Chapter 10

Olivia

After Zhao had shown up and attacked us, I could tell Cameron was on edge, and not just because of the battle either. Charlie could tell too, but I don't think Cameron wanted to talk about it, so I decided to let her be, for now at least.

Eventually, we started to make our way towards the northern air temple, and I think it goes without saying that Aang and I had been on the edge of our seats the entire way, er, well, on the edge of Appa's saddle, I suppose. Charlie and Katara were talking about different water bending and healing techniques while Cameron and Sokka bickered about his wood carving. I however was bouncing up and down impatiently.

Come on Appa I know you're tired from carrying all of us but can you please fly faster? I sighed and laid down. I had been so excited to get here I hadn't slept much the night before, and now I was regretting it. Well, a few minutes of sleep wouldn't hurt right? Besides it wasn't as if they would leave me on Appa and go look around without me. I wasn't about to say that though and give Cameron and Charlie any ideas.

"Grandpa what does this fan do?"

An elderly man gave me a small smile and glanced down at me. "It's an airbending tool, kind of like a glider only much smaller. You can't fly on it, you see, because it's too small, but it can be used to make your airbending stronger."

I nodded and glanced around the little cottage for a few moments before looking back up at him. "When are you going to teach me how to air glide? Because it looks like so much fun when you do it!" My grandfather chuckled and rubbed my head, and I could just barely see a bit of the blue tattoo on his arm as a part of his sleeve pulled up a little.

"I would like to sweetheart but my old bones don't work that well anymore. Why don't you have your parents teach you?"

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Because they're not airbenders, how can they teach me?"

"They still can teach you, you don't have to be an airbender to air glide. However, they won't be able to teach you airbending, and I can only teach you so much."

I sighed. I wanted my grandpa to teach me, it wasn't the same coming from my parents since they weren't actual airbenders. Also, if grandpa couldn't teach me much airbending, who would? He said before that there weren't many teachers around, so how would I learn?

Suddenly a wide smile plastered itself to my face. "I know grandpa! I'll teach myself! I'll teach myself my own moves so I can learn!"

He laughed and grinned, but something about his eyes made me think he wasn't really showing how he felt. "I'm sure you will, but you have to remember to not airbend in front of anyone other than your parents, alright?"

I cocked my head to one side. He always said this but he never explained anything else. "Why?"

He sighed and shook his head. "Just trust me, no one outside of this family can know, okay?"

"Olivia! Olivia you're gonna miss it! Wake up!"

With a jolt I sat up and looked around frantically. Miss what? What was going on? What was that dream? Were we there yet?

As if somehow he had read my mind, Aang directed Appa to fly upwards and we broke through a layer of clouds, and saw the air temple looming over us with- wait- were those other airbenders flying around? I narrowed my eyes and tried to get a better look, and then started grinning like an idiot.

"They really are airbenders!"

Only for Aang to shoot down my hope within fifteen seconds.

"No they're not."

"What do you mean they're not- those guys are flying!"

Aang shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest, a slight look of anger in his eyes. "No, those people have no spirit." Maybe this was another reason why I didn't have the arrows, I couldn't really tell the difference.

We began to fly closer to the temple, and then a boy who was gliding seemed to give Aang some silent challenge, and the next thing I knew, he was standing up with his glider. "Aang, I'm not sure that's such a good idea-" Of course he decided not to listen to me and he jumped anyways.

We quickly directed Appa closer to the temple and we landed on a stone platform. Eventually, Aang and the other boy who I think some of the kids had been calling Teo, landed and we all scrambles off Appa. I gawked at the massive temple in front of us, I was surprised it was in as good of a condition as it was, considering the fire nation attacked it. But I wasn't going to say that out loud. The people who were there seemed eager to show us around, especially after they realized Aang was the avatar. With the amount of attention he was getting I was actually really glad that I didn't have the arrows.

As we wandered I zoomed out of the conversation, I was so focused on the art that surrounded us, and how the majority of it was destroyed. I tried to picture it how it once as, with no metal structures or pollution or steam, no cracks or the occasional burn mark. I bet it was beautiful, at one point, and there were a few places that were, but the majority of it was a burried in metal contraptions.

There was what looked like a pavillion ahead, and as we all walked through the archway I had to blink away the sunlight for a few moments. I leaned a little closer to Cameron and Charlie. "Finally a place that looks like it wasn't messed with, I think Aang was going to have a heart attack otherwise-" Then literally a wrecking ball crashed through the wall and I think Cameron had to jump out of the way of a large piece of debris.

A man that had a 'mad scientist' look about him emerged from the wreckage, muttering things about making extra room for a bath house or something. Really? A bath house? In the middle of an over one hundred year old temple?! Does history mean nothing anymore?

Aang, however, didn't have the fear of voicing his anger, so he did it for both of us. "Do you know what you did? You just destroyed something sacred!" Then he raised his glider as if to attack something- oh yeah, let's protest breaking things by breaking more things! I ran up to him and put my hand on his shoulder, but he shook me off and airbended one of the man's inventions off his roof.

It was made pretty clear that it wasn't going to be a good day.

I think Teo and his friends wanted to make it up to us for destroying the temple, and especially for causing Aang's outburst, so they offered to teach us how to air glide. Oh this was going to be fun. I was excited, I had tried Aang's a few times but everyone always told me I couldn't fly too high in case someone saw, but up here we're even above the clouds so no one could tell me to fly lower for once. Cameron was grinning like a maniac but Charlie however looked, quite concerned. This, thankfully, seemed to lift Aang's spirits a little bit.

Teo came over to Charlie, Cameron, and I once we were back outside and on the edge of the temple, gliders in hand. I was basically bouncing up and down as he explained the instructions, half tempted to just ignore them and jump off with Aang's prior teachings in mind. Cameron however, beat me to it and stepped up first. Aang reminded her to have 'the spirit of an airbender' and she nodded. "Okay, okay, yeah whatever you say- can I go now?"

She didn't wait for a reply and instead she just jumped off, only she didn't start flying, she just fell. I heard her scream and curse and I was about to jump down after her when she seemed to start to glide up a little bit. Charlie stepped up next and she took one look over the edge before backing up half a step. I thought she was scared, but then she got this wild look on her face that made me nervous.

I walked up next to her and gave her what I hoped was a reassuring smile, even though I really don't think I needed to.. "You'll be fine, just hold on tight and let the air carry you-"

"-and be sure to keep your mouth shut or you'll catch a bug-"

"-and keep your legs straight, if you want to turn use your arms-"

Charlie gave a bit of a shocked cry at Teo's, Aang's, and my instructions for her. Well, I thought it was shocked, but it turns out it was out of excitement because the next thing I knew she was diving off the cliff head first, only to crash on top of Cameron.

Their glider's seemed to get tangled and I think Charlie's tore a hole in Cameron, and they both gave outraged cries blaming the other person. I gave Aang a look out of the corner of my eye and he sighed. I grabbed onto the glider with my hands and I jumped off, the sudden drop scaring me at first but I got the hang of it once a gust of wind came along. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Aang swoop down, I went to grab Charlie and he to Cameron, but first we had to get them untangled before they hit something. I tried to balance myself and pull on Charlie's glider while keeping my own aligned with her with my other hand, while Aang tried to do the same. Aang pulled on Cameron's glider and eventually the two broke free, Charlie re steadied herself and I tried to guide her back towards the top, and Aang eventually had to pull Cameron onto his glider because her's couldn't fly anymore. Aang and I made a point to stay between Cameron and Charlie so that they couldn't hurt each other again. We landed and Cameron and Charlie both seemed a little shaken up. My shoulders slumped and I gave Aang a nervous smile. That could have ended very badly.

"If you hadn't ran into me Charlie-"

"if you hadn't gotten into my way-"

I groaned and had a sinking feeling that they were going to be at it for a while. I walked over to Aang and thanked him. Teo came over to us and gave us a thumbs up. He glanced at me, "Hey, you're a natural!" I gave a nervous laugh. Oh yeah, that was it…

"Thanks…"

Well, since almost everyone was caught up in their own conversations, I figured it would be a good idea to look around, and take advantage of looking at the culture while I could, and get more connected with the airbender ideals. Even though I didn't have the arrows and I couldn't really airbend much at all, I still thought it would be best. So, I slipped away and wandered through the temple, and I still couldn't find a single room that wasn't touched by Teo's father. I know he seemed like a good man, but was he even aware of how much he destroyed? The culture of a people and hundreds of years of history, just lost? He may say he was sorry and that he understood, but I doubted he ever would.

I lost track of how many hallways I had gone through and how many rooms I had found, but there was stupid metal everywhere. I tried to forget about it though, and picture how the place used to be. I pulled open a door at the end of a long hallway and scrunched my nose at the amount of dust in the room, like it hadn't been opened for a while. I got excited, and thought that maybe this room had been untouched, but then I saw a window that had a metal structure running through it, which continued on across the ceiling and into the wall on the opposite side. Never mind.

I was about to leave when I noticed a few things lying on a table and I took a closer look. There was this fan that looked like it wasn't quite made out of metal like the Kyoshi warrior ones were, but they seemed to be very durable leather. I picked it up and spun it around in my hand before waving it in the air like an airbending and a much stronger gust of wind than my normal attacks flew out and a dust cloud formed. I coughed a few times and glanced down at the fan, deciding to keep it. If it had been here for a hundred years, no one was going to miss it.

I was on my way up when the entire structure seemed to rock and I tumbled into a wall. What was going on? I ran back the way I had came in, and got lost a few times. I turned around a corner and screamed as I ran into someone before noticing it was only Aang, and he looked just about as freaked out as I was.

"What's going on-"

"Fire nation attacking-"

Not again! Stay away from us, you killed our entire nation, isn't that enough? Apparently not. We ran back up to the front of the temple and saw firenation tanks rolling up the side of the hill. Aang jumped off the side with Teo and they both began flying away. I couldn't find Charlie anywhere, and Cameron was clambering down the side of the cliff right towards the tanks, what was she doing? I ran after her and pulled the fan out of my pocket, hopefully it would actually do me some good.

"Cameron what are you doing-" I couldn't finish my sentence though because a fire blast flew by us and we were separated. Another fireblast flew straight at me and I fell backwards, sweeping the fan out in front of me and cringed. The edge of my sleeve caught on fire and I immediately started batting at it and trying to roll it in the snow, but the majority of the fire was redirected, which was what I had hoped would happen. I tried to see through the smoke and snow to find Cameron, when I saw orange out of the corner of my eye. I turned and didn't have time to raise my fan, but at the last minute I saw Cameron jump in front of me and the flames spread out around us.

"I thought you weren't supposed to be firebending!"

"I thought you weren't supposed to be airbending!"

Well, she had a point there. "Come one," she grabbed onto my arm and began dragging me back towards the temple up the way we came. We were getting overrun where we were. I saw Aang grab Katara and they jumped onto Appa. Cameron and I scrambled up the slope. She ducked under another fireblast and knocked a soldier's legs out from underneath him and kicked him off the edge into the snowy field below. As we ran up I tried to airbend a man off the side when I got close enough, and he stumbled and caught himself on the edge, but it was just enough for us to get away and we continued running up towards the top.

Once we got up to the top I saw a firenation balloon emerge from the temple and my stomach did a backflip. Where did they get a war balloon from? I was about to see if there was any physical way i could airbend it out of the way when I saw they- the being Sokka and Charlie- were dropping bombs on the firenation. Where did they get that from? I guess I missed a lot more than I thought I had when I had been wandering around. I saw Sokka throw what looked to be the engine out of the balloon and it fell into a crevasse. What were they doing? I faintly heard someone yell for everyone to take cover, and then and explosion went off and I was blasted off my feet. When the smoke cleared I saw Aang and Teo flying Charlie, Sokka, and Teo's father up to the temple, while the war balloon crashed to the ground. Thankfully, the temple hadn't been destroyed much, in fact I got a little bit of satisfaction by seeing some of the inventor's things crumble to the ground with the bomb.