Alright, here's the first chapter. It's also a bit small, but eh, I never liked those fanfics with chapters that never end anyway.
So, this happens about 7 years after Prologue. It's the beggining of Gye's life as an airbender :)
And here I introduce to you a new character: Aang.
But nope, he's not Avatar Aang we all know and love; he's just an old childhood friend of Gye's. I know it might be a little weird to read an avatar strory with another guy named Aang, but that's for plot purposes.
And I bet you can't discover what plot purpose that is ^u^
Chapter 1:
"Can't get me!", the boy screamed, laughing, while he ran away from the girl.
"Of course not!" she answered, a bit angry, stopping to take a breath. "You're using airbending to run faster. That's not fair!"
"Hey, it's not my fault you're so slow, Gye", he replied, seating on the grass. "This is just how the game works. I have to run as fast as I can, don't I?"
"Yeah, but it's not fair.", she said, walking towards the boy. "You're too fast. Let's play something else."
"Like what? You're too slow for most games."
"No, I'm not!"
"Well, all I know is that I've been seated here since forever and you're still walking.", he answered, smirking.
Gyelin blushed a little, frutantingly without an answer, and then walked a little faster to get to where he was.
She seated on the grass next to him, outside the walls of Omashu, still a bit frustrated.
"That's not true.", she murmured, her eyes on the floor.
"All right, then.", he said, airly. "So let's play something else. How about…"
"Earthball?", she asked, a sarcastic look in her eyes.
"How's earthball?", he replied, innocently interested.
"Geez, Aang. You never heard of earthball? How am I supposed to tease you when you are so into your little air world?"
"What's earthball?", he repeated.
The girl took a deep breath before answering, as if she was really bored. "It's like soccer, but instead of feet, you use earthbending."
Aang stood in silence for a few seconds, staring at the ground. "But… I can't play that."
"Of course not.", she smirked. "That's what I meant with 'teasing' you. Besides, I can't play it too, anyway."
"Oh, right. I always forget you're not an earthbender.", he said, looking at the big blue sky. "You have such a bender way."
"I don't think such thing exists, Aang. We're all people, bending or not.", she said, a bit angry again.
"I know, I know. I just mean… you really have the bender way. Not being an earthbender is just weird for you, since you're Earth Kingdom and everything…"
"Well, we can't be sure about that, you know. I'm an orphan. I could be from anywhere.", she said with a yawn.
Aang's eyes suddenly wided, and his mouth opened in a big smile, as if he had just had a huge revelation.
"That's right!", he screamed, getting up. "Maybe you're not Earth Kingdom at all! I mean… what do you know about your parents?"
"Well,", she started, not very interested. She obviously had already tought the exact same thing Aang was thinking about now, and discarded the possibility. "I know nothing about my father. And, as far as I know, my mom died when I was about 3 years old. I still remember her a little, but not enough to miss her, I guess…"
"Yeah, yeah. But, what about her? Who was she? Do you know anything else? Do you know where she was from, exactly?"
Gyelin got up too, laughing. "Calm down, Airhead. Don't make a big deal out of it. It's not like you'll find out I'm some kind of lost princess or the Avatar or something."
His eyebrows raised even more.
"Oh, spirits! What if you are the Avatar or something? That would be awesome!"
Gyelin stared at him for a few seconds, in disbelief.
"You know, that might be true!", she said, sarcastically. "Specially because Avatar Roku is still alive. That'd make it even more awesome."
"Oh… right.", he said, looking at his feet. "I guess he is… but still, there could be something that you are and just don't know about.", he said, securily; then, he opened a big smile again. "You were telling me about your mother…?"
The only answer he got was a Gyelin blowing her hair off her face.
"Please?", he said, seating again.
She just stared at him for a few seconds, but then, reluctantly, changed her mind. "Ok."
She seated by his side, taking a deep breath. "I usually don't like talking about it, but… I guess it's good to mention it sometimes; it helps me not to forget."
He nodded.
"Well, my mom… I know she died because of some mysterious sickness. I mean, not the kind of someone-poisoned-her mysterious, if that's what you're thinking.", she said, as he stared at the ground, blushing; letting her know that it was exactly was he though. "But the no-one-knew-what-she-had kind of mysterious.", she finished. "When she died, some of her friends - work colleges, I guess – gave me to the orphanage. According to them, she lived in Omashu with me for about two months, before passing away. No one knew anything about us from before those two months. They said we just got here a little dirty, and that she looked really tired then. They all agreed we looked like refugees, in a way."
Gyelin hugged her shoulders, staring at the ground too.
"I guess that's what I am.", she said, after some time. "A refugee orphan."
She stayed in silence for a few moments, thinking.
"Isn't that just sad?", she finally said, laughing. "A refugee orphan that no couple wants. I sound just like some kind of character from one of those romantic emotional books with a bad end, that always make you cry.", she said, smirking.
Aang didn't laugh. He just kept staring at the ground. He didn't know about her friend's story until then, and now he was pretty shaken by it.
I mean, sure, he knew she was an orphan who never got adopted. That was how they met in the first place, two years before, when he ran away from his master for a time, during their visit to Omashu, and got into a house full of kids playing (which he took about an hour to realize that was an orphanage, and not the just-playing place of his dreams).
Since then, he visited Omashu every time he could, to see Gyelin. But they never talked about her past, and now he was pretty shocked. She was such a happy, lightened-up girl. She just didn't match her story.
"Aang?", she asked quietly, after some time. "If I may remind you, this is when you say some crazy theory of yours of what I might be, and I superiorly reject it.", she smirked.
"I know.", he said, looking at her. "I'm just… a bit shaken about your story. That's all."
"Geez, Aang. No need to get all emotional over me. I'm fine with it, I really am", she said, getting on her feet. "Now, if I remember well, we were playing peek-a-boo when you cheated on me with you airbending."
"What?", he screamed, getting up immediately. "I was not cheating! You're the one who is too slow."
"I'm slow, huh? Well, I want to see you get me now.", she said, preparing to start running again.
He also put himself into position, while she kept telling herself to run, run as fast as she could, as fast as the wind.
Witch, for the surprise of both kids, was exactly what she did.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The night had the slightest sound of humming. Once again, the full moon shined up in the sky, and, after the long time of seven years, a big sky bison flew over the seas, taking with it two young air nomads.
The two of them were airbenders.
One of them, the boy, was seating on the head of his buddy Lyaa (a female sky bison), leading their way to the Southern Air Temple - the closest one to Omashu. He was the one humming; it was a song that he couldn't remember where he heard, but that he used to sing when he was happy.
The girl, on the other hand, was really nervous. She looked directly to her feet, while she played furiously with her hands; not paying attention to any of those two things. Her head was far away; in Omashu, in the Temple and in her memories at the same time.
It had been only a day since she learned she was an airbender, and that discovery was still confusing her a lot.
I mean, how could she bend air? That made no sense at all! To be an airbender, one must at least be an air nomad. And she was no air nomad. She grew up in Omashu, for spirits' sake! In an orphanage. She and her mother were probably refugees.
That kind of people weren't – they just couldn't be – air nomads.
The air people were free. They knew no war, they knew no attachments. They barely had any kind of government. How could two air nomads pass as a couple of refugees? People from the new – and very few, by the way – Fire Nation colonies were refugees. Not air nomads.
But, if she could bend air, then she was one of them. And, if she and her mother were air nomads, then… then what in the world were they running away from? What could be so bad that her mother couldn't solve more easily?
What… what if they were exiled? She never heard of that kind of thing happening in the Air Temples, but it was the only possibility she could think of.
Her mother was unwanted. She was unwanted. They would throw her out of the window in the same moment they learned who she was.
Not that she knew who she was, anyway. But they probably would find out, and send her right back to Omashu; maybe they would even forbid Aang from ever talking to her again! Maybe they probably wouldn't even have to!
"So, you are that evil woman's daughter?", she could imagine him saying.
He would yell at her, tell her to never touch him again, to not get even close to him, and to get out of the Temple immediately. She could already feel how it would be, the rejection, the feeling of being betrayed… having to go back to Omashu, were they would probably yell at her too, for disappearing like that. And how much he would hate her.
Spirits, please, don't let him hate me, she thought. Please, don't let him ever find out anything, if there's something to find out. Or maybe let. But please, please don't let him hate me! Please, please, don't…
"Gye?"
It was his voice. For a moment, Gyelin thought that the yelling was about to start; but then she remembered that he didn't know anything yet.
And neither did she.
She got mad at herself for a second, for actually being that much of a pessimistic. She was already thinking about him hating her when he learned she was an exiled, once that "when" was just a crazy theory of hers.
Air monks don't exile their people, it was crazy!
But still, the odds, the lack of other possibilities were so big, there, in front of her face, pressing her heart, that they were really hard to ignore.
She took a while to calm herself and talk back to him.
"Yes?", she finally said.
"Are you ok?", he asked, a concerned look in his eyes.
"Sure", she lied, trying to sound casual. "Why do you ask?"
"Nothing. You just looked a bit too serious, that's all.", he said, rubbing the back of his neck.
"I'm just a little scared, I think. You know, of the monks and everything. It's all so new.", she confessed.
Aang laughed, laying down in Lyaa's head, hands in the back of the head.
"What's so funny?"
"You, that's what.", he laughed. "You're worrying too much. They're monks. I promise they won't bite you."
"I know, I know. It's just so sudden… so different. I have no idea how to behave in an Air Temple! Pretty much all I know about your people is what I know about you. And you don't look much like a very good manners example to me.", she smirked.
Aang seated immediately, making his head dizzy for a few seconds. He tried to look angry, but a small smile was still fighting it's way on his lips.
"Well, thank you very much.", he said.
"Why, do you consider yourself as a polite, mannered-pretty-princess kind of person?"
"Yeah, you're right… as much as I love being called a pretty princess,", he smilled. "I guess I'm not."
"See?", she smiled triumphantly, and then moved to seat next to him in the bison's head. "Do I have a reason to freak out or not?"
"Of course you don't. You don't need to be all polite mannered-pretty-princess over them. In fact, I advise you to try not being too Earth Kingdom mannerly, or they'll probably just think you're a jerk."
"A jerk?", her eyes suddenly opened wild.
"Well, not the monks, of course. But the other kids will. I mean… I don't wanna sound too cliché, but… just be yourself, and it'll be alright."
"Really?"
"Sure! I mean, I'm an air nomad, and I like you. If you're pretending to be someone you're not around me, then just keep pretending. But if you're being yourself, then… well, just be the person you are being now. They'll like you."
Gyelin laughed a little, before saying: "You're confusing. But I guess I know what you mean."
"Good.", he smiled.
The two of them stayed there for a few minutes, in silence, just watching the water below them pass by. Aang was laying down again, bally against Lyaa's head, elbows on her furr and head on his hands. Gyelin was just seating there, hugging her knees, looking at the sky, at the ocean, at Aang.
After a long silence, he finally spoke.
"You're one of us too, Gye. You know that, right?"
"I'm trying to. It's still kind of hard to believe."
"But you are. And I always knew you were different, Gye. Even when we didn't know, I felt like you and I had some kind of special bond. That's it: we're both part of the same Nation. We're the same people, we bend the same element. That kind of thing connects people in the most unique ways. It's amazing." , he said, looking dreamily at the full moon.
"Well, maybe we do have that bond.", she answered, after being quiet for some time. "But I don't think that's what really makes us connect. I think it's friendship. I don't know much about that, but I never felt like we were a part of the same people. I still can't really believe in that. But I always liked you a lot. I mean… you're fun. To argue with, at least."
"Yeah, maybe you're right. I mean, I really don't know… I just let my head fly free for a moment there, I guess. You know, did a bit too much philosophizing.", he laughed. "All I wanted to say is… you're a part of the people, Gye. You are an airbender. An air nomad. I mean… they'll like you, don't worry."
She stared at her feet for so long afetr he spoke, that Aang thought that the conversation was over. But then she murmured, so quiet that he almost didn't hear.
"Thank you."