My Teo App:

Although he had been merely two years old at the time, the trauma of the flood had stayed with Teo throughout all his 15 years of life. That particular memory was his strongest, mostly because it held two of the most important happenings in his life, which also happened to be the two most horrifying.

The flood had taken away his mother, along with the use of his legs.

The pain had been excrutiating, that was something he remembered clearly. Not only the physical pain of having his legs crushed by a rock, but also the emotional pain of having his mother wrenched away from him at the stage of infancy. He could still see his father, his face in a mask of pain as he reached out to his mother. The worst moment, however, had been when he woke up to see his father, his rock, his protector, with tears running down his cheeks. He could remember their conversation to that very day:

"Father?"
"Yes?"

His father's voice came out as a strangled sob, and Teo had flinched to hear it.

"Where Mommy?" He had still been learning how to speak, so his words had been broken. The meaning was conveyed quite clearly, however.

“Gone…” His father’s voice had lowered to a whisper, and Teo struggled to hear it. “But Mommy… Want Mommy!” His voice had escalated into a terrified wail at the end of the sentence. Tears filled his light brown eyes, only to be dashed away by pudgy hands.

He had never seen his mother again. Later, he learned that she had been taken away by the water, had drowned. To that day, he still had nightmares about the night, which found him screaming in his pallet, sweat-drenched and wild-eyed.

Teo shook his head clear of the memories. Although the past would still haunt him, he couldn’t let it rule his life. He got out of his bed with some difficulty, dragging himself over to the chair. He raised his body into the chair with an incredible feat of arm strength. Years of practicing the maneuver had left the disabled young man with a strong upper body.

He wheeled himself out of his room with ease, surveying the Northern Air Temple that was his home. He could see his friends in the sky, wheeling in circles. He waved at them, dimples showing with his smile. Teo had always been a cheerful sort in spite of being in a wheelchair.

He grabbed his goggles from their perch on the table, securing them tightly on his forehead. His grin stretched all the way to his black sideburns, making him look even giddier. Teo grabbed his glider, feeling the familiar grooves in the staff. He connected the straps to his chair, and with a few maneuvers, he slid right off the cliff.

He was airborne! The wind rushed through his already ruffled hair, and a look of serene bliss crossed over the young man’s face. In the air, he could be free, free to walk among the clouds with legs of air. He was anyone’s equal, and he didn’t get the looks of pity that he did on land. Teo knew that with his glider, the sky was his kingdom. He didn’t need legs to experience the joy of flight.

His mind drifted as he soared through the open sky. His thoughts turned to the Avatar, Aang, and his friends. He could remember when he and Aang had raced through the skies. Imagine that! He, Teo, had raced against the Avatar! A real, live airbender! He could barely comprehend that fact.

His mind left that trail of memory, and found another. He remembered when his father had first brought him to the Temple, after the flood. They had brought the survivors from their village, and soon, Teo was gliding through the skies in the glider that his father had made for him.

Thoughts of his father brought him to his betrayal. Teo’s normal smile slid into a frown, then lower into an almost pout. He closed his eyes against the vivid images of his father’s surprised face when he had found him working for the Fire Nation.

The war was stupid. If there was no war, his father would have continued on being Teo’s idol. But because of it, he had been turned into Teo’s enemy. Although he had apologized to his son, Teo had only begun to forgive him.

The young man turned his glider, guiding it up into the sky. He left his painful memories behind, left the thoughts of his paralysis in the lower sky. As he flew through the clouds, he could believe that he was an airbender, truly flying. He could believe that he was free.