The First Deathbender (Deathbender Book 1)

Chapter 3

"Again!" Aang said after the fifth time we sled.

"Sorry, we go to get home before dark." Katara said. 

"Whoa." I said, looking at an old ship that sat not to far away. Me and Aang got up and started walking toward it. 

"Hey, wait!" Katara said. "That ship is forbidden to our tribe! It's cursed!" 

"You can't let fear control you if you want to be a bender." Aang said. Katara bit her lip and followed. 

Once inside, we walked around for a while. then we got to the main engine room. "You really think it was a hundred years?" Aang asked Katara, still trying to process it. 

She nodded. "It's the only explanation." She said. "Think about it. The war is a century old. The only reason you don't know about it is because, somehow, you were in there that whole time."

"It's just a lot t take in." I told her. 

"Maybe some good will come of all this?" Katara said, trying for a positive tone. 

"Well we did get to meet you!" Aang said brightly, smiling at Katara. 

"Come on, let's get out of here." Katara said, pulling Aang towards the door. 

But we didn't want to leave, and we managed to persuade Katara to let us look around a little bit more. 

But as time went on, Katara grew more and more unsettled until I began to think she was right. 

"Aang, Kila, let's head back. This place is creepy." She said. 

"Yeah, Aang, I'm starting to agree." I told him. "I'm curious too, but we should head back to Katara's village."

Aang wasn't listening, but after another step forward, a trip wire caught his foot and the door behind us slammed shut. 

"And there's a booby trap. Great." I said as we assessed the situation. 

A few gears on the walls began to move and a flare was shot out of the top of the ship, high into the sky, but would turn and come right back down. Onto us. 

"Let's go." I yelled. Aang picked up Katara and we used our airbending to get us out of the ship through the hole the flare created and safely down back onto the solid ice. 

We ran back to the village in silence. The whole town was waiting for us. "There they are!" Sokka said. "Katara get away from them!" 

"Why?" Katara said, outraged. 

"You saw what happened with the ship! They set off the alarms on purpose! They are fire nation spies!" He said, glaring. 

"They would never do that on purpose!" Katara countered. "They saved my life!"

"After setting off the flare! They will draw the fire nation right to us!"

"Sokka, do you know who they are? They're-"

"It's ok Katara!" I said quickly. 

"Yeah, we've caused enough trouble already." Aang said. "We should get moving anyway." 

"See? The traitors confess!" Sokka said. We ignored the first part. Well, they did. I never forget insults. "I ban them from this village forever!" 

"Sokka, you don't know what your saying! If you only knew-!"

"It's ok." I said again. "We have to keep moving, like I said. We would have been leaving soon anyway." 

Katara looked at me. "You sure?" She asked. We both nodded.