Chapter 118 - Chapter 120

Amell and Orlando laid still on the scorching hot ground. Amell was stroking Orlando's feathers while talking to him in a calming tone. He found out that Orlando was trapped in a similar place as Dragon was. The cage creates a world inside the mind of its prisoner, and the only way out was through the use of spirit bending.

"Do you feel okay on the inside? Nothing feels out of the ordinary inside your mind?" Amell asked.

Orlando slowly shook his head while enjoying the stroking going on. For someone like Orlando that only had limited knowledge of bending and no knowledge of spirit bending, a prison world like that was a place of great suffering. Alone for years upon years with no one to lean on for help.

"That's great. When you feel rested, we will go and visit Gyatso and the others again. We can take some time off, and get back to exploring once we are in top form again." Amell said and Orlando nodded happily. He slowly stood up to show he was good to go.

"Wow, Orlando. You got taller!" Now that Orlando fully stood up on his talons, Amell could see that a change had occurred. Orlando had become double his previous size. He was absolutely massive. Forty meters in heigh and a wingspan not far behind his height. He was truly very huge, and would most definitely scare the crap out of the people of this world if they saw him dive from the sky towards them.

"So you are good to go?" Amell said while laughing. He already knew the answer, so he mainly asked as a formality.

"KAA!" Orlando screamed, and after so many years of solitude, the scream caused an outburst of wind that caused a miniature sand storm with the duo in the centre.

"It's so good to see you again, Orlando. Now towards the Southern Air Temple." Amell made a simple jump and flew forty meters up and landed on Orlando's head. "Take flight, Partner!" Orlando screamed as he shot off the ground and immediately broke the sonic barrier.

He zoomed across the sky as the ground underneath passed like a blur to the naked eye. Amell was anything but ordinary. He caught each and every little detail as they were quickly approaching the borders of the earth kingdom.

An undetermined time later, Amell and Orlando could once again lay eyes upon that majestic mountain chain. Here had his adventure started, and this is where they became partners in crime. It was meaningful to both of them.

A happy occasion indeed, but Amell was sitting ontop his partner and frowned. "Orlando. Slow down, something is different here." He used to be able to sense the great life force these air nomads gave off. But now, there was nothing, it was all dead silent.

Orlando passed over the peak of one of the mountains that were conjointly aligned with the Temple. Then they saw it, the glorious temple, or what used to be a peaceful and beautiful place to live. Now it was half destroyed and the air was littered with the smell of death.

"W... W-What happened here?" Amell's heart started beating faster. This was the time he cursed his eyes, as they could pick up the bodies of the dead kids even from up here. He saw it all, every single dead body. Orlando landed on a plateau and bowed down as Amell jumped off.

"Gyatso... You warned me it was coming, you knew it and still let me go so easily.

"AAAAAAAH!" Amell screamed at the top of his lungs and almost caused the collapse of the mountains around the Temple. Amell collapsed on his knees with tears running down his face. He wasn't crying a river, but every single teardrop held thousands of memories of this place.

"Aang!!" He suddenly slammed his hand down on the ground and used his seismic sense. He had mastered it to an outrages degree. He could see the tiniest of details of anything with it. It surpassed Observation haki on pure sight and target location basis, if or when you mastered it to Amell's degree.

"He is not among the dead!" Amell could easily identify who was who among all these bodies. Even when they were only skeletal remains. Amell looked up and saw Gyatso's corpse sitting there and posed in such a way that he was staring at Amell.

"Gyatso..." Amell closed his eyes, and he felt all the emotions a human could possibly feel at this moment. He was an old killer, so going and killing the Fire Lord would be almost too easy to do. But there were a plethora of reasons as to why he didn't.

Orlando walked up to Amell and wrapped one of his wings around him. Amell sat inside the protection of the wing and cried his heart out. The pain of not acting against the Fire Nation was eating him up inside.

"Orlando, what would Gyatso say if he was here now? He would tell me to move on and live for all of them. He would tell me to find Aang, if he's alive, and protect him. Roku said the Avatar has to enforce balance, so am I not to act at all?" Amell said while digging his fingers inside the ground.

"How long was I gone? When did this happen?" Amell looked around, but all he could see in front of his eyes was the memory of him and Gyatso walking through here for the first time.

"Kaa!" Orlando removed his wing and sat down beside Amell. They both sat there for hours upon hours and said nothing more. Amell felt helpless, but he knew he couldn't start doubting himself or he would immediately start reverting back to his cold-blooded personality.

"Orlando, if I go on a slaughter spree inside the Fire Nation, I am afraid I would enjoy it too much. And especially now that I've seen this." Amell looked around at the bodies of both fire and air benders.

" I kill when necessary to protect. I should not avenge a slaughter like this because that will set in motion a great and evil circle that is destined to never end. I have too many people important to me, and I can't risk their safety by coming home worse than when I left." Amell stood up and breathed in to try and clear his mind.

"If Aang is alive, I will find him. I will wait here for one year, in case he returns to this Temple. Otherwise, I will move on to another location. I know I am late, Aang, but please be alive out there. I need you to be alive, even if it is for my selfishness of wanting to feel better. Just to know I can still do something for all of you that took me in years ago. Give me the chance to guide the Avatar to do what I can not." Amell said and sat down in the lotus position and closed his eyes.

"One Year!"

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End