Kyoshi island
Tanza
The rest of the afternoon found Tanza back at the stables. She spent an hour tending to Hachi and Juun—not because she strictly had to, but because she welcomed the routine. After feeding both sky bison the last two apple treats, she grabbed her grooming tools. Combing out their thick coats left her with a massive pile of loose white hair.
While she was working on Juun—who was still the larger of the two—the elderly stablemaster, a man named Jinto, stopped by. He managed the space for the occasional visiting Air Nomad.
Inwardly though, Tanza marveled at how much Hachi had grown over the year since they left the Western Air Temple. If his current growth spurt was any indicator, he would easily reach full adult size within the next year.
But back to the previous topic, Jinto had eyed the mound of fluff and offered to buy it on the spot. He explained that the village used bison hair to stuff high-quality bedding, so whenever airbenders visited, he always tried to collect the shed.
Since Tanza had already done all the hard work, it was a zero-loss deal for her. She happily agreed to sell the loose hair, securing a bit of easy currency for the pocket.
After finalizing the trade, Tanza delved into studying the sixteenth through eighteenth tiers of her airbending mastery. She focused most of her attention on the eighteenth tier, as she had already mastered the sixteenth and seventeenth forms during her toddler years. The sixteenth tier involved understanding how to bend heated air, while the seventeenth covered sound manipulation.
She had unlocked the seventeenth tier early in life, using it to play harmless pranks on her peers in the temple nursery. By manipulating the air vibrating from her lungs, she could throw the sound of her voice to an entirely different part of a room, throwing off her caretakers and friends. Though, the elders quickly caught onto her, and privately applauded her old soul to learn it so fast.
The eighteenth tier, known as Wind Run, intrigued her far more. As she held open her scroll, she read the detailed breakdown of the technique. While it obviously enhanced an airbender's movement speed, the scroll explained that it worked by significantly decreasing the air resistance immediately surrounding the bender's body. This reduction allowed them to sprint up vertical surfaces with ease. According to the text, a true master of Wind Run could sprint faster than the human eye could track, and could even run across the surface of open water for short distances.
Tanza, however, chose not to test the technique with her whole body just yet. She wanted to master the mechanics with individual limbs first before attempting a full sprint. Satisfied with this training plan, she rolled up the scroll, stashed it in her leather bag alongside her others, and stood up in the stable stall.
Testing the concept was an idea she had actually theorized much earlier in life. However, it had quickly been pushed aside by the sheer volume of other things occupying her mind—learning new bending forms, adapting to the culture of the new world she had been born into, and exploring her surroundings.
Being reminded of the concept now was a blessing, especially since she possessed a far firmer grasp on her airbending than she did as a toddler.
To begin, Tanza conjured a breeze to wrap tightly around her right arm. The current was completely invisible to the naked eye, but she could feel its subtle hum. To establish a baseline, she raised her left arm—which had no air shielding—and chopped it through the air as fast as she could, noting the familiar push of wind resistance against her skin.
After a few swings of her arms, Tanza nodded to herself, and focused back on her other arm. With barely any effort on her part, Tanza softly swung her arm gently to see something first, and felt nothing. Nothing. She swung again and felt nothing.
But that was the kicker, she felt nothing, as in, her first test with her other arm with a few tests, she felt something, but with her other arm, she felt nothing, as in, no resistance.
With that done, Tanza stepped out of the stable stall, where down below the sandy beach was empty while the rest of the folk of the island were busy preparing for the festival tomorrow. Now to get the next step done, Tanza surmised now that she had the ability down pat, she then lifted her lift and kicked it a few times, before roundhouse kicking it.
After letting her foot back down, Tanza lifted her other foot and covered it in the same breeze, before lashing out several fast snapping kicks that snapped the air like a whip, before she leapt and roundhouse kicked, leaving her to spin around and land on her feet. She afforded herself a smirk, this was more than simply an ability to run, it gave her the tool to unleash quick attacks on any that would be her opponent.
With that breakthrough out of the way, Tanza looked back down toward the shore. The island's crescent-shaped bay and wide, flat cape afforded her a unique geographical opportunity to test the ultimate stage of the technique: the water run.
First, however, she needed a proof of concept. She had to ensure she could sprint across the sand while maintaining the vacuum breeze around her entire body for an extended period. She couldn't just jump straight into master-level steps. Her trip to the South Pole had already taught her that lesson, reminding her of the time she had prematurely tried to perform the advanced waterbending master kata she learned from watching Granny Kusede. That attempt had ended in failure because she hadn't respected the progression.
Determined not to repeat the same mistake, Tanza knew she had to get the basic baseline down on solid ground before her feet ever touched the ocean waves.
But just as she was about to step out onto the dirt pathway leading down to the beach, which lay only a few short paces away, a familiar voice cut through the air. The sudden call caught Tanza off-guard; she nearly tripped over her own feet.
"Hey! Miss Airbender!"
Tanza blinked and turned around. Jogging toward her was Mifei, the young trainee she had met just a few hours earlier up in the village square.
Trailing just behind Mifei were her two friends, Nihlo and Kyiki. While Kyiki jogged right at Mifei's heels, Nihlo kept a brisk, more deliberate pace down the dirt path.
Tanza allowed her focused stance to relax, letting the invisible vacuum breeze dissolve around her limbs. She turned fully to face the approaching Kyoshi trainees.
"Hello?" Tanza replied, her tone a mix of curiosity and greeting.
As the first two girls reached her, they both took a quick moment to catch their breath. Mifei spoke up first. "So, about earlier—I realized I never properly introduced myself!" she explained.
Tanza nodded in understanding. "Yes, well," she offered a warm smile, amused by the girl's sudden urgency, "You're mother Mufei clearly needed you and your friends to practice your forms, so no harm done."
"Exactly!" Mifei nodded eagerly. "But let's do proper introductions now, because I think it's always fun to meet visitors on the island!"
"Yeah!" Kyiki agreed, stepping up beside her friend.
Just then, Nihlo finally caught up. Joining the circle with her arms crossed and a dispassionate expression on her face, she spoke bluntly. "I don't know about that. I vaguely remember you two saying you wanted to meet her just so you could pet and play with the giant, furry bison."
She let a tiny, rueful smirk break through her stoic expression. Mifei and Kyiki instantly froze, letting out a pair of incredibly awkward, guilty chuckles in response.
The girls quickly exchanged proper introductions before Tanza happily agreed to let them meet the animals. To her pleasant surprise, Mifei and Kyiki were remarkably gentle and patient as they approached Hachi and Juun. Beneath their childish enthusiasm—whether due to Captain Mufei's strict discipline or their own natural empathy—the trainees were never rough. Instead, they carefully sank their hands into the thick, fluffy coats with immense respect.
Tanza stood slightly off to the side with Nihlo, watching the peaceful scene.
"It's probably been about a year since an Air Nomad last visited the island," Nihlo explained quietly, her stoic demeanor softening just a fraction.
From across the stall, Mifei chimed in over her shoulder. "Yeah! And we totally missed our chance to pet the bison that time!" She grinned broadly at Tanza before pointing toward the grooming tools. "Hey, do you think I could help comb one of them?"
Tanza opened her mouth to say she had already finished grooming them. But Hachi, soaking up Mifei's affection, suddenly perked up his ears. He slowly lifted his massive head, locking his eyes directly onto Tanza with a look of pure pleading.
Tanza rolled her eyes at her bison and shook her head, unable to hide a smirk at the growing bison's antics.
"Well, it looks like he wants more," she mused. "I already groomed them, but go ahead." She pointed toward her gear. "You can find the combs in that leather sack I set aside."
With the two younger girls enthusiastically giving the bison a second grooming—which both massive creatures thoroughly enjoyed—Nihlo leaned back against the stable fence.
"So, what were you doing out here before we walked up?" she asked idly. Her tone was curious but dry. Showing interest in a stranger was rare for Nihlo, but given the circumstances, it was justified; Tanza was a rare visitor to an island where Nihlo knew every single face.
Turning her attention to the girl, Tanza raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me? Oh, that..." She realized Nihlo meant her training before she stepped toward the path. "I was studying my next mastery tier. Simple as that." She shrugged.
"Hmm. Well, whatever tier it was, those were some incredibly quick kicks," Nihlo mused. Nihlo's comment told her exactly how much the girls had seen.
"Hmm," Tanza hummed, considering her response. "Well, the tier itself isn't actually meant for fighting. It is designed to let an airbender move at high speeds with little to no wind resistance." She shook her head with a faint smile. "But my own experiments just now led me to realize it could be a very useful application in hand-to-hand combat."
"Hm. Neat," Nihlo mused, putting a sharp emphasis on the 't'. She tilted her head down toward the shore. "Well, are you going to practice it on the beach later?"
Tanza looked past her into the stable stall. Mifei and Kyiki had just switched sides, resuming their enthusiastic grooming. Juun and Hachi let out deep, rumbling groans of absolute satisfaction, sending both younger girls into a fit of giggles.
Turning back to Nihlo, Tanza nodded. "Well, that's the plan."
After another ten minutes, Nihlo ran out of questions, and the two younger girls finally wrapped up their second grooming session. Tanza turned to head down to the beach, with the trio notably following right behind her.
"So, which temple are you from?!" Mifei asked excitedly, leading the pack as they trailed after her.
Looking over her shoulder, Tanza answered, "Well, if you must know, I am from the Western Air Temple."
"Really? What's that temple like?!" Kyiki asked next. "I mean, we've only ever met a few airbenders. One was from the south, and two were from the east, but we never got to know what it's actually like at their homes, or what the temples look like!"
Mifei nodded eagerly. "Yeah!"
Reaching a perfect, wide-open spot on the sand, Tanza turned to face the girls. They were clearly starving for knowledge about the wider world, even if it was just a tiny fraction told through a description of her home.
"Well, I can say for certain that my home is vastly different from the other three," Tanza answered. "It is actually built entirely upside-down, hanging underneath the arches of a massive cliffside."
Kyiki and Mifei's eyes instantly sparkled with wide, breathless awe.
Beside them, Nihlo simply crossed her arms and raised a highly skeptical eyebrow.
"What, no way!"
"Really?!"
"How is that even possible?"
The three girls erupted with a mix of shock and disbelief. Tanza glanced at them, a small smile playing on her lips. To explain it, she decided to use an airbending technique she had learned early in life—one typically used to lift and swirl small objects. This time, however, it would require intense focus. She would be lifting sand, keeping countless individual particles suspended aloft simultaneously.
"Here, let me show you," Tanza said. "It won't be perfectly precise since I'm no artist or architect, but this should help you visualize what it looks like."
Inwardly, she briefly questioned why she was putting so much effort into a display for strangers. That thought was quickly answered by her own conscious mind: it had been a long time since she practiced this specific technique, and more importantly, she truly wanted to show these girls a glimpse of the vast world lying beyond their isolated shores.
Settling into a balanced stance, Tanza brought herself to a calm, centered state of mind. Relaxing her limbs into a fluid looseness, she stepped forward. With a graceful sweeping motion of her arms, she conjured a controlled gust of wind that spiraled down toward the beach floor.
As Tanza weaved her arms and motioned with her hands to guide the breeze, she tapped into her inner bending energy. The spiraling wind swept low over the shore, lifting a cloud of loose sand into the air.
With precise, delicate control, she shaped the swirling vortex. The millions of individual particles slowed down, locking into place to form a floating, ghostly miniature model. The girls gasped as they saw a vague outline of a rugged cliffside materialize, complete with tiny, upside-down buildings hanging precariously from the underside of the stone arches. Tanza held the intricate sand sculpture briefly in the air against the ocean breeze.
"It's not exact, but—" Her sentence was quickly though cut off by their reactions.
"So cool!"
"I wanna visit that place!"
"...Huh... How were they even built like that?"
The girls' reactions came in a rapid wave of excitement and deep curiosity. Even Nihlo's skeptical posture finally shattered, replaced by a look of genuine bewilderment as she stared at the floating physics-defying structures.
With a soft exhale, Tanza relaxed her hands. The invisible currents vanished, letting the loose sand sculpture collapse back onto the ground with a soft, uniform hiss.
"I think you're missing a few buildings," a voice called down from the stables above the beach.
The tone was thoroughly cheeky. Tanza whirled around to see Kelsang standing there, smirking in sheer amusement. She immediately shot her master a deadpan look, silently radiating disbelief at the sheer gall of the critique. Of course it was missing buildings—she had sculpted it from memory to the best of her ability with loose sand!
Kelsang walked down the dirt path to join the group. After a brief round of introductions with the three local trainees, she looked up at the sky and gestured toward the horizon. "It's getting close to dinner time," she announced promptly.
The reminder caused both of the younger, energetic girls to snap their heads toward the setting sun. Mifei nodded in realization, while Kyiki's stomach chose that exact moment to let out a loud, rumbling growl. Kyiki flushed red and giggled awkwardly at herself, holding her midsection as the group shared a laugh.
Shortly after dinner—which provided another satisfying fill of fresh food and hot rice—Tanza and her master returned to the stables to settle in for the night. Though they were getting ready for a night's rest, Tanza knew she would stay up a bit longer to return to her training.
Tonight though would be the first time they were roughing it, sleeping alongside their bison under the stars. The isolated village had no visitor lodgings or spare rooms available. While the island still traded with the mainland, it was quite small compared to other major landmasses.
Kelsang shifted on her makeshift bedding of straw and leftover bison hair—the loose fluff from the girls' grooming session that Jinto hadn't picked up yet. She busied herself with light reading, propping a small candle up on a nearby stool for light.
Tanza sat nearby, rereading the eighteenth-tier scroll to ensure she hadn't missed a single detail. When she finished, she looked over at her master. They hadn't really spoken during dinner about the governor or the people they had met. Because they were rare visitors, they had been completely preoccupied with separate conversations, answering mundane questions from curious locals about their travels and the outside world.
"So, who exactly was it that you visited, Master?" Tanza asked, allowing her curiosity to finally break the silence. "You mentioned before we split up that you wanted to see if they were still alive."
Kelsang looked up from her reading. A somber smile touched her face, causing Tanza to wonder just how well her master had known this mystery person in the past.
"Well, Tanza, the person I wanted to see is indeed alive. But..." Kelsang sighed softly and shook her head. Setting her scroll aside, she sat up straighter against the straw. "Like all things, time waits for no one. People come and go. Though, it seems some wish for it to happen a bit faster when they reach a certain age," she mused, a sudden, humorous glint entering her eye.
The cryptic remark piqued Tanza's interest, making her wonder what exactly had transpired up at the estate.
"Hmm." Tanza rolled up her own scroll, tucked it safely away, and pulled her knees to her chest to sit cross-legged. "So, who was it? Were they someone important? Though, if it's too much trouble to talk about—"
Kelsang held up a hand. "No, no. It's fine," she said, her smile warming. "It doesn't hurt for you to know. The person I went to see is Miss Koko. She is a very old woman, and she is the direct child of Avatar Kyoshi."
Tanza's eyes widened perceptibly.
If that was true, it meant the woman had to be well over a century old.
"A daughter of Kyoshi..." Tanza breathed, completely taken aback.
Kelsang nodded solemnly. "Yes. She is over a hundred. Her granddaughter, Kiki, is the active Governor running the island today."
For Tanza, knowing that a woman directly related to Kyoshi herself was living on this very island—and on her deathbed, from the sounds of it—made her acutely aware of the passage of time. The era she was currently living in felt as though it was drawing to a close, especially with the knowledge that Avatar Roku was also in his twilight years.
"I see..." Tanza mused aloud.
Inwardly, she couldn't help but note that people in this world seemed to enjoy remarkably long lifespans, judging by the sheer number of incredibly old individuals she had encountered on her journey so far.
Following their brief conversation, Kelsang recommended they finally get some rest, reasoning that Tanza could ask her more questions in the morning. Tanza, however, insisted on staying up just a little longer. She wanted to practice the eighteenth tier before sleeping, especially now that the beach below was completely empty, bathed in moonlight, and entirely free of distractions.
Kelsang smiled warmly and encouraged her to go ahead. "Just be careful not to run on the water for too long," she added with a knowing, playful smirk.
With that final piece of advice, her master had turned over onto her makeshift bedding to sleep, leaving Tanza free to slip out into the night.
Dropping into a classic sprinter's start, Tanza crouched on the moonlit sand. Leaning her weight forward with her fingertips dug into the beach, she focused her breathing, ready to unleash a dead sprint.
With zero wind resistance holding her back, the technique launched her across the bay. She reached the far end of the crescent beach in less than a few seconds flat.
Tanza slammed the brakes on the technique a moment later. It wasn't just because she had already reached the opposite treeline, but because the sheer speed had completely blurred her vision—her human eyes were physically unable to process it all that fast. Navigating the sensory overload was clearly something she would need to work on next.
However, the moment she dropped the technique, the pocket vanished. The full force of the atmosphere's natural resistance instantly slammed back into her like a blunt object. The sudden aerodynamic wall choked her momentum, forcing her to tuck her chin and dive into a hard forward roll to safely absorb the kinetic energy, catching her footing as she came to a complete stop.
Tanza smirked to herself. The technique was still incredibly raw, but with a bit of dedicated visual conditioning and practice, she would likely have it down pat within a week or two. It might take a month if she ran into more difficulty than she thought, but there was nothing she couldn't master once she put her mind to it.
Brushing the sand from her pants and the orange shawl draping over her yellow airbender garb, Tanza straightened up.
As she did, her eyes caught sight of something unusual. Deep within the thicket of trees and bushes she had almost crashed into, a distant light was flickering through the dark foliage.
Whether the light was truly unusual or not, Tanza raised a curious eyebrow. She was a stranger to this island, and her instincts were on alert. Glancing back up toward the village square, she saw it was completely deserted. The communal braziers had already been extinguished to conserve fuel and resources for the night, plunging the entire town into pitch darkness.
Tanza looked back toward the distant, flickering light in the thicket. A growing curiosity filled her mind. She let out a small, annoyed grunt and silently chided herself; she knew she would be tossing and turning all night if she didn't find out what was going on.
Whether it was private business or something more sinister, her busybody mind needed to be sated before she could hit the hay—literally, in this case. The old idiom brought a brief, amused smirk to her face as she realized just how literal her bedding situation was tonight.
Activating the tier of her airbending that she learned way earlier in her life, Tanza manipulated the air around her feet to completely mask the sound of her footsteps. Moving like a ghost, she watched her placement carefully as she slipped through the dense thicket of trees and bushes.
Before long, excited voices cut through the quiet night, accompanied by the distinct, heavy thuds of bodies hitting dirt and the sharp snap of fists striking flesh. The sounds only made her more curious.
She crept closer until she arrived at the mouth of a shallow cave, its stone walls illuminated by a row of flickering torches. Slipping past the entrance, she discovered the narrow passage opened up into a massive, hidden cavern.
Inside, local kids and teenagers of both genders were playfully brawling. By the looks it, it looked like a secret, late-night training ring. Kyoshi trainees in their casual undergarms and fisherman boys were enthusiastically throwing hands at one another. The girls were easily defending themselves, effortlessly parrying the boys' strikes before hauling them back up from the dirt to demonstrate better jabs and footwork.
Tanza's eyes scanned the lively, torch-lit cavern. Nestled further back through the chaotic crowd, she easily spotted Mifei and her friends.
The trio was sitting atop a smooth pile of rocks alongside a few local fisherman boys. They were chatting idly and laughing, taking a relaxed breather while the older teenagers handled the heavy lifting, roughhousing and crashing into the dirt below them. It was clear this hidden spot was the ultimate sanctuary for the island's youth to escape the rigid discipline of the village above.
Tanza watched the lively matches, realizing that lighthearted fighting was simply part of the local culture—their unique form of play, excitement, and community bonding. She certainly couldn't fault them for it. An isolated island provided only so many avenues for entertainment, so she supposed this dynamic had naturally developed over the centuries since Kyoshi's era.
If anything, she wouldn't be surprised if Avatar Kyoshi herself had originally introduced casual sparring to the village children to build their strength, which then slowly morphed across generations into a traditional, late-night secret for kids and teens to carry out at the end of the day.
But that was just speculation on her part, and she knew she could be a hundred percent wrong about the history.
Just as Tanza was finishing her sweep of the cavern, preparing to slip away with her curiosity fully sated, her cover was completely blown.
"Oh hey, Tanza! You're here!" Mifei's voice shouted out, cutting right through the ambient noise of scuffling feet and laughing teenagers.
The entire hidden cavern suddenly went quiet. Dozens of heads snapped toward the shallow entrance, tracking Mifei's pointing finger right to where Tanza stood frozen in the torchlight.
The older teens quickly relaxed and went right back to their roughhousing, realizing she wasn't a village adult coming to shut them down.
One of the older girls closer to the entrance quickly turned to look down at her. "Oh, that's right..." she smiled at Tanza. "You guys are sleeping at the stable tonight."
Out of the corner of her eye, Tanza noticed Mifei hopping down from the rock pile to head her way. Meanwhile, the older teen girl leaned down to meet her at eye level, a friendly grin on her face. "Sorry about that. Did the light or the noise wake you up?" she asked kindly.
Tanza shook her head. "Not at all. I was simply doing a bit of late-night exercise when I spotted the light from this cave," she explained with a thin smile, still a little unsure of where to go from here.
Before she could think of an exit strategy, Mifei arrived, bouncing on her heels with a huge grin. "Hey, since you're here, do you want to join us?" she asked eagerly, gesturing toward the open dirt floor where a boy and a girl were currently trying to sweep-kick each other.
Tanza opened her mouth to decline, planning to explain that it was getting far too late for her and she needed to head back. "No thanks," she said, shaking her head as she thumbed toward the cave's exit. "Really, I should get back before I end up waking up late tomorrow," she reasoned, offering them a respectful smile.
But before she could step away, the older teen girl let out a mischievous smirk. She stepped forward, planting a firm, friendly palm flat against Tanza's shoulder to block her path. "Nah. Once you're here, you're not leaving until you finish at least one match!"
Tanza raised a sharp, skeptical eyebrow at the challenge. Her polite smile melted away, replaced by a look of sheer, pragmatic determination. If these locals wouldn't let her leave quietly, she was more than willing to fight her way to a victory—if only to finally get back to her bed of hay and get some sleep.
But before the tension could escalate, a teenage boy around the older girl's age strolled over and slapped a hand onto her shoulder. "Ah, come on, Tifei, no need to be so intense," he jested, playfully tugging her back by the arm. "Come on, it's our turn in the ring next."
Tifei let out a final, parting smirk at Tanza. "Fine, whatever," she shrugged, turning back toward her partner.
With the older teens moving away, Tanza was left standing with Mifei. The younger girl offered an apologetic smile. "Sorry about that. Tifei can be a bit intense sometimes," she giggled, reaching out to gently catch Tanza's hand. "But seriously!" Her eyes widened with excitement. "You should totally join us for a fun scuffle! Surely you want to test your own katas out, right?"
Mifei's question forced Tanza to pause and reflect.
Initially, she had been entirely averse to the idea, willing to fight only as a blunt tool to secure her exit and go to sleep. But Mifei actually raised a brilliant point. Even without using her airbending to blast people away, her baseline katas were complete martial arts styles on their own. Now, she had the perfect opportunity to test those forms against a willing, living opponent of her own age.