The Warrior's Gambit (Zutara)

XXXVI

"-and that is how you bake a perfect Air Tart!" Aang finished his tale to the crowd gathered around him, basking in happy memories of making those pies with Master Gyatso.

It was commonplace for him to tell these kinds of stories. Since he couldn't leave the swamp, and more airbenders were arriving by the day and asking him all sorts of questions he couldn't wait to answer, he figured having impromptu history and culture lessons was quite apropos. The turnout had been something that gave him continued strength...to see so many wanting to accept their newfound culture, eager to hear his words, made him hopeful for the rest of the Airbenders and the resurrection of their community one day.

"Avatar Aang?" A ten-year-old girl sitting on Ty Lee's lap shot her arm up, straight as a board, and waved her hand like she was washing a window. "I have a question!"

She was one of the most curious of the new airbenders. Her mother had died as a baby and her father had thrown her out when he found out she was an Airbender. He told her he wasn't turning her into Zhao's men, as though making her fend on the streets was something she should thank him for. So, needless to say, she had seemed timid and sad when she had first arrived. Ty Lee had made it her personal mission to make the little girl laugh again. Because of this she'd rather...imprinted on Ty Lee, seeing her as a replacement maternal figure.

"Yes, what is it?" Aang turned toward her.

"So..." She tapped her chin, eyebrows furrowed in thought. "Firebenders can bend lightning. I saw Princess Azula do it once. Earthbenders can bend metal-"

"Hey! Only one Earthbender can! Me!" Toph shouted from her place in the back. She claimed she showed up to these talks because 'she had nothing better to do,' but Aang knew she was curious all the same.

"...And waterbenders can..." The girl gulped, "Do the bad thing and move someone's body..." She shuddered. She was Fire Nation by birth, so no doubt she'd heard rumors and whispers of bloodbending, like a bogey-man in the night. "Can Airbenders do anything like that?"

"Well, we can do lots of cool stuff," Aang chuckled. "We can astral project, for one! It means you can take your...erm, consciousness and project it elsewhere. Like a ghost." From the looks of it, he had sort of lost anyone under the age of thirteen. "We'll talk about that another day. Airbenders can also..." He started, but saw the children sitting there and furrowed his brows. "Er, nevermind."

"So we can only ash-terra project?" The girl questioned.

"Astral. And no, that's not all. I mean, there's thirty-some really cool things you'll learn, but the big thing Airbenders can do is fly."

"You mean with the gliders?" Dhakiya asked, touching her own version of a glider. It was safe to fly in the low parts of the swamp and some of the older airbenders had gone about making their own after Aang's.

"Without them," Aang said with a grin. "Guru Laghima figured it out 3,000 years ago. It's hard to do, near impossible I'd say. He was the only one to have ever done it. Apparently, you have to give up all earthly tethers. Everything that ties you to the earth, you have to let go of. Once you've done that, you've unlocked ultimate freedom and can fly."

"All earthly tethers? Sounds lonely," an Airbender from the Earth Kingdom mused.

"It is, which is why I don't know if I could. Even as the Avatar," he said, catching a look at Ty Lee.

"Everything?" The ten-year-old seemed aghast. "Even my love for Mr. Spitz?" She had adopted a grumpy gator-cat not long after arriving that seemed to dote on the small girl. It growled if anyone but Aang or Ty Lee came too close. Right now, it perked up and narrowed his eyes at the mention of his name.