*This is a story about a small group of Airbenders that survived Sozin's attack. Their descendent, a girl, is now on the search for the Avatar to end the war and allow her people to return to their beloved Air Temples. While on the search she forms an unlikely alliance with Zuko.*
The wind whistled through the empty hallways and abandoned corridors like ghosts whispering of tragedies past. A layer of dust filtered over everything speaking loudly of just how long this Temple had been abandoned. A small lemur bat danced over a small statue before swinging down and plopping onto the stone walkway that lead to the door of the temple, its head turned quizzically. A swoosh was heard over the air temple, loud and sending another layer of dust to coat the statues and ponds that surrounded the temple courtyard.
The little lemur bat darted to the side when the cause of the wind a moment ago was seen above. Large and intrusive the air bison descended onto the temple courtyard, gentle and frightening in size. It had been a century since an air bison on been seen at the Southern Air Temple.
The bison landed just in time for a young woman to leap off of its back lithely. She was tall and slender with dark black hair that fell to the small of her back. The blue arrows of the Air Nomad's were inked onto her arms, though the blue arrow from her forehead was missing. The girl's eyes were gray and glinting, her hands strong and clasping a smooth stick. She turned left, and right her eyes searching every corner and crevice of the courtyard for intruders before turning and patting the air bison's head.
"'Tis all right, Shou. There is no one but us here." The girl said soothingly, her voice drifting upon the breeze. The bison grunted and tossed his head slightly, showing his visible discomfort in being there.
"Shou, we need to be here." The girl chided, shaking her head, her black tresses waving back and forth with the movement. "How will we ever help our people if we never find him?"
The air bison grunted again and lumbered across the courtyard to collapse on his belly and commence snoring loudly, thoroughly ignoring her. The girl glared. "Fine. I'll look myself." She turned and stomped in the opposite direction of the bison, her eyes sweeping in every direction. There seemed to be one stone doorway leading from the courtyard into the air temple and she ambled over to it. Once inside, she was awed. Monk Tadashi had only taken her to the Air Temples when it was strickly necessary.
"It isn't safe for the Air Nomads to return to the Air Temples, Sora." Monk Tadashi had said. "The Fire Nation still continues to seek our destruction."
"But why? We've done nothing to anger the Firelord." I had said. A small child, so ignorant.
"The Avatar, Sora. He is both the beginning and the end to this war. Without him, we shall all perish."
Sora shook herself from her reverie and brought her mind back to her mission. This was far more important than her safety. The Air temples may not have been safe for the Nomads any longer, but this temple had to hold answers. She had been to every other Air Temple and she had found nothing. This was her last chance to find any hint as to where the Avatar could possibly be.
Sora ran from one room to the next inspecting every artifact, every painting. There was nothing she could find that spoke of the boy Avatar, Aang as he was called. He had been so young that all that was recorded of him was his date of birth. Sora threw her hands up in frustration.
"It doesn't make sense!" She yelled, winds picking up and swirling around her for a moment before they subsided. "How could the Avatar just disappear? It doesn't make any sense." She repeated. Dejected, Sora made her way back into the courtyard. She stopped dead at the sight of a teenage boy beckoning slowly to Shou and inching forward.
She panicked. She couldn't show herself. Sora had made the mistake of leaving her cloak on Shou's back and now she had nothing to cover the blue arrows tattooed to her arms. This boy would know her as an Air Nomad immediately. She nibbled her lower lip, thinking hard. She couldn't simply let this crazy loon steal Shou away. Many of the air bison were dead now and Shou was one of the last remaining. Monk Tadashi would not only skin her alive, but she would lose her best friend. The bison had chosen to spend his life with her and she couldn't let him down. Sora made her decision and stepped forward.
"Excuse me, but that sir, is my bison."
The boy whirled, his hands in front of him and ready. A scar adorned the side of his face, and for a moment it frightened her. This man she had mistaken for a boy had indeed seen battle. She noticed his hands were in a firebending form and her stomach tightened. Monk Tadashi had trained her well and she recognized the stance. Sora, in all her fifteen years, had never come across a firebender. The last remaing Air Nomads had done well of hiding themselves and their families and only now was she away from them because she had escaped. Run away was probably the right word choice.
"Who are you?" the man called, his voice seeming sinister.
Sora ignored him, leaping into the air and sending a shot of wind spiraling in his direction. She had heard stories of firebender atrocities and she felt her best bet was to react swiftly. He surged to the left, avoiding the wind and punched out one hand sending a stream of fire in her direction. Sora spun her glider stick creating a funnel of air that absorbed the fire.
"Stop!" The firebender yelled, slowing his movements to a stop and throwing his hands up in the air. "I don't want to hurt you."
"Ha, I doubt that, firebender." Sora scoffed, posing again into a battle stance.
He scowled, raking his hands through his tousled black hair. "I won't hurt you. I know I'm a firebender, but I won't hurt you."
Sora's eyebrows raised as she assessed him. He did seem to be telling her the truth. The firebender had stopped fighting, and although he seemed angry he was no longer trying to battle her.
"How are you using air?" he suddenly asked, surging towards her.
Sora used her airbending to push herself into the air, away from the firebender. "I-"
"You're an airbender!" he cried in surprise, his mouth gaping open. "But that's impossible."
Sora rolled her eyes. "Obviously not."
He turned his golden eyes to her, an air of puzzlement to his features. "How are you alive, little airbender?" he asked, sarcastically.
Sora glowered. "Surely not by the grace of your people, firebender!" she hissed. She leapt upwards, landing beyond him on the back of her air bison. "Listen, I would love to sit here and tell you my life story, but I have more important tasks at hand."
"Wait-"
"So you can turn me into the Fire Nation? Not a chance. If I leave now, I'm safe." Sora replied. "And don't try telling anyone. No one is going to believe you just happened to run into an Air Nomad."
"I'm not going to turn you into the Fire Nation!" he said exasperated. "If I did, they would probably arrest me just as quickly as you."
Her eyebrow rose again. "Interesting." She urged Shou forward. "Good day, firebender. This has been immensely amusing, but I have to be off now." She called over her shoulder.
He reached outward, as though reaching for her. "You can't go."
Sora ignored him. "Up Shou, up!"
"I can take you to another airbender." He blurted.
She froze before whirling on the bison to face him. "Don't play games with me, firebender. I have something very important to accomplish and I won't listen to your lies."
"It isn't a lie. I know where he and his friends are. I'm going to them now." He said.
It was impossible for there to be another airbender whom Sora had not met. The few that had survived the Fire Nation attack had either fled together, or met each other at the same place. All airbenders lived in hiding together; impossible that there was a lone Air Nomad roaming the world. Unless…
"Where is this airbender?" she asked sharply. Surely these friends the firebender spoke of weren't also airbenders? He had only said one airbender.
"They are journeying to the Western Air Temple. He travels with a non-bender from the Southern Water Tribe named Sokka, a waterbender of the same tribe named Katara, and an earthbender who I believe is known as Toph?" the firebender explained, his eyes narrowing slightly as though he were wary of her.
The firebender had referenced the airbender as a man. Sora's heart soared. It had to be Aang, the Avatar she had been searching for. "Take me to him. Take me to this old airbender." Sora proclaimed.
He gave her a puzzled look. "I'll take you to him. But he's far from old. This airbender is only a boy. A twelve year old boy."
Sora's heart fell. It had been 100 years since Aang's disappearance. It was impossible for this airbender boy to be the Avatar she was looking for. Aang would be an old man by now, or dead and then the new Avatar would have been born into one of the Water Tribes. Her mission loomed in front of her, neverending and she didn't know where to go from where she was. Perhaps leaving Monk Tadashi had been a mistake.
"Am I to take you to him?" the firebender asked.
Sora, however, had to meet the airbender boy. Perhaps he and his family knew nothing of their people's survival. It was her duty to bring the boy and his parents to Monk Tadashi, back to their people and traditions. She wouldn't abandon him to the Fire Nation.