The dull forest resembled that out of a nightmare. The trees were all grotesque and gangly, looking more like death's hands reaching out of the ground to grab me, rather than the dead wood that they were. The water, which one would expect to be blue and lively, was brown, matching the dirt on which I stood. It looked more like soupy mud, and I'm sure if I had stood in it, it would have felt like it too.
If time existed in the world that I was in then, I know it would have moved slowly, maybe not at all. The water didn't ripple, and the wind didn't blow. It was still, and silent, except for a quite whistling from a lost soul, who stood miles away. I could faintly hear the tune, and I recognized it as a battle hymn that my father had taught me years ago, back when he was still alive.
Without knowing it at the time, I began to sing along. My voice drowned out in the thick air that I didn't have to breathe. I hardly noticed, but my lungs weren't inflating; they were as still as the water. I assumed that was why the air was still, because there wasn't any. Nothing to breathe, in a world were breathing was forgotten long ago.
The path that laid before me was narrow, and made of hard-packed dirt. I walked down it easily enough, watching as it widened and disappeared in the trunk of a large tree, with what I assumed was a monkey perched outside on a branch. As I got closer I noticed that the monkey had a very distinguishing feature about it, one of which I had been warned of by my predecessor. Where it's face had once been, was now a smooth surface. It was stolen. Koh the face stealer was were the path led, and Koh the face stealer was where I was going.
My intent was to kill, but I'm not sure why. I just know that I went into the tree thinking that I could not be angry; if I was angry, I would die. If I was anything besides cold, I would die. I removed everything from my face, and stored it in my mind. I kept my thoughts close and my emotions far away. I locked them in some distant place, where not even I had the key. I needed to get in there, get close, so I could kill. Slay the beast which was said to be immortal.
A winding stair case led its way down, beyond the ground and under the roots of the large tree. I found the darkened area empty, leaving me feeling just as empty. I knew he was there, but if he wasn't in the mood to see me, then there was nothing I could do. It was his home, in his world, I was nothing to him; but eventually he showed himself. I didn't hear him as he crawled his way across the ceiling above me. I almost slipped, I almost frowned, but then he spoke.
"Another face," he said enthusiastically. His voice sent chill down my spine. "for my collection." It turned to a growl as he stretched out the last word, most likely trying to make me feel like I did; afraid. I didn't say a word. He already knew why I was there, he had to, I just had to wait for him to stop messing around with his prey. Then I could strike. Until then, my movements were restricted.
"Are you going to kill me?" He sounded curious, even though I'm sure it was just a ploy. "One before you has tried, many times, and failed. What makes you any different?" Again, I didn't answer. It seemed to get on his nerves, because he reached his white "noh" mask right in front of my face. His voice wrapped into my ears, and banged against my skull
"Why not speak avatar?" His cold nose lightly pressed against mine as his voice dropped almost out of my hearing range. "Cat got your tongue?" He let out a sinister laugh as he dragged himself away from me, still as silent as the world around us. The roots from the tree above hung down all around us, allowing the spirit creature to disappear amongst them, and reappear elsewhere. It made me rethink my idea, but I couldn't back down now. He did have the home-field advantage, but I at least thought being the avatar would give me some sort of help. Little did I know, that Koh hates the avatar.
"How's your mother?" Koh's face changed with the blink of his lids. It was a face I remembered. I remembered it as the reason why I came down here in the first place. Koh had stolen my mother away from my world, brought her here, and stole the one part of her that never aged.
I remembered the face as the one that always used to greet me in the mornings, when I'd awake to the smell of pancakes and beaver-duck sausage. The face that was always so caring and kind. The face that took me on that walk through Ba Sing Se when I was only five.
It was the same face that, when I turned sixteen, told me that I was the avatar. The face that held me when I started crying, and told me that everything was going to be ok. The face that was going to be there for me while I learned to control the elements, and that was never going to leave me. That face never did leave, it was taken, brutally.
"Reminiscing?" Again, Koh's voice was curious, even though he already knew what I was thinking. He didn't change the face, my mother's face. He kept starring at me with her beautiful hazel eyes, the eyes that called out to me in my nightmares. The eyes that always told me to save them whenever I closed mine.
"Is that a smirk I see?" It was, but I hardly noticed myself. Koh was just taunting. I'm lucky my mom was going blind, or I'd join her in a way that I never wanted to.
"Where is she?" The first words I spoke and they startled Koh, or at least he pretended to be startled. It made me even more furious, but I had to hide it, lock it away in the place that not even I could go.
But I had to go there. If I didn't go there then I couldn't beat Koh. The avatar state was my only chance, and it's always locked in that place I can't go. So I went there. I said screw the key, and put my foot through the door, letting the barrage of stuff on the other side wash over me. I felt the power of my predecessors come over me. I felt myself glow with their presence.
My eyes would have flared up as well, but there was nothing there. Only a smooth surface.
Thanks for reading, and hopefully reviewing. If you don't feel like reviewing, instead just answer this question: would you like to see this be a series of one shots, all based around creatures and experiences in the spirit world? If so, what kind of creatures would you like to see? And what kind of experiences?