Air Temple Island, Republic City

Two months before Book One

Calm waves batted against the shore, air flowing through the sky as Tenzin, son of Aang, let his breath leak out into the room around him. Fists tight together, he let his mind clear, and sat in silence as the world around him seemed to simply melt away. It was a peace. A tranquility. All was well. Soon enough, he would have to leave - head far south to the Southern Water Tribe.

In the mean time, he could relax. He let his eyes open - and saw the waves twisting and turning in the bay. He stood, and heard the horn of a ship's departure clanging in the distance. Perhaps, had it not departed, this story would've been quite a short one. Above, in the sky, he heard a rush of wind - and the scream of a loud and fearful voice. A single black dot seemed to be falling from the sky, its shape not unlike a man's. He glanced back at the temple - regretting not bringing his air glider. He rushed, hard, heading towards where he'd left it at the temple steps. A few acolytes saw him, stepping aside as he turned the air behind him into a rushing force - launching him to the top steps. He grabbed the glider with a dexterous hand - "Dad? Where're you going?" Jinora asked, sitting in the yard with a book.

"No time!" Tenzin shouted. "Grab your glider!" He shouted, snapping his own open. Pleated quilting of orange thread met his eyes, the ruffles designed to catch air bent by the Air Nomads of old. As Tenzin took flight, the whole of Air Temple Island was visible. The great spire rose behind him as he flew - the falling man resolving more and more - several small rock-like things and… what appeared to be a stick, also falling. The man was handling his fall well, spread in an X-shaped position and glancing around through some sort of mask.

His eyes quickly spotted Tenzin, and he moved his right arm in a waving motion. "Any help?!" He shouted, his voice muffled in the air. Tenzin flew higher, meeting him in the sky and matching his fall. They had a solid minute before impact. "Shit!" The man shouted amongst the wind. "Are you, like, Tenzin?!" The man shouted.

"I am!" Tenzin replied. "We're going to need to get you to safety!"

"Nah, man!" The man shouted through his mask, pointing at his neck with an oversized pad-glove. "I'm already dead, this must be the afterlife or somethin! Skate cut my jugular!"

"Nevermind that!" Tenzin said, ignoring the man's ravings. "We're going to get you down safe. How much of that gear can you remove?"

"I only weigh like 140 to begin with, dude! Can't be that hard to keep my pads, they were expensive!" The man yelled back. Tenzin took hold of his arms. In the distance below, Jinorah was rising fast, and reached out an arm to snag one of the falling objects. She held a bag in her hands, quickly gathering up some of the other items.

"Thanks, Jinora!" The man said. Tenzin let the glider reopen, and they slowly glided to a slower speed. The man was a short one - perhaps five feet and five inches. "Hey, is Korra here yet?" He continued to ask questions like this - confusing Tenzin all the more as they glided in for a landing. Acolytes, lead by Pema, seemed to be gathering in the courtyard. Dropping the man, his weight hard to maintain, Tenzin flipped his staff shut and touched down.

The man seemed to snap his legs together, the padding on them providing a soft landing as he touched down. His feet were covered in a strange boot, a metal blade on the bottom. Some sort of ice skate. His mask was a twisted mess of metal bars, almost as if it was to prevent rocks or bricks from cracking into it. One glove of his huge frame seemed to be some strange catching device - wide and flexible. The other was a simple brick of leather, with a glove to manipulate things with.

The crowd had seemingly surrounded him, the man looking at the floor as he let his pads slide off to his sides, creating a horseshoe of padding across the ground. Tenzin stepped before him. "How did you know so much about us?" Tenzin asked. "About Korra? Me? My children?"

The man looked up, his blue eyes pleading from behind the helmet. "Shit, man." The man said. "It's all a cartoon. Moving pictures - voice actors. Spirits and magic powers - Avatars and Lion Turtles." He stood up, wincing as his metal skates scraped against the ground. Even with them, he stood only to Tenzin's lips, staring up into his eyes. Jinora took her landing, as well, dropping the bag next to him.

"You seem to know quite alot." Ikki said, stepping forward. Tenzin's children seemed to rush out like a swarm, poking and prodding, asking questions. "What's this thingy for?"

Meelo tossed a rock at him. The man snapped out his catching glove, grabbing the flying rock from mid air without even moving his torso. He swung his arm bringing it tight to his chest before dropping the rock to the ground.

Tenzin had many questions.

There were fewer answers.

After pestering, Pema finally asked the question half the temple had been itching for - "So, what's your name?" She asked. The man reached up with his blocking glove and slid the mask on top of his head. His hair was shorn short, but his high forehead made him look as if his hair was receding. A tightly shorn beard adorned his face, and a pair of blue eyes looked past ruddy cheeks to answer the question: "Oh, I'm Al. Nice to meet you!" He said, stuffing the blocking glove under his arm and sticking out a hand. The man smelled strongly of sweat, and the small white gloves beneath his larger gloves were wet to the touch. "Sorry. Gear's a mess - before I died I was playing a game. Doing pretty sweet, too!"

"What kinda game do you play?" Meelo asked, preparing another rock. The man dropped his legs outwards, sticking up the blocking glove with his stick now in-hand. He set it down between his legs, catching glove up. He quickly snapped his mask down. Meelo grabbed a few other rocks, setting them in a pile.

"Well, y'see - there's this big platform covered in ice, with some boards surrounding it. Sorta like a fence. That's an ice rink. There're two goals on either end, with some goal lines and other paint beneath the ice to determine where everything starts off." Meelo threw the first rock, low, and Al dropped to his knees, the pads flaring out and knocking away the rock. Meelo threw another one quick, and Al's blocker glove whacked it away. A third and fourth came, rapid and high - One to a glove, the other the helmet. All of them clattered to the ground.

"So how'd you… die?" Jinorah asked, finally speaking. Al caught the last rock, standing up and raising his mask. He tapped his stick against the ground a few times before removing his catching glove and pointing to his neck. To everyone's notice, a long red scar ran along his neck. "Sliced my jugular wide open. I probably bled to death - or I'm passed out in some hospital on my way back to the land of the living. Not a bad afterlife, though - Air Temple, all buddhist monk-like. Maybe when the harmonic convergence hits I'll be an Airbender."

Tenzin had a hard time understanding half of what the man was saying - and the other half was news that inspired and frightened him in equal measure. "Anyways - not a big deal!" Al shouted out. He removed his helm, stuffing it into the large bag next to him, alongside his blocker and catcher. He took off the undergloves as well, spraying some strange liquid from a glass container onto his hands and rubbing them together. A pleasant odor began to waft into the air around him.

"What's that?" Jinora asked.

"Cologne!" Al said, turning to her. "Pretty cool stuff. Smells nice. You guys don't have perfumes or colognes?"

"We do - though they're less common for those not of royalty." Tenzin said, finally rejoining the conversation. "It appears you're a man of many talents - and clearly not from this world. I'd like to learn more from you: and would like to offer you hospitality here upon Air Temple Island."

Meelo, who was rummaging in the bag as Tenzin spoke, popped his head out with Al's helmet on. The stars and stripes on the side were on the front, and Meelo was looking out through one of the straps of the backplate. "Will you please?! I wanna learn hockey!" The boy said.

Al shrugged. "Might as well."

And so began the tale of…

==The Last Goaltender==