Chapter 6

## The Southern Air Temple, Part 1

**Chapter 6** is titled - "The Southern Air Temple, Part 1".

## Summary

Katara and Aang are packing up their campsite while Aang excitedly tells her about the astounding beauty of the Southern Air Temple; being the only home he has known, he is eager to return to it. However, Sokka remains in his sleeping bag; Aang tries to convince him to get up, but Sokka ignores his request. Too anxious to wait, Aang picks up a stick and slides it across Sokka's sleeping bag, telling Sokka in a frantic tone that there is a prickle snake in his sleeping bag. Terrified and screaming, Sokka leaps to his feet, still in the sleeping bag; only when he topples back to the ground face-first does he realize that he has been tricked. Katara suppresses a laugh as Aang declares that they can leave since Sokka is now wide awake. Nearing the Patola Mountain Range, a hungry Sokka finds out that Aang used all the blubbered seal jerky he had brought to start their campfire the night before, leading him to remark that it was "no wonder the flames smelled so good." Katara is trying to keep Aang from getting too excited about their visit to the air temple, and she tells him to expect the possibility that his people have been killed by the Fire Nation. However, Aang refuses to entertain the possibility. He believes that reaching an air temple is utterly impossible without the use of a flying bison and maintains that since the Fire Nation had no such assistance, they would not have been able to reach the temple. Approaching the top of the mountain, which pierces the clouds below, they look down on the Southern Air Temple.

Sokka, still hungry, is berated by Katara for being one of the first outsiders to see an airbender temple and thinking only about food. Aang starts to give Katara and Sokka a tour of the temple, but failing to see any other airbenders causes him to quickly become disheartened. To take his mind off it, Sokka volunteers to play a game of airball with him. As Sokka cannot bend air, Aang subsequently defeats him soundly in the game, the ball, propelled by airbending, hitting Sokka in the stomach and sending him flying backward into a pile of snow at the base of a very short abutment of earth. Lying on the ground, Sokka happens upon an archaic Fire Nation soldier's helmet; after pointing it out to a shocked Katara, they agree to show it to Aang. However, as Aang begins to walk over, Katara suddenly changes her mind and waterbends a mass of snow downward, covering the helmet and Sokka with snow. She subsequently tells Aang that the reason she called him over was to show him her snowbending. Believing the misdirection, Aang comments positively on Katara's ability to bend snow before eagerly resuming the tour, wishing to show them the rest of the temple. As Aang moves out of earshot, Sokka, clearing the snow from his face, tells Katara that trying to shield Aang from the reality of the genocide committed against his people is a mistake, to which Katara replies sadly that Aang would be devastated if he knew firebenders invaded his home. Following Aang, they come to a tall statue of an airbender monk; Aang, bowing respectfully, introduces the man as Monk Gyatso.