AVATAR BOOK 4
Air
The Return of the Air Nomads
Prologue
Air
The moon was white, shining brightly above the fire nation capital. Sokka looked up at it, remembering how Yuei gave her life to save the moon spirit. He sadly looked down at the tiles on the floor, the shiny reflections upon them. It was two years ago that he had met Yuei, and then watched her give her life for the moon. He hit his fist against the railing that held him from falling, a shock went up his arm ignoring it he lifted his hand up. It was bleeding. Sukei stepped out onto the patio. "Sokka, are you alright?" She didn't answer. Sukei stepped up to him leaning on the railing and at the same time holding up his hand. She sighed. "You miss her don't you?" she looked down at the ocean below, restless and powerful, constantly moving and shifting. "She had to be taken away."
"Sokka, you have to put that behind you." she said, as she bandaged his sore hand.
"How can I?" he said.
"Here, maybe this will take your mind off of Yuei for a while." she said, lifting up a cup of tea that she had made.
Sokka picked up the tea gulping it down. His mind was still on Yuei, but he put his arm around Sukei. "Thanks Sukei." he said, smiling.
Aang opened his eyes, his hair was grown out again, and as usual in the morning it was messed up. Calmly he stood up stretching, looking out the window. It was mid-day... that was good, he had stayed up to late last night worrying about... suddenly it hit him! The Celebration at the Fire Nation Palace was today, what time was it. He looked down at a huge sundial that had been drawn into the road below... Celebration was in 30 min.
Aang banged open Kataras door. "Katara! Today is the day of the celebration, and we're gonna be late, everyone is going to be there, it's in 30 min., and we have to get out the door right now!" he said, so fast that Katara could barely hear him. "Aang. Slow down! Now tell me what the problem is slowly and clearly."Aangs eyes were wide, he looked like he had tried to get ready way to fast, the toothbrush was still in his mouth. "The Celebration is today!"
Instantly everyone was awake, and jumping into their clothes, stuffing breakfast in their mouths, and combing their hair all at the same time. Once they were all ready they walked out into the street jumping into a cart and giving it the directions to the palace. Lucky the Firelord himself had waken up late, and the festivities were held to start at a later time. 1:30.
Aang, Katara, Sokka, Sukei, and Toph all ran into the fire nation palace, slamming the doors behind them. "It's amazing that I'm living like a king in the same place that I feared and hated when I was a kid." Sokka said, as they ran towards the door of the throne room."Well, things sure have changed a lot since then." Sukei said, opening the doors into the room. A table was set up in the middle of the room, which had a map of the four nations on it, many of the advisors were sitting around it. Zuko of course was sitting on the throne, surrounded by a wall of fire.
They all sat down around the map table, waiting for Zuko to give his announcement. Why did Zuko call us in the middle of a celebration?
Zuko stood up. "As you may not know, I invited you all to the celebration to bring you to this meeting, it was a bit misleading but it was the only way to keep this meeting a secret. I brought you here for an important matter. There is a report of an airbending scroll, the last one of its kind up in the mountains of the air nomads. I thought maybe it would be of some use to teach those who haven't learned to bend yet... airbendin, and therefore restoring the air nomads to their rightful place in the air temples.
Their jaws all dropped. They all knew it was one crazy, but useful idea.
"Well, why didn't you just bring the scroll here?" Sukei asked."It's not that easy... air scrolls can only be retrieved by air nomads." Aang said. "Yes, that's correct Avatar, and the only airbender in the world is you." Zuko said."So let me get this straight, you want me, Aang, Sukei, Sokka, and Katara... to go all the way up in some of the highest mountains to find an air scroll?" Toph said.
"Yes... but you left out one important person..." Zuko said.
"Who would that be?" Toph replied.
"Why... me of 's freezing cold up there. If you don't have a firebender on that journey, you could freeze to death. With me along with you I could guide you, and I'll have flames on hand... just in case." Zuko said."Firelord Zuko!" one of the Advisors piped. "You cannot simply head up to the mountains alone, to freeze, let one of us go instead."
Zuko looked down on the advisor. "I've been swimming in the coldest waters... I'll be alright."