Hello guys and gals welcome to another exciting chapter. I would like to thank the two people that reviewed. Oh and something I forgot to do last chapter. I don't own Avatar. I own my OC only. Now on with the show.
It was early the next morning and we were packing up camp and getting ready for the day. Aang was making sure the rope used to steer Appa was tight, and talking to Katara and I. "Wait 'till you see it guys. The Air Temple is one of the most beautiful places in the world." I grimaced thinking of what the Fire Nation did. "Aang I know you're excited, but it's been a hundred years since you've been home." Katara said. "That's why I'm so excited!" Aang replied happily. "It's just that, a lot can change in all that time." "I know, but I need to see it for myself." Then he floated down to the ground to wake Sokka. "Wake up Sokka, Air Temple here we come!" Aang said excitedly to Sokka. "Sleep now, temple later." Was his response, as he rolled over in his sleeping bag. I couldn't help but chuckle. Aang stood there for a second, then he made a face like he had an idea. He then picked up a nearby branch, and moved it up and down Sokka's sleeping bag. "Sokka, wake up!" Aang yelled. "There's a Prickle Snake in you're sleeping bag. That caused Sokka to get up real quick. He jumped up screaming. "AH! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!" He hopped around in his sleeping bag until he tripped over a rock. After that we all burst out laughing. "Great, you're awake. Let's go." Sokka grumbled to him self and got out of his sleeping bag. Then he rolled it up and stored it in the back of Appa's saddle.
We were getting close when Sokka's stomach growled, as well as mine. Sokka grabbed his stomach and started talking to it. "Hey stomach, be quiet. Alright. I'm trying to find us some food." He grabbed his bag of-if I remember correctly-blubbered seal jerky. He reached in finding only crumbs. I reached into my bag of sizzle-crisps to find the same thing. "Hey! Who ate all my blubbered seal jerky?" He asked lividly. Then he looked at me suspiciously. "Hey don't look at me, my sizzle-crisps are gone. And I know I had a full bag last night." "Oh, that was food. I used to it to start the campfire last night. Sorry." Aang said apologetically. "You what?" Sokka and I yelled at the same time. "No wonder the flames smelled so good." Sokka said sullenly. As we neared a few mountains Aang cried out. "There's the Patola Mountain Range! We're almost there." When he said that I remembered what I had learned from the Fire Nation history books, from school. The Southern Air Temple was one of the first places hit when the Fire Nation attacked. I felt a pang of guilt strike through me. Even though I had nothing to do with it, I can't help but feel guilty for what my nation did to Aang's people.
'No, not my Nation,' I thought to myself. 'Not anymore at least. From here on out, I have no ties to the Fire Nation.'
I was snapped from my thoughts as we started ascending the face of a mountain range. Once we passed the peak I saw one of the most amazing sights ever. "There it is." Aang said, "The Southern Air Temple." We were all in awe. "Aang it's amazing!" Katara said. "We're home buddy, we're home." Aang said to Appa.
We had just landed and were now walking up the path to the temple. I couldn't stop thinking how the Fire Nation could do this to an entire people. Sokka on the other hand was thinking about his stomach. "So where do I get something to eat?" He asked holding his stomach. "You're lucky enough to be one of the first outsiders to ever visit an Air Bender temple, and all you can think about is food?" Katara said to her hungry brother. "Seriously Sokka I'm hungry to, but you don't hear me complaining." I said. At that time my stomach rumbled. "My stomach on the hand..." "I'm just a simple guy with simple needs." Sokka replied. We caught up to Aang who was standing on ledge over looking a field of poles. Aang pointed at it and said. "That's where my friend and I used to play air ball, and over there is where the bison would sleep." Then he sighed. "What's wrong?" Katara asked. "This place used to be full of monks, and lemurs, and bison. Now there just a bunch of weeds. I can't believe how much this place has changed." He replied sadly. I nudged Sokka with my elbow. "Ow. What?" Was his angry reply. "Cheer him up." I told him. "How?" he asked. "I don't know." I replied thinking for a second. "Play air ball with him." "Alright." Was his reply. "So this air ball game." Sokka said as he walked up to Aang. "How do you play?" After Aang explained that you need to bounce the ball through the poles and through the gate to score, Sokka climbed on top of a pole to try and stop the ball. Aang threw the ball in the air and then set a wave of air to start the ball off. The ball bounced off several poles and crashed into Sokka, sending him and the ball through the gate, and into a pile of snow. Aang and I laughed. "Aang seven, Sokka zero." Aang announced. Sokka groaned as he got up. "Making him feel better is putting me in a world of hurt." He said in pain. "At least it's for a good cause." I said smiling. But Sokka didn't hear me, or maybe he was just ignoring me. He crawled towards an object and beckoned us over. "Guys check this out." We came over and I saw a familiar sight that sent a chill through my body. It was an old Fire Nation helmet.
"Fire Nation." Katara said plainly. "We should tell him." Sokka replied. "Aang there's something you need to see." Katara called out to him. "O.K." Was his reply. A few seconds later Sokka was covered in snow and Katara had her arms stretched out. "What is it?" Aang asked. "Uh.." Katara thought for a moment. "Just a new water bending move I learned." "Nice one. But enough practicing, we have a whole temple to see." Was his reply. "You can't protect him forever." Sokka said sadly. "We want to protect him too, but we can't protect him forever." I said. "I know... But I'll protect him for as long as I can." She replied. Then she followed Aang.
"Katara firebenders were here. You can't pretend they weren't." Sokka said to his sister. "I can for Aang's sake." She replied. "If he finds out that the fire nation invaded his home he'll be devastated." I felt another pang of guilt run through me. I didn't have time to dwell on it though because Aang called us over. "I want you to meet someone." He said standing in front of a old wooden statue. "Who's that?" Sokka asked. "Monk Gyatso, the greatest airbender in the world." Aang replied. "He taught me everything I know." He closed his eyes and smiled, like he was having a fond memory. Katara walked up to him and said "You must miss him." "Yeah" He replied. Then he started walking away which puzzled all of us. "Where are you going?" Katara asked quizzically. " "The Air Temple Sanctuary. There's someone I'm ready to meet." Katara looked at Sokka, and I like we had some kind of information on Aang's odd behavior. But we just shrugged.
We had just reached what looked like the door to this Air Temple Sanctuary when Katara spoke. "Aang no one could have survived in there for a hundred years." " It's not impossible." He said optimistically. "I survived in the iceberg that long." "Good point." She conceded. I on the other hand was shocked. "Wait, you survived in the what now?" I said shock showing in my voice. "We didn't tell you?" Asked Katara asked surprised. "This is the first I'm hearing of it." I replied. "I was frozen in a block of ice somehow." He was hiding something I could tell, but I decided not to push it. "Yes and that is perfectly normal." I said sarcasm dripping off my voice. "Well, considering he's the Avatar yeah pretty much." Sokka replied with equal sarcasm. I slitted my eyes and said lets just get this stupid door open." "Yeah you don't happen to have a key do you?" Sokka asked. "The key Sokka is airbending." After he said that he pushed air into these two holes, forcing three symbols to turn which then opened the door. All I saw was darkness beyond the door. "Hello?" Aang called out. "Anybody home?" He then walked into the room. Sokka, Katara, and I followed. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness I noticed we were in a large room filled to the top with what looked like statues. We started walking through the statues and we saw that there were literally hundreds of them, maybe even thousands. We stopped in front of a statue of an airbender. "Who are all these people?" Katara asked. "I'm sure." Aang replied. "But it feels like I know them somehow. Look that ones an airbender!" "And this one's a waterbender! They're lined up in a pattern. Air, water, earth, and fire." "That's the Avatar cycle!" Aang exclaimed. "Of course." Katara said coming to a realization. "They're Avatars. All these people are your past lives Aang." "Wow! There are so many." Then he continued to follow the line of statues until stopped in front of the last one. Some of the statues looked familiar to me from my studies of the Avatar. But as we got to the last one in line, it was the most familiar. He had a long flowing Fire Nation robe, a long beard, and the Crown Prince head piece. That matched the description of only one Avatar. I stepped away and did the traditional Fire Nation bow, posing my hands in the traditional flame position. "What's up with you?" Sokka asked. "Sorry. Old habits die hard." I apologized. "Whatever." Was his reply. 'Guess I'm not as accepted as I thought.' Then we heard a noise and we hid behind some statues. There was a shadow that looked like a Fire Nation solider. 'This doesn't look good for me.' Sokka shot me a dirty look and said. "Firebender. Nobody make a sound." "You're making a sound." Katara argued. Everyone shushed her. Sokka took out his club and said. "That firebender won't know what hit him." We all emerged and saw a cute little furry animal. "Lemur!" Aang shouted. "Dinner." Sokka said salivating at the sight of the furry animal no doubt thinking of all the different meals he could make. "At least it's not Fire nation." I said Thankfully. The creature just stood and stared. "Don't listen to him." Aang said. "You're going to be my new pet." "Not if I get him first!" Sokka yelled. They both lunged for the lemur, who ran away the two not far behind him. "This is not going to end well, I just know it." I said sighing.
Katara and I were looking at the statues when suddenly all of the statues eyes started to glow. "Well that can't be good." I said "C'mon lets go find Aang and Sokka!" Katara replied worry in her voice. We ran out of the Sanctuary. When we stepped out onto a balcony we saw a giant puff of smoke. "Found them." I said. She just ignored me and ran down the steps. I followed and soon we found Sokka holding onto a giant piece of the now demolished building, and Aang in a giant ball of wind with his eyes and tattoos glowing. "What happened?" Katara asked yelling over the wind Aang was causing. "He found out firebenders killed Gyatso!" Sokka yelled back. Yet another pang of guilt ran through me. "Oh no! It's his Avatar spirit! He must have triggered it! I'm going try to calm him down!" "Well do it! Before he blows us off the mountain!" He yelled back. At this point he was holding onto the piece of rubble with one hand, then that one hand slipped and he started to fly away towards the edge of the mountain. "WOAH! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He yelled. "SOKKA!" Katara yelled. I lunged for Sokka holding onto the rubble with one hand, and grabbed his wrist with the other. "I gotcha buddy!" I said as I pulled him back. I looked at Katara and said. "Now go calm him down before someone really goes over the mountain!" She nodded and struggled to keep walking forward. Aang then rose in the sky and Katara fell on her back. Katara grabbed onto a closer piece of rubble and started yelling to Aang. "Aang I know you're upset! And I know how hard it is to lose the people you love! I went through the same thing when I lost my mom! Monk Gyatso and the other airbenders maybe gone! But you still have a family Sokka, Lee, and I! We're your family now!" That last part kind of shocked me. 'She considers me part of the family?' After Katara was finished Aang started to calm down and slowly he descended to the ground. Then the wind died down and we approached him. "We aren't going to let anything happen to you. We promise." Sokka said. Then Katara grabbed his hand. His eyes and tattoos then returned to normal and he fell into Katara's arms looking sad. "I'm sorry" Aang apologized "It's okay. It wasn't your fault." Katara replied. "But you were right. And if firebenders found this temple, that means the found the other ones too. I really am the last airbender." He said sadly. Katara hugged him and both Sokka an I put a comforting hand on one of his shoulders.
We were back in the statue room after we had packed up. Katara and Aang were talking but I was paying more attention to my empty stomach than their conversation. "Man if I don't get something to eat soon I don't know what I'll do." I was hungry but not enough to eat a furry little animal for dinner unlike Sokka. At that moment the lemur from earlier came over to me and Sokka and gave us a big pile of fruit. "Thank you." I said to the creature. Sokka on the other hand had a piece of fruit in each hand biting into each of them. "Looks you guys made a new friend." Aang said. "Yes we did." I replied taking a bite of a peach. "Cant' talk must eat." Was Sokka's reply. The lemur climbed onto Aang's shoulders. "Hey little buddy." He said. Aang was looking at the temple one last time when Sokka came over to talk to me. "Hey, Lee... Look I uh I just wanted to say uh... *Cough* Thank you for saving my life." He mumbled that last part quickly. I smiled. "I'm sorry what did you?" I asked cupping a hand to my ear. "Thank you for saving my life." He mumbled again. My smile got bigger. "Could you speak up? I can't hea-" "THANK YOU FOR SAVING MY LIFE!" He yelled. I burst out laughing. After my laughter had died down I said. "It was no problem. You would done the same for me." After that Aang came over with the lemur on his arm and said. "Guys, I want you to meet the newest member of our family." "What are you going to name him?" Katara asked. At that moment the lemur jumped over to Sokka stole his peach he was about to bite into and ran back to Aang's arm. "Momo." Aang replied. The look on Sokka's face was priceless. We all burst out laughing. As we were flying away with the Southern Air Temple fading from view behind us I felt I needed to talk to Katara. "Hey, Katara. I needed to ask you something." "Yes, Lee. What is it?" She asked. "What you said to Aang. About me being part of your guy's family. Did you really mean it?" I asked somewhat afraid to find out the answer. "Of course." She replied. "I saw you save my brother. You can't be a monster like the others in the Fire Nation. No offense. " "None taken." I replied. "I've actually cut all my ties with the Fire Nation. In fact..." I pulled off the fabric that kept my top-knot up and my black hair fell into a shaggy mess. I let the piece of fabric drift away in the wind. "What was that." Katara asked. "That," I replied. "was the fabric that held up my top-knot. What I just did has a symbolic purpose. You see every male in the Fire Nation had one. So getting rid of it, symbolizes my rejection of the Fire Nation." "Interesting." "Yeah. Well good talking to you Katara." "You too Lee."
So what do you think? You like? Yes?, No?, Maybe?, Lobster? What? Nothing. Anyway... Favorite, alert, and review. Pleeeeeeeeeeease? It really keeps me going. Anyway until next time. Peace Off!