When the Wind was Reborn

Chapter Three

Aang fled like he never had before - he'd trained to fight his whole life, it was part of being an Air Nomad, and he was one of the youngest masters ever, but he'd never faced fire and he'd never faced someone trying to kill him. The toll it took on his mind was heavy and it terrified him, his guts had went to jelly and when he glided he ached from being unable to relax his muscles - his arms, his legs, his core were all knotted up with tension. The air tore and ripped at him as he flew, aimless and directionless until he was completely and utterly lost.

Then he started to get cold, and tired. His robes were warmer than they looked, designed for the chill of the mountains where the Air Nomad temples were, but they weren't made for the frigid cold of the tundra. Before long he was shaking like a leaf from the bite of the bitter cold, with numb fingers and a throat that itched and stung from the chill. The cold leeched the energy from him too, and by the time he was safely away from the firebenders it took a herculean effort to even hold onto his glider.

He flew for how long? An hour? Two? Less? He didn't know, all he knew was that he was exhausted and by the time he set foot on solid ground again he was still trembling with fear. He took shelter in an icy cave where it was still cold but not dangerously so. He sat there with his head between his knees, confused and scared for what seemed like only a few minutes, then a realization hit him that chilled his blood all over again.

"Appa!" He cried out loud, eyes wide. Where was Appa? He had been with Appa before, he had left the Air Temple and...yes, he had left the air temple, and he remembered why - he was the Avatar. His mind felt hazier than ever with the memory, but he wrested back control of himself and thought back. He'd left the air temple with Appa and travelled for a while, then there was the storm, and he fell, and then...flashes came to him, unbidden, the terror of sinking into the water, lungs screaming for air that was far, far away, eyes seeing only blurry patches of light under the water but feeling that Appa was close to him, drowning too. There was a moment, then, of desperation, where he'd drawn on something deep inside him, then nothing. Blackness. Then he woke up in the iceberg.

Aang was moving again, tearing off into the air on his glider, heedless of the chill in his bones and his still shaking hands - it didn't matter, he had to find Appa. Had he even managed to save Appa like he had himself when they fell into the sea? No, he couldn't think like that, Appa had to still be there in the iceberg, he had to be. He couldn't believe he'd even left him in the first place! How could he forget Appa? His partner, his best friend - wait, no, Gyatso. No, no, Appa. Well, he couldn't decide, but still, how could he forget Appa? He was such an idiot, he thought, such a stupid, thoughtless idiot!

He soared above the cracked and broken plains of white and groaned into the wind in frustration. Ugh, it was no use! Down there on the ground he could see things, the snowdrifts rose and fell like dunes in a desert and masked caves, fissures and scattered knots of hardy trees. From up in the air, though, the tundra looked distant and flat, like a shattered mosaic and it all looked the same! How would he ever find that iceberg? He didn't know how far he'd flown or even for how long, he'd never had a mind for things like that, and he had no idea where he was! There must be a million icebergs in this frozen wasteland, but still he kept flying anyway, searching desperately for something, anything that caught his eye.

"Appa! Appa!" He cried out, but his words were lost to the howling wind. Was Appa even free or was he still encased in ice? The Fire Nation ship had smashed the iceberg and let Aang out, he thought, but how much had it been smashed? Was Appa still there, frozen, or had he been freed? Was he somewhere in between? Was he still sitting there waiting to be rescued or was he soaring in the sky looking for Aang? The thought of it made Aang want to cry for having left him.

Smoke. He saw smoke! It was the Fire Nation ship! Hope blossomed in his chest - sure, the ship would have sailed away some distance since the iceberg, but it would leave a trail of shattered ice in its wake, wouldn't it? He didn't know this kind of land well, or at all, actually, but it was his best hope. With a buzzing fear in the pit of his stomach Aang turned, rode the air and arced towards the plume of smoke. Maybe if he'd been less tired, or cold, or confused and troubled he might have remembered to stay low, but he didn't, instead he soared like an eagle, so high that he thought he might find the sun which seemed ever-absent in this frozen wasteland.

The trail was long, but in the air Aang followed it in no time. There was a trail of foaming and frothing water bordered by smashed clusters of ice shards from the ice floes around it. Following the trail was as easy as following one of the maze puzzles back at the air temple. He flitted his way along the wreckage and by the time he came to the broken iceberg he was holding his breath. Appa was here, that's what he kept telling himself, and he tried as hard as he could to believe it - he didn't know what he would do if he wasn't.

"Appa!" He called again when he touched down. He picked his way across the broken and rocking ice, nearly falling headfirst into the frigid sea more than once. He was trembling with fear when he peeked over into the depths of the iceberg. For a moment his breath stuck in his throat - ice only ice. Then, though, he noticed darkness, a shadow in the depths of the iceberg, one of colossal size - the size of a sky bison. He let out the world's biggest breath - quite a feat for an airbender - and nearly wept tears of joy.

How to get Appa out of the ice, though? If only he could waterbend, or if he only just knew a tiny bit of fire bending! Ugh, no matter, he'd find a way, he thought. Hitting it with his glider was pointless - maybe he'd make a dent in the ice in about a hundred years, but if he wanted results before that he'd need to do something different. He sat down on his haunches, frowning in puzzlement. It was just like the puzzles at the air temple, in a way, he thought, he would have to think differently and do things different if he wanted to solve it. He tried blasting the ice with focused bursts of air next, and that chipped away at it and tore chunks off. Bit by bit the ice flaked away until he saw the tip of a horn, then a patch of fur that slowly grew in fits and starts as more pieces of ice were torn off.

"Hey Appa! Appa, it's me!" Aang smiled so wide that it hurt. He had unearthed - uniced, maybe? - one of Appa's eyes and he was blinking blearily at him as he began to wake up. Aang went at it with more fervour after that, freeing Appa's head and shoulders, but still it wasn't good enough, wasn't quick enough. Could he airbend some hot air? He wondered to himself, he'd never asked the question before - he'd never needed to - but it would help him out now. How would he even go about doing that? He wished he could ask Monk Gyatso, he was the best airbender in the temple back home - in the whole world, as far as Aang was concerned. A low growl from Appa broke Aang out of his straying thoughts.

"Sorry buddy, guess I'm just..." Aang trailed off, straining his ears. Sound. Close, too - he hadn't been paying attention, and the sound of his own air blasts had deafened him to everything around him. A smell, too, smoke, he thought, sniffing the air. Oh no. He whirled around and saw a shape rumbling towards him, an implacable behemoth, a monstrosity made of crimson metal and sharp edges flying the Fire Nation flag on its mast.

What to do? Aang's breaths were beginning to come to him quicker now, his heart hammering - he wasn't close to freeing Appa and he couldn't just fly away like last time and leave Appa here, he was visible now, what would the Fire Nation do with him if they found him? Cook him and eat him? Kill him and take his horns as a prize? The very thought made Aang ill.

"Come on, come on!" He blasted the ice encasing Appa wildly and recklessly, desperate to make some sort of progress, any sort of progress, but it was futile and he knew it. Appa let out a wail of confusion and fear that nearly broke Aang's heart in two. The seconds ticked by painfully slowly, but there didn't seem to be nearly enough of them. By the time the ship came to a screeching halt, so close that Aang was sprayed with freezing, salty sea water and chips of ice, Appa was still firmly stuck in the ice.

"Airbender!" Aang craned his neck to look up at the prow of the ship. A tall, imperious man stood there, pointing a straight, double edged sword at him, a finely crafted jian. It was the man who had spoken to him before, who had given the orders to the other firebenders last time, their leader. The robes he wore were very fine, his hairpiece and the inlay on his sword were both made of gold. Aang's thoughts wandered even in fear. Who was this man? Was he maybe even royalty? A lord, perhaps?

"I don't want to fight you!" Aang called back, shouting to be heard over the wind. He intended to sound peaceful but firm, but instead his voice came out sounding reedy and weak. He wasn't sure if they ignored his words or if they just didn't hear them.

"Surrender now!" The man on the prow ordered. "I won't say it again!" At that moment a figure leaped over the prow of the ship and landed not ten feet from Aang, sending him stumbling backwards in fright and nearly into the sea for the dozenth time. He was younger than the regal young man on the prow.

"You should do as he says," the figure said, his voice deep and quiet. He was short and lithe, with a firm set to his jaw and eyes that blazed like a golden sunset. He was handsome, Aang supposed, or perhaps would be if he didn't have such an angry look on his face - he looked like someone who had never smiled before and maybe didn't even know how to do it.

"I haven't done anything wrong!" Aang pleaded with him, but the firebender didn't reply, he simply drew a pair of dao broadswords and brandished them in front of him. Behind him the other soldiers were filing off the ship and approaching with fire and spears in hand. Aang was scared.

"This won't go well for you," the young man standing across from him spoke quietly. That's when Aang realized who he was - this was the firebender from before, the skilled one that had fought him just when he came out iceberg!

"You! You helped me before, you saved my life!" Aang hissed, quiet enough that he hoped the approaching soldiers didn't hear. "Why are you being like this?" Silence. He just looked at Aang with narrow, slitted eyes. The soldiers got there and fanned out, cornering Aang against the edge of the ice. No escape now, either he would surrender or there would be violence. Aang felt like crying.

"Wait!" He called out, his voice cracking. "Wait, I'll...I'll surrender."

"Take him in," the firebender with the broadswords said.

"Yes, lord Zuko," they replied in unison, and began closing in on Aang, spears raised.

"Wait, no, on one condition!" Aang called, panicked. Everyone froze, and the man with the broadswords - Zuko, apparently - inclined his head at him, inviting him to speak. "I'll go with you, but only if you help Appa!" Aang jabbed his finger at the iceberg.

"What's an Appa?" Someone whispered, just loud enough to be heard. Zuko walked forward, just enough to see over the rim of the ice where Appa sat still half encased in the recesses of the iceberg, and gasped in surprise. Maybe he'd never seen a sky bison before?

"You'll turn yourself in for the sake of this animal?" Zuko asked skeptically.

"He's not just an animal!" Aang protested without thinking. "Just, just use your firebending to melt the ice, and let him go safely, please? Then I'll surrender, I promise."

"Seize him!" The regal man ordered from the prow of the ship. "The Fire Nation does not negotiate!"

"Please," Aang repeated quietly, so only Zuko could see. He frowned, considering, his orders and his own thoughts visibly warring on his face, then after a few moments he strode forward and took up a fire bending stance, his fists already flaming. Appa let out a cry of helpless fear, unable to move or escape.

"Be careful! Don't hurt him!" Aang cried.

"I won't," Zuko said, voice full of confidence that verged on arrogance. He punched the air once and sent forth a gout of flame that hit the flank of the iceberg and combusted, smashing it to smithereens. In moments Appa was in the air in amongst a twister of mist, sea spray and flakes of ice, still bellowing angrily and fearfully, but unharmed. Then Appa turned his angry eyes on the firebenders.

"Appa, no!" Aang said firmly, standing between them - there was no way that Appa could take on this many firebenders without getting hurt, or worse. "Appa, go, it's okay!" The sky bison hovered for seconds that stretched out and Aang could tell that he didn't believe him.

"We'll attack if it doesn't leave," the one named Zuko warned him.

"Appa, please, go," Aang pleaded. "It'll be okay, I promise." The lie didn't sit well in Aang's stomach, but it was better than Appa getting hurt - Aang had done his friend enough harm already, all that mattered was that he was safe. Appa stared at him for long moments, those eyes with that near-human intelligence showing sadness in their depths, then, with a long, mournful groan, he turned and left with a beat of his tail.

"Surrender your weapon," Zuko demanded, wasting no time.

"It's not a weapon, it's a glider!"

"Surrender it," Zuko growled, patience wearing thin. With a huff Aang tossed it over. "Now, turn your back." No sooner had Aang done so than he felt ropes bind his wrists together. His freedom floated away like a dream and the weight of captivity settled in his gut like a pound of iron.

Aang gulped and found that he was very, very afraid.