Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender
Author's Note: I'm really glad people seemed to like the last chapter because I felt like I sort of rushed through it. Starting here, I will be making some things up about Air Nomad society. I got a lot of information off Wikepedia, but I'm changing the Eastern Air Temple (supposedly home only to females) because it doesn't make sense to me that Aang would have been sent there if there were no housing and training arrangements for boys. Besides, if the elder monks wanted him to continue his training without distractions, sending a boy on the verge of puberty to a place filled with girls and women doesn't seem like the best way to do that.
The Eastern Air Temple
It was while getting ready to leave one sunny morning that Aang remembered there was one other thing he had wanted to ask Hakoda, regarding Southern Water Tribe customs. With all the flurry of departure, he doubted he could get him alone again. Discarding the idea of asking Sokka or Katara for fairly obvious reasons, Aang sought out Bato.
"Um, this might sound a little strange," Aang began. "But I was hoping you could tell me a little about your tribe's marriage customs."
"Marriage customs?" Bato cocked his head with a querying expression.
"Well, yes. You see, we found out at the North Pole that a man carves a betrothal necklace for a woman to signify that she's engaged, like the one Katara wears. Katara seemed totally surprised to find that out, though, so I figured the South Pole must not do that. I was just curious to know if you have any similar traditions."
Bato rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a moment, gazing up as though the answer might be written in the clouds.
"Not really," he replied. "At least, not anymore. For the last few generations, we've just been trying to survive. Weddings have been conducted quickly and quietly, without much fuss and no engagement period to speak of."
"No engagement, huh?"
"No, just long enough for everyone to finish their chores and gather in the center of the village. There hasn't even been one of those for a number of years."
"And before that?" Since Katara wouldn't remember them, any such traditions probably wouldn't mean anything to her, but it could still be interesting to know.
"Well, I don't recall hearing about any betrothal customs, but before the war, we used to exchange rings during the wedding ceremony."
"What kind of rings?"
"Oh, they were usually pretty simple. Back when there was still trade with the Fire Nation, they were made out of metal – gold, usually. For a while after that, we shifted to different kinds of stone and even ivory before our population got so small that we abandoned them completely."
"Okay. Thank you." It was nice to know that there weren't any particular engagement rituals Aang needed to observe. He liked the idea of wedding rings, though. They were small and wouldn't get in your way but would always be a reminder of your connection to the other person, no matter how far apart you were. Admittedly, Aang couldn't see himself ever using part of a dead animal to make one, such as the ivory Bato had mentioned, but he did have other options.
"How about your people?" Bato asked suddenly.
"What? What about my people?"
"Did they have any special customs?"
"Oh." Aang supposed this was a logical enough question. "We tried not to tie ourselves down to earthly possessions, so there wasn't anything like a ring or necklace. I only went to a couple of weddings, and they were pretty simple, too. The only thing you might find different was that they were usually conducted on the back of a flying bison."
"Well, that would certainly be unique to airbenders," Bato agreed.
Aang and the others bid farewell to the Southern Water Tribe and took off towards the Eastern Air Temple. After they had been underway for about two hours, Sokka spoke up.
"I just had a funny thought," he announced.
"Do you have any other kind?" Toph remarked.
"Yeah, you're a riot," he informed her offhandedly. "I was just thinking, why are the nations separate?"
"What?" Aang wasn't sure how many people had said this, but everyone, including him from his perch on Appa's head, turned to look at Sokka.
"No, seriously," Sokka insisted. "We're all human, right? It stands to reason that, a long time ago, we might have all been sort of the same people. So why did we split up? Was it because of the development of different bending abilities, or did it happen even before that?"
Aang turned back to face the front as he pondered this. Bending had certainly been around for a very long time. Avatar Roku had said something about having lived a thousand lifetimes, which would reach so far back into time that Aang found it dizzying to contemplate that a spirit so old was inside of him.
As difficult as the concept was to grasp, however, bending itself had to be still older. Presumably, the four bending disciplines had to be fairly well established in order for the Avatar to begin to exist. It occurred to Aang that he didn't know the origin of the Avatar Spirit. Was it an ancient spirit like Tui and La that had decided to merge with a human each generation? Or had the spirits all gotten together and decided that a bridge between worlds was necessary and sort of…created this being? What had happened when the very first Avatar went into the Avatar State, since there were no prior lives to draw on? These were questions far too complicated for Aang to deal with right now. Sokka might have some interesting speculations, but Aang wasn't even sure he was ready for that.
Returning to consideration of the individual nations, Aang had learned that they all seemed to have legends about how bending began. The waterbenders had looked to the moon and the ocean; Oma and Shu had learned from the badger-moles; and the airbenders had learned from the flying bison. He wasn't sure about firebenders, but it probably had something to do with the sun.
Now that he thought about it, though, Aang recognized the flaw in all of these tales. If it were that simple, why couldn't everyone be an Avatar? Could Zuko, for example, simply watch the ocean tides and learn to waterbend? Besides, what about those people who couldn't bend at all? No, there had to be more to it. Aang's head was beginning to hurt.
"It's just always been that way," Katara was saying exasperatedly.
"Always is an awfully long time," Iroh commented slowly. "Just because our collective memory doesn't have the answers, it doesn't mean things didn't happen. The spirits might be able to tell a more complete story."
"Can you imagine how incredible it would be for everyone to join together into mixed communities?" Sokka continued. "The earthbenders could provide construction and help with agriculture; waterbenders could irrigate crops and regulate water supplies; airbenders could have acted as messengers and offered transportation services; and firebenders could heat homes and make fires for cooking."
"Cooking?" Zuko protested indignantly.
"Of course, there might still be a need for a military, so everyone could take part in that," continued Sokka, undaunted. "Earth Kingdom provinces used to fight with each other all the time, until the threat from the Fire Nation sort of unified them. And that's just off the top of my head. The possibilities might be almost limitless!" Aang glanced back again to see Sokka leaning back in the saddle, resting his head on his clasped hands and clearly lost in pleasant contemplation.
"You need a hobby," decided Toph after a while.
"Or a girlfriend," Katara suggested, giggling.
"Just because she's not here doesn't mean I don't have one," responded Sokka in an uncharacteristically mild tone. "Am I right, Zuko?"
"I suppose so," Zuko responded carefully. Aang, however, could visualize in his mind's eye the sort of utopian society Sokka might be imagining, where members of all four nations lived and worked together in peace. Of course, Sokka was excited about what might be termed the technical advantages, but Aang was more interested in the possibility of everyone overcoming their differences. Certainly, their little group had managed to do it, and he liked to think that could be expanded to a larger scale.
Out of necessity, Aang had to associate with representatives of other nations. He would always have to, not that he objected to it at all. The Air Nomads had interacted with people of all kinds during the course of their travels, so it came naturally. Even assuming that he had children who were airbenders, they would be a mixture of races. And eventually, those children would grow up and want to get married. They couldn't marry their own siblings, so they would have to look elsewhere, further mixing their blood.
At this, Aang realized he was really getting ahead of himself. Maybe it was the nature of the Avatar to take a long view of things, but he had more immediate things that required his attention.
Katara was half dozing, resting her arms on the edge of Appa's saddle, when a graceful spire rose out of the mist, with the lowering sun behind it. She sat up straight and gasped, drawing the attention of the others.
"Here we are," announced Aang, circling Appa around. "The Eastern Air Temple."
"Aang, it's beautiful," Katara exclaimed.
"It's huge!" Sokka added. He was right. Instead of only one, there were three castle-like structures perched on mountaintops. As they drew closer, Katara could make out bridges spanning between them. Everything was so light and airy, the epitome of everything that represented the Air Nomads. She tried to imagine the buildings surrounded by flying bison, lemurs, and gliders and knew that it must have been breathtaking.
"Yeah, it was the largest of the temples," Aang explained. He pointed things out as he spoke. "Our biggest gatherings were held here. That was where the men and boys lived, that one was women and girls, and the other was for married couples and the children too young to begin training."
Katara felt that discordant tone again, and she thought she could imagine what kinds of things he must be feeling: guilt and grief, certainly, but possibly also some sense of homecoming. Finally, he was going to the place he was supposed to be sent more than 100 years ago. It was as though he had closed the circle at last. Momo chattered excitedly and preceded them, flying down on his own to explore the towers, which must have seemed familiar to him, even though he had never actually seen them before.
"So the temples didn't have just boys?" Sokka asked.
"Of course not," said Aang, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "We had girl airbenders to train, too."
"Well, yeah, I understand that," retorted Sokka grumpily. "I just…you only talked about the boys before."
"Well, I did spend most of my time at the northern and southern temples, which only had boys unless there were visitors," Aang pointed out. "The Western Air Temple was all girls, and this one was mixed, but there were more girls than boys."
"Whoa, back up," requested Sokka. "Are you telling me that the Fire Nation went and slaughtered a whole bunch of women and girls? I didn't think even they would stoop that low."
"Thanks," Zuko muttered.
"Why not?" Aang responded, turning to look at Sokka curiously. "They killed everyone at the other temples. All of them were full of airbenders, many of them masters. I don't really see that there's any difference."
"I guess not," Sokka conceded after a long pause. "It just…feels worse, somehow." Katara had to smile to herself at this exchange, despite the seriousness of the topic. It was clear that Air Nomad society had not differentiated the genders, except for what might be termed practical considerations. This explained why Aang had always seemed to be lacking the sexism Sokka still displayed from time to time.
"What about the non-benders?" asked Iroh, shifting the topic.
"We didn't have any," Aang replied simply. Katara had already known this, of course, but Toph and the two firebenders expressed some surprise.
"Just get us back on solid ground already," Toph complained. "I want to 'see' this place, too." Aang complied, landing Appa on a large platform that seemed designed for that purpose. Toph was the first one off. Everyone else began unloading. They were probably going to stay here for a while, so they might as well make themselves at home. It was already nearing sunset, though, so Aang didn't want to start giving a tour just yet. There was even talk of just sleeping outside, but Iroh somewhat plaintively requested that they see if some rooms were usable. After all, with three firebenders around, interior darkness wasn't much of a problem.
They explored a few of the readily accessible rooms, and everyone made their claims and did some perfunctory cleaning of 100 years' worth of dust and debris. After this, they went back outside to enjoy the clear evening before turning in.
At the edge of the platform stood a statue of a regal-looking woman with layered robes, long hair, and an arrowhead visible on her forehead. Aang bowed to her with an attitude that conveyed both respect and the greeting of an old friend.
"Who is she?" asked Katara, coming up beside him.
"That's Yangchen, the last airbender Avatar."
"You know, there's something I've wondered about ever since you told me your story in that storm," Katara continued after a pause. "Why did the monks want to send you here?"
"To finish my training, of course," Aang replied, looking at her blankly.
"Yes, but you were already a master airbender," she persisted. "Shouldn't they have sent you to a waterbending master instead?"
"I still had one more level of airbending techniques to master. They decided to make me a master before completing it because I'd invented the air scooter."
"One level?" Sokka broke into the conversation. "Out of how many?"
"36."
"You're kidding me." Sokka appeared to be doing some mental calculations. "That means you'd mastered 97 of the levels. They were going to be sticklers about a measly 3when there was a war coming?"
"They didn't know how close it was," Aang defended his people. "They just knew they couldn't wait until I was 16. Maybe they thought they still had a few years."
"Even so, wouldn't it have made more sense to send you to the Northern Air Temple?" Katara mused. She really hoped all this wasn't bothering him, but it was something she was trying very hard to understand. She'd avoided the topic for a long time already. "If they really thought it was that important, you could have completed the level there and been close to the North Pole for your next step."
"Well, they might have been planning to send me to the South Pole for that, so I'd be closer to home," Aang replied.
"Better under their control, you mean," Toph contributed for the first time. She certainly had experience with that.
"Maybe," Aang acknowledged. "Anyway, back then, there were plenty of waterbenders there. I guess I'll never know now."
"I'm sorry," said Katara, going to him and putting her arms around him. "Maybe I shouldn't have brought it up."
"No, it's okay. I know I've avoided talking about my people because I thought it would be too painful, but I actually feel better describing them to you. It's sort of like sharing my old family with my new one." There was another silence. Surprisingly, it was Zuko who broke it and provided a slight change of subject.
"You mentioned children too young to begin training," he remarked. "How old did you usually start?"
"Five, normally."
"That's when I started, too."
"Sometimes kids could start as early as three if they showed really strong ability and there was a need to, um, control it," Aang added.
"Let me guess; you were one of those who started early," Katara suggested, smiling at him. He smiled back at her and shrugged self-deprecatingly, so she knew she was right. Their eyes locked, and Katara became aware of two things: she was becoming uncomfortably warm, and she and Aang hadn't had any time alone since his birthday. He moved closer.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Aang asked in a voice low enough so that only she could hear it.
"Firewood?" she guessed.
"Firewood," he agreed. They quickly excused themselves and found a secluded spot under some flowering fruit trees.
Iroh awoke early the next morning and stretched his stiff muscles. He was grateful to have had a bed to sleep on, but the Air Nomads hadn't spared much in the way of comfort.
I'm getting to old for this kind of thing, he thought ruefully. Well, at least it should all be over in less than two months, one way or another. He wasn't afraid of death. In fact, in many ways, he would welcome it. He would be home with his son again. The one thing he wanted to make sure of before it happened was that Zuko would be alright without him.
Iroh stepped out of the building and onto a terrace. A small fire was burning there, and he noticed Aang sitting beside it, his fingers working nimbly at something in the light of the fire and the gathering dawn. Appa lay snoring nearby, with Momo curled up on the bend of one of his gigantic legs.
"Good morning, Aang," Iroh announced his presence. Aang started almost guiltily and turned.
"Oh, hey, Iroh," he said, sounding slightly relieved, though he had closed his hands around whatever he was holding. "You want to start lessons already?"
"Not quite yet," Iroh replied, sitting down before the Avatar. "I prefer to at least have some tea before such exertions. Preferably breakfast, too. However, I'm glad to see you feel comfortable enough with firebending to do a little of it on your own." He indicated the fire Aang had clearly started. There were other ways of setting a fire, of course, but Iroh was reasonably confident in his guess.
"Oh, yeah, I thought it was time I started doing some without supervision. Besides, I needed the light."
"Yes, I noticed. What is that you're working on?"
"It's a…surprise for Katara," Aang admitted. He looked around furtively before leaning toward Iroh and speaking again. "Actually, there was a little something I thought you might be able to help me with. Possibly some very subtle firebending techniques?"
Ah, young love. Iroh smiled and agreed to do what he could.
--
Member of the Boomeraang Squad: charleegirl, Jesus.Lives, Liselle129, Strix Moonwing, Avatarwolf, MormonMaiden, libowiekitty, Snows of Yester-Year, La Vixen de Amor, chocolatecoveredbananacheese, Aangy, and honorary member SnakeEyes16
Author's Note: Yes, I know the last scene was short, but I thought it was time for another teaser, not to mention that I hadn't been using Iroh much lately.
Review responses:
Thank you to Kataang's-Loyal-Devoted-Slave, misskiki28, and ElicityFay for reviewing Chapter 27.
Amira Elizabeth: You do seem to like the male-male conversations a lot.
La Vixen de Amor: I'm kind of confused. Is the boomerAang squad different from the Boomeraang Squad?
TTAvatarfan: I can relate. It's amazing how often I have a cat in my lap trying to nuzzle me or walking across the keyboard while I'm trying to finalize these chapters and get them posted.
chocolatecoveredbananacheese: Yeah, once my mind gets hold of an idea, it doesn't let go until I get it written down.
libowiekitty: Both Sokka and Zuko remind you of your brother? Sounds like an interesting guy.
Billeh: The series has been pretty vague on exactly how the Avatar spirit is passed on to each new incarnation. If Sozen's comet came at the same time of year before, it would be the end of summer or around the autumn equinox. Aang ran away before that happened but presumably a few months after his 12th birthday, which places it in late spring or early summer.
Kimbalynn616: Well, I just took the seed of the idea from Aang On!, practicing with multiple elements. The rest was my expansion on it.
SnakeEyes16: Yeah, he'll admit to 6'4", but he's actually taller than that. It's funny that there seems to be a narrow range where men are comfortable with their height, I'd say about 5'10 to 6'2". Anyway, I plan to answer all questions by the end. I hope I don't forget anything!
Giggleman: I'm not sure what you mean by compliment, but I'll certainly thank you for reviewing. I noticed that you're a new member, and I'm very glad you found me so quickly.
Justcallmewolfy: Aang's outfit was essentially destroyed during the climactic battle of Avatar in Training. Two new ones, in a larger size, were made to the same pattern while he was recuperating, so he should be good for the rest of the story. My point in the last chapter was that the others would have given Aang more of a fight if they worked better together.
MyOtherName: Yeah, I've been looking forward to seeing something new from you. I don't know how much time I'll have to spend on these little skirmishes, but I hope to show a bit of them.
The Rogue Firebender: I know it was short, but I'm glad the training was interesting to read.
UNDER-CITY WALLS: George refers to the Suki/Sokka pairing. Apparently, fans couldn't agree whether the ship should be called Sukka or Soki, so they started calling it George. As for the rumor about Season 3, I think livexthexmagic put it in an author's note. I have no idea where she got the information.
redskin122004: Well, that's the first proposal I've received on here (or almost-proposal). Thank you very much for your review. I will try to have more Sokka and Zuko interaction.
TheKataangKing: Wow, 50! That's a lot. Actually, watching some of the early episodes, I'm starting to find some of the airbending moves sexy, too.
Durins Bane: Season 3 will take as long as Nickelodeon wants it to. With only 20 episodes, they could all easily air in 5 months. Actually, the previous chapter was in a bay outside the city, and this one is at the Eastern Air Temple, nearly a day's journey distant. The major assault will be launched from the coast near Ba Sing Se, so they're staying pretty close to where they need to be.
