A/N: Hello, everyone! Merry Christmas Eve! (if you celebrate) I hope you all have a good Christmas with your families :)
responses from chapter 17:
Vapor23: Thank you for your review! I'm glad that you liked Akira being the one to go up for the magician show instead of Katara. I also really liked Akira sticking up for Aang, she is pretty cool :) I did add a couple extra burns. I added Aang and Akira's fake battle that ended with Akira "crying", and I added the "wild animal" and "missed me!" Burns. The Zuko one was in the original, though. Really goes to show what a little sass mouth Aang can be if he wants to. Thank you for your continued support, I hope you like this chapter!
"So, travelers, the next time you think you hear a strange large bird talking, take a closer look," A storyteller said, the tone of his voice mystifying, "It may not be a giant parrot, but a flying man, a member of a secret group of airwalkers who laugh at gravity and laugh at those bound to the earth by it," We were listening to stories in a forest, and in my opinion, this one had to be about the airbenders. I felt a mixture of sadness and gratitude from listening to the stories of how others perceived my people.
"Aren't airbender stories the best?" Aang asked, turning to me.
"Yeah, it had to have been one hundred years since that old guy saw them," I replied gleefully.
"Was it realistic?" Katara asked, "Is that how it was back then?"
"Kiri and I laugh at gravity all the time," Aang responded. We then proceeded to laugh.
"Gravity," Aang said through a laugh.
"Jingle, jingle," The storyteller said, holding up his hat to Sokka. Sokka checked his clothes and pulled out only some bugs and food crumbs.
"Sorry," He said sheepishly.
"Aw, cheapskates," The storyteller grumbled, walking away.
"Hey, thanks for the story," Aang said, walking up to the storyteller.
"Tell it to the cap, boy," The storyteller grumbled, not even looking at my brother. A coin fell out of his cap, and Momo picked it up before putting it back in.
"Aw, much obliged, little bat thing," The storyteller said, petting the lemur on his head.
"It means a lot to hear airbender stories," Aang stated, "It must have been a hundred years ago when your great-grandpa met them,"
"What are you prattling about, child?" The storyteller asked rudely, "Great-grandpappy saw the airwalkers last week," The old man behind him waved and made a strange noise. Aang's eyes lit up with joy and he began to bounce up and down.
"Where did he see them?" He asked excitedly.
"The Northern Air Temple, it not too far from here," The storyteller explained.
"Thank you!" Aang exclaimed before racing over to the rest of us.
"Tomorrow, we're going to the Northern Air Temple," He stated. I grinned widely, becoming the happiest I had been since before Aang was told he was the avatar.
The next day…
We were flying on Appa, high above the clouds. I could barely contain my excitement.
"Are we there yet?!" I asked expectantly.
"No, but we're close," Aang replied, "Sokka, Katara, this is where they used to have championships for sky bison polo," I giggled as a memory of seven year old Aang trying to sign Appa up for sky bison polo entered my mind.
"Do you think we'll really find airbenders?" Katara asked Sokka.
"Do you want me to be like you or totally honest?" He responded.
"Are you saying I'm a liar?" Katara shot back, annoyance in her tone as she folded her arms.
"I'm saying you're an optimist," Sokka replied, "Same thing, basically," Suddenly, the clouds parted, revealing the beauty of the Northern Air Temple.
"We're here, guys!" I exclaimed. When we came closer, I noticed there were people gliding around the temple, and my excitement only raised. Then, I saw the way they glided, and my excitement faded, leaving deep frustration in its place. They didn't glide with the same spirit the airbenders did.
"They really are airbenders!" Katara gasped.
"No they're not," Aang responded bitterly.
"What do you mean, they're not?" Sokka asked, "Those guys are flying!"
"Yeah, flying," I chimed in, "Not gliding,"
"You can tell by the way they move that they're not real airbenders," I added, "They have no spirit," Suddenly, a kid on a glider swooped down toward us, laughing as he did.
"I don't know, Akira, that kid seemed pretty spirited," Katara stated. He then swooped by again, giving us a cheeky grin as he passed. I looked over to Aang, whose expression was that of annoyance, which morphed into determination. He took off after the kid on his glider. I took Appa's reins and flew us toward the temple. When we landed, I could see Aang and the random kid gliding near each other.
"Go, Teo!" A kid exclaimed, "Show that bald kid how it's done!"
"That bald kid's my brother, twerp," I stated annoyedly, "And I bet he knows a lot more about gliding than Teo,"
"So, does that explain why he's losing?" The kid asked. I looked up to see that Aang was in fact losing whatever gliding race he was having with that kid.
"Come on, Aang!" I shouted. I watched as my brother hopped off of his glider and ran across a wall, air scootering before getting back on again. Smoke then began emitting from the kid's glider, and he drew a picture of Aang with it. I scoffed and rolled my eyes. They then both dropped down to the ground, Aang landing near Sokka, Katara, and I, while Teo landed near some other kids. After taking off his glider, he wheeled over to us.
"Hey, you're a real airbender," He stated in disbelief, "You must be the avatar, that's amazing! I've heard stories about you,"
"Thanks," Aang replied sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.
"Wow! This glider chair is incredible!" Sokka marveled, walking over to Teo's glider.
"If you think this is good, wait until you see the other stuff my dad designed," He then wheeled off, and we followed close behind. We went down a hallway leading to a room. It smelled strongly of gas, and there was some sort of tube running through the entire room. My eyebrows furrowed in frustration at the sight of this.
"What happened here?" I asked Aang quietly.
"I don't know," Aang said, looking around the room.
"Wow!" Sokka gasped. I was confused on how he could possibly think that this was in any way "wow" worthy.
"Yeah, my dad is the mastermind behind this whole place," Teo said.
"No he's not, the monks are!" I thought, annoyance evident on my face as I looked at him.
"Everything is powered by hot air," Teo explained, "It even pumps hot air currents outside to give us a lift when we're gliding,"
"This place is unbelievable," Aang said.
"Yeah," Teo responded, "It's great, isn't it?"
"No, just unbelievable," My brother replied with annoyance in his tone before walking away. I shot Teo a dirty look and walked in the same direction as Aang.
"I can't believe that this place was inhabited and destroyed by these dumb tubes!" I said angrily.
"This is supposed to be the history of our people," Aang sighed sadly. He then walked over to what used to be a fountain, but was now filled with weird, green muck. Aang looked at his reflection in the goo, a disgusted look on his face. Suddenly, smoke started emitting from the bison at the top of the fountain, and I stepped back in disgust.
"Eugh!" I exclaimed, "Seriously, how much more can they ruin?"
"I'm sure some parts of the temple are still the same," Katara stated reassuringly, walking up to us. Aang hung his head and sighed deeply.
"It's nice to see at least one part of the temple that isn't ruined," Aang said. We went to the dormitory area, and were standing in front of a statue of a monk.
"Yeah," I sighed. Suddenly, the statue's head fell off, and I covered myself from the rubble. I coughed as the dust cleared and looked back to see people walking up, a man with weird hair leading them.
"What the doodle?!" Weird hair man asked, "Don't you know enough to stay away from construction sites? We have to make room for the bathhouse,"
"Do you know what you did?" Aang asked, his tone filled with anger, "You just destroyed something sacred for a stupid bathhouse!"
"Well, people around here are starting to stink," Weird hair man replied. My frustrations bubbled over, and I found myself yelling at him.
"This whole place stinks!" I shouted. I slammed my staff on the ground, causing the machine that had destroyed the statue to go flying off the side of the temple.
"This is a sacred temple, you can't treat it this way," I said angrily, "My brother and I have seen it when the monks were here, we know what it's supposed to look like,"
"The monks?" Weird hair guy asked, "But you're children,"
"Dad, they're the avatar and the last airbender, they used to come here a hundred years ago," Teo explained.
"What are you doing? Who said you could be here?" Aang asked harshly.
"A long time ago, but not 100 years, my people became refugees after a terrible flood," Weird hair man explained, "During the flood, Teo was badly hurt, and lost his mother,"
"So you chose here of all places?" I asked in the same harsh tone my brother had used.
"I needed somewhere to rebuild, and I stumbled across this place," Weird hair man replied, "I couldn't believe it, everywhere pictures of flying people, but empty, nobody home,"
"Then I came across these fan-like contraptions," He continued.
"Our gliders," Aang stated coldly, folding his arms and glaring.
"Yes, little light flying machines," Weird hair guy said, "They gave me an idea, build a new life for my son in the air, then everyone would be on equal ground, so to speak,"
"We're just in the process of improving upon what's already here," He finished, "After all, isn't that what nature does?"
"Nice sob story, but what's here doesn't need to be improved," I protested, "It needs to be left alone,"
"I suppose that could be true," Weird hair guy replied, "Unfortunately, progress has a way of getting away from us," I then heard a popping noise, and weird hair guy looked up with a start.
"Look at the time!" He exclaimed, pointing to three candles across from him.
"Come, the pulley system must be oiled before dark," Weird hair man stated, turning to his workers.
"Wait, how can you tell the time from that thing?" Sokka asked, walking up to the candles, "The notches all look the same,"
"The candle will tell us," Weird hair man replied, "Watch," They then proceeded to intently look at the candles. The flame emitting from then popped four times.
"You put spark powder in the candle!" Sokka exclaimed.
"Four flashes," Weird hair man stated, "So it's exactly fours hours past midday, or as I call it, four o'candle!" Sokka laughed at this.
"If you liked that, wait till you see my finger-safe knife sharpener," He added, holding up his fingers, three of then being wooden, "Only took me three tries to get it right," He handed the three wooden fingers to Sokka, revealing that he was missing the actual fingers underneath. Sokka stared at the wooden fingers for a while before yelping in surprise. Then, weird hair guy tapped on his shoulder.
"Follow me," He said, walking away. Sokka quickly followed behind him.
"Aang, Akira, I wanna show you guys something," Teo said, turning to my brother and I.
We followed Teo down a hallway, the smell of smoke still invading my nostrils and making my stomach turn.
"I just can't get over it" Aang stated, "There's not a single thing that's the same,"
"I don't know about that," Teo replied, "The temple might be different, but the creatures that live here are probably direct descendants of the ones that lived here a long time ago," He picked up a bug off the ground and handed it to Katara.
"You're right, they're kind of like keepers of the temple's origins," She said before handing the bug to Aang.
"Besides, there is one part of the temple that hasn't changed at all," Teo added. Aang raised an eyebrow, handing the bug to me.
"Where?" I asked.
"Not too far from here," Teo replied, "Follow me, I'll show you it,"
When we got to the doors of the one place that hadn't changed, I noticed that they looked like the doors of the air temple sanctuary back home.
"Hey, it's just like the one in the other air temple," Katara stated.
"Only an airbender can open it," Teo explained, "So inside, it's completely untouched, just the way the monks left it,"
"I've always wondered what it was like in there," He added. I had a feeling that he was hinting at asking Aang and I opening the door for him.
"Aang, Akira?" Katara asked, turning to us.
"I'm sorry, this is the last part of the temple that's the same as it was," Aang responded, "I think I'm speaking for Kiri and I when I say it should be left alone," I nodded, not knowing what to say.
"I completely understand," Teo stated, looking down sadly, "I just wanted you guys to know it was here,"
"Thank you, Teo," I said, a small grateful smile tugging at the corners of my lips.
"The wind will carry you," Teo said, "It supports something inside you, something even lighter than air," He was teaching Katara how to glide, and she was very nervous.
"And that something takes over when you fly," He finished.
"I've changed my mind, I think I was born without that something," Katara stated nervously.
"Impossible, everybody has it," Teo replied with a laugh.
"Spirit," Aang said.
"What?" Teo asked, obviously confused by my brother's sudden speaking.
"That's the something you're talking about," Aang replied.
"Yeah, I suppose it is," Teo said.
"Are you ready?" He asked Katara, who was scarcely gripping onto the glider.
"No," She replied shakily before jumping off of the ledge, screaming as she did. She then started to laugh as she soared through the cloudy sky.
"You know, even though Teo isn't an actual airbender, he's definitely got the spirit of one," Aang stated, happiness in his tone for the first time since we had gotten here, "I think I'm gonna let him see that sanctuary," I smiled before responding.
"I agree, he deserves to see the sanctuary, he's earned it," I said, "Now, let's catch up with them," I unfurled my glider and took off, Aang following closely behind me.
"I can't believe I'm actually flying!" Katara exclaimed happily.
"Just make sure you keep your mouth closed so you don't swallow a bug," Aang said.
"Teo was right about the air, all I had to do was trust it," Katara said, "Let it carry me," Aang smiled and then dropped down to Teo, who had gone back on the ground. I followed behind him, expecting Katara to do the same.
"I've been thinking, if you want to see what's in that room, I'd be happy to open the door for you," Aang said to Teo.
"Really?" Teo asked excitedly, "That would be amazing! If Akira's okay with it, of course,"
"I'm okay with you seeing the room," I stated. Teo smiled gleefully.
"Wait, how do I land this thing?" Katara asked loudly. I hadn't even noticed she was still in the air.
"What if I land over in the-" She started before being interrupted by her own gagging."Bleh! Bug, Bug!" She exclaimed, "That was a bug!"
"I can't believe I'm finally going to see what's inside," Teo stated happily. Aang blasted air into the door, causing it to open. When the doors opened, I couldn't believe my eyes. There were weapons everywhere, and in the center, a giant balloon looking thing with a Fire Nation insignia on it.
"This is a nightmare," Aang stated.
"You don't understand," Weird hair man started from behind us. Aang's face twisted with anger as he turned around.
"You're making weapons for the Fire Nation," He stated, his voice heavy with anger as he pointed at weird hair guy.
"You're making weapons for the Fire Nation?" Sokka asked, disbelief and frustration in his tone.
"Explain all of this now!" I shouted.
"It was about a year after Teo and I moved here, Fire Nation soldiers found our settlement," Weird hair man began, "They were going to destroy everything, burn it to the ground,"
"I pleaded with them, I begged them to spare us," He continued, "They asked what I had to offer,"
"I offered my services," He finished, "You must understand, I did this for you, Teo," Teo's eyes filled with unshed tears as he looked away from his father, his eyes closing tightly. Weird hair man walked away, leaving an aura of unease in his place.
Aang, Teo, and I had decided to confront weird hair guy and ask him when the Fire Nation was coming next. Aang opened the door, frustration still very apparent in his expression.
"When are they coming?" He asked.
"Soon, very soon," Weird hair guy replied glumly, looking down.
"You can't give them more weapons," I stated.
"If I don't give them what they want, they will destroy this place," Weird hair guy explained. Suddenly, a little balloon thing that was floating in the air dropped to the ground, burning as it did. Weird hair guy quickly got rid of the fire.
"How can I be proud of you when your inventions are used for murder?" Teo asked.
"I need some time to think," His father replied. Suddenly, a bell began to ring and Weird hair guy gasped.
"You need to leave," He stated, "Go,"
"We're not leaving," Teo said.
"Then hide quickly," Weird hair guy replied, leading us to a spot in the room where we wouldn't be seen. He then pulled on a rope, and a trap door opened, revealing an older Fire Nation man.
"You know better than to keep me waiting," He stated, his tone cold and his eyes narrowed, "Give me what you owe us so I can be on my way," I watched weird hair man closely, my brows furrowed. He looked down, seemingly holding back the refusal to go through with giving the Fire Nation weapons.
"Well?" The older man asked, "Is there a problem?"
"No," Weird hair guy stated, "Right this way," Frustration boiled inside of me as I gritted my teeth.
"Are you kidding me?!" I thought angrily. Just as they were about to start walking out the door, Aang pushed it closed and pushed a table in front of it, landing on top of the table.
"The deal is off," He stated coldly.
"The avatar," The older man gasped.
"Aang, don't get involved," Weird hair guy warned.
"If I don't get what I came for, the Fire Nation will burn this place to rubble," The older man stated.
"Get out of here," Aang said, slapping the older man with air, "You're leaving empty handed,"
"Then the destruction of this temple will be on your head," The older man stated, pointing to my brother. He then went back under the trap door, and Aang slammed it aggressively with airbending.
"This is bad, very bad," Sokka stated after we had told him about the events that had taken place.
"Aang, what are we gonna do?" Katara asked, "How can we possibly keep them all away?"
"I'll tell you how," Aang replied, "We have something they don't-air power,"
"We control the sky," He explained, "That's something the Fire Nation can't do, we can win,"
"I want to help," Weird hair guy announced, making us turn our attentions to him.
"Good, we'll need it," I said.
"We finally got the war balloon working, thanks to Sokka," Weird hair guy explained to us and the rest of the refugees, "This boy is a genius,"
"Thank you, you're a genius," Sokka replied.
"Thank you," Weird hair guy said. Katara, Aang, and I all shared an exasperated glance.
"See, the problem with the old war balloon was, you could get it airborne, but once you did, it just kept going," Sokka explained, "You could put a hole in the top, but then all the hot air would escape,"
"So the question became, how do you keep a lid on hot air?" He asked.
"Ugh, if only we knew," Katara sighed sarcastically, causing Aang, Teo, and I to laugh.
"A lid is actually the answer," Sokka stated, "If you control the hot air, you control the war balloon,"
"Hmm, that's actually pretty smart," Katara said.
"Okay, we've got four kinds of bombs," Sokka explained, "Smoke, slime, fire, and…"
"Stink," Weird hair guy finished, "Never underestimate the power of stink,"
Everyone was watching over the side of the mountain, waiting for any sight of the Fire Nation soldiers.
"They're coming!" A little girl gasped.
"Are we ready?" Teo asked.
"Yes," Katara replied, "But where's Sokka with the war ballon?"
"We'll have to start without it," Aang stated, hopping down from Appa and unfurling his glider, which Momo perched on top of. We had everyone on their gliders, lined up and ready to defend the temple. Teo gave a thumbs up as a signal that everyone was ready, and with Aang's lead, we all took off. As the soldiers trudged up the mountain, we dipped through the clouds, throwing tiny bombs of sludge at their heads. We also threw smoke bombs, which threw the soldiers off even more. They began to fall off of the cliffside, and I hoped they all landed somewhere safe and not deadly. They were all just doing their jobs, after all. Aang hopped off his glider and formed an air scooter, making an avalanche that caused a domino effect of fallen soldiers.
"We've got them on the run," Aang stated, "We need more slime," People began to swoop down and grab slime bombs from Katara, who was on Appa. Suddenly, chains started to come up, and Appa narrowly avoided them. Leading from the chains were these weird looking things that could scale up the mountain with ease. We began to throw more slime bombs at the contraptions, but they didn't help. Aang turned his glider into a staff and put it into the side of the mountain. He then used it to unhook the chains, causing the weird contraptions to fall off the side of the mountain. Unfortunately, the machine then deployed another chain and began to go up the mountain again. As they made their way up, the machines began to emit fire, to which we all narrowly avoided. We continued to throw smoke and slime bombs at the machines. Aang and I both swooped down and began to fight off the machines by blasting snow at them. Apparently, these things had some sort of mechanism that allowed them to turn over and regain their bearings almost immediately. I groaned in frustration as they came higher up. One blasted fire at me, to which I flipped over quickly, landing on top of it. I hopped off and began trying to defend with snow again. Suddenly, Katara landed near Aang and I, freezing the snow below her and causing the machines to stop and crumble. One of the chains attached itself to Aang's staff, which he slammed on the ground, giving Katara room to crumble the machine it lead to. The machines began to get closer, the soldiers inside blasting fire at us. Aang and I jumped in front, deflecting the fire with blasts of air. When it seemed like the amount of fire blasting machines was getting overwhelming, Appa swooped in and pushed them all away. Aang, Katara, and I all quickly got onto the bison, flying back to the temple as we watched the soldiers trudge even higher up the mountain.
"We're out of bombs," Teo stated worriedly once we were on the ground.
"Come on, Sokka," Katara said, "Where's that war balloon?" Suddenly, she was given an answer by Sokka and weird hair guy flying past on the war balloon, the giant stink bombs below them. I watched as the bombs dropped down, exploding with green muck. Suddenly, they had no more, and the machines were still coming. People quickly began to fight back the arriving soldiers by attempting to throw their machines off the cliff. I gasped as I saw weird hair guy and Sokka throw their fuel source at the soldiers below. Suddenly, there was an extremely powerful blast that caused black smoke to engulf the entire temple. Once the smoke had cleared, I took in the damage the blast had done to the mountain, and was surprised the entire temple hadn't blown off the side of it.
"Look, they're retreating," Aang stated, pointing to the soldiers, who were walking the other direction. Everybody began to cheer around us.
"We're going down!" Sokka exclaimed as the war balloon began to fall extremely fast.
"No!" Katara shouted "Sokka, hold on!" Aang quickly hopped onto his glider and took off, flying around Sokka and weird hair guy. Sokka used his boomerang to attach rope to Aang's foot, and the three of them came back up.
"You know what?" Aang asked, "I'm really glad you guys live here now," We were getting ready to leave the Northern Air Temple, and we were saying our goodbyes.
"I realized it's like the hermit crab," He explained, "Maybe you weren't born here, but you found this empty shell and made it your home, and now you protect each other,"
"I think it's great that you guys have found a home here," I said, "It's really nice to see new life at an air temple,"
"That means a lot, coming from you guys," Teo said, making Aang and I smile.
"Aang, you were right about air power," Sokka stated, "As long as we've got the skies, we'll have the Fire Nation on the run," everyone around us then began to cheer, and I felt a sense of pride knowing that the Fire Nation didn't have full military power over the rest of the world.
A/N: Oh my gosh, only two weeks to go until Book 1 is over! Sorry for the crappy writing this chapter. Towards the end of Book 1, I kind of started to pound out the chapters without much thought. Thanks for reading, make sure to review!