and Crown Prince Eungsoo but found nothing. I even dragged you into this futile search.”

              “My sister Min-Young said something odd to me last night though,” Hyomin scratched her head. “She said someone might have really wanted our father dead. The poison from the medicine stall confirmed it.”

              “I also thought of that. I even thought that my own father, the Firelord, was the one who planned it, but I also have no proof of that either. You don’t think I’m crazy for suddenly doubting my own father, do you?” Sunny sat beside Hyomin and looked at her with sincere eyes.

              “I don’t know about that, but Min-Young Eonni said the name of the medicine dealer was Jaejun.”

              “Jaejun?!” Sunny suddenly stood up and stared at Hyomin. “What about the surname? What does he look like?”

              “Ah well, I don’t know about the surname, but Min-Young Eonni described him as kind and sweet with a lovely, friendly smile…”

              “Oh never mind, it’s probably a different person and not Taeyeon’s brother,” Sunny shrugged. “The Jaejun or Jaejoong that Taengoo told me about looked rather cold, with piercing eyes.”

              “Anyway, that medicine dealer is gone and no one knows what happened to him after my father died,” Hyomin continued. “This is totally hopeless.”

              “Yeah, maybe we should just give up on this. Maybe the Fire Nation Royal Family secrets are kept secret for a reason. I’m still curious, but since I’m against stronger authorities, I guess I should just quit.”

***

              Fany stood before the Firelord’s throne; her bright eye-smile gone—replaced by a sharp glare, showing the deep scar of her loss. She and Nichkhun were starting to grow closer during the past months that Taeyeon was absent, but now, even Nichkhun was taken away from her. What was worse was that he was never coming back. Now all that’s left of him are nothing but memories.

              “Princess Mi-Young, the maidservants have reported that you no longer eat at proper times and have hidden numerous articles of knives, daggers, and darts in your private quarters. What is the meaning of this?” the Firelord questioned.

              “Well what about you, Father? Your two closest Royal Ministers just died and never once have I seen you mourn for them! How could you be so heartless?” Fany cried out, her tears streaming from her eyes.

              “Princess Mi-Young, aren’t you reacting a little too much over this? Of course I was sad that they are both gone. That’s why I have sent out people to investigate their deaths!”

              Fany stood in silence with a bowed head. Finally she said, “I want to find the killer of the Left Royal Minister’s family myself.”

              “What? Are you insane?” the Firelord looked at her in disbelief.

              Suddenly, there a servant entered the throne room and bowed down. Then the servant said, “Your Majesty, someone wants to see you.”

              Firelord Soon-Jae groaned. “What now? Who is it?”

              “It’s Princess Taeyeon, Your Majesty.”

              “What?” Fany and the Firelord said in unison.

              “Let her in!”

              From the opened doors, the small figure with glowing light-brown hair from the outdoor lights made her way in. Fany focused on her from across the hall, her blood-shot eyes widened in excitement. The small figure walked closer until they could finally see her pretty little smiling, dimpled face. It really was Taeyeon, who looked just as excited as they were to be back.

              “Fany!” Taeyeon cried out in excitement. She ran toward her best friend/sister with open arms and clung to her neck so tightly that Fany could barely breathe. “I missed you so much!”

              Yoona slowly followed behind Taeyeon. She had never been to the palace before, and she certainly felt out of place. She was nothing but a lowly air bender, while two princesses continued hugging each other in front of the highly respectable Firelord.

              “Oh my gosh, Taeyeon, you’re back!” Fany exclaimed with tears in her eyes. Her dark aura instantly vanished and her adorable eye-smile came back. “I’m so glad that you’re back!”

***

              As the princesses fell asleep in their huge quarters, Yoona sat up in deep thought. Taeyeon introduced her to Fany and Sunny and even got to meet Hyomin, who oddly stuck close to Sunny wherever she went. The Firelord was very kind to her, and even allowed her to sleep in the royal quarters of the princesses. For dinner, the Firelord served a huge feast to celebrate Taeyeon’s sudden return. Yoona ate as much as she could, yet something totally bothered her.

              “See, the Firelord is a nice man,” Taeyeon said to Yoona after the feast. “Do you even have any reason to believe that he will attack the Western Air Temple now that you’ve met him in person?”

              Before she even met Taeyeon, Yoona saw a vision (warnings coming from Luhan) of fire benders attacking the Air Temples and she was downright sure that it was a scene from the future. Of course, nobody ever really believed her. The monks reasoned that Firelord Soon-Jae made a promise to protect and preserve the life of the monks in the Western Air Temple and that there was no way that he would ever break that promise. However, now that she has seen the face of Firelord Soon-Jae, she realized something. Firelord Soon-Jae was not the Firelord she saw in her vision. It was someone else. Yoona just kept quiet though. Maybe her vision was wrong. She doesn’t really know.

              Days passed and the three Fire Nation princesses spent so much of their time together. Sunny gave up on her research and dueled with Taeyeon for fun. Fany poured out all her frustrations by talking to Taeyeon even in the late hours of the night. Fany and Sunny told her all their problems, and in turn, Taeyeon also told them all about hers. Taeyeon told them about Sica, about Avatar Leeteuk, about her dreams… To add to that, she now had the burden of the Royal Ministers’ deaths too.

              The Firelord also expressed his desire in having her stay. “I think you should stay with us for security, especially after all that has happened in the government lately,” the Firelord said to her one day. “But you are in charge of your own path. I am not forcing you to stay because of my own fears.”

              With all these, Taeyeon felt the pressure of being the Avatar once again. She has not even done anything right as the Avatar and yet the responsibilities just kept piling up higher and higher over her. What has she ever done as the Avatar anyway? She tried to save Seohyun at the North Pole and failed. Now Sica and the others are missing and she could not even find them. The two highest officials in the Fire Nation government are dead and she doesn’t even know what to do about it. Then there’s Yoona saying that bad things will happen in the future too… Life is frustrating.

              A week passed and Ginger has not returned yet. Taeyeon kept busy by learning air bending from Yoona. Taeyeon also helped Sunny train Hyomin in fire bending. She also started training with Fany and incorporated Sica’s ice darts with Fany’s target lessons.

              “…You better act like a big girl and learn to take care of yourself. Bigger monsters might come out. You’ll never know!” Yunho’s words echoed in Taeyeon’s head.

              “Yunho Oppa was right,” Taeyeon thought. “I need to get stronger.” With Yunho’s words in mind, she continued training as she waited for Sica’s reply.

              Until one day, while Yoona was high up in the clouds on Yoongsan’s back—staring at Lee Seunggi, she noticed a maroon bird flying into the capital from the east. “Oh, Yoongbird?! I mean, Ginger!”

              From the palace gardens, Fany stared up at the clouds as saw the creature heading toward her. “Um, Taeng, isn’t that Ginger?”

              “What?” Taeyeon immediately looked up to the east and saw the bird. “I hope Sica and the rest is alright…”

              Upon arrival, Fany, Sunny, Hyomin, and Yoona huddled up close to Taeyeon to see what the bird had brought back. When Taeyeon opened the cylinder case, she was surprised to see a crumpled paper that was seemingly deliberately shoved into the case.

              “This is odd,” Taeyeon thought.

              “What does it say?” Sunny leaned in closer to get a better look.

              When Taeyeon opened the crumpled up piece of paper, she recognized her handwriting and realized that it was the same letter that she had sent out to Sica.

              “My dear friends, I am well and in one piece…,” Sunny read out loud.

              “Wait, this is my handwriting!” Taeyeon exclaimed. Then she skipped to the end of the letter and saw the words, “Your worried Avatar, Taeyeon.” “Yup! This is the letter that I sent out to her!”

              “Uh, guys, I think I found Sica’s reply,” Fany awkwardly said as she stared at the back side of the letter.

              Taeyeon immediately flipped the letter. Sunny and Hyomin gasped in unison. Yoona’s eyes dilated.

              “HELP US

–SICA”

              That was all that was written in huge letter on the back side of the paper. The handwriting was rather messy and it seemed like it was written as quickly as possible. Sica did not even bother to neatly roll up the paper. It was just crumped and placed into the cylinder. Something bad must have happened.

              Taeyeon knew what she had to do. “I need to go.”

BONUS SCENE (from Avataeng's Training Sessions)

MASTER YOONG

               It has been days and Ginger still hasn’t come back. There has to be something she could do to pass the time.

              “Hey Yoona, you’re an air bender, right?” Taeyeon said as she watched Yoona playing with the turtle ducks by the pond in the Royal Gardens.

              Yoona rolled her eyes and tossed some of her long hair up. “Well if it wasn’t obvious to you yet, yes I am.” Then she blew some air at Taeyeon’s face to prove it.

              “Can you teach me? Since I have nothing to do, I might as well train for something.”

              So then, Yoona thought about it for a bit. That afternoon, Yoona disappeared from sight. She took up a huge scroll and wrote her lesson plan on it as professionally as she can. Sunny even helped her with it.

              The next day, Yoona presented her plan to Taeyeon—hung from a wooden board in the Royal Garden villa. Then, surprisingly, she took a wooden stick and tapped it on the board like a real teacher. “This is my lesson plan for your training and we will commence as soon as you finish writing this all down on your notebook! Understood?”

              “What?” Taeyeon raised her eyebrows as she sat uncomfortably by the wooden table.

              “You should address me as Teacher Yoong from now on, or Master Yoong—whichever you prefer,” Yoona chuckled in excitement.

              “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Taeyeon said as she massaged her temples. “I knew shouldn’t have asked her to teach me. This annoying role play will never end…”

***

              “…so the air is not exactly coming out of your palms, you are just making the air currents move with your bending—just like water bending, except in water bending you have to find water first, while air is everywhere, making it the better element obviously…,” Yoona explained as elaborately as she could.

              Throughout the whole first day of training, Yoona did nothing but lecture Taeyeon on the science, history, and concept of air bending. Taeyeon found it tiring, but Master Yoong insisted that these lessons were important so she continued her extensive lesson. Taeyeon barely paid attention though. It was boring just listening to Yoona talking about air currents and pressures.

              The next day, Taeyeon finally tried her hand at air bending, and surprisingly, she was able to make wind blow with her hands immediately. Just like water bending, air bending seemed to come almost easily to her. Air bending felt almost just like fire bending, except she was forcing bursts of highly pressurized air instead of fire.

              Yoona gave Taeyeon a round of applause. “Ah, the Avatar is truly talented!”

              “Wow, you learned to blow air so quickly. I think you’ll be able to master air bending in no time,” Sunny complimented her.

              “Yeah, it’s your first day and now you blast wind like a pro,” Fany added.

              “There’s something totally wrong though,” Yoona spoke up.

              “What?” asked the beginner Avatar Taeyeon.

***

              The next day, Yoona and Taeyeon flew up to the mountains past the capital for their training. There on high altitudes, Yoona presented Taeyeon with a glider that she personally crafted for the Avatar made out of bamboo wood for the staff and silk fabric for the wings.

              “This is a simple glider that should be enough for your flying practice. Let’s see how well you will do,” Yoona said as she handed Taeyeon the glider.

              Taking a peek from high above the clouds, Taeyeon trembled and gulped down the growing lump in . “So, I have to jump from high up here?”

              “Yes. Don’t worry. Yoongsan and I will be closely watching and will catch you if you fail,” Yoona said with an enthusiastic smile that really bothered the nervous Taeyeon.

              “Oh, man, the people are really tiny from way up here…dang it…,” Taeyeon mumbled in nervousness.

              “Well, what are you waiting for? Jump already!” Yoona gave Taeyeon a quick push, and down went our poor Taengoo, plummeting down from the sky.

***

              “Ugh, I need a better air bending teacher,” Taeyeon complained as she lay down beside Fany on the soft, pink, silk sheets.

              Fany just laughed at Taeyeon and sat up to shoot some darts on the board. As usual, she got a bull’s-eye. “You’ve said something like that once before about Sica in your letters. You said you needed a better water bending teacher because Sica was asleep most of the time that you were training. Now, you’re worried about her disappearance. Maybe you should be patient with Yoona. She seems to be a really nice kid.”

              “Yeah, but Yoona is just, you know, a little loose in the head, if you know what I mean,” Taeyeon said as she sat up and motioned to her head with her finger moving in spirals, implying that Yoona was crazy.

              “What do you want to do then? Inquire with the real monks and ask them for help with your air bending?”

              Taeyeon glanced at the pretty, pink princess and said, “You know, that doesn’t seem like a very bad idea.” Then, Taeyeon got up and began to pack her bag.

              “Hey, what are you doing?” Fany asked, confused about Taeyeon’s actions.

              “I’m going to take Yoongsan with me and go to the Western Air Temple. It only takes about a few hours from the capital to get there. I will go ahead and ask for apprenticeship, or just reserve my place for one, since I still have to wait for Sica first.”

              “I thought Yoona did not want to go back to the Western Air Temple because she ran away,” said Fany, worrying about Taeyeon’s decisions.

              “I’m just going to inquire about possible future training. I’ll be back before sunrise,” Taeyeon replied with a smirk. “Yoona will never notice. Don’t worry.”

***

              At the Western Air Temple, Taeyeon was greeted by one of the head female monks named Song Qian. Taeyeon inquired about possible training and she was immediately briefed about Air Nomad culture. By “briefed,” that meant more boring lectures on Air Nomad culture, history, and philosophy. Taeyeon had to listen to Song Qian explain the entire Air Nomad history. It was late, and Taeyeon wanted to just fall asleep while Song Qian talked on and on about the importance of silent meditation. Compared to Song Qian’s lesson, Yoona’s version was more of a summary. Soon, it was almost sunrise, and Song Qian was still not finished talking. Finally, her “briefing” was over at about noon. Taeyeon immediately said goodbye and left.

              Taeyeon sighed as she hopped onto Yoongsan’s head. “Well then, I’ll just have to settle with Yoona as my teacher. Now that I think about it, she’s not that bad compared to real boring monks...”

Author's Note:

Hey guys, I'm back from vacation! Tell you what, Seoul was absolutely awesome! There was so much of Soshi in one city.. like Sica's and Taeyeon's faces were literally everywhere... Then there's Yoona in the Lotte stores.. Just being in a Nature Republic store will drive you nuts. There is so much of Taeyeon's face on most of the beauty products. XD