The Northern Air Temple
"Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them, but when the world needed him most, he vanished. A hundred years passed and I crossed paths with the new Avatar, an Airbender named Aang. And although his Airbending skills are great, he has a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone. But I truly believe that Aang can save the world."
"So, travelers. The next time you think you hear a strange, large bird talking, take a closer look. It might not be a giant parrot, but a flying man. A member of a secret group of air walkers, who laugh at gravity, and laugh at those bound to the earth by it." the old storyteller stated, flailing his arms in a dramatic manner.
Everyone around the campfire applauded in excitement.
"Aren't Airbender stories the greatest?" Aang asked, looking over at the rest of us.
"Was it realistic?" Katara asked, smiling.
"Is that how it was back then?" I added.
"I laugh at gravity all the time." Aang chuckled. "Gravity."
The storyteller came around to us, holding out his cap, asking for a small donation, but we didn't have any money to spare. Aang walked over to the old guy, probably thanking him for the story.
The rest of us grabbed our packs and headed back over to Appa. Before we could even start climbing up to the saddle, Aang ran right over to us.
"What's up Aang?" Tom asked, slightly confused.
"That old guys great grandfather said he saw Airbenders." Aang answered. "Just last week, near the mountains." he pointed off in the distance.
From the look in his eyes, we knew that's where we were going next.
Appa flew above the clouds, at a nice leisurely pace.
"Hey, we're almost at the Northern Air Temple." Aang told us. "This is where they had the championships for Sky Bison polo."
"I can't believe we're about to see one of the Air Temples." Tom sighed.
"I know, this is gonna be amazing." I added, leaning towards the front of the saddle.
The mountains came into view and it looked like there were people flying around the visible temple.
"They really are Airbenders!" Katara sighed, amazed.
Aang leaned back against Appa and crossed his arms. "No, they're not." he rebuked.
"What do you mean "they're not"?" Sokka questioned. "Those guys are flying!"
"Gliding maybe, but not flying." Aang informed. "You can tell by the way they move, they're not airbending. Those people have no spirit."
Suddenly, a laughing boy in a weird-looking chair flew right past us.
"I don't know, Aang." Katara pointed to the boy. "That kid seemed pretty spirited."
The boy shot Aang one more look back as flew away while grinning. Aang grinned devilishly, and opened up his glider to follow the boy. He left the rest of us on Appa, and we were quickly surrounded by gliders as we get closer to the temple. Several gliders almost hit Appa, which caused us all to swerve and grip the saddle for support as Appa sharply moved to avoid them.
"We better find some solid ground, before it finds us." Sokka noted.
The rest of us nodded in agreement. Since I was closest to the front, I slid down the front of Appa's neck and took the reins.
"Come on Appa, let's land over there." I ordered. "Yip, yip."
Appa landed in the courtyard, where a bunch of children were gathered. They were all cheering for the boy in the chair, Teo.
Aang started showing off his Airbending skills, which impressed us. Teo responded by opening a canister located on the back underside of his glider chair. White smoke began to stream from the canister, and Teo flew around in the sky, creating an image of Aang's face, complete with an annoyed expression. The crowd of children around us cheered.
Aang landed beside the rest of us. Teo landed soon after and pulled on the brakes. The other children took the glider off of the top of his wheel chair and he rolled up to Aang.
"Hey, you're a real Airbender." Teo gasped. "You must be the Avatar! That's amazing! I-I've heard stories about you!"
Aang rubbed the back his head, slightly embarrassed. "Thanks." he replied.
"Wow!" Sokka exclaimed, staring at Teo's chair. "This glider chair is incredible!"
"You think this is good, wait until you see the other stuff my dad designed." Teo bragged.
We made our way inside of the temple. Tom, Pyrae, and I were gaping at the sight, this was a great moment, being able to see one of the famed Air Temples.
Once we stepped inside, all we could see were pipes sticking out from the walls. I cast a glance over at Aang, and it seemed like he was genuinely hurt by the destruction of the murals painted on the walls.
"This place is unbelievable." Aang said, monotonously.
"Yeah, it's great, isn't it?" Teo questioned, smiling.
Aang shook his head. "No. Just unbelievable." he rebuked.
I glanced at my brother, who just shrugged his shoulders.
We walked across a bridge to a large open room, with statues lining the walls.
"It's nice to see that at least one part of the temple that isn't ruined." Aang noted, smiling.
Suddenly, the statue was knocked down by a wrecking ball and all of us covered our heads, coughing because of the large dust cloud. Once the dust cleared, there were six men standing where the statue used to be.
"What the doodle?" questioned one of the men, who was older and looked like a few experiments literally blew up in his face. "Don't you know enough to stay away from construction sites? We have to make room for the bathhouse."
Aang's expression changed to one of anger. "Do you know what you did!?" he yelled. "You just destroyed something sacred! For a stupid bathhouse!"
"Well, people around here are starting to stink." the Mechanist replied, waving his hand in front of his nose.
"This whole place stinks!" Aang exclaimed, using his Airbending to flip the crane contraption off of the edge of the building. "This is a sacred temple! You can't treat it this way!" he added, walking closer to the Mechanist. "I've seen it when the monks were here! I know what it's supposed to be like!"
"The monks?" the Mechanist repeated, questioningly. He scratched his beard. "But, you're twelve."
Teo rolled up to him. "Dad, he's the Avatar." he informed. "He used to come here a hundred years ago."
Aang took a step towards Teo's dad, who stepped back in response. "What are you doing?" he yelled, angrily. "Who said you could be here?"
Teo's father, the Mechanist as we all dubbed him later, turned away from Aang. "Doing here…" he sighed, almost sadly. "A long time ago, but not a hundred years, my people became refugees after a terrible flood." he informed. "My infant son Teo, was badly hurt and lost his mother." he continued, sniffling. "I needed somewhere to rebuild and I stumbled across this place. Couldn't believe it! Everywhere! Pictures of flying people! But empty, nobody home. Then, I came across these fan-like contraptions!"
"Our gliders." Aang noted.
The Mechanist nodded. "Yes! Little, light flying machines!" he made a flying gesture, moving his arms up and down. "They gave me an idea. Build a new life for my son, in the air! Then everyone will be on equal ground! So to speak." he cleared his throat. "We're just in the process of improving upon what's already here. And, after all, isn't that what nature does?"
My brother and I exchanged glances and smiled. I wrapped my arm around his shoulder, pulling him closer to me, giving his shoulder a gentle squeeze.
A loud popping noise caught my attention, and the Mechanist's expression changed. "Look at the time!" he gasped, pointing to a set of candles. He turned to the other workers standing behind him. "Come! The pulley system must be oiled before dark."
"Wait, how can you tell the time from that thing?" Sokka asked, walking up to the candles. "The notches all look the same."
The Mechanist walked up beside him, probably explaining everything. Sokka seemed pretty excited by what the Mechanist was saying and the two quickly ran off to another part of the temple.
"Hey, Aang. I want to show you something." Teo said, motioning for the rest of us to follow him.
Seeing as we really had nothing better to do, we followed Teo to another section of the Air Temple. Teo led us to the one part of the temple that remained untouched. The door we saw vaguely reminded me of what we saw in the Fire Temple.
"Hey, that looks like the one in the Southern temple." Katara noted.
"It sorta reminds me of the door we came across at the Fire Temple." I muttered, giving it a good look-over. "Which probably means only a bender can open it."
"I've always wondered what it's like in there." Teo smiled.
"Aang?" Tom questioned, looking at our friend.
He sighed, turning away from the door and us. "I'm sorry." he apologized. "This is the last part of the temple that's the same as it was. I want it to stay that way."
"I understand." Teo replied. "I just wanted to let you know it was here."
Aang nodded and went back down the hallway.
We all stood out on the terrace where Teo was going to teach us how to use the gliders.
"The wind will carry you. It supports something inside you. Something even lighter than air. And that something takes over when you fly." he informed us.
Katara put down her glider. "I've changed my mind." she gulped. "I think I was born without that something."
"Impossible, everyone has it." Teo rebuked.
"Spirit." Aang clarified.
Katara, Tom, and I took a deep breath and jumped off the ledge, letting the wind carry us. It was the most exhilarating moment of my life, I have never felt so free.
"Wow, this is amazing!" I giggled.
I glanced over at my brother and saw the biggest grin on his face. It's been a while since I've seen him this happy.
We landed back on the terrace and Aang decided he was gonna open the door to the only untouched part of the temple.
We stood outside the door and Aang prepared to use his Airbending. The three dials turned and the door opened. Once we stepped inside however, my jaw dropped and my heart sank. Inside the room was a whole mess of metal weapons and in the center was a giant balloon with the Fire Nation insignia painted on it.
"This is a nightmare." Aang muttered.
"You don't understand!" the Mechanist defended, running up to us with Sokka behind him.
We all turned to face him.
"You're making weapons for the Fire Nation!" Tom and I accused.
"Explain all this! Now!" Teo ordered.
The Mechanist looked away from us. "It was about a year after we moved here. Fire Nation soldiers found our settlement." he informed. "They were going to destroy everything! Burn it to the ground! I pleaded with them, I begged them to spare us! They asked what I had to offer. I offered my services." he looked down at his feet, before meeting his son's eyes. "You must understand. I did this for you!"
Teo rolled back, looking away from his father. The Mechanist turned and walked away, leaving us.
I glanced back at the weapons. "I can't believe this, just how far has this war reached?" I questioned. "Isn't there any place the Fire Nation hasn't touched?"
"Come on." Aang voted, motioning for me and Teo to follow him.
We entered what appeared to be the Mechanist's workshop.
"When are they coming?" Aang asked.
"Soon." the Mechanist answered. The candle on his desk sparked once. "Very soon."
"You can't give the Fire Nation any more weapons." I told him, stepping forward. "That'll just bring more pain and more destruction to this world."
"If I don't give them what they want, they will destroy this place!" the Mechanist replied.
"How can I be proud of you when your inventions are being used for murder?" Teo questioned, his eyes sympathetic.
Before the Mechanist could say anything, the bell on his desk began to ring. He pushed us into a dark corner before a trap door opened, and a Fire Nation war minister, Qin, stepped into the office.
"Give me what you owe us so we can be on our way." Qin ordered.
Before the Mechanist could oblige, Aang used his Airbending to shut the door, revealing our presence.
"The Avatar." Qin gasped.
"The deal's off!" Aang concluded. "Get out of here! You're leaving empty handed!"
Qin narrowed his eyes and pointed to Aang. "Then the destruction of this temple will be on your head." he left through the trap door and Aang slammed it shut.
We all met out on the bridge, trying to come up with some sort of plan.
"Aang, what are we going to do?" Katara asked. "How can we possibly keep them all away?"
"I'll tell you how. We have something they don't." Aang answered, pointing to the sky. "Air power. We control the sky. That's something the Fire Nation can't do. We can win!"
"I want to help." the Mechanist volunteered.
"Good, because we'll need it." I told him, smiling.
Everyone met in the Mechanist's workshop. Him and Sokka stood behind the desk with a small-scale model of the hot air balloon.
"See, the problem with the old war balloon was you could get it air-borne, but once it did, it just kept going." Sokka informed. "You could put a hole in the top, but then all the hot air would escape. So the question became, how do you keep a lid on hot air?"
"If only we knew." Katara muttered, making the rest of us in the group giggle.
Sokka ignored the comment and continued, "A lid is actually the answer. If you control the hot air, you control the war balloon."
"That's actually a pretty smart idea." I noted, smiling.
"Okay, we've got four kinds of bombs" Sokka continued. "smoke, slime, fire, and…"
"Stink!" the Mechanist cut in.
Everyone got into position to prepare for the oncoming attack. Sokka asked me to be with him and the Mechanist in the war balloon, thinking my Firebending would be a bit more useful from the air.
"Let's hope this works." I prayed, securing the last of the bombs onto the exterior of the war balloon.
"It will, trust me." Sokka reassured.
We climbed in and navigated our way to the front lines of the attack.
"Hey, why aren't they shooting at us?" Sokka questioned, once we were hovering over the battlefield.
"The insignia!" the Mechanist answered, pointing to the black emblem on the balloon. "They think we're on their side."
"Then I guess they won't see this coming." Sokka smiled and cut loose one of the slime bombs.
"Bombs away!" I called, giggling.
Sokka cut loose the rest of the bombs, slamming the oncoming soldiers, turning the tide in our favor.
But, a few of the large tanks continued to scale the cliffside.
"What do we do-" I started to ask, then caught the most awful smell. I plugged my nose, "What is that smell?"
"Rotten eggs!" Sokka and the Mechanist exclaimed, looking around below the balloon.
I blinked in confusion.
Sokka pointed down to a large crevice directly below us. "There!" he pointed. "That's where all the gas is escaping."
He then began yanking the balloon engine free.
"That's our fuel source!" the Mechanist reminded.
"It's the only bomb we've got." Sokka replied. He looked at me. "Phoenix, when I say, I want you to unleash a fire blast down into the crevice."
"You're insane Sokka." I told him. "But, I don't see any other option, so okay."
Sokka tossed the engine overboard and waited about five seconds, before giving me a nod. I took a deep breath and threw out my fist, generating a large blast of fire that struck the metal engine.
"Fire in the hole!" I yelled, ducking to the ground.
The explosion shook the entire mountain, and the soldiers retreated.
"We're going down!" Sokka yelled.
"No problem." I reassured. I gave a whistle and Pyrae flew towards us.
Sokka tied his boomerang to some rope and wrapped it around Pyrae's leg as she flew past us. I jumped onto her back and she circled back to the terrace where everyone was waiting, Sokka and the Mechanist clinging to the rope flying behind her.
"That was actually pretty fun." Pyrae giggled, referring to the short battle. "I knocked a couple of those tanks clear off the cliffside."
I rubbed the side of her neck. "Good girl." I praised.
She landed on the terrace and I untied to rope from her front leg.
As the sun was setting, everyone was gathered by the fountain on the terrace.
"I'm really glad you guys all live here now." Aang told the colonists. "It's kinda like the hermit crab. You weren't born here, but you took the empty shell and made it your home." he smiled, petting a small hermit crab. "And now you protect each other."
"That means a lot, coming from you." Teo smiled.
We packed up our bags and set them in saddle, waving goodbye to everyone as Appa flew off towards the North Pole.
"Aang, you were right about air power." Sokka told him. "As long as we control the skies, we'll have the Fire Nation on the run."
"I agree." Katara seconded.
"And as long as we stick together, the Fire Nation can't beat us." I added, smiling.
"We're with ya till the end buddy." Tom followed.
"Thanks you guys." Aang replied, smiling back at us. "Now, next stop…"
"The North Pole!" we all said in unison.
Meeting the Mechanist and Teo was a great experience, and a friendship we cherished till the end. None of us knew it yet, but something would arise to where we would need the Mechanist's brilliant mind and invention skills to maybe turn the tide of our Destiny. But, we were still naïve back then. We barely knew what we were getting into, what being a part of the Avatar's destiny really meant…