Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Avatar the Lat Airbender or any of its characters. Rated M for heavy violence
Book 1: The Waterbender
Two thousand years ago, the three nations shared the world together. The Fire Nation, Air Nomads, and the Earth Kingdom. Together they lived and prospered and even though they lived in completely different lands and had very different customs, they still lived in peace. However there was another group of people, 'the ice savages'.
These so called savages lived in the coldest parts of the world and kept entirely to themselves. But that was not the reason in which they were known as savages. These people, whoever they were, were completely devoid of any bending abilities. For each of the three nations had a bending art. Firebending, earthbending, and airbending.
So one day, the ancient spirits known as Tui and La, ocean and moon, took pity on these savages. They came to the earth and searched for someone whom they could pass on their remarkable power to; they called it water \bending. After five years of searching and examining these so called 'savages', they found one boy that they thought was worthy of earning their gift.
Tridon, a young man of fifteen years old went hunting with his father on the eve before the Winter Solstice. While in the icy terrain, Tridon saw an ice bear moving along up ahead. Crouching low, he followed the bear far into the Ice Mountains which he was forbidden to go into. He took a path through the mountains in order to follow his prey, all the while hearing his mother's voice in his head telling him never to venture out into those deadly mountains. However on his second day of the hunt, an ice storm erupted in the mountains and forced Tridon to take shelter in a cave. While he slept, he had very disturbing dreams. He dreamt of spirits and people moving and shifting the water.
He awoke suddenly wide eyed, at the back of his cave was an opening leading deep into the heart of the mountains; an opening that had not been there last night. Curiosity getting the better of him, he ventured into the opening. He followed the path into the mountain for a few hours and soon found himself in a giant ice cave.
"Tridon." said a voice.
Hearing the voice Tridon turned around fast, unsheathing his dagger.
"Who's there?" he called out, fear cracking in his voice.
"We have watched you Tridon" answered the voice. "And we have deemed you worthy to accept our gift." said another voice.
"Who are you? Show yourselves!" yelled Tridon again.
Suddenly the water began to spiral around him, forming the bodies of an old man and a woman. Tridon dropped to his knees in fear and awe of the people standing before him.
"We are Tui and La," they said, "ocean and moon."
Tridon looked at them and spoke out, "Great Spirits, what do you want with me? I am a simple peasant, a savage to some."
"We have watched you, studied you. We have looked into your heart and gazed into your soul. You are worthy of our gift." said Tui.
"But surely I am not. Great Spirit, if I may ask, what is this gift you refer to?" said Tridon in awe.
"Tridon, it is a remarkable power. It brings life, and at the same time, takes it away. It is the power of the seas and all creatures that live underneath its ancient surface. It brings victory and yet causes defeat. It is good and evil, light and dark, life and death." answered La.
As the spirits spoke, he saw himself in his mind creating great waves and moving oceans and all of the previous nights dreams came flooding back to him.
"Me? Am I truly worthy of such greatness?" asked Tridon dumbfounded.
"Yes, we have looked into your future and have seen the greatness within you. You are ready and worthy to study the art of waterbending. But take heed, it will not be an easy task. To master it fully will take time and determination." explained Tui.
"Than I am ready." said Tridon, bowing his head, "Teach me."
"Very well, let us begin." said La.
Three years later, Tridon emerged from the mountains and walked back into his village. The people gathered around him in amazement and asked where he had been. He told them he had no time to answer because he must go speak with his mother and father. With a sad look on his face, a male villager told him that assuming he had died in the mountains, his mother leapt from the top of a cliff to her death, and his father had died in the mountains searching for him. Upon hearing this, he screamed and unleashed a terrible display of his waterbending powers onto the village.
Upon seeing his great powers, the villagers fled and retreated deep into the mountains, except one. A seventeen year old girl named Aquatica came to him and placed her arms around him. He surrendered into her touch and wept into her shoulder. She told him that he can use his powers to heal the sick and create a great nation for them to prosper in.
In the span of two years he healed the sick and proposed to Aquatica who immediately accepted. However they were still living in the same old village. Not wanting to live there anymore, Aquatica begged for Tridon to build a city for them to live in and also to teach water bending to other people to further strengthen their growing civilization. Not wanting to go against his wife or his fellow citizens, and still honoring the Spirits, he set out back to the Ice Mountains.
He arrived in the ice cave and looked around for any sign of the spirits. Giving up all hope, he began to head towards the cave exit when he heard a voice.
"Hello Tridon, we have been expecting you."
Tridon bowed once again to the Spirits before him. "Great and ancient Spirits, I have come to you ask for your permission. I have used my gift to help better my life and those around me, but our happiness cannot go on. I cannot do it alone, for I am just one man. I seek your permission to teach waterbending to others and then build great cities in the name of the Water Nation."
For what seemed like hours, the Spirits looked at him and Tridon knew that they were reading his soul.
"Very well, we give you our permission. But in return, you must do something for us. You must bare a son to continue your royal line, for you will become the king of your Nation, and you must use your bending to create a great temple to us." answered Tui.
Tridon then set out back to his village and nine months later, Aquatica gave him a son. After the birth of his child, he then set out to build the great temple to the spirits. He traveled deep into the heart of the Earth Kingdom to a giant lake located in the mountains. Using his water bending powers, he built a giant temple dedicated to the spirits. Afterwards, he set out back to his village and taught his wife and all the others to waterbend, and together they built four great cities in the name of the Water Kingdom. It was after the completion of the last city that he began to think how he would become King. He decided he needed a symbol to show off his position. It was then that he traveled into the Fire Nation. Five months later he entered a blacksmith shop.
"I have heard you are the greatest blacksmith in the Fire Nation, is this true?" asked Tridon
"You heard right. What's your name stranger?" asked the Blacksmith.
"My name is not of importance, but my business is. I need you to make me a weapon, not just any weapon, a symbol authority that distinguishes me as a leader of nations" said Tridon. "Can this be accomplished?"
The Blacksmith nodded.
Two months later, Tridon stood in front of his wife holding a beautiful three pronged trident. However upon using it, he soon realized that all it was was an extension of his bending, nothing more. In anger, he traveled back to the temple he had built.
"Spirits! Again I ask for your help! I seek to build a great city in your honor. One even greater than the four! But alas, I do not have the strength to do so. Can you bestow upon me the powers necessary to complete my task?" Tridon pleaded.
"Very well Tridon. You have been a great servant to us. Place your trident in the water in front of our altar if you wish to receive the powers." answered Tui.
"But take heed, for with great power comes great danger. Both in the world and in yourself, and I may fear you will have to deal with both. For even in the lightest places, darkness is always lurking." explained La.
"I do not fear the darkness!" screamed Tridon and he plunged the trident into the water. The water began to glow and light encased his entire body. He lifted the trident out of the water and looked upon it in awe for it had turned to gold. Upon looking at it, a chill went up his spine, he began to feel different.
He used his spectacular new weapon to build a great city above the surface and two even greater ones below it. He created a giant ice wall to protect the city which he called the Aquatic Gates, named for his wife. And after that, he created giant mountains along the rest of the perimeter which he named the Sapphire Mountains. In this time of great peace and prosperity, he did not know that war was rising.
The other three nations began to become increasingly jealous of this new nation and it's so called great king who had the power of the spirits. So together, they created an army of benders from all nations and set out to war against the Water Kingdom.
It was because of his telepathic connection with the water that Tridon felt the presence of the oncoming invaders.
The Fire General looked on at the open expanse of water before him, it was a beautiful sight. It was then that chaos erupted before them.
Clouds began pouring into the sky bringing forth great wind and rain. The sky split in two and lighting leapt forth. The waters began to churn and create violent waves.
"All men on deck now!" the Fire General shouted.
Men began to panic and run all over the ship frantically as the general tried to restore order to the vessel. At that same moment, a huge wall of water erupted in front of them materializing into crystal.
"Wait!" a member of the crew shouted. "What is that?"
The army began to feel a great rumbling somewhere deep below the surface of the water. Then great undersea mountains broke the surface of the water and rose high above the ships, separating each nation and leaving them on their own. Some of the men leapt overboard to safety but when they tried to resurface, the water pulled them back down as if something was tugging at their feet.
"What spirit is this that unfavors us so!" screamed the Earth General.
"That is no spirit, look." said one of the troops.
They looked on in fear as a wall of water 100 feet in height came towards them. But what sent their blood cold was something else. As the wall came closer, they saw a man riding the wave, brandishing a golden staff that was ablaze in light.
King Tridon looked upon his enemies in rage. With hatred and fire in his eyes, he pointed the trident at them and it sent blue flames onto one of the boats. The men of the ship screamed as if they were on fire but when they died, the others saw that their skin was black but cold to the touch. He twirled his trident at the water and spoke out in a loud voice like thunder, "Creatures of the Sea! Go Forth and attack the enemy! Bring them to their watery graves." At his command, sea creatures of all sizes began to attack the boats.
Firebenders began to bend at the man but stopped in fear realizing that just as fire left their fingertips, the air around them turned bitingly cold, preventing them from attacking. Some fell over, paralyzed, unable to bend. As the earthbenders sent boulders towards their enemy, they gasped in horror as the boulders came flying back at them or as water was ripped from the boulders themselves and was turned against them. At the same time, the airbenders were fighting their own tornado that was now attacking them. As some shot air at it, the blasts rebounded back at them and materialized into water. Tridon then raised his staff and hundreds of soldiers began to move against their will, jumping overboard and into the waiting jaws of the sea creatures below.
Sensing defeat, the hounds men began to direct their vessels the opposite way. However they were soon stopped as the entire surface of the ocean froze, trapping the men underwater and preventing the boats from moving. Some tried to run on the ice but stopped as the ice encased them. One by one, the ships began to disappear in a giant whirlpool created by the sea king.
After five long hours of battle, the war was over. No one, no matter what rank or gender, was left alive. None escaped the sea kings wrath. It was after the war that everything began to change.
King Tridon was angry and he didn't know why. He began to have frequent bursts of anger which caused great tsunamis. An entire island was engulfed by the sea just because his servant did not retrieve something fast enough. He was also never seen without his trident, it was like he could not set it down even for a minute. His anger also reached a more personal level.
One day while his son was playing in the throne room, he asked his dad if he could hold his dad's staff. Tridon said no but that did not stop the 8 year old boy. He began to pull on the staff and the sea king leapt from his throne and screamed at the boy to stop. It was then that he noticed that something was not right, at his thought, his son began to scream in agony and was writhing on the floor in extreme pain. Queen Aquatica swam into the room and felt her boy, even though he was cold to the touch, he was wincing as if he was being burned. And as fast as it started, it stopped. Relieved, she took her son in her arms as he lay panting, gasping for breath. Neither the sea queen or king noticed that while this was happening, the trident was glowing.
Several months later, the waterbending guards brought a man before the king. They told him that he was a spy from the Earth Kingdom coming to gain knowledge from their nation. King Tridon rose slowly from his throne and asked if this was true. The man pleaded to the king saying that he came for a better life and begged the king to show him mercy. The king felt his anger rising and the man started to choke. The guards immediately ran to him to see what was wrong but they could not find anything. All they could do was watch the man grasp his neck as if reaching for the hand that was choking him. It was the queen that broke the silence.
"Honey, your trident!"
The King looked at his staff and noticed that it was glowing. It was in that moment that the man died.
Later that night, Tridon gazed at the trident. Could this be what was causing everything? Again he felt anger boil up inside him and he watched the trident glow. At the same time, his wife rose from the bed as if being controlled by an unseen force. He watched as his wife walked to the edge of the balcony and positioned herself to jump from the ledge to her death below. The king jumped and saved his wife just in time and held her sobbing in his arms. He grabbed the trident and flung it over the balcony ledge and watched in horror as it materialized into water and reappeared in his hand.
King Tridon rode the waves back to the great temple that night, back to consult the spirits about this deadly power. He burst through the doors and screamed at the top of his lungs for the spirits to appear.
"Is it now that you leave your servant alone? Your servant who has built you temples, brought you the wealth of the world, and used your gifts for the benefit of all people! Answer me!"
No answer came and he sunk to his knees and began to weep. At the sound of laughter he raised his head, there was a sword lying on the altar, a sword that was not there before. Doing the only thing he thought of doing, he grasped the sword handle and struck the trident with all his might. In a flash of light he was blasted off his feet and thrown against the wall. As the light dimmed, he looked upon the altar in wonder. There before him lay not one, but two tridents. A gold one and a black one, good and evil, light and dark, life and death. He took the gold and black trident and using the golden one, sunk the great temple to the bottom of the lake. He then created a serpent to forever swim the waters and guard the temple entrance.
Tridon knew that dark powers still existed in water bending, so he created a law that if any person dark bended, they would be killed immediately. Tridon then took the black trident deep into Water Nation seas and created an icy fortress deep underwater in an underwater mountain. He placed it on an altar of crystal and there it lay, unclaimed, to this day.
All the dark powers of the ocean contained in that staff, a staff that would turn even the weakest of waterbenders into powerful masters. Many have tried to claim it and all have perished in the expedition. Some believe it doesn't exist, and others believe only those who are worthy of its powers can claim it. And so the trident sleeps, watching…waiting. Patiently yearning for someone to wield it again and claim all the powers of the ocean.
This was my first fanfiction story so please review to tell me what you thought!