I do not nor have I ever had anything to do with ATLA or Nickelodeon

"BG" means "Before (Air Nomad) Genocide" which happens when Aang is 12 years old


I want to thank my Beta-Reader fanatla, without you Anila's Story wouldn't be as great as it is!


Chapter Two


(15 BG)

Anila was having a sweet dream about the devilishly handsome man she had met the day before when the voice of "Sister Meany", as Anila called her, came screeching into Anila's tent. "Anila, you lazy girl! Get out here and wash up for morning meditation, followed by a breakfast of plain bread and tofu. NOW GIRL! You're holding everything up."

"Yes Sister Dolkar, I'll be right out." Anila sat up, she rubbed the fuzz on the top of her head and crawled out of her tent before 'Sister Meany' yelled at her again. She quickly splashed water on her face and hands, she blew herself dry, ran to her group and sat down lotus style like all the other girls. While meditation was one of the Air Nomads culture's pillar, it was dreadfully boring to Anila. She cracked one of her eyes and watched as more and more Nomads showed up for the festival. Her heart picked up speed when she saw the dreamy man she had accidentally tripped over yesterday. She concentrated on her breathing trying to keep herself from blushing.

"Okay girls," 'Sister Meany' said, "It's time to eat our traditional Yangchen breakfast." It wasn't actually part of the festival to eat the breakfast that Sister Dolkar had for them to eat. It was lunch that was part of the tradition, not breakfast.

Anila got her breakfast and sat down next to Sister Opame and ate. "Why does 'Sister Meany' make us have such a boring breakfast?" Anila asked her guardian. Anila loved to eat sweet fruits, sweet rice, sweet rolls and most of all fruit cakes.

"I really don't know, she says it humbles us for the day to come... Don't call her 'Sister Meany'... She may hear you." Sister Opame said. "We are suppose to split in two groups in a bit. I'll take you with my group. We are going to go sit and have a lesson with one of my dear friends, Monk Gyatso and half the boys that came with his group."

"I remember him!" Anila said, "He is always so fun. I like flying the kites with them." The news made her happy than she didn't have to listen to 'Sister Meany' today and she laughed.

Out of nowhere, Anila heard a deep voice that made her heart jump. "Hello, I'm glad to see you are ok after that fall you had taken yesterday." Amitaruci said.

"Anila", Sister Opame asked her, "Who is this?"

"Ummm... T... This is Amitaruci. He... he helped me up when I fell yesterday." Anila said.

"She had quite a fall, I just wanted to make sure she was ok." He smiled at Anila, his head cocked slightly to the side.

She was blushing so much her cheeks felt hot again, she shoved a big piece of dry bread into her mouth. She tried to swallow it, but it got stuck in her throat and she started to cough. Amitaruci knelt down and handed her his water pouch. "Here, I think you may need some of this."

"Take it Anila, you need some water before you choke to death." Sister Opame told her.

Anila took his water and drank almost all of it. "Thank you... ummm... I'm sorry, I think I almost drank all of it."

"It's no problem; I'll just walk down and refill it... Would you like to go with me?" He asked her.

"Our lesson will be starting soon; I don't think I can go with you." Anila said.

"Anila is correct." Sister Opame said, "Our lesson is starting soon. Thank you for your kindness, Sir."

"It's no problem at all, I just wanted to make sure she was ok, it was a pretty bad fall." Amitaruci said. "Maybe I'll see you later today, Anila, Sister Opame, it was nice talking to you. I must go refill my water." He bowed to them before he walked down to a fresh water pool to refill his water.

"Well, he was nice." Sister Opame said as they watched him walk away.

"Oh, he is so handsome." Anila let out a breath of air making the grass around them ripple outward.

"Okay Anila, Monk Gyatso is waiting for us to join his group." Sister Opame told her ward.

"I love flying the kites!" Anila exclaimed skipping over to the other Airbenders her age. Anila was the only one with an arrow on her forehead. Some of the boys in the group were pointing at her and whispering.

"Hello Anila, It is wonderful to see you have earned your Master's Tattoos." The kind, yet playful monk said to her.

"Thank you, Monk Gyatso. I can't wait until I am sixteen! I'm going to take Chesa and travel the world." Anila told him.

"Okay everyone, it is time to honor Lady Tienhai by bowing to her statue." Sister Opame said aloud to the group she and Monk Gyatso were in charge of.


The sacred celebrations started by bowing four times to the statue of Lady Tienhai. Then everyone broke into smaller groups where they were supposed to be taught what the Yangchen Festival was about and why they celebrated it. Monk Gyatso and Sister Opame leaded their group down to a group of Sky Bison. This is when they went to a nearby island and flew kites. Monk Gyatso had always said that they could learn about the Yangchan festival when they were older. Children needed to be children and have fun.

On the walk down to the group of Sky Bison, Anila was doing cartwheels and laughing. Her eye was caught by her new little infatuation, the very tall handsome man with the dreamy smile. He had seen her too, most likely because of her flipping and laughing, because his eyes met hers then smiled and winked to her. Anila had to stop cartwheeling because she felt dizzy just from his smile. Her face felt hot again and her heart beat wildly.

The group of boy and girls flew the kites around for nearly two hours when they heard the traditional Air Nomad music, signifying the start of the march down the cliff to the beautiful meadow where they ate a lunch that consisted primarily of tofu and an assortment of vegetables. Anila thought it was a boring and flavorless meal, but it was tradition.

The two chaperones called their group of children together so that they could return to the festival and march down under guidance of music to the sacred meadow to enjoy the ceremonial meal.


The boys and girls were all sitting together eating, a couple of Anila's pupils were sitting with her. Choden nudged Anila with her elbow. "Ouch, What Choden?"

Choden leaned over and whispered into Anila's ear, "That man over there keeps looking at you."

Anila turned to see Amitaruci glancing her way. She started blushing again. 'I am so glad we are leaving the day after tomorrow, he makes me feel so funny' Anila thought. 'Though he is nice.'

Anila whispered into Choden's ear "He's so dreamy."

Anila could hardly put more than a few words together when he was looking at her. She turned back to her lunch trying to keep herself as calm as possible, but her heart had a mind of its own and decided to race.

'Spirits please help me.' Anila thought again, she picked up her cup to take a drink and found it empty.

"Sister Opame, may I have more water please" asked Anila in a small whisper. Just seeing Amitaruci made her nervous, causing her mouth and throat to go dry. She drank two whole cupfuls before she felt normal again.

"Sister Opame, I'm done eating now. May I please go play in the field?" Anila asked. "I want to practice flipping and balancing... It's more training than playing."

"I guess Anila. You are such a carefree girl. Don't be clumsy and trip again." Her guardian told her.

"I won't!" Anila yelled as she ran into the field. She was joined by many other kids, they started showing off what they could do, but Anila showed up all of them by performing one of the highest level forms that they had to know in order to get their Master's Tattoos. She ran, grabbed her staff and showed off doing loop-d-loops and barrow rolls. She jumped and free-fell from the top of the cliff opening her glider just seconds before impact and rocketed into the sky, landing safely back on the cliff with a whoosh of air.

A large group of Airbenders had joined the children, watching this fearless young Master. When she landed, many people applauded her skills and talent. Anila was feeling awesome until she scanned the onlookers and saw HIM. Her heart started racing again so, she took a deep breath and walked all the way to her tent. She didn't understand why she felt like this, but all she wanted to do was hide for a while.

She was walking as quickly as she could, of course all airbenders could run faster than the wind, well all Master Airbenders could... but apparently she wasn't quick enough.

"That was quite a display of your skills and power, Pretty One." Amitaruci had come up behind her.

Her eyes immediately dropped down to look at the grass beneath her feet. "T...thank you, Sir." She coughed a few times from her throat going dry.

"Here take this," he handed her his water pouch again.

Anila drank it all again. "Oh, my... I'm so sorry I drank it all again."

"Don't be sorry, I have another here. Let me refill that one and you can have this one." He pulled out a second water pouch from within his Traditional male airbender's robes and handed it to her.

"But, I don't need any more water right now." She looked at the bottle.

"Take it. I would like you to keep it Pretty One." Amitaruci told her as he traded the empty water pouch in her hands with the full one in his hand. "It was nice to meet you, Anila... I really do hope to see you next year. I wanted to tell you goodbye. I'm leaving in just about an hour... May we come across one another again in our travels, Pretty one"

He finished with his devilishly handsome smile, leaving her heart pounding so hard that she could hear it in her ears.


Anila spent the rest of the day in a haze, her hands clutching tightly to the water pouch he had given her. A few girls had crowded around her, asking all kind of questions about the handsome man and his strange gift for her. Anila barely registered much of it, just sat down in front of her tent and stared at the water pouch. 'He wanted me to have this', she thought as her heart fluttered.


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