orenda | atla

chapter one: the temple

Azari stood in front of the cracked piece of mirror, carefully pulling her brown hair back into a low bun at the nape of her neck. She tied it using a simple brown ribbon, but froze when she heard voices from outside.

"You're lucky enough to be one of the first outsiders to ever visit an airbender temple and all you can think about is food?" It was a female voice, followed by two different male ones.

Azari quickly tiptoed out of her room, sneaking up a few bannisters to try and get a view of the intruders.

There were two teenagers, dressed in blue watertribe coats, along with a younger kid who was bald. She almost gasped when she saw the familiar arrow tattoos.

They walked towards the sanctuary doors. Azari was astounded when the shorter one opened them using airbending. 

Making a decision to confront them, she jumped down from her perch brandishing her dagger. "What are you doing in my temple? How did you open that door?"

The three screamed, jumping around to face her. 

"Who are you?" the watertribe boy said, getting in a stance like he was about to attack.

"I asked you first!"

"Well, I asked you second!"

Growling, Azari took a step forward, aiming for the watertribe boy. He also took a step forwards, waving his club threateningly. 

"Enough!" the bald one shouted, sending two air blasts at both of them, knocking them down. "Are you an airbender? Where are the others? What's your name?"

Azari gaped at the boy. "My name is Azari. Of course I'm not an airbender, they-" She was cut off by the watertribe girl covering her mouth.

"Me and Azari are gonna have a talk, why don't you show Sokka the sanctuary?" she said, dragging Azari behind a building.

"What's wrong with you? You can't just drag me places!" Azari shouted, trying to run away, but the girl grabbed her wrist.

"Look, I need you to shut up about what happened to the airbenders. Aang doesn't know," the watertribe girl whispered.

"What do you mean, he doesn't know? They were massacred more than fifty years ago-"

"Aang has been frozen in ice for a hundred years, okay? He only just learned about the war, and I don't want to have to tell him about this."

Azari frowned. "Fine. Then get him off my temple, I need quiet to meditate."

"We just got here, why should we leave?"

"Look... what's your name again?" Azari asked.

"My name is Katara. The cranky teenager is Sokka, he's my brother, and the airbender is Aang. He's the Avatar," she whispered like it was a big secret.

"Sure. Right. Well, you can take you, your brother, and the Avatar, and you can hop right back onto that flying bison and leave. I don't want you here."

Katara sighed. "Let's join the others. Then you can tell them how you want us gone."

The three of them entered the sanctuary, stopping to look at the spiral of statues.

"Who are all these people?" Katara asked, turning to Azari like she might know.

"I've never been in here, I have no idea," Azari responded, rolling her eyes.

"I'm not sure, but it feels like I know them somehow. Look! That one's an airbender!" Aang said, pointing at one of the statues.

"And this one's a waterbender. They're lined up in a pattern. Air, water, earth and fire," Katara exclaimed, looking around the room.