Moji and the Bison

Word Count: 1,139

A/N: A folklore story that the elder Air Nomads would tell the younger children to teach them morals and entertain them. Constructive criticism welcomed.

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender. If I did, TomTom would have come back in the series. Cutest baby ever!

There was once a young boy named Moji, who lived in a small, but prosperous farming village in the southern Earth Kingdom. He was the only son of the village leader, and lived a happy and comfortable life. He also had two older sisters. The eldest sister married a wealthy man in Omashu, and the younger had entered into an engagement with a successful general in the Earth Kingdom's Army; both of them were also powerful earthbenders. Though Moji was a good son, worked hard and was an obedient, his father was always displeased with his lack of ability to move the rock beneath his feet.

Until his 11th birthday.

The day was met as all his birthdays in the past had been: the finest foods and drinks on display, circuses, and exotic animals, all brought for the lavish celebration thrown in his honor. Moji talked with many boys his age, shyly mingled and danced with the girls who attended, and greeted his parents with gracious decorum. His mother greeted him quietly, kissing him once on both cheeks, while his father loudly proclaimed another year gone for his sole heir. As the party continued on, more foods and creatures and plants were brought into the home, and Moji felt the strangest sensation in his nose. He knew it was a sneeze, as his physicians had informed him of the symptoms of the most mundane immune reaction, a reaction that he could never once remember having.

The music was loud and the conversation began to wane as the moon met the earth. Moji went to the center of the room, where his father would make his speeches and say his farewells to all who attended. Standing between his parents, Moji struggled to refrain from scratching his nose, as the tickling sensation grew more intense. Moji stepped forward to bid all his guests safe travel when the sneeze released itself.

And Moji flew 10 feet into the air.

When Moji regained his senses, he was afraid that the force of the sneeze had damaged his ears. He looked up at the stunned faces of all the guests, the mortified face of his mother, the eerily blank expression of his father, and Moji knew it was not his ears that had fallen silent.

The guests were dismissed from the house, ushered away into the night, but the winds carried the words and idle chatter of the realized shame of Moji's house.

"Air bending!"

"One night and thought-"

"More of a whore, I think."

"And him-"

"A bastard!'

His mother's tears slid down in silence. His father's harsh words rebounded off the walls. Moji couldn't figure out whether to cry or to yell. His father tore Moji's clothes and held his arms in a tight grip.

"Out! Bastard! Get out of my house!" he shouted.

Moji's shoes and fine robes were taken from him and he had no belongings of his own to take. He wandered to the village and he tried to find shelter in his friend's homes, but every door closed and sealed itself from his entrance.

Moji in his despair ran to the nearby mountains and hid. He hid himself far away and cried. He prayed to the spirits of the earth and forests to help him, to wake him from the nightmare he was being forced to endure. He cried until his tears ran dry, and finally he fell into a painful and dark slumber.

….-~~~~***~~~~-….

Moji opened his eyes against the blinding light of day. Moji pressed himself closer into the cool rocks against his back, feeling the crushing weight of despair press against his lungs and throat. He shut his eyes and tried to fall back asleep until a distant sound was carried by the winds.

Moji lifted himself from the ground and began to search for the low keen noises. Moji carefully climbed the mountain higher and higher, coming to a small plateau, finding the source of the sound. It was the cry and whine of a sky bison!

Moji had only ever heard of the Sky Bison from tales his mother told him when the raging storms of the rainy seasons made sleep impossible. They were much larger than he had imagined they would have been. Moji crossed the plateau, making his way to the bison.

"Sh," he soothed the frightened bison as he approached.

Moji saw its bloodied front paws and knew the source of this creature's anguish. Moji stripped himself of what remained of his clothing, wiping away the blood and wrapping the wound as tightly as he could manage.

Without the thin threads to protect his skin, Moji could feel the cold winds circle his slight frame and shake his bones, he could feel the sun burn and blister his skin, and the rocks cut at his front, back, and sides; but through this pain, Moji endured and never left the side of the ailing bison, nursing it back to its fullest health.

One morning, the bison was awake and standing, waiting for Moji to awaken. Moji stood quickly and watched as the bison slowly lifted itself off the ground and with the force of its tail, flew some distance from the mountain. Moji smiled and laughed as the bison circled the air and waved as it preformed tricks before falling to the ground, coughing.

Moji coughed until there was blood in his hands. The bison landed in front of Moji and turned into a spirit of the southern winds.

"Thank you, Moji," an airy wisp filled Moji's ears, "You have shown true kindness to me. You have healed me and now I will heal you. My little airbending child, do not fear the change of your life, welcome the adventure that your struggles will bring."

Moji felt the winds gently curl around him and healed him as his mother would when he was sick. He looked down at his lithe form, the strength in his limbs from that came from life in the mountains.

He thanked the bison and pled for it to stay with him. However, this could not come to pass, as the spirit had other children to tend to. The spirit told Moji where the children lived and laughed.

Moji walked far and climbed many mountains before coming to the Temple of the Southern Winds. A single elder monk who had received a vision during his meditation of a boy who would need guidance and love met him at the entrance of the temple lands.

"Welcome to the Southern Temple," the monk said pleasantly.

Moji bowed to his master and trained long everyday whilst he stayed in the temple and soon was a master in the art of Airbending. He travelled the world before living out his elder years in the Southern Temple raising young Sky Bison calves.