Chapter 2 Thoughts on the back of a bison
AN: This is the first chapter from the perspective of Aang, he has been dealing with a lot of mundane Avatar duties and has a relationship with Katara but sees her too little.
Aang always loved these night time rides on the back of Appa his sky bison. It gave him time to reflect on all the craziness and or tediousness of his day. Today had been yet another useless day of tracking leads on Azula the escaped fire princess, he had been staying at Firelord Zuko's palace for the past 4 days since she had broken free, trying to track down the one enemy who had actually killed him.
He missed Katara but was desperately glad that she had agreed in her letter to stay away from the fire nation and stay at the South Pole because he knew that Katara would be on the short list of people Azula would be looking to kill. He laughed to himself as he realized he should probably worry because his name would be right next to Katara's on the list, but he could never worry about his own safety as much as he worried about the beautiful waterbending goddess that had pulled him from that iceberg just about two years ago. Thinking of her bright blue eyes and intoxicating smile just made his heart fly a million times higher than Appa could ever go.
He saw the mountain peak that told him he was about 5 minutes from the Southern Air Temple that he had been staying at and trying to rebuild some, when he wasn't staying at his house in Ba Sing Se or with Katara and Hakoda at the south pole or at Zuko's palace in the fire nation. As the Avatar he had to have a lot of homes, but he loved being with Katara the most, but a close second was the serenity of his childhood home at the Southern Air Temple. He needed to try and rebuild it because some Earth Kingdom herbalists were trying to develop some sort of elixir from his blood that may give some non-bending people from the other 3 nations a chance to be an airbender in an effort to start a new Air Nomad tribe. If they ever succeeded he would use the rebuilt temple as a school to train them. He was unsure of this plan, but he supposed for the sake of the future Avatar cycle there needed to be new Air Nomads and as much as he may want his kids to be that he still felt like he was years away from even trying or thinking about that.
Aang shook his head and said "Appa boy I'm thinking way too heavy thoughts, I wish I had Sokka hear to tell me a joke, or Momo to do something funny". Appa made a grunt in response to this and Aang laughed as he patted him on the head and said "Nice try buddy, that was funnier than some of Sokka's jokes". Since it was a full moon he decided that he would read Katara's letter he got after Azula escaped one more time before he set down at the temple.
Aang,
You know I can take care of myself, but since you said that you are cashing in
the one that I owe you from taking you to that horrendous party at the North Pole
I'll agree and stay away from the fire kingdom for now, but if she's not in custody
in a week there is no way I'm staying down here past that. Please Please Please
be careful, of all the baddies to escape, she's the one who... I can't even think
about it so just be warned that if she hurts you again I'm gonna kill you. Oh well
I miss you sooooooo much and Sokka is visiting so he says Hi as does Momo. Kisses
Love,
Katara
He was thinking that maybe he would skip going to the fire nation tomorrow when he woke up and fly down to the South Pole to see Katara, honestly how much damage could Azula do in one day. He actually didn't want to think to much about the answer cause he was sure that it would be scary. Since Sokka was down there he decided he was absolutely going to go to the South Pole tomorrow, it would be nice to see his best friend and his girlfriend all at once. As Appa approached the spot where he always landed Aang decided that he would just skip meditating tonight so that he could go to sleep a little earlier so that he could wake up way early and maybe surprise his friends at the South Pole for breakfast.
Appa landed and Aang hopped down, he smiled as he saw his bison companion dash off towards his giant pile of hay as the night of flying must have surely made him hungry. He was considering spending the night sleeping on Appa like he did all the time when he was traveling the world with his best friends, but it was a little breezy so he thought he'd retire to his bed. He was slowly walking up the stairs and looking at the beautiful moon, remembering Yue and how inspirational she was. He got to the top step and was shocked to see someone who was huddled over and covered in some very ratty clothing near the entrance to the temple. He didn't even know who knew about this place but from the state they were in he would not turn them away, whoever they were. Aang said loudly and confidently "Hello, I'm not sure who you are but I'd be glad to help you in anyway I can" as he beamed the biggest smile he could muster. As the strange figure stood and began to turn a simple sentence escaped her lips, but those may have been the two most terrifying words Aang had heard in the year since the war had ended "Hello Avatar."