As I was standing up on one of the poles that made up the airball field, I focused on Sokka. He was propped up a few yards away on another pole, blocking his own goal. Our air ball match was about to begin. The way Aang had explained it, the objective of the game was simply trying to score the most points by getting your ball to go through your opponent's goal.
Of course that was the simple part, the difficulty was in protecting your goal or scoring without falling onto the ground. Aang also mentioned that since there weren't that many of us we'd just be doing one on one airball. The team version was much more about moving the ball, while this version required the players to move.
I considered myself fairly nimble but this game seemed to have a pretty steep learning curve. I had always thought this place was actually a training field, which probably wasn't inaccurate either. Lots of games in the Fire Nation had the benefit of fostering a more fit population.
My first game against Aang was fairly one sided, since he obviously had more experience with this game. I had barely scored a single goal against him. I suspected even that goal was probably because of him trying to go easy on me.
Playing against Aang I realized that whatever this kid's mental state he knew how to navigate the field like a genius. I tried to use the enhanced speed my airbending granted me but that didn't do me any good. He was also fast and the field was too small for me to really press my advantage there.
Since Aang could keep up with me fine, my attempts to out-maneuver him were frustrated. This made getting an opening to throw the ball nearly impossible, because he was always there. When I tried to throw it towards the goal anyways he had no trouble intercepting it.
My defense wasn't much better either. Every time I tried to block one of his shots he would ricochet the ball off one of the poles in the way I never would have anticipated. On top of that he was unnaturally tricky to corner, always finding ways of avoiding me and getting around my attempts to block him.
After Aang had racked up a score of ten to one I conceded defeat, realizing that I never stood a chance against him. Aang was a good sport about it though ("You did pretty good for a beginner. I never even considered using the wind run technique during the game until you did it."). Still, it was the most exhilarated I had felt in years.
However Sokka didn't quite see it that way. After my game with Aang finished I heard him say a snide comment implying I lost because I was a girl ("Of course Aang won, guys always do better with sports). So having a modicum of pride in myself I wasn't going to let that comment slide, which was why I had challenged him to a game.
To make things interesting I had even slanted the rules in his favor, saying if he scored even one goal he would win. On top of that he would start with the ball. Proving himself to be an idiot who couldn't see when he was being set up, he accepted.
"Okay, are you both ready?" Aang asked.
"I'm ready when you are." I said to Sokka.
Trying to keep his balance on his pole, Sokka seemed to be having some second thoughts.. "I think so yeah…."
I guess it was a bit harder to show bravado when you're trying to keep your balance on the top of a pole. I was looking forward to kicking his butt.
Raising his arm Aang began a countdown "Alright, begin in 3... 2… 1… GO!"
With Aang's arm going down to signal the match start, Sokka started the match by trying to move across the field. His steps from pole to pole were quicker than I would have expected, but he still needed to stop each time to regain his balance. I took advantage of this by moving closer to him. When he was about halfway across the field I forced him to stop by stepping in front of his path.
Of course he noticed this and tried to go around me by going in a different direction. But being an airbender I naturally had an advantage of speed that Sokka had no answer for. It was something my training with my mother emphasized.
The reason for this was that all airbending citizens were expected to train their speed for when they would serve in the military. The majority were tasked with messenger duty for when hawks were not suitable for the task. Even though I was hiding my airbending to avoid being sent to the residential school, my mother thought it was a useful skill to cultivate. That was why at a full sprint I could get from one end of the temple to the other in just over a minute.
That meant every time Sokka tried to move to a pole I would be able to occupy it before he could even jump. I was basically forcing him to stay still on his pole. After a half dozen attempts to get around me he was getting frustrated.
"Dang it, how am I supposed to get close to the goal if you keep getting in the way!" he shouted.
"No clue, but as a guy I'm sure you'll figure something out." I taunted him.
He growled in frustration at my taunt. I didn't care that much though, I was enjoying watching him lose his cool. But then he made what I thought was a last ditch attempt to win.
"Hey who's that over there? Is that your mom?" He asked.
It was a cute trick, but that's all it had going for it. "Nice try Sokka, I'm not falling for tha-"
"Tashi! What are you doing up there!" came an all too familiar voice, causing me to freeze stock still.
This was bad. I hadn't put any thought into explaining any of this to anyone else, let alone my Mom. I hadn't even considered coming up with a plausible cover story with Aang, Katara, or Sokka.
I tried not to lose my cool as I turned around, even though Mom could probably see right through me "Hey Mom, what brings you out here?"
Looking at Mom she was clearly irked by my behavior and her tone of voice reflected that. "Well young lady, it's past noon and I was wondering when you were coming back from your walk for lunch. I've had to search through half the temple before I found you here. Airbending. In front of strangers."
She cast an accusatory glance towards Aang and Katara, who were standing on the sidelines. Being mere mortals they seemed to recognize that my Mom was not to be trifled with and averted their gaze. I tried to do damage control.
"I'm sorry Mom, they're visitors and I thought I should show them around. You're always telling me we should show hospitality to guests right?" I asked.
"That's certainly not what I meant when I said that and you should understand that Tashi." Then she sighed audibly and said "Did you even bother to ask who these people were? Because I can tell at least two of the three aren't from the Fire Nation. As for the third…"
My mother looked at Aang with suspicion. Many airbenders have made the mistake of fully trusting any other airbender they met. They would confide with them their grievances and complaints. Only to be revealed later that their new friend was a loyalist that was ready to turn them in at the first opportunity.
Taking my mothers attention towards him as a cue, Aang decided to introduce himself "Hello, we're very grateful that your daughter has been willing to guide us Mrs..."
"Nisho, of the Sai family." My mother supplied.
"Mrs Nisho. I'm Aang, and these are my friends Sokka and Katara. I wanted to show them some Air Nomad culture, and your daughter has been really helpful to us. We were just playing an old airbending game when you showed up." Aang said.
"Oh? Aang did you say your name was? My daughter has been showing you around?" Mom asked. Suddenly I started even more nervous, because when Mom started asking other people questions about me it usually meant I was about to get punished and she was gathering evidence to confirm it.
Thankfully Aang had some tact "Yeah, she was really insistent that we promised not to cause any trouble since we're just visiting."
My mother considered what he said. "Hmm, that's nice to hear. Do you mind if I borrow her for a minute? I need to have a word with her."
"Oh, of course." Aang said, picking up a bit of the subtext from my mothers words.
The subtext of course being 'If she doesn't have a good explanation for this nonsense she's going to be grounded for life'. Even if she was lenient by Fire Nation standards she was ready to lay down the law if she thinks her kids are stirring up trouble.
Walking over to the side a bit, my mother looked me in the eye's and asked "Alright Tashi, why is that boy wearing monk robes?"
Suddenly put on the spot of having to relay Aang's crazy explanations, I bent the truth a bit "Oh, that? Aang mentioned that he's really into traditional airbender culture and he wanted to look the part."
"Is he now? Did he mention any groups he's a part of? Where is he from?" my mother questioned.
"He uhh… said he's an Air Nomad? And he mentioned living here at one point, though he was a bit vague on the details." I tried to answer, trying to account for the weird turn in my mothers line of questioning.
"Hmm…That's strange indeed. " My mother hummed, thinking for a moment. "Well if they're not looking to start trouble I don't see the harm in letting them look around for the day."
"Really?" I asked, a bit confused. I could have sworn I was about to get grounded or something.
"Yes, just for the day though. And don't think this is an excuse to show off you bending young lady. I don't care if that boy wants to see it or not, is that understood?"
"Yes, understood." I confirmed. At least that warning was a bit more in character for her.
"I'll just save your portion for dinner. Bring your friends back before sunset and I'll make sure to have some plates set out for them." she said.
"You want to invite them over for dinner?" I asked.
"Don't be so surprised, Tashi. It's important to show hospitality. You never know which visitors are going to be important or not."
"That makes sense I guess…" I replied.
Did she think Aang was important or something? I get the principle and all but I'm not sure why my mother was bringing it up so suddenly. It had been ages since we've had any guests from outside the temple, at least not since Prince Zuko visited here on his search a few years ago.
"Good, now don't keep your visitors waiting." My mother finished. With that she started walking back home, leaving me with three guests waiting for me to rejoin them.
Despite my initial expectations I wasn't quite sure how to feel about that conversation. I was at least happy to have dodged any sort of punishment outside of a brief scolding. But my mom was acting weird. The entire time she was hardly concerned about Katara and Sokka and had entirely focused on Aang.
The weirdest thing of course was that she just knew that Aang was an airbender from the warning she had given me. I'm pretty sure neither Aang or I had mentioned it at all. Was she just assuming Aang was an airbender from his monk's robes?
I guess it was just something I'd have to figure out later.
A/N
-Despite my writer's block I have resolved to make something of this story. As nice as it would be I've decided covering every episode of the series isn't the goal of this fic. So expect some parts of canon to get lots of attention and some parts very little (sorry 'The Great Divide', you're probably not making the cut).
-A nice chance to show the characters having a little fun with the airball game, a nice way to contrast them without too much contrived conflict.
-Gee I wonder if Tashi's mom knows more than she's letting on? Three guesses what she suspects about Aang.
-Please leave any feedback that you have. I'm always looking to improve.