I tucked my sisters into their beds, and then tucked my little brother in.
As I went to turn off the lights, my youngest sister spoke up.
"You're forgetting something, Emma."
I smiled and went and sat on her bed. "How could I forget?"
Nighty night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite, I'll see you in the morning, and I love you."
She leaned forward and hugged me tightly. "I love you too, Emmy."
I smiled as I turned the light off and closed her bedroom door.
With a satisfying click, it was closed and I made my way to my own room.
I reached my bed before I started coughing violently.
I sat straight up, breathing frantically.
Looking around me, I saw that Aang was asleep against Appa, and Katara and Sokka were tucked in their sleeping bags. The fire was getting small, so I tossed a small ball of fire at it to stoke it. Wiping the sweat off my forehead, I lay back down and roll over, trying to fall back asleep.
"Sokka. Sokka!"
I nudged a sleeping Sokka with my foot.
"Come on! We're leaving."
Sokka rolled over in his sleeping bag so his rear was facing me.
"If you don't get up, we'll leave without you."
Katara rolled her eyes.
"Wait until you see the Southern Air Temple, you guys. It's one of the most beautiful places in the world," Aang said as he tied Appa's reins tighter.
I looked away, biting my lip. I knew how this was going to turn out.
"Hey, uh, Aang? Maybe we should just head straight for the North Pole. The quicker we get there, the better." It wouldn't work, but it was worth a try. Aang looked at me. "How can you say that, Emmy? I haven't been there in a hundred years. I'm so excited to see all my old friends!"
Sighing, I kicked Sokka.
"HEY! I'm trying to sleep, here." I kicked him again. "Get up, lazy. We're going to the air temple."
I knew I sounded sour, but the only good thing about going to the air temple would be finding Momo.
Sokka still wouldn't get up, so I kicked him one more time. He sat straight up, rubbing his side. "You didn't have to kick me so hard!" I snorted. "Next time you'll get up when I tell you to then, won't you?
He groaned.
Within the hour, we were soaring in the direction of the Southern Air Temple.
Aang had control of the reins, since I had absolutely no idea where I was going, and Katara sat next to him. Sokka and I were in the saddle. For about the fiftieth time this morning, Sokka complained about being hungry. He started rummaging around in his bag.
Since I had started the fire last night with my bending (an unknown fact to the other three), I had saved Sokka's blubbered seal jerky from being used in the campfire. He found the bag and pulled out a fistful.
My stomach growled.
Sokka looked at me with an evil look on his face. "If you apologize for kicking me, I'll give you some jerky." He swung a piece in front of my face. Before he could move it, I took that piece and started eating it.
"Hey! You didn't apologize!" I kept chewing.
"You really should say sorry, Emmy." Aang spoke up from where he was sitting. Katara scoffed. "She doesn't need to. He wouldn't get up." I smiled. "Thank you, Katara, for agreeing with me."
I stole another piece of jerky from Sokka. He glared at me, clutched the rest of it, and swung them out of my reach. I stuck my tongue at him and put the piece I stole in my mouth.
From my perch in the saddle, I could hear Katara talking to Aang. She would be warning him about what the Fire Nation could have done to the Air Nomads. What the Fire Nation did to the Air Nomads.
I stayed quiet and ate my jerky.
We finally made it to the mountain range that the air temple was located near. "Yip yip!" Aang had Appa flying faster, climber steeper into the air.
I held my stomach with one hand and forced my mouth to stay shut with the other. We circled a mountain, and then flew straight up it. After we passed through some clouds, I saw the air temple. It was magnificent. The cartoon did not do it justice. There, carved into the mountain, but still looking like it belonged there, was the Southern Air Temple.
"Aang," Katara exclaimed. "It's amazing!"
"We're home, Appa," Aang murmured to the flying bison. "We're home."
Aang landed Appa on a ledge that looked like it was made to land giant flying bison's, which it probably was.
We slid off. When we were all on the ground, Appa took off.
"Hey-!"
"It's alright, Sokka. He's probably going to visit some other bison. He'll be back before we leave." And with that, Aang started running up one of the carved paths. We all followed.
After a while of walking, Sokka started to complain. "My feet hurt! When are we going to rest? I'm hungry!"
Katara scolded him. "You're lucky enough to be one of the first outsiders to ever visit an airbender temple, and all you can think about is food? Didn't you eat on Appa?"
"Walking makes me hungry. I'm just a simple guy with simple needs, Katara."
"Maybe," I started. "We shouldn't have left the jerky with Appa." I clutched my stomach as it growled again.
"Not you too!"
Up ahead, Aang motioned to a field of giant wooden pegs stuck in the ground. "That's where my friends and I would play airball." He pointed to a field of bare rock. "And that's where the bison used to sleep, and..." He trailed off and sighed.
I walked away from the group and started walking a little bit farther on the path. No one noticed me leave. On the path, I saw a Fire Nation soldier's helmet. I picked it up and dumped it behind some bushes.
When I came back from my walk, Aang was airbending Sokka up one of the wooden pegs. I smiled. Then I looked at Katara. She had a sad look on her face. I found a way down the cliff and joined her. She looked at me, surprised.
"Where'd you go? I didn't even realize you were gone." I bit my lip. "The Fire Nation was here," I whispered. She gasped. Over on the pegs, Aang had knocked Sokka to the ground and was helping him get back up.
I looked on the ground around us and spotted the helmet that Katara and Sokka had found in the episode. I took my hand and wiped the snow from the hill above onto the helmet, concealing it. Katara was right next to me. "This is horrible. What are we going to do?"
"Nothing," I murmured. "Nothing yet."
We were led up more stairs to Monk Gyatso's statue. As Aang sped ahead, Katara and I filled Sokka in.
"The Fire Nation was here. We can't pretend they weren't." "We can for Aang's sake. If he finds out the Fire Nation invaded his home, we don't know how he could react." I do.
I turned my head away from them. I wish there was something I could do, but-as much as I hate it-he has to go through this.
"Hey, guys! I want you to meet somebody. Let me introduce you to Monk Gyatso, the greatest airbender in the world. He taught me everything I know." Aang bowed to the statue of his mentor. I waited as Aang remembered a time with Gyatso. I think it was something about cakes.
Katara walked up to him when he straightened. "You must miss him."
"Yeah." He started to walk up the stairs behind the statue.
"Where are you going?"
"The air temple sanctuary. There's someone I'm ready to meet." He kept walking. Katara looked at me for clarity. I shrugged halfheartedly.
We followed Aang up the staircase and down a long corridor until we reached the gateway to the air temple sanctuary. Even If I was on the tips of my toes, I still wouldn't be able to touch the intricate set of pipes. Katara and Sokka exchanged a 'look'. "Aang, no one could have survived in there for a hundred years."
He looked up at the pipes and smiled. "It's not impossible. I was in the iceberg for that long."
"Good point."
"Katara," Aang said hopefully. "Who ever is in there can help me with this avatar thing."
"And who ever is in there might have a medley of delicious cured meats." Sokka rubbed his hands together and dashed into to the wall.
I stifled a laugh behind my glove. "Sokka. You've got to use airbending to open it." Aang turned to me. "How did you know that?" "Um, common sense? It's an air temple, after all." "Oh. Yeah, I guess so."
"So what are you waiting for?" Sokka whined. "Open it up with your magic air!"
"Sokka," Katara started. "It's not magic, it's-"
"Yeah, yeah. I know."
Aang stepped in front of the doors. He inhaled deeply. While he exhaled, he thrust his hands forward and shot two bursts of air into the trumpet like openings. The air traveled through the pipes, causing the door to unlock and swing open. Katara, Sokka and I stood there in shock, the sound of the door opening echoing in our ears and in the sanctuary.
Aang cupped his hand around his mouth. "Hello?" he called. "Anyone home?" He started to walk forward until the shadows started to cover him. We followed.
The light from outside shone on some of the wooden statues. I looked around the large cavern. They were everywhere. I looked up and couldn't see the ceiling. They went on, spiraling upwards until the shadows made it so I couldn't see them anymore.
Ahead of me, Katara and Sokka were inspecting a statue, or in Sokka's case, complaining about the lack of food. Aang was heading towards Avatar Roku.
Once again, none of them were paying any attention to me at all. I slipped away quietly.
I walked around the temple for a couple of minutes until I found a run down building that looked familiar. Stepping over rubble, I made my way into it. I walked through a doorway and felt like heaving.
All around me were corpses. Fire Nation soldiers, and in the middle of them all, Monk Gyatso's skeleton.
I ran out of the small building as fast as I could. Once outside, I leaned against the wall, sinking down until I was sitting in the dirt. I sat there for a second.
Aang would be mortified when he found this place. So...what if he didn't find it? Slowly, I removed my glove. I conjured a small flame in the palm of my hand. A fire-gone-wild would hide the evidence...
Suddenly, something small landed in front of me. Frightened, I let my fire go out.
I gasped. The little creature was Momo. That meant Aang wasn't far away. Right on cue, the said Avatar landed on the ground next to Momo. The flying lemur scurried away from him, climbing up me and perching on my shoulder. He was heavier than he looked.
Aang laughed. "Come on over here, that hungry guy won't bother you anymore." Momo climbed higher until he was sitting on my head. I reached up and grabbed him, holding him out to Aang. "Uh, here."
Momo looked up at me with big green eyes. Aang took him from me, allowing Momo to sit on his shoulder. He laughed. "Hey, Emmy. Sokka was going to eat this little guy, but I think I'm going to make him my pet. What are you doing down here?"
I cleared my throat. "I was just exploring."
"Oh yeah? Where were you exploring?"
Looking around, I pointed to a small building farther away from where we were. "Over there. It was actually quite interesting. Let's go explore it some more," I said quickly. He raised an eyebrow. "That's a bathroom."
"..."
Aang looked behind me at the building. "Hey, I know this place. It wasn't as...it wasn't like this in my day, but I'd recognize it anywhere." He started to walk towards it. Thinking fast, I stepped in front of him. "Actually, I'd rather go check out those bathrooms again." I grabbed his wrist and tried to pull him that way. "Come on, let's go."
He just shook my hand off. "No, I know someone who lives here." Aang pushed aside the heavy cloth that was the only thing keeping him away from seeing the dead corpse of his mentor.
"C'mon, Aang, let's go find Katara and Sokka. They're probably looking for us." He kept walking. I rubbed the bridge of my nose and sighed. "Wait."
Aang turned around. "What now? Why don't you want me going in there?" I bit my lip, something I had started making a habit of when I was stressed or nervous. Taking a deep breath, I told Aang that we knew the Fire Nation had been here.
He fell to his knees, hiding his face. Despite myself, my eyes tingled, threatening to release tears. Sokka burst through the cloth. "Did you find my dinner yet-?" He spotted Aang on the floor. "What's wrong? What happened?"
"Aang knows about the Fire Nation...and about Gyatso," I murmured, absentmindedly stroking Momo's head. "Oh no. Come on, Aang. Everything will be okay. Let's get out of here." Sokka put his hand on Aang's shoulder.
I inhaled sharply, waiting for Aang's tattoos to start glowing. But they didn't. Aang kept shuddering, until Momo nuzzled his ear with his nose. Aang's shoulders slumped. Another moment passed before Aang stood up. Momo chattered happily and ran a few laps around his shoulders. Aang smiled weakly and patted him on the head.
Sokka put his hand out to help me climb on top of Appa. Once I was in the saddle, I sat up and gazed at the Southern Air Temple. Next to me, Sokka called down to Katara and Aang.
"Alright, you guys. We're packed and ready to go." There was no response. I leaned over the edge of Appa. "You two ready?"
Katara looked up at me. "Almost." She turned back to Aang who was staring at the temple, frowning. "Aang, I know you're upset, and I know how hard it is to lose the people you care about. I went trough the same thing when I lost my mom. Monk Gyatso and the other airbenders may be gone, but you still have a family. Sokka and I. And Emmy." I stiffened at the sound of my name. "We're your family now."
Sokka hopped down next to Katara and Aang. "We're not going to let anything happen to you. I promise." Sokka and Katara embraced Aang. I watched with my chin resting on my crossed arms, which were resting on the edge of the saddle.
Katara reached an arm towards me and gestured for me to come down. "C'mon, you're part of this family too."
I climbed down and cautiously joined their group hug.
Please, ask questions. They actually make me think more in-depth of the story, which makes for a better story :) Although, I'm saying right now that I won't answer them directly. Everything you have questions about will be explained in future chapters. eventually. But if I accidentally miss something you have questions about, and you didn't tell my you questioned it, I may not answer your unasked question, and you'll have more questions, and I'll be stressed. So, ask away, capisci?
