Chapter Seven: Goal


"Wait 'til you see it, Katara!"

The sun is just rising over the horizon and Katara is stowing her pack and sleeping bag in Appa's saddle as Aang fixes the reigns on the skybison's horns.

She stiffens, remembering their half-finished conversation from the ship a few days (and has it really only been a few days? It feels longer) prior.

"The Air Temples are some of the most beautiful places in the world!" he continues, oblivious to her thoughts.

"Aang... I know you're excited," she says slowly, trying to figure out how to be gentle about this, "but it's been a hundred years since you've been home."

"That's why I'm so excited!" the boy turns to grin at her before going back to fixing the reigns.

"A lot can change in that much time, Aang. Th-"

"I know, but I need to see it for myself!" And with that he jumps from the bison, Sokka shrieking from whatever Aang does to wake him.

Her face blanks, eyelids lowering halfway. They might be hiding somewhere else so no one can find them, Aang, she doesn't get to tell him. They might all be gone. Or, more likely: They might all be dead. After all, no one has seen an airbender in a hundred years, except for Katara and the Southern Water Tribe (and the monsters from a few days ago).

Sokka climbs into Appa's saddle, putting away his things. Katara moves to join Aang in sitting by the reigns. They take off.


Sokka's stomach growls and he grumbles at it, the only noise besides Aang talking to his bison for quite some time. "Hey! Who ate all my blubbered seal jerky?"

Katara can feel his eyes boring a hole into the back of her head, but only scowls. She's not the one who goes through other people's stuff.

Next to her, Aang's eyes widen. "Oh, that was food? I used it to start the campfire last night. Sorry, Sokka."

"What!" The feeling of eyes glaring daggers at her disappears. The tribesman groans, "No wonder the fire smelled so good last night." Aang has no food to share with him, Katara knows. The airbender has been fasting, save for a water and few berries every now and then, since they decided to head to the temple.

Sokka doesn't ask Katara.

She doesn't offer.

Moments later, oblivious to the tension between his companions, Aang exclaims, "I know this mountain range! We're almost there!"

Katara's heart lurches and she sucks in a deep breath, mustering her courage. "Aang, before we get to the Air Temple, I need to speak with you about the airbenders."

"What about them?"

"I- You need to be prepared for what you might see. The Fire Nation is ruthless, Aang. They-" killed my mother. The words won't leave her tongue (because she isn't sure she's not the one responsible). Her chest feels like a massive bruise. "They killed most of the Southern Water Tribe, especially benders. They could have done the same to your people."

He spares her a glance, face still relaxed. "Just because no one's seen an airbender in a hundred years doesn't mean that the Fire Nation killed them all." As he speaks, his expression slowly morphs into a frown. "They probably escaped."

Her heart is being squeezed by a vice. She doesn't want to say this. "Still. Even if they did escape, the other airbenders might have had to abandon the temple, Aang. Go into hiding or-"

"You don't understand, Katara," he interrupts, face brightening. "The only way to any of the Air Temples is on the back of a flying bison. I doubt the Fire Nation has any of those, right, Appa?" he pets the bison's fur.

"Aang-"

"Leave him alone, Katara," Sokka gripes.

"The Fire Na-"

The boy won't listen to her. She can see from the way his face hardens as he calls, "Yipyip!"

Katara grips onto one of Appa's horns as the bison ascends rapidly, eyes clenched shut against the wind. I'm going to be sick, she thinks. Her ears are ringing and her heart is in her throat. Or maybe that's stomach acid (she cannot tell).

Aang says something, but her ears are too busy popping for her to make out the words. She risks a glance at the airbender. His eyes are wide and his smile much more genuine. As her ears unplug she catches, "...home, buddy, we're home."

Her heart sinks as she takes in the temple. It's beautiful, truly: all white stone, soft blue-tiled roofing and terraced gardens fitted onto the mountain top as though it had grown there. But from what she knows of airbenders, Katara cannot help but wonder, Where is everyone? Aang is constantly moving about, always dancing around, always flying. The sky around the temple is empty.

Perhaps I'm simply too far to see them, she thinks. (She ignores the voice in her head that asks her, "And what of the skybison? They are large- would you not see them?")

(It is that other voice speaking to her again, the one that is not hers but feels more familiar than breathing.)

(She wonders if she should be afraid. She cannot bring herself to fear it.)

Instead of voicing her worry, as she knows the boys will ignore her words of caution, she says, "It's beautiful here, Aang." He grins at her, and then turns his smile at Sokka when the tribesman echoes her sentiments.

They land.

"Come on!" The airbender leaps from the saddle. "I'll give you guys the grand tour!"


"So where do I get something to eat?" Sokka asks.

Katara takes one look at Sokka's slumped posture and deep scowl and snorts. He glares at her. "What?" She shakes her head as she lengthens her stride to catch up with Aang. One of the first to visit an Air Temple in nearly a century and he's thinking with his stomach. It's so typical of him that, for a moment, she almost feels like a child again.

The path curves up ahead and the airbender waits there for them, overlooking several of the temple courtyards.

He points out several locations. "That's where my friends and I would play airball, and there's where the bison would sleep and-" He breaks off with a sigh, smile falling from his face.

Quietly, Katara asks a question, hoping that her earlier thoughts are not just occurring to him.

His shoulders slump as he answers, "This place used to be so full of life. Now its just a bunch of rocks and weeds." A pause, another sigh, "So much has changed."

She can feel Sokka's eyes on her, as if silently urging her to comfort the boy, but she does not look at him. Katara cannot move, cannot speak. Her mind is drawn to memories of moonless nights and empty camps and the knowledge that what Aang now feels is how she had felt when she was younger and her mother's death fresh in the minds and hearts of the Southern Water Tribe. How she was feeling until she let anger and frustration rise to the fore mere days ago.

I have no pack, she thinks, realizing that Aang is looking for his. And then, I am no wolf. Neither is Aang. He's just a sad, lonely child with no family and no place. (Like me.)

She doesn't know how to comfort him. She opens her mouth anyway, re-

And Sokka beats her to it, asking, "So, uh, this airball game?" He walks forward to clap Aang on the shoulder. "How do you play?"

Shortly thereafter, Katara watches as Aang uses his bending to manipulate the ball, bouncing it off of the poles in the arena until Sokka tries, and fails, to stop it from knock him off his platform and through the goal. Aang laughs every time he scores, his earlier melancholy nowhere to be seen.

This is good for him, she thinks. For the first time in a long, long while, she feels content. She has no chores to do, no tribesmen to worry after, and her (friend?) companion- and Sokka, she supposes, are happy.

"Aang, seven! Sokka, zero!"

She smiles, despite herself, closing her eyes and leaning back against the natural wall that seperates the airball field from the rest of the temple. Looks painful though, she muses as Sokka gets back up.

Then Sokka calls, "Guys, check this out!" His voice is unsteady.

Jinxed it. The smile drops from her face

She should know better by now.


Word Count: 1,470

Posted: 2/12/2018