Avatar The Last Airbender: The Sins of the Past [Katara x OC]

Chapter 1-16: The Northern Air Temple

On our way to the Northern Water Tribe, we stopped in a campsite with several other groups. We should be able to get to the North Pole in a few days. One of the men at the campsite starts telling us a story he'd heard from his grandfather about airbenders in the Northern Air Temple, calling them 'air walkers'.

He ends his story by saying dramatically, "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."

Having finished his story, the man starts going around to the other people in the group, collecting coins from them in his hat.

Aang asks Sokka and Katara, "Aren't airbender stories the greatest?"

Katara excitedly asks Aang and I, "Was it realistic? Is that how it was back then?"

I shrug, responding, "More or less."

Aang adds, "I laugh at gravity all the time." To prove his point, he chuckles, muttering to himself, "Gravity."

The storyteller stands in front of us, having already collected money from most of the other travellers.

He says, "Jingle jingle!"

He jingles his hat in front of Sokka, not-so-subtly asking for more money. Sokka searches inside his heavy cloak, managing to pull out a bug, a worm, and a few crumbs.

He says, "Sorry..."

The storyteller scoffs, "Aw, cheapskates!"

He walks away, and Sokka puts the bugs back in his pocket.

I ask him, "Why do you have bugs in your pockets?"

Sokka shrugs, responding, "Quick snack. They've got a bit of protein, don't they?"

I roll my eyes, and Aang stands up, walking over to the storyteller. I guess Sokka still hasn't lost any bit of his appetite.

Aang says happily to the storyteller, "Hey, thanks for the story!"

The man holds out his hat, saying, "Tell it to the cap, boy."

Could he be any more shameless? He shakes his hat behind him as he kneels in front of an old man, the shaking causing a coin to come loose and fall from the cap. As Aang searches his clothes for money, I walk over and pick up the coin, placing it back in the cap as the storyteller turns around.

He smiles up at me, saying, "Much obliged, ma'am."

He must not have noticed the coin fall out. Not that I'll tell him I didn't actually give him a new coin.

I say, "Uh, no problem, sir."

Aang, having given up on trying to find a coin, says, "It means a lot to hear airbender stories. It must've been a hundred years ago your great-grandpa met them!"

The storyteller confusedly asks, "What are you prattling about, child? Great-Gradpappy saw the air walkers last week."

He gestures at the old man he'd been kneeling in front of before. The old man makes a weak sound akin to a laugh, and waves at Aang and I, and the two of us look at each other with shocked and disbelieving expressions.

I ask him, "How is this possible? Shouldn't they have been wiped out with the rest of the monks?"

Aang responds, "I don't know, but we have to check this out. If there are other living airbenders, I need to meet them."

We rush back over to Sokka and Katara and tell them what we heard, and we quickly hop onto Appa, soaring toward the temple. Luckily, it's not too far away.