Disclaimer and Author's Notes at the end.
Ten generations.
That was how long it took for the first airbender to be born to non-benders since the start of the Hundred Year War.
He was the first child of a pair of young air acolytes at the Southern Air Temple, ironically enough. Their parents and grandparents had been air acolytes as well, and each of them had a great-grandparent who had met the great Avatar Aang for themselves. They had settled at the Southern Air Temple several years after the founding of Republic City, preferring the calmer, more isolated lifestyle of an Air Temple. Both of his parents' ancestry could be traced to the islands around the Western Air Temple, and back in the day there had been whispers of abandoned babies being smuggled from the waters of the still-burning Air Temple.
He was born a month early and did not cry immediately after birth. Rather, he sat there silently, watching and taking in this strange new world he had been born into. Even after it had been determined that there was no residual fluids in his lungs and he was breathing normally, he was well into his first day of life before he first cried, but when he cried the entire temple was certainly aware.
He was a quiet, sickly baby for the first several months of his life. His premature status had left his immune system underdeveloped, and as a result suffered from almost every disease known to man, from dragon-pox to the measles before his first birthday. After that milestone his illnesses slowed down, but he continued to catch cold more often than other children.
Although he was born in the spring and his birthday was quietly celebrated by all of his family and their closest friends, his birth was celebrated traditionally at the spring equinox, some three weeks later. It was celebrated along with the birth of all those born since the last spring equinox, as per tradition. The air acolytes gave thanks to the spirits and their ancestors for the life and health of all those born in the last year, and asked to be blessed with the presence of a bender.
Little did they know there was already one in their midst.
It was also at this ceremony that he received his name, in front of the population of the entire temple, along with every other baby born in the last year. He was the last to be named, but that didn't bother his parents; they'd had his name chosen since the day his mother Sonam had become pregnant, and they were in no rush.
And so Choden, the first natural-born airbender in more than two hundred years, was named.
His second birthday passed by quietly. By his third he was toddling around, every room and hall of the temple a new adventure.
At four the children were allowed to play with the young flying bison. Unfortunately, the flying bison population had not recovered as quickly as the air acolytes, so the children were not bonded to a bison as in the time of Avatar Aang. Instead some bison were housed at each Air Temple for the collective use of the acolytes at the temple. Many favored one bison over the rest, and Choden was no exception. His first day in the nursery he waddled away from his peers, to a bison that was situated away from the others. This one was only a bit smaller than the others, the runt of the litter who was already falling behind. Choden was drawn to the bison, and wrapped his arms around the bison's head.
"We were just trying to decide on a name for this little girl," the head of the nursery commented to Choden. "Do you have a name in mind for your new friend?"
Choden stepped back and looked into the great brown eyes of the bison before giggling affectionately, "Zaki!"
For the first week, Choden and Zaki were inseparable. On the eighth day his mother quietly reminded him that Zaki probably had other friends to play with, and that he could visit her when all the other little boys and girls visited the sky bison in the afternoons.
Six weeks later, Choden came down with another cold and spent three days with his mother instead of at the nursery, so as to avoid infecting the other children. By the third day his fever was gone but he was still coughing often enough to disturb anyone in the room with him. Sonam opted out of midday meditation to keep from disturbing the other monks, and was on her way to their rooms to put Choden down for a nap when she got the surprise of her life.
Sonam had paused to speak with another mother with a child about Choden's age, with Choden planted firmly on her hip. Choden's coughs punctuated their conversation, frequently enough that it seemed as if he just had something tickling the back of his throat.
His coughs turned to violent sneezes of the the painful, body-wracking variety. Sonam was just about to turn away from her friend after a particularly strong sneeze when her arms were suddenly empty.
"Sonam! Look!"
Choden was ten feet in the air and fell fast. Sonam caught him in her outstretched arms and laughed.
"I don't believe it." Sonam said. "My own son, an airbender! A real, live, airbender!"
Disclaimer: The wonderful world of Avatar and the Legend of Korra belong to the wildly creative Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino.
Author's Note: First of all, thanks for reading!
Obviously, this was written well before even the first trailer of season 3 of Legend of Korra, so it's AU from the end of season 2. I also totally disregarded the last couple of episodes of the second season of Legend of Korra, because honestly it was easier to write that way.
This is the first part of what should be about 4-5 parts, smaller than what I'd consider a real chapter but longer than a drabble. I have the second part already written and most of the third, and plan to write the rest in the next couple of weeks. I'll make no promises for a rigid update schedule, but I'll try to update every couple of weeks and I'll have it finished before college in September.
(First published 11 July 2014)