Without exactly knowing where they were going, we followed the Avatar and his two companions the whole night.
I would have been able to sleep without any problems, as Pagan would have been able to follow the bison on his own, but the constant tension never actually let me become tired in the first place.
In the early morning hours, I finally spotted our flight's apparent destination: We had reached rugged mountains with one particularly high mountain holding a massive building complex: The Southern Air Temple!
''Ah! The Avatar most likely hails from here.'', I said quietly to myself.
But how was that possible? All Air Nomads had been killed by the Fire Nation at the beginning of the war. Unless ... I had a strange suspicion.
I told Pagan: ''You know what I'm thinking, my friend? I think the Avatar was trapped inside that iceberg for many years.''
''But how is he alive then? Wouldn't he be starved or suffocated at some point?''
''Don't forget: He's an air bender, he most likely used some kind of special bending technique to keep himself alive artificially. That's the only explanation I have so far. But I think we will find out sooner or later.''
In the meantime, the Avatar's bison had landed in the temple's courtyard.
I instructed Pagan not to follow them, but instead to land on another mountain close by for a good view over the whole area. The dragon followed my order and soon landed on the flat, grass-covered summit of one of the mountains surrounding the temple.
I dismounted him, went over to the summit's edge and sat down with my legs hanging over the edge into the air. Pagan lied down himself and curled up.
From my travel bag, I fetched a small loaf of bread and a bigger piece of meat which I cut in two using one of my daggers. I gave one half to Pagan, who devoured it at one bite. I cut out some pieces from the bread for myself and ate them together with my half of the meat. So we sat there on the mountain, waiting and seeing.
Nothing happened for quite some time, but then, I suddenly felt a strong stinging pain in my left hand. It was so bad that I had to clench my teeth to keep myself from screaming.
Pagan noticed that something was wrong and asked: ''What's the matter, my friend?''
I wasn't able to answer him in the first moment, but I could already guess what was the cause of the pain.
I turned my hand and saw what I had thought: The little tattoo on my ring finger in the shape of the Assassin Order's sigil, which I had received during my appointment as Master in a special ceremony, was glowing in bright red!
I of course knew the meaning behind that: The Avatar Cycle was fully active again! Something down there in the temple must had caused the Avatar to willingly enter the Avatar State for the first time, restarting the cycle at last!
Even though the pain was still quite strong, I looked down at the temple and saw the confirmation of my thoughts: Bright light was coming out from one of the windows.
Shortly after, the light stopped again, as did the pain in my hand. I precautionally poured some water over my finger, to dampen the remaining pain a little more.
Sometime later, the Avatar and his companions exited the temple again. I got my telescope out from my bag to see what they were planning next.
I only noticed one difference: A little animal was sitting on the Avatar's shoulder, from the looks of it, it was a winged lemur, another typical Air Nomad animal.
After the bison rose back into the air shortly after, Pagan and I continued our flight as well, always following the Avatar and his companions.
We finally seemed to leave the southern regions of the world, drawing nearer to the Earth Kingdom.
While I had never been in the world's largest country personally, I of course had read and heard many interesting things about it.
After another day, I spotted the Avatar's next destination: From the middle of the ocean rose Kyoshi Island, an island created by the Avatar of the same name a few hundred years ago.
But still I was unable to make head nor tail of what exactly the Avatar was planning. From the Old Masters' stories I had learned that the Avatar always had one main goal: Mastering all four elements. And I was pretty sure that this young Air Nomad had not done that yet.
But if he wasn't able to bend all four elements, then why wasn't he searching for someone to teach him?
Many questions were wandering around in my mind, but I was sure that at least some of them would be answered sooner or later.
I told Pagan that we would stay in the air this time, I didn't want to risk being discovered by the island's inhabitants, especially because Pagan's camouflage wasn't working as good on the ground as it did in the air.
Therefore, camouflaged from any suspicious views, we started circling over the bay the bison had landed in.
''What are you planning, boy?'', I thought to myself when I saw the Avatar getting rid of most of his clothes and jumping into the water.
Only seconds later, I got my answer: The young air bender was riding on a giant koi carp.
Even though I would have classified this as a pretty dangerous situation in most cases, I decided not to intervene, since the Avatar actually made a pretty safe impression.
However, that changed abruptly a few minutes later!
After the Avatar had safely returned to the shore, he and his companions were ambushed by several people wearing green robes and face paint.
That was the signal for me! I instructed Pagan to fly over the island as low as possible, he obeyed immediately.
As he was rushing over a couple of tree crowns, I jumped off!
Safe and silent, I landed in a treetop, pulling my hood deep into my face.
I skillfully reached for my bow and an iron arrow before sliding in between two boughs, from where I was able to overview the whole scene: The Avatar and his companions were completely surrounded by their attackers.
I tried to take a closer look at them: All of them were wearing loose green robes with armor plates, as I had already seen. The faces were painted white, with red and black markings around the eyes. On the head, all of them were wearing a crown-like headband with adornments and, to my amazement, all of them wielded fans as weapons.
That's when I realized: Their appearance was inspired by Avatar Kyoshi, which meant that they were the Warriors of Kyoshi, an order founded by Avatar Kyoshi herself to protect this island. But why were those peace keepers attacking the Avatar? I was tempted to finally reveal myself to the Avatar to protect him, but soon after, the warriors put their fans away and led the Avatar and his companions away.
Even though the danger seemed averted, I still wanted to send a message! I nocked the arrow, aimed for a tree next to one of the warriors and shot! The arrow whistled through the air, penetrated the tree's bark and got stuck there.
I pressed myself against the trunk my own tree but still continued to observe the scene. The entire group had turned around, the apparent leader of the Warriors of Kyoshi send two of the girls to investigate, most likely where the shot had come from.
I realized that I had to react and get out of here as fast as possible. I climbed back up into the tree's crown until I had the clear sky above my head again. But how should I call Pagan? Whistling would most likely blow my cover. Gladly, I didn't have to think for long, as I saw the familiar shadow above me only a few seconds later.
Pagan broke his camouflage for a short moment, allowing me to mount him without a problem, and then returned to his original height.
He asked: ''And? Did you find out something?''
''Yes, the people I saw were Warriors of Kyoshi. They should not be of any danger, even though they cornered the Avatar for a moment. I fired a warning shot with my bow to show them what would have happened had they really attacked.''
''But wasn't that a little risky? You could have been spotted!''
''Sometimes one has to take risks, my friend. If one stays careful the entire time, one will most likely miss important chances.''
We circled over the village the warriors had led the Avatar's group into for the rest of the day.
However, nothing conspicuous happened, except for the fact that the Avatar's male companion was apparently very interested in the Warriors of Kyoshi, even going so far as to wear one of their armors to be trained in using the fan by the Warriors' apparent leader.
The next day was pretty hot, literally: Fire Nation soldiers attacked the island!
Pagan and I had already discovered the ships early in the morning, after that, Pagan had dropped me off on the island once again.
Just like yesterday, I was sitting in a tree, ready to ambush the approaching Fire Nation patrols.
I didn't have to wait long for the vanguard to appear. It was a small group, only five soldiers, all were wearing the distinctive armor with masks and were armed with spears.
I decided to conduct some psychological warfare, to unsettle the following troops. I reached into my potion bag and got out a small phial filled with a dark green liquid. I waited for the soldiers to come closer to my tree and then threw the phial to the ground.
It broke with a little cracking sound, but the effect was enormous: From the forest ground, multiple thorny tendrils shot up and launched themselves at the soldiers, subduing them without any problems. They pierced through their bodies, crushed them or even pulled them into the ground. After two minutes, the spectacle was over and I looked at my work with satisfaction.
As there were no other patrols in sight so far, I felt safe enough to utter a small whistle, sitting on Pagan's neck again a few moments later.
From the sky, we saw the Avatar and the Warriors of Kyoshi handling the rest, driving the soldiers off the island again.
The next day, the Avatar and his friends said goodbye to the island's inhabitants and continued their journey. Pagan and I followed them, deeper into the Earth Kingdom's heart.
Maybe there would be a chance for me to reveal myself to the Avatar soon, even though my work as a silent observer was going well. But at some point I really had to try to accompany the Avatar personally and completely legitimately.
It was all a question of time and circumstances.
Next chapter: The first of many