I really enjoyed writing this chapter and it shows as its the first chapter to break the 4k word mark. I changed the purpose of the festival from what is was in the comics; in this world its more of an expression of love for Yangchen and for the air spirits. A celebration of what the air nomads are, Free.
Roughly a month had gone by since the airbending trio had visited Omashu and fall was soon approaching. The season change from summer to fall told the air nomads that one of their only holidays was at hand. Yangchen's Festival would span a week and airbenders all across the world would be making their way to a single location in the north western Earth Kingdom. All would celebrate Yangchen's legacy and the balance she kept during her time as Avatar. Bringing offerings for her and the air spirits; thousands of air nomads, bison, and winged lemurs would all converge there for at least a day. To any outsiders it would be a marvel, the sight of a century even, with seeing so many saddled sky bison in such a high frequency roaming the skies.
Slowly the air around Aang, Gyatso, and Appa was crowding with other saddled bison; their equally free air nomads riding them. Some would call out greetings, others would simply wave; while their bison would give off similar greetings in their own sky bison tongue of roars and bellows. Aang could spot a few sky bison carrying small children in their saddles and the nuns that would chaperone them for the journey. Trying to count the number of airbenders was pointless, Aang concluded, so many of his people and Appa's kind were flying in from everywhere; north, south, east, west, I didn't matter. The smile on Aang's face seemed to be set in stone with the immense amount of joy and happiness that he felt watching his people all round him. Appa himself was also in a good mood Aang felt, he just knew and felt his best friend's emotions like they were his own.
Gyatso was also very chipper and his joy was immensely infectious. His mentor was looking on at the display of white and orange with joy, fondness, and… an emotion Aang couldn't recognize or rather hadn't seen Gyatso wear at all. The emotion Aang could best get from the expression was ruefulness, and that confused Aang greatly. Questions flooded his mind pertaining to why Gyatso would have a reason to feel regret and sadness at the dazzling display, but his mind equally came up with no answers. Aang didn't think it too important seeing as Gyatso was still obviously overjoyed at the display and he decided to let the question hang and ask about it another day at a more appropriate time.
Appa, along with a numerous amount of other sky bison, came to a soft landing in an open grassy field. Aang worked to remove Appa's saddle as Gyatso untied the sky bison's reins and when both finished they gave Appa a hug and a pat before he went off to mingle with other sky bison. Gyatso pulled a sack from the saddle and slung it over his shoulder, making sure it was fastened by giving it a tug. Aang had done the same with a sack of his own and as soon as they were both ready they began walking off. Along the way both Aang and Gyatso shared friendly greetings with other monks and nuns, some familiar to Aang while others he had never met.
Their walk filled with greetings came to an end when both mentor and student came to the central festival location. If Aang had not seen Yangchen's festival before he would have been overwhelmed by all the orange, grey, and red; but thankfully the feeling of peace was in the air. Aang could smell the incense used in the morning prayer due to the cold air and he had to admit there probably wasn't a better smell in the world. Following after Gyatso into the sea of orange, Aang could also smell fruit pies being baked, perfumes that the nuns of the Eastern Air Temple made, and the cured wood of pi sho boards brought here by nuns of the Western Air Temple.
Gyatso stopped at a tent located near the center of the encampment. He turned to Aang and said "I would like you to follow me inside Aang. Mother Superior Malu of the Western Air Temple would like to talk with you." Aang froze up because he was almost certain he knew what the head nun wanted to talk about. Aang did not want to talk about being the Avatar right now. All he wanted to do was to have fun and make new friends during the festival; but of course the world had to do this to him, it just had to make him the Avatar.
With a grumbled "Okay" and a consecutive nod Aang lowered his head and walked into the simple orange tent after Gyatso. Aangxiety swirled within Aang, he was very nervous about this; are they going to try and take me from Gyatso again? was a course of thought Aang did not want to follow.
He was only brought out from the frightening course of self doubt and worry when he felt two soft, but firm hands on his shoulders. Aang looked up and was met with the calming form of Mother Superior Malu. Aang had never met a woman like her; she was tall and bulky- with muscles that could rival that of the strongest earthbenders -, but still maintained a strong maternal disposition. Aang would be lying that he felt safe under her wing and a calmness overtook him.
Mother Superior Malu kneeled down to his level and looked at him with her soft bright grey eyes. "How are you doing young Avatar? It must be difficult to hold such a burden at such a young age." That wasn't really what Aang had been expecting. Obviously she saw Aang's surprise as she gave him a sad smile. "Indeed some believed that it would be better to inform you of your status early and prepare you for the coming storm, but they-" Mother Superior paused and pursed her lips, considering her next words carefully "...They have not considered you. As i'm sure Gyatso has advised you before, you must concern yourself with what is, not what will be. I am certain you will bring balance when time comes and the world is ready for it; in your own way, young airbender." She gave a pat on the cheek with a soft, almost sympathetic smile. The elder nun's echoing of Gyatso's advice and her own affirmation made Aang feel much better than he thought he would feel at the end of this conversation. Mother Superior Malu, turned around and faced him one more time, speaking to both him and Gyatso saying "Don't fret about this being a festival in remembrance of your past life. Simply enjoy it like any other festival and be free; when the world needs you it will call and I am certain it hasn't called yet, for you will know." With a final wink and a smile that told him to have fun, Mother Superior turned back around and continued working with the incense she had brought. Gyatso gave a pat to Aang's shoulder and both monks walked out in peaceful silence.
It was quite easy for Aang to tell who knew about his avatarhood and who did not. What became obvious to Aang as he explored the festival was that the news of him being the world's savior had not been readily shared with the other temples, the only exception being their high councils, like that of Mother Superior Malu. That exited Aang; it meant he could finally have fun with other airbenders. Opening his glider, Aang took to the sky and set out to look for one of the very basic airball courts that were constructed for Yangchen's Festival. Aang flew high into the sky and began his search; his eyes surveyed the sea of traditional air nomad color like a snake-hawk. Finally! Aang though as he spotted an airball court with a few people already playing. He entered a vertical drive that would make a non-airbender accept death. Air whipped at his kavi, the air making a soft woosh sound, his time working with soundbening allowing him to quiet the once loud noise. Aang neared the Earth once again with a few sweeps of his staff, his dive ended and he landed softly, the grass underfoot barely rustling. Aang moved at a light jog towards the airball court. It had a similar layout to that of the Southern Air Temple; wood pillars sticking out of the ground at varying heights and two goals at opposite ends of the court. The only noticeable difference was that the pillars were left ornate and far simpler to the ones he was familiar with.
A ball flew right over his head out of nowhere, simple muscle reflexes keeping him from a serious brain injury. Making a hand wave the ball flew into his hand and Aang turned around to the scene of apologetic looking teens who appeared to be close to his own age, maybe a small bit older than Aang. "Hi guys, and uh… girls!" Aang said with a wave; he hadn't ever played airball with girls, maybe they would be better than the boys he played against at the Southern Air Temple. "Do you mind if I join you and play? My name is Aang!"
The one who appeared the oldest jumped over to him. Aang could only guess she was about sixteen, a few years younger than Nami, but older than him. The girl was only a few inches taller than him and had black hair that wasn't shaved yet. She wore red and orange robes that covered her entire body and had eyes that seemed to be caught in between grey and gold. They were mesmerizing, Aang admitted to himself. "Sure Aang. My name is Nulah. Feel free to uhh…" she trailed off and Aang was confused at what caught her attention. Nulah's eyes seemed transfixed and she raised a pointed finger to Aang's forehead. Uh oh.. "You're… You're a master,... already?" She seemed awed at him and very impressed.
The fear of abandonment returned to Aang, he had just made a new friend and could already loose them. He rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah… I got them a year ago when I was eleven."
"Wow." Nulah returned. "As you can see I still haven't mastered airbending even though I'm almost sixteen. It's a work in progress, but I'm getting close! Hopefully in a year I get my arrows." She smiled and thanked the spirits for that. His worry evaporated and he had just made a new friend for certain. "But answering your question; you can join us. We were about to start a new game anyways." Nulah turned and gestured to the airball court and bended her way up to a pillar on the far side. Aang followed and did the same. He decided to join the team with fewer players and hoped he wouldn't completely wipe the competition.
With the flip of a leaf and first possession decided the game of airball began. Aang recognized Nulah as the opposing team's captain as she launched the ball. It bounced off the pillars rapidly, making loud thunks. One of the defenders on his team reached out and attempted an air blast, but was knocked off balance by an opposing player's own air blast that was directed at the ball. This meant the ball had no one defending against its oncoming movements. To solve this Aang jumped out to the pillar he wanted to get on. Using a bit of cloud stepping, Aang got to it in time and set a precise blast that reversed the ball's course. The ball got closer and closer to the goal, many of the opposing team attempted to halt the ball with air blasts, but it was simply going too fast. Only two remaining defenders attempted to reverse the ball's current course, but with a soft kick- that Aang had gotten better at through mastering cloud stepping -the balls had an extra spin and the two defenders were fooled. "OH YEAH!" Aang chanted in victory as the goal's spinner rotated. Some of the other kids on his team joined in on the celebration.
Many looked at him with wonder, stings of questions and praise reached him;
"Wow!" "How'd you do that?" "He kicked it obviously!" "You're really good!"
Aang started blushing at the high praise from both boys and girls. He rubbed his neck while saying "It's really nothing! I just got lucky! I'm sure all of you could do that."
All the other kids looked at him aww inspired. Nulah was the first to give any real response "Nice job Aang. Just guess we'll have to play better!" A series of affirmatives followed her statement given by the opposing team.
"Good luck!" Aang said. "You're going to need it" he finished, giving a wink.
The airball game came to an anti-climactic end. Aang wiped the floor with the competition so hard that at the end it was him and two others versus ten airbenders of varying ages from thirteen to fifteen. The game had to be paused multiple times because he was accused of cheating in some way, but after a demonstration of the move all accusations for that particular play were put to rest. The grand total of goals from both teams was thirtyfive… and Aang scored thirtyfour goals. He walked off the court after the game with a lopsided smile. Aang had to give it to them, even if they were getting crushed by one twelve year old they kept playing. It wasn't normal behavior for airbenders to stick through the thick, but they managed to even if their efforts got them a final total of one goal.
Aang returned to the present and looked up. The sun was reaching its resting place on the horizon and Gyatso probably wanted to talk with him before they had dinner. He once again took to the skies and flew around, waiting for Gyatso to signal him or for Aang to spot him. He could see the various activities going on; music could be heard from up in the sky and Aang spotted a dance floor. He made a motion to dive and join the dance, to let himself have even more fun, but as quickly as he was turning his mind made sure to remind him that finding Gyatso was more important. A part of him worked on excuses that would make Aang feel okay with going dancing, but all fell short when it came to possibly displeasing Gyatso.
The sun had almost set, sky painted vibrant shades of pink, organe, and purple, when he finally saw Gyatso. Aang entered a dive to make his way to his mentor. Obviously Gyatso heard him, because he turned from what he was reading and looked up to Aang. Eyes trained and followed him until he landed; Gyatso gave a playful smile and greeted him. "Aang! It's good to see you, I heard that you dominated the airball court today." There it is thought Aang; he had no idea about how fast and how far word of his complete control of the airball court would travel. If he was lucky it would be something the players kept to themselves in embarrassment, but nope it had to be turned into a story that would make him know to those who didn't know him. "I hear your game has far surpassed even mine. I could never seem to get over the twenty goal mark at Yangchen's festival; everyone always got too competitive. Almost as bad as the nuns at the Western Air Temple during the grand pai sho tournament!" Gyatso gave a hearty chuckle at his own commentary. Aang joined in too; although he had only been to one grand pai sho tournament, he had seen how bad some of the nuns got. All their previous beliefs were forgotten for a few moments and they became the most competitive things in the world; many were ruthless in their moves.
Once they both came down from their own laughs Aang asked "Are we getting dinner soon?"
"Ahh, yes Aang. We are able to get dinner now if you would like." Gyatso responded.
"Thank you Gyatso, I was getting hungry. I was also wondering if I could go dance?"
"If you would like to dance after dinner, I am not opposed. It's Yangchen's festival, I implore you to have fun and be free. Tomorrow morning will be important though, morning meditation will be held at Yangchen's statue and I would like for you to be rested."
Aang nodded and both monks walked off to get dinner. The selection was very simple, but Aang had eyes for only one thing, the potato soup. It was something Aang very rarely got to eat because potatoes couldn't be grown in the Patola Mountain Range. He poured himself a fair amount of the liquid gold and sat down. Gyatso had gone off and was talking to some other elder monks and nuns. Aang found a comfy spot to sit and made sure no lemurs had the chance to take his food. Once he began eating he was quickly joined by Nulah.
"Big fan of potato soup I see." She said while raising a hand to her lips, stifling a giggle.
Aang pouted, his bottom lip extending a pit and his brows furrowing. "Hey, we don't have any potatoes at the Southern Air Temple. You can't blame me for enjoying something I don't get to eat often."
"Southern Air Temple huh? Well I probably should have told you, I'm from the Western Air Temple and I can absolutely agree with your assessment of potato soup." Nulah's tone was teasing and Aang shot her a glare.
"At least we have moon peaches." He retorted.
That drew a pleasant laugh from Nulah, she gave him a mocked hurt look "That wasn't very nice of you 'oh master airbender." She didn't even try hiding her giggle at her own joke. Before Aang could retorte though Nulah continued, "So how did you get your arrows so early? I've been wondering about it all day."
Aang rubbed the back his neck at her comment; she seemed so genuinely interested it honestly startled him a bit. "Oh, uhm… that." He looked down at the back of his right hand, a blue arrow forever tattooed on. "I got my arrows by inventing a new form. It uh… called the air scooter."
Nulah released a laugh at that, both impressed and dumbfounded. "You made a new form- which is beyond incredible -, but called it the 'air scooter.' Come on, that's the most embarrassing thing ever!"
Aang felt very defensive about his name choice. "I'm only twelve. You want me to call it something like 'spirit killer' instead? I invented it, therefore I have first dibs at naming it." Aang declared confidently.
"I guess you have a point there. How do you even do it? I haven't seen anyone perform it yet."
"After I finish my soup, then I'll show you." Aang returned; the soup had been his priority the entire conversation. You never knew when a sneaky lemur would make a grab at it.
"Okay, are you done yet?" Nulah asked impatiently.
Swallowing a mouthful of potato soup, Aang finally stood up. "Now I'm done. Let's get you air scootering!"
Aang knew he was being cheeky and obviously Nulah realized it because palm met forehead in a facepalm. "Finally!" She said exasperatedly.
"Okay Pupil Nulah." Aang said, which earned a glare from Nulah. "Let us find a more suitable location and I'll show you how to make and ride an air scooter." Aang made sure to give his tone a sagely feel and wasn't really succeeding.
"Lead the way Aang." Nulah made sure to specifically leave out the 'sifu'.
Aang guided them out of the sea of tents to a nearby clearing. He gave a look around and when he decided the location would work he turned to Nulah. "Okay so the air scooter is done by riding a ball of air." Aang began swinging his hands in a circular motion, drawing the surrounding air into a ball. "We form the ball with our hands. Then you hop on really quick and make sure to keep your balance." Aang demonstrated what he just said. He put the ball under him and hopped on, riding it around Nulah in demonstration.
"Understood." She nodded and formed the ball of air which Aang knew was the easy part. Nulah slowly brought it down and tried to hop on it; only for her to fall to the ground with a thump. "What,... what did I do wrong?"
"I think you took too long to get on, so you lost control of the ball." Aang supplied.
Nulah gave him a nod and this time when she formed the ball of air she hoped on quickly. Then was promptly spun like a top and flew off the ball. "Owww!"
Aang ran over to her and helped her up. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah yeah. I'm fine; just that really caught me off guard. I didn't think I would spin me so fast, let alone at all." Nulah replied.
"Well just account for it next time."
"Got it." And so for the next hour almost the cycle continued. Nulah messing something up and Aang pointing it out for her to correct. Trial and error was not something Aang had to do much until soundbending, but he was happy to help a new friend learn something new and fun. Maybe I could actually play that air scooter game the other boys at the temple made, with someone! That was a tantalizing thought; he could finally play a game using the form he made with people. On what was something close to the hundred and twenty seventh try, Nulah was able to stay on the air scooter and ride it around a little. Her cheer of joy at getting it done brought a wide smile to Aang's face. I taught someone! Aang thought; He taught someone, just like Gyatso and that was so outstandingly cool to Aang.
Without thinking Nulah ran up to him and gave him a hug, followed up by a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you so much! That was definitely worth it! How about we go celebrate and dance?" The young airbender locked up; he was not expecting that nor was he even ready for it. Nulah placed both hands on his shoulders and shook him. "Did you hear me, let's go celebrate! Lets go dance!"
Aang looked up to her with a bright red blush painted across his cheeks. Rubbing his neck he replied "Yeah, I uh… I wanted to go dancing anyway. That uhhh… that would be nice Nulah."
Smiles was the only thing on their faces as Nulah grabbed Aang's hand and pulled him back to the sea of orange. Fast as the wind she brought them to the nearest dance floor that had music being played by a band of young monks. Everyone of them on a different instrument.
They both broke out into dance and oddly enough both began dancing dances from the Fire Nation. The camelephant strut was their first dance, it was something Aang was all too familiar with due to his time spent with Kuzon. His Fire Nation friend taught it to him around a year ago, a few weeks after Aang earned his arrows. Right now Aang could only guess Nulah knew Fire Nation dances because, well, she lived at the Western Air Temple and it was close to the Fire Nation. Sweat began to pool on Aang's brow, demanding he wipe it off. Nulah reached out a hand that Aang grabbed, he knew what was coming next; they were transitioning into an air nomad dance. Both airbenders pulled themselves to each other and light as leafs dodged one another. They spun around and flipped over each other, a sequence of tumbling around before they pulled back to one another. Arms just touching while the moved in a circle walk and right as the music hit a certain note they spun and reversed the circle walk. As the music signified it was drawing to its close with a final beat of intense notes, both Aang and Nulah repeated their previous move and pulled themselves together. Their bodies grazed each other and this time they didn't let go of their hands, instead leaded forward, raising one leg and using the other's weight to keep them from falling.
A loud applause was heard around them and as both leveled out, bringing both feet back to earth. Just then they realized everyone stopped to watch just them to dance. "You're a great dancer Aang." Nulah complement as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Oh uh,... thanks! That means a lot, coming from you!" Aang blanched. "I mean it's not like it's more special than anyone else's!"
"So my praise doesn't mean anything?" Nulah asked with a pout.
"Nonononononono, it's not like that, your…. Uh compliment means a lot. Thanks!" Aang replied panicked.
Nulah let out a laugh "Almost dug yourself a hole. Good job on digging out!"
"thanks."
"Well it was nice meeting you Aang. I hope you can come for the Grand Pai Sho tournament and we can hang out again."
"You're leaving tomorrow?" Aang asked, a bit saddened.
"Yeah, Mother Superior Malu wants us back at the Temple, she said there are some bad things going on and it's not really safe to be outside the temple unless you're with a master or two." Nulah supplied.
Aang nodded in understanding. "I had fun Nulah, it was also nice meeting you."
Nulah bent down and gave him another peck on the cheek, "I hope we see each other soon, Aang!" Sharing a bow of respect both walked off their separate ways. Even if he had lost many friends because he was the Avatar, maybe there were some that would stay his friends. Best Yangchen's Festival ever! though Aang as he settled down on his mat. The future the world had in store for him looked just a little bit brighter.
Well the title of first person to fall for Aang's charm has been claimed by Nulah! even if she might be a few years older. Sadly though Aang's clueless and will be for some time. He will get better at it though, …eventually. Aang just needs to form healthy friendships with girls before he can start doing anything relationshipy.