Chapter 6

Aang

Why had they done it? That was the question at the back of my mind as we flew over Whaletail Island, heading for the mainland.

The Southern Air Temple was gone. Some of it still stood, but the soul of it was gone. The people who had made it what it was were gone. We ran into one guy who claimed that he was a member of the Air Nomads, but the fact of the matter was that it was very unlikely. For one, he didn't have any Nomad abilities—no airbending at all. For another, his knowledge of the Air Nomads seemed to come from the books left in the temple. He did seem to be doing a good job of keeping them stored, but otherwise, I didn't trust him very much. There was something about him that seemed very off. And then, well, Sokka spotted him sending off a bird with a note attached to its foot. When questioned about it, he'd been very cagey about the note's contents.

I was willing to understand that maybe there were other "quote unquote" survivors and Nomads without abilities that got to other islands, but the way he shut down when asked about that note made me think that something else was going on. So, after agreeing with the others, we decided to leave and try to make it to the mainland—the Earth Kingdom, or the Earth Nation, depending on who you asked. The sooner we set foot on that land, the better. The journey was already a third of the way to the northern continent, where I hoped to find a teacher who could teach me the ways of waterbending better than Katara and Sokka. They were okay, but neither was as well-trained as I needed. Sokka wasn't even really a waterbender—he was just a member of the Water Tribe, so I couldn't expect him to teach me anything bending related.

There were questions about how we were going to make it further north—it was a long way—but I wasn't about to give up. I'd made it this far, and I still had time to figure out what had caused the Fire Nation to become an ever-consuming flame that had cindered the Air Nomads.

The state of the Southern Air Temple was still on my mind. It was my home—the place I had grown up. The place I had trained the most. Sure, I may have visited some of the other temples, but that didn't mean I considered them the same as the Southern Air Temple. And I wondered what the state of the other air temples was—the Eastern Air Temple, the Western Air Temple, the Northern Air Temple.

Part of me hoped that they hadn't been as badly hit. Yes, it had been a hundred years since the destruction of the Southern Air Temple and most of the Air Nomads, but there had to be some people left. The Western Air Temple had probably been hit the hardest besides the Southern, as it was close to the Fire Nation. But the Northern Air Temple? I guessed it was reachable by sea. Same went for the Eastern Air Temple. They were places that could be attacked, but they were also far enough away that warnings might have reached the people of those temples. They might have been able to get into the Earth Kingdom, maybe seek some sort of refuge…

Maybe, maybe I was just dreaming, and hoping I wasn't the last Airbender. Then again, that was a very hard dream to hope for, considering no one talked about Airbenders as living, breathing people. They all spoke of my kind as if we were from myths and legends. It was a hard thing to think about.

"Hey, Aang," Katara asked, getting my attention.

"Yes, Katara?" I asked, looking towards her.

"Ahh, how fast can your air bison fly?"

"Pretty fast. Why do you ask?" I asked, looking at her as she gazed off to the southeast. My eyes followed her direction and spotted smudges in the sky—black, billowing smoke.

"What the heck is that?" I said, leaning up to get a better look, narrowing my eyes and putting my hands over them for the best view I could get. I thought I saw glimpses of silver in the water below the smudges. They were getting bigger.

"Pirates," Sokka said as he grabbed his weapon and pointed at the incoming forces. "They're pirates—those who refused the order to return from the Southern Islands."

"What are they doing here?" I asked.

He shrugged before saying, "My best guess? Looking for you. Maybe they think if they can catch you, they can negotiate ownership of the islands with either the Fire Nation or the Earth Nation."

"Fun," I said, leaning forward and tapping my sky bison on the shoulder. "Might want to speed it up, old friend." He made a noise and sped up, heading towards the land off in the distance. The main continent would hopefully have something that could help us get away from them. I mean, they were on ships, so theoretically, if we got over land, they would have to lose us eventually. That would drive us further inland.

"Ahhh, guys, is that another one?" Katara asked, causing me to look towards her. I saw where she was looking again. Coming from the west end of Whaletail Island, I could see a ship coming around the bend. It was coming fast too. I saw the crew already running out with weapons. Surprisingly enough, no— they weren't aiming at us. I noticed they were aiming at the smudges, towards the southeast.

"I don't know, but they don't seem to be pointing at us," I said as my eyes caught something being run up the flagpole at the back of the ship. It was the Fire Nation flag, I believe—slightly different than the last time I'd seen it, but then again, it had been a hundred years since I'd last seen it. Who knew what little deviations they'd made in that time? The one I had seen had been up on a wall, so it could have been there much longer— a relic given to the Air Nomads long before things had gone bad.

There was a second flag that was run up, and I noticed this one had symbology I recognized—the royal family of the Fire Nation. I raised an eyebrow at that before saying, "So, pirates from the Fire Nation to our southeast and the Fire Nation royal family to our west, and they don't seem to like each other? Well, this could be worse." I looked at the others before Sokka pointed.

"You had to say it. You just had to say it, didn't you?"

I followed his pointed finger and quickly noticed what was coming from the north. It was a fleet of a similar size to the pirate fleet that was coming from the southeast. The ships coming this way, though, had differences.

The ships coming from the west and the southeast were old— their hulls stained dark gray, nearly black, from years of use. They were slender vessels with long hulls and sharp prows, looking like they were designed to cut through wooden ships.

The vessels coming from the north were shiny, to say the least—as if they had been cleaned often. The funnels coming out of the roofs of them emitted white smoke mixed with black. And unlike the Fire Nation vessels, which were very slender in design, I would call the Earth Nation vessels squat. They seemed to have two large protrusions on their sides, with water being churned up behind them from those areas, white foam flowing out from underneath those metal protrusions.

Like the Fire Nation vessels, they had a large central tower, but it was positioned further back on their vessels, near the front. There was a large turning device that appeared to have two barrels pointing out of it. They were flying their own flags, though they seemed to have some variance between each flag. They all tended to be a green color—the color of the Earth Nation.

Sokka looked around before saying, "You think we're going to make it to the land quick enough?"

"I can hope," I said, tapping on my sky bison's shoulder, encouraging him to make it towards the land as quickly as possible, as we were now caught between three sets of ships turning up water at each other.

One ship from the west, seven ships from the southeast, and four ships from the north.

I didn't like what was about to happen, and as it happened, I disliked it even more. The Earth Nation ships vanished in puffs of smoke, followed by thunderous roars I had never heard in my life. A moment later, several metal projectiles flew at a safe distance beneath us and towards the pirates. I watched as the projectiles mostly harmlessly landed around the pirate ships. One projectile, however, crashed through the central tower of the middlemost pirate ship. There was a slight explosion that set the central tower on fire, but the ship kept coming, even as its central tower burned. The crew of the ship quickly pulled out hoses and started firing water at the tower. We had a very good view of the battlefield as it began to take shape.

One of the old pirate ships seemed to focus directly on us. The leading pirate ship, the one that was slightly burning, gathered the other five ships and headed directly for the oncoming Earth Nation ships. The one that focused on us immediately had a crew armed with what appeared to be some sort of projectile weapon. I didn't realize what it was until they started launching sharp spears in our general direction, attached to long cords.

"They're trying to whale us," Sokka said, indicating that we should go higher. I tapped my sky bison, and he responded by rising high enough to keep us safe from the pirates trying to hook us. More and more hooks were shot towards the sky, but they seemed to have a limited range and couldn't quite reach us.

"Why the heck would they have a tool like that on board their ship?" I asked, frustrated by the ongoing attempts to hook my sky bison.

"Exactly as I said, they whale. It's one of the ways they pay for repairs for their ships. I think there are a few places that do business with pirates, even if they're officially enemies of both Nations," Katara replied, which was good information to know. Man, the world was messed up.

"Why would they do that if they're enemies of both Nations? Shouldn't they have no support?"

He shrugged before responding, "Some people don't like the Nations' decisions. I guess they think people still want the Fire Nation to attack the Air Nation, and the Earth Kingdom remnants still want to do the Earth Nation reforms and return to more independence. A lot of people feel lost in the world and have slowly been brought into the fold by the Earth Nation, annoyed by new taxes and regulations."

"Yeah, I can see why they'd be annoyed by the new taxes, but damn, it seems to pay for some nice ships," Katara said, as she looked down at the fight. Things were getting intense at this point. The six pirate vessels were now in range of the four Earth Nation ships, and they were pounding each other with their artillery. There was a constant sound of bangs followed by dull thumps and rumbles as the rounds hit their targets. The Earth Nation ships had large guns on top, swiveling to fire at the pirate ships, trying to get good hits. One of them succeeded, and I watched a Fire Nation ship explode into metal shards as two Earth Nation vessels managed to get to either side of it and fired directly into the central area together.

The tower of the Fire Nation ship shuttered and fell, landing on the Earth Nation ship, causing it to tilt. But the Earth Nation vessel quickly reversed and pulled itself out of the situation.

The melee was complex and confusing. One fight would start up, then another. I watched as a Fire Nation ship attempted to ram another Earth Nation ship, aiming for the joint between the metal box that seemed to propel the vessel and the hull. The Fire Nation ship embedded itself deep, possibly breaking through into the propulsion box and damaging whatever was inside. Then, holes opened up along the side of the ship, and lower-class artillery fired directly into its side. Most of the rounds did nothing, but one seemed to pierce something important, and steam began shooting out of the side of the vessel. The holes on the Earth Nation ship began to close as steam flooded the area between the Fire Pirate and Earth Nation vessels.

The Fire Pirate vessel began to back off, but the Earth Nation vessel pushed its power to full throttle on the other side, freeing the Fire Pirate ship for a moment before slamming into its side and pushing it toward land. There was a panic on the Fire Pirate ship, which soon turned to chaos as the ship hit something underwater and began to tilt. I could just barely see some sort of colored rock beneath it.

The Fire Pirate vessel tilted more and more, ripping apart the compartment for the Earth Nation's propellant, revealing a spinning metal wheel that was ripping itself to pieces. Before long, the Fire Pirate ship had completely tilted onto its side and became irreparably stuck, stopping its movement. The Earth Nation vessel just floated there, seemingly unfazed by the lower water levels. It did stop moving, but it relied on its turret to fire at nearby vessels.

As I watched, an Earth Nation ship spotted a Fire Pirate vessel trying to sneak up behind it for a ramming attack. The Earth Nation ship threw itself into reverse and collided with the pirate vessel. Two large ramps hanging off the back of the Earth Nation ship suddenly dropped and hooked into the wood of the pirate vessel.

Two doors next to the ramps slid open, and men with guns started charging out onto the ramps, onto the deck of the pirate vessel. It quickly became a melee of close-quarters combat. The pirates used swords and fire, while the Earth Nation soldiers mostly used guns and bayonets. It was a constant sound of pops and shots from smaller weapons. The Earth Nation forces quickly cleared the deck and pushed into the open doors that led into the ship.

"Why are the Earth Nation vessels having less trouble than the Fire Pirate ships?" I asked Sokka as we both looked over the battlefield.

"I think the Earth Nation vessels are built with shallower drafts so they can go up rivers. Most of them were designed with the idea that they could hide up rivers and come down to deal with any Fire Nation threats. Fire Nation vessels are deep-water ships; they have to cross the great oceans and seas. Earth Nation vessels, on the other hand, are patrol craft, designed to keep the shores and rivers free of pirates."

"Oh, I guess that makes sense," I said, just as I was about to look at another fight breaking out as we slowly made our way toward land. But a crunching noise from below caught my attention, and I looked down.

There, the Fire Nation vessel we had spotted had just rammed the side of the pirate vessel that had been trying to whale us. A fight was breaking out on the hull of the ship, Firebenders versus Firebenders, swords and fire flaring to life as the two crews clashed. After a few moments, I saw the pirate vessels surrendering, and I also saw a teenager with his head shaved except for a long ponytail looking up at us.

I think he was waiting for us to come down, but I wasn't interested in getting too close to the melee below.

Instead, I took this moment to have Appa lower his altitude so we could pick up speed and head toward land. No reason to stay here. Better to get out of this battlefield before anything else wild happens.