"You are the Avatar, Elena," Monk Gyatso explained as the two walked along the winding path. It was nearly suppertime, and the fading sunlight shone on Elena's figure. Beneath a bunch of wild long bangs, you could barely see the blue arrow tattoo that marked out all airbenders. The tattoo extended from her forehead down her back and across her limbs.
"That means Avatar Kuzon died... twelve years ago." Elena looked up as the wind blew her dark brown hair out of her small face. Her hair was not boring and mouse-colored, but rather fluctuating in tones and shades, creating a sea of rippling hair. Her light blue eyes made many people believe she was blind, but in fact she had sharper vision than most people. She looked years older than twelve, very tall and skinny but strong.
"Yes, but it is alright, Avatar Elena."
"Don't call me that, I only know airbending, I'm no Avatar." Elena sighed and started heading back up to their temple.
Gyatso ran to catch up with Elena. "But that is the point! I have told you earlier than normal so that you may master the elements and restore balance to the world. You have already mastered airbending, and you're only twelve! Think of what you could do with the other elements!"
"The world is already in balance." Elena sighed as she kept walking. "Everything is peaceful." She grabbed some vines from the plants surrounding the path and tied up her hair out of her face. She blatantly avoided the comment about how talented she was. Elena knew that even though she may be good at airbending, she couldn't do such a thing with the other elements. She was evasive, peaceful, like an airbender. She wasn't stubborn like earthbenders, she wasn't smooth and flowing like waterbenders, she wasn't aggressive like firebenders.
"You will find, on your journeys, that the world isn't in as much balance as you would hope," Gyatso explained wisely. "Now, before you head off to learn waterbending or whatever it is, let's have one last supper together!"
"What? I'm leaving tomorrow?!" Elena screamed after the old monk as he laughed and raced away, balancing on top of a ball of spinning air. Elena's eyes narrowed as she took this as a challenge to race. She whipped out her glider and pushed off into the sky, overtaking Gyatso. She would miss her fun mentor, but she knew it was her duty as the new Avatar to learn to master the other elements.
When Gyatso and Elena - master and pupil - reached the temple, dinner was just beginning. Elena went to join her fellow airbenders-in-training, and Gyatso went to join the other airbending masters. Elena wanted to enjoy one last evening with her friends, without it being marred with the idea that she was the Avatar. She sat next to her best friend, Maria, who was also a great airbender. They had trained together under Gyatso's teaching, even though Maria was three years older than her, and they had learned well. Maria was almost the opposite of Elena in looks, but in personality, they were virtually the same. Maria had chocolate warm brown eyes and light blonde hair with darker streaks.
"Hey, where were you?" Maria asked as she reached over the table and stole some fried vegetable dumplings from their friend.
"You'll find out soon enough," Elena smiled. Momo, her winged lemur companion, flew in and snatched up some berries.
"Hey Momo! How's Theo doing?" Maria smiled as she patted Momo's white furred head. Momo's large green eyes widened at the mentioning of her sky bison friend, who was Maria's animal companion. The little lemur chattered on and on, sounding a bit like a cat. Elena could not understand the lemur noises, but she could understand the thought waves that Momo was sending, since any human and their animal companion shared a telepathic connection. Maria, who wasn't connected to Momo like Elena was, couldn't understand Momo at all, however.
Momo finally realized what was going on, and, flustered, she morphed into a beautiful young girl. She was only seven, but she was already a natural beauty. Her most prominent features as her white hair and bright green eyes were mirrored in both her animal form and human form. Her blue arrow tattoo shined on her forehead and arms, standing out against her pale skin and white hair. "I meant, Theo's eating way too much hay."
"Momo, we all know he does that! Come, sit!" Elena and Maria beckoned to Momo. Even though Momo could transform into a human, her original form was a lemur, and she still retained some animalistic abilities and tendencies as a human. She sat down with her legs crossed and nibbled on her berries.
Elena's table was rowdy as usual, and Elena was more than glad that she could escape from Avatar duties for one last night with her tablemates. But her happiness and relief was shattered when she saw Monk Gyatso stand up, motioning for silence.
"As you know, Avatar Kuzon died, and he was from the Fire Nation. According to the element cycle, the Air Nomads would be next. All the airbending masters have evaluated their pupils, and we have found the Avatar in this very temple."
"It's me!" another boy whispered at the jock table. He was buff and not-so-bright, relying on strength and offense more than the evasive and defensive techniques used by the Air Nomads. He was a stuck-up jerk, and his name was Afiko. He had close-cropped brown hair and deep set eyes. Elena and her friends had no idea how he was an airbender.
"Goodness, if it was Afiko I'd KNOW our world is doomed!" Maria muttered.
"He'd get a good whooping from the firebending masters, that's for sure, if he was the Avatar!" Momo growled. Elena stayed silent, knowing it wasn't Afiko, but rather her. She would have to carry the burden of the world while Afiko stood by happy in the Northern Air Temple.
"The new Avatar will need to travel to the Earth Kingdom, the Water Tribe, and the Fire Nation to learn the ways of the elements. We are allowing the Avatar to possibly bring one friend if they wish, on their journey," Gyatso continued, despite the whispering that had broken out amongst the airbenders.
"The new Avatar is..." Gyatso paused for effect, gazing over the crowd triumphantly as they quieted down, not wanting to miss a single syllable of the new Avatar's name.
"Elena Li!"
Roars of disbelief and happiness erupted around the room. Maria and Momo stared at Elena with wide eyes, and she just shrugged as she was crowded around by airbenders that wanted to congratulate her, to talk to her, to see her, to touch the Avatar...
Elena sought to get away from it all.
She ran away from the other airbenders, the people who expected her to shoot out all four elements from her fingers, who expected to be the most wonderful person in the world. She couldn't live up to the expectations, so she ran away to the sky bison lodge. They were there, resting lazily, eating up the hay that littered the floor. Elena ran up to Theo's side and laid down on his tail, thinking about the future, her future as the Avatar.
After what seemed like ages, Momo, back in lemur form, flew out to Elena's side and licked her face gently. Following close behind was Maria, flying on her glider.
"You never told us you were the Avatar. Is that what Gyatso had to tell you?" Elena merely nodded at Maria's question, too defeated to say anything. She was probably expectant of her as well, Maria would probably treat Elena differently now that she knew. But instead, just like old times, Maria sat down right next to Elena as they gazed at the stars.
After a while, Maria spoke out again. "Since Gyatso said that you could bring a friend along, maybe you could bring me?"
Elena, who had closed her eyes in thought, now opened them wide in astonishment. "You want to come with me?" After the news about her being Avatar, Elena didn't expect Maria to show any sort of friendship to her. "It'll be dangerous! I'm the Avatar!"
"Oh well, if you think you're too important now to have a friend like me..." Maria looked away, disappointed.
"No! Of course not! You're my best friend... I just thought maybe you'd treat me differently after finding out that I'm the Avatar."
Now it was Maria's turn to be astonished. "What? No! You'll always be Elena to me!" Elena smiled, grateful that she still had one true friend. Momo transformed into human form, lying down next to Elena with her white hair blending into the fur on Theo's flat tail.
"But the problem is, will they count me as your friend or your animal companion?" Momo wondered. She had a valid point.
"Well, you did start off as a lemur first," Maria reasoned with a cautious edge in her voice. Her blonde hair glistened in the moonlight.
"Yeah and besides, Maria has a sky bison!" Elena smiled. Theo then baa'd at this in approval.
"You wouldn't get anywhere on my back," Momo laughed.
"So I'll have to come!" Maria said, determined.
"Then let's go, I'm leaving tomorrow." Elena ushered her two friends out of the sky bison lodge and back to the temple. Momo returned to her lemur form while Maria and Elena used their gliders, controlling the air currents around the wings of the glider to propel themselves forward to the temple. Within a few minutes, the three touched down at the doors and walked in, looking for Gyatso. There were many bald and old and wise monks, so many that Elena soon got lost among all of them.
"Monk Gyatso?" Elena called out in a timid voice.
"I am here. I expected you to come calling." Monk Gyatso appeared behind them, looking tranquil with Momo perched upon his shoulder. He led Elena and Maria into a private room, where someone served tea and they were left in peace to converse.
"So I'm assuming you want Maria and Momo to come with you on your journey?" Gyatso prompted.
"Yes, would that be alright?" Maria looked at the old monk with pleading eyes.
"Considering the fact that Maria has a bison and that Momo was a lemur at first, sure!" Gyatso smiled with a twinkle in his eye as the three looked at each other, wondering if Gyatso had spied on them or something. Momo decisively morphed into her pale human self. Sitting next to Gyatso, she prepared to speak.
"It's settled then! Let's pack our things and get ready before they change their mind!" Momo ran off, a little more hyper than a normal girl because of her lemur-like attributes. Or maybe that was just the way Momo was.
"Bye, Gyatso, thanks!" Elena and Maria bowed respectfully, then hugged him before running off in excitement.
Elena shouted excitedly as the two chased after Momo, "Just think! In less than ten hours, we'll be on our way to the Northern Water Tribe!"