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Aang didn't think that Appa had ever flown so fast in his life. He had been flying strait for two days now and Aang could tell that his bison was tired, but they needed to get to the Southern Air Temple before it was too late. They had just entered the Patola Mountain Range so Aang knew they were close to their destination but a small voice inside of him told him that it wouldn't even matter. It was the Winter Solstice, for all he and Katara knew, the Yanari might have already been released. Kuruk's Journal hadn't been specific as to what time of day it had to be. Maybe Tau had already won...

Aang shook his head to clear that thought from his mind. He couldn't be thinking like that, not now. He and Katara had been taking shifts on directing Appa. Right now that was what he was doing and she was lying in the saddle sleeping. However, once Aang saw the Southern Air Temple come into site, he knew he had to wake her up. First though, he just took a moment to look at his old home. Part of him was just happy that he was back here, regardless of the situation.

"Katara!" He finally yelled back to the saddle, "Katara wake up!"

A few moments later, Katara poked her head up from the saddle to look at him, rubbing some sleep from her eye in the process.

"We're here," he told her, and she quickly glanced up and saw the Air Temple looming before them.

It didn't look that much different than how it had looked when they had been here before but the two quickly spotted Tau's airship parked up at the top of the central spire. Aang knew that was where they needed to go to as well and he directed Appa straight to the top.

At first it seemed too easy. They just simply flew to it; however, once they were about a dozen feet away from the top of the spire, Appa was suddenly assaulted with a barrage of icicles. The bison roared in pain as a few of them pierced his skin but he kept on flying upwards. They were above the spire now, and Aang saw that there was a walkway on the outer edge of it. He also saw someone standing on the walkway and Aang assumed it was Tau. His thoughts were confirmed when another wave of icicles seemed to appear out of thin air and shoot straight up towards Appa.

Katara reacted quickly, standing up in the saddle and holding her hands out, turning the icicles back into water before they were able to reach Appa. As the bison began to level off, hovering just a few dozen feet above Tau, she shot the water back down to him. However, he simply just jumped out of the way.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Aang jump off of Appa's head and down to Tau. He did a quick summersault in the air before firing a large blast of fire towards the Waterbender below. Aang though, having never fought Tau before, didn't expect what came next and was unable to block it. Tau had gathered a massive amount of water from the air, and sent it straight into the fire ball, extinguishing it before it even came close to hitting him. He followed up by blasting Aang with the water right before he was able to land on the walkway.

The blast shot Aang off the top of the spire and next thing he knew, he was free falling to the ground below.

Katara paid no attention to Tau and quickly jumped onto Appa's head, directing the bison downwards to chase Aang. Appa had to zigzag as he descended though as Tau had shot more waves of icicles after him. Katara urged Appa to go faster and right before Aang hit the ground below, the bison swooped under the Avatar, who fell softly onto the saddle with a little help from airbendering. Unfortunately, they were too close to the ground and Appa was unable to turn back upwards. Next thing Aang and Katara knew, Appa skidded across the ground as he tried to gain his footing before coming to a complete stop in what appeared to be a large courtyard. Pillars and rubble was scattered throughout it and Aang and Katara hopped off of Appa curiously as they tried to decide if they should simply try to fly straight be up to the top of the central spire again.

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