Any edit I make here is simply to be capable of writing things, including fanon chapters of my recent series... then when ready will place it back onto the main space, rather than doing work in bits and pieces.

The Forged Friendships, Part 2
Chapter information
Series	The First Avatar
Chapter	4
Written by	H-Man Havoc
Chronology
Last chapter	The Forged Friendships, Part 1
Next chapter	Labour, Labour, and Even More Labour (Not yet worked on)

Previously, on The First Avatar... Edit

After arriving at the Northern Water Tribe, Tenzu retold the events of the past few weeks to his friend Azure and her older half-brother Qing. While the trio was offloading Anka's supplies and saddle, Malu (who had trailed Tenzu to the metropolis) tracked down the latter's teacher Shinjin, who went to have a discussion with Azure's waterbending instructor (and an old rival of the esteemed monk), Pak. After rebuking Pak once he heard that the latter already knew of Tenzu's situation due to having retained spies following their previous encounters, Shinjin proceeded to tell his old foe of the prophecy and how Tenzu was part of it. Afterwards, Pak headed back to the dockyards just as Azure and Qing were finishing offloading Anka with the exiled airbending master. Feeling that she was ready, Azure's master challenged her to a duel. After a long and hard-fought affair between the mentor and protege, Azure managed to garner victory over her instructor and eventually was proclaimed a waterbending master (unofficially at first; promoted a few hours later). After her promotion, the quartet (Azure, Qing, Tenzu, and Shinjin) departed on Anka and headed southeast, towards the Earth Kingdom.

The Frigid Ice Fields Edit

Leaving the majestic Northern Water Tribe metropolis and heading towards the frightful ice deterrents, Anka was goaded on by Tenzu to fly over them. Suddenly a long, ice column shot across one spike to the other, scaring the bison and forcing the group downward into the ice field. "Everybody hang on! We're about to enter the infamous water trap zone". Tenzu released the reins and motioned to Azure to do the same while pointing towards Anka's tail to indicate where she should defend the bison. Then he turned to his mentor and directed him to take the reins, to which the latter replied "Will do".

Once Anka flew through the middle of the field, a slight haze blanketed the sea, preventing the group from adjusting their heading, leaving them no choice but to proceed in the same direction. Fortunately Azure managed to clear up some of the fog by manipulating the water molecules inside the cloud, just in time to witness some of the taller deterrents crumbling and tipping over. While she used water from her water skin to cut down the fragments into manageable sizes, Tenzu shoved the chunks into the ocean below via airbending. Monk Shinjin also got involved, blasting some of the screen away from his field of vision, giving Anka some extra room to fly. Without warning, two glaciers on either side had sizable sections came crashing down into the water, generating a large tsunami. "Even for a master like myself, I can't control that much volume in one move" Azure quipped.

"I'll assist you. Tenzu, get ready to generate the shield!" Shinjin exclaimed.

"What am I to do?!" replied Qing, who seemingly had no role in the current situation.

"Secure the baggage and brace yourself", Azure curtly replied.

"Great. Just great." As Qing arose to do that, Shinjin let go of the reins and joined Tenzu and Azure at the middle of Anka's saddle. With his master by his side, Tenzu manipulated the air currents around him to form a large air bubble which encompassed the lot of them as the group darted towards the tsunami. As soon as the water reached them, Azure froze some of the water around the air sphere, protecting them from impact but doing little to prevent the water from submerging them. For a split second it seemed that time had stopped underneath the waves, much like what happens when a human being is encased in ice for a lengthy, but finite period of time. The seemingly infinitesimal moment shattered when Tenzu's pupils momentarily glowed a vivid, but pale white and his facial features became slightly contorted in anger under the strain. At that point the airbending master blew apart the air barrier, scattering the ice shield surrounding it over a wide radius and causing the ocean to spread apart temporarily, allowing Anka to soar above the liquid surface. While the move was successful, Tenzu did not foresee an icicle-sized fragment of leftover ice from striking his teacher in the shoulder.

"Argh!" Shinjin groaned in obvious pain, while falling to the side of the saddle, to which a concerned Tenzu shouted "Shinjin!" and leaped to his side, catching his master before the latter impacted any additional area of his body. Azure and Qing also stopped what they were doing and surrounded the middle-aged monk while supporting the affected area.

"Tenzu and company, I'll be fine..ugh..you should get back on the reins and resume control of your bison. Continue heading for the.. look out!" A large chunk of unbroken ice was 30 metres from crashing into the group and they did not have enough time to defend themselves. Fortunately for them, a small but poignant shot of air was heard going through the ice chunk's cross-section, splitting it in two and landing just out of Anka's range on either side. Tenzu looked up in the air and saw a female airbender flying overhead on her glider, delivering a salute towards the airbending master before gliding north. Unbeknownst to the team, Malu had overflown them during their harrowing journey through the ice field due to the haze interfering with her vision. She did however observe the falling ice chunk, turn 180 degrees due north while diving at a 25 degree incline, which gave her enough velocity to catch up with the ice and blast it out of its trajectory.

A grateful Tenzu beckoned "Thank you, whoever you are!", and Malu nodded in return, choosing not to divulge her identity at that point. She then flew a further 500 metres north before adjusting her course to its previous heading in order to continue following the team as part of her mission.

"Looks like I'll have a substantial report to file today" quipped the airbending agent.

With his attention drawn away from the mysterious airbender and fixated on his master's calm, but pained gaze, he inquired "Who is this saviour? Judging from her attire, though somewhat blurry, she appears to be from the Eastern Air Temple".

"Indeed you are correct, my pupil. That looks like Malu, an Air Nomad intelligence agent, and a good one at that. She's supposed to be on hiatus by now; she completed a high-level mission weeks before. Either she's still on her vacation, or she was coerced to take up a reconnaissance mission for the Northern Temple's Elders. That wouldn't be too much of a surprise, considering the Air Nomads' Intelligence Division is second only to the Fire Nation's systems, and due to the combined Air Nomad territory being much smaller than any of the other three nations', we've to be constantly gathering all forms of data".