Storm

Chapter 20

 When Zuko finally reached the Air Temple, his fury had only intensified--if that was even possible. He couldn't believe he'd had to climb all the way up here by himself just because his crew was a bunch of weaklings!

It was the sour icing on the burned cake that was Zuko's life. Literally, he thought with an intense frown. He stomped up the path leading to the door, barely watching his footing despite the sheer drop off on either side. When he got his hands on that girl, he was going to make her pay for everything she was putting him through!

Zuko came to a fork in the path; both sides split around a huge rock sticking up from the mountain. Zuko took the left fork, clenching and unclenching his fists as he kept his eyes focused on the temple at the top of the mountain. Even though her crew mates had refused to tell him anything, Zuko was sure he'd find the girl in there--there was nothing else of interest in these mountains, after all.

He reached the farthest point of the path, where it started to curve toward the rock again, but before he made it around the bend, something stopped him.

Zuko stood still, listening--he would've sworn he heard... there it was again!

Laughter.

A girlish voice, to his... left? Zuko turned, looking away from the temple for the first time.

Quite aways below the path, nestled in a semi-flat spot, Zuko saw a series of posts set up in some strange pattern, with two larger posts at either end.

And standing at one end of it, was a person. Zuko pulled his spyglass from his pocket and extended it; he peered through the narrow tube, focusing on the figure far below him.

Sure enough, it was her--but that wasn't what kept Zuko frozen to the spot.

Somewhere along the way, the infuriating Earth Kingdom girl had disappeared. The young woman down below wore Air Nomad colors, and she was... she was airbending.

She had a large, woven ball which she held in the air with her bending; she tossed it around, then hurled it across the field of sticks. The ball bounced off the posts, heading straight for the other side; while it was still moving, Storm ran--faster than any normal person could run--across the tops of the poles, reaching the other side before the ball did.

She caught it easily, then hurled it across again, repeating the action. There was a huge grin on her face, and her laughter filled the air.

It would have been a heartwarming sight, an airbender playing an Air Nomad game in the long unused Southern Air Temple, had Zuko not been caught on one single thought: Storm is the last airbender.

Storm is the Avatar.

I've found the Avatar!

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Storm had been playing Airball for ten or twenty minutes, and enjoying it immensely. She could only imagine how much more fun it would be to play with another airbender--she'd have to bring Aang back here once she found him.

Storm raced across the posts, using airbending to speed herself up so she could beat the ball to the other goal. She was almost there, about to grab the ball--when something in her peripheral vision caught her eye. There was a Fire Nation helm not far from the goal, and for just a moment, something had glinted off it, shining more brightly than the sunlight.

Storm frowned, one hand reaching out to snatch the ball even as she turned away from the helm; she looked up toward the path, toward where the source of the glint would've had to have come from... and froze.

Standing on the path above her, was the figure of a man.

She could make out that he was wearing red, and Storm didn't have to guess at who it was. Whether it was Zuko himself or one of his men, she'd been seen.

Storm dropped the ball and fled, racing away from the game and the path and the temple itself as fast her bending would propel her.

If the Fire Nation was here, they had been followed.

And if they'd been followed, her friends were in danger.