Bender of Shadows
Chp 1. The world after the war.
Aang sat meditating in wind of the southern air temple. He could hear the new air acolytes going about busing themselves with their work and it soothed him. To know that this beautiful place would soon be restored to it's full glory brought him incredible happiness. It had been four years since he had taken the bending of fire lord Ozai and ended the war. Ever since then fire lord Zuko had done his best to rebuild his war torn country, though a rebellion of Azula supporters and war mongers were making it very difficult to maintain order. He would be returning to the fire nation soon and so would all his friends. They had all decided to meet at the fire nation palace two days from now, it would be Zuko's twentieth birthday and they all wanted to have a special get together to throw a party. They would have gone somewhere else but Zuko didn't dare leave on a vacation with his country in such a state. Aang's thoughts wandered to his friends then. Naturally they went to Katara first, his beautiful fiancee who was probably both equal parts learning and teaching healing in the southern water tribe. They had both decided to wait until they were both eighteen to finally marry, but that hadn't stopped them from officially getting engaged. Her brother Sokka was probably in the southern water tribe helping his father train other water tribe warriors in the art of trap and weapon making. Aang wondered if master Piandao would be helping them with that. In Ba Sing Se he knew Toph had started her own school for metal bending and was happily both training and beating her recruits poor recruits. Aang smiled at that thought and hoped that when Iroh came he would bring some of his famous tea from the magnificent city. He briefly wondered what Zuko would be doing right about now. The Young fire lord had certainly had a time of it. The Azula and Ozai loyalists had continued a war in the fire nation that should have ceased years ago. Several groups of people had on many occasions tried to break into Azula's prison in order to free her so that she might take her "rightful" place on the throne. Aang sighed sadly as he thought of his good friend having to deal with all of these things alone. He couldn't imagine how heavily ever attack weighed on the poor fire lord, he of course had Mai for comfort, but Aang couldn't see her comforting anybody very well. He hoped that with all his friends there to support him they could help Zuko to feel better and if need be Aang was ready and willing to help the fire lord stop the rebellion. He stood from his meditative stance then and the cold air ruffled his orange robes with a gentle breeze.