And back here. I feel so fast these days! I had two thirds of this chapter down the very day after I posted the last one. And then I spent three days researching on a subject which turned out irrelevant for this chapter. Yeah, very smooth, but I'll be sure to use the knowledge in later chapters.

After our little river adventure, we continue on Appa. Katara and Aang use the river to throw up a fog cover and we go on pretending to be a cloud again until we're high enough to relax. Aang has stretched out on Appa's head, Momo on his back. Toph picks her nose, which I pretend not to see. Katara is reading a scroll, while Sokka is poring over a map of the Fire Nation, determining our route.

I have nothing to do. Being all damp, I start to shiver pretty quickly.

"Flying is cold," I remark, just to break the silence. I wonder if it would help any to get rid of my pants. But with the actual problem being my underwear, I suppose it doesn't really matter.

"What do you mean?" Katara asks. "It's not cold at all."

"Well, you're not wet! Unlike some other certain people I don't have an extra set of clothes to change into!"

Katara laughs and puts her scroll down. "You should have said something!" She raises her hands and a stream of water pops out of my clothes. Katara bends it overboard in a form of spray which joins with the clouds beneath us. "Better now?"

"Yeah, thanks a ton!" I hug myself and rub my upper arms, wishing for longer sleeves. "Still cold, though."

"Oh, come on!" Sokka complains, not even looking up from his map. "It's summer, it's warm, what could you possibly miss?"

"Hey, I'm not from the North Pole, okay?"

"Well, neither am I," Sokka comments absentmindedly, but still with that certain snark to his voice that seems to be his usual modus operandi. I cock my head at Katara, who appears a bit more receptive.

"We're from the Southern Water Tribe," she explains, throwing me for a loop.

"The Southern...? But..." I point at Katara, my mind sampling bits and pieces of information and ultimately waving the red Can't be true! banner. "But you're a waterbender! The army... Oh..." I trail off, my face heating up with shame as Katara's eyes narrow dangerously. Way to drop the brick, Kami! "I'm sorry."

Katara rubs her forehead with the heel of her hand, eyes closed. It makes her look startlingly vulnerable.

"Look, I didn't mean to..."

"It's alright," Katara firmly chips in, her tone declaring pretty much the opposite and smothering any further conversation. I fall silent, dumbstruck. Well, I better keep my mouth shut for a while. It seems like every time I open it, I may as well put my foot in right away.

"Hey!" I can hear Aang exclaim suddenly. He sounds like he's just been struck by genius. He comes floating into the saddle, disturbing Momo in the process. The lemur chitters resentfully and opts for Katara instead, who has picked up her scroll again to resume her studies.

"If you're cold, it's the perfect opportunity to start learning," Aang cheers, dropping in front of me with his legs crossed. "Airbenders can warm themselves with proper breathing technique."

Breathing technique? "You mean like the Breath of Fire!" I grin broadly, pleased with actually finding something familiar.

Aang looks skeptical, though. His eyes shift to the side, betraying discomfort. My elation deflates.

"Wrong?"

"I'm not sure," Aang replies cautiously. "I don't think it's the same."

"Alright..." I concede hesitantly, catching myself averting my gaze again. Gotta change that – I look up. "So, what do you want me to do?"

The little Avatar rubs the back of his head. "For starters, let's try concentrating on your breathing first. Can you do the lotus position?"

I shift uneasily. "Not really. I've been practicing, but... No, not yet."

Now it's Aang's turn to visibly deflate. "Oh. Okay," he mumbles dejectedly and my heart breaks at the sight. I hate to disappoint.

"I'm sorry, Aang."

"Don't be." He takes a deep breath and relaxes, the usual smile returning to his features. "It's alright. Actually, I barely use the lotus position myself. It's a bit hard to maintain, admittedly." He grins sheepishly. "Maybe we can practice it together one day. But for now, let's use the half lotus instead!"

"Half lotus?" I repeat questioningly, eyebrows furrowed.

"My current position," Aang explains, upbeat. He's over the disappointment and clearly enjoys himself now, and it influences my own mood, too. I smile at him before I examine his legs. One of it lies on the saddle in all its length, the other is placed on top of it, with the foot resting on the thigh of the lower leg. I actually know that position, I do tend to use it from time to time.

"Oh, that one! I didn't know there is a term for it."

Aang snickers. "Now you do."

"Now I do indeed," I jest, scrambling to copy his position. "What next?"

"This next." He puts his fists together in front of his solar plexus and closes his eyes. "Just listen to your breathing."

I blink, processing the view. He's gotta be kidding me. "You... want me to meditate," I state flatly and he cracks open an eye in what I assume to be confirmation. "Why didn't you just say so?!" I yell, annoyance getting the best of me. The other eye shoots open as well and Aang flinches back, one arm on the saddle for support and the other raised protectively in front of his face.

"Uhm, sorry," he offers awkwardly and straightens, shock overcome. "I didn't mean to appear condescending."

I sigh. I have recovered by now and feel bad for losing my temper. "It's fine. I'm sorry, too."

"It's okay."

"Let's meditate then?"

Aang smiles, then gets into position and closes his eyes. "Focus," he instructs, but the way he's doing it looks a lot more like he's talking to himself rather than me. "Feel the air flowing in..." He pauses to inhale. "...and out."

Alright, that shouldn't be too hard. I imitate Aang's position. It feels a bit silly at first... okay, scratch that, it feels very silly at first. I'm not even sure why I'm doing this. Mostly to humor Aang, I guess, and if I can get some self-warming out of it, well... win-win. Besides, I can't lose to Toph! I mean, it might be her so called healthy coating of earth which keeps her warm, but still... She's Earth Kingdom and probably not used to the freezing cold of snowscapes and heights.

So that's why I do this. Although I have to admit that, after a few cycles, I start to feel... calmer.

In... Out... In... Out...

All the anxiety, all the worry about being in the wrong place flows out of my mind together with my very breath.

Inhale... Exhale... Inhale... Exhale...

I feel... free.

"This has gotta be the most boring bending lesson I've ever seen."

Leave it to Toph to kill the atmosphere. "You can't even see," I retort monotonously, not bothering to move.

Toph fires right back, "That's the point." Of course, not without the obligatory measurement of sarcasm. But really, does that even make sense?

"Come on, Toph," Sokka suddenly pipes up. "Let them have fun with their breathing!"

"Meditating here!" Aang interrupts, sounding slightly irritated by now, and the silence returns. Nothing to add there, though I guess Toph isn't satisfied. Well, not my problem. Maybe she should try meditating, too.

I think I could have kept this up forever, if not for the fact that I'm still freezing. I relax my posture and rub my arms again. "Aang? I don't think I'm doing this right."

"What?" The little Avatar blinks, concern in his eyes. "There is nothing to... Right, you're still cold."

He's silent for a while, looking troubled. I can almost see his mind whirl. "Right, uhm, so... There are breathing and meditating exercises taught by the monks to maintain your body heat even in extreme cold, but they take a few weeks of daily practice to take full effect, aaaand..." He also relaxes now, leaning back on his hands and staring to the side. If that doesn't indicate discomfort, I don't know what does. What is he afraid of? Offending me?

"Go on, Aang," I try to encourage him. "Whatever you have to say, be assured I brooked worse."

The notion doesn't seem to make him feel better, but it gets me the intended result.

"I don't mean to insult, but airbending requires a certain level of spirituality, which the people of the Fire Nation neglected during the last hundred years. I can teach you the physical side of airbending, but fully mastering it will take years of dedication, if we..." He cuts himself off at that point and draws up his knees to rest his chin on them. He seems so downcast, so hopeless, so... lost. I can barely look at him. I don't even feel the cold anymore, I'm just... disappointed. With myself.

Why am I an airbender, anyway? If I just were a firebender, or not a bender at all, we wouldn't even have this disaster! I know how it is. You lose something important, spend time and energy on getting over it, then somehow get it back... only to have all your hopes crushed once again.

"You don't think I have it in me, do you?" I mumble. "You think I'm inadequate as an airbender."

"What?!" Aang quite literally jumps at the conception. "No, no, no, that's not what I meant!" he all but shouts and waves his arms frantically. I can just stare at him until he calms down and explains, "Of course you could do it. But I can't ask it from you, I won't. It would turn your whole life upside down."

"I see..."

I'm not opposed to some upside-downing in my life, but I get what he means. The Air Nomads had a vastly different lifestyle from the Fire Nation. I don't know the details, but Aang does. He's not doubting me, he's just being considerate. And that's enough to keep me warm for a while.

That, and the embarrassment once I realize the rest of the group has been watching all the time. Or listening in, in Toph's case.

Katara looks relieved. I can totally picture her bracing herself, ready to pounce on us the very moment we overdo it with depressing each other.

Sokka looks relieved, too. I picture him bracing himself, ready to pounce on me the very moment I overdo it with depressing Aang.

Yeah, that's the Water Tribe siblings for you. Toph, on the other hand, seems to ponder whether or not Katara's wrath is worth the satisfaction of calling us wimps.

Apparently, it is.

"So, now that you two are done competing for the Sissy Award, I vote for lunch break."

As expected, Katara sends Toph a withering glance. True to form, Toph comes out of it unwithered, and Sokka's growling stomach makes for a good distraction.

"Yeah, I'm all for lunch," he remains nonchalant about it. "Is there somewhere we can land?"

We opt for a mountain range. No human soul far and wide, just the five of us. I actually assumed we'd eat while flying, but Appa needs lunch, too.

It's a cold meal. I snack away on two ash bananas, some jerky (which Katara has to remind Sokka that it's not his alone, because the boy guards it jealously) and bread. Again, nothing fancy, but I don't mind. I goof around with Aang a bit, then Katara suggests to play a word-chain game (nouns only which cannot be derived from a verb, because those have similar endings and we don't want to get stuck with a chain which alternates between [-in]g and [-io]n). Sokka should be kicked out for not finding a word when it's his turn, but the words he makes up instead are too funny, so we don't. I think he does it on purpose. Toph's words are curious, too. Many of them sound just like Toph, but there are also more sophisticated ones. (Seriously, who uses "monarch" when you can use "king" or "queen" instead?)

"Where do you get these words from?" I ask in astonishment and as a side-effect, sneak in some thinking time for Aang. "You really don't seem the noble type."

She snickers. "Yeah! Isn't it great?"

I blink, not entirely sure if I should be skeptical about this or plainly disbelieving. "No offense, but... I don't get it."

Toph picks her nose and flicks the... stuff... into space. "Sokka, whatever you're doing, stop doing it."

My gaze flies to the Water Tribe teen, who has that totally-not-innocent look about himself, sitting erect and everything. I have no idea what he did, but he definitely did something, and I really wonder what.

Only for about two seconds though, as Aang pipes up with "Height!" and steers my thought train in another direction. It's my turn.

"Table."

"Elbow," Katara continues.

"Water," Sokka goes with an actual word for a change, and thus we keep throwing nouns around. It's a lot more interesting than it sounds, as all the terms floating around are based in culture-specific vocabularies. I learn what an "igloo" is (a house made from blocks of ice), a "foehn" (a warm downdraft caused by mountains) or a "sandshark" (self-explaining, but I never heard of such an animal). I get to explain "pumice", which is basically cooled lava. It's a stone with so much air trapped inside that it floats in water. Toph remarks on how she encountered it before. Well...

We agree that we should play this more often, for it turned out to be very educational with our little Four Nations circle. And I really like it. There is so much to learn, and it works without actively questioning my beliefs. I never would have imagined how refreshing that can be.

So once I'm back in Appa's saddle, snugly wrapped in a blanket borrowed from Katara and with a full feeling in my stomach, I'm actually pretty happy with myself.

Aaaand cut!

There is a lot of stuff to say about the contents of this chapter, mostly about the airbending part.

As mentioned above, I spent a lot of time on research. What research? Breathing techniques. You wouldn't believe what the human body is capable of, and you don't even have to be a Tibetan monk to not kill yourself by running around the Himalaya. You can do it, too. ALL OF YOU! But you may want to take it slow, or you'll kill yourself getting there. Which sorta defeats the point. And that's also why I had to omit the whole thing in the end. At first, I wanted Aang to explain to Kami that he doesn't want to practice it up there, where the air is thin and cold and they could be distracted any moment, because he doesn't want her to faint on him. But then I figured Aang wouldn't say something like that because Kami could take it the wrong way and get scared. Which is not helping when you try to meditate.
I also tried to figure out how to connect all that stuff I learned to airbending, AND to Tenzin. In LoK, when Tenzin teaches the new airbenders, he expects them to get the breathing right away. About that, I found a breathing technique which is something of a short-cut, heating for instant use, so to speak, but it's rather inefficient compared to the long-term method. So I guess it's fine for Air Temple Island, but not for the poles. (And the Northern Air Temple is a mystery anyway, temperature-wise. I wonder if they still have a bathhouse?)
What I ended up doing is picturing the Air Nomads sitting all their four-year-olds down for breathing and meditation exercises, so they can float around the poles naked without freezing to death by the time they're five. It's crazy, but totally possible.

Now back to Korra and Tenzin. I didn't really think about it before this chapter, but I noticed that Kami does have a parallel with Korra. Though for different reasons, they both lack the spirituality needed to become a true master. Kami is basically going to learn Korra-style airbending laced with Aang-style airbending. But I'm good with that, because I already know it's not gonna be Korra all over again. Both Aang's and Kami's personalities don't allow for it. (Really, sometimes I wonder how Tenzin managed to become so... Tenzin, considering who his parents are. And his uncle, his FRIGGIN' UNCLE! Probably spent too much time around Toph, having been a couple with Lin and everything...)

And last, but not least: Word-chain game! This is more of a personal thing, so if you're bored with reading this oversized A/N by now, you can leave here.
I think word-chain games exist pretty much everywhere, but I based the educational aspect off a real life experience. Some of my readers know that I went to school in Japan for a year as an exchange student. There were four other exchange students at my school, and an English teacher there taught us Japanese.
The Japanese word-chain game is called shiritori, and we played it pretty often to expand our own vocabulary with that of the others. We all picked up different words over the time and would exchange them, something many people don't have a tendency to do without prompting. It was great!
The funny thing about shiritori is that you can actually lose outside of taking too much thinking time. If you blurt out a word which ends on "n", you're out, too. That's because Japanese doesn't have words starting with "n".
(And why do I hear the armies of crazy weeaboos out there cry "NEKO!" now? *sigh* I don't like crazy weeaboos. They pretend to love Japan and know everything about it while they have absolutely no idea what they're doing. Just for clarification: Japanese being based on syllables, "neko" starts with "ne", not with "n". That's important. To make a chain, you use the last syllable. Kitsune, neko, koukai, inori, risu, suika, kami, mikan... AND out! [fox, cat, regret, prayer, squirrel, watermelon, paper/hair/god/sorry-ONDER-I-just-had-to, citrus fruit/mandarin] And I shall stop here now, because I'm talking too much. People who want to know more are welcome to PM me.)

Zentauria officially over and out! Finally!