Sorry for not updating in a while, but we're one step away from the North Pole! yay!

I really hope you like this chapter and please review! It's great hearing what you think about this story.

Chapter 25: Flying Through Change

"So, travellers. The next time you think you hear a strange, large bird talking, take a closer look. I 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 storyteller finished his story grandly and Eira smirked contently.

She wondered what the airbenders actually told their younger citizens. Probably something better told than that. The man sounded like her primary school English teacher.

"Aren't airbender stories the greatest?" Aang asked, smiling as the storyteller began to walk around the campfire, collecting coins in a hat.

"Was it realistic?" Katara asked excitedly. "Is that how it was back then?"

"I laugh at gravity all the time." Aang confirmed, then her chuckled to himself. "Hah! Gravity."

I wonder when I'll be strong enough to "laugh at gravity". Eira thought, smiling. It sounds fun.

The storyteller suddenly shoved a hat in front of them.

"Jingle, jingle." He said. I understand, no need to be pushy. Eira thought, reaching into her bag for some coins to give to the man. She placed the two copper pieces into the hat and the man walked away, apparently satisfied.

Aang's eyes lit up from curiosity and joy as he got up to follow the man.

Eira looked at the fire, surprisingly happily considering the fact that she had been burnt at least three times in the short while she's been in this world.

"I wonder what I'd be like if I lived as an airbender in Aang's time." Eira muttered aloud.

"Well, I'm sure that you wouldn't exactly fit in, you can be quite aggressive." Sokka said bluntly, resulting in an elbow in his shoulder.

"Ow! See, I told you." He complained but Eira smirked.

"You did deserve that one, Sokka." Katara said, Sokka frowned, sulking, as Eira and Katara laughed at his indignation.

"To be honest, he deserves it every time." Eira said defensively.

"Guys! Guys! You'll never believe this!" Aang said quickly, destroying the calm atmosphere quickly.

"What is it, Aang?" Katara asked, not able to recognise whether his tone was nervous or excited.

"There could be more airbenders, in the Northern Air temple!" He yelled, running over to Appa.

Having no choice but to follow, Eira, Sokka and Katara quickly ran over and climbed on Appa.

"Yip yip!" Aang said, flicking the reigns and they were up in the sky quickly.

The sun had risen and was in the middle of the sky by the time they managed to get in range of the air temple.

Eira watched the fluffy clouds zip by and she looked back at Aang, yawning.

"Are you sure he was describing airbenders exactly? Couldn't he just be talking about hang gliders or something?" Eira asked, resulting in several strange looks from them. "Oh, yeah. I mean, couldn't people just get a hold of some gliders and use the wind to glide instead of really flying?"

Aang considered it for a second but smiled brightly anyway.

"Either way, I get to show you an Air Temple. You missed the last one we went to." He said.

"But do you think we might get to see more airbenders?" Katara asked, clearly excited.

Sokka was whittling away at a piece of wood, but what exactly he was trying to make wasn't clear. For someone who thought himself so great at the arts, he wasn't the best.

"Do you want me to be like you, or totally honest?" He asked dryly, not looking up from the piece of wood.

Katara frowned and put her hands on her hips angrily.

"Are you calling me a liar?" She asked with the same anger.

Sokka shrugged, completely unconcerned with her mood despite the obvious anger she was showing.

"I'm saying you're an optimist. Same thing." He said, brushing her anger off. After living with her so long he must know how to shrug off her anger.

"And I think you're a pessimist so-" Katara began to retaliate but she turned away when Aang pointed upwards, directing their attention.

"Hey, guys! Look at this!" Aang shouted excitedly. Eira sat up straighter to get a better look at what Aang was pointing at and saw it. Eira gasped in awe. It was an island floating in the sky, well, not quite but with the sea of clouds surrounding it, it certainly gave off that impression.

It was manly made out of rock and stone, with several pillar-like buildings and spires reminiscent of a temple's architecture. There were several large courtyards but what Aang was pointing at were the several dark shapes flying around it. They looked like people riding what looked like old-timey planes/gliders.

"They really are airbenders!" Katara said, absolutely amazed by the flying people, but they looked off. To quote Toy Story; they're not flying, they're gliding with style. Eira thought as she saw them and she noticed Aang's face fall. His smile vanishing and turning into a frown as he sat back grumpily, crossing his arms.

"No, they're not." He muttered, clearly disappointed. Eira looked at Aang sadly, she hadn't been expecting any airbenders but she understood his disappointment. He hoped his culture was still alive but his hopes were dashed.

Sokka and Katara didn't understand though.

"What do you mean "they're not"?" Sokka asked, marvelling at them. "They're flying just like you do with your glider!"

Aang glared at the people flying around the temple.

"Gliding, maybe, but no flying. You can tell by the way they move that they're not airbending. Those people have no spirit." He muttered bitterly.

Then, as he said that, a boy began to fly right above them in an oddly shaped chair with a large white canvas spread over a wooden frame. He was laughing exuberantly as he nearly ran into them but he flew off before he did.

"Aang, spirit isn't just reserved for airbenders." Eira said, looking in wonder at the boy. "He seems pretty spirited." She said, pointing to him as he flew dangerously close to them again but flew away again, still laughing and smiling but, unlike in Aunt Wu's village, the happiness didn't annoy her. It sounded light and free, not stupid and ignorant.

As the boy was flying away, Aang smiled devilishly. He stood up, grabbing his glider and jumped off to follow the boy, leaving Appa, Sokka, Katara and Eira to try and avoid the swarm of gliders now seemingly attacking them.

Dozens of people on gliders began to fly past them and Appa had to constantly move sharply to avoid them. As they almost flew into Appa, he jerked upwards, sending Sokka and Katara into Eira and all of them shouted in pain, then Eira was screaming in fear as she fell of Appa's saddle.

Eira caught onto someone's glider and used her willpower to steer them to land in the courtyard. It seemed strange, the air responded to her so naturally it almost felt as if she had already been gliding.

And then she and the person on the glider both crashed into the courtyard, hard. Eira rolled over the glider and fell off the top of it, crashing onto the stone floor.

Eira got up groggily, groaning and rubbing her back. She looked at the glider and helped the person under it up.

"Uh, sorry about that. I didn't mean to crash your glider-thing." Eira said. The person was a young woman and she as she brushed herself off, she scowled at Eira but it wasn't really a surprise. She did manage to fall on her glider and cause them to smash down onto the courtyard.

Up in the sky, Aang and the boy were flying around in the sky, showing off and the people down in the courtyard were yelling cheerfully as Appa began to land in the courtyard.

"Go Teo! Show that bald kid how it's done!" Someone yelled as everyone cheered them on. Teo and Aang did two loop-de-loops around the air temple and they began to spiral downwards.

As Aang flew around the temple walls and began doing several fancy moves, clearly showing off and as he re-joined Teo, they paused for a while and suddenly Teo began to draw something in the sky using smoke from his glider and after a few minutes he stopped the smoke and it turned out to be a picture of Aang's face with an annoyed expression.

Aang landed with Teo in the courtyard and Aang looked clearly annoyed, despite Teo looking happy.

Several people from the crowd ran up to Teo and took of the glider part of his chair to reveal a simple wooden wheelchair and as they finished that, Teo rolled over to Aang, who had landed next to Eira, Katara and Sokka.

"Hey, you're a real airbender." Teo said excitedly. "You must be the Avatar! That's incredible! I-I've heard so many stories about you!" He said, practically fangirling. Aang rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, clearly embarrassed.

"Thanks."

But as they were exchanging conversation, Eira and Sokka were looking at his wheelchair but Sokka, unlike Eira, Sokka ignored all formalities and ran up to Teo to examine the chair. The shape was similar to a normal wheelchair but it was made of a wooden structure and had wooden wheels, not metal. Eira wasn't around wheelchairs a lot but it looked like an incredibly well made one.

"Wow!" Sokka exclaimed. "This glider chair is incredible!"

Teo smiled up at him, his large grey eyes reminding Eira of Aang as well as his cheerful demeanour. She couldn't really understand how Aang couldn't see the 'spirit' inside him.

"You think this is good, wait until you see the other stuff my dad designed." Teo said, rolling his chair towards a building and Aang, Katara, Sokka and Eira followed him. Eira, Sokka and Katara followed him excitedly but as Eira looked back at Aang, she saw he wasn't nearly as excited or enthusiastic.

Eira's enthusiasm died a bit as she actually stepped into the room though. The room looked like it had been beautiful but now it was ravaged by time and metal pipes stuck out of the walls that once had beautifully intricate illustrations on them.

Sokka still wasn't fazed by the ugliness of it though. He simply ran up to all of the machines and looked at them on amazement.

"Wow!" He exclaimed in excitement.

"Yep, and my dad's the mastermind behind the whole place." Teo said proudly. "And everything's powered by hot air."

Eira looked up at an elevator-like contraption with two women on it. It was surprisingly sophisticated for the world's current technological point.

"It even pumped air currents outside to give us more lift while we're gliding." Teo explained.

"This place is unbelievable." Aang said monotonously. Eira was thinking the same thing, but with the two meanings. It was unbelievable with its amazing innovation and creativity, but it was unbelievable how they'd just destroy over a century of history without any apparent care of it.

"Yeah, it's great, isn't it?" Teo said, not understanding his disappointment.

"No. It's just unbelievable." Aang said, walking away to look closer at the walls.

Eira walked up next to Teo to explain.

"This was Aang's culture. It's a huge shock for him to find it so different and… no offence, messy." She said, staring at the walls.

Teo looked down, disappointed at Aang's reaction.

"But, I'm sure he'll understand why you're here. And he'll be glad that you managed to fill this temple with life again." Eira said, smiling reassuringly. That seemed to cheer him back up again.

"This place is awesome!" Sokka exclaimed. "How could Aang not find this place great?!"

Katara began to walk to Aang, who was looking forlornly at the walls and a small stone fountain.

"This is supposed to be the history of my people…" He said softly.

It had an air bison statue on it and it looked very well crafted but it was spewing green water that was opaque and almost as dirty as the water from the water fountain at Eira's school.

Aang looked at it squeamishly and as black, thick smoke erupted from the sky bison statue's mouth he jumped backwards in disgust.

"Ugh!"

Katara placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled at him, trying to cheer him up.

"I'm sure there are some parts of the temple are still the same." She said as they all began to walk out of the dimly lit, smoky room and out onto a bridge that led to an open-roofed room that looked surprisingly clean and well-kept.

Along the clean stone walls there were several statues of meditating monks. Aang looked out at the statues and took a deep breath before smiling widely.

"It's nice to see that there's at least one thing that isn't completely ruined." Aang said as he and Katara looked at a long-bearded statue.

Eira looked at the statues and as she began to wonder about what her life would be like if she'd been born in their world but she quickly turned to face the statue as she heard a man's voice begin to yell.

"Look out!"

And then a huge wreaking ball began to crash through the wall, smashing the head of the statue and crumbling the base of it. A large dust cloud flew out through the room and they all raised their arms to protect their faces from the dust but Eira accidently breathed some in and began to cough loudly.

As Eira lowered her arms, blinking the dust out of her eyes, and as the dust cleared she saw six men standing where the statue used to be.

"What the doodle? Don't you know enough to stay away from a construction site? We have to make room for the bathhouse." A mechanic said, who Eira guessed was Teo's father. He looked like Teo but he looked like he was the test subject for a lot of his inventions as his eyebrows looked half-burnt off and several of his fingers were wooden. His white apron was grimy and covered in dust and his glasses were bent and also covered in dust.

Aang looked angrily at the mechanic and Eira frowned, crossing her arms.

"Do you know what you did?!" Aang asked incredulously. "You just destroyed something sacred! For a stupid bathhouse!"

"Wasn't there a more respectful way to build your bathhouse?" Eira asked, annoyed as it just looked like pointless destruction. Also, you've been here for at least over two years according to my memory. Have you just been going without bathing for that long? Eira added in thought.

"Well, people around here are starting to stink." Teo's father said, waving his hand in front of his face, as though trying to dissipate a bad smell and that response really wasn't a good one. He really couldn't sound less interesting in keeping the temple well kept.

Aang pointed accusingly at Teo's father.

"This whole place stinks!" He yelled, whipping out his staff and slamming it to the ground in the direction of the crane/wreaking ball, using his airbending to send it flying off the edge.

Eira ran up to Aang and grabbed his arm, stopping him from going further.

"Aang. That's enough. I'm not saying that they're right for destroying the temple or that sacred statue but you still shouldn't just destroy their things." Eira said sternly.

"But this is a sacred temple to our people!" Aang shouted, still incredibly angry. "They can't treat it this way. You'd understand if you knew what it was like when the monks were here. I know what it's supposed to look like and it's not this!"

"You're people? The monks? But, you're just twelve." Teo's father said, scratching his beard.

"He's the Avatar, and I'm an airbender." Eira explained as Teo rolled up to his father.

"He used to come here a hundred years ago." Teo said. Teo's father scratched his beard thoughtfully.

"But I thought the airbenders were all wiped o-" He began, speaking more to himself than them.

"It's a long story." Eira said, cutting him off. She didn't have the time to go into it with these people.

"But what are you doing here?" Aang asked. "Who said you could be here?"

Teo's father turned away from them, thinking deeply about his response.

"Hmm, what are we doing here…? That is the question." He began. "A long time ago, but not a hundred years, my people became refugees," Teo's father continued, walking around behind his son's wheelchair. "After a terrible flood. And then Teo, who was just an infant at the time, was badly injured and lost his mother, my wife." He sniffed, clearly upset at the memory.

He looked up at the sky, watching the clouds pass by.

"I needed somewhere to rebuild and, wouldn't you know it, I stumbled across this place. I just couldn't believe it! Everywhere there was inspiration! Pictures of flying people, but it was all empty. Nobody here, nobody to call it home, and then I came across these fan-like contraptions!" He said, spreading his arms, as if he was flying and ran up to Aang.

"Our gliders." Aang said, supplying the information. Teo's father smiled brightly.

"Yes! Little, light flying machines!" He said, flapping his arms to indicate flight. "They gave me a new idea. To build a new life for my son, in the air! Then everyone would be on equal grounds, but, without the ground. We're just in the process of improving upon what's already here."

Katara wiped tears off on Aang's shirt and Sokka looked as if he was holding some back. Eira was moved by the story but she thought he told it a bit over-dramatically for tears.

"And, after all, isn't improving on what's already here what nature does?" He continued.

"Nature knows where to stop." Aang said.

"And it respects what came before it." Eira added. He scratched his beard again.

"I suppose that's true. Unfortunately, process has a way of getting away from us. Wait, look at the time!" He said, pointing at candles. "Come!" He yelled to the other workers. "The pulley system must be oiled before dark." He informed.

Eira looked closely at the candles and saw that it had twelve notches on it, all equally spaced down the candle and it had almost burned down to the eighth notch.

Sokka walked up to the candles and watched them with intrigue.

"Wait, how can you tell the time from that this? All the notches look the same." Sokka asked Teo's father.

"The candle will tell us. Watch." He said, pointing to the candle. After a second, the candle finally burnt down to the eighth notch and the candle flame began to spark and pop four times in a row.

"You put spark powder in the candle!" Sokka exclaimed happily.

"Four flashes. So it's exactly four hours past mid-day. Or as I call it: four o'candle." Teo's father said.

"But you can't tell the time between the hours." Eira said. "If you could mechanicalise the process, and add a way to count the minutes it could become clearer." She said, thinking of how a clock works with all of the gears and hands on it.

Teo's father looked at Eira, his eyes lighting up with inspiration.

"That's genius! You two should see my other inventions upstairs, but first, I'm going to show you something." Teo's father said, walking up to a door and gesturing for Sokka and Eira to follow.

Eira and Sokka quickly walked over to the door and Teo's father picked up three small lanterns buzzing with a dim blue light.

Teo's father guided them down a small, dark, stone staircase and Eira found that the lanterns were practically useless. The dim blue light only managed to make sure that she didn't manage to trip over her feet and send them all flying down the stairs.

"These lanterns are terrible. I can't see!" Sokka complained, opening the lid to his lantern. A blue firefly flew out of it. Well, that explains the buzzing. Eira thought.

"Why would you want to use fireflies for light?" He asked, confused. Teo's father turned to them and he waved his arms urgently.

"Hey! Close that up! They'll get loose!" He yelled. Sokka quickly closed it, looking guiltily at him. After taking a deep breath in relief, Teo's father calmed down.

"Fireflies are a non-flammable light source." He explained as they all began to walk further down the stairs again.

They continued walking for a while until they arrived at a wooden door.

"Cover your nose." Teo's father instructed and they all put hands over their noses. "And hold your breath."

Eira inhaled sharply as Teo's father opened a small hatch on the wooden door and revealed a dark empty room.

"Okay… So you brought me all the way down here to see an empty room." Sokka said through his hand.

"It's not completely empty, Sokka. It's filled with gas, right?" Eira said, remembering the episode.

"Correct, it's filled to the brim with natural gas. I came across it my first time here." Teo's father explained. "Unfortunately, I was carrying a torch at the time. Nearly blew my self and the whole place even more sky high! Thought my eyebrows would never grow back." He wiggled his eyebrows and that explained why his eyebrows looked half burned off.

"So this place is an explosion waiting to happen." Sokka said, slightly horrified.

"Yes, until I figure out how to locate something I can't see, hear, smell or touch." He said, scratching his beard in thought.

"Then why can't you make it something you can see, hear, smell or touch." Eira said, terrified of either dying from natural gas poisoning or explosions. Those didn't seem like good ways to go at all.

"Yeah, you're right. If you add some sort of smell or dye in there, you could easily spot a leak."

Teo's dad hit his forehead in realisation.

"Why didn't I think of that before?!" He yelled. "That's perfect!" Then he began to run back up the stairs, dragging Sokka and Eira back up the stairs and up to his invention room.

The room was covered in blueprints and sketches as well as prototypes, it was stuffy and cluttered with the busy air of new ideas. It seemed to go by the organised chaos idea that her bedroom went by.

Eira looked around and in the corner of her eye she saw several blueprints of blimps and… tanks? Oh yeah, he creates things for the Fire Nation… Eira thought, remembering the end of the episode. It was sad to see Teo react to it. A man he admired beyond anything, supporting the people who killed a nation.

Sokka and Teo's father began to search through the scroll and materials for dyes or fragrances and Eira looked at a small prototype of a blimp. She reached out to touch it but Teo's father saw her and waved his hands at her.

"No, don't touch that. It's an old experiment, but I just can't think of a way to make it work." He muttered disappointedly.

"I can. If you can figure out how to move it, without it falling to the ground, or constantly rising into the sky."

"Yes, yes, but how? If you add a hole in the top it'll just let it all out." He muttered, and then Sokka's eyes began to spark with a new idea.

"But if you add a lid, and make it moveable…" Sokka said.

"…Or if you can turn the heat source on and off…" Eira added. Teo's father stood up straighter, smiling as he reached for the prototype.

"…You can move it up and down without it continuously rising and falling! That's it!" He finished. "You two are incredible!"

I'm just really thinking of how things work in my world, they're not really my ideas. Eira thought guiltily, then cursing herself. Darn it! Why didn't I figure out how more things work in my world? Then I could jumpstart the technology here! It was so annoying, she had all these ideas and creations from her world but she had no idea how most of them worked.

Computers, the internet, even type writers, she just had no idea how they worked.

Eira looked around and saw a packet of red powder.

"Excuse me but, is this a dye?" Eira asked.

"Yes, it's just some red powder I use for some inventions, it had a bright red colour if added to water." Teo's father explained.

"Then if you threw it into the air, it's form a bright red dust cloud and be perfect for the gas room." Eira said.

"You're right!"

Eira stood up, holding the red dye in her hand.

"I'll go throw this into the room then." Eira said, starting to leave. "But don't worry. I won't open the door, just the hatch and even then, just for a second.

Teo's father nodded and Eira ran out of the room and down some wooden, uneven stairs to the main room with all of the pipes and machinery. She turned down another staircase, grabbing a lantern along the way and as she sped down the stairs, Eira quickly opened the hatch and threw the small pouch in.

The pouch exploded into a red dust cloud that swirled around the room and Eira was pretty sure that if there was a leak in there, the red powder would leak out with it.

As Eira walked up the stairs, she hugged the wall quickly as she saw Teo's father quickly sprint off down a cobblestone hallway.

Remembering what he was running to, Eira followed him. He was surprisingly fast for a middle aged man.

He saw a large door at the end of the corridor swung open and his shock was clearly visible. Aang, Katara, Sokka and Teo were standing in front of it and Aang looked even more furious.

As Eira walked up behind Teo's father, she was what was inside. It was filled to the brim with steel Fire Nation weapons, tools and in the centre was a giant red and black war balloon with a clear Fire Nation insignia. The room felt evil, over-bearing and malicious, and it was all made by Teo's father.

"What is this?" Eira asked as she walked past Teo to look up at the unfinished war balloon.

"I'm not sure." Teo said bitterly. "Dad. Do you want to explain this to us?"

Teo's father was hesitant, he obviously didn't want to, but he began to explain.

"It was about a year after we moved here." And you never built a bathhouse in that time. "Fire Nation soldiers found our settlement. You were too young to remember this, Teo." Teo's father looked desperately at Teo. "They were going to destroy everything! Burn it to the ground! I pleaded with them, begged them to spare us!" He looked downcast. "They asked what I had to offer. And I offered… my services."

Teo looked at his father with part disgust and sadness. His pride in his father was slipping away. "You must understand, Teo. I did this for you!"

Teo simply looked away in shame and taking that as Teo's answer, Teo's father left.

They were all left in silence to process these thoughts.

"He did do it for you, Teo." Eira said softly. Teo didn't say anything, his face shadowed. Aang gripped his staff angrily.

"We have to stop this." He said. Teo nodded and they both ran off, Sokka, Katara and Eira following them.

Teo and Aang burst into his father's workshop and they saw him absent-mindedly working on the blimp and Eira saw two small eggs in it with smiley faces drawn on them. It looked so sad. As they all walked in he let go of the blimp and it began to float up to the sky.

"When are they coming?" Aang asked.

"Soon." Teo's father said sadly. Suddenly the candle in the corner began to pop. "Very soon." He added.

"But you can't give them more weapons." Eira said. "Can't you just use the weapons against them if they cause you trouble again?" Eira asked.

Teo's father looked down hopelessly.

"They're forces are too big. We can't say no, or they'll destroy this place… And everyone in it." He said. Teo looked full of shame at his father.

"How can I be proud of someone when their genius and inventions are being used for murder?" He asked.

Teo's father stood up, clearly frustrated.

"I just need some time to think." Then the bell on his desk began to ring. Teo's father visibly paled as he looked at the ringing bell and he quickly turned to them.

"You need to leave! Go!" He said urgently but Teo and Aang stood stubbornly and Eira understood. They weren't going to leave Teo's father at the hands of someone from the Fire Nation.

"We're not leaving!" Teo said persistently.

"Then hide! Please!" He said, looking back at the bell. They all hid behind a pile of inventions and after making sure they were all hidden, Teo's father pulled a rope and a trap door suddenly opened.

Eira scowled as she saw a Fire Nation army person (maybe a general or a war minister, Eira wasn't really familiar with all of the ranks within the Fire Nation army) was lifted into the room and as he looked around, annoyed, Eira felt angrier.

This was the person blackmailing Teo's father.

"You know better than to keep me waiting. Give us what you owe us so we can be on our way." There was a pregnant pause as he waited for Teo's father's answer. "Well? Is there a problem?"

"Well, actually there is." Eira said, getting up from behind the pile.

"What is this?" The man hissed angrily.

"Eira, don't get involved." Teo's father persisted but then Aang also came out from hiding.

"The deal's off." Aang quickly airbent the door shut and entered an airbending stance.

"The Avatar…" The war minister said, almost in disbelief.

"No, Aang. If we just give him what he wants, he'll just leave." Teo's father said desperately.

"And if not, the Fire Nation will burn this place to rubble!" The war minister said menacingly.

"But if you don't leave, you'll be facing even more trouble." Eira growled as she quickly kicked out her foot and the slash of air created pushed him against a wall harshly. "You're leaving empty-handed and if you attack this place, you'll be leaving with less than what you came here with."

"Then the destruction of this temple," He began, jabbing a finger at Eira and Aang. "Will be on your heads!" He got up and left through the trap door and as he left, Aang airbent the door shut.

Everyone left in the room stared at Aang and Eira but Eira clenched her fists in determination.

"No it won't." She whispered under her breath. She would protect this place and everyone there, no matter what.

o.O.o

"This is bad." Teo said as Aang leant on a bridge wall and Eira looked down on the temple courtyard.

"Very bad!" Sokka agreed.

"What are we going to do? How can we possibly keep them all away?" Katara asked.

"It's simple." Eira said. "We have the sky, that's something the Fire Nation doesn't have. And we have home field advantage. They're going to have to climb up those cliffs to get up to us. If we co-ordinate attacks on them to keep them away, we can do it."

"And I'm going to help you." Teo's father said, appearing in the doorway.

"Good." Aang said. "We'll need it."

o.O.o

Eira began rushing around, trying to get things sorted for the attack and she managed to stumble onto a weird room. It was full of sticks.

"Ookaaaay. Sticks, not exactly helpful." She muttered to herself. They did look familiar though.

Eira walked over to one and picked it up. It felt incredibly strong and sturdy for something that was probably in there for over a hundred years.

Eira waved it around and, to her surprise, several smaller wooden sticks with yellow fabric attached to it folded out very quickly. These were gliders!

"This is awesome." Eira exclaimed. She had been wanting to try out riding a glider for ages and now she was holding a real airbender one. Eira flicked it back and it folded back into a stick.

"So cool." Eira whispered under her breath as she ran out of the room and into the room she actually wanted to go into.

Sokka and Teo's father were working on the war balloon and Aang and Katara were watching it, mystified. As Eira walked in, Aang and Katara turned to her, looking serious.

"Are the people in the courtyard all armed?" Katara asked and Eira nodded.

"They have the majority of the bombs and they have some of the weapons." Eira explained. Katara nodded.

"We should get down there." Aang said. "Sokka, are you okay with finishing the balloon?" Aang yelled and Sokka gave him a thumbs up as he was working on a metal frame of some sort.

Eira, Aang and Katara ran down to the courtyard and as they approached the people armed with the bombs, Eira looked around them nervously. The atmosphere was incredibly tense.

"Hey, Aang. Just as a question, how exactly do you use a glider?" Eira asked, staring at the snowy ground below the temple.

Aang raised an eyebrow at her, but then he saw the staff in her hand and smiled.

"You found a glider! That's amazing, Eira!" He exclaimed happily. Eira smiled back.

"Yeah, I found a few lying around and I thought no one would mind if I used one."

"Well, gliding is one of the easiest things to do. Even the youngest airbenders can use them easily." Aang explained. "You generally just focus on where you want to do and your airbending will usually just do the work for you."

"Cool… I wonder where Sokka is, though." Eira said, looking around.

"They're coming!" A girl yelled as she looked over a ledge and immediately everyone tensed.

"Are we ready?" Teo asked, rolling up to them, an expectant look on his face.

"Yes. But where's Sokka with that war balloon?" Katara asked worriedly. Aang stood up straighter and grabbed his glider.

"We'll have to start without it." He said and then the people in the courtyard began to fly off the ledge with their flying machines, all carrying a bomb or two. The crowd cheered as everyone jumped off and began their assault.

Katara, Teo and Eira hopped onto Appa and they both flew into the sky. Eira looked down and saw several Fire Nation soldiers climbing the rock Cliffside but Eira threw down a smoke bomb at them, causing them to fall back into the snow, coughing.

From the sky, bombs were raining down on the Fire Nation troops, the gliders flying around like insects, all dodging the Fire Nation's retaliations.

As Aang swooped down below them, Eira passed him a slime bomb. He threw it down at the cliff and the slime coated the soldiers quickly and Aang air scooted across the cliff and then used waterbending to cause the snow on the cliff to fall down on the slimed men before jumping back on his glider.

"We've got them on the run! We need more slime!" Aang yelled to them as they all passed more bombs to gliders flying past them.

Hooks exploded through the cloud layer and they almost hit Appa but fell short and instead latched onto the Cliffside.

More hooks began to latch onto the cliff and tanks began to scale it, using the hooks and chains as support.

Aang, seeing that, began to airbend the hooks away and the tanks fell to the ground. Aang followed them down to the ground and airbent at them, flipping them over.

Gliders continued to swarm them and threw more bombs at them but the tanks began to shoot fire at them.

Aang continued to flip the tanks over but all it did was get the bodies to turn around and right themselves.

"Those things are unstoppable!" Katara yelled.

Teo looked thoughtfully at the tanks, trying to remember what he knew. "I think I know how they work. I remember my dad tinkering with the counterbalancing system. It's something to do with water. Works great, huh?" He said and Katara's eyes lit up.

"Water? Can you get me close to one?" Katara asked to Appa and Appa growled in response, flying towards the tanks.

As Katara got close to one, she threw up her arms and the snow and the water inside the tanks spiked up as it turned to ice. She continued to do that as Appa sailed by and Eira threw more bombs at the troops.

"We're out of bombs!" She yelled, turning to Teo as Appa flew further up the cliff.

Katara looked up at the temple.

"Come one Sokka. Where're that war balloon?" She whispered. And then, after a small wait, the giant red war balloon flew into view. A black Fire Nation insignia painted on it.

Eira stood up on Appa and flicked open her new glider. The yellow fabric fanned out and she leaped off Appa, completely terrified.

She began to fall but at the last second she managed to fly up to the war balloon. Aang was right. It was easy.

Eira managed to fly right up to the war balloon and land next to Sokka and Teo's father.

"Hey." Eira said nonchalantly and Sokka and Teo's father quickly turned around to see her.

"Eira! You can fly now!" Sokka said.

"Yes, but we need you to drop the bombs, now." Eira said, brushing him off. Sokka smiled.

"I'm on it!" He said, whipping out his knife a slashing at a rope holding the bombs.

"Bombs away!" Teo's dad said cheerfully as the bombs flew down and fell on the troops and tanks.

Sokka cut another rope and Eira looked at the carnage. Tanks were smothered by slime, soldiers were stopped by stink, smoke and they were all pushed back by fire.

"Oh no, that was the last one!" Sokka complained as he looked down.

Eira was also looking down but she saw a small puff of red dust at the base of the cliff.

"Wait, isn't that…" She began unsurely.

"That's where the gas is leaking!" Teo's father said and Sokka, hearing that, began to push the engine away from the bottom of the balloon in an attempt to get it free.

"What are you doing? That's our fuel source." Teo's father asked incredulously.

"It's the only bomb we've got." Sokka said, tipping the engine over with one final push. Eira watched as it fell down to the base of the cliff and the explosions started.

Smoke billowed out and the base of the cliff was surrounded in fire and heat. Eira shielded her eyes from the intense light and smoke and after a couple of minutes, she opened them.

The tanks were all gone and the cliff was surprisingly undamaged. All of the people in gliders had landed on the courtyard and all of the Fire Nation troops were running away.

They were all happy, but then they realised that without an engine, they were going down. They all held on to avoid being thrown up into the air but Eira managed to get out her glider.

"Hang onto me!" Eira shouted and as they both held onto her, she jumped off and despite the difficulty of it, she managed to fly them all up onto the courtyard.

They all fell onto the stone floor and Eira rolled slightly before managing to sit up.

"It's finally over." She whispered, completely out of breath.

Aang looked at Teo's father and helped him up.

"You know what?" He said. "I'm really glad you guys all live here now." A small hermit crab began to crawl across Aang's feet and Aang bent down slowly to pick it up.

"Maybe you weren't born here, but you found this empty shell and made it your home. And now you protect each other." Aang finished, letting the crab crawl around his hand.

"Thanks, Aang. It means a lot, coming from you." Teo said, smiling brightly.

"There are going to be a lot of changes in time, but just because something changes…" Eira began, looking up at the sky. "It doesn't mean it's completely different." Eira turned to see Aang and Teo standing next to each other and despite their differences, they both had the same smiles, innocent grey eyes and spirit.

Really hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'm so happy that Eira finally has a glider!

Please review!