we sat around the campfire as a man told us stories of birds and people walking on air.
'aren't airbender stories the best?' said aang, grinning.
'was it realistic? was that how it was back then?'
'i laugh at gravity all the time. haha! gravity.' aang said, high-fiving me
'and yeah it was, katara!' i said, making fun of her, 'we used to spend our whole time hating on gravity, sometimes all day!'
she smiled before realising it was a joke and dead-panned.
'not funny.'
'jingle, jingle!' said the storyteller, handing us his hat to put money in.
'sorry!' said sokka after not finding anything in his coat.
'aww. cheapskates!'
'hey thanks for the story!' said aang, walking over to the storyteller.
'tell it to the cap, boy!'
a copper piece fell to the ground and momo put it back into the man's cap.
'aw, much obliged little bat thing!'
i walked over to them, smiling, and said, 'it means a lot to hear airbender stories. it must have been 100 years ago your great grandfather met them'
'what are you prattling about child? great grand-pappy saw the air walkers last week!'
i looked at aang - shocked.
airbenders?
i really hoped he wasn't lying.
---
we left straight away for the temple.
me and aang needed to know if our people were still out there.
'hey, we're almost at the northern air temple! this is where they had the championships for sky bison polo.' said aang as it came into view
katara and sokka said something but i want listening.
'hey guys, look at this!' i said, pointing at the temple.
there were people who looked like they were gliding all around the temple.
but at closer inspection. they weren't.
my smile disappeared.
'huh! they really are airbenders!' said katara.
'no, they're not.' i said, sitting back in the saddle.
'what do you mean they're not? those guys are flying!'
'gliding maybe, but not flying.' said aang, sadly, 'you can tell by the way they move. they're not airbending. those people have no spirit.'
at that, a boy in a different type of glider to mine or aangs flew past us and laughed. almost cutting our heads off.
'i don't know, aang. that kid seems pretty spirited!' laughed katara.
aang got a competitive look on his face and jumped up, going to race them.
appa jolted, sending the rest of us into the back of the saddle.
'we better find some solid ground before it finds us!' said sokka.
i landed appa on one of the temples terraces while aang was still racing.
they did tricks - aang doing his best to upstage the boy.
'go teo! show that bald kid how it's done!' shouted a kid from the crowd that had gathered.
aang, wanting to show off his airbending skills, ran on a turret and jumped back on his glider.
in retaliation, teo made aangs face out of smoke.
aang landed next to us, not looking very enthusiastic anymore.
teo landed too and his friends detached the glider from his wheelchair so he could come over to us.
'hey! you're a REAL airbender! you must be the avatar! that's amazing! i, i, i've heard stories about you.'
my heart sunk when he said that.
as if i needed a reminder that my people were gone.
'thanks.' said aang, embarrassed.
'wow! this glider chair is incredible!' marveled sokka.
'if you think this is good, wait until you see the other stuff my dad designed.' said teo, grinning.
we followed him into the air temple and i was amazed at what i saw.
the temple was dirty and there were pipes running right through the ceiling.
the colour had disappeared from the room - covered in smoke and ash.
'wow!' said sokka, running forward.
'yeah my dad is the mastermind behind this whole place! everything's powered by hot air. it even pumps hot air currents outside to give us a lift when we're gliding.'
i looked at aang, who seemed to be on the verge of tears.
'this place is unbelievable.' he said.
'yeh, it's great isn't it?' said teo.
'no, just unbelievable.'
'this is supposed to be the history of my people.' said aang, looking at the horrible defacing of the - once beautiful - statues.
'i'm sure some parts of the temple are still the same.' said katara, hopefully.
we walked to the courtyard and looked out for anything that was even similar to how it had been.
we came across one statue that still looked the same.
i smiled, remembering seeing it centuries before, 'its nice to see something here that isn't ruined.'
suddenly, a voice came from the other side of the statue, 'LOOK OUT!'
the statue disintegrated as a wrecking ball smashed through it.
we fell backwards, coughing.
when the dust settled, a man walked through the gap, saying, 'what the doodle! 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? you just destroyed something sacred! for a stupid bathhouse!' cried aang, assuming an airbending stance while i held my staff to my side.
'well, people around here are starting to stink!'
'this whole place stinks!' said aang, striking the ground with his staff, blowing the wrecking ball off the side of the mountain.
'this is a sacred temple! you can't treat it this way.' i said, my voice cracking.
aang saw me and carried on, 'i've seen it when the monks were here. i know what it's supposed to be like.'
'the monks?' said the man, confused, 'but you're 12!'
'dad, he's the avatar. he used to come here a hundred years ago.'
aang walked closer to him with every question, 'what are you doing? who said you could be here?'
the mechanistic turned away, 'mmm... doing here... a long time ago, but not a hundred years, my people became refugees after a terrible flood. my infant son, teo, was badly hurt and lost his mother. i needed somewhere to rebuild and i stumbled across this place. couldn't believe it! everywhere pictures of flying people. but empty! nobody home! then i came across these fan like contraptions!'
this didn't make either me or aang any more impressed.
'our gliders.' said aang.
'yes, little light flying machines. 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 and after all, isn't that what nature does?' said the man.
i felt a tear roll down my cheek, 'nature knows when to stop'
'i suppose that's true. unfortunately, progress has a way of getting away from us.' he said, pointing at some candles, 'look at the time!'
'come, the pulley system must be oiled before dark.' he said, turning to a scribe.
sokka walked forward to see the candles, 'wait, how can you tell the time from that thing? the notches all look the same.'
'the candle will tell us. watch.'
the candle flame snapped four times.
'you put spark powder in the candle!'
'four flashes, so it's exactly four hours past midday, or, as i call it, four o'candle!'
sokka smiled, completely ignoring how depressed this whole day was making me and aang.
'if you like that, wait till you see my finger safe knife sharpener! only took me three tries to get it right!' he said, showing how many fingers he'd lost, 'follow me'
sokka and some others followed him, leaving me, aang, katara and teo alone.
'hey aang, i want to show you something.' said teo, disregarding me and leading us into the bowels of the temple.
'i just can't get over it. there's not a single thing that's the same.'
teo stopped to scoop up a small black and white hermit crab, 'i don't know about that. the temple might be different, but the creatures that live here are probably direct descendents of the ones that lived here a long time ago.'
'you're right. they're kind of keepers of the temples origins.' said katara, who passed the crab along to aang who smiled and passed it to me.
i still wasnt impressed.
teo noticed, and looked at me - hoping to raise my spirits, 'besides, there's one part of the temple that hasn't changed at all.'
we arrived at the sanctuary and stopped in front of the door.
'hey! it's just like the one in the other air temple.' said katara
'only an airbender can open it - so inside it's completely untouched, just the way the monks left it. i've always wondered what it was like in there.' teo said, hoping we could open the door.
'aang?'
'i'm sorry, this is the last part of temple that the same as it was. i want it to stay that way.' he said, looking down.
'i completely understand. i just wanted you to know it was here.' teo said, saddened.
i itched to open the door and see what it concealed.
but i couldn't.
if aang wanted the door closed - it would stay closed and it would be selfish if i opened it.