Author's Note:
Okay, this is my first story but I just want to quickly explain some things. Well first of all I am super excited to finally be writing a fanfic, I've been reading them forever. So, I have had this idea in my head forever, now don't get me wrong, I'm an absolute Kataang shipper, as well as Zutara or even Taang, basically I like anything as long as it is well written…on with the note—don't get me wrong I love Kataang but I think that this storyline is cute and it took me no time to write, so I just decided to go with it. Also, please review and tell me what you like I am a starving writer and so far my only fans have been my English teacher and my mom, I want to know what you think, whether it is good, bad or ugly. Also, I don't know what to do with Katara, should she go all feminist and be alone or should she secretly want Aang? Should she be with Zuko? She is not with Aang though, he meets a new 'girl' and I really didn't want it to be one of those stories, where Aang or Katara cheat on each other because I really don't think that they would do that, so I came up with a creative solution about the breakup, but not who Katara gets back together with. Also, tell me what to do with Toph, I was thinking of creating my own character for her, you know bringin' in fresh meat..? Too much? I don't know. Also, (you are probably like ahh! More note? Get on with it) this will be kind of a sad chappy but never fear, it gets nicer so just stick with it, love brings peace and drama and boy, will this fanfic have both.
Oh and by the way, Tsuri in Japanese means tree and Hana means flower, also, any other references I might make will be Japanese. On with the story.
Disclaimer: I own nothing; if I did it would be steamier.
She had always known her name was perfect for her, being a spirit of nature and having a name like Tsuri was like fate. Yes, she was a spirit, a tree or tsuri spirit to be specific, and speaking of spirits. The Spirit world; it was nothing like the humans of Earth, the Physical world, thought it to be. It was full of eerie, never ending jungles, dark, winding caves, hot, desolate fields with thorn bushes up to one's knees, conveniently hiding snakes and huge, prehistoric bugs. However, it could be a nice place, like the relaxing hot steams similar to the ones in the Fire Nation, or pretty canyons engulfed in low clouds, or rainforests with the most supple, beautiful, exotic animals.
But, alas, the bad had outweighed the good so, six hundred years earlier, she, along with her best friend, went to the physical world and saw it was the opposite of her world, her old world. Here, there were blue skies; in the Spirit World most places have an orange or black sky, the darker realms have no sky, more of a non-existence, it is like looking into a glass wall that never ends. The other difference was the ground, here, there was, well, nothing. She was used to trees and life. So, she made some. Together, along with her best friend Hana who came to the new place with her. Tsuri made many beautiful trees and Hana provided even more different flowers to color the ground. Thinking of Hana brought sadness, Hana was her best friend. They were the same. They had created the land in there forest together, they had done everything together, but then… Hana met a human boy, he was a nameless earth bender, no one famous or so special enough to come between Hana and Tsuri, but, he did. Hana gave up her immortality for the boy. And now most of her pretty flowers were gone, for Tsuri did not know how to make more. Hana had urged Tsuri to come with her but Tsuri, frightened and confused had said no, she did not want to be what humans called a 'third wheel'. Years later, Hana came back to the forest, children and grandchildren surrounding her, she was so loved. She had come back for a reason though; to say goodbye to her long lost best friend…
Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki, Toph, and Zuko and Momo and Appa decided to land in a clearing in the middle of a large forest. It was a bit before sunset and everyone (Toph) was tired. After an hour of complaining (Toph), they had decided to stop flying. Appa was tired and everyone else was getting jittery from flying so long and being so close together on Appa's saddle made them grumpy, so, they made camp.
Katara's motherly instinct took over immediately and she took control, "Aang, Zuko, and Sokka, try to look around the forest and find us some more food, we're running low, Suki, Toph, and I will stay here and set up camp."
So, the boys set out. It was a quiet walk they were all tired. Aang started to think about his life since the end of the one hundred year Fire War. It had been a little bit over two years since Aang defeated Firelord Ozai. It had been a hard two years though, full of peace treaties that needed signing (not to mention writing) and rebirth-of-the-world meetings. Finally, the gAang had caught a break and decided to take a vacation, they mutually decided to camp all over the world, visiting friends and family as they went. Currently they were somewhere between the Southern Air Temple and Ba Sing Si, in a random unoccupied land of the Earth Kingdom. It was a lot like the good old days.
As they walked, Zuko said, "Aang, maybe you should look for some edible berries and nuts and stuff since you know more about it than Sokka or me. We'll look for some meat, don't wander too far though."
Aang agreed and said, "We'll meet back here at sundown."
"Yeah!" Sokka yelled, excited to go hunting. Zuko and Sokka started to bicker as they walked. They were just like brothers, lovable, but obnoxious.
Aang walked on and Zuko and Sokka walked the other way. He started to see berries on bushes and nuts and trees so he gathered some of each and kept going. He started to notice that the flowers got lesser and lesser and the trees got denser, actually, too dense, he noticed, so much that it was making the roots grow improperly. And Aang knew there could only be one reason for this and it was not natural. 'The spirit of this forest is upset', he thought, though, he doubted it was a big enough problem to delve in right now. 'Later', he decided, 'I'll find food now and then I will come back and calm the sad spirit.'
After finding Zuko and Sokka, Aang headed back to camp.
"Ahh just like old times huh you guys?" Sokka said making conversation.
"Well I guess but Zuko wouldn't know," Aang teased his older friend.
"Oh yeah, " Sokka started, "You were still trying to hunt us down when we were flying around the world camping."
"Hey! The only reason we didn't camp when I joined the group was because I provided us with a house!" Zuko always got defensive when Sokka brought up his troubled past, so Sokka brought it up more often.
A few minutes of silence rolled by and then Sokka started whining, "Zuuuuukoooo…"
"What?" Zuko snapped, stilled frustrated from the earlier conversation.
"I don't wanna keep carrying this, it's heavy." Sokka was referring to the hog-chicken they had caught.
"Too bad, anyway, Sokka, didn't you say you wanted to carry it back to camp to show everyone," Zuko said then made a fake cough that sounded suspiciously like 'Suki'.
And that was when Aang heard it. A noise that sounded like a moan.
It was the sixtieth year anniversary of Hana leaving Tsuri. Now that she had been thinking of Hana earlier, her feelings were raw and she felt that it was ironic that today was the day and she had just happened to have been thinking of Hana also. Tsuri felt so mortally sad and alone, she had long-since forgotten what it was like to have a true friend to talk to, someone she never got tired of, someone she loved, who loved her back.
Tsuri sighed, her eyes watered and she started to cry in a low voice. Strangely and unlike a human, when she was sad, she was not also mad, just low. She cried harder as she looked around at how few flowers were left. After each flower died, she seemed to feel emptier, so, she tried to fill the void of her lost friendship with Hana by filling up each place a flower was, with a tree.
Aang could tell they were getting closer to the camp because he could faintly hear Appa roar and about fifty yards away from him, a flock of birds flew out from the trees.
"So Sokka," Zuko started in a playful tone, there last dispute solved by Aang who said it was 'just my job as the Avatar'. "How are things between you and Suki?"
As Sokka started talking about romance and love, Aang thought about what used to be his and Katara's. When they had first gotten together after the war, it had been true love. They did everything together. Not even Sokka could complain because they made each other so happy and filled the room with warmth. But then, Aang had to leave her. For six months he was gone, they wrote letters to each other but it was never enough. Aang had to take on his Avatar duties and Katara had to stay home. It was a terribly hard separation for both of them. Aang had finally gotten the girl of his dreams and then he and to leave her. For Katara, she had finally realized that she was in love with her best friend and then he left her. She knew that it wasn't his choice, she knew the world needed him but all she thought about was, why him, knowing all of that did not make her feel any better and no amount of brotherly-Sokka affection or talks with Suki and the other Kyoshi Warriors could fill the hole in her heart. And then two weeks before Aang could finally come home to Ba Sing Si where Katara lived with Sokka, waiting for Hakoda and Bato to be finished with their duties. Before she had to return to the South Pole she lived with Suki, Toph, Ty Lee, and the other Kyoshi Warriors, a terrible raid happened. Some, unhappy, rogue fire benders burned Iroh's tea shop to the ground along with all of the other buildings in the area. Five people were killed, including a Kyoshi Warrior. Katara, along with many other people were injured.
Once Aang had finally come home, he was stricken with devastating grief. Aang did not eat for days, he just lied in his bed, not sleeping or talking to anyone but Katara. Because both he and Katara knew that if he had been there, if one meeting hadn't been delayed and he had come home just a little bit sooner, he could've stopped it and saved all of the people who died. It tore them apart. For weeks, Aang could not even look at his girlfriend because of the small scar above her left eye. It was not that noticeable if you didn't know it was there, but Aang knew it was there. It was all he could see on her beautiful face. The scar reminded him of how much he had betrayed the world so many times, how he had betrayed her. Katara tried everything, she told him it was not his fault but nothing worked and they grew farther apart each day until they barely even talked anymore.
But that was the past, this was the present and he and Katara had –sort of- worked it out. He tried not to look at it be he always felt a wave of grief when he noticed the scar mare her beautiful face. It was saddening. He missed being so close to her, as a best friend and a lover. He missed doing things with her, like practicing water bending, but he really missed kissing her and just talking with her.
Aang was thrown out of his haze though, by the sound of the moaning again. Except now it was louder and it sounded like a girl…crying?
"…and then, she's telling me it's my fault! I honestly never understand what Suki means, why doesn't she just tell me what she wants in English not her girl lang-"
Sokka had been babbling about Suki. "Sokka BE QUIET," Aang commanded in his I-am-an-all-powerful-avatar-fear-me voice. Making Sokka trip and fall over in shear shock, even Zuko stumbled.
"Geez! What?" Sokka yelled, still not properly on his feet.
"Don't you hear that," he looked at the older boys, "It-it's a girl…crying, I-I," Aang trailed off looked back and forth between Sokka's and Zuko's faces. But Zuko just shook his head slowly.
Sokka wore an odd expression as he finally found his fragile balance. "Spirits!" Sokka yelled, "What the heck is wrong with you Aang?"
"Sorry Sokka," Aang said, "I'll uh, I gotta go," and then Aang was off dashing toward the sound of the crying girl, "I'll catch up with…" Aang's voice faded and he was off, using air bending to help his speed.
"Boy, that kid is crazy," Sokka told Zuko, "You know, this one time he was telling me about the Spirit world and that there is this monster thing that eats your face!" Sokka said as he made all sorts of hand gestures to emphasize his point. Can you believe that?"
"Don't forget the time he learned energy bending from a giant turtle lion," Zuko added.
"Weird kid," Sokka continued babbling about Suki again and then a little while longer they made it back to camp. Entering the clearing, they saw Katara mixing stew over a fire using her water bending, Suki, laying out the last sleeping bag, and Toph bring in more fire wood. Katara looked up to greet them and took in the strange expression and immediately stood up, "Where's Aang?" she asked with the urgency of a mother moose-lion looking for her cubs.
"Calm down Katara," Sokka said to his sister lazily.
Zuko told the girls about Aang's sudden and strange departure. However, Toph dismissed the whole notion with a wave of her hand, to her it was a non-issue, "Oh he's probably just doing some weird Avatar Spirit World mumbo-jumbo, Twinkle-Toes is a big boy, I'm sure he's fine."
"I know he is a big boy!" Katara snapped back at Toph, "Anyway he still could be in danger," Katara was worried and muttered, "I hope he's okay…"
"Ahh he's fine… look what I caught Suki!"
"That's great Sokka!" Suki replied to her boyfriend.
Aang kept running toward the sound. He couldn't explain why though, it was like, it was like it was the most beautiful noise he had ever heard, softer yet clearer than any music he had ever heard, but also the most eerily sad noise he had ever heard uttered from another's lips. It got louder and louder as he progressed, so he ran faster and faster. And finally he saw a girl. It looked like she was bent over the ground planting something. She had very long, wavy hair and robes the color of Mother of Pearl billowing around her. From Aang's distance away from this girl, it looked like she was under water by the way her hair and robes swirled around her almost unaffected by gravity.
Also, she glowed blue.
Aang called out to her but she didn't seem to have heard him, so he called louder, and again, finally, she looked up; except she looked not at him, but through him. Upon seeing her eyes, he knew two things instantaneously: she had been the one crying, he could tell by the look of betrayal in her silver-blue eyes, and she was a spirit. Aang was sure she was the spirit of the place. When they stared in to each other's eyes, his heart wretched, 'I have to help,' was the only thing he could think.
Tsuri looked up, strait in to soulful grey eyes. She immediately loved something about the eyes, but what she did not understand was, why were the looking at her? More importantly, how were they looking at her? Mortals from the physical world could not see spirits unless the spirits wanted to be seen, and she certainly was not letting him see her. But, the evidence was against her. She stood up (though technically she had been floating a foot off of the ground the whole time), and in no time, the boy was running toward her.
She looked so upset that Aang just had to run towards her, it was not a decision. He was running from the edge of the trees into a small clearing with lots of flowers. She was in the middle. It took him no time, with his air bending, to reach her. And when he did, he looked up, very curious and an expression mirroring hers, and she looked down.
Okay, that was sad; anyway yes I am going to leave you with a cliffhanger. You just have to read and see what happens. So, one more question for you to answer in the review, I am definitely going to be updating this weekly but I don't know what day, Mondays or Fridays, I'm thinking Monday… And do not worry I know this is a bit short, but give me a break it is my first upload ever and they will get longer/more detailed/generally better over time. Please R&R tell me what to do with Toph because I love her character and if she had a boyfriend she would have more drama and therefore be in the story more. But then again, I think she is so independent and self-sufficient that she does not want one… decisions, decisions.