La and Tui
La and Tui circled another round in an endless dance as the Waterbenders fought for their lives.
A man came in- harsh. Regal. Arrogant. Dangerous. He and the others he brought with him talked.
Nothing mattered much to La, but Tui. Tui as she circled the world, Tui as she shone from her ivory chariot, Tui as she graced him with his presence, as La followed her around and around. She made people, gave them gifts. La breathed life into them. So it had been, so it will be. La and Tui, La and Tui, dancing in circles. Forever.
Suddenly, La's world fell. The man had captured Tui, put her in a bag. Arrogantly proclaimed himself above her, above him, above their children tirelessly working on the ice. La was not meant to act much, however, simply react. Tui circled, La followed. Never the other way around.
La swam around in the oasis, trying to find her. On some level, he knew she was trapped in the bag above him. Some animal instinct in the form he dwelled needed her. So he circled by himself, waiting with daggers in his heart for Tui.
Others came in. They talked. Nothing mattered to La but Tui, Tui and the bag and the man who held it. And anger, and fear. She had been trapped for an eternity, blood-red light falling on him, when he heard her, croaking his name on some level of his being. "La, La, La!"
Her voice was far from its usual soprano- rasping and dry, cracking as she called for his help.
Too bad he was helpless. He was a fish without its partner, a spirit without its consort, a half without its whole. Far away from any seawater he could call upon to kill the man making her cry like that. No man could do that to her. Unforgivable.
She was released, joy upon joys, by another man, more rounded and whole, less regal and arrogant. La circled Tui, thinking and saying nothing but her name. "Tui, Tui, Tui!"
She was smiling down at him again from her ivory chariot. The world was silver and bright again. All was well again. La felt her presence keenly. Her gravity pulled on his water, her fish pulled on his fish, her smile pulled on his heart. He circled her, checking on her, keeping her saf-.
Nothing.
Nothing. There was disbelief, then confusion. What had happened? A bright light had flashed, La had felt heat, and now Tui could not dance. He had thought he had heard her scream, "La!"
She needed him. He swam frantically around the white fish with the black streak which did not move. "Tui!" He screamed in his mind for her, feeling the complete and utter loss of her.
He wished for the nothing now. Now there was nothing but loss, utter, complete, absolute, all-consuming loss, with just enough space within him left for hatred.
Hatred of the thing that had killed her- he refused to grant it with any title, be it Firebender, human, or gender. Anger. He needed a means to express it, a way to kill this thing that had killed the reason Tui was… never mind about that. The thing needed to die. Now.
The Avatar, who had helped the more whole man try to save Tui, opened his mind to him. Gratefully, La grasped his soul and took over his body. This monstrous thing would die, but first he would save the children. Their children, the ones who worked the ice.
The monsters fighting them fled or died, La did not care. La waited for their children to be safe from these attackers so he could kill the thing that had killed Tui.
The sentence did not even make sense in La's grief-stricken mind. Killed Tui. Tui is dead. He no longer had her. She was gone, she could not laugh or pull on him or smile down on him from her chariot.
He killed the invaders, drove them out, sent their ships into his embrace. They were his souvenirs, souvenirs of the horrid demise of the one and only thing he had ever loved. His Tui.
He felt humans dealing with her body, her little limp body that still seemed to call upon him, pull upon him, need him there.
So he moved onward to deal with the thing. A puny human was fighting it, throwing things at it like the ones that had… never mind. Forget the puny human. He left the Avatar behind as to not fry his puny mortal body or drown it, and went to deal with the thing. He reached out a mighty hand and pulled him down, deeper and deeper, killing it in minutes. That was his crowning jewel, the corpse of the thing that had killed Tui. Killed Tui.
Then he felt it, the slight shift within him that eased the pain of his loss. Blunted its teeth. One of the mortals had given her life to Tui. Or tried to.
But Tui was still dead. Another pang reached his heart, its dagger-sharp point blunted by the shine of the moon. But it was not Tui, it was some mortal taking her place. At least the children would live. But their mother was dead.
His anger sated, La collapsed back into the black fish with the white mark on its head. It circled the white fish like it had an eternity ago, when Tui was still alive.
A hoard of memories accosted him. Tui and his crowning as Moon and Ocean, her first smile, their creation of Waterbenders, his invention of various porpoisedolphins and starparrotfish and other creatures for her amusement. Her musical laughs. Every little detail about Tui as she had lived.
Before too long, his mind had run through all of their happy memories of their life, for La had felt a part of him die with Tui. He was new now, that part of him filled by some new girl trying to be Tui. Impossible footsteps to fill. She could be the Moon easily, but to try and take over every aspect of Tui's life…
It would be so easy to hate this new spirit, but little things about her reminded him of Tui. Her stark-white hair, bright blue eyes he gave to the Watertribe in honor of Tui's, something about her demeanor. The slight fear in her eyes as she tried to become the moon, like Tui's a lifetime ago.
With a sigh, La came to the new spirit, guided her gently on the ways of the spirits, and lurked in the bottom of the ocean for a century, mourning the loss of his love.
Like it? Hate it? It took place at the end of the Siege of the North, beginning a bit before Zhao captures Tui for the first time.
xoxo,
bekeyboo ;)