Disclaimer: I own the characters, not the universe.
"Daddy. Tell me the story of the first Avatar." A small girl asked as she was tucked in bed by her father.
"It's a long one, are you sure?" Her father asked.
"Yes. Please!" The girl begged.
"Alright, but we have to understand the first Avatar we have to go back to the time before the Avatar. A time where people didn't bend the elements, but bent the energy within themselves." The girl sat with big eyes waiting for her father to begin.
"The energybenders were always considered to be leaders with high spiritual and powerful abilities. Many ordinary people envied their abilities and begged them to bend their energy to give them abilities. One such energybender accepted the task along with three others. However, the Lion Turtles, whom the energybenders had learned their abilities from, disapproved of this plan because energybending cannot be given to those unworthy and unfit to handle its power. The benders disagreed and thought it should be fair for everyone to be able to bend. With his three companions the four benders connected to the minds of those who had gathered to learn bending but the four benders could not control it and the result killed all of the subjects and severely drained the benders. Guilty of their crime they begged the Lion Turtles to help. The Lion Turtles agreed to resurrect the subjects in exchange for their lives. They also decided that energy-bending was too dangerous for humans to wield and the time of energybending would come to an end. They begged that bending not be banned from their world and the Lion Turtles came up with a new plan. Upon the sacrifice of each energybender they would be able to grant one group of people that had gathered an aspect that would transfer into a bending art. Each bender would be given a different group of people. The leader of the benders asked what would happen if one group wanted to annihilate another, would the Lion Turtles step in? The Lion Turtle explained that along with the time of the energybenders, their time was soon coming to an end as well. Instead, they would grant upon the world one person and one person only to be a master of bending, a link between their world and the world of spirits. A voice of reason. The four benders agreed and were asked what aspect they would give. The first answered:
"The ability to adapt and accept whatever change comes as time flows." The first energy-bender passed and mothered the race that would become the Waterbenders.
The Lion Turtle looked to the second.
"The ability to be firm and stand up to whatever tries to knock them down." The second energybender perished and fathered the race of the Earthbenders. The third stepped forward.
"The ability to never give up and blaze through whatever challenges them." The third energybender took her last breath as she exchanged her life for the race of the Firebenders. The Lion Turtle looked to the last energybender who was crying.
"Do you cry because you fear death?" The Lion Turtle asked.
"No, I cry because I am happy to give my people the gift of freedom in their lives towards enlightenment." He smiled and left to the spirit plane and created the Airbenders.
The Lion Turtles chanted in a deep voice that echoed and vibrated in the air. As the lives of men rose again this time with their new bending abilities the Lion Turtles could feel their own days ending in the future. Even if one might last for many millennia to come, their mortality was now sealed. The Lion Turtle spoke once more to the resurrected humans.
"You have been given great gifts by your creators. It is up to you to decide how you will live with these gifts. When the passing of our first comrade falls, one of your own, a great master of your gifts known as the Avatar, shall rise. They will bear the mark of the Lotus and will be the guide, warrior, and vessel of power to your kind. Look for their coming. The era of energybending is over. The time of the Avatar is about to begin."
The people separated to live their own lives again feeling that nothing had really changed within them. They moved on, seemingly ordinary, until strange things began occurring. Stories were rushing through the lands of benders but they were not energybenders as the people had hoped but bent the elements. The story of two lovers had become most famous when one devastated young woman almost destroyed two villages in her anger at the death of her lover over the feud of their two villages. She was said to have been bending the earth to her will and created one village that would together no longer argue but become a great city known as Omashu. From there, the story of a group of warriors who had fallen into the nest of dragons had somehow come out alive and with firebending abilities. At the North Pole the people watched in deep thought at the moon, wondering how these abilities could exist. Why would such creatures teach people these destructive abilities. They watched the moon and tide push and pull each other as if in deep conversation over the changes when the people came to realize their own potential and changed to adapt to the life of Waterbenders. Finally in mountainous temples the monks watched the world change and knew that their time had come as well to join them. The monks had known of their abilities but had been waiting for the moment to reveal how the air bison, their companions, had showed them the freedom of airbending.
Now that the world began to separate into its four corners and races, the only thing to do now was to wait for the Avatar, however long that wait might be, no one knew and it was soon forgotten between generation to generation.
Almost half a millennia later, a great warrior came across a scroll in Wan Shi Tong's Library telling of the coming of the first Avatar. He thought it was interesting that the Avatar would be brought about by the death of a Lion Turtle. The Lion Turtles still were as alive as ever and thought to be immortal. He had no idea they could die. The warrior was prideful and selfish. He thought that if he were the first to slay a Lion Turtle, that he would invoke the powers of the Avatar. So he set out to find one.
He came across a Lion Turtle that had been separated from its Pride in a great forest. He took up his bow and arrow to strike but the shell of the Lion Turtle was too thick. He would need better aim as the Lion Turtle searched for the attacker with its piercing gaze. The Warrior moved quietly and took his aim. He inhaled as quietly as he could, allowing his breath to guide the arrow to strike at the Lion Turtle's chest. The Lion Turtle roared and bounded at his attacker, ripping him from the tree he sat in. The Warrior drew his knife, for his sword was being pushed into his side by the grip of the Lion Turtle. He stabbed and jabbed the Lion Turtle as many times as he could before the creature threw him against a tree. The man drew his bow and arrow once more striking the same wound before running off.
The Turtle howled in pain as the blood trickled down its chest. For many hours the beast wandered through the forest in an attempt to be reunited with its companions but to no avail. It was almost dawn when his pacing finally came to a stop at the base of a small cottage. It was just then that the owner of the house and his wife came out to see the beast and his wounds. The man ordered his wife to fetch some water and bandages as he tried to help the beast but the Lion Turtle stopped him and told him that it was no use. He would be dead within a few moments. However, because of the man's kindness to him he would bless his daughter with the gift of sight. The man told the beast that he had no daughter as his wife came out with the water. The Lion Turtle explained that he would and he touched the belly of his wife. A small light shone from his fingertips blessing the woman. Before he perished he told the man one last thing. He told him of the coming of the Avatar and the coming of a shadow. Upon his death a great hunt would begin for them but he must find them first with the help of his daughter. In sixteen years time, the mark of the Avatar will manifest upon four worthy people in the four corners of the world. It would be his job to find them and help stop the evil from spreading.
The Lion Turtle perished and the man and woman heard the cry of four babies on the wind and they knew that the Avatar had been born. As to which one it would be was a great mystery."
A/N: This is the new prologue. I went back and changed a bit of it to try and make it easier to read. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading and reviewing!
