Aang stared, impossible! Impossible! He grabbed Katara, desperately trying to hold on to her to keep himself from fainting. Azula’s jaw dropped. It was him, it was the man who helped her in the woods and he was an Air Bender. She was right!

Two air bending masters stood before them, their bizarre silver eyes gleaming from the dancing Azure flames. Aang extinguished the fire. Without a word, he handed a note to the two airbenders. The man who looked about 18, took the note and skimmed through it. He nodded his head towards the young Avatar. 

“My name is Ian and this is…”

“Min.”

Aang smiled.

“My name is Aang and this is Katara.”

Katara cleared her throat.

“My girlfriend Katara.”

“I’m Sokka and this is my wife…”

“Suki, I am Suki, it is so nice to see you, sorry for holding your girlfriend hostage.”

Ian and Min eyeballed each other and Min scooted away from Ian, her face scrunched up in disgust. Suki looked confused.

“We are siblings.” Ian warily replied.

“Ohhhh, so sorry.” Suki laughed nervously.

Azula stood at the back of the crowd, uninterested in the current conversation. She turned on her heels and headed back to camp. The only things that engrossed her was how they survived the genocide and how could they read in the dark. 

“And that is Azula, she uhhh well let’s say she is representing her

 brother Firelord Zuko.”

Azula whirled around, her jaw clenched.

“Excuse me, I am more then just a representative, I am a princess!”

Everyone took a step back. Sokka whispered to Suki,

“Who is worse, my sister or Azula?”

Suki shrugged.

Ian watched Azula, something about her seemed eerily familiar. His eyes enlarged. It was the girl he and his sister found in a ditch! She was a Fire Nation Princess? But how? She looked like she went through a mental break down. Ian bit his lip, maybe she tripped and hit her head.

“So where do you live?” 

Ian gyrated to the Avatar. 

“We live in what we call The Hidden Temple, you guys look like you need some light, come with us.”

Aang tilted his head towards his bison,

“He is sick with Bison’s Cough, we can’t go anywhere.”

“You are less then a mile from the Temple.”

Aang’s eyes lit up.

“Come on guys. Ian invited us to the Temple.”

Everyone immediately ran towards camp to pack up. Who knew what adventures would come in the forever forbidden Air Temple?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As the Gaang packed, Ian gave a brief history on how the Air Nomads escaped

 their fate.

“When the young Avatar disappeared, there were search parties everywhere. Everyone was looking for him until a group from the Western Air Temple spotted something that bumped the Avatar down from the spot of absolute priority.”

Everyone stared at Ian, Azula found his story extremely intriguing, she noted that he was an excellent story teller, also possibly a decent liar. 

“What happened next?” Suki whispered.

The fire flickered causing the reflexion in Ian’s silver eyes to appear mysterious

 and intimidating.   

“They spotted an entire Fire Nation Fleet, just a month before the comet.” his sing-song  voice lowered an octave, chills went up everyones spines.

 Azula felt a stir of true fear in her stomach, she ached to know what happened next. Katara was shaking, not from the cold but from fright, the dark tunnels only worsened her symptoms. Aang noticed Katara’s trembling. He gingerly tapped her shoulder. The water bender violently turned around to see Aang’s eyes glittering, 

he looked frighted as well. 

 “They sent a master by the name of Alya (pronounced as Ulueya)  to spy on the Fire Nation and she heard the drastic news. About the genocide and about the traps in the aftermath. Rushing back to her group, Alya told the monks that they needed to warm everybody and they needed to evacuate the Air Temples. They managed to warn their home and the Northern Air Temple. The group that was to warn the others, never made it. No one knows what happened to them.” Ian paused to allow the fact to sink in. He grinned at them showing off pearl white straight teeth. 

 “A monk by the name Diwa (Dyva) had a dream of the Air Nomads walking into the Swamp, into the Banyon-Grove Tree to safety. He shared his dream and everyone in the Northern and Western Air Temples dropped everything and flew straight to the Swamp, they flew by night and hid by day. When they arrived, Monk Diwa lead the Air Nomads through these tunnels and to an open space with its own Day and Night that corresponds with the world above.” He paused again, his eyes softening. 

 “We worked everyday to build a temple, to build a self sustaining world where we only had too occasionally ventured outside, just to see what was going on. We had problems, like we always desired to move around but we had to settle not knowing how long we had to wait for the Avatar’s return.” 

“Why didn’t you reveal yourself five years ago when the world was saved?” 

asked Sokka.

Ian glanced at his sister.

“The world was not ready for the Air Benders to return.” Min gleamed 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Azula couldn’t believe it, they have been walking for what felt like hours with a bunch of breaks because the fluffy stink monster caught a cold. To feed her curiosity, Azula decided to approach Ian and see if her suspicions were indeed correct regardless if she recognized him or not. Azula quietly crept up to Ian while he was watching his sister rub the sick bison’s nose. 

“Why did you help me!” Azula commanded.

Taken absolutely by surprise Ian jumped two feet into the air, a small squeak escaping his lips.

“Wwhat?” 

“Why did you help me when I fell into a hole?”

“What made you think it was me?” Ian raised an eyebrow.

“You just admitted it.” Azula placed her hands on her hips.

Ian’s eyes widened.

“It was you?” Ian cautiously asked.

“No, I was making up a story.” Azula muttered sarcastically.

“No need for the sarcasm, yes I guess it was Min and I.”

“But why?” 

Ian tapped his chin. 

“Because I wanted to.”

Azula glared at him, as if it was unheard of. 

“Were you expecting a different answer?” a knowing smile broke through.

Azula’s mouth twisted, she suddenly despised him because… because…

“Are you alright?” Ian asked as he noted the sudden change in the young 

fire benders features.  

“I am fine, thank you.” Azula hissed.

“You are lying.” Ian said before he could stop himself. 

Azula froze. Regaining her composition, she said,

“Where did you get that idea?”

“You started talking too formally, and your irises expanded which often is 

a result of lying.”

Azula was thunderstruck.

“Impossible, I am an excellent liar, I fooled Toph Beifong, a lie detecter in her own right. And another thing, how can you see in the dark, you read the Avatar’s letter and it was dark enough for even I couldn’t read it?”

Ian sniggered.

“For your first question, I am extremely observant and I can read people very well. 

For your second question, it is all about genetics.” 

Azula’s face was blank.

“I will explain to you what it is later but living the hundred years in a  hidden Air Temple, we had to have the ability to see in the dark thus resulting our strength in Rod Cells. 

It what makes our eyes silver. We can still see in the light just as well as any other person but we can see colors in the dark.”

Azula nodded, she understood except one thing.

“What are Rod Cells?”

“Cells that allow us to see in the dark, and cells are the living building blocks of life.”

Azula’s golden eyes were filled with awe and fascination.

“When we get home, I will be more then happy to show you the library where we keep all the information about well, everything.” Ian chuckled

Azula smiled slightly, Ian watched her intently.

He had to admit to himself that she was very pretty.