More Than a Lifetime

More Than a Lifetime

They wouldn't even let Gyatso drop him off at the Eastern Air Temple.

At least it wasn't cranky old Tashi. High Monk Pasang himself saddled up his Sky Bison and flew alongside Appa for the whole journey. He didn't speak much, but every so often he would look over at the younger Air Nomad, and offer an encouraging smile.

It didn't make Aang feel any better. He was still the Avatar, and still leaving his home and mentor.

Pasang handled the introductions when they arrived at the Eastern Temple. Mother Iio met them, and to Aang's eyes, she hadn't aged a day since she led him and the other young monks to choose their Sky Bison companions. Unfortunately, the memory brought to mind all the friends Aang had left behind, and the isolation that had fallen upon him even before leaving. He barely listened as Pasang explained why 'the young Avatar' had to be removed from Gyatso's care, the High Monk stressing the perceived need for 'discipline and more training' in Aang's life.

Iio looked to Aang at that point, but if she wanted a reaction, she was disappointed. Gyatso had warned Aang to be carried gracefully by their defeat, as befits a true Airbending Master, lest they be broken by the winds of change. So Aang clamped down on his emotions, and tried to ignore the small burning sensation in the center of his chest, a tiny and persistent pain that made him feel off balance for the first time since he learned how to walk.

Iio requested the chance to personally welcome Aang to his new home, and Pasang smilingly acceded and went off to find friends and food. Iio talked for a bit, mentioning that while his training regime would satisfy the demands of his role, there would be plenty of time and opportunity for more enriching experiences, liking helping in the Bison nurseries, or working with younger benders like his 'friend' (more like enamored acquaintance, in Aang's opinion) Malu.

Through it all, Aang paid attention, and responded politely.

Finally, Iio let him go to choose a cell in the Masters' Temple to be his personal living quarters. Aang resisted the urge to run.

On the way, he passed through the temple gardens; they were empty at this time of day, with the students practicing their gliding while the Masters observed and safeguarded them. It wasn't until Aang was standing directly over her that he realized the lone girl in the central garden wasn't a statue.

She could have been carved, she was so still. Her robes and hair were darker than the norm, and her skin lighter, almost like the colors on the temple murals. Aang waited and counted; she only took three breaths in a minute.

He jumped ten feet when she finally spoke. "I'm trying to find my center."

"Oh," Aang coughed, when he landed. "Sorry. I was just... uh, checking."

She breathed three more times. "For what?"

"Well, that you were... alive."

Six breaths. "Good work. You win."

Twenty-seven breaths later, Aang left.

---

Her name was Foumei. Little Malu (now an inch taller than Aang, despite being a year younger) was eager to tell the story. "She came from the Western Air Temple, a few weeks ago. She's almost ready for her arrow, but she's working on her Personal Technique."

Aang's eyebrows rose. "She's trying to think of one?"

Malu shook her head, and leaned close to whisper in Aang's ear. Her warm breath tickled. "She knows, but she's working on getting it right, and she won't tell anyone or let any of us see it. That's why she hides in the garden."

Aang thought about his own Personal Technique, the new use of Airbending that had earned him both his status as Master and his blue arrow tattoos: the Air Scooter was a swirling ball of wind, atop which Aang could balance, and use slight shifting of his weight to move it in any direction. The speed of the spinning air made the ball race around like it was on wheels, and was loads of fun to play with.

Aang hadn't used it since he left the Southern Air Temple.

Plans began forming in his bald head.

---

Aang was hidden in the central garden before the sun had even begun rising. He had prepared for a long stakeout by bringing a bag of nuts, some fruit, and a sliding-tile puzzle (the one Jinju had made for him as a going-away present). Fortunately, Foumei had shown up shortly after dawn. Unfortunately, she seemed content to just sit down and blow a leaf around with small gusts summoned by lazy finger wiggles.

For.

Five.

Hours.

Aang was seriously considering abandoning the watch and going to see if Malu wanted to have a Bison race when his stomach let out a growl. (The fruits and nuts had disappeared fairly early.) The Avatar froze in place, and then slowly began inching back into the foliage.

"You might as well come out. I knew you were there when I arrived."

"Awwww," Aang whined as he stood up. "How did you know?"

"I look at things." Foumei continued playing with her leaf, following it intently with her eyes, and seemingly not paying any attention to the Avatar. "Most people just let their eyes breeze over their surroundings, but I look at the details. The way the flowers droop, the way the leaves both idle and dance. And I've spent practically every waking moment of the last two weeks in this stupid garden."

Aang walked over and sat down beside the girl. He watched the leaf, noting that she wouldn't let it ever come to a rest. "Well, if you have to spend a lot of time here, at least it's a nice garden."

"It's too colorful," Foumei pronounced. "Back in the Western Air Temple, we don't let things go crazy. Green ivy, and that's it."

"But the way you say it, you don't sound like you miss it."

Foumei gave a light snort. "Ivy is boring."

Aang found himself laughing a little. "You're one of those people who love being unhappy, aren't you?"

The small breezes died, and the leaf fluttered straight to the ground. Foumei turned her full gaze towards the boy. "I don't remember inviting you here."

Aang suppressed a lemur-like instinct to bolt. "Sorry. Maybe I can... help you... with your technique?"

The girl snorted again and turned away. "What, you don't like the way I bend?"

"No, it's fine. You were good with that game you were playing with the leaf. But I'm a master." He pointed helpfully at the big blue arrow on his bald head. "Maybe I can give you a few pointers, and help you with ideas for your Personal Technique. That's why you came here, right?"

Foumei didn't say anything at first. She delicately picked her leaf up between two fingers of her right hand, and laid it flat in the palm of her left. She exhaled a light, focused breeze, and the leaf began dancing in the air again. Aang noticed that it stayed, for the most part, flat in the air, spinning around as it sliced the air in a loose orbit around Foumei's head. When she finally replied, her voice was even quieter than usual. "So, why did you come here? Got your arrow and thought you'd show it off to a temple-full of girls? Or did your lack of discipline cause some trouble back home?"

Aang was gone in an instant, as quick and graceful as a lemur.

---

That afternoon, Mother Iio started Aang with his training regime. She chose a younger Master, Lavanya, to directly monitor and spar with him, but kept an eye on his hours and progress. Aang was pretty sure she was keeping the Southern Air Temple updated with letters. There was an upside to that, though. As time went on and Aang settled into life at the Eastern Air Temple, letters began arriving regularly from Gyatso. All of them contained the monk's assurances that they would both be all right, that Gyatso would be over to visit as soon as he could, and that the Council of Elders had found the precipitation lately to be both frequent and fruity.

Iio was stern about his schedule, but still nice, and she was already talking about letting Aang take a trip to the nearby Earth Kingdom lands for some exploration. Lavanya was fun, an advanced bender with lots of neat ideas for new Airbending moves; the only problem was that she seemed to get nervous anytime the subject of Aang being 'The Avatar' (you could hear her pronounce the capital letters) came up.

Through it all, Foumei continued to hide in the garden.

---

Aang decided that Chameleon Bay, just downriver from Ba Sing Se, sounded like a good place for a trip. Some of the other young Airbenders came along, with Lavanya to guide them. Word had gotten around quickly about Aang being the Avatar, and that, combined with most of the Temple's unfamiliarity with the boy, had effectively put up a social barrier around him. Malu still tried to be his friend, but Aang had his training taking up most of his days, and she had studies of her own. However, with nothing to do at Chameleon Bay but have fun, Aang and the younger girl had teamed up to see what kind of sea monsters they could scare up.

"You think this is a tooth?" Aang held the object up above the water line.

Malu squinted at it. "It looks like a rock."

"But it's sharp!"

She shrugged. "Then it's a sharp rock."

Aang couldn't quite bring himself to agree, so he tucked the tooth into his tightshorts to take back the temple.

Malu took a breath in preparation for another dive, but then she must have changed her mind, because she turned back to Aang and used the breath to triple her normal volume. "OHHEYDIDITELLYOUABOUTFOUMEI?"

"...what?"

"Foumei! I heard something new!"

"Oh. Uh, well, what is it?"

Malu paddled in a little circle to see if anyone was nearby, then apparently satisfied, pushed herself closer to Aang. "She got a delivery the other day. Omoni stopped by Ba Sing Se, and a merchant there asked her to deliver a package to Foumei. It was a leather case with a lock on it."

Despite himself, Aang felt his intrigue rise. "What was in it?"

Malu grinned, and grabbed Aang's arm. She pulled herself even closer, so that they were bobbing as one on the clear blue waters. "Omoni didn't open it herself, but Foumei did as soon as she got it. I was stalking a lemur high on top of the Yangchen statue, and caught a view.

"It was filled with little thin blades. Hundreds of them."

---

When Aang summoned up the courage to approach Foumei again, days later, he found her keeping a dozen different leaves swirling in the air around her. They looked like little shadows in the dimming atmosphere, as the sun sunk below the horizon. That's when it all came together. "You're going to try to earn your arrow with a knife storm?!"

Her glare was even sharper than the image invoked by Aang's accusation. As the leaves fell dead around her, she responded with a growl. "And how is that any of your business, Oh Great And Powerful Avatar? Does my Airbending pose a threat to World Balance?"

He wanted to run again, but couldn't quite let the matter go. "I may be the Avatar, but I'm still just a simple monk. I don't even know anything besides Airbending." He gazed at this harsh young woman, and wondered what made her so different from her people. Didn't she want to fit in? "I don't even know what the Elders would say when you showed them that kind of thing. Something like that is just all about hurting people."

She shrugged. "Sometimes, you have to. So long as you respect the life you take, it's no dishonor. Avatar Yangchen didn't shy away from that kind of thing."

Really? "Even if that's true, I don't see why you would want your Personal Technique to be something violent. Monk Gyatso told me that the Technique should be an expression of yourself."

She arched an eyebrow.

He rolled his eyes and waved his concession of the point.

She nodded. "It's not just that. You don't know what it's like, back home. At the Western Air Temple. In the Fire Nation." Foumei pointed, and a lone leaf ascended in front of her. "My father is a minor Noble in the Fire Nation. He agreed, when I was born, that I could be taken by my mother to be raised as an Air Nomad. While I was still deciding on my Personal Technique, I went to visit him and his family, to see what their life was like."

Foumei stopped there, but tried several times to continue, never quite managing to make a sound. Aang waited a while for her to continue.

Finally, she sighed, settled back into a meditative state, and said, "I'm not doing anything the Elders wouldn't understand. They're doing it with you."

"The Elders... ?"

"You're their weapon, Avatar Aang. They see the same thing I saw when I explored the Fire Nation. War is coming, and if we're going to survive what they're preparing for the Earth Kingdom, the Water Tribes, and us, we need to know how to call a storm down on them. My storm will keep me alive."

Aang didn't feel the tears in his eyes until they spilled down his face. Even with the element of Air on his side, it took an effort to summon a breath. "I... your weapons don't know when to stop."

Foumei shrugged. "If I have time, I can work on it."

---

Iio and Lavanya both noticed that Aang's training took a bad turn. His progress came to a halt, and at times, he even had trouble concentrating enough to perform moves he had long ago mastered. First, they reduced the amount of time that he was allowed to train, in hopes that a little rest would bring him out of it. When that failed, they devoted his every waking hour to practice.

Malu left with her own Master to bring a herd of Sky Bison up to the Northern Air Temple. She still hadn't returned when the Comet dimmed the sky.

---

Aang had never been so angry in his whole life, even when he found out that the Elders were going to take Gyatso away from him. For the first time since the trip to Chameleon Bay, Aang was able to casually summon gale winds with enough power to destroy stone.

He held back a little when he struck directly at the Firebenders, compared to when he deflected and overpowered their extreme Firebending.

Even so, it still felt like something was blocking him from his true strength, and there were just too many of the enemy. Aang couldn't fight them all. He couldn't even save the other Nomads. For all that the Earth failed to hold them, only the most enlightened Masters were without attachment, and the most common was easily their love for their home. In not immediately fleeing the Temple, all the Airbenders doomed themselves. Aang witnessed young girls and old women all die. He saw ancient Sky Bison slowly and painfully fade, and their calves disappear in a single flicker of fame.

The Avatar knocked Firebenders around like toys, and brought dragons slamming to the ground.

He didn't find Appa until it was too late.

Appa, along with several other Sky Bison, had fled to the stables where they had teethed as infants. The stable was older than memory, made from thick stone that merely blackened in even the hottest fires. There was no sky to escape into, just scattered openings that were being systematically collapsed with explosives beyond Aang's comprehension.

And so by the time he found Appa (healthy but scared), he had no idea how to escape. Firebenders had followed him through the hallways, and were no searching the darkened stables.

That's when he found Foumei. Despite the death and chaos, she was meditating atop Appa. Her form was tinted by the red light of the comet, dark orange robes looking black in the dimness, her face deathly slack. "Avatar. Finally. You need to go."

He shook his head, teeth clenched. "The Sunrise Landing is blocked-"

"You're the Avatar. Bend the stone."

"I can't-"

"Yes. You can." She turned to gaze deeper into the stables, which echoed with the sounds of boots in rapid motion. "If I can teach myself how to kill, you can teach yourself how to throw a rock."

"Foumei," he tried to say, but there was a hitch in his voice, strangling the sound. It came out sounding more like, "...mai..."

She rolled up her wide sleeves, revealing a grid of leather thongs wrapped around her arms. Tucked beneath the lashings were a plethora of tiny, thin razor blades. She smirked at him. "This is what I've been studying for. This is how I balance my side of the world. Don't you think you should take care of yours? And Appa?"

It was strange. Before, the most painful decision of his life was when he chose not to run away from his destiny and let himself be taken away from Gyatso and exiled here to the Eastern Temple. Now, he was being encouraged to run away, on this, what might very well be the day of his destiny, by someone who was more like an anti-mentor! The worst part of it was that he wanted very much to run away, even though he knew it would eventually hurt worse than losing Gyatso.

Gyatso. What was happening at the Southern Temple?

Foumei's eyes looked into his own with a kindness he hadn't realized lived within her. "Aang, please, make sure our bending, our people, survive. I can't; it's not something I'm capable of. But I can't think of anyone who would be more worthy than you."

He hugged her, tightly, and she kissed his arrow. Then they came apart, and dashed in opposite directions. Aang tried his best to bend the rocks keeping him from the skies, but the element easily resisted him. The screams, deep male voices coming from the direction that Foumei had gone in, didn't help his concentration.

Then there was the rushing sound of extended Firebending, and silence followed. It was the silence of the garden, the silence of a leaf on the lightest breeze, the silence of an odd Airbender girl who only needed to breathe three times a minute when she meditated.

Inside, the barriers fell.

Four breaths later, the Firebenders arrived at the Sunrise Landing, and found only a hole and an empty sky.

END