Brothers Avatar

The Legend of Two Avatars

Book 1 – Family

Chapter 1 – The Fateful First Step

Taresc carried his two buckets of water, leaving little room for breath. As he set down each bucket he began to run to off to go fetch some more when he heard a familiar voice. "Xulo, slow down, honey!" The voice came from Fey Baikal.

Taresc nearly fell flat on his face turning around, "Hi, Mrs. Baikal, it's Taresc actually."

"Oh I knew that! What's the matter, sweetie?"

"The matter? Is anything the matter? I'm-" Taresc let out a disparaging puff of air, "I'm doing just as I'm usually doing."

"Well, that's hardly the truth, but I suppose I won't pry," Taresc let out a tiny pained smile, "Have you collected all the water for this week, yet?"

"Just about." Collecting water was necessity for the town of Dayue. Dayue was a sleepy town set on the western most peninsula of the Earth Kingdom, set in the middle of a clearing in the woods. The town was fairly self-sufficient, but each resident had to collect their own share of water from the pond nearby. That wasn't Dayue's biggest problem however, that was its insubstantiality. Most maps didn't include Dayue, due to their lack of attractions and unremarkable size. Dayue was only home to a few residents, most of which only stay because of family history. As few of them that there are, they're a fairly kind bunch. Dayue's most notable feature was a shrine to Avatar Rinley, set in the Kai Mountain Range, which was still miles away. Dayue sits at the bottom of the southernmost part of the Kai Mountain Range while the shrine is up north. Mrs. Baikal's house was on the northern outskirts of town, right by the mountain range.

"Oh thank the heavens for you, Taresc, I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have you and your brother." Mrs. Baikal has been acting as guardian for Taresc and Xulo ever since their parents had passed away, "By the by, have you seen Minege anywhere today?"

"Minege? No, but Xulo would probably know, they're usually hanging out at this time."

"Probably… or she's on that alligator-duck again… I swear… Taresc, does the smell of that thing bother you as much as it bothers me? Or how it nibbles on the house?"

"I don't know, not really, I find Tanton kind of cute."

"Yeah, I'm sure you would Taresc!" Mrs. Baikal let out a hearty laugh, but Taresc's eye were still shifting around, "Alright Taresc!" she went around and grabbed his arms, "If I don't get an answer from you on why you are so down in the dumps, I'm going to pick up and toss you into Tanton's pen, is that what you want."

Taresc giggled softly and conceded, "Okay, but you can't—"

"Taresc!" Xulo's booming voice shouted. Xulo was earthbending a rock slide down the mountain range as fast as his feet could possibly move him. Baikal moved into her house to avoid the usual gravel spray Xulo's earthbending brings. Xulo stopped the earth slide and landed right in front Taresc. "Taresc, I need to show you something." As predicted, gravel mottled Taresc's face.

While Taresc was spitting out dirt Mrs. Baikal came out of her house took Xulo aside and whispered, "You can tell me after he's done with you," Xulo gave Baikal a perplexed look, "Wait, you're not Taresc are you? I swear you two need to start wearing color-coded headbands, because I tell you I don't have the time these days to stare at your faces trying to decipher which one of you is which." Mrs. Baikal and the rest of the village have had the trouble of telling twins Xulo and Taresc apart ever since the two were born. While they do look identical, there are certain differences that the village has used to tell them apart. Taresc's hair is almost always longer than Xulo's, as every time Taresc would shave his black hair, Xulo would forget to do it for a week or so. Xulo was stronger built than Taresc, but conversely Taresc was slightly taller than Xulo. Xulo's face is always stern with piercing brown eyes and Taresc has softer features and lighter hazel eyes. When together it was fairly easy to tell one from the other, but when apart, it was nearly impossible to differentiate.

"Fey," Baikal glared, "Mrs. Baikal, my apologies, I need Taresc." He turned to Taresc and stared dragging him, "Taresc, we're going"

Baikal stopped them, "Hold up! Xulo, have you seen Minege?"

Xulo was trotting in his spot, "Minege? I think she said she'd be down at the beach giving Tanton a bath."

"That alligator-duck, I swear," she said under her breath, shaking her head to the side, "Well, you two—"when she looked up the two of them were skating the land to the shore with Taresc lagging behind.

Xulo had successfully dragged Taresc out of the forest, past Dayue and to the shore. The shoreline continued as far as the eyes could see with large rocks stabbing out of the sand like fingers of a giant. Out past the sea one could see the Western Air Temple on the horizon. Xulo and Taresc used to come here all the time when they wanted to get away from their parents or to train.

"Well Xulo? What is it?"

"Lean in close." Xulo closed his hand into a fist and Taresc inclined. Taresc kept his unimpressed look on his face as he stared into the wonder of Xulo's fist.

"Are you going punch me in the face, is that the joke?" Xulo then flicked his hand open and revealed a flame. "Xulo… is that… are you…?"

Xulo extinguished the flame and stood proud, "I'm the Avatar, Taresc! I'm Avatar Xulo, and I do expect you to call me that… Tare?" Taresc wasn't responding, he looked forward in shock and a tad confused, "Tare, you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm—" Taresc busted into tears, "I'm just so happy for you!"

"You don't have to be jealous if that's what you're crying about. You know the phrase, right? 'You come out of the womb first, you get the Avatar privileges?'" Taresc laughed gently and wiped the tears from his eyes, "The White Lotus soldiers are going to be pretty surprised when they see that the one village they didn't check was the one with the Avatar."

"Wait, Xulo, do you think we should be more cautious about this, with the Stormbenders and all?"

"Stormbenders…" Xulo and Taresc, coming from the hermit village of Dayue, knew very little of the Stormbenders. Of their little knowledge, they knew that it's a group made up of waterbenders and airbenders. The only interactions they have had with the Stormbenders are when they come around asking for taxes in the form of supplies. From what outdated news they've received, while their motives are foggy, Taresc and Xulo know the Stormbenders want the Avatar dead. "The Stormbenders are just a local gang using propaganda to get some extra money out of the towns they terrorize."

"Fair enough, then what do you suppose is our next step, O mighty Avatar Xulo?"

"The shrine."

"Rinley's Shrine? But that's so far away and what do want to do there?"

"If I'm going to be the Avatar, I'm going to need to know what to do to fix the world, to do that I need to talk to Avatar Rinley so he can inform me on what to do."

Taresc pondered to himself if the world was broken. All he's ever know is Dayue and while a closer source of water would be nice, he doesn't consider his 'world' to be broken by any means. So if the world isn't broken, maybe Xulo would just be a peacekeeping Avatar? The kind that does the household chores of the world; settling disputes between towns or getting cat-rats out of trees, but Taresc could never say that to Xulo, not with how happy he was, "So how are we getting to Rinley's shrine?"

"Wait right here," Xulo said as he ran down the shoreline.

Taresc turned towards to sea and kneeled down in the wet sand. He wiped his eyes of the dried tears and looked deeply into the sea. He brought his hand up and with it a little sphere of water emerged from the waters. "I guess you're the Avatar too, huh?" Taresc had realized that he was the Avatar earlier that day collecting water when he was practicing earthbending and instead of earth moving, the water did. It was horrifying to think he became the Avatar over his brother, but seeing that he's not the only one calmed him. Taresc was perfectly fine with being the brother of the Avatar, maybe he'd never tell Xulo.

As he stared into the orb he heard the sound of floppy footstep and little quacks, Tanton the alligator-duck with Minege Baikal and Xulo rode into sight and Taresc dropped the water. Tanton was a massive creature with the unfortunate task of being one of its own kind. Tanton had the head of an alligator but the bill and innocent beady eyes of a duckling, a body large enough to carry 6 people confidently, slender duck legs and a fierce alligator tail. Tanton's skin, from first sight, looked as if was scales but actually they're hardened brown and black feathers. Minege was sprawled out casually on Tanton's neck, "We ready to go?"

"Xulo, you said you didn't know where Minege was."

Xulo hopped off Tanton, "I said she was washing Tanton and she was. Now she's taking us to Rinley's shrine."

"I'm going back after I drop you too off, if that makes you feel any better." Minege said, "So, jump on, boys, we're on the first steps of the rest of our lives."

As they were getting on to Tanton, Taresc asked, "She knows?"

"He told me first, sorry honey." Minege said with a smirk on her mouth as Taresc and Xulo boarded Tanton. She gave Tanton a kick and the team was speeding of to Rinley's shrine.

"And by 'first steps of the rest of our lives…'" Taresc added.

Minege said, "Sweetie, you're not leaving me in Dayue if that's what you're asking," Minege patted Tanton's head, "Plus, how do you think you're getting around the world, by foot?"

"What about your mom, Minege?" Taresc asked, trees whizzing by.

"She's not a crippled old lady, Taresc," Xulo butted in, "Fey is going to do just fine without us."

"So you just want to be out of Dayue then, Minege?" Minege barely acknowledged it with simple grunt. Taresc could tell by the way Minege stayed silent that there was something else other than getting out of Dayue that had her coming out on this adventure, "Is your dad the reason that—"

Minege's head jolted and stared Taresc down while keeping watch on the path, "Hold your tongue, Tare, we are not discussing that right now," Taresc shut his mouth up real quick as Minege glanced a casual death glare to him, "Just because you're Xulo's brother, doesn't mean you're at liberty to speak about that," Minege's tone matched the same of her mother's when Xulo would have forgotten his chores, "Don't you think?"

There was a silence only filled with Xulo giving a disappointed gaze and Tanton little quacks, then Taresc's "Yes ma'am."

Rinley's shrine was carved into the Kai Mountain Range, but all one could see of the shrine was a dark rectangle doorway which served as the entrance to the shrine and a large set of molding stairs. There weren't trees or grass in the plains that the shrine was located. It was barren excluding a few individual plants on or around the cracks in the soil. The area was likely excavated and treated as to make room for improvements to the outside of the shrine. But, for one reason or another that construction was stopped and the outside of Rinley's shrine looks like an anti-oasis in a desert of forest.

When Minege dropped Xulo and Taresc off, they saw a large group of people occupying the wastelands before the shrine. Three of which were male airbenders, one with more formal looking clothing. The other two consisted of one waterbending female and one waterbending male. It was easy to tell because all waterbenders keep a special canteen of water on them at all times, in case they needed to fight. Xulo and Taresc exited the forested part and tried to walk past them but were stopped.

"Halt." said the guardsman.

"Why?" Xulo looked into the eyes of the airbender who seemed to be the leader.

"We're just here to pay our respects to Avatar Rinley," Taresc said to the leader, "We were wondering if we could just pop in quick?"

"I'm afraid we can't let you, Rinley's eyes recently started glowing and we think that means the Avatar has finally manifested his or herself."

"Is that a problem?" Xulo asked.

"As Stormbenders," Taresc's face instantly got tense upon hear those words from the guard, he didn't want to believe it seeing only waterbenders and airbenders but it was true, "we're on the hunt for the Avatar and Rinley's statue eyes lighting up is a clear indicator to us," Taresc looked at Xulo and as the Stormbender continued to speak his face got a sardonic sneer hiding his excitement, "it means the avatar has come to fruition and will likely seek out one of the Avatar shrines around the world, we've been sent here to be on the lookout for said Avatar in case he comes here to communicate with Rinley. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

Before Taresc could assure the Stormbender that they know nothing about any Avatar business, Xulo acted on his urges. Xulo kicked a small patch of dirt with a little plant on it into his palm and with his newly found firebending, set it ablaze, "I might."

As soon as the fire lit, the Stormbender leader called out to his squadron, "He's the avatar, get him!" his squadron perked up and started attacking the twins. Xulo kicked his feet into the ground and flung the leader with a column of earth. The leader quickly recovered with his airbending and distanced himself from the Avatar and ran near the shrine.

"Get back Taresc, I'll take care of these guys," Xulo started his mad attack on the rest of the team. Xulo dashed forward with burning soil still in hand and whipped it at one of the airbenders. The startled stormbender was able to summon a quick air blast to disperse the flaming soil but as soon as he recovered, Xulo was there to sweep his legs and throw him a pillar of earth. While Xulo was fighting the airbender, a water bender attempted to use the water she had in her flask to strike Xulo with a spear of ice, but Taresc was there in time to shift the earth under her feet to trip the waterbender up.

With the female waterbending stormbender's attention, Taresc was forced to frantically fight her while Xulo handled his own opponents. She bended the disrupted water out of the soil and started whipping her water at Taresc. Taresc was able to bend up small stone to disrupt the streams and dodge but knew immediately he wouldn't be able to get on the offensive.

Meanwhile Xulo was fighting two Stormbenders; the previously stricken airbender and the other waterbender. Taresc, in midst of fighting his own opponent, saw that the other airbender was going to strike Xulo from behind. So Taresc left his battle and land skated quickly over to tackle said airbender to the ground. Now Taresc was thrown into a battle between two Stormbenders.

Taresc quickly got up and avoided the waterbender's water whip from striking him whule down and started skating all around the barren terrain. Taresc did a good job of attempting to dodge his opponent's strikes. However, the airbender was able to quickly throw him off his balance and toss him to the ground with a rush of air. The waterbender shot two ice spikes at him as he lay on the ground, but he was able to bend up a tiny wall in time to deflect the spikes. The airbender took this opportunity to jump and take out Taresc once and for all with a slice of air when suddenly a giant rock flew in and took out the airbender. Xulo had taken out his two opponents and immediately flew into action seeing his helpless brother. The boulder-stricken airbender had been knocked out and the waterbender was quickly bent into submission by Xulo's rocks. "What'd I say about trying to fight?" Xulo said picking Taresc off the ground.

"Just trying to help," Taresc gave a sheepish, joking shrug back.

"One left," Xulo pointed at the commander who had been watching from afar. Xulo and Taresc ran over and fought in complete synchrony, Xulo attacked with the ferocity of a rhino lion, not allowing the commander a moment to breathe. In the spare moments the commander was able to whisk up a blast of air for an attack, Taresc was there to move Xulo out of the way or bend a rock to disrupt the airbender's counterattack. At the end of the fight, the commander was slumped on the shrine's steps, broken from battle, "Who are you?" the commander managed to speak.

"My name is Avatar Xulo. Dayue born and raised, and I am here to expel you from these lands!" Xulo proclaimed. The commander was able to stand up and stumble away from the shrine along with his four compatriots. "Run! And stop terrorizing Dayue!"

Once they were no longer in sight, Taresc and Xulo stepped into the shrine. It was a small undecorated room carved out of stone, but from that room was an entrance to a long, unlit corridor which likely lead to the statue of Rinley. Taresc and Xulo stood and looked down the dark hallway as Taresc said, "So down that way should be Avatar Rinley's statue?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Xulo turned to Taresc and put his hands on his shoulders, "Alright, I'm going in, stay here."

"Why?"

"Once Rinley appears, I'm sure he's not going to want my twin brother in the corner watching."

"Well what if something goes wrong?"

"Nothing you can do about it, probably. Rinley will most likely close off the shrine to stop any intruders and at that point, no one is entering."

"Well," Taresc looked down at his feet, "Good luck, Xulo!" Taresc watched as his brother, palm alit, walked down the corridor to the shrine. As his brother faded into the darkness, certain thoughts started flowing into Taresc's mind. He began thinking about how he wanted to stop his brother from going so they could go home and talk all night about what they thought about the moon or the stars or anything other than the world. He thought about how he feared for his brother and his safety along this journey they were sure to begin. Most of all, he thought about the life he had now and he thought of it vanishing forever and his brother not even being his brother anymore.

Then a little thought sparked into his mind, I'm the Avatar too, to which he immediately extinguished. But that little flame kept coming up, I'm the Avatar too, I'm the Avatar too, I'm the Avatar too and suddenly his foot took the first step.

No matter what his brain told him to do, he couldn't stop himself from walking down that hall and soon after sprinting. He ran full sprint into the darkness until he could see the glow coming from the shrine and a stone door closing. He ran as fast as he could just to make it through the door and he could tell Xulo that he's the Avatar too. Just as the stone doors were almost closed and the glow no longer visible, the doors stopped and Taresc was able to step into the shrine.

In that shrine room was Xulo on his knees and Avatar Rinley, flowing robes and all, saying, "Welcome."