14 BG, Tanza
While the sun was at the apex of its journey through the sky, Tanza occupied herself with studying the scroll Avatar Roku had given her. Up front, Master Kelsang guided Juun through the clouds from her seat on the giant bison's head. She instructed Tanza to read and learn, but strictly forbade any actual airbending while in flight.
"When we reach land, I'll show you what I learned from my mistakes," Kelsang said before letting her Acolyte study.
Tanza had nodded then, and delved into the scroll. After letting her mind lap over the texts and images to imprint the steps in her memory, she confirmed these were indeed the foundational forms of the Fire Sages. They perfectly mirrored the circular movements she had observed in the temple courtyard just yesterday.
'If anything, it is a foundational scroll by the looks of it, designed to give young acolytes the muscle memory needed for the next stages of their training.'
With that in mind, Tanza nodded to herself before rolling up the scroll, tying it secure, and slipping it into her traveling rucksack resting against the side of Juun's large leather saddle. She would study it later with her master, but for now, they were heading downward as Juun tilted his massive head toward the earth.
'Another detour?' Tanza thought.
Beside them, the young calf sky bison, Hachi, let out a small yawn and followed the older bison down through the clouds. The thick white blanket parted, prompting Tanza to lean over the lip of the saddle to see where they were going. Down below sat a jagged spire of pale, stark rock jutting straight out of the crashing ocean waves.
High on the highest, wind-battered peak sat an exposed stone platform without walls or a roof. Master Kelsang looked back from her seat on Juun's head, her clothes whipping wild in the wind.
"Just a little detour, Tanza," Kelsang called back with a smile as she guided Juun down. She faced forward again, steering her bison toward the rock. "Welcome to Whaletail Island. I figured we would visit this place on our way to the Southern Air Temple."
Juun touched down smoothly on the stone landing platform, with Hachi landing not a second later.
With Kelsang using her airbending to easily hop off Juun's head, Tanza too jumped down from the saddle. She released a soft cushion of air beneath her feet to soften her landing, touching down seamlessly onto the cold stone.
Before they even moved toward the steps, Kelsang gestured to the stark, empty peak above them. "Whaletail Island is a sacred sanctuary, Tanza. It is the very place where Monk Tang Xu completed his legendary fast. He sat on that bare peak for weeks without a single bite of food, relying entirely on his breath to keep his body warm against the freezing ocean gales. It shows what an airbender's spirit is truly capable of."
Tanza kept her expression open and curious, looking up at the high, wall-less stone platform. Internally, her mind stripped away the spiritual storytelling. She noted the story, like many times more since her birth here, had the similarities of monks from her own world.
Kelsang then turned back to her, her eyes twinkling with purpose. "But that is only half the reason we are here. I also want to use this windy peak to see your progress. I watched you yesterday at the temple courtyard, and I noticed how you are trying to mix those circular Fire Sage movements into your wind style."
Kelsang loosened herself up via rolling her shoulders, and shook her hands a bit through the air loosely. "Firebending and airbending have completely different centers of gravity. If you mix them incorrectly, you can easily hurt yourself or waste your energy. While we are here, I am going to watch your forms closely, and see exactly what I need to show you to safely correct your style."
Tanza fixed her posture, and stood ready with her arms folded behind her back, she watched intent with keen eyes as her master continued talking. This was going to be her first session with her master after all.
Once her master was done loosening herself, she spoke while she stepped a few paces away, "I wasn't always just a traditional instructor, Tanza," Kelsang said, her voice dropping to a gentler tone with a rueful grin and look in her eyes.
While she rolled her feet a bit and tapped her toes against the stone platform, Kelsang continued, "When I was younger, I walked this exact same path. I spent years trying to see if our airbending could adopt the movements of other styles." She ceased her motions and palmed her sides.
"It was incredibly difficult, and truth be told, I never fully mastered it. But looking at you, I think you might actually achieve what I could not." She gave her an approving grin. "After all, you have more years ahead of you, and you're younger, which means your body can adapt better!"
Before Tanza could respond or think of what her master just said, Kelsang stepped back. Her entire posture shifted, losing its relaxed looseness as she adopted a fast-paced, offensive stance. Tanza's eyes narrowed instantly, recognizing the exact foundation forms from the Fire Sage scroll.
With a sudden burst of speed, Kelsang's arms blurred through the air. She channeled the howling sea gale into tight, narrow paths, unleashing a series of compressed air-whips that cracked sharply through the cold atmosphere like real fire. But at the apex of the third strike, the air destabilized. With a loud, uncontrolled pop, the wind burst outward, kicking back against Kelsang's arms and breaking her rhythm.
Tanza watched closely, noticing that the condensed air balls she had conjured at her fingertips yesterday were indeed, as she suspected, capable of being extended out into sharp whips of wind.
Without missing a beat, Kelsang used the recoil to transition. She dropped her center of gravity low to the stone floor, executing a sweeping, circular leg kick derived directly from a Fire Sage combat form. Instead of a linear burst, this motion whipped a continuous, unbroken ring of wind around her ankles, clearing the gravel off the platform in a perfect circle.
Kelsang continued the form without a single pause. As the continuous ring of sharp wind whipped around her ankles, she lifted her leg, catching and controlling the spinning current with her foot exactly like a firebender manipulating arcs of flame. She directed the ring of wind up over her head and launched into a fluid backflip. At the apex of her flip, she delivered a sharp, snapping kick, launching the compressed ring of air straight out into the open sky. It sliced through the atmosphere with a loud, resonant crack of wind before safely dissipating into the sea gale, leaving Kelsang to touch down lightly onto the cold stone platform.
For Tanza, the entire form Kelsang had just shown her was an expression of pure violence, completely detached from traditional airbending principles. But just as her master had admitted, the technique was clearly incomplete. Kelsang had only shown two distinct forms, and in Tanza's opinion, the second one still required serious tuning. The acrobatic backflip felt unnecessary, or perhaps it was a required mechanic to generate momentum, she wasn't entirely certain yet.
Kelsang, on the other hand, caught her breath and gave a warm smile, gesturing to the open space beside her. "Come, Tanza. Step up here and practice with me. Let's work on extending those compressed air balls you made yesterday and turning them into full air-whips. Don't worry about the leg sweep just yet." She gave her a wink, a show of encouragement on her Master's end.
Tanza nodded before she stepped forward onto the cold, bare rock. She pushed her critiques to the back of her mind for now, dropping into the low, heavy Fire Sage foundation stance to anchor her small body against the aggressive sea gales.
Beside her, Kelsang dropped into the exact same foundation stance. She began to move her arms in slow, exaggerated circles, providing Tanza with a clear, rhythmic form to mirror and work off of. Tanza adjusted her posture, matching her master's sweeping movements exactly to trap the whipping sea wind.
As they moved together, Kelsang began to speak over the howling gale, her voice steady despite the physical exertion. "While we find our rhythm, you should know the real truth of how Monk Tang Xu survived up here. It wasn't a miracle, and it wasn't just simple stubbornness."
Tanza kept her eyes focused forward on her master's movements, but her mind memorized every word.
"Tang Xu survived because he understood that a master can draw fuel from beyond his own body," Kelsang explained, taking a deep, rhythmic breath as her arms swept through the air. "He sat in deep meditation and opened his inner gates to the great natural world around him. By doing so, he learned to pull nourishment directly from the spiritual energy that binds all living things together. He sustained his life on that vast, unseen power. He didn't need food, because the world itself kept his body fed and burning bright against the freezing cold."
For Tanza, this made a bit more sense, considering this world had a more 'spiritual' nature in a sense. The explanation clicked instantly in Tanza's mind. 'It wasn't a spiritual letting go, it was learning to tap into an external, limitless supply of raw power for survival!'
Applying the concept of drawing on a continuous, squeezed current to her limbs, Tanza adjusted her form, perfectly mirroring the snap of Kelsang's wrist. As she reached the peak of the Fire Sage movement, she didn't try to force the wind into a rigid, frozen ball at her fingertips. Instead, she kept her arm loose and delivered a sharp, whip-like snap.
The gathered sea gale funneled smoothly through her hands, extending outward into a sharp, whistling whip of squeezed wind. It sliced cleanly through the air beside Kelsang's own strike, keeping its shape perfectly without bursting into an uncontrolled pop.
Shortly after. Kelsang ceased her movements, letting her own wind-whip dissolve smoothly back into the mountain gale as she watched Tanza's perfect execution. A look of profound realization washed over the master's face as she noticed how Tanza had taken that small piece of history about Tang Xu's inner focus and immediately used it to shape her own bending.
"You catch on incredibly quick, Tanza," Kelsang remarked, an approving warmth in her voice. "There will probably come a time in your life when you will truly need this lesson, just like you did right now."
Instead of stopping the lesson, Kelsang reset her stance to keep practicing alongside her student. As their arms moved in synchronized, sweeping patterns to perfect the whip form, Kelsang continued to speak over the wind. "There are many more gurus like Tang Xu in our history, each with their own incredible achievements. But for now, this is as good a time as any to let you explore this."
She gave Tanza a supportive nod as they unleashed another twin pair of whistling wind-whips together. "Consider this part of your formal airbending curriculum. We will use our time here to combine your personal study of the Fire Sage forms with the deep teachings of Tang Xu. By the time we leave this island, you will know exactly how to handle this power safely."
After an hour of continuous repetition, with Tanza receiving steady guidance from her master to perfect the whip, Kelsang finally called for a break. "Let's relax for a bit, Tanza," she said, rolling her shoulders out once more. "We need to let our bodies rest after fighting this wind."
Tanza eased out of her low stance, gratefully giving her young muscles a reprieve. She looked around at the barren peaks, her curiosity piqued by the complete isolation of the sanctuary. "Master Kelsang, what happened to this island? Why is it completely empty now?"
She was a bit curious about the island itself. It looked old, but it bore the distinct signs of previous airbender visitors within the past week or so, though it lacked any permanent residents.
Kelsang looked out over the jagged, white rock formations. "It is simply a matter of time and change, Tanza," she reasoned as she gazed out over the island with her pupil. "In the past, the Air Nomads who kept this sanctuary decided to consolidate further south, moving permanently to the Southern Air Temple." She shrugged and looked back at Tanza. "There is nothing more to it than that."
Tanza nodded in understanding, noting that it was simply a historical shift, her little curiosity sated for the least.
With that said, Kelsang tucked her hands into her large sleeves, her eyes bright with curiosity. "But moving past idle talk, tell me, how many tiers of your airbending have you finished so far since we left the Western Air Temple?"
'I actually have three more down, but one of them I know I have down pat,' Tanza thought to herself. She put on a calm, proud smile and spoke up. "Other than the first four baseline tiers, I have managed to get another one down completely, Master," she answered without pause.
Kelsang's smile widened with genuine pride at the sheer speed of her prodigy's growth. She gestured warmly to the center of the windy rock platform. "A fifth tier already? Show me."
Wordlessly she nodded before Tanza stepped out into the center of the windy rock platform. She closed her eyes for a single moment, feeling the fierce sea gale buffeting her robes. While Kelsang watched with a proud, eager smile, Tanza began the form exactly by the book, moving with pure, traditional Air Nomad grace.
She brought her hands together, tracing a wide, elegant path through the cold air. Suddenly, her movements quickened. She began spinning her arms in rapid, opposite paths, drawing the howling sea winds directly into the space between her palms.
With a sudden burst of focus, she expanded the motion. The trapped wind began to churn, twisting violently into a localized Air Funnel that swirled upward from the bare rock like a miniature tornado. The cone of wind hissed loudly, spinning so fast that it kicked up loose dust and small pebbles from the platform, keeping them trapped inside the swirling vortex.
As the funnel grew, she let her body move naturally with the wind, light on her toes just as the traditional masters taught. She maintained her focus perfectly, balancing against the wind's natural drift with pure, textbook airbending technique.
She held the violent funnel completely steady for several long seconds, letting Kelsang see the absolute purity of her forms. Then, crossing her arms in a smooth, sweeping motion, she let the swirling wind dissipate safely into the sky with a gentle whistle.
Kelsang's eyes twinkled in delight, and smiled proudly. She clapped her hands together, her eyes wide with amazement. "Incredible, Tanza! Your baseline form on the funnel is already sturdier than many acolytes twice your age!"
Tanza crossed her arms, letting the funnel melt away into the open sky before offering her master a polite, perfectly practiced bow.
Kelsang did not speak immediately afterwards. Instead, she looked down at Tanza with a deep, quiet expression of thought before nodding to herself with a quirk of a grin.
She began to pace around as she talked, "The elders at the temple told me that you are an old soul of the wind, Tanza," Kelsang said softly, her voice carrying a gentle weight. "They believe you are a past master who finished her journey, merged with the wind, and chose to come back to us. Watching you just now, I can certainly see why they think so. Your understanding runs deeper than your years."
Tanza kept her expression completely still and innocent, though internally her sharp mind noted the convenience of the rumor. It was an excellent cover story. It perfectly explained away her adult intellect and rapid progress without ever risking the truth of her past life.
Kelsang then paused in her pacing as she stood in front of Tanza once more, Kelsang's expression turned serious, though her eyes remained entirely warm. She stepped closer, looking down at her young student. "But you must also take care to steady your pace, Tanza. Even a prodigy must remain humble and learn to know her limits. If you push your body and your spirit too hard without resting, you will burn out before your time, just like a candle left out in the wind."
Her master gave her a kind smile afterwards, reached out and palmed her head affectionately, "Do remember that, yes?" She asked while removing her hand from Tanza's head.
Tanza dipped her head in a gentle bow of respect. "I understand, Master Kelsang. I will remember to stay steady," she replied, her voice soft and perfectly matching the innocence expected of a six-year-old child.
But as she turned her back to follow Kelsang down the steep stone steps toward the landing platform, she began thinking to herself.
'An old soul of the wind,' Tanza thought, a cold, dry amusement settling deep within her. 'Let the elders keep believing that. A past master returning from the sky is a clean, useful lie. It shields me from suspicion. It gives me a perfect cover to be as brilliant as I need to be, without anyone asking the wrong questions about where my mind truly came from!'
She reached Juun's side, placing her hand against the thick, warm fur of the giant sky bison. She looked out one last time over the jagged, white rocks of Whaletail Island, where the wind still howled through the empty stone peaks.
Before Tanza climbed up the leather straps of the saddle, the young calf, Hachi, nuzzled against her sleeve, to which she gave the animal a brief, absentminded pat, before she used her airbending to leap up high and land into Juun's saddle while Master Kelsang boarded on the back of her Bison's head.
Up front, Kelsang settled onto Juun's head and took hold of the guiding reins. With a hearty, cheerful call of "Yip yip!" The massive bison shook his heavy tail and launched himself off the stone platform, with Hachi flying up after his elder bison.
Tanza leaned against the edge of the saddle as the jagged white spires of Whaletail Island shrank into tiny dots below them. The sky grew dark, turning a deep, heavy violet as the sun dipped beneath the western ocean. For hours, the only sound was the steady rushing of wind through Juun's fur. Tanza closed her eyes, practicing the deep, steady breathing of the monks.