Years of Letters:
Preface
The following volume contains a collection of personal letters found and preserved within the Royal Archives of the Fire Nation. While we have striven to organize these in chronological order so they form a cogent pattern, this has proven difficult in some cases, seeing as occasionally recipients and senders were not always noted. We have preserved the modifications the writers of these missives made within this transcription, as to better relate to our readers the context in which the letters were written and read.
The earliest letters date back to the year 1 F.O. and more letters are being restored and transcribed every day. There are several letters missing from this collection—Lady Katara's correspondence with General Iroh from the first year, for example, or the notes passed between Fire Lord Zuko and Avatar Aang—but as we find these artifacts, we will be sure to include them in future editions.
These letters offer a rare and unique perspective on a time little researched or acknowledged by modern historians, the Era of Reconstruction. The main players of the Century War—Avatar Aang, Fire Lord Zuko, General-Prince Iroh, Lady Katara, and Ambassadors Sokka and Toph Bei Fong, to name but a few—did not win a war and have the simple "happily ever after" ending that modern textbooks seem to imply. These indomitable, stubborn souls never stopped to consider maybe their part in saving the world was over, that maybe it was someone else's turn to take the reins of responsibility and allow them to rest. They looked at a world ravaged by a hundred years of death and violence, and they saw a job that needed to be done, and they did it.
That's not to say that this new world did not suffer growing pains along the way.
A/N: Hi! This is actually Therese Delacoeur, but seeing as it's been so long since I've put up a fanfiction, I had to create a brand-new account so I could post! I thought I'd start off with a continuation of a oneshot that I wrote for a contest, originally entitled "A Year of Letters." It didn't win, but I thought it was cute enough to be worth continuing. Hope you like it!
Disclaimer for the WHOLE story: I DO NOT OWN AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER OR ANY CANONICAL CHARACTERS, SITUATIONS, SETTINGS, PREVIOUS EVENTS, ETC. I DO, however, own the story itself, including anything which is not strictly canon. :D