"Hey there! My name's Aang, do you live here?" the boy shouted. He must have a set of lungs on him to have such a loud voice.
Since it fell to me to greet the weird kid, I approached them and answered. "Yes I do. What are you doing here?"
The boy, Aang, didn't seem put off by my blunt question. "We were passing through the area, and I decided that since the Temple was so close I could come back and show it to my friends."
He gestured to the two tribesmen, who looked a bit nervous being here. I could see that they were stealing glances towards the temple grounds around us, like they thought someone was eavesdropping. They weren't even making any moves to leave the saddle.
But one phrase Aang used got my attention "Come back? You've been here before?"
"Yeah, I was actually born here. So it's kind of a homecoming for me." He said.
That just raised even more questions for me. I don't recall ever meeting this kid here before. Did he leave before my family came here? If he left so long ago what exactly is he expecting?
"Okay, well welcome home then. I see that you brought back a sky bison." I observed, with my confusion being reflected in my tone. Then I glanced towards the passengers in the saddle " …and some water tribesman."
"Uh huh, this is Appa. He's my best friend. These are my other friends. Their names are Sokka and Katara." He gestured towards the tribesmen.
The boy seemed understandably agitated about Aang giving their names away. "Don't tell her our names Aang, we don't even know who she is! She could be with the Fire Nation for all we know."
So far Sokka seemed like the one with the most common sense among them. Given that they outnumbered me I decided that they needed some reassurances to calm them down. Of course given what he just said it would be better if I gave them the impression I wasn't from the Fire Nation.
"You don't need to worry, I'm not going to arrest you. My name is Tashi, and my family moved here because the Fire Nation doesn't pay much attention to a place like this." I said, which was all technically true. The captain would be the one with the responsibility of arresting them if they ended up being trouble.
"It's nice to meet you Tashi." Aang said. He turned back to his friends "See guys, I told you it was safe here."
The Tribesmen still seemed skeptical, but they looked more relaxed than before. At least they had stopped looking around. Katara decided to even ask a question.
"So Tashi, is your family the only one here? The Temple seemed a bit deserted while we were flying over." She asked.
"No actually, there's a few other families that have moved here. We mostly earn our living by farming the fruit groves nearby" I said.
"Oh man, I've been dying for a fruit pie. Sokka, do you think we could afford to get some fruit from them?" He asked.
"Aang, you still owe me for using my blubbered seal jerky for kindling last night. If I'm buying any fruit I'm buying it for myself first." He said.
"Oh right" Aang started rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment "Maybe we could talk about it later then."
As interesting as their group dynamics were, I decided to ask a follow up question about what they were doing here.
"So you said you came here to show your friends around?" I asked.
"Yeah, I'm really looking forward to it" Then he looked around again and his spirits seemed to fall a bit "Though I guess the temple isn't how I remembered it."
I could see what had gotten him down. Looking around the temple grounds were clearly a shadow of their former self. The whole place was overgrown with weeds, the walls had multitudes of cracks, and random debris littered the grounds.
My parents had said that it used to look worse when we first arrived, with remains of the original battle still littering the whole temple. Most of that had been removed, but not all of it though. We still found remains here and there.
"Sorry, I hope you don't mind if the place looks a bit run down. Nobody living here has a lot of spare money or time for repairs outside their living quarters." I said, gesturing to the temple around us.
"That's okay, I've been gone for a hundred years. It would probably be a bit much to expect that everything would be the same." Aang said.
My mind blanked for a moment as I tried to process what he said. One hundred years!? I practically did a double take. But he seemed to look utterly sincere, as if what he said wasn't absolutely stark raving mad. The water tribesmen in the saddle seemed to wince, probably from embarrassment I thought.
"Are you saying you've been gone for a hundred years?" I asked, just to confirm I hadn't misheard him.
"Yeah, it's kind of a long story." Aang replied.
"I don't care how long the story is, that's impossible." I countered. "Like what were you even doing for a hundred years?"
Aang stayed silent for a moment, seeming to weigh what he was about to say in his mind. Then he answered my question.
"I was trapped in an iceberg, I don't remember everything but spirits were involved." He said.
Oh how convenient, spirits. The same thing my little brother blames when something gets broken around him.
"And let me take a guess, you have no proof of this?" I asked.
"I know it's a little hard to believe, but it's true." He said, still not even betraying a hint of doubt in his claim. "Katara and Sokka were actually the ones who freed me."
I looked towards the tribesmen again, and Katara spoke first "Yeah, like Aang said it's a long story but we did find him in an iceberg."
Sokka also vouched for Aang's story "It was probably the weirdest day in my life but it's true."
Their certainty made me consider for a moment that maybe Aang was telling the truth, but then I dismissed it immediately. Just because they say that he's been frozen in an iceberg for a hundred years didn't mean it was true. One of the things my parents had drilled into me growing up was to not take everything someone says at face value. Especially if it sounded wrong or was impossible.
But it felt like I was missing something. Aang being crazy didn't explain where he got the Air Nomad outfit or the sky bison. Neither of those things were exactly common or easy to find.
On top of that there was the mystery of the two water tribe teenagers. Last I checked the Fire Nation and Water Tribes hadn't made peace, so they were taking a huge risk leaving the South Pole to come here. If Aang was crazy, how exactly did they figure into all of this?
I could try to turn them all in, but I doubted they would go quietly. And then I'd probably never find out what was going on. But if I played along as a helpful stranger, I might actually get to the bottom of this mystery.
"Okay, I don't believe a word you're saying, but I'm willing to be persuaded."
That seemed to encourage Aang "That's all I can ask for. At the very least I can prove that I'm an Air Nomad. Let me show you."
Then, standing up, he jumped off the head of the bison into the air. I felt my breathing stop. Before I could even move to try to catch him, he put his hands out and airbended! He softened his descent enough to avoid being injured as he landed with a small thud right next to me.
I probably shouldn't have been surprised that he could bend since he was wearing Air Nomad clothes. But he had moved so suddenly my instincts had kicked in at the strange bender invading my personal space. So I was taken off guard a bit and I panicked.
"GAAHH!" I jumped back in shock.
Instinctively I used my airbending to put some distance between us quickly. My jump backwards was propelled by air blasts generated from my feet. The pair of tribesmen immediately realized the situation had escalated and quickly jumped out of the bison's saddle. Once I stopped a few yards away from Aang I saw they were running to his side where he had landed. I might have overreacted a bit but someone needed to set this kid straight.
"Hasn't anyone taught you any manners!" I shouted.
"Sorry! I didn't realize you were sensitive about personal space." Aang said, putting his hands up.
I walked back toward Aang and said "It's not about that! You can't just use your bending whenever you feel like it in front of strangers!"
"What? I can't?" Aang said, suddenly very confused.
"Of course not! You could hurt someone if you're not careful." I pointed at him to emphasize my point.
"But… it's just airbending. It's not supposed to hurt people. And you just airbended too! I didn't realize you were an airbender." he said, the realization dawning on his face.
"Because it was none of your business until you got up in my face with your bending. Would you stay calm if someone took out a knife and put it up towards your face?" I asked.
Katara seemed to decide she needed to mediate and calm things down. "Tashi, Aang didn't mean to frighten you. Now that he knows he won't do it again, right?"
She looked over towards Aang and I recognized the expression she directed towards Aang. It was the same one my mother used when she expected a certain answer from me or my brother. And Aang seemed to get the message.
"Alright, if it makes you uncomfortable I won't bend in front of you if I don't need to." he conceded.
But before I could respond, Sokka seemed to come to a realization about me.
"Hey! You told us that you weren't with the Fire Nation! Then we find out that you're an airbender? You lied to us!" he shouted, pointing his finger at me.
Damn it, if only Aang hadn't surprised me. Now I look like a liar. Okay, maybe I had lied by omission but I really didn't want to fight them.
Trying to re-establish my credibility I said "I was telling the truth. If you remember my exact words I said I wasn't going to arrest you. I never claimed I wasn't a Fire Nation citizen."
Sokka was clearly not impressed by my explanation. "Oh, it just slipped your mind huh?"
"Well sorry if I don't tell my whole life story to some strangers who showed up out of nowhere!" I told them.
Aang seemed sympathetic though, saying "Sokka, we can't blame her for not wanting to tell us she was an airbender. It's not like she knows us."
"Look, I'm just trying to be cautious, okay? She just admitted to being a Fire Nation citizen." Sokka replied.
"Oh, I didn't realize being born in the Fire Nation automatically made me a bad person." I said sarcastically.
"Umm yeah? Kind of?" Sokka admitted.
"Sokka… I think we should give her a chance." Aang said.
Sokka seemed unmoved."Why should we?"
"Because I've been to all the nations, and I know there's good people in all of them. It's not like she decided to be born in the Fire Nation. You guys told me yourselves the airbenders had to work for the Fire Nation after they were conquered." Aang said to the tribesmen, before turning towards me in sympathy.
As much as I appreciated Aang speaking up for me, I think he was a bit misguided about the airbenders role in the Fire Nation. He acted like we were just their slaves or something. It wasn't like we were happy to be ruled by the Fire Lord, but it was more complicated than that. But now wasn't the time to correct him.
Sokka gave it a moment of thought but he decided to relent "Fine, but if she makes one wrong move I'm tying her up."
"Like you tried to do with Aang when we met him?" Katara asked.
"I said I was sorry about that!" Sokka shouted.
"Suddenly I'm having some doubts about letting you guys wander around here." I said.
Aang wasn't hearing that, however. "I know it isn't ideal but it's important to me to see the temple. I've been away for a hundred years. If you were away from your home for so long wouldn't you want to see it again?"
As unlikely as it was that I'd be away from home for as long as a hundred years, I couldn't help but sympathize a bit. My family had left the Fire Nation when I was young, but I still had some memories of it. The hot air, the full marketplaces, the friendly neighbors we had were all things I remembered. I wished that I could go back. The temple wasn't the worst place to grow up but it didn't feel alive like the Fire Nation did.
So I decided that if he wanted to see the temple with his friends he could. But I would need some assurances.
"Okay, setting aside threats to tie me up. If you're going to go anywhere else in the Temple, you need to promise not to hurt anybody." I said to Aang.
"That's fair, we weren't planning on hurting anyone." He then raised his right hand "You have my promise."
Katara joined in "I promise I won't hurt anyone either."
We all looked at Sokka, who seemed to switch to a defensive posture.
"I wasn't planning on hurting anyone either. If it makes you feel better I promise I won't hurt anyone." He said.
I guess that was the best I could expect. But now I had committed myself to letting them into the temple. Which meant there were a certain few people we needed to work around.
"Good, now that's out of the way I should mention that we'll have to be careful where we go. There are two Fire Nation soldiers posted here." I could see Sokka's eyes widen at that, and I hurried to reassure him "But! They don't get out much in winter. The captain just stays in his office. As for the lieutenant he should have already made his morning patrol and he won't do his afternoon patrol until sunset. So as long as you follow my lead you'll be fine."
"Hold on, why should we let you lead us anywhere? What's stopping you from leading us into a trap?" Sokka asked.
Ugh, this guy's paranoia was getting on my last nerve. But that did give me an idea for testing if some of Aang's claims held up.
"Okay, if you don't trust me, then let Aang pick where we should go. If he's really from here then he should know this place pretty well." I suggested.
If Aang was nervous in any way about having to navigate the temple he wasn't showing it. In fact he actually started looking eager.
"Oh! I know exactly where we should start. The airball court should be really close to us. We could play a game!"
I suddenly felt out of the loop "Airball? I've never heard of that before."
Aang was incredulous at that "You haven't? But it's the best game ever! All the airbenders loved to play it!"
"I think my parents would disagree about the 'best game' part. They're always trying to get me to play Pai Sho with them." I said.
Aang didn't seem persuaded though "That's a board game, airball is in a whole different league."
"Well I have no idea how to play it." I said.
"Don't worry, I think I'm the perfect person to teach you." Aang said, with a growing smile.
Suddenly I felt like I had signed myself up for more than I had bargained for.
A/N
-I hope you guys liked this, because I made myself rewrite it twice before I was satisfied. Trying to write an encounter that portrays the cultural tensions without a full blow up is hard. Doesn't help that there's a war on and they're technically on opposite sides.
-As you might have guessed from Katara's remark about Sokka trying to tie up Aang, their introduction went a bit less smoothly than in canon. On the plus side they did a better job explaining the current situation to Aang. So he's aware that the airbenders are a part of the Fire Nation now because they were conquered, though all the details and implications of that haven't sunk in yet.
-If you're wondering why Tashi's response to Aang's bending was so negative, I figured that a lot of the Fire Nations attitudes towards bending would have transferred onto airbending over the 100 years. Fire bending is inherently dangerous, and you would only use it in the presence of trusted ones or to attack enemies. Since she doesn't trust Aang yet her mind assumes a surprise attack rather than demonstration, since Aang didn't properly communicate that was what he was doing.
-Please leave any feedback that you have. I'm always looking to improve.