𝑾𝑨𝑽𝑬𝑺 || 𝑨𝒂𝒏𝒈 (𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒌 1) *Revamping

Imprisoned*

The last eight years of Jade's life had been spent in the Earth Kingdom city of Omashu. The four years before that had been spent living in a small village, now wiped from existence by the Fire Nation.

Traveling the world had been nothing more than a dream to Jade. She never once imagined that it might one day be a reality. That she might have a chance to join the Avatar and his friends on their journey to the North Pole. She would get to learn waterbending from a real master alongside Aang and Katara. And after that...well, she hadn't thought that far ahead. Jade couldn't imagine that she'd be very useful in defeating the Fire Lord. But they would cross that bridge when they came to it.

Still, saying goodbye wasn't easy. The overwhelming support was somehow bittersweet; Jade was glad for it, of course, but boy was she going to miss her Omashu family. She'd miss Lanyi's daily greetings, and the sweet little four year old twins down the road. She was awfully disappointed that she'd be missing the birth of Gan's child. And she was going to miss Shiro and King Bumi above all. Being without them would be hard, no question.

But she had to do this. If she didn't she knew for a fact that she would regret it.

At least she could tell that Shiro would miss her, too. That much was obvious from how tightly he was hugging her. Any tighter and she might have suffocated before she could even step foot out of Omashu.

"Be safe, small fry." He pulled back to ruffle her hair. "I'm proud of you."

She swatted his hand away. "I haven't even done anything yet."

"Still am. Don't tell me when to be proud of you." Jade smiled. "I love you, kiddo."

"I love you, too."

He looked behind her to where Aang, Katara, and Sokka were waiting. "Keep her out of trouble for me, alright? She's unbelievably clumsy, so don't let her near any cliffs."

"Hey!"

Katara giggled. "We will. We'll keep a close eye on her."

Shiro was totally overreacting. Jade was not clumsy. It wasn't like she had a habit of falling down stairs, or something. She'd only done that three or four times...In the last year. But who hasn't?

Jade tried not to cry as they left the city gates. Shiro and the gathered crowd waved after them, and Jade waved back until she couldn't see them anymore. And once she couldn't, she did her absolute best not to let her new friends see her lip tremble. It helped that Momo hopped onto her shoulder, lightly tickling her cheek with his tail.

Aang's excitement helped, too. He walked at her side, bouncing with each step. He had a big, infectious grin on his face. "Jade, just wait 'til you meet Appa! You're gonna love him!"

"Who's Appa?" She blinked.

"Oh, you'll see."

Walking behind them, Sokka leaned forward to speak in a voice only Jade could hear. "You may wanna brace yourself."

She'd hardly known the group for a day, but she'd already caught on that Sokka was the most realistic of the bunch. That being the case, she doubted he'd tell her that without reason. But did that mean she should be nervous, or..?

It didn't take them much longer to reach a grassy clearing about a mile away from the city. When the others stopped, Jade followed suit. Only then did she spot what they came out here for. A huge, fluffy white ball. That's what it looked like from the distance, anyway.

But Aang ran up to it, waving. "Appa!"

The white ball moved. Naturally, it wasn't a ball at all. It was a six-legged mammal, with a brown arrow mark running from it's tail to it's forehead -- kind of like Aang's arrow. There was a big saddle on it's back, and reigns tied to the horns on it's head. It looked like just about the fluffiest, biggest creature Jade had ever seen; even bigger than Flopsy.