The Forgotten Airbender

Chapter 1: Tashi's Escape

A century ago my seventeen year old great-grandmother Tashi lived peacefully in the Western Air Temple. Only twelve years had gone by since avatar Roku had passed so no one expected the new avatar to be revealed yet, but then he was. The elders had called everyone in the temple to the statue of Yangchen to announce that Aang, a twelve year old boy from the Southern Air Temple, was the Avatar...
"Sash," Tashi called to her friend as they climbed the upside down spires of the temple back to their rooms. "What was that about? We weren't supposed to know about Aang for another four years. Do you think the threat is getting that bad?"
"I don't know. When I was at the Southern Temple visiting Pelden (Sash's boyfriend) they seemed to be tightening up the rules as well," Sash stated concerned.
"Did you catch a glimpse of the Avatar on your trip?"
"Nope I've got no clue who this Aang is. All but five twelve years have their master tattoos though let's just hope he's not one of those kids."
"True—"
"But after talking to Pelden and some of his friends I'm getting really scared, Supposedly there's some commit coming that can boost fire bending"
"NO"
"Yea and it's coming soon. They don't know the exact date they just heard the elder council talking about it. No one is telling us anything but his friends are thinking of leaving, I think we should go too"
"B-but we don't have anywhere to go! The elders must have it under control, they wouldn't keep us here if they didn't." Tashi couldn't imagine leaving her home hanging under a cliff. Unlike the other air benders she never had the desire to leave and travel to other temples, she was happy here. No she wouldn't leave.
"I don't want to go either but we have to Tashi. It's not safe for us."
"No. Firebenders cannot even get to us they don't have flying bison. And what about everyone else we couldn't leave our friends, our family!"
"Your right its probably fine, but we should go see Pelden. You know find out what they're planning"

this conversation continued until Tashi had agreed to find out more information with Sash...

Three nights after the avatar had been revealed Tashi's hair blew against her face as she stared at her home through the crisp end-of-summer air. She was seated on the back of Bo, Sash's flying bisen, since she didn't have her own. A tear rolled down her cheek, "see you soon," she mouthed.
The temple now out of sight, she and Sash were on their way to the Southern air temple with a plan to visit Pelden and his friends learn about this commit and their plan just in case. After they learned this they would head back to tell everyone so they would know too. Estimating the journey to take just over two weeks — they were traveling through the earth kingdom instead around the fire nation for safety — the pair packed clothes and lots of food. They also had snuck out in the middle of the night no longer allowed to leave the temple because of the coming threat.
Tashi knew she would have enjoyed the trip if not for the stress that made her feel as is she was carrying Bo (the bison) not the other way around. All these landscapes she was seeing and the towns, even from afar, looked contrastingly different from home.
After the six day trip in this new world Sash exclaimed that they we're finally there. Tashi had to scan the horizon for a moment before seeing a tower poking out of the clouds. It was incredible, so different from what Sash had described. Similar to her home there were bison and lemurs circling the area, but other than that it was pretty different. Large expansive gardens lay on the tip of the mountain and twisting paths lead up to the temple entrance.
They flew down to a cave in the middle of the mountain to wait for Pelden and his friends while Bo flew up with a note tied to one of his horns. He was much less likely to attract attention, They didn't want anyone else to know we were there when we weren't supposed to be.

when Pelden arrived...

He and six other 17 years traveled to the cave on Bo, who had become very tired from the journey. Sash had barely contained her excitement when she saw Pelden and ran into his arms. While they embraced each other the six other 17s airbended off Bo and entered the cave.
Eventually Pelden and Sash joined the group. Sitting in a circle they all introduced themselves for Tashi since they all knew Sash.
After that Sash asked, "how much worse has the fire nation become, how bad is the threat?"
Pelden and his friends looked around at each other before one of them said, "were leaving tomorrow"
"What!" Tashi exclaimed
"Yeah,"said Pelden, "You caught us just in time, tomorrow the seven of us are heading to the small city of Gaoling"
"Already but why this soon"
"We found out the commit is called the great commit and it passes every hundred years. We don't know the day it comes but it is in late summer. And it already is late summer so we have to leave. It's likely this is the first temple they will attack since now everyone knows about Aang. The commit will make the firebenders so powerful I don't think we can stop them. The monks told us it's fine and scolded us for eves dropping but they look worried. No one know the plan they have for us airbenders but I'm sure it's awful. We have to go."
"I know it's a reach but could Aang do anything?"
" I'm afraid not. He's a really talented airbender but Fire nation is ruthless and without a fully realized avatar nothing will stop them."
"wow" breathed Sash
"What about everyone else? You should bring more people with you!" Tashi paniced mostly thinking about her people.
"No one else will come. We've begged them but everyone else thinks the best chance is here," said Pelden somberly.
"You have to warn your people though, let them make their choice," said one of Peldens friends, his name was Namkha.

This sad conversation went on for an hour and Sash got visibly upset. Eventually it was decided that my great grandmother and her friend would head off the next day to let Bo rest. Once they warned everyone they would meet Peldens group in Gaoling.

If Tashi thought the first trip was stressful it was nothing like the journey back, so scared they wouldn't return in time. The pair were so exhausted and Peldens friends could spare little food with the everything being kept on close watch.
     Three days into the return trip the sky started to change color. It glowed red. Tashi saw it and could only think of it as the color of her people's blood. She and Sash could not acknowledge it, they just cried silent tears, hoping, needing to know their people were okay. Perhaps the firenation did not know the day either maybe it was too much a surprise to really prepare, maybe western nomads escaped.
     Four days into the return trip the pair ran out of food. They didn't have any money or a plan but they spotted a small earthing kingdom village. Maybe the citizens had good news maybe nothing happened and they had none.
When they walked in the village many eyes looked on at them. Too much tension.
They shakily waked to a vendor and asked if she could spare food to make the 2 day journey to the western temple. The Stand owner looked at them with pity.
     "Have you not heard?" she asked them. "The Temples are gone"

With those words Tashi felt her soul knocked out of her.