Rebirth, reincarnation, isekai, I had never cared to learn the difference between them but I new it had happened to me. I had died in battle in Syria, some asshole had shot me and took my arm off with a big damn bullet and the medic could do nothing. I used my remaining arm to remove my dog tags and hand them to him. I could barely see my name on the tags, the name Sair Ellery covered in blood. After the bright light I woke up in the large dark room made of a tan stone with one window near the ceiling.
The room was pretty much crumbling and I felt the bitter cold of a high mountain. I was wearing what seemed to be some kind of old medieval chain mail with fur lining and a small thick cloth hood. The armor on my left arm–the one I had lost–was torn up and burnt with burns and scrapes on the exposed skin. Carefully exiting the ruined building I was in I found myself looking over a beautiful skyline with mountains peaking above the clouds.
Turning around I finally found out where I was, right in front of me was the Southern Air temple sitting on top of a gigantic mountain peak. I could tell I was younger at around 15 to 16 years old which was perfect for this world as it was likely I was before the Gaang had arrived. Traveling to the main temple I found the closed doors of the avatar room and then tried to find my way to Gyatsos death room.
When I found it I saw his skeleton and well over 100 fire nation skeletons lying around the room. Exiting the main temple I made my way down the mountain to a greener area with what looked like living quarters and such. The area had many fruit trees, berry bushes and old overgrown gardens around the buildings. I scavenged the rooms for cloth and other stuff and moved it all to the first building and got to work making it livable.
After a month I had made the peak of the mountain a natural freezer to store all the food I had gathered. I had even left the mountain and hunted meat and cured it with salt then dried it with smoke. Over the next few months I continued to stock up my food and began to clean up the temple. Most buildings were collapsed or were rubble but a few had survived so I gathered the bones in small graves I had dug for them and buried them with helmets of other items to signify the difference between them.
At the very back of the grave yard was a small stone tower I had built right over Gyatsos grave with a jagged stone reaching out where I hung his necklace pendant. After cleaning and stocking food I began to meditate in hopes of being a bender as most powerful people had to be benders. Three months had passed and it was nearing time for an entire year in this world to pass by and I finally felt like I was getting close to using an element.
I new it would be between fire and earth due to my personality so I did everything I knew about the to elements and their training methods. On the eve of a full year I had finally gotten it, a spark of light from my hand. Firebending was right beside earth for my favorite type and I new just what I wanted to do with it, combustion bending. Figuring out simple fire bending was tedious but I got the hang of it and began attempting combustion at my hands.
Although combustion bending was used through the forehead I didn't think it had to be limited to there. On my fifth week of combustion bending attempts I got an explosion from both hands which were pointed at a wall right in front of me. The explosions weren't big but they threw me on my ass and deafened me for a bit. With that I continued to improve it till I could throw around explosive beams at nearby mountains and even curve my shots.
A few months passed as I simply improved my bending techniques and continued stocking my supplies. Eventually I got bored and headed into the temple archives which had nearly been destroyed. A few hours of sifting through the ash, rubble, and debris my stick hit a hollow floor. Grabbing the broom I had made I swept away the dirt and found a small indented square line on the ground. Using two knives I found on bodies I stabbed into the cracks and pried open a small floor safe.
Within were a few books, two were on air bending techniques and the last was for the technology that the airbenders wielded. Most of it was simple stuff but the compressed tech of the staffs was nice to have. I would have to make myself one along with some other things with the tech.
Around 3 months in this world and I heard Appas roar as they landed up near the main temple above the air ball field or whatever it was. Using my fire I jetted up above the field just in time to see Aang completely annihilate Sokka with the airball as he yelled about beating him. Following them from the field I could see Aang when he had his flashback at Gyatsos statue. After that they went to the avatar room and I waited outside.
When Aang came running out chasing Momo with Sokka right behind him I simply followed them as Momo led them to the graveyard where I would sometimes leave offerings to the fallen. I wasn't very religious but it simply felt right to do it like this.
When Aang entered the avatar state a massive blast of pressure burst from him and flung Sokka and grave markers all over the place. Eventually Katara arrived and they calmed him down with the new family speech and left for the avatar room before I could do anything. With them out of the way for a bit I fixed the graves and then went to wait for them to finish.
As they were in there I gave Momo a bag of food and he took it in there to Sokka and I could practically hear his mind stop as he realized he was eating food from a bag that was brought to him by an animal. When he came to I was ready to make my entrance as he told the other two what he had guessed. When I entered they all took a defensive stance and backed away. When Sokka charged I was ready and easily disarmed him while dropping him to the ground.
Kataras water was easy to dodge as I simply ducked and grabbed Sokka in a roll to avoid Aangs air blast. I pushed away from Sokka and put my hands up and pulled off my hood. With my guard down Sokka scrambled to his feet and the others lowered their own guards.
Putting my hands together I bowed and said 'Greetings Avatar, I am Sair Ellery. I am the last denizen of this temple and have been preparing for your arrival since I got here. I have waited for you so I might travel with you and teach you in order to stop the fire lord and fire nation.' They were all briefly stunned but Aang with his upbeat attitude was quick to accept me despite me later telling them that I was a firebender.
I easily won over Sokka with abundant food and Katara with my maturity and patience. After the excitement we quickly loaded the supplies I had gathered and left the temple. Riding on Appas back was amazing and just as freeing as the few times I had used my new glider. I had made the glider and two unfolding shields with the tech of the air nomads.
The ride to the Kyoshi islands was very entertaining as the Gaang argued a lot and their antics were quite funny. We rode for a few more days till I recognized the start of episode 4.