The Caged Wind (Avatar the Last Airbender AU)

[Sierra101]

Chapter 1: Benders without a Nation​

My mother once told me that long ago, airbenders used to be able to fly all throughout the sky. I have a hard time imagining that though. Any time I tried flying all I could do was jump a couple of feet up into the air. It's useful when my brother's ball gets caught in a tall tree, but not so much otherwise. My mother isn't so wild about me climbing up trees though. Like today for example.

"Tashi! Get down from there, you're going to break your neck if you fall!" my mother shouted.

I winced. I could have sworn she was still doing laundry. "Sorry Mom. I was just getting Ceba's ball for him."

My little brother Ceba, standing at the bottom of the tree, came to my defense "Yeah, what she said. It's not her fault."

"I swear you two are going to give me gray hair before I even turn forty. Now get down this instant Tashi." she demanded.

I was just a few feet away from the ball, but my mom could be very unforgiving about following instructions. Being raised in the Fire Nation probably had something to do with that. She had told me how lucky I was that she didn't use a switch branch to discipline me like parents in the Fire Nation did.

So I picked my landing spot and moving forward off the branch I used my airbending to slow my body as I jumped down. I could see Mom's body tense up at first when I left the branch. My landing was pretty soft but Mom didn't seem impressed.

"When I said get down I was expecting that you would climb down." she said.

"I could have lost my grip, airbending seemed safer." I replied.

"That's hard to believe considering you're not supposed to be bending, let alone practicing, without me supervising. When exactly did you learn how to do that?" she said

I was about to reply before I realized that she probably wouldn't be too pleased to hear I had figured it out by jumping off a small ledge a couple dozen times. Instead I went to my usual cover story when I was practicing a move.

"I uhhh.. found it in a scroll?" I said, hoping she would buy it.

From the look on her face she probably didn't, but she knew trying to press me wouldn't go anywhere. I could be very good at dodging the question when I wanted to.

Instead she sighed and said "Well now that you're done risking your life for a ball, I need your help sewing some clothes. The captain wants his socks darned immediately and I need help."

"Again? How does he keep wearing through them so quickly?"

"Probably has something to do with one of his feet being made of wood, dear. Now come on."

"Yes Mom." I said, and I followed her to the sewing room. When I saw little Ceba looking forlornly at the ball still in the tree I mouthed to him 'later' as a promise. He seemed to be cheered up by that.

Another thing that was unthinkable to me were the stories about how airbenders used to travel all over the world, with hardly anyone giving them trouble. With the war on, nobody under the Fire Nation's thumb was allowed to even breathe without their permission. The way my parents describe it there was so much paperwork before they could get a colonial emigration pass to move to this former temple.

Here the person who made the rules was Kochin, a semi-retired army captain who got the job watching our little community after he lost a leg. There were only a dozen of us here at the former southern air temple, which meant the Fire Nation only had him and his assistant watching us. Any more than that would have been considered a waste of manpower probably. We were allowed to settle here so we could tend the nearby fruit groves to supply the military.

Captain Kochin wasn't the worst possible petty overlord to have. He was old and riding the war out here until he could retire in a year or two. Because of this he wasn't so strict about the "no airbending" laws we lived under. So as long as someone didn't make trouble or flout the laws too obviously then he wouldn't call in the nearby garrison to arrest them for bending in private.

His assistant Lieutenant Gero however was a real killjoy. Being younger he was much less thrilled about being in a 'backwater' posting. There weren't that many opportunities to win glory around here. That meant Gero was always scheming for ways to get himself transferred or promoted.

For example when Prince Zuko visited the temple searching for the Avatar a few years ago Gero made a huge deal about it. Made us do all sorts of stuff to butter up the prince like preparing a big feast and cleaning the whole temple from top to bottom. He didn't even let us talk to him lest we ruin his rare meeting with royalty.

But all the work felt worth it when the prince royally chewed Gero out for potentially destroying evidence of the Avatar by having the temple cleaned so thoroughly ("You idiot! How am I supposed to find anything if it's all been wiped away!"). The look on Gero's face was priceless.

It probably didn't help that the prince must have been irritated by his injured eye getting exposed to the cold mountain air. The scar looked pretty bad from what I could see. I don't think I saw him smile the entire time he was here. Prince Zuko was so angry about Gero's mistake that he didn't even stay for the feast we had made, which meant the extra food went to us. So I counted it as a good day.

Aside from that, life here at the temple was pretty quiet. We occasionally get a few tourists who come to see the site of the Fire Nation's great triumph over the Air Army. The history books say that the Nomads were afraid of the Fire Nation and were preparing to invade. So Sozin launched a pre-emptive strike that devastated them. The only survivors were a few children that the Fire Nation 'benevolently' took in, one of which was my great grandmother.

If they were treated anything like my mother though, I'm sure they would've rather died. For a long time after that, children with either a certain amount of air nomad ancestry, one quarter or more, or had airbending were expected to attend 'residential' schools. Mom didn't like talking about her time in the school, but what she did tell me was truly terrible to hear.

The punishments for even minor rule breaking were often cruel. Despite being a non-bender my mom was treated harshly just because of her ancestry. One time when mom had broken curfew she had been forced to loudly sing the fire nation anthem over and over until her voice gave out. Then she was beaten for not being able to follow orders and sing it again.

The only reason me and my brother had avoided going was that we were less than a quarter air nomad on my mothers side, so we weren't automatically required to go. Our dad is from the Fire Nation, but that didn't mean he didn't love us. When Mom and Dad discovered I had inherited my grandmother's airbending, they both agreed they would never send me to one of those schools.

That was partly why we moved out here, there's fewer people around willing to tattle if they saw me bending. The other residents all have air bending ancestry, which was why they chose to come back to the temple. I'm pretty sure some of them can airbend, but between the laws and stigma attached to airbending it's rarely brought up. Since the temple has so few people here there was plenty of room for us. Plus it was far from the war.

Currently Dad is serving in a regiment near Omashu, so I needed to help out with a lot of the chores. Even if I was less of a fan of certain tasks.

"I still don't understand how you avoid pricking yourself with the nee- AH!" I withdrew my hand from where it was working and examined it to see if it was bleeding.

"You just need to pay attention to where your hands are dear. Don't think I didn't notice that you were letting your mind wander." she said.

I returned to working on the sock I was holding. "Well sorry, darning socks isn't exactly the most interesting thing in the world."

"You'll learn to appreciate having the skill. Why else do you think the Captain always comes to us when he needs his clothes mended?"

"I always thought it had more to do with the fact he didn't want to do it himself."

She gave me a look and said "True, but it's important to make yourself useful to others. I've learned that's the best way to find your place in the world."

"I'm trying to be useful. Why do you think I was helping Ceba get his ball out of that tree?"

"I meant other ways. You don't need to use your bending to help people. I remember the Noharas saying they need someone to walk their goat dog since they're getting up there in years."

"Oh boy, walking a goat dog. That sounds like a real step up from darning socks." I said, my tone of voice showing how little excitement I actually felt.

"When you're older you'll appreciate how important little things like that are. Not everything in your life needs to be exciting, Tashi." She told me.

I finished the last sock I had and handed it to Mom for inspection. "Well I'm done, is there anything else I need to do?"

My mother thought for a second before saying "Not right now, I won't be starting making lunch for another hour. So you can enjoy some free time."

"Alright, thanks Mom. I'll be back soon."

"Just don't wander off too far. And if you see Mr Nele tell him I finished mending his winter coat."

"I'll do that." I said before I was out of our little temple apartment.

I took advantage of the free time to go for a walk for some exercise. This time of day Ceba liked to play with the only other kid here, a little girl named Opame who was around his age. They were cute together, so long as they weren't up to some mischief. As the fifteen year old to Ceba's ten years old, I had to reign him in sometimes. Since he was a firebender I literally had to blow out his fires for him on several occasions.

I made sure to dress up in my gray coat and scarf. The temple grounds were pretty large so I had plenty of space to stretch my legs. It was useful for keeping warm as I enjoyed the clear mountain air. It was a bit windy today so I made sure to pull my brown hair back and secure it into a ponytail with some string.

One of the downsides of living up here was that it was almost always near freezing. I idly wondered if any airbenders froze to death from living on top of such a cold mountain. At the very least it meant most of the other residents stayed inside as much as possible so they could stay warm. It wouldn't be for another few months before it was warm enough to do anything besides tend the nearby fruit tree groves down in the valley.

I had just finished a lap around the grounds when I spotted something in the late morning sky. At first I thought it was a bird, but then I saw it getting closer. As the thing in the sky approached I suddenly realized it was big, furry, and had horns. Was this a sky bison? I had heard about them but they were so rare I had never seen one.

Then it turned directly towards me, and it began to dawn on me that it was going to land here. I looked around and realized I was standing in the plaza where it was likely headed to land, so I moved to avoid getting in its way. My timing was good because once I had moved towards one of the gates I saw it land in the middle of the plaza. To my amazement I saw the huge beast was wearing a large saddle, with two people riding in it with a third on the bison's head.

I could hardly believe what I was seeing. My Mom had been scolding me for climbing a tree an hour ago and these lunatics were riding a giant bison that could easily throw them off thousands of feet in the sky while it flew.

I wondered if they would let me take a ride with them.

But even more strange was that the two teenagers, a boy and a girl, were wearing blue parka's. They were probably water tribesmen. We weren't that far from the south pole so it was pretty likely they had come from there.

The boy on the bison's head however was a different story, wearing an unusual orange and yellow outfit. I tried to place it for a moment before I realized where I had seen it before. It was traditional air nomad clothing. I remembered finding one or two old sets of it while exploring the temple.

Even more striking were the large arrows on his head and hands. Were those tattoo's? I really hoped not because from what dad told me getting tattoos hurt. And this kid had tattoo's all over him. I could hardly imagine any sensible adult giving so many tattoo's to a kid his age. Maybe they were just painted on. Was this kid an Air Nomad enthusiast or something?

Before I could study the strange visitors further they spotted me standing a few yards away. The boy seemed eager to greet me.

"Hey there! My name's Aang, do you live here?" he shouted.

I guess I was going to have to go say hello.

A/N

This is an AU I can't remember being explored that heavily, probably because the Air Nomad Genocide is such a keystone to the story. But I couldn't help but wonder, what would have happened if it wasn't a total genocide? In real life genocides there are often some survivors. So what if the Fire Nation chose to take the airbenders that were too young to possibly be the avatar and tried to "civilize" them? Given that Sozin's stated reason for starting the war was "sharing the greatness of the Fire Nation", them engaging in cultural genocide is pretty plausible. For real life reference, see Canada's residential schools. Be warned, some absolutely heinous stuff happened in those places.

So Aang isn't the last airbender, but he's basically the last "Air Nomad" left in terms of culture. Hopefully I can do justice to this story as Aang tries to come to terms with that fact as he interacts with the main character of this story. In a way this is going to be harder for him, because the consequences of him leaving are going to be way harder to ignore.

 

[Sierra101]

Chapter 2: An Unlikely Homecoming​

"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.

 

[Sierra101]

Chapter 3: Hospitality for Strangers​

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.

 

[Sierra101]

Chapter 4 Exploring the Temple​

It was a weird experience being the host for someone who was also acting as a tour guide to your own home. I liked to think I knew this whole temple like the back of my hand. After all, the only thing to do in my free time was walking around the temple, with so few books to go around. But apparently I had been in the dark about quite a few things.

For starters, while the airball court was just used for games, I instead learned about something that actually was used for training. Finding an old storage closet that hadn't been opened in ages, Aang fished out a couple boards of wood that he called gates. Attaching about a dozen of them to some holes in the ground in a nearby courtyard, he blew a blast of air to get them spinning.

Then, as they were spinning, Aang casually danced his way past each spinning gate without getting touched by any of them once. When I made my own attempt, I was fast enough to successfully dodge the first gate, only to be smacked by the second. I made a few more attempts, but I hardly got past the third or fourth on any attempt.There were just too many gates to focus on.

My main consolation was that Sokka couldn't even get past the first gate.

Then we went to the old stables where the bison pens were. Currently it was just used for storing the harvest and our farm equipment. So right now it was relatively empty since last fall's yield of fruit had long been shipped off. I mostly just associated this place with hard labor and exhaustion. No beasts of burden around meant we had to haul everything ourselves up from the groves by wheelbarrow.

For Aang though, it was a trip down memory lane. He pointed out the old workshop where the sky bison saddles were made. We even learned a bit about how he helped make his first saddle, which was one of his rites of passage. Apparently it had taken a whole month working with the temple's saddle-maker to complete it. Aang even remembered where his bison's pen was ("Appa liked being furthest from the door, because it meant he could sleep longer when the sun came up").

Of course the highlight of the tour was when Aang showed us one of his favorite spots, a place called 'The perch'. There we found a flat courtyard that led to an unfenced ledge. According to Aang it was where all airbenders at the temple were taken for their first flight. I only knew it as one of the places around the temple that mom didn't like me going to without supervision, on account of the steep cliff drop. I was a bit surprised however when Aang made a suggestion.

"You wanna grab your glider? I'd love to have a race."

"My glider?" I asked, suddenly feeling like I had missed something.

Now it was Aang's turn to be confused. "You know, the glider you fly with."

"I thought you used your bison to fly? This is where you learn to fly your sky bison isn't it?" I tried to confirm.

"No actually, we did that down in the valley where there's more space to maneuver. What I'm talking about is personal flight. Just about any airbender can do it." Aang tried to clarify.

I was still confused. "But I've tried to fly and I only ever get a couple feet into the air by jumping." I tried to reason. "How would you fly without a sky bison?"

"Well to answer that question, I think it would be easier to let me show you."

Then, suddenly Aang held out his staff and with a small gust of wind opened up a set of orange fan-like wings. I hadn't even realized that there was anything unusual about his staff until now. Then, taking only a few steps to move his glider behind his body, Aang jumped up into the air.

Instead of gravity bringing him back to the ground though, he leveled his body a bit and he continued to climb higher and higher into the air. I could hardly believe my eyes. It was just like the stories. I could hardly even see him moving to bend the air. Gradually his claim of being an airbender from over a century ago was looking more and more plausible.

Once he had gained some altitude he started to maneuver around in the air, with loops and twists. I craned my neck left and right to keep up with him in the air. I would say he moved like a bird, but I could tell he was trying to show off a bit. After he had been in the air for a minute he seemed to decide that I had gotten the message and began descending to the ground.

Just as he got close to the ground Aang closed his glider and I held my breath as he started dropping like a stone. However he had things under control, and before I had realized it he was slowing his descent with airbending. As Aang landed on the ground, I released the breath I had been holding.

I'll admit, that display was one of the most impressive things I had ever seen.

"That was flying. So, you want to give that a try? Since you're new I can give you a lot of pointers." he asked.

Trying to fathom how to respond to that, I stammered out "I… umm… don't think I should…"

Aang tilted his head "Why not?"

Trying to justify myself, I said "Because my mom doesn't want me to airbend without her around to supervise."

Katara then asked her own question "Really? You seem a bit old to need supervising. When I started bending my parents let me practice by myself all the time."

"It's not about how old I am. In the Fire Nation it's expected that any bender has someone to spot them while they train. Someone they know and trust. After all, what if you hurt yourself?" I asked, hoping they'd drop it.

It wasn't that I was necessarily against training in general without my mother around. It was how I figured a lot of my moves. But flying…it was a bit intimidating. If I messed up I'd probably break every bone in my body.

"Well that's what I'm here for." Aang says enthusiastically. "Your mom wouldn't have to worry one bit with me helping."

I cringed a bit, "Maybe you should ask her first. She takes my training pretty seriously."

"Of course. I understand." Aang agreed. "Now if we're done here, there's just one more place I want to show you guys before we finish.

With Aang leading us back towards the center of the temple, I began to think about what I had learned so far. There was so much I hadn't realized I didn't know about this temple, let alone traditional airbending culture. Everything I had learned about it before was from brief mentions in my school textbooks and third-hand recountings from my mother and other residents of the temple.

It…raised questions for me. What else was I ignorant about? One of the things the Fire Nation prided itself in was its universal education, and it was rare to find someone who couldn't read or tell you basic parts of its history. My education wasn't very conventional, but my mother had made an effort to teach me as much as she could. Did she even know about any of this? Did anyone else know besides Aang? It was humbling to think about how much has been forgotten since the conquest of the Air Nomads.

But my thoughts were interrupted by Katara, who asked "So would you say your mother is a good cook?"

"Best cook I know." I said, putting aside my musings. "She's better than me at least. I never get the measurements right. Every time I try cooking rice it either ends up too dry or too mushy."

"And you're sure your mom promised to host us for dinner?" Sokka asked.

"Yes Sokka, my mom is a lot of things but she isn't a liar. Just wait a bit longer and we can head to my place for supper." I promised.

"I'm not saying she is, I'm just starving and hearing there's a meal to look forward to is what's keeping me going right now." he responded.

I looked over to Katara "Is your brother always like this?"

She didn't seem surprised at all by my question, simply stating "Obnoxious? Yep, that's Sokka."

"I'm not obnoxious!" Sokka protested. "Considering how much I've had to put up with today I think I've been the model of patience. Back me up here Aang."

"I don't know, Master Gyatso was great at being patient. He always knew exactly how long to wait for the fruit pies to bake. If there's any model of patience it's him."

"That sounds like some high praise. You must have really looked up to him." I commented.

"Yeah, he practically raised me…. oh look!" Aang cried. "That's his statue over there!"

Just like Aang had said, there was a stone statue of an old monk placed in front of one of the temple entrances. I had seen it hundreds of times before on my regular walks, but I had never known who it was. I had just figured it was some former airbending avatar from long ago. As we gathered around it, Aang gave it a little bow before telling us more about him.

"When I knew him, he was the greatest airbender in the world! I remember when they made this statue of him. He'd just finished serving as the head monk before he started training me. When he stepped down he had to stay still for almost a whole day while the stone carver worked on the statue."

"Wow, that sounds intense," Sokka remarked.

"Actually, he said it was easy. He spent most of that day asleep. He said that's why his eyes look so sleepy on the statue!" Aang jokes.

"Ah, so that explains why it looks like that." I remarked. I had wondered why the eyelids were almost closed. Then I noticed the way Aang looked at the statue, like it was bringing up old memories. "So is this what you wanted to show us?"

"Actually… no, it's a room that's a bit further in. It's called the Air Temple Sanctuary, and if anything survived in the last hundred years it would be there. It should be close."

With that he led us into the temple, down the corridors to some of the most remote parts of the building. After a little more walking we came upon a large door. The door supported a combination of metal colored pipes and three, blue, rolled up, pipes that are similar looking and arranged like the symbol for airbending. The large wooden door is framed by the branches of an old tree standing on the left of it and the hallway is illuminated by sunlight that falls through little, round windows. Seeing which door Aang had led us to, I immediately saw a problem.

"Uh, Aang I've been at this temple for a while but nobody has ever figured out how to open this door." I said, shaking my head. "There's no door handle or keyhole to put anything in."

I had tried myself once or twice but the mechanism on the door was pretty finicky. It wasn't clear if it needed to be set manually or if there was a missing piece that needed to be added. I only gave up after Gero showed up one day and told me off for potentially damaging temple property.

Sokka put in his two copper pieces as well " It looks like a really old door. Maybe you just have to push. Let me try."

Then, in a slightly humiliating display, Sokka stepped forward and tried to push the door open. After a few seconds of grunting and heaving he gave in.

"Or maybe you do need a key." Sokka conceded.

Smiling Aang revealed the secret "Actually there is a key, its airbending. Allow me."

Stepping back he entered an upright stance, taking a deep breath. He spreads his arms and thrusts them forward, sending an air current into both of the tubes on the door. The wind made one of the blue curled tubes turn around. When it does, the tube changes colors to purple and the wind blows out like a horn. The process is repeated for the other two blue tubes as well. With this the door is unlocked and it begins to sway open.

I'll admit, in retrospect it probably should have been obvious that the big complicated mechanism in the air temple would just need some airbending.

When the door had finished opening, Aang motioned for us to follow him. "Come on, we're probably the first people to be here in a hundred years."

Following Aang in, the only light for the room comes from the open door behind us. In the room we find hundreds of statues, all arranged in a circular pattern around the room.

"More statues? We put off going to dinner for this?" Sokka griped.

Ignoring him, Katara asked. "Who are all these people?"

"I'm not sure. But it feels like I know them somehow. Look! That one's an airbender." Aang pointed, and looking in that direction I saw a statue wearing monks' clothes and a tattoo.

"And this one's a waterbender. They're lined up in a pattern: air, water, earth and fire." Katara pointed to each statue of the corresponding nationality.

"That's the Avatar Cycle." I realized.

"Of course. They're Avatars." Katara confirmed. "When the Avatar dies, he's reincarnated into the next nation in the cycle."

Looking around I was impressed by the detail on all the statues, which looked expertly crafted. I had mixed feelings about the Avatar. On one hand his absence was why airbenders had been subordinated to the Fire Nation for the past century. It was something we had needed to adapt to, and that change was hard for all of us. Having to reconcile my fathers and mothers ancestry was complicated at the best of times.

On the other hand, if he returned then obviously he'd try and stop the war. The same war the Fire Nation, and its airbenders, had fought for decades to win. If the Avatar forced us into an unfavorable peace, like having to return the colonies, all of it would have been for nothing. Every airbender who died in service of the Firelord would have their death rendered useless, and the thought of that was hard to accept. I kept this to myself though, I didn't feel like discussing it with the others.

Looking over to Aang, I noticed that he was mesmerized by a statue. It was an elderly man in fire nation style robes, who I almost immediately recognized myself.

"Aang? Aang?!" Katara tried to shake him to get his attention.

"Huh? Sorry Katara, I got distracted." He replied.

Katara then got curious "Who's that?"

"That's Avatar Roku, he's uh… the most recent Avatar here." Aang said.

"I see you know some history." I said, "I remember the textbooks my mother gave me mentioning Kyoshi, Kuruk, Yangchen, and Szeto. But beyond that I'd have to look them up to get the order right."

"Not to be a wet blanket but is there anything else here? Because I feel like once you've seen the first few statues you've seen them al-"

However, just as Sokka was about to finish we heard a strange noise. It was the sound of footsteps approaching. Hearing this we all froze. It occurred to me that Gero would be making his patrol this time of day. If it was Captain Kochin I wouldn't worry too much, he would be reasonable enough to see that a couple of kids weren't such a big threat. But Gero was a born hothead, and if he saw water tribe blue here he'd try to arrest all of us no questions asked.

Everyone looked at each other for a moment, followed by me and Sokka both said "Hide!". Realizing I had said the same thing, Sokka gave me a look and I just whispered "I'll explain later.". Accepting this we all hid behind some of the statues.

As the moments ticked by we waited as the steps grew closer and closer. Then a person's shadow crept into the light cast from the doorway. Whoever it was was clearly wearing something on their head, and my mind went to Gero's helmet, which he liked to wear every chance he got. The doofus acted like he was ready to go into battle even though the nearest battlefield was weeks of travel away.

However when the mysterious figure came into better view I immediately recognized him.

Stepping out of my hiding spot I said "Cebu, what are you doing here? And… why do you have that lemur on your head!?"

Standing at the door was my little brother Cebu, with a winged lemur clinging to his head. I swear I leave him alone for one afternoon and he made friends with the local nuisance.

"Mom told me to get you for dinner. And nobody said I couldn't have a lemur for a pet. Right?"

I raised my eyebrow "Because you suspiciously never asked."

Cebu looked around, and deftly ignored my observation, "Hey have these statues always been here? I saw that the big weird door was open. Did someone bring them here?"

"Uh, that's a story for another day. Did Mom say anything else?" I redirected in turn.

"She also said that you should bring your guests. Are they here too?" he asked, looking past me.

"Yeah, one sec." Turning my head I raised my voice a bit "Come out guys, Cebu's alright."

Stepping out from the statues came Aang and the water tribe siblings, a bit curious themselves, to meet my little brother. Aang's eyes were glued to the lemur, which made me suspect every young boy in the world would get a pet lemur if they could. Cebu however was more interested in the siblings.

"Wow, real water tribesmen!" He said, a little awe in his voice. As they got close he asked "Hey, is it true they eat people in the water tribe if they're naughty?"

"What? No! We don't eat people, where did you even get that idea!" Sokka shouted.

Cringing down a bit, Cebu answered. "Mom always told me that naughty kids get eaten in the water tribes. She says that sometimes when I get in trouble."

"Sorry about him guys, he's still learning his manners. And on that note…" I turned to Cebu. "You're going to put that lemur back where you found him before we go back to dinner."

"Awww… But he's so cute. Look at him!" He held out the Lemur in his hands, trying to sway me into giving in.

I however was a rock. "No dice, Moms got allergies and we do not need him getting into our food."

"I can take him!" Aang offered. "I know all about taking care of lemurs. There used to be tons of them around the temple."

"You're free to have him. Every year we have one or two of those get into the harvest. Real nuisance." I said. "Just promise not to take him into our apartment. Mom's a bit of a neat freak."

"No problem," Aang started scratching the lemur's ear and asked Cebu "So does he have a name?"

"I haven't thought of one, he likes eating moon peaches though. Maybe Mooney? Or maybe Peachy?" Cebu suggested.

Aang thought for a second then suggested "How about Momo?"

"That's good too." Cebu conceded, then he remembered something "Oh, hey Tashi. I almost forgot, I'm going to be over at Opame's home for a sleepover tonight."

"Really? Does mom know about that?" I asked.

"Yeah, I found out she was making almost all vegetables for dinner. Yuck." Cebu made a face.

Sokka's face fell. "You mean there's not going to be any meat?"

"Not really, though I think there were dumplings. Sometimes they have meat in them." Cebu said.

"It's something I guess." Sokka consoled himself.

Leaving the sanctuary I told Cebu good night as he went his own way. Aang made a quick detour to drop off Momo with Appa, so he didn't have to bring him into my home. With the sun setting we managed to make it to my house before it got too dark.

"Welcome," My mom greeted politely. "Come in, I've got the table set and the food should be ready in a minute. Please take a seat."

Once again I noticed mom was acting weird, like she knew something I didn't know about our guests. I resolved to ask her about it when we had some time alone, but dinner was starting and I had to keep our guests company while mom brought out the food.

Like Cebu had said, it was a remarkably vegetarian meal. Setting down the serving dishes, I could see mom had prepared some cut moon peaches, stir fried vegetables, and even a few dumplings (Which judging from the smell, probably didn't have any meat in them). Usually we had a few cured meats or eggs from Miss Nohara's henhouse, but those were absent tonight.

"This looks great Mrs. Nisho, it's really appreciated." Aang said.

"Yeah it's nice to have a home cooked meal again. It's been almost a week since we left home." Katara then looked over and saw that Sokka was focused on the dumplings, and elbowed him.

"Oh! Yeah the food looks great. Thanks a bunch." Sokka supplied.

"You're welcome. I can see you're hungry so feel free to start." my mom said.

Once again my mom was acting off. She usually insisted we always give thanks to Agni and the fire lord before meals. She probably didn't want to put off our guests but it still felt strange. In any case I just filled up my plate and began eating. Overall my moms cooking went over well, and everyone seemed to have their fill. Even Sokka was satisfied with the mushroom dumplings ("It's close enough to meat I guess").

However it was towards the end of the meal that my mom finally began to open up. She began by starting a conversation with Aang, which I very carefully listened to.

"So, Aang. I understand that you used to live here, correct?" my mother started.

"Yeah, I've been gone a long time. A hundred years in fact." Aang said.

I cringed, remembering I had deliberately left that detail out when explaining things to my mom.

Shockingly however my mom only seemed mildly surprised by this "Oh, really? That's extraordinary. I don't remember Tashi mentioning that."

"Yeah, I was trapped in an iceberg for most of that time. It's been really weird coming back, everything seems like it's changed." Aang replied.

Once again however, my mom just brushed past the whole iceberg thing like it was only a minor detail. "Remarkable, stuck in an iceberg for a century. I'm curious though, is there any chance you would have known my great-grandmother? She would have been a nun named Idha at the western temple. And if I remember correctly a hundred years ago she'd have just had my grandma Ehani."

"Let me think… I think I might have met her once at a Bison Polo match between our temples. There was an Idha that captained that team I think." Aang recalled.

"You would be correct, my great grandma Idha was a very enthusiastic polo player. In fact I have her old journal still with me, right here." My mother pulled out a very aged and beaten book.

I will admit to being surprised that mom had brought out the journal. We didn't have a lot of heirlooms, and I hardly ever saw the journal brought out since it was so fragile with age. My great-grandma had recovered that journal after searching the western temple for weeks. It had probably only survived because it had been hidden in a bedroll. Needless to say it was my great-grandma's prized possession, and probably valuable in its own right since it was one of a kind.

Aang was suitably impressed. "Wow, that's amazing!"

"Indeed. My grandmother would read parts of this journal when I was young, helping me keep in touch with my heritage. But there was one part that always got my interest. Would you like me to read it for you?" She offered.

"It would be an honor." Aang accepted.

My mother nodded, and turned the pages to the relevant section, which happened to be near the end. Then she started "I just got back from my trip to the southern temple to visit my brother, and I overheard some incredible rumors. The council has told the avatar his identity early, something nobody expected for almost four more years. In fact once I discovered who it was, I remembered that I happened to meet him once at the bison polo tournament the Southern Temple held last year. It's strange to think I could have met the avatar without either of us knowing his identity. But I'm sure Aang will make a fine avatar someday."

When my mom finished, me and everyone else at the table was too stunned to speak a word.

A/N
-As many probably guessed, Tashi's mom figured out pretty quickly who Aang was. Hopefully the reveal was believable enough to everyone. After all, if Aang's friends knew he was the avatar (mentioned in one of the flashbacks in the storm), then it's plausible that his status was known to a decent number of Air Nomads. And only one of them needs to write down the name for it to be preserved (assuming that it isn't destroyed).

-Even if it wasn't strictly necessary for the story, I liked writing about the tour around the temple. It feels like a more natural way to world-build if you have characters do stuff instead of having long drawn out conversations explaining things.

-If you thought Momo would be written out of the story by these changes in canon you have been proven wrong. He's a survivor and honestly I could hardly bear to exclude him.

-Please leave any feedback that you have. I'm always looking to improve.

 

[thor2006]

It looks like for some the cat is out of the bag. Hope the familly doesn't get in trouble from the authorities because they've sheltered the avatar.
Also Ang should be weirded that the airbenders eat meat now.