Southern Star

Chapter Twelve: Watch Them Gathering Light

Song had always known that she hated summer. The summer asterisms were lovely, sure, but the nights were shorter and she couldn't watch them for as long. The sun was brighter and hotter, and had single-handedly led to many meltdowns when Song had been a child. There were more bugs to bite her, and more humidity to keep her from focusing on whatever it was she needed to focus on, and more exhaustion in both her and Tongyi. That was one of the reasons she had enjoyed living with her father at the southernmost Fire Navy base on the tip of the Earth Kingdom, just above the South Pole. It was always cold and never humid or bug-infested, which she appreciated very much.

The Western Air Temple was not cold, and it was very humid. The heat of the summer bore down on Song and the other children as they walked over the ground that was too baked to produce any real vegetation. The air seemed to waver over it, and Song had to remind herself to breathe before she passed out. Tongyi was flying in circles overhead.

"Are we almost there?" asked Song again. This time, no one bothered to answer her.

"This is humiliating," said Katara.

"Do you mean getting thoroughly spanked by the Fire Nation or having to walk all the way to the Western Air Temple?" asked Sokka.

"Both," she replied.

"Sorry, guys," said Aang, who was walking next to Appa and holding Momo on his head, "but Appa gets tired carrying all these people."

"Especially in that armour," said Song.

"Yes, exactly."

After a moment of quiet, Teo said, "I wonder how the rest of the troops are."

"They're probably on their way to a prison," said Haru. "Seems like my dad just got out, now he's going back in."

"I miss Pipsqueak," said the Duke.

"I miss not having blisters on my feet," replied Sokka.

"Are you not used to walking everywhere?" asked Song.

"No. We've always had canoes. Or Appa."

"Maybe you wouldn't have blisters if you didn't rely on a flying bison so much."

"You know what—!"

"Hey!" said Toph, drawing everyone's attention to her. "We're here! I can feel it."

Song had no idea what Toph was talking about. They had stopped at a cliff on one side of a great ravine, but there were no buildings in sight, much less an Air Temple.

"Uh, I think your feet need their eyes checked," said Katara.

"No, she's right, we are here," said Aang.

"Wow, it's amazing!" said Toph, even though everyone else was still confused. "It's upside down, under the cliff!"

"It's... what?" asked Song, but again no one bothered to answer her. Instead, everyone climbed back onto Appa, who flew from the edge and gave Song her first glance of the majesty of the Western Air Temple. It was enormous, and seemed to span the entire cliff.

"Woah," she breathed out as Appa landed on a platform courtyard and Tongyi came down to perch on her shoulder again. "How long did it take to build this?"

"Centuries," replied Aang, "with plenty of help from earthbenders."

Toph flexed her arms like The Boulder at that, and everyone laughed.

It didn't take long to hide the hot air balloon in some trees near the Western Air Temple, and then Zuko anchored a rope on one of them and descended into the ravine. As he slid down the rope, he took in the sight of the enormous statue of the last Air Nomad Avatar to come before the current one. She had been rendered in stone centuries before her people had been wiped out by Zuko's great-grandfather.