Broken Spirit: The Next Avatar

Chapter Eight: Nadia

                  

It took us forever to get to the Air Temple since we had to give Mizuchi a break.

Almost as soon as we get there everyone goes off to relax and take a nap. But I was used to walking long distances from the main Northern Water Tribe City to my small village.

This is the first time I get to see airbenders up close. The airbending culture has always been fascinating to me. It would be cool to incorporate airbending moves into my waterbending style. I wish I was water and air instead of water and earth. They seem similar in styles and really beautiful. Earthbending is just so rough, which is such a change from waterbending. And sometimes I get the feeling that Serefina doesn't understand or appreciate airbending.

I think about this and all that has happened in the past week as I am walking through the Air Temple. I come across beautiful paintings, lots of open space for them to practice airbending, gazebos for meditating, and what seems to be a sports field. I see a bunch of kids who must all be airbenders come running from the field to me all of a sudden.

"Are you the Avatar?" One of the kids asks me.

"Uh, yes? Well half the Avatar," I tell them.

"Are you the one that can bend air?" Another small boy asks.

"No. I can bend water and earth. My friend Serefina can bend air and fire," I try to explain in a simple manner.

"Wow that's so cool! We never get to see waterbenders!" A few exclaim.

"Do you want to play with us?" An older girl asks me pointing to the field.

"I don't know how to play," I tell them.

"It's okay. It's simple. You stand on those logs and you try and get the ball through the other person's goal. We use airbending to speed the ball up and hit the posts to confuse the other person or change the direction. But you can use your waterbending to deflect or launch the ball or something," the girl explains to me.

"Alright, why not?" I say to their begging faces. I used to play with the little kids in the North Pole all the time. It's only been a week but I miss them.

As we walk over a very small and young girl tugs on my shirt. I look down at her with a smile and she asks, "What is your name?"

"My name is Nadia," I reply with a smile.

"Mine is Lilly." She says as she drags me along.

I climb to the top of a post right in front of a goal.

"Ready?" The girl shouts at me from across.

"Sure!" I shout at her.

The ball comes flying at me and all I can do is dodge it. The kids start to laugh a little. The girl I'm playing gets another ball. This time I'm ready. I bend a splash of water at the ball changing the direction. The girl seems surprised but still manages to block it. We go back and forth occasionally scoring points on each other. It's the last point and the score is tied. She starts with the ball and launches it at me. By this point each of us has a few people cheering for us. The ball is launched at me and I use a water whip to spring it back. Unfortunately for me, it hit the wrong post and got sent back to my end, scoring the winning goal for the other girl.

I could tell the kids were fascinated with my waterbending and I got to closely watch an airbender. She was very nimble throughout the game and the movements came a lot from her arms. All the other airbender kids carried off the girl as I had to climb down and she more or less floated down. Soon two older airbenders came over to me.