The Avatar and the Fire Prince

Book 1: Air, Chapter 8: The Northern Air Temple

(Originally posted February 13, 2023 on AO3)

"So, travelers. The next time you think you hear a strange, large bird talking, take a closer look. It might not be a giant parrot, but a flying man. A member of a secret group of air walkers, who laugh at gravity, and laugh at those bound to the earth by it!"

Aang chuckled as he listened to the storyteller. It had been nearly three weeks since they had left the Eastern Air Temple, and they were finally about a day's flight away from the Northern Air Temple. He wondered if these people had passed down stories about the nearby temple monks for generations. Even nearly a hundred years ago when the temples were still populated, it was rare for monks to venture down into the nearby villages due to many Air Nomad monks and nuns choosing to focus on detachment from the material world. On the rare occasion they did, villagers considered it a sign of good fortune to see an Air Nomad.

"Aren't airbender stories the greatest?" he said, nudging Zuko, who was sitting on the log next to him. The Fire Prince was sitting with his arms folded, an unimpressed expression on his face. Iroh, meanwhile, was clapping in response to the man's story and looked genuinely intrigued.

"Sounds like he was being a bit dramatic," Zuko replied. "Was that even how it was back then?"

"I laugh at gravity all the time!" Aang chuckled to himself. "Heheh, gravity."

Zuko smirked and rolled his eyes. Aang was always happy to see the Fire Prince smile, which was thankfully becoming a much more common occurrence these days.

The storyteller made his way around the campfire that Aang, Zuko, Iroh, and several other people were gathered around, shaking a cap full of coins for tips. Iroh placed several coins into the man's hat, and he smiled and nodded thankfully in return. He moved on to Zuko next. "Jingle, jingle!"

Zuko eyed the man for a moment, a skeptical expression on his face. Aang elbowed him, causing him to wince and briefly glare at the Avatar. He then fished in his outer robe pockets and pulled out a single copper piece, which he placed into the hat. The man scoffed. "Cheapskate!" he muttered.

"Hey, thanks for the story," Aang said.

The storyteller held out his hat. "Tell it to the cap, boy." As he shook it, a silver piece fell out. Momo crawled down from Aang's shoulder to retrieve it, and placed it back into the cap. The storyteller, who had not noticed that the coin had fallen out, patted Momo on the head, thinking he had donated. "Aww, much obliged, little bat thing!"

Aang chuckled and fished in his pockets for coins, dropping three into the cap. "It means a lot to hear airbender stories. It must have been nearly a hundred years ago when your great grandpa met them."

The storyteller's brow furrowed in confusion. "What are you prattling about, child? Great Grandpappy saw the air walkers last week!" He gestured to a very old man, who gave him a wide, nearly-toothless grin.

Aang's eyes widened and his heart rate spiked in his chest as he thought about the possibility of this being true. He didn't want to hope too much, but what else could the old man have seen?

He whipped around to face Zuko and Iroh, who were also had shocked expressions on their faces. "We're leaving for the Northern Air Temple. Now."

*****

As Zuko stared at the clouds passing by below them, his thoughts were running wild. Could it truly be possible that some airbenders survived?

Deep down, Zuko wanted this to be true, for Aang's sake. Sure, according to what he had been taught, the Air Nation army had once been the enemy of the Fire Nation, but what about the innocent monks and nomads? What did they do to deserve death? If they were anything like Aang, he couldn't fathom a reason why his great grandfather would kill all of the air nomads. Surely some had survived, and had merely evaded Fire Nation detection.