Author's Note: So this is my very first Avatar fanfiction, and I'm excited about it. It's set several hundred years before the events of A:TLA. I've been working on it for months, and I had the idea for it long before that. I had some ideas that I wanted to explore and see where I could take them. Certain things about this story will make more sense if you've seen Legend of Korra, but it's not necessary. I hope you enjoy it!
As much as the Air Nomads value peace, trying to learn airbending could be pretty stressful. Sayu, a young airbender, was running through the temple, late as usual for her training session with her master, Sifu Atasi. She had tried to be on time today, she promised herself she would be, but it just didn't work out that way. She would have to try again tomorrow.
She ran past several other airbenders in training and a few monks who looked on her with disapproval, but she was used to that. She wasn't exactly popular in the temple.
"Where's the fire, Sayu?" asked a little kid chasing a lemur. "Are you chasing lemurs, too?"
"Nope, I'm late again," she said as she quickened her pace.
"Because you were chasing lemurs?"
"Maybe, it's a secret," she said as she flashed him a grin.
Sayu finally reached the room where their sessions often took place. It had only two walls, the rest was left open, next to an ancient tree. The tree's branches extended inside the room, which was why the room was not complete, they had not wanted to cut off its limbs. Sitting under its leafy branches were Atasi and Ryosuke, already meditating. Neither one acknowledged her arrival, which she was grateful for. She put her staff on the floor and quickly sat down in the lotus position and joined them in their meditating.
Despite being an Air Nomad, meditating was always a challenge for Sayu. It was a strange problem, really; it was like a waterbender being unable to swim or an earthbender detesting dirt. She had trouble because her brain was always going on hyper speed, bombarding her with a hundred thoughts a second. Clearing her head was not impossible, but it was a chore. She enjoyed meditation, it relaxed her and strengthened her bending ability and her connection with her spiritual side, but it did get tedious every now and again. Airbender training was three-fourths meditation and one-fourth action. Or at least it seemed that way to her.
They meditated for three hours. It took an hour for Sayu to calm her mind down, another to clear it, and the last to do any actual meditating. Sifu Atasi usually let Sayu and Ryosuke meditate on whatever they felt drawn to at the time, unless she felt there was something specific they needed to ponder on. That day, she chose to meditate on the tree, and how it symbolized how all life is connected, a lesson she had learned at a young age. She imagined what it would be like to be the tree, or one of the animals dependent on it for life and sustenance. She then pictured her spirit as being like the tree, its branches spreading through her arms and legs, to her fingers and toes, filling every part of her and giving her strength and wisdom. It seemed like the kind of thing her master would want her to meditate on.
"You may open your eyes now," said Atasi. She had a low, melodic voice. She was never angry, though Sayu and Ryosuke had seen her come very close to getting angry in the past. Her hair was black with streaks of gray and shaved halfway to show her arrow. Sayu's hair was black and shaved halfway as well, but she had no arrow to show off. "Sayu, you were late again. You keep showing up later and later, I expect at some point you will be so late that you will loop around and arrive on time for the first time in your life."
"Yeah Sayu, you missed out on some insane meditating back there," said Ryosuke, Atasi's other pupil. He was bigger and more muscular than most airbenders, but he didn't seem to notice. "It was a real adventure."
Sayu smiled, but then Atasi continued, "If you ever wish to earn your arrow, you must take your training more seriously."
"Yes, Sifu Atasi." If she had a copper piece for every time she'd heard that lecture…
"Now, you both may go, but I want you to reflect on what you were meditating on."
They bowed in respect, and then took off on their gliders and flew up to the sky. The day was bright and sunny, with only a few clouds here and there to fly through, making it a perfect day for flying. There were already other airbenders out there flying, there was always at least one person soaring around the temple.
"Hey Ryosuke, you might be the one with the arrow, but I'm going to fly circles around you so fast it'll make your ancestors dizzy!" Sayu called.
"My glider could beat you in a race all by itself!" Ryosuke called back.
Sayu chased Ryosuke through the clouds, but he looped over her and started chasing her. This went on for a while, the two chasing each other under the sun. They stopped chasing each other at some point and instead competed over who could make better pictures in the clouds.
"Is that a poodle monkey?" Sayu asked after Ryosuke finished making a picture with a cloud.
"No, it's the avatar, doofus!" he called back.
Sayu designed a cloud of her own, and Ryosuke asked, "Is that a cabbage slug?"
"It's a dragon, stupid!"
They eventually landed in a spot near the airball arena but far enough away that they weren't bothered by the noise. They watched the younger kids play and they talked for a while.
"What were you meditating on?" Sayu asked.
"Egg custard tart. I missed lunch today," he replied, and they laughed.
"I heard that more men are coming here from the Eastern and Western temples, and more women are moving away," said Ryosuke. "Pretty soon the Southern Air Temple will be inhabited by only guys with no ladies, that's going to stink. Are you going to move away, as well?"
"This is my home, I can't imagine living anywhere else. And I don't think they would want me at the other temples, they already tried to send me away, remember?"
Sayu was born in the Southern Air Temple, but when she was little, she was sent to the Western Air Temple to train with other girls. She was sent back not long after due to her "astonishing and perplexing lack of skill." She was very bad at airbending, even the simplest forms had a way of confusing her, and she almost always ended up making a fool of herself, but Ryosuke never seemed to mind.
Sayu was sent back to train with Sifu Atasi, who specialized in special cases and had raised her since she was a baby. Ryosuke was also a special case, but he was at the other end of the spectrum. He had earned his arrow six years previously, but Sayu believed he should have had it before he could walk, he was that good. He didn't brag about his skills, though he had every right to. All the monks said he was the best and brightest airbender of his generation.
"Well, I'm glad they sent you back. You know, I bet you're going to earn your arrow any day now, I can feel it."
"I'm seventeen, I think if I was ever going to get it, I would have by now. I'm awful at airbending, it's a wonder I can even fly. I've resigned myself to going arrowless for the rest of my life," Sayu said quietly.
"You're a late bloomer, that's all," said Ryosuke with the smile that always set her heart aflutter. "You'll get that arrow, one day. And if not, that's fine, too. You can get something else tattooed on your head, start a new tradition."
"I could get a lemur, or a lightning bolt," she said, grinning.
"Man, I should have gotten a lightning bolt, but no, all I've got is this dumb arrow. Think I can trade?"
"Ryosuke, to think you would suggest something so scandalous! I just hope your mother doesn't find out!"
As he laughed, Sayu saw some little kids playing in the grass down below them. They were pretending to be the avatar. Some were pretending to waterbend, while others pretended to shoot flames out of their fists.
"I still can't believe they haven't found the avatar," said Sayu. "Shouldn't the elders have figured out who it is by now?"
The last avatar, a wise and powerful firebender who maintained the peace during his time, had died of old age seventeen years ago. Since then, the monks and nuns in every temple had been on the lookout for the next avatar. Every kid in their generation had been tested, with no results.
"It baffles them that they haven't figured it out yet," said Ryosuke. "I've heard that the other nations are getting impatient, they're starting to think that the elders know who it is but are keeping it secret. They think we're going to use the avatar to try to gain more power and take over the world."
"That's ridiculous," said Sayu. "I mean, it might be feasible if we were the Fire Nation, but we're the Air Nomads for crying out loud! Peace is our thing, we don't start wars. We don't even have a military."
"We know that, and they know that, but rumors get started and they aren't easy to stomp out. The elders are working harder to find out who is it so that they can prove they're not plotting anything and prevent violence breaking out over this. Atasi said they're going to make some kind of announcement tomorrow about it. If they're not announcing that they found the avatar, then it'll be an announcement of extra measures they're taking to find him or her."
"Do you remember when we took the test? How confused they were when it wasn't you? With your skill, everyone thought you were going to be Mr. Avatar, they couldn't believe it when you weren't. It came as no shock when I flunked it. But being surrounded by so many toys was like a dream."
The test was simply sending a child to pick out four toys out of thousands. Some were avatar relics, and if the child chose them, it showed that they remembered the relics and that they were the avatar. But no one had chosen correctly, no one passed.
"Putting a kid in front of thousands of toys just for a test is such a huge tease, they should be ashamed of themselves," Ryosuke said with a chuckle. "I remember trying to melt snow with firebending, or trying to tip someone's glass over with waterbending. Everyone does it when they're kids, especially when they have a real shot at being the avatar. I was disappointed when it turned out it wasn't me."
"I was too. I tried to trip one of the monks once by making the ground move, but no luck. I keep waiting for someone to get really mad and break the temple in half with earthbending, or to sneeze out fire."
"I really hope that's how we find out, just imagine how shocking it would be for that person. Hey, are you hungry? Let's go get something to eat."
They went to eat dinner, but on their way they passed by a group of kids stomping on anthills.
"Hey, stop that!" said Sayu angrily. "What did those ants ever do to you?"
"Nothing, we were just having fun," said one of them sheepishly.
"How would you like it if someone came in and started stomping on your home just because they were bigger than you? Wouldn't be much fun, would it?"
They shook their heads.
"That's right, now go play somewhere else and leave the ants alone."
The children ran off, and Ryosuke said, "Good to see the ants have a champion."
Sayu's anger subsided. "I just don't like to see animals and insects hurt, that's all."
They ate dinner, and then they said goodnight and went off to their beds. Sayu had to meditate again before going to sleep. This was to clear her thoughts so that she might be struck by enlightenment in her sleep, or at least sleep soundly through the night without dreaming.
She couldn't focus on meditating, so she instead looked out her window. The clouds had finally moved away from the moon. It was a full moon, which meant it would make waterbending stronger. A lot of airbenders her age were probably trying to make a splash right now, summon their latent avatar powers. Maybe one of them would be successful. It was autumn, the season when airbenders are at their peak, so maybe the avatar would finally show itself, Sayu thought.
She went to bed soon after, her head still buzzing. Her meditation really needed work.
The next morning, the two ate breakfast together. Ryosuke had a mango, and Sayu had a papaya. When they had almost finished eating, a boy came to deliver a message.
"The council of monks requests everyone's presence immediately!"
"You think they finally found the avatar?" Sayu asked.
"If not, they could always say one of us is the avatar and use special effects to make it look like we're bending all four elements," Ryosuke joked.
They gathered with the other airbenders before the council of monks. Everyone knew it was about the avatar, but no one had any idea of what they had to say. One of them stood up, an old man with a thin white goatee and squinty eyes. He motioned for everyone to be silent, all talk ceased instantly.
"As you all know, we have yet to determine who the avatar is. The monks and nuns from the other temples have also had no luck in this matter. We have been fasting and meditating for weeks on end, and we still have had no success. Every seventeen year old airbender has been tested, and none have shown any signs of being the avatar. It is because of this that we have reason to believe that the avatar may not be in any of the air temples. The avatar might have left the air temples, or might have been taken by someone to one of the other nations for reasons unknown to us. Whoever it is may know that they are the avatar and might already be in training, or they may have no idea of who they are. We have decided to send out search parties to the other nations to search for the avatar. Volunteers from each of the other three temples will aid in our search, the only rule being that they must be over the age of sixteen. If you are successful, bring the avatar to one of the four temples immediately, but you must have proof. We have no time for foolishness, they must be able to bend at least two elements."
"And if no one is successful?" asked Atasi near the front.
"If the avatar is not found, then we must conclude that the avatar cycle has ended. There have been threats against us and the rest of the world. The others nations are starting to believe the rumor that we are secretly harboring and training the avatar so that we may use it for our own benefit and military advancement. This is untrue, as you all know, but unless we can prove otherwise we may be in trouble. There is also the threat of the Black Lotus, a new organization that has begun terrorizing the Earth Kingdom and is spreading out quickly, but we do not know their motives as of yet. You can see why it is imperative that he or she be found immediately. Anyone who is interested in the search, speak to us or to your masters first. We recommend traveling in groups of two or more for security and to increase your chances of success. That is all we have to say on the matter."
"We should go," Sayu said to Ryosuke.
"I was thinking the same thing. I've never been to one of the other nations, only to other air temples. This will be so exciting!"
"Let's go talk to Atasi, and then let's start packing supplies."
"Let's take your bison, he's bigger and faster than mine."
They went to find Atasi, who was talking to some of the monks. She caught them in the corner of her eye and said, "I assume the two of you wish to aid in the search."
"Yes, Sifu Atasi, with your permission," said Ryosuke.
"I have no reason to stop you, we need as many people out there searching as we can get. Stay safe, and continue with your training and meditation. I hope to see you both again soon."
"Thank you, Sifu Atasi," they said in unison as they bowed.
Sayu packed sleeping bags and a few sets of clothing, along with a few other necessities. She didn't have many earthly possessions, so packing took no time at all. She met Ryosuke outside the temple, he had collected food for the trip. They went together to her sky bison, Kiba.
"Hey Kiba!" Sayu said as she hugged him. He licked her affectionately, and his tongue was so big it knocked her down.
Ryosuke scratched behind one of his ears. "How are you doing, buddy?"
"Kiba, we're going on a mission to find the avatar," said Sayu as she got back on her feet and stroked his white fur. "You want to come with us?"
He nuzzled his face against her, and she had to hold onto one of his horns to keep from falling over again. Sayu jumped into the saddle, and Ryosuke tossed up the supplies to her. Once everything was loaded, Ryosuke leapt into the saddle.
"So where are we going, exactly?" asked Ryosuke. "I guess I should have asked this question sooner."
"Don't worry, I already have a plan. I had a theory, what if someone left with the avatar when they were a kid and didn't realize what their kid was? Or maybe they did find out and they took off with them on purpose. I've been doing some research lately, and I found some interesting things. The library at the temple keeps track of births, deaths, and departures from all four temples. There were three significant ones." Sayu took out a map and spread it out on the saddle. She pointed to the nations as she spoke. "A woman left the Eastern Air Temple to marry a man from the Southern Water Tribe seventeen years ago. Two airbenders moved to Makapu village in the Earth Kingdom to start a new life together twenty years ago. A man from the Northern Air Temple took his infant daughter to live in the Fire Nation the same year the last avatar died."
"Do you think he knew his daughter was the avatar and that's why he took her?" Ryosuke asked.
"I don't know, but I think we should check all these cases out. The avatar might be trying to learn one of the other elements right now, or they might not even know what they are. Let's start with the Southern Water Tribe, it's closest."
"It's a good thing you took the time to make a plan, I would have just flown around aimlessly, hoping I'd get lucky. Lead the way, captain!" said Ryosuke eagerly.
"Yip yip, Kiba!" said Sayu, and the sky bison took off into the air.
They flew all day long. Sayu watched the water down below them, shimmering in the light of the sun. She watched fish leap out of the water and birds try to catch them. The sun was hot on their faces, but Sayu knew it would be getting cold soon, so she savored the heat while they had it.
By the time the sun was going down, they spotted land. They wanted to go to the village, but the people who lived there wouldn't be very happy if they woke them up when they were trying to sleep. The two slept on Kiba's back in the saddle. This wasn't the first time Sayu had slept in his saddle, and it wouldn't be the last, either. To her, it was the happiest place in the world.
