Well, This is the first chapter of a long journey. Hope you stick with it!

Disclaimer: Anything that you recognize, I don't own it!


Chapter 1-The Prophecy

"Why did I take this job again?" The young adventurer groaned to himself. The forest he stumbled around in did not answer, nor did he expect it to. He looked into the trees ahead...or where he guessed they were. It was dark, incredibly dark. He had moved the rogue strands of bright-red hair that hung in front of his eyes, but the gesture did nothing to improve his vision.

The forest was legendary, that is, many legends were spun about it. The Forest of Kurasa had been the cause of many disappearances over the years. The forest was off limits to most living things. Those who violated this rule were struck down by the goddess of Darkness, Kurasa, herself.

The man was pretty sure Kurasa wouldn't kill him. He was still needed. Still, it was fustrating that he had to suffer through the forest without any type of light to guide him. Before he even set foot inside the forest he was warned by the local townspeople about the rules of the goddess.


He looked into the forest ahead. At first glance it seemed almost normal, but then he saw the subtle differences: There seemed to be nothing in-between the trees on this sunny afternoon, they did not move with the wind, and if he looked even closer he could see that the trees seemed to quench all light that came within reach of their branches.

'This may be more difficult than I thought.' he thought to himself.

"Hey, boy!" He turned around to see an older man standing there. The man leant on his worn cane and gave him a grave look. "You headin' in huh?"

"Yeah," he said as he glanced at the forest behind him,"Don't worry, I'll be fine. The goddess won't kill me."

"Now you listen here boy, this is a goddess we're talkin' about. They can be nice when they want to, but if you cross them then they won't hestitate to kill you!" the man yelled. He pointed his free hand out to the forest,"You think that everyone that disappeared in that forest was banned from it? No! She let the little Watan boy enter to find his sister. But as soon as he lit a fire in his palm to see in the darkness he was killed!"

"What!?" he yelled in shock. The goddesses he had met were far less cruel. He turned toward the forest with a lot more apprehension.

"Just remember that it is the forest of the goddess of Darkness. She may let you in because of who you are, but she will kill you just as easily. Just don't light anything in that darkness. Get in, grab the Lord's daughter, and then get out as fast as you can."

"Thank you for the warning." he said gratefully.

"Don't thank me, just make sure you don't die in there. I'm sure that the transverse will still need you."


The man continued on, grumbling to himself as he stumbled his way through the forest. As he walked on, pushing through branches he couldn't see, he crashed into what definitely felt like a tree. "Maybe," he muttered as he pushed himself off of the forest floor,"I could make the smallest bit of..." He looked in shock as he spotted a small speck of light in the distance ahead of him.

"Whatever you do don't light anything in that darkness," he mocked,"lying old man. What the hell is that then?" He started to move a little faster, and the speck of light grew and grew until he stood in front of a bright, floating light. "Okay..." he said as he squinted, waiting for his eyes to adjust after hours in the dark.

When his eyes worked again, he realized that he was standing in a clearing with three more blinding lights like the one that guided him there. The lights surrounded a huge, two-story cottage that had light pooling out of the windows.

He headed towards the cottage and peeked through the window on the left of the black door. He looked into the large room, with a long table surrounded by chairs, black walls and pure white carpet. He then spotted a tray of food with steam rising from it, "Someone was just here" he muttered to himself.

"Of course someone lives here handsome."

The man jumped at the surprise as his hand lit on fire and he turned to face...a teenage girl. The fire died down as he studied the girl. She had dark blue eyes that gazed up at him through a curtain of black hair, pale skin with pink lips that were drawn into a smirk."You're lucky you are who you are," she mocked,"or Kurasa would have wiped you off the face of this planet."

His cheeks turned a bright-red that rivaled his hair, and darkened once she reached for his shoulders and shrugged the dark cloak off of his shoulders. "Come, Masuta, we have much to discuss."she said as she went back inside the house.

He stared after her in shock," How did you know my name?" he questioned as he followed her into the room he had just been looking into. She looked at him skeptically as she folded his cloak over a chair and walked around to the seat across from it. She sat and just stared at him with those deep blue orbs until he sat down in front of her, then she grinned and slid the tray, which he could now see held a bowl full of white rice, to herself and picked up the chopsticks lying on it.

"Who in the transverse doesn't know you Avatar?" she quipped as she picked at the rice in the bowl.

He blushed, again, he still wasn't quite used to his sudden fame. "So who are you?" he questioned, "I'm sure all of the people who go into this goddessforsaken forest don't come to live here." She laughed at that, and nodded."Most people don't, but I did." she said mysteriously, "and you already know who I am. Didn't you come here to bring me back to my father? He took long enough, its been months!"

He looked at her blankly until a spark of recognition went off in eyes, "Hanabi? The Lord of Kuraitochi's daughter?"She nodded and gave him a dazzling smile that almost made him blush again. "Yep, I didn't just wander inside. I was called here by my new mistress."

"Your new mistres- Kurasa?" he asked. "Why did she need you?" She stopped picking at the rice and looked into his eyes, "Well she needed a new herald." He gave her a confused look, "A new herald? What happened to the old one?" Hanabi chewed thoughtfully on the rice, "I don't know, but she got really angry when I asked though..." She trailed off before snapping her eyes back to his once more. "Anyway, I have a message for you hun."

Masuta blushed once again, "I wish you would stop saying things like that." he muttered as he bored a hole into the table to avoid looking directly at her. "How did you even know I would be the one sent to retrieve you?" Hanabi winked at him before straightening in her chair and setting down the chopsticks.

"A few months ago, when I first became a herald actually, I recited a prophecy to Kurasa." Masuta looked up from the table and frowned, "How would you even know what the prophecy said?" She sighed and reached into her robe, pulling out an clear orb. "Oh, that makes sense." he said under his breath.

He reached across the table to take the orb from her and looked at it apprehensively, "How bad is it?" She looked at him gravely for the first time since they met. "Well its not that bad, just the destruction of the transverse as we know it..."

"...So pretty bad?" "Quite."

Masuta gulped and started to push his energy into the orb, which glowed a dark purple and projected a thin, raspy voice, Hanabi's he realized with shock, into the air: "A time of darkness is approaching. A war that will decide the fate of the transverse. Led by the puppet of the fallen, the darkness will plunge the the transverse in the night. But the goddesses will choose their champions to battle against the darkness. Led by those who come from the original four: Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. When the crystal orb darkens the sky, when four doors close and become one. The Element Quartet will fight for the transverse."

As the voice faded, Masuta looked at Hanabi in fear. She nodded at him, "Avatar, our lives just got a lot more complicated."


There we are! Its refreshing to finally put this up. This is just the background, Aang and the other main characters will debut in the next few chapters.

Please read, review, yell, cry, throw things. I take all!

Thanks for reading